by Eric Asher
“What? Why?”
Alice paused when she reached the hatch above the gun pod, spinning the lock to open it and then slipping inside. She opened the horn. “Because we already lost one gun, and I don’t want to die today.”
“Gods be damned! Shoot straight, and if it looks like the mountains are getting too close, get out of the pod.”
Alice locked her harness in and grabbed the controls. She’d seen them work before, and she knew the wheel would rotate the entire pod. She spun it clockwise, tracing the sights of the chaingun until it was aimed behind them.
One of the schooners had followed them into the valley, and it was a mistake they’d regret. Alice flipped the trigger guards off the top of the levers as she put the ship in the crosshairs and squeezed the buttons down with her thumbs.
The chaingun burst into life, scouring the side of the valley as she strafed across the bow of the ship behind her. Small bursts of wood and sparks lit up behind them, but the schooner still had time to fire back. Cannon fire ripped into the mountain beside Alice, peppering the glass gun pod with rock and debris.
They didn’t have time for this. They had to stop the bomber, and at this rate, there’d be nothing left of Midstream by the time they got back to it. Alice tracked to the right, following the curve of the canyon, and unleashed another volley as the schooner made the turn. This time the shots sparked against the armored struts of the gas chamber before cutting into the cannon mounted above the cabin.
Alice flinched when something caught fire and detonated a moment later, sending the schooner to the floor of the valley in a tumbling, flaming wreck. There was an odd sense of satisfaction, followed by the gut-wrenching realization that anyone on that ship was dead.
“It was them or us,” she whispered.
“It still might be us, kid!” Mary shouted over the horn. “Smith, I can’t adjust altitude.”
“I had to disconnect the drive rod. Hold on!”
“Their cannon is locked on, Smith! We’re in a straightaway! Fix the damn rod!”
Alice unbuckled her harness and leaped out of the gun pod. If Mary couldn’t adjust their elevation, then the gun pod would be the first thing to get smashed on the rocks. She made her way up to the deck and back to the cabin, where she saw the first cannonball miss their bow by inches.
“Sorry, girls,” Mary said. “I didn’t think we’d get trapped like this.”
Alice fastened her harness and reached out to squeeze Furi’s hand. But the moment she did, Furi pointed out the windscreen.
“Look!”
“Another ship incoming!” Mary shouted into the horn. “Starboard!”
But before Alice could so much as worry about Mary’s warning, the sides of the ship unfurled, and the flags shifted beneath the gleaming gold of the bow. The Ray dove, opening fire on the schooner with such a fury that the ship was rent in two. Alice watched in horror as the schooner spilled its guts and its burning crewmen into the sky, only to be smashed into the mountainside that waited below.
“Skysworn, this is The Ray. You can thank Furi for my short bout of conscience.”
Mary clicked the transmitter. “Ray, thanks for the assist. Can you help us take down that bomber?”
“Bomber?”
“You didn’t see the bomber over Midstream?”
“Negative. I came from the north. Had to harass some Fel clippers in the desert before I made my way here. Your crew may have left your frequency on my transmitter. I’ve been listening for a while now.”
“Drive rod ready!” Smith said.
Mary pulled back, and the Skysworn arced out of the valley. She guided it up alongside The Ray, signaling Jakon in the cabin.
Furi leaped out of her seat and hit the transmitter by Mary. “Jakon, it’s Furi. Thank you.”
“No names. You never know who’s listening.”
“Apparently, you are. You didn’t answer Mary. Can you help?”
There was a brief moment of dead air when Alice dreaded Jakon’s answer. Then he spoke. “I didn’t come all this way not to help. Let’s take care of your bomber, and then I can get back to cooking for a living.”
“And smuggling,” Furi said, but she’d already released the transmitter.
“The bombs are carried in the cargo pontoons, away from the hull,” Jakon said. “They’re armored, but they can be penetrated by a good shot to the seams.”
“You only need one good shot out of a hundred,” Mary said.
