“Charlie…” Ashton put a palm to my cheek and gently turned me to face the black ship. “They are tearing that vessel apart looking for you, and when they don’t find you there they will start with the stalls and air-ships of everyone here.”
“But Berkley said…” I put my hand over Ashton’s. “Please help me find him. He warned me. He gave me a place to hide.”
Seemingly startled, he pulled his hand from under mine, his face set with a grim expression. “He gave you up. For all we know he’s off counting his money for turning you in. We have to leave here. Now give me your father’s book and let us be on our way.”
“He did not. If Berkley turned me in, then how could they think he was on the vessel?”
“Charlotte,” Ashton warned, his voice vibrating through me. “The journal.”
Crossing my arms, I jutted my chin up. “If you want it, then you will have to retrieve it yourself, sir.”
His lips pressed into a thin line. “We’ve no time for this. The hours I wasted looking for you could have been better spent delivering the journal to The Order for de-coding.”
“Berkley did not turn me in. Someone else must have or the lawmen would not be calling for him at his ship. What if others are looking for him? What if he is captured for helping me?”
“Then they are busy with him and we can escape unscathed.” He reached for me and I yanked my arm from him.
“What did The Order do to you?” Disappointment squeezed my insides as I glared at him. I pushed on his chest and he stepped back, startled. “How are you so cold inside? Have you no compassion? No love of any kind save for what your precious Order decrees?”
“Charlie—”
“Mr. Wells,” I countered. “I am going to find Berkley. He not only helped me, he somehow knows Collodin. Perhaps he can lead—”
“You will do no such thing,” he said and the anger in his words set my teeth on edge.
“Or what?” I snapped back, aware that others were beginning to take notice of our argument.
“I’m sorry?” He paused, his brows furrowed.
“I simply want to make sure Mr. Berkley is not in danger. Perhaps ask him a few questions…that is all.”
“No.” He shook his head, resolute. “Enough of this.”
“Do you intend to strip me of my clothes for my father’s book right here?” I moved to step around him but he caged me against the airship with his arms.
“You cannot outrun me, Miss Blackburn, and if I have to carry you, so be it. As for your bodice,” he cocked an eyebrow speculatively, but showed no hint of humor, “how it is relieved of the journal is entirely up to you, but I will have it.” He leaned in as he spoke, and heat rolled off him.
So affected by his aggression, I struggled just to take a breath.
His dark gaze looked positively riled. Once again, Ashton changed his tactic and treatment of me to get what he wanted. From formal to familiar. Gentleman to scoundrel.
My temper flared and I bit my lip to stop trembling. Angry and frustrated, I hated my very feminine reaction to this helpless feeling. What would my father say to more sniveling?
Ashton’s expression softened, but he stood his ground.
“I will speak to Berkley,” I said evenly, gathering my courage. “And you cannot stop me.”
“Oh?” A surprised smile pulled at his lips. “And why is that?”
“Because,” I said and slowly raised the pistol he’d given me. “You’ll be too busy running.”
“What—”
I fired into the air, yelping as the earsplitting blast tore from the weapon. The flash rendered me nearly blind, but I took off as the port crumbled into a horde of scurrying and panicked people. Ashton reached for me, and I shrugged out of his grasp as a jumble of merchants pushed him along to the side. Over my shoulder, I spied the lawmen.
They scanned the crowd from Berkley’s ship, their weapons drawn.
I ran, shocked at my own actions. Heading for the south tower, to the tinkerer’s stall, I wove through the crowd of the curious that swarmed toward the commotion at the port.
Berkley’s stall was empty, and all I could do was to stand and stare at the weathered counter. To my right, I spied Ashton breaking from the crowd. I braced myself, ready for his wrath when he slowed, his face going slack as he reached for his sidearm.
Behind me, the familiar click of a weapon sounded a moment before the barrel of a pistol pressed against my back.
I froze.
“Now how can someone so small be the cause of all the trouble here in my city?” A lazy drawl sounded behind me.
Hands going up in surrender, I tried to turn, only to have a hand at my shoulder stop me.
