A Tale of Two Airships (Take to the Skies Book 2) (9 page)

“How could you have known? After all, we still need the answer as to why they’re all bringing this hell down on us.” I stared straight up, shutting my eyes as several drops splashed onto my forehead. “Their beef doesn’t seem to be with you—otherwise they would’ve kidnapped you at the meet instead of stealing our ship. You were the smoke and mirrors, enough reason to bring us in their direction,” I mused. “But why?”

“The better question is who bought them off? We’ve pissed off so many factions it’s a fair weather guess that revenge may be the motive. Even though all of our hell went down a couple years ago, folks with new lives like Edward still cling to it.” Her rose perfume wafted in the breeze, lending an air of familiarity to this foreign deck.

My mind whirled. We soared high over the seas, and the condensation of clouds began wafting by, this high up. She was right, but the redcoats wouldn’t utilize the gypsies—they’d be straightforward in their pursuit. The Morlocks on the other hand still kept the torch burning, but they also hadn’t had anyone waiting in alleys to rough us up. Our encounter with the idiots in the bar had been entirely accidental. My lips formed a thin line. That left one option and, to be honest, the only one to make sense.

Our ex-employer, the one who sent us after the Brit box of secrets in the first place and gained us a thousand and one enemies. He had the means, the motive, and the lack of morals necessary to use anyone he deemed fit to undermine us, and he’d been quiet for far too long. 

A buzzing noise pierced the air, but it didn’t come from my comm. I glanced to Mordecai who whipped out a metal earpiece, the sort with a speaker that tugged down. Made my bulky communicator look like it hearkened from the Stone Age, but we didn’t have the sort of money to pass around fancy tech to everyone. How Mordecai obtained one blew my mind, but the man had more secrets than the bodies he’d left behind.

His face darkened as he tuned in on whatever came from the other end. I rolled my eyes. Great, more trouble. Pushing myself away from the railing, I crossed the weathered deck over to Mordecai.

“Come on, none of your doom and gloom. Let’s pretend you got a call about a hundred kittens needing an airship home.” I slapped him on the back. He heaved a weary sigh, rolling his sleeves to his elbows in the neat, perfunctory manner he did when agitated.

“I wish. We’ve got a problem. That was Viola’s number—except on the other end was a Morgan Blackwind, Captain of the stolen ship Fireswamp.”

“Shit,” I spat. When the one girl ran off, she must’ve darted straight for their Captain. While not all were onboard, I had thought we included Morgan Blackwind in the package. “So I’m assuming they didn’t manage to collect the bounty.” My words were hesitant as my stomach dropped.

“He’s holding them ransom for the return of Fireswamp.”

Guilt prickled through me—had they not bothered with us in the first place, they wouldn’t be in this mess. All eyes on deck honed in, and their pressure burned into me the way it always did any time a decision had to be made. Until you’ve been a captain, it’s hard to understand the ship’s ledge you walk with every single choice. After all, though my crew swore their loyalty, any reasonable person questioned, and many had their own ideas of the best plan of action.

When I first joined, I questioned Morris with as much gusto as the rest of them. It wasn’t until time passed and he proved himself over and over, on every single one of those small choices that I defended him with a steel edge. A couple years in, I still considered myself a new captain, and each of these decisions helped them weigh in their minds whether I was worthy to follow into imminent danger, or if I was a loudmouthed fool on an errand to get everyone killed. Not going to lie, days like these, I felt like the latter.

My shoulders slumped. Not like I even had a decision to make—we’d gotten them in trouble with our sloppy clean-up. We’d get them out of it.

“Looks like we’ll be turning this ship around.” The words hung heavy in my chest. We’d just reached the clouds only to have to return to land. And I didn’t have a clue as to how we’d retrieve Edward and Viola or what route we’d take to get us back to the skies. But honor proved a harsh mistress, and I bent to her whims, every time.

“Bea, do we have the time to go back for them?” Isabella interjected. The woman got her hands dirty with the best of them, and bless her soul, she always played my devil’s advocate. “We may not get another chance like this to retrieve the Desire, and the longer we wait, the more risk our crew could meet a nasty end, if they haven’t already.”

