Dactyl Hill Squad

by Daniel José Older

  And now they were heading straight for her. One slaver in particular, a young man with sideburns in a dark suit and a bowler hat, seemed to be staring directly at Magdalys as he charged, six-shooter raised.

  She held her own pistol up, pointed at the man, held her breath, fired: CRACK! The blast sent tiny explosions bursting through her bones; when the smoke cleared she had no idea if she’d hit anyone or not, couldn’t make out the man who’d been coming at her in the melee. Then a spray of tiny wood chips cut into Magdalys’s face as a shot slammed into the crate beside her head. She looked up. The man in the bowler was closer now, raising his six-shooter again, and then an orange blur swept out of the dark sky and barreled into him, hurling him headlong into the sea with a scream and a splash.

  Magdalys watched the dactyl swoop back into the night with a triumphant caw.

  Ka-BANG! Amaya’s rifle let out a shot. Someone screamed, but again the smoke kept Magdalys from seeing much. She followed Amaya’s example and started reloading fast. She had a dagger, and a fierce bayonet extended from the end of Amaya’s rifle, but Magdalys wasn’t sure what she’d do if it came to hand-to-hand combat. Throw herself over the side of the ship, probably. Death by drowning had to be better than letting some wretched slaver gut her.

  BLAM! BLAM! sang Cymbeline’s double-barrel shotgun. Then someone whooshed past with a shliiiiing of steel releasing from a scabbard and Magdalys heard yelling. Redd had jumped blade-first into the fray, his cutlass a glint of steel dancing through the night. He cleaved a path straight through the cluster of slavers, shoving and slicing as men fell screaming to either side until finally the last few survivors threw down their weapons and raised their hands, crying for mercy.

  “The ship is ours!” Louis yelled.

  “Hoorah!” everyone cheered.

  Magdalys hugged Amaya as hard as she could. They made their way down a short flight of stairs to the main deck, where David and the Committee agents were already hog-tying their new captives. “Where are the others?” she asked.

  “Sabeen is below,” Cymbeline said. “We sent her to check on the kidnapped orphans. Nice work with the mosasaurus!”

  Magdalys waved away the compliment. “Missy did all the work, we were just along for the ride.”

  Cymbeline raised an eyebrow. “Missy, huh?”

  “Plus, Redd helped. Where is he anyway? He was amazing out there.” She searched the deck, caught sight of him glaring back toward the city through his spyglass.

  The cabin door opened and a group of kids Magdalys recognized from the orphanage poured out, looking stunned. “Sabeen!” Amaya yelled, running across the deck and embracing her as she emerged. Magdalys dashed over too and they all hugged, and then Two Step was there and Mapper and everyone was shouting and finding their friends and making sure they were okay.

  “Uh, guys,” Redd called from his spot staring out at the waves. “There are lights out there. A bunch of ’em. And they’re coming toward us fast.”

  EVERYONE STARTED YELLING at once. Some of the orphans, still shook up from being held captive, burst into tears.

  “Man the artillery!”

  “The artillery’s busted!”

  “Someone get the steam engine back up!”

  “On it!”

  “Open the sails!”

  Magdalys stood beside Cymbeline and David as they glared out at the dozen lights floating toward them in pairs over the water.

  “What you think?” Cymbeline said.

  “I think we don’t have many options. Whatever it is, I doubt it’s good and we’re hobbled right now. Magdalys, start loading the kids onto the mosasaurus.”

  “I’m not sure how many —”

  “Take as many as you can,” David said. “We’ll take the rest. We split up, meet back at the Red Hook shipyards, not Manhattan. That’s where they’ll be expecting us. Got it?”

  Magdalys nodded.

  “And Magdalys, I mean this: You can’t take them all on. We don’t even know what’s out there. Just get the kids to safety, okay? As many as you can.”

  She nodded again, grudgingly. He was right, and she knew it. “I will.”

  She wanted to burst into tears and hug David and tell him it would all be alright, and then for him to say he knew it would and hug her back, but it probably wouldn’t, and anyway, they didn’t have time for all that.

