Of Dreams and Rust - Sarah Fine Page 0,91
Aysun have loaded the wounded. He is still alive. He could stay that way. But now he is bracing himself and trying to rise from the ground. Bo offers a metal hand, and Melik takes it, using his good leg to push himself up. He leaves bloody fingerprints on Bo’s steel palm.
“Do any of your people know how to manage a boiler?” Bo asks.
Melik looks toward the slaughtered fireman. Bo’s spiders have buried themselves in the man’s chest and are still at work. “What is required?”
“Adding coal to the firebox and monitoring the gauges to keep the pressure at a level that allows me to pilot the machine. There is a communication system inside. The fireman will be able to hear my voice, and I will tell him before I need more power.”
“What more is there to do?” I ask. “You’ve said the machines will shut down on their own.”
Bo nods. “They will. But the carrier machine is coming, and I did not have time to sabotage it. It is a very powerful machine with two heavy cannon at the front. It would have no trouble destroying this village and your survivors.” His eyes stray toward Aysun and the cart full of injured Noor.
Melik leans on Anni as he tries to put weight on his injured leg. He keeps his mouth clamped shut to hold his groan inside. “I will manage the boiler if you show me how.”
“But your men—” Bo begins.
“Cannot speak Itanyai,” says Melik. “I’m the only one who can.”
“Wen and I will tell the fighters what they need to know,” says Anni. She turns to me. “Many of them will be injured.”
I stand up and swing my pack over my shoulder. I can do little but bind and tourniquet and splint, but that is not nothing. I raise my head to find Bo staring at me, a frown on his face. “Wen, the guns on the war machines will still be functional,” he says. “It is not safe.”
“All the more reason for me to go and help.” I move closer to him, drinking in the sight of his face, of his concern for me. He has allowed that part of him, the human part, to live, and it feels like a gift. “I will be careful,” I add.
Bo looks back and forth between Melik and me, and I know he is wishing Melik would agree with him and tell me not to go. And Melik looks like he wants to. We stare at each other for the briefest moment, and then he says, very quietly, “Remember, Wen. Mican tisamokye.” You carry my heart with you.
Anni makes a choked sound in her throat and puts her arm over my shoulders. I put mine around her waist. “I will never forget that,” I say to him.
Bo turns away and strides to the back of his hijacked war machine. “Now, Red. The carrier will be here in a few minutes, and we have to make it past the downed machines.” He gestures at the perforated war machine several yards away. “Their guns can penetrate our armor.”
Melik half limps, half hops to the rear of the machine. “And the carrier?”
“Heavily armored. Our guns are nothing to it. We will have to either access its kill switch or take out its pilot.”
Melik frowns. “Both of those involve climbing on top of the machine.”
Bo gives him a grim smile. “Obviously.” Together, he and Melik peer into the boiler chamber of the war machine. “You’re a little big for this space, Red.”
“I’ll fit,” Melik says, his voice strained. He accepts Bo’s arm as he climbs into the back. As Bo explains how to work the boiler, I turn to Anni.
“We must go,” I say to her. “If the fighters can get the crews out of the machines, they will not be able to shoot at this one.”
Anni casts an anxious glance at Melik, who has folded himself into the boiler chamber of the war machine. My stomach clenches. So many horrible things could happen to him in that tiny space full of fire and smoke. Bo slams the hatch and strides over the top of the machine. He looks down at me. “I’ll try to keep him safe.” He closes the plate over his face, becoming all steel.
I take Anni’s hand. “We have to warn the fighters so they don’t try to stop Melik and Bo.” I squeeze her fingers as the giant metal spider carrying two men I love lets out a hissing