Hunted fgc-2

by Lindsay Buroker

  Click-whir.

  Kali lifted her eyes. Leaves shuddered.“Something’s up there.”

  Cedar knelt beside her and plucked somethingfrom the mud. A tiny metal sphere, perhaps a third of the size ofan old musket ball, glinted in the palm of his hand.

  Low voices came from the mine entrance.Another man had crawled out. Blood stained his sandy hair andsaturated his shirt.

  Weariness dragged Kali’s shoulders down; shehad grown tired of this adventure and wanted to go back to the citywhere she could rely on the defenses in her workshop to protecther. And where no one need be injured. Or killed.

  “We can go back to town,” Cedar said, perhapsguessing her thoughts. “Wilder…isn’t going to pan out. He isn’twith Cudgel any more.”

  “Didn’t you say his head is worth money inits own right?”

  “I’m not collecting on it. He says he’s gonestraight, and I believe him. He’s up here with his pregnant wifeand one-year-old son. They’re hoping to find enough gold to make afresh start.”

  “Oh.” Kali did not know what Wilder had doneto earn his bounty, but she could not argue for killing a man witha new family to provide for. “Sorry the trip was a waste foryou.”

  “Not a total waste. I got kissed.”

  “By Wilder?”

  Cedar snorted. “By you.”

  “I know about that. I was just makingsure I didn’t have competition. This Wilder might be a looker.”

  He waved away her goofy comments. “Wilder didsay he agreed with me in that Cudgel was probably on his way up toDawson. He’s too greedy to miss an opportunity like this.” Hespread a hand to indicate the river and the claims.

  A thud sounded beside Kali’s ear, and shardsof bark flew off the tree beside her. A gouge appeared in thetrunk.

  “Time to go,” Cedar said.

  “Do we face the angry humans by the river orthe unknown somethings in the forest?”

  “Your choice. I have ammo now.

  “We can cut back to the trail through thetrees.” Kali glanced at Sebastian’s injured men. “I’m tired ofhurting people.”

  “You want to hurt machines?” Cedar led theway into the forest.

  “No, but I want to see them up close.”

  “Even if they’re shooting at you?”

  “I’m odd,” Kali said. “I know.” She wanted toknow what powered them and what directed them to move-and shoot.Nothing natural. That much she knew.

  Something glided out of the branches. BeforeKali got a good look, burning pain lanced into her abdomen. Shehunched over, clutching her stomach. Again, the wound was notenough to break skin or rip clothing, but she would have a bruisebefore long.

  “You all right?” Cedar gripped her shoulder.“I saw it. It’s a foot long and looks like a big butterfly withwings made of the same mesh as the flyer.”

  “If you saw it, why didn’t you shoot it?”

  “Don’t we want your friends to believe wewere caught in the cave-in?”

  Right. Weapons fire would give them away.“All right,” she said, “let’s get out of here. That thing is aimingfor me.”

  They broke into a jog with Cedar leading theway. Though no trail meandered through the forest, enough peoplehad clomped around their claims that Kali and Cedar could maneuverbetween the trees, following paths of trampled foliage. Theirfootfalls drowned out the click-whirs of the mechanicalcreature, but she feared it was not far behind. Between thepacksack bumping on her back and the drill snagging on branches,she was not moving quickly. More than once, Cedar glanced back andslowed his pace for her.

  Without warning, another tiny projectilehammered Kali in the jaw.

  “Tarnation!” she blurted, grabbing her chin.Without the protection of clothing, that one hurt more than theothers. Warm blood dribbled through her fingers. “How’d it get infront of us?”

  “I don’t know. Another quarter mile, and I’llrisk a shot.”

  They kept running. Though the balls did notcause overbearing pain, the face shot made Kali aware of thepossibility of getting one in the eye.

  The next stab of pain came from the side. Shegrowled in frustration and gritted her teeth.

  Sword in hand, Cedar darted in front of herand crashed into the undergrowth. He leaped into the air andwhipped the blade upward so quickly Kali could not track its path.Metal clashed against metal, and something slammed into a treetrunk. Her eyes finally caught up with the action when thecontraption clattered to the ground.

  “Keep running,” Cedar said. “There’s morethan one.”

