Skyborn

by Eric Asher

Samuel grimaced. “Yet? He dragged me out of bed before the sun had risen this morning. Only fifteen minutes early, I guess, but still. Do you know how important an extra fifteen minutes of sleep can be?”

  Jacob exchanged a grin with Alice.

  “He’s waiting out in the workshop. Grab your packs and let’s be on our way.”

  Alice shoveled the rest of her eggs into her mouth in two impressive gulps before placing the dishes by the sink. After a quick trip upstairs to retrieve their packs, they headed to the workshop. Hunched over the bench was the cloaked Cave Guardian. He thumbed through a book before glancing up at Samuel and the others.

  Drakkar eyed Samuel. “I thought you might have perished from your lack of sleep.”

  Samuel opened his mouth as if to respond, but then fell silent for a moment. “You know what? Let’s just go find Ambrose.”

  They were halfway down the street that led past the candy shop when something boomed outside the walls. Jacob glanced up, confused as to why a cannon on Bollwerk’s warship was smoking.

  “Trouble with some Red Death,” Samuel said, answering the unspoken question. “They’re keeping the worst of the hordes away from the construction crews.”

  “The worst of the hordes?” Alice asked.

  “Yes. The Spider Knights are taking care of the rest. And whatever Carrion Worms slip through.”

  “Are you going to bring Bessie today?” Jacob asked, somewhat hoping to have the giant Jumper at their side.

  Samuel shook his head. “She heals fast, but I don’t want to risk injuring her further. We can walk today.” He paused and opened the long pack thrown over his shoulder. “But you’ll likely want to have this.”

  Jacob caught the air cannon midflight, the cold metal smacking against his palm. He nodded and fastened the holster across his shoulder, so it sat flush against his back. Alice opened her own pack, sliding one hand into a bolt glove, and locking a wrist launcher on either arm.

  “I suppose you’ll just use your big stick,” Samuel said, eyeing Drakkar’s staff.

  “It is a rather pointy stick, so yes.”

  “It should be enough while we’re being escorted by a noble Spider Knight,” Alice chimed in.

  Samuel took a deep breath and turned to the gates. “Right then. Let’s find Ambrose.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A small row of storefronts had survived the Fall. Jacob looked into the windows at undisturbed tea settings and then through the rounded bay windows of a clockmaker’s shop. It was jarring, seeing something so unscathed in the ruin that surrounded them.

  And it wasn’t merely the wreckage of the buildings themselves.

  “The smell,” Alice mumbled, covering her mouth. “It’s worse than yesterday.”

  “It will fade soon,” Drakkar said. “The worst of the rot has set in. Be on the lookout for Carrion Worms.”

  “There have been a few,” Samuel said. “One of the old cabins near the far west wall collapsed on a family and …” He trailed off, glancing back at Jacob and Alice.

  “I don’t think you need to worry about giving us nightmares,” Alice said. “We’ve seen enough.”

  Jacob wasn’t sure he agreed. It was one thing to be in a fight, but it was another thing entirely when he’d been fleeing the hordes with Charles. When he saw the mass drag Bradley Piers to the ground to be consumed …

  He shivered and turned back to the cleared street ahead of them.

  Most of the invaders had been removed, or at least pushed far enough off the streets to not be an obstacle. A few more shops were still standing closer to the city walls, but as they crossed into the residential areas, following the wide stairs that led downhill, the full scope of the devastation crashed into Jacob once more. They weren’t speeding by the wreckage on the back of a Walker this time.

  He tried to focus on the cobblestones and the distant shouts of what he now realized were the construction workers on the walls. But it was hard not to stare at what had been. And what had been done to the Lowlands.

  Alice rubbed at her eyes, but said nothing while Drakkar kept a solemn watch over the debris. Jacob realized that was probably the smartest thing any of them were doing. Carrion Worms could be tricky and explode from the earth in the most unlikely of places.

  “Hold!” A loud voice boomed as they rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs and the rebuilt sections of the wall came into view. Jacob recognized the speaker giving hand signals to the men operating a pulley system to hoist large stones and set them onto the base.

