Embers of Destruction

by J. Scott Savage

  Watching everyone work, he inhaled the sweet smell of freshly varnished wood, greased pistons, and the faint aroma of coal smoke. Combined with the sound of mechanics hard at work, he felt right at home.

  It had been almost two weeks since they’d started on the project, and the submarine was nearly halfway complete, which made him proud. And in another couple of weeks, they’d be ready for their first test in the actual ocean, which made him worried.

  The pounding the ship would take would probably reveal twenty new problems he hadn’t thought of. But that wasn’t what had him worried. They’d solved most of the issues so far; they’d figure out how to fix the new ones as well. His concern was how they were going to get the submarine to the ocean and back without getting caught—and killed—by the Ninki Nankas.

  Trenton tapped Alex on the shoulder and pulled him aside. “You promised you’d tell me how you manage to keep the Ninki Nankas from tracking you.”

  Alex had been extremely helpful in keeping the dragon guards away when he was around. But when Trenton or Plucky tried to walk anywhere on their own, they had to hope none of the Ninki Nankas caught their scent. More than once, Trenton had been forced to run back to where he belonged, using every trick he knew to keep the creatures off his trail.

  None of the Runt Patrol had that problem, and Trenton was dying to know how they did it.

  Alex grinned. “Asking me to give up another secret, huh? What’s it worth to you?”

  “Copilot seat in the first ocean test run?”

  “Deal.” Alex put a hand on Trenton’s shoulder. “Friday night, we’ll be holding a ceremony for new Runt Patrol members. You and Plucky are officially invited.”

  Trenton noticed he didn’t mention Kallista. Not that he could blame him. As far as Trenton knew, she was still backing her father’s ideas. Trenton was pretty sure she knew he was working on something—he disappeared after work every night—but so far, she hadn’t asked him what he was up to, and he hadn’t volunteered the information. He wasn’t sure what he’d say if she did ask.

  He was positive she was keeping secrets as well. A couple of days earlier, she’d showed up at the house, her face and arms covered with bruises. She’d claimed it was a work accident, although she couldn’t provide any details about where the “accident” had happened or anyone who’d witnessed it.

  It was a terrible feeling not being able to confide in his best friend, and he wasn’t sure how long he’d be able to keep it up.

  “Well, I better get back to work on the pump,” Alex said. “I’d hate to have her sink like a stone on the first run, especially if I’m inside.”

  Trenton nodded. “Trust me, I’m not taking it out any deeper than I have to on the first run. If she sinks, I want to be able to make it back to shore. It’s not like we did a lot of swimming in Discovery.”

  As Alex went back to work, Trenton climbed up the rickety wooden stairs to get a better look at how the submarine was coming along. He thought it might be the most beautiful invention he’d ever designed. One of the first problems he’d faced was how to keep the craft from sinking to the bottom of the ocean or bobbing to the top.

  Their first attempt, made completely out of metal, sank to the bottom of a large tank he and the others had built. No matter how much propulsion he created, the vessel was too heavy. There was no way to get it to come up out of the water under its own power.

  The second attempt had gone much better. Using the same tools boatbuilders did, he crafted the hull of the submarine out of wooden planks held together with brass fittings. With metal fins underneath, a pointed metal nose on the front, and a gleaming rudder on the back, it looked like a large wooden fish. By the time they varnished the planks and sealed the whole thing, it gleamed a golden brown.

  That version had easily stayed up in the water. In fact, it was too buoyant. Even after adding the steam engine, seats, and controls, he couldn’t get it to stay underwater. He’d figured out a solution by putting more metal fittings on the outside, including a second set of fins on either side to increase stability, brass and glass portals on the sides and over the seats, and, of course, the underwater telescope and a small anchor.

  The thing that brought it all together was the ballast tank connected to a pump. The tank was filled with air to start. When they needed to go down, air was pumped out of the tank and replaced with water. When they wanted to come back up, the water was pumped out again. It was an elegant plan that Plucky had helped him come up with that worked well.

  The second problem had been much more difficult to solve. The submarine was powered by a steam engine, and since the city had a ready supply of coal the Runt Patrol could raid at will, fuel wasn’t an issue. And the size of the engine was just right to fit in the back of the sub.

  The problem was that as soon as they submerged, the engine used up all the available oxygen. They found that out the hard way. Trenton had been running the submarine’s first extended underwater test and had started to feel light-headed. Before he could signal anyone, he passed out. If Plucky hadn’t noticed the problem and ordered the sub pulled from the tank, Trenton might have died.

  They’d been able to solve part of the problem by pumping oxygen into a tank and slowly releasing it when they went underwater. But that only allowed them to remain submerged a maximum of fifteen minutes. Not nearly long enough. He solved the rest of the problem by creating a backup engine powered by electricity stored in a bank of batteries under the seats.

  He knew there had to be a better way of doing it. Maybe a chemical reaction like they’d used to make hydrogen for the airship. Only chemicals weren’t his area of expertise. That had always been . . . No, he wasn’t going there.

