Tinker's War (The Tinkerer's Daughter Book 2) (15 page)

“My sword,” I said to Tam, holding my hand out. “Hurry!”

He fumbled with the sheath for a moment and then handed it to me. I grabbed the handle and slid the blade between the spokes, jamming the point under the edge of the linchpin.

“Jump!” I told Tam over my shoulder.

I put downward pressure on the blade using it as a lever, trying to wedge the pin loose. With a creaking sound, the linchpin lurched upward and then broke free. It popped out, blasting into the air like a cork as the belt snapped it back. As luck would have it, the pin struck the catwalk and made a loud, ringing sound.

I twisted around, ducking low to keep out of sight. I launched myself forward, planning to run to the middle of the axle and jump. As I did this, I ran straight into Tam and we both nearly fell over. He was staring at me with a panic-stricken look on his face.

“I said jump, fool,” I snarled. Then I pushed him.

Chapter 14

Tam took an awkward step back and then tumbled over the edge, arms flailing, looking more like a court jester than a fierce elven warrior. I leapt after him, hoping I hadn’t just killed him. He hadn’t given me much choice. The Vangars had heard the noise and they were already moving towards the wheel to inspect the problem. Just a split second longer, and they would have spotted us up on that axle. If Tam had jumped when I told him to, none of this would have happened.

It was a rough landing because the ground was difficult to see in the darkness, and the terrain was wickedly uneven. I hit the ground feet first and rolled forward, trying to absorb the impact without breaking any bones. At the same instant, Tam landed like a cat next to me. He dropped to his knees, hunkering down in tall grass, and shot me a cocky glare. I was impressed with his athletic prowess, but I certainly wasn’t about to let him know that.

“You’re out of your mind,” he hissed in my ear. I ignored him. I glanced around and saw Vangars gathering just a few yards away. Then I looked up and saw the wheel wobbling precariously overhead.

“Move,” I whispered. “We don’t want to be down here when that wheel comes off!”

I broke into a run, bending low to conceal myself in the darkness. Tam followed after me and we headed towards the bow of the ship. Behind us, I heard a loud grinding sound. I glanced back just in time to see the wheel twisting awkwardly as it rolled off the hub. I didn’t wait long enough to see the rest. I abandoned the protective shadow of the ship and raced into the surrounding hills.

No one noticed the two small shadows slipping out from under the ship, because all eyes were on the wheel that was about to fall off. The dragon ship lurched awkwardly as the wheel left the hub. The hull groaned. The wheel separated and rolled outwards, twisting and turning in a lazy circle.

The panic-stricken Vangars fell over each other trying to get out of the way. The wheel spun around and then fell, rolling on its rim like a coin dropped on the floor. At last, it crashed to the ground with a loud
boom
that threw up a massive cloud of dust.

The dragon ship’s hull twisted as it lost its support, wood and metal collapsing, and the rear corner fell to the ground. The end of the axle plunged into the soil. An explosion of dirt shot up into the air and I heard screams coming from inside the ship, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood and twisting metal. As the lagging axle dragged it to a halt, the ship lurched wildly from side to side, swaying like a massive tree about to topple. The Vangars held back fearfully, uncertain as to whether the hull of the ship would hold its own weight.

“Now!” I told Tam. “Go now!”

He gave me a hesitant glance, as if to say
“This plan of yours isn’t very good,”
and then took off, racing back towards the ship.

I circled around, looking for the longest, smoothest stretch of land I could find. Then I waited. I knew it wouldn’t be long before the gyroplane pilots noticed something was going on. I waited for them in the place where they would most likely land.

A few minutes later, all five gyros circled in and touched down. I took a moment to further examine the aircraft while the pilots landed. The gyros were powered by an engine with a propeller at the rear of the airframe, and there was another propeller overhead. The second one was large, and somehow seemed to provide the gyros’ lift, though as far as I could tell the overhead propeller wasn’t driven by the engine. The function of these machines was a mystery to me, but I took note of how the Vangar pilots used the controls when they landed. The flight controls didn’t seem terribly different from those on a normal plane.

