by S. S. Engle
“Yes. Why?”
“Can I have one?”
“They’re back on the Lydia. What are you thinking about?”
“I want to see if I can rewire one to pick up the Ringer’s signal. We’re close enough to the mansion now that it shouldn’t be that hard.”
“Follow me.”
Kassidy cocked the guns back to avoid a misfire. He picked up her knife off of the ground and sheathed it to keep it safe. Luca took one gun from her while she kept the other. For the first time, they intentionally held each other’s hand as they walked back into the protection of the airfield. Dreadcranks had the gates surrounded all the way around form the hotel to the beaches. Some were even stationed up in the tower. It was the most peace of mind Kassidy had had in hours. It was unexplainable how relieved she felt knowing the attack had not all gone to pot because of her inability to take the coastline without serious loss of life. The screams still replayed themselves in her head as she walked back to the Lydia, and she couldn’t shake the smell of burning flesh stuck in her nose. Up in the airship she could get back to working and keeping herself busy while Luca stayed down with the gang and helped gather the dead for a proper send off. She shut herself off in her father’s old personal quarters and began tinkering with the radio.
It was true that Kassidy had taught Blue a lot over the years. Besides grappling with emotional difficulties, the Ringer was able to still pull on one of the physical skills he had learned from his fiancé. Among them, were rewiring radios. He’d been tasked with tuning out of Kassidy’s signal all morning to stop the barrage of hate speeches, testimonials, and random crashing sounds terrorizing the airwaves. Blue was leery of wanting to do anything for Asa after the beating he’d received, but knew he could keep occupied long enough with the radio to hopefully outlast the latest wave of attacks. The O’Brien mansion was in utter chaos. Not only were Ringers seeking refuge from the city, but regular citizens were banging on the windows and doors for help. Asa wouldn’t let them in. All he had created was an angry mob on all side of his mansion, and the mob was being turned into dead bodies. From upstairs windows the Ringers were shooting the citizens of Engia down if they got too close to the mansion. The ultimate plan was to drive them back over onto their side of the river. The sounds of screaming and shrieking were too much for Blue to handle and he had isolated himself down in the basement to try and work. After three hours of mindlessly trying to rewire a handful of red and green wires wrapping copper fringes, Blue had made some headway. Radio silence. Before he could enjoy his success, and after he silently thanked Kassidy for teaching him this years ago, Asa came in to check for progress.
“Is it ready yet Blue?”
“Ready for what?”
“As leader of the city I’m expected to address the people on the state of…things.”
“Things are bad. I think the people know that already.”
“I have to assure them that I am safe though.”
“I think your safety ranks pretty low on the people’s lists of concerns right now. They’re probably all trying to get a hold of family and friends at this point to see who’s still alive. Then they’ll be worried about food, shelter, you know, little things like that. Then maybe, just maybe, at the bottom of a long list of their new problems, would be if you made it out of this alright.”
“I liked you better before I beat you.”
“I liked you better before you beat me too.”
“Then you shouldn’t have come back empty handed.”
“I relayed the message that was given to me.”
“Since when are you a messenger boy?!”
“Since when am I your godamned slave?!”
“Since you put that ring on your finger and swore allegiance to me.”
“Then you can have your filthy ring back! I don’t want it anymore.”
“Oh I see. You think you can denounce the Ringers and she’ll come running back to you? Is that what you think?”
“She has nothing to do with this!”
“She has everything to do with this! Why do you think we’re being attacked? He’s doing this for her! He’s doing all of this for her! Well wait and see what I have in store for him. Wait until she sees what I am capable of.”
“What are you going to do?”
“He thinks he can take this city away from me. It’ll be awfully hard to do when I take everything away from him. His beloved little gang. His airship. His woman.”
“Kassidy is not his woman.”
“Oh wake up Blue! If we dusted that cold metal heart of hers, Lucky’s fingerprints would be all that we found. You know it as well as I do. Whether you want to admit that’s the truth or not is your own undoing.”
“You’ll never win Asa. You can’t have it all. Not this time.”
“I will have it all, and I will have her, or I will die trying.”
“That’s exactly what he wants. Then he’ll have the city and the girl. And you’ll be nothing more than a pile of ashes nobody even cares to visit.”
“You don’t know anything about what you’re saying right now!”
“The only family you have you treat like dirt on the bottom of your shoe! You tried to make the Ringers your brothers, but they fear you.”
“They love me!”
“The hate you! They fight for me! They follow my orders! When I leave, they won’t listen to you. Just wait!”
