Tam gave me a worried look. “They’re shooting at us,” he said. “Go faster.”
I winced. I could already feel the suspension rattling loose underneath us. I knew the runabout wouldn’t hold together much longer. It wasn’t designed to take that kind of abuse. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any choice. I pressed the accelerator to the floor. A few seconds later, I saw a tunnel branching off to the right.
“Here,” Tam shouted. “Turn here!”
I pulled hard on the wheel, fighting the steering as I tried to force the vehicle over the tracks. The front tires bounced erratically, and Tam had to reach over to help me steady the wheel. I slowed a little and at last, the front end popped over the rail. I stomped on the accelerator again and we shot into the darkness.
“Where are we going?” I said in a worried voice. “We can’t take much more of this.”
“It’s just ahead,” Tam said. “A few more seconds.”
I cast a worried glance over my shoulder and saw the guards racing down the tunnel behind us. I saw another set of lights appear in the darkness behind them, and then another.
“Now!” Tam cried out. “Stop!” I slammed on the brakes, and he leapt out of the vehicle before we had even stopped. “This way,” he said, flying up a narrow set of stairs onto a concrete platform. I leapt after him.
We climbed a short stairway and entered a long, narrow foot tunnel. I heard a crash behind us and realized that the guards hadn’t realized we had stopped. They had rear-ended our vehicle. We paused to look back at the platform and saw bright orange flames licking up around the doorway.
“That will slow them down,” Tam said with a grin. “Keep moving.”
The passage wound around and branched out several times before Tam finally guided the way up a long staircase. We ascended into a small, windowless building. “Where are we?” I said.
Tam pushed the door open and brilliant light flooded into the room. I winced, averting my eyes as they adjusted to the brightness. When I could finally see without it hurting, I looked out and saw a vast endless plain of ice and snow stretching to the horizon. I gulped, remembering how I’d nearly died out there. I felt a tremor of fear and tried to force it down.
“We’re facing southwest,” Tam said. “If we start walking in that direction, we’ll eventually reach the mountains. If we live that long.”
“On foot?” I said.
“I have no wish to make that journey unless we have to. For now, we’ll hide here. If the guards find us, then we’ll do what we have to. Our odds of surviving are better out there than they are in the city.”
I stared out into at ice, my heart hammering in my chest. “It’s all up to the children now,” I said.
Blood & Steam, Part Two:
Chapter 13
At dawn the next morning we were running down the eastern slopes of the Blackrock Mountains, twenty of us in all, and the Vangar dragon ships were visible in the sky behind us. We had traveled all through the night, moving as quickly as possible, stopping only for a bite of food or to tend to our wounds. We had a good lead on the airships. They hadn’t zeroed in on us yet, but we were at a serious disadvantage traveling on foot.
Tragically, we had been forced to leave several men behind. One of them had simply been overwhelmed by exhaustion and collapsed. The others were fighting minor injuries that sapped their strength and slowed the pace of the entire group. When it became clear that they could no longer keep up with the rest of us, we did all we could to insure their survival. We left them with food, weapons, and the tools to build lean-tos and fires. We also left them with the promise that we would come back for them as soon as possible. Then we pressed on.
As we reached the foot of the mountains and headed out across the plains, the ice-cold wind hit us like a splash of water and I heard gasps all around me. We sank to our knees in the snow and I knew then that we only had a few hours at best. None of us were prepared for the cold. We weren’t dressed for it and we certainly weren’t used to it. It was late summer and our bodies had become acclimatized to the warm southern weather. Had we been prepared, we still wouldn’t have had the strength to push through the snow and that driving wind for long. If the airships didn’t catch us first, that wind would be the death of us.
A short while later, one of our group called out that the airships had spotted us. I turned and saw that they had indeed changed course and were making directly for us. We’d had the benefit of darkness and the cover of trees through the night, but with the rising sun and our transition out of the mountains we had become highly visible marks against the spotless white plain.
