North Peak Six had once been one of imperial Ondinium’s ancient stone forts, although most of the original fortress had been abandoned to the elements. She circled and landed on the station’s flight dock. The snow around the station was trampled and bloodstained. Taya grimly locked up her wings, loosened her utility knife, and climbed down the metal ladder.
The signaling engine was still rumbling, but the snow around the station’s entrance had been churned up and bullet holes riddled the open doors. Taya pushed them aside and flinched at the sight of a dead lictor slumped over a table, covered in blood.
Two more lictors, one male and one female, sprawled in bloodstained heaps by the wall closest to the punch-card engine. Bullet holes in both walls indicated a two-sided firefight, although Taya didn’t see any rifles in the lictors’ hands. The Alzanans must have looted them.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, sickened. If only she’d gotten there sooner…. She walked around the building to the engine room door. Inside, the large steam engine’s firebox door was hanging open and the flame was low.
Taya grabbed the shovel by the coal box and added more fuel to the fire until it burned hot enough to drive her back. She prodded the firebox door closed with the shovel’s handle, then backed out of the engine room with relief. Hard to imagine I’d ever feel too hot again, she thought.
A grubby dedicate stood next to the door, pointing a rifle at her. Next to him, leaning on the wall, a heavily bandaged lictor sat holding a pistol.
They lowered their weapons as soon as they saw her wings.
“Icarus?”
“Who are you?” she demanded. Dried blood and dirt had been ground into the dedicate’s coat and trousers and ran down his face, and brambles were snagged in his hair. His left hand was bandaged. The lictor beside him looked worse, with half his face swathed in bloody rags.
“I’m Karl,” the dedicate said, looking relieved. “This is Corporal Sapur. We were attacked by Alzanans in a huge flying ship. Everyone else was killed.”
“Does Ondinium know yet?”
“No. The Alzanans disabled the mirror before we knew what was happening.”
“Can you fix it?”
“I think so. If you’ll help. It’s heavy, and the corporal’s not in any condition to lend a hand.”
“Let’s do it, then.”
Leaving Sapur by the foot of the stairs, Karl led her up to the top of the signal station. The storm panes that protected the giant lamp were cracked, and the lamp and its mirrored reflector had been tilted up and out of their support frame.
“I think they turned it to signal the other ships,” Taya said. “There are five of them now.”
“I heard the others arrive this morning.” Karl picked up a long metal pole and inspected the bent end, frowning. “They stayed here a while and left when it got a little lighter. Sapur and I were hiding. Here, we need to roll the mirror back on the tracks.”
Taya glanced at his bandages. “Can you use your hand?”
The dedicate gave her a humorless smile.
“I’ll use it, one way or the other.”
They hoisted the mechanism back into its support framework, squinting against the bright light, and manually turned it around to point in the correct direction.
“It won’t rotate until I fix it,” Karl said, “but at least we can ’graph the capital.”
Downstairs, they helped the wounded corporal into the building. Karl paused at the door, just as she had, but then moved in, averting his eyes from the dead bodies. They put Sapur into a chair. He closed his one good eye, wincing.
“Signal that there are five, maybe six Alzanan dirigibles in Ondinium airspace,” Taya directed as Karl pulled out a punch machine and an unperforated card. “Ten to twelve guns each. They’re being guided by Decatur Neuillan.”
“A decatur!” Karl gave her a shocked look, then swallowed and began punching. She pulled out her invasion map and unfolded it, checking the route.
“What’s south of here?” she asked.
“On the way to the capital? Glasgar Base, Patimbrium and Quadrapur.”
The names roused the corporal, who straightened and looked at the map.
“I’ll tell them the ships are probably headed to Glasgar,” Karl said.
“And,” she added in a tight voice, “Exalted Cristof Forlore may be aboard one of the ships as a hostage.”
“The ambassador?” The dedicate blinked and then gave her a second look. “Wait, are you that icarus he married?”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry — I mean — is he all right?” Copper cheeks flushing, he turned back to the punchcard.
“He was shot. Don’t bother putting that down; keep the message short.”
“But he’s alive?”
She swallowed.
Of course he’s alive.
“He was when I left.”
“Lady keep him,” Karl murmured, devoutly. He finished, filling two cards. “This is crude work, Icarus, and it’s not encoded.”
“That’s all right. Can you send it now?”
He nodded, skirting the bodies of the two dead lictors to flip a series of switches. He slid the cards into the feeder tray.
“I’ll set it to repeat until it’s manually stopped,” he said, turning and heading toward the door. “Come on. I want to make sure it’s working.”
It wasn’t, at first, but to Taya’s relief the dedicate located the belt that had been knocked out of place and hooked it back up. The signal began flashing its message.
Taya hoped they were in time.
“Are there going to be any more of those ships?” Karl asked. “This fort has cannon, although they’ve only been used in drills. Still, if we’d known….”
“There were six ships in the hangar. The guns might be useful if the last one shows up late.”
“I’ll talk to the corporal, then.”
