Liberty

by Lindsay Buroker

  “This isn’t sacred land,” Kéitlyudee objected. “That hill over there used to be called Rutting Wolf Knoll.”

  “Which would surely make it sacred to the wolves.”

  “Kali...”

  “Look, they don’t know what’s sacred and what’s not. Just make up a story. Please? I could do it, but I’m, ah...” Should she mention that she and Cedar were no longer on the right side of the law? She had better. If all these people were here because of her smashed workshop, the Mounties would think to look for her here too. “Cedar and I have to stay in hiding because I broke him out of jail, where he was wrongfully incarcerated. Unfortunately, the Mounties don’t realize yet that it was wrongful.”

  “Yet?” Kéitlyudee sounded bemused. Or maybe that was bewildered. “Will you be correcting them of their misconception?”

  “Uh.” If Kali had any idea how, she would, but her chat with the last Pinkerton agent hadn’t gone well, and she couldn’t imagine the Mounties would think favorably of her after she had added a back window to their jail cell. “Maybe I can think of something. In the meantime, watch those fellows, will you? I’m going to see if I can make this mountainside a touch eerie.”

  • • • • •

  Cedar wasn’t surprised when he did not find Kali where he had left her. He did run into the Hän woman, Kéitlyudee, who directed him vaguely toward the trees downslope. She and her kin were digging near Kali’s workshop, trading wary glares with six Dawson men who probably resented that the new group had intruded upon their scavenging. They weren’t Mounties, but Cedar kept his back to them, so they wouldn’t glimpse his face. Full daylight had come, and he expected the authorities to head in this direction eventually. He had spotted the airship further down the river several times. Apparently, they thought he and Kali had run much farther in that direction than they had. Of course. Wouldn’t it be foolish to linger less than two miles from Dawson’s borders?

  He scooted down the slope, slipping on gravel and loose stones. In the aftermath of the rockslide, he was happy to reach the trees. He had felt vulnerable investigating that charred crater, since it was out in the open. If the soldiers on that airship had a quality spyglass, they might be able to see him from across the river.

  “Kali?” Cedar called softly, hearing a faint banging.

  Was she making something? Normally, he wouldn’t find that odd, but he couldn’t imagine what materials she had found to use out here. Ferns? Moss? Dirt?

  The banging stopped. “Down here.”

  He found her in a gully, assembling pieces of bark to make a… He couldn’t guess. “It looks a little small to drive up the hill and run those diggers off the land.”

  “Making a steam-powered digger-runner-offer would be hard with bark and twine.”

  “Well, you are a talented woman.”

  She tore her gaze from her work for a half second to give him a quick smile, but it didn’t last long. “I don’t have any flash gold left, so I’m left with the mundane.”

  “Was that the last of it that you used on my cell wall?”

  “Yes.”

  She didn’t scowl at him or give him a look of regret or condemnation, but he grimaced, feeling guilty, nonetheless. He lamented that she had used the last of her father’s legacy—and such a useful energy source—on him.

  “Fortunately, all I want to do is fool some greedy scavengers,” Kali said. “You’ve heard someone blow on a bottle and create an eerie sound?”

  Cedar nodded.

  Kali lifted what was starting to look like a bark chimney, so he could see a hole in the ground under her. “There’s a hollow down there that animals sometimes use for a den, and that happens sometimes in this spot—I’ve heard it on a windy day. I’m aiming to enhance the effect.” She glanced toward a tree branch where she’d woven something that looked like a fan blade out of fern leaves. It was fancier than anything he could have assembled. “And providing my own wind. On command.”

  “You think an eerie noise will send greedy scavengers running?”

  “If it’s accompanied by tales of sacred Hän grounds, I’m hoping so.” She glanced up. “I don’t suppose you found any tracks?”

  “Actually, I did.” Cedar lifted his chin, pleased that he could tell her that it had been worth it to spring him from jail. “It was hard, since so many people have been tramping around this morning, but I found some tracks that had to belong to a woman. They were too small for those clodhoppers up there. Unless you or Kley—I still can’t pronounce her name—wandered over the ridge and into the woods to the south, I believe they may have belonged to your intruder.”

  “A woman.” Kali clenched her fist.

  “Yes, most definitely, and now that I think about what Kley was wearing this morning, I can say for certain it wasn’t her. She’s got soft hide shoes on.” Cedar knew it was Amelia for another reason, too, and was about to explain when Kali spoke again.

  “Amelia. It must be.” She stood up, her bark project forgotten. “How far did you follow the tracks?”

  “Not far. Just on the other side of the ridge there are a couple of skid marks where something landed.”

  “That flying contraption she used? We destroyed it, blew its boiler to tarnation and back.”

  “Reckon she fixed it. Or made another one.”

  Kali groaned. “We can’t track her all the way back to her lair then, not if she took to the air.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. She was flying low for some reason—maybe because she knew an airship is in the area and could spot her. There’s a lot of broken foliage leading away from the landing spot. At least initially, she kept heading south.”

  “Away from town,” Kali mused.

  “Maybe she has a workshop cave, just like you.”