  “Load up and prepare for battle,” David hollered as Magdalys hurried off to gather the orphans and start boarding.

  A heavy boom percussed the sky. Mortar fire. The sea exploded a few feet away from the Ocarrion. “They’re firing on us!” someone yelled. “Hoist the sails and prepare for evasive maneuvers!”

  “Listen everyone,” Magdalys said, reaching the mass of kids, “we’ve got to split up. I’m going to take all the youngest ones.” She gazed at the wide eyes staring back at her. “Everyone younger than ten, come with me.” They started separating themselves out, some still whimpering and wiping tears away.

  “What if you don’t know how old you are?” someone asked.

  “With me,” Magdalys said. “Amaya, Mapper, stay with these guys. Keep ’em safe and together. I’m taking the younger ones on Missy. We’ll meet back up at the Red Hook shipyards.”

  Another boom sounded and then an explosion rocked the far end of the Ocarrion as splintered wood flew through the air. Magdalys’s stomach clenched. For a moment, all she wanted to do was jump overboard and be gone. But there were other kids, other lives at stake. “Come on!” she yelled, noticing that by some miracle her voice didn’t sound shaky at all. In fact, it sounded commanding. Fierce even. “My group to the mosasaurus!”

  She nodded at Amaya and Mapper, trying not to think about how she might never see them again, then hurried to the edge of the ship and began helping the young ones climb down to Missy.

  “Plesiosaur-mounted artillery units!” Redd yelled. He’d scaled one of the masts up to the crow’s nest and was still staring out through his spyglass. “Six of ’em!”

  Magdalys prayed none of those cannons hit the mast he was on top of. Ten kids had already made it onto Missy’s back and they were running out of room for the sixteen that remained.

  Out in the water, Magdalys could see the long dark necks between the lanterns, just like the sauropod ferries but far more lethal. Another boom shook the world and an explosion of water not far away hurled up into the air, soaking Magdalys and the others.

  “Grab onto the saddle straps,” she called. “And buddy up! No one’s allowed to fall overboard!” Some of them chuckled, others cried. There was no space left, and ten little ones still stood anxiously on the deck of the Ocarrion, realization dawning on their faces.

  “Greetings, my friends!” Riker’s voice called out over the water.

  Magdalys cringed. He must’ve been yelling through a bullhorn.

  “I’m afraid it seems you’re trapped.” Riker’s voice seethed with gleeful triumph.

  The Ocarrion’s steam engine suddenly roared to life with a fitful chug-a-lug.

  “If you try to resist or escape,” Riker yelled, “you will be destroyed.”

  “You have to stay,” Magdalys whispered to the ten kids. “I’m sorry. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’re safe. But now I have to get these kids out of here.”

  “Come on,” Amaya said, appearing from behind and guiding them back to the other group.

  Once again, Magdalys was struck with the heart-wrenching feeling that she shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t be alive, shouldn’t be the one to get away.

  “Go!” Amaya whispered sharply as the kids hurried off. “Now!”

  Magdalys watched her escort the last few young ones belowdecks.

  “Do you have nothing to say for yourselves?” Riker taunted. “Does that mean you surrender and will give back the property you’ve stolen from us?”

  Property, Magdalys thought. That’s all people like Riker saw when they looked at them. Objects to be bought, sold, discarded, destroyed.
>
  She barely touched the ladder going down, landed squarely on the tiny bit of space left for her at the front of Missy’s saddle. She grabbed the reins.

  “We have only this to say,” David Ballantine yelled from the deck of the Ocarrion as Magdalys leaned in and jolted the reins, spurring Missy into motion.

  Her eyes met David’s as she sped away. Then he turned back to the approaching plesiosaurs and yelled: “Open fire!”

  EVERYTHING EXPLODED AROUND Magdalys as she sped off on mosback, sixteen squirming, whimpering orphans huddled together behind her on a saddle made for less than half that many full-sized adults.

  Don’t look back, Magdalys warned herself. Don’t do it. The motion is forward. Only forward.

  But she wasn’t even good at following her own commands.

