The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 16: Gerald

"Small flashes of fire, and a lot of smoke, sir. I think they're torching the fields!" Emery called back. Gerald waved in thanks, and turned back to the aft portion of the deck, his shadow falling into step behind him.

"Sir!" Corporal Lancet called from her lantern. Gerald noticed it aimed down towards the fields, and the other soldiers pointing excitedly at whatever the beam was shining on.

"Take a look, sir. There's a cable draped on the ground down there, in the distance. We caught the reflection while we were testing the lantern's range," Corporal Lancet reported.

Gerald looked down, to see the glint of steel draped along the crops, easily visible despite the irrigation trench much of it was following. The cable looked to be a little thicker than a wrist, and as they swung the lantern to track it, seemed to be at least a mile long.

"Cable-car?" Gerald asked Corporal Lancet, who nodded solemnly.

He mused for a moment. Flashing fire in the distance was either flickering outflow torches or Salamander fire. With a cable-car line cut, and the fields just beginning to burn, his course had been set for him.

"Focus on the Causeway," he told Cassidy Lancet. "Let me know if you see anyone."

"Sir?" Lucille asked, as he marched towards the ship's controls.

"All ahead full, Maxwell!" Gerald shouted, ignoring Lucille for the moment. "Arabel, Preston! Get that winch up and running, in case we need to pick someone up! Cassidy," he called, turning back to the Corporal.

He had nearly forgotten about her Sergeant. "Is Mister Calloway fit for duty?" he asked.

"No, sir," she said, with a hint of irritation. "Still can't stand without throwing up."

"Are you comfortable fulfilling his duties?"

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. "Aye, sir."

"In that case, have your squad arm up. Salamanders and extra rounds," Gerald said.

"Aye, sir," she said, as he turned away and began walking up the stairs to the rise in the aft section of the ship. Lucille followed, her silence surprisingly loud as she frowned from behind him.

"Sorry," Gerald said, once they reached Maxwell. "I thought I should include our helmsman." Maxwell nodded graciously, and Lucille shrugged nonchalantly. "Here's our situation. Emery has seen flashes of fire in the distance, Lancet just found a severed cable-car line, and the fields ahead have been set alight within the last hour. We might be flying into a hot extraction or some other kind of danger."

"Sir," Maxwell said, and he turned to regard his second officer. "I've been thinking about that pipe rupture, trying to figure out how it happened. The cold-stone pipe caps shouldn't have let it happen. Even if a Golem punched into the pipe, it wouldn't have enough pressure to do that."

"So you're suggesting there's no possibility of an accident?" Lucille asked.

"Exactly, ma'am."

"Are you sure?" Lucille inquired, puzzled.

Gerald laughed. "Maxwell's speciality is the use of cold-stone. He'd probably be part of the investigation if we weren't being invaded."

"Ah. Sorry," Lucille replied. "It's just, how could it be done deliberately? You can't increase the pressure in an outflow line from where it terminates."

"We'll ask anyone we find," Gerald replied. "Though if the rupture were deliberate, it increases the odds of finding someone soon."

"Sir! People on the Causeway!" came a shout from one of the soldiers at the lantern. He waved excitedly, and pointed below.