Steamborn (17 page)

Jacob and Alice spent most of the day in the lab.
The Dead Scourge
lay opened on the workbench and they both read, shoulder to shoulder, until Jacob’s mom interrupted them for lunch, and again for dinner.

Charles left early in the morning, but he returned that night, shortly after Alice went home. Jacob was still in the lab. He’d read over half of
The Dead Scourge
in one day, and he had a million questions for Charles.

Jacob twisted the knob on the back of another arm brace, locking the brackets in place between glances at the book. He crouched down under the bench to find the tensioner, sorting through leather bags and wooden buckets full of all sorts of mostly useless things.

“What do you need?” Charles asked as he stepped into the lab.

“Tensioner. I think Bat moved it.”

“No, no, that was me.” Charles reached up to the top shelf of the little bench and lifted a flat piece of gray metal. Hidden behind the lip of the shelf as it was, Jacob never would have seen it.

“Thanks.” Jacob began twirling the handle to loosen the vise before locking the tensioner in place. “Did … did you ever see any of the Mechanical Men in the Deadlands? During the war?”

Charles smiled. “I see you’ve made some progress on your book.”

“Yeah, but did you ever see any?”

“I did, as a matter of fact. You know, they never liked that name though. Call themselves Biomechs.”

“Biomechs?” Jacob asked as he looked the mechanical hand over.

Charles nodded. “It’s a name from an old story, about a man who was half human and half machine. He strived to stay human, but kept replacing parts of himself with machinery. Philosophical nonsense, but not a bad story.”

“Could someone survive like that?” Jacob asked.

Charles tapped the glove and pulled it off the tensioner. “Well, you’ve helped make people almost a full quarter machine, haven’t you?”

Jacob looked at the webwork stretched along the brace as the hand closed on its own. “I hadn’t really thought of it like that.”

“I don’t mean it in a bad way, Jacob. You’ve helped do some real good with these contraptions. Samuel told me they’re sending a squad of wall repairmen into the Lowlands tomorrow with a few Spider Knights. Makes me think what you and Alice overheard was exactly right.

Jacob’s smile fell when he remembered the catacombs.

“Thankfully they’re at least sending some folks out to look at the walls,” Charles said. “I’m going to go with them, and I’d like you to come too.”

“Charles,” someone said from the doorway to the house. Jacob looked up and saw Bat leaning against the frame. “He’s only a kid. You can’t take him into that mess.”

Charles took a deep breath, his gaze moving between Jacob and Bat. “We need parts, Bat. I can’t afford them here, and Jacob can help me gather what we need in the observatory.”

“What about the city smith?” Bat asked.

Charles shook his head. “Unless you want to hand over fifty gold, I doubt we can get what we need.”

Bat leaned back and whistled. “Hell, we could buy a new Jacob for that.”

Jacob frowned. He didn’t find that terribly amusing.

Charles snapped a spring onto the tensioner and locked the thumb mechanism in place. “If what I’m afraid happened is actually what happened, most of the Lowlands will be clear already. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it will be completely safe, but with the knights we should be fine.”

“The kid has talent,” Bat said.

Jacob was much happier with that statement than the thought of buying a new Jacob.

“Now,” Charles said, squeezing Jacob’s shoulder, “we just need to convince your parents to let you go strolling around the Lowlands.”

“We really don’t have to. I can sneak out.”

Charles chuckled. “I’d rather not have your mother strangle me in my sleep.”

“Now you’re just being optimistic,” Bat said. He smiled and started into the house.

“Absolutely not.”

The look on his mom’s face told Jacob all he needed to know, and he slumped into the high-backed chair. “We’ll be with the knights. Samuel will be with us too. We’ll be safe!”

Jacob’s dad touched his mother’s arm, and she glared at him.

“He would be invaluable helping me at the observatory,” Charles said. “We need more parts to build the arms Jacob designed and the legs I’ve been working on. A good supply run could give us the springs and brackets to build nail gloves too. They’ll be instrumental in the rebuilding of the Lowlands.”

“Buy the parts,” she said.

Charles rubbed his beard. “I would, if I could. They are terribly expensive from the city smith, and I don’t have the raw materials to make them myself.”

Bat cleared his throat. “If I may?”

