Lindsay Buroker

Peacemaker

Part I

In a cave on a hillsideabove Dawson, whale-oil lamps spat and guttered, creating dancingshadows against the wooden frame of a ship, an airship. Still in the earlieststages of construction, it was perched on a row of wooden bracesstretching the length of the earthen chamber.

Kali McAlister bent over a sawhorse, sweatdribbling from her temples as she concentrated on cutting thelumber she had laboriously ported from town on a sledge draggedbehind her self-automated bicycle. When she had first imaginedbuilding an airship, she had dreamed of designing the engine,crafting clever weapons systems, and-of course! — flying the finishedcraft. Dreams of hours upon hours of measuring and cutting woodhadn’t come a-calling in her mind. As the bandages on her fingersattested, she didn’t have an aptitude for carpentry.

Ding!

Kali froze midway through a cut and staredat the row of bells laid on the muddy cave floor near the exit. Atiny hammer flicked against the third bell, resulting in a secondding.

“Now what?”

Another curious wolf or fox had probablytripped it, but Kali couldn’t assume that, not with the number ofpeople after her these days. Thanks to her late father’s invention,an alchemical power source called flash gold, a number of connivinggangsters had set bounties for her capture.

Kali set the saw aside and reset the alarm.She grabbed her 1873 Winchester and a pair of smoke nuts,pocket-sized shrapnel-flinging grenades that she’d invented. Readyfor trouble, she jogged outside, heading down the slope towardBooby Trap Number Three.

She followed a game trail that meanderedthrough the undergrowth. Rain pattered onto ferns, spruce trees,and moss, creating plenty of mud to squish beneath her boots. Froma lookout point above her cave, one had a view down to the marshylowlands where Dawson sprawled, but here, in the thick of thewoods, she could see little more than trees.

As Kali drew closer to the trap location,she veered off the trail so she could approach under cover. Shepicked her way through damp fireweed and ferns, and soon soaked thecuffs of her overalls. The calendar said late June and there wereonly three hours between sunset and sunrise, but so far themosquitoes and flies were the only ones who thought summer hadcome.

Movement stirred the branches ahead, andKali hunkered behind a stump for a long look. Twenty meters away, aman dangled ten feet above the ground, one ankle caught in hertrap. So. Not a fox this time.

He was big and broad, and for a moment shethought it might be her bounty-hunting business partner Cedar, buthe knew where her traps were, and this fellow’s hat had come off,revealing hair a few shades lighter than Cedar’s tousled black.

As Kali watched, the man swung himself upand grabbed the rope, trying to free himself. That would take him awhile. Kali had used rope threaded with steel and made a knot thatwould only grow tighter if someone fiddled with it.

The man’s bowler hat lay in the mud beneathhim, along with a Colt Peacemaker. There was also a rectangularcase with the lid flung open and round ivory chips scattered allabout. The revolver drew more of Kali’s attention. Nearly everyman-and more than a few women-carried firearms in these parts, sothe Colt didn’t necessarily mean this fellow had villainousintentions, but it was a good reason to be careful.

Kali nestled the butt of her rifle into hershoulder and crept closer. “Looking for someone, mister?”

The man let go of the rope and, danglingupside down again, craned his neck to see her. “Looking for a girlthat’s supposed to be the best tinkerer in Dawson.”

“She’s awoman, not a girl.” Kalifigured she could, at eighteen, make that claim legitimately,though the man had a few gray flecks in his hair and might notagree. “And she’s got a shop in town. If you asked abouther, that’s wherefolks would have sent you.”

The man hung silently for a moment beforesaying, “Does that mean you’re not she?”

“That’s right.” Kaliglanced over her shoulder to make sure the cave-and her futureairship-weren’t in sight. It might be hard to deny she hadtinkering tendencies when she was building such a craft.

“But you must know her,”the stranger said. “Someone modified your rifle.”

Kali frowned at him. She had indeed alteredthe Winchester to reload automatically without her needing tomanually chamber the rounds, but most people wouldn’t notice thesubtle changes from a distance. “You’re powerful observant for aman hanging upside down.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He touchedhis head where the brim of his hat would have rested if it were notin the mud below. “I’m a gambling man. Having a keen eye pays in mybusiness.”

So those were poker chips on the ground, andthe box likely contained cards, dice, and other gaming gear. Thegun made sense too then. For obvious reasons, knives and firearmswere part of many a gambler’s kit.

Kali lowered her rifle, though she kept bothhands on it. “Why’re you looking for a tinkerer?”

“Got in a fracas a spellback, and somebody busted my pistol ring. I’m looking for someoneto fix it.”

A pistol ring? Kali hadheard of the tiny weapons, but she’d never seen one. They werespecialty items, custom-made by a few European masters. She surewouldn’t mind taking a look at one, but she was not yet ready tobelieve his story. How had he known to come up here looking for her? Only Cedarknew about her cave, and she had not seen him in days.

“I checked,” the man wenton when Kali said nothing, “and the best smiths in town have closedshop and taken to the river to work their claims.”

That part of his story rang true. The twosmiths that shared a street with her tinkery had been closed forweeks. It seemed like everyone had gold fever and was out muckingabout, which was why she hadn’t been able to find a carpenter, oranyone halfway decent with a hammer, to help with her ship.

“Pistol ring, eh?” Kalisaid. “Five, six shots? Five millimeter custom bullets orthereabouts?”

“Yes, ma’am. Won it in agame of five-card stud poker down in San Francisco. I reckon Icould show it to you if you’d cut me down.”

“I reckon you could do alot of things if I cut you down.”

“Less than you’d think.Thanks to that rather tight knot up there, my leg has gone quitenumb, so I’m not aspiring to do more than stand again today.” Hesmiled ruefully.

Kali gave him the squinty eye. He seemedamiable enough-most men would be cursing and swearing at her to cutthem down-but the fact that nobody was supposed to know she was uphere continued to make her suspicious. Maybe he had been watchingher shop and had followed her out of town that morning. If hisintentions were honest, why hadn’t he simply asked for her help inDawson?

“Grab that rope with bothhands.” Kali pointed above his ankle.

The man did so, which lifted his head andhands high enough that Kali was sure he couldn’t grab her.

“Now what?” heasked.

Before he finished the question, she slippedbeneath him and grabbed the Colt. She left the rest of the kit,though she glanced at the velvet inlay of the open case. A plaqueread, “Preston Somerset.”

“I didn’t think you hadthe look of a thief,” the man said, his voice cooler.

“I hope I have the look ofa cautious woman.” Kali stuffed the revolver into her overallsbefore pushing aside a stack of rocks and fiddling with themechanism hidden behind them. She cranked a wheel, and the anklenoose released.

The stranger twisted in the air and landedfeet first in a crouch. It was the sort of move Cedar could makelook easy, but not many others could. Kali pointed her rifle in theman’s direction again.

“I suppose caution is wisearound here.” He-Somerset-flicked his gaze toward her Winchesterand held his hands out, but his stance was relaxed, his face calm.“Do you think you could talk to your tinkerer friend to see if shemight work on my piece?”

He tapped a buttoned shirt pocket, and Kalihad to admit she was itching to see the miniature gun. It might besmartest to send this fellow on his way, but Cedar had a sayingabout the wisdom of keeping one’s enemies close. That way one couldsee what they were fixing to do. If she shooed Somerset away, hemight simply spy on her from afar. Better to pretend he’d won herover, so she could find out what he was up to. And-a smile curvedher lips-maybe she could persuade him to saw a few boards while shewas at it.

“I might be able to talkto her, a favor if you like, but you’d need to do a favor for me,”Kali said.

“That could probablyhappen.”

Quick to agree, wasn’t he? He hadn’t evenasked what she had in mind. “How’re your carpentry skills?”

“I can manage tools,”Somerset said. “What’re you-”

A woman’s scream tore through the trees.

The stranger’s head whipped around. The cryhad come from down the slope, somewhere close to town. Anotherscream followed, a sound of sheer pain, before it was cut short inthe middle.

Kali was about to ask the man what he knewabout it, but he spoke first.

“Someone’s in trouble.” Hetook a determined step toward her, his hand reaching toward theColt, but caught himself and asked, “May I have my piece,please?”

Kali hesitated a moment, then tossed him therevolver.

Without another word, he sprinted down thetrail in the direction of the screams. He disappeared into thetrees, leaving his gambling kit behind.

Kali wasn’t certain it was the smart thingto do-she had a briar patch of her own troubles without gettingtangled up in someone else’s-but she headed downhill anyway,following Somerset’s prints in the mud. Because he had been runningand not trying to hide his trail, she could track him withouttrouble. He had seemed to know where he was going. She wondered ifshe should find that suspicious or simply figure that he wassomeone like Cedar who knew how to locate people. A professionalgambler might have been a soldier or scout before turning to gamesof chance.

The buzz of a sawmill drifted to Kali’sears, and she thought she might end up in town, but Somerset’stracks turned off the trail instead of angling toward the mainroad. They veered through the undergrowth and led to a muddy horsepath running between houses outside of Dawson proper. The numeroustracks made it harder to distinguish newer prints from old, andKali started to doubt whether she was still on the trail.

She paused, head cocked, to look and listen.Though the noises from town floated up the hill, no birds chirpedin the nearby trees. Smoke rose from the chimney of a log cabinahead, and Kali jogged in that direction. It was a one-roomstructure with a single window, its “pane” made from glass bottles.Someone knelt among the stumps in the clearing outfront-Somerset.

Kali grimaced when she realized what he wasexamining. A woman was sprawled on the ground, her yellow dresssaturated with blood. She had the bronze skin and black hair of anative, maybe Han, Kali’s mother’s people. Though Kali washalf-white and had left the tribe as a child to live with herfather, she couldn’t help but feel a kinship toward the woman,stranger or not. Here was someone else who had left her people totry out a different life.

Kali walked closer, though she had a feelingshe shouldn’t. What was that old saying? You can’t keep troublefrom visiting, but you don’t need to offer it a chair.

“Is she alive?” she asked.An inane thing to ask-the woman wasn’t moving and there was moreblood on the grass than water in the river-but she wanted to saysomething so Somerset wouldn’t be surprised by her arrival. Men uphere could be twitchy, and she had given him his gunback.

He glanced her way, but voices came fromsomewhere down the trail, along with the rhythmic clomps of horsestrotting. A flash of crimson moved between the trees, and Kali’sgrimace deepened. Mounties. Though her adventures had not run herafoul of the law, she had an inkling it might not be a good idea tobe seen loitering nearby when bodies were found. She backed towardthe tree line, but paused when she spotted a third figure joggingalongside the mounted men.

Despite being on foot, Cedar burst into theclearing first. He started toward the dead woman, but noticed Kaliand halted.

She had not seen him innearly a week, and, with mud spattering his deerskin trousers andoilskin duster, he appeared to be fresh from a hunt. Only the swordhilt and rifle butt poking above his shoulders remained free ofdirt; he would never let grime besmirch his weapons. Someone whodidn’t know him, or wasn’t on friendly terms with him, would seethose weapons and his grim face-made grimmer by a vertical scarthat ran from his brow to his cheek-and step out of his way,far out of his way, butKali knew he was a fair man.

Cedar started to smile, an expression thatmade him look a little less fearsome, but a glance at the deadwoman kept the smile from breaking out. Instead, he tipped hisslouch hat and said, “Afternoon, Kali.”

“Cedar,” Kali said. Sheknew his real name but had decided to keep it to herself since hesupposedly had a Pinkerton detective after him for some crime he’dbeen framed for down south. Sometimes when they were alone, shecalled him Milos, but they were, alas, rarely alone. Since theirlast adventure, where they’d shared a kiss, she had been to thedancing hall with him once and to supper a couple of times, buthe’d been scarcer than diamonds during the last month. She hatedthinking or acting like a silly girl, mooning after a man, butshe’d been wondering if she’d said or done something that had madehim realize their relationship was a mistake. “I didn’t know youwere in town,” Kali added. “I’d been hoping you’d come by and helpme build…stuff.” Conscious of the other men, she kept the detailsof her airship project vague. Cedar would know what she meant; he’deven shown interest in going along on some airborne adventuresomeday. “I should’ve known it’d take a crime to lure you uphere.”

Something-chagrin? — flashed in his eyes, buthe didn’t say anything. The Mounties had ridden past him and wereswinging off their horses to investigate, one stopping to examinethe body while the other jogged into the cabin.

Kali blinked and spun a circle. The gamblerhad vanished.

“It’s the third one inthree nights,” Cedar said.

“Huh?” Kali swung back toface him.

“Third woman killed, herbody ravaged by claws. The other two were pretty young tribalgirls, too, one hitched to a white man, and one working atPeckerby’s Saloon.” He removed his hat and scratched his head. “Youhadn’t heard?”

“No, I’ve been busywith…stuff.”

“I have, too, but thewhole town’s talking about the slayings. It’s hard not to hearabout it.”

“Well, my stuff ispowerful engrossing,” Kali said.

“Miss?” one of theMounties asked. “You might want to go back to town. This isn’t afitting place for a girl.”

Kali propped her fists onher hips, not sure whether she was more offended that they thoughtwomen couldn’t handle seeing dead people or that they weren’tasking her any questions about the killing. Did they not believe afemale could be responsible for such a vicious crime? Kali caughtCedar raising an eyebrow in her direction, and she kept herselffrom voicing her thoughts. It was better not to be held as a suspect, afterall.

Despite the twitching eyebrow, Cedar said,“She’s tough, Harrison. I don’t reckon she’ll lose her vittles oversome blood.”

No, not when she had seen Cedar slice theheads off of any number of criminals.

“T’ain’t proper for awoman to be exposed to such ugliness, Cedar,” the Mountie said.“You had a good look yet?”

Cedar headed for the body, and Kali followedhim-after being called “tough,” she supposed she shouldn’t hangback and appear squeamish. Massive claws had raked parallel linesthrough the woman’s abdomen and torn her entrails asunder. Twoshallower slashes had ripped open her jugular.

“Just like the others,”the Mountie said. “Looks like a bear did it, but bears don’t ambleinto town and rip people to pieces.”

“It wasn’t a bear,” Cedarsaid.

“What then?”

“I don’t know,” hesaid.

The second Mountie joined them. “Nothing buthuman prints around the cabin, and plenty of those. Vixen had anumber of regulars. Hard to say which might belong and which mightnot.”

“Vixen?” Kali asked. Thegirl looked no older than she, and her face was familiar, thoughKali had never known her name. She had only been in Dawson forthree months, and, with its thousands of people-maybetens of thousands bynow-most folks were strangers. “You knew her?”

“Er, yes.” The Mountiecleared his throat and studied the ground. “Elizabeth Hardee overat Hardee’s Girls wouldn’t let no colored ladies work in herestablishment, so Vixen-I don’t know her rightful name-put herselfup out here and made do with clients who like Injuns or don’t wantto put up with high prices.”

“I’ll have a look at thetracks,” Cedar said. “Will there be a reward for the murderer’shead?”

“For…a bear?” the Mountieasked.

“It’s not a bear,” Cedar said.

“No human didthat.”

“You see any bear tracks?Any non-human tracks?”

“No, but-”

“I’ll have a look around,”Cedar said again.

“Suityourself.”

“And so willKali.”

“I will?” Kaliasked.

Cedar patted her on the back and guided hertoward the edge of the clearing. “You’ve got an observant eye, whenit’s not engrossed in ‘stuff’.”

“Well, I’d just as soonget back to my stuff while you tramp around in the woods.” Kaliwasn’t sure why she said that. If she could help the girl’s spiritfind a peaceful journey to the afterworld, she should, but she hada notion that she shouldn’t jump to please Cedar when he hadn’texplained his scarceness. Then she rolled her eyes at herself. Quitacting like a dumb girl, she thought. If you want to know why hehasn’t been around, ask. “But I’ll help if you take me out forsupper tonight.” Then she could talk to him without Mountiesaround.

Cedar looked away. Kaliswallowed. Maybe she was right. Maybe he had changed his mind abouther.

“Very well,” he finallysaid, but he didn’t sound happy about it. She thought aboutrevoking the offer. If he didn’t want to spend time with her, shewouldn’t make him. But he spoke again, adding, “I reckon I shouldkeep an eye on you anyway with all this about.” He waved a handtoward the body.

Kali scowled. She wanted a beau, not ananny. “I can take care of myself.”

“I think your people arebeing targeted, and I don’t want you being next.”

“They’re not my people,”Kali said. “I’ve nothing in common with any of them. That’s why Ileft.” That and because they’d all thought her odd for liking totinker and doubly odd for being the daughter of the crazy witch whotook her own life.

“On the outside, you do,and killers aren’t particular about the inner lives ofvictims.”

“I’m just a scruffyhalf-breed,” Kali said, “not some voluptuousprostitute.”

Cedar gazed down at her. “Are you arguingbecause you refuse to believe that you might be in danger, or justto be stubborn and ornery?”

“Uhm, the last thing.”Also, Kali wouldn’t mind hearing him say she wasn’t scruffy. Sheplucked a tuft of moss out of the fastener for her overalls. Thoughthat might be asking a lot of a man.

“I thought so.” Cedarspotted something on the edge of the clearing and walked over toexamine the ground.

“Should we arrange for aburial?” one Mountie asked the other.

“We ought to find some ofher people and let them handle it,” his comrade said. “They gotpeculiar notions about sending off the dead.”

Kali stuffed her hands in her pockets andwas about to point out that white folks had peculiar notions, too,but her knuckles bumped against something hard. She didn’t remembersticking anything in there. Puzzled, she withdrew the object. Itwas a jewelry box with a worn black velvet cover. Her heart spedup. Had Cedar slipped it into her pocket? Surely he would knowshe’d rather have useful gifts than jewelry, but a nervous flutterteased her belly nonetheless.

Kali unclasped the lid. A thick silver ringwas mounted inside along with five miniature bullets, each with aslot in the black velvet case. The gambler’s pistol ring.

The nervous anticipation in her belly turnedto unease. When had that man been close enough to slip somethinginto her pocket?

“What’s that?” Cedar askedfrom behind her shoulder.

Kali jumped, almost dropping the case. Maybethe day’s events had her the tiniest bit on edge. “A job, I think.We hadn’t discussed payment though.” Kali noticed Cedar was holdingsomething as well, a hide patch with beadwork and a polished blackstone in the center. “What’s that?”

“I thought you might tellme.”

Kali traded him the pistol ring for it. “Idon’t know. I never paid much attention to talismans and charms. Mymother always said people who used these things did so for show andthat true power came from within. That didn’t make the tribe’smedicine man real happy with her.”

“Power to do what?” Cedarglanced at the body. The Mounties had found a blanket and werewrapping it up.

Kali shrugged. “It depends on the purposethe maker had in mind. A medicine man might be able to tell you ifit’s real and what it’s supposed to do.” She did not feel a tingleof power from the beadwork patch, not the way she sometimes hadwhen handling her mother’s accoutrements. “Have you ever heard of agambler named Preston Somerset?”

“It sounds familiar.Someone from California?”

“San Francisco, hesaid.”

“Lots of gold dust up hereto be won,” Cedar said. “Doing it at cards is easier for some thanmining for it.”

“True.” Maybe the gamblerwas what he said he was, and he’d simply asked around to find Kali.It might be she hadn’t been as clever as she thought about hidingher cave’s location.

“Why do you ask?” Cedarreturned the ring to her. “Something to do with that?”

“I’d like to get back tomy work. Why don’t we talk about it over supper?”

“You shouldn’t go back tothat cave all alone.”

Kali had been planning to go to her workshopin town-that’s where she had tools for working on something likethe pistol ring-but she crossed her arms. “We talked on thisalready. I can take care of myself.”

“She probably thought thesame thing.” Cedar waved toward the woman’s body. “I told you threewomen have been murdered. You don’t seem to be taking the threatseriously.”

“Oh, I’m noting it, but ifI stopped work and hid every time a threat ambled by, I’d never getout from underneath my bunk.”

“This is different fromthe bounty hunters. They want you alive.” Cedar gripped her arm.“You shouldn’t go up to the cave.”

“I’m sure I’m supposed tothink it mighty fine of you to worry about me and be protective,but I’m not the sort who likes being told where to go and what todo.” Kali extricated her arm.

“I’m not telling you whatto do, just what I thinkyou should do.”

“How’s thatdifferent?”

He arched his eyebrows. “One’s lessoffensive?”

“Uh huh. I wasn’t going tothe cave anyway. I’ll be in my workshop when you’re ready forsupper. Don’t worry. If bears try to ravage me there, I’ll beprotected.”

Cedar knew she had booby traps all over theworkshop, and he let her walk away without further argument.

Part II

Kali was bent over her workbench,reassembling the pistol ring with the help of a pair ofmulti-lensed magnifying spectacles, when a draft whispered againsther neck. The door opening? She’d locked it.

Her Winchester leaned against the end of theworkbench, more than an arm’s length away, but she had a number ofbooby trap triggers within reach. No reason to panic yet. Shegrabbed a rag, as if she had no inkling that someone might bearound, and used the motion to hide her free hand slipping into adrawer. She pulled out one of her latest prototypes, a hand-sizedcrossbow with bolts that packed a charge. Calmly, she turned aroundand pointed the weapon at the door.

Somerset leaned there. His eyebrows rosewhen he spotted the miniature crossbow, but he merely said, “Youhave deft hands,” and nodded to the workbench.

“The front door waslocked,” Kali said. Not only had it been locked, but she’d designedthe bolt herself after her ex-fiance had proven apt at picking theone that came with the shop.

“I noticed. Don’t you findthat drives away business?”

Kali glowered at him. If she had Cedar’sheight and muscles, it might have cowed him, but he did not seem tofind her five feet four inches imposing.

“Is that my ring?”Somerset asked. “Were you able to fix it?”

“Yes. It needed a newspring. Naturally parts on something so small are hard to come by,but I have tools for fine work and improvised.”

“Excellent.” He smiled, afriendly white-toothed smile, and Kali imagined he had littletrouble charming the ladies. “How much do I owe you?” heasked.

Since prices in Dawson had grown soridiculous, Kali thought about naming an exorbitant sum, figuring agambler who could afford such a ring had to be well off. But thenshe remembered that he’d said he had won it, not purchased it withhis own coin. His clothing-simple trousers, shirt, and vest-did nothint of wealth.

“Five dollars,” she said.Only slightly exorbitant, considering Miss Eames was charging twodollars for a scrambled-egg breakfast.

“Reasonable, thank you.”Somerset withdrew a purse and came forward, though not too close.He counted out five dollar bills while keeping an eye on hercrossbow.

Kali appreciated that he didn’t sneer at orbelittle the weapon. Maybe his keen eye had spotted the smudge atthe end, though she doubted he’d guess that it was her own chemicalconcoction, a charge that exploded upon impact.

“Thanks.” Kali tucked thering into its case and pushed it across the bench to him. “There’sa target in the corner by the spud launcher if you want to testit.”

“Spud launcher? Youcertainly have an array of interesting weapons here.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you supply them toanyone?” Somerset asked it casually, but there was an intensity inhis eyes that put her on guard.

“Anyone that can pay. Agirl’s got to earn a living.”

“I see.” He pocketed thebox without testing the ring. “You’re probably wondering why Idisappeared so quickly this afternoon.”

“No, I’m not.” Kali noddedto the door.

“Not even a little?” Hetried his smile on her again.

Kali backed up a step, finger tightening onthe trigger to the crossbow. “What are you angling for, mister? Youwant something else?”

“No, ma’am. You just seemlike an interesting girl. Woman,” he corrected when she scowled.“How did you get involved in tinkering? It’s not usually a lady’strade.”

“I’m not.”

His brow crinkled beneath his bowler hat.“Not…a lady?”

“Not interesting,” Kalisaid. “I am, however, busy. So, if you’re not going to test yourpiece, you can let yourself out. If it wouldn’t trouble youterribly, re-lock my door on the way.”

