by Devon Monk
“How fast and how high?” she asked.
“I was thinking low and slow.”
“Fuel lasts longer the higher we go,” she said. “Some reason we need to creep?”
“Think the Saginaw’s out there still looking for us. You have any idea why he’s on our tail?”
She wiped her forearm over her forehead, slicking away sweat. “Last I heard, Captain Smith had gone up north toward the Big Horn Mountains to winter. I have no idea why he’s back this way. You tell Mr. Hunt you’re a U.S. Marshal yet?”
“Who says I’m gonna?”
“Why wouldn’t you? You trust the man, don’t you?”
“Not sure that I do.”
Molly hooked the wrench off her tool belt and turned to give him a full consideration. “You don’t distrust the man. Seldom told me you let him man the cannon.”
“Seldom talks too much,” Hink grumbled.
“If my kinsman thought highly enough of Mr. Hunt to give him his seal, then I say he’s trustworthy.”
“Rings can be stolen, lost in a game of cards, swallowed by a fish.…”
Molly stuck her fist on her hip and waved the wrench close enough to his nose that he had to pull his head back a bit to keep from getting hit with it.
“What is it in that head of yours, Lee?” she asked. “You trust the man, maybe even like him to a degree, but you won’t cotton to it? Don’t you think he’s looking after the best interests of those two women he hauled up out of that…that nightmare town?”
“There’s something about him don’t sit right with me is all,” he said. “The way he treats Miss Small doesn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Miss Small?” Molly pursed her lips and shook her head. “I didn’t say nothing about Miss Small in particular, now did I? How did Mr. Hunt treat Miss Small? You mean when he gave her the tea to ease her pain after you’d gone over there and made a damn fool of yourself?”
“I was trying to make her rest more comfortable,” he started, his voice rising. “And don’t put words on my tongue. This doesn’t have anything to do about how he treated Miss Small. I don’t care how he treats her, or how much she likes him.”
“You’re sweet on her!” she said, surprised.
“Take that back, Molly Gregor,” he warned.
Molly hung the wrench back on her belt, laughing. “I haven’t heard that tone out of you since Sally Winkle.”
“What tone?”
“The one that says you don’t know how hard you’ve already fallen for a woman.” Molly pulled her gloves out of the pocket of her overalls and put them on, her expression daring him to tell her she was wrong.
“I think you might have boiled your brains sitting back here so long,” he grumbled. “I have barely spoken to the woman. For Pete’s sake, she’s barely been conscious. For all I know, she can’t tell the difference between me and a fence post.”
“Tell yourself whatever you like, Paisley Cage. But that Miss Small is thrumming in your blood, and you won’t be quit of her in any easy way.”
“I can be quit of any woman I choose. I’ve proved that often enough.”
“Sure you have. The women you’ve caroused with. But not the few you’ve loved. Why, you pined for more than a year when Sally turned you down for that city-slicker lawyer.”
Hink opened his mouth, then closed it on a scowl. “I came back here asking you to give me fire to fly, Molly Gregor,” he said with as much calm as he had in him, “not to waste my time with crazy talk.”
She gauged his mood. Read him as easy as one of her dials needling to red. He didn’t know why he was always so see-through to the woman. It was a curse.
“You’ll have the fire you need,” she said. “Which you can thank two women for. Me, and Miss Small.”
“What’s Miss Small got to do with the fire in my engine?”
Molly’s mouth quirked up. “Fire in your engine, Captain? Thought I just made it clear why she’s got you het up. You like the woman. As for the Swift’s engine, you can thank Miss Small for spotting a leak I’ve been trying to chase down since we were stuck in Texas. She’s a fine hand at tinkering. Wants to be a boilerman someday, and I think she’d be damn fine at it.”
“Because you put nonsense in her head,” he groused.
“No. Because she loves steam and loves the sky, glim help her. I want you to promise me you’ll tell Mr. Hunt and Miss Small you’re a marshal once we hit Old Jack’s. I don’t like lying to good folk. It’s not the Gregor way.”
