Trent Jamieson - Night's engines

The other nodded, and wiped at a bloody mouth. “Its owner was more than happy to give it up.”

“Then we are ready. We have stripped this town of its Roilings, its Vergers and scum. We have fed and fed deeply. Now we must fly. David is in the air, and we must join him. The time for walking is done,” the Old Man said. He nodded to the others, one of them dragging Mr Brown of Mr Brown’s estates with him.

The Langan Twist rose into the air, and not long after, the screaming began in earnest.

Not everyone could wait.

THE CITY OF DRIFT 1411 MILES NORTH OF THE ROIL

“I’m really sorry about this, David,” she said with a voice that lacked the slightest whit of contrition.

David struggled to open his eyes, the lids gummed with blood. They came apart slowly. He blinked a scratchy sort of blink. His wrists were bound in iron, his shoulders burned. He tried to touch the ground, and could just manage it, though not enough to support his weight. “What are you doing?”

“You know what I’m doing,” Mother Graine said.

David closed his eyes, focussed on the iron shackling his wrists, and the chains that lifted them above his head, and made them cold. Very cold. A bitter sharp sort of chill that built within him and spread out. His breath thickened, the air itself slowed around him. The iron shuddered and rattled. It warped. Slowly, he lifted himself up, and yanked. The iron burst, and he hit the ground hard, breath knocked out of him, almost thinking he might shatter himself, but he didn’t. He tore his hands free, took a step forward, and He woke in virtually the same position as before, only this time, his toes brushed a puddle of something, melted ice, blood, piss or all three of them. This is not good, he thought.

“You didn’t think I was waiting for that, David?” Mother Graine’s breath plumed. “Breaking free of that iron wasn’t going to leave you in a position of strength, you’re too far from the earth and the Lodes.”

He pulled on the manacles, just once, or tried to, instead he only managed to swing forward, his shoulders numb, but not quite enough that he didn’t know he’d pulled something, maybe broken something else. “Yes, I should have known better.”

His stomach rumbled, he was hungry: horribly, horribly hungry.

“That goes for most of the actions of Old Men and boys,” Mother Graine said.

“We all make mistakes.” He tilted his head to get a better look at the chains. “This is one of them.”

“Don’t be like that.” She stood next to him, touched his face. David suddenly remembered the night before, their lovemaking. His face burned, the first moment of heat in all that cold. Cadell had gotten him into this, where was the Old Man now? He seemed remarkably silent in his veins.

Mother Graine smiled, a grin more chilling than anything his skills could produce. “Now, David, I want you to know that this isn’t personal.”

“I’ve always considered death to be extremely personal.” He bit out at her hand, but she had already pulled it away, waggling a finger at him as she did so.

Mother Graine clicked her tongue. “Not for us, never for us.”

“What will happen to Margaret?”

Mother Graine blinked. “You really care?”

“Of course I do.”

“She will not be harmed. Unless she causes us trouble.”

“When doesn’t she cause trouble?”

“That personality type is encouraged here, David. Your idea of trouble and ours is different.”

Mother Graine fell forward, with a grunt. Margaret lowered her leg. “Not really,” Margaret said.

“You took your time,” David said.

Margaret nodded at him. Hands held him up.

“Did you just piss yourself?” Kara Jade asked.

He said, “Please get me down.”

“I’m doing my best,” Kara said, jangling keys. “You didn’t see which key they used to lock you up?”

“I was unconscious at the time, I’m afraid.”

Something clicked, Kara cried out triumphantly, and David almost fell into the puddle at his feet. “Gotcha,” Kara said, pulling him away.

Mother Graine had gotten to her feet. Her face had lost all its humour, but she did not look at all like a person who had been kicked to the ground. You, David thought, are a very dangerous woman, indeed.

Part of him knew just how dangerous, and even now found it thrilling.

“There's no escape for any of you,” she said. “Not a breath of it, I'll have you all hanging from iron.”

“Escape suggests that we’re going somewhere safe,” Kara said.

“Believe me, we’re not,” David said.

“I know what you plan.”

“And surely you can’t be against it?”

Mother Graine ignored Margaret. She looked at Kara. “It’s not too late for you,” she said. “You can still turn from this path.”

“The same goes for you,” Kara said, though her voice shook.

“You have no reason to fear me, daughter. I-”

Margaret struck her hard. Mother Graine stumbled. “I think it’s better if you don’t talk,” Margaret said, and turned to Kara. “Are you ready?”

Kara nodded, looked at David, still so unsteady on his feet.

He said, “Just get me out of here.”

Mother Graine’s eyes burned. “We will hunt you.”

“Then you better line up,” David said. “The problem, as I see it, is that everyone has different ideas how we should approach the threat of the Roil, or even who should approach it.

“Well, there is only one of me, and I’m not willing to sacrifice myself so that someone else can go and do what needs to be done.”

“We need only cut off your finger,” Mother Graine said.

David laughed. “Do not take me for naive. That would not be enough. Not nearly enough. This ring will not work on anyone else unless I am dead; dead, and having infected someone. Just who did you have in mind?”

Mother Graine’s eyes flicked towards Kara.

“You would have done that to me?” Kara demanded.

She'd have been a good choice, actually, David thought.

“We would have done whatever was necessary. This is the time of doing what must be done, and without hesitation. Do you think you would do this any differently?” Mother Graine said.

“Bloody oath I would.”

Mother Graine raised an eyebrow; Kara scowled and turned away.

“What must be done, will be done. You should have trusted me.”

“Trust is too rare a commodity these days.”

“And yet without it, we will all fail.”

“Well, you can trust me to punch you in the face if you don’t shut up,” Margaret said, stepping between David and Mother Graine.

David sighed. “Kara Jade can accompany me to Tearwin Meet. She and Margaret can see that I get this done.”

Mother Graine said, “But you are an addict-”

“Yes, this ring, and Cadell’s bite, has made me more than that, but whoever you had forced into taking up this bloody thing would have faced the same problem.”

“I still do not trust you.”

He looked over at Kara. “Do you trust her?” he asked Mother Graine.

“Yes, but-”

“Then it will have to do. She will be with me all the way, they both will. And at the end we will fail or succeed because of the strength we hold together. We have survived the fall of Chapman, the enmity of all that is powerful in this world. And yet we are still here. Even now, you sought to hold us, and yet we leave here on your fastest ship.”

“But before that,” Kara said, sliding a pistol from her belt. “Before we do a damn thing, you will show us the Mothers, whole and unharmed, or I will shoot you myself.”