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Embers of Destruction

Page 9

by J. Scott Savage


  Leo gave her a knowing grin. “Ah, of course. One of Cochrane’s crew.”

  Kallista, who still had her arms folded across her chest, waited for Plucky to finish gushing before fixing her father with a stern glower. “How long were you following us tonight?”

  “The whole time, of course,” he said without even trying to look abashed. “I watched you enter the city, fly by the factory, and land in the field. When I observed you entering the city on foot, I thought you might need some assistance. So, yes, I was following you.”

  “Did you create the explosion that drew the dragons away?” Trenton asked. “Did you warn us about the guards?”

  “I’m afraid I don’t know anything about either of those,” Leo said.

  Kallista narrowed her eyes. “How did you follow us all that time without us or the dragons seeing you?”

  Her father raised an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you didn’t figure it out for yourself. I have the benefit of being able to fly without an engine, making me silent as a gliding hawk. And I found a large supply of black paint in Seattle when I was repairing the airship, so it’s all but invisible at night—which is the only time I fly.”

  Kallista frowned in frustration. “Nice to see you care, Dad. Did it ever occur to you to let me know you were here? Maybe let me know you were alive?”

  Leo frowned. “Why would you believe anything else? I assumed that once you went to Seattle and found me and the airship gone, you would travel here next. This was the most obvious place to meet up.”

  “We found empty holes and charred wood in Seattle. The dragons killed everyone in the city. What did you expect me to think? You didn’t even leave me a note.”

  Her father dropped his head until his chin pressed against his chest. “I’m sorry for worrying you. You’re right—I should have left a note. But you are wrong about the dragons. They didn’t kill the inhabitants of Seattle. As best I can tell, the people are all here.”

  “I knew it!” Plucky shouted.

  “She saw someone she thought she recognized,” Trenton explained.

  “Quite likely,” Leo said. “A few days after I left the city, I witnessed a horde of dragons flying north. The next day, they returned with men, women, and children clutched in their talons. It was remarkable. Of course, they were able to fly much faster than I could in the airship.”

  “Remarkable?” Kallista gripped a handful of her hair, tugging until her scalp burned. “Dad, isn’t it obvious these people are being forced to serve the dragons? That’s why we were going into the city. To contact them and see if we could find a way to help.”

  “And to look for your father,” Plucky added.

  “You were looking for me?” Leo asked.

  Kallista gave Plucky a searing gaze. “Yes, Dad. That’s what people do when they care about someone. They look for them. We thought the woman Plucky recognized might have been helping you fly the airship. If she’d been captured, we thought it was possible she might know where you were.”

  “I have no need for a crew,” Leo said. “I modified the controls so one person can fly it easily. Every night, as I traveled south from Seattle, I set the automatic flight controls and made excellent time.”

  “That’s how you beat us here,” Trenton said.

  Leo nodded. “That, and I had a head start. Let me show you around.”

  With Plucky close on his heels, he gave them a tour of the airship, pointing out each of the changes he’d made. As he’d said, he’d painted the ship black and automated nearly every aspect of flight. Due to the fire damage that had nearly destroyed the airship, the rebuilt version was only half the size of the original. But what Leo had accomplished was impressive enough that Kallista wondered how he’d managed to finish it all before the dragons arrived in Seattle.

  Trenton dropped back to walk next to Kallista. “He loves you,” he said quietly. “He just doesn’t know how to say it. That’s the real reason he followed you tonight.”

  Kallista sniffed. “He’d follow a cockroach around if he thought it was going to do something interesting.” She caught up with her father. “Fascinating as this tour is, we need to find a way to destroy the dragons and free the people they’ve captured.”

  He rubbed the top of his head. “Of course, of course. Defeat the dragons. Free the people.”

  He sounded convinced, but she wondered how much his coming to San Francisco had to do with stopping the dragons and how much of it was to study them. Did he even see a difference?

  She shook her head. “The first thing we need to do is get back to Simoni, Clyde, and Angus and let them know what’s happening.”

  Her father shrugged. “Here we are.”

  Kallista looked over the rail of the airship and saw that they were hovering directly above their three mechanical dragons still hidden in the cornfield.

  Thirty minutes later, they were on their dragons again, following the airship as Leo led them across the bay. Trenton spotted several guard towers located along the edge of the water, but no one seemed to notice the midnight black airship as they flew overhead.

  Leo had said he was leading them to a secret hiding place. A mile or so north of the city, the airship turned toward a small island in the center of the bay. Unlike the rocky island where they’d spent the previous night, this one was lush with trees and brush.

  True to his word, Leo easily maneuvered the airship by himself, circling past a grove of thick-trunked oaks before easing toward the ground.

  Trenton glanced south at the city lights, which appeared precariously close, and west to the bridge, which was even closer. “This doesn’t seem very safe.”

  No sooner were the words of out his mouth than a crumbling three-story building came into view. Covered with vines and surrounded by trees, the structure couldn’t have been any better camouflaged if someone had done it on purpose. Nearby, a tall, thin building rose above the trees.

  Dropping neatly toward the ground, Leo sailed the airship between a pair of trees and through a ragged opening where one of the walls of the building had given way. By the time he landed, the ship was completely hidden from view.