“Ah-ah, darlin’…let’s keep you between us. We’ll have less bullets flyin’ that way.”
“What’s happening?” I managed.
“Don’t worry, Charlie,” Ashton said as he approached. He removed his hand from his weapon, his gaze on the man behind me. “Riley, leave her out of this.”
“Sheriff Riley,” the man said, and I felt the gun move from my back. He leveled it at Ashton. “On your knees, Lancelot.”
“Ash?” My voice broke.
His face registered just the slightest hint of fear before a mask of calm dropped over his features.
“Ash?” Riley’s amused mimic of my voice sent a flare of anger through me. “Not just an assignment, then?”
Ashton didn’t answer, but raised his hands as he took another step. “Let her go, Sheriff.”
“Not another move,” Riley said and nodded to the lawmen moving toward us from the crowd. “Take him.”
They leapt on Ashton, pulling his hands behind him with shackles. He didn’t struggle but kept his eyes on me as they searched his clothes and removed his weapon.
Tears streaming, I felt helpless.
Riley embraced me with one arm and slipped the gun from the holster at my waist.
“Everything will be OK, Charlie,” Ashton said softly.
“Perhaps for you…Charlie, is it?” Riley said, his drawl edged with steel. “But not so for our errant knight.”
“She has nothing to do with our quarrel,” Ashton said evenly. “Let her go.”
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Riley stepped to the side, his weapon still trained on him. He caught a lock of my hair in his glove and brought it to his nose, breathing in.
Ashton’s face tightened. “Don’t touch her.” He struggled with the lawmen only to freeze when Riley shoved the gun into my side.
“Another move and I end her,” Riley snarled. “The reward was for ‘dead or alive’. I get paid either way.”
“What?” Panic ripped through me and I shook in disbelief and horror. Surely not— “Dead?”
Riley hooked his finger under my chin, and forced me to face him. “Where did you discover such a beauty, Lancelot?” He leaned in, smiling. “She is positively delicious.”
“Stop—” Ashton lunged for us, but Riley’s man moved faster. He wielded a lightning stick, shocking him with an electric flare that sent him to the planks.
I screamed as his body jolted on the floor, his eyes rolling back before he went still.
“Now,” Riley leveled the gun at my chest. “Talk me out of turning you in.”
“What?” I took in the jagged scar that snaked from his temple up into his hairline. I struggled to snag a coherent thought. Glancing down at Ashton’s still form, I felt the floor tilt beneath my feet.
Around us, people stared as they passed, but did not stop. They gave us a wide berth.
“What do you mean?”
“The Order of the Sword and Scroll do not send their finest knights after fugitives. They meddle in the affairs of kings, not runaway daughters.” He pulled the lorgnette I’d given Berkley from his long coat’s pocket. “What do you have to do with all of this?”
“I was trying to make a trade,” I said, watching for the rise and fall of Ashton’s chest. A wave of relief flooded when I s
aw his eyelids flutter.
“For what?”
“What are you going to do with him?” The shakiness of my voice did little to sell my façade of calm.
“It depends on what you tell me about the Tremblers.” Riley’s gaze bore into mine.
“The what?”
His eyes searched my face as if seeking a lie.
“I—I don’t know what you mean.”
“I have it on good authority that your father did. A child of The Order would know her father’s business.”
“But I…”
He grabbed my chin. “Don’t lie to me, Miss Blackburn,” he hissed and nodded at the lawmen, who all leveled their lightning sticks at Ashton’s stirring form. “I will not tolerate it.”
“Please don’t hurt him,” I begged. “P—please, don’t.”
He let go, stepped back and assessed me with a shrewd gaze. “I think I can work with that.”
“Work with what?” Rubbing the ache in my jaw, I blinked back tears. “I don’t understand.”
Riley motioned to his men and they hefted Ashton by both arms.
His head lolled forward and a wave of worry washed over me.
“Your considerable weakness for our good knight,” Riley sneered and took me by the arm.
I stumbled with him, my thoughts firing with fear as the two lawmen dragged Ashton ahead of us. What had I done?
