Skyborn

by Eric Asher

  Jacob cursed. “That’s madness.” He raised the arm of the tensioner to release some of the pressure and then lifted the new mechanism off it. It worked on the same principle as the bolt glove, but it was sized much larger.

  “That’s practically a cannon,” Alice said.

  “I like that. A bolt cannon.” He tried to pull the lever back on the side of the cannon, but the spring fought him every inch of the way. “That’s going to need some work. I could make it a two-handed draw … mount a bar to the back of the plates …” Jacob gritted his teeth, shaking with the effort of cocking the bolt cannon, but it finally clicked into place.

  “Ok, I’m going to stand outside the door for this,” Alice said, sliding off the stool.

  “I think I’d like to stand outside with you,” Jacob said with a laugh. “Maybe we can get Samuel to push the button …” He slid the long bolt into the chamber, pleased when the small magnet held it in place. With a good deal of caution, Jacob lined up the end of the bolt gun with a stack of broken stone they’d gathered from the street. He sat a steel plate on top.

  “It’s not flat against the stone,” Alice said. “Do you think that will matter?”

  Jacob bit his lips. He wasn’t sure. “One way to find out.” He clicked the release on the end, and the bolt cannon almost leaped out of his hands. The explosive crack as the bolt hit steel and stone startled him, far louder than he’d expected. The room fell silent and only dust drifted through the air.

  “That’s not terrifying at all,” Alice muttered.

  Jacob moved the bolt cannon. The plate had bent slightly, but the bolt had been driven in to its head. “Wow. That worked. Usually, things break before they work.”

  A moment later, the back of the bolt cannon fell off, and the spring launched itself out the back end, impaling itself into the ceiling. Jacob looked up at the dangling spring and then grinned at Alice. “That’s better.”

  Alice tried to move the metal plate beneath the bolt. “That’s solid. It didn’t shatter.” Then she tried to move the stones. “Uh, Jacob. I think you bolted this to Samuel’s floor.”

  When he didn’t answer, Alice looked up. He was nodding to himself. “Jacob?”

  “I have an idea to help restore the railway between Dauschen and Ancora. What if we mounted the arm of a Titan Mech to a flatbed? It could haul building materials and place them with minimum effort for the construction crews.”

  “That would be brilliant, but how do you expect to build something like that here? And … the stone is still bolted to the floor?”

  Jacob glanced at the stack of immovable rock. “That’s … we can fix that. But as to building the arm, it wouldn’t be here.” He smiled. “Bollwerk. We can improve the gliders and get the materials I need for a Titan Mech. And we can get help building bolt cannons.”

  Alice sighed and looked at the pile of books they’d gotten from the observatory. “Now I’m going to have to choose.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Jacob and Alice stood in a cleared area of the Lowlands, not far from the city gates. They could have traveled with Drakkar and Samuel, back to Cave, and then reached out to Bollwerk from there, but Jacob was eager to get back into Smith’s workshop. One idea after another came to him, inspired by some of Charles’s sketches in the journals, and he didn’t have the tools for many of those ideas at Samuel’s.

  Instead, he’d contacted Archibald about finding a ship traveling between the two cities.

  Alice was seated on the remnants of a stone bench in what used to be a garden filled with flowers. It had all been buried in rubble, only to be shoveled away in the cleanup efforts. Jacob crouched to see which of the books had held her attention for the past hour.

  “Eastern Conflicts of the Modern Age, again?”

  Alice nodded. “Which is a bit ironic now, considering it’s older than the Deadlands War. I still don’t understand some of the expressions they use, and some of the words are a mystery, but the context helps.”

  “Where are they?” Jacob asked, squinting at the sky. “Archibald said the supply ship should be here by now. A ‘quick’ stop in Dauschen, and then a delivery here.”

  “What I find fascinating,” Alice said, continuing like Jacob hadn’t spoken, “is that this book ends after what we learned was the inciting event of the Deadlands War. The founding of Fel and the alliance with the warlords, right? But this text calls that the end of the wars. This book was published by a Ballern house. It’s as though they’ve completely ignored the fact Ballern financed Fel and supported their war efforts in the destruction of Midstream and the Deadlands villages.”

