Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (21 page)

Jacob averted his eyes and reached for his shirt. Alice’s nightgown was thinner than he would have thought, and her skin seemed to glow against the pale fabric. He couldn’t banish the image from his mind. It was silly. He’d danced with her and grown up with her, but now he felt uncomfortable.

He cleared his throat—as his dad liked to do when he didn’t have anything to say—and threw his vest on over his shirt before fastening the buckles. It took a little wiggling and a few yanks to retrieve his knife from the bedframe.

“You don’t look too bad yourself,” Alice said from behind him.

Jacob could feel the blush crawling up his face as he stood up. He cleared his throat again, tried to think of something to say, and just sat down to tie his boots instead.

“Ready?”

He glanced up as he finished tying his laces and nodded. It was Alice. Just Alice. One of his best friends, if not the best friend he’d ever had. He watched her for a moment while she adjusted the belt at her waist.

Jacob pulled the brass lever down on the hatch to their quarters and pulled it open. He squinted at the early sunlight that cut into the shadows of the small cabin.

Alice groaned. “We’re going to talk about that dream later.”

Jacob nodded. “Let’s go.”

They’d gotten dressed in moments. Jacob didn’t think his mom would have recognized her own son as someone who could move that fast.

He rubbed his forehead and they jogged slowly across the deck, their boots echoing out through the nearly empty docks and back again.

“How’s the head?” Alice asked.

“Not too bad. At least it wasn’t sharp.”

“It’s never been sharp.”

It took Jacob a moment to register what Alice had said. “Hey now …”

She slapped his shoulder and sped up, reaching the hatch to the pilot’s cabin a few steps before him. Drakkar and Samuel waited inside, and the heavy footfalls behind them turned out to be Smith.

The tinker rubbed his face and yawned.

“Wake the hell up,” Mary said. “Are the cannons ready to fire?”

Smith shrugged. “I would assume so, though I have not checked them today.”

“Get to checking them,” Mary said. “What about the chaingun?”

Smith nodded. “Mounted in the first gun pod.”

“Two seats in the pod?”

“Yes …” Smith said, drawing out the word. “Why?”

“We’re going after the Ballern ships.”

Mary’s words were greeted with silence.

“We don’t have the firepower for that,” Samuel said. “You’re talking about
destroyers
. They’re heavily armored and we don’t have a cannon large enough to break through.”

“This is what you meant by striking first?” Drakkar asked. “I admit, I had not considered that as a possibility.”

“I can’t abandon Bollwerk,” Mary said. “Not when we can gather intel and look for weaknesses.”

“Those are
destroyers
,” Samuel said as he spread his arms. “What do you think we can do with a couple cannons and a chaingun? We’re not talking about infantry and armor on the ground, Mary.”

“I know,” she said, “I have a plan. It’s what we have to do. We’ll take out as many as we can and then head for Dauschen.”

“Take them out?” Samuel said, his jaw hanging open at the words. “We’ll be lucky to survive a flyby! We can’t engage them, Mary. We
can’t.
”

Mary turned to the windscreen. “If you want out, get out now.”

“
Fine,
I’m gone. Jacob, grab your pack, we’re getting off this death ship.”

“No,” Alice said, her voice quiet beside Samuel’s heated words.

The Spider Knight turned slowly to face Alice. “What?”

“The Skysworn is the only ship fast enough to get us back to Dauschen before sunset.”

“Kid, the Skysworn is about to get smashed into tiny bits by destroyers thanks to her idiot captain.”

Smith stepped toward Samuel and loomed above him. “You may disagree with Mary’s decisions, but I will not let you insult her in her own house.”

“You going to back that threat up, Mech?” Samuel spat as he stepped closer to Smith, almost close enough to touch.

“You do not want that to happen.”

“
Enough!
” Drakkar shouted as he pushed Samuel away from Smith and laid a hand on the tinker’s chest. “Enough from both of you. I agree with Alice. We stay with the Skysworn. I already know Alice’s vote. Jacob?”

