The Turncoat's Gambit

by Andrea Cremer

  “He . . .” Charlotte didn’t want to speak the truth; the truth filled her with guilt and shame.

  “Charlotte,” Linnet pressed, “we have very little time.”

  With a reluctant shake of her head, Charlotte said softly, “We won’t be able to . . . He’s . . . I need more time.”

  “That’s all we need to know right now,” Linnet said, comprehending the strain behind Charlotte’s answer. “Don’t let it gnaw at you. When the time is right, we’ll find him. I promise you that.”

  Linnet took her hand, turning Charlotte’s palm over to place a small metal object in it.

  “Here,” Linnet said. “Put this in your nose.”

  Still mired in the idea that she was abandoning Grave, Charlotte accepted to the curved bit of copper with a frown.

  “Like this.” Linnet affixed a similar device to her own nose so the two ends of the open ring pinched the cartilage between her nostrils. “Not exactly comfortable, but you’ll be glad for it where we’re going.”

  Charlotte mimicked Linnet’s action. The ring did pinch, but Charlotte’s nasal passages were suffused with the scent of lavender. Lachance and Jack affixed rings of their own before Linnet led them down the hall. The dormitory was quiet. Charlotte didn’t know if that was because her rescuers had silenced everyone who might have raised an alarm, or because the building had been minimally occupied, so there were few souls who might discover her flight.

  Linnet paused halfway along the corridor to unlock a door. At first Charlotte thought the door opened to a closet, but Linnet beckoned her forward so Charlotte could see that beyond the doorway was a trapdoor set into the floor. Linnet opened the trapdoor to reveal a chute that plunged into darkness. Even through the potent lavender oils on her nose ring, Charlotte could detect the cloying and sour odors of rot.

  “Rubbish?”

  Linnet smiled sweetly. “After you, kitten.”

  Pinching her nose to ensure the ring wasn’t jarred free whenever and wherever she landed, Charlotte climbed into the chute. She pushed off the edge, then she was flying, flying, flying. The pitch wasn’t steep enough to be frightening, but it did send her whooshing down the slick metal tube. Then for a moment she was hanging in the air until she landed with a soft whumph atop a lumpy pile of detritus.

  Charlotte tried not to look at what she’d landed upon. She clambered over the uneven surface until she found her way off the trash heap and onto solid ground. She heard another body land in the rubbish, and soon Linnet was scrambling toward her.

  “Not too bad,” Linnet commented to herself. She reached out to pluck something from Charlotte’s hair. “You’ve got—”

  “Thank you.” Charlotte cut her off, not wanting to know what from the mass of garbage had affixed itself to her head. She hoped whatever it was wouldn’t leave behind the stench of this place, which was doing all it could to fight past the filtering perfume of her nose ring.

  A subsequent thump and thump announced the arrival of Jack and Lachance. When the two men had climbed down from the heap, Linnet gestured that all of them should follow her. She led them to the perimeter of the room, which appeared to be the receiving point for a number of garbage chutes. Their progress was accompanied by the occasional sound of discarded items adding themselves to the rubbish piles.

  Linnet suddenly crouched down, then disappeared. Charlotte bent to see how her friend had vanished and discovered an air shaft. She crawled forward, guided by the sound of Linnet ahead, as almost no light penetrated the shaft. Swallowed by that dimness, their small party moved slowly, making it nearly impossible for Charlotte to determine the distance they traveled.

  Without warning, the sound of Linnet’s clothing scraping along the walls stopped. Charlotte froze, holding her breath and releasing it only when Linnet’s quiet words traveled back to her.

  “There’s a ladder here. You’ll have to feel your way up the rungs.”

  “Okay,” Charlotte answered.