“Nobody leaves the Ringers.”
“Watch me!”
“Where will you go?”
“Anywhere but here.”
“They’ll kill you if you go out there.”
“She won’t kill me. She can’t.”
“Who’s to say Kassidy finds you first?”
“She’ll vouch for me. It’ll be rough, but she doesn’t have it in her to kill me.”
“You stand a better chance of living if you stay with me.”
“I stand no chance of living if I stay with you.”
“Out of all the years you served me, how many times have I reprimanded you harshly?”
“This would be the first time.”
“She pushed you to come back to me with that message. She is responsible for why you’re hurting right now.”
“You remember when you confided in me that voices guided you?”
“Yes.”
“What are they saying right now?”
“I’m going to be just fine.”
“And what do they say about me?”
“They’re pretty sure you’re fucked.”
“I love our talks.”
“Does that mean you’re staying in the Absynthe Ring?”
“You said it yourself, where else do I have to go?”
7
It was finally noon in Engia. On a day that seemed to be endless, it was half way over. There couldn’t be a winner declared with the losses mounting up on both sides. The air was thick throughout the city with choking black smoke, steam, and the unmistakable stench of iron. Fires were still raging where utilities had blown sparks from lost connections after the bombing raid. The Dreadcranks we remobilizing their forces on the ground now. With the help of their supporters from Rusten Island they were beginning to comb the city, street by street. Stretching from the north end of the city to the south, they spread out in groups to move from west to east, then back west to the airfields. A safe house at the palace was waiting for them on the east if anything went wrong. A team of men was staying behind at the airfield to take care of the dead on the beaches and in the hotel. Everyone was going to be buried on the far north end of the city, outside the city walls on the hills of Mt. Engia. It was the least they could do after everything that had happened.
Luca, Kassidy, and Harlan were the lead team. Sticking together at this point was as much a hindrance as it was an asset. Luca knew the alleyways like nobody else, while Harlan knew the major streets. Kassidy knew only minor landmarks. Together they could keep an eye on each other, but it also made them an easy
target for the Ringers and their supporters that were no doubt still lurking in the shadows. Today the risk was worth it and the Dreadcranks crossed the river without issue. Luca wanted to position himself in the center of his force as much as possible, that way he was as easily accessible to one side as the other. That also meant they’d be traveling through the heart of the city. There was more than one reason behind this position. Not only would it be the center of a resistance force, but the cemetery for the city would be right in their path. Luca was far less confident in his success now and was weighing what Kassidy had been worrying about before with a much heavier reality. The first major building the three came up to was the City Hall. It was just down the street from the Brass Bulldogge top security prison which had been evacuated hours earlier. Where the prisoners were now, nobody could say. The alert was high all down the line for the Dreadcranks. Seeing as how the City Hall building was fairly large in size Luca went in alone to check it out while Kassidy and Harlan stood watch at the front door.
“H-h-how are y-y-you holding up Kass?”
“I’ve been better. What about you? How’s your healing coming along with all of this?”
“It could be wor-wor-worse.”
“I’m glad you’re here.”
“Y-y-you are?”
“I don’t know why you sound so surprised.”
“I just thought af-af-after what I told y-y-you back on the island, y-y-you’d want nothing to do wi-wi-with me.”
“Telling me you l…”
“Don’t s-s-say it out loud.”
“Alright, but just because you said what you said, I could never hate you for that. It brings me great peace of mind knowing you’re safe.”
“Peace of mi-mi-mind?”
“What?”
“I just hoped I me-me-meant more to y-y-you than that.”
“I consider you family Harlan. I don’t know what more you want from me?!”
“Y-y-you know what I want! But I’m not go-go-going to go begging for it.”
“We shouldn’t be yelling right now. It’ll look bad to the others. Everyone’s looking to us to lead them in the right direction”
“I know all about pu-pu-public opinion. I was always a dis-dis-disappoi-poi-pointment to my actual fam-fam-family, why should I expe-pe-pect a different reac-ac-action from you?”
“Well for starters I’m not Asa!”
“Didn’t y-y-you say we shouldn’t be ye-ye-yelling at each other?”
“I’m not entirely sure I like this new Harlan.”
“I’m not enti-ti-tirely sure I care. If I can’t get what I wa-wa-want, why should y-y-you get everything y-y-you want?”
“You think I wanted all of this to happen?!”
“I can’t be-be-believe you wanted n-n-none of it to ha-ha-happen.”
