Peacemaker

the girl,but she had her head buried again. “I reckon her kin will take bestcare of her.”

“Take over the ship?”Cedar asked. “When did that become the plan?”

“Recently. I was thinkingI’d just grab her, and we’d escape, but then the reinforcementsburst in.”

Cedar’s eyebrows rose. “Should the wordreinforcements be plural when there’s just the one of me?”

“There’s you, thesix-shooter, and the sword,” Kali said. “If you and your team of weapons theremanaged to cut off the captain’s pants, then taking over the shipshould be a simple matter.”

“I see. What do you needme to do?”

Something in the corridor drew Cedar’sattention, and he went down on one knee and leaned out to shoottwice. The return fire came instantaneously, but it pounded intothe jamb where his head had been the first time. He’d thrown themoff by firing from a lower position, and he withdrew before theycould hit him.

Gasps of pain followed the gunshots alongwith the sound of someone tumbling down the stairs.

“Is there any chance I canget to navigation without being shot?” Kali said.

“It’s out in the open, ina little room with windows on all sides.” Cedar leaned out andfired again.

“Oh, so even if I couldget inside up there, I’d be target practice for pirates on accountof all the windows.”

“Essentially.”

Kali drummed her fingers on the barrel ofher weapon. If not navigation, maybe she could take control fromthe engine room. If she could manually control those fans, thepirates would be at her whim. Of course, she wouldn’t be able tosee where they were going, but-

“Can you do anything fromthat machine closet at the end of the hall?” Cedarasked.

“The what?”

He waved toward the corridor, at the endopposite from the stairs. “I took a wrong turn during my previousvisit and ended up in there. Had to fight my way out. There were abunch of pipes and controls.”

“What’d they say?” Kaliasked.

“There was a passel ofpeople shooting at me. Perusing the wall literature wasn’t foremostin my mind.” Cedar leaned back out, pistol at the ready, to checkon the situation.

Kali chewed on her lip. Pipes leading fromthe bowels of the ship to somewhere up above. Could they behydrogen and pressurized air lines that fed the balloon? If so, shemight be able to force the ship to land.

“He’s just one man,” camea voice from the top of the stairs. “If you don’t get your blightedasses down there to shoot him, I’ll have you walk the plank on topof Mountie Headquarters.”

“He’s got a gun,” adissenter cried.

“You’veall got guns. He’ll runout of ammo eventually.”

“I haveplenty of ammunition,”Cedar called back. “I came prepared. Show your heads down here onlyif you want them blown off.”

He ducked back inside before the answeringshots were fired.

“Are we still above thecity?” Kali asked.

“Yes, above the TraplineHotel when I came up. I ran into Lockhart and almost didn’t makeit. I was busy looking for you, and he caught me by surprise.”Cedar gave her a significant stare, and Kali lifted a hand inapology.

“Sorry about that. Ishouldn’t have gone off without telling you, but I was hoping Icould explain things to Lockhart and that he’d realize you weren’tresponsible for those murders.”

“Yes, and how’d that go?”Cedar asked sarcastically.

“Poorly. He waved his gunat me and told me only your death would bring peace to those whowere murdered.”

Guns fired, though they sounded far away.Down below them somewhere. Cedar cocked his head but dismissed thenoise. It filled Kali with hope. Maybe Mounties were even nowtrying to figure out a way to eliminate the pirates. If she couldbring the craft down, there might be an armed force waiting to takeon the criminals that had been plaguing the claims along the YukonRiver. Of course, landing in the city would be a problem,especially if she was steering from a closet. The citizens mightnot be happy with her if she crashed the ship into one of thepopular saloons.

“Wait until you see what’sin the closet before making plans,” Kali told herself.

“What?” Cedar asked. Hewas checking the corridor again.

“Nothing. Just thinking.How’d you get from the hotel onto the ship?” Kali didn’t see anyspecial climbing gear on Cedar.

“After I evaded Lockhart,I circled back to the saloon, grilled some of the patrons, learnedabout the kidnapping and that you’d been there. I saw the ship andhad a hunch you’d be up here too. I made a grappling hook, ranacross the rooftops until I could get close enough, threw it overthe railing, and climbed up.”

“Sounds like a lot ofwork. I appreciate you coming.”

“I figured you could useme for…. What’s the plan again?” Cedar pressed his ear to the door.“They’re being quiet. That can’t be good.”

“I’d like to check thatcloset you mentioned, see if I can give the pirates some trouble todeal with. Can you distract them long enough for me to run to theend of the corridor and shut myself in?”

Cedar frowned at her. “That door won’t stopbullets. I don’t want you running for it if they’re still shootingin this direction.” He thunked the tip of his sword onto thefloorboards thoughtfully. “Though if you had some of your smokenuts or some such, I reckon I could charge on up there and keepthem from looking down here for a while.”

Kali deposited her lone smoke nut in hishand, then handed him her flame weapon. “I expect you can make alot of smoke with that. Just don’t burn anything important. I stillaim to claim this ship for my own.”

Cedar frowned. “As much as I’d be tickled toput your latest invention to use, I don’t want to leave you withouta weapon.”

There wasn’t time to go into why she didn’tparticularly want to use the deadly flame-maker again herself, soshe simply said, “I’m sure we can find something here.” Kali gavehim a quick demonstration on how to use the weapon. Between it, thesword, and the blood spattering his clothing, he would look likesome hell-spawned demon bursting into that group of pirates. Ifthey were smart, they’d jump overboard while they could.

A concerned furrow crinkled Cedar’s brow,but Kali gave him a firm it’s-settled wave, then pulled open a seachest and threw out clothing that stank of sweat and blood. Sheshoved candles and matches out of the way and, at the bottom, founda pair of six-shooters and ammunition. She stuffed one revolverinto her overalls and held the other out. “Keitlyudee, can youshoot?”

The girl lifted her head and stared at theweapon without answering.

“Look,” Kali said,switching to Han, “if we don’t get out of here, you’re going tosuffer more torment at the hands of these pirates. We all will. Ineed your help.”

Keitlyudee closed her eyes, took a deepbreath, and stood up. She turned her back to Cedar and wrapped herarms around herself. “I understand,” she whispered, also in Han,though she surely had to understand English if she’d been on theroad with that dancing troupe.

Kali gave her the gun.

“I need…” With a shakinghand, Keitlyudee waved to encompass her naked state.

Kali looked away from the welts and blood.Seeing what Sparwood had done made her want to fry him again. “Lotsof clothes to pick from.” She kicked the heap of shirts on thefloor.

Keitlyudee’s back stiffened. “I will shoothis gun, but I will not wear anything that monster touched.”

“They’re planningsomething,” Cedar said after another corridor check. “I can hearmuttering at the top of the stairs.

“You’ll have to go nakedthen,” Kali told Keitlyudee, this time in English.

“Why wouldthat be a requirementfor distracting them?” Cedar looked over his shoulder. “Oh, youmean her.”

“You’re welcome to strip,too,” Kali said. “I’m still waiting to see if you havehammertoes.”

“I do not. My toes arehandsome. Like the rest of me.”

Cedar set his weapons aside while he removedhis shirt. He handed it to Keitlyudee and reclaimed his gear. Sheregarded the shirt briefly before pulling it over her head. Itdangled to her knees like a dress.

“Looks like we’re ready,”Kali said.