  Flashes of musket and shotgun fire burst from the Ocarrion as it rattled off at a moderate pace in the opposite direction from her. Two plesiosaur artillery units had peeled off after her; she could see the glow of their lanterns shivering in the ocean breeze and hear their riders yelling back and forth. An explosion rocked the Ocarrion, which answered it with more small arms fire.

  Magdalys put it all behind her and urged Missy forward toward the twinkling lights of New York City.

  The first artillery shot went wide, way wide. Behind them, Magdalys heard one of the riders curse and realized they’d made it much closer to her than she’d thought. Which meant the next shot wouldn’t be nearly so off.

  She yanked the reins hard, pulling Missy off to the left just as another blast rang out, bursting through the water just inches from where they’d just been. Magdalys shook her head and spun the mosasaurus back toward their original path, then cut even further to the right. Another shot blasted out, then another, each coming within a few feet of them.

  Some of the kids in the saddle behind her were shouting and crying now, while others tried to calm them down.

  They couldn’t keep dodging forever, Magdalys thought. Another blast blew through the water just to her right, and then one hit to her left, both closer than any of the others had been. Swimming in this zigzag pattern was slowing them down; there was no way they’d lose their pursuers like this. But if she burned a straight path to the harbor they’d be an easy shot for the artillery.

  She clenched her teeth, driving hard forward for as long as she dared and then dodging to the side just in time to avoid a burst of artillery.

  She had to turn and face them. That was the only way. David had expressly told her not to, and she had really meant it when she’d agreed. But this was a whole other situation; she had no choice. With a sudden jerk, Magdalys pulled them around in a full fierce circle, preparing to charge, and scanned the darkness.

  The plesiosaurs were gone. Or at least their lanterns were out. Breathing heavily, Magdalys squinted into the night, saw nothing at all.

  “Anybody see anything?” she asked.

  The kids had stopped crying, and now she felt their collective attention turn toward the empty waters around them.

  “Uh-uh,” one of them said.

  “Nothing.”

  At any second, a shell could just come hurtling out of the sky and demolish them. Magdalys calmed her breathing and waited. If she was going to face a fiery death she wanted to do so head-on, not running.

  Nothing.

  She waited a few beats more, and still: nothing.

  “Alright,” she said, turning Missy back toward the city lights. “I guess we lost ’em?”

  “I dunno,” one of the kids said from behind her. “Maybe they hiding.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about. Keep sharp eyes out behind, everyone. You guys are the rear guard. See anything, and I do mean anything, you let me know. Got it?”

  She realized as she spoke that she sounded just like David.

  “Yes, ma’am,” they all called.

  “Good.”

  She wondered if she’d ever see him again.

  The Red Hook shipyards looked more brightly lit than she’d imagined them to be, Magdalys thought as they approached. Safety. It was a flickering thought, but there was no doubt about it: In the tiny time she’d been there, Brooklyn had already become a kind of shelter. A small smile crossed Magdalys’s face.

  Then her heart plummeted.

  Those weren’t the regular harbor lights; they were the twin lanterns of the plesiosaur artillery units. Riker’s men had peeled off so they could regroup at the harbor and form a blockade. Magdalys should’ve sped back the rest of the way instead of creeping in all careful. They’d probably trailed her from afar and then sped ahead when they figured out where she was going, sending messages to the others with minidacts.

  And they’d seen her. She was sure of that. They’d have been watching with spyglasses, preparing, and now she could hear them calling back and forth, readying their intercept.

  There were probably more of them at the Manhattan harbor, laying a secondary trap.

  All that planning and Riker had still outmaneuvered them, Magdalys thought. She rose up in the saddle, stretching her tired legs, then spurred Missy forward.

  She hoped the rest of the Dactyl Hill Squad was okay, somehow.

  But if she was being honest with herself, it didn’t seem likely.

  Forward, she urged Missy. Full speed.

  Missy surged into motion, her tail thrashing back and forth furiously, propelling them toward the blockade with dizzying speed.

  Behind her, some of the kids started wailing again.

  Up ahead, the plesiosaur riders were probably readying their artillery, or simply loading their muskets to enfilade them as soon as they were in range.