  The pale gray block, some three feet in length, cracked down on the stone below it with a thunderclap.

  “Not so hard!” Ambrose shouted. “You don’t want to pick up the pieces if one of those shatters.”

  As the crew straightened one behemoth stone, masons chiseled away at the foundations of what used to be homes. They were harvesting the largest of them to become part of the city wall. It was smart, but Baddawick was right. They’d run out of stone before they’d finish.

  “Ambrose!” Samuel said.

  Ambrose dusted his gloves off and turned when his name was called. He paused and held a hand above his eyes to dim the sun. He had grown a rough beard since Jacob had seen him last, but the smile was familiar. He remembered that smile when Charles had shown him the nail glove.

  “Samuel,” Ambrose said, trading grips with the Spider Knight. “Jacob, Alice. It’s good to see you again. And I’ve heard tales of the Cave Guardian.”

  “A Cave Guardian,” Drakkar said. “Though I am not of the order of the Nameless.”

  “An honor, regardless.” He turned to his crew. “Mount the steel first, then grind the stone. Can you handle that?”

  A somewhat grumpy and begrudging affirmation came back.

  Ambrose grinned at Samuel. “They’re a good crew, but you need to keep them in line sometimes.”

  “Where are the Spider Knights?” Samuel asked.

  “Other side of the wall. Cleaning up whatever the warship missed in that last barrage.”

  Jacob eyed the structure of the wall. A series of bolts ran along the base, connecting through brackets mounted to the stone. But the bolts looked small, too small to keep things in place long term.

  “Are you bracing those bolts with anything?” he asked before he could think more about it.

  “Only the brackets at the base.”

  Jacob thought back to the crush of invaders hitting the walls during the fall of Ancora. While these walls were stone, they still weren’t as thick as the Highlands, and he wasn’t sure how much they could withstand.

  “Have you thought about putting an angled bracer on? Forty-five degrees, bolted to the center of the wall?”

  Ambrose’s eyebrow rose a hair. “I’ve thought about it, yes, but the few bolt gloves we have can’t handle that kind of force. We need to drill the stone out and anchor it more traditionally. That would take time.”

  Jacob nodded. “That makes sense. Maybe when the wall is done, they can be added.” He rubbed at his cheek. “I do have some ideas, though. Let me try some things to see if I can speed up the process.”

  Ambrose gestured toward the wall. “I won’t say no if you can save us some time. Rebuilding this wall is a race. I don’t think we’d be able to do it if Bollwerk hadn’t left one of their warships here.”

  The chittering screech of a Jumper pierced the air around them. Conversation froze as they turned toward the sound. Scuttling around the far end of the wall, scattering the workers, came a trio of Red Death. Brilliant black carapaces adorned with a red skull flashed in the sunlight.

  The first of the Red Death spread its wings, only a blur as the beetle reared up to strike down one of the workers. But even as Jacob drew his air cannon, the Spider Knight on the Jumper pounced. He leaped from his mount, halberd extended as he slammed down onto the back of the Red Death. The wings softened his landing, as the blade cut through the beetle’s head and sparked against the cobblestones.

  Jacob paced
forward, raising his air cannon and taking aim as the second Red Death charged toward them. The boom of the cannon preceded an eruption of gore. The beetle collapsed and slid through the debris near the base of the wall.

  Though Drakkar and Samuel were ready for the third, they didn’t need to be. The knight’s abandoned mount streaked over the wall and pounced, fangs extended as it slammed into the Red Death and tore the beetle apart.

  It was unusually aggressive behavior for a Jumper, and even Samuel took a step back from the chittering mount.

  The Spider Knight rolled off the dead beetle and slid a silver whistle out of his pocket. Two notes played in a rapid crescendo caught the spider’s attention. It dropped its prey and hurried back to the knight.

  With a nod to the nearest construction crew, the Spider Knight remounted and returned to the opposite side of the wall.

  Ambrose took a deep breath and turned to Jacob. “I can tell you one thing. It’s certainly not boring in the Lowlands these days.”