The pilots quickly dismounted their machines and raced down the hill towards the ship. As soon as they were out of sight, I rushed up to the nearest gyro and began examining the thing. They’d left the engines running at a slow idle, and I nearly gagged as the black smoke filled my lungs. I did my best to ignore the smell as I touched the flight controls. I immediately discerned that the controls somehow guided the gyro by moving the overhead prop, rather than making wing adjustments like a standard plane. That explained half of the mystery. What I still didn’t understand was why or how the things actually worked. A normal plane attains lift by
planing
across the air, like a ship over water. These gyro machines only had two small wings near the rear of the fuselage, apparently as stabilizers and flight controls. They certainly couldn’t have provided much lift.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to analyze the improbable physics of these strange machines. The Vangar pilots might return at any moment and I had plenty of work to do. I unsheathed my sword and went from one gyro to the next, hacking through the metal pipes that fed fuel to the engines. The engines began sputtering and fuel jetted out, spraying me in the process. When I reached the last one, instead of disabling it, I climbed aboard. I settled into the seat, grabbed the controls, and twisted the throttle.

I had no idea what to expect as the RPMs wound up, but the machine began to roll forward. I took that as a good sign. The overhead propeller began spinning as if of its own accord. I suddenly realized that this was because of the wind. I was fascinated by this of course, but I still didn’t understand how the phenomena could provide lift. Then, as the machine gained speed, the air caught the propeller over my head and it spun ever faster. As I bounced over the edge of the hill, the ground fell away beneath me. Suddenly, I was flying!

I experienced a moment of elation as the ground slipped away and the vehicle’s movement became smooth and stable. The Vangars’ gyros were noisy, smelly machines, but they were surprisingly quick to get off the ground. I was just getting used to the flight controls when I saw a flash of light out of the corner of my eyes. It was followed by a deafening
kaboom!
that left my ears ringing.

I flinched, thinking that the Vangars had begun firing on me with one of their ship-mounted cannons. I turned my head to find the source of the noise and pulled on the flight controls, straining to get a better view. I saw a column of smoke and fire rising up from the hilltop behind me. One of the gyroplanes had exploded, I realized. I shouldn’t have been surprised. I’d left them with the engines running and fuel spraying all over the place.

I climbed several hundred feet into the air, and two more gyros exploded as I angled around towards the hill. I smiled as I saw the Vangar pilots dashing up the slope to their gyroplanes, yelling and cursing at me. I swooped around, flying low over them, laughing. I buzzed over their heads and then
whooshed
up alongside the dragon ship.

Vangar mechanics were trying to figure out how to fix the broken wheel. They paused in their work and stared up at me as I flew past. This was a very risky maneuver of course, but I wanted to make sure I had the Vangars’ full attention. That was all part of my plan. If things were going as we had planned, Tam was somewhere inside that ship, helping Robie escape. It was my job to make sure that the prisoners were the last thing on the Vangars’ minds. Between my aerial acrobatics and the series of explosions up on the hill, I seemed to have accomplished that goal nicely. The problem now was avoiding the inevitable response.

I circled around again, this time swooping across the deck of the ship. I expected to see the Vangars mounting their cannons and harpoons to fire at me. Instead, to my surprise, they were doing their best to suppress a full-blown mutiny.

As I approached the ship, I saw a flood of Tal’mar and human prisoners pouring out of the hull and spilling out across the deck. They appeared to be armed with Vangar weapons. The Vangars turned, shouting as they reached for swords and spears that they had set aside, but it was clear that the captives would overpower them by sheer numbers alone. My eyebrows shot up. That had
not
been part of the plan.

Then they were out of sight, and I brought the gyroplane around for another look. As I came back around, I saw the battle spilling out of the ship and into the surrounding hills. The captives had thrown rope ladders over the edge, and they were climbing down to meet the Vangar warriors on the ground. I scanned the area, searching for any sign of Tam or Robie. From the air, I couldn’t locate either one.

