Skies of the Empire

  Skies

  of the

  Empire

  Vincent E. M. Thorn

  Copyright © 2019 Vincent E. M. Thorn

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-0692157503

  ISBN-10: 0692157506

  This book is a work of fiction. Any characters that bare resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to Alexis

  For saving my life and making this possible

  Chapter One

  "Get that thing out of my sky!" the captain's voice boomed through the pipeline. She sounded angry rather than frightened, and Cassidy wished she could feel the same in that moment. Sailing during a storm was no easy task on its own, with the winds pushing them in every direction at once. The thick clouds and rain made navigation a nightmare. But having to fight a dragon in such conditions was just insane. Cassidy’s body trembled as she aimed the harpoon gun, the ship occasionally buckling in the wind and giving her a discomforting glimpse of the distant ground below. Usually, the sight would not bother her — one could hardly be afraid of heights after ten years of living in an airship — but at that moment, she couldn't help but worry she would soon have an intimate meeting with the jagged rocks below, which left her heart sinking into her stomach.

  She had a difficult time keeping the gun steady in the heavy wind. She managed, however, despite how sore it made her arms. The dragon's resurgence was met with a flash of lightning that illuminated its scales, revealing them not to be black as Cassidy had first suspected, but a deep green. The sudden roar of thunder that followed caused the entire ship to shake worse than the winds, though only for a moment. The beast charged the ship along the port flank, directly toward her. Once she had the shot lined up, she pulled the heavy trigger beneath her fingers, hoping to fire down the monster's open throat. Instead, the harpoon sailed through the air and grazed the face of the beast, taking with it a few scales and cutting its skin, but not penetrating or dealing any permanent damage.

  The creature roared in pain, and a bright, reddish-orange glow emanated from its cavernous maw as it drew nearer. Cassidy whispered a curse that was swallowed by the winds, but before the beast could reach the ship or loose its flames, cannon fire blasted from above. The beast was struck broadside, and it roared again as the sudden impact sent it falling.

  Cassidy took the opportunity to rearm the grapnel, first loosing the cable from the failed harpoon, then setting a new one in place. She rearmed it. The dragon climbed and caught up with them. She fired the second harpoon, seeking its heart. The dragon's own attack knocked the projectile out of the way as it struck the ship with its massive tail, giving it a violent rock. Cassidy pulled the lever to once more release the cord and reloaded the weapon as two more cannon shots — one missing, the other hitting its hind leg — forced the beast to retreat again.

  Cassidy waited. The wind continued to batter them about. She heard a series of shots from the rotary gun on the starboard side. She heard the engines cut and go into reverse and the ship turned hard, nearly causing her to slip from her seat. The dragon was far faster and more maneuverable than the ship, but it did not seem to care which side of the vessel it was attacking, giving the crew the advantage of being able to position freely. Once it was back in Cassidy's sight, she lined up the shot. Her arms were sore and weary from holding the gun against the gale, and her palms were sweaty inside her gloves. Her heart beat faster and harder than any drum she had ever heard. The dragon's maw glowed again. It fired, and so did she.

  The harpoon sailed through the jet of fire, and just as the flames splashed against the hull, briefly transforming the frigid, wet air into a sauna, the hooked blade struck its mark, lodging deep in the dragon's shoulder. The monster's blast was cut off prematurely as it let out another cry of pain, this one far louder yet less rage-filled than the previous outbursts. The line pulled taught, bucking the ship, as the dragon tried to fly away.

  Despite its superior size, the ship was towed by the dragon even as the engines chugged in vain to pull the other way. The captain's voice rang out in the pipeline again, only this time, anger was replaced with excitement. "Damn good shot, Cassy! Get up here and make sure it doesn't break away!"

  Cassidy didn't reply. Instead, she hopped from the gunner seat and bolted to the ladder. She gave a quick, mock salute to Lierre, the engineer, who nodded as she put out the last of the fires. Once on the main deck, she darted to the helm. The captain only relinquished her position when Cassidy physically had her hands on it, and she quickly discovered why; in the wind, the wheel pulled heavy, and she nearly lost control of it.