  * * *

  They said goodbye to Ambrose for the time being. Jacob’s mind churned over a dozen different ideas as Samuel led them deeper into the Lowlands. The cleared trails through the debris narrowed. More and more, they had to step around homes fallen into the streets and the broken remains of invaders.

  It was the piles of those remains that shifted that were the most unnerving. Occasionally, a small buzz or click rose from the ruins, putting the entire group on edge.

  At the lowest point in the road, they no longer had a path. Instead, they climbed the rubble, making their way past burned-out storefronts and the collapsed façades of family homes that had stood for decades.

  Jacob’s focus returned to keeping his footing. It was trickier now on rough terrain. Smith had told him it would take time for his balance to be more instinctual as it once was. He didn’t notice it much on level ground, but walking over stone and wood and broken furniture made it far more obvious.

  The hill grew steep, and slowly they made their way out of the worst of the debris field.

  He heard Alice sniff. When he glanced back, she was rubbing her eyes. Jacob frowned and looked around the area. It was only then that he realized they were back in their old neighborhood. Somewhere in that collapsed ruin was her home, and his.

  The thought tightened his chest, and he slowed, reaching out to squeeze Alice’s arm. She offered him a weak smile. They continued on, trailed by Drakkar.

  The old observatory Charles used to use as a workshop was in a less densely populated part of the Lowlands. That also meant there was less debris in the streets, and the risk of breaking their ankles grew infinitely less severe as they started up that steep hill. It also helped that the row of homes nearest to it had survived. One of the roofs had collapsed into the street, but the stone slabs were easily skirted.

  Samuel led them south, cutting through a relatively clear area before starting back up the hill Jacob had once fled down with Charles.

  The strange cone shape of the observatory drew Jacob’s eye. It looked different in the sunlight as they came closer to it. Now he could see the gouges and scrapes along the sides where invaders had torn through the area. The fact the observatory had not burned down, or been toppled by the invaders, might have been more than luck.

  “Look at the claw marks on the side,” Jacob said.

  Samuel stopped and studied the exterior of the observatory. “They only go a few feet up. I would’ve expected the invaders to climb to the top, considering it’s one of the highest structures.”

  “They slid off it,” Alice said.

  Jacob nodded. That was his assessment too. And it explained the long drag marks across the metal plating.

  Samuel tried the front door, but the heavy handle just clicked, and nothing moved. “Good. Still locked.”

  “I’d hoped it would stay locked,” Jacob said. “Do you think … I don’t want anyone else messing around with Charles’s things.”

  “I only brought Ambrose and a couple of his workers to help me with the barrels. Doubt many people have been here since the Fall.”

  “The workshop of Charles von Atlier,” Drakkar said. “To think I learned to call him a friend.”

  “Cave Guardians didn’t appreciate Charles much, did they?” Samuel asked.

  “No,” Drakkar said. “We have a long memory. And what was done in the Deadlands War was unforgivable. Though the more I learn of that history, the more I understand why it was done. But the best intentions do not always excuse the worst offenses.”

  Jacob made his way to the loose paneling hidden along the outer wall he’d so often used to sneak into Charles’s workshop. It resisted for a moment, and then gave way with a small squeak.

  Shadows and quiet waited inside the observatory. It was not as dark as when he’d visited with Alice once in the middle of the night. Now there was enough sunlight to make out most of the shapes in the workshop, even if darkness still hid in the corners.

  Something thunked down on Samuel’s shoulder and he screeched, dancing in a circle, trying to see what was attacking him.

  Alice grabbed him by the arm. “Stop!” She raised her hand, and a furry gray Jumper leaped into her palm. “See? It’s just a little Jumper.”

  Samuel’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Of course it is. Of course I’m fine.”

  Drakkar’s grip on his spear relaxed as the Spider Knight’s panic slowly resolved.

  “Where did you find the journal?” Jacob asked, picking up a long bolt he thought might be useful to Ambrose. He’d have to test it back in the workshop.