“Well, I suppose that’s true, but it would take rather a long time to load a cannon one hundred times.”
Smoke filled the horizon before Alice saw the shadow. She couldn’t judge the distance between the bomber and Midstream very well, but from where they were, it didn’t look like the city had much time left at all.
Apparently, Mary noticed it at the same time. “How fast can that old rust bucket run?”
“Old rust bucket!” Jakon said. “I doubt you can keep up.”
“Smith, making the jump.”
Furi fumbled with her harness and locked it in a second before Mary hit the thrusters. They shot ahead, leading The Ray, though Alice was fairly certain she heard a rather large piece of metal tear away from the Skysworn.
“Damn,” Jakon said, a moment before twin flames burst from the rear of The Ray, and though the Skysworn might have stayed ahead of Jakon as they closed on the bomber, it wasn’t by nearly as much as Alice had expected.
“Get in the pod, Smith. We’re going to dive under the gas chambers and you’re going to put as many rounds as you can into those pontoons. Jakon, take the port side. We’ll hammer the starboard.”
“No, I’ll follow you in.”
“Be ready to run.”
The Ray slowed, pulling into the Skysworn’s slipstream and out of Alice’s line of sight. She clenched her teeth as the bomber loomed ever larger. The closer they got, the more she realized how massive it was. If they shot it down over the city, and it exploded, she doubted they’d save much of anyone.
She said as much to Mary.
“I know. We’re only two miles out. It’s going to be close. Cutting thrusters.” It was all the warning she gave before slowing the Skysworn and dipping down beneath the wide, flat gas chambers of the bomber. They’d arrived so fast, Alice wondered if Smith would react in time.
But the moment she’d had that thought, the chaingun below the Skysworn roared to life. She could feel the vibration through her seat, but nothing like when she’d been seated in the gun pod herself.
“What the hell are you firing!” Jakon shouted over the transmitter.
“We survive this, I’ll have Smith make you one as thanks.”
“Well, then you better survive because I need a pair! Bomber deploying cannons. Get out of there!”
Smith’s hail of shells punched dozens of holes into the pontoons, but still, the bomber continued on. Mary swerved hard to starboard, veering out from beneath the bomber as a line of small cannons opened fire on their former trajectory.
But while the barrels were pointed down, The Ray swung wide, angling in from the aft as its cannons unfurled and the skull and crossbones snapped in the wind. Jakon passed close to the Skysworn, so close it made Alice’s skin crawl as the ship shook. But a moment later, the ship shook for an entirely different reason.
She watched in awe and horror as the pontoon ruptured. The Ray dove beneath it, and a fireball nearly as large as Midstream itself flashed upward into the gas chambers of the bomber.
Alice had once heard stories of ships that could only fly on gas that was as flammable as the air in the Burning Forest. She’d never really believed it until the explosion threatened to deafen her, and the Fel bomber was consumed by waves of fire.
“Jakon!” Furi shouted. “Did he clear it?”
“Skysworn to Ray. Skysworn to Ray!”
For a moment, there was only static. “Ray here. A little burnt, but I’ll survive. Bomber is falling, but it’s going to hit the southern outskirts of
the city. I hope they got everyone out.”
Even as Jakon spoke, the bomber crumpled into the sands below, sending up a cloud of fire and steam and death that spread like a furious sandstorm. More than one of the smaller homes on the edge of Midstream collapsed in that gale, and two functional crawlers vanished in the blast.
Alice silently hoped Jacob and Gladys were still alive.
“Ray, we’re setting down to look for our friends.”
“You’re mad. There’s still two dozen crawlers down there.”
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and take care of a few?”
Jakon laughed. “Aye, that I can do.”
Fire streaked from The Ray, sending up plumes of sand and shrapnel as the first crawler met its quick demise. By the time Jakon reached the third, soldiers were scattering outside the city, returning to their crawlers, and retreating to the north.
“Smith, we’re landing.”
“No,” Smith said. “We’ll take the lines down. Stay airborne. Be ready to leave if you need to.”