  “Keep that rope slack as you can,” the captain called over the gale. “We want to stop that thing from getting out of range, but it will rip that anchor right off the ship if you fight it."

  “Aye, aye, Captain!”

  The captain left. Cassidy turned the ship from full astern to full ahead and cranked the wheel hard to port until the ship aligned with direction as the dragon. She released some of the air from the balloon and dropped until they were sailing at its level. The dragon swerved and tackled the ship, nearly knocking her from the wheel, but she held her ground.

  Kek called over the pipeline. “It’s out of cannon range,” he informed her. “Turn further to port.”

  As she began to make the turn, the wheel fighting her for every inch, Cassidy shouted back into the copper pipe, “I know where the damn cannon is, you ground-dweller!” It took throwing her entire weight on the wheel to get it to turn as far as she needed, and it nearly wrenched itself back when she tried to straighten her hold.

  “I love you, too,” he replied, his words punctuated with a loud cannon blast and another roar of the dragon. The dragon dived under the ship and flew up the starboard side, only to get snagged and immediately shot by Nieves and the rotary gun, causing it to retreat to the underside.

  A bell rang in the lower deck, signaling another fire. “Nieves,” Cassidy called over her shoulder, “go help put that fire out!” Nieves did not hesitate to follow the order.

  The dragon started to pull the ship down, so Cassidy released more air from the balloon to keep as close to level as she dared. It was only when she did so that she realized how dangerous that would be; the dragon was leading them into the mountains.

  She dropped the engines to standard speed and turned the wheel hard to port, narrowly avoiding a rock wall. The dragon pulled the ship through a narrow passage between two mountains, clearly hoping to elude them. Cassidy noticed its wings were beating harder; it was desperate. That meant it was almost beat, but it also meant it was more dangerous.

  With the winds less chaotic — though by no means calm — in the pass, Cassidy brought the engines to hold, leaving their propulsion to their target so she could focus on steering clear of the mountains. The monstrosity turned around, diving at the ship. The talons at the top of the dragon's bat-like wings griped the beak-head and the railing, its snout right in Cassidy’s face. She looked up in terror, releasing the wheel. She felt its hot breath wash over her and noticed that the creature’s teeth were each half as tall as she was. She tried to run, but the rain had battered the ship and the floorboards beneath her boots were slick, and she fell.

  Panic enveloped her as she looked around in vain for shelter or cover. Blight and damnation, she thought. The dragon’s maw opened, bright embers glowing in the back of its throat, the light reflecting on the water and obscuring her goggles until all she could see was bright orange. Then, a gunshot rang out from above, and the dragon's eye exploded in blood and smoke, causing the creature to panic and thrash about. The fire in its maw released in short bursts rather than a solid jet, catching fire to a several patches of the deck. Cassidy scrambled to her feet and looked up to see the captain dropping down from the balloon, pistol in one hand, sword in the other, her purple coattails flapping like a banner behind her. She landed on the dragon’s head, one foot on each massive horn and her sword skewering the dragon’s other eye, before jumping down to the bridge.

  The dragon broke off from the ship, trying to flee to safety, but it remained snagged by the grapnel and thus in range. “Full ahead,” the captain ordered, standing next to the pilot.

  “Aye, aye,” Cassidy said breathily as she slammed the telegraph to full ahead.

  The captain shouted into the pipeline, “We’ve almost got her now! Let’s show that overgrown lizard who the real queen of the skies is!” Once they cleared the canyon, Cassidy turned hard to starboard, giving the cannon a clear line of sight. Kek fired three consecutive shots, and one tore through the dragon’s wing, another punching its side. It beat its wings more fiercely than before, but it didn’t matter; it was done for. It began to plummet to the ground, threatening to either drag the ship with it or rip out the harpoon gun.

