No use trying to talk. The gag held his tongue in place. So he waited.
Finally, the speaker strolled out in front of him.
Neat, thin, dark hair combed back and not a wrinkle in his sharp uniform. Lieutenant Foster, Alabaster’s right hand.
“We both knew this day would come, Mr. Cage. My apologies for the limited degree of my hospitality. If it were up to me, I’d be breaking your bones, one by one. But the general has given me strict orders to bring you to him whole. So he can give you a…proper welcome. And you know I am a man who always follows orders.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Cedar hauled himself into the Swift. He had watched Captain Hink drop to the ship below. The captain hadn’t let go expecting to die, nor had he been shaken off. No, the captain had jumped.
Fool. The ship was filled with strangework—Cedar could smell it, could taste the oil and sour of their sweat on the back of his tongue.
Hink may have thought he’d survive the fall, but he had to have known he’d never survive if they captured him.
The crew was struggling to pull the Swift up and over the edge of the mountain. The ship had taken a hit from the other airship and was listing, struggling to hold a true heading. Coupled with the angle and the speed, the mountain range was coming up so close that Cedar would be able to reach out a hand and touch the stones in a minute or two. That is if they didn’t just plow into it.
“Up, damn you, up, up!” Guffin yelled.
Seldom, at the wheel, never flinched or hesitated. He angled that ship up the edge of the peaks, cutting so close that the netting where Hink had just been clinging a moment before caught on the outcropping of brush and rocks.
“Net hung!” Cedar yelled.
Seldom didn’t change course. The trawling arm snapped in two, as the Swift screamed to the sky.
Leaving the captain. Leaving the Devil’s Nine behind.
“Did he make it?” Guffin yelled out. “Captain. Did you make it?”
Cedar stood in the door and turned, one hand clamped tight on the overhead bar.
“He jumped.” Then Cedar saw Wil curled in the corner, wedged between some crates that were strapped down so he wouldn’t slide across the floor. He looked sick.
“What the blazes?” Guffin rushed to the window and looked down. Cedar wasn’t sure he could see anything through the smoke and the speed of their ascent.
“Did you see him land?” Guffin asked. “Did you see him hit?”
“He landed on the other ship. Grabbed hold of the rope.” Cedar crossed to Wil, knelt, and ran his hands over him. No blood. He wasn’t hurt.
Wil lifted his head, held Cedar’s gaze for a moment, then dropped his head to his paws again.
“Then the captain is still alive?” Miss Dupuis said. “Are we going to leave him behind?”
“He told me to get you all out of here,” Cedar said, pulling a blanket from overhead and tucking it around Wil.
“Like hell we leave him behind,” Guffin said.
“He’d want the ship safe,” Ansell said.
Seldom reached up and pulled the line that set a bell ringing back in the boiler room.
Molly came stomping out just a moment later, her coat thrown off, in nothing but her breeches and short sleeves. “Can’t believe we pulled out of that one, boys!” she said with a huge grin. “Can this lady fly, or can she fly?”
Then, “Where’s the captain?”
“Jumped,” Seldom said. “We save the ship and save these people, or we go save his skin.”
“Why can’t we do both?” Mr. Theobald asked. “We can fight with you. We won’t be a detriment to your efforts, as you’ve seen.”
“There isn’t enough time for both,” Cedar said. “We don’t know where they’re taking him. Rose doesn’t have much time left. Neither does Mae, and the ship is damaged.”
“I’m not leaving the captain behind,” Molly said. “Rose is a lot tougher than you think she is, Mr. Hunt. She’ll weather a little longer.”
“You don’t know that,” Cedar said.
“Why don’t we ask her?” Molly said. “Let her choose.”
Cedar didn’t even know if Rose had come up to conscious thought since he’d carried her onto the ship.
“Now,” Seldom said. “While the Nine is still in range.”
“Ask a woman on the edge of death how long she can endure?” Cedar said. “There’s no reason in that statement. We take her and Mae to Kansas. Now. And pray we reach our destination while both women are still breathing.”
“No,” Rose said.
Even over the rush of wind outside, her soft voice carried.
Cedar moved to stand above her. He held his breath against the sound of surprise that choked his throat.
Rose’s skin had turned a pale silvery tone, like the satin shine of tin. Her lips were blue-gray with just a hint of blush to them, and her eyes, once blue and soft as summer, were dark as winter clouds.
It was the Holder; must be that bit of tin inside her causing the change.
But when she turned her gaze on Cedar, her eyes were very clear. Very sane. “I know I’m going to die, Mr. Hunt,” she said. “And I know Mae’s near out of her mind. But I won’t turn this crew from their captain on account of me.”
“Rose—” he started.
“I might live the day, or another. Or none. But Lee has years ahead of him. If we can find him.”
Cedar bit back his argument. He could overpower her. For a wild moment he considered overpowering every person on board, tying them up, and flying the ship to Kansas himself.
But going to Kansas wouldn’t be the same as finding the Holder. And if he didn’t find the Holder, Rose would die.
Rose gave him half a smile. “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it, Mr. Hunt. You don’t have to look after me anymore. Please promise me you’ll look after Captain Cage. He risked his life to save us all. He risked his ship. More than once. It’s time we take a risk for him.”
Cedar put his hand around hers. She might look like she was slowly turning into cool metal, but her hand was warm, soft, and very human. “I will never stop looking after you.”
“We don’t know where the Holder is, do we?” she asked.
It pained him, but Cedar answered her true. “No.”
Rose knew, they all knew, that only the Holder would be able to remove the little tin key that was killing her. And they didn’t even know that for certain. But the Madders had said it would work.
With a world of maybes between them and finding the Holder, and still not knowing if it would do any good if they found it…he knew it made sense for Rose to accept she had little time left.
Cedar, however, wasn’t always a logical man.
“Can you find him?” Cedar asked Seldom.
“The captain?”
“General Alabaster Saint.”
“I can find him,” Mae said quietly.
“The general?” Cedar asked.
Mae cleared her throat and wiped her hands over her dress before grabbing on to the wall of the ship for support. Her eyes were glassy, unfocused, but her voice was strong. “Captain Hink. His heartbeat is in this wood, in this ship, in the binding I cast on him and cast on the ship. The Swift knows where Captain Hink is, and I can guide her to him.”
No one said anything. Too shocked at her admission, maybe not even believing that she had cast a spell and bound a man to a ship. Or maybe not believing that Mae was anything more than a woman gone mad.
But Cedar had seen the strength of her magic. He knew what she could do. Knew that though she might be losing hold of her sanity, she had not lost hold of what her magic had done to Hink. She wasn’t lying. If anyone could track the captain, it would be Mae.
“We’ll find him, Rose,” Mae said, though she was staring straight ahead, staring blankly at the middle distance. “You’ll see him again. I promise.”
“Perhaps you should sit yourself down, Mae,” Molly said.