  Kallista shook her head. “He never does anything without a reason,” she said before flying in after him.

  Once they were settled into the building, Leo offered Clyde the use of his airship to prepare dinner. It turned out he had a surprisingly full pantry, including wild potatoes he’d found on his way from Seattle and a chicken he’d caught on the island.

  While Clyde cooked, Leo took the rest of the group on a brief tour. “This was originally built as a military garrison,” he said, walking them through the building. “Fortress Alcatraz. You can still see some of the cannons outside, although they are nearly rusted through now.”

  “What are those?” Angus asked as they passed a row of small cells covered with rusty bars that ran floor to ceiling.

  “Several years after the garrison was built, a portion of the fort was turned into a military prison.” Leo gestured to the last cell where a steam generator was connected to a pair of wires running into a vat of water. “I imagine you know what that is,” he said to Trenton.

  “A hydrogen-producing tank,” Trenton said. It was a smaller version of the rig he’d set up in Seattle. A hose mounted to the tank would allow the hydrogen to be pumped out of the cell into the airship’s envelope, giving it the lift it needed to float. “Where did you get the parts for this?”

  Leo shrugged. “I brought some from Seattle. Others I’ve managed to scavenge here and there.”

  Trenton wanted to ask more about where parts could be scavenged—they’d had a hard time finding enough resources to repair their dragons after the battle—but the inventor was already leading them onward.

  By the time they returned to the airship, dinner was nearly ready. The meal was the best they’d eaten in weeks. Clyde had mashe
d the potatoes and roasted the chicken with the last of their turnips.

  “This is delicious,” Angus said, crunching a leg bone between his teeth. Except for a few rabbits they’d managed to snare, it was the first fresh meat they’d had since leaving Discovery.

  “There are a surprising number of chickens wandering the island,” Leo said. “The cats hunt them, of course, but the fowl are plentiful. Perhaps you can help me snare a couple of chickens for our dinner tomorrow.”

  “Cats?” Plucky asked, looking around. “There’s tibbies here?”

  “Nasty, feral things.” Leo wrinkled his nose. “Stay away from them. Who knows what sorts of infection they might have?”

  Plucky stared down at her empty plate. “My mum had a tibby when she was a chit, but food got tight and they ate it.”

  Trenton had never seen a cat. He guessed Discovery’s founders had been more focused on bringing in animals they could use for food than ones that needed to be fed.

  “If we’re done talking about cats,” Kallista said, “can we discuss the plan?”

  Trenton nodded. “Good idea. How do we get into the city?”

  Leo placed a hand over his mouth, hiding a yawn. “Plenty of time to discuss that tomorrow after a good night’s rest.”

  “Shouldn’t we set out guards?” Trenton asked.

  Leo shrugged. “We’re quite safe here. But it might not hurt.”

  “I’ll take first watch,” Angus said.

  “Very well. You can sleep in the airship tonight if you’d like.”

  Kallista was the only one who didn’t take him up on his offer. She said she preferred to sleep on Ladon, but Trenton suspected it was her way of showing her father she still hadn’t forgiven him for his behavior.

  Early the next morning, Leo took them outside to show them the tower Trenton had noticed the night before.

  The wind blowing off the ocean was so bitterly cold it cut through Trenton’s leather jacket. Rubbing his hands together to warm them, Trenton searched the sky. This close to the city there had to be plenty of dragons nearby. He needn’t have worried. The thick woods provided a perfect canopy all the way from the garrison to the small house near the southern tip of the island.

  Trenton sniffed the air. There was a strong scent that was both minty and sweet. “What’s that smell?”

  “Eucalyptus trees,” Leo said. “The distinctive aroma comes from eucalyptol, an oil in the plant’s leaves. I rather like it, don’t you?”

  Trenton sniffed again and decided he did.

  It turned out that the building was a tower, built on top of the house. Inside, the tower was mostly hollow except for a spiral staircase that wound around the wall.

  “Watch your step,” Leo said. “The building appears to have survived the great earthquake of 1906 with minimal damage, but the stairs have deteriorated over time.”

  “What is this place?” Simoni asked, craning her neck to look toward the top. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Not surprised,” Leo said with a laugh. “Living inside a mountain, there’s not much need for nautical history. You are inside a lighthouse. Using lamps, reflectors, and a powerful lens, lighthouses used to send out a piercing beam of light, which gave sailors a landmark to navigate by and a warning to avoid the island. Not much need for that now, but as you will soon see, this building will suit our purposes quite well.”

  As they reached the top of the stairs, Plucky gasped. “Rust and cinders, look at that view!”

  Trenton felt the same way. Taller than the three-story building beside it, the tower offered a magnificent 360-degree view of the ocean and the city across the bay. Large windows on all sides had once been covered with glass, though now only a few shards remained. Open to the elements, the floor was covered with bird droppings, and the remnants of several nests still clung to the ceiling.

  “Have a look,” Leo said, pointing to a telescope mounted on a tripod. “But don’t step into the sunlight. As long as you remain in the shadows, the dragons can’t see you.”

