Tamsin was able to provide Jessie with more information on the captain than Leech had, but most of it was still hearsay or legend. Tamsin didn’t approve of the Twister’s raids any more than Jessie, but she still adored the captain. Tamsin had come from one of the outer settlements, where women were expected to allow themselves to be taken into the beds of any man who wanted them. The idea seemed barbaric and outdated to Jessie, and it amazed her that such things were still allowed in a country that considered itself to be one of the most advanced in the world. She could see why Tamsin might look the other way about the captain’s illegal activities if it meant she could leave the world she had come from in favor of the freedom of the skies.
The way Tamsin told it, Captain Vestra had been a nomad before discovering the Twister. No one knew for certain where she came from originally. Her accent suggested she was from the south, but that might have just been something she had picked up from her first crew. The majority of the crew had indeed been from the southern countries, apparently. The story went that hundreds of women from the south had been taken as slaves to Thysc, and the captain, having heard of their plight, traveled across vast distances to free them. As they had been escaping they had stumbled upon a hidden facility in Thysc that had been producing airships and commandeered one for themselves. Jessie didn’t think she really believed any of that. If Thysc really had the ability to create airships like the Twister then they would have been able to easily take over the disputed parts of Argona. The fact that Argona still existed as a separate country proved Tamsin’s story wrong.
Still, whether true or not, that was the story most of the women told. Where the airship had come from didn’t matter so much as the fact that it simply existed. And something of that size required a great deal to continue going. For it to fly for weeks at a time it took an extremely large amount of coal, enough that most of the second level was usually used just to store it all. It needed lots of scrap metal to fashion any replacement parts that might be needed, and everyone on board had to be provided with food and water. None of these things were free. A large amount of money was required to maintain the floating paradise of the Twister, and the only easily acquired commodity in the whole known world that was worth that much was slaves.
Sun River had not been the first town to have its men stolen, nor was it intended to be the last. Two other raids had occurred just days before Jessie had found herself on the Twister, and the men from all three towns were being kept down in the third level. That was where the raiders themselves trained and lived, always within close proximity of the men. There was no way for Jessie to get to them, no way to release them, and nowhere for them to go even if she did. As much as Jessie lay awake at night trying to think of ways to help them all, she just couldn’t. But if Leech was right, then there might at least be a way to save just one.
If she earned enough money, and if she were lucky enough during the selling process, Jessie might at least be able to keep Corin out of slavery.
8
Jessie’s first clue that the Twister was close to their destination was the change in pitch from the engines. She was asleep in her room at the time. The constant drone was usually a strangely relaxing sound that lulled her to sleep at night, something like a mother’s heartbeat might be for a child in the womb. The ever-present noise changed to something higher, though, and it brought her awake instantly. Moments later she felt a distinct lurch in her stomach and the entire airship shuddered and dropped a few feet. The Twister was beginning to descend.
Jessie dressed and rushed to the deck. The bazaar was wrapping up early, and while many of the more seasoned women on the ship went about their business as usual quite of few of the newer or younger ones edged closer to the sides to watch the descent. A few guards had been posted along the edge to make sure none of the spectators got too close, but their presence appeared superfluous. Most of the women in the crowd kept a respectful distance.
Several women stepped aside to allow Jessie a better view, and Jessie came as close to the edge as she dared. She’d only been on board the Twister for a week and a half but she had already grown used to seeing solid land as something distant and otherworldly. Seeing it now so much closer was a shock to her system, like she’d been having a dream and was now waking up. She was a little surprised at herself, however. She didn’t really want to wake up.
The land below them was mountainous, and the peaks were so much closer now than anything Jessie had seen so far. She guessed that they were only half the distance up that they had been before, and they were still falling. She could make out distinct features on the highest mountains, now- dark crags and outcroppings, forests, and the occasional road. It was this last thing that interested Jessie the most. The roads were rough dirt paths cut into the mountainsides, and in many places they looked overgrown with weeds. Others looked like they had been used recently, so there had to be something like civilization nearby.
A murmur went through the crowd and several women pointed to the southwest. Jessie looked in that direction and her breath caught in her throat. A large valley between the mountains had been cleared and smoothed to create something of a port. All around the edge of the valley were rough-hewn buildings and scaffoldings and even cranes. Jessie had never seen a crane before, and she had to get one of the women next to her to explain what they were used for. Even from this distance she could see hundreds of people running around through it all, preparing for the Twister’s arrival.
But none of that was what had surprised Jessie. What had caught her off guard, sitting right next to a large open space for the Twister to land, was another airship. And it looked like there was still room for a third.
A few guarded questions to the women around her confirmed Jessie’s suspicion. There were three known airships operating in this part of the world. If there were any more elsewhere no one was able to tell her for sure. All three were their own separate working societies, and they all tended to gather at the same time every month in order to swap supplies and sell their wares.
