Blazing Blunderbuss (Wyvern Chronicles Book 1) Read online

  Alice coughed from the doorway and asked, “Should I come back later?”

  Hara shook her head and motioned for the girl to approach. “I need to teach you how to do a few things so you can help me on the bridge. Gideon is all but useless.”

  Gideon snorted to show he had heard but wasn’t going to be insulted. He wouldn’t be that easy to get rid of.

  Hara brought Alice over to the map and said, “This is where we are now. This is where we’re heading. Guess the plot we might take.”

  Alice studied the map for a long moment, which told Hara the girl was conscientious. Eventually Alice traced a finger over the map and said, “You’d want to avoid the mountains?”

  Hara smiled, pleased with her comment. “Yes. We have a certain amount of lift, but we’re statically buoyant at the moment, and even with compensators we wouldn’t be able to cross those peaks.”

  Alice’s finger stopped on a town and she asked, “Will we stop along the way?”

  Hara shifted a piece of sheer paper over the map to show their planned route. “By law we have to. These towns are called border towns. We need to stop there to get our papers signed. Hopefully we can also pick up a cargo, as money is in short supply.”

  Alice said absently as she continued to study the map, “I like numbers.”

  Hara laughed. “Then you’ll get on with Gideon.”

  Alice looked up with some confusion, but Hara didn’t clarify. Maybe if she could guide the dragon’s attention to someone else who was better suited to him, thought Hara, he would forget about her. Men had been like that before. Hopefully the dragon was equally as fickle.

  The border town had mine balloons floating off to either side, forcing airships to funnel through the town. Hara watched the men on towers with flags motioning for her to take up a position in a queue of airships.

  The town would be their last stop before they entered the Empire. It would be a good place to pick up supplies and maybe cargo. It would be best to find work so she wouldn’t have to rely on Gideon and his gambling skills.

  Alice asked, “Will it be safe?”

  Hara glanced over her shoulder at the girl and thought about her question seriously. Border towns like this usually held a unique kind of riffraff.

  Hara pulled a knife from her boot and passed it to Alice. “The first thing you should always do is run. But if that isn’t an option, use the knife. Now you should be all right.”

  Alice eyed the knife for a moment before she took it and tucked it into her own boot beneath her skirts. Hara would have to get the girl some clothes which would work better on the ship than bulky skirts. She was planning to take the first shift on the airship and install some things she had been making during the last week of travel.

  Hopefully with her improvements they could actually fight back if they were ever attacked. She couldn’t completely automate the guns, but she had rerouted them and was going to make it so she could shoot all of them from the bridge. With Alice on the bridge as well, they might even have a slim chance the next time they were attacked by pirates.

  Hara glanced over at Gideon. He had been sulking the whole week and it annoyed her. Couldn’t he argue with her like a normal person? When they finished docking and the others left, Gideon remained.

  He came to stand by her and said, “I’m not going to go. You’ll have to get used to that.”

  She hauled out the equipment she intended to install and asked, “And why is that?”

  Gideon looked thoughtful. He didn’t answer her, asking instead, “What do you know about dragons and their collections?”

  Her Oupa had spoken about dragons, but she had never been very interested in finding out anything about them. She had always thought they were man-eating monsters, so what was the point?

  Hara glanced at him and shrugged. “Nothing, really. You guys are obsessed with your collections, is all I know.”

  He cocked an eyebrow which went up into his long fringe. She really wanted to give him a haircut. His half-cocked smiled, went with the eyebrow which annoyed her as he said, “It’s more than that. We gain our status from what we have collected. The more we can look after, the more status we have. The more unique our collection is the more it differentiates our status at the higher levels rank.”

  Hara frowned at him for a moment, and he continued. “If you have a large collection, you would have the rank, like in an army unit, of colonel. To be considered a general, you would have to have something unique in your collection.”

  She asked, suspicious of his motives or the validity of his words, “And you think women should be in your collection?”

