Devon Monk - Tin Swift

Cadoc Madder was standing in a basket that had been lowered from the ship, laying down fire in the opposite direction.

They were all wearing dark goggles and were likely the only people on this rock who still had clear enough vision to shoot.

Alun looked over at Cedar. “Evening, Mr. Hunt,” he yelled over the gunfire. “Got a message from Captain Beaumont you might be in the area. Have you found the Holder for us yet?” He smashed the globe into the ground and another painfully blinding light flashed out.

Men screamed.

Cedar growled at the pain of the light, even through his eyelids. “Can’t find something blind,” he yelled.

Alun laughed. “Don’t expect you’d need your eyes for that. Still…”

Another flash went off, and this one wasn’t just light. This one was dynamite. Cedar’s ears cracked with the sound, and rocks and dirt slammed through the air.

Then Alun was beside him, his hand on his arm. “I’ll get you to the basket. Then we can talk about your promise to us aboard ship. Shall we?”

“Wil,” he said. “He’s got Molly.”

“Already have them on the way to the basket. The men with Miss Dupuis too. You’re the only one left out here worth saving, Mr. Hunt. You and whoever that is you’re wearing as a neck warmer.”

“Shunt’s here.” Cedar jogged blind, with only Alun’s rough hand on his elbow guiding him forward.

“Did you kill him?”

“Not yet.”

“Maybe you’ll get your chance. First, you’ll need eyes. Step up.”

Cedar lifted his foot and stood up onto a wooden platform.

“Mr. Hunt,” Cadoc Madder said by way of greeting. “Good night for flying. Find the Holder?”

“Don’t have it on me,” Cedar said.

“Not a yes, nor a no,” he noted.

“Make her fast, brother Cadoc,” Alun said. “They’ll be finding their eyes, and their trigger fingers any moment now.”

The floor beneath him jerked, and the wind rushed by his face as some kind of pulley system lifted them up to the ship.

It took a surprisingly short time to be level with the interior of the ship, and the light inside made it easier to see.

“I am so pleased you were able to find us,” Miss Dupuis said.

“Got your message by way of Captain Beaumont,” Alun said. “He passes his regards to you.”

Seldom and Guffin helped Cedar get Hink off his shoulders and set down onto the floor next to Molly.

“Where’s the Swift ?” Cedar asked.

“She’s anchored on the other side of the ridge,” Alun said, as he helped secure the basket, and stomped off to the front of the vehicle. “Busted up pretty bad. Don’t know how long she’ll stay in the sky.”

“We need Mae,” Cedar said. “She has medicines that might help Molly and Hink.”

“Molly’s gone,” Seldom said softly.

Cedar closed his eyes a moment, and swallowed against the sorrow. She had been a fine woman. It had been her word, the Gregor word, that had convinced Captain Hink to help them.

He had thought he could get to her in time, but he had failed her.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What we need,” Alun said as he guided the ship, which moved a lot faster, and seemed to take much sharper turns than most ships, “is the Holder, Mr. Hunt.”

“I think Shunt has it,” Cedar said.

Wil, who was taking a swig out of the canteen Miss Dupuis had handed him, put the canteen down and gave him a hard look. The same look Miss Dupuis and all the Madders were giving him.

“Are you sure?” Wil asked.

“Smelled it on him. Heard its song.”

“You hear it?” Wil asked.

“Don’t you?”

“No. Not really. It’s more like…a feeling of heat or cold, and that strange glow each piece gives off.”

“You think they glow?” Cedar asked.

“Think nothing,” Wil said. “They do glow.”

“Sounds like each of you has your own way of tracking Strange objects,” Alun said. “I don’t care how it’s tracked, I just want it found. Now.”

“Take us to the Swift ,” Cedar said.

“Is the Holder on the Swift ?” Alun asked, his words hard with challenge.

“Not all of it. Not yet.”

“Sounds like you have a plan, Mr. Hunt?”

“Might. But we’ll need the Swift .”

“Then you’ll have her. Hold fast. I’m going to open her up.”

The Madder brothers scrambled to hold tight to bars and ropes, and the rest of the crew did the same, as Alun Madder worked the levers and gears of his strange flying device and blasted them through the night sky at breathtaking speed.

Mae pulled her hands away from Mr. Theobald, wiping his blood on her dress. She had done everything she could for him. Everything she could think of doing through the yelling of the sisters’ voices, through the rattling of gunshots, the boiler being shot in half by the cannon, taking Mr. Theobald’s life.

Joonie had helped her drag him out of the ruined boiler room where they’d suffered the most damage. Mae tried to tend his injuries, but he was missing a great deal of the right side of his torso.

She whispered a prayer for his soul’s gentle passage.

Joonie was on her knees, crying beside him. Mae placed her hand on Joonie’s shoulder in comfort for a while, then stood.

She walked over to Mr. Ansell. “Are we going down, Mr. Ansell?”

“The envelope will hold for a few hours at the most,” he said. “We have no boiler, so no steam. Throw the anchor, Miss Lindson, or we’ll be crushed against these mountains.”

Mae made her way to the anchor and pulled the linchpin, releasing the anchor. They seemed to drift for a long time, too long, before finally, the anchor caught hold and stopped them.

“What about the others?” Joonie asked, picking herself up finally and wiping her face. “We’ve got to go back and get them out of there.”

Ansell turned, his round face grim. “We don’t have power, Miss Wright. We don’t have steam. We can’t go back. There is nothing we can do to help them. So we wait for them to find us in the next couple hours. If not, we’ll let air out of the envelope, slow as we can, bring the ship down, and walk out of these hills.”

“But Rose—,” Mae started.

Ansell just pressed his lips together, shaking his head, and turned away.

Rose couldn’t walk, and the three of them couldn’t carry her. If they brought the ship down, she’d have to be left behind.

They were no longer the rescuers. They were in sore need of being rescued.

“Mae?” Rose said softly.

Mae jerked. She didn’t know how long she’d been standing there, the sisters’ voices filling her thoughts, but Ansell was now sitting staring out the fore windows and Miss Wright was staring out the aft. Someone had pulled a blanket over Mr. Theobald and moved him to one side of the space.

Mae rubbed her hands down her dress and walked over to Rose, her boots strangely loud in the quietly rocking ship.

“I’m here,” Mae said.

Rose opened her eyes. “Maybe I could help,” she said. “Fix the boilers?”

Mae took her hand. “I don’t think there’s anything we can do. Any of us, right now.”

“Ship coming,” Joonie said. “Straight over from the compound.”

Ansell jumped up and jogged over to peer out the window. “What kind of thing is that?”

Joonie bit her lip and shook her head. “Nothing I’ve seen before. Wait. That’s glim light in glass. A single globe high. It’s okay, Mr. Ansell. That’s a friendly ship.”

“Lots of people can get their hand on glim,” Ansell said, pulling a gun down from the overhead storage.

Joonie put her hand on his arm. “It’s a signal among the people I work for. Miss Dupuis knows it.”