  Jacob sat down on the bench beside Alice. “It’s easier to control a people who don’t know their own history.”

  “Exactly, Jacob. But …” She trailed off and closed the book. “It has things about Bollwerk in here too. I don’t know if they’re propaganda or rooted in truth, but it says the Speaker who preceded Archibald was assassinated.”

  “Not so unusual in wartime.”

  “No, but this says it was a militant group led by Archibald.”

  Jacob frowned. “A hostile takeover? In Bollwerk?”

  “Maybe? It was a different time. Think about it. They were riddled with Mechs back then. Soldiers who had literally gone mad from the metals in their bodies. It’s possible he seized an opportunity.”

  Jacob glanced up when a shadow crossed their path. A small airship circled above. And as it crossed the path of the sun and revealed itself in full, Jacob smiled up at the Skysworn.

  “Are those pirate flags?” Alice asked, her attention entirely refocused. “What in the world are they doing?”

  The Skysworn dropped in a lazy spiral until the ship was no more than thirty feet above their heads.

  “Heard you needed a ride,” a voice boomed as a shadow leaned over the railing.

  It hadn’t even been a week since they’d seen Smith, but Jacob grinned at the sight of him. A rope slammed onto the stone ten feet to their left.

  “Do you honestly expect us to climb that?” Alice shouted up at Smith.

  The rope jerked a few times, and two gray streaks slid down it. Jacob laughed as he caught the wheels. They already had a Burner inside the belay mechanism, and it wasn’t one of Charles’s designs. The holes alternated in size, and Jacob studied it further until Alice snatched it out of his hands.

  “We can look at them onboard.” She glanced out at the ruins of the Lowlands and shivered. “I’ve seen enough of this place for a while.” Alice wrapped a leather strap around her palm and latched the wheels onto the rope. A click of the ignitor, and a burst of heat sent her into the air.

  “Right then.” Jacob pulled the spring back on his own pair of wheels so the gap between the upper and lower wheels opened before locking on the rope again. The igniter was more resistant than what he was used to, but it eventually sparked, and flames flickered around the edges of the Burner before the wheels jerked him into the air.

  It was hard not to smile, soaring through the sky like that, the wind whipping through his hair. But the aerial view of the Lowlands was sobering, at best. He knew it was good to take small pleasures where he could, but it was a stark reminder there was work to be done.

  * * *

  They followed Smith to the cockpit after stashing the wheels in one of the slanted holds near the cabin. The Skysworn rose higher into the air with every passing moment.

  “I will let Mary tell you why we are flying the pirate colors,” Smith said in answer to Alice’s question. “It is not my place to say.”

  Mary’s head snapped around at those words as she scowled at Smith. “Like we’re keeping secrets from these two. Come on now, Smith. Jacob, Alice, it’s good to see you. Pull up a jump seat. I don’t have all day to get to Bollwerk.”

  Jacob reached down and pried the edge of a jump seat up from the floor. It slid out quietly, folding down into a fairly uncomfortable wooden torture device, complete with restraints.

  “Oh, th
is is nice,” Alice said, patting the padding on her jump seat.

  “A cushion!” Jacob said. “Why don’t they all have cushions, Smith?”

  “Because I only had time to do one since we saved the city. Is that so terrible?”

  Alice and Mary exchanged a laugh as Smith dropped into a seat closer to Mary.

  “Take us to your pirate treasure,” Alice whispered.

  “Ugh,” Mary said, throwing her head back. “I almost missed you two, but I’m getting over that feeling. Ready to jump, Smith?”

  “Everything was ready back in Dauschen. Before you agreed to make this extra trip to Ancora.”

