Iron and Blood (55 page)

“What’s going on down there?” she asked, after an endless, tense few minutes. “Have the men come out of the mine yet?”

“Not yet,” Jake replied. “See anything from up there?”

“There’s a firefight going on, behind a storage building. We’re high enough I can’t see which side is winning. Looks like it’s getting out of hand at the gates. People are waving burning torches around and firing rifles. Better stay clear,” Nicki reported.

“Got my hands full where I am. Have you spotted any company?”

“
Non
, and my friend continues to read the telegrams. They’re very interesting tonight.”

“Anything?” Jake asked.

“Nothing we can’t handle.” Nicki said and startled as something caught her eye. “Gotta go.”

A streak of translucent gray streamed past the glass and steel bubble. Nicki stared at it, then blinked again, sure the brightness of the Tesla ray was playing havoc with her vision. A second gray streak wafted past, then more. Nicki slid her seat around its track, staring out into the night, and saw a stream of ghostly forms rising from the countryside, gliding along the river, some even pouring in from the direction of the lights of New Pittsburgh.

Nicki crossed herself. “
Spectres
,” she murmured. “That Maxwell box Adam and Rick talked about—it really works! They’re calling in the spirits, the
gessyan
! There must be hundreds of them!”

Another tense wait followed. Nicki looked toward the ground to check on their team, but found it hard to see through the clouds.

“What’s going on down there?” Nicki yelled. “The clouds rolled in and we can’t see!”

“Not now!” Jake responded.

“Don’t you not now me! We’re up here to pull your chestnuts out of the fire!”

“
Gessyan
. Ghosts. Hell hounds. Feel better?” Jake snapped.

“
Imbécile!
What do you think is surrounding us?
Mon Dieu
!”

Above her, on the bridge, she heard Cady, Cullan and the airmen exclaim as the skies around them filled with the ancient creatures that had been sealed away for so long in the depths of the Earth. Now the air around the
Allegheny Princess
was thick with the smoky, uncertain forms. Nicki held her breath as the beings floated past her in a silent stream, terrified that they might pay attention to her or to the airship. After them came the hell hounds that had chased her carriage, huge black ghost dogs impossibly loping across the night sky, slavering and snapping, yellow eyes filled with madness, teeth bared as they, too, struggled against the inexorable magic that drew them back into the abyss.

One of the creatures slid across the curved glass and steel of Nicki’s bubble. The
gessyan
turned, like a dog scenting a rabbit, and its dark, empty eyes met Nicki’s. She squealed as the beast’s maw opened wide, like he meant to swallow her and the entire gunnery mount, and her hands closed around the controls to the Gatling gun, squeezing off several shots.

“What the hell are you doing!” Cullan shouted.

Cady dove for the hole in the floor. “Catch!” she shouted, tossing something to Nicki. Nicki snatched it out of the air instinctively, and held it up. A bright, golden light flared from the small, cold stone in her hand. The
gessyan
shrieked and fell away and the rest of the spirits drew back, giving the
Allegheny Princess
a wide margin.

“It’s one of the Alekanovo stones we got from Jasinski’s apartment,” Cady said. “I found it in my pocket. Keep it—you might need it again.”

“I’ve got to get into position,” Cullan said. “Jake’s going to need us soon.”

Cady went back to her code-breaking machine. “I’ve got it!” she yelled a few minutes later. “Thwaites is meeting a buyer for the tourmaquartz at midnight outside Exposition Park.”

“You’ve got to let Catherine know,” Nicki said. “She’ll get Miska’s men to do something about it.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” Cady agreed with a grin that made it clear how much she was enjoying the adventure. Her dark chestnut hair was caught back in a chignon, and she and Nicki had both opted for bicycling bloomers and simple shirtwaists, outfits much more suitable for activity and less restrictive, should they need to move quickly. A moment later, Nicki heard the tapping of the telegraph key as Cady sent her message to the private telegraph Wilfred monitored back at the Desmet house.

“Something really strange is happening at the mine entrance,” Nicki yelled to the others. “There are some weird colored lights and stuff that doesn’t look normal.”

“Magic,” Cady shouted back. “Want to bet Andreas and Veles are battling it out?”

