my heart—and I might as well have been dead.”
She slid her hand into his, threaded their fingers. “But you came back.”
“I always will,” he said, then sighed. “And Bilson?”
“I leave him to you.”
He gave her a wry look. “I wish you wouldn’t.”
Ah. So he was torn. Like her, he had no compunction against killing someone when they posed a threat. When that person didn’t pose a threat, the decisions were more difficult, and his relationship with the man was already complicated.
“Think on it,” she suggested. “When he wakes up tomorrow we’ll be three hundred miles north and over dry land. Perhaps his reaction to seeing that his plan has failed will help determine yours.”
Archimedes nodded and looked into the furnace, then met her eyes again. He didn’t have to say it; she already knew what he was thinking.
With a grin, she said, “And after we are back in England, perhaps we’ll see about hiring on more mercenaries and a few more airships, and coming up with a more solid plan to rescue his damn brother—and anyone else who wants to escape New Eden. But don’t tell Bilson.”
“I wouldn’t.” He shook his head, laughing. “And that sounds like a fine plan.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Lighting a cigarillo, she smiled up at him—then stiffened as an insistent clanging sounded through the pipes.
The alarm from the deck. Now, just as they’d turned for home? It had to be a joke. Had to be.
But Vashon wasn’t the sort to joke while on duty.
Yasmeen took off at a run, Archimedes’ boots pounding behind her, up the companionways. Everyone on board was in motion, shouting as the ship came to full alert. When she reached the main deck, the lanterns had been doused, but everything was bathed in the silvery light of a full moon. By the lady, what terrible luck. The dark couldn’t hide them when Lady Nergüi’s white balloon was illuminated by that light. All of the aviators stood quietly, waiting—and all staring in the same direction.
Yasmeen narrowed her eyes. Far north, a spot of orange seemed to burn like the beacon of a lighthouse. Vashon leapt down from the quarterdeck, expression tight, spyglass in hand. Yasmeen brought the lens to her eye.
A ball of fire flickered on the water. Oh, don’t let it be. Dreading the answer, Yasmeen asked, “Is that The Blue Canary?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her stomach plummeted. By the lady’s shining teeth. Forty people had been on that airship.
“Their captain must have tried to run,” Vashon added, just as Yasmeen spotted the long trails of smoke across the night sky—not from the fire, but from steam-powered flyers.
“May they all rot into a zombie’s gut,” she said softly, and looked to Archimedes. “It’s New Eden. They shot down the Canary.”
His mouth grim, Archimedes said, “Have they seen us?”
She studied the trails of smoke, and a leaden weight settled in her chest. “Yes. They’re flying in this direction.”
So that was it, then. Yasmeen lowered the spyglass and drew a deep breath, hoping to lighten the sudden heaviness around her heart. They’d intended to return to New Eden, eventually. Not like this…but they’d make do with what they had.
“Well,” Archimedes said, and she saw the determination set in…along with the inevitable excitement and anticipation. With raised brows, he glanced at her, and began to grin. “It’s fortunate that we’re prepared for this, isn’t it?”
Chapter 7
Yasmeen wasn’t prepared, though it all happened exactly as she’d expected.
Like a swarm of dragonflies, the flyers came. A dozen surrounded Lady Nergüi, the pilots’ eyes hidden behind the smoked lenses of aviator goggles. They sat astride the flyers’ long bodies, and the buzzing of the three propellers on the forward edge of each wing drowned out the huffing of the engines hanging beneath the seat. Yasmeen ran up a flag of surrender. The lead pilot signaled a direction, and Lady Nergüi followed him.
It took everything she had not to swat them out of the sky, or die trying.
She understood exactly why the captain of The Blue Canary had tried. Yasmeen had met him, knew his reputation—he hadn’t been a fool. He’d simply been a captain, and a good one, trying to protect his people.
That wasn’t instinct. Accepting responsibility for all of the lives aboard a ship required a certain amount of arrogance. Yasmeen had that in spades as well; she had to. Life aboard a mercenary ship required her to take risks, and to believe that despite the odds, she’d pull them all through. The Blue Canary’s captain had had that,