Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (15 page)

“We have to kill them,” Samuel said as he finally stopped struggling and squeezed Drakkar’s shoulders instead. “They killed Charles!”

Drakkar slammed Samuel against the nearest bookshelf. “We do not know what Archibald’s response will be. It’s done. We look after the living now. Once we find Jacob, we can make for Cave or Bollwerk. It is not safe here. Come, let us leave before the chaos recedes, or this old building falls down on our heads.”

Samuel nodded and followed Drakkar away from that terrible vision.

They both froze on the doorsteps, choking on a cloud of debris. What had been the base was only a cloud of dust and dirt and fire now. Drakkar had only heard the stories of Midstream and how the towering Mechs had flattened the city of the oasis. The choking clouds and invisible screams brought those stories to awful life.

A shadow wavered and creaked before stones and timbers crashed to the earth. The sudden chiming of bells that trailed into the distance told them it was a clocktower. Only death stood where there had once been a base, a trading post, and a home for a thousand soldiers.

Samuel stumbled backwards when Drakkar pulled on his arm, drawing his attention to the path away from the last stand of Charles von Atlier. Drakkar felt there should be satisfaction in the mad tinker’s death. The creator of Midstream’s destruction had fallen into the abyss, but the hollowness in Drakkar’s chest persisted, a sadness he could not explain.

Charles had been a good man. A man who had made terrible mistakes, but he had also been a good man. “He deserved a better end.”

Samuel glanced back at Drakkar. The Cave Guardian could not read the Spider Knight’s expression, but he suspected there were many words left to speak of their lost friend.

Friend.

He had been a friend.

A coughing, gasping form stumbled out of the dust before them, almost close enough to touch. Cold fury swelled in Drakkar’s limbs when he saw one of the uniforms of Fel’s soldiers beneath the dirt. Drakkar’s hand moved without thought, the blade of his sword unfolding, clicking out in stages. The soldier turned in time to see the guardian’s eyes.

Drakkar stepped into the attack, pivoting his hips as he swung his blade in a simple, practiced arc. The strike sent a spray of blood across the cobblestones. The soldier grabbed at his neck, trying to staunch the stream of blood. Drakkar repositioned himself for the next strike.

“No,” Samuel said, pulling on the guardian’s shoulder. The Spider Knight clipped the soldier in the temple with his boot. “Let him bleed. We have to find Jacob.”

Drakkar took two deep, shaky breaths before he wiped off his sword, slid the release forward, and let the blade collapse unto itself. The earth moved again, sending the world sideways. They stumbled away from that mad place.

Drakkar’s cloak snapped in the wind as they rounded an intersection and started down a hill. It was not long before the city gates came into view. Impaled upon them were the remains of two Fel guards. Drakkar paused at the gate, looking at the carnage strewn across the earth.

“Look!” Samuel said, pointing into the distance.

Drakkar squinted against a gust of wind, but there it was, gliding like a bird above the carnage. “Jacob?”

“It has to be. Let’s go!”

Drakkar didn’t argue.

They ran.

*     *     *

Alice stared at
the clouds of roiling black and white smoke. Flames licked at the edges of the fallen city but stayed mostly contained in a gaping wound in the mountainside.

Mary lifted the lid to one of the horns. “Smith. Get up here now.”

“Cooling the turbines and then I will join you.”

Alice wasn’t sure how long it had been since Mary made the call and Smith opened the hatch to the cabin. She couldn’t take her eyes away from billowing clouds of ash.

“By the gods!” Smith shouted as he slammed his palms onto the dashboard and leaned into the windscreen. “They did it. Raise Archibald, Mary. Raise him now!”

“I … Yes, I should have done that already.” Mary pulled down the transmitter with a shaking hand and clicked the button on the side. “Archibald, this is Mary.” She waited almost a minute. “Archibald, this is Mary.”

Smith looked at her and a line of creases appeared across his forehead. “We shouldn’t just wait here. We should look for Jacob and Charles and the others.”

An explosion sent debris hurtling into the air on a fireball.

Mary’s radio crackled to life. “Skysworn, this is Archibald. Message received.”

“Where the hell have you been?” Mary snapped.

“Busy with the Council, Mary. The base is gone?”

Mary blew out a breath and snarled before she clicked the transmitter again. “Yes, it’s gone. Do you have any clue where we should look for the others?”

“All I know is that Jacob and Charles were setting the bombs. If they went off today, then what plans there were are gone. The safe house was compromised, so no one will be there. Watch the entrances. Check the grounds closer to the collapse. The soldiers from Fel that are left won’t be guarding either. If they are, they’re fools. If they have a mind for survival, they’ll be regrouping somewhere inside the city. I have to return to the Council. They understand the need for our movements against Fel, but there are rising hostilities from the desert clans.”

“Remind them of the Porcupines, Archibald. Those things are death given form.”

“I know. Be safe. Look for the Steamsworn if it goes sideways.”

“It’s already ten ways from sideways, Archibald. It looks like a bloody war down there.”

“It is a war, Mary. Don’t forget it.”

Mary cursed and hung her transmitter back on its clip. “So it is.”

Smith started to speak. It was old words. Alice knew them from Archibald’s book. It was part of the Steamsworn oath.

Through the black we ride once more

Within the flames our fortune’s told

The gates of Hell lie broken wide

Within the steam, no hold abides

“I hate that damned oath,” Mary spat. “Glory and honor to the dead.” She ratcheted one of the levers down and spun the wheel to her left. The Skysworn lurched to the east and swooped toward the earth. “Once you’re dead, you’re dead. Glory be damned.”