  He frowned until there was a wrinkle on his nose. “We look after those in our collection. I know people think it’s slavery, but it’s more like servitude.”

  Hara snorted and went back to her work. She said snidely, “Like servitude is better than slavery.”

  Gideon frowned, then clicked his fingers as he figured something out. “Not your slavery or servitude, Hara, but ours. I mean dragons. Once you’re in a collection you’re served by the dragon. We choose carefully who’s worthy to be in our collection, as it might mean our lives.”

  She turned and blinked at him in astonishment. After a long moment she asked, “Your servitude? So you don’t want me to belong to you?”

  Gideon looked confused before he said, “Yes, I do, but not as a slave.”

  Hara frowned and he explained, waving his hands around to add to his words. “Like with your Oupa. You went to him to get the ship fixed as you knew he would do it without question. You belong to him, so he serves you.”

  Hara had never been accused of being a dimwit, so she finally understood what he was trying to explain. “Oh, bugger. You want to be family.”

  Gideon grinned, happy he had finally convinced her and said, “Exactly, but dragons we are hatched, and none of our females or males have attachments to their young. We don’t have families in the same way humans do. We collect family though, and I want to be in your family.”

  Hara stopped and leaned on the wrench she was using. She studied the dragon for a long while. There was a flaw in his logic. He might be able to choose his family, but she couldn’t.

  Eventually she said, “I have my own family, and they would be your family as well.”

  Gideon nodded. “I’m aware of this. Your Oupa is worthy.”

  If only her Oupa was the only family she had left. “But you haven’t met my father.”

  Gideon frowned. “If you are his child, then he should be worthy.”

  He really needed to study humans more. She snorted and went back to work. As she started putting in the weapons console, she said, “I won’t be in your collection, Gideon, until you’ve met my father.”

  There was a long silence from the dragon and she looked to see what he was doing.

  Gideon was thinking, and eventually he said, “I’ve seen this tradition amongst humans. I agree to this stipulation.”

  She wasn’t about to ask what he meant by that, and went back to work. Maybe if he thought she was willing to join his collection he would leave her alone to work peacefully for a short time. Besides, she really didn’t think he would find her father worthy.

  Hara said, “Fine. Now can you pass me that console front, please?”

  He passed it to her and said, “You know, you wouldn’t need the guns if you kept me around.”

  Hara laughed and said, “I’m still going to take you back to the capital, Gideon.”

  Hara trolled the inns to see if she could find cargo for the Blazing Blunderbuss. She hadn’t had any luck so far, but there was one thing she had discovered. She would need a male agent to work through, because when the merchants found out she wasn’t a hussy, they weren’t interested in talking to her about business. It could have all gotten particularly messy if Gideon hadn’t tagged along. Even though he hadn’t done anything, usually they had looked over her shoulder to him and had backed down.

  Hara jumped back
when someone was thrown out of the door of the inn in front of her.

  Gideon peered over at the man and said, “You all right there, mate?”

  The man got up and dusted himself off before he said, “I’m fine. Just a disagreement about how much I was owed.”

  He steeled himself and threw himself back into the bar. Hara shook her head. She only came across these kinds of people in border towns like this one.

  She turned when she heard someone call out to Gideon.

  A large man leaned against a nearby wall. Gideon grinned as he walked over and shook the man’s hand. Clearly he recognized him. “Patrick, what are you doing here? You never like to leave your home town.”

  Patrick shrugged. “I had some things to see to. My ships have been attacked consistently on their way to Ming, so I thought I’d come myself and see what the problem is.” He frowned at Gideon. “I didn’t think I’d see you here. You usually stick around different university campuses.”

  Gideon motioned to Hara and said, “I got into some trouble, but Hara here rescued me.”

  Patrick took a long moment to study her. He then turned back to Gideon and asked, “So are you heading home?”

  Gideon wrinkled his nose and said, “She insists.”