“Ah, you’re displeased bymy means of entry. I admit, I’ve picked up a few bad habits. Butyou mentioned needing a favor this morning, while you were denyingbeing Miss Kali McAlister.” He wriggled his eyebrows, as if tosuggest her prevarications were just as morally ambiguous as hislock picking. “Maybe I can help and alleviate some of yourworkload.”

Kali chewed on the insideof her cheek. She wouldlike help building the hull of her ship, but thisfellow smelled of trouble. He had to have some reason for wantingto spend time with her. This whole ploy reminded her of Cedar’sdeception when they had first met. He had wanted to hire on andhelp her out too; only later had she figured out that he knew aboutflash gold and how a lot of people wanted to capture her and pumpher for its secrets. He’d only wanted to use her as bait, hopingthat Cudgel Conrad, the notorious criminal who’d killed hisbrother, would target her as well. She’d forgiven him for hismanipulations-though she might be addled for doing so-and had evencome to trust him, but she doubted lightning would strike twice inthe same location.

“You think on it and letme know,” Somerset said. “I’m busy at night over in the AuroraSaloon, competing with the Injun dancing girls for the customers’attention, but I wake up around nine or ten in the morning andcould assist you.” He tipped his hat and headed for thedoor.

Kali was about to remind him about the lock,but he paused with his hand on the jamb.

“I almost forgot,” hesaid, turning back to her. “That man who was with the Mounties, doyou know him well?”

Her instincts bristled like the hackles on ahound’s back. “Why do you ask?”

“He seems familiar, that’sall. In fact…” Somerset patted down his pockets while makingthoughtful, “Hm,” noises, then said, “Ah,” as he pulled out aleather-bound journal. He flipped through the pages.

Though she was too far away to make outdetails, Kali spotted newspaper clippings and photographs glued tomany of the pages. Others simply held handwriting.

“Back when I was in SanFrancisco,” Somerset said as he turned pages, “there was a gorymurder. Someone killed a pretty young lady who’d been newly weddedto a doting husband. The newspaper ran the story with a photographof the murderer, a man who’d had an affair with the girl. Then itseemed things turned sour.” Somerset’s jaw tightened, and he took abreath before continuing. “The man killed the girl instead ofletting her go back to her husband.” He found the page he wantedand stared down at it.

Kali shifted uneasily. Cedar had alreadytold her about a murder that he’d been accused of-Cudgel Conrad hadframed him-but he hadn’t mentioned anything about a husband or anaffair.

“That fellow I saw today,”Somerset went on, “he reminds me of the murderer.” He held thejournal up, open to a page with a newspaper article glued on oneside and a cutout photograph on the other. “This ishim.”

The man in the picture had a beard andmustache, but a scar slashed vertically from brow to cheek, as ifsomeone had tried to cut his eye out with a knife. It was the samescar Cedar had.

Kali forced herself to shrug nonchalantly,though her mouth had gone dry, and her voice cracked when sheresponded, “I don’t know him that well.”

“Of course,” Somersetsaid. “I just wished to warn you in case…” He lifted a shoulder.“You seem like a nice woman.”

He left before Kali could tell him that shewasn’t any more nice than she was interesting.

Part III

With its sawdust floor and hammered coppercans fashioned into lampshades, the Caribou Cafe probably wasn’tromantic, but Kali liked it. It didn’t pretend to have fancyairs-with prices to match, and she liked the clockwork dogsledteams “racing” each other on tracks that wound along the walls nearthe ceiling.

At a table in a dimcorner, Cedar sat across from her, fingering the beadwork talismanhe’d found. He hadn’t spoken since he called upon her, and Kaliwondered if he was intrigued by the mystery or disturbed by theslayings. Both perhaps. Or maybe he was reminded of another murderin San Francisco. Her own thoughts had been running about, trippingover each other, since the gambler-if he even was a gambler-left hershop.

“We need to talk,” Kalisaid. “There’s somebody in town who-”

“Kali?” a woman asked froma few feet away. It was Doe-eyed Jane, one of the two sisters whoowned the place. Kali couldn’t remember ever speaking to her otherthan to order meals and wouldn’t have guessed that the woman knewher name. Jane put a hand on Kali’s shoulder and said, “I heardabout what happened to Vixen and the other girls. Land sakes,that’s horrific. Nobody deserves an end like that, heathen ornot.”

Kali supposed that passed for sympathy,insulting or not, so she held back a snort. “Thanks.”

“Is it true that yourpeople’s bear spirits are angry and killing those that abandonedyour ways to come live in the city?”

“Uh.” Just how muchspeculation was rampaging through town about those murders? “Idon’t know,” Kali said.

“You ought to let the girlgo back to her kin, Cedar,” Jane said, and Cedar lifted his gazefrom the talisman for the first time since they had sat down. “Itain’t right to risk her life just so you can get your hammertoeswarmed at night,” Jane finished.

Heat flushed Kali’scheeks. Was that what people thought they were doing in her shop when theywere working on new tools and weapons for Cedar’s bounty-huntingendeavors? Not that she wouldn’t consider other…activities someday,but it flustered her to think of hens gossiping about her sleepingwith someone instead of their usual fare, the fact that she ranaround town in greasy overalls with tools jangling in her pocketsand that she made all manner of strange contraptions in hertinkery.

“I’ll take your adviceunder consideration, ma’am,” Cedar said, a twinkle in his blueeyes.

“We’ll take two meals,”Kali said, hoping to get rid of the woman. She needed to tell Cedarabout Somerset. As soon as Jane was gone, Kali pressed the talismanto the table to capture his attention. “We need totalk.”

The amusement on his face faded. “Are myhammertoes in danger of going cold in the foreseeable future?”

“What? No. I mean, I don’tknow. I haven’t even seen your toes yet.”

“I’ll take it asencouraging that you said yet.”

“It’s hard toyet when you’re notaround,” Kali pointed out, though she was relieved to hear that hewas still interested in the idea.

“True.” Cedar’s shouldersslumped, and he scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve justbeen hunting all over for Cudgel. Once I get him, then…”

“I know. I understand, butlisten, this is important.” Kali leaned over the table and kept hervoice low so none of the other diners would overhear. “There’s afellow in town who says he recognizes you from a newspaper articledown in San Francisco. Because of a murder you were accused of.”She went on to describe her meetings with the gambler.

Cedar’s eyes sharpened with the intensitythat usually only came out when he was speaking of hunting downCudgel. “Describe this man,” he whispered, gripping the edge of theworn table so hard his knuckles whitened.

“Tall andbroad-shouldered, like you, dark brown hair, clean-shaven.” Kalirealized that was a generic description and closed her eyes topicture the man’s face and see if she could pick out somethingunique. “He has a little scar on the side of his jaw.” She touchedthe spot on her own face. “As if he nicked himself shaving orwas-”

“Cut with a knife,” Cedarsaid grimly. “I gave him that scar when we met last. Got in asquabble down near Skid Road in Seattle. That’s the last spot wherehe caught up with me.”

“It’s not Cudgel, is it?”Kali asked.

“No, it’s AgentLockhart.”

“The Pinkertondetective?”

Cedar nodded. “He’s beenafter me since San Francisco. When he tackled me in Seattle, Ididn’t want to kill him, just get away. Stubborn bastard won’tleave me be though.” Cedar gazed past occupied tables toward thewindows and the rain dribbling from the eaves outside. “I’m notsurprised he found me again, but I’d hoped I’d get Cudgel first. Ican’t leave the Yukon now. Not when…” He met her eyes. “He’s here,Kali. I haven’t seen him yet, but the rumors say he’s here, andhe’s setting up some scheme to get rich-richer-off other people’swork.”

“Could he be responsiblefor these murders?”

“I…don’t see where there’dbe money in it for him, killing innocent girls. He has no troublekilling folks, but he’s not random about it. He does it when peopleget in his way or don’t jump to his fiddle fast enough.” Hegrimaced, thinking of his brother, no doubt. “He’s being carefulthough. He may not know I’m here, but he knows there’s a big bountyon his head, so he’s got the worker ants scurrying about on hisbehalf. But it looks like he left most of his old crew behind. Idon’t recognize anybody.” He clenched his fist. “I need moretime.”

“I wonder why Somerset-er,Lockhart-didn’t shoot you today.” Kali also wondered what hadhappened to the real gambler Preston Somerset. Had Lockhart shothim and taken his gear and identity?

“He’s tried to do thatbefore. I’m not that easy to kill.” Cedar’s lips stretched into ahumorless smile. “Besides, he’s new in town, and he’s undercover.Shooting me in front of two Mounties I’m being social with would behard for him to explain. The Pinkertons don’t have jurisdiction inthe Dominion of Canada. No, Lockhart will want to get me alone totake me out.” He met Kali’s eyes again. “Or he wants to get to methrough you.”

Kali scowled. As she’d suspected, thatscalawag had been chumming up to her for a reason.

“I’m going to have toavoid him somehow and catch Cudgel as soon as I can,” Cedarsaid.

“Have you…” Kali paused,not certain she should put the idea in his head. “Have youconsidered-”

Jane appeared, her arms laden with plates ofrolls and caribou steaks. That forced another long pause while shelaid everything out.

“Have you consideredmaking the detective disappear?” Kali asked when the server left.She never would have thought up such a notion a few months earlier,and it concerned her that it popped so easily into her head now,but she didn’t want to see Cedar get hurt, and that’s what mighthappen if he wouldn’t fight back against the man. “If he’s aloneout here, a thousand miles or more from his nearest office…whowould know what happened if he never returned?”

Cedar sighed. “I figurethat your thinking that way means I’ve been a bad influence on you.I have consideredit. Sometimes it’s so frustrating to be hunted for something youdidn’t do-”

“No need to point that outto me,” Kali said.

“Yes, of course, youknow.” He smiled and took her hand over the table. “I can’t crossthat line. He’s a lawman, not a cutthroat with a bounty on hishead, and…I think he’s got a family back home, a wife and littlegirl.”

Kali hid her relieved exhale. As upset asshe had been when she stumbled across Cedar relieving a ship fullof pirates of their heads…it was his job, and she’d come to acceptthat. He only killed hardened criminals, men and women who werewanted dead by the authorities.

“Maybe I can lead himastray,” Kali said, “or tell him that you didn’t do it. Do you haveany proof that-”

“Kali, I don’t want you-”He stopped himself and took a breath. “I know you can take care ofyourself, but I don’t thinkyou should get into trouble on my behalf. Youhave enough problems of your own. If he believes you’re abettingme, he might have the power to get the law after you too. And…it’llbe dangerous for you if you get caught between us.”

“He’s fixing to talk to meregardless of what you or I want. If you tell me everything thathappened down there, at least I can try to argue your side ofthings. If he could be convinced that you didn’t do it…. Does heknow about Cudgel? Maybe we could turn him into an ally againstthe real criminal.”

“That’s not going tohappen.” Cedar set his jaw mulishly.

Kali rolled her eyes. Why were men alwaysconvinced things could only be sorted out with bloodshed? Why wouldCedar believe the idea of peace so impossible?

“Let’s get out of town fora couple of days,” Cedar said. “If he can’t find you, he can’tbother you.”

“Out of town?” she asked.“Like up to my cave to work on building my airship? With those bigmuscles of yours, I’m sure you could saw a lot of wood in a coupleof days. I’m certain you once mentioned that you’d help me, onaccount of me offering to fly you around the Yukon, hunting yournemesis once the ship is done.”

Cedar smiled faintly. “It sounds likeLockhart knows where that cave is. I had something else in mind. Iwas thinking of a visit to your mother’s people.” Cedar prodded thetalisman again. “You said a medicine man could tell me more aboutthis.”

“Oh.” Kali sank backagainst the seat. Not only did he want her to abandon her airshipproject, but he wanted her to go back to a place where she wouldalways feel like an outcast. She had very few good memories of herchildhood, and most of the ones she did have involved being offalone in the forest, building things.

“Once we figure out who’skilling these girls and put a stop to it, I’ll help you finish thehull,” Cedar said. “Even if Lockhart is standing there watchingus.”

“That apromise?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Kali could not stir any enthusiasm forvisiting the local Han camp. But having Cedar’s undividedattention-and strong hands wielding a saw-for a week or two couldget her past the tedious work and on to what she wanted to do: installing the engine. Also, maybe if she got Cedar out alone inthe woods for a while, she could get him to reveal more detailsabout the San Francisco murder. She couldn’t talk this Pinkertonfellow out of hunting Cedar if she didn’t know the whole truth.

“Do you know where they’dbe this time of year?” Cedar asked.

“The Han? Yes. King salmonare running, so they’ll be in their river camp. Er, I guess that’sa town now. Moosehide.”

Cedar’s brow furrowed.

“The government put themthere, seeing as how Dawson grew up on top of the tribe’s oldsummer camp. I know it seems strange when you look around and seeall these buildings and people from all over the world, but therewas nothing permanent here when I was growing up. Except mud. Andmoose. Mostly mud.”

“You speak so fondly ofit,” Cedar said.

“You haven’t been stuckhere for an entire winter yet. You’ll see. It won’t grow on you.” Kali wanted tofinish her airship and escape before winter came again so badlythat an aching lump formed in her throat at times.

“Moosehide, then,” Cedarsaid. “I don’t reckon I’d be able to talk to them without you. Areyou willing to go?”

“That depends. Are youwilling to share your fancy blanket again?”

A smile softened his face.“Well, it did need a lotof attention from a seamstress after the lasttime you slept in it. Did no one ever educate you on proper thingsto do in bed? Setting off explosives isn’t one of them.”

“My upbringing wasn’tterribly proper. Besides, I dropped the smoke nutsoutside the bag. I can’tbe held responsible for stray shrapnel.”

Cedar’s smile broadened. “I see.”

Part IV

Low clouds hung over the Yukon River asKali’s self-automated bicycle-SAB for short-rumbled along the muddyroad, heading toward Moosehide. The fat, reinforced wheelsnavigated over and around roots, puddles, and horse droppingslittering the trail. Kali curled a lip at the latter, not wantingexcrement smashed into her treads.

Cedar sat behind her, and behind him smokefrom the stack rose into the air, mingling with a morning fog thathugged the banks. Summer was still in hiding, but at least it hadstopped raining. That meant a lot of prospectors were boating alongthe river, to and from Dawson. All of those people gaped at thestrange bicycle when it passed.

Kali barely noticed. Her mind was focusedinward, dwelling on the upcoming meeting with people she hadn’ttalked to in eight years. Though she didn’t expect a physicalconfrontation at the camp, she’d brought a vial with a couple ofher precious flash gold flakes anyway. They had proven useful tohave on hand in the past, when she’d made numerous tools andgadgets, using the alchemical ore as an easy energy source.

Cedar touched her shoulder and pointed to arowboat aground ahead of them. A few shards of wood floated nearbyin the river. Nobody stood near the boat, but the grass and foliagealong the riverbank obscured the view.

“Problem?” Kali peered upand down the river. At the moment, no other boats werevisible.

“Perhaps. Perhapsnot.”

Figuring he wanted to investigate, Kalislowed the bicycle. Cedar hopped off and jogged through theundergrowth to the boat. He stared down at something inside for amoment and then slung his Winchester off his back.

“Problem,” Kaliconfirmed.

She veered off the trail and set her machineto idle. Over its rumble, she almost missed the fact that Cedar wastalking to someone. She jogged over to join him and found himcrouching to help an older man lying in the bottom of the boat.Blood streaked his weathered face, and a bulbous lump rose from thecrown of his bald head.

“Don’t need no help!” Theman pushed Cedar away when he tried to help and clambered out ofthe boat by himself. “That boodle of mother-kissing lickfingerpirates got all my cussed gold. Shot my partner and knocked himinto the river. Lowdown, thieving cutthroats.” The man clenched afist and snatched a shotgun out of his boat. “Let them come backout of the clouds, and I’ll fix them. Pirates!” He spat, barelymissing Cedar’s boot. “Got me wrathier than a treedcoon.”

The old man took a step and tilted sideways,like he might topple back into the boat. When Cedar reached out ahand to steady him, he growled, “Don’t need no help,” again.

“Out of the clouds?” Kaliasked.

“Air pirates,” Cedar said.“Must be a new ship. The Mounties said they shot down the lastoutfit preying on successful miners.”

This was the first Kalihad heard about it, but it was hardly surprising. Not all ofDawson’s swelling population could strike it rich legitimately. Shegazed skyward. Though pirates might know about the reward for hercapture, and could be a lot of trouble, she found herself wishingto glimpse the airship. A completed, working airship. They were so rarein the Yukon. The last one Kali had seen, she and Cedar had beenforced to destroy, and she’d never gotten a chance to view theengines up close.

“It’s not appropriate tolook wistful right now,” Cedar murmured to her.

Kali blushed. The old man was still stompingabout, cursing over his losses. The missing gold seemed to beupsetting him more than the dead partner.

“I’m not wistful,” shesaid. “I’m just being observant…checking to see if it’s still outthere. That’s all.”

“Uh huh.” Cedar raised hisvoice for the old man’s sake. “Are you sure there’s nothing we cando to help you, sir?”

“Don’t need no help,” theman repeated.

Cedar shrugged and wavedfor Kali to lead the way back to the SAB. As they walked back, shegave the skies one last glance-and, yes, maybe itwas a wistful glance.She didn’t expect to see anything, but a dark shape stirred theclouds. Kali froze, mid-step. She blinked and the disturbance wasgone. Her imagination? Or simply an unusually shaped storm cloud?No, it had been too angular to be a natural part of thesky.

“I saw it,” Cedar saidwith another nudge for her back. “Let’s get out of here before theydecide your contraption is something they’d like tosteal.”

“Good idea,” Kalimurmured, hopping on. Though she and Cedar had taken down a shipbefore, it had been luck that they’d had the right supplies. Shehadn’t brought any kerosene for the trip to the Han camp, althoughshe did have her weapons, including a couple of-

“Go,” Cedar urged. Hepointed toward the clouds.

The craft had come into view again, itsshape distinguishable this time. Like a marine vessel, it had anopen deck, but instead of having sails above that deck, a vastoblong balloon hovered overhead, dwarfing the ship with its size.At either end of the deck, enclosed weapons platforms rose likecastle turrets poised over a moat. Open cannon ports ran along thewooden sides of the ship. Its size promised room for a crew ofthirty or forty with plenty of room to spare for cargo-or stolengoods.

“Going is good,” Kalisaid. She shoved the lever that controlled acceleration, and theSAB surged forward. Cedar hung onto her with one arm around herwaist, while he held his Winchester with his free hand, his torsotwisted to watch the sky.

The airship was heading downriver, whileKali and Cedar were heading upriver. If it didn’t change itscourse, they had nothing to worry about.

“It’s coming about,” Cedarsaid.

“Figures.” Kali yanked herdriving goggles over her eyes and pushed the engine to full speed,with a vague notion that they’d be safe if they reached the tentsand cabins of Moosehide. At the least, the Han would have weaponsto help fight off intruders.

The wheels churned, slinging mud in everydirection. She could get twenty miles an hour out of the engine onflat, even ground, but the Yukon River shoreline rose and fell,with the glacial rock beneath the dirt making navigation achallenge. The trail never ran more than ten meters without turningaround a boulder or tree. Fog still hovering over the hallows addedto the challenge.

“Are they after us?” Kalicalled over the breeze whistling past.

A boom cracked the air, and somethingslammed into the earth five meters ahead of them. Dirt and rockflew, and Kali jammed her heel against the brake lever to keep fromcareening into a newly formed crater.

“Yes,” Cedarsaid.

“Thanks, I gotthat.”

He fired a shot, though Kali was focused onsteering the SAB around the ditch and did not see if it did anygood. The river flowed past fifteen feet below, and they tilted andwobbled as she maneuvered past the crater. A big, black cannonballlay in the bottom.

“The artillery man isprotected inside the turret,” Cedar yelled, “and I can’t seeanybody else up there from this angle.”

Kali increased the speed again. It was onlytwo more miles to Moosehide. Maybe they could-

Another boom sounded. This time thecannonball tore a hole in the riverbank, and the trail ahead ofthem disappeared in a rock slide. Dirt and stone sloughed into theriver, and Kali had to brake again. They’d be lucky if they couldclimb past that. Driving was out of the question.

She stopped the bicycle and jumped off.

The airship had descended from the clouds,and Kali could see people in the turrets now, though the windowslits protected them while allowing them to fire out. A few piratesscurried across the deck, though they were careful not to remain insight for long. From the ground, the angle was poor for shooting atanyone up there. That didn’t keep Cedar from trying to keep thembusy. He fired his Winchester, aiming for a slit in the closestturret.

Kali considered the wooden hull of the ship,wondering if she could find a weakness. The engines were protected,but twin ducted fans on the bottom propelled and steered the craft.Scenarios for disabling them ran through her mind, but she didn’tsee how she could do anything from the ground.

Cedar fired another shot, but it onlychipped at the wood on the turret.

Kali laid a hand on his arm. “That’s notgoing to do anything.”

“You have aplan?”

“I have somegrenades.”

“Even better.” Cedarshouldered the rifle and held out his hand.

While Kali dug into her saddlebag, she keptan eye toward the ship. The gunner had to have them in his sights,but he did not fire again. A few men appeared at the railing, andone peered down with a spyglass held to his eye. Cedar promptlyreadied the Winchester again and fired.

The man ducked out of sight, and Kaliimagined she could hear his cursing. A heartbeat later, he poppedup again, this time with a rifle of his own. It cracked, and shardsof rock sheared away from a towering boulder behind Cedar.

He grabbed Kali around the waist and pulledher behind the rock. Fortunately, she had what she needed in handwhen he did it.

“What are those?” Cedarasked when she held up the fist-sized bronze balls.

“Grenades.”

“They don’t look likemilitary issue.”

“No, they’re Kali issue.You press this, and it creates a spark, like with a flintlockand-”

Something clinked to the ground on the otherside of the boulder. Kali leaned out, intending to check it out,but Cedar pushed her back. He was closer to whatever it was and hada better view.

“Smoke,” he said. “Up thehill.”

Though she debated on the wisdom of leavingcover, Kali figured he had more experience with being attacked, soshe scrambled in the direction he pointed. The steep slope made ithard to keep her footing, and she had to stuff the grenades intoher pockets. They clinked against tools, and she hoped she had madethe triggers hard enough to pull that they couldn’t bump againstsomething and go off.

“Faster,” Cedar urged, ahand on her back.

“I’d be faster if I knewwhere we were going,” Kali shot over her shoulder. The airshiphovered in her periphery, no more than ten meters above them. Itsengines thrummed, reverberating through the earth, and the fansstirred the ferns and grass on the hillside. “And if we weren’tleaving my bicycle behind,” she added under her breath.

“Just get away from-”Cedar coughed and pulled his shirt over his nose. He paused toloose another rifle shot at the airship, though it thuddedharmlessly off a turret.

A sweet stench like burned honey trailedthem up the hill. Not trusting it, Kali held her breath.

A copse of evergreens rose at the crest ofthe hill, and it seemed like as good a place as any to make astand. The airship wouldn’t be able to maneuver through the trees,and Kali could throw a grenade at anyone who tried to steal theSAB.

A giant metal claw on a chain clanked ontothe rocks to the left.

“Uh?” Kali said, for lackof anything more intelligent.

A second claw landed to her right, then athird one struck down a few feet ahead. As one, the devices swungtoward her.

“Uh!” she blurted andscrambled backward.

Kali bumped into Cedar and was surprised hewasn’t moving more quickly. A glaze dulled his eyes, and confusioncrinkled his brow.

“Move!” Kali tried toshove him out of the path of the claws, but he was heavy and didn’thelp her at all. She didn’t seem to have her usual strength either.A strange heaviness filled her limbs, and numbness made her fingerstingle.

That honey smell. It had to be some kind ofsedative.