  She heard Linnet’s boots clang against the ladder rungs, keeping still until the sound came from above. Charlotte inched forward, one hand out, until her fingers brushed against metal. She moved her hands along the chute wall and found the protruding ladder. Staying crouched on the balls of her feet, Charlotte let her hands lead the way up the rungs, pulling herself to standing when she couldn’t reach any higher. Then her feet followed and she began to climb. From somewhere above came a steady, loud humming sound, and rushes of air pushed at Charlotte, growing stronger as she made her way up the ladder. She heard the whine of hinges, and muddled light from the city drifted into the shaft. The light winked in and out as it was obscured by Linnet scrambling from the hatch.

  Charlotte kept climbing, and the light increased, though it never became bright. When she reached the open hatch, Linnet offered Charlotte a hand.

  “Careful, now,” Linnet said. “There isn’t a lot of room up here.”

  Charlotte frowned, unable to comprehend the reason for Linnet’s caution. Once she was out of the hatch, Charlotte understood the warning perfectly, and she didn’t like it at all.

  “I’ll admit it gets a bit tricky now.” Linnet moved her grip from Charlotte’s hand to her elbow, steadying her as her mind accepted her body’s location.

  The air shaft terminated at a fair distance from the garbage repository . . . under the platform. The loud hum had transformed into a chorus of roars generated by the trio of massive propellers that held the platform aloft, each of which covered nearly a third of the platform’s belly. Wind from the great turbines buffeted Charlotte and Linnet.

  Where they’d exited the hatch was a small landing with a protective fencing around its edge. Its design suggested it should accommodate only one person at a time, likely for maintenance purposes alone.

  Jack’s head emerged from the hatch.

  “You’ll have to wait until one of us is off,” Linnet told him.

  Off? Charlotte made a full turn, examining the landscape—or rather, airscape—off each side of the landing. She didn’t see anywhere they could go. The only object she spied was a thick cable of tightly wound metal that swooped down and disappeared into a low-hanging cloud bank beneath them. Charlotte started to look away, but her gaze was drawn back to the cable. Dread began to coil beneath her ribs.

  That icy anticipation grew when Linnet said to Jack, “Ask Lachance to hand up two of the riders.”

  Jack’s head ducked beneath the opening. When he reappeared, he threw something that looked like a tangle of metal and leather onto the landing. He offered a second jumble of materials and parts to Linnet.

  Linnet shook out the object in her hands until leather straps dangled. Charlotte caught sight of buckles, and her heart lurched with apprehension.

  “This is a rider.” Linnet held the thing out for Charlotte to examine. Each of Linnet’s hands held the edge of a thick metal cylinder that was open at the bottom. She turned the opening to show Charlotte what was inside. “The wheels ride the cable like trains would a track. You’ll loop the straps around your shoulders, and a third strap buckles around your chest. It’s not comfortable, but it will do the job.”

  Charlotte glanced at the cable once more. The line was obviously intended to moor small craft belonging to maintenance workers while they serviced the platforms. Linnet grabbed one of Charlotte’s arms and threaded it through one of the loops. Charlotte abandoned the hope of trying to ease her anxiety about the imminent descent and waited for Linnet to finish buckling the harness.

  “Reach your arms over your head,” Linnet said.

  When Charlotte did so, Linnet made adjustments to the lengths of straps that connected the back of the harness to the wheeled mechanism. Linnet brought Charlotte’s fingers to clutch the wooden handle on a slender chain that dangled from the cylinder.

  “This is the brake,” Linnet told Charlotte. “When you’re closing in on the l
anding below, be sure to slow down. You probably wouldn’t knock yourself out if you hit it at full speed, but you could break some ribs.”

  Charlotte nodded.

  “I’m going to head down first, so I’ll signal when you should reduce your speed.” Linnet gazed over the edge of the landing. “If I can. That cloud bank looks pretty dense.”

  “Great,” Charlotte muttered.

  Linnet patted her on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine, kitten. If things do clear up below, try not to look down.”

  Charlotte offered a thin smile as Linnet donned her own harness.

  “When I’m away, let Jack know he can come up.” Linnet clamped the rider onto the cable. “He’ll help you attach the rider to the line.”

  She eased herself over the railing. With one hand she clung to the landing while she clasped the brake handle with the other. She let go of the railing.