“Dear God! There are guards coming at them from behind!” Before Cullan or Cady had a chance to react, Nicki slid her chair into position, gripped the handles of the Gatling gun and fired off a long warning rattle of gunfire, aiming at the open area between the mine mouth and the running team of guards. The gunfire was deafening, and the vibration of the gun rattled Nicki’s bones and made her teeth chatter.

“Are you crazy?” Cullan shouted, stalking over to the hole in the deck. “Get out of there right now!”

Nicki muttered something unflattering in French that made Cady giggle. “Not until we’re done,” she said.

Just then, the headset squealed. Jake was shouting loudly enough for everyone to hear.

“No, of course I wasn’t trying to kill you,” Nicki replied calmly. “How was I supposed to know you’d seen them coming? Don’t be ungrateful. They ran away, didn’t they?”

“Why did Flyboy let you have the guns? Who’s in charge up there?” he demanded.

“Don’t you yell at me! And don’t even try that—just because he’s the pilot doesn’t make him the boss of me!”

“Oh, my God! What is that thing?” Cady’s voice rang out across the bridge. Nicki released the transmitter and stared through her glass bubble at something that appeared to have come straight from one of Grimm’s fairy tales.

A hunchbacked old woman flew through the air like a witch from a child’s nightmare. Her gnarled hands had long fingers and sharp nails, and her skin was pulled tightly over sharp cheekbones and a jutting chin. Her mouth was open, filled with jagged teeth, and her eyes glowed red in the darkness.

“The Night Hag!” Nicki exclaimed. She sent a hail of bullets through the creature, to no avail. The
gessyan
twisted and writhed, fighting the power that summoned it back to the deep places, to the depths where she and the rest of the
gessyan
would be bound once more.

Nicki caught her breath as the black wraiths followed the Night Hag like a swarm of vampire bats, black winged and deadly, their shroud-like figures blotting out the stars.

“It’s working!” Cady exulted. “The Alekanovo stone and Marcin’s book—they’re working! The
gessyan
are returning to the mine!”

Nicky’s headset filled with static “…need that beam now!” Jake’s voice broke through.

“You couldn’t give us a little more warning?” Nicki yelled. “Cullan! Adam! Jake said he needs us to fire the beam.”

“Now!” Jake shouted.

Nicki stood up and yelled to Cullan. “He says, fire at the mine. Now!” To Jake: “He’s doing it. He’s doing it. Hold your horses!”

“We’ve got trouble!” Cady sang out. “Just picked up a Department telegraph. Good thing they don’t know I can read them. They’ve got airships on the way. We’ve got to get out of here!”

“There’s something you need to know—” Nicki started.

“Now, dammit!” Jake’s voice sounded followed by a burst of static.

An explosion echoed beneath them as a fireball rose from what had been the Vesta Nine mine. Cullan sent the
Allegheny Princess
upward at an alarming rate of ascent, leaving Nicki’s stomach feeling as if it had dropped into her shoes. She clung to the gun handles, careful not to press the trigger, feeling lightheaded from the sudden change in altitude.

In a dizzying sweep, Cullan brought the airship down and back into position.

The now-familiar whine of the Tesla ray warming up grew to a deafening crescendo. This time, forewarned, Nicki covered her ears, squeezing her eyes shut. The ray cut loose, so bright that it shone even through Nicki’s closed eyes, turning the world red for an instant.

The ray hit the mine’s main entrance.

“Everyone brace!” Cullan shouted. The
Allegheny Princess
shot up into the sky with a lurch. The shockwave from the explosion struck and nearly threw them all from their seats. The ship bobbed like cork on the ocean waves.

“Go, go, go!” Cady shouted at Cullan. “Those Department ships will be here any moment!”

“Too late.” Cullan’s voice was tight. “Two black airships sighted, at ten o’clock and two o’clock. Evasive action!” he shouted to his bridge crew. “Get us away!”

A barrage of gunfire erupted from the closer of the two airships. Bullets zinged past Nicki’s bubble, narrowly missing the
Allegheny Princess
. The blast was deafening, and a second round sent a bullet into the reinforced glass of the gunner’s mount, shattering one small panel.

“
Baise-moi
!” Nicki muttered. She gripped the controls of the Gatling gun, slid her chair into position, and opened fire.