  Magdalys narrowed her eyes, leaning forward even further, her face just inches above Missy’s slick hide. Charge! she silently screamed. And destroy.

  Destroy.

  They blasted into the lights of the city, the harbor torches sending their luminous shimmer across the dark waters. Missy opened her jaw in preparation for the attack. Magdalys could make out the faces of Riker’s men as she raced toward them. They weren’t moving, weren’t preparing to fire.

  Something was wrong.

  Then, up on the dock, she spotted Riker himself, his long cloak and smug smile.

  Something was very wrong.

  Magdalys pulled back on the reins just as the plesios started to slowly float out of the way. Missy hardly noticed, just hurtled forward full speed, a magnificent roar issuing from her wide-open maw.

  It was a trap, but not the kind Magdalys had thought.

  This was much worse.

  With the plesios out of the way, Magdalys could see clearly what had been behind them: a platform floating just in front of the Red Hook pier. Ten people stood on the platform in chains. Seven were orphans; Magdalys was pretty sure she recognized Amaya among them as she sped forward. Three were adults: Cymbeline, David, Louis.

  Magdalys yanked the reins back as hard as she could, but it was no use: Missy charged forward unabated.

  Missy, STOP!! Magdalys commanded, but the whole world filled with Missy’s roar, her hunger for destruction, her gnashing teeth.

  At the last second, Magdalys yanked the reins to the left and Missy swerved, just barely missing the platform and instead plowing into one of the columns holding up the pier, smashing it to pieces and still surging through the water like a 400-ton artillery shell.

  They blew past two of the plesios, Missy clobbering one with her tail and broadsiding the other, sending it and its riders collapsing into the water. Gunshots started blasting around them, pops from the piers and matching splashes in the water. A few landed with wet, sickening thumps in Missy’s hide.

  None of the kids cried out, which hopefully meant they hadn’t been hit, but the others had been captured. All of them. And Magdalys had almost killed them. She’d almost killed the people she loved.

  Missy yelped as another musket ball slammed into her. She reared up, eager to turn and devour the pesky humans that were firing at he
r. Magdalys tightened her grip on the reins and pulled hard, yanking Missy back into a straight-ahead dash out into the darkness of the bay and away.

  OUT OF BREATH, exhausted, terrified, heartbroken, Magdalys rounded the corner to the street the Bochinche was on and stopped in her tracks. Behind her, the weary orphans halted as well.

  “What is it?” one of the ten-year-olds, a girl named Gemma, whispered.

  What indeed.

  A lone raptor stood in the shadowy stable area, devouring some small pest with messy chomps and snorfs. Worse, even in the dim light of the gas lanterns, Magdalys was pretty sure she recognized that emaciated trunk and those dingy feathers. A clawless foot held down its prey. Magdalys shook her head. This was the same busted dino the head of the Rusty Raptors had been on when they’d clashed the night of the riots.

  What was he doing at the Bochinche?

  It barely mattered. They’d been slogging along dim backstreets for what felt like forever because Magdalys didn’t want to risk being spotted by Riker’s men on the commuter brachys. They were bone-tired and had nowhere else to go. Magdalys drew her pistol and motioned them to stay quiet as they approached the wooden door.

  “If I say run, you scatter,” she whispered. “Clear?”

  They nodded, wide-eyed. She knocked once, then twice more, the way Cymbeline had, and waited, pistol cocked beneath her cloak.

  When the door creaked open and Bernice’s face appeared, Magdalys nearly broke down in tears. “Magdalys!” Bernice gasped. “Thank god, child! We were so worried!”

  We?

  Magdalys hugged Bernice with all her might, then stood to the side to show her she hadn’t come alone. Bernice blinked. “Oh my … stars … Come in, children! Come in!”

  And in they went.

  The Bochinche was empty except for three figures crowded around a table: Redd, Two Step, and Mapper. Magdalys didn’t know who to hug first or what to say. Two Step and Mapper solved that problem by running up and bear-hugging her before she could get a word out. Bernice led the rescued children upstairs to the bedrooms while Redd hurried over to welcome Magdalys.