Spade stood with his hand on the wheel, watching but maintaining radio silence. Out of everyone on board, I counted on him to roll with the punches no matter what decision I made. I let out an exhale through my nose, wishing my head wasn’t full of hornets right now. Mordecai didn’t voice an opinion. Even though he wanted to go back and help Viola, he knew his input had bias, so he held it back.

“We can’t leave these guys though,” Jack interjected. His protestations brought a half-smile to my lips. “We were the ones who got them involved in the first place.”

“The boy’s right.” I tugged on the ends of my aviator cap, wishing for all the world we could keep flying. After all, I missed my girl, my crew, and Geoff more than I could bear, and turning around gave the gypsies more time, which couldn’t spell anything good.

A voice cut through the air amidst the static coming from my bag. My eyes widened as I flipped the flap and fumbled for the communicator. The communicator buzzed as it worked in overdrive to catch a signal.

I pressed the button again and spoke into the thing. “This is Captain Bea of the Airship Desire. If any of my crew are listening—we’re coming for you.”

“Bea,” the voice came from the communicator, as heartbreakingly familiar as I’d last heard him upon leaving the ship. Geoff. “Lat, 47°29′52″ N, Longitude, 19°02′23″ E. Heading East. Hurry.”

Before I lifted my head, Spade had already begun jotting down his coordinates. I pressed the button again, my pulse racing at the sound of his voice. “Where are they taking you?” I asked. Crackling followed. “Geoff?” I asked again, anxious for some indication. Yet only static from the communicator responded. He’d given us all he could, but he’d given us the most important information, more than their coordinates—my crew was alive. Geoff was alive.

The sweep of relief vanished as fast as it had arrived as soon as the reality hit. Viola and Edward were at the hands of Morgan Blackwind awaiting our return. Yet if the Desire sailed in transit, we’d only have a small window of pursuit. The urgency in his voice instilled the gravity of their situation.

This was the reason why no one wanted the captain’s job.

Chapter Nine

Either choice would leave me feeling like the blackest, foulest pirate you ever did meet. On the same note though, one stood out clearer than the other, and though guilt clutched my heart in a vise, I knew which one we had to make.

Mordecai did too—his lips thinned with his frown, and his pale eyes hardened like the steel he wielded. However, a professional like him could weather the emotional maelstrom to find the logical route. I was a cocktail of passion and impulse, but my time as captain had burdened me with a bit of the whole thinking-things-through nonsense.

Spade met my eyes, and I nodded, because we’d worked together for so long words weren’t necessary. He began making the slight alterations to our course but continued sailing in our current direction—nothing drastic, like turning this ship back from where we came. I swallowed, hard, but my throat had dried. We’d reached the lowest of low to abandon those who needed our help. Others might make the justification we’d only promised our end and they had to handle the rest but not me. Cowards made excuses, because the truth was, Edward and Viola wouldn’t have even glanced at the job if we hadn’t asked.  

Jack’s expression summed up my turmoil, with the torn loyalties clear by the dismay on his face. He watched me though, his faith still there, because like I once had done with Morris, he expected me to have the answers. Now I understood my captain who had appeared so unshakeable must have been plagued by doubts at every turn. Jack wanted a way to believe we’d make it all right—that we’d be the big heroes and save the day. Once upon a time I used to believe the same.

Those coordinates emblazoned in my mind along with the ‘hurry’ from Geoff. The urgency in his tone caused it to pulse through my veins. We had to gun this ship for all she was worth and pray they sailed the Desire at an even keel. I slumped against the side of the ship, deep in thought and not looking for a share and care.

As I stared out at the horizon, watching the puffy clouds race by against a sky so blue it hurt, an idea struck like a match and ignited.

“Mordecai,” I called. “What sort of ultimatum was delivered with Viola and Edward?”

“Captain Ruffled Feathers never gave me one. It’s up to us to respond to him.” Mordecai watched me, a bird-like curiosity gleaming in his eyes.

I stood and began to pace across the planks, mind tumbling forward faster than I could keep up with. “We’ll call him, and he’ll be grumbling, ‘Turn back now! Give us our ship back! Get off our lawn!’ But then—that’s when we get to talk, yes?” The words spilled out of me as a smile crept to my face.

Isabella’s brows scrunched together, and she crossed her arms over her chest. “And your point in all this, darling? We’re chasing after our ship, so what happens to them is no longer our concern.”