  Trenton leaned toward the eyepiece and found he had a perfect view of the city.

  Carefully moving the telescope, he watched as people walked or rode vehicles through the streets. The image was so sharp he could see the faces of individual people. Overhead, hundreds of dragons filled the air.

  “This is amazing,” he said. “How does it work?” He started trying to unscrew the front lens, but Leo stopped him with a laugh.

  “I like the way you think, son. I’d be happy to let you take it apart later. Maybe we can even build one together. But first let’s give the others a chance, shall we?”

  One by one, each of them looked through the eyepiece.

  “I could map the city perfectly with this,” Clyde exclaimed. “I can actually read the signs on the front of buildings.”

  “Is this how you saw what we were doing?” Trenton asked.

  Leo nodded. “I designed it myself. It’s more powerful than the ones the Whipjacks built in Seattle.”

  Kallista went last, moving the telescope slowly left and right before stopping for a moment. She stared toward the city for several minutes, then took a piece of folded paper out of her pocket and jotted down some notes.

  “This place is perfect,” Trenton said. “What are the chances you could find a hideout this well-hidden with such an ideal spot for studying the city?”

  Leo’s mouth quirked up for a moment. “Actually, the odds were quite good.”

  “You knew about this island before you came here, didn’t you?” Trenton asked, wondering why he was still surprised by such revelations. “Did you read about it in a book or some­thing?”

  “I like to do my research before making any decision,” Leo said. “Let’s go back to the garrison and plan our next move. You may return anytime you like.”

  As they started back down the stairs, Kallista’s mouth moved silently. Trenton didn’t need to read her lips to know what she was saying: Always a reason.

  • • •

  They gathered together on the deck of the airship. Clyde and Angus stretched out on the floor, leaning against the railing, Simoni and Trenton sat cross-legged, and Plucky perched expectantly on the stairs leading up into the ship’s envelope. Only Kallista and Leo remained standing.

  “So, how we are going to get the people out of the city?” Kallista said.

  “Are you sure that’s wise?” Leo asked. “How would you get them out? And where would you take them? It’s not like we could hide thousands of people here. And even if you could hide them, how would you feed them?”

  Everyone looked at Trenton, and he felt the weight of leadership on his shoulders. “We weren’t actually planning on bringing everyone out. Only a few. Last night, Plucky saw a woman she recognized. We were hoping she could give us some clues about how to stop the dragons.”

  “Talysa,” Plucky murmured.

  “Right.” Trenton shoved his hands into his coat pockets, trying to gather his thoughts. “I guess we should try to focus on finding her. Find out what she knows. Tell the others we’re out here. Once we have more information, we can come up with our next step.”

  Leo pinched his chin. “How were you planning to avoid the security lights outside the factory? And the patrols? I’ve counted six separate guards making a circuit around the building, several of those nasty dragons you encountered last night, and even the occasional dragon flying above.”

  “I, um . . .” Trenton paused. He should have realized there would be guards around the building. Even if they made it to the building, they’d probably be caught right away. Maybe he wasn’t such a good leader after all.

  “We could land on the roof,” Simoni suggested, covering for him. “All the lights point downward, so it’s dark up above.”

  “Excellent strategy.” Leo grinned and nodded. “But how d
o we get inside the building once we’re on the roof?”

  “Bombs,” Angus said. “Do you have any more of that gunpowder from Seattle?”

  Kallista rolled her eyes. “We aren’t blowing anything up.” She pulled out the piece of paper she’d taken notes on after looking through the telescope. “There’s a small structure with a single door on the roof. Maybe some kind of maintenance access. It’s probably locked, but I’m sure I could pick it open.”

  Plucky turned around with a quick grin. “If it’s a dub lay you wants, I’m your girl. You may be able to pick the lock, but I’m a whiz at the black art.”

  Leo raised an eyebrow.

  “She knows what she’s doing,” Kallista said.

  “What do you think?” Simoni asked Trenton. “You’re the leader.”

  Some leader. He hadn’t come up with a single idea. He shrugged. “Sure. Let’s do it.”

  Kallista examined the improvements her father had made to the airship as they pulled it carefully out of the building that night. Instruments and levers had been moved to a single panel within easy reach of the wheel in order to control speed, altitude, winches, hatches—everything the crew had been responsible for previously. The entire craft could be operated with only small adjustments.

  He must have been working day and night to get everything done before the dragons arrived. Even then it was likely he’d finished many of the modifications after leaving Seattle. He was a genius when it came to building things.

  If only he was half as good with people as he was with machines.

  “Is there anything we can do to help?” Trenton asked.

  Leo pointed out the window. “Keep an eye out for rare, night-hunting dragons. Wouldn’t want to have this go down in flames again.”

  Kallista rolled her eyes. Where had his concern been when they had been flying into the dragons’ ambush?

  She shook herself, trying to push the angry thoughts from her head. Her father couldn’t help it if he was better at fixing machines than he was at raising a daughter. She should know. She’d inherited many of the same traits from him. The difference was, she recognized it as a weakness—reminding herself that those around her were human beings with feelings, not pieces of a machine to be rearranged and bolted together.

 

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