The nearest claw scraped closer. It swungin, angling for Kali’s torso. She ducked and dove beneath it, butthe lethargy in her limbs stole her agility, and she landed in anungainly pile and skidded down the slope. Mud spattered her, androcks dug at her through her clothing.

Something landed on her. Rope?

Kali tried to bat it away, but it waseverywhere. Not just rope, she realized. A net.

Before she could reach for a folding knifein her pocket, the ropes tightened about her, scooping her up likea fish in the river.

“Kali!” Cedarshouted.

Now, he woke up. Great.

The net constricted movement, and Kalicouldn’t get an arm free to dig into her pockets. It swung her intothe air. In fits and jerks, a rope slowly pulled her up. Clankssounded above her-someone winding a winch.

Kali snarled and thrashed without anystrategy, aside from an overriding desire to damage something. Shewas angry at herself for running up the hill without a plan, andfor being captured like some dumb animal. Her thrashes did nothing;the net merely tightened.

Then something rammed into her frombehind.

“Tarnation! What now?”Kali demanded.

“Sorry,” Cedar said frombehind her ear.

Kali twisted her neck-even that was aneffort in the suffocating rope cocoon. Cedar clung to the outsidelike a spider. His eyes still had a glazed cast to them, but hisjaw was clenched with determination.

He drew a knife and started sawing at herropes. “I thought you might like to get down.”

“Yes, thank you.” Kalicould be calm and polite when someone was working to set her free.So long as he finished before whoever was working the winch gotthem on board. Already, they were nearly twenty feet from theground. The fall would not be pleasant.

“Get him off!” a manyelled from somewhere above. “Shoot him!”

“I believe someone ismaking plans for you,” Kali said.

Cedar’s swift cuts were opening up herprison, and she gripped the ropes above her head with both hands soshe wouldn’t fall free when the support disappeared.

“Not plans I’m partialto,” Cedar said. “I’ll have you down in a second.”

Wood creaked above them, and Kali looked up,fearing they might weigh too much for whatever winch was operatingup there. She wanted freedom, yes, but she didn’t fancy the idea ofa long drop while still entangled in the ropes. A man wearing ablack bandana around his head and holding a shiny steel six-shooterleaned out through a trapdoor.

“Look out,” Kali barked,afraid Cedar, intent on cutting her ropes, hadn’t seen theman.

But he was already in motion, not jumpingfree to escape the gun like a sane person would do, but shimmyingup the rope. The pirate’s finger tightened on the trigger, butCedar was already pumping an arm to throw his knife. The blade spunupward and lodged in the man’s chest.

The revolver fired anyway.

Kali buried her head beneath her arms, butno bullet pierced her flesh. Before she could lift her eyes to seeif Cedar had also avoided being hit, something slammed into her.The force snapped the remaining ropes still binding her into thenet, and her legs flew free. Twine seared her palms, and she almostlost her grip, but she clenched her fingers tighter around therope. The dead pirate tumbled past her and smashed into the rockyshoreline below. Cedar had disappeared into the airship.

Gunshots sounded above, followed by a clashof steel. That meant Cedar had his sword out. He might need help,but storming a fortress wasn’t anything Kali was trained for. She’dhave to try something else.

Kali swung her legs up and found a toeholdin part of the netting that had not been cut. She climbed a fewfeet up the rope, but stopped well below the trapdoor. Twenty feetaway, mounted on the bottom of the hull, the twin-ducted fanshummed along.

While gripping the rope with one hand, Kalidropped the other into a pocket and withdrew a grenade. Windbattered her, whipping her hair free of its braid and into hereyes. She squinted, trying to judge the distance for a toss to theclosest fan.

“Cedar!” Kali yelled. Hewould be better at this.

A battle cry-it might have been his-andanother long clash of steel answered her. Kali took that to meanshe was on her own.

She took a deep breath, thumbed the triggeron the grenade, and watched for the spark. Yes, there it was. Shecounted to two and tossed the weapon.

It sailed through the air, clanked off thefan casing and dropped. It exploded uselessly a few feet above theriver. A couple of men rowing a fishing boat and gawking up at theairship screamed and threw themselves into the water.

“Not good,” Kalimuttered.

She had one more grenade, but only one. Shegripped the cold metal, felt the grooves dig into her hand,imagined the hours she had spent patching the exterior togetherfrom scrap and carefully measuring out gunpowder and even morecarefully building the trigger device…. She resolved not to wastethis one.

Kali thumbed the trigger, held the grenadehalf a second longer than the first, and lofted it toward thefan.

This time it clanked into the horizontalcylinder containing the propeller. Kali held her breath. Thegrenade bumped against the inside of the casing and skidded towardthe fan. She cringed at the idea of it sliding past the blades andfalling out on other side.

Before the grenade came close to that fate,it exploded with an echoing boom. Orange flashed, gray smoke filledthe air, and shards of metal flew.

One whistled toward her face, and Kaliducked, throwing up her free hand. Her other hand slipped, and shelost her foothold and zipped down the rope. Fire seared her palm,tearing into her skin, but she growled and forced herself to holdon. She caught the bottom of the half-destroyed net, but her feetdangled free, swinging thirty feet above the earth.

On the hull above, the only thing left ofthe fan was a singed stump of metal. Holes and charred wood markedthe hull as well. If it were a sea-going vessel, it’d be leakingfaster than the bilge pumps could bail, but up here, holes justmeant poorer aerodynamics. Already, though, the airship was listingto one side, heading out over the river. With one workingpropeller, it’d simply float around in wide circles until someonefixed it. That meant they’d have a hard time chasing anybody.

“Cedar,” Kali calledagain. “It’s time to go!”

She scanned the countryside below,ostensibly looking for her bicycle and to see how far upstream theyhad floated, but a part of her had to admire the view, a viewusually reserved for the birds. One day, she would sail in theskies with her own ship.

A boom sounded above, not rifle fire thistime, but a shell gun or cannon. What in tarnation was Cedar doingup there?

Kali was debating whether to climb up andjoin him-whatever he was doing, he might be getting himself introuble-when a familiar shout pulled her eye to the side.

“Man overboard!” It wasCedar, leaping over the deck railing. He clutched a bag in one handand his sword in the other. “Let’s go, Kali!” he added before hesplashed into the river below.

“Someone stole that man’srudder,” she muttered.

Above her, a man with a bloody face leanedout of the trapdoor. From the pained snarl on his lips and the gunin his hand, Kali decided it was indeed time to go. After a quickcheck to make sure she was over water, she released the rope.

She dropped thirty feet and plunged intodepths so icy they shocked her to the core. The calendar might saysummer, but this water came straight out of mountains stillsmothered with snow. Her feet brushed the bottom, and she pushedoff. She popped above the surface and tried to suck in a breath ofair, but her lungs, stunned from the cold, scarcely worked. An icywave washed into her eyes.

A hand gripped Kali’s arm, helping her stayup.

“That was brilliant!”Cedar exclaimed. The water dripping into his eyes couldn’t dulltheir gleam.

Kali shook her head and swam for the shorewith frenzied strokes, hoping to warm her already-numb limbs. Sheonly paused long enough to make sure she was swimming in the rightdirection. It was a testament to how cold she was that she reachedthe shore before Cedar. She was tempted to jog back to the SAB-andrip dry clothes and Cedar’s bedroll off the back-but she figuredshe had best wait and see if he was injured or needed help. Shewouldn’t put it past him to race into battle and roar withexcitement while having a life-threatening wound.

While she waited, shewatched the airship veering inland, smoke still wafting from thecharred hull. Maybe it would crash, the pirates would abandon it asunsalvageable, and she could claim it for her own.That thought warmed hercold limbs more than a little. If the hull was in decent shape, shecould commandeer it and not have to construct one from scratch. Oh,she’d want to build her own engine from the ground up-no tellingwhat piecemeal garbage these pirates were using-and she had ideasfor dozens of modifications, but if she didn’t have to build thatcursed hull, she’d save months of construction time. She flexed hercold fingers. Maybe a few digits endangered by that saw aswell.

Her mind filled with daydreams ofreconstruction, Kali almost missed Cedar slogging out of the waterdownstream. He had sheathed the sword, but he was still carryingthat bag, a small but bulging canvas tote. It made him lopsided ashe strode toward her. Some of the glitter had faded from his eyes,but he was still grinning. “Are you all right?”

Kali wrapped her arms around herself forwarmth. “I could have done without the bath, but I suppose droppingonto land would have been worse.” She gave him a once over, decidedhe was uninjured, and headed along the bank toward her bicycle.Puffs of steam still wafted from its stack, and nobody seemed tohave bothered it. The skirmish had cleared the river of boattraffic.

“True.” Cedar strode alongbeside her. He pointed at the airship-it was drifting on the otherside of the river now, going nowhere fast. “It looks like yourgrenades proved useful.”

“Of course,” Kalisaid.

He walked in silence for a moment beforeglancing at her and asking, “Aren’t you going to ask what I was upto in there?”

“Judging by the sounds,you weren’t attending a quilting bee.”

“Nope. I had to fight myway out of their cargo hold. At first I had a notion ofsinglehandedly taking control of the ship, but there were a lot ofthem, and they were well-armed and reasonably accurate with theirfirearms.” Cedar touched a rip in the sleeve of his duster. “Theycured me of my notion, but I was able to make my way up top, and Ispotted some of their stolen loot on the way.” He hefted the bag.“I figure this might be that old man’s claim earnings. Getting itback might ease his crankiness a tad.”

“Huh,” Kalisaid.

It sounded like a good adventure, and shemight ask for more details later, but she wanted dry clothes firstand a blanket around her shoulders. Having the sun come out wouldbe a nice perk, too, but if anything the fog was growingdenser.

Cedar sighed. “I see you’re still a hardlady to please.”

“I’m pleased.”

“You are? How would oneknow?”

“I’m listening to youinstead of contemplating upgrades to my next batch ofgrenades.”

“I see,” Cedar said.“That is a highhonor.” He probed one of his soggy pockets, pulled out a knot ofbeads, and handed it to her.

Kali untangled the snarl to reveal the patchof decorated hide he’d been fiddling with all through supper thenight before. “Good that this survived, I guess,” she said, notsure why he was showing it to her.

“No,” Cedar said, delvinginto a different pocket. “Thissurvived.” He pulled out another talisman, thisone unknotted. “That I found next to the sack of gold.”

“Oh, hm. What do you thinkthe pirates are doing with an identical one? Is it something theyfound? Or are they behind the murders?”

“It didn’t come up when wewere slinging bullets and curses back and forth at eachother.”

Kali shook her head and tsked. “Men are suchpoor conversationalists.”

“There were a couple ofwomen shooting at me too.”

They crested a rise and came to the craterthe airship had blown into the trail. Kali slowed down. Her bicyclewaited on the other side, but so did two people. One was the oldman from the boat, and the other was a boy of ten or eleven years.He had raven-colored hair and bronze skin with a face still chubbywith baby fat. He stared at them-no, at Cedar-with opened-mouthedastonishment.

“That’s mine!” The old manstabbed a finger at the sack.

“Figured it might be.”Cedar laid it at his feet.

The old fellow grabbed it, dragged itseveral feet, sent slit-eyed glares at Kali and Cedar, then whippedout a small black revolver and aimed it between them. “You two stayright there. And you too boy.” He backed away, holding the gun withone hand and lugging the sack of gold with the other.

Cedar watched blandly. Kali shook her head.The old man caught his heel on something, tripped, fell onto hisbackside, and cursed mightily. He stuffed the revolver back intohis belt, hefted the sack with both hands, and jogged-if one couldcall such lopsided, wobbly staggers a jog-back to his boat.

“Grateful fellow,” Cedarobserved.

“Less good than you’dthink comes out of helping people in these parts,” Kalisaid.

The boy was still staring at Cedar, eyeswide, jaw slack. When he noticed Kali looking at him, he clamped itshut and swallowed.

She was about to try talking to him in Hanwhen he tilted his head back to look Cedar in the eyes and said,“That was amazing.” He pointed toward the sky half a mile acrossthe river, where the airship was descending into the woods. “I sawyou fighting. All of them at once! Up on the deck. I could see itall from here!”

“Just making the best outof a tricky situation,” Cedar said. Though he spoke as if hisheroics had been inconsequential, he did give Kali a pointed look,as if to say, “See? This is how you’re supposed to respond to myheroics.”

Kali propped her hands on her hips and toldthe boy, “I was up there doing stuff too.”

He blinked at her, a blank expression on hisface, then focused on Cedar again. “Where’d you get that sword?That’s the beatingest pig sticker I’ve seen.”

Kali gave the boy a closer look. He wore ahooded caribou jacket, and she assumed he was Han, but his commandof English was excellent, if one could call the local miners’ slangEnglish.

“It’s from the Orient,though I got it down in the swamps of Florida.” Cedar drew theblade. “Do you want to see it? I could show you a fewmoves.”

Kali lifted a hand, afraid the “boys” couldplay at swordfighting all day if she let them, but the youth’sshoulders slumped and he did not accept the sword.

“I’m no good at fighting,”he said, “on account of my leg.”

For the first time, he took a couple ofsteps, and Kali noticed a pronounced limp.

“What happened?” sheasked.

“Couple of summers back, Iclimbed up with a smoker to get some honey from a bee hive. Thebranch broke, and I fell a long ways and broke my hip. Medicine manfixed me up the best he could, but…” He shrugged, eyes still castdownward.

Cedar took the boy’s hand and put the hiltof his sword in it.

“What’s your name?” Kaliasked, heading over to check the bicycle for damage-and to see howshe might get it around the crater that had destroyed an eight-footswath of the trail.

“Tadzi,” the boy said, hisgaze riveted to the blade. He took a few experimental swings andgrinned.

“Tadzi, have you ever seenanything like these?” Cedar held up the beadworkpatches.

The boy lowered the sword and scrutinizedthem. “No, sir. Not very good work.” His face brightened. “Want tosee something I made?”

“Yes,” Cedarsaid.

Kali knew him well enough to hear the hintof disappointment in his voice. What had he expected? That aten-year-old kid would know something about talismans of power?

“That’s very good,” Cedarsaid.

Kali glanced over to see what the boy wasshowing him. Some sort of block of carved wood. Cedar caught hereye and crooked a finger.

“We should get going,”Kali said, though she came over to check on the youth’s handiwork.She froze when he held up a carving of an elk, a seven-point bullelk. Though the entire figurine was no larger than her hand, shecould count each individual tine on the antlers. They even appearedfuzzy, like the real thing. “That’s beautiful,” shebreathed.

Tadzi twitched a shoulder. “I can doscrimshaw, too, but ivory’s hard to get. That time with the honey,I was hoping to trade for better tools. It didn’t happen. I gotstung a bunch, on top of breaking my hip.”

Kali could certainly understand going to anylengths in pursuit of one’s passions. “Don’t get discouraged. Youdo real fine work.”

She caught a strange expression on Cedar’sface.

“What?” sheasked.

“Just wondering if Ishould be jealous of a ten-year-old boy,” he said.

“Why?” Tadzi stared up at him-he only came up to Kali’s shoulder,so he had to tilt his head way back to look Cedar in theeyes.

“Because she’s moreimpressed by your carving than by my skirmishing skills, eventhough I navigated heaps of pirates fighting harder than KilkennyCats, retrieved that surly fellow’s gold, cut the belt that held upthe captain’s pants, and escaped the mob by leaping over therailing from forty feet in the air.”

Tadzi turned hisincredulous stare onto Kali. “You are?”

Kali shrugged. “I get to see him do stufflike that all the time. Though-” she nodded at Cedar, “-you didn’tmention the part about the captain’s pants.”

“They fell clear to hisankles and hobbled him like a horse,” Cedar said.

“Nice. Tadzi, are you fromMoosehide?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“How did you learn suchgood English?” When Kali had been a girl, it hadn’t been spoken atall amongst the tribe, and only a couple of men who negotiated withtraders and trappers knew any at all.

“I’ve been working at itreal hard,” Tadzi said. “I talk to any white people I can. Someday,I want to…” He chomped down on his lip and eyed the ground. “Ishouldn’t say.”

Maybe he was someone like Kali had been,someone who always knew he would leave someday. “Can you take usthere? Introduce us to the medicine man?”

Tadzi brightened. “Can weride there on that?” He nearly threw his shoulder out of joint in his eagernessto point at the SAB. “I saw its smoke, and that’s what made me comedown here. I bet riding it is a hog-killin’ time.”

“There’s not room forthree,” Cedar said.

Kali gave him a frank look.

“Oh.”

“You’re tough,” she said.“You ran through that whole dog-sled course beside me.”

Cedar patted the boy on the shoulder. “Lookslike I’ve another reason to be jealous of you.”

Part V

Moosehide lay on a flat stretch of land nextto the river, with a tall, craggy ridge guarding it from behind.The fog had finally cleared, and a dozen canoes and fishing boatsfloated in front of the camp, several with nets stretched betweenthem. Square moss houses squatted alongside the shoreline, andthose people who weren’t fishing worked out in front of them,drying and cleaning the catch.

A few ornery nervestangled in Kali’s belly as her little group approached the camp.Would anyone remember her? Would anyone care that she had returned?She sniffed. Not that she caredif they cared.

“Are they likely to be aproblem?” Cedar pointed at a trio of men lurking in the trees tothe side of the trail. He was running alongside the SAB while Kalidrove and Tadzi hung on.

“No,” Tadzi said, shoutingto be heard over the rumbling of the engine. “That’s my cousin andhis friends. They’re supposed to be hunting, but they’re likelyhiding from the chief and drinking again. When he finds out, he’llrustle up some punishment for them.”

“I’d be more concernedabout that fellow watching us with a shotgun in hand.” Kali noddedtoward the trail ahead of them. It was a foregone conclusion thatnobody here had seen anything like her steam-powered bicyclebefore. She didn’t think anyone would mistake it for some attackvehicle and shoot, but one never knew.

“He’s out in the open,”Cedar said. “Likely a guard for the camp.”

“Guards aren’t usual forthe camps. At least they weren’t when I was a girl.” Kali twistedher head around to ask Tadzi, “Is there usually a guard out whilepeople are fishing?”

“It’s on account of themurders.”

Now Cedar’s head whipped about, and hepinned the boy with a stare. “Murders? Have women been killed heretoo?”

“Not here,” Tadzi said,“but we heard about our people being killed in yourtown.”

“It’s not our town,” Cedarsaid. “We’re just visitors.”

Tadzi’s brow wrinkled.

“From the Han point ofview, all the white people here are just visitors,” Kali pointedout.

“Lots of visitors,” Tadzisaid. “I don’t mind. I like your people. And your shinycontraptions!” He patted the seat.

As the SAB drew near, the man with theshotgun stepped onto the trail to block their way. Kali did notrecognize him, though he was young enough that they should havebeen children at the same time. Maybe he had come from anothertribe through marriage.

He wore the same sort of wool britches asthe folks in Dawson, a derby hat, and a beaded caribou shirt.Though Kali had seen Han in town wearing a mixture of traditionalclothing with white man’s garb, it was strange seeing it here, in atrue Han setting. She remembered a few men in the tribe havingprize coats or dusters they had traded furs for, but everyone hadworn predominantly caribou or buckskin clothing when she’d been agirl. But the men, women, and children working and playingthroughout Moosehide wore a mix.

“Who are these people,Tadzi?” the man asked in the Han tongue.

“Friends,” Tadzi said.“They stopped the sky bandits.”

Kali thought she might get a curious look,since she had Han hair and skin coloring and wore her tool-stuffedoveralls instead of a dress, but the SAB itself captured more ofthe man’s attention. He walked about it, studying it from allangles, his shotgun drooping.

Cedar noted the lowered weapon and shook hishead with a soft, “Tsk, tsk” on his lips. No, not exactly amilitary-trained guard.

Kali supposed she should introduce herselfand let the man know she understood the language, but she couldn’tdecide whether to use her Han name or the one she had chosen forherself when her father hadn’t been able to pronounce theother.

“I’m Kali,” she said,deciding she wanted the name shehad chosen, “and this is Cedar. We’d like to talkto…is Kesuk still the medicine man?”

The guard’s eyebrows disappeared beneath hishat. “Yes,” he finally said. “Wait here.”

“I’ll go with him,” Tadzisaid, still speaking in English. “I’ll tell the anatkok you help people. He doesn’tcare much for…” He looked up at Cedar.

“Understood,” Cedarsaid.

When they were alone, he came to standbeside Kali and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Are you allright?”

“Fine.”

“You seem tense. Andgrumpy.”

“I’m not grumpy,” Kalisaid. “This is my usual state. It’s probably caused by living herein a climate without enough sun. I really want to see that Floridaplace you mentioned.”

“There’s plenty of sunthere, but alligators and crocodiles too.”

“I’m still waiting for youto show me that scar,” she said.

Cedar kneaded the back of her neck, thumbteasing out the knots in her muscles. It felt good, and she had tokeep herself from making contented sighs or displaying otherobvious signs of pleasure. She had a notion a respectable girlshouldn’t lean up against a man like a hound getting a scratch.

He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “Iappreciate you coming along with me. I know it didn’t work out wellfor you the last time I talked you into coming on one of myadventures, and I can tell you’re not comfortable here.”

“It’s not that bad. It’sjust…” Under his continuing massage, Kali’s chin drooped of its ownaccord, and millimeter by millimeter her shoulders relaxed. Hereally ought to spend less time in the woods, chasing criminals,and more time with her. “I never fit in. I don’t fit in in Dawsoneither, but everyone’s a stranger there, and people speak alldifferent languages and look all different ways. You feel lessodd.”

“That’s all there was toit? Not fitting in? Or did they treat you poorly?” Cedar’s eyesnarrowed as if he wondered if he should smack someone around on herbehalf.

“They treated my motherpoorly, because of her powers. If she’d been male, she would havebeen a medicine man, but they called her a…you would say a witch.They blamed anything bad on her. She was young, too, when she hadme, and I heard…. I don’t know if it’s true, but some people saidthey’d seen her do things out of spite. Hurt people. She never hurtme. She was kind, and I hate that I doubt her, but somehow she gota reputation that spread amongst the different tribes. My fatherheard of her and sought her out because of her power. Hewanted-well, you heard what that Amelia woman said. I think he washoping for some powerful heir to carry on his alchemy legacy, tofurther refine flash gold.”

Cedar lowered his hand, and Kali tamped downa noise of protest. Tadzi was returning with an older man, one sherecognized. Kesuk.

Though she had asked for him by name, shehad hoped he would be out of the camp and someone else would havecome to answer Cedar’s questions. Kesuk had always been quick tomalign her mother. As he approached, tension seeped back intoKali’s shoulders. He did not look in her direction. Twin graybraids of hair hung down his chest, and he carried a pair offishing spears over his shoulder. Annoyance flattened his lips, andKali could already tell they’d be unlikely to get much fromhim.

When the medicine man stopped before them,Tadzi stood a couple of steps back, though he watched with curiouseyes. Kesuk faced Cedar and ignored Kali. She couldn’t tell if itwas because he remembered her or because he figured women shouldstay silently decorative while the men talked.

“Afternoon, Shaman Kesuk,”Kali said with a smile. Either way, she would not beignored.

He briefly curled a lip at her but remainedfacing Cedar. “What business do you have here, White Man?” he askedin Han.

“Show him the beadthings,” Kali told Cedar.

Cedar withdrew the pair of decorated patchesand laid them out on his open palm. He seemed content to let Kalitake charge of their half of the conversation.

“One of these was foundnear the body of a Han woman murdered yesterday morning in Dawson,”Kali told the shaman. “The other on a ship of…” There was no wordfor airship or pirates in the language, and such things had neverfloated the skies of the Yukon when she was a girl. What had Tadzicalled those people? “Sky bandits,” Kali finished. “Do you knowanything about them? Is it possible one of our-one of your peoplemade them? Do they have any power?”