“This ship flies my way, not the Gregor way.” Hink tugged a pouch out of the inside of his shirt. He slipped free a small glass vial with the cork tamped tight and waxed. The eerie, beautiful green mist light of glim shone out from the glass. “We’ve got less than an eighth of the vial,” he said. “Make it count.” Then he pushed off the toolbox and headed for the door, ducking one of the lower steam pipes.
“Tell them,” she said. “Or I will.”
“Just give me an engine,” Hink said. “And if you can spare some heat to the cabin, I’m sure our passengers—all of them—would appreciate it.”
Hink shut the door behind him. Seldom leaned just a ways from the door on the other side, a rope in one hand, tied to nothing.
He was staring at their guests. Well, he was staring at the wolf, who had his ears back and his teeth bared at Seldom.
“Problem?” Hink asked Mr. Hunt, who was standing between Mr. Seldom and the wolf.
“He doesn’t like being tied up,” Mr. Hunt said. “I think you should hand me that rope, Mr. Seldom.” Cedar extended his hand back for the twine, but didn’t take his eyes off the wolf.
Seldom didn’t look worried. Course Seldom never looked worried. Hink figured the day Death came knocking on his door, Mr. Seldom would just roll his eyes and tell him to wipe his feet.
Seldom placed the rope in Cedar’s hand and waited, watching the wolf. Guffin and Ansell up front rested their hands on their guns, but had enough brains between the two of them not to pull their weapons. For one thing, the last thing the Swift needed was more holes in her side; for another, it’d be too easy to hurt someone else in this small space aiming for the wolf.
“We’re all going to be strapped in,” Cedar said as if he were talking to a man, not a beast. “And you’re going to be strapped in too. As I understand it, this is going to be a hard takeoff. Am I correct in that, Captain Hink?”
“That’s right. We usually launch with wind or a glide. Sometimes a clear runway. But we don’t have any of those things. The only way we’ll clear the walls of this hole is by glim. And that means straight up. All the crew buckles in.”
He didn’t know if he was talking to Cedar or to the wolf, but it looked like the wolf was paying close attention to each word he said.
And then the wolf’s ears pulled up off the back of his head and he closed his mouth around the snarl he’d been wearing. But those eyes still burned with brass fire. There was a hatred to the beast. A hatred of being trapped.
“Where do you want to be, Wil?” Cedar asked.
The wolf paced over toward the women and sat right next to Rose Small, who was glassy-eyed and leaning on Mae next to her.
Rose put her hand out and patted the wolf’s back. “Good choice,” she whispered. “Best seat in the house.”
Cedar nodded, and glanced from the wall behind Wil to the rope in his hand. “I could rig something up,” he said, turning to Hink. “But if you have an extra harness like the one you and your crew wear, I’d be obliged. He doesn’t have hands to grip like the rest of us.”
Seldom’s eyebrows took a turn skyward, but Captain Hink just started walking to the wheel of the ship. “Seldom, get the spare out of the box. I assume you can find a suitable way for your brother to wear it, Mr. Hunt?”
“I’m sure I can manage.”
“Good. Be quick with it, and see you tie yourself down tight too. We’re done sitting. It’s time to catch sky.”
Captain Hink latched hi
s own harness to the ceiling bar, his boots snug under the floor straps. He took a breath and a good half minute to settle his mind and his resolve. Flying the ship under bad weather was never easy. Flying her broken, under bad weather and glim, was the sort of thing a man didn’t live to brag about.
“Just give me your wings, darlin’,” he said softly. “I’ll be gentle.”
The bell rang three times. Molly had her glim-stoked and ready to go.
“Are we ready, men?”
“Aye, Captain,” all three voices shouted.
“Passengers, are you secure?” he asked.
“Aye, Captain,” Cedar Hunt called back.
“All steam to the sky,” he said.
Hink gripped the wheel, and a sudden awareness slipped over him. The ship wrapped around him like a second skin. He could count the rocks beneath the landing gear, could feel the rattling cold of rain striking against tin. For a moment or two, he imagined he could stretch his arms and feel the sails unfurl.