  But she sprinted over to check out thedevice. It was worth a few more balls in the butt if she could takeone home to study.

  The winged, bronze and steel creature had afinely wrought carapace, and Cedar’s blade had sliced its body inhalf. When she picked up a piece, its lightness surprised her.

  “Go, go.” Cedar pulled her to her feet andgave her a shove.

  He was staring past her shoulder, and sherisked a glance before running the direction he indicated. And shegulped. No fewer than ten of the flying creatures were descendingfrom the trees and angling toward her, like a swarm of bees.

  Still clutching the broken one, she tookCedar’s advice and ran. There were no clear trails, and shestumbled on roots and rocks. Branches whipped her face and snaggedher hair. She almost dropped the drill, but she did not have timeto dig the flash gold out, and she refused to leave a piece ofthat on the forest floor.

  Footsteps thundered behind her. Cedar.

  “They’re staying out of sword reach,” hesaid.

  “They’re smart.”

  “Flash gold smart?” He must have alsorealized no natural explanation could account for the autonomouscreations.

  “Maybe.” Flash gold was her father’sinvention, and she did not think much of it was out there in theworld, if any. She had read of witches animating inanimate objectsand controlling them, and thought that a more likely explanationfor the swarm, but she could not be sure. She lacked the breath toshare her speculations.

  Cedar grunted, then cursed. He was runningdirectly behind her and taking the hits.

  “You don’t have to…do that,” she said.

  The effort of holding the pace was catchingup with her. Without the packsack, she would have an easier time,but she was unwilling to leave her tools behind. She could havedropped the drill or the metal carcass, but she might find anotheruse for the former, and she had to check out the latter assoon as there was time. This woman’s work was incredible.

  “Veer right,” Cedar said. “The river bendsahead, and we’ll run into some rapids if we keep goingstraight.”

  “It’d be nice if…someone would have…madea trail for us.”

  “We’ll meet up with it soon.”

  When Kali tried to follow his instructionsand run right, movement in that direction made her falter. Two ofthe creatures swooped out of the canopy.

  Cedar’s rifle cracked. One of the constructsflew backward, smashing into a tree. The other returned fire. Thebullet was too small to track, but Cedar cursed and dropped hisrifle. He snatched it up and caught up with Kali.

  “They’re herding us,” he said.

  Yes, she was getting that feeling. “To cornerus…at the river? I’m hot and tired enough to jump in and…takemy chances with the current.”

  “With all that gear?” Irritating thathe did not sound out of breath. “You’d sink like a goldbar.”

  Before she could think of a retort, the treesand undergrowth ended, and she stumbled onto a granite bank, dampwith spray. In the center of the river, white rapids frothed andchurned, but Kali’s gaze went to a shallow niche filled with calm,dark water-and a brown-clad figure standing in a metal boat. No,not a boat. The lower half of the flying machine, the half they hadnot found in the wreckage. The furnace and boiler appearedundamaged, and puffs of gray wafted from a narrow smokestack. Somesort of screw-style propeller kept theflying-machine-turned-land-vehicle-turned-boat from drifting outinto the rapids.

  Kali
slowed down, not sure what to do next.Stop and talk? God knew she was curious about this woman. Or turnright and run downriver, taking her chances navigating thetreacherous slabs of rock framing the waterway?

  Cedar had no trouble deciding what to do: hefired his rifle.

  The transparent barrier still protected thepiloting area, but since the woman was standing, her torso roseabove it. The bullet slammed into her chest. Or it should have. Itclacked, as if hitting rock, and ricocheted off without the figurereacting. Actually she did react. She tilted her head and gaveCedar a look that managed to convey, even with goggles covering hereyes, pity for such a simple creature whose only solution toproblems was gunfire.

  He seemed to get that message too for hegrowled like a bear roused early from hibernation.

  Click-whirs grew audible over the roarof the rapids. The flying constructs drew closer, forming a tightsemicircle at Kali and Cedar’s backs. One buzzed a couple of feetfrom her ear.

  “What do you think of my cicadas?” the figurecalled. The head wrapping did not cover the speaker’s lips, so thevoice came out clearly. It definitely belonged to a woman, an olderwoman, Kali guessed. “Incase you’re thinking of fleeing, I shouldinform you that you’ve experienced only Setting One of theirfirepower. There are three settings.”