“You speak too much for awoman,” Kesuk said, glaring at her without seeming to notice thepatches. Kali opened her mouth, an angry retort on her lips, butKesuk added, “That’s what happens when girls don’t grow up withproper mothers. At least you’re not a witch.” He took the patchesand scrutinized them.

Kali clenched her fists, still tempted tomake the retort, but it was better to simply finish and leave assoon as possible.

She caught Cedar watching her, a concernedexpression on his face. She loosened her fingers and mouthed, “I’mfine.”

“These are trash,” Kesuksaid. “They mean nothing, and if one of our people made them, itwould be an embarrassment.”

He handed them back to Cedar, and Kalitranslated. Cedar’s face darkened, and he slid them back into hispocket. It was disappointing news, so Kali could understand afrown, but Cedar seemed more upset than the dead end warranted. Fora long moment, he said nothing, simply standing there with jawclenched, but he finally tipped his hat toward the medicine man andsaid, “Please thank him for his time.”

Before Kali could relay the message, Kesuksaid, “Leave now. We must keep our people safe from the crime thesewhite men have brought. Take that monstrous beast with you.” Hestabbed a finger at the bicycle, though it idled quietly, notbothering anyone as it puffed soft clouds of smoke into thearea.

Kali gritted her teeth, more indignant onthe machine’s behalf than for the sleights the medicine man haddelivered to her.

“Tadzi, you have chores.”Kesuk turned his back on them and strode away.

“Where are you going now?”Tadzi asked. “If you wait here, I can get you some supper from mygrandma. She won’t mind sharing.”

Kali suspected she would-nobody wanted torisk a medicine man’s ire, and befriending her would probably dothat-but she understood Tadzi’s reluctance to let them go. Shewould have reacted in the same way if someone riding asteam-powered bicycle had come into the camp when she was agirl.

“Thanks, Tadzi, but weneed to solve this mystery.” Kali considered Cedar. He was waitingat the bicycle, his back rigid with determination, his head down,thoughts inward. “I have a feeling that means going dangerousplaces and doing dangerous things. Again.”

“I could come with you. Icould help!”

“No,” Cedar said withoutlooking up.

Tadzi’s shoulders drooped.

“You can help us anothertime. And-” Kali checked to make sure the medicine man was out ofearshot before making her next offer, “-if you ever want to seemore of my steam-powered machines, you can come to my shop inDawson.”

“Really?” Tadzi asked.“That would be right fine.”

She patted him on the back and joinedCedar.

“What’re you thinking?”Kali asked when they were alone. Mostly alone. The guard leanedagainst a tree nearby, his rifle cradled in his arms as he kept aneye on them.

“You should take thebicycle and go back to town,” Cedar said. “Stay in your workshopwith all of your alarms and booby traps in place. Don’t let anyonein.”

Kali propped her hands onher hips. “And where will yoube going?”

“I intend to find out whythose pirates had one of these on their ship.” Cedar held up one ofthe beadwork patches.

“Somehow I don’t think thecaptain is going to be amenable to answering your questions afteryou cut his pants off.”

“Then I’ll make him.”Cedar started to walk away.

“Wait,” Kali said. “Get onthe SAB. I’m going with you.”

“There’s no need to riskyourself on this. I’ve already wasted your time by bringing you outhere.”

Kali patted the seat of the SAB. “Might aswell stop arguing and mount up. You don’t really think I’d let yougo tour an airship without me, do you?” And if Cedar decided heneeded to turn in all of those pirates-or their heads-to theMounties, maybe she could claim what remained of the airship forherself. Oh, she’d want to refurbish it, to make it truly andcompletely hers, but it’d take months off her timeline if shedidn’t have to build everything from scratch. A broad smile curvedher lips as these thoughts wandered through her head.

Cedar’s eyes closed to slits as he watchedher. “Why do I have a feeling you have something more thanquestioning pirates in mind?”

Smile broadening, Kali patted the seatagain. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Now, are yougetting on or not?”

Part VI

Kali huffed up the steep stump-filledincline behind Cedar. The airship had long since disappeared fromthe sky, but he seemed to know where he was going. Thanks to thesteepness of the valley wall, they’d had to leave the SAB by theriverbank below. For the first fifty meters, Kali kept glancingover her shoulder, making sure nobody was sneaking up to bother it.Fortunately, the boat traffic had dwindled with evening’sapproach.

After more climbing-and huffing-they reachedthe crest of the ridge. This time, when Kali looked back over hershoulder, the view gave her a start. A couple of years had passedsince she had reason to climb up there, and the difference in thelandscape was astonishing. Where verdant trees had once lined bothrugged valley walls, hillsides of stumps now stretched. Oh, a fewsturdy spruce and pines remained, those with trunks too thick toentice a miner searching for easy firewood, but the barrenness ofthe scene made Kali’s gut twist. Too many people were pouring outof the south, changing the face of the only home she had everknown.

She shook her head and reminded herself shewanted to leave anyway. Come winter, firewood would be scarce, andthat was a good incentive to double her efforts on her airship. Orto acquire an already-built airship that only neededmodifications….

“I smell a fire,” Cedarsaid. “We might be close.” He was not breathing hard. His longerlegs must mean he took fewer steps.

Ahead of them, the land rose more gently,and evergreens still stood, stretching for the sky.

“What’s the plan?” Kaliasked. “Wait until dark, sneak in, and look around theairship?”

He eyed her over his shoulder. “I wasplanning on dragging a guard away to question, not strollingthrough their craft.”

“There might be cluesinside.”

Cedar raised an eyebrow.

“What?” Kali smiledinnocently.

Cedar pointed through the trees to a fallenlog ahead and crept toward it. He stayed low, and Kali followed,mimicking his movements. She hadn’t seen anything yet, but Cedarseemed to think they were close.

Kali crouched beside him behind the log.“What do you think we’ll find when we reach the pirates? Were theyvictims, too, or could they be responsible for the murders?”

“Victims?”

“There are female pirates.Maybe one of them got a throat cut and the killer left that samefake talisman.”

His eyebrows drew together, and Kali guessedhe had not considered that possibility. It did seem unlikely. Thosethieving bandits had tried to kidnap her, and they’d killed atleast one person and probably stolen gold from countlessothers.

Kali shrugged. “Or maybe we’ll find they’rekeeping a bear on board for mauling people.”

“If they are responsiblefor the murders, that’ll make things simple.” Cedar jerked a thumbover his shoulder, at the hilt of his sword.

“You seem almost asdetermined to find this murderer as you are to deal with Cudgel,”Kali said.

Cedar said nothing.

“Do the girls meansomething to you?” Kali asked. “There’s not even a bounty out forthe murderer yet.”

“I don’t like seeing womenkilled.”

“Just in general-a notionwith which I agree, by the way-or because…? Is itpersonal?”

Cedar gave her a sharp look. “What do youmean?”

“I thought maybe there wassomething similar in these murders to that one in San Francisco.Something that’s haunting you.”

His gaze shifted away, back toward the trailand the top of the ridge. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kali considered him for along moment. She wantedto pry, she admitted it, but it was for a goodreason. If she got the story out of him, she could fight for him,tell this Pinkerton fellow what really happened the next time hewandered into her shop.

“There,” Cedarwhispered.

With all the trees blocking the view, ittook a moment for Kali to figure out what he was pointing at. Thenshe spotted it, the wood of the airship hull among the greens andbrowns of the forest. From her vantage point, she couldn’t tell ifthey’d crashed or if they’d managed to land it somehow.

Clangs started up, someone hammeringmetal.

“Can they fix that fan outhere?” Cedar whispered.

“Not unless they happen tohave a spare case and assembly. I guess that’s a possibility.They’d know there aren’t any shops that supply airship parts uphere.”

“Are there anywhere?Airships aren’t that common, even down south.”

“I’m ordering my partsfrom a place in San Francisco, and I’ve heard New York has anentire warehouse dedicated to aeronautic supplies.” Kali sighedlongingly, imagining what such a place might look like.

“Is that where you want togo for your honeymoon?” Cedar asked.

Kali twitched an eyebrow.“I haven’t planned that trip yet. Lately, I haven’t even been ableto get a man to come back for a second date, despite whatI thought was anenjoyable evening at the dance hall, even if some stepping on toeswas involved.” She thought he’d enjoyed himself too. He’d laughedand even tried to be witty, in his dry terse way. And she’d made itclear she was available for additional evenings together when hecould break away from bounty hunting. The way he’d massaged hershoulders earlier made her think he still had romantic inklings,but why the scarcity if that was the case?

“Sometimes men get busy,”Cedar said.

“I’ve noticed most peopleare only busy for things they consider an onerous task.”

“Kali, it’s not like that.It’s…” He looked away, not toward the camp or anything dangerous inthe area that could have claimed his focus. Just away.

Kali swallowed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter.I’m not looking to get married any time soon. I want to see theworld and not be beholden to anyone or have a litter of hungryyoung’uns dangling from my…uhm, self.” Even with the correction,she blushed. She hadn’t known any proper ladies growing up, but shehad a feeling discussing teats with men was probably considereduncouth in most circles.

A hint of a smirk touched Cedar’s lips, buthe didn’t say anything.

Kali cleared her throat and pointed to theairship. “Should we get close or wait until dark to scoutabout?”

Cedar lifted his eyes toward the sky.“That’s hours from now. This is a pesky time of year for stealthilysneaking about.”

“Come in December. You cansneak in the dark twenty-four hours a day then.”

“Yes, I caught the tailend of winter. It’s also hard to be stealthy when your teeth arechattering and your bal-bear cubs are hiding in theirdens.”

“I didn’t realize bearcubs-” Kali snorted at his substitution; that was worse than herfumble, “-played a role in one’s scouting abilities.

“A robust man is a manconfident in his skills.”

Kali grinned. It was a silly conversation,but it reminded her how much she appreciated having him around. Alump formed in her throat, and she swallowed, trying to force itdown. They had more important things to focus on now.

Cedar pointed at a man walking into thewoods and unbuttoning his fly. “I’m going to grab that one forquestioning,” he whispered.

Kali barely managed a quick, “Be careful,”before he slid out and took a circuitous route toward thepirate.

On her knees, Kali braced her Winchester onthe log, found the pirate, and put him in her sights in case hegave Cedar trouble. She tried to keep an eye on the ship and thecamp as well, counting people when they walked into view. The treesmade it hard to get an estimate, but she guessed there were atleast twenty crew members. It would be hard to acquire the ship forherself with that many pirates loitering about.

Though Cedar might prefer night for skulkingabout, he did fine sneaking up on the fellow-indeed, even knowingroughly where he was, Kali had trouble keeping track of him. Astheir target was buttoning his pants, Cedar stepped out from behinda tree and placed a knife blade against the man’s throat. Thepirate’s hand darted for a holster on his belt only to find itempty. Cedar had already removed the pistol. He showed it to thepirate, then stuffed it into his own belt.

Cedar said something to his prisoner, andthey started walking, angling away from the ship and Kali as well.She waited, expecting him to circle about and join her, but hedidn’t. She was about to stand up and find him when a second piratewalked into the woods, a rifle propped against his shoulder. Hefaced her, his gaze skimming the forest. Kali sank lower so onlyher eyes poked above the log.

It was too soon for anyone to miss the manwho had gone to pee, so she guessed this was a guard the captainhad sent out. The pirates had to know that people would come afterthem in droves if word got out that their ship had gone down. Kalidoubted that old man on the river was the first miner they hadrobbed.

A falcon on the hunt screeched overhead. Thedampness of the moss beneath Kali’s knees was starting to seepthrough her overalls. She wondered where Cedar had taken the otherfellow. And why hadn’t he come to get her, so she could listen inand ask questions too?

The guard finally turned his gaze in anotherdirection, and Kali scooted backward, retracing their route to theridge.

A shadow stirred on the periphery of Kali’svision. She jerked the rifle in that direction, her finger ready onthe trigger.

Nobody was there.

A strip of moss dangling from a branchstirred slightly. Her eyes narrowed. She licked her finger andstuck it in the air. If there was a breeze, it was too faint to domuch. Maybe someone had bumped that moss. Cedar? No, he would havehad to cross through her field of vision to get to that side ofher.

Kali continued to back down the trail. Shewatched that piece of the woods for several slow steps, but nothingelse moved. In a nearby tree, a pair of squirrels chattered as theychased each other about. If there had been something dangerous,they would have been hiding.

When Kali reached the ridge, the sound ofvoices drifted to her ear. She picked her way through foliage andaround stumps to find Cedar standing over his captured pirate, thepistol pointed at the man’s head. Cedar looked at her when sheapproached, but his face was hard to read. Kali assumed a peevedexpression to let him know she expected to be involved withimportant things. He gave her a quick nod, but quickly focusedagain on his prisoner.

“Why’d you have this inyour loot room?” Cedar asked, displaying one of the bead-and-hidepatches.

“Never seen it before.”The pirate spat on the ground. “Told you I don’t knownothing.”

Cedar grabbed him by the front of the shirtand jammed the pistol against the man’s throat. “If you don’t knownothing, then there’s no point in me keeping you alive,” hegrowled, voice savage, eyes like ice from the bluest depths of aglacier. The prisoner’s surly demeanor vanished.

The fierce, cold mien chilled Kali, and shewondered if Cedar had known he would have to get tough and that waswhy he hadn’t invited her to the interrogation. Maybe he didn’twant her to see him questioning someone. Too bad. This was apirate, someone who had tried to capture her and would havereceived a share of the reward for turning her over to gangsters.And, if the pirates had killed that old man’s partner, they weremurderers as well as kidnappers.

“I don’t have anything todo with it, I swear,” the man whispered, his eyes crossing to stareat the pistol barrel.

Kali straightened, staring intently at theman. This might be the lead they’d hoped for.

“With what?” Cedardemanded, prodding the pistol against the man’s Adam’sapple.

The pirate gagged and sputtered. “Thegirls,” he managed. “That was all Sparwood. Nobody here’s intothat. We don’t murder, least not if we can help it, and nobody’sraping and torturing girls and then cutting them up. He was a sickbastard. That’s why the captain sent him walking.”

The admission of rape and torture made Kaligrip the nearest tree for support. She focused on the harsh, thickridges of its bark beneath her palm and tried not to picture thatgirl-Vixen-being tormented before finally being killed. And shetried not to think about the fact that that grisly killing hadhappened less than a mile from the cave where she was always outworking, all alone….

“This Sparwood actsalone?” Cedar was asking, and Kali realized she’d missed part ofthe conversation.

“No one would want tospend time with that monster.” The pirate did an admirable job ofshuddering for someone with a pistol jammed into his throat. “He’smean as a rabid badger, but worse’n an animal. Takes real pleasurein hurting folks, especially…” His eyeballs swiveled to lock ontoKali.

Though his significant stare made her squirminside, Kali lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest.She wasn’t about to let some scruffy pirate believe she wasworried.

“Where is he now if he’snot with your ship?” Cedar asked.

“Captain put him off justnorth of Dawson. Figure he’s in the city by now.”

“What’s he looklike?”

The pirate licked his lips and eyed thetrees. Did he think this Sparwood might be about and come takerevenge if he was betrayed? The pirate lowered his voice. “Big man,bigger’n you, with a chest like a whiskey barrel. Bushy black hairand beard. Beady dark eyes. I seen him get shot once and not evenfeel it.”

Cedar looked at Kali, his eyebrows lifted asif to ask if she had any questions of her own.

“Why does he leave thebeadwork?” Kali asked.

The pirate checked Cedar’s face, wonderingif he had to respond to some girl’s questions maybe. Cedar’s glowerdeepened, and the pirate shrank into himself. While Kali foundCedar handsome, she had to admit he could assume a fearsome mienwhen he wanted to. The scar, in particular, gave him a grim, deadlyserious visage when he wasn’t smiling.

“So the Injuns getblamed,” the pirate whispered with another glance atKali.

“I see,” Cedar said. Hehid his thoughts well, but Kali knew he was irked to have fallenfor the ruse.

“Why does he cut them up?”Kali asked, trying to imagine what manner of tool a man might useto leave those parallel gashes in a person’s flesh.

“So people will thinkanimals or angry spirits did it,” the pirate said. “And it’sworking for him, too, last I heard. Ain’t no lawmen pointing afinger at him.”

“Yet,” Kali said. “What’dyou say his full name is?”

“I don’t knowit.”

Cedar leaned closer to the pirate, and hiswords were so soft Kali almost missed them. “You sure that’s thetruth?”

The pirate nodded vigorously.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kalisaid. “There are plenty of wanted posters that don’t have fullnames on them. The Mounties can just stick up anotherone.”

“No,” Cedar said. “We’lltake care of this animal before they have time to print one up. Andbefore he has time to kill again.”

His grip had tightened on the pirate’sshirt, and the man swatted at the hands cutting off his air supply.Cedar didn’t even seem to see him. His eyes were hard but focusedinward, and he barely seemed to notice the pirate in his grip.After what Kali had heard, she couldn’t blame him.

“You killing that onetoo?” she asked, in case he would feel guilty over accidentallystrangling a pirate.

Cedar’s eyes came back into focus, and heloosened his grip. “Probably should. No telling how many honestworking folk these men have robbed, but I didn’t see any heads withbounties on them when I was skirmishing on the ship. We’ll just letthe Mounties know where to find these men. Maybe they can arrestthe pirates before they fix their ship.”

Though the prisoner was busy gasping forair, he still managed to pale at this statement. Kali chewed on herlip. If the Mounties took care of the pirates, she wasn’t going tohave much of a claim on the ship.

“Get some rope out of mypack, will you?” Cedar asked. “We don’t want this one scurryingback to warn the others.”

Kali retrieved the rope, but she was mullingover alternatives to relying on the Mounties. If she and Cedar tookcare of the pirates, they’d be able to legally claim the ship forthemselves. That wasn’t foremost on his mind though. She’d have totalk him around to her way of thinking. “What if they get theirship fixed before the Mounties come?”

“That’d be a shame, butcatching that murderer is my priority.” Cedar held out his hand forthe rope.

“Maybe we could take careof both somehow.”

“How would we get in thereto incapacitate everyone without being noticed? There are close totwenty men over there.” Cedar waved toward the ship. “At night,when everyone’s sleeping, we might be able to get the jump on them,but that’s hours off, and I want to get back to Dawson before thisSparwood strikes again.”

“We got one out.” Kalipointed to the man as Cedar bent to tie him. “Maybe it wouldn’t beso impossible to subdue the others.”

“Unless you know somewayto knock them all out at once, I don’t see how it could be donewithout a passel of unneeded danger for ourselves.”

Kali could think of chemicals that couldmake that happen, but she didn’t have anything like that. Theycould start a fire and drive them out of the area, but burning theairship wasn’t what she had in mind. Ideally, she’d take it withoutdoing any more damage to it than was already there. “No,” sheadmitted.

“Best to go back toDawson,” Cedar said, “catch this murderer, and let the Mountiesdeal with the pirates.”

“They could be gone by thetime the Mounties get here,” Kali said again, though she sensed sheneeded to come up with a stronger argument to sway him. “Think ofall the people they might kill, going after folks along theriver.”

Cedar had finished tying the pirate to atree and had torn the man’s shirt to create a gag to keep himsilent. He propped his hands on his waist and eyed Kali. “What’reyou angling for exactly?”

“Me?” Kali shrugged.“Nothing.”

“Really.”

Kali shifted from foot tofoot and avoided his knowing gaze for a long moment before saying,“All right, I was thinking that if the pirates were all captured orarrested or otherwise incapacitated, we could relieve them of the airship. Thatwould destroy their ability to thieve from the air.” Yes, make itnoble, Kali, she told herself. Make it about helping the miners.She stifled a snort of derision for herself.

“You want to steal theirship?” Cedar asked.

“If they stole it first,then it’d hardly be called stealing, right? We’d just be liberatingit for a nobler purpose.”

“Such as?”

“Taking us around theworld. Or hunting slimy villains from the sky. It’d be easy to keepup with Cudgel if we had our own transportation, something that cango right over mountains and inaccessible terrain. And I wouldn’thave to booby trap all of my working and sleeping areas totarnation and back because I’m so paranoid that someone’ll sneak upon me and try to tote me off to Soapy Smith or the Scar of Skagway.Sure, the ship would need a lot of modifications, and it’d likelybe fall before we could take off, but we could get out of Dawsonthis year. It’d be-” she clenched a fist, almost tasting thetriumph, “-heavenly.”

Cedar, eyebrows raised, seemed bemused byher enthusiasm, but at least he didn’t laugh. He took her arm andmoved her out of range of the tied prisoner’s hearing. “I supposeit would be safer for you to be in the air where enemies seekingyour father’s secrets couldn’t sneak up on you.”

Kali barely heard him. In her mind, she wasalready picturing the ship and what might be done to it. It was alarger vessel than she’d thought to make, but she would have plentyof room for a crew, and maybe they could even pay for the expensesof maintaining an airship by taking on passengers. She’d end upbeing a captain with people under her. Huh. She’d have to thinkmore on that later, but now she imagined crawling around inside,inspecting and measuring every inch, sketching up schematics,planning her modifications. She’d clamber up in there right now, ifit weren’t surrounded by pirates.

“All right,” Cedar said.“I’ll help you, but let’s get the murderer first.”

His words catapulted Kali back to themoment. “First? But if he’s in Dawson, and we’re right here, surelywe could…”

“It’s only a few milesback to town,” Cedar said dryly, “and that won’t take long on yourbicycle.”

“True, but we don’t haveany idea where in Dawson to look for this man. He could be hidingout anywhere. It’s a big city these days. And if those men get theship fixed before we get back, we might lose theopportunity.”

“Kali, I know the airshipis important to you, but if another woman gets murdered tonight,will you be able to live with yourself, knowing you chose personalgain over helping out? Those are your people getting killed, whetheryou want anything to do with them or not.”

“What can I do? You’re thetracker. I don’t know how to hunt men down in the city.” Kalistepped back and stuffed her hands into her pockets. He wasn’twrong, but she didn’t care for having someone lecture her. And,damn it, she didn’t want to do the right thing, not if it meantdelaying her dream. She could be a do-gooder after she had her shipin the air. “Look, why don’t you go and hunt this Sparwood fellow,and I’ll stay out here and work out a plan to get the-”

“No.” Cedar gripped herarm so tightly it was almost painful. “They’re a danger, and thatPinkerton detective is a danger to you, if he finds you too. And Idon’t want to imagine what would happen if Cudgel knew about you,and found you, and-” He dropped his chin, staring at his hand wherehe gripped her. He loosened his fingers, but did not letgo.

Kali’s anger and irritation faded. “Is thatwhy you’ve been so scarce lately? Cudgel’s about, and you don’twant someone letting him know we’re…something?”

“I can’t let that happen,”Cedar whispered. “Not again.”

“Again?”

Cedar dropped his hand and walked a fewsteps away, turning his back to her. Was he talking about hisbrother? Or maybe the murdered girl from San Francisco? Had shebeen someone he cared about? But she’d been married, the articlesaid. It had also said he’d been having an affair with her. Shegrimaced, not wanting to think of Cedar doing something like that.Somehow cutting off heads seemed less despicable. More unsettlingperhaps, but given that they were the heads of murderingcriminals….

Kali shook away the thoughts. He wasn’tsaying anything else, and they shouldn’t stand up here, this closeto that pirate camp forever. One last idea came to her, one moreway she might be able to sway him.

“That man barely gave us adescription and didn’t give us any hint of where to look,” Kalisaid. “Maybe there are pirates in the ship who know more about thisSparwood. If we figure out a way to subdue them and question eachof them, maybe we can get more of a lead.”

Cedar had not turned back to face her, andhe remained silent for a long moment. The sun had set, finallybringing evening, and mosquitoes buzzed about, nipping at Kali’sskin.

“Do you believe that?” hefinally asked. “Or are you saying what you think I want to hear inan attempt to change my mind?”