  Something clanked against the outside wall, and he turned to see Angus climbing through the window. He jumped to the floor, turned, and pulled Simoni through behind him.

  “Hey,” Clyde called from outside. “Can you give me a hand?”

  “Sure,” Angus said. He leaned through the window and clapped his hands. “Good job.”

  “Stop being a jerk,” Simoni said.

  “Fine,” Angus grumbled good-naturedly. He bent down and pulled Clyde up and through the window with a single yank.

  “What are you doing here?” Trenton asked. He’d kept them up-to-date on how the submarine was coming along, but they’d never actually come to see it.

  “Thought we’d check on our ticket out of here,” Angus said.

  Clyde braced his arms on his thighs, puffing air. “Isn’t there . . . an easier . . . way in?” He blew air out of his lungs like a runner at the end of a race. “Like, maybe a front door?”

  “Can’t risk it,” Trenton said. “The guards come around every so often to make sure the doors are locked and sealed. We can’t afford for them to notice any tampering.”

  He led his friends down to get a firsthand look at the submarine, beaming over how impressed they seemed with everything.

  “Who’s this?” Alex asked, wiping his hands on his overalls.

  “These are my friends I was telling you about,” Trenton said. He introduced everyone to the Runt Patrol.

  JoeBob eyed Simoni, who was probably five years older than he was, and nudged Trenton. “Does she have a boyfriend?”

  “Get out of here,” Trenton said, pushing him back to his work.

  Plucky’s head popped out of the submarine, a smear of oil on one cheek. “Thought I heard a lot of clucking out here.” She held up a wrench. “Make yourself useful, you lazy gudgeons.”

  “I don’t know much about tools,” Clyde said, “but I’m not bad at designs. Mind if I take a look inside?”

  Plucky grinned and waved him over. “Suit yourself, yeah, yeah.”

  Angus ran a hand along the wooden hull and whistled. “Nice work, Trenton.”

  Trenton looked at his friends, both old and new, working on the subm
arine. His smile faded to a frown.

  “Is everything all right?” Simoni asked.

  Trenton swallowed. How did she know? Everything was nearly perfect—but one of them was missing, and he couldn’t ignore that. “You told me back on the island that a leader’s job is to bring people together. To use their strengths.”

  Simoni nodded.

  “I feel like Kallista needs to be a part of this. Only, I don’t know if I can trust her,” Trenton said. “What if I tell her what we’re up to and she tells someone?”

  “Like when I told the chancellor about your dragon?” Simoni asked.

  Trenton felt himself blush. He’d never been good at hiding his feelings. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

  “I know,” Simoni said. “You told me about your dragon because you trusted me. Do you trust Kallista?”

  Trenton thought about it. Despite their disagreements, he wanted to trust her. The team didn’t feel whole without her. He didn’t feel whole.

  The answer must have been clear on his face because Simoni smiled and patted him on the arm.

  “You should tell her.”

  “Angus will be furious,” Trenton said.

  Simoni shook her head. “He’s not the leader of our group.”

  He nodded. “I’ll do it. First thing tomorrow.” Just making the decision felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

  Kallista couldn’t remember feeling this alone since a boy with a crooked smile and a bad haircut had come into the shop where she worked, looking for a tool only her father had ever used. Back then, she hadn’t known she was lonely. Being raised by a single father with terrible social skills, she’d never known any kids she could call friends.

  Her father had taught her at home, explaining that the city schools would not only stunt her growth and slow her learning but that half of what the teachers in Cove told her would be lies. She’d never questioned the fact that she didn’t play with other children. Her father’s lessons and games kept her busy, challenging her mentally and physically.

  Usually, when she saw kids playing in the parks or going to school, she’d felt sorry for them. Their parents didn’t love them enough to keep them out of the schools that rotted their minds.

  Then one day, her father was gone, and she realized she had no one to talk to, no one to help her study or to laugh with. Her work in the mechanic shop did nothing to challenge her. For the first time, she’d wondered what it would be like to have someone her own age to talk to.

  So, of course, the first thing she’d done after the boy came into her shop was follow him into an alley, knock him to the ground, and beat him up. It wasn’t the most auspicious start to a friendship. And each time they’d gotten close to solving a riddle together, her jealousy flared up. Her father had left the clues for her, not some random wannabe mechanic. Even though she realized she needed him to help build the dragon, part of her resented the fact that he was playing her father’s game.

  It was only after months of working together, solving problems together, that she’d realized games were more fun when played with someone else. Solving mysteries were more satisfying when you had someone to compare notes with. She’d finally opened up and allowed herself to trust someone other than her father.

  For the first time, she’d understood what it meant to have a friend.

  And now she’d ruined that.

  It wasn’t that Trenton was mean to her. She thought she would have preferred that. None of them were unkind. Simoni still had dinner with her. Plucky discussed work over breakfast. Clyde cracked jokes. Angus . . . Well, Angus was Angus.

  In the past, she might not have recognized the divide that had opened between them. But she’d spent enough time with the others to recognize there was something the others shared which she wasn’t a part of. A gulf separated them, and it was getting wider every day.

