only to maim. Lockhart, on the other hand, wanted Cedarmore than anything else in the world just then.
“I’ll be fine here on myown.” Kali tried to shove Cedar toward the railing. “He won’t shootme. You should get out of here before-”
Cedar darted away from her and fired twiceinto the night. With the navigation cabin blocking her view, Kalicouldn’t see Lockhart, but she imagined him ducking behind somecover. Cedar waved Kali toward the open door, even as he ran andslid behind a capstan near the railing. Fire danced on ropes overhis head.
Kali swallowed. She had best do thisquickly, for both of their sakes.
The windows allowed her to see inside thecabin. Though flames roared on the outside, they did not seem tohave damaged the interior irrevocably yet. Kali tugged her kerchiefover her mouth and nose again and edged closer to the door. Certainthe metal lever would be hotter than Hades, she pulled her sleeveover her hand.
Heat railed at her, and the wind shifted,driving smoke into her eyes. The men exchanged another round offire, and Kali forced herself to hurry. She grabbed the lever,twisting it and yanking it open. The sleeve did nothing forprotection, and heat scorched her palm, as if she had grabbed aniron from the forge. The hatch swung open. She shook her hand andmade a point not to look at the welts that had to be risingthere.
Staying low, Kali dartedinto the cabin. With windows on all sides, she knew she’d be atarget in there. Though she didn’t
Kali dashed sweat out of her eyes as sheconsidered the large wooden wheel and the control panel sprawlingacross the front of the cabin. Waves of heat battered her from allsides, and she knew she couldn’t stay long. Even with the kerchiefover her mouth, hot fumes scorched her nostrils, seeming to burnall the way to her lungs. She’d never been inside a volcano, butshe imagined it would feel like this.
Though she didn’t expect it to have anyresult, Kali grabbed the wheel and spun it as far to one side as itwould go. The ship’s engines were still working-vibrations thrummedbeneath her feet-but they could do nothing, not with the vesselgrounded atop the mill. Indeed, Kali could see the large smokestackpressed against the bow. For all she knew, the fans that propelledthe ship were busted, smashed into pieces when the craft crashedonto the mill roof. Only achieving lift would help them.
More screams of, “Fire, fire!” came from thecity below, and Kali had a feeling the flames were alreadyspreading.
She searched the bank of levers, hunting forsomething that might help. As far as she knew, the balloon wasn’tyet compromised, so there had to be hydrogen remaining up there.What if she now vented some of the air? That would partiallydeflate the balloon, but it’d also change the hydrogen-to-airratio. If the ship wasn’t too heavy, maybe there’d be enough of thelighter gas left to lift the hull a few feet. That ought to be allthey needed to limp through town and reach the river.
Unlike with the controls in the machine roombelow, these had tape pasted below them with English translationsscrawled across the surface. There was hydrogen with its leveralready thrust to maximum. Someone had tried to get them back intothe air, but there were no reserves to call upon. Kali could havesmacked herself on the forehead for her shortsighted sabotage.Bringing the ship down had been her goal, of course, but that hadbeen before she’d known about the fire. She’d envisioned a softlanding in the middle of the Main Street mud. If they caught thecity on fire…it’d be her fault.
The smoke invading her throat spurred aseries of coughs, and Kali dropped low for a moment, gatheringherself. Black dots danced at the edges of her vision. The heat wasmaking her dizzy.
A bullet shattered one of the rear windows.It cut straight through and slammed into a charred support beam inthe corner. Broken glass pelted Kali. Already on her knees, sheburied her head and raised her arms to protect her neck. Shardstinkled to the deck all around, the soft noises oddly audible abovethe snapping wood and roaring fire. More than one piece of glassfound bare skin, and Kali winced. Warm blood trickled down herjawline.
“So much for Lockhart notshooting at me,” she muttered, her voice hoarse.
Talking only brought on another round ofcoughing. More noxious fumes invaded her lungs.
