Lindsay Buroker - Peacemaker

While she waited, shewatched the airship veering inland, smoke still wafting from thecharred hull. Maybe it would crash, the pirates would abandon it asunsalvageable, and she could claim it for her own. That thought warmed hercold limbs more than a little. If the hull was in decent shape, shecould commandeer it and not have to construct one from scratch. Oh,she’d want to build her own engine from the ground up-no tellingwhat piecemeal garbage these pirates were using-and she had ideasfor dozens of modifications, but if she didn’t have to build thatcursed hull, she’d save months of construction time. She flexed hercold fingers. Maybe a few digits endangered by that saw aswell.

Her mind filled with daydreams ofreconstruction, Kali almost missed Cedar slogging out of the waterdownstream. He had sheathed the sword, but he was still carryingthat bag, a small but bulging canvas tote. It made him lopsided ashe strode toward her. Some of the glitter had faded from his eyes,but he was still grinning. “Are you all right?”

Kali wrapped her arms around herself forwarmth. “I could have done without the bath, but I suppose droppingonto land would have been worse.” She gave him a once over, decidedhe was uninjured, and headed along the bank toward her bicycle.Puffs of steam still wafted from its stack, and nobody seemed tohave bothered it. The skirmish had cleared the river of boattraffic.

“True.” Cedar strode alongbeside her. He pointed at the airship-it was drifting on the otherside of the river now, going nowhere fast. “It looks like yourgrenades proved useful.”

“Of course,” Kalisaid.

He walked in silence for a moment beforeglancing at her and asking, “Aren’t you going to ask what I was upto in there?”

“Judging by the sounds,you weren’t attending a quilting bee.”

“Nope. I had to fight myway out of their cargo hold. At first I had a notion ofsinglehandedly taking control of the ship, but there were a lot ofthem, and they were well-armed and reasonably accurate with theirfirearms.” Cedar touched a rip in the sleeve of his duster. “Theycured me of my notion, but I was able to make my way up top, and Ispotted some of their stolen loot on the way.” He hefted the bag.“I figure this might be that old man’s claim earnings. Getting itback might ease his crankiness a tad.”

“Huh,” Kalisaid.

It sounded like a good adventure, and shemight ask for more details later, but she wanted dry clothes firstand a blanket around her shoulders. Having the sun come out wouldbe a nice perk, too, but if anything the fog was growingdenser.

Cedar sighed. “I see you’re still a hardlady to please.”

“I’m pleased.”

“You are? How would oneknow?”

“I’m listening to youinstead of contemplating upgrades to my next batch ofgrenades.”

“I see,” Cedar said.“That is a highhonor.” He probed one of his soggy pockets, pulled out a knot ofbeads, and handed it to her.

Kali untangled the snarl to reveal the patchof decorated hide he’d been fiddling with all through supper thenight before. “Good that this survived, I guess,” she said, notsure why he was showing it to her.

“No,” Cedar said, delvinginto a different pocket. “ This survived.” He pulled out another talisman, thisone unknotted. “ That I found next to the sack of gold.”

“Oh, hm. What do you thinkthe pirates are doing with an identical one? Is it something theyfound? Or are they behind the murders?”

“It didn’t come up when wewere slinging bullets and curses back and forth at eachother.”

Kali shook her head and tsked. “Men are suchpoor conversationalists.”

“There were a couple ofwomen shooting at me too.”

They crested a rise and came to the craterthe airship had blown into the trail. Kali slowed down. Her bicyclewaited on the other side, but so did two people. One was the oldman from the boat, and the other was a boy of ten or eleven years.He had raven-colored hair and bronze skin with a face still chubbywith baby fat. He stared at them-no, at Cedar-with opened-mouthedastonishment.

“That’s mine!” The old manstabbed a finger at the sack.

“Figured it might be.”Cedar laid it at his feet.

The old fellow grabbed it, dragged itseveral feet, sent slit-eyed glares at Kali and Cedar, then whippedout a small black revolver and aimed it between them. “You two stayright there. And you too boy.” He backed away, holding the gun withone hand and lugging the sack of gold with the other.

Cedar watched blandly. Kali shook her head.The old man caught his heel on something, tripped, fell onto hisbackside, and cursed mightily. He stuffed the revolver back intohis belt, hefted the sack with both hands, and jogged-if one couldcall such lopsided, wobbly staggers a jog-back to his boat.

“Grateful fellow,” Cedarobserved.

“Less good than you’dthink comes out of helping people in these parts,” Kalisaid.

The boy was still staring at Cedar, eyeswide, jaw slack. When he noticed Kali looking at him, he clamped itshut and swallowed.

She was about to try talking to him in Hanwhen he tilted his head back to look Cedar in the eyes and said,“That was amazing.” He pointed toward the sky half a mile acrossthe river, where the airship was descending into the woods. “I sawyou fighting. All of them at once! Up on the deck. I could see itall from here!”

“Just making the best outof a tricky situation,” Cedar said. Though he spoke as if hisheroics had been inconsequential, he did give Kali a pointed look,as if to say, “See? This is how you’re supposed to respond to myheroics.”

Kali propped her hands on her hips and toldthe boy, “I was up there doing stuff too.”

He blinked at her, a blank expression on hisface, then focused on Cedar again. “Where’d you get that sword?That’s the beatingest pig sticker I’ve seen.”

Kali gave the boy a closer look. He wore ahooded caribou jacket, and she assumed he was Han, but his commandof English was excellent, if one could call the local miners’ slangEnglish.

“It’s from the Orient,though I got it down in the swamps of Florida.” Cedar drew theblade. “Do you want to see it? I could show you a fewmoves.”

Kali lifted a hand, afraid the “boys” couldplay at swordfighting all day if she let them, but the youth’sshoulders slumped and he did not accept the sword.

“I’m no good at fighting,”he said, “on account of my leg.”

For the first time, he took a couple ofsteps, and Kali noticed a pronounced limp.

“What happened?” sheasked.

“Couple of summers back, Iclimbed up with a smoker to get some honey from a bee hive. Thebranch broke, and I fell a long ways and broke my hip. Medicine manfixed me up the best he could, but…” He shrugged, eyes still castdownward.

Cedar took the boy’s hand and put the hiltof his sword in it.

“What’s your name?” Kaliasked, heading over to check the bicycle for damage-and to see howshe might get it around the crater that had destroyed an eight-footswath of the trail.

“Tadzi,” the boy said, hisgaze riveted to the blade. He took a few experimental swings andgrinned.

“Tadzi, have you ever seenanything like these?” Cedar held up the beadworkpatches.

The boy lowered the sword and scrutinizedthem. “No, sir. Not very good work.” His face brightened. “Want tosee something I made?”

“Yes,” Cedarsaid.

Kali knew him well enough to hear the hintof disappointment in his voice. What had he expected? That aten-year-old kid would know something about talismans of power?

“That’s very good,” Cedarsaid.

Kali glanced over to see what the boy wasshowing him. Some sort of block of carved wood. Cedar caught hereye and crooked a finger.