  “Release the cable!” the captain ordered into the pipeline. Someone obeyed, and the ship reoriented itself. “Let her down gently, Cassy,” she said afterward. Cassidy cut the engines and began letting the air out of the balloon in slow, short bursts. The wind caused them to drift, but the closer to the ground they floated the less severe it became.

  Kek climbed down from the cannons with an ice canister to help put out the fires. Once Nieves and Lierre arrived with their own, the flames were quickly doused, with only a few char marks suggested there was ever an issue.

  “Alright, gather ’round,” the captain ordered, waving everyone to where she and Cassidy stood. “Kek, you’re on
scales.”

  “Aye, aye,” he answered, combing his blond hair back with his fingers.

  “Nieves, you get teeth.”

  She merely nodded.

  “Cassy, you’re on stomach duty.”

  Cassidy sighed and accidentally increased the speed of descent for a moment, but she quickly corrected it. “Aye, Captain.”

  “It’s your turn, don’t kill us over it,” Nieves replied, a smirk tugging her lips, though she tried in vain to keep her face straight.

  “She’s right,” the captain reminded her before turning to the engineer. “Lierre, how bad was the damage?"

  "Superficial, mostly," she said. "Won't even slow us down."

  "In that case, you can help Cassy.”

  “Aye, aye,” Lierre said, forcing a smile.

  “And, as always, everyone pitches in on the hide,” the captain finished.

  With about thirty meters of space between the ship and the ground, Cassidy stopped the descent. Kek was the first to the ladder, Nieves behind him — Cassidy caught her muttering something to Kek about looking at her ass before following. As Lierre followed her, Cassidy supposed Kek might have preferred the view she had.

  The engine deck smelled of charcoal, and Cassidy was a little sad to know that once they started flying again — because the deck was open to the winds — the scent would not be noticeable for long. Scorch marks covered the inner walls and floor of the port side, but Lierre was right; there was no permanent damage.

  Lierre lead everyone into a small room that had metal railings forming a box inside the walls. A set of levers and a wench sat on the floor on the edge of the room. The engineer grabbed several harnesses from the wall, passing them around. Cassidy latched hers to the wench, as did the others. From a shelf, each crew member grabbed a large, leather sack.

  "Everyone secure?" Cassidy asked.

  "I am," Kek answered. He added, "If you're worried about it, though, you can always hold me tight the whole way down."

  "Thanks, but no," she replied dryly. "You two ready?"

  Nieves nodded, and Lierre gave the all clear sign. Cassidy pulled a lever on the inner part of the room and the railed section began to descend with a loud hiss of steam and turning of the motor. They came out under the deck. Beneath them they could see the dragon that had earlier terrorized them, now a broken mess cast against the rocks, red-black stains of its blood contrasting against the mud and the grass and stones below. Once the platform came to a halt, still another twenty-five meters from the ground, Cassidy grabbed hold of the harness, giving herself plenty of slack to work with, and jumped from the ship. Her body jolted when she stopped, but she held on. She looked down, then loosened her grip to descend at a steady pace.

  She was the first to touch down, mere feet from the dragon. The splash of mud was unpleasant, but worse was the feeling of solid ground beneath her feet. It was a surreal and uncomfortable feeling, standing static, the wind holding no sway on how she moved. The heat was also stifling, and after the heavy rain the air was sticky as well. She'd always hated it on the ground, from the first time her foot had ever touched solid rock. How could anyone ever have lived down here? She wondered as she approached the fallen beast.

  Kek landed atop the dragon itself and gave a long, low whistle. "I am a damn good shot," he boasted, looking to Cassidy.

  "Sorry, I'm not going to stroke your ego, Kek," Cassidy replied, but she couldn't help her giggle. "We got to get to work."

  "Right, right," he said with a sigh. He pulled a knife from his boot and started to pick the scales off, tossing them in his sack.