  The cable buzzed as Linnet sailed away, faster and faster, until she disappeared into the clouds.

  Charlotte swallowed several times in an attempt to soothe her dry throat. Her voice still cracked when she called, “Jack. Linnet’s gone.”

  Jack pushed himself out of the hatch and onto the landing. He stood and leaned over the railing, following the path of the cable.

  With a low whistle, he said, “That’s going to be quite a ride.”

  “Have you done this before?” Charlotte asked.

  “Only once,” Jack said. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

  He didn’t sound convincing.

  “Well, then.” Charlotte squared her shoulders. “Linnet said you’d show me how to connect the rider to the cable.”

  “Happy to,” Jack said with a teasing smile.

  Charlotte moved closer to the point on the rail where the cable attached to the landing. Jack secured the cylinder to the thick metal cord.

  “You know to brake before you reach the other side?” Jack asked.

  “Yes.”

  As much as her heart was flinging itself about her chest, like a wild bird trying to escape a cage, Charlotte didn’t think she was about to plunge to her death. She truly didn’t.

  But just in case.

  Charlotte turned to Jack. She hooked one of her arms around his neck and buried her hand in his hair before she pulled his head down and pressed her parted lips against his. Both of Jack’s arms went around her. He drew her against him as the heat of the kiss flooded her body.

  “I am the last person to stand in the way of love.” Lachance’s voice came from the hatch. “But perhaps this is not the best time for such things?”

  Charlotte drew back. She met the pirate’s mischievous gaze with a resentful glare. He only laughed and pushed himself up to sit on the edge of the hatch opening.

  “See you on the other side,” Jack said quietly. Charlotte smiled at him.

  Emboldened by the kiss, Charlotte climbed over the rail. She mimicked Linnet’s movements so that she had one hand on the brake handle while the other held the railing, keeping her aloft.

  Her heart made its protest again, hammering her ribs. Charlotte knew that this would be the most difficult part: letting go. Her mind could fix on the facts of the harness and the rider and Linnet waiting on the other side. But her body only screamed its awareness of the long, long fall to the earth. Hanging suspended between terror and release could easily send one into madness. But that was where Charlotte seemed to be trapped.

  “I’m not going to have to pry your fingers off, am I?” Jack said. “Because I’d feel awfully bad about it.”

  His words made her laugh, and her laughter broke her paralysis.

  Charlotte released the rail. And she was soaring, down, down, down. The cloud bank rushed up to meet her. Thick, silver mist left kisses like dewdrops all over her face. Then she was free of the clouds and though she knew she shouldn’t, Charlotte looked down. Fear and amazement twinned in her blood. Far below she could see the Iron Forest, its metal branches dull in the absence of sunlight. She pulled her eyes away from the ground directly underneath and gazed into the distance. Beyond the island of Manhattan, the sea was a patchwork of grays and blues, restless and sullen under the overcast sky but brilliant in those places where shafts of sunlight pierced the clouds.

  A sharp whistle caught Charlotte’s attention. Looking ahead, she saw that she had passed beneath one of the lower platforms and was swiftly coming upon a landing at which Linnet waved emphatically.

  Charlotte pulled on the brake. The rider screeched in protest as metal clamped against the cable. She was still moving quickly, but under control. She pulled the brake again, slowing even more as the cable began to rise to meet the landing. Linnet leaned over the railing, extending a hand to Charlotte. Releasing the brake for fear that she’d slow too much on this brief upward slant and come up short of the landing, only to dangle helplessly, Charlotte didn’t use the brake again until she could almost reach Linnet’s hand. Then she pulled the brake as hard as she could. The rider shrieked, and Charlotte jerked to a stop as her fingers closed on Linnet’s.

  “Pretty good for the first time.” Linnet grinned at her.

  Charlotte could only smile back. She was breathing hard, not from fear, but exhilaration.

  When Linnet had finished helping her over the railing and they’d released the rider from the cable, they both turned to wait for Jack’s approach.

