Siege Chronicles: The Complete Series by Mark William Chase

Author:Mark William Chase [Chase, Mark William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Realm Books
Published: 2021-01-10T22:00:00+00:00

III.

“You’re in command of Skyjammer until we’re back,” Naela said to Huthvar.

Davrick inserted another cartridge into the chamber of his pepperbox pistol, glancing up briefly as he clicked the sparkcap into place. He turned the pistol’s barrels one rotation, then began loading the next chamber.

“How am I supposed to fly her with just three crewmen?” Huthvar waved a hand in the general direction of their battle-scarred blockade runner. They had flown back to where they had crashed, and Skyjammer was now parked just a few dozen paces from the abandoned Kendes transport. “I’m an engineer anyhow, not a pilot!”

“Don’t give me that,” Naela snapped. “You’ve flown her before, and with less than half the crew onboard. Or have you forgotten the little stunt we pulled in Orteth?”

Huthvar threw his arms in the air. “Bah! We was running from a border patrol then, not a whole blasted armada!”

“Are you sure about this plan?” Talyaana asked Davrick. “This isn’t the sort of mission one normally expects to come back from.”

Davrick looked away from the quarrelling pair to Talyaana, who sat with her boots propped up on one of the transport’s landing struts. She seemed almost to disappear in the fading twilight, the cold iron of the ship’s dull gray hull a perfect match to her own dour color.

“I’m not your commander,” he answered, meeting Talyaana’s questioning gaze. “No one’s forcing you to go on this mission.”

She remained silent for a moment, then drew one of her falcatas and considered its gleaming silver edge. “I already had a price on my head before we met, and it’s probably tripled by now. I might as well triple it again before I welcome the night’s last embrace.” She gave a cynical huff, looking to the darkening sky now flushed in the dim red fires of Atracus rising to the east. In a whisper she continued, speaking not to Davrick, but to whatever it was she saw upon the blood-red horizon. “It is far better to die a legend than a thief, is it not, O Raven Queen of Night?”

“What are you two going on about?” Sid blurted as he sauntered up. He slung his clockwork carbine over one shoulder, then began checking over the pneumatic grapple buckled to his left arm.

Talyaana turned to glare at him, but said nothing.

“Does the transport pass your inspection?” Davrick asked, hoping a falcata would not suddenly take the place of the gearmeister’s head.

“More or less,” Sid replied. “I just wanted to check the engine over to make sure. It’s nothing fancy—just your standard ichor-pumped crankcam reciprocator of Kendes manufacture.”

Naela gave Huthvar a few more parting orders, then shouldered her broad-barreled conk gun and started for the transport. “Are we ready to go?”

“As ready as we can hope to be,” Davrick answered. He holstered the pistol, then stood and smoothed the brim of his hat. “But are you sure you don’t want one or two of your other crewmen to come with us?”

Naela stopped next to him, breathing out and closing her eyes before speaking.

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