14
Another volley of sparks rained down from the overhead incandescent lamp.
Ashton’s angry, pain-filled shout echoed from the other room.
Straining against the straps binding me to the chair and flushed hot with the effort, I collapsed in another crying fit.
The small, barred window high in the wall cast shards of light across the bare room. From the low angle of the shadows, I guessed late afternoon approached. After I refused to answer his questions, Riley politely excused himself, and moments later I heard the first of many heart-wrenching sounds from Ashton.
That I screamed and begged for him to stop did nothing to end Riley’s questioning. Finally, overcome, I wept, only to shout again when I could not take it anymore. I hoped the weakening sound of Ashton’s voice was the result of my imagination. Eventually, all sound ceased and I held my breath, listening. Apart from the creak of wood from the subtle but constant sway of the building, I could not make out the muffled voices.
Hoping to stave off another wave of tears, I gazed around the dank room, but that only caused it to feel as if were closing in. I shut my eyes. Ashton’s tortured expression when Riley’s man hit him with the lightning stick flashed in my thoughts, and I struggled to get to him.
He’d risked his life to help me, nearly getting shot out of the sky by my own hand on that rooftop, and all I’d done in return was deliver him to his torturer. I railed against my foolhardy actions and screamed Riley’s name once more. Footsteps just outside vaulted fear into my throat and I tugged at the bindings again. A sliver of light streaked across the dark floor as the door opened. Silhouetted by the glow behind him, a figure stood at the threshold.
“You’ll tear that delicate skin of yours,” his voice drawled.
I squinted to see, my pulse hammering.
Sheriff Sebastian Riley emerged from the shadows, his smile both enticing and dangerous. Tall and lean, he circled me like a predator. Watching with striking green eyes, his dark copper hair fell to the collar of his long, brown duster. The lock of hair brushed his brow and he flipped it back with a snap of his neck. From his burnished coloring to the swagger that jangled the buckles on his boots, everything about him seemed to embody Outer City’s outlaw nature. Older than me by a few years, he had the bearing of someone who’d seen much. The fact that he was, by Ashton’s account, The Law, gave credence to the wildness of the sky territory.
“W—what did you do to Ashton?”
“I had a conversation with him.” Riley’s head tilted and he caught my gaze. “One I tried to have with you, earlier.”
Unwilling to admit the fault I felt, I simply stared back.
He crouched down to eye level. “Are you willing to talk with me now or do I have to go back to work?”
“Please, may I see him?”
“You may,” he said and smiled politely as if I’d asked for a piece of cake. I found it strange that someone so cordial could be so barbaric. “And what will you do?”
“I’m sorry?” Baffled, I blinked, unsure how to answer. “See if he is well, I suppose.”
Riley’s raucous laugh echoed through the small room. “You don’t know what to do at all, do you?”
“I just said…” the words died on my lips.
He moved closer, his face suddenly serious. “You’re very proper. Very proper and very pretty,” he whispered. “I can see why he looks at you as he does. There’s no one like you up here.”
“I do not understand your meaning, Sheriff Riley.”
“Oh, you do like him, don’t you?” Riley undid the straps at my wrists and I realized a gear work glove encased his left hand. The fingers worked with the metal hinges that whirred as he gripped my upper arm and jerked me from the chair. “We’ll see how much.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“Convince him to talk or I’ll start in on you.”
I stumbled on unsteady legs out the door, stopping in my tracks the moment I saw Ashton.
He dangled in the center of the jailhouse, his wrists cuffed into chains that hung from the ceiling. Head lolled forward, a wave of dark hair obscured his face. He did not move, his body slack on boots that barely skimmed the floor.
A lawman stood next to the wall, the lightning stick in his hand trailed a blue spark on the ground.
“Ash!” I ran to him, trying to support his weight.
He moaned, his eyes swimming as he strained to focus.
“He’s fine,” Sebastian drawled and pulled a lever on the wall.
The chains broke from the ceiling bringing Ashton down almost on top of me as he slumped to the floor. I went with him, struggling to break his fall.
