Iron Horsemen (24 page)

“Enter the Golden Circle, become a Horseman, Alexander. A king of the new world. If you do, I'll spare Miss Kensington and give her to you. She can be yours forever.”

Give her to me? What did he mean?
My heart leapt into my throat.
What was I being offered and why?
The words made me angry, but doubt seized my mind like a clawed hand. There had to be a reason.

“Why me?”

“You're not like these pompous royals. You're a common man thrust into the world of great men, men who believe they were born above your rank. But you can be their equal. You
deserve
to be their equal. You're exactly what the Knights of the Golden Circle were created for. I know what you're thinking, that I'm bad, but you don't see I'm trying to help you.”

“But you've been chasing us since we left London.”

“I've been trying to reunite you and your father. I want to help you be your own man.”

He was trying to twist my memories. I closed my eyes and thought of that night at Eton. The night he kidnapped my father. And I knew the truth. He wasn't trying to help
me, and he hadn't helped my father.

“These nobles use you. They expect you to serve them like a dog. Do what you're told, follow their orders. But listen to me. Grow up and be a man. Rip off your collar and join us.”

Eustache brought his sword down on Hendrix's blade.

“You lie.” I yelled. “You attacked me and my father.”

“I never hurt your pa, even when he refused me. We were nice. Would
your
Queen do the same? Become a Horseman!” Hendrix took two steps toward me.

Eustache forced himself between us. “Stay true to yourself, Alexander.”

Col. Hendrix laughed at the nobleman. “Become a Horsemen or be enslaved by a bunch of barons and lords. It's your choice, Alexander Amitage. Embrace your destiny as a Knight of the Golden Circle.”

My blood was boiling. I lashed out to cut through Hendrix's words. “I am no dog! No
Queen
, or baron, or lord sent me. I came on my own. I am an American, and unlike you, I believe all men are created equal. I won't enslave anyone and I'll do everything I can to stop you!”

“Including die?” In one movement, the colonel swung his arm out at me, the serrated blade poised to slice through me.

“Not as long as I draw breath.” Eustache parried the colonel's blade.

For a split second, I wanted to retreat to a safe corner just like I had back at Eton, but I didn't back down. I wasn't that boy anymore.

Eustache never removed his gaze from his opponent, but said to me, “Finish what others have started, Alexander. Get Genevieve out of here, and know that it has been my greatest honor to aid you.”

Without a word, I ran for the shed, hearing the colonel cackling like a madman behind me. Genevieve sat in the
airboat waiting for me. She smiled and I realized she'd heard my words. I wondered what she thought, had I sounded stoic or frightened. I yanked the rusty lever to open the roof. Dust and leaves showered down upon us

I heard the clash of steel and Eustache say, “Tell my old friend Kannard, he shouldn't have sent a bronzed demon to face a knight.”

Hendrix slashed his blade. “Would you die already?”

I hopped in the airskiff. “We cut free, go after Eustache, and then sail over to the Sparrowhawk. Agreed?”

“I was just waiting for you,” she said.

We untied the anchor lines and the airskiff lifted off. Rodin flew in and landed beside Genevieve, she snatched him up and embraced him, but then turned to me.

“If Rodin is here, then people from the Sparrowhawk are, too. What do we do?”

Through the window, I saw my father and Mr. Singh run out of the villa and stop. I pointed and Genevieve saw them, too. We rose out of the shed to the stunned, uplifted faces of everyone in the garden. I unfurled the sails and steered the vessel toward the house.

Genevieve pointed over the side. “Look, Golden Circle henchman.”

As my father and Mr. Singh stood on the steps of the villa, Eustache and Col. Hendrix fought by the fountain, the henchmen filed in around them. Mr. Singh pulled out his Katar with the barrels on either side and shot two henchmen. Eustache used the confusion to thrust his sword into the colonel, but he struck bronze and his sword snapped in two.

I pushed the lever and descended toward my father. “Get in.”

He grabbed hold of the side and hoisted himself into the airship.