They returned to the signal room. Taya leaned over the map, finding North Peak Six and tracing the flight route to Glasgar.
“The dirigibles were just about here when I flew in,” she said, pointing. “They don’t have as much of a head start as I thought, since they stopped here to regroup, but I don’t think I can beat them to Glasgar Base.” She studied the map. “I guess all I can do is try.”
“The winds through those passes are treacherous,” Karl objected. “Sometimes we don’t even let the trains through, and a train weighs a lot more than you do.”
“There’s a railway,” Corporal Sapur said, weakly. “Under the fort.”
Karl looked puzzled, but Taya understood at once.
“The atmospheric railway?”
The lictor nodded.
“Can you take me there?”
He shook his head.
“Start the pumps. Emergency setting. Get in fast. Seal the doors.”
“Are you sure? The last time, we had to get permission from the Council.”
“This is war.”
War. Taya looked around at the blood and corpses. He was right. This was war.
“All right,” she said, folding the map. “Tell me where to go.”
“Key’s on the sergeant.”
Karl walked over to one of the dead bodies and fished out a ring of keys, wiping his hands on his pants when he was done. He brought the ring back to Sapur, who sorted it and showed two keys to Taya.
“Follow me.” He lurched to his feet and Karl slid a shoulder under his arms. “I’ll take you to the stairs. Bring two lanterns.”
Their route took them out of the station and into the abandoned part of the stone fortress. Sapur instructed them through its massive, arched hallways and past thousand-year-old bas reliefs that still retained flecks of their original gilding.
“This place is beautiful,” Taya said as they half-carried the corp
oral down a flight of broad, shallow stairs. Mythical beasts cavorted on the walls to either side of them. “It’s like being in a museum. Does anybody ever come here?”
“The lictors carry out exercises about once a month,” Karl said, looking around with curiosity. “But the rest of the staff isn’t allowed in. We were told it wasn’t safe.”
“These forts were carved out of solid rock. They’re as safe as the mountain.”
“It’s not safe,” Sapur gasped, “because it contains a state secret.”
Taya remembered what the stationmaster at South Alpha Incline had said about the death penalty. “Maybe Karl shouldn’t go any farther.”
“No choice.”
“I won’t tell anyone you came with us,” Taya promised the suddenly queasy-looking dedicate.
“Thanks,” he said, swallowing hard. He knew what keeping a state secret implied, too.
They passed through several more halls and stopped at a giant, locked door. Taya unlocked it with one of the keys. A long, steep stairwell descended into the darkness.
“Tracks lead to the pump room,” Sapur said.
“Am I going to know how to turn everything on?”
“Switches are labeled. Set them to emergency.”
She looked at the corporal’s pale, sweating face.
“Do you want to come with me? There’ll be a hospital at Glasgar Base.”
“No time to help me down.”
Taya knew better than to argue. She took the lantern.
“Good luck,” Karl said.
“Strap in,” Sapur advised.
Taya jogged down the stairs, one hand on the stone wall and the other holding the lantern. The air was musty and smelled like rock, and by the time she reached the bottom, she felt like the whole mountain was bearing down on her. The sensation made her throat and chest tight.
As the corporal had promised, tracks ran from the stairs into a pitch-black tunnel. She found a small service handcar and pulled it onto the rails, set the lantern by her feet, and began pumping the car down the tracks.
As before, the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber, its walls giant sheets of bedrock intricately carved with imperial-era designs. The lantern light didn’t reach the other side of the chamber. Taya unlocked the pump room door and paused to study the confusion of steel levers and glass dials that covered one wall. A large sign over one panel said “Start Here.” An arrow pointed down.
She dutifully lifted the levers marked “Pump Room On” in the order in which they were numbered. A loud clicking and a series of metallic bangs echoed through the room. Something started to chug.
Did the lictors keep the railway’s engines stoked twenty-four hours a day? Impossible, she decided. The engines must have some kind of automatic ignition mechanism.
Cristof would love this.
Arrows engraved into the wooden face of the control panel led her eyes to three more levers. She lifted the lever labeled “Emergency Operation” and ignored the other two, “Manual Operation” and “Automatic Operation.”
The arrow from the “Emergency Operation” lever pointed to a small sign at the end of the panel.
1. Enter train immediately.
2. Seal doors.
3. Secure luggage. Unsecured items may cause injury.
4. Secure harness. Do not unfasten until train has come to a complete stop.
5. Remove masks and spectacles. Avoid holding objects that may be jarred from your hands during transit.
Taya took a deep breath. Leaving the keys on the control panel, she ran out to the tubular-looking train car and climbed inside as fast as she could, leaving the lantern on the tracks. In the darkness, she closed the door and pulled herself out of her armature. Holding it in one hand, she sat down and buckled herself in. The sign hadn’t said how much time she had, and she wasn’t about to sit in the vehicle without being strapped in.
Then she reached over and buckled the armature in, two seats away, blindly running the straps through its struts and doing her best to secure it by touch.