“Charlie?” He groaned, shook his head, and blinked as if coming out of a deep sleep. His gaze cleared and he brought his palms up, cradling my jaw. The chains clinked as he looked at me with relief. “You’re still here.”
“Of course, I am.” Sniffling, I tried to keep from falling apart. “I am so sorry…so sorry…”
“Shh,” Ashton whispered, his thumb brushing a tear from under my eye. “They don’t have you. You’re here.”
“Ugh,” Riley intoned.
I shot him an irritated look just as he rolled his eyes and tossed me a brass ring of keys.
“Free him and get over here.”
I helped Ashton to his feet and unlocked the cuffs, worried at the weak shaking in his hands. Burn marks traced angry red lines along his neck.
The lawman with the wand stood motionless as he watched us.
I set the keys on the counter, but Ashton caught my hand.
His jaw worked as his gaze fell to the marks on my wrists. He leveled a gaze at Riley, his anger palpable. “You had her bound?”
“I’m fine, Ash.”
“Yes, Ash,” Riley said with a smirk as he raised a gun and pointed it at me. “Listen to Charlie.”
“You have no cause to treat her like this. I deserve your anger, not Miss Blackburn.”
Riley lifted his gloved hand, flexed the mechanized fingers, and nodded. “Yes, you do. And by default, your lovely lady here for having the misfortune of following you back in to my city.”
“Then a trade. Her for me. The Security Force and Governors surely—”
“You have no room for demands here,” Riley snapped, his face going slack with anger. “You may be able to weather questioning, but I doubt she can.”
My heart stuttered, fear flooding me.
“Tell me what your father knew about the Tremblers.”
“My father? He was…they took him,” I stammered, unsure of how to appease Riley
.
“I have it on good authority that Colonel Blackburn of The Order knew and had information about what is happening. You are his only child. Now tell me what he discovered.” Riley slammed his hand on the counter. “Tell me what I need to do to stop this.”
“I don’t know!” I shouted back, my nerves frayed beyond caring for propriety. “I would tell you if I did.”
“She doesn’t know,” Ashton said evenly.
“How can you not know what is happening out there?” Riley asked, his face genuinely perplexed. “All the Governors, the Energy Consortium Barons, even the legendary Order are all after what your father knew, baby Blackburn.”
“What exactly did my father find out?” I looked from Riley to Ashton, confused. “The Governors and The Order? How can they have the same aim? I thought The Order was separate from governments…they…they topple kings.”
Riley’s raucous laugh caught me off guard. “Surely you jest.”
“I—I don’t understand.” I looked to Ashton.
“Oh, you haven’t told her?” Riley clicked his tongue. “You didn’t let her know that despite noble ideas, The Order has long favored the side with the most gold. They have a hand in trade, cargo, even manufacturing. They’ve long ceased being a benevolent Order.”
“Lies,” Ashton shouted. “Not all within the Order are corrupt. Not everyone sinks to your level, Riley.”
“Do you deny that those in your ranks carry out orders designed to topple leaders not compliant with the Order’s demands of tribute and position for their members?”
“No…they…” I shook my head, confused. “Ashton?”
“The Order of the Sword and Scroll seek to establish stability for—”
“Stability!” Riley snapped. He turned to me. “Not freedom. Stability ensures their influence remains strong. If stability comes in the form of a crushing government, a mad king, or even a group of colonists committing treason, they do not care. Clearly, The Order has chosen the Peaceful Union over Lizzie’s violence-fueled Defiance group. In this instance, I do not blame them.” His words clicked everything into place.
All my tangled thoughts were finally clear. In that moment, I realized my father didn’t just mistrust The Order, he’d changed allegiance. Now I knew the reason why he’d refused to meet with a fellow agent. Why he sent me to find Collodin and not Ashton. He never meant to turn over any information to The Order or by extension, the Governors. My father believed The Order and Union were somehow to blame for what was happening. It was why he endeavored to help Lizzie and the Defiance group. My gaze fell to Ashton. My father knew he could not serve them both and had chosen.
The Tremblers Page 12