  Samuel shook himself, suppressing a shiver. He glanced at the workbench off to the right and then focused on the shelving to their left. Samuel walked to the far end.

  “Here, under this broken stone.”

  “I’m surprised Charles left a broken stone,” Alice said. “That seems like the kind of thing he would’ve fixed.”

  Jacob agreed. He crouched down and lifted half the broken stone out of its resting place. There didn’t appear to be much underneath it other than more stone. He glanced up at the sunlight coming through the cracks in the observatory roof.

  “I need a lantern.”

  Alice shuffled through the remnants on the workbench and pulled up a lantern with a small reflector. Her hand slid into one of the pouches at her side and retrieved a Burner, clicking the igniter and dropping it into the lantern.

  “Thanks,” Jacob said as he took the lantern. He squinted in the flickering light, running his fingers around the edges of the unbroken stones. It wasn’t like Charles to leave something broken like that. Other than the panel on the side of the observatory, Jacob supposed.

  Three sides of the stone were simply that: finely cut rock pulled from the earth and formed into tiles. But his fingers caught on something on the fourth side. He sat the lantern down and lay his head flush with the floor. He didn’t stop the smile that crawled its way across his lips.

  “What is it?” Alice asked.

  “I think it’s the edge of the puzzle lock.”

  “A what?” Drakkar asked.

  “It’s like a safe,” Alice said. “Some of the old homes in Ancora have them. But why wouldn’t he have just put the journal in there too? Why leave it under a stone where anyone could find it?”

  “I don’t know,” Jacob said, shaking his head. “But I’d like to find out.”

  He pushed on the indentations at the edge of the stone, tried prying them out with his fingernails, and even twisted them, but nothing would budge. “I wonder if it’s rusted out?”

  “We can break it out with a hammer,” Samuel said. “Take it back to the workshop?”

  “No. It’s too heavy for that.” Jacob frowned and sat up, looking around the room. “I need a chisel or something thin. Something we can use as a lever.”

  Alice started opening some of the remaining barrels and crates and looking inside. She moved from one to the next, eventually making her way over to the workbench again. />
  “Try underneath,” Jacob said.

  Alice crouched down, looking up into the darkness underneath the workbench. Jacob knew there were pockets and ledges Charles had never filled in where the old tinker liked to randomly leave tools. One by one, Alice dragged out an old hammer from the ledges, two woven baskets, and a blackened bar that looked like a broken lever.

  “I think this will work.” Alice made her way across the observatory and dropped the edge of the broken lever into the gap between two of the stone tiles.

  At first, she tried prying up the stone that held the puzzle lock. But it didn’t so much as shudder.

  “Try the other one, the stone next to it.”

  Alice did, and the edge of it popped up with little effort.

  “Yes!” Jacob said, studying this new side of the puzzle lock.

  Alice let the stone drop to the floor with a thud. “Heavier than they look.”

  “Are you sure about this?” Samuel asked. “Charles always liked those stories about booby-trapped treasures. Maybe we should be a bit more careful with this.”

  “As hidden as this is?” Jacob asked. “I think we’ll be okay.”

  He slid the catch on the side, a motion quickly followed by three clicks and a tremor in the top of the tile. Jacob worked his fingertips under the stone and lifted. The resistance was gone now, other than the weight of the rock itself, and when Drakkar saw it move, he hopped in to help lever it off what waited beneath.

  “What is that?” Samuel asked.

  “There’s another layer to the lock,” Alice said.

  Jacob frowned at the large dial, shaped like a carriage wheel but infinitely more complicated.

  “Steamsworn?” Drakkar whispered.

  Jacob looked up at the Cave Guardian. “What do you mean? Do you recognize these symbols?”

  “They are letters. From an old language the villages near Bollwerk once used. And one I have not seen much of outside of Bollwerk.” Drakkar trailed off, running his fingers along the outer circle. “But this, this reads Steamsworn.”

  “What else does it say?” Alice asked, leaning closer.

  “Nonsense mostly. Words without order. Grave. Find. Flames. I do not understand. Me in?” Drakkar frowned.