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.