“Mordecai, hand over your fancy thingamajig. We’re making a call.” I glanced to Spade. “You sir, keep sailing, because we’re getting our boys back.” A light blinked on inside me, the one feeding every crazy endeavor we blustered our way into. Hope bubbled so sudden and joyous I had to tamp down my laughter. I allowed a smile to spread across my face, straining my cheeks. We might just pull it all off.

Mordecai lifted a brow but didn’t ask questions as he handed over his metal earpiece. “I input the number—should start ringing any second.”

I fit the piece into my ear and held the small interface in my palm, no bigger than a stone. A ringing sound came through the speaker, and I waited, lips pursed, for Captain Fussypants to pick up on the other end. After all, who wanted their ship stolen and crew ransacked? The man probably raged and rightfully so. We committed the same crime the gypsies had to us.

“You’re bringing the Fireswamp back at once.” A low voice came from the other end, full of scorching anger.

“About that,” I began. Around the deck, my crew watched and waited in silence as no one seemed to have figured out where my brain traveled next. “You’ve misunderstood our intent.”

If a silence could hold incredulity, this one would’ve. A sigh hissed through the speakers before he continued. “You stole my ship and were prepared to turn my crew in to bounty hunters. What have I misunderstood?”

“I
borrowed
your ship,” I corrected. “Since you managed to avoid being captured and turned in, I’ll happily return it. I figured with you being locked up and all you wouldn’t have much use for it.”

Isabella’s jaw dropped. Seconds later, laughter bubbled from her so hard her shoulders quaked, and she couldn’t stop. Jack stared bug-eyed, and Spade let out a snort. Mordecai sighed, sounding as weary as the captain on the comm.

He’d gone silent, but I expected him to. No one with half a brain would accept my spun bullshit as reality. Since he didn’t scream at me or interrupt though, it meant he waited for me to finish my train of thought. Not the smartest lad to give me a stage when I already had an audience.

“See here, we needed to borrow it to retrieve our own ship. However, we don’t want to hold you up and don’t want to cause any problems for our bounty hunter friends.” I gave him a momentary pause to process the information before launching back into this pitch. After all, I gave him a pretty large pill to swallow. “So we’ll return her—we just need three days.”

Mordecai broke into a grin and shook his head, a rueful smile on his face. Isabella restrained her laughter but couldn’t help the smirk. My heart bounced in my chest, waiting for a response. He could say no. He might say he’d kill them then and there. But if he killed them, we had no reason to return, and I understood what losing your ship meant. You’d do anything to get it back.

“Two,” he responded, his voice terse. “But if you don’t show up by sundown on the second day with the Fireswamp in pristine condition, we’ll execute your friends on the spot.”

“We have a deal.” I said the words, the finality of the situation seeping through my veins. Without another word, the line went dead. I pulled the contraption from my ear and handed it over to Mordecai. “I wouldn’t leave them high and dry,” I said, my voice quieting. “We have a chance to make things right.”

He broke into a broad grin, one of the rare few I’d seen from the man. “I knew you would. I chose to sign up with this crew for a reason.”

His faith almost broke my heart after all the guilt and the weariness I’d internalized the second the Desire had been stolen. The knowledge my crew had my back helped me weather the fiercest of storms. 

Isabella smirked. “Not shocked, Bea. You’re as much of a softie as the old man was. Way to go upping the stakes again.”

I let the breeze steal strands of my hair and toss them in front of my face. “Fine by me. It wouldn’t be an adventure if we had smooth sailing.”

Jack pulled out his binoculars and scanned the horizon. “Speaking of smooth sailing, someone should be keeping watch. Not like we’re registered as shoot on sight but with this ship’s original crew in the books for quite the bounty…” he trailed off, scanning the horizon.

“Point made. Once a lookout, always a lookout.” I cast him a sidelong glance. “Though, good instincts to have for a recon man.”

“This course is taking us away from Isabella’s old clan,” Spade announced, casting me a questioning look.

“Follow it anyway,” I replied. “If they’re not heading towards the gypsies, I have no clue what they’re up to.”

“What’s the plan when we get to the Desire, boss?” Isabella asked. “I mean, our ship can blast this puny thing from the skies any day of the week.”

I pulled my palms down my face, trying to chase away the looming headache. Always a plan or decision to make. Sometimes the chaos of it all threatened to break me, but when it came to challenges, the captain’s mantle rested on someone too stubborn to resist. And, truth be told, I was too bossy to take orders from anyone else for long.

