“Yes, thank you.” Kalicould be calm and polite when someone was working to set her free.So long as he finished before whoever was working the winch gotthem on board. Already, they were nearly twenty feet from theground. The fall would not be pleasant.
“Get him off!” a manyelled from somewhere above. “Shoot him!”
“I believe someone ismaking plans for you,” Kali said.
Cedar’s swift cuts were opening up herprison, and she gripped the ropes above her head with both hands soshe wouldn’t fall free when the support disappeared.
“Not plans I’m partialto,” Cedar said. “I’ll have you down in a second.”
Wood creaked above them, and Kali looked up,fearing they might weigh too much for whatever winch was operatingup there. She wanted freedom, yes, but she didn’t fancy the idea ofa long drop while still entangled in the ropes. A man wearing ablack bandana around his head and holding a shiny steel six-shooterleaned out through a trapdoor.
“Look out,” Kali barked,afraid Cedar, intent on cutting her ropes, hadn’t seen theman.
But he was already in motion, not jumpingfree to escape the gun like a sane person would do, but shimmyingup the rope. The pirate’s finger tightened on the trigger, butCedar was already pumping an arm to throw his knife. The blade spunupward and lodged in the man’s chest.
The revolver fired anyway.
Kali buried her head beneath her arms, butno bullet pierced her flesh. Before she could lift her eyes to seeif Cedar had also avoided being hit, something slammed into her.The force snapped the remaining ropes still binding her into thenet, and her legs flew free. Twine seared her palms, and she almostlost her grip, but she clenched her fingers tighter around therope. The dead pirate tumbled past her and smashed into the rockyshoreline below. Cedar had disappeared into the airship.
Gunshots sounded above, followed by a clashof steel. That meant Cedar had his sword out. He might need help,but storming a fortress wasn’t anything Kali was trained for. She’dhave to try something else.
Kali swung her legs up and found a toeholdin part of the netting that had not been cut. She climbed a fewfeet up the rope, but stopped well below the trapdoor. Twenty feetaway, mounted on the bottom of the hull, the twin- ducted fanshummed along.
While gripping the rope with one hand, Kalidropped the other into a pocket and withdrew a grenade. Windbattered her, whipping her hair free of its braid and into hereyes. She squinted, trying to judge the distance for a toss to theclosest fan.
“Cedar!” Kali yelled. Hewould be better at this.
A battle cry-it might have been his-andanother long clash of steel answered her. Kali took that to meanshe was on her own.
She took a deep breath, thumbed the triggeron the grenade, and watched for the spark. Yes, there it was. Shecounted to two and tossed the weapon.
It sailed through the air, clanked off thefan casing and dropped. It exploded uselessly a few feet above theriver. A couple of men rowing a fishing boat and gawking up at theairship screamed and threw themselves into the water.
“Not good,” Kalimuttered.
She had one more grenade, but only one. Shegripped the cold metal, felt the grooves dig into her hand,imagined the hours she had spent patching the exterior togetherfrom scrap and carefully measuring out gunpowder and even morecarefully building the trigger device…. She resolved not to wastethis one.
Kali thumbed the trigger, held the grenadehalf a second longer than the first, and lofted it toward thefan.
This time it clanked into the horizontalcylinder containing the propeller. Kali held her breath. Thegrenade bumped against the inside of the casing and skidded towardthe fan. She cringed at the idea of it sliding past the blades andfalling out on other side.
Before the grenade came close to that fate,it exploded with an echoing boom. Orange flashed, gray smoke filledthe air, and shards of metal flew.
One whistled toward her face, and Kaliducked, throwing up her free hand. Her other hand slipped, and shelost her foothold and zipped down the rope. Fire seared her palm,tearing into her skin, but she growled and forced herself to holdon. She caught the bottom of the half-destroyed net, but her feetdangled free, swinging thirty feet above the earth.
On the hull above, the only thing left ofthe fan was a singed stump of metal. Holes and charred wood markedthe hull as well. If it were a sea-going vessel, it’d be leakingfaster than the bilge pumps could bail, but up here, holes justmeant poorer aerodynamics. Already, though, the airship was listingto one side, heading out over the river. With one workingpropeller, it’d simply float around in wide circles until someonefixed it. That meant they’d have a hard time chasing anybody.
“Cedar,” Kali calledagain. “It’s time to go!”
She scanned the countryside below,ostensibly looking for her bicycle and to see how far upstream theyhad floated, but a part of her had to admire the view, a viewusually reserved for the birds. One day, she would sail in theskies with her own ship.
A boom sounded above, not rifle fire thistime, but a shell gun or cannon. What in tarnation was Cedar doingup there?
Kali was debating whether to climb up andjoin him-whatever he was doing, he might be getting himself introuble-when a familiar shout pulled her eye to the side.
“Man overboard!” It wasCedar, leaping over the deck railing. He clutched a bag in one handand his sword in the other. “Let’s go, Kali!” he added before hesplashed into the river below.
“Someone stole that man’srudder,” she muttered.
Above her, a man with a bloody face leanedout of the trapdoor. From the pained snarl on his lips and the gunin his hand, Kali decided it was indeed time to go. After a quickcheck to make sure she was over water, she released the rope.
She dropped thirty feet and plunged intodepths so icy they shocked her to the core. The calendar might saysummer, but this water came straight out of mountains stillsmothered with snow. Her feet brushed the bottom, and she pushedoff. She popped above the surface and tried to suck in a breath ofair, but her lungs, stunned from the cold, scarcely worked. An icywave washed into her eyes.
A hand gripped Kali’s arm, helping her stayup.
“That was brilliant!”Cedar exclaimed. The water dripping into his eyes couldn’t dulltheir gleam.
Kali shook her head and swam for the shorewith frenzied strokes, hoping to warm her already-numb limbs. Sheonly paused long enough to make sure she was swimming in the rightdirection. It was a testament to how cold she was that she reachedthe shore before Cedar. She was tempted to jog back to the SAB-andrip dry clothes and Cedar’s bedroll off the back-but she figuredshe had best wait and see if he was injured or needed help. Shewouldn’t put it past him to race into battle and roar withexcitement while having a life-threatening wound.
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.
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