I leaned over the railing as one of the henchmen pulled
a revolver and shot Eustache in the shoulder, sending him toppling backward. Col. Hendrix stood over him and thrust his blade into his chest.

“No!” Genevieve and I screamed.

Mr. Singh retrieved three chakrams from his belt and threw them at the colonel. The first sharpened metal ring struck Hendrix on the right side of his head, knocking him back, and sending his hat tumbling to the ground. The second struck the henchmen with the revolver in the head and remained there as the man collapsed in a lifeless heap. The third sliced into Hendrix's left arm causing him to roar with pain.

Mr. Singh grabbed hold of the airskiff's railing. My father and Genevieve grabbed his arms and pulled. I fought back tears and yanked the lever back, powering up the propeller and sending hot air rushing into the balloon with a great
whoosh
. The airskiff soared into the sky leaving the carnage below us.

Col. Hendrix switched his right arm to the rifle barrel and raised it to take aim at our balloon, but through his pain, his aim was off and he missed by a wide margin.

Tears streamed down my face before drying from the wind rushing by.
It wasn't fair, why did he have to die?
I tried to shove the pain deep inside, but so much anger couldn't be contained. I cursed under my breath, swearing a thousand oaths of revenge as we soared ever higher. I took one last look back toward Eustache's ancestral home and thought about the book in his library, the one with my own ancestor's name in it. Then I watched as Gendarmes arrived and rushed toward the back garden. With any luck they'd arrest the colonel and his henchmen, but I doubted it.

“What happened, Alexander, and what were you doing there?” my father scolded. “We got a strange message last night and Mr. Singh and I have spent all day trying to find you.”

“A brave man saved my life and was killed for it. That's what happened.” I banked the airskiff to the right.

“Wait. The Sparrowhawk is that way.” My father pointed toward the city.

“We're not going back to the Sparrowhawk.”

“Then where are we going?”

“We're going to England,” I said.

“Damn it Alexander! Put this vessel down and answer me at once.”

“No.” The word felt good on my tongue, and the shock etched on my father's face almost made me smile.

“Lord de Morley gave his life so we can save Genevieve's father.” I looked at Genevieve and she scooted closer to me, Rodin perched imperiously on her shoulder. “We're not about to let his sacrifice be in vain.” I'd never defied my father before, and I tried to keep my hands from shaking from the emotion of defying him now.

“And just how are you going to save Baron Kensington's life?”

Genevieve spoke up. “Only the Knights of the Golden Circle know what poison was used on my father and they're obviously not going to tell us or provide us with an antidote. Grand Master Sinclair notified Lord de Morley, a Templar from an ancient family, and he made a special batch of the Four Thieves Potion. If my father takes it in time, the Templars believe it will cure him.”

“So,” I locked eyes with my father, “we're going to England to save the Baron, and you're just going to have to come along.”

Genevieve placed her hand on my arm. “You were amazing back there, Alexander. How many men could be offered such power and turn it down?”

Mr. Singh, who had been quietly taking in everything that was happening around him, turned to me. “What power?”

“Yes, Alexander, what is she talking about?” my father demanded.

I shook my head, unable to put it into words. Genevieve answered for me. “Colonel Hendrix offered Alexander the chance to become a Horseman, but he refused.”

Silence. I glanced back and saw the two men's stunned expressions.

“How long will it take to get to London?” my father asked finally.

“As fast as the Mystic Wind will carry us.”

I trimmed the sails to catch more wind. We soared above the patchy farmland of the French countryside. It was exciting to fly the Mystic Wind, to feel the air whipping in my face, and become one with the currents.

Mr. Singh helped me read the wind, but my thoughts never lingered far from the vision of Eustache. I would not let him down.

My mind drifted to the Sparrowhawk and her crew. “Do you think…?”

Mr. Singh nodded. “They will be fine.”

Genevieve sat against the bow, and I watched the waves of her hair whipped about by the wind. She used her hand to push it down but her focus was on the sliver box in her hand, she hadn't let it out of her sight and I understood why, it held her father's salvation. After a while, she stuffed her hair down into her collar with one hand, never once letting go of the box.