Jacob met the guardian’s stone gaze. “We fight with the Skysworn, and if we must, we die with her.”

“Fucking hell, kid. You sound like Charles.” Samuel squeezed his forehead and then slammed his palm against a wooden panel at the back of the cabin.

“If the decision’s made, take a seat.” Mary didn’t turn back to look at anyone. “Smith, pull up the anchor. Are we ready to make the jump with the thrusters?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Go help Smith with the landing lines, Samuel.”

The Spider Knight didn’t speak. He followed Smith out of the hatch.

“You made the right call, Alice,” Mary said. “We’re the only ship that can get back to Dauschen. We’re also the only ship crazy enough to fly through Ballern’s fleet. Consider it a bonus.”

“It’s not ideal,” Alice said as she pulled out one of the jump seats and snapped it into place.

“Samuel could be right,” Jacob said. “I don’t think there’s really a way for us to know, but he could be right.”

Mary glanced back at him as the ship lurched to one side. “I know.”

The Skysworn evened out as the last of the landing lines released. Once Samuel and Smith had returned to the cabin, Mary steered the ship away from the docks. She glanced at Smith. “We do what damage we can, and then make for Dauschen.”

“I’ll have the thrusters ready for another jump,” Smith said.

Mary nodded. She pulled one of the floor levers down and threw it to the side. The turbines outside roared to life. Mary didn’t bother with a countdown this time. She slammed the throttle forward and the Skysworn screamed through the skies.

*     *     *

There was a
story Jacob’s mom read to him when he was a child. It was the story of a knight who faced impossible odds, and the thoughts that ravaged his mind as he watched death march upon the field before him.

Lo’ I shall find the rider who falls upon his sword and lives to walk tomorrow. For upon his steed lie the dogs of war, and within his grasp is the end of all I know. I am but a man, and he, he is death.

Jacob had never understood those words so well as when Ballern’s fleet appeared through the Skysworn’s bronze scope. They flew in a V formation. Each ship was not so well armed as a Porcupine, but the cannons loomed large across the bows of the massive ships. Each destroyer had two banks of cannons strafing the skies. One of the massive guns swung past them, and Jacob froze in his seat.

“Hold on!” Mary said. She pulled on two levers, and the Skysworn swooped to a higher altitude, shaking as the thrusters fought against inertia. They broke through a cloud bank and Mary disengaged the turbines.

“That was … that was …” Alice didn’t finish the thought.

“Those are twice as large as the Porcupines,” Drakkar said. “What can two Porcupines do against ten of those destroyers? They will fail.”

“More than we can do,” Smith said. “Orders?”

The wisps of clouds gave way to an intense blue sky. The sun shone down as it would on any other day, but today was different. He felt his life balanced on the edge of a dagger, and all someone needed to do was give him the slightest push to die upon the blade. The rage and fire he’d felt at the death of Charles was smothered in the terror of staring down those cannons.

“Where do we hit them?” Mary asked, turning to face Smith. “We have two cannons and a chaingun.”

“Can we hit the cockpits?” Alice asked. “Or is the armor too thick?”

“Depends on the class of destroyer,” Mary said.

“Then the gas chambers,” Alice said. “Take them out of the sky.”

“They’ll be heavily armored,” Smith said.

“We have bombs,” Jacob said, forcing his nagging doubt back down into the furthest reaches of his mind. “Charles’s bombs.” He said it with venom, wrapping his heart around that righteous fury and holding onto it with everything he had. “We can blow them out of the sky until they return the favor.” He heard the words come out of his mouth, and they sounded like someone else. They sounded hateful, and fierce, and wronged, and furious.

Mary was silent for a moment. She looked down at the levers and controls around the wheel. “You scare me, kid.”

Jacob took two deep breaths before he asked, “Why?”

“Because that little speech made me want to follow you into the gates of hell, and I’ve never wanted to follow anyone.”

Jacob didn’t know how to respond to that. It felt good, knowing Mary placed some level of confidence in him, but what did you say to that? Smith saved him from trying to come up with an answer.

