“No. No, you didn’t.” She kicked snow. “Like I said, I’m just a stupid fool. Nothing new.”
Tears stung her eyes. The last thing she wanted was to cry in front of him. She slung her rifle over her shoulder and turned her back.
“Kali….”
She stalked away. A part of her wanted him to run after her, to apologize for using her. A part of her was relieved when he did not.
Part VII
Kali chugged into town well after the race finished. Gray clouds hovered low, promising snow. Smoke wafted from chimneys, and the smell of burning wood hung in the air. Nobody lingered at the finish line by the docks, though boisterous noises flowed from the bit house up the bank. The winner buying everyone rounds, no doubt.
She wondered if she would have won if she had not gone back. Surely she would have if she had not been attacked three times and could have pushed straight through without delays. She could have taken the winnings, ordered the parts she needed, and escaped Moose Hollow by summer. She could have sailed the winds and explored the world, a moving target the pirates and gangsters would never catch. But not now. She scraped at ice droplets in her lashes, telling herself it was weariness that made her eyes water, not self-pity.
A lone figure rushed outside when Kali steamed down main street.
“Honey, you made it. Thank the Lord.” Nelly jumped off the covered sidewalk and threw her arms around Kali.
“You weren’t expecting me to? What’d the other racers say?”
“Not much, but there were men here looking for you yesterday. Mean men. They roughed up a couple of my girls.”
Kali winced. Her troubles were bubbling over to affect others.
“And…” Nelly bit her lip.
“What else?” Kali asked, certain she did not want to know.
“They ransacked your home.”
Kali’s shoulders slumped. She told Nelly about the last couple days while they trudged up the street with the sled. As promised, the door to her workshop had been kicked in and hung from a single, broken hinge.
Kali gripped the frame for support and gazed inside. Ransacked, yes, that was a suitable word. Devastated and violated also came to mind. Tools, upturned furniture, and her half-started projects scattered the floor, many in pieces now. A trunk from her bedroom lay beneath the railing, clothes thrown free.
Nelly laid a hand on Kali’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, honey. About your home and especially about the race. I can’t help but feel your loss is my fault. I thought that fellow seemed a good sort. You know you’re welcome to stay at my place as long as you need.”
“Thanks,” Kali mumbled. Maybe the fact she had not slept the night before was a blessing, for gazing at the carnage left her more numb than anything else.
The door to the cubby where she kept the mechanical hounds was bashed in. A crowbar and pickaxe lay on the floor before it. She needed to check…
“Nelly, could you let me be alone for a spell?”
“Of course. You come by my place for dinner. I insist.”
Kali nodded. Though spending time with all those pretty girls in their pretty dresses always made her feel awkward, some company would be better than none.
As soon as Nelly left, Kali shuffled through the mess to check on the dogs. Someone had dumped pipe tobacco on the floor, and the scent of smoke lingered in the air. She propped her rifle against the wall and pushed aside wreckage to peer inside the cubby. The pickaxe had done its work. The dog bodies were mutilated, heads dented beyond recognition. Scraps of metal littered the floor.
Brass plaques screwed into the dogs’ backs had been torn off. She checked inside. The thumbnail-sized piece of flash gold that powered each hound was gone.
“Bastards,” she muttered, stroking one of the broken heads. Having the gold stolen was irritating; having her work-herart-destroyed…hurt.
She wandered around the workshop, making sure nobody lurked in a corner, then climbed the stairs to her tiny office and bedroom. Tangled ropes and bells in the latter proved someone had triggered a booby trap. Too bad she had not been there to do anything about it.
In the office, she removed a slender pick from the backside of the stovepipe, then counted the knots in the pine floorboards. She slid the pick into a specific crack and disengaged a hook. She pulled the board up. None of the tripwires inside had been triggered, so she hoped that meant nobody had found the niche. It took a couple minutes to disarm a trap involving pinchers and a razor blade. Finally she braced herself and pulled out a heavy iron box. The heft reassured her, but she opened the lid to make sure.
Gentle flashing yellow light pulsed through the room, emanating from the pure brick of gold within. Aside from a few tools and books, this was the one thing her father had left her. She had no idea how to make more and considered it priceless. It would power the airship she had planned to build with her race winnings. The airship she stillwouldbuild. One way or another.
She had made the mistake of sharing those dreams with Sebastian, of showing him the flash gold, and then she’d found out the truth: before he ever met her, and long before he’d professed to love to her, he’d researched her father and found out about her. All along, his plan had been to learn if she had the gold and to get it. She had not given it to him-her only parting gift had been a flung smoke nut, which she hoped had done permanent damage-and she was not going to give it to any cursed pirates or gangsters either.
Kali closed the lid lest anyone outside notice the strange light seeping through cracks between the shutters. Before she could put the box back, a weight slammed into her from above.
She tried to roll away, but it smothered her whole body. She lost her grip on the box. A calloused hand clasped onto the back of her neck and forced her face into the floor. Her cheek mashed against worn floorboards. She could not buck, twist, or even wiggle an arm free. Whoever he was, he weighed twice as much as her.
Cedar? Had he followed her back and hidden, waiting until she revealed her secret cache?
Hot breath whispered against her neck. It smelled of tobacco.
“Got you, love,” the man crowed in a deep, raspy voice.
Not Cedar. The same bastard who had ravaged the workshop the day before.
“And you’ve got the mother lode,” he breathed.
Though she could not see him, she knew he was staring at the gold. The box had fallen open, revealing the bar inside.
“Guess it’s your lucky day.” Kali tried again to get her hands beneath her, to push up and away from him. The hard, round shape of a smoke nut in her pocket dug into her hip.
“Not luck,” he said. “Smarts. I knew you’d run right to your stash and check it when you saw you’d been robbed. And you did. Ain’t too bright, are ya?”
“I’ve not been having an overly intelligent week, no.” She tried to buck him again. If she could get the lummox off her long enough to dig into her pocket… “What now? Someone’ll see the flashing gold through the window if we let it sit there all day.”
“Gotta tie you up.” He shifted, lifting his head to peer around.
Yes, she just needed her arm free for a second. “There’s rope in the other room.”
“You’re being a little too helpful for my tastes, girl.”
Erp, she had best not be too obvious. Dumb as he seemed, hehadcaught her. “You’ve got me. What am I supposed to do? You’d prefer me to bite and kick?”
He laughed. “Actually, I do like a feisty wench.” The hand tightened around her neck, and he leaned back. “Get up.”
That was all Kali needed. Under the guise of getting her feet under her, she slipped the smoke nut out of her pocket. She held her breath, closed her eyes, twisted it, and thrust it over her head at the man.