Valkyria (13 page)

“
Of course not,” said
Charlies. He pushed the chair backwards so fast that it tumbled
over, crashing onto the metal floor. “They were trying to decide
whether the Seadawn was a viable project! That was the entire
reason I went there to speak with them!”

“
Do you not think they
would be able to make that decision based on those blueprints
alone? They have always made decisions like that
before.”

Charles turned toward Nate, storming
over to him. His footsteps seemed to shake the room as he moved,
and Nate was sure he could see a vein throbbing on Charles’
forehead.

“
That bastard of a Captain
has been filling your head with far too much tripe, boy! And you
just accept it!”

“
But-”

“
But nothing,” said
Charles, interrupting Nate. “We are citizens of the Three Peaks! We
took an oath to use our creations to better the lives of those who
live there!

The Peak Lords took an oath as well,
lest you forget. They swore to always do the best for their nation,
and that means they would never deal with the Empire!”

Nate sighed, shaking his head as he got
up from the bed, being careful not to hit his head on the ceiling
of the capsule.

“
Oaths can be broken,
Charles. You and I know that all too well.”

“
That has nothing to do
with this!”

“
Actually,” said Nate, “it
has everything to do with this.

Nate felt disgusted bringing up the
betrayal of Eran, their previous partner, but Charles had to
understand the truth.

Three years earlier the three of them
had been working on an anti-airship motorized cannon, but Eran had
stolen the blueprints and sold them to an Inquisition agent for a
pretty penny. After that, he ran away and all the progress on the
cannon’s design had been lost. He had taken the same oath that
Charles and Nate had sworn to, but greed had gotten the better of
him.

“
The sight of coin and
power can change people,” said Nate. “You know that.”

“
That was different! Eran
was a fool!”

“
And what's to say that the
Peak Lords are not equally foolish?”

“
How dare you,” said
Charles, his face turning a shade of red similar to the sun before
it sleeps for the night. “You would dare speak ill of the Peak
Lords in such a manner? What has that Captain done to you, to turn
you against your own brethren?”

“
He opened my eyes Charles!
As I am trying to do for you!”

Charles snorted, and opened his mouth
as if to respond before a knock on the door interrupted him. The
valve handle on the door squeaked loudly as it turned, the hinges
groaning as the door slid open. Captain Irving stepped in, dressed
in the finest waistcoat, a golden chain dipping into his breast
pocket and a pair of ornate mechanical goggles sitting atop his
forehead.

“
Good evening, sirs,” he
said as he moved to the middle of the room. “I could not help but
overhear your little dispute from the corridor, and felt I might be
able to shed some light on the truth of the matter.”

In his hand, Irving held a piece of
parchment of high quality with fine handwritten words on it, which
he proceeded to hold out in front of him.

“
This is a letter from the
Peak Lords that we were able to, shall we say,
intercept?”

He handed the parchment to
Nate.

“
I am sure you will find
the truth in that letter. Now, if you would be so kind, do try to
keep the noise down. There are men trying to get some sleep between
their shifts.”

Irving gave a slight bow before turning
around and walking back toward the door, his head up high as usual.
Nate held the parchment up and began to read it aloud.

“
Preparations are nearly
complete. The project is on schedule, and delivery will take place
as requested.”

He looked over to Charles, who was
staring at the now closed door, his hand clenched into a fist. Nate
held the parchment toward him.

“
Look at the seals,
Charles.”

Charles glanced down at the parchment,
his eyes widening and his fist opening as he stared at the
letter.

“
Look at the seals,” said
Nate. “They are the official seals of the Peak Lords.”

Even Charles knew that you cannot copy
the seal of a Peak Lord without having access to the original,
which would mean you would need the ring that a Peak Lord wears at
all times.

Charles tore the parchment from Nate's
hands, his eyes running over it again and again.

“
Charles, you have to
understand,” said Nate. “They were going to give the Seadawn to the
Empire.”

He placed a hand on Charles' shoulder,
but Charles shrugged it off, picked up the chair from the floor,
and took a seat in front of the desk once again.

“
Charles?”

“
Please Nate, just leaving
me alone.”

Nate stepped forward, once again
placing a hand on Charles' shoulder.

“
I said leave me alone! Get
out of here!”

*~*~*

20

SERAN

The Lord Eerhart’s personal estate was
positioned at the top of a large hill, with only a single winding
road leading to it. The road itself was covered in rocks and dust
that sprayed up behind the engineer’s velocycle.

Seran sat on the passenger seat of the
velocycle, being thrown left and right as the vehicle rolled over
the stones and sped around the corners. The engineer had given him
a pair of goggles made of solid brass, but the glass lenses had
become covered in dirt. Even the rumbling of the steam engine was
drowned out by the constant racket of the stones being flung
around.

However, Seran had noticed that apart
from them, nothing else seemed to make a sound. Even the trees
seemed to be still, the wind appearing to pass straight through
them. He instinctively placed his hand on the hilt of Firethorn as
the velocycle swerved around the final turn.

The side of the hill rolled away to
reveal a large, ornate building with four outhouses and a stable in
the courtyard. The main building appeared to have five wings, each
with three floors.

The window frames were carved from oak,
with patterns of gargoyles all around them. A stone archway with a
single gargoyle on the top stood over the main entrance, itself a
pair of oak doors. The brown wood of the doors was finely polished,
but there were stains of red across them, and they were wide
open.