Mary hesitated and then nodded. “Will do. Be careful.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Jacob blinked in the flickering light and shadows, trying to understand where he was and why the walls were moving. Slowly he realized he was being dragged on a stretcher. He checked himself over for injury, finding a crude bandage on his head.
“What happened?” he asked, wincing at the pain that shot through his skull.
He grunted when the stretcher dropped, and Gladys suddenly appeared above him.
“Sorry!” She reached out and hugged him. “I thought we lost you. A brick hit you in the back of the head. Helena patched you up.”
Jacob frowned as Gladys pulled away. “Helena? I thought she went with George.”
“His memory is still good,” Helena said. “Positive sign. I was helping evacuate the city and came back to gather who I could when the bombing started.”
Jacob looked around at the smooth stone walls. A quiet rush of water sounded in the distance. The only light came from torches that were slowly filling the top of the corridor with a thin veil of smoke.
Something like distant thunder echoed around them, and a small trickle of dust and sand fell from the ceiling. More memories came rushing back to Jacob, and he jumped up from the stretcher, much to Helena’s protests.
Midstream, the bomber, the crawlers …
“You shouldn’t be walking,” Helena said.
Jacob felt a little slow, but he’d been hit harder before. Or so he thought. “I can walk, and I won’t slow you down. Lead on, Princess.”
Gladys grinned at him while Helena rolled her eyes. But they didn’t argue, leaving the stretcher behind as he picked up his air cannon and pack from the stretched canvas.
“There’s an opening to the wells ahead,” Gladys said. “We have three options. Take the underground river to the oasis, continue on to the other side of the mountain where the docks are, or shelter here and fight anyone who followed us.”
“We have too many injured to take the river, Princess,” Helena said. “It’s nearly a minute underwater at the end of the stream.”
Just the thought of trying to hold his breath made Jacob’s head spin. And if anyone else was injured, like Helena had said, it was a losing prospect.
Gladys nodded as she led the way into a circular cistern. The walls had been lined with stone, but above them were natural rock formations clinging to the arched ceiling. Jacob wondered how old it was for the water to have deposited such large stalactites. Had the river once been above them, or was it just groundwater?
More thunder chased away his thoughts.
“I don’t think the docks are safe,” Gladys said. “If they saw George and the others leave, they could bomb those next.”
Helena nodded. “It is possible.”
Gladys took a deep breath. “Then we fight. Here. We form a barrier to both sides of the path. They can only come in two at a time, three at a time at most. Anyone who has bolts or arrows can line up to target the doorway. Swords and spears in front.”
Helena went to work without question, directing the injured to the back of the pathway that arched above the underground river. They shifted several heavy stones and aged crates closer to the entryway, creating a funnel for anyone entering the cavern, and offering shelter to those at the front of the lines.
Jacob didn’t count the number of Midstreamers who came into the chamber behind him, but it was obvious a great deal of the citizenry hadn’t escaped with George. He pulled the air cannon off his back and racked the slide. He might be injured, but if he didn’t help fight, he might be dead.
* * *
It wasn’t long after the last of the Midstreamers had entered the cistern that they could see the light of torches at the far end of the hall. Helena signaled everyone to draw back from the entrance. No incoming soldier would be able to see what waited for them.
But the waiting was agony. Jacob’s heart pounded and his fingers flexed around the barrel of the air cannon. Memories of the battle of Ancora screamed in his memory, and he tried to focus on the moment, tried to block out the thought that he already knew what was coming down that corridor.
Jacob sprawled out on the floor at the edge of one of the crates, taking a deep breath of the musty air. His new position gave him a line of sight to the corridor while keeping him almost completely hidden in the shadows. He’d expected to hear footsteps synchronized like a march, but when the sound reached his ears, it was anything but.
The torches grew brighter, and the first two soldiers crossed into the light. Jacob had never seen armor so heavy before. Metal plates covered their bodies from head to toe, and their helmets, which should have had weaknesses at the eyes at least, were shielded themselves with a curved transparency.
