Chasing the Lantern(50)

"Who are you?" she whispered, knife held at the ready.

The Mechanist started. He leapt backwards with a yelp and banged his head on the rear timbers of the cabin. "You didn't leave me!" he cried, rubbing at his head. Freckles covered his face. "You came back for—" He looked up at Lina and blinked in confusion. "You're not Miss Blackheart," he said. "Who are you?"

"Lina Stone," she said. "Are you the ship's Mechanist? Are you alone?"

He sniffed, nodding. "They left me on board when they abandoned the Queen for their old ship. I tried to come with, but the first mate just kicked me down and laughed. I can't pilot this thing by myself—it's barely aloft as it is! I'm going to die here, just like the others dangling off the bow." The Mechanist covered his face with his hands, weeping again.

Lina sighed, all her wariness gone. This was an oddity, but it didn't change anything. She still had to get Fengel and the others aboard, and needed help to do that. She appraised the youth before her. He really was very young, and didn't seem worth much. But needs must. "Hey now," she said, voice soft. "It's going to be all right."

"What?" blubbered the Mechanist. "Wait. Where did you even come from?" His eyes widened and he shrank back. "Please don't hurt me! I didn't have anything to do with what they did!"

You could have helped after they'd left, rather than hiding up here and sobbing your guts out. Lina hid her thoughts behind a smile. "I'm not going to do anything to you. But I want to get my friends up on board, and I can't do that alone." She sat demurely, working to make herself look less threatening. "Why don't you help me out, and then I'll make sure they aren't angry at you, all right? Afterward we can fly back to port, and everything'll be fine."

The Mechanist looked at her like a deer about to bolt. He sniffed, and Lina couldn't help but stare at the bubble of snot that shrank from one nostril. She kept her smile small and placid though, and eventually the young man nodded.

"There," she said. "Not so hard, eh? Come on." Lina stood, grabbing the Mechanist by the hand. He started, reflexively trying to pull from her grip. He couldn't. The Mechanist's hands were soft and un-callused. Lina's could crack walnuts. Acting as sweet as she dared, Lina pulled him to his feet, then tugged him out from the captain's cabin and onto the deck.

The rope holding the pirates off the bow was still taut. Faintly, she heard the sounds of the rail anchoring it strain. Lina looked back at the Mechanist.

"What's your name?" she asked, fighting to keep calm herself.

The youth gawked. "My name? I...I'm Allen," he said. He blanched, as if suddenly remembering he wasn't supposed to have one anymore.

"All right, Allen. Where can we find a ladder?"

"Nowhere," Allen mumbled. "I mean they're all up top. We had to use some of them to replace the ratlines and rigging, and to get the starboard rudders shored up. We could get one down, but it'll take another pair of hands than just us two."

Lina cursed. "All right then. Improvisation it is. Where can we find some rope?"

That, he could provide. The Mechanist led her belowdecks to the engine room he stayed in. It was nothing like the one aboard the Dawnhawk, more an equipment locker than a place for proper engineering. A little cast-iron stove squatted in one corner, banked low. A coal-ladder to the store somewhere deeper in the ship opened next to it, but it was largely empty, black dust staining it heavily. Lina grabbed a heavy coil of rope, and with Allen's help hauled it back up to the deck. They anchored it to a heavy steel cleat just below the aft deck, one connecting the gasbag frame above to the ship. Then she ran the other end up to the bow.

"Here," she cried at the pirates below. Fengel looked back up at her, his monocle winking in the moonlight. She threw down her end of the rope, and held it until someone grabbed it from within the net. "Tie that off so's you don't fall in the meantime. And don't move too much. I don't trust my knot-work up here." Without waiting for a reply she turned back to the ship.

Problem One, improvised. That took care of any immediate mishaps that might occur. Now to see about Problem Two. There was still issue of getting the crew back up on board, and she had no idea how to go about it.

"Do you have a winch?" Lina asked. They stood amidships, looking up at the rope. Allen stood beside her, eyes down and subservient.

The young Mechanist flinched. "No," he said with a shake of his head. "We're not even close to being properly supplied. I tried to tell them, but Captain Blackheart just hit me. They were in such a hurry to get aloft! I tried to tell them that the Copper Queen wasn't ready yet. We ended up just drifting for a day and a half after we went up. The linkage and turning system wasn't even close to being usable."