“Move faster!” I shouted. “Keep running! Don’t make yourselves easy targets.”
I was asking the impossible. This group had already been pushed to their limits. It was a miracle that they could walk, much less run. It wasn’t long before we started falling apart.
“I can’t go anymore,” Mal said at one point. “I can’t feel my feet.” He dropped to his knees in the snow and started weeping.
“Keep moving!” I shouted. “Everyone, keep moving!”
The others obeyed, but Mal didn’t move. I grabbed him by the shoulders, trying to force him to his feet, but it was a wasted effort. He looked up into my face and through the tears said, “Go on without me. I’ll catch up after I rest.”
I saw the pain and futility written across his face and knew that he wasn’t going to get up. Not after he’d rested; not ever. He was going to lay down in the snow and die. I slapped him across the face so hard it left a welt on his cheek.
“Move!” I shouted. “Get to your feet, slave!”
I grabbed him by the collar and pulled. To my surprise, he actually stood up. “Good, now move. Move!”
“Yes,” Mal mumbled under his breath. “A little more.” He took an awkward step, and then another, leaning into the movement so that he it looked less like he was walking than falling forward and catching himself at the last moment.
I scanned the rest of the group and didn’t see any signs of immediate trouble, except for Kale. It wasn’t actually Kale, it was Nena. She had run out of strength, and in all his stupid masculinity, Kale had decided to carry her. She was draped over his arms, curled tightly against his chest. Her eyes were closed and I thought she might be sleeping. I wanted to tell Kale to drop the stupid girl and let her freeze. Better her than him. She had been offered the chance to stay behind more than once. She could have been sitting in a lean-to huddled next to a warm fire waiting for help, but she had insisted on coming with us. I thought better of it and bit my tongue. I rushed to catch up with the group.
As we pushed on, I focused on the others in the group, trying to keep an eye out for trouble. When I saw someone falter I was immediately there, encouraging, even helping if I had to. Likewise, Crow was putting all his energy into helping the others. I could tell that he was healing them. When they stumbled or began showing signs of faltering, Crow touched them and I instantly saw a change come over them. It warmed my heart to see him using his abilities so generously, but I also knew that he couldn’t keep it up forever. Crow didn’t have the strength to heal us all. He couldn’t support the entire group in that manner for long.
Then, sometime midmorning, I threw a glance over my shoulder and saw a dozen Vangar airships bearing down on us. I nearly started crying myself. Instead, I clenched my fists and forced my frozen legs to keep moving. Less than an hour later, the Vangars started firing at us.
The first few shots were test rounds. I could see the ships struggling against the wind as they tried to line up their cannons and I noted a certain irony in the fact that the same wind that was killing us was also saving us. When the first cannon fired, we heard the boom in the distance and a second later, an explosion of snow blossomed up half a mile to our right. That spurred us on, but our spirits couldn’t have been any lower. The endless white horizon loomed ahead, taunting us with our inevitable fate. If the Vangars didn’t kill us, we were all going to freeze
to death. Already, many in the group were suffering frostbite and showing symptoms of hypothermia and I could see Crow’s strength waning fast.
Then someone up front yelled, “I see someone! Help is coming!”
I had been lurking at the back of the group, doing my best to keep everyone moving. I ran to the front and saw two dark shapes on the horizon. Crow leapt into the air and whooshed up ahead. Some of the men cheered.
“Keep moving,” I said warily.
Another cannon shot went off, this one nearly as far off as the first. I kept marching, stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other, oblivious to the crunching sound of the snow under my feet and the howling of the wind in my ears. I was cold, shivering. I felt numbness creeping through my limbs.
I watched Crow rocket across the snow and land next to the people up ahead. As he touched down, I saw a another group appear in the distance. They were a mile away or more, but they were moving fast. They had already caught up to Crow and the others before we were even halfway there.
The wind carried the broken sound of raised voices, and I could tell that there was some sort of trouble. As we got closer, I could make out a dozen Tal’mar fighters spreading out to encircle Crow and his companions. Instead of retreating, Crow drew his daggers and settled into a defensive posture, putting himself between the Tal’mar and their captives.