Hands still in her pockets, Kali scowled andstudied a gnarled root at her feet. “Yes, I want the ship, butthere could be something useful to be learned there too. We don’tknow enough to pick someone out of a city of thousands.”

“There aren’t that many ofyour people living in Dawson. We can look them up individually.Maybe you can even name some.”

“Me?” Kali bristled athaving them called her people. As everyone on both sides was quick to point out, shewas a half-breed, some mongrel who didn’t belong to anyone. “Ihaven’t been living in Dawson any longer than you, and I pay lessattention to people than you do.”

“Why don’t you care moreabout this?” Cedar asked, facing her again.

“I don’tnot care. I just don’tsee why you careso much. The city is full of Mounties. Why do you have to be thegreat savior for this problem?”

Cedar seemed taller than ever as he stareddown at her, his expression as dark and craggy as the bark of thetree that was his namesake. He turned on his heel and stalked away,heading back downhill toward the river.

Kali kicked at the root. What was wrong withhim?

She gazed toward the trees that hid theairship from view, tempted to stay up there and scheme something onher own. Twenty people, he’d said. At least. She might be able tocome up with something to get rid of the pirates, but she might getherself killed too. And even if she did triumph, what then? Fixingthat fan alone would take time, and even if it was a quick fix,could she get such a big airship off the ground and fly italone?

Grumbling and kicking more roots, and a fewrocks for good measure, Kali stomped back down the stump-filledslope toward the river. She reached the SAB without spotting Cedar.Where had he gone?

“Here,” came his voicefrom somewhere nearby.

With dusk’s approach, shadows filled thevalley, and it took Kali a moment to pick him out of the gloom. Hewas leaning against a tall boulder overlooking the river.

Kali joined him. It was a wide boulder, andshe started to lean against it beside him, but he stretched an armout, caught her, and pulled her into a hug. It was a stiff hug, andshe could feel tension in his muscles.

“I’m sorry,” Cedar said,resting his chin against the top of her head.

Kali leaned against him. “Why? I mean,you’re not wrong. You’re just a pain in the caboose.”

He grunted softly and wrapped both armsaround her. “For not explaining…things.”

“Oh. Well, yes, you’retruly being a pain about that.”

She waited, hoping an explanation wascoming, though she admitted she appreciated the warmth of hisembrace even if he was being a pain in the caboose.

“The girl in the paper,”Cedar finally said. “She wouldn’t be dead if it weren’t forme.”

“Oh?”

“Cudgel found out thatshe…meant something to me and killed her, not only to frame me, butto hurt me.” His voice dropped into a husky whisper. “And hesucceeded. He’s taken not just my brother from me, but a girl-awoman-that I…”

“Loved?” Kali askedhesitantly. It was unrealistic to think she was the first womanhe’d ever cared about, but a selfish part of her wanted the answerto be, ‘no.’

Cedar sighed, his breath stirring her hair.“Maybe. Yes, probably. It was going that way.”

“Oh. The paper said shewas married,” Kali said, careful to keep her tone neutral, notwanting to come across as accusing or judgmental, though somethinginside her broke a little. She wasn’t sure if it was because shehad thought Cedar a better man, someone who was too honorable toget involved with a married woman, or maybe because it hurt tothink of him loving someone else. Kali had thought…well, she’dthought she was special, that he appreciated her creativity andtinkering skills, and that was why he liked her. But, if he couldfall in love so easily, what did his affection reallymean?

“Yes,” Cedar finally said.“It was an arranged marriage, and he was older and barely paidattention to her. He just wanted an heir for his business empire,and…” He sighed again. “I don’t suppose having a bunch ofjustifications for something makes an ignoble choice a noble one.If, when I first met her, I’d just said she was married and walkedaway, she’d be alive today.”

“How…” Kali started.“How’d Cudgel arrange it?”

“There’d already been aseries of murders, all women, in town, so the police and the peoplewere on edge. I was busy tracking Cudgel and was barely aware ofthe killings. I was getting close to him, and I’d taken out two ofhis onerous henchmen just that morning. Cheryl’s husband was out oftown, so I went over to, uhm, visit, and…she was dead on the floorof their parlor, blood everywhere. It was…ugly. I later learnedshe’d been butchered in the same manner as the other murderedwomen. The husband returned home early. He walked in when I wasstanding over her, still in shock. Cudgel had arranged it all, senta message to let him know his wife was cheating on him. He wascharging home to catch us in the act, I reckon, and he was fixingto kill me. Well, I could have taken him, but I didn’t want to. I’dalready done enough wrong by him. I escaped with my life, thoughCudgel had some henchmen lying in wait, figuring to help thehusband out.” He touched the scar on his face. “That’s when I gotthis. I was too shaken to fight proper. I’m lucky I survived atall. After that, the husband contacted the Pinkertons, and word ishe’s financing everything.” Cedar let his head fall backward, andit thunked against the boulder. It sounded painful. Maybe he wantedit to be. “I wish I’d never gone to San Francisco and never beenthat stupid. But I can’t rewrite history, so now I just want to doright when I can. If I can protect these girls…” His shouldersdrooped. “It’s never going to be all right, but maybe it canbe…less wrong.”

Cedar fell silent. Kali didn’t know what tosay. He sounded like he needed…comfort. She knew how to be toughand sarcastic, but nurturing or comforting? Her tongue tangled atthe idea of even trying to say something along those lines. Womenwere supposed to be good at comforting people, but maybe she’d beenborn with some sort of deficiency.

“I suppose,” Kali said,“that you wouldn’t appreciate it if I told you the perfect thing toget your mind off of your problems would be planning to take overan airship.”

At least he chuckled, and his musclesloosened a little. “Come back to town with me tonight, and help mewith this murderer. We’ll talk to the Mounties right away-maybethey can get back out here and take care of these pirates beforedawn. I’ll remind them of favors they owe me when they’re decidingwhat to do with the airship. I doubt they’ll have a use for it, sogetting it for you shouldn’t be that tough, especially if it’sdamaged.”

Kali worried that the pirates would have theship fixed and be back in the air before the Mounties came, but shenodded and stepped back from Cedar. “Agreed.” As he said, it wouldbe selfish of her to choose her own interests over those of womenwho were being tortured and killed. She didn’t want to choose herinterests above Cedar’s either, not in this case. He needed thisredemption. “I don’t know all the Han girls in town, but I heardthere’s a show at the Aurora Saloon. Dancing girls, all tribal.” Hewasn’t going to like it when she admitted who had mentioned thatshow.

“Oh, I’d forgotten aboutthat,” Cedar said. “One of the Mounties mentioned it. Some fellowgot a bunch of unmarried girls from tribes from all around theYukon, and they travel about, going from town to town performing toentertain the menfolk.” He tilted his head. “I’m surprised you’dheard of it.”

“Your Pinkerton detectivetold me about it. Said he’s working at the Aurora Saloon and that Icould find him there in the evenings if I changed my mind abouttalking to him.”

“I see.” Cedar clenchedhis jaw. “We’ll do our best to avoid him.”

“Hm.” As Kali shoveledcoal into the SAB to fire its engine up anew, she asked, “Did theyever find out who was responsible for the other murders in SanFrancisco?”

“Not that I know of. Assoon as they indicted me, they stopped looking for the real killer.I had to flee town to avoid the firing squad, so I don’t know ifthe murders stopped after that or not.”

If the murdershadn’t stopped afterCedar left, that ought to show the law down there-and maybe thisAgent Lockhart-that Cedar wasn’t responsible for them. If Kalicould talk to the detective alone, maybe she could convince him todouble-check his facts.

Part VII

A breeze scuttled down Main Street, swattingat a newspaper page too mired in the mud to escape, though itrattled and whipped in a valiant effort to do so. Kali leanedagainst a support post on the covered boardwalk outside of the RCMPstation. A single whale-oil lantern burned on a desk inside, andthe voices of Cedar and a Mountie he had roused from sleep floatedthrough the open door. Cedar was relaying the pirates’ location, adescription of Sparwood, and trying to get a list of tribal womenliving in the city, something the Mounties apparently didn’t track.With so many new people flooding into Dawson each week, it must beimpossible to keep an eye on everybody.

Though midnight approached, raucous voicesand music filled the street. Candelabras and lanterns burned behindthe windows of many hotels, bit houses, and the popular Main StreetDancing Hall. Nearby, a man lay on his back, snoring, in the spotwhere he’d been thrown out for not being able to pay.

Kali leaned away from the post and peered upthe shadowy street. Electricity had not yet come to Dawson-indeed,electric lights were something she had only read about-and therewere no gas lamps at the intersections; but the northern sky wasnot entirely dark, and she could make out people stumbling out ofbit houses. She could also make out the Aurora Saloon sign, only afew buildings up the street.

Kali glanced back throughthe RCMP window, decided Cedar would be another fifteen minutes atleast, and left the post to stroll up the boardwalk. Giveneverything that was going on, wandering the streets alone at nightwas probably not a good idea, but she couldn’t very well go seeAgent Lockhart with the man he wanted to shoot at her side. It wasworth taking a risk if there was a chance she could convince him ofthe truth and get him off Cedar’s back. Besides, nobody was likelyto attack her, or try to kidnap her, in the middle of a crowdedsaloon. If someone did, she had two smoke nuts stuffed into her pocket, and an uglylittle pistol Cedar called a “man stopper” jammed into the front ofher overalls. He’d insisted she carry it around town. She wasn’tmuch for shooting people, but she could do it inself-defense.

“Sure, tell yourselfthings like that,” Kali muttered to herself. “Maybe it’ll make themtrue.”

Kali paused to adjust the cuff of heroveralls, making sure they hid the bulge in her sock-she still hadthe vial of flash gold tucked in there-then stepped over thesnoring man to push open the Aurora’s front door. She crinkled hernose at the stench of sweat and tobacco smoke, and she had to blinka few times to get her eyes used to the smoky haze that filled theair. One would never know how late it was, going by the amount ofactivity in the large main room.

Lively fiddle music bounced off of the darktimber walls. Stuffed elk, caribou, and moose heads were mountedeverywhere, and more than one set of antlers was being used for acoat rack. Men filled tables, most with chairs turned to watch awooden stage where bronze-skinned women danced in costumes thatwere about as close to traditional garb as root beer was to beer.The girls’ bellies showed as they wriggled about, flinging barefeet into the air. Men clapped and roared their appreciation witheach glimpse of flesh.

A sign propped up near the stage promisedthis was an “Authentic Injun Dance.” Kali snorted. The only timeshe’d seen people twist and gyrate that much had been when theywere flailing about on ice, trying to ward off an inevitablefall.

A drunken man staggering toward the doorwayspat at a copper spittoon. The black tobacco spittle missed Kali byinches and spattered onto the wall a good three feet above thereceptacle. It joined copious other stains darkening the pineboards.

Kali decided standing so close to the doorwasn’t wise and eased aside for the sot to pass. Here and there,gamblers worked tables, and she spotted Agent Lockhart withouttrouble. Three men sat with him in a back corner, each taking turnsrolling dice. Lockhart’s box of gambling goodies lay open on thetable. Kali wondered what kind of idiots would trust a man who hadhis own kit not to have loaded dice.

She weaved through the crowd, dodgingwayward elbows from men too busy to notice her and gropes from theones who did notice her. Some girls might be flattered at theattention, but she was wearing her coveralls and knew there wasn’tanything alluring about her. It was just that men outnumbered womentwenty to one, if not more, up here, so a lady need ever go to bedlonely if she preferred company.

Though Lockhart wore his bowler hat pulledlow on his brow while he swapped wagers with the men at the table,Kali felt his eyes upon her as she approached. He had probably beenwatching her since she walked through the door.

Kali stopped between two of the men at histable. “Mind if I play a round?”

She had no idea how to play dice games oreven if “a round” was the right term, but she figured she’d goalong with his gambler facade. If he was up in Dawson after morethan Cedar, he might not appreciate her breaking his cover in frontof these men.

“Women can’t gamble,” onefellow groused. “Go join the girls on stage, or keep somebody’sblankets warm at the hotel next door.”

“Are you sure you want tobe that insulting,” Kali asked, fishing in a pocket, “consideringI’m standing right behind you with-” she grabbed the first toolthat she felt and pulled it out, “-pliers in my hand?”

It wasn’t the most menacing tool in hercollection, but she held it up with what she hoped was an ominousexpression on her face.

“Pliers?” the man asked.“What’re you going to do with those? Now a Colt would bethreatening, but-”

Kali whipped her hand to the side andfastened the pliers about his ear. With the practiced ease of onewho has turned thousands of bolts, she issued a quick, efficienttwist. He cried out, fell out of his chair, and landed on his handsand knees. When he threw an arm up, trying to grab her, Kali simplytwisted harder. This drew another louder cry, one filled withcurses for her and all of her ancestors.

She released him, stepped back, out of hisreach, and raised the pliers as a warning to anyone else who mightbe thinking of giving her trouble. In particular, she eyed theother men at the table.

One smirked, turned the vacated chairoutward, and said, “This seat’s open, miss.”

Laughter from nearby tables drowned out thefiddle. Kali kept an eye on the man on the floor, figuring he mighthave retaliation in mind, but more than his ear was red, and heslunk off with his tail clenched between his legs.

Still holding the pliers aloft, Kali pinnedLockhart with a stare, wondering if he would give her a hard timetoo, but he merely extended a hand toward the empty seat. Thoughthe hat and the room’s dimness shadowed his eyes, they did notquite hide the glint of amusement there.

Kali slid into the warm seat. “How aboutsome poker?” she asked. She knew the rules to most versions ofthat.

“I was actually fixing totake a break,” Lockhart said.

The gambler to Kali’s right, a man who hadyet to say anything, stirred at this. He rapped his knuckles on thetable. “You need to sit right there a spell and give me a chance towin back my losses.”

Though people were still talking and musicwas still playing, Kali had no trouble hearing the soft click of ahammer being cocked beneath the table. It was Lockhart’s Colt, sheassumed; both of the other man’s hands were in sight.

Lockhart leveled a cold stare at thedissenter. “We’re done here, friend.”

The gambler’s eyes narrowed to slits, but hemust have heard the gun being readied, too, for he grumbledsomething and pushed away from the table. Back rigid, he stalkedout of the saloon.

The remaining man, the one who had offeredKali a seat, shrugged amiably and left as well.

When Kali and Lockhart were alone, she wavedat the kit full of dice, cards, and chips, and said, “If this rusewas for Cedar’s sake, or mine, you can stop now. I know who youare, and he knows that you’re here.”

Lockhart’s face grewclosed. “You told Cedar-” he said the pseudonym with a curl of the lip, “-about me,did you?”

“You played your hand toosoon.” Kali thought that sounded like a gambling-appropriate thingto say. “Showing me the newspaper and pointing him out.”

“Yes, I feared that mightbe the case. I was hoping you’d be concerned when you learned whata monster he is. You seemed smart, so I was hoping you’d knowbetter than to go right to that murderer.”

“He’s not a-” Kali startedto say murderer, but she supposed that technically he was, even ifhe only aimed for killers with bounties on their heads,“-criminal,” she said instead. “I know what happened, and you’reafter the wrong man.”

Lockhart sneered. “Of course he’d tell youthat. Do you even know his real name?”

“Yes. He told me beforeyou ever came to town. I’ll point out that you never gave meyour real name, AgentLockhart.”

His eyebrows twitched beneath his hat. “Isee.”

“I wouldn’t spend timewith an evil man, sir. Cedar-Milos-was framed by Cudgel Conrad. Iimagine you’ve heard of him?”

“I’m aware of thefelon.”

“Cedar’s been after himfor years, because Cudgel killed his brother. The man would doanything to get rid of Cedar, but he’s not good enough to killCedar outright.” When Kali said the last, a muscle twitched inLockhart’s jaw. Was he irked he wasn’t good enough to kill Cedaroutright either? “Cudgel must have figured that the next best thingwas to get the law after Cedar, so he’d be harried every step ofthe way and have less time to spend on collecting Cudgel’s bounty.And that’s just what you’re doing, harrying him and making troublefor him, exactly the way that criminal wants.”

Lockhart’s face remained cold and impassivethroughout Kali’s speech, and she feared she wasn’t swaying him atall. She ought to be sweet-talking him, not stating blunt truths,but she was no gifted flannel mouth. She preferred to deliverthings straight up, whether people liked hearing them or not. Shedoubted it would sound sincere if she tried to do anythingelse.

“This is the story he toldyou?” Lockhart asked.

Kali bristled, wanting tosay it was the truth, not a story, but she had only Cedar’s wordsto go on. She believed him-he’d been too honest, and too painedabout his choices, to be making things up. And, even though shealways told him that she wasn’t quick to trust people, himincluded, she did trust him at this point. They’d been through enough togetherthat she believed she could rely upon him.

“That’s what he told me,”Kali said. “Look, there was a series of murders down in SanFrancisco, right? And Cedar got blamed because he was foundstanding over a woman killed in the same manner as the others,right? He didn’t murder her or the others though. Surely you musthave wondered when he left town and the murders continued. You musthave known you had the wrong man.”

“The murders didn’tcontinue.”

Kali blinked. “What?”

“When he was gone, theystopped.”

Damn, she had been sure she’d been on tosomething. What had happened then? Had the murderer figured thingswere too hot and he dared not strike again? Or had it simply beencoincidence that Cedar had left at the same time as this cutthroatstopped attacking women in San Francisco?

“I’m not after the wrongman, Miss McAlister,” Lockhart said softly, gently, as if he wassorry he had to hurt her feelings by telling her a truth she didn’twant to hear.

Kali sat up straight, agrowl in the back of her throat. It wasn’t the truth. “Listen, mister,I’ve seen him do a lot of good up here. He’s brought in heaps ofmurdering criminals. You two should be allies, notenemies.”

Lockhart snorted.

Kali leaned forward, gripping the edge ofthe table. “You weren’t around when he first told me about hispast, so he had no reason to lie to me. He volunteered theinformation.”

“Miss McAlister, I’velearned that most men tell tall tales, especially to women theywant to bed. That fibs are commonplace doesn’t make them true orany less insidious.” Lockhart drew his shiny steel Colt and raisedit above the table.

Kali tensed. He had no law-abiding reason tokill her, but the gun’s appearance made her nervous. He’d see ifshe reached for the man-stopper in her front overalls pocket, but,out of sight beneath the table, her hand drifted to the pocketwhere she kept the pair of smoke nuts.

Lockhart laid the revolver down in front ofher and leaned forward, eyes intent. “They call this gun thePeacemaker, and it’s here with me to kill Milos Kartes and bringpeace to the spirits of those he murdered. Half a dozen innocentwomen in San Francisco, dead by his hand. His guilt was determinedby a jury of his peers. Evidence, not tall tales, condemned him. IfI come across Cudgel Conrad, I’ll kill him, too, because he’swanted a hundred times over for his crimes, but his isn’t the caseI was assigned. I’m here to get Kartes.” He gazed straight into hereyes. “And if you get in my way, Miss, I’ll have the Mounties lockyou up until I catch up with my man.”

Kali wanted to declare that Lockhart wasfrom the United States, and had less sway with the RCMP than Cedardid, but his hard, unwavering stare stole her defiance. She had tofight to not squirm and look away. Seconds ticked by as she triedto come up with a strong, intelligent reply, but she couldn’t thinkof anything.

A scream came from a hallway behind thestage.

Kali lunged to her feet, tipping her chairover. Lockhart leaped up even faster. With his Colt in hand, hevaulted over the table and sprinted for the hallway.

The fiddle halted, and the dancers stopped.Kali started to follow Lockhart, but caught herself. If themurderer was back there, he supposedly liked to torment his victimsbefore killing them. He couldn’t do that in a public place. If hewas kidnapping a girl, he might run out the back.

Kali pushed past groups of gawking men andheaded for the front door. If she could get around the buildingquickly enough, maybe she could stop, or at least delay, someonecoming out the back.

She ducked past a burly man in the doorway,gasped a breath of fresh air, and sprinted down the boardwalktoward the alley. Muffled grunts and whimpers of feminine distresscame from behind the building. Kali dug into a pocket and pulledout one of her smoke nuts. She jumped off the boardwalk and intothe ally. Mud squished audibly beneath her feet, and she winced,hoping the kidnapper had not heard. Striving for quiet, sheadvanced more slowly than she wanted.

A shadow passed over her, and Kali glancedup. The buildings on either side of her hid all but a slice of thenight sky, and she saw nothing but stars in the gap.

“Your imagination,” shemuttered under her breath.

Kali picked her way through the sucking mudas quickly as she could. She reached the back of the saloon andpeeked around the corner.

A towering man with a torso as broad as agrizzly’s was stalking toward her. That had to be Sparwood. A womanthrashed in his arms, but he kept her crushed against his chest,her feet dangling a foot above the ground. Her flailing wasuseless.

Kali tightened her hand around the smokenut, but hesitated before arming it. The shrapnel her weapon flungwould hit the woman, too, probably harming her more than the man,since he was holding her before him like a shield.

They were only five steps from her hidingspot. There was no time to think of a better plan. The man wouldtake at least some of the shrapnel, and Kali could attack him underthe cover of the smoke.

She armed the smoke nut and drew back herhand to throw. Someone grabbed her wrist.

Kali spun, her free hand reaching for theman-stopper, but she thought it might be Cedar or Lockhart andwasn’t as quick to draw as she might have been. She didn’trecognize the dark figure before her, though, and a calloused handcaught her other wrist before she could grab the gun. Someone elseappeared and ripped the smoke nut from her grasp, then hurled itonto the roof. It went off, shards of metal pinging against stovepipes and chimneys, but the building kept it from doing any gooddown in the alley.

Kali tried to twist free of her captor’sgrip, but he was strong and he wasn’t alone. Three other men hadcome into view. Behind them a rope ladder dangled from the sky. Notthe sky. The pirate airship. Even with the limited view and thenight darkness, she recognized its black silhouette blotting outthe stars above.

Mud squished behind her. “What we got here?”a deep voice rumbled over the continuing struggles of his femalecaptive. “Two for the price of one?” He laughed, a dark, cruellaugh that sent a chill down Kali’s spine. “She’s familiar too. Youthe one what was skulking around in the woods?”

The chill deepened. Had he been watching allthe time? While she and Cedar questioned the other pirate?

“Hurry up,” someone said,already jumping for the ladder. “There’s a Pinkerton detective onhis way out, and Ralph can only keep him busy so long.”

As the men backed toward the ladder, Kalirallied for one more escape attempt. She tried to jam a knee intoher captor’s groin, but he saw the move coming and blocked her.Someone grabbed her from behind and slipped a bag over her head.Kali twisted her neck and tried to bite the man through the burlap.She caught something-a hand? — between her teeth, but a fist slammedinto her temple. Pain ricocheted through her head. The bag made itstuffy and hard to breathe, and she gasped for air.

“Feisty wench, ain’t she?”Sparwood asked, predatory hunger in his voice.

“Just like you like ’em.”The other men laughed.

Idiot, Kali, she cursed herself. They nevershould have believed that pirate’s story.

She sucked in a deep breath to scream forCedar, but she’d barely gotten the “C” out when a hand clamped downon her mouth. Someone hoisted her legs into the air and wound ropeabout her wrists and ankles. In heartbeats she was tied tight. Shebit down on the hand gagging her, and a man cursed. Before shecould try to scream again, another fist collided with her head. Herdazed body refused to comply with her brain’s orders to keepfighting, and the men hauled her up the ladder.

The shrapnel being flung from her smoke nuthad ceased, and only its smoke lingered in the air as they climbed.Kali cursed Lockhart for being slow, but more, she cursed herselffor not sticking with Cedar. Talking to Lockhart had been a wasteof time, and now she was captured, in the hands of a rapist andmurderer, surrounded by a whole crew that apparently supportedhim.

Part VIII

Kali’s captors dragged her into the bowelsof the airship. Though the bag over her head stole her sight, thestifling heat told her where they were. The boiler room.

