Steamsworn (Steamborn Series Book 3) (30 page)

“Perhaps,” George said, “but the windstreams that lead to the city are dangerous and chaotic. There is only one safe path through the mountains. Most others are almost certain death.”

Samuel looked up. “How do you know that?”

“The Royal Family in Midstream helped Archibald design … contingency plans for all the cities of the Northlands.”

“Those were different times,” Gladys said.

“Yet here we are, beneath the streets of Ancora, ready to infiltrate Parliament and remove as many traitors as we can.”

Silence fell over the group at those words. George spoke the truth, and they all knew it. Samuel exchanged a look with Smith.

The tinker blew out a breath and tested the quick-release lever below the chaingun. It popped off the tripod effortlessly. “We should be set.”

“I’m worried about Jacob,” Samuel said.

Gladys crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“He’s just a kid,” Samuel said. He tried the quick release on his own tripod. It clicked and did nothing. Samuel slammed his fist against it and cursed.

George put a hand on his shoulder. “He is not a child any longer. You do not see what he has seen, lose what he has lost, and remain a child. Have faith. He may be troubled, but we must show him our trust if we are to earn his.”

“He trusts me,” Samuel said. “I’ve known him too long for him not too. I’ve saved him more than once, from himself more often than not.”

“He will be a Steamsworn unlike any before him,” George said. “Born of Ancora and forged in the Skeleton. Even Mary likes him.”

Smith crouched down beside Samuel and wiggled the release lever. “That is an odd sight, Mary liking someone.”

“I wouldn’t trust people either,” Gladys said. “Not after what she’s been through.”

“What happened to her?” Samuel asked.

“That is not our story to tell,” George said with a small smile. “Perhaps she will tell you of her less … law-abiding days if we survive this.”

A quiet hiss and a clank sounded through the corridor.

Gladys turned back toward the hall that led to the station. “What was that?”

Samuel tried the quick release again once Smith finished tinkering with it. The chaingun popped right off, and snapped back on just as easily. “I’d guess that’s Drakkar and Cage, back with our reinforcements.”

“Then it’s time?” Gladys asked.

“Yeah,” Samuel said. “Then it’s time.”

*     *     *

Jacob and Alice
rounded the bend on the mountain path in time to see the last of the railcars vanish into the station.

Alice whispered, “Do you think that’s the first load?”

Jacob nodded. “No way they’ve made more than one trip yet.” Something chittered in the distance. Jacob and Alice froze. It started softly and then rose into a stuttering screech.

“Where is it?”

“Down the mountain. It’s … I think it’s pretty far away. Let’s get inside and tell the others.”

Hiking up the path proved more difficult with loaded backpacks, but that wasn’t what really made Jacob nervous. Crossing back over to the station with the extra weight on their backs … he dreaded it. Rocks shifted above them and he checked the bolt gun on his wrist and the air cannon for what had to be the third time.

Alice hurried forward to the edge of the open station with Jacob close behind. Once there had been a door from the path into the underground, but bolts and rust sealed it now. Alice didn’t so much as speak before she hopped from the edge of the path to the tracks. She made it look easy, belying the fact a missed jump was a two-hundred-foot drop to certain death.

Jacob took a deep breath and adjusted his pack. He followed her jump, bouncing one foot off the rails and hurling himself into the dim light of the underground station. He stumbled a few steps and blew out his breath, unable to contain the relief of not having to jump over another abyss with the heavy packs.

“Good thing Samuel didn’t have to jump it,” Alice said.

Jacob adjusted his backpack as Alice led the way across the tracks.

The station felt different from below. Jacob ran his fingers along the smooth stone walls of the channel below the bridges. Darkness lived below those arches, though it may have been the contrast of the lanterns flickering in the distance. A dozen voices whispered above them, and the effect unnerved him. When they’d first come in from that basement in Ancora, the entire room had been darkness and silence.

Alice hopped up on the back of the flat railcar. She turned and took Jacob’s hand, helping him up the short step with his heavier pack. Jacob shrugged his shoulders to adjust his backpack and then led the way to the stairs. The others would be waiting in the catacombs.

People were seated at the tables in front of the little bookstore where they’d found
The Dead Scourge
. Jacob thought back to that night spent with Alice exploring the catacombs. As frightening as it had been, now he realized it was the first time Alice had been more to him than just another friend.

“Jacob!”

He tried to follow the voice, but the echo in the station made it hard.

“Jacob!”

Alice elbowed him and nodded toward the entrance to the fallen door near the catacombs. Drakkar stood up and gave them a short wave.

“I expected you to be with the others, my friend.” Drakkar placed a hand on Jacob’s shoulder when they walked close enough. He tapped the strap of Jacob’s backpack a few times. “You have a heavy load there.”

“Some Burners and Bangers that were left over in the lab,” Alice said. “Are you driving the railcars back for the next trip?”

Drakkar shook his head. “Two of Cage’s men used to work the rails. They will be running the rest of the transports.”

“Come on.” Jacob grunted and shifted his backpack. “Let’s put these bags down somewhere.”

“Smith and the others are in the catacombs. Come, I will show you.”

They followed the curving path into the catacombs. It didn’t seem quite as dark or menacing as the last time they’d been there, but the whispering voices didn’t help. A pale yellow light illuminated most of the corridor, brightening as they approached its source. Around the next turn, before he saw his friends, he paused at the sweeping room of stone vaults and crypts.

“Jacob and Alice are back!”

He turned to find Gladys standing beside Samuel. Smith adjusted a chaingun mounted to a tripod while George muttered something about angles and herding.

“Find anything good?” Samuel asked.

Jacob let his backpack slowly slide from his shoulders, wincing as his muscles tried to bounce back without the heavy load. “A few things.”

“Where should we stash everything?” Alice asked.