Kali squinted up at the control panel,renewing her search. There was a lever for adding air, butwhere-ah, there it was. Two wheels for emergency venting purposes,both fortunately labeled. Kali fought against the heat and her owndizziness to rise enough to grab the closest wheel. She had tosimultaneously push and twist to vent the air.
Out on the deck, the fire had spread,charring everything in its path as flames leapt into the night.Under the reddish glow, Kali glimpsed Lockhart inching closer tothe bow of the ship. He darted from one piece of cover to the next,drawing near her station.
From somewhere in front ofthe navigation cabin, Cedar fired. Lockhart ducked behind one ofthe weapons turrets. Kali shook her head. Didn’t he know that Cedardidn’t
After Kali left the vent controls, shecrouched behind the wooden navigation wheel and turned it all theway to starboard. Nothing happened. She held it there, hoping theballoon would eventually rise, lifting the ship free of its perch.Of course, if the ship was too heavy and the balloon simplydeflated, it might droop down onto the deck, and smother them allin a fiery cocoon of death.
“Probably shouldn’t thinkthings like that,” she muttered to herself.
A loud crack erupted behind her. Kali drewher arm in front of her face as a portion of the roof caved in.Burning wood fell everywhere, and ash clogged the air. A gapinghole in the ceiling revealed flames leaping from the cabin’s roof,their fingers licking the bottom of the balloon. If the hydrogenblew…with her this close to it….
Kali gulped and rose to her feet, tempted tosprint outside and forget the ship and the city. She didn’t want todie over this. Maybe if she could find some rope, she could tie thewheel in place, so the ship would turn away from the smokestack onits own if the hull lifted.
Wood scraped and groaned beneath Kali. Thehull scraping against the mill’s roof.
“Yes,” she whispered.“We’re moving.”
With the hot wheel gripped in both hands,she fastened her gaze to the front window. Ash stung her eyes, andtears streamed down her face, but it didn’t matter. They wererising. Slowly but surely, with much scraping and bumping, theyclimbed away from the mill roof.
Kali adjusted the wheel, trying to veer inthe direction of the river. The ship responded sluggishly, but itinched forward.
More than one bullet had assaulted thewindows, and she had to peer through a spider web of cracked glass.Despite the fire raging on the ship, the blanket of night stillcloaked Dawson. She struggled to get her bearings, and it was morememory of the city’s layout that guided her, rather than what shesaw, though dozens of lanterns swirled about below, people runningto and fro, coming to help, or perhaps simply gawk.
Nausea churned in Kali’s stomach, andlightheadedness continued to assail her. She gripped the wheeltightly, fearing she might otherwise wither under the heat andcollapse to the deck. She’d stopped sweating and was simply bakingnow, like salmon bundled in leaves and cooked beneath the embers ofa fire.
Movement stirred at the corner of hervision. Lockhart. He’d drawn even with the cabin, and gripped hisColt, his jaw set with determination, but he didn’t aim it at her.He met her eyes briefly before standing on tiptoes to peer out pastthe bow. Did he know what she was trying to accomplish? Kali hopedso. She was too hot to dodge bullets. All she wanted was-
A snap split the air, hammering Kali’s earswith its power. The ceiling collapsed.
Burning wood plummeted, and somethingheavy-a beam? — smashed into her and flattened her to the deck.
Strangely, Kali didn’t feel any pain, but agreat weight pinned her. It felt like a mountain had landed on herback, and it wasn’t moving. She tried to push and pull herselffree, but one of her arms was also pinned. With the other shereached, trying to find something to grab, some way to obtainleverage to pull herself free, but her fingernails only scrabbleduselessly against the hot deck boards. She couldn’t feel herlegs.
Kali tried to suck in a deep breath so shecould call out for help, but too much weight pressed against herlungs. She couldn’t breathe. Tears of frustration and fear sprangto her eyes. She was going to die here, all because she’d beengreedy and tried to find a shortcut to getting an airship. She’dnever escape the Yukon, never see the world, never know a winterthat wasn’t icy and dark.