The man carrying Kali dropped her like asack of corn meal, and her shoulder hit hard, sending a fresh stabof pain through her. While men shuffled about, and chains clackednearby, Kali fantasized about commandeering the ship, sailing tothe North Pole, and making these louts walk the plank. She’d leavethem on a sheet of ice where they could become a nice snack for apassing polar bear.

Someone grabbed her by the head and pulledoff the sack, removing numerous strands of hair at the same time.It was hard to glower effectively from one’s back on the floor, butKali gave it her best.

The men ignored her icy stare. A burlypirate clapped a leg iron around one of her ankles. Its chain ranfive feet to an eyelet in front of a bin of coal and two furnaces.The pirate cut the rope that tied her ankles together. Kali liftedher bound wrists, hoping he would do the same for them. He didnot.

“We don’t allow anyonefree passage on our vessel,” a graying reed of a man said. Scarspeppered his face, and he wore an eye patch like the pirates instorybooks. He lacked only a parrot to perch on his shoulder,though such birds were probably hard to come by in northern climes.He took a shovel from a scruffy man cloaked from head to foot insoot. “Everybody here works, ain’t that right, Chum?”

“Oh, aye, Cap’n,” thesooty man said.

Kali remained quiet. Working in the boilerroom sounded far better than being mauled by that Sparwood, but shewasn’t about to say so. The other woman the pirates had kidnappedwas nowhere to be seen, and Kali scowled at the realization ofwhere she must be. Would she be next?

“Take all of her things,”the captain said.

Invasive hands pawed at Kali, and shegritted her teeth. With her wrists tied and her leg chained, shecould do little to fight the intrusion, though she stood with oneleg slightly in front of the other, blocking the view of the anklethat held her vial of flash gold. She hoped the man wouldn’t thinkto check her socks. Maybe she should have taken the vial back toher workshop and locked it in its safe, behind a series of boobytraps. Too late now.

Unfortunately, the man searching her provedadept at finding things. He removed her remaining smoke nut, hergun, and every single tool in her pockets.

“Tarnation, girl,” thepirate said, “you rob a tool shop?”

“Your murderers caught mewhen I was in the middle of a project,” Kali said.

“I ain’t murderedanyone.”

“You let it happen on yourship.” Though she was responding to the man searching her, Kalilooked the captain in the eyes when she spoke. She thought of theairship hovering above the alley behind the Aurora, and of thatladder dangling down. “You even help out, don’t you?” Thatexplained why Cedar hadn’t found a trail at the murdered woman’shome. “You drop that bastard down and pick him up when he’s done,don’t you? You help him perpetrate the idea that there’s somethingotherworldly involved in these murders, since there’s nothing butthose fake bead patches to be found.”

Kali was surprised the pirates had chosensuch a public target this time, a woman getting ready for a show ina saloon full of people. Maybe it’d been a last hit before the shipcleared out of town. Or maybe they’d counted on Sparwood getting into steal the girl without anyone up front hearing about it. Kali’sstomach clenched at the idea of him leaving a bead patch in thechanging room and people blaming “spirits” for the girl’sdisappearance.

The captain lifted his chin in response toKali’s accusations. “Sparwood’s my best worker and fights betterthan ten men combined, and he doesn’t ask for a cut of the loot. Hejust wants the leeway to pursue his…hobby.”

“That’s loathsome,” Kalisaid, “and so are you if you help.”

“What’s this?” The mansearching her had found all of her tools and weapons, and moveddown to her ankles. Kali winced when he patted at the lump there.Having these slimy pirates running around with such power was thelast thing she wanted.

The man pulled out her vial and held italoft. The flakes inside the clear container appeared no differentfrom regular gold, but they glowed softly, sending occasionalstreaks of yellow lightning coursing through the glass tube.

“That,” a new voice saidfrom a hatchway leading to an upper deck, “is what I was hopingshe’d have, and it’s why I’ve offered you more money than the Scarof Skagway for her capture.”

The owner of the voice climbed down aladder, boots ringing on the metal rungs. He clasped his handsbehind his back and strolled toward the furnaces to join thecaptain and others in regarding Kali.

A pale-skinned man, he wore an all white,expensive suit, tailored to fit his body. His boots were likenothing Kali had ever seen. Snake skin? Or maybe alligator orcrocodile? She’d read about such creatures. The man bore noweapons, but all the pirates, the captain included, offered subduedgreetings and touched their knuckles to their hats or foreheads inpolite salutes.

“Mister Conrad,” thecaptain said, and Kali’s head jerked up. Cudgel Conrad? Cedar’s nemesis? “Weweren’t expecting you until morning,” the captain went on, “so Iwas fixing to get some work out of her. But if youwant-”

“No, no,” Conrad saidpolitely, as if he were passing on an after-dinner dessert offeredby a waiter in some classy restaurant. “Work her all you wish.There’ll be plenty of time for questioning later.” He hadgreenish-blue eyes, the only spot of color on him, and theyhardened then, reminding Kali of marbles as they bore into her.“First, there remains a spot of business to which I must attend.It’s time to make sure that dear detective gets hisman.”

Kali curled her lip.“You’d best be more worried about that man getting you.”

Conrad yawned.

“Mister Conrad, sir,” thecaptain said. “One of my men was wondering about her usefor…entertainments.”

A woman’s scream echoed from a higher deck.Kali tried to keep a defiant sneer on her face, but the timing ofthat scream, and the amused snort of one of the pirates, leftlittle doubt in her mind as to what the captain meant.

“What are your orders asto her person?” the captain finished.

“Ensure she’s able toanswer questions in the morning,” Conrad said.

“That’s it?”

“Indeed. In fact,encourage your man to make the experience memorable. Women rarelyresist my interrogation techniques, but it can make things easierif they’ve been broken already.”

Kali glowered. She wished she could do more.This fellow deserved a good kick in the bear cubs. No, he deserveda lot more than that for tormenting Cedar and killing countlessothers.

Conrad took a step toward the hatch, butpaused, raising a finger. “Actually, I do have one requirement.Don’t let your man damage her face. Should the Pinkerton detectivefail, I may need to dangle her as bait to lure in a particularlytroublesome fish.” His marble cold eyes found Kali’s again.“Despite this fish’s efforts to minimize contact with her of late,I do believe they’re close.”

“Yes, sir.” The captainknuckled his forehead again.

When Conrad left, the captain stood taller,losing his diffident manner. He pointed to the fellow smeared withcoal dust. “Give Chum your shovel, and show her the ropes. Denny,stow her gear. Malcom-” he pointed to a bearded man with a shotgun,“-you’re on guard. Stay alert, and keep her working. I don’t wantour boat lingering over downtown Dawson. Look cheery men. We’ve anice pay day coming up.”

The captain left, takingthe men he hadn’t named with him. The one who had conducted hersearch looked around, probably trying to figure out what he wassupposed to do with the armful of weapons and tools. He shuffled tothe far end of the boiler room, dropping a screwdriver on the way,and dumped everything except her gun onto a metal table bolted tothe wall. Toolboxes were secured there, and an empty crate on thefloor read propellerblades. Machine shop, Kali guessed, eyeingit speculatively as the pirate headed out. If she could free herankle and get over there, maybe she could build something usefulfor escaping. And then what? She eyed the bulkheads, looking for adoor that might lead to the engine room, but the pipes from theboilers disappeared through solid walls behind the equipment, andshe didn’t see any exits except for the ceiling hatch Conrad hadused.

The sooty man thrust his shovel into Kali’shands, distracting her from her thoughts. He drew a knife and cuther wrist bindings. “That goes in there.” He pointed at the coalbin and the furnace door.

“Excellent instructions,”Kali said. “I’ll be sure to recommend you for apromotion.”

It was hard to read a face coated in coaldust, but he curled a lip and growled at her, and she got the gist.He ticked a finger against a gauge on the adjacent boiler where aneedle hovered at the low end of the operational zone. “Make surethat stays between here and here. If it’s here, add more coalfaster. If it gets up here, you can slow down for a spell. There’sa safety shutoff, so don’t get any bright ideas about gettingthings too hot.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,”Kali said.

Which was true. Sheought to be concernedsolely with escaping, maybe finding that girl and getting her outtoo, but the fact that she was within the bowels of the veryairship she wanted to claim for herself kindled ideas in her mind.Maybe she could yet take it over somehow and keep it for herself.Unless she ran out of other options, she wouldn’t risk blowing halfof the hull off in a boiler explosion.

“Now, I reckon I can getsome sleep, though the night seems young for that.” Soot-face threwa smirk at the guard, then considered Kali through slittedeyes.

She tensed. With her hands free and a shovelin her grip, she thought she could defend herself, leg iron or not,but the guard standing by the hatch was watching, his shotgun atthe ready.

“Don’t see why Sparwoodgets all the girls,” Sooty grumbled.

“’Cause he can pound youinto pieces,” the guard said. “You better leave her be and findyour hammock.”

“Guess you’reright.”

Given his defeatist words, Kali wasn’texpecting Sooty’s hand to lunge in. He squeezed her breast, mashingdown with the subtlety of a jackhammer. Kali swung the shovel,cracking him in the side of his head.

He staggered back while the guard laughedand said, “You deserved that.”

Kali dropped into a crouch, expectingretaliation. Sooty clutched at his head, but he was grinning.

“Worth it,” he said andsauntered to the ladder. “Sparwood’ll find his goods bruised up.”He snickered as he climbed and disappeared through thehatch.

“Idiot,” Kalisaid.

A woman’s scream sounded, then was cut offwhen the hatch clanged shut. Kali’s indignation faded. Kali couldbe experiencing a far worse fate at the moment. And she might stillhave to worry about that, if she didn’t escape.

The guard jerked his shotgun toward her.“Get to work.”

Kali opened the furnace door and squinted asheat rolled out. Next to the gloom of the boiler room, the flamesthrew off an inferno of light. While she scooped coal from the binand into the firebox, she debated her options. She could fling ashovelful of burning embers at the guard, but he was too far awayfor her to launch a follow-up attack. She hadn’t seen the captainpass him the keys for her leg iron either. Something on theworkbench might help her escape, but it too was well out ofreach.

Kali eyed the heavy black chain attached toher ankle and didn’t see any weaknesses. It would take a blacksmithto break one of the thick links. At the other end, the chainattached to an eyelet secured with a hinge to an iron plate mountedflush in the deck. She couldn’t have been the first prisoner to bechained in the boiler room.

She kept scooping coal into the furnacewhile she contemplated that hinge. In its present state, shedoubted she could wedge the tip of the shovel into the crease topry the eyelet free, but she’d loosened many a rusted old bolt byapplying heat to break the bond.

The next time she dumped fresh coal into thefurnace, she slipped a few burning red embers out. The guard waswatching her, but the door hid the shovel, and the furnace itselfblocked the eyelet from his view. Kali laid the glowing coals onthe metal plate around the hinge. Making certain not to take toomuch time and rouse suspicions, she repeated the process until apile of hot coals lay all about the eyelet.

Kali continued to load the furnace for acouple more minutes, giving the iron time to heat. Even if she wasable to loosen the hinge and pull the chain free, she still had todeal with the guard.

“It’s getting prettyfull.” She paused to mop sweat from her brow. “How much more shouldI put in?”

“When it’s full, close thedoor and start loading the other one.”

“Whatever you say, boss.”Kali considered her words, then added, “I don’t suppose there’sanything I can do to talk you into letting me go?” If she was toogood of a worker and didn’t try to wheedle her way out of her fate,that might make him suspicious. “I’ve got money stashed at home.How much do you make as a pirate?”

“More than you’vegot.”

“I doubt that,” Kali said.“My partner is a proficient bounty hunter, and he shares hisearnings.”

“Men who give money towomen are stupid. Get back to work.”

Kali rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. Shecertainly wasn’t going to explain what she did to earn her half. Noneed for him to think she might have a crafty side.

“It’s powerful hot inhere.” Kali wiped her brow again and leaned on the shovel. “Anychance I can get some water?”

“You’ve barely beenworking five minutes. You’re fine.”

Kali made a show of letting her shouldersslump and tried to look weary as she went back to shoveling. Aftera few more rounds, she said, “I just need a little break.”

She slipped between the furnaces, nudged thecoals off the eyelet with her shovel, and eased the tip into thehinge crease. She wiggled the blade in deeper, relieved when therewas enough give to do so. Then she leaned her weight onto it. Thehinge pin eased upward, but it made a telling creak.

“What’re you doing overthere, woman?” Footsteps thudded on the deck.

Kali shoved downward with all of herstrength. The hinge popped free. Kali scattered the hot embers,smacked the shovel against the furnace, making a loud clang, thendropped to the floor on her back, hiding the popped hinge with herbody. She closed her eyes and didn’t move.

The guard stomped around the corner. Kaliwatched through her eyelashes as he surveyed the mess. “Stupidwoman, what’d you do?”

Passed out from heat exhaustion, or so shehoped he’d think.

The guard came close enough to kick her bootwith his foot, then, when she did not respond, he leaned in closer.He reached down, probably intending to take the shovel from herreach. Before he could grab the shaft, Kali whipped it up andslammed the pan into his face.

The pirate reeled back, but the blow was notenough to drop him. He lunged for the shovel. Kali hit him againand scrambled to her feet. The guard, blood running in twinrivulets from his nose, started to lift his gun. She jammed herheel into his shin, and he yowled and went down. Kali snatched theheavy iron chain from the floor and swung it at his head. Itconnected with a solid thud. The man’s shotgun drooped in hishands. Kali tore it free and backed away, aiming it at hischest.

“On your belly,” shebarked.

The man groaned and slumped to the floor,eyes crossing. She found the rope the pirates had tied her withearlier and hurried to bind his hands and legs while he was stillwoozy. If she could find the key to her leg iron, she’d stick thaton him as well and see how well he liked being tied up.

“You have any morebuckshot?” Kali asked after checking the shotgun. She could fire itonce, but that was it.

“Not down here,” thepirate growled, his eyes focusing again. “Why don’t you wander upand look for some above decks? I’m sure someone can help youout.”

“With a bullet to thechest, I’m sure,” Kali said.

Figuring she didn’t have much time, sherushed over to the work table. She decided the iron band on herankle wasn’t a priority and left it on while she searched throughher tools for, yes, there was the vial of flash gold. She wassurprised the captain hadn’t taken it with him, but maybe Conradwas the only one who knew what it was, or maybe he’d warned themnot to take it. Now if Kali could come up with something useful todo with it before someone came and checked on her….

Another feminine cry of pain echoed throughthe ship, muffled by the closed hatch, but not muffled enough. Kaliclenched her jaw. She had more than one reason to hurry.

Kali checked the machine shop drawers andtoolboxes. She doubted she would stumble across something asobviously handy as ammunition for the shotgun, but maybe she couldfind raw materials to make-she did not know what yet. But she hadthe flash gold, so she could power something. She just had tofigure out what.

A tin of kerosene sitting in a bottom drawermade Kali pause. A slow smile curved her lips. That certainlyincreased the possibilities. Another drawer offered a bunch offunnels and strainers of various sizes. They must fill the ship’srunning lamps down there.

Kali tapped the shotgun thoughtfully. “If Icould find some kind of pressurized tank…the flash gold could beturned into an ignition system. It’s an energy source, after all.”While she muttered to herself, she rifled through the rest of thedrawers. “Piping, hm. I could make a pump to pressurize a tank withair…like with my spud launcher.” She snorted, imagining herselfracing through the corridors, pelting pirates with potatoes. Thisnew weapon would have to be a little more inimical. She grabbed ascrewdriver and started disassembling the shotgun’s firingmechanism.

Minutes ticked past as she hunkered over thetable, sweat dribbling into her eyes and dropping from her chin. Ithad to be over a hundred degrees in the boiler room. Still, she’drather be there than in Sparwood’s cabin.

Muffled grunts came from between theboilers, and Kali jumped. She’d forgotten about her prisoner. Withher new project in hand, she rushed over to check on him. He wasstill bound, though he looked like he’d been trying to saw hisropes off using the corner of the coal bin.

He gaped at Kali when she came into sight.Actually he gaped at the shotgun in her hands. It still had thesame body, but the two salvaged tanks attached under the barrelwere definite upgrades. One held kerosene and the other pressurizedair. A slender tube fed the flammable liquid into and through thebarrel. The flash gold flake was tucked out of sight, inside themuzzle, but she’d imprinted it with a command to ignite thekerosene when the trigger was pulled.

“Whuf iff it?” the piratedemanded, his words almost indistinguishable through the gag Kalihad stuffed into his mouth.

Kali doubted her weapon would work on thefirst attempt-given the way the day’s luck had gone, she might evenblow herself up-but she pulled the trigger, figuring she had to tryit eventually anyway. And wouldn’t it be great if it worked withthis stunted vegetable looking on?

The weapon issued a soft gurgle as liquidtraveled from the tank and through the gun. Though she had takensome care to hide the flash gold from view, streaks of yellowlightning escaped, coursing along the weapon, creating a rivetingdisplay. Kali rolled her eyes. The stuff always seemed to want tosteal the show.

Then the fuel ignited.

Kali had been expecting a flame-that was thewhole point of the design, after all-but the three-foot-long,six-inch-wide inferno that whooshed out of the barrel surprised herwith its size and power. She nearly dropped the gun. Even with theflame shooting out of the end, heat crackled in the air, beatingagainst her hands and face, and she eyed the wooden stock withconcern. It ought to be all right, for the short term. Shehoped.

“What is it, you ask?”Kali said, trying to cover her surprise with nonchalant words. “Ihaven’t thought of a name yet. Got any ideas?”

“Shit,” the pirate said,sort of. The gag made elocution difficult.

“That won’t impress anyoneat the patent office.”

The air buzzed around the weapon, andlightning continued to dance, streaking along the outside of theshotgun shaft to mingle with the flame. The stink of burningkerosene arose, and Kali wondered if she should have made a switchthat could modulate the amount of fuel sent to the flame. Ah, well.Next time. If nothing else, this ought to scare some pirates. Shelet go of the trigger, and the flame died out.

Thus armed, Kali jogged for the ladderleading to the upper decks of the ship.

“Whar…goin’?” the piratetried to call through the gag.

“To put a wrench inCudgel’s wheel.”

Kali clanked her way up the ladder, the gunbumping and tangling in the rungs, the leg iron adding weight toher ankle.

“Perhaps not the bestweapon for stealth,” she muttered.

Nonetheless, she made it to the top andmanaged to juggle her gear long enough to ease the hatch open andpeer out. She didn’t see any feet in the narrow door-filledcorridor above, but the hatch blocked half of her view. Shelistened. Muffled voices came from somewhere nearby, someone’scabin most likely, but no footsteps thudded toward her, so shehoped that meant the corridor was empty. From her point of view,she couldn’t see the steps or ladder that ought to lead to the opendeck up top. All of the doors in view were shut, including one atthe far end.

If Kali could find the navigation areawithout anyone spotting her, maybe she could surprise whoevermanned those controls and take over the ship before anyone knewwhat was happening. Except that she feared a ship like this,designed like a naval vessel, would have its navigation bridgeabove decks where lots of people could see it. Well, it was themiddle of the night. Maybe the crew would be sleeping or down inthe city, enjoying their ill-gotten earnings on gambling andwomen.

Kali lifted the hatch the rest of the wayand climbed out.

“You!” a pirate barkedfrom narrow stairs that had been hidden from view by the hatch. Hecharged her, a cutlass raised overhead.

Kali cursed in her mother’s tongue andwhipped the modified shotgun up, pulling the trigger.

This time, with the weapon already primed,the flames leapt to life immediately. The pirate ran right intothem. They poured against his chest, incinerating clothing andsearing flesh. He screamed, an ear-piercing cry of pure agony.

Kali pulled her weapon to the side andreleased the trigger, half because she couldn’t hold those flameson a man, and half because she was afraid she’d catch the woodencorridor on fire. The pirate’s scream only grew louder. Knowing sheneeded to quiet him, she slammed the butt of the shotgun into hishead. It was cruel to beat a man already so wounded, and she hatedthat she had to do it, but she couldn’t have him carrying on,alerting the entire ship. The pirate crumpled to the deck,clutching his chest, and sobbing. The air stank of burning flesh,and Kali’s stomach roiled. Frustrated with her lack of options, shepushed him so that he fell through the open hatch and into theboiler room below. There was a lock on the hatch, and she threw itinto place. It blocked out the man’s sobs, but she would neverforget the sight of his flesh and muscle being burned off beforeher eyes.

“What have I made?” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes. Sheshould have found a way to make more buckshot for the gun. It’d bea more merciful way to kill someone. Even a pirate didn’tdeserve-

A door in the corridor flew open, and abarefoot man stumbled out, gun belt clenched between his teethwhile he fumbled to fasten his trousers.

No time for self-doubt. Kali stood, foot onthe closed hatch, and aimed the weapon at him. Cruel or not, it wasthe only one she had.

The pirate stared at her-no, at the strangegun in her hands-and didn’t immediately run toward her. She thumbedthe flames on again, judging him far enough away that he’d feel theheat without being burned. Fire leapt from the end of the barrelwith surprising flair. Narrow streams twisted and twined in theair, shifting intensity and direction, like dancers on a stage.Watching it gave Kali a chill, as there was no mundane explanationfor that. The flake of flash gold had to be affecting it, as if ithad a mind of its own and was taking artistic license. Showingoff.

After a long, stunned second, the piratestumbled back, his belt falling from his mouth.

“Go back inside yourcabin,” Kali said, “and don’t come out until the sun’sup.”

She had no idea what she looked like afterthe rough night, but he stared at her, mouth agape, as if he’d seenthe Grim Reaper. Then he lunged back inside and slammed the doorshut.

“That’s a better solutionthan maiming people,” Kali said, then shut her mouth, because therewas a tremor in her voice. Her hands were shaking too.

Somewhere above her, people shouted. Thewhole ship had to have been roused by that man’s scream. Kali wassurprised pirates weren’t already charging down the stairs to gether. Sneaking to navigation was out of the question now, and shefeared she wouldn’t have much time to come up with a plan beforeshe found herself in a firefight.

Another door opened, this one behind her.Kali spun, weapon at the ready. This time, she recognized the hugeman who ducked to poke his head into the corridor. Sparwood. Hisbeard and hair stuck out in all directions, and a knife in his handdripped blood. His button-down shirt was open, showing black matsof chest hair as tangled as the snarled locks on his head.

Like a bear, Kali thought. An animal. Not ahuman being.

She held her finger on the trigger, butdidn’t pull it yet, not when he might easily duck back inside forcover. He smirked, eyes gleaming as he watched her. There was nofear in them. The cotton-for-brains lummox didn’t even look at herweapon.

He stepped into the corridor and raised hisfree hand, beckoning her with his fingers. He held the knifeloosely in the other, like he didn’t think he’d need it. If herweapon failed her, he wouldn’t. But, no, she couldn’t think likethat. It had worked before; it would work again.

As if in response to her thoughts, theconverted shotgun hummed in her hands. In the back of her mind, sheacknowledged that that was strange-she hadn’t pulled the trigger toturn the weapon on yet-but she had to stay focused on Sparwood.

Kali walked closer, slowly, steadily. A softsob came from within the beast’s quarters, but she didn’t letherself feel any relief at hearing the girl alive. She might wellbe beyond help at this point. Kali forced herself not to think, notto feel anything.

Then the bear leaped for her, his massivebulk filling the entire corridor. Kali pulled the trigger, even asshe realized there’d be no evading him. He’d crash into heranyway.

Flames burst forth, a massive inferno thatlit the corridor like a sun. She didn’t aim for his chest, but forhis prick. Even if he survived the burns-and she hoped hedidn’t-she’d make sure he didn’t rape anyone else again.

The fire flowed into him, engulfing him,wrapping about him and bathing him fully. He didn’t scream, but heroared, all pain and rage.

