Exiles in Arms: Night of the Necrotech (23 page)

The cable car lurched again, just as Taryn had started to release her hold on the mast. Flailing her arms, the magelocks slapping painfully against her body as they dangled by their tethers from her wrists, she scrabbled for any sort of purchase. She shouted with something like triumph when her clawing fingers caught the edge of the roof hatch leading down into the car below.

Any feeling of triumph fled when the car bucked once more. From her precarious position, she could just arch her head over the edge of the car, which revealed why the car was behaving like an ill-tempered destrier. The second Scavenger she’d shot had managed to sink one of its claws into the steel carriage. The shudders and lurches plaguing the car were being inflicted by the monster’s efforts to turn itself around. She could see the thing trying to stab its other claw into the hull just above. It meant to climb up onto the roof.

Taryn unhooked her gun belt with one hand, then looped it around both the handle of the roof hatch and her own leg. She pulled the belt tight, clenching her teeth as it pinched her flesh. Before releasing her handhold, she gave an experimental kick with her leg. The belt didn’t give so much as an inch. Even so, it took a forceful will to release her grip. The picture of her body pitching from the car and plummeting into the channel refused to leave her mind.

“Rutger!” she shouted as she reloaded one of her magelocks. “We’ve picked up a passenger.”

Taryn looked over at her partner. Both Rutger and Rex were trying to hold off a cluster of diving, snapping Scavengers. There wouldn’t be any help coming from that quarter for a time at least. The gun mage threw herself flat as another bonejack came swooping down at her. The monster sailed just past, the claws of its left leg scraping across the roof only a heartbeat away from Taryn’s face. She hurried to reload her weapon, resisting the impulse to look over her shoulder and see if the Scavenger was turning about to make another run.

The car bucked again, this time with an entire series of rapid groans and shudders. Taryn leaned over the edge of the car. The Scavenger clinging to the side had abandoned its effort to climb straight up. It was instead scurrying up at an angle, like some mammoth insect. The glowing runes swirling about the thing told her the idea hadn’t originated in its own cortex.

“Rot,” Taryn snarled at the bonejack as it clawed its way toward her. She waited until it raised one of its claws, then loosed her enchanted shot into the center of the pad-like black-iron paw. The corrosive shot melted into the metal, weakening the joints and breaking the control wires within. When the Scavenger brought its foot against the side of the car there was no strength behind its claws. Instead of stabbing into the carriage, they slapped uselessly against the steel surface. It flailed backward, dangling for an instant by the intact claw still embedded in the side of the car. Its hold, however, was more tenuous than the grip it had gained when it first slammed into the car. With a shriek of tearing metal, the skin of the carriage ripped open and the Scavenger was sent hurtling into the water hundreds of feet below.

Taryn didn’t linger over the bonejack’s destruction. Twisting away from the edge, she reached for the gun belt binding her leg to the hatch. As she did, she saw one of the Scavengers diving down at her. It looked to be the same one that Rutger had struck earlier, one of its legs dangling useless from its underside. The other, however, was thrust forward, its claws splayed wide. Taryn forgot about unfastening the belt and rolled herself across the hatch. She cried out in agony as the twisted belt constricted around her leg and dug into her flesh.

The painful tactic achieved its purpose, however. The Scavenger missed her in its swoop. This time the bonejack didn’t sail off to make another approach but stabbed its claw into the roof, arresting its momentum. Again, Taryn could see the enslaved souls spiraling around the flying horror as a malignant intellect guided it.

She abandoned trying to unfasten the gun belt. Instead, she grabbed the knife in her boot and sawed at the twisted leather. Her eyes kept focused on the crippled bonejack. The thing turned about. Unable to support itself on its broken leg, it came hopping forward, flapping its wings to stay upright. Taryn sawed at the restraining belt. It was a race now, and not one she was likely to win.

Just as the bonejack came leaping toward her, it was struck from the side. The blazing length of Jackknife sheared through its tattered pinions, raking down across its hull and its functioning leg. The monster crashed onto its side, flopping and flailing as it tried to squirm around and snap at its attacker. Rutger glared down at the thing. “I thought I killed you already,” he said and brought his sword cleaving down into the Scavenger’s skeletal head.

“That was timely,” Taryn said. She finished cutting through the belt. Her leg felt as though a troll had used it for teething. It felt more like a lump of dead meat than a part of her body, her only sensation a numb tingling. Yet it responded when she wanted it to move and didn’t act like it wanted to give out on her.

Not that she would let it.

She turned her gaze skyward, but there was no sign of more Scavengers. She looked across at Rex. The only bonejack near him was the mangled machine with its claws sunk into the Toro’s shoulder. While she watched, the ’jack reached up and ripped the Scavenger free, tossing the wreckage into the sky.

“They’re gone?” Taryn asked, almost unwilling to believe it.

“We did good,” Rutger said. He pointed his sword toward the cable line running parallel to theirs. The car the Satyxis witch was perched on was in motion, moving to overtake them. Flying beside it, like some black seed drifting in the wind, was the morbid iron lich.

And another half-dozen Scavengers.

“We did good,” Rutger repeated, “but not good enough.”

The Scavengers flew away from the witch’s car and sped toward the mercenaries. This time there wasn’t the long, steady climb that had allowed their enemies to take aim. The bonejacks wove and darted between one another, buzzing across each other’s path. If the first wave of Scavengers had been like a flock of vultures, the second behaved like a swarm of corpse flies, flitting about in deranged spirals and crazed parabolas.