  Mary pulled a lever on the controls, and Jacob caught the edge of the flags retracting onto the deck. “To answer your question.” She threw two switches and checked the spherical compass rotating by the windshield. “We had to make good with a deal we struck before the Fall. But we ran into a little trouble along the way. With Dauschen all but destroyed, and Ancora’s military compromised, pirates are getting bold again.”

  “What do you mean?” Alice asked.

  “Word travels fast. Speakers and kings aren’t the only ones with spies in the cities, Alice. Pirate activity in Cave has spiked, and rumors are circulating that Pirate’s Cove is organizing under its own banner. A raiding party already attacked a supply ship bound for Midstream, and more than one clipper has been sighted around Bollwerk.”

  Jacob knew clippers were small, fast airships that had only one real advantage. They could run down, or escape, just about anything else in the skies. But they weren’t durable, and some of the engines weren’t reliable, which was likely why it was usually pirates who ran them. If your entire life was a risk, what was one more gamble?

  “So, we fly the black flags to ward off other pirates.”

  “I do not think it was necessary,” Smith said. “It is not as if the stories of the Skysworn have paled in time.”

  Alice perked up at that. “Tell us more. You keep teasing us about your dark and daring history, and then you don’t tell us anything.”

  “We’ve told you enough,” Mary said.

  “Bah,” Alice muttered, flopping back into her jump seat.

  The Skysworn tilted forward as Mary adjusted their bearing. It gave them a terrible view of the Lowlands around them. But Jacob frowned when he noticed the cleared area off to the west. It was too far inside the city to be part of the wall.

  “What is that?” Alice asked, pointing to the same area Jacob was studying.

  Mary shifted a lever, and the Skysworn leveled out, taking the wide vacant area out of view. “They’re building a proper airship dock.”

  “In the middle of the Lowlands?” Jacob asked.

  “That is what Archibald said.” Smith rubbed his hands together and took a deep breath.

  Alice exchanged a glance with Jacob. “What about all the homes there? That’s a rather large area.”

  Smith nodded. “It is, but the city will not need as many homes now. Entire families were lost in the Fall, and many who survived will never return. That is a kind of trauma some folks will spend their entire lives avoiding.”

  The Skysworn accelerated, pushing Jacob back against his seat as Mary slowly pushed the lever for the thrusters forward.

  Jacob was torn at the idea. The thought of Ancora having its own airship dock that could cater to the largest trading vessels was an exciting one. But that it came at such a steep cost was terrible.

  Apparently, Alice had the same thought. “Even if those homes were destroyed, the family still owns the property. They can’t just take it.”

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Mary said. “Speakers and parliaments and governments have a long history of taking whatever they please. There may be benevolent aspects to the Parliament in Ancora, but money speaks louder than lives.”

  Alice’s eyebrows rose. “That’s kind of dark.”

  “I’ve seen worse. And some of it from people I called my friends.”

  “Baddawick served in Parliament for years,” Alice said.

  “And?”

  “He’s taking in refugees from Dauschen. Giving them room and board and food at no cost. He doesn’t have to do that.”

  Mary cast a glance over her shoulder and smiled at Alice. “Baddawick’s one of the good ones.”

  “It is the men and women full of nothing but ambition you must be cautious of,” Smith said. “Some understand their people far too well.”

  “Isn’t that a good thing?” Jacob asked.

  “Not if they’ve learned how to manipulate you and are willing to do it,” Smith said. “If they know your ambitions, they can convince you to do almost anything. They understand drive and desire better than most.”

  Smith looked to Mary, whose knuckles whitened as she strangled a lever.

  Jacob met Alice’s gaze. She shrugged, and they let the conversation trail off into less consequential things.

  * * *

  They were only a couple hours into the trip before Alice pulled out a book again.

  Jacob did the same.

  Smith leaned over to examine the old journal. “What is that from?”

  “It’s one of Charles’s old journals. From the Deadlands War.”

  Smith whistled and studied the page a bit closer. “I am sure Archibald would be interested in that.”

  Jacob had thought the same thing, but he worried all Archibald would want the journal for was warmongering. Jacob liked the idea of repurposing Charles’s inventions, even if he knew there were more battles to come.

