A Tale of Two Airships (Take to the Skies Book 2) (8 page)

Meanwhile, Isabella and Jack stuck close to my side as I neared the ship, slipping to the shadows. While we’d be walking targets along the boardwalk, slinking along the side obscured the view. It’s the reason I always stationed a lookout there when we docked, though with this ship being so bitty, they might not have enough crew to spare. The shadows cooled my skin, and I kept my gaze focused ahead and my gait casual. No need to send off early alarms.

Even as I cast a sideway glance to the rails, I didn’t spot anyone standing vigilant. Most of the crew slouched by the barrels near the center of the deck or worked at retying the rope by the forecastle. With the cabin up top, I’d bet my bottom dollar a couple lingered in there.

I attached climbing hooks to my hand and readied myself for the climb. While I’d like to sling a rope up and go the easy route, by the time we scaled, they’d have noticed. “Follow behind me, and prepare to start shooting.”

Hooks bit into the crevasses between the planks and within seconds, I managed to scale half the side of the ship. This had none of the height of the Desire, and since I didn’t hear any rustling from above or spot any shiny muzzles in our direction, I kept heaving up. My fingers slipped on the ledge a couple of times, but the hooks held tight. Matilda jangled at my side, begging to be used.

The second I seized upon the railing, I used the momentum and all the adrenaline percolating inside me to vault over the edge. My boots slammed on the ship, and my finger found the pistol’s trigger as she raced out to greet them. Two thumps came from behind me, sounding Isabella and Jack’s arrival. The five crew members on deck all stopped what they were doing and whirled around to face us.

“Send my apologies to Morgan Blackwind. We’ll be taking the ship, so if you’d like to run along quick-like, no one needs to get hurt,” I announced, offering the safe route.

No one ever took the safe route.

Chapter Eight

The two women standing by the forecastle opened fire at once.

The second their fingers found the trigger, I crouched and rolled behind a nearby barrel, large enough to hide three of us. The bark of their guns followed a second later.

Isabella brushed by me as she looped around to my right. She gripped the top of the barrel and peered over to catch sight of our attackers. With the flick of her wrist, two daggers glinted under the sun as they burst from her hands. Those sharp, small missiles found their targets at once, one blade burrowing into one lady’s forearm while the other sliced the wrist of the guy closest to us. He’d been reaching for his pistol.

My attention returned to the sour lady near the helm of the ship. I aimed the muzzle and squeezed the trigger before she caught sight of me. One shot pinged by her boot, and I popped up again to volley another, this one hitting the heel. She leapt back, but in her haste to avoid a bloody foot, she lost her balance. Right near the ledge. Too late to stop the dance now, I squeezed another, right in front of her toe. If she stayed still, she’d take the shot in the foot, but I banked on the other response. She leapt backwards, but unfortunately for her, there was no backwards.  Sourpuss keeled right over the side of the ship. 

Her friend, Curls and Petticoats, reached forward, but her fingers groped at air. Sourpuss had already dropped. Not enough of a fall to kill but deter. Four left. Jack snuck around the side of the cabin and lifted his pistol, getting a target in sight. Looks like the cranky crewmember, all aimed and ready to fire, had some contention. The second Jack’s shot loosed, the man hit the ground with a grunt as a bullet burrowed into his leg.

While Curls groped for her fallen friend, Isabella seized the seconds by the throat. She whipped out her pistol and fired one shot to the shoulder, followed by a second. The barks hit the air upon impact as the two bullets burrowed into Curls’ shooting arm. The revolver dropped from her grasp.

My attention veered to front and center the moment bullets studded the barrel in front of me. A couple whizzed overhead, near clipping my scalp. My fault, because I should’ve worn my goddamn hat. The guy Isabella’s blade made friends with did his damndest to blow us off his ship. His muzzle smoked, and already he reloaded his gun, ready to continue his onslaught.

The other remaining bloke who stood the closest to us inched along the railing, trying to make his way back to where we crouched.

Too bad for him I spotted the attempt a mile away. I peered above the barrel and lobbed a shot his way, left shoulder to throw him off. Matilda recoiled, singing as the bullet flew from her barrel. He let out a grunt but kept trudging forward, those grimy boots of his sliming across the deck. The second he got closer, my aim would turn deadly.

Right as Isabella popped overhead again, one of the erratic bullets got lucky and claimed blood. She grimaced at the graze to her shoulder but, like a professional, didn’t let it affect her aim. The bullet loosed, and Curls by the top deck crashed to the ground the second the gunshot burrowed into her leg.

Jack’s shout echoed around the deck, drawing more than a couple gazes. He crouched beside the cabin right as the guy with the bum wrist came barreling towards him.