Beside him, Rutger heard Taryn hiss the word “seek.” Her magelock blazed with arcane energies, the symbols of her spell swirling about the muzzle. He saw one of the flying bonejacks jerk as the shot struck it, but the rune shot lacked the crippling potency of the iron rot she’d inflicted upon the other Scavengers. Taryn had gambled accuracy against penetration and lost her wager.

“Keep behind Rex,” Rutger said. “Try to pick them off when they start their attack.” The gun mage nodded and crouched down behind the warjack’s enormous leg as she reloaded.

The Scavengers dove in a concentrated swarm, all six of the machines descending in a hissing flock, darting in from every angle. Rutger caught one with a sweep of Jackknife, obliterating half its head only to nearly lose his own when a second bonejack flew past and tried to tear it off with its talons. Behind him, Rex was able to smash one of the Scavengers with a blow from its fist, swatting it out of the air as it dove at the Toro, but in doing so, Rex left itself open to the assault of two more. One swept past the warjack with such furious velocity that it ripped a shoulder plate free. The second landed on Rex’s back, trying to work its beak into its smokestack housing and get to the boiler.

Before the Scavenger on Rex’s back could more than nip at the steel plates, Taryn shot it from below. This time she was free to use the corrosive shot she’d been hesitant to employ at range. Rutger wasn’t sure what she hit, but whatever it was had the Scavenger screeching in an almost living approximation of pain. The bonejack’s entire hull was quaking; foul black smoke billowed from its underside.

Taryn scrambled clear of the noxious smoke and the molten metal dripping from the damaged Scavenger. As soon as she exposed herself, however, the sixth bonejack came diving down, claws spread like a monstrous hawk. Rutger saw her peril before she did and leaped across the roof to strike at the Scavenger with his blazing sword. Again, the bonejack displayed a hideous degree of intelligence, veering off before it came into range of the blade.

Taryn shouted a warning, seizing hold of Rutger’s legs and pulling him down as the bonejack he’d struck earlier came sweeping in. Its claws raked across the roof where Rutger had been standing. The Scavenger diving for Taryn had been bait to lure Rutger into the claws of its comrade. Rutger cursed the infernal cunning guiding the hellish machines. He glared across at the ghastly iron lich.

“Here they come again,” he said. The two Scavengers were flying together now. Taryn aimed her remaining magelock. He watched in amazement as one of them fell into formation behind the other.

“Save the shot and head for cover!” Rutger yelled. The two mercenaries threw themselves flat behind the bulk of the steam engine. They heard the frustrated snarls of the Scavengers as they hurtled past.

At the same time, Rex had managed to tear the crippled Scavenger off its back and was flailing it at the remaining bonejacks. The Toro rotated its torso from one direction to the other, managing to keep the two Scavengers at bay.

The other bonejacks formed a concentrated attack on the two mercenaries. With one diving down from either side, there was no chance to use the steam engine as cover. “Up!” Rutger shouted to Taryn. He was already in motion, jumping onto the framework of the mast and scrambling, hoping to put himself above the angle of the diving attack. The trick worked against the bonejack diving down from the left, and as it descended past the mast, Rutger lashed out with Jackknife. The blade tore through the upper half of the wing, all but cutting it completely free. What was left wasn’t enough to keep the thing airborne, however, and after it slammed against the roof of the cable car its momentum sent it sliding off into the channel below.

The second Scavenger was able to correct the angle of its strike in time, shifting away before it could come within reach of Rutger’s sword. He watched as it soared upward, rendezvousing with the bonejack that had crippled Rex’s arm.

“We have to break the control that’s guiding them,” Rutger declared.

Taryn shook her head. “I’ve already put two shots in that squid thing and it’s still going strong.”

Rutger looked again at their enemies on the other car. This time he noticed the witch shouting at the iron lich. An idea came to him. “That thing isn’t giving the orders. It’s just relaying them.” He laughed bitterly. “I was wrong, it is the witch we need to kill.”

Taryn looked down at her magelock. Rutger could almost read her mind. She was wondering if her enchantment would be able to overcome the magic the blood hag had used to escape Rutger’s shot earlier.

“That thing can fly, but I don’t see any wings on the witch,” Rutger said, pointing at the truck connecting the car to the cables above it.

A cold smile spread over Taryn’s face as she aimed her gun and invoked her spell. “Rot,” she said, and fired. The bullet, propelled with the force of the gun mage’s magic, slashed into the thick steel cables. Two of the lines were almost sheared clean through, and the remaining threads snapped with a sound like the crack of a rifle.

Across the distance, Rutger saw the horrified look on the witch’s face when she appreciated what was happening. The first cable snapped, and her car lurched violently to one side. She scrabbled for purchase, throwing her arms around the mast. Balefully, she glared at the mercenaries. Before the second cable could snap, she was shrieking orders to the iron lich.

Then the frayed second cable gave out. The car was thrown onto its side, hanging high above the channel. The strength of the last remaining cable wasn’t enough to hold the car’s weight. With a thunderous boom, it broke, sending the car hurtling into the bay below. As it fell, Rutger thought he saw a misty blot of vaporous blood clinging to the mast. He hoped the witch’s magic was less effective against drowning than it was against bullets.

Even as the witch vanished from sight, her handiwork was set into motion. The last Scavengers came diving in, and Rutger cried out in horror. The bonejacks were going to return the favor, swooping in to attack the cables and send the car dropping into the channel.

Rutger shouted at Rex, ordering the ’jack to grab hold of the cables and again arrest the motion of the car. Then he made a desperate climb up the mast to the metal box housing the truck.

“Are you mad?” Taryn yelled, horror in her eyes as she watched her friend try to fumble his way onto the top of the truck.