‘We had some times,’ Malvery agreed gravely.
‘Frey. .’ said Crake. He was about to plead with the Cap’n to reconsider, but Malvery put a hand on his arm to stop him. It would do no good, and they both knew it.
Frey put his head down and walked on up the stairs. Malvery watched him go with a sense of desolation. Something had been done here that couldn’t be undone.
He briefly wondered what would happen to his meagre things, his doctor’s supplies, all the accoutrements of his old life. He wondered if he would have time to say goodbye to Jez, sewn up in a bag on the infirmary’s operating table. He decided it didn’t matter. None of it did. Nothing mattered but right now.
‘Come on,’ he said to them all. ‘Get your guns.’
‘But my books. .’ said Crake weakly. ‘My equipment. .’
‘Don’t reckon the Cap’n’s in the mood to wait,’ said Silo.
‘Leave ’em,’ said Malvery. ‘Bess is what’s important.’
Crake nodded reluctantly. He put his brass whistle to his lips and blew a silent note. In the dark, hollow depths of the armoured suit in the corner, two bright points like stars appeared. Bess stretched as she awoke.
They heard Frey powering up the engines as Silo handed them their weapons. The bombs were getting closer now. Crake reluctantly took a pistol and some ammo. When it came Ashua’s turn, Silo held up her pistol and looked at her hard.
‘Time was, Cap’n didn’t want you on his crew,’ he said. ‘Only reason you got to stay was ’cause I vouched for you. Don’t make no fool of me.’
Ashua took his words as seriously as they were intended. ‘I’ll make it right,’ she said.
‘See you do,’ said Silo, and slapped the pistol into her hand.
The Ketty Jay creaked underneath them, and they felt the floor rise slightly. Time had run out. Malvery, Crake, Harkins, Ashua and Bess hurried down the ramp and off the Ketty Jay.
Outside, the rain was still pouring hard. Some of the pilots, attracted by the sound of engines, were heading across the landing pad towards them, evidently wondering why a craft with Awakeners sigils was taking off when they couldn’t. They stopped being half so curious when they caught sight of the eight-foot metal golem coming out of it.
The Ketty Jay was lifting from the ground even before they’d hopped down. Silo pulled the lever to shut the ramp as soon as the last of them were off. Malvery looked back at the Murthian, and their eyes met through the closing gap.
I’ll never see him again, he thought to himself. Him or the Cap’n.
Then the ramp closed, and he was shut out.
He caught an acrid whiff of aerium gas as the Ketty Jay’s skids left the landing pad. They stepped back as she drifted up into the air. The Coalition pilots raised their guns, uncertain whether to shoot at it or not. Frey didn’t give them the chance. He engaged the thrusters while the Ketty Jay was still recklessly low. A blast of hot air shoved at the crew, blowing their coats and hair about.
Then the Ketty Jay roared off into the cloud and the rain and the storm, and dwindled until they saw it no more.
The pilots had turned their guns on the crew now, still unsure as to what had just happened. ‘Point them guns elsewhere, you bunch of idiots! We’re on your side!’ Malvery bellowed. He won them over by sheer volume. ‘Your aircraft ain’t gonna work while the Awakeners are in the sky, and they’ll be dropping troops on us any minute, like as not. Ain’t you got anywhere more useful to be?’
The troops didn’t argue with that. They dispersed, casting uneasy glances at Bess, who lumbered about restlessly. The fear in the air had set her on edge.
‘I have to find Samandra,’ said Crake.
‘Sounds like a plan to me,’ Malvery replied. ‘Anyone’s gonna be in the thick of it, it’s her.’
‘Not me,’ said Harkins. ‘I’ve got somewhere else to be.’
Malvery was surprised. Harkins’ face was set and grim beneath his patched-up pilot’s cap. ‘Where are you going?’
Harkins pointed at the Firecrow, sitting silent in the hissing rain. ‘There’s one more aircraft that can still fly.’
Crake gaped. ‘Harkins! You’re not going up there?’
‘I mean. . I don’t think I’ll be much use down here, will I?’
‘It’s one against hundreds! It’s suicide!’
Harkins had the look about him of a man walking on a frozen lake. Only the thin ice of discipline stood between him and the freezing depths of terror. But he was determined; Malvery saw that. And Malvery knew how much courage it took for a man like Harkins to make a stand.
‘Malvery!’ Crake said. ‘Tell him! He can’t go up there alone in that one little fighter!’
Harkins’ gaze went nervously to Malvery. Maybe he’d change his mind if I persuaded him, Malvery thought. But how much would it cost him if he backed down now? Better to live a coward, or die a hero? I know what the Cap’n would say. But he ain’t here any more.
Remembering his time in the Army during the First Aerium War, Malvery stood up straight, put his heels together, and saluted smartly from the elbow. ‘Do your country proud, soldier,’ he said.
Harkins had expected an argument. The doctor’s unexpected support firmed his resolve instead. He returned Malvery’s salute, gave him a quick and grateful smile, and then scampered off towards the Firecrow. Crake looked at Malvery, aghast.
‘Man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do,’ said Malvery. ‘Seems like it’s the day for that.’
‘Turns out he really isn’t a chickenshit,’ said Ashua, almost to herself.
Malvery looked over at her. It still hurt him to do so. Forgiveness wouldn’t come easy: there was a lot of disappointment and anger still to dilute. But she’d stayed with him, and she’d come as close as she ever would to an apology. She wanted to make it up to him. He had to let her try.
‘The four of us, then,’ he said. He hefted his shotgun. ‘Let’s get to it.’
Samandra found them, in the end, rather than the other way around. They were being held at gunpoint and surrounded by soldiers in a cobbled quad overlooked by an elaborate clock.
‘Can’t leave you alone for two minutes, can I?’ she said as she strode through the circle of Coalition guards, rain pouring off her tricorn hat. ‘Guns down, fellers. You don’t want to make Bess nervous.’
It was good advice. Bess didn’t like guns, and despite Crake’s best efforts to soothe her, he wasn’t sure he could do it much longer. Samandra had arrived just in time.
‘They were asking for you,’ said the sergeant. ‘We didn’t know who they were, but they had no uniforms, so. .’
‘Don’t worry, you did good,’ she told him. She put her hands on her hips and turned an exasperated face on her lover. ‘Did you think you could just go running about the Archduke’s palace with that walking junkpile in tow?’ Then she broke into a smile and grabbed him by the lapels and kissed him.
All the sadness and distress he’d felt at the Ketty Jay’s departure melted away then, and he knew he’d done the right thing by staying. He was supposed to be here with her, he thought, as he tasted rainwater on her lips. Whatever happened next, this was where he belonged.
The moment was all too brief, and she let him go. ‘Where’s the rest of you?’ she asked.
‘It’s just us,’ said Crake.
‘Ah,’ said Samandra. Her face fell a little as she grasped the situation. ‘Then you all better stick with me, if you don’t want to get arrested again.’