  Tracing the route she’d just followed, Charlotte asked, “Has anyone ever gotten stuck?”

  Linnet laughed, nodding. “More than once.”

  “What happens then?” Charlotte shivered at the idea of being suspended, motionless between the landings.

  “You have to pull yourself the rest of the way.”

  22.

  THE REMAINDER OF the escape route proved far less harrowing. Rather than being forced to squirm through another series of ventilation shafts, they had alighted upon a landing fitted with permanent ladders connecting the upper surface of the platforms with the machine works that kept the structure aloft.

  By the time they reached the Market Platform, it had begun to rain in earnest. Swollen drops crashed onto Charlotte’s head, face, and shoulders. In less than a minute, her clothes were sodden and she shivered from the cold. Linnet led their beleaguered party through the deluge, her head down, trudging ever forward. Despite the unpleasant weather, Charlotte felt wave after wave of relief at being free of the Military Platform and once again in the company of her friends. Jack walked beside her, his fingers twined with hers from the moment he’d climbed over the railing of the second landing. She grasped his hand fiercely, needing the connection—she’d been far too close to never seeing him again.

  Lady Ott’s apartments offered a much welcome refuge from the cold. When she ushered them in, Charlotte rushed forward to embrace the woman.

  “Oh, no, no, no.” Lady Ott nimbly avoided Charlotte’s outstretched arms. “As delighted as I am to see you well and here, my dearest, you reek like Hades. I’ll have my maid prepare you a bath.”

  She sniffed the air, casting a glance at each of the others with consternation until she finally pinched her nose. “Baths all around, I’d say.”

  • • •

  Though Charlotte had considered Lady Ott’s insistence that they all thoroughly bathe before attending to other business quite irksome, she was now grateful for their host’s obstinacy. The hot water and steam soothed aches from her muscles and the lingering tension from her ordeal. And once she’d removed her nose ring and become fully aware of the powerful stench that hung around her like a pestilence, she knew Lady Ott had the better sense of things. Charlotte was happily rid of the clothes Coe had provided during her captivity and hoped Lady Ott would choose to burn them.

  Clean and freshly dressed, Charlotte went to join Lady Ott in the parlor. When Charlotte entered, Lady Ott set aside her glass of sherry and came to embrace h
er.

  “Now I can welcome you properly.” She folded Charlotte into a fierce hug. “I can’t begin to tell you how relieved I am that you are with us again and that you appear well.”

  “I’m quite well,” Charlotte replied.

  “I’m also relieved to hear that.” The speaker had been partially hidden by Lady Ott, but now came forward.

  “Meg!” Charlotte rushed into her friend’s arms. When they drew apart, Charlotte said, “I trust it was you who set my rescue in motion.”

  “In part,” Meg said. “I learned from the Sisters that you had visited the Temple under watch of a military escort. But it was Jack who told Linnet of your initial capture.”

  Charlotte nodded, not wanting the memories of bounty hunters and the Crucible to seep into her mind and strip away the contentment she could bask in for the moment.

  “But it wasn’t until we had Coe that we were able to determine where you were being held in the city.”

  The room became airless as Charlotte took in Meg’s words. She stared at her friend.

  “Charlotte?” Lady Ott’s voice seemed to come from very far away. “May I offer you something to steady your nerves? Sherry? Or a brandy, perhaps?”

  “No.” Charlotte fought back the sense of unreality. “I’m fine.”

  She turned her eyes on Meg, wanting to be sure of what she’d heard. “You have Coe? Here?”

  “Yes.” Meg’s brow had furrowed with concern. “Lady Ott was able to lure him here, and we were able to take him captive without difficulty.”

  The barrage of emotions assailing Charlotte had caught her unawares. Now that she understood their provenance, she was able to hold them in check.

  “Where is he?” Charlotte asked. He left a key.

  At the moment, she didn’t know if she was ready to face Coe. But she would be. By Athene, she would be. Coe could be fundamental to Grave’s safe return. Charlotte didn’t want to leave her friend in the Empire’s hands a moment longer than necessary.