Our girl was tough to sneak up on, sure, but any big ship had her blind spots. And depending on how many they had manning the Desire, they might not catch a slip of a thing like the Fireswamp sneaking on in—especially at night.

“You’re going to pull one like the Morlocks?” Isabella asked, the second I opened my mouth.

Like they needed a Captain. My crew could find their way out of a problem a thousand times better than me. I crooked a brow, fixing her with an appropriate amount of sass before continuing. “Yes, we’re going to copy the same route that hoodwinked us. I mean, it worked well enough then, and these gypsies don’t even know our girl. So we’ll soar fast to catch up, fix the Desire in our sights, and then tail until nightfall.”

“What defenses do we have if they decide firing back?” Mordecai asked.

I snorted. “A hope and a prayer. Little thing like this couldn’t shoot a fly from the sky.”

“She’s got some firepower,” Spade called over. With a tilt of his head, he pointed out the crates dotted with bullets—the ones we’d hid behind when we took over the ship. A tea-colored imprint of a pronged leaf marked each of them, but a detail eluding me mid-fire now made a world of difference. I had wondered what the Fireswamp’s crew got pinned for in the first place. This clarified everything.

Without consulting the crew, I headed to the cabin and began rummaging through the place for a crowbar, all the while my excitement mounting. While I didn’t want to get my hopes up, I couldn’t help indulging in the adrenaline burst. After I found the tool poking out along the floor behind the monstrosity of a desk, I marched back out wielding the crowbar. Though Jack and Spade kept busy with their duties, Isabella and Mordecai proved to be overwhelmingly helpful as they stood, arms crossed while they watched me fight the lip of the crate.

With a pop, the crate top flew off, catching a lift from a breeze and sailing across the deck. Red Oak Industries sold the best smoking pipes on this side of the globe, but their day job wasn’t how they made their money. At least, not the real money powering the conglomerate. Red Oaks had quite the name for themselves in the black market as the premium purveyor of high-grade weaponry.

An assault rifle lay nestled inside the bed of shredded paper with a full stock of ammo beside it. I scanned across the deck at the dozens of crates lining the way and hazarded a guess the rest contained similar.

“Well now, this will help eliminate said gypsy threat,” I murmured, crouching to run my hand along the length. Now I understood who’d put the bounty on the Fireswamp in the first place. This ship didn’t have the size or advancements necessary to be toting around Red Oak merchandise—and as far as smuggling went, they took care of their own operations since they’d had a handle on the gig for a long time.

A bounty issued by Red Oak Industries carried some serious weight. While the crew had been marked on a vendetta basis, the Fireswamp had been part of the bounty because the company wanted their merchandise back. I let out a low whistle and covered the crate again.

“Yeah, the second we’re done retrieving our ship, they can have theirs back. We have enough enemies on our tail to be making ones out of Red Oak Industries.”

“Care to explain how you managed to land us on the ship carrying the most dangerous merchandise? Haven’t we run this carousel before?” Isabella asked, taking a peek into the crates herself.

“Talent of mine, I guess.” I shrugged and made my way to Spade, wanting to get a gist of how far off we were from the coordinates. A shiver coursed down my spine. Though those guns would help us take back our vessel, I wanted the marked weaponry out of my hands as fast as possible. I stared at the broad horizon, wishing we could fast forward to a future aboard my girl again, free from the problems plaguing us.

“Hey Captain?” Jack’s voice carried with the breeze. I didn’t like the note of tension in it. I spat a low curse and rerouted to where he stood at the rail, scanning the skies with his binoculars. Anxiety prickled through me in one sweep—I doubted he’d be calling me over because he saw a heron this high up.

“What’re you spotting, Jackie-boy?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips and squinting as the sun near blinded me.

Another ship drifted amidst the clouds, but that was no irregularity. Airships passed one another all the time.

“Pass me the binoculars.” I snatched them out of his hands before he could respond and stole a better look. On a gorgeous day like this, cloud cover didn’t last long, and after a second, the dark blue flag grew clear as the surrounding sky. An M surrounded by the cog was about the last emblem I wanted to see, but as I’d learned at an early age, I didn’t often get what I wanted.

Morlocks.