Which, Jessie had to assume, meant the other two were also slaving ships.
The majority of the crowd trickled away, leaving only Jessie and a few others to watch the actual landing. She had been told a little about what to expect once they were on the ground, that they would be there for most of a day while the ship was resupplied and the slaves were sold, and she supposed that she really should go and get ready, but still she felt compelled to watch this. The idea of the Twister touching down on land was so alien that she wanted to see the process for herself. As the ship came over the valley it readjusted so it was parallel with the second ship. By now many of the mountaintops around them had become higher than the level of the Twister itself, and Jessie could actually see details of the workers running about on the scaffoldings that rose up to surround the ship. Jessie was surprised, although she supposed she shouldn’t be, to see that more than half the workers were men. Their skins tended to be a slightly darker color, and Jessie realized many of them probably wouldn’t even speak the same language as her. Wherever this airship port was, it was not anywhere in Argona.
A cloud of dust rose up from beneath the Twister, and the entire ship shuddered as it gently touched down. The pitch of the engines changed again as they cut off for the first time in weeks and the propellers slowed to an eventual stop. Jessie looked around herself to see that she was the only person still on deck. She had been so engrossed in it all that she hadn’t even seen as the guards had left. Everyone had gone off to see what there was to see in the port.
Jessie ran back to her room to get her money pouch and then made her way to an exit in the second level. A skeleton crew stayed behind on the ship for now simply to keep an eye on things, and the few who saw her watched with smiles on their faces. Maybe they thought she was just eager to walk on the ground again. In truth Jessie wasn’t sure how much time she had before the slave auctions started. Once she was out the door, though, she had to pause just long en
ough to take in everything around her. A rolling set of metal stairs had been pushed up to each of the doors, and the last of the women from the Twister were making their way down them to the flat dirt landing area before dispersing in a variety of directions. Right in front of her and looking even larger than the Twister was the second airship. The main portion of the second ship was five stories compared to the Twister’s three with perhaps twice as many engines. She had thought the Twister was huge, but this one was simply massive. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what the third one looked like.
Jessie descended to the bottom of the steps, nearly missing them a few times and catching hold of the railing just in time to keep from tumbling the rest of the way down. She hadn’t even realized how easily she had adapted to walking around on something that was constantly being rocked by wind until she was on a surface that didn’t move. For the first several minutes that she was back on the ground she had to actively concentrate on every step. She figured that by the time she got used to using her land legs again she would be back in the air.
Crowds of people milled about between the two ships, but few of them seemed be the natives that ran the port. Those that Jessie didn’t recognize from the Twister had to be from the other ship. Although most of them were also women a few were men. Captain Vestra was the only one with the no-men rule, then. Jessie wandered among the crowds, looking for any sign of where she might need to go. Although there appeared to be many signs pointed in various directions, most of them were in a language she couldn’t read. The only sign she saw that was actually in Argonan was marked “Bathroom.”
“You look lost, Jessie,” a voice said from behind her, and she turned. Captain Vestra stood leaning against the side of the ship, but she wasn’t alone. Another woman stood close by, her hands on her hips and a cigarette dangling from her mouth. Her clothes were a patchwork of various military uniforms, some of which Jessie recognized but most she didn’t. She exuded more of what Jessie thought of as a captain’s air than Vestra did, but she still didn’t fit the traditional idea Jessie had had in her head.
“No, ma’am,” Jessie said. “I’m not lost. I was just trying to find… um… I was looking for… actually, yeah. I am a little lost.”
“All of us are in our own way,” the new captain said. “I don’t expect you to get over it any time soon.”
Jessie was quiet for several moments, not quite sure how she should respond to that, and Captain Vestra smiled at her. “Just ignore her, Jessie. Lori here is just in love with the sound of her own inane patter.”
“Lori?” Jessie asked.
“Captain Lorraine Iverly,” the woman said. “Captain of the Hurricane.”
“You just never mind her,” Vestra said with a wry wink to Captain Iverly. “Everyone does. Captain Feerson is by far a more entertaining person, even if he is a man. You’ll probably be meeting him shortly.”
“Actually, she won’t,” Iverly said. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, Vestra, but you won’t shut up long enough to let me speak. The Zephyr is gone.”
Captain Vestra’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean, gone?”
“Gone as in gone. No more. Destroyed. I have a few contacts near the Rhiannan military, and they told me the Zephyr went down near the border of Argona and the Pakahta Nation. Took two whole squads of steam dragons to take her down, and Feerson was able to take three of them down with him, but he’s dead. What few members of the crew survived the crash are rotting in a jail somewhere in Rhianna.”
Captain Vestra stared at Iverly, waiting for the woman to say that it was all a joke, and when Iverly kept her serious look Vestra let loose the loudest, longest string of curses Jessie had ever heard in her life.
