There were times, few and far between as they might be, when she appreciated her Shadow.
Mathias' restraint was an unusual quality for an Evaluator, who were often encouraged to safeguard the City at the expense of their charge. Most would have attempted to kill her before now, and even if she survived, she would be marked for death by the Bureau of Oversight.
Instead, she had six years to build her ships, and at least one night to fly them. Part of her felt she should express some gratitude. Or at least be less sullen about his presence aboard her ship.
It was a courtesy she didn't feel the gunnery crew had earned yet.
"If you don't have a job to do, make damned sure you're not in the way!" she shouted at some inept Corproal, after he managed to stumble his way into the path of a pair of mechanics testing the cooling lines. He saluted smartly, shouting, "Apologies, ma'am!"
Behind her, Mathias shrugged and said "Better they make these mistakes now than when we're in the air."
"True," she agreed, as she glanced up at the lift bag. Crews above her had already removed the scaffolding, leaving the ship completely unimpeded. With a little flame, this ship would fly. "It reminds of something my cheeky apprentice said, a few days ago."
"If at first you don't succeed, flying isn't for you?" Mathias asked, his grin visible beneath that stupid hat of his. He glanced back to the Spire once, and shuddered. "I hope you're not planning on following his route to the walls."
She followed his gaze to the Spire, and her breath caught in her throat. The column of fire pouring out of the earth, even from miles away, was an intoxicating sight. To wield it would give her a life the likes of which nothing else in the world could offer. Seizing the Bore would give her eyes that could see hundreds of miles, arms that could reach across and beyond Central, and a heart that would never go out.
She forced herself to close her eyes and turn away. She found Mathias's gaze, scrutinizing her, and shook her head. "No. I shouldn't be anywhere near that."
"How long will the trip take, if we can't follow your apprentice?" Mathias asked.
Another courtesy. He spoke to her as if her fear of the Spire were perfectly normal, masking her condition from the soldiers and crew. "Almost two hours," she said.
He nodded, politely, before he took a step back and fell silent.
The fool had better not have fallen in love with me, she though to herself. I can't afford to have him hesitate, and he promised he wouldn't.
"Lieutenant!" she called out, as the last of the gunnery crew stepped over the railing and onto her deck. The man she called out to lacked the usual pips on the shoulders that identified soldiers, but his sword seemed to drink heat, an effect she could feel in the air.
The Lieutenant saluted as he caught sight of her, standing at rigid attention. As she approached, he seemed to shrink back a little, and his legs twitched nervously. It was not an unusual reaction, for a civilian. From a soldier, it seemed a little silly. "Lieutenant Adrian Keates, ma'am. My people are accounted for and ready for action."
She frowned, as Mathias stepped beside her and asked, "Which Brigade were you detached from, Lieutenant?"
Lieutenant Keates impressed her with the look of deep disdain he fixed Mathias with. He turned back to her, and asked, "Shall I escort the civilian off your ship, ma'am?"
She laughed, harder than she had in months. It took her a dozen seconds or more simply to regain her composure. Lieutenant Keates grinned a little, and even Mathias smiled.
"I wish my conscience would let you," Tabitha replied. Her smile faded, and she fixed him with a serious stare. "But he must remain. And should he call for my death, you are to assist him. Am I understood?"
"Aye, ma'am," Lieutenant Keates replied, saluting again. He turned to Mathias, and said "Twelfth Company, second Brigade, North Army."
Mathias frowned as he nodded. "Twelfth Company would put you in rotation along the last wall. Who were your training sergeants?"
"Emily Varnell and Ignio Demos."
"You had Backburner Varnell? You might not be useless to us," Mathias said, clearly impressed. Tabitha didn't hide her surprise, and raised an eyebrow when Mathias glanced back to her. He only shrugged.
"How did you get her to tell you her nickname?" Adrian asked. He grinned, adding, "It took half a year's lottery to get her drunk enough to tell us how she earned it."
"I'm not surprised," Mathias agreed. "She hates the nickname. Said it sounded like something -" he began, with Adrian cutting him off.
"A Crafter got for being an idiot. Abyss below, I hope she's okay," Adrian finished, glancing north almost unconsciously. "I was hoping we'd be heading there first, but getting into the action at all is a damn sight better than waiting in Central for deployment. I suppose you fit into the command structure somehow, sir?" he asked Mathas.
Tabitha decided to end their conversation. "He serves as my Shadow, which makes him second in command by default. He's also the only other person aboard who's qualified to touch the wheels."
"Aye, ma'am," he replied. He looked around, hesitating for a moment, then asked, "Would you mind if we did some tests, ma'am?"
