The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 8: Lucille

She floundered for an answer, and he smiled at her. It was warm and gentle, not at all the behaviour a Crafter showed their shadow.

"Lieutenant Kendor," Gerald mused to himself, as he looked away from her to examine the lift-bag.

"It sounds appropriate, doesn't it?" Gerald asked her.

"Lieutenant?" Lucille asked, nearly tripping in place. She sputtered, struggling to form words. The implications of his simple question had her mind whirling, and she struggled to keep up as he continued to speak.

"I thought about it a little. You can't do your job unless you can stay reasonably close," Gerald explained. "Also...."

He hesitated and trailed off for a moment. He stared up at the Spire for a moment, and she swore she could feel the fear in his eyes. "I can't deny that I might become a danger to the City. Not with the invasion. You need the authority to command the crew to help stop me if the fire goes sideways. It would be insulting to you if I offered less."

She saw him, suddenly, in the mould his master must have seen years ago. At this moment he enjoyed near absolute autonomy and was well within his rights to leave her behind. Instead, this apprentice had, without being prompted to, put the City above his own life.

She smiled, and said, "I do like the way it sounds, Captain."

He grinned. "Glad to hear it," he turned back to the engineer, and asked, "Would you still like to fly? You've been studying applied aeronautics for the past half-year, which makes you impossible to replace. But I would understand your refusal, since this is no longer a simple test flight."

Maxwell Durgon shook his head. "There's no way I would miss this, Captain."

"Then you're my second officer, and the only other person allowed to touch those controls," Gerald said and held out his hand. Maxwell took it, and they shook firmly. "While we fill the bag, I'd like you to pick out another, say, eight people, to handle the ship's mechanics. In a pinch, the three of us would be enough to fly her, but there's no reason to not have more hands. I'd prefer volunteers."

"Aye, Captain," Maxwell replied. He turned away and stepped below deck. Lucille watched his departure with a satisfied smile. The old engineer lent the people he worked with a sense of calm purposefulness, and carried one of the rarest skill sets in the City. He was a superb choice.

Lucille expected him to watch as the crew began filling the lift-bag with the Gloam, pumping it from where it lay over the river. Instead, he had turned to the side of the ship and peered overboard.

"What are you looking for?" Lucille asked.

"Soldiers. We should bring a squad with us," Gerald said, before he casually hopped over the side and onto the construction scaffolding.

Lucille smiled, as she watched him follow the ladders down. She waited until he was out of sight, then vaulted over the rails and let herself fall the nearly three stories. She hit the ground rolling and threw herself to her feet before she stopped.

Her charge was watching from the ladder, wide-eyed. She grinned at him and waved.

He was muttering to himself as he took the last ladder down, and joined her on the ground.

"Doesn't that hurt?" he asked, as he approached.

She only shrugged in response. Taking a three-storey fall was part of the training curriculum in her Bureau, and the exams have killed more than a few careless recruits. She had done the fall so many times she had lost count, and the motions were as natural to her now as walking.