“Fire!” Helena shouted.
Bolts and arrows slammed into the armored figures. A few found passage in the joints of the armor, but the vast majority pinged off them harmlessly. Jacob clicked the button on a Banger and slid it into the air cannon’s barrel. He steadied himself and fired. The boom caused almost everyone in that room to freeze as the metal orb cracked through the first soldier’s faceplate and caved the armor in beneath it.
Jacob didn’t wait for the screams to stop before he reloaded. Didn’t wait for the Banger to fail in a spray of teeth and gore as he aimed at the second soldier. This one was still stunned, staring at his fallen comrade. Jacob’s shot took him in the chest, and the armor failed in earnest, cutting a deep bloody wound before the man collapsed. The Banger detonated, and blood streamed across the floor, pooling around the dead.
Shouts rose in the corridor, and Jacob had little doubt they were about to find themselves battling far more of the armored troops. But while the screams and thunder echoed through the tunnel, no one came. It continued for some minutes before a bloody form hobbled into the chamber, two bolts hammered into its arm.
“Hold fire!” Gladys shouted. And when she did, the remaining soldier spun to face the tunnel.
Jacob didn’t understand why Gladys had called to hold fire until a flash of red hair gleamed in the torchlight. Alice. She looked savage with the stream of blood matting down one side of her hair. Smith’s heavy footfalls followed her down the corridor.
But beside Alice was someone he didn’t recognize. She was small, but Jacob thought she might be older than them both. And when she flourished a bloody blade in her right hand, she showed a terrible skill that made Jacob never want to find himself on the wrong end of its edge.
It had to be Furi, the Ballern girl Alice had told him about.
She sprang on the last soldier, weaving under the sweep of a sword before pulling his helmet back as her blade slid into his neck. He gasped and gurgled and then fell onto the pair of soldiers they’d recently fought.
Alice’s fiery gaze roamed the cavern until she found Jacob and Gladys. Something in her expression softened, even as she reloaded the wrist launcher she’d
taken from Charles’s lab. She held a hand out to Jacob and pulled him to his feet, offering a quick embrace before doing the same to Gladys.
“How bad is the city?” Gladys asked.
“Bad,” Smith said, straightening a bent rod near his shoulder with some annoyance.
“Could have been worse,” Alice said. “One of Furi’s friends from Ballern helped destroy the bomber.”
“Ballern?” Helena said. “You’re from Ballern?” She turned to Furi, and something warred across her face. Jacob suspected he knew the feeling. A mixture of curiosity and long-instilled fear.
Furi nodded. “I fought in the airship battle not far from here. That’s where Belldorn captured me, and how I met Alice.”
Helena frowned. “Then why would you help Midstream? Help us? Ballern has never been a friend to the desert cities.”
“It still isn’t,” Furi said quietly. “But their alliance with Fel is a threat to more than just Midstream. It’s a threat to all of us, in every city on this continent, and others.”
Helena held up her hand. “Midstream is my only concern right now. You can talk to George and Gladys about the rest.”
Smith rubbed the back of his neck as Gladys pounced on him, giving the mountain of a man a crushing hug. “It’s good to see you too. Feels like it’s been too long.”
“You and Mary need to come visit. I know it’s only been a week, but it feels like forever.”
Smith smiled. “Well, a lot has happened. And it sounds like a lot more is going to happen.” He gave Furi a meaningful look before turning back to Gladys. “Do you wish to retreat to Bollwerk? We can fit your people on the Skysworn and The Ray. I am quite certain of that.”
“We’ll make do here,” Gladys said. “After all, if that bomber crashed nearby, that will give us a lot of steel to work with. Let’s get above ground. I need to see what’s happened to the city.”
“It’s not good,” Alice said. “At least a block was destroyed across the entire city. Right through the middle.”
Gladys looked to Jacob. “Do you think Archibald would send more Titan Mech parts here? So we could work on more buildings at once?”