Dragonseers and Airships

by Chris Behrsin

  There were redguards up there too, though none of them looked down at the floor below. They carried green syringes in their hands and watched the slaves vigilantly.

  And each slave moved with a noticeable lack of vigour. None of them paused to rest – even to wipe their brow or take a breath of air. They applied themselves to the job at hand, be it hammering a rivet in place, adjusting a screw on this massive factory machine, or hooking a component onto the railings. They just didn’t seem human anymore, and that thought caused a shiver to travel down my spine.

  When the Tow Observer had referred to this place as an automaton that produced automatons, it wasn’t talking about anything specific, but a concept. As this place grew, the automatons would no doubt take more tasks upon themselves, and the slaves could work on other things until their services and lives weren’t needed at all.

  They weren’t regarded as people, but fleshy dehumanised automata, cogs in a larger machine.

  King Cini would go to any means necessary to achieve what he wanted, even if that involved drugging his own population to oblivion. And he wouldn’t stop using methods like this until the Southlands was under his control and he had destroyed every single dragon alive.

  “We need to save them,” I said. “The way they’re being treated… It’s terrible.” Some of these were from my homeland. Others lived on the same continent. Many would have come from the Sovereign States, such as the country of Orkc which we were now in.

  “But this is the nature of war, Dragonseer Wells,” General Sako replied. “You can never save them all.”

  And my heart sank as we turned away.

  We continued down the corridor, Velos’ and the dragon automaton’s roars and the booming of machine gun fire getting louder as we progressed.

  “This way,” General Sako said, and led us down a narrower corridor. Ratter soon met up with us – he’d been on a little explore, it seemed. The automaton scurried ahead, as if it knew of a safe route. It took us past corridors of non-operational war automatons, and Rocs lined up on either side in their own alcoves. Then the corridor widened into a room as large as Fortress Gerhaun’s courtyard with perhaps a hundred Mammoth automatons arranged in neat rows, facing a massive closed door at the front that was even wider than the chimney to Gerhaun’s treasure chamber.

  “Blunders and dragonheats,” General Sako said. “These things are ready to march.”

  And as we rushed past one, I looked up at it in horror, wondering what would happen when it activated. It was eerie to see one of these terrible automatons so lifeless and so close. I’d never truly got a scale of the Mammoths when we’d attacked them from a distance or passed them so fast in flight.

  The two tusks it used to toss secicao into its jaws were at least four times the height of me. And if they charged using those heavy legs, I could see them breaching great gashes in Fortress Gerhaun’s walls. I honestly wasn’t sure which was a more terrifying weapon, the great tusked mammoths, the spear beaked Rocs, or the heavily armoured Ogres we’d encountered before.

  But one thing was for sure – King Cini was building an army of giants, and it was only a matter of time until he sent it south.

  We picked up pace and left the Mammoth room into another narrow corridor, this time containing traditional war automatons. Then we passed through another corridor, with tiny compartments inset into each wall. Some of these contained Hummingbirds. Others contained the fast-moving hornet automatons, usually equipped with sedative or light venom, that King Cini deployed when he needed crowd control.

  Finally, the corridor swung to the left, emerging at an open door, behind which a battle raged. We rushed to the entrance, taking cover behind the door’s wide steel frame. I felt the chill hit my bare skin, Talato and I still dressed in threadbare rags. But I had enough adrenaline in me to charge outside in my bare feet, despite the danger from the cold.

  Outside, war automatons had gathered in small squads of five or six, and they had their shielded heads turned up to the sky, which they fired into with their double Gatling-guns. Velos and the dragon automaton wheeled around above, wisely keeping their distance.

  The war automatons supervised groups of slaves, who still worked away at the low boulders, oblivious to the battle raging around them. In the distance to the left, trains of them carried iron girders on their shoulders in groups of three, unloading them from a trailer attached to a Mammoth further south. Wisps of fog swirled around the legs of the Mammoth, concealing its feet.