“Captain?” Mr. Guffin’s voice broke the thrall.
He blinked, then rubbed one hand over his face just to remind himself that he was flesh and blood, not tin and steam. His imagination had a way of taking hold of him, but never like this, never this real. And now was the worst of times to be dreaming on his feet
It was a strange thing. A worrying thing. He took another breath to clear his head.
“All go, gentlemen.” Hink put both hands back on the wheel. The sense of the ship closing in around him came strong and clear again.
This is what it had felt like when the witch was singing. This is what it had felt like when he’d landed them whole.
Maybe she’d cast a lasting sort of spell. Hink wasn’t sure that he liked it. Right now, he’d deal the hand given him, no matter how strange.
The ship wrapped around him, and all the same, he felt himself stretching out as if he were putting her on like a familiar coat.
He was the ship. But he was very much still the man.
And he was going to make the witch tell him what she’d done to him, and his ship, once they hit clear sky.
Captain Hink gave her throttle, just enough to get the propellers up to speed. He could feel the heat and power of the engines beneath his feet and drumming in his chest like a second pulse. And he knew, without needing the ring of the bell from Molly Gregor, that the glim was in the firebox and the heavens were his to claim.
“Trim the sails tight, Mr. Ansell,” he called out. “And ready the rudder, Mr. Guffin. We’re launching in three…two…one.”
The crew fell to their tasks. Captain Hink tipped her nose up, and let her go. The Swift shot toward the sky, the power of steam and glim mixing like a heady rush of whiskey and wine. Hink yelled out in joy. This was what she was built for. This was what he was meant for. Speed, flight, freedom.
Ansell was singing opera. Guffin was yelling about overhangs and rocks and the walls coming too damn close. But all Hink could feel was the sting of rain against his skin, the brace and heat of steam pushing him forward, and the intoxicating rush of flight lifting him higher and higher heavenward.
He didn’t need Guffin telling him where the walls were. He could see them, he could feel them, leaning in, rushing by, sharp and cold and deadly. He shot the gap, calling for Ansell to angle the verticals and spinning to skin the air off the walls.
The sky finally, finally fanned open above him, that crack of wide wet grayness spreading out to welcome him as if he were diving upward into a stormy sea.
Through the darkness he flew, through the dragging, clawing rain, with nothing but the hope of light, of air on the other side of the sky if he could just break through.
And then she punched up, out of the clouds, into the cold blue of the sky, sunlight pounding down in flat white light. Higher, higher. She strained for the glim fields that wavered with tantalizing ribbons of soft green light above them.
Hink longed to hit that field, to bathe in the soft whips of glim that shimmered in long, glowing rivers just beyond their reach. He knew that without the trawl set to net, they’d just break through the glim and turn it to a mist that disappeared on the wind.
They didn’t have time to harvest, didn’t have the gear ready if they did.
And it was too cold up here, too hard to breathe for long.
Hink dragged his breathing gear over his face, and hoped Mr. Seldom had equipped their passengers with masks.
“Look for company, Mr. Seldom,” Hink called out. “Give us glide, Mr. Ansell.” The sails released and the Swift steadied her climb, Hink easing the throttle and hitting the bell to tell Molly to ease the draft.
The Swift leveled out. If any other airship was flying right now, they’d be above the clouds. Flight with no visibility among the craggy and treacherous peaks of the mountain range was plain suicide.
And Hink was on the shiny side of positive that none of the rock rats who skiffed these mountains would be fool enough to risk their life flying blind.
Still, Mr. Seldom walked the interior of the ship, breathing tube clattering against the overhead beams as he gripped the bars and took a long, hard look out each window.
He pulled down his breathing mask. “Clear sky,” he announced.
“Good,” Hink said, glancing at the compass set in the console before him. “We’re going down through again in short order. I’m going to hot-flume it over to Turnback Junction, then duck under the clouds at a crawl.”
“You want lanterns?” Ansell asked.
“No. I’ll bring her in blind.”
“Crazy,” Guffin muttered, placing his mask securely over his nose and mouth.