  Cassidy unsheathed her own, much larger knife from her belt, and took a deep breath as she approached the dragon's belly. Lierre landed beside her just as she plunged the blade to the hilt into the body. Blood dribbled out along with the smell of rotten meat, which earned a groan from everyone. Cassidy gagged as she cut the corpse wide open, intestines and other viscera spilling onto the ground at her feet and intensifying the stench. "I hate this part," she said quietly as she knelt down, the black-red and pink and purple lumps of flesh and guts fouling her air.

  Lierre got on her knees beside her and together they began to rummage through the insides. Even through the thick leather of her gloves, Cassidy could feel the hot, slimy coating of what she was running her hands through. She found the first lump, cutting it open to reveal partially burned woods, a few bones, and what looked to be partially digested meat.

  "Good thing I missed breakfast this morning," Lierre commented, her Castilyn accent making even so simple a statement sound almost lyrical.

  Cassidy's eyes watered as she felt bile rising up her chest. "I wish I had," she muttered once she forced it back down. She tossed the useless pile away, sifting through more. She found a half-chewed pair of pants connected to a charred boot by way of leg. She searched the pockets, finding several wet pieces of paper, two partially melted gold coins, a wrench, and a busted pocket watch. The papers were damaged beyond legibility, but the rest of the contents she placed in her bag before continuing.

  "Daen's tits!" Lierre shouted, throwing a substantial lump to the side before shivering. "I just found a head."

  "A human head?" Kek called down.

  "No, a lettuce head," Lierre answered angrily. "Of course it’s a human head!"

  Cassidy nearly laughed but discovering more partly digested something killed her desire to do so. When she had exhausted her current pile, she stood up, approached the giant corpse once more, and — holding her breath —plunged her hands into the wound, gathering what she could from the insides and yanking them out to the ground. Most everything hit the mud with an audible squelch, but the secondary stomach — which was larger than she was — dangled off the lip of the entrance, still held by its connective tubes, and the primary one was still inside.

  She groaned.

  Kek must have wanted to distract himself from the fact that he was directly above the rancid mess, because he called up toward the head, asking Nieves how tooth pulling was going.

  "It's fine," she called back, her voice strained as she tried to persuade the teeth to budge.

  "I was really hoping you'd say, 'it's like pulling teeth'," Kek said, his voice rife with mock disappointment.

  It was Lierre's turn to groan. “That joke stopped being funny the third time,” she told him, throwing a what looked like a large bone she’d pulled out of the pile at him, barely missing his head.

  “I don’t think it was ever that funny to begin with,” Nieves replied.

  “You laughed just like everyone else,” Kek protested.

  “Sure, but it wasn’t that funny.”

  Cassidy held her breath again as she cut the secondary stomach open, the acids and juices pouring onto the ground.

  “Ugh, that smells even worse than before,” Kek whined. Cassidy let loose her breath when she felt she could hold it no longer, and had to inhale the foul air.

  “At least your face isn’t in it,” she told him. She reached her hand into the fleshy sack, opting to simply push everything out and pick out the valuables as she saw them. Hunks of meat and bone piled up, and eventually her attention started to drift.

  After a minute or so, she was brought back to attention when a piece of shattered cannonball landed on her foot. She cursed incoherently in all three languages as she hopped around, the pain almost blinding. The more rational side of her mind tried to calm her by reminding her that her boots were sturdy enough to prevent any serious damage. But that side of her mind was of little comfort to the fact that, serious damage or no, it still hurt, a lot.

  Eventually the pain subsided and she limped back to her work.

  “I didn’t know you spoke Rivien,” Kek said, seemingly impressed by her profanity.

  Cassidy blinked the tears from her eyes, wishing she had clean hands to take her goggles off. After a moment, she answered, “I can also ask where the head is, and order lunch.”

  “Eh,” Kek replied. “The cursing is much more useful.”

  “Also, your Castilyn is way off,” Lierre said, playing up her already thick, musical accent. “It’s merde, not ‘marry-day’. Chatte was right, though,” she added after a pause.