Jacob’s mom narrowed her eyes, but nodded.

“If Jacob and Charles aren’t able to retrieve the parts from the observatory, I will feel obligated to buy the parts from the city smith. What Charles hasn’t told you is the fact they will cost upwards of fifty gold.”

“Fifty gold?” Jacob’s dad asked. “You could feed a family for a year on that.”

“Close to it,” Bat said. “So, my offer is this: let Jacob go with Charles, and I will pay him five gold for his services.”

“That’s enough money to pay for dad’s medicine for two months,” Jacob said. He kept his voice level, but it was an effort to hide his excitement over Bat’s offer.

“I’ll look after Jacob.” Charles moved his gaze from one parent to the other. “No harm will come to him while he’s with Samuel and me.”

Jacob didn’t think Charles had even asked Samuel yet, but Jacob was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.

“I don’t know …” his dad said.

Jacob’s mom took a deep breath and squeezed her forehead. “You ask me to risk my son to save my husband.”

Bat laughed quietly. “I’m fairly certain, even if you say no, Jacob will be sneaking off to join Charles.”

Jacob’s mom showed a weak smile, and his dad acted like he was covering up a cough, but Jacob was pretty sure it was a laugh.

“Promise me,” she said as she looked at Charles.

“On my life.”

She nodded.

Jacob could scarcely believe it, and he crossed the room to throw his arms around his mom and dad. Excitement warred with dread as the realization of what lay outside the city wall flashed across his mind.

“Enjoy your adventure, son,” his dad said.

“Thanks.” Jacob gave his dad another hug and then walked back to stand beside Charles.

“Alright,” Charles said. “Let’s get packed up and ready to go.” He ushered Jacob down the hall and out into the lab. “I’ll get the saddlebags emptied out. I think that will give us enough room to carry what we need.”

Jacob took everything out of his backpack. He hesitated with his hand on
The Dead Scourge,
but he decided to leave it behind. It was pretty heavy, and it would take up room they might need.

Charles strapped the holster for the air cannon across his back alongside a slim backpack. He slid the gun in and out, making sure it still had clearance. “Keep these on,” he said, tossing two flimsy lengths of metal and leather to Jacob.

“What are they? They look like my sliding gloves.”

“Sliding gloves?” Charles said as he shook his head and smiled. “It’s armor. You can snap it onto your gloves and then hook it into the straps on your vest.

Jacob looked down at his vest, unsure of exactly where he’d be hooking it. He looked at one end of the metal sleeve, and then the other. Three hooks folded out from inside. “Oh, I get it.” He slid his arm into one sleeve and fumbled with the hooks until they were securely fastened into his vest.

Charles gave it a tug. He nodded when it didn’t budge. “It’ll save you from some nasty bites if it has to, but it’s best not to test it.”

“You really think we’re going to run into invaders?”

“Yes,” Charles said. He handed Jacob a long metal pipe about as thick as his thumb. “I know Alice is better with a spear, but now you can tell her all about this one. Don’t point it at anything you don’t want dead when you hit that button.”

“Are we heading out tonight?”

“I’m too old for that kind of excitement. Besides, the repairmen aren’t leaving until the morning. I don’t want to be out there without the knights.”

Jacob started taking his armor off. He set it on top of his backpack on the workbench. Since he wasn’t taking it with him, he carried
The Dead Scourge
back into the house to read before starting his restless night of sleep.

“Storm’s rolling in,” Charles said as his gaze crept skyward.

Jacob looked up and frowned at the layers of clouds. Light pierced the overcast sky above them, but far in the distance, the world looked black. Jacob adjusted his backpack and made a mental note to grab a poncho before they left for the Lowlands.

“Let’s get everything loaded onto the steambike and meet Samuel down by the gate.”

“Mom packed some snacks for us,” Jacob said. He slid his backpack off and stuffed two sandwiches and a bundle of jerky into it.

“That was awfully nice of her,” Charles said. He closed the saddlebags and pulled out a Burner. He checked the water level in the steambike’s boiler, screwed the cap back on and then hit the igniter. It wasn’t long before Jacob heard the water boiling, and steam worked its way out of the exhaust.

Jacob stuffed a poncho into his backpack. “You want one?”