Though Kali had thought to stand her ground,to brace herself for his weight tumbling into her, she foundherself backpedaling as his huge form filled her vision. She wasn’tfast enough, and he slammed into her legs, sending her tumblingbackward. She hit the deck hard, the shotgun flying from her grip.The flames winked out, and Sparwood was on top of her.

His roar filled her ears. He thrashed about,and she thought he was grabbing her, that his knife would come inand eviscerate her any second, but he had dropped the blade. He wasclutching at himself, at horrible burns that had seared throughflesh and muscle, all the way to the bone. He found his feet andjumped off of Kali to pound up the stairs, yelling strangled criesfor water.

A shot fired on the deck above, and Kalicursed. She doubted she could hope that was one of the pirates,accidentally shooting at their own comrade. She’d probably have menpouring down the stairs in a second.

Trying to ignore the sick stench of charredflesh, Kali grabbed her weapon and charged into Sparwood’s vacatedcabin. Her first thought was to find the girl and get out of there,but footsteps thundered on the deck above. Kali shut the doorquickly. The tiny cabin seemed a pathetic place to make a stand,but she couldn’t take the time to open the rest of the doors in thecorridor to see if any hid better spots, and she wasn’t about to goback down into the boiler room, where she’d left the angry, woundedpirates.

The cabin was dim, lit only by a singlecandle in a storm glass lamp, and it took Kali a moment to pick outthe figure huddled in the corner. She was naked, clothes torn offand dumped in a pile. Blood darkened the floor around her, and Kaliheld her breath, afraid to approach. What if…. What if she was toolate?

She couldn’t help but feel she owed thisgirl a debt, if only for being a distraction for Sparwood.Otherwise, it might have been Kali in there. She never could havefought off Sparwood one on one, and she wouldn’t have had time tomake her weapon.

A sob escaped the woman, and Kali releasedher breath. Still alive.

“He’s gone,” she said,wishing she had something more comforting to say, but there wasn’ttime for anything but the practical. “Can you stand? We’re going tohave to run if we’re going to have a chance of escaping.” ThoughKali hadn’t quite figured out how to make that happenyet.

The girl didn’t respond. Kali flexed herfingers, wondering if she should creep forward and touch her on theshoulder or leave her alone. Being touched might send her over theedge. Kali looked around the cabin for inspiration, but the placeonly made her stomach churn.

Different colored patches of hair werenailed to the walls. Clumps cut free from the man’s victims?Mounted above them, a strange glove with long brass claws gleamedin the candlelight-the tool he’d used to make people think ananimal had killed the women.

“Deranged beast,” Kalimuttered.

Shouts came from above decks. Sparwoodrousing his comrades to fight? Kali was surprised men hadn’t rusheddown the stairs already. Her dream of commandeering the ship seemeddestined to fail unless something up there was distracting thepirates. Maybe that was why they hadn’t charged down yet. Hopestarted to sprout, hope that Cedar might be up there, but shesquashed it. Because she’d run off without telling him herdestination, he wouldn’t know where she was, and, even if he didknow, the airship was likely flying high enough that nobody couldboard it. No, she’d be better off finding some rope, sneaking up toa railing on the main deck, or maybe into that cargo area with thetrapdoor-wherever that was. Of course, she didn’t know if her newally was in a condition to hold onto a rope and climb down whatmight be dozens of feet or more.

Kali cursed again, wishing she had a betteridea.

Though she didn’t lift her head, the girlstirred at Kali’s cursing. Strange. It had been in Han, notEnglish. Was it possible she understood? Kali didn’t think any ofthe dancers were from her mother’s tribe, but the northernlanguages did have a lot of similarities.

“Do you understand me?”she asked in Han. “I’m…Kali. Tsul Gah,” she corrected, using thename her mother had given her.

Finally the girl looked up. And stared.“Tsul Gah?”

Kali almost stumbled. Though blood smearedthe side of the girl’s face, and her lip and cheek were swollen,Kali recognized her, not just as a Han, but as someone from thetribe she had grown up in. Keitlyudee, the name came to her, a girlthat had been a couple of years older than she. They hadn’t beenfriends, exactly, but Keitlyudee hadn’t been cruel either. Shesurely didn’t deserve this fate. She-

The cabin door slammed open.

Kali jumped, whirling in the air to landwith her flame weapon pointing at the man in the corridor.Cedar.

“What’re you…” Kalistarted, but stopped and grinned. She couldn’t imagine how he’dgotten up there-she wasn’t even sure where the ship was in relationto the city and the saloon any more-but she was relieved to seehim.

“I’m here to rescue you,”Cedar said, raising an eyebrow at her modified shotgun. “Though itseems that, as usual, you don’t need my help.”

Kali didn’t know about that-she had lockedherself in a tiny room with no escape after all-but Cedar’sattention shifted before she could think of a good response. Hiseyes grew grim, his face somber, as he looked around the cabin. Henoticed the girl, who was still huddled in the corner. She hadburied her head in her arms and wasn’t moving.

Cedar winced. “Is she…?”

“She’s alive,” Kalisaid.

Shouts and heavy footfalls sounded from thedirection of the stairs. Cedar lunged into the cabin and spun tolean back out into the corridor, a six-shooter in his hand. Kaliskittered back. In his other hand, Cedar gripped his sword, andrivulets of blood ran down the long blade to drip on the woodenfloorboards.

“Problem?” Kaliasked.

Cedar fired the revolver twice. A salvo ofreturn gunshots thundered through the corridor. He ducked back intothe cabin a split second before a bullet hammered into thedoorjamb, sending shards of wood flying.

He slammed the door shut. “I thoughtshooting that giant burned man and decapitating a couple of otherswould make them pause. Not long enough it seems.”

“You killed Sparwood?”Kali asked.

“Is that who that was? Iwondered. Yes, shot him square between the eyes.”

“Good,” Kali saidgrimly.

Cedar took a closer look at the modifiedshotgun in her hands. “Are you the one who…”

Kali swallowed and forced herself to nod andacknowledge her actions. Admittedly, she didn’t feel that bad aboutcausing Sparwood such pain. The other pirate…. She hoped he hadcommitted heinous crimes of his own, so there might be somejustification for torching him. Her insides still twisted at thememory of that flesh, seared and melted like candle wax.

“Good work,” Cedarsaid.

Kali winced, not wanting praise formutilating people, but Cedar had turned toward the corridor anddidn’t see her face. He yanked the door open, leaned out for aheartbeat, fired twice, and ducked back inside. A scream and astring of curses bombarded the corridor. Return fire came, but toolate. Cedar was already back inside, though he left the door openthis time. He fished bullets out of his ammo pouch and reloaded thesix-shooter.

“They’re on the stairs,”he whispered. “I think I can hold them at bay, but only if there’snot another way down here and they can’t come at us from bothsides.”

At that moment, clangs came from the hatchin the corridor floor. Eyes wide, Cedar started to lean out, butKali caught him before he could risk his head.

“After I escaped from theboiler room, I left a couple of men down there,” Kali said, “butthe hatch is locked. I don’t think they’ll be breaking out any timesoon.”

“Ah. Excellent.” Cedargrinned and grabbed her for a one-armed hug made awkward by theweapons in his hands. He planted a kiss on her temple, surprisingher, mostly because that was the last thing on her mind, but he hadan adventurous gleam in his eye again, like he was having a goodtime. Crazy man.

“There’s a pirate in hiscabin a couple of doors down though. I convinced him to go backinside-” Kali twitched her flame weapon, “-but he might decide tocheck on things at some point. I suppose there could be otherscowering too.”

“Understood.”

In the corner of the cabin, Keitlyudeestirred, peeking over her shoulder to look at them. Cedar liftedhis hand, as if to tip his hat, but seemed to remember he had asword in it. He lowered his arm and simply said, “Ma’am.”

The girl shrank back into herself. Kalicouldn’t imagine that she’d want anything to do with a man for along time. “That’s Keitlyudee. She’s Han. I want to drop her off atMoosehide after we take over the ship.” Kali glanced at the girl,but she had her head buried again. “I reckon her kin will take bestcare of her.”

“Take over the ship?”Cedar asked. “When did that become the plan?”

“Recently. I was thinkingI’d just grab her, and we’d escape, but then the reinforcementsburst in.”

Cedar’s eyebrows rose. “Should the wordreinforcements be plural when there’s just the one of me?”

“There’s you, thesix-shooter, and the sword,” Kali said. “If you and your team of weapons theremanaged to cut off the captain’s pants, then taking over the shipshould be a simple matter.”

“I see. What do you needme to do?”

Something in the corridor drew Cedar’sattention, and he went down on one knee and leaned out to shoottwice. The return fire came instantaneously, but it pounded intothe jamb where his head had been the first time. He’d thrown themoff by firing from a lower position, and he withdrew before theycould hit him.

Gasps of pain followed the gunshots alongwith the sound of someone tumbling down the stairs.

“Is there any chance I canget to navigation without being shot?” Kali said.

“It’s out in the open, ina little room with windows on all sides.” Cedar leaned out andfired again.

“Oh, so even if I couldget inside up there, I’d be target practice for pirates on accountof all the windows.”

“Essentially.”

Kali drummed her fingers on the barrel ofher weapon. If not navigation, maybe she could take control fromthe engine room. If she could manually control those fans, thepirates would be at her whim. Of course, she wouldn’t be able tosee where they were going, but-

“Can you do anything fromthat machine closet at the end of the hall?” Cedarasked.

“The what?”

He waved toward the corridor, at the endopposite from the stairs. “I took a wrong turn during my previousvisit and ended up in there. Had to fight my way out. There were abunch of pipes and controls.”

“What’d they say?” Kaliasked.

“There was a passel ofpeople shooting at me. Perusing the wall literature wasn’t foremostin my mind.” Cedar leaned back out, pistol at the ready, to checkon the situation.

Kali chewed on her lip. Pipes leading fromthe bowels of the ship to somewhere up above. Could they behydrogen and pressurized air lines that fed the balloon? If so, shemight be able to force the ship to land.

“He’s just one man,” camea voice from the top of the stairs. “If you don’t get your blightedasses down there to shoot him, I’ll have you walk the plank on topof Mountie Headquarters.”

“He’s got a gun,” adissenter cried.

“You’veall got guns. He’ll runout of ammo eventually.”

“I haveplenty of ammunition,”Cedar called back. “I came prepared. Show your heads down here onlyif you want them blown off.”

He ducked back inside before the answeringshots were fired.

“Are we still above thecity?” Kali asked.

“Yes, above the TraplineHotel when I came up. I ran into Lockhart and almost didn’t makeit. I was busy looking for you, and he caught me by surprise.”Cedar gave her a significant stare, and Kali lifted a hand inapology.

“Sorry about that. Ishouldn’t have gone off without telling you, but I was hoping Icould explain things to Lockhart and that he’d realize you weren’tresponsible for those murders.”

“Yes, and how’d that go?”Cedar asked sarcastically.

“Poorly. He waved his gunat me and told me only your death would bring peace to those whowere murdered.”

Guns fired, though they sounded far away.Down below them somewhere. Cedar cocked his head but dismissed thenoise. It filled Kali with hope. Maybe Mounties were even nowtrying to figure out a way to eliminate the pirates. If she couldbring the craft down, there might be an armed force waiting to takeon the criminals that had been plaguing the claims along the YukonRiver. Of course, landing in the city would be a problem,especially if she was steering from a closet. The citizens mightnot be happy with her if she crashed the ship into one of thepopular saloons.

“Wait until you see what’sin the closet before making plans,” Kali told herself.

“What?” Cedar asked. Hewas checking the corridor again.

“Nothing. Just thinking.How’d you get from the hotel onto the ship?” Kali didn’t see anyspecial climbing gear on Cedar.

“After I evaded Lockhart,I circled back to the saloon, grilled some of the patrons, learnedabout the kidnapping and that you’d been there. I saw the ship andhad a hunch you’d be up here too. I made a grappling hook, ranacross the rooftops until I could get close enough, threw it overthe railing, and climbed up.”

“Sounds like a lot ofwork. I appreciate you coming.”

“I figured you could useme for…. What’s the plan again?” Cedar pressed his ear to the door.“They’re being quiet. That can’t be good.”

“I’d like to check thatcloset you mentioned, see if I can give the pirates some trouble todeal with. Can you distract them long enough for me to run to theend of the corridor and shut myself in?”

Cedar frowned at her. “That door won’t stopbullets. I don’t want you running for it if they’re still shootingin this direction.” He thunked the tip of his sword onto thefloorboards thoughtfully. “Though if you had some of your smokenuts or some such, I reckon I could charge on up there and keepthem from looking down here for a while.”

Kali deposited her lone smoke nut in hishand, then handed him her flame weapon. “I expect you can make alot of smoke with that. Just don’t burn anything important. I stillaim to claim this ship for my own.”

Cedar frowned. “As much as I’d be tickled toput your latest invention to use, I don’t want to leave you withouta weapon.”

There wasn’t time to go into why she didn’tparticularly want to use the deadly flame-maker again herself, soshe simply said, “I’m sure we can find something here.” Kali gavehim a quick demonstration on how to use the weapon. Between it, thesword, and the blood spattering his clothing, he would look likesome hell-spawned demon bursting into that group of pirates. Ifthey were smart, they’d jump overboard while they could.

A concerned furrow crinkled Cedar’s brow,but Kali gave him a firm it’s-settled wave, then pulled open a seachest and threw out clothing that stank of sweat and blood. Sheshoved candles and matches out of the way and, at the bottom, founda pair of six-shooters and ammunition. She stuffed one revolverinto her overalls and held the other out. “Keitlyudee, can youshoot?”

The girl lifted her head and stared at theweapon without answering.

“Look,” Kali said,switching to Han, “if we don’t get out of here, you’re going tosuffer more torment at the hands of these pirates. We all will. Ineed your help.”

Keitlyudee closed her eyes, took a deepbreath, and stood up. She turned her back to Cedar and wrapped herarms around herself. “I understand,” she whispered, also in Han,though she surely had to understand English if she’d been on theroad with that dancing troupe.

Kali gave her the gun.

“I need…” With a shakinghand, Keitlyudee waved to encompass her naked state.

Kali looked away from the welts and blood.Seeing what Sparwood had done made her want to fry him again. “Lotsof clothes to pick from.” She kicked the heap of shirts on thefloor.

Keitlyudee’s back stiffened. “I will shoothis gun, but I will not wear anything that monster touched.”

“They’re planningsomething,” Cedar said after another corridor check. “I can hearmuttering at the top of the stairs.

“You’ll have to go nakedthen,” Kali told Keitlyudee, this time in English.

“Why wouldthat be a requirementfor distracting them?” Cedar looked over his shoulder. “Oh, youmean her.”

“You’re welcome to strip,too,” Kali said. “I’m still waiting to see if you havehammertoes.”

“I do not. My toes arehandsome. Like the rest of me.”

Cedar set his weapons aside while he removedhis shirt. He handed it to Keitlyudee and reclaimed his gear. Sheregarded the shirt briefly before pulling it over her head. Itdangled to her knees like a dress.

“Looks like we’re ready,”Kali said.

A metal tin clinked down the stairs androlled to a stop near their door. Blue smoke hissed into thecorridor. Cedar looked like he might lean out and kick the thingback the way it had come, but a gunshot rang out, and a bulletsmashed into the door frame, inches from his head.

Cedar drew back, flinging an arm over hisnose and mouth, and grumbled, “Smoke grenade.”

“That’s not a smokegrenade.” Kali pointed to the smoke nut in Cedar’s hand.“That’s a smokegrenade.”

“Yes, right. I’ll put itto good use.” Cedar nodded to himself. “You two ladies, go takecare of bringing the ship down. I’ll give you the time youneed.”

“Be careful,” Kali said.“If we land-” she decided to be optimistic and not use the wordcrash, “-Lockhart could be there waiting. And Cudgeltoo.”

Cedar had been readying the smoke nut tothrow, but he froze in the middle of arming it. Slowly, veryslowly, he lifted his eyes to meet Kali’s through the haze waftinginto the cabin. “Cudgel is here?”

“I assume it was him. Theycalled him Mister Conrad, and even the captain was deferential. Hewanted me and was interested in the flash gold, but he said he wasgoing off to set things up, so the Pinkerton detective would besure to find you.”

Cedar was statue-still. If not for thesubtle rise and fall of his chest, Kali might not have known he wasalive.

“He wore a white suit,”she went on, “and had green-blue eyes. Seemed more like the slick,gentlemanly type than a ‘Cudgel,’ but I reckon you can’t go bylooks.”

It was smoke billowing into the room and around of coughing from Keitlyudee that finally bestirred Cedar.“No, you can’t. That’s him.” He offered Kali a quick smile, thoughit did not reach his eyes. “I better survive these pirates, so Ican get him. I’m not going to fail when I’m this close.”

“Be careful,” Kali urgedagain. She was thinking that she ought to give him a kiss for luckor elicit a promise that he’d return to her, or one of those otherthings women always did when men they cared about went into battle,but she was too slow, and Cedar opened the door and slipped intothe smoky corridor. The haze swallowed him.

“What’s that?” a pirateblurted from above.

“He threw our grenadeback-no, wait, it’s-” The speaker broke off with a cry ofpain.

“Time for us to go,” Kaliwhispered to Keitlyudee.

She trusted Cedar to give her the time sheneeded; now she had to make use of it. She tied a kerchief aroundher nose and mouth, then slipped out of the cabin, heading towardthe door at the end of the corridor.

Though the pirate smoke grenade was spewingits last gray puffs, the acrid air stung her eyes, so Kali hustled.Behind her, gunshots fired. This time, they weren’t near thestairway, and she knew Cedar was on deck with the pirates.

When Kali opened the door, she almosttripped over a man sitting on the floor inside a closet full ofpipes and levers. He stared up at her with bleary eyes and a bottleclenched in one meaty paw. Almost as surprised by his presence ashe clearly was by hers, Kali scrabbled for her revolver.

For a man in a drunken stupor, the piratereacted quickly. He hurled his bottle at Kali before she could tugthe gun out of her overalls. She ducked, and it skimmed past herhead and crashed against a wall of vertical pipes. Cheap alcoholand shards of glass flew. The man lunged to his feet, reaching fora gun of his own, but Kali kicked him in the knee to buy herself asecond. She jumped back into the corridor, finally yanking hersix-shooter free.

Kali aimed it at his chest. “Drop yourgun.”

Her kick had thrown theman off balance, and he slipped in the spilled alcohol. In theconfining closet, he couldn’t fall far, but his head smacked thewall and he dropped his gun. It hit the ground and went off. Kaliflung herself to the floor. From the clang, clang, thunk that followed,she guessed the bullet never left the closet. A hiss of gas roseover the clamor coming from the deck above.

Kali winced. “On second thought, mysuggestion to drop the gun might have been flawed.”

After hopping to her feet, she aimed herrevolver at the pirate again, but he hadn’t moved since his headstruck the wall. She grabbed the fallen gun and patted him down forother weapons, but didn’t find anything else. She eyed hiscorpulent form with a grimace. As tiny as the closet was, she’dhave to move him out in order to step inside herself.

Kali grabbed his arm. Farther back in thecorridor, Keitlyudee was watching with her own revolver pointedloosely in the man’s direction. Kali thought about asking for help,but the girl barely seemed to have the wherewithal left to hold thegun. Kali dragged the two hundred pounds of dead weight through thedoorway on her own, her legs and back trembling from the effort.Grunting and straining, she finally managed to tug the pirate outof the closet. Smoke lingered in the corridor, and she had to fightnot to break into a coughing fit.

A door creaked open behind her. Damn, shehad forgotten about that pirate.

He had found shoes, and he wore his weaponsbelt around his waist now instead of between his teeth. He hadalready extracted a six-shooter from it, and he pointed it at Kalieven as she pointed hers at him.

“Who told you that youcould come out?” she growled, putting all the steel she couldmuster into her voice, knowing that, without the flame gun, she didnot have as fearsome a weapon with which to cow him.

“Put down your guns,girls,” the pirate said.

Keitlyudee dropped her weapon and pressedher back against the wall, though she was farther down the corridorand not the focus of the pirate’s attention.

Kali flicked her gaze toward the stairwelland lifted a hand, as if Cedar had appeared and she was beckoninghim for help. For a split second, the pirate’s eyes shifted. Kalifired.

Anticipating a return shot, she droppeddown, almost landing on the unconscious man. The return fire cameamidst curses, the bullet zipping over her head so close it stirredher hair. It clanged against metal behind Kali.

Her bullet had clipped the pirate’s ear, andblood streamed down the side of his head. It had to hurt, but hewas lowering his gun to fire again. Still on her back, Kali shotfirst, this time leaving a smoking hole in his boot. The man howledand dropped his gun. Kali kicked it down the corridor and trainedher weapon on the pirate again.

“I said, who told you to come out?”Yes, she was flat on her back, but she would shoot him again, in amore vital spot, if he didn’t back off.

Hopping on one foot, the man gave her a wildglare. Had he not expected a woman would actually shoot him? Aftera long, considering moment, he stumbled back into his cabin.

Kali yanked his door shut and scrambled toher feet.

“Stand here and watch thisone,” she told Keitlyudee, then stepped over the unconscious pirateand returned to the mechanical room. “Shoot him if he getsup.”

“You’re not afraid of themat all, are you?” Keitlyudee asked.

Kali’s heart, still pounding after havingthat gun pointed at her face, belied that notion, but all she saidwas, “I’m sure I would be if I’d had your night.”

She focused on the levers, on/off wheels,gauges, and pipes running from floor to ceiling in the cubby andscowled. Not only were there two holes in one of the pipes, but shecouldn’t identify which gas was flowing out from them. The labelplaques were in…“Persian?” she guessed. Her father had had bookswritten in European languages, but he had never taught her how toread any of them, and everything inside the machine room wasgibberish to her. “Why couldn’t these oafs steal an American orBritish airship?”

She leaned close to one of the leaks andsniffed, though she promptly rolled her eyes at herself when shedidn’t smell anything. Both oxygen and hydrogen were colorless andodorless, so what had she expected?

“The holes are good,aren’t they?” Keitlyudee had edged closer. “We wanted to sabotagethings, didn’t we?”

“We want to bring down theship. If the air supply is leaking, that’s not going to happen. Weneed to make sure they run low on hydrogen up there, but I’m notsure which one is which. How’s your Persian?”

The girl gave Kali a blank look.

“That’s about what Iexpected.” Kali picked up the alcohol bottle. Only the neck hadbroken, and the body appeared to be intact. “Will you get me thematches in Sparwood’s chest?”

Keitlyudee paled, probably not wanting toreturn to that foul room, but she whispered, “Very well,” andheaded down the corridor.

Kali drained the remaining liquid from thebottle. Gunfire sounded somewhere overhead. She wondered if anyonein navigation had noticed the pressure drop on the gas boardyet.

“Here.” Keitlyudee handedher a couple of long wooden matches with bulbous phosphorousheads.

Kali lifted her hand, but paused. “Betternot do it in here.” Her dead father would cringe with embarrassmentif she blew herself up by lighting a match in a closet full ofhydrogen. “Wait for me by the stairs. I’ll have you light one overthere.”

“All right…”

Kali decided not to explain the dangers ofher little experiment. They would only worry the girl. She turnedthe alcohol bottle sideways and pressed the jagged opening as closeto one of the holes as she could. Gas whistled past, cooling herfingers, and she hoped enough of it got into the bottle for herexperiment.

When she judged the bottle to be as full asit would get, Kali plopped her hand over it as tightly as shecould, given the jagged glass lip. “Light the match.”

She jogged up the corridor and placed thebottle on a step near the exit, hoping enough cool air was swirlingdown from above that they didn’t need to worry about hydrogen inthe corridor. Keitlyudee lit the match. Kali took it and, wishingfor goggles, slid the flame over the bottle opening at the sametime as she removed her hand.