A hail of bullets streamed toward the Department airship as Nicki circled back and forth along the chair’s track, laying down covering fire.

“Are you trying to get us all a one-way ticket to Western Penitentiary?” Cullan shouted. “Those are
government
agents!”

“I’m not hitting them, I’m warning them! Fly, dammit!”

“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Cullan grumbled, and activated the Tesla ray one more time. He aimed it between the
Allegheny Princess
and the pursuing ships, to dissuade them from coming closer. Nicki heard the machinery whine, closed her eyes, and squeezed the trigger on the Gatling guns, sending out a spray of bullets. Just for good measure, Adam dispatched two of his unmanned hover-saucers, the same ones that had proved so valuable in the fight above the Atlantic. As the black airships drew back, the hover saucers pursued them, sending out bursts of gunfire that forced the government craft to keep their distance.

“Oh, my!” Cady exclaimed. “I’ve never heard anyone telegraph those kinds of words before! They didn’t even bother with code.”

“I don’t care if they’re angry,” Cullan replied between gritted teeth. “I care that they don’t catch us!” He barked orders to the rest of his bridge crew, who scurried to do his bidding.

“Won’t they recognize the name on our airship?” Cady asked. “They’ll know who we are?”

“I changed the registration number on the stern and painted over the name,” Cullan snapped. “Honestly, it’s not like this is the first time we’ve done this sort of thing. Give me a little credit!”

“It’s working!” Nicki yelled. “They’re falling back!”

“They’re not giving up,” Cullan shouted back. “They’re maneuvering, trying to box us in.”

“Shall I shoot them again?” Nicki asked.

“No!” Cullan replied. “Wait. Yes—dammit!” He swore under his breath. “We are so screwed.”

“Wunderkind!” Nicki shouted into the transmitter. “We need ideas!”

“Well I haven’t tested it in anything like this but… against an airship it might work without any permanent damage,” Adam replied.

“We’re listening. Be quick—we don’t have much time.” Cullan snapped.

“I brought the disrupter. I use it in the lab to shut down experiments in an emergency. If we aimed it from the turret, it shouldn’t affect the
Princess
but would shut down another airship, or at least make their systems stall for a few minutes. They won’t fall from the sky or anything— just hang there, dead in the water, so to speak.” He paused. “I’ll be up in a minute.” It seemed like he was on the bridge before the transmitter went silent, carrying something that looked like a cross between a rifle and a steam-powered canon.

Nicki grinned. “You’re a genius. That’s perfect. The men in the other airships are just doing their jobs; we don’t really want to hurt them, just give us time to get away.”

She moved to offer Adam her seat in the gunner’s mount, but he shook his head. “Actually, it would be better for you to shoot it,” he said. “You’re a much better shot than I am. Just pretend it’s a rifle. The effect spreads like a cone. We’ll just have to hope we’re close enough and it’s strong enough,” Adam said as he handed the odd contraption to Nicki.

She positioned the device on top of the gun controls, steadied it, and squeezed off a shot as soon as Cullan brought the first Department ship in range. The pursuing ship’s running lights went dark and its engines fell silent. It careened slightly to one side, and Cullan put on a burst of speed.

“Second airship at twelve o’clock!” Cullan yelled.

“They’re at the wrong angle. I can’t get a good shot without hitting part of our ship!” Nicki shouted back.

In response, the
Allegheny Princess
suddenly descended, so quickly that Nicki felt her seat drop out from beneath her for a moment. She yelped, holding tightly to the disrupter and narrowly avoiding hitting her head on the low ceiling of the bubble. Cullan swung the
Princess
around, then climbed rapidly, so that she was now coming up on the Department airship from below and behind.

Nicki aimed and fired. Again her aim was true and the second Department ship went dark. Cullan angled them away sharply.

Only then did Nicki realize that Jake was shouting. At first, she made out a few curse words, and exclamations of complete and utter consternation. After a moment, Jake’s verbal torrent slowed, and the words became more coherent.

“If you can hear me, get out of there! We’ll meet you. It’s done. Go!” he urged.

“You heard the man,” Nicki said, scanning the horizon for any more of the black Department airships. “Let’s go home.”