Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) (41 page)

“The day I am rewarded for bringing in the single most dangerous fugitive of the Hands.”

I clucked my tongue. “You really think you’re going to take me in?” I let out a whoop and brought out the two swords strapped to my waist, my crew falling in around me on the deck. “I doubt that.”

His eyes flared as he took a step back, his hand going to his chest. “You dare threaten a vessel of the queens?”

I smiled, gesturing with one of my blades. “You forget, I’m dangerous. I endanger the vessels of the queens all the time.” I attacked.

Lightning flashed all around us, touching objects and sending electric sparks through the air. Rain fell, cold and slick. Wind and what little dust could be found up here spun in raging walls of protection around things that needed to be saved, glass forming as the lightning touched it, melting it in midair.

Fire leapt with a wild vengeance. Ryo found clusters of fighters and trapped them in fiery rings.

My lava hot blades kept a clear path all around me.

The queens’ men laid down their pistols, their hands raised in surrender.

This was too easy.

Well, almost. We’d lost eleven of our crew, and the Hands’ men littered the platform.

The Knight of Swords smiled grimly, bowing under the power of my swords, his hands laced behind his head. “We were able to get a broadcast out. Reinforcements are on the way.”

Someone walked up behind us. “No, actually,” Joshua said with a smirk. “We blocked your transmission.”

I recalled the heat from my Mark, my swords turning from seething orange to cool steel as I sheathed them. “How did you manage that?”

“By accident. Call i’ a happy whoops, if ya will.”

I chuckled and continued in Adalic, “Find a place for the survivors below decks.”

Ryo nodded curtly.

“Let’s see what we have and if we can figure out how to fly this thing.”

The crew scrambled.

One thing my father taught me long ago was that you didn’t have to be as smart or as good as anyone on your crew, but you had to know how to guide them. I just hoped I could do that successfully because I literally had no idea what to do if we couldn’t figure out how the platform operated.

Haji went below decks with Ryo, a distant look in his dark eyes and a thick frown on his forehead. Yvette and Keeley joined us as Haji and Ryo disappeared behind a large group of the Hands’ men.

I surveyed the platform. It was massive, but most of it was flat except for a small cabin that held a door and a massive control tower encased in glass at the very center. There were large hoses sprouting from the deck in regular intervals, and a long runway. The rest of the space was allocated for the birds. It was obvious what this place was built for.

“
C’est fantastique!
” Yvette said in wonder. “What do we do now?”

I shook my head. How did my father do this, always have the answer? “Did that seem a little too easy to anyone besides me?”

Yvette’s lips tightened. “They underestimated us. That is a good thing.”

I winced, my eyes narrowed against the sun. “I guess.”

“Do you think they have something else planned?”

I nodded. “I do.”

“Well, they probably needed to get a communication out, and they didn’t succeed in doing that.”

“No, but that doesn’t mean they won’t continue to try.”

“What do you plan to do with the survivors?” Keeley asked as we walked along the line of aircraft.

We approached one of the vessels with the flapping wings. In the air, they’d seemed so small, but close up, I felt a bit dwarfed. “I would like to keep them on board. They know how this thing works and how to fly—” I pointed my hand in the direction of the planes. “—those.”

“But if they can’t be trusted—” Yvette started.

I nodded. “I know. They’ll just have to be watched. Very carefully.”

Yvette glanced at me through her thick lashes. “You’re going to ask Haji to keep them docile,
oui
?”

I wasn’t happy about it. “Yes.”

“It’s going to take a lot of energy.”

I nodded and stopped, looking around and really taking in the magnitude of what we’d just done. I stared at the Golden Goose as it floated not far from us, the mooring ropes having been removed, and shook my head in wonder. We’d accomplished something impossible.

Yvette and Keeley did the same, their eyes widening a little as the full impact of it hit.

“How in the love of dirt do we fly this thing?” I asked.

The whirring of the motors was my only answer.

CHAPTER 37

THE STARS ARE AMAZING

The good
news was that we weren’t losing elevation, but how long would that last? I knew an airship could, in theory, remain aloft indefinitely without a crew, wandering aimlessly along the wind, but a vessel like this that burned fuel instead of regenerating it? Who knew?

I pushed aside my anxiety. This had been too easy. Either Nix wanted me to have the refueling platform, or she didn’t think we’d be that easy to catch. Either way, it didn’t look good, but then again, we already knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

I headed toward the door I’d seen Ryo disappear through with Haji and the survivors, leaving Yvette and Keeley behind. Nervous energy filled me. I had no idea how we were going to get the information from the remaining crew. We could try with Haji, but I didn’t want to start thinking of him like a tool, or have him assuming I only wanted him for what he could do for me. Our friendship was rocky enough already. I didn’t need to add that.

If we didn’t use Haji, though, that only left torture because I seriously doubted they’d volunteer the information. I’d seen first-hand the kind of terror the queens inflicted on them. No doubt they had family members and/or friends remaining in Sky City.

I passed through the door and entered darkness. Up ahead was a bright orange light. I followed it. The hallway was short and narrow, constricted. On my left were arched metal doorways with circular valves for handles.

The corridor turned abruptly. I could stay on this level or descend the twisting staircase. Voices drifted up from below, so I followed.

The stairs went down several stories, and I could see why. The room was filled with massive machinery: gears, pulleys, engines, fan housings. The bowels of the station were immense.

There was a platform about halfway down with a row of arched metal doorways. Ryo and Haji were standing on the open metal grate walkway suspended over a long row of fan housings far below.