Good enough. She sat back and tugged on the buckles and straps to make sure they were tight. The engine’s roar grew louder and louder around her.
At last, just when Taya was starting to wonder if she’d done something wrong and the whole station was going to explode around her, the train leaped forward, slamming her sideways against her harness. The side of her head hit the curved head protection and she bit the edge of her tongue. Blood filled her mouth as the car hurtled forward into the heart of the mountain and then plunged straight down.
Chapter Twenty-Three
By the time the car stopped, Taya’s hands were shaking so much that she could barely manage to unfasten the buckles. She finally worked them open and lurched across the darkness, fumbling for the door. She pulled the metal bar down and tumbled forward as it opened, her knees collapsing under her weight.
She laid on the wooden platform, heedless of the grit grinding into her cheek. Her gloved fingers curled as she tried to stop the world from moving.
Somebody shouted. Footsteps vibrated the wood beneath her ear.
She didn’t care. As long as the ground didn’t drop out from beneath her, she didn’t care.
Voices rose around her. Someone touched her shoulder.
“…injured? I need to move you.”
“No,” she rasped. Her throat was sore from screaming.
“Are you in pain? Is anything broken?”
She opened her eyes and saw a black knee next to her face.
“There’s a pair of wings in here, Captain. Nothing else.”
Captain. A lictor.
Taya started to raise her head and felt her stomach lurch. She paused.
“Icarus?” The lictor laid his hand on her shoulder. “Are you ill? Have you been injured?”
“Sick,” she breathed.
“Emergency transit would make anyone sick,” somebody muttered.
“At least we know the brakes still work,” another person replied, cheerfully.
“Are you wounded?” pressed the captain.
“No.” She didn’t think her sore throat counted, and as far as she could tell all her bones were intact, although the last few minutes of the trip had been full of terrible, jarring jerks that had ground her against the safety harness.
She pushed herself up. Darkness swam before her eyes as she rode out another wave of nausea.
“Icarus, you were on an emergency transport from North Peak Six Signal Station,” the captain said crisply. “Are you responsible for the invasion warning we received from that station?”
“Yes.” She licked her lips, tasting blood. “I saw the ships.”
“Then we need to get you to the base.” The captain stood. “If you need to vomit, go ahead.”
She didn’t want to vomit. Although, when she staggered to her feet, clutching his hand, she wasn’t sure she would have any choice in the matter.
She stood doubled over and motionless a long minute. When she thought she would be all right, she straightened, feeling like an old woman.
“Captain, her wings?”
“Bring them.”
Concentrating on a point just in front of her eyes to minimize her nausea, Taya paid no attention as they left the platform and climbed into a small, engine-powered railcar. The lurch as it started moving nearly undid her.
She huddled in her seat with her arms folded over her knees and her head sunk between them. The captain left her in peace.
By the time she climbed out, Taya was starting to feel like she might survive. She peered around, finding herself in the middle of a very active military base. Armed lictors in full uniform were hauling crates and duffel bags and leading heavily loaded pack mules. Military icarii hurried through camp in their distinctive gray uniforms and black-enameled wings
.
“This way, Icarus,” the captain ordered. She followed.
“Have you seen the ships yet?” she asked.
“We sent out scouts as soon as we received the warning. They left about half an hour ago. We’re still waiting for their report.”
Half an hour?
The atmospheric railway had taken her to Glasgar much faster than she could have flown; much faster than they’d traveled from South Alpha Incline to Overlook, too. Although, to be fair, this route had seemed to be mostly straight down.
She hated to think about what would have happened if the emergency brakes hadn’t worked.
The captain led her through a two-storey stone building to a room full of black-uniformed men and women standing around a large table. They turned as she walked in.
“An icarus from North Peak Six,” the captain reported, saluting. “She said she sent the warning.”
“Taya Icarus, sirs.” Taya pulled off her flight cap and goggles. She could tell by the number of stars on the sleeves around her that she’d just walked into a command meeting. She searched the room for a familiar face but recognized nobody.
“Icarus.” One of the officers stepped forward, a middle-aged woman with a strong, stocky build and short salt-and-pepper hair. “I’m General Kammel. The Alzanans have Exalted Forlore?”
“Yes, General. He’s… he was shot by Decatur Neuillan, but he was alive when I left. The Alzanans wanted him as a hostage, so they’re probably bringing him with them.”
A low murmur of outrage filled the room.
“Sit down. Captain, get her food and drink. Icarus, we need a full report.”
Taya took the chair but shakily declined the offer of anything to eat or drink. The lictors quickly spread out the map she’d taken from the Alzanans and studied it as she described the hangar’s location and then, with more confidence, the dirigibles’ guns and structure. Kammel didn’t like her news about the Demicans and the sheytatangri, or about Gaio Mazzoletti’s presence among the soldiers.
“The Mazzolettis are a powerful Family with a strong military background,” one of the lictors volunteered. “But their relationship with the Agostis is shaky.”
Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind (Clockwork Heart trilogy) Page 30