That was when I put it all together. When I saw Crow risking his life to defend them, I knew who the people in the snow must be: his parents. Our mother. Suddenly I forgot everything else. I left the group and broke into a full-out run.
The Tal’mar saw me coming. Two of them turned, training their bows on me. The female -my mother- dropped to her knees in the snow and her partner bent down to help her. Emotions welled up within me that I hadn’t experienced since the night Tinker died. Crow had warned me that the Tal’mar would be furious with our mother. He’d told me that we needed to get back to the city as soon as possible. Perhaps we were too late.
As I neared the group, I drew my revolver. I came up to them exhaling heavy gusts of steam, my heart pounding like a drum. I fixed my sights on the Tal’mar who seemed to be in charge. “Back off!” I shouted. “Get back or I swear I’ll kill every one of you.”
The Tal’mar warriors stared at me, fingers twitching on their bowstrings. They didn’t make a move. For a few moments, it was a standoff. We all stood there, nerves as tight as harp strings, weapons ready to fire at the drop of a pin. I dared a glance at Breeze and Tam, and I was horrified to see the ice-blue color of their skin. Tam’s thin facial hair was a beard of ice. My mother’s eyes were closed, her eyelids white with frost. My finger tightened on the trigger as I realized I may have arrived too late.
I heard voices behind me. Someone shouted, “Get them! Get the Tal’mar!”
The slaves broke into a run, charging towards us as if they could actually fight.
That is courage, I thought with a grim smile. A group of ex-slaves, frostbitten and starved, mere hours from certain death, but still willing to fight to the bitter end. The Tal’mar didn’t know how to react to this. Could they open fire and kill a bunch of half-starved, unarmed men? Even if they did, they might still be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
I couldn’t help but smile as I watched a shiver of diffidence pass through them. They weren’t watching me anymore, they were looking at each other. They were looking at their leader who seemed to have his tongue frozen in his mouth, and at the wall of angry slaves about to come crashing down on them. The best was yet to come.
At that very moment, one of the airships let loose with her cannons. Ten shots went off in quick succession, the loud booms echoing like thunder across the sky. Cannonballs struck the ground all around us, explosions of snow shooting up into the air. The Tal’mar fell into a shambles, stumbling backwards, a few of them actually falling to the ground. They’d been too focused on their captives to notice the cluster of dragon ships hovering over the horizon.
“Retreat!” someone shouted. It wasn’t the leader. They broke ranks and began fleeing to the north.
Crow bent over to check on our mother. “She’s been shot!” Tam said. “Take her to safety, Crow. Take her to Socrates!”
Crow lifted Breeze in his arms and hurtled into the sky, spiraling slowly because of his damaged cloak. Once he had settled into a controlled flight path, he fired the jets and rocketed over the heads of the retreating Tal’mar.
I helped Tam to his feet and saw him staring at the bloody spot on the snow. His skin was like ice to the touch and his teeth were chattering. “Will she survive?” I said quietly.
He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I removed the arrow. I could do no more.”
“Crow will heal her,” I said confidently. “Can you walk?”
He took a step and immediately stumbled. I reached out, catching him before he dropped. I pulled Tam close, throwing his arm over my shoulder. I glanced at the others and saw that they were all watching us.
“Let’s move,” I shouted. “Follow the Tal’mar!”
We banded together, cold and hunger forgotten in the rush of fear-fueled adrenaline. We pushed against the driving wind, our long-forgotten hope suddenly renewed by the promise of civilization and shelter. Behind us, the Vangars fired another volley. One of the men went down and it was clear that he wasn’t ever going to get back up. I shouted at the others to keep moving.
“There,” Tam said in a hoarse voice a short while later. He tried to raise his arm to point, but he didn’t have the strength. I followed his gaze and saw the outline of a whitewashed building, barely visible against the backdrop of snow. I headed straight for it.