  Hara glared at Gideon. But neither of the men seemed to notice her sharp look.

  Patrick straightened up and said, “Come have some lunch. I might have a job for you. I need something taken to the guild council in the capital.”

  Gideon turned to Hara, but she shook her head. She had to find crew, otherwise it would be pointless getting cargo because they wouldn’t be going anywhere.

  Hara said, “Spend time with your friend. I’ll meet you back at the ship. I have to find some more crew anyway.”

  Gideon shrugged and said, “As long as you miss me.”

  She rolled her eyes and walked away. She could hear Patrick asking, “Is that your lady?”

  Gideon announced loud enough for her to hear over the crowd, “She will be.”

  Hara wasn’t ready to be owned by anyone, let alone an annoying dragon like Gideon.

  Hara headed for the guild hall, hoping a border town like this had men to spare who would be worth their pay. Though so far she hadn’t paid anyone, as she had no coin to pay them until she finished a delivery. She had scraped together what she could and had directed Alice and Henry to buy what supplies they could. She knew she could ask Gideon, but she didn’t like digging herself deeper into that kind of trouble.

  The guild hall was dingy and she wrinkled her nose at the smell of ale and stale sweat. She walked over to the hiring book and didn’t look at anyone. They might assume she was here for a different reason than to hire someone for her airship.

  She had only just flipped the page when a crash made her look over her shoulder. A man was chasing something around the room and careening into tables. She assumed it was a rat or something, as the man picked up a broken chair leg and battered at something hiding under a tipped-over table.

  Hara turned back to the hiring book. She didn’t want to know just how big the rat was to make the man attack it so vigorously in order to kill it. She wrote down the names of a few men who looked promising. She would have to meet them first to see if they would be willing to take orders from a woman.

  Something zipped past her head and Hara ducked. The man with the broken chair leg slammed into the podium and her. They all went down in a tumble.

  Hara swore at the idiot and shoved at him until he was off her and she could get to her feet. The man swore as well and then lunged at something which was perched on the downed podium.

  She now saw it was no rat. Instead, it was a clockwork creature shaped like a small dragon. When the man lunged at it, it made a twittering sound and leaped into the air. It spread out wings made of brass and thin leather parchment.

  It landed on her shoulder and its little claws dug in as it scurried behind her neck and under her braided hair.

  The man went to swing at her but she grabbed the chair leg and pulled it out of his grip. She bared her teeth at the idiot and said, “Leave it. Go back to your ale.”

  The drunk man glared at her. A voice from one of the few standing tables echoed through the room. “He’s been chasing that for half an hour. Upstairs and now downstairs.”

  Hara turned to look at the man who had spoken. He was sitting with his feet up on the table and casually held an ale in his hand.

  He added, “I have money on him not killing it.” He motioned to some of the other men in the room and said, “They bet he could squish it to smithereens.”

  Hara rolled her eyes. Aircrew could bet on anything, even something as silly as smashing up a clockwork creature. She knew a little more about the creature, and that smashing it would be a mistake.

  She turned back to the idiot and asked, “Do you have any money on it?”

  He snarled and said, “A whole guinea.”

  Hara dug into a pocket and flicked him two guineas. The creature was worth a hell of a lot more, but she cringed at handing over any of her resources. The idiot shrugged and sauntered off, probably to get drunk. He would have worn off a bit of his buzz with all the running around, and would be in need of a top up.

  Once he was gone, she looked for the piece of paper which had the names she had collected before. The man who had spoken to her, asked, “Can I help you?”

  Hara turned and looked at him. He had large knives strapped all over his body, which was also large. She asked, “Are you here looking for work?”

  He lifted a shoulder in a non-committal gesture and said, “I could do with work, but my last job made me wish for a very long vacation.”

  She looked him up and down. He was a fighter, clear as day. She could do with a bit of muscle. She asked, “Would you take orders from a woman?”

  “Only women who aren’t idiots.”

