World-Ripper War (Mad Tinker Chronicles Book 3) (15 page)

There were times for haste, and introducing yourself to a lost civilization was not one of them. Kezudkan’s drowsy mind was good for little else at the moment, but it knew that much. He scribbled the coordinates on a piece of paper and shoved it into the pocket of his vest. In so doing, his fingers brushed the pocketclock he had forgotten. Pulling it out and giving a flick of the wrist to open it, he saw the time; it was nearly four in the morning.

It took an effort of will, but Kezudkan kept his gaze from drifting back to the image of Veydrus in the viewframe. He shut down the machine before the temptation grew too strong and spun the control dials back to all zeroes, so that neither Draksgollow nor his underlings would know where he had seen.

More privacy next time
, he promised himself.
Can’t be certain how long it will take to meet the daruu king … or emperor, or whatever they call him.
He flipped off the spark lights on his way out of the workshop, then hesitated a moment in the dim light from the corridor beyond. Struggling out of his boots, Kezudkan walked back to his accommodations barefoot, feeling the stone against his flesh.

Chapter 12

“It is only by the application of advanced sciences that we achieve flight.” - Ebner Jornuss, inventor of the first vacu-dirge airship

The
Jennai
hung motionless in the air, parked just high enough above the swells of the Sea of Kerum that the ship was in no danger of getting hit by one. They were positioned well off any of the standard shipping lanes and far from any coast. Per General Rynn’s order, they were located in the least likely place for anyone to spot them. The edge of the airship was lined with crewmen enjoying the view. Some held fishing lines or the end of nets hung far down into the dark ocean below, in the hope of catching something worth eating. The trackless seas were sparse with life as far out as they were, but it did not stop some of the rebels from trying. More daring were the ones who went down the rope ladder to swim in the early dawn hours when the sun was not so blinding on the water.

Apart from all those, buried within the holds, were Rynn’s apprentice world-ripper operators. All of them had been certified to work on their own by now, but they needed the practice of finding their bearings anew each time the rebel airship stopped. With their coordinates relative to the
Jennai
, there were a series of calculations to rediscover all the locations in Rynn’s and Erefan’s logbooks.

“How far does it move each time you spin one?” Dan asked. He stood with his hands resting on the shoulders of Kaia, the operator currently stationed at the world-ripper’s controls. The two of them were the only occupants of the hold. With the novelty wearing off, Rynn had finally managed to stop the machine’s standard operations from becoming a theater performance.

Kaia swallowed, her muscles tense beneath Dan’s fingers. Dan looked over her shoulder at the control panel, catching a faint whiff of fragrance from her hair that reminded him of cinnamon. “Don’t know, exactly. Dials get more particular to the right and move it less. More just a feel though.”

Dan glanced down at a sheet of paper, covered in pencil-scratched calculations. “Looks like a lot of ciphering for a ‘feel.’ Think you could explain what that all means?”

“Well, we take where we are and subtract where we were. Then we can just add that to whatever the logbook says, and there you have it.”

Dan squeezed, and Kaia winced. “No, I don’t quite think that I do. How do you add and subtract places?”

He could feel Kaia tremble in his grasp. “General Rynn gives us a start, with sextant readings,” said Kaia. “It’s enough to get us close, then we scoot the view until it’s lined up again. It’s all there in numbers. North, south, up, down, and world.”

“World?”

“That’s the easy one,” Kaia replied. “Zero is here in Korr, and those numbers there are Tellurak and Veydrus. If … if you wanted, I could send you back right now.”

Dan smiled, even though he knew Kaia couldn’t see it. He patted her on the cheek. “Not yet, but I’ll remember your offer. We can just keep that between us, right?” Kaia nodded. “Good. Now, I think you have some newspapers to gather.”

Reaching over the frightened woman, Dan pulled the switch. The surge in the aether was obvious to him as the view turned real. The back room of the little news stand that had been a vivid painting a moment ago was now just a few paces away. With a tug of aether, Dan levitated the day’s edition though to the hold of the
Jennai
. “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

“Please,
please
, Rynn, don’t let him know I said anything.”

“Of course not,” Rynn agreed. They were meeting in the pantry of one of the adjunct dining halls, the sort of volume eatery that was below Dan’s standards for culinary fare and devoid of the moral hazards that drew him like a rat to rubbish. No one gambled or drank much in the rearmost dining hall; soldiers and rebels went there, ate, and left. “Dan’s starting to grind his welcome thin. I don’t know what things are like where
he’s
from, but around here, I take care of my people. As a precaution, you’re going to spend a few days with Madlin and Cadmus.”

Kaia gaped. “Really? I thought no one was supposed to know where they are.”

“We don’t want word leaking to the kuduks,” said Rynn. “But that doesn’t mean I’d rather risk your life than let you in on the secret. Just … keep it to yourself when you get back. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kaia let out a long breath and seemed to deflate a little in the process. She had been ready to burst before Rynn’s reprieve.

“Make yourself scarce today—real scarce—and meet me at the world-ripper at eleven tonight.” Rynn pulled her coil gun from its holster and handed it to Kaia. “Tuck this away. If Dan comes looking for you, shoot first.”

I’ve put this off too long.

“I’m worried, Rynn,” said Jamile. “Do you really trust him any more than Dan?”