"Tests?" Tabitha asked, confused. She glanced at Mathias, who only shrugged in response.
"Elaborate," she ordered, softly.
"This ship is going to be flying by tethering it to a some kind of lighter-than-air bag, right?" Lieutenat Keates asked, pointing his finger up to the lift bag. "If that's the case, it's possible a broadside volley could swing the ship. I'd like to know how much before we're in the field, ma'am."
Tabitha nodded, and smiled a little. It was a prudent, sensible request. At least the Lord Captain hadn't saddled her with a complete imbecille. "We'll try a few shots once we're over the river. Will incendiary rounds suffice?"
"They will. Thank you, ma'am," the Lieutenant responded, saluting smartly before returning to his platoon.
"I'm glad he's not an idiot," she sad to Mathias, as the Lieutenant returned to his troops. She stared up at the lift bag for a moment, and smiled. She turned back to Mathias and added, "I suppose you're not going to share Backburner's story, are you?"
Mathias shook his head, and grimaced ruefully. "No. And I'm going to awkwardly change the subject by telling you the ship is ready to fly."
Tabitha smiled, quivering in excitement. Abyss below, she felt like a little girl again. At least she managed to keep from squealing.
"The overlay scaffolding is disassembled?" She asked.
"Aye," Mathias replied.
"Cooling clamps have been tested?"
"Aye. Spare line has been loaded below."
"Propellers have been tested, the clutch holds?"
"Aye."
"We have at least a dozen spare reservoirs?"
"Aye."
"Valkyrie mounts are secure?"
"You welded them in place."
"Right. What was that about spare cooling lines?"
"We loaded them below."
"We didn't make spare cooling lines. It's too complicated to mass produce," Tabitha said quietly, with a frantic edge to her speech.
"Well, we have cooling lines installed, and spare line below. Where did the other line come from?" Mathias asked.
She turned away, and glance out into the distance, where a few hours ago her apprentice hopefully arrived. No word had been passed on to her since he had left, which on a night like tonight, could mean anything. "A little eager, were we?" She said, more to herself than even to Mathias.
Mathias' expression was one of obvious confusion. She smirked, and pointed to the west. "My apprentice may have to get creative about descent."
She stepped up to the controls, and gently caressed the largest wheel. Made of burnished steel that gleamed in the firelight, it turned at the barest touch, as if the ship himself were eager to fly.
Smiling, with a skip in her step, she strode to the railings in front of the wheel, on the rise overlooking the deck, to look out at her ship. The deck was filled with activity, as nearly forty soldiers and a dozen engineers were bustled about on her deck.
Her deck, her ship. A ship that didn't have a name.
"His name is Fury of the Dawn!" She called out, and was surprised to see every single person stop, and stare up at her. Most of the expressions she saw were confused, and a couple of soldiers were genuinely frightened. But she had their attention, and was prepared to use it.
"My ship deserves a name!" she explained, loud enough for her voice to easily carry across the entire ship. "And you all deserve a title worthy of what you undertake tonight. Nothing we do has ever been done before, and we do it with the fate of the City at stake."
She smiled, as reassuringly as she could, before she continued. "But you are here tonight because you are equal to the task. Each of the engineers flying with us tonight could design and rebuild this entire ship. And the soldiers were hand-picked by the Lord Captain of the Wall. It will never pass my lips again, but I am grateful for all of you!" She cried out, hoping that what she said wouldn't bore them too much.
She didn't believe it for a moment, when they started cheering. But the enthusiasm swept across the deck, and dozens of people below her cried out loudly and threw their hands in the air.
She waved and began speaking again, as the cheers died down. "All hands! To your stations, and prepare for ascent!"
The cheer was loudest from the engineers; most of whom had been a part of the Airship project for at least a year. The soldiers showed some trepidation, but buried it under their professionalism as their Lieutenant ordered them to stand at attention and salute smartly.
"That was a surprisingly good speech," Mathias admitted, from her right. He smiled, as she stepped past him to the controls. "It was touching, and most importantly, it was brief. You'd have made a decent officer."
"I'd never have made it through basic," Tabitha argued, and after a moment's consideration, Mathias agreed.
"True," The shadow said. "You're as obedient as the weather, and your temper isn't entirely the scourging." She glared at him as he mocked her, and was tempted again to let Lieutenant Keates throw him off the side.
"Still testing my restraint, evaluator? Even now?" she asked.
"Especially now," Mathias replied, and she found she had no heart for a retort. She had known Mathias for as long as she had known her last apprentice, and besides the first night they met, tonight was the only night he had ever seemed less than calm. Less than the implacable killer. Or more.