  “Who are you?” Kali asked. Maybe thequestion should have been, “What are you?”

  Though the voice and the swell of a bosombeneath the brown wrapping made femininity clear, Kali struggled tobelieve this was a mere woman. Cedar had shot her the daybefore-they had seen blood-but no sling cradled the arm, nordid the figure appear wounded now.

  “Who do you think I am?” the woman asked, asmile in her voice.

  Kali glanced at Cedar, but his face wasmasked, and he said nothing.

  “A witch who studied engineering?” Kali saidto the woman. “Or an engineer who studied witching.”

  “Witching.” The woman chuckled.

  “Oh, good,” Kali muttered. “I amuse her.”

  “Your first guess is most accurate.” Shesmirked. “Huzzah.”

  “And what do you want with me?” Kali asked.“It is me, right? I couldn’t help but notice your littlebutterflies had a fixation for my bottom.”

  “I’m here to kill you.”

  Cedar took a step forward, his knuckles whitewhere he gripped his rifle. “If you try, I’ll kill you first.”

  “Not likely, dear,” the woman said. “Youdon’t seem too bright.”

  “Why?” Though Kali did not think Cedar wouldbe rash enough to charge the woman, she put a hand on his armanyway. The hard knotted muscles beneath the sleeve testified tothe tension in his body. “Why kill me? Most people just want tokidnap me. Which is a might inconvenient, too, but preferable todeath.”

  She eyed the woman’s vessel as she spoke,mulling over a way to sink it or push it out into the rapids. Ifthey could manage that, the river might sweep their foe milesdownstream before the woman could pull herself to shore. That wouldgive her and Cedar time to escape. But if the “cicadas” truly had asetting three times as powerful as the one she had already felt,she might be filled with holes before she could reach the shallowsand the boat.

  The woman’s gaze fixed on the drill. Kali hadturned it off, but the flake of flash gold continued to glow, as itwould for all eternity unless someone destroyed it. Maybe it wasvisible from the boat.

  “The secret of flash gold must die,” thewoman said.

  Ah, yes, visible from the boat indeed.

  “Most people want the secret,” Kalisaid, “which I don’t have, by the way, so there’s no need to killme. As far as I know, nobody living has the secret.”

  Kali subtly poked through the innards of thebroken cicada, looking for a clue that might let her nullify themall. If they were decommissioned somehow, charging the boat mightbe a less foolish proposition. Her fingers tingled as she touchedsome of the fine gears. Magic?

  Cedar watched her hands through hoodedeyes.

  “You know how it’s made even if you lack thepower to imbue it,” the woman said. “You’ve studied your father’snotes, I’m sure.”

  “Notes?” Kali said. “Was he supposed to leavenotes? He must have forgotten. He was busy dying.”

  “Ezekiel kept excellent notes. I know. I washis research partner for more than ten years.”

  Kali blinked. “You knew my father?” She hadnever met anyone outside of Moose Hollow who did. Old Ezekiel haddone a good job of falling off the map when he came north. IfSebastian had not blabbed to the wrong people, all thesetroublemakers would never have known of her existence.

  “Yes, did he never speak of me? Amelia?”

  “No.”

  “That figures,” the woman said, voice likeice. She-Amelia-picked up something. A small bronze box. Some sortof controller for the cicadas? Had she grown tired of chatting?

  “My father didn’t speak to me aboutanything,” Kali said, trying to buy more time. She went back toprodding the wreckage of the broken cicada. “If you were lovers orsomething, he might still have cared. I just wasn’t…a confidantof his. He barely acknowledged me.”

  “Because you lack power, I imagine. If thearrogant coot hadn’t been obsessed over looks, we mighthave…”

  She did not finish, but Kali could guess.They might have had a child. So, this was some spurned woman herfather had not chosen for a lover. Maybe Amelia wanted Kali deadfor more reasons than flash gold.