  Slightly to the west of this, stood a stack of logs so tall we couldn’t see the landscape behind. That seemed the best place to sprint to for cover, and once behind them we could work out what to do next.

  But between us and those logs stood four of those terrifying Ogre automatons. Unlike the other automatons, they had their gaze focused on the perimeter, not even trying to track the fast moving dragons with their bulky weapons. Two of them looked out to our left, two of them looked out to the right. If we tried to pass in front of them, they’d flatten us with their shoulder mounted Gatling cannons. And they were so close together, that they’d crush us with their feet if we tried to dart between them.

  They were the more immediate danger, but I also knew that we couldn’t get close to any of the clusters of smaller war automatons. Although these were currently focused on Velos and the dragon automaton, if we passed too close to them, they’d turn their guns on us.

  I sang to Velos, to instruct him to keep his distance. Not just because he was vastly outnumbered, but also because I didn’t want his flames to do any damage to the slaves. Then I turned to Talato, who was vigorously scanning from left to right, looking for an opening.

  “Can you see a way through, Lieutenant?” I asked.

  “Not yet, Maam,” she said.

  “Blunders and dragonheats,” General Sako said. “We need to take a risk here. Taka, stay close.”

  Meanwhile, Ratter had his own plans. The automaton leapt off my shoulder and onto the floor. I put up my hand to stop General Sako charging forwards, as Ratter scurried over to the huge automatons in front of us. He drew their attention, causing them to swivel their guns towards him and open fire. This gave us an opening to our right.

  Usually, I’d augment before facing off against any kind of automaton. But we weren’t only just unarmed, but also bereft of our secicao flasks. Which meant we had to rely on our natural instincts alone.

  “This way,” I commanded. And I rushed towards the back of the automatons.

  We passed the giant machines, just as they kicked up the snow and make chase after Ratter. They were surprisingly fast, and they seemed to want to pancake the rodent automaton into the ground. But what they gained in speed, they lacked in manoeuvrability. Ratter darted underneath one of their undercarriages. The automaton responded by raising its bulky fist and bringing it around in a sweep that knocked one of its brothers back by several metres.

  That’s all I registered as I picked up speed and focused on the logs straight ahead. Out of the corner of my mind, light flashed, and Velos’ shadow passed over me. Then there came the roaring of fire and the sensation of heat from the left.

  Meanwhile, my lungs were burning, both through exertion and the intense cold. We swerved close to another cluster of regular war automatons, currently unleashing their ordnance into the sky. As we entered their perimeter, they swung around on their spindly legs, and pointed their guns in our direction.

  Fortunately, the logs were only moments ahead. Talato dived behind the cover first, followed by Taka. I was next, followed by General Sako. The war automatons unleashed their bullets, splintering the logs in front of us, cutting into them at the edges.

  I waited for the volley to abate, then scrambled over to the end of the logs, and was just about to peek out from cover, when there came a screeching sound from the sky. Ten Roc automatons had joined the battle, flying in from the west. They had their missiles equipped – the same kind that had almost taken out Velos at the Battle of East
Cadigan Island.

  The flock divided into two, so they could pursue Velos and the dragon automaton individually. A swarm of Hummingbirds accelerated past these – green and secicao powered – so many of them that I couldn’t see the clouds behind them. A thin line of hornet automatons also followed a lower line, directly headed in our direction.

  “Dragonseer Wells,” Lieutenant Talato said.

  I pivoted, sensing the alarm in her tone.

  Travast Indorm’s voice came before I saw him. “Enough of this tomfoolery,” he said.

  And there he stood, right behind me, framed by a red cloak and standing on his hovering platform. And this time, I knew I wasn’t looking at a hologram but his true form.

  Just behind him, we’d completely missed the Mammoth automaton looming just a little taller than the stack of logs. It had its jaws and tusks lowered to the ground, and it looked ready to charge. It also had its four side-mounted guns trained right on us.

  Travast Indorm crossed his arms. A scowl marred the upper half of his face, as his bandana whipped violently in the wind. The front-mounted gun on his platform was trained on a point just between my eyes.