  She chuckled at his comment. “Well, I’m not one of those. Come check out the Blazing Blunderbuss. If you like the armament you can sign on.”

  The man studied her for a long moment, then said, “No need to check her out. You can always upgrade armament, but you can’t upgrade a bad captain.”

  The creature on her shoulder moved and tightened its tail around her neck. Hara reached up and stroked its head. She said to her new crewmember, “You’re not wrong there. If we don’t mesh, I’ll make sure you get to a decent city rather than a dump like this place.”

  He nodded. “Fair enough.” He offered his hand to shake on the deal. “Murphy’s the name. Guns are my game.”

  She returned the gesture. “I’m Hara, and I think we’ll get along just fine.”

  Hara gestured for him to follow her and the clockwork creature trilled happily.

  After everyone had loaded Patrick’s cargo in the hold, Hara sent Gideon to settle Murphy in while she checked in with Alice. Henry was in charge of getting supplies, and she was worried because he hadn’t checked in with them yet.

  Alice asked, “What’s that?”

  The clockwork dragon peaked out from Hara’s collar and trilled softly. Alice snatched back her finger which had been close to touching the creature and held her hand close to her chest. She asked timidly, “Is it going to bite me?”

  Gideon entered the bridge and asked, “What’s got you two in a tizzy? I’ve settled the new guy. He likes the guns, by the way.” He hissed when he saw the creature and asked, “Why the hell did you bring that thing here?”

  Hara, pleased she had ruffled Gideon’s feathers, said, “Don’t worry. You won’t be here long enough for it to annoy you. This is a clockwork dragon.”

  Gideon snarled and the creature bared its teeth back at him.

  Alice asked Gideon, “Is it dangerous?”

  Gideon snorted. “Hardly. It’s just metal and wires.”

  Hara chuckled. “A little more than that. This is the first successful artificial intelligence. It isn’t very smart. More like a bird or something. But it can mimic what it sees. I’
ve only ever seen one before, and it had cost the lord a fortune.” She stroked the creature’s head. “They do wander off if they don’t like their master. Isn’t that right, little one? You and I are going to be best buds.”

  Gideon huffed and said, “I’m going to my room.” Alice and Hara watched him storm off.

  Alice asked, “Do you think he’ll be all right?”

  Hara shrugged and said, “He’s just in a snit. He’ll get over it. Maybe he’ll be happy about going home now.”

  Alice shrugged. She didn’t look convinced. Hara noticed that Alice had been preparing to leave the ship, as she had thrown on a coat.

  Hara frowned and asked, “Are you going somewhere?”

  Alice said, “Henry isn’t back yet.”

  “Yeah, I noticed. I’ll go look for him. I just wanted to make sure everything was all right here. Can you keep an eye on the boys? Murphy seems harmless enough.”

  Alice chuckled, “Really? When I saw him he looked like he was an advertisement for a weapons store.”

  Hara shook her head. “No, he’s just a big boy who likes his toys. He didn’t even check out my breasts or snicker when I had a large man lying all on top of me.”

  When Alice gave her a shocked look, Hara waved it off and said, “Another story for another day. You can always ask Murphy—he’ll probably tell you a more elaborate and amusing version.”

  Alice chuckled at the idea and said, “Not to worry, I’ll keep the home fires burning.”

  When Hara got to the market area, she saw the vendors were mostly packed up for the day. She frowned. Henry wouldn’t have stuck around after the market had closed down for the day.

  She heard someone yelling and some wood cracking as someone was thrown into a crate. She ran towards the sound. As she rounded the corner into the alley she was shocked by the tableau.

  Henry was on the ground and there were two other men fighting at the other end of the alleyway. She had no idea who they were, but it seemed the fight was winding down. Hara approached and helped Henry to his feet. By the time she had helped dust him off, the fight was over. The man left standing was a big bruiser. He approached Hara, rubbing his jaw where he had obviously been hit. He asked Henry, “You all right?”