  “She’s nothing like me,” Kali snapped, but her ire did not last. Her shoulders sagged, and she sighed. “She’s a lot like me. I regret… I don’t understand why she insisted on being enemies. I would have liked...” She swallowed. “It would be nice to have a tutor or to be an assistant to someone older and more educated who does the things I’d like to do. Not the alchemy and magic, but she’s an engineer too. Why’s she out to ruin my life, Cedar?” A plaintive note had entered her voice, and hurt swam in her eyes.

  Kali was so tough most of the time, putting up a wall around her real feelings so a man might never know they existed. It was easy to forget sometimes that she was a woman and she could be hurt the same as any other woman, the same as any other person.

  He stepped forward, lifting an arm in invitation. “I could hold her down so you could ask her. Forcefully.”

  Since she was busy with her project, he wasn’t sure if Kali would accept the hug, but after hesitating a moment, she leaned against him, her chin drooping to her chest. Having her work and her flash gold destroyed seemed to have affected her far more than the fact that she’d marked herself as a criminal. Even though Cedar could understand her feeling of loss, he worried that the choice she’d made to free him would become a regret for her long after she had moved on to other projects and perhaps built another airship. He hoped she wouldn’t come to resent him.

  “Why don’t you finish with that, and I’ll show you where her trail ended?” Cedar asked quietly. “We shouldn’t wait too long though. If the only reason she was loitering in Dawson was to destroy your flash gold, she might be packing to leave.”

  Kali sniffed. “I know. Just give me a minute. I—”

  The faint thrumming of an engine reached Cedar’s ears, and he stepped away from her to find a spot where he could peer through the branches toward the sky. He wasn’t surprised when the dark blue hull of the American airship came into view.

  He waved for Kali to join him in the shadow of a tree where they shouldn’t be visible to anyone peering down from the deck. He hoped. That craft was flying low, its wooden belly almost brushing the treetops. Cedar supposed it was too much to hope that the soldiers would drive off the scavengers. Surely, none of them had p
ermission to dig up here—he was fairly certain this land belonged to the town, or maybe the local tribe.

  Kali bit her lip and frowned at the contraption she was building. “That shouldn’t be visible to them, right?” She squinted at it and then toward the gaps between the trees.

  “I don’t think so.” Cedar kept his voice quiet since he could hear orders being shouted as the airship drifted past just above them. “Even if it is, it looks like a bunch of leaf litter and debris blown down in a storm, nothing more.”

  “I’m not sure if I should thank you for that assessment of my work.”

  “Well, it’s a comely pile of litter and debris.”

  She wrinkled her nose at him. “It’s a good thing you have some fine attributes, because your courting compliments could take some adjustments.”

  “I didn’t know we were courting right now.”

  “I thought that’s what you were keen to start when you blurted out those words about porch-sitting as you were being arrested.”

  “I am keen to start,” Cedar said, watching the airship drift out of view. “You’ll know when I’ve begun in earnest, because your feminine heart will flutter as I woo you with my ardor.”

  That earned him another nose wrinkle. “If my heart starts fluttering, I’ll be at Doc Morgan’s place, praying he’s got a potion to fix that.”

  Cedar patted her on the shoulder. He definitely intended to woo her—and show his gratitude for what she’d given up to break him out of jail—but they had other matters to worry about now.

  “I’m going to see where they’re heading.” He hadn’t missed the fact that their route would take them right over the landslide. “Finish up here, and I’ll be back to take you to where I think Amelia landed her craft.”

  Kali waved in acknowledgment and returned to her comely pile of debris.

  Sticking to the trees and keeping an eye skyward, Cedar trotted up the hillside. He slowed down as he came to the landslide, since many of the trees had been taken down in the explosion, leaving the area exposed with little to no cover. He crouched behind a stout spruce, peering around the branches. Three of the scavengers stood in his view, jabbering to each other and arguing about something rather than shoveling. They didn’t concern him. More alarming was that the airship had lowered to within twenty feet of the ground and dropped an anchor. That must be what the men were arguing about. Should they stay or should they run off?

  As Cedar watched, the first of two soldiers came to the railing of the craft and tossed a rope ladder over the side, the end dangling down right above the dark crater. Cedar backed away. He had seen enough. Soon, soldiers would be searching the entire hillside, looking for him and for Kali. He hoped she was finished with her project, because they couldn’t stay here. He also hoped the soldiers didn’t have access to any hounds, because he’d left enough of his gear in the headquarters building that they would have no trouble giving the animals his scent.

  He leaned his head into the prickly needles of the spruce. Staying anywhere near Dawson was suicidal.

  But he had promised to help Kali find the woman who had destroyed her prospects, and he intended to do so, no matter what the risk to both of them.

  Part 4

  Kali kept glancing back as Cedar led her over the ridge. They were a good mile away from where the airship had disgorged a platoon of soldiers, but the back side of the ridge lacked the cover of the front. A forest fire had burned here a few summers past, leaving charred husks of trees, the blackened branches devoid of foliage. Shrubs and grass were regrowing in the area, but nothing tall enough to provide cover. She and Cedar would be visible if the airship started patrolling again.

