The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 8: Lucille

It occurred to her, not for the first time in the last hour, that she might not be the best choice for this assignment.

She was an evaluator, a member of the Bureau of Oversight; the people trusted to keep the city safe from a Crafter's inevitable insanity. And her charge, not even a graduated Crafter, was attempting something that was as insane an idea as anyone had ever had.

Apprentice Gerald Raeth was going to lift hundreds to tons of steel into the air by tethering it to an inferno. Worse, that fireball would be fuelled by the deadly poison that had consumed the entire world. Not technically forbidden, but only because Parliament could not have imagined this insanity. Crafters, and even civilians, have been summarily executed for far, far less.

And she was standing on the ship's deck trying to keep herself from cheering him on.

She rolled her eyes as she followed the newly appointed captain as he finished checking the propeller controls. He was smiling as he slid his hand over the lever controlling the speed for the aft propellers.

"Thrust engages nicely, sir!" one of the engineers shouted from below deck, as the enormous propellers behind the ship slowly turned. "Twenty seconds to wind-up. The clutch isn't even straining, sir."

The sword lent Gerald a great deal of authority, Lucille noted to herself. None of the engineers had referred to Crafter a'Loria's apprentice as 'sir' before. Now, with news of the invasion spreading through the City, they snapped at attention and behaved almost reverently around the appointed Captain of the City's first Airship.

"Good. Thank you, Emery. That should be the last test," Gerald shouted back. She was surprised to learn that he knew the name of every engineer and mechanic who worked on the project. It was less surprising shortly after when she learned that list was fewer than two dozen people. Asides from the retrofit of what used to be a cargo ship, the project had only involved a small handful of engineers.

"Thanks, sir. Because it's a little warm down here," the engineer, Regina Emery, shouted back. The propellers slowly wound to a stop, and Gerald forced himself away from the flight controls.

"Maxwell!" Gerald shouted to the crew attaching the pipe to the bottom of the lift-bag. One of the engineers, an older man with grey in his hair, detached himself from the mechanics he was working with and saluted before approaching.

Gerald grinned and shook the engineer's hand. "Neither of us are military, and if you salute again, I'll go back to calling you 'mister Durgon'," he insisted, as he stepped up to the engineer.

Maxwell grinned a little in response. "Tell you what. Let me call you Captain, and I won't salute. This is your ship. By decree of The Lord Captain of the Wall. You may have to get used to a little deference," he explained.

"He's right," Lucille added. It was something Gerald would need to adjust to, and in a hurry. He was not a Crafter yet, and Tabitha a'Loria was a very large shadow to grow out of. Being deferred to may be entirely new to him.

"It's a reminder, to us and you, of the authority and responsibility you hold," Lucille said.

She smiled, and added, "Captain."

Gerald turned to her and smiled. "Even you? I thought Shadows weren't supposed to take orders from their assignment."

He was right, of course. But he also wasn't supposed to be in a position of authority. Wielding the flame came with privileges under the law, but holding either civil or military office was expressly forbidden. That his commission was granted during his apprenticeship was the only thing holding the paper-thin legality together.