  “I ask you for one simple thing, and you have to defy me. Why can’t you just cooperate? Don’t you value your lives?”

  And before I could say a word, I felt a sting in my neck. A dart had buried itself in there, and the drowsiness of sedative rushed to my brain. My legs wobbled, and I fell onto the soft snow, knowing there was no point in trying to resist.

  The last thing I saw was some slaves scattering away from the dragon automaton just before it crashed into the ground. Then, I blacked out.

  Part VI

  Cini

  “Those who claim secicao will take over the world truly underestimate the power of industry and human endeavour.”

  King Cini III

  19

  This time, Travast Indorm had had the courtesy to put beds in our cells, rather than plonking us down on hard wooden chairs and trussing our hands behind our backs. In a way, it was a blessing, really. After everything I’d been through the last couple of days, I’d needed somewhere to lie down.

  The mattress beneath was cardboard thin, and I could feel the hard wooden plank underneath it against my shoulder as I lay there. As if to punish us for trying to escape, Travast had also turned the furnace down low, and I only had those threadbare rags to keep me warm. I kept waking up, shivering, and grappling at bedclothes that weren’t there. So whatever sleep I got wasn’t good sleep.

  I didn’t understand his logic, really. Treating me this way, certainly wouldn’t put me in the best of moods when Travast wanted me to display my utmost respect before the king.

  Eventually, I thought it better to get up and take stock of my surroundings. A little movement would, after all, bring a little warmth. And there was enough light coming from the flickering torches upstairs that I could see around me.

  I was back in the same holding area as before. This time, all four cells had been filled, and I had a cell to myself. Opposite me, Faso and General Sako sat on their beds staring at each other, but not saying a word. Travast didn’t seem to have liked Faso too much, and what better way to torture him than to stick him in the same holding cell as his ex-girlfriend’s father.

  Taka shared the adjoining cell with Lieutenant Candiorno. The boy stood at the back of the cell, throwing bits of stone and other rubble he found on the floor against the wall, almost as if he believed they’d help him tunnel free. Candiorno sat on the bed, watching him, without saying a word.

  Talato and Winda were in the other cell. Talato lay on the bed fast asleep, while Winda sat watching her beloved with an expression of scorn, perhaps a little jealous that Faso was paying General Sako more heed than her.

  “Well, fancy seeing you all here,” I said.

  General Sako jerked his head around. He seemed relieved to have someone else to look at other than Faso. “Dragonseer Wells, you’re awake. We were staying quiet, to give you as much sleep as possible. It seems you have quite an ordeal ahead of you.”

  I nodded. “Thank you, I guess. But I need to know. Faso, what the dragonheats happened? And how did you end up getting captured too?”

  Faso turned his head slowly. He looked ashamed, and I saw much of the likeness between him and Taka then. He’d been ousted, I could see that. “I had it under control,” he said. “We’d found a little hole in the rock. A cave, if you like, that tunnelled down into the earth. I planned to use the helmet while Winda and Candiorno kept watch. If I had Ratter, then he would have seen them coming and sedated them before they had a chance. But, of course, I had to send out Ratter to rescue you, and Lieutenant Candiorno went outside to scout the terrain.”

  He stood up and paced towards the wall, then back towards the door and reached out to hold on to the bars.

  “The problem came,” he continued, and he gave his girlfriend an unpleasant look, “when Winda let her gaze drift off for too long. She started daydreaming or something, and so the troops somehow got through the entrance, waltzed up behind her, and took her hostage. Then, just as I was bringing in Velos to attack one of those massive war automatons, one of Travast’s guards yanked the helmet off me and threw it across the cave. It hit the wall, and goodness knows what condition it’s in now.”

  I turned to Winda, half expecting her to have something to say about this. I’d known Faso so long, that I doubted it really was all her fault. It sounded like they would have got captured regardless. And if she had made a mistake, so what? We were all human. She lowered her head. She looked as though she’d been crying. But she didn’t seem ashamed, she seemed angry. Almost as if she was thinking of breaking up with Faso, here and now.