Charles shook his head. “Little rain never hurt anyone.”

Jacob didn’t disagree, really, but it looked like a
very
nasty storm moving in. He put a vacuum flask filled with water in his pack and pulled the buckles tight.

“Here,” Charles said.

Jacob looked up just in time to see something leather and shiny headed for his face. He barely got his hands up in time to catch it. “Goggles?”

“For the steambike. It’s a bit windier than I remembered. Hard to keep your eyes open without them.

Jacob had seen goggles like them before with their dark leather straps, brass frames, and yellow-tinted glass. “Are these zeppelin goggles?”

Charles chuckled and adjusted the load of packs and guns on his back. “They are at that.”

“Where did you get them? There hasn’t been a zeppelin in Ancora in … in … years?”

“Sounds about right. Not since the last embargo with Dauschen. Of the few airmen we had here, most of them moved to Dauschen. Ancora always was more of a train town.”

Jacob remembered Miss Penny telling them about almost every citizen of Dauschen being pilots. Even the kids were raised to pilot airships. “Is it true what they say? That you could fit a hundred people on the largest airships, the zeppelins?”

“At least,” Charles said with a broad smile. “I rode on a few of them during the war. Maybe you’ll get to see them one day if our government ever gets its head on straight.” He cinched the ties on one of the larger pockets on his vest. “Let’s go meet Samuel.”

The world was somewhat tinted through Jacob’s new goggles. He kept his arms wrapped firmly around Charles’s waist. The streets of the Highlands were a friendlier fare than the cobblestones of the Lowlands, but it still felt like Charles was trying to shake his brains out through his stomach.

They swerved down the street, dodging carriages and beetles and the occasional hapless pedestrian. Some people looked on them with shock, some with awe, and a few with what seemed to be fear. Jacob almost sighed in relief when the steambike began to slow near the westernmost gatehouse.

Charles looked over his shoulder. “We’re here. Pretty smooth ride in the Highlands. Can’t say the same for our trip through the Lowlands, but we’ll worry about that later.”

Jacob blew out a breath and slid off the steambike, carefully avoiding the flames beneath the boiler. Charles took his backpack off and hung it on the steambike’s handlebars before heading to the gatehouse.

Jacob followed, happy to be off the bike for however short a time. “Where are we going?”

“I want to talk to Samuel before we leave,” Charles said. He paused in the middle of the courtyard and then walked toward a cluster of Spider Knights. They were saddling their mounts, getting ready to escort the repairmen into the Lowlands. A dizzying blur of arachnid legs erupted below the mounts when the spiders shifted from side to side. Jacob guessed they’d been locked up in the stables too long and were itching to run.

“Samuel!” Charles shouted as they approached the knights.

Several of the men looked up. It only took a moment for Jacob to recognize his friend and Bessie.

Samuel raised the facemask of his helmet and smiled. “What are you doing here, old man? We’re about to head into the Lowlands. Take stock of the damage.”

“We’re coming with you.”

“You and … Jacob?”

Charles nodded as he shook hands with Samuel. Bessie flexed her legs, raising her eyes up over Jacob’s head before touching his shoulder with a furry leg. She crouched back down and Jacob patted her between the eyes.

Samuel frowned and adjusted his gloves. “I don’t think this is going to be a place for kids. Or old men, for that matter.”

“I can assure you, this old man isn’t going anywhere except the Lowlands today.”

Samuel sighed and leaned close into Charles’s ear. “Why do you want to take the kid? It’s not going to be safe.”

Jacob knew he wasn’t supposed to hear that, but he wasn’t going to let it slide. “I can take care of myself.”

Samuel glanced at him.

“See?” Charles said. “He’ll be fine.”

Jacob pulled on his armored sleeves and slid the hooks into his vest, glad he’d worn one of his heavier shirts underneath, as the wind had a bite to it. The fact Samuel didn’t want him to go hurt a little, but he also knew Samuel just didn’t want to see him injured.

The Spider Knight started to protest again, but Charles cut him off.

“Unless you can help me identify and pull all the parts we need, I need Jacob.”

Samuel rolled his neck in a small circle and looked at Jacob. “Fine, I’m not going to argue with you. Just stay close to me, will you? I’m not explaining to your mom why you’re dead.”