I passed over the scene too quickly and I had to come back around for yet another look. I suddenly wished I hadn’t stolen the gyroplane after all, because I wanted to be on the ground, helping with the fight. The next time I came around, I saw a large group of Vangar horsemen bearing down on the ship from the west. Up until that moment, it had seemed that the Vangars had been taken by surprise; that the insurgents would overwhelm their captors. This however, could turn the battle. The farmers and civilians might have overwhelmed the guards with little resistance, but they wouldn’t find the horsemen so easily defeated.

I pressed the flight controls forward and dived at the horsemen as fast as the gyroplane could fly, bearing down out of the sky like a raptor. I had the throttle twisted as far as it would go and smoke poured out of the engine like a barn fire. I leveled out the controls and sliced
along the surface of the plains, so close to the ground that I could have reached out and plucked a handful of wild grain. As I bore down on the Vangars, I nervously realized that they still hadn’t noticed me. The battle over the hill had their full attention. If they didn’t turn aside in the next second or two, I’d plow right into them.

Ironically, the horses saw me coming before their riders. They shied away from me, turning quite suddenly, and several horsemen went flying out of their saddles. Those that managed to remain mounted did so at their peril. It was too late for me to change course, and as I flew between them, the tip of the overhead propeller struck one of them in the face. He fell to the ground, instantly dead. Another leapt from his mount just in time to avoid the same fate.

The gyroplane lurched awkwardly, the vibrations shaking the propeller right down to the controls in my hand. It was a wonder that the prop didn’t snap in two. Somehow, it remained intact. The Vangars may not have been brilliant engineers, but they certainly knew how to make things strong.

And then the ground rushed up to meet me.

The airframe shuddered with the impact as the wheels struck the ground. I caught my breath as the gyroplane creaked and twisted, sure that I was about to crash. To my surprise, the machine touched down and then rebounded, bouncing right back into the air. The vibrations quickly died away as I whooshed skyward. A cheer escaped my lips.

I turned back around for another look and saw that the horsemen had scattered. Several were fleeing to the south, riding as fast as their mounts could take them. A third group I hadn’t even seen coming had already been overwhelmed by the escapees.  I saw one of the prisoners rush up to the hull of the dragon ship and smash a lantern across the bow. The flames spread quickly, within moments engulfing the entire bow of ship.

I landed the gyroplane, carefully avoiding the other still-burning gyros in the landing area. I leapt out of the seat and raced down the hill, my eyes scanning the crowd for Tam and Robie. I saw the last of the Vangars dying under the brutal assault of several hundred escaped prisoners. I stood there a moment, heart racing, hardly believing what I had just seen. We had taken a dragon ship!

I charged into the crowd, asking everyone about Tam and Robie. Someone directed me to the aft end of the ship. I pushed through the crowd and emerged to find Robie lying on the ground with Tam kneeling over him. Tam raised his eyes when he saw me coming. His expression was grim. I raced up to them and knelt down next to Robie’s body. He was bleeding heavily from a wound in his side.

“One of the Vangars ran him through with a spear,” Tam said. “This wound is beyond healing. Your friend is not long for this world.”

Chapter 15

I ripped Robie’s shirt open and placed my hands on his skin. He was cold, shivering. I closed my eyes and let my mind reach out to him. The images came alive inside my head. I saw the wound in his guts, the fluids leaking out into his abdomen. I sensed the infection moving through his bloodstream, and the scent of putrefaction filled my nostrils.

“His blood!” I said weakly, my eyes still closed. “Clean his blood!”

I heard movement outside of me, and immediately felt Tam’s presence inside Robie’s body.
The infection is too advanced,
his words came into my mind.
His wounds are too severe-

The blood,
I reminded him. I turned my attention to the wound and found a broad gash that cut through several layers of intestine. Then I saw the severed artery, and massive amounts of blood spurting out into Robie’s guts. I focused all of my will on bringing that artery back together, twining the molecules of flesh like woven fabric. Gathering all of my concentration, I pulled essential materials out of the blood stream to quicken the healing process. Gradually, the hemorrhaging ceased and the walls of the artery became fused back together.