When we reached the building, we saw the Tal’mar footprints vanishing behind the door. I tried to open it, but they had locked it behind them. One shot from my revolver did the trick. The lock shattered, and a warm wind rushed up around us as I kicked the door open. A cheer went up among the slaves. I knew better than to wait for the Vangars to get their guns sighted in on us. I awkwardly helped Tam down the stairs, until we at last came to the maze of tunnels in the earth below.
“What now?” Kale said. He was still carrying Nena, though she didn’t seem any worse for wear.
“Let’s rest here,” one of the other slaves said. “It’s warm.”
The others murmured in agreement, but Tam said, “No! Not safe… that way.”
“You heard him,” I said. “Let’s go.” As we started to move, I shot Kale a look. “I think you can put her down now,” I said.
Kale bent his head over, gazing into Nena’s ridiculously pretty face. “I’m okay,” he said with a smile. She sighed and pulled closer to him. I tried not to vomit.
Thankfully, Tam had enough presence of mind to keep us on the correct path back towards the city. Without his guidance we would have been lost down there forever. A short while later, we came upon the crash in the subway.
“What the devil happened here?” Kale said. “This mess looks like the steamwagon I pushed off a cliff when I was younger.”
“Younger?” I said, cocking an eyebrow at him. “That was last spring.”
“Aye. I’m much older now,” he said, smiling brightly. “Speaking of which-”
“Keep moving,” I said, cutting him off. Even with Nena in his arms, he was still trying to flirt with me. He must have been doing it so long that it was a habit.
We gathered some scraps of wood from the crash and used them as torches to light our way down the tunnels, gradually making our way through the subterranean labyrinth. I was astounded by the cleverness of the place. The subway’s creators had burrowed massive holes right through the earth, reinforced them with concrete, and then lined them with miles of tracks similar to the Vangars’ freight trains. We clearly understood what the tunnels were for, but we couldn’t imagine how they had been made. Tam wasn’t sure, either.
“Socrates knows,” he said, half-delirious. “Socrates knows all.”
When at last we came to the end of the
tunnel and reached the platform, we heard the whooshing sounds of massive steamjet engines echoing down the ramp. We stopped, staring at each other, more than a little frightened by the sound. A moment later, we heard the thunderous rumble of distant explosions.
A smile came to Tam’s lips. “You’ve done it,” he said. “The Tal’mar are fighting the Vangars.”
We climbed up the ramp out of the dark subway, and the warm rays of sunshine washed down over us. We stepped out into the street, staring up at the tall, gleaming buildings, each of us overwhelmed with emotions. We all cheered, and tears began streaming down our cheeks. Kale absently set Nena on the ground and turned in a slow circle with his jaw hanging open. He didn’t even notice Nena’s indignant stare. I had to suppress a grin.
“Grandpa’s beard,” he muttered. “I’ve never seen such a thing!”
“Crow was right,” I said quietly. “He never could have explained this to me.”
I heard a beeping sound and lowered my eyes in time to see a street sweeper come around the corner. I had my revolver in my hand in a flash. I trained my sights on the thing, ready to face its attack.
The machine didn’t even seem to notice us. It rounded the corner, dropped a broad scrub brush to the ground, and began spraying water. The steam engine at the back of the machine chugged quietly as it idled down the street past us, and then disappeared around the next corner. I lowered my weapon and turned to see Tam grinning at me.
I was about to question him about the strange machine but at that moment, Crow appeared out of the sky. He landed next to us wearing a somber look, and I was instantly worried.
“Our mother?” I said cautiously.
“She will be fine,” he said. “I will lead you to her. We shouldn’t be on the streets. If we come across any Tal’mar, they won’t understand what’s happened. It’s not safe.”
“I understand,” I said. “Help me with your father.”
I took Tam’s arm again, and Crow picked up the other. “Let’s go,” I called to the others. Everyone move out!”
Blood and Steam (The Tinkerer's Daughter) Page 21