One lady overboard and the other on the ground. My guy advancing and the other rising to his feet. Three versus three were good odds. Isabella met my gaze and nodded.

“Charge,” I hollered, my voice ringing across the deck. Launching from the pads of my feet, I honed in on the guy at the railing and sprinted. Our cover blown, I tossed myself right into center stage as the air burst with bullets. Good thing I could aim while running.

A bullet whizzed too close to my arm as I raced towards the guy employing the slow and steady routine. If I wasn’t the train wreck to his attempt, I didn’t know what was. His eyes widened in shock and a smidge of horror as I lifted my pistol. Instead of taking a shot, I closed the distance and whipped the hefty weight of the handle straight to his temple.

The man dropped without a whimper.

Another shout came from Jack’s edge of the woods but this time from the attacker. Isabella dove in as backup, racing to close the space between. Before he lobbed a fist at Jack, two knives pinned his boots to the ground. Since they had him under control, I marched up to the limper. Before he lifted his pistol, I kicked him hard in the thigh, right in the open gash. He sank down with a wince, too wracked with pain to respond.

“I’m thinking Viola and Edward will want their presents tied up with pretty bows. Let’s get to work.” I placed my hands on my hips, surveying the work we’d done on deck. Spade already had his hands on the wheel, and Mordecai tinkered with the switches at the navigation bay beside him to no one’s surprise. The men worked quiet and fast, hence why they were best for their job.

I grabbed a length of rope and bound the hands and feet of the limper, making sure he wouldn’t get out.

Isabella leaned over the side after she’d bound the woman by the forecastle. “I don’t see the other girl. She must’ve run off.”

I shrugged. “Either direction she chooses, our lovely friends will find her.” Jack leaned down beside me and tied the knots on the ankles of another of their crew, plucking the knives from his boots. Within minutes, all four of them were tied up, and we lowered them to the deck, one at a time. Down at the other end of the dock, I caught sight of Viola whose boots were clipping across the tired planks of the boardwalk at an efficient pace. As her eyes locked on mine, I waved and then pointed down below.

“All ready for you,” I called out. She grimaced and touched her fingers to her forehead at my loud outburst. When I opened my mouth as if to call again, she waved her hands to stop me, annoyance in her gaze.

I saluted, and her smile returned as she favored me with a nod, probably about the closest to a goodbye we’d come. Though Viola and Edward had been exciting acquaintances, we had a job to do. After they were dropped onto the boardwalk, I sauntered to the cabin door, lifting my pistol in prep, and flung it open. To my relief, empty.

“Captain, what course will we be setting?” Spade asked, calling to me.

I cast a glance to Isabella. “She’ll be helping you on this one. After all, it’s her old gypsy tribe who’s stirring up this mess. I doubt they’d be sailing Desire any other direction—and if they happen to be, we’ll shake ‘em down until they spit out where.”

The slight bob and sway in the water sent a familiar shock through me, and as I strode across the deck, a sense of purpose and command returned at last. Though she didn’t compete with my girl, this vessel could take us to the skies, and for the time being, she’d be my ticket to the glorious expanse. I shielded my eyes from the sun and scanned out from my vantage point, happy to even be this high above ground. We delivered our end of the bargain, leaving Edward and Viola to collect the merchandise and their subsequent bounties.

“How fast can we get her started?” I asked. The anxiousness I’d kept at bay from the outset of this disaster swept over me, and my veins positively buzzed. The sooner we got out of this port, the better I’d feel.

Isabella crouched next to Spade who hovered over the console, pen in hand as he scratched out the basics. He didn’t have the details or contraptions Geoff employed, but Spade was a simple man, and though they weren’t elaborate, his maps functioned. I approached Mordecai who stood arms crossed and staring out to the docks.

“I would’ve liked to wish them off as well,” I commented, stabbing a guess at the long looks.

His mouth quirked into a half smile. “For as ignorant as you pretend to be, you’re quite observant, Captain.”

I lifted a brow. “I’ll take that as a compliment, I suppose.”

“She looks like she’s doing well for herself.” He gripped the rail of the ship and stared out as if waiting for them to hop onboard. “Though her hands seem full with keeping Edward in line.”

“They were good sorts, for Brits and ex-redcoats.” I gave him an extra wide grin, slapping a palm onto the railing. “If we’re in the area again, you know we’ll drop by unannounced, as all the best visitors do.”

Mordecai snorted and tried to hide his grin. “Of course.”