I did not like this ship.

Ryo glanced at me as I met up with them. “What’s the plan?”

He would have to ask that, wouldn’t he? I knew eventually I’d disappoint him and my mother, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. I had bigger problems. “We need to know how to fly this thing, how to keep it in the air, and it would be nice if we could figure outhow to fly the smaller planes.”

“Interrogation?” Ryo asked.

I raised my eyebrows and bared my teeth in distaste. “Do you have a better idea?”

He flinched but headed through the door behind him.

I looked at Haji. He looked tired. “We’ll find a place for the survivors soon.”

He nodded, his gaze focused inward.

I leaned against the metal wall and listened to the heartbeat of this whirring, roaring ship. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to become one with it. I listened to the high pitched whine, the whir-whir-whiiiiir of one of the fans that was out of sync with the rest.

The vibration settled into my bones, like a gentle humming. Healthy. This is what “good” felt like. That was an important thing to remember if we were going to survive. Sometimes, it was the slight rattle instead of mild vibration, a change in pitch, a slight modification in rhythm that would tell me when something was wrong.

This ship terrified me.

Ryo returned after what seemed like hours. It could have been. There was no real way of tracking time down here. His expression was grim as he buttoned his silk turquoise vest. “I found a few who are willing to help you man the vessel. They have no ties to Sky City and nothing left for the queens to hold over them.”

I pushed off the wall and nodded with relief. “And the others?”

“They need to be removed quickly. They are the queens’ knights, all loyal.” He grimaced. “And oblivious to pain, which leads me to believe I know why they are so loyal. They have been broken.”

My vision flared as my heart clenched. I knew what that felt like. “I don’t like the idea of killing them in cold blood.”

My brother nodded. “I can take them to Ino City. Mother is quite adept at breaking people in her own right.”

These men didn’t need more breaking, but at the same time, they were a liability. I couldn’t let them go freely. They’d find a way to get word back to the Queens. I nodded. “That sounds best.”

His expression said he knew what I hadn’t said. “I’ll radio ahead. What can we use for transportation?”

“Take Glory Sunrise. We can’t take her where we’re going.”

He nodded and headed for the stair.

I glanced at Haji.

He sagged against the wall, dark circles growing black around his eyes.

“How quickly can you leave?” I asked Ryo, following him up the stairs and down the corridor that led to the sky, less noise and the promise of fresh air.

He turned to glance at me over his shoulder as he opened the door to the outside and stepped through. “You worried about Haji?”

I nodded.

He stepped to the side so I could pass through.

I took in a deep gulping breath as soon as the endless sky was above my head.

“I can leave immediately.”

I clapped him on the back. “Then please do so. Release the survivors who wish to stay as soon as you’re sure they’re safe. Ensure that one of our people are with them at all times. Just because they claim they’re willing, doesn’t mean I believe it.”

He disappeared back through the door. “I would respect you less if you did.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. He respected me? I wasn’t expecting that.

It took a while to get the prisoners transferred, the crews reallocated and for a sort of natural activity to fall around the station. We had mostly technicians and mechanics from the Hands’ crew. The only people allowed to fly the planes were the Knights.

But they weren’t the only ones who knew how.

Mechanics knew more about how to fly than most of the pilots did, which Joshua was quick to point out. We had a lot to learn and the mechanics were eager to both teach and fly.

The biplanes had wings that didn’t flap and needed propellers. There were models with two sets of wings and some with one set. The flyers were the ones with the flapping wings, but there was a new bird that we hadn’t seen yet.

They called it the dragonfly. There were two sets of flapping wings, one behind the other. These were wicked fast and had incredible maneuverability. They almost made me want to convert. My airships looked down right bulky in comparison.

Keeley deeply enjoyed being in the cockpit of a flyer. She even picked one and gave it a name. She spent every second she could in the air. That surprised me a bit.

Yvette loved the dragonfly.

She also enjoyed seeing if she could kick my butt in the sky.

Like now.

The two of us were in the sky doing maneuvers, proving our skills in the driver’s seat. Technically, I was supposed to be trying to shoot her down with the weapons strapped to the sides of the lithe plane. However, I was having a rather difficult time doing that with her
behind
me.

I shifted to the right, twisting around to spot her.

She stayed on my tail, not letting me out of her sights.

I throttled up, pointing the nose of my dragonfly into the sky, aimed directly into Kel’mar’s big, red heart.

She didn’t pause for a second.

The air was too thin for the dragonfly to maintain altitude. It was also getting hard to breathe, but here, I had the advantage. I’d spent my entire life in the high altitudes. Yvette had only lived in Sky City.

She dropped first.

Finally! I pointed my nose to the swelling ocean far, far below me, the refueling station a bare dot on the horizon. My head pounded with a dull ache. I knew I’d pushed the limit.

But it was worth it because I had her in my sights. I was planning to keep her there.

Then, all of a sudden, my dragonfly stalled.

Stalled?

I stared wide-eyed at the dashboard of gauges in front of me. Sputter, putter, sputter…stop.

Air whistled past my ears. Ice crystals formed on the outside of my goggles, popping and disappearing almost as fast they appeared.

Without power, I had no wings. With no wings, I couldn’t even coast.

I passed Yvette like she was standing still.

Oh dirt!

I frantically pushed the start button, pulling on the emergency red handle that manually fluttered the wings. Manually working the wings helped a little. I pointed the nose to the refueling station and pumped the wings. Before long, I was sweating like a fish.

The refueling station was about a hectometre in front of me. I tried the motor one more time.