Click-whirs grew audible over the roarof the rapids. The flying constructs drew closer, forming a tightsemicircle at Kali and Cedar’s backs. One buzzed a couple of feetfrom her ear.
“What do you think of my cicadas?” the figurecalled. The head wrapping did not cover the speaker’s lips, so thevoice came out clearly. It definitely belonged to a woman, an olderwoman, Kali guessed. “Incase you’re thinking of fleeing, I shouldinform you that you’ve experienced only Setting One of theirfirepower. There are three settings.”
“Who are you?” Kali asked. Maybe thequestion should have been, “What are you?”
Though the voice and the swell of a bosombeneath the brown wrapping made femininity clear, Kali struggled tobelieve this was a mere woman. Cedar had shot her the daybefore-they had seen blood-but no sling cradled the arm, nordid the figure appear wounded now.
“Who do you think I am?” the woman asked, asmile in her voice.
Kali glanced at Cedar, but his face wasmasked, and he said nothing.
“A witch who studied engineering?” Kali saidto the woman. “Or an engineer who studied witching.”
“Witching.” The woman chuckled.
“Oh, good,” Kali muttered. “I amuse her.”
“Your first guess is most accurate.” Shesmirked. “Huzzah.”
“And what do you want with me?” Kali asked.“It is me, right? I couldn’t help but notice your littlebutterflies had a fixation for my bottom.”
“I’m here to kill you.”
Cedar took a step forward, his knuckles whitewhere he gripped his rifle. “If you try, I’ll kill you first.”
“Not likely, dear,” the woman said. “Youdon’t seem too bright.”
“Why?” Though Kali did not think Cedar wouldbe rash enough to charge the woman, she put a hand on his armanyway. The hard knotted muscles beneath the sleeve testified tothe tension in his body. “Why kill me? Most people just want tokidnap me. Which is a might inconvenient, too, but preferable todeath.”
She eyed the woman’s vessel as she spoke,mulling over a way to sink it or push it out into the rapids. Ifthey could manage that, the river might sweep their foe milesdownstream before the woman could pull herself to shore. That wouldgive her and Cedar time to escape. But if the “cicadas” truly had asetting three times as powerful as the one she had already felt,she might be filled with holes before she could reach the shallowsand the boat.
The woman’s gaze fixed on the drill. Kali hadturned it off, but the flake of flash gold continued to glow, as itwould for all eternity unless someone destroyed it. Maybe it wasvisible from the boat.
“The secret of flash gold must die,” thewoman said.
Ah, yes, visible from the boat indeed.
“Most people want the secret,” Kalisaid, “which I don’t have, by the way, so there’s no need to killme. As far as I know, nobody living has the secret.”
Kali subtly poked through the innards of thebroken cicada, looking for a clue that might let her nullify themall. If they were decommissioned somehow, charging the boat mightbe a less foolish proposition. Her fingers tingled as she touchedsome of the fine gears. Magic?
Cedar watched her hands through hoodedeyes.
“You know how it’s made even if you lack thepower to imbue it,” the woman said. “You’ve studied your father’snotes, I’m sure.”
“Notes?” Kali said. “Was he supposed to leavenotes? He must have forgotten. He was busy dying.”
“Ezekiel kept excellent notes. I know. I washis research partner for more than ten years.”
Kali blinked. “You knew my father?” She hadnever met anyone outside of Moose Hollow who did. Old Ezekiel haddone a good job of falling off the map when he came north. IfSebastian had not blabbed to the wrong people, all thesetroublemakers would never have known of her existence.
“Yes, did he never speak of me? Amelia?”
“No.”
“That figures,” the woman said, voice likeice. She-Amelia-picked up something. A small bronze box. Some sortof controller for the cicadas? Had she grown tired of chatting?
“My father didn’t speak to me aboutanything,” Kali said, trying to buy more time. She went back toprodding the wreckage of the broken cicada. “If you were lovers orsomething, he might still have cared. I just wasn’t…a confidantof his. He barely acknowledged me.”
“Because you lack power, I imagine. If thearrogant coot hadn’t been obsessed over looks, we mighthave…”
She did not finish, but Kali could guess.They might have had a child. So, this was some spurned woman herfather had not chosen for a lover. Maybe Amelia wanted Kali deadfor more reasons than flash gold.
“Sorry, he didn’t love you,” Kali said. “Butit’s not my fault. Killing me won’t-”
“It will ensure no more flash gold is evermade,” Amelia snarled. “It’s bad enough that it exists at all, butnow that gangsters know about it, they’ll not stop until theycapture you and wring its recipe from your brain. They’ll findsomeone who can imbue it, and the world will suddenly have powerenough that countries can destroy each other without ever fieldingan army.”
Kali’s probing in the broken cicada revealeda small cracked compass. “Don’t you think flash gold has power forgood? To be used as an energy source? It’s more efficient thanburning coal or wood and-”
“Don’t lecture me, child. I know what it is.I helped invent it. And then I watched as the first experimentburned half of a town and killed dozens of people. I wascaught in that fire.”
For the first time, Amelia lifted a hand toher face and pushed up her goggles. She used her left hand. Maybethat bullet in her right shoulder had hurt after all.
Next she removed the wrapping, letting itfall about her neck like a scarf. Short graying blonde hair frameda narrow face with a pointed chin. She might have been pretty once,but shiny scar tissue ran up and down the right side of her face,contorting her features.
“I have that lodestone with me,” Cedarwhispered, and Kali realized he had been watching her finger thecompass. “Wrapped up in the bottom of my pack.”
Kali caught on immediately. If the cicadasused the compasses for navigation, a lodestone, with its magneticproperties, might be enough to throw them off by a hair. A hairmight be all they needed. “Get it,” she whispered back. “Hook it onthe lead one’s wings.”
She tossed the broken machine aside, and tooka couple of steps toward Amelia, placing herself to block thewoman’s view of Cedar. “I’m sorry you were injured, but look.” Kaliheld out the drill with both hands. “Flash gold is a brilliantinvention. It needn’t be used as a weapon. I’ve used it for toolsand plan to use it for transportation. I’m sure there are a millionways it could make people’s lives better.”
“It would only take one unscrupulous personto use it to destroy the world,” Amelia said. “It’s too dangerousto keep around.”
“We just have to make sure it doesn’t fallinto an unscrupulous person’s hands. If we worked together we coulddo that. You have no idea how much I’d like to learn from you. I’venever had a teacher.” Kali was buying time, yes, but the ache ofsincerity in her voice surprised her.
It must have surprised Amelia too for shefrowned thoughtfully at Kali. Might she consider it?
“It’s true I’ve no magical gifts,” Kali wenton, “so I couldn’t make the alchemical potions or whatever you usedto heal yourself and deflect that bullet…” She raised hereyebrows. She was guessing since she had little knowledge ofwitchery, but Amelia nodded slightly. “I’m told I’m a fair tinkererthough.” Kali juggled the drill so she could remove her packsack.“I love to make things. I can show you some of my handmadetools.”
“I was impressed by your vehicle,”Amelia admitted. “Nobody taught you, you say?”
“I’ve had to learn it all on my own.” Kalitook another step. If Cedar gave her a chance, she would have tosprint forward and act before Amelia had time to think upsomething. “This drill isn’t fancy since I only had a couple ofminutes to make it, but it shows you the potential flash gold hasfor useful things.”