With a clap on the back, I let him brood in peace and strode to the console where Isabella and Spade were hard at work. The Fireswamp’s console spanned half the length of the Desire’s with a slight overhang to protect from the elements. Aether tubes pumped with fluid, and the gyrocompass sat still, waiting for the power surge to get moving. Further back, the helm cut a figure, and it comforted me to know within moments, Spade would be standing behind it, guiding us skyward.

“What do you need me to do, boss?” I winked and crouched to examine the switches and dials on the console board. The usual folderol with these newer ones were adjustments to shift in wind, barometric pressure, and of course a whole mess of buttons covered storm features, because sailing through one of those beauties always provided an adventure.

“We’ve got a direction, so we’re good to start the engine.” Spade gripped a map in hand that looked to me like a bucket of chicken scratch. However, if he understood it, I wouldn’t question the man.

Isabella sidled up to me, chewing on her lower lip. “You know my loyalties lie with you. I’m just uneasy about returning to my childhood home.”

“Never questioned you for a second.” I flashed her a huge grin before leaning down to the aether tubes and switching them on, making the fluid glow. Bubbles within the tubes flowed up and down and a low hum began to filter throughout the ship, causing a slight tremble in the planks. She was a noisy girl as if someone strapped a commercial ship’s motor into this tiny thing. The output compared to what the ship needed left a lot of extra noise since the Fireswamp didn’t have enough bulk to cover up all the racket.

Jack wandered our way after he spent some time poking around the forecastle. “Need any help?”

“Want to accelerate her out of the dock?” I asked, waving him over. He grinned real wide and crouched next to me where the pump lay.

Geoff and Spade could do this in their sleep, and not for the first time, a sharp shard of longing pierced through me to hear Geoff’s voice again and collapse into his arms. He had been my refuge for so long, and now as Captain, I needed him so much more. When all my decisions spiraled out of control and troubles shook my confidence, one man had always been there to pick up the pieces. I’d been a blind fool to not let him in sooner and wasted years keeping him at arm’s length to realize he’d been a part of me all along.

With a rumble, the Fireswamp set into motion, separating from the dock and beginning to pick up speed to the sea. Jack had spent so long working on the ship as lookout and helping with various tasks so something like this was effortless in comparison to shooting a man. Since I was the reverse, it probably said something for my whacked state of mind. Any good soldier trained in the art of killing though, and I’d been instructed by the best.

As the timbers creaked beneath me, I stepped away from the controls, leaving them in Jack’s hands. The ship began to skim over the water, and the balloon inflated for lift. Wind tossed strands of my hair aloft, and I drank in the air like a drowning man. The first couple skips bounced us into the briny air and with each one my heart jumped in unison. Speeding at an even pace, we departed from the sea, and the little ship accelerated as she ascended.

The sea sparkled beneath us, and the breeze filled my lungs to burst. I didn’t bother hiding the broad grin that ripped across my face once we were in flight again. Some folks spent their entire lives mucking about down below but not me. I was meant to soar free. Spade stood by the helm as a temporary peace returned to him with his hands gripping the wheel once more. Though, I knew, as we all did, we wouldn’t feel right again until our boots planted on board the Desire and we rejoined with our full crew.

“How far is the clan’s territory?” I called to Isabella who stood by Jack’s side. She stepped away to join me by the rails as she leaned back against the polished wood.

“We’re talking several hours at most. Not a long journey.” Her dark eyes turned stormy while she burned holes into the ground.

All of this must be tearing her up on the inside. I’d sure as hell have some major damage if faces from my craphole of a childhood cropped up. Not to mention, these gypsy bastards had not only threatened our lives, but they stole our ship, and we’d had no word from our crew. I slipped a hand into my pouch and fumbled around until I latched onto the communicator, flipping the switch. A whole lot of static responded, but now that we were in the skies, I wasn’t ready to turn it off yet.

I lifted the piece to my mouth and pressed the button. “Crew of the Desire, if you can hear me, send me your location. We’re coming to get you.”

Both of us listened to the static crackle, filling the air between us. Though the sky glowed bright as ever, a couple drops of rain splashed down to kiss my nose and cheeks. I squinted, scanning the horizon for smoky tails but found none. Just a sprinkling from the skies, nothing to worry ourselves with. Good too, because while I would stand at the forefront of the Desire laughing into a storm, it’s because I knew every inch of my girl. I wouldn’t want to weather a nightmare in the ‘sphere while piloting this unknown ship.

“I should’ve known the moment Julian appeared we’d have trouble,” she muttered. Several wavy strands of her beige hair escaped from the ponytail she’d corralled them into. With her arms crossed over her chest and her chin jutted out, she dwelled in full pity mode as Jack had been earlier. Not like I blamed any of them—I simply kept my self-flagellation secret.