The flame was sucked into the bottle with apop.

“That’s it,” Kali said andran back to the closet, tearing tin snips out of her pocket as shewent. As soon as she reached the leaking pipe, she went to workbroadening the holes so the gas would flow out morequickly.

“Uh?” Keitlyudee said fromthe corridor. “What did we just prove?”

“This is the hydrogenline,” Kali said. “That pop we heard was the sound of the gascombusting really fast and the pressure equalizing inside andoutside of the container.”

“Oh,” Keitlyudee said, notsounding any more enlightened than before.

Kali worked on the pipe until she’d nearlytorn it in half. “There,” she murmured. “That ought to bring thisboat down.”

A shot fired in the corridor.

“Are they coming?” Kalistuffed her tin snips into a pocket and stepped out.

The smell of black smoke tinged the air, andKeitlyudee stood, looking at her gun. “No. I mean, I thoughtsomeone ran past the top of the stairs, and I fired. They weren’tcoming down though. I guess.”

Kali rubbed her face. The girl was as likelyto shoot an ally in the back as an enemy. “Let’s go up and see ifthis hole is causing a problem for the navigator yet.”

Before they reached the stairs, the scent ofsmoke came to Kali’s nose. At first, she thought it might belingering from her experiment or the gunshot, but it was waftingdown from the deck above. She hoped Cedar wasn’t running around,lighting things on fire up there. She still had hopes for claimingthe ship.

Kali eased up the steps, her revolver at theready, and poked her head out. Darkness blanketed the stern of theship, but toward the bow firelight pushed back the night andhighlighted bodies-at least a dozen-littering the deck. The flamesdanced around an enclosed cabin where Kali could just make out thewheel of the ship and a bank of levers through windows reflectingthe fire. Navigation. If any pirates were still inside, shecouldn’t tell.

Her eye followed those flames upward, andshe swallowed. If the fire grew a few more feet, it would bebathing the bottom of the balloon. If it burned through the outershell and ignited the hydrogen, the fiddling she’d done with thepipe wouldn’t matter an iota.

“Cedar,” Kali groaned.“What have you been doing up-”

An impact jolted the ship, hurling Kalibackward, amidst cracking wood and groaning metal. She tried tocatch herself on the stairs, but her heel slipped off, and shetumbled to the bottom, landing in a painful heap. Shudders ranthrough the vessel. They must have hit something. Were they intown? Or on a mountaintop somewhere?

The ship groaned and scraped, pulling awayfrom whatever it had struck.

“Are you all right?”Keitlyudee asked.

Kali waved the question away and scrambledto her feet. “I’m fine, but I need to find Cedar. I want you to getoff as soon as possible. If we can find his rope and grapplinghook, maybe-”

Footsteps pounded toward the entrance abovethem. The navigators finally coming down to check on what hadcaused the hydrogen to vent?

Kali dropped to one knee and braced herwrist for a steady shot at whoever burst into sight at the top ofthe stairs.

“Kali!” Cedar shouted asecond before he appeared. “I need you to-oh, there youare.”

Kali lowered the gun and ran up to meet him.Another impact rocked the ship, and a great cracking and smashingof wood shattered the night. This time the ship jerked to a halt,sending Kali flying forward instead of back. Cedar caught her andpulled her against his chest. His legs were spread, braced againstthe steps and the wall.

“We have to get off,” hesaid.

“Yes, but if we leave, wecan’t take over the ship. The pirates will get it, and thisfighting will have been for nothing.” Well, not nothing-they’drescued Keitlyudee-but Kali wanted the ship, damn it.

“We just crashed into asmokestack, and we’re on the roof of the mill, Kali,” Cedar saidslowly, like someone trying to get something through the muddledthoughts of a drunk.

“Oh.” Kali supposed thatanswered her question about whether they were in town or thewilderness.

“There aren’t any piratesleft either,” Cedar went on. “The only thing to worry about is thatfire spreading to the entire town.” He pointed at theflames.

Dried blood streaked his arm. In fact, hiswhole chest was spattered with it, though he did not appearinjured. Kali wondered if the pirates were gone because theyabandoned the ship or if he had decimated them all. She decided notto ask.

Shouts drifted up from the town below, criesof, “Fire!” and, “Get the hoses!”

“Tarnation,” Kali said, asthe new threat permeated her brain. She’d wanted to bring the shipdown, not light the city on fire. She pushed away from Cedar.“Maybe we can get the ship off the mill and dump it in the riverwhere the fire can’t spread.”

Cedar gave her a suspicious squint beforeletting her go. He probably thought she was still hoping to salvagethe ship, and maybe she was, but she couldn’t let it turn Dawsoninto an inferno, not when she’d been responsible for sabotaging thehydrogen.

Keitlyudee was lingering on the stairsbehind her. Kali grabbed her arm and guided her onto the deck.

“Is there a way for her toget off?” Kali asked.

“My rope should still betied behind that capstan over there.” Cedar pointed toward arailing on the aft side of the ship.

“Can you climb down?” Kaliasked, eyeing the woman’s bruises.

Keitlyudee nodded vigorously. She’d probablydo anything to get off the ship and away from her night ofhell.

“Go, then.” Kali wavedtoward the railing, then told Cedar, “I’m going to navigation.Cover me.”

Without waiting for approval-or dissent-Kalijogged across the flame-lit deck toward the cabin. Heat beatagainst her face, and wood snapped so loudly it hurt her ears. Ashower of sparks flew upward, dancing toward the bottom of theballoon.

“Kali…” Cedar had caughtup to her, and he grabbed her arm. “It’s too dangerous to go inthere. You need to-” He broke off with a hiss.

Kali glanced over her shoulder and followedCedar’s gaze. At the far end of the ship, a dark figure wasslipping over the railing.

“Look out!” Cedar lunged,throwing an arm around Kali’s waist and bearing her down withhim.

A gunshot fired, and a bullet skipped offthe deck inches from Cedar’s head.

“Who-” Kalistarted.

“Lockhart.” Cedar jumpedto his feet again, hauling Kali with him, and he raced around tothe front of the navigation cabin.

It took them out of the detective’s line offire, but, given the flames crackling and roaring a foot away, Kalidid not know that they were any safer there.

“Do what you have to do inthere.” Cedar leaned around a corner and fired a shot. “I’ll keephim busy.”

Kali hesitated, remembering his words fromthe restaurant. He didn’t want to kill Lockhart, so he’d beshooting only to maim. Lockhart, on the other hand, wanted Cedarmore than anything else in the world just then.

“I’ll be fine here on myown.” Kali tried to shove Cedar toward the railing. “He won’t shootme. You should get out of here before-”

Cedar darted away from her and fired twiceinto the night. With the navigation cabin blocking her view, Kalicouldn’t see Lockhart, but she imagined him ducking behind somecover. Cedar waved Kali toward the open door, even as he ran andslid behind a capstan near the railing. Fire danced on ropes overhis head.

Kali swallowed. She had best do thisquickly, for both of their sakes.

The windows allowed her to see inside thecabin. Though flames roared on the outside, they did not seem tohave damaged the interior irrevocably yet. Kali tugged her kerchiefover her mouth and nose again and edged closer to the door. Certainthe metal lever would be hotter than Hades, she pulled her sleeveover her hand.

Heat railed at her, and the wind shifted,driving smoke into her eyes. The men exchanged another round offire, and Kali forced herself to hurry. She grabbed the lever,twisting it and yanking it open. The sleeve did nothing forprotection, and heat scorched her palm, as if she had grabbed aniron from the forge. The hatch swung open. She shook her hand andmade a point not to look at the welts that had to be risingthere.

Staying low, Kali dartedinto the cabin. With windows on all sides, she knew she’d be atarget in there. Though she didn’t think Lockhart would aim at her, shecouldn’t be sure. He might decide hurting her would distract Cedar,providing the opportunity the agent needed to take his prey down.Or he might think she was trying to damage the city instead ofsaving it.

Kali dashed sweat out of her eyes as sheconsidered the large wooden wheel and the control panel sprawlingacross the front of the cabin. Waves of heat battered her from allsides, and she knew she couldn’t stay long. Even with the kerchiefover her mouth, hot fumes scorched her nostrils, seeming to burnall the way to her lungs. She’d never been inside a volcano, butshe imagined it would feel like this.

Though she didn’t expect it to have anyresult, Kali grabbed the wheel and spun it as far to one side as itwould go. The ship’s engines were still working-vibrations thrummedbeneath her feet-but they could do nothing, not with the vesselgrounded atop the mill. Indeed, Kali could see the large smokestackpressed against the bow. For all she knew, the fans that propelledthe ship were busted, smashed into pieces when the craft crashedonto the mill roof. Only achieving lift would help them.

More screams of, “Fire, fire!” came from thecity below, and Kali had a feeling the flames were alreadyspreading.

She searched the bank of levers, hunting forsomething that might help. As far as she knew, the balloon wasn’tyet compromised, so there had to be hydrogen remaining up there.What if she now vented some of the air? That would partiallydeflate the balloon, but it’d also change the hydrogen-to-airratio. If the ship wasn’t too heavy, maybe there’d be enough of thelighter gas left to lift the hull a few feet. That ought to be allthey needed to limp through town and reach the river.

Unlike with the controls in the machine roombelow, these had tape pasted below them with English translationsscrawled across the surface. There was hydrogen with its leveralready thrust to maximum. Someone had tried to get them back intothe air, but there were no reserves to call upon. Kali could havesmacked herself on the forehead for her shortsighted sabotage.Bringing the ship down had been her goal, of course, but that hadbeen before she’d known about the fire. She’d envisioned a softlanding in the middle of the Main Street mud. If they caught thecity on fire…it’d be her fault.

The smoke invading her throat spurred aseries of coughs, and Kali dropped low for a moment, gatheringherself. Black dots danced at the edges of her vision. The heat wasmaking her dizzy.

A bullet shattered one of the rear windows.It cut straight through and slammed into a charred support beam inthe corner. Broken glass pelted Kali. Already on her knees, sheburied her head and raised her arms to protect her neck. Shardstinkled to the deck all around, the soft noises oddly audible abovethe snapping wood and roaring fire. More than one piece of glassfound bare skin, and Kali winced. Warm blood trickled down herjawline.

“So much for Lockhart notshooting at me,” she muttered, her voice hoarse.

Talking only brought on another round ofcoughing. More noxious fumes invaded her lungs.

Kali squinted up at the control panel,renewing her search. There was a lever for adding air, butwhere-ah, there it was. Two wheels for emergency venting purposes,both fortunately labeled. Kali fought against the heat and her owndizziness to rise enough to grab the closest wheel. She had tosimultaneously push and twist to vent the air.

Out on the deck, the fire had spread,charring everything in its path as flames leapt into the night.Under the reddish glow, Kali glimpsed Lockhart inching closer tothe bow of the ship. He darted from one piece of cover to the next,drawing near her station.

From somewhere in front ofthe navigation cabin, Cedar fired. Lockhart ducked behind one ofthe weapons turrets. Kali shook her head. Didn’t he know that Cedardidn’t have tomiss? And would Cedar continue to miss if Lockhart became a threatto her? Being framed for murdering innocent citizens was badenough; killing a Pinkerton detective would bring the wrath of theentire agency down upon him.

After Kali left the vent controls, shecrouched behind the wooden navigation wheel and turned it all theway to starboard. Nothing happened. She held it there, hoping theballoon would eventually rise, lifting the ship free of its perch.Of course, if the ship was too heavy and the balloon simplydeflated, it might droop down onto the deck, and smother them allin a fiery cocoon of death.

“Probably shouldn’t thinkthings like that,” she muttered to herself.

A loud crack erupted behind her. Kali drewher arm in front of her face as a portion of the roof caved in.Burning wood fell everywhere, and ash clogged the air. A gapinghole in the ceiling revealed flames leaping from the cabin’s roof,their fingers licking the bottom of the balloon. If the hydrogenblew…with her this close to it….

Kali gulped and rose to her feet, tempted tosprint outside and forget the ship and the city. She didn’t want todie over this. Maybe if she could find some rope, she could tie thewheel in place, so the ship would turn away from the smokestack onits own if the hull lifted.

Wood scraped and groaned beneath Kali. Thehull scraping against the mill’s roof.

“Yes,” she whispered.“We’re moving.”

With the hot wheel gripped in both hands,she fastened her gaze to the front window. Ash stung her eyes, andtears streamed down her face, but it didn’t matter. They wererising. Slowly but surely, with much scraping and bumping, theyclimbed away from the mill roof.

Kali adjusted the wheel, trying to veer inthe direction of the river. The ship responded sluggishly, but itinched forward.

More than one bullet had assaulted thewindows, and she had to peer through a spider web of cracked glass.Despite the fire raging on the ship, the blanket of night stillcloaked Dawson. She struggled to get her bearings, and it was morememory of the city’s layout that guided her, rather than what shesaw, though dozens of lanterns swirled about below, people runningto and fro, coming to help, or perhaps simply gawk.

Nausea churned in Kali’s stomach, andlightheadedness continued to assail her. She gripped the wheeltightly, fearing she might otherwise wither under the heat andcollapse to the deck. She’d stopped sweating and was simply bakingnow, like salmon bundled in leaves and cooked beneath the embers ofa fire.

Movement stirred at the corner of hervision. Lockhart. He’d drawn even with the cabin, and gripped hisColt, his jaw set with determination, but he didn’t aim it at her.He met her eyes briefly before standing on tiptoes to peer out pastthe bow. Did he know what she was trying to accomplish? Kali hopedso. She was too hot to dodge bullets. All she wanted was-

A snap split the air, hammering Kali’s earswith its power. The ceiling collapsed.

Burning wood plummeted, and somethingheavy-a beam? — smashed into her and flattened her to the deck.

Strangely, Kali didn’t feel any pain, but agreat weight pinned her. It felt like a mountain had landed on herback, and it wasn’t moving. She tried to push and pull herselffree, but one of her arms was also pinned. With the other shereached, trying to find something to grab, some way to obtainleverage to pull herself free, but her fingernails only scrabbleduselessly against the hot deck boards. She couldn’t feel herlegs.

Kali tried to suck in a deep breath so shecould call out for help, but too much weight pressed against herlungs. She couldn’t breathe. Tears of frustration and fear sprangto her eyes. She was going to die here, all because she’d beengreedy and tried to find a shortcut to getting an airship. She’dnever escape the Yukon, never see the world, never know a winterthat wasn’t icy and dark.

“Kali!”

Hope stirred. It was Cedar. But his voicesounded far away, and flames leapt all about Kali. Could he reachher in time?

She tried to lift her head, to use the lastof her air to cry out, but she couldn’t budge her cheek from thedeck.

Boots came into view, not one set but two.Cedar and…Lockhart?

Kali couldn’t tell. Everything was sobright, so hot. Pain stabbed her head and her eyes.

Scrapes sounded, and she sensed the menpulling wood off of her. The great weight shifted on her back,lessening, and she finally gulped in a breath of hot, smoky air.She’d lost her kerchief. Dumb thing to notice.

Hands gripped her beneath the armpits, andmore rubble fell away from her as someone pulled her free. Cedar.She could barely make him out through her bleary eyes, but he swepther up in both arms, carrying her against his chest.

“Take her somewhere safe.”That was Lockhart. He stood amongst the burning debris, both handson the wheel.

Confusion swarmed over Kali. Had they madepeace? Or perhaps declared a truce until the city was safe?

Before she could ask, Cedar rushed out thedoor. In long running strides, he carried her to the railing wherehis rope was tied, the end dangling into the darkness below.

On her back in his arms, Kali had a view ofthe balloon, of the way the flames flickered all about it, burninginto the material, compromising its integrity. She stiffened.

“The balloon!” she triedto shout. Her voice came out raspy and weak. “Get out of there!”she yelled as loudly as she could.

Cedar leaped over the railing withoutslowing. Wind whistled past her face, and she thought they’d fallall the way to the ground, but he twisted in the air and caught therope. He shimmied down it and landed lightly on-a dock? Had theymade it to the river? Kali twisted her neck, trying to see.

Before she got her bearings, a massive boomshook the earth, and the sky exploded in flames. The power of theshock wave knocked Cedar down, and Kali fell to the dock on top ofhim. He rolled over her to protect her, but she still saw theairship, a great fiery ball, plunging into the Yukon River.

It was the last thing Kali saw before herworld disappeared in blackness.

Epilogue

Kali woke in a bed in a log room withdaylight streaming in the window. It was a real glass window, and ablack doctor’s bag sat on a nearby stool. Doc Morgan’s place, sheguessed. Conversations drifted through the open window, and voicesof teamsters managing horses came from farther away, so shegathered the city hadn’t burned down.

Taking a deep breath evoked pain on thebackside of her ribs, and she decided shallow breaths had moreappeal. She turned her head to find Cedar slumped in a chair nearher bed. His eyes were closed, his head was thrown back, and hismouth hung open. Kali smiled, tickled by the idea of the deadlybounty hunter in repose. She was reluctant to wake him, but shewanted to know what had happened in the end.

“I hope-” Kali’s voicecame out hoarse and scratchy, and speaking hurt. She lowered it toa whisper to finish. “I hope Cudgel doesn’t stroll by when you’resuch an easy target.”

A single eye opened. “My back is to thewall, and I can see the door and the window from here.”

“Is it hard to see withyour eyes closed?”

“Not if you’regood.”

As hard as talking was, Kali couldn’t resistthe urge to tease him. “Someone been filling your head with notionsthat you’re good?”

“Not often enough.”Cedar’s other eye opened, and the pair swiveled to regardher.

“Not my fault you haven’tbeen around much.” Kali eyed the hand-hewn rafters in the ceiling.“I suppose that’ll continue now that you’re certain Cudgel’shere.”

“Well, I was staying awayso he wouldn’t learn that I had feelings for you, but it soundslike he already figured out that we’re…something-” Cedar lifted hiseyebrows, and Kali nodded, “-so I expect that’s a good reason forus to stick together. Then he’d have to go through me to hurtyou.”

“I can take care ofmyself,” Kali said, more out of habit than any objection tospending time with him.

“Oh, I know that, but, strange as it seems,I like to be around you.” Cedar leaned toward her, and Kali turnedher face, expecting a kiss, but he hesitated, a question in hiseyes.

He must wonder if she forgave him, if shestill accepted him now that she knew about his not entirelyhonorable past. Kali twitched a shoulder. It wasn’t like she wasperfect either. Tarnation, she’d slept with that weasel, Sebastian.For all she knew, he had a wife or three down south somewhere.

Kali lifted her hand and brushed her fingersalong his jaw. “I see you’re stubbly again. Didn’t we talk aboutyou adopting shaving on a more regular basis?”

His eyes crinkled, and he kissed her. It wasa might more chaste and gentle than she would have preferred, butshe supposed a woman with broken ribs ought not to have too muchexcitement in her day.

When Cedar drew back, Kali settled againstthe pillow again and said, “That was nice, but don’t think I’ll letyou loiter around me if kissing is all you’ve got in mind. As Irecall, you promised to put blade to board and help me build myairship.”

Cedar smiled. “You’re still a hard woman toimpress, I see.”

“Indeed, I am, sir. Whathappened to Lockhart?” Kali wondered if the detective wouldcontinue to be a problem, though she couldn’t imagine someonesurviving that explosion.

Cedar’s smile faded. “He’s dead.” He drew aColt from a holster in a belt hanging over the chair, and shegathered that he had gone to check for himself. He turned theweapon over in his hand, studying it, or perhaps not seeing it atall. “I ran into the cabin when I saw the ceiling fall. I wasn’tpaying attention to anything but-” His voice grew tight, as if hewas working around a lump in his throat, and he had to clear itbefore he could continue. “I would have been an easy target. Iguess he figured that at that moment saving you and the city wasmore important than shooting me.” His voice grew soft. “I don’tknow if I’d have been able to get you out of that cabin if not forhis help.”

Kali closed her eyes. It was strange anduncomfortable to be beholden to a dead man. How did one repay adebt like that? “He seemed like a decent fellow,” she said. “Justtoo stubborn to listen to the truth, but I reckon that’s a lot ofmen.”

“Most.”

If Cedar was relieved that the detectivewouldn’t be following him any more, he did not show it. But then,the Pinkertons would probably send someone else when they learnedof Lockhart’s death. Perhaps he had only traded a known enemy for anew, unknown one.

“It’s wrong, isn’t it?”Kali asked. “Decent people trying to kill each other, not evenknowing they are more alike than not, not realizing they got norightful reason to be enemies.”

Cedar offered a neutral grunt. Maybe hestill felt a measure of guilt for the role he’d played in thatwoman’s death. He returned the revolver to its holster.

Kali watched it. “He told me he wanted tobring peace with that.”

“I know.”

“They say the Pinkertonsare supposed to be the righteous hand of the law, but it’s foolishto think you can make peace if the only tool you have is agun.”

“Is that comment supposedto apply to me too?” Cedar asked. “Because I also have asword.”

Kali snorted. “The tool I’m really lookingforward to seeing you handle is a saw.”

“Ah, yes, aboutthat-”

Footsteps sounded on the wooden sidewalkoutside the window, and a knock came at the door. Cedar did nottense or reach for a weapon.

“Come in,” hecalled.

The door opened, and Keitlyudee strolled inwith young Tadzi limping after. Keitlyudee had cleaned up and worea beaded caribou dress and sandals. The bruises on her face hadstarted to fade, which made Kali toss a surprised glance atCedar.

“How long have I beenout?”

“Couple days,” he said.“You’ve been in and out. You were beat soundly up there, brokenribs and burns. Doc gave you a draught to make you sleep and healup.”

Kali couldn’t fault that, she supposed, butit made her uneasy to think of days passing without her knowingit.

Tadzi bounced to a stop in front of Cedar.“My cousins are working the crane with those two smiths, andthey’ll have the engine out soon. The deck’s all busted and burned,but lots of the hull is still serviceable.”

Kali stared at him. “What’s this?”

“I told Chief Isaac whatyou did for me,” Keitlyudee said, “and how what you did will givepeace to the spirits of all the girls that were killed by thatmonster. Now you’re…” She shrugged.

“You’re a hero!” Tadziblurted. “Cedar said you’re building an airship too.” His eyesnearly bulged out of his head.

“The Han were thinking ofa feast in your honor,” Cedar told Kali with a sly look, “but Isaid if they really wanted to honor you, they could send somepeople to help you salvage that ship and build the hull to your newone.”

“How many people?” Kaliwhispered, visions of a legion of workers dancing in her head.Maybe she could finish before winter came after all.

“About a dozen. And someof the townsfolk are helping get the airship out of the water. Themayor said you were welcome to what’s left, and he’s appreciativethat you kept the city from burning. So if you’ve ever wanted afavor, now might be the time to ask.”

“I…” Kali stifled agrimace. Though the pirates were to blame for much of the mess, ithad been her desire to take over the ship that had put Dawson injeopardy in the first place. It didn’t seem right to be anyone’shero over that. She had just fixed the problem she’d caused andnearly gotten herself killed in the process.

“My grandma said I couldcome help you with it,” Tadzi said. “If you’ll have me. I couldcarve the masthead!”

“I’d like to help too,”Keitlyudee said. “What I owe you can never be repaid.”

“I…”

“You’re not speechless,are you?” Cedar smirked. “I’ve never seen that on you.”

“I…don’t know what tosay,” Kali said.

“Thank you is a popularchoice,” Cedar said, then told Keitlyudee, “She’s hard to impressand has difficulty showing gratitude.”

“Do not.” Kali tried topunch him in the shoulder, but her ribs hurt too much and sheaborted the motion.

“See?” Cedar asked theothers.

Kali glared around the room. “Shouldn’t youall be working?”

“Aye, Captain.” Stillsmirking, Cedar saluted and ushered the others out of theroom.

Content

Lindsay Buroker
Peacemaker

Part I

Part II

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Epilogue