Beside her, Rodin clung to the bow, with his wings billowing in the wind, a fitting masthead for the airboat.

My father sat hunched down in the middle of the airskiff, his arms tightly held against his chest trying to stay out of the strongest winds. I wondered what he thought
of me. Was he proud, or just calculating what punishment would be levied back at Eton?

I pushed the thought away. Soon, we'd save the baron and life would return to normal. The Templars would deal with Lord Kannard and Col. Hendrix. I would return to Eton. But that meant returning to the responsibilities I'd fled. I didn't know what consequences awaited me; I only knew they'd be severe.

I checked the propeller to avoid my father's gaze. It hadn't been used in years and looked stressed to the breaking point. With my attention focused behind him, I saw several glistening shapes on the horizon. “Indihar, we have a problem.”

The Sikh turned. “I see them.”

“What is it?” my father asked.

“I don't know, but I count seven of them.” I reached into my bag and retrieved a leather pouch. I removed two lenses wrapped in linen and a thick, leather hide with several holes on the ends and a toggle and loop in the middle. Setting the lenses in the holes at the ends of the leather hide, I wrapped them up and secured it in the center. I raised the telescope and studied the glints of light behind them.

“Zeppelins.” I saw seven silver-skinned dirigibles, with more airships behind them. “I'll head for those clouds, maybe we can lose them.

I handed the telescope to Mr. Singh. He nodded and then said, “We can't get too high or we'll freeze. This skiff is built for speed, not altitude.”

He passed it to Genevieve. After looking she handed it to my father who took it and then looked up with a scowl on his face.

“Alexander, this is my telescope! I told you to put it back.”

“Just punish me when we get back to London.”

I trimmed one of the sails and pulled the lever all the
way back. The Mystic Wind soared upward into a large, fluffy cloud. I reached out and let my hand cut through the white mist. Water dampened my fingertips as the vapor danced in circles around the airship.

Genevieve sat beside Indihar staring into the endless white world.

I checked the fuel level, hoping we still had enough. I couldn't tell, but hoped it would last until we crossed the Channel.

I asked Mr. Singh. “Can we outrun the Zeppelins?”

“So long as the winds remain at our back we'll have no problem.”

Genevieve looked to the stern, to the endless clouds behind them. “But why are they heading to England?”

I had been thinking the same thing.

Mr. Singh cast a glance over his shoulder. “That many airships, has to be the German Army. Perhaps part of the armada the Sparrowhawk tangled with.”

Genevieve's browed furrowed in concern. “An invasion? That's foolish, we'll blast them back across the Channel.”

Professor Armitage shook his head. “Not if the British army is busy with the Four Horsemen.”

Genevieve's hair whipped about in the wind. “Do you think the Knights of the Golden Circle are in league with the Kaiser?”

“I don't know, but Europe is only bound together by a few shaky treaties.”

Mr. Singh nodded. “It is what I have feared. In the chaos incited by the arrival of the Four Horsemen, the Kaiser will attack.”

We all sat back against the sides of the boat and silence enveloped the Mystic Wind. I continued to fly, even when Mr. Singh offered to take over. I found it therapeutic, it kept my mind off the all the problems that would greet us when we landed.

We crossed the English Channel under a star-filled night. The moon grew larger, and we all gazed at the tailed star, the Sungrazer Comet hanging on the western horizon. I had read many stories, from the Middle Ages to the Romans, Greeks and even Babylonians, that portrayed comets as harbingers of doom.

However, I also remembered my science classes. The works of Isaac Newton, Copernicus, and Galileo said comets were just travelers through the cosmos, circling the sun in huge orbits, greater than even Jupiter and Saturn. I wondered what this one would bring, scientific enlightenment or death and destruction.

Around midnight as I stretched and yawned, Mr. Singh took over. I slid next to Genevieve who had been quiet through much of the flight. We didn't talk; I simply lay beside her and stared into the night's sky. She looked up into the stars, but then her focus fell once again on the vial she carried. We drifted off to sleep, with Rodin curled up between us.