He seemed human. Exactly when she needed the killer.
And to even her surprise, she decided to offer him reassurance. "Tell Lieutenant Keates to cut the tether chains if you fail to kill me. As long as we're in the air, the fall will be fatal."
He scoffed indifferently in response, but seemed to relax into that long black coat of his. She smirked as she turned away. Point for her.
She raised her hand in the air, and called out, "We're beginning our ascent! Brace yourselves!"
She waited a few seconds, as the call made its way around the ship, and the quiet imitation of her shout was echoed by nearly half the crew. She spread the fingers in her outstretched hand, and life filled her as she seized the flame.
In the space between heartbeats, she became all of the fire she could reach. She could sense the heat in the breath she exhaled as if it were still in her lungs. She could feel the Valkyrie ammunition like her fingertips, the nearby exhaust port like another limb, and the cold-stone daggers Mathias carried like sharp pin-pricks at the edge of her awareness.
And beyond, across miles of water, sang a siren song of warmth and light. She had to force herself to not look out at the column of flame that rose from the abyss, and nearly cried as she tore her awareness away from its immense, terrifying power.
Instead, she turned to the cloud of vicious, poisonous death that hung over her head. Like the Spire, it sang, and was filled with a promise. Only where the Spire promised power, the Gloam promised death.
Whatever the Gloam was, it hated. She could feel it trying, even now, to reach out of the bag and devour them. She smiled as she stretched out her will, and inside the bag, lit a flame.
The fire devoured the Gloam, blazing out and pushing the air into the sides of the bag. The canvas strained against the metal frame, and orange firelight glowed gently against the deck, despite the cold-stone lining.
Moments later, the bag pulled the tethering chains taunt, and the ship lurched upward. The sudden surge threw much of the crew to the ground, and even Mathias staggered, grabbing the top of his hat.
Even she lurched and had to hang off the wheel to keep her balance. The ship rocked and swayed a little as it followed the balloon into the air, rising with considerably less grace than her apprentice had managed. She smiled to herself, grateful that Gerald wasn't here to see that.
She turned on the swivel propellers and aimed them sideways to stop the swaying, and turned to Mathias. "That's harder than it looks."
"I wouldn't know," Mathias responded curtly, as he stood back up and straightened his coat. He glanced off the side of the deck, and shuddered a little. "Unnatural," he muttered to himself.
Tabitha followed his gaze, and wanted to squeal.
Below, even only a few seconds after the ship began his ascent, they were higher than most of the buildings in the City. Even the towering structures of the Agora and the Crafter Hall sat at eye level.
It worked! Spite the abyss and damn the laws of nature itself! My airships fly!
"Mathias!" she called out, glancing back at her Shadow, who looked perturbed as he stared down at the City below. "This is a triumph the City will remember forever! Your face would survive a smile!"
He waved his hand dismissively, and didn't turn his gaze away from whatever part of the City held his attention.
Tabitha shrugged to herself, and set her fingers over the largest lever, on her right. Set as far forward as it would go, the lever had four other positions; cruising, half, full, and flank speed. She eagerly set it to cruising, and the sudden rumble of the propellers felt as euphoric as wielding the flame.
She wound the two smaller wheels, teasing the swivelling propellers into motion, before setting them back to point at the rear of the ship. She swung two levers, and the smaller propellers whirled to life, and despite the speed they had already gained, she could feel the ship surge forward.
In moments, the ship was cutting through the air, fast enough to match the trains. Tabitha had to keep herself from pushing the propellers harder. The ship responded with eagerness and ferocity, it's immense and powerful engines only just beginning to prove what they were capable of.
Curious, she set the swivel propellers to point laterally to the ship, and engaged the front ones on the starboard side. A moment later, as the ship began to turn to her left, she engaged the rear ones on the port side, and the ship swung in a tight roll, as the aft propellers turned the ship.
She nearly crowed in delight, and didn't notice Mathias had moved from his observation until he was standing right behind her.
"Someone's trying to send us a message," he said, without preamble.
"How can you tell?" she asked.
"They're using an exhaust pipe. It's a technique the military used to employ for long-range communication. It's slow, which is why they stopped using it. I was watching for the message, but I lost sight of it when you turned the ship. If you hold here, I'll watch for the rest of it."
"What did you manage to see?" she asked.
"It looks like 'drag-on', but they forgot to signal the word separation," Mathias answered. "I'm sure someone butchered the spelling at the comms hub. I'll wait for them to repeat the message."