by Jack Conner
A gaggle of Returners had reached the board on the other roof. One tried to cross. Aqa fired again. Its skull exploded. Brains spattered the creatures behind it.
Aqa stooped, set Heather down, and dropped her gun. She grabbed the board with both hands and pulled. Sweat beaded her brow, and her jaw muscles bunched as she did it. The board was heavy, Kat saw, and water-logged. She crouched down by Aqa, grabbed the board, and added her meager muscles to the effort. At last they dragged the huge board across.
Panting, they both sat on the rooftop and watched as the Returners howled and raged on the opposite side.
“Thank you,” Aqa said.
Kat laughed. “Thank you. Nice shooting.” Her gaze strayed to Heather, who lay still. For a moment Kat thought she’d stopped breathing, and something cold gathered inside her. But then she saw Heather’s chest rise, then fall, and she relaxed. “We have to get my friend a doctor.”
“All the docs in the Hollows report to Loqrin, kid. They’d recognize your friend for one of his playthings right off.” Before Kat could despair, Aqa grinned and patted her on the shoulder. “But I know someone who might help you.”
Aqa placed Heather over her shoulder again, shoved her gun back in its holster, and set off. Katya followed. Aqa led from rooftop to rooftop, and Katya realized there was a whole network of aerial transportation. A highway in the skyway, Aqa told her. Katya trembled the first few boards she had to cross, but after a time she grew better at it. She knew she’d never be as nimble as Aqa, but at least she wouldn’t shiver herself off the damned board. Rain flung down on them, and lightning lit the skies. Below, Returners raged and howled, and the sounds of screams and braking glass drifted up.
“How can he do this to his own people?” Kat panted once as they sheltered against a pigeon coop.
Aqa looked at her levelly. “Because he’s a fuckin’ madder, that’s why.”
“Yeah. He is.” But there was more to him than that, Katya knew. Loqrin Mars was up to something, something horrible, and she had to tell Ravic what she knew. Maybe with her pieces of the puzzle added to his they could begin to see the full picture.
After a rest, Aqa continued on, and Katya ached in weariness. Finally she heard music and laughter. What was this?
Aqa led her over a final board, around a bend, and to—well, it looked, to Katya’s surprise, like some sort of celebration, of all things. Jury-rigged tents of various colors held a host of people, some dancing, some drinking. Most were Hollowers, but some seemed to come from Outside, as Heather had put it. Swarthy musicians played on a makeshift stage, and before it whirled shopkeepers and factory workers and more. There were women, too, housewives and spinsters and prostitutes. The latter did not try to hide what they were but strolled among the dancers, grabbing crotches or offering a glimpse of a heavy breast. From time to time one of the men would accept, and the two would leave the open dancing tent and disappear into one of the smaller, closed tents—but not before handing money to a hard-looking man of maybe forty, shortish but strong, with a grizzled, shaven head and hard jaw. A tattoo of an eye stared out from his forehead, between and above his real eyes, which lit up at seeing Aqa. After Aqa set Heather down, the two embraced—and kissed. It was not a quick kiss, either.
Kat cleared her throat.
“Oh, yeah,” said Aqa, “I met these strays on the job—a bust, by the way.”
The man that must be Reddin lifted an eyebrow. “Yeah, me love, an’ why’s that?”
“Locks’ve gotten good.” She said it without a hint of shame.
“They must have, to keep you out. Better luck next time, then. Well, now, what’s this?” He stared from Katya to Heather. His eyes widened when he saw Heather’s back. Instantly he crouched over her. “Magnar reamed!”
“She needs help,” Katya said. “Aqa said there was a doctor.”
Reddin frowned. Nodded. With a glance to Aqa, he said, “Send Dana to fetch our fair wee sawbones, would you, lass?”
Aqa nodded, and without sparing a glance at Katya disappeared into the throng of dancers. They danced on, despite the storm that raged all about them, not having seen Heather. Alchemical lamps blazed brightly, throwing a warm if eerie light on the scene. Some of them had been draped around a defunct steam-man that stood, more statue than anything else, on the rooftop, covered in pigeon crap and scrawled with graffiti. Kat supposed this gathering was probably illegal, at least according to Loqrin. The booze they were drinking was probably from Outside, and the girls were Reddin’s, not Loqrin’s.
“Shit, lass, what’ve ye been doin’?” Reddin said, looking up from Heather to Kat.
Feeling suddenly unsteady, Katya grabbed her knees and took deep breaths. “Running, mostly. We—”
“Zeppelin!”
Katya didn’t see who had shouted the alarm, but the results were instant.
“Shit!” Reddin stood. Raising his voice, he said, “Douse the lights! Get inside!”
The partiers followed his orders, and in moments darkness draped the rooftop, and the dancers huddled inside the main tent, staring out at the night fearfully. Katya pressed in amongst them, relishing their warmth. Thunder rocked the heavens, and lightning struck down from the roiling clouds. Briefly she caught sight of a huge, torpedo-shaped form drifting slowly over the tenements to the north.
But he just got back. It puzzled her that Loqrin would have called the airship back and gone out again so soon. But then again his suite and his harem were in shambles. There was little reason for him to stay, and he had, apparently, things to do. Like what?
“Does he often go out like this?” she asked Reddin, the next time he bustled past, carrying an armload of beer.
“Oh, aye, ever’ night mostly.” He paused. “Dana’s gone to fetch our doc. He’ll be ‘ere shortly, an’ if anything can be done for your lass he’s the man to do it.” By his tone it was clear he didn’t think Heather would make it.
Kat walked over to go keep Heather company, but just then someone shouted, “Look at that! What are those?”
The people began to murmur.
Katya stared out in the direction the revelers were pointing. When the next flash of lightning struck, she saw the zeppelin, going west—not toward the Sink, but somewhere else. She also saw dark shapes drifting up from the shadows of the streets, one at first, then another, both joining a group of several more that circled behind the tail of the airship, as if drawn on by it. Sparks flashed in the gondola, and Kat could imagine the tall figure there, striding back and forth among his Returners, barking orders as his strange machines belched smoke and fire.
The zeppelin cruised north, and shadows that Katya knew too well floated after it. At the realization, she felt a shiver that had nothing to do with wind or rain. Loqrin is gathering haunts.
THE END OF PART ONE
A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR:
Nightmare City Part Two, the conclusion, which is now available.
Find it here in the US: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00II6AOFY
Find it here in the UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00II6AOFY
Please leave a review wherever you purchased Nightmare City, not just for me but to let other readers know about it. In fact, to encourage you, if you like the novel and review it on Amazon, I’ll thank you with a free copy of Part Two. Just email me at [email protected] when it’s up and I’ll send it to you.
If you’re in the US, go here to leave a review: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HZOTUIC
If you’re in the UK, go here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00HZOTUIC
To receive a free novella set in the same world as Nightmare City (and to hear about my next discount or free promotion), sign up for my newsletter here:
http://forms.aweber.com/form/42/1144971442.htm
Subscribers learn about my newest releases and upcoming freebies first.
About me: I live in Austin, Texas. You can contact me at [email protected] or visit me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/jack.conner.98 Be
come friends and find out what I’m up to!
Until next time, happy reading,
Jack