  I turned back to Faso to give him a piece of my mind and stick up for Winda a bit. But I was interrupted by footsteps coming from the stairs. Travast limped down them, two standard issue war automatons following in his wake.

  He posted the automatons at the bottom of the stairs, and traipsed up to my cell, keeping his gaze dead set on mine. He had that same scowl on his face as just when he’d sedated me. But I would not back down. So, I met his look with an equally acerbic frown of my own. Meanwhile, anger surged within me. Literally, if he opened that cell door right then, I would tear him to shreds.

  “Wells,” he said. Clearly thinking he could make me feel inferior by neglecting my title and first name. “The first time I met you, I truly hoped that we could be friends. But your recent actions have shown you to be a wild animal, not capable of friendship. You’re a true disappointment to your kind, and I don’t know how anyone can possibly think you a dragonseer.”

  Wild animal… I’d show him. I bared my teeth at him, hissed, and then rushed at the door. I tried to yank it open, as if I had the strength of a thousand men.

  But he didn’t flinch in response. Instead, he stared me down, and then turned slowly towards Taka and walked up to his cell door. Taka kept as far away from the door as possible, shrinking away against the wall as if Travast were some kind of shade to fear in the night.

  “And you, boy,” Travast said. “I had truly great plans for you, and you also have proved an utter disappointment. Imagine what you could do with all that power inside you? But yet, you instead follow this beast.” He swung his arm around in a wide arc towards me.

  Taka didn’t move from his position and looked up at Travast with a defiant stare. “I trust those who treat me well,” he said. “And do good in this world. Much like Chantel did. And your kind killed her.”

  Travast shook his head. “I had nothing to do with your mother’s death. That was all part of Alsie Fioreletta’s plans.”

  “You’re all the same,” Taka replied. “You work for the king.”

  Travast chortled. “Oh, it’s so much more complicated than that, believe me. Now, while here I was thinking that I could get you to do my bidding willingly. It now appears I have to use other measures.”

  He turned to one automaton near the base
of the staircase and gestured for it to come forward. The machine jolted upright, cocked its plated head like a bird, and then took a few steps forward. It turned to me and trained one of its Gatling guns right on me. I looked down the barrel, drained of any fear I should have felt.

  “What are you going to do, shoot me?” I asked.

  Travast walked up to my cell. “I don’t think I’ll need to. But I must take precautions, understand.” He reached into his pocket and took hold of a vial of liquid. For a moment, I thought I’d see Exalmpora, and I began to salivate. But instead, I saw that same green drug that we’d caught Taka with back at Fortress Gerhaun. Patterns of dark swirled within it. A sense of disappointment emerged in my chest.

  “What’s wrong?” Travast asked. “You look so sad. Almost as if you wanted Exalmpora. But this is Exalmpora, see.” He took off the bung from the vial, and the metallic scent of the drug wafted into my nostrils. I wanted it, but only for a second, until Travast replaced the bung. “We merely coloured it differently so you wouldn’t recognise. Oh, and there’s some extra magic in there. Although, I’m sure Mr Gordoni behind me would rather refer to this as science.”

  Travast’s cloak stretched out so wide that I couldn’t see Faso and General Sako’s cell behind me. But the door there clanked loudly, causing me to recoil in shock.

  “You get that stuff away from Dragonseer Wells, you hear?” General Sako bawled. “I’ve heard all about how the king forced that stuff down my daughter’s throat, and I will not let you do the same to her.”

  “Oh, pipe down, old man,” Travast replied, without even turning to look at him. “I don’t want to have to shoot you now. Not in front of the boy…”

  The door rattled again, and then General Sako fell silent. I turned to see Talato now sitting up in bed, eyeing Travast as if wanting to take him down. But she had no means of getting out of the cell and she’d have to wrestle two war automatons, even if she did. I gave her a reassuring glance, to let her at least believe I had this under control.