“To die for a cause is an honor denied to many.”

A terrible, seething fear clawed at Alice’s spine. She remembered the last line of that oath, and it seemed more terrible now, before that ruin of a city, than it ever had before. She whispered it.

Find me in that Steamsworn grave

J
acob’s tears had
lessened by the time the soft sands of the dried riverbank sprayed out beneath his feet. He stumbled as he landed, keeping the glider held high so he wouldn’t break it. Charles wouldn’t be happy if … if …

Jacob shook and fell to a knee. The awful snap of the gunshot played over and over in his head, and Charles’s slumped form was a frozen vision. A glance over his shoulder showed him the remains of Dauschen. The base was a smoky, ruined scar, and it was the only thing that brought some measure of comfort to Jacob at that moment.

They’d struck a terrible blow to the Fel army stationed at Dauschen. How many were left? How many were stationed in Ancora? Did the Butcher have as many spies as Archibald did? He closed his eyes and turned away from the burning city.

Were the others okay? That was the thought driving him back to his feet. He needed to find Samuel and Drakkar. He slid the glider off and grimaced as the straps released the air cannon from his side, dropping it onto the sand. He had no doubt of the bruising he was in for. The glider folded neatly back into its housing. It looked like nothing more than a leather pack by the time it was secured.

He needed to regroup with his people and plan their next attack. They needed to strike Fel while the city still roiled in chaos. That thinking jarred him, and he took a hesitant step before his mind followed that line of thought through to its end. There wasn’t another choice. They’d either drive away the Butcher and his army, or die trying. Die like Charles.

Jacob pulled the air cannon out of the sand and shook the grains from it. He racked the slide three times and slid it through one of the ties on his backpack. A shadow moved across him, blocking the sun. He thought it was the clouds of smoke at first, but the sun was on the other side of the sky.

A ship hovered up above. It looked familiar, but he didn’t trust anything at that moment. A landing line slammed into the sand thirty feet away and Jacob slid the air cannon into his hands once more.

Someone yelled from above. “Jacob! Jacob!” The voice was deep, booming. A dark shadow slid down the landing line on a belayer. Jacob could only stare when Smith’s boots slammed into the earth beside him.

“Smith?” Jacob said. Something felt warm inside him. It took him a moment to realize he was happy to see a friendly face, having been so focused on wanting to kill more soldiers.

“Gods, kid. You are bleeding.”

Jacob frowned. “I am?”

Smith slid his fingers beneath his collar and said, “Mary, it is Jacob. He is battered, but it would appear he will live.” The tinker leaned down and pulled Jacob’s pant leg up. “Looks like it’s just a leak.” Smith pulled a knob out and twisted it to the side. The trickle of blood stopped. “Your leg is going to start locking up in about an hour. I can fix it once we return to the ship.”

A crackly voice came over the copper speaker at Smith’s neck. “Alice is on her way down.”

“Alice?” Jacob asked. If he was being honest, he wanted to see her more than anyone else, but this was no place for her. This was an unbiased land of soldiers and murderers and death. She didn’t need to see that. No one did.

“Jacob!”

That voice. Her voice. And then she was there. Her arms wrapped around him and it felt like she’d brought him home. Something shattered inside his chest and stabbed at his eyes, and Jacob fell to his knees. He squeezed her so tightly he knew it had to be hurting, but he couldn’t soften his grip. She leeched the poison from him.

He felt Alice pulling at his arms, but he just pulled her closer and buried his face in her stomach. Her fingers ran through his hair, catching in the knots and tangles as she whispered to him. She hadn’t done that since his pet Fire Lizard was taken away once his parents realized what it was, some seven years gone.

Jacob let out an agonized cry as everything he’d lost since Ancora came crashing down around him. His parents. His friends. His leg. His world.

His voice was tiny against the roar of the fires in the distance and the scream of the wind overhead. “Charles is gone.”

“What?”

“He’s dead, Alice.” All he could taste was ash, the words filling him with poison once more. “They killed him, right in front of me. I should have done … I should have done
something
.”

“No,” Alice said after a pause. “This is … We all knew this could happen. You’re still here. We’re still here. We can still fight.”

Jacob opened his eyes and looked up at her face. Lit by the sun, her silhouette was harsh, and the rage in her eyes was matched only by the hatred he felt burning beneath his anguish. He relaxed his arms and Alice pulled him to his feet.

“We’re still here, Jacob. I’m not going anywhere. We can carry on for Charles.”

“We need to find the others,” Smith said.

Jacob nodded and took a deep, shaky breath. “I don’t know who’s left.”

“I am sorry you had to witness this.” Smith gestured to the burning hole of Dauschen. “All of this.”

“I didn’t witness it,” Jacob said as he put his arm around Alice and grabbed the landing line. “I pulled the trigger.”

He could feel Smith’s eyes on his back as Alice hooked a belayer onto the landing line and slammed a Burner into the engine. They both kept a hand on the belayer and an arm around each other as it took them to the Skysworn.

The joy of the wind whipping through his hair may have been gone, but Alice was a welcome presence in what had become a very dark place.

*     *     *

“You know what
scares me?” Alice asked as she watched Smith crack open Jacob’s leg. She winced when the blood that had pooled inside leaked out onto the table and dripped to the floor.