The engineer slowed the velocycle to a
halt, and both he and Seran stepped off the vehicle. Seran kept one
hand on the hilt of Firethorn, ready to draw it at any
second.

“
Something’s not right,”
said the engineer.

“
That would be an
understatement,” replied Seran as he pointed to the right. “By the
looks of her condition, something is certainly wrong
here.”

A few steps away from the main entrance
a woman lay face down on the ground. She wore a fine velvet dress,
although it had been torn apart. Cuts and wounds covered her body,
bite marks resembling a wild animal were all over her arms.
Something had been at her.

The engineer vomited. It was obvious to
Seran that he had never seen an attack like this. Seran walked
closer to the body.

Using a foot, he rolled the body over
so that he could see the wounds clearer. Her face, or what was left
of it, had frozen in an expression of pure dread and agony. Her
death had not been quick.

Parts of her arms, legs and abdomen
were missing, the wounds showing that they had been removed by
teeth, rather than a tool of some kind.

“
Well, it is pretty obvious
what did this,” said Seran. The engineer stepped closer.

“
The bite marks are a big
clue, but the sheer amount of her that is missing is a bigger
clue.”

“
What do you mean,” asked
the engineer.

“
Well, what would say
happened to this young lady?”

“
It looks like a wolf
attack,” said the engineer.

“
From a distance, it does.
However, an animal attacking a human would not likely leave this
much meat behind. No, this was not an animal attack.”

“
Then what happened to
her,” asked the engineer.

“
It would appear she was
fleeing from something, but was unable to make it very far. We
should keep our voices down. We do not want to attract their
attention.”

“
Whose attention,” asked
the engineer. “Tell me already.”

“
The Creatures.”

The engineer’s eyes opened wide and he
took a step back, faltering as he stepped on a rock. He fell
backward, crashing into the ground.

“
Cr-Creatures? You think
there were Creatures here?”

“
I am sure of it,” said
Seran as he stepped toward the mansion. “Lord Eerhart is likely to
be somewhere inside, if there is anything left of him. We should
look for survivors.”

He turned around to the engineer, just
in time to see the cowardly man launch himself onto the velocycle,
turn it around and speed away.

“
Well, I suppose I should
not have expected any better from a country-bred
engineer…”

Seran drew Firethorn from its sheath
and breathed deeply. He clicked his neck, rolled his shoulders, and
walked up the steps to the front doors, entering the
manor.

*~*~*

21

NATE

Nate breathed in deep, the sweet smell
of oil and grease filling his nostrils. Men and women in overalls
smeared with dirt scurried about the hangar, fiddling with bolts
and valves and pipework. Steam spewed out of the motors that were
powering cranes, holding engineers high up in the air as they
worked tirelessly to keep the Valkyria's intricate systems in
check. A brass and copper automaton, resembling a metal man,
carried sheets of metal across the hangar bay toward Nate, followed
by a burly looking man whom Nate had come to know as
Serge.

“
You're delivery, Master
Nate,” said Serge in his usual sarcastic manner.

Serge had been born and raised in the
Ringlands, on the Esterland Island. He cared very little for the
status and titles that men of stature placed so much value upon. As
such, whenever he said the words “sir” or “master”, there was
always a very obvious hint of sarcasm in his voice.

“
Thank you, Serge,” said
Nate as he turned to the automaton. “Put them down over
there.”

The humanoid’s body hissed as it bent
over, carefully placing the metal sheets on the floor next to the
Seadawn.

“
Nate,” said Serge, “the
Seadawn looks to be fit for flight now. What on earth are these
sheets for?”

“
I rebuilt the motor using
some of the spare parts that were lying around here, so she should
be able to carry a bit more weight now. So I thought it would be a
good idea to give her a bit more plating to keep her from getting
too damaged.”

“
Don’t you think these
sheets are too thin?”

“
Absolutely not,” Nate
replied. “The Seadawn is designed to be fast. In truth, she should
not need any plating at all; she should be fast enough that the
enemy’s battleships cannot hit her.”

“
What about their
fighters?”

Nate could not help but let out a laugh
at the idea that of referring to them as “fighters”.

“
All fighter-class airships
currently in service around Rhythlan are just refitted air-taxis.
Their flight capabilities are laughable at best. That was the whole
reason Charles and I built the Seadawn in the first
place.”

Serge shook his head, one eyebrow
raised. Nate smiled at him and continued.

“
Any currently used fighter
can pull a 180 degree turn in 4 seconds. The Seadawn can do it in 2
seconds. She’s the fastest combat airship ever built. I can
guarantee you that much.”

“
So then,” said Serge. “You
pilot it and Charles mans the gun, correct?”

“
That’s
correct.”

“
Then you might want to go
and speak to him. He hasn’t left your room in two days.”

Nate dropped his head, staring at the
steel floor. He knew Charles had been staying in their room, but
had not been able to get the courage to confront him about it.
Learning the truth about the Peak Lords and their deal with the
Alexandrian Empire had broken the old man.

He sighed and turned back to the
Seadawn, grabbing a welding iron from the tool bench next to him.
If he could not talk to Charles, he could at least get the
Seadawn’s modifications finished.

“
Do you need a hand with
that?”

“
Probably,” said Nate,
knowing that it were be nearly impossible to hold the sheets in
place and weld them at the same time.

Thankfully, the crew of the Valkyria
had been more than welcoming to him. He had been told that it was a
pleasant surprise to have another engineer onboard.