  “Sorry, he didn’t love you,” Kali said. “Butit’s not my fault. Killing me won’t-”

  “It will ensure no more flash gold is evermade,” Amelia snarled. “It’s bad enough that it exists at all, butnow that gangsters know about it, they’ll not stop until theycapture you and wring its recipe from your brain. They’ll findsomeone who can imbue it, and the world will suddenly have powerenough that countries can destroy each other without ever fieldingan army.”

  Kali’s probing in the broken cicada revealeda small cracked compass. “Don’t you think flash gold has power forgood? To be used as an energy source? It’s more efficient thanburning coal or wood and-”

  “Don’t lecture me, child. I know what it is.I helped invent it. And then I watched as the first experimentburned half of a town and killed dozens of people. I wascaught in that fire.”

  For the first time, Amelia lifted a hand toher face and pushed up her goggles. She used her left hand. Maybethat bullet in her right shoulder had hurt after all.

  Next she removed the wrapping, letting itfall about her neck like a scarf. Short graying blonde hair frameda narrow face with a pointed chin. She might have been pretty once,but shiny scar tissue ran up and down the right side of her face,contorting her features.

  “I have that lodestone with me,” Cedarwhispered, and Kali realized he had been watching her finger thecompass. “Wrapped up in the bottom of my pack.”

  Kali caught on immediately. If the cicadasused the compasses for navigation, a lodestone, with its magneticproperties, might be enough to throw them off by a hair. A hairmight be all they needed. “Get it,” she whispered back. “Hook it onthe lead one’s wings.”

  She tossed the broken machine aside, and tooka couple of steps toward Amelia, placing herself to block thewoman’s view of Cedar. “I’m sorry you were injured, but look.” Kaliheld out the drill with both hands. “Flash gold is a brilliantinvention. It needn’t be used as a weapon. I’ve used it for toolsand plan to use it for transportation. I’m sure there are a millionways it could make people’s lives better.”

  “It would only take one unscrupulous personto use it to destroy the world,” Amelia said. “It’s too dangerousto keep around.”

  “We just have to make sure it doesn’t fallinto an unscrupulous person’s hands. If we worked together we coulddo that. You have no idea how much I’d like to learn from you. I’venever had a teacher.” Kali was buying time, yes, but the ache ofsincerity in her voice surprised her.

  It must have surprised Amelia too for shefrowned thoughtfully at Kali. Mi
ght she consider it?

  “It’s true I’ve no magical gifts,” Kali wenton, “so I couldn’t make the alchemical potions or whatever you usedto heal yourself and deflect that bullet…” She raised hereyebrows. She was guessing since she had little knowledge ofwitchery, but Amelia nodded slightly. “I’m told I’m a fair tinkererthough.” Kali juggled the drill so she could remove her packsack.“I love to make things. I can show you some of my handmadetools.”

  “I was impressed by your vehicle,”Amelia admitted. “Nobody taught you, you say?”

  “I’ve had to learn it all on my own.” Kalitook another step. If Cedar gave her a chance, she would have tosprint forward and act before Amelia had time to think upsomething. “This drill isn’t fancy since I only had a couple ofminutes to make it, but it shows you the potential flash gold hasfor useful things.”

  Amelia’s face hardened. Mentioning the goldagain had been a mistake.

  “No,” Amelia said. “It’s too dangerous. And,because you know its secrets and criminals know of you,you’re too dangerous.”

  A clunk sounded behind her. Cedar tossing thelodestone at one of the flying creatures?

  Before she could turn around to check, metalclashed. He was attacking the cicadas. That was her cue.

  Kali sprinted toward the water, gripping thedrill in both hands.

  Amelia sneered and pushed a lever on hercontrol box.

  With the river roaring in her ears, Kalicould not hear the click-whirs of the machines, but she knewCedar could not take them all down at once. They would be pursuing.Pursuing and shooting.

  Balls hammered the granite bank, bouncing offlike hail. None struck Kali, but she sprinted faster anyway.

  Three strides from the shallows, she touchedthe flash gold flake with her thumb to turn on the drill. Cedarsurprised her by running past her. He leaped into the air, clearlyhoping to jump over the shield on the boat and land on Amelia. Shesaw him coming, though, and hurled something. A small black ballexpanded into a net, entrapping him in a heartbeat.

  Kali splashed into the shallows, high-kneeingit to the back of the boat.