“It’s obvious the two of us had very different mornings. I think it’s best if we just agree to disagree right now and wait for Luca to get back.”
“Fine. Once he ge-ge-gets out we’ll pro-pro-probably be headed nor-nor-northwest.”
“Why don’t we just follow the street?”
“The street is go-go-going northwest.”
“You should know better than to give me wests and easts because shit will go south really fast when you do that. Just give me landmarks, give me straightforward directions like lefts and rights.”
“How much more strai-strai-straightforward can I get when I s-s-say northwest?”
“Alright, City Hall checks out! Ready to go?”
Luca popped out of the front door of City Hall right between Kassidy and Harlan. He couldn’t have had better timing if he wanted to. Kassidy stormed off by herself down the street and sensing she was angry Luca just held back and let her blow off what she needed to. She was mumbling to herself and her hand gestures were darting out in front of her to the point Luca turned to his side and leaned over to Harlan to try and figure out what was going on. But seeing Harlan shy away from the conversation meant he was to blame. The men followed closely behind Kassidy, careful to maintain a short enough distance where she could still breathe. She was very anxious as she walked down the center of the street through building debris, broken pipes, and crumbled cobblestones. She was quick on the trigger to every little crunch of glass or topple of a pebble. Nobody would have the chance to sneak up on her now, so Luca wasn’t worried about running into any opposition. He’d actually feel sorry for them because they were going to bear the brunt of an argument they had nothing to do with. But all was well that ended well. Luca was still in good standing and he wasn’t in a rush to go ruining that. As the line was continuing to push forward however the angry exchange between himself and Kassidy was gnawing at Harlan’s conscious. Keeping their voices to a low murmur Harlan confided in the only friend he felt that he had. Kassidy turned back once, flashing a scowl at the men, but she didn’t give them much time. She was preoccupied with leading the push into the city, and rightly so.
“What’d you do now Harlan? She’s furious! Did you propose or something?”
“No!”
“Just checking. She doesn’t react very well to affectionate things.”
“At least not from me.”
“Blue hasn’t fared much better. That’s what keeps me so gun shy around her.”
“I think you’re just about the only person in the world who doesn’t have to worry about that.”
“So, what’d you say then?”
“She treats me like I’m some sort of kid brother.”
“Isn’t that a step in the right direction? That means she thinks of you as family.”
“But not an equal. Lucky I’m older than her by nearly a year. She shouldn’t be looking out for me, and my safety shouldn’t just give her peace of mind. I mean hell, I told her I loved her.”
“Well in her defense, she never asked you to do that. And knowing how is she about that sort of thing, you should have known better.”
“I just feel like I’m taking a huge risk by being here with her and she doesn’t even appreciate it. It’d be so much easier to leave.”
“Where would you go? Back to your brother?”
“Never! But I could go to another city, and have a whole new life. One where nobody knows who I am. I could change my name, I could…”
“Anywhere around Engia would be off limits. You are one of a very select group of people that couldn’t even change their name and get a fresh start.”
“But I know I’m not wanted or needed here. I could have that if I were somewhere else.”
“You know I’d never stand in your way, but I’d have to advise against you leaving right now.”
“Why? What value could I possibly have?”
“You’ve put too much of yourself into this city to leave. You’ve invested too much in Kassidy to not see this through. For her, I couldn’t let you leave. She’d be devastated.”
“I think you underestimate just how mad she is.”
“She’s just mad on the surface. Deep down, she cares about you. She’s given me too much grief to not care.”
“I can’t keep putting my life on the line just for her though. I’m running out of luck. I mean, how many times can a guy get sewn up and sent to the hospital before enough is enough?”
“I don’t have an answer for that.”
“I feel completely useless here. And you’re only bringing me along to keep me entertained. I’m like a spoiled little rich boy playing war.”
“Spoiled little rich boys never serve on the front lines. And they never get scars. They never see anything, or get their hands dirty. You’ve come a long way from your entitled last name. You’ve fought for it. You’ve bled for it. That kind of struggle makes nobody insignificant.”
“Even me?”
“Even you O’Brien.”
“Could you remind Kass then of everything I’ve done for her?”
“I could, but I’m not sure what good it would do. I’d only be telling her things she already knows.”
“What’s she running for?!”
“What street are we on?”
“Barrow.”
“She’s spotted the cemetery.”
“I thought you’d given up on chasing her father’s treasure?”
“That was before I saw what happened to her on the beaches this morning.”
“What happened?”
“You didn’t see it?”