Cedar and Wil both moved back while Hink latched the hook to the center bar holding the shelf to the wall. He then proceeded to wedge two sticks of long-fused dynamite at each end of the shelf.
“You’re just going to blow it up?” Cedar asked. “What makes you think the devices will break?”
“Rose threw one just like these at a man and the glass shattered. I’m thinking that’s exactly what will happen here. Especially when I have the Swift rip the shelf off the wall.” He lit the fuses. “And now it’s too late to argue. Out the road and up the ship,” he ordered. “Unless you want to wake up in hell.”
Hink jogged for the door counting off the seconds left on the fuse. Wil was already running that way, and Cedar was not far behind them.
Five…four…
Hink whistled, one piercing blast, and then he motioned the brothers onto the ladder, jumping on the bottom of it just as the Swift lifted for the sky.
Three…two…
Her fans strained as she angled down and south, the winch-line chain pulling tight.
“Up!” Hink yelled. “Faster!”
Cedar and Wil flew up the ladder. Hink crested the top and was pulled aboard by Rose and Wicks.
One…
“Full throttle!” he yelled.
The explosion pounded at their backs just as Mr. Guffin released the winch line and the Swift tilted into the sky.
Wil stood in the door of the ship, staring back at the billows of smoke coming out of the warehouse.
“They are free,” Not-Wil said.
“And so are the children,” Cedar said.
“Good,” Hink panted as he shoved back up onto his feet and made toward the front of the ship. “Mr. Seldom, take us up high and head back toward the church. We have one last problem to deal with.”
“But what about the Madders?” Rose asked.
“They’re the problem I’m talking about.”
Chapter Forty-three
The Madders were right where they’d left them, standing among the church ruins, smoking pipes. The sheriff stood to one side of the road, but the townspeople and children were gone, having all recovered from their dreaming state.
It took no time for the Madders to come aboard.
The sheriff did not look sorry to see them leave.
While Captain Hink ordered his crew around and the Madders got settled, Cedar stepped up close to Wil.
“I want to talk to it, Wil.”
“Can’t we just, can’t I just rest a bit?” Wil asked. “Besides, it seems…sad.”
“Wil.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll try to make it hear you.” He nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Our bargain is done,” Cedar said. “I freed your kind. Now you leave my brother alone.”
Wil’s face changed minutely, eyes relaxing wider, but jaw tightening. He didn’t look quite Wil-like. Because it was the Strange looking out through Wil’s eyes.
“Not all. My kind. Still. Many dying. Many trapped.”
“But I freed those—we freed those in that warehouse.”
“Our promise holds.” Then Wil’s face was just Wil again, and it was Wil who spoke. “I get the impression there are more of those copper-and-glass things. More Strange trapped inside of them. Maybe shipped off by rail or river?”
“We can’t track them all down,” Cedar growled.
Wil put his hand on Cedar’s shoulder. “Not today we can’t. Maybe tomorrow. Cedar, I’m fine. I feel fine. It’s not difficult to live with. Not yet. So let’s enjoy what we have today. While we have it.”
“Wil,” Mae said, “I’ll need you here a moment.”
Wil worked his way down the length of the airship and paused next to the hammock where Father Kyne had been bedded down. Cedar followed along.
“It’s time to break the healing bond,” she said.
Wil glanced at Cedar.
“I’d forgotten,” Cedar said. “Suppose we should be sitting?”
“No, I don’t think it will be painful.”
Mae said a simple prayer and gently broke the healing bond.
Cedar and Wil both took in a deep breath. Cedar felt as if a rock had been lifted from his chest, allowing his lungs to fill. The absence of that pain was intoxicating, but breathing in too deeply set him into a long coughing spell. He pulled his handkerchief up to his mouth and noticed the speckling of blood there.
“Cedar,” Mae said. “Are you all right?”
He folded the bloody cloth and tucked it away in his pocket. “I’m fine. Just fine.”
Father Kyne lifted his hand. “Thank you,” he said to Cedar and Wil. “For all you have done. For me. And for this town.”
Wil smiled. “It was fun. Hell of a way to spend a day or two.” He gave Cedar a pointed look. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Then he turned and wandered back down the airship, as if restless to walk in a man’s body again.
“Let me get you some tea,” Mae said to Father Kyne. She made her way to the very back and tended the small stove there.
“You were the one who stood your ground for those children,” Cedar said to the father. “We were just part of the people who helped make things right.”
“You have done so much more.” He lifted a hand toward the others on the ship. “Gathered together these people. Created a…family.”
Cedar looked over at the Madders who were making themselves comfortable on the floor midship, leaning against the wall and tamping tobacco in pipes, feet stretched out in front of them, to Miss Dupuis and Mr. Wicks who stood with their heads bent toward each other near one of the windows, talking quietly.
Captain Hink was at the helm and Rose stood next to him, her arm around his waist. His crewmen were on either side of them, Mr. Ansell humming the strains of a song Cedar realized was one of Bach’s concertos. Lastly, there was Wil, slowly walking through the ship, not yet content to settle down.
Wil had given Alun the Holder as soon as the ship had been under way. Cedar had never seen a man stash a bit of metal away in his bags so quickly. He hadn’t asked Alun what he was going to do with it, but he had a fair idea. The Madders said they could lock the Holder away and ensure that all pieces of it were safely out of the hands of every man in this country.
“I don’t know that it’s a family,” Cedar said. “Friends, yes.” Rose leaned her head against Hink’s arm and Miss Dupuis chuckled softly at something Wicks had said. “Maybe more than friends. Comrades in the fight. Whatever the fight might be.”
“The fight’s the same as it ever was, Mr. Hunt,” Alun said around a mouth full of pipe smoke. “We find the Holder before it falls into the wrong hands. We save the world from destruction. Not a bad note to leave in the margins of history, is it?”
The Madders chuckled and Bryn pulled out a small bag of dice. “Of course, there are other ways to pass the time.”
The rattle of dice caught Wil’s ear and he ambled over to join the game.
“Family,” Father Kyne repeated. “Not of blood. But of choice.”
Cedar nodded. “Maybe you’re right.”
“What heading have you taken, Captain Hink?” Alun asked.
“East,” Hink said. “There’s a place we can tuck in out Chicago way, if that suits most.”
“Suits us fine,” Alun said.
“Chicago will do for me as well,” Mr. Wicks said.
Wil leaned back a bit to look at Cedar. Cedar shrugged. Chicago was as good a place as any to wait out the storms and look for the trail to lead them to the next piece of the Holder. There would be work there, lodging. And it did not slip his notice that Chicago was also where Killian Vosbrough’s brother lived.
“Good,” Captain Hink said. “It’s settled. Take the helm, Mr. Seldom. My boilerman and I are going to see that this ship’s fires are properly stoked.”