  It wasn’t just the project that Trenton and Plucky, and maybe some of the kids in the Runt Patrol, were working on without her. No one had mentioned it, and she’d never let on that she knew, but she saw the way Plucky and Trenton disappeared right after work. The way they whispered together and glanced at drawings they didn’t think she’d seen.

  She couldn’t blame Trenton. After all, hadn’t she done the same thing when she and Plucky were working on the turbo booster? Even when Trenton had asked to help them, or even simply to know what they were working on, she’d refused.

  It had been her private project.

  How could she demand to know what he was working on now?

  If that was all there was, she could have lived with it. Eventually they would tell her what they were working on, right?

  But what then? She couldn’t betray her friends, could she?

  But could she turn her back on the man who raised her, who’d taught her everything she knew, who’d loved her the best he knew how?

  The day she’d come back from the white tower, Trenton had seen the bruises on her face from the monarch’s attack. She should have admitted then what had happened, told him what her father had asked her to do. Instead she’d come up with a lame story about injuring herself at work. She knew Trenton didn’t believe her, but he’d pretended to accept her explanation.

  She’d lied to her friends. She’d let her father think she might be willing to spy for him. She was caught in the middle of a chasm so deep and wide she couldn’t see either side.

  When she arrived at work, she found Trenton waiting for her.

  He jumped up from where he’d been sitting with some of the kids from the shop. He shifted from one foot to the other, and she realized he was as nervous as she was.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  “No. I mean . . .” He met her eyes for a moment before looking away. “There’s a new job today. A transportation system they’re putting in by Nob Hill. They want a couple of people to look at the chain drive, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?”

  That was new. Trenton had only worked on the same crew with her a couple of times since they’d started in the shop. And he’d never asked her to go anywhere with him. She bit her lip. “Sure.”

  “Great.” He grabbed his tools. “Let me get a quad, and we’ll drive up together.”

  That afternoon ended up being the best time she’d had in weeks. The project was intriguing. Huge drums were connected to underground chains at the top and bottom of the hill. Six-person trams would be hooked to the chains through metal slots in the street. The cars would run slowly up the hill, turn around, and come back down. Then they’d repeat the process all over again. People could get on and off the trams at several stops.

  If the project went well, the city planned on adding more trams with more stops.

  The work crew was returning to the shop at the end of the day when Trenton abruptly pulled the quad to the side of the road and stopped.

  He rubbed his hands against the legs of his pants, bouncing one knee up and down. “Kallista, there’s something I need to tell you.”

  She thought he’d been trying to work up to this all day. “All right.”

  He took a deep breath, then let the words spill out of his mouth like water flowing over a dam. “I know you agree with your father. You want to stay here. And, you know, maybe you’re right. Maybe the dragons are the next rung on the evolutionary ladder like your father says, but the thing is, we—that is me and Simoni, and well, the rest of us—we don’t agree. And we’re going to try to escape from the city.”

  He leaned back as though afraid she might hit him.

  She waited a minute, trying to decide how she felt. Surprised? Hurt that they’d been planning this without her? Betrayed? No. She didn’t feel any of those things. She thought she’d known all along that this was coming. It was a relief to get it out in the open at last. “When are you going?”

  He bit his bot
tom lip. “Soon.”

  She nodded. “How are you leaving?”

  His knee started bouncing again. “It might be better if you didn’t know the details. In case anyone asks. But I will tell you that we know where the dragons are, and since Ladon is at least half yours, maybe completely yours, I felt like I needed to ask your permission before I took him.”

  She’d thought she was past feeling pain. Trenton leaving without her was bad enough, but the idea of him taking Ladon burned like fire in her chest. Her vision blurred, and she had to blink back tears to see clearly.

  “Who will fly with you?”

  “We haven’t decided yet. Probably one of the kids from the shop. It turns out that most of the kids in the city feel differently than the adults. A lot of them don’t want to serve the dragons.”

  She ran her fingers through her hair. Pain throbbed from her chest, through her throat, and into her brain. For the first time since she’d argued with her father, she was really and truly angry.

  She slammed her hands against the quad’s control panel, and Trenton jerked back. “Why are you telling me this?”

  He ran a hand across his mouth, eyes darting left and right. “I wanted to ask your permission to take—”

  “No!” She slammed her fist against the metal panel again, sending a sharp pain shooting from her wrist to her elbow. “You didn’t have to ask me to take Ladon. I gave him up the day I tried to talk you into staying here. You didn’t bring me here to work on the trams. You didn’t even come here to tell me you were leaving.” She clutched her hands together, trying to keep them from shaking. “Why did you bring me here? What do you want?” Tears streamed down her face.

  “Okay,” he said quietly. “You’re right. I brought you here because I think—no, I know—what your father said is wrong. I know you love him, and you believe in him, and that he never does anything without a reason.” Trenton swiped a hand across his eyes. “But I couldn’t leave without asking you, if for once, you’d disagree with your father. I had to ask if you’d come with me.”