“Steam dragons?” Jessie asked.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know,” Iverly said to Jessie, then turned back to Vestra. “It’s time to stop, Vestra.”
Captain Vestra shook her head. “No. No way. We had the skies first. They’re ours. We can’t just stop what we’ve been doing because…”
“Yes, we can,” Iverly said. “Or at least leave Argona. We overexerted ourselves. We took too much. You always knew as well as I did that the time would come when the bureaucrats in Rhianna actually took notice. Well, that time is now, and they’ve come up with the perfect weapons against us. It was bad enough when there were only three of us left. Now there’s just you.”
“You mean us,” Vestra said, but the look on her face told Jessie that she knew exactly what Iverly meant.
“I mean you,” Iverly said. “I’m out. I’m done. I’ve already informed my crew. We’re taking what proceeds we make today from our sale and we’re buying just enough fuel to get us to a spot I know south of the mountains. That’s where the Hurricane is going to land, and it’s never going to take off again. Our own little spot away from everyone else where we can still have our own separate society.”
Vestra looked disgusted. “But it won’t be the sky.”
Iverly sighed. “Does it really have to be?”
“Yes! The sky is our world! We rule it! Anything else is just another form of slavery.”
Iverly managed a smile. “Take a minute and try to appreciate the irony of that statement. Besides, there’s no real freedom when you’re dead.” Iverly turned and started to walk away, then stopped and looked back over her shoulder. “You and your crew are always welcome to join us, Vestra. But I won’t hold my breath.”
Iverly disappeared among the crowd. Captain Vestra watched her go, then recommenced her cursing. She stalked off, leaving Jessie to wonder what exactly had just happened.
9
Jessie didn’t have time to consider the implications of the captains’ conversation, although parts of it continued repeating themselves in her mind as she asked for directions from some of the Hurricane’s crew members. It was obvious that there were more dangers to living on the Twister than just the captain’s threats of throwing her over the side. And whatever she had seen in the sky earlier in the week now seemed more menacing. She still couldn’t be sure what exactly a “steam dragon” was, but its name implied something mechanical rather than a living beast. She could believe in a flying machine, and a flying machine that could actually take down an airship was something worth worrying about.
All that was a problem for a later time, however. Someone had finally been able to point her in the right direction, and Jessie found herself approaching a wide gray building. A sign over the doorway said something in the same language Jessie had seen all over, but here someone had added a hand-written sign in Argonan that read “Slave Sales.” The inside of the building was crowded and stunk like body odor, but Jessie thought that had less to do with the people jostling for breathing room than the thirty or so cages full of slaves at the far side of the room. She pushed her way to the front of the crowd to get a better look, but it didn’t appear that she was going to be finding Corin that easily. Every cage was packed full of people. The cage directly in front of her had to be from the Hurricane because it had both men and women in it, but all of them looked equally sickly and pathetic. The slaves were packed so close together that none could sit, even though a few of them look malnourished enough to collapse any second. Several people had the backs of their clothes ripped to shreds by repeated lashings, and the open wounds on their backs more often than not looked infected. At one point Jessie even thought she saw maggots crawling in the festering wounds on a man’s back, and it took every ounce of Jessie’s will not to puke. In one cage a little girl no older than Leech was curled on the floor at everyone’s feet, her dress torn around her legs and days old blood staining her thighs.
Jessie could tell when she got to the cages from the Twister, and not just because of the gender differences. All these men were still crammed too many to a cage, but they at least looked better fed than the others. There were very few signs that they had been beaten, and while many of them looked scared out of their wits none of them looked sick. Jessie could cons
ole herself in knowing that her airship took better care of its slaves, but that was little comfort. One of the raiders from the Twister, a woman Jessie had seen a few times around the ship who went by the name Weasel, stood guard by the cages. She glared as Jessie searched the cages, but she made no move to interfere with her.
Jessie didn’t find Corin until the nineteenth cage she checked, and even then she almost missed him. He was crammed near the back, and he wasn’t quite as tall as some of the others around him. She almost walked right past the cage when she heard her name called.
“Jessie?” Corin said. “I’m not hallucinating again, am I?”
Jessie turned back and ran to the cage. “Corin? Are you in there?”
“That’s really you? Thank the gods.” Corin shoved his way to the front of the cage and grabbed Jessie’s outstretched hand. “I thought I remembered you at the cage on the night we were taken, but I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t a dream. What are you even doing here?”
“Long story. But I think I can free you.”
“What about everybody else from Sun River?” Corin said.
Jessie looked around at everyone else in the cage. Everyone in it was a face she recognized. All of them looked at her hopefully, but Jessie couldn’t bring herself to look any of them in the eye. She didn’t want to see their anger, their disappointment, their fear. “I’m sorry. I only have enough for one person.”
The Twister Sisters Page 5