  “I’m thinking about building one of these arms, from the Titan Mech?”

  Smith’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you hope to do with that?”

  “I think we could mount it on a railcar and use it as a portable crane. The tracks between Dauschen and Ancora could be rebuilt much more quickly. If we could mount it on a base, something like a puffing demon, I think Ambrose could use it to rebuild the city walls too.”

  Smith nodded along with the idea. “There are a handful of smiths in Bollwerk who could help. If you can prove the concept, I am certain Archibald would allow them to travel to Dauschen.”

  Jacob picked his bag up from the floor and slid the long bolt cannon out of the main pouch. “This is the other thing I’m working on for Ambrose. It’s a bit difficult to load the mechanism right now because of the spring, but it’ll fire a bolt through a steel plate and anchor it into stone.”

  Smith took the long square cylinder and squinted at the locking mechanism. He primed it with ease using one hand, but Smith’s biomechanics gave him more physical strength than any wall workers would have.

  “I was thinking about adding a footplate you could stand on, and then a handle mounted between the spring and the launching plate.”

  Smith tapped the end of his nose. “That would work, but if you can fit the mechanism for a ratcheting lever inside of it, anyone could use it.”

  It was a simple solution, and one Jacob was annoyed he hadn’t thought of himself. In the space he’d planned to mount the handle he might be able to mount the cog for the ratchet. He just needed two wide plates—one for the crank itself, and another to anchor it through the other side.

  “I don’t think he heard you,” Alice said.

  Jacob looked up and blinked. “Sorry, what?”

  Smith smiled at him. “Go back to thinking. You will find the supplies you need in my workshop. I am sure Archibald will welcome you.”

  “I want to find a library in Belldorn,” Alice said.

  Mary turned away from the controls and the blue expanse spread out before them. “Belldorn has a great many libraries. You’d love the Crown Library.”

  Alice closed her book and looked up. “You aren’t exactly talking me out of the idea.”

  Mary laughed. “Why would I? I love Belldorn.”

  “You love Eva,” Smith whispered.

  Jacob caught Mary’s glare and laughed.

  “Don’t you start too,” Mary sai
d. “Don’t forget you’re on a pirate ship. It’s not unheard of for pirates to throw their captives overboard.” She ruined the threat with a wink.

  “Come with us,” Smith said.

  “To Belldorn?” Alice asked.

  Smith nodded. “We’ll stay the night in Bollwerk, but Belldorn is our next stop.”

  Jacob didn’t like the idea of Alice going on to Belldorn without him. Being around her was the only time he felt like himself after all that had happened since the Fall. But if he was going to be cooped up in Smith’s workshop, it wasn’t like he’d exactly be entertaining to be around.

  “You should go,” Jacob said. “A library you’ve never been in? How can you say no?”

  “I might be able to find something there,” Alice said, hugging the old book to her chest. “Maybe I can fill in the gaps between what happened between the old wars and the Deadlands Wars and whatever Belldorn’s rivalry with Ballern really is.”

  Mary frowned and looked down at Alice’s book. “What the hell did you find in there?”

  So Alice told them the story of what they’d found inside the old book from Ballern. About the wild shifts in the climate and environment that happened after the old wars. But they were still missing pieces, still didn’t fully understand what had turned the conflict with Ballern into a centuries-long skirmish.

  The cabin grew silent for a time, until Jacob remembered another question he had. “Is my glider still in your lab?” Smith had taken it after the conflict in Ancora. He wanted to examine the layout of the spring mechanisms Charles had designed.

  “Yes, I did manage to straighten out some of the more damaged parts, but I am afraid you still have some work to do.”

  “That’s okay. I’m going to try improving the design, make it easier to steer. Alice and I were thinking we could send some of them to Dauschen. People are making the trip to Ancora on foot, but it would be safer with gliders.”

  “It would be safer on a ship,” Mary said, exasperation plain in her voice. “We could carry people back and forth. Not a great many at a time, but we could still help.”