Rynn slouched in the water, letting the suds drift up near her chin. Her tinker’s legs were in a tangle on the bed, where Jamile was scrubbing away the grime from days of use. Much as they had become a part of her, it felt good being free of them for a while. “I don’t see how they’re anything alike, aside from both being sorcerers.”

“Something didn’t feel off to you when we talked with him?”

Rynn held up her hands, dripping and with bubbles clinging to them. “Fine. He’s a bit of a square bolt. I haven’t known too many sorcerers, but I’m guessing that ignoring physics probably isn’t good for a healthy brain. He’s still got it together better than Dan though.”

“Stone calling the steel soft,” Jamile muttered.

“Have you got a better idea?” Rynn asked.

Jamile stopped scrubbing. “He’s a nutter, and he’s awful, but he hasn’t
done
anything. I mean, nothing we wouldn’t ask one of the soldiers to do, if they could. It’s just … he
does
seem to enjoy it a bit too much.”

“That’s the problem. Or one of them at least. I could win a war with ten of him, but even one might be enough to get us all killed. We’re juggling dynamite.”

“Why give Kaia a gun? Won’t that just provoke him?”

Rynn shrugged, her bare shoulders poking out of the water. “It was to calm her down a bit. She was a wreck. Dan’s not going to find her, not as long as you’ve got Sosha keeping an eye on him … You
are
still keeping an eye on him, right?”

“I’m not exactly cut out to be a spy,” Jamile replied quietly, putting her head down to resume her work.

“Jamile!”

“I didn’t lose him, but he knows I’m following him around. He … he’s been sending me drinks.”

“Trying to get you drunk and slip away, no doubt,” said Rynn.

“Oh, I haven’t touched a single one of them, even though the barkeep keeps giving me looks.”

“Good girl,” Rynn said, pointing to Jamile with a dripping finger.

“So …” Jamile let the word hang a moment. “Getting all prettied up to meet Anzik again?” She broke into a sly smile.

Rynn sat up in the tub. “It’s not like that!”

“What’s it like, then? You bathe less often than the welders, and you’ve hardly taken these mechanical legs off since you first put them on.”

“I finally feel like a whole person with them. I can walk without hobbling around like a broken wind-up toy. They take too long to put on to be taking them off at night.” She shrugged.

“Why now, then?” Jamile asked. “He’s about the right age for you. Older than Dan.”

“Oh please. Dan? His delusions aside, what would make you think I’d—”

“You’re a girl, Rynn. You’re not clockwork inside. It was bound to happen sooner or later.”

“I am going,” said Rynn, “to meet with a very influential sorcerer from another world. I am the chief representative of the Human Rebellion, and I ought to present myself as such.”

“Oh, so a dress, then?” Jamile’s eye gleamed. “Perfume? Maybe some earrings and a necklace.”

“We don’t have anything like that on board.”

“It would take half an hour pillaging with the machine,” said Jamile. “And I imagine Madlin’s dresses would fit you with a little help from a seamstress.”

“I’m a tinker. I’m a soldier. That’s how I’m going to meet with Anzik,” said Rynn, trying to add an edge of finality to her words. “Plus, I’m thinking he’s not the sort who pays much attention to dresses and perfume.”

Jamile slumped. “Well, you might be on to something there.”

“Come on,” Rynn said, reaching for a towel. “Help me out of her and back into my legs. I’ve got work to do.”

“Where’d you end up hiding all day?” Rynn asked.

Kaia handed back the coil gun she had borrowed. “My brother’s quarters. He and his bunkmates agreed to spend the evening drinking, courtesy of General Rynn … I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, that was good thinking,” Rynn replied. “That’s the last place Dan’s going to prowl. Ladies’ quarters maybe, but not in with the men. Anyway, he’s going to bed. Sosha’s keeping an eye on him.”

“You sure Madlin and Mr. Errol aren’t going to mind?”

Rynn smiled. “Madlin already knows. You’re a welcome guest.”

Kaia fidgeted, sparing glances at the inert viewframe. “But what am I going to do there? I don’t want to be in the way.”

“Oh, don’t worry. They’ll find plenty for you to do. If nothing else, they’ve got world-rippers of their own for you to practice with.”

“Oh. I suppose I could do that. If they don’t mind.”

Rynn put a hand on the Kaia’s back, guiding her toward the machine. Hisses and creaks emanated from beneath Rynn’s coverall trousers with each step. “It’s all worked out.”

Lowering herself to the floor was a challenge for Rynn. The tinker’s legs gave her support and a gait that felt natural; they were even stronger than her own flesh-and-bone legs. But they lacked agility, especially the subtle twisting of ankle and knee that made crouching and squatting possible. Rynn used the edge of the control console and the chair to help herself down.

Beneath the console, behind a key-locked panel and tucked in among a myriad of levers, gears, and miles of spark circuitry, there was a small clutch lever. Rynn pressed it closed and the gears on the underside of the control dials began to move.

“What are you doing to the machine?” Kaia asked, peering into the console past Rynn’s body.

Rynn snorted, trying not to laugh aloud.
I’m about to hurl you into the core of the moon. Don’t worry, even though it’s a moving target a quarter million miles away, we’ve got the orbit figured out and dialed into the guts of the world-ripper.
“Wait five minutes; then, ask Madlin that same question.”