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.