by Mark Fenger
Chapter 4
“Go, go!” Tom pointed toward the tower where the last surviving airship floated. He ushered Nikki and Willow past and paced beside Agatha in the rear. The name Hecate was printed on the bow of the airship, and it floated with only the bow-line keeping it from drifting away on the breeze. The only way to get to the bridge would be to climb the tower, traverse the steel bow-line and climb down the rigging on the underside of the envelope to the gondola. No problem for him, and he was confident Agatha could do it, but Tom worried about Nikki and Willow.
Agatha turned every few paces and blasted a shot at the Draggers, reloading on the run. Every shot found its mark, but far from thinning their ranks, with those still pouring out of the streets the Draggers grew more numerous by the second.
Ahead the two sisters had reached the tower. They scampered up the ladder with Tom and Agatha not far behind. When they reached the top, Willow and Nikki paused.
Tom rushed past them. “No time for explanations, just watch what I do and follow!”
He lay flat on the cable and dangled one leg below. Pulling with his arms and pushing with the other leg, he quickly shimmied across the makeshift bridge to the envelope. Then Tom swung to the rigging underneath and scrambled clear. Willow and Nikki had some difficulty, but made it across, and Agatha came last. By that time the Draggers had nearly made it to the top of the ladder. Agatha turned, dangling from the rigging, and pulled out her revolver.
>Boom< >Boom< Two shots, two Draggers dropped from the ladder, the second swept several beneath him from the rungs as he fell.
“Come with me, we gotta get this thing moving!” Tom tugged on Nikki’s arm. She followed as he guided her along the rigging underneath Hecate’s envelope. More shots echoed behind them as they climbed. When they reached the walkway surrounding Hecate’s gondola, Tom swung down easily and helped Nikki.
“Release the guyline and get us moving!” He pushed her toward the bridge, and Nikki rushed to obey.
With a thump, Agatha landed next to him.
“Where’s Willow?” Tom turned toward the rigging just as her scream cut the air.
“I can’t make it!” Willow had jammed her elbow through a hole in the rigging and clung to her stupid bear as she dangled there like bait for the Draggers.
The Draggers for their part were swarming up all sides of the tower now, mostly ignoring the ladder. Many of them fell, but that didn’t do anything to slow the mob down. The first had nearly reached the guyline.
Agatha dumped her spent casings on Hecate’s deck and hastily reloaded. “Three shots left!”
“Make ‘em count!” Tom turned behind them and pounded on the glass of the Hecate’s bridge. “Release the guyline!”
Nikki was frantically fiddling with controls inside, she looked at him with panic in her eyes. “Broken! It’s all busted up in here!”
“Oh shit. Agatha, cover me, I’m going for Willow.” Tom swung back on to the rigging and clambered toward the frightened girl.
>Boom< A shot whizzed past Tom and missed every single Dragger. Deadeye Agatha sure picked a bad time to lose her nerve. He climbed on, hoping her second shot would be better.
>Boom< Another clean miss. What the hell was she shooting at? She must have been shaking with fear. Not that it mattered, three Draggers more or less wouldn’t make much difference.
>Boom< One Dragger made it on to the rigging as Agatha’s third shot blasted past. Tom scrambled toward Willow, trying to beat the beast there.
“Could have at least shot that one,” he muttered under his breath.
More Draggers were trying to make it across to Hecate, but instead of climbing across the cable they were jumping and falling. Tom didn’t have time to figure it out, he scrambled for Willow, reaching her just before the Dragger woman.
Tom stuck an elbow and a knee into the rigging and drew his knife. The Mist-possessed woman took no precautions against falling, she scrambled, upside-down across the rigging and leapt the last few yards to grab Tom around the waist.
The move caught him by surprise, and Tom’s grip on his knife slipped. He made a snatch for it and missed, watched it spin away beneath him, glinting in the sun. The woman had an iron grip around him and she hugged him close. Tom was just counting his stars, he could probably hold on long enough for Agatha to come help, and with her hands tied up the Dragger wouldn’t be able to do much more damage. Then she leaned in to him, like a lover, and bit deeply into his chest muscle.
Tom screamed. The Dragger’s teeth cut through skin and muscle. She pulled her head back, tearing a ragged hunk of flesh away. Out of the corner of his eye, Tom saw Willow reach inside her bear and pull out a miniature sword. As the Dragger woman leaned her head back, gorging on Tom’s flesh, the little knife flashed and cut a neat line across her throat. The Dragger’s eyes closed. The rictus of a smile faded from her face. Blood spewed from the cut, and her grip relaxed.
“He does have a sword….” Tom looked from the bear to Willow. “That bear was holdin’ out on me.”
Willow just slipped the incredibly sharp little thing away and put her free finger to her lips. “We’re not what you think.”
The Dragger fell away and disappeared through a partially burned-out roof. Tom gazed down. It shouldn’t be rooftops. They should still be over the airship yard. He looked over his shoulder toward the guyline.
The twisted ends of the steel cable flapped in the breeze, cut in a ragged line where three bullets had ripped through it.