“What’s that, Mr. Guffin?” Hink asked.
Guffin pulled the mask down. “I said you’re crazy.” He placed his mask back over his mouth, then pulled it down and added, “Captain.”
“And yet you signed on with my crew,” Hink said. “Not sure that speaks against your reasoning or mine, Mr. Guffin. Let’s take her down easy. Keep your eyes peeled for shadows.”
Hink knew his crew hated flying blind, but Hink had always been good at it. He knew this range and could fly it on compass alone.
But he was surprised to discover that even though his eyes showed him flat gray clouds with more gray wisping through it, he knew the shift of wind, and could feel the space around the ship. If there was another steamer nearby, he’d feel it like a hot exhale on the back of his neck.
More witchery. Or maybe the same. Right now, he wasn’t going to argue its usefulness.
Guffin had taken to swearing again. Alphabetical, in French. Ansell was humming a slow song.
Mr. Seldom walked up behind Hink and glanced at the compass, then swung back to take a heading on the maps. They were low enough that they were surrounded by clouds. But not quite low enough to be battered against the peaks.
Old Jack’s wasn’t too far off. All they had to do was pray for a south wind to guide them true.
“Do we need to remain buckled, Captain Hink?” Cedar Hunt asked after a while of drifting level.
“We’re on an even keel,” Hink said, “but I’d rather you hold tight. Hard winds make threading these cliffs a tricky proposition. Might find ourselves knocked askew with no notice.”
Mr. Hunt seemed to take that suggestion with more than a lick of salt. He unlatched and started rummaging through some of the shifted contents near him and the womenfolk.
“Something one of my men can provide you with, Mr. Hunt?” Captain Hink asked, perturbed that he hadn’t listened to his advice.
“Just making Miss Small more comfortable.”
And that’s when Hink realized the soft sound on the edge of his hearing wasn’t the wolf whining. It was Miss Small moaning.
“We’ll be on solid ground soon,” Hink said. “Just a little farther now.”
He didn’t know why his heart had suddenly sped up, nor why he felt anxious for the wind and glim to hurry and bring them quickly and safely to Old Jack’s.
Could be just the thought of Miss Small in pain bothered him. Could be Molly was right about his feelings.
Could be he couldn’t afford to worry about that right now. Not flying this kind of terrain.
He poured his concentration into flying. Watching for the rise and fall of cliff and valley, skirting the edge of plains and urging the ship to hold on and hold strong until he got them down safe and whole.
He was so wrapped in the shift of the Swift’s bones, the drag of rain on her skin, the press and burn of glim and coal, that he didn’t even notice Mr. Seldom standing beside him until he put his hand on the wheel.
“Ladyfinger Falls.” Seldom pointed.
The glitter of white among the shadow of the cliff was the clear marker that Turnback Junction was just below. Hink nodded. He’d been flying by instinct, flying by feel, more of his thoughts upon the ship around him than on the destination he was headed for.
He could have missed that marker. Could have traveled the wind until there wasn’t glim to keep her afloat or land her soft. It was a startling realization.
Lost in a mountain range with winter coming on and almost no supplies was no way to end a flight.
“Mr. Seldom,” Hink said, his voice sounding odd, as if he’d forgotten to use it for days instead of just the handful of hours they’d been in the air. “How far out would you think we are from Old Jack’s?”
Guffin stopped swearing: Chinese, now, and Ansell stopped singing. Both men looked over at him like he’d just turned into a toad.
He was the captain. He’d never once asked Seldom where he was in the air in all the years they’d run together.
The Irishman didn’t hesitate. “Twenty miles due northeast. Don’t think the rain’s going to let up.”
Hink nodded. That’s what he’d thought too, but he needed to hear another man’s judgment. “Then see to it the torches are ready. And see to our passengers’ comfort in any way you can.”
Seldom paused a moment.
“Yes?” Hink asked.
“Two bells rang about five miles back.”
Two bells meant they were nearly out of fuel. He’d need to coast the Swift and make the wind and steam last as long as he could.