Smith looked around the room. “I would say here. This is our base of operations.”

“Out in the open?”

Smith glanced down at one of the crypts beside the chaingun. “Here.” He pulled out one of the wide drawers set into the stone slab.

“That’s a memorial case,” Alice said with a frown. “I don’t know if we should …”

“They will not mind,” Smith said. “Everyone here is quite dead.” He slid the contents of the drawer to one side. “It is a heavy enough surface to use as a bench if we need it as well.”

Jacob dragged his backpack around the crypt and looked in the drawer. There were a few ancient photographs inside, yellowed and stained with age. A small book and a handful of medals were piled in the corner.

“Keep some Bangers and Burners for yourself. We can toss the other supplies in the corner.”

“I’m taking the extra bolts with me,” Alice said. She fished the leather belts out and threw them over her shoulder.

“Mary sent these with Drakkar,” Smith said. He pushed a small crate closer to Jacob with his toes. “There are only eight left.”

Jacob lifted the edge of the crate up. Inside were the bombs with impact fuses. “I don’t think we should use those underground.”

“Nothing like a cave-in to start the day right,” Samuel said. “Toss me a few of those Burners. They’ll come in handy if we cross the Spider Knights. I don’t care how well trained a mount is, spiders hate fire.”

Jacob laid everything out inside the drawer except for the Bangers and Burners. Those he set on top of the crypt and opened. Jacob made sure Alice had her pockets full before filling his own and passing them to Samuel.

“Distribute those to the resistance along with some of the bombs,” Smith said. “Be sure they understand the damage those can do. I do not want innocents to die here.”

“Then you should not be fighting a war,” Drakkar said. The Cave Guardian snapped the blade of his sword out and inspected the cutting edge before folding it up once again.

Jacob looked at Smith and Alice before focusing on George. “The Lowlands are gone. Most of the homes were torn apart by invaders or burned to the ground by Parliament. Bat is sheltering some of the surviving Lowlanders, but the Butcher means to kill them.” He slowly closed his hands into fists. What if his parents weren’t among the refugees under Bat’s protection? What if they were at the bottom of that cliff?

“I meant no disrespect, Ancoran,” George said.

Jacob liked that. He liked being called an Ancoran. Not a boy, not a kid, but an Ancoran. A Lowlander. “None taken.” He glanced up when the lantern light shifted and caught on the mummies mounted to the wall. Not so long ago the mummies made his skin crawl. Now … now they seemed peaceful.

Someone laughed in the shadows of the corridor, a quiet, dark sound. Cage walked into the dim lantern light and smiled. “People die all the time. It’s just the way of the world, but please, tell me more about these bombs.”

“Samuel will show you all you need to know.” Smith slid the drawer in the crypt closed. “If things fall apart, this is where we regroup. Come back through the catacombs in Parliament, or back through the hatch in the Highlands.”

“Tell me more about the hatch,” Cage said. “The ceilings here are far too high to reach.

“It’s above the stairs,” Samuel said. “Comes out in a cellar. Above ground, it’s along the western wall, inside the Highlands but outside the Castle.”

“It’s not too far from Bat’s,” Jacob said.

“True,” Samuel said, “but I don’t think Cage cares about that.”

“He might. Bat is hiding refugees from Parliament. Reggie, one of our friends from before the Fall, said Bat’s the brains of the resistance behind the walls.”

“That’s who we need,” Cage said.

Samuel took a deep breath. “He’s my uncle.”

Cage glanced at Samuel. “If he’s leading the resistance here, we need him. Come with me. He’ll be more likely to trust me if you’re my escort.”

Smith shook his head. “He cannot. Samuel is a deserter in the eyes of the knights. He abandoned his post after the Fall. They will be looking for him here.”

Cage scoffed. “You give these fools too much credit. With everything that’s happening here, they won’t be concerned with a deserter.”

Drakkar picked up one of Charles’s bombs and slowly spun the steel orb in his hands.

Jacob tossed him a Burner. “Don’t forget that. You’ll want to be sure everything dies.”

Drakkar let a slow smile crawl over his face. “I will at that, my friend. I will at that.”

Smith stuck a handful of Burners into his own pocket and took a deep breath. “I will scout ahead with Jacob and Alice. George, you have a mind for maps?”

George nodded.

“Good. You and Gladys come with us. Drakkar, Samuel, help Cage and the resistance get organized. Samuel, you said you know the layout of the Highlands as well as anyone here. Give them their targets and get a message to Bat. If he is as good as you say, we will need his help getting the refugees to safety.”

The Spider Knight frowned and then gave one sharp nod. “Consider it done.”

Smith ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes. “So it begins.”

J
acob and Alice
led the others down into the catacombs, along the corridor lined with the thirty-foot-tall burial wall.

Smith held his lantern high and blew out a slow breath. “In all my years, I have never seen anything like this.”

“This is a place of kings,” George said. “It is said the founders of the Northlands were buried beneath Ancora. I didn’t realize the stories were so literal.”

Smith ran his hand over one of the smaller wooden coffins. “Look at the detail on these. These people were masters of their craft.”

They reached a curve in the wall that Jacob remembered quite clearly. The corridor narrowed, and the coffins grew closer together.

“How much farther?” asked a small voice.

Jacob wasn’t sure, but he thought the voice belonged to Gladys. “Not too long. We’ll be at the old coffins soon enough, and then the lake.”

“How did you find your way through here?” Smith asked. “I have seen at least five other tunnels already.”

“We stuck to the wall and followed it all the way down,” Alice said.

Gladys rubbed her arms. “It’s cold.”

Jacob looked over his shoulder in time to see George wrapping a cloak around her shoulders. The Royal Guard said, “There was a time we said the cold spots were ghosts in the mines. I could almost believe it in this place.”