  “We’ll pass through it quickly,” Cedar said, then pointed at the ground. “The prints came this way, and the landing spot is down there.” He nodded toward green trees that started halfway down the slope.

  “Less talking and more tracking.” Kali shooed him forward and glanced back again, feeling exposed.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  He trotted down the hillside, and as she followed, she regretted being snippy with him. He was doing her a favor, after all. If they were smart, neither of them would be sticking around the area. But Kali couldn’t let go easily. Not only did she want some semblance of satisfaction when it came to Amelia, but she also hoped those scavengers might uncover something of hers, so she and Cedar wouldn’t have to head into the wilderness without a coin to their names. She also couldn’t help but hope that her ship might be salvageable, at least enough of it that she might yet get it into the air.

  The hum of airship fan blades drifted over the ridge.

  Cedar cursed and picked up his pace. They were only halfway through the burned area.

  “They must have dropped off their people, then gone back to an aerial search,” he said over his shoulder.

  Kali was too busy running and pumping her arms, trying to keep up with his longer legs, to comment. As they raced between dead, charred trees, she glanced at the shrubs and ferns, wondering if any were big enough to hide under. If the airship rose higher than the ridge, the people on the deck would be able to see them, even from a mile away.

  The buzz of the blades increased in volume. Surprisingly, it now seemed to be coming from the direction they were heading, somewhere behind those trees. Were the authorities circling the area? It seemed strange that she wouldn’t have seen the ship fly over the ridge at some point.

  Kali leaped over a log, almost falling when a branch nub snagged her boot. She fumbled and caught her balance, then tried to run faster to make up for the lost seconds.

  “Almost there,” Cedar said, slowing down when he saw that she was falling behind.

  She waved for him to hurry, not to wait for her. As tall as he was, he would stick out more to someone looking in this direction.

  Instead, he crouched down behind a blackened stump. They were still at least a hundred meters from the unburned forest with its protective camouflage of trees and leaves.

  The bow of an airship sailed into view above that forest. Kali dove to the ground beside Cedar. The stump provided poor cover, but their path would have taken them right toward that airship. She scooted close to him, trying to keep the stump between her body and the ship, but it seemed pointless. If it followed on its present course, it would fly directly over them.

  “How’d they get over there?” Kali asked, panting between words.

  “That’s not them,” Cedar said.

  “What?”

  “It’s a different ship.” He pulled out his six-shooter and frowned at it, probably wishing he had his Winchester.

  That made two of them. Kali’s rifle was buried along with everything else.

  “Do you think it’s backup, sent to help the Americans with their search?” Kali asked. “Or is it pirates or something completely unrelated?”

  That would be nice, but she didn’t know if she dared wish for that. It was always possible some wealthy would-be prospectors had hired an airship to bring them in to the Yukon while bypassing the slog through the pass, but she hadn’t seen that happen yet. As far as she’d heard, most of the legal airships in the world belonged to militaries, since they were so expensive to build and required mechanics specializing in them to keep them flying. Pirates and gangsters had some they had acquired illegally, but she had yet to see a legally owned civilian one. Still, they must exist in the world, and Dawson had become a much more interesting place to visit in the last year.

  “Don’t know,” Cedar said after a long peek around the stump. “There’s not a banner flying that announces their origin or intentions.”

  “Inconsiderate.” Kali started to lean around the stump for a peek of her own, but Cedar put his back to the charred wood and pulled her close.

  A shadow fell across the dead forest, an oblong shadow that preceded the airship. A moment later, the bow drifted over their heads, about fifty feet above them. The black paint of the hull made Kali think of pirates, and the cannons v
isible thrusting from gun ports along the sides suggested that they were well armed. If it was a pirate ship, it was brazen of them to fly straight toward the city. They must not know that a military vessel waited right over the ridge. Maybe the two ships would end up in a battle, and the soldiers would forget all about Cedar and Kali.

  From their position, Kali couldn’t see if anyone stood at the railing with a spyglass, but the ship did not slow down as it sailed over them. It drifted past, its fans whirring and pushing it toward the ridge.

  “Looks like they didn’t see us,” Kali whispered.

  “Or they didn’t care about us,” Cedar said.

  “I’m fine with either scenario.”

  “As am I.” He waited for the black-hulled craft to disappear over the ridge, then stood up. “Back to tracking?”

  “Yes, please.”

  Once they entered the unburned section of the forest, it didn’t take long to reach the spot where Cedar had found the skid marks, parallel, ski-like tracks that had been left in the moss and dirt. They were exactly like the tracks Amelia’s one-person flying craft had left.

  Nerves tangled in Kali’s belly like snakes in one of Cudgel’s pits. She wanted to confront the woman, to demand reparation for the damage that had been done, but she also remembered that it had taken both her and Cedar to defeat Amelia the last time they met. It had been anything but easy. During their previous meeting, Amelia couldn’t have known what to expect from either of them—she had likely underestimated them. This time, she would be ready, and this time, neither Kali nor Cedar was as well armed. Kali wished she at least had a few of her smoke nuts.

  “This is as far as I went before coming back for you,” Cedar said, “but you can see the broken branches up there. They’re fresh, and as high as they are, I’m sure that wasn’t done by someone on foot.”