“I will get the shoulder cannons,” Smith said. “Maybe they can launch the bombs against the wind.”

“Not at this velocity,” Mary said. “You’ll barely be able to stand on the deck, and we can’t slow down without becoming an easy target.”

Smith stopped fumbling with his harness when the buckles released. He let the metal clatter against the wooden floor. “We can try. Samuel, Drakkar, come with me. I will show you the gun pods. Leave the bombs and grenades to Jacob and Alice. They know more about them than any of us.” Smith took two quick steps and opened the hatch. The wind roared around them as he disappeared into the rising sun.

Samuel and Drakkar followed.

“What do we do?” Alice asked once the others were gone.

Mary stood up at the wheel and squinted out the windscreen. Another cloud bank rolled by, and then the shadows of the Ballern fleet soiled the skies ahead. “We’re close. Very close.” She reached out and flipped one of the brass horns open. “Smith, you there?”

A rattle sounded over the horn. “Yes, we just arrived at the first gun pod.”

Mary took a deep breath and nodded as she sat down. “I see more cannons in the front on those destroyers. We’re going in between. Strafe them from above, and we can see how the armor looks from there. If they stay in that formation it will limit their angle of fire.”

“Let me show Samuel and Drakkar the cannons and the chaingun, and I will be right there.”

“We’ll get the shoulder cannons out,” Mary said. “They’re in the locker by the hatch.” Mary glanced back at Alice and Jacob as she closed the horn. “Jacob, you’re heavier, and you should have less trouble with the wind. Grab the shoulder cannons out of the locker at the back of the cabin.”

Jacob threw off his harness and started for the hatch.

“Clip yourself into the safety line. I’ll never hear the end of it if you get blown overboard.”

Mary winked at Alice. Jacob reached around the corner and grabbed the safety line. A simple spring-loaded clip fastened onto his vest, and then he stepped into the maelstrom of wind and cold.

The locker waited only a dozen steps from the hatch, but it felt like a mile as the cold howling winds tried to push him away, and down, and slammed him into the exterior cabin walls. Jacob leaned into the wind and struggled to put one foot in front of the other until finally he fell to his knees before the locker.

He pushed the lid back to reveal the two cannons Smith had stashed there. Jacob wrapped his fingers around the icy barrels and shivered as he pulled them free of the padded locker. One of the explosive crates was beside the cannons, and he pulled out four of the larger shells and a pocketful of Burners.

The instant he stopped leaning into the lid, the wind slammed it closed, nearly taking his fingertips with it. Jacob hugged the cannons to his chest and struggled to his feet, only to be propelled into a stumbling sprint back to the hatch. He smacked his shoulder on the doorframe, shouted, and fell onto the wooden floor of the pilot’s cabin.

“Jacob!” Alice threw her harness off and kneeled next to him.

“I’m okay. It’s just … windy.”

She gave him a small smile and picked up one of the cannons.

“How’s the weather?” Mary shouted.

Jacob couldn’t stop a small laugh. “Brisk.”

“Why don’t you take your safety line off so Smith can close the hatch?”

Jacob glanced over his shoulder and found Smith braced in the doorway, a hand on either side. Jacob slid the clip off his vest and handed it to the tinker. Smith nodded and hooked the clip back into the spool outside the hatch.

Jacob held up one of the cannons when Smith closed the door. “How do you prime it?”

Smith took the long, dark metal cannon into his hands. “It is not much different from Charles’s air cannon. Rack the slide here …” He pointed to a brass peg along the right side of the cannon’s barrel. “Pull it back repeatedly until it clicks.”

Alice followed his instructions, pulling the slide back with an underhanded grip three times, and the click was hard to miss. It was more like a ca-chunk. “That’s it?”

Smith nodded. “Anything that is in the barrel will get shot out like a crossbow bolt. Mind you, if it is not made to fly straight, it will not.”

“How well are these going to fly?” Jacob asked as he pulled out one of the bombs.