* * *Jacob frowned at the transmitter as Mary guided the Skysworn out of the docks of Ballern. He was surprised to hear Archibald’s voice, and even more surprised to hear why he was contacting them.
“Are you sure about this, Archibald?” Mary asked.
“No, that’s why I need some time to discuss things with Belldorn. If Bollwerk is to send one of the warships that far, our alliance between Ancora and Dauschen will be far less protected than it has been. I wanted you to know Samuel is heading to Ancora, and his logic is sound. The Spider Knights would be formidable in Ballern. I need you to get Jacob back to Ancora to speak with the leadership there.”
“Why me?” Jacob asked for what felt like the tenth time since Archibald had contacted them.
“Everyone knows you,” Alice said, answering the question meant for Archibald. “You’re the boy who slew the Butcher.”
Jacob understood what Alice and Archibald were saying, but that didn’t mean he liked it. He wanted to spend more time in workshops and labs and leave the war behind. He wanted to spend time with his friends and family without worrying they’d be attacked at any moment. With that in mind, perhaps he could talk to Parliament. Was it even Parliament anymore? They’d heard rumors the leadership had changed after so many had died in the Fall, but he didn’t know much more than that.
Mary nodded. “Alice is right. And Archibald? There’s never been an alliance this broad. Not even in the Deadlands War.”
“I know. That’s why I am entertaining the idea. Not to mention the future threat Mordair poses. If we are to have peace from Ancora to Midstream to Belldorn, this has to end. With Mordair’s seagoing fleet in Ballern, he’s within easy striking distance of Belldorn. Should he gain a foothold there, we’d have no way to hold Fel and drive him back. That victory would make both cities vulnerable in one blow. Give me time to speak to Belldorn.”
“So be it. We’ll be in Ancora in time for dinner, provided the thrusters don’t explode.”
Smith grumbled something unintelligible over the horn, and despite Jacob’s dread for what was to come, a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth. He reached out and took Alice’s hand. They were going home.
“Be safe.” Archibald disconnected without another word.
Alice crossed her arms and blew out a breath. “I still don’t like leaving Furi in Ballern.”
“That girl can take care of herself,” Mary said.
“Did you see all the soldiers? If Fel moves against the Skyborn, they won’t have a chance.”
“If Fel moves against Ancora, they won’t have a chance either,” Jacob said. “Maybe Archibald’s right. It’s like Furi said. We need the Steamborn and the Skyborn together if we’re going to win this war.”
“The Stormborn against the world.”
“Only half the world.”
Alice smiled and let out a quiet laugh.
* * *
It felt like an eternity had passed by the time they reached the plains beyond the desert. Jacob half expected to see Midstream or Bollwerk in their travels, but Mary’s path had taken them farther to the north, though the view of the Burning Forest had been spectacular. He had a better appreciation for how dangerous those twisted stone trees were now, but it made them no less fascinating.
They passed almost directly through the Bull’s Horn, a pair of mountains that acted as a gateway between the desert and the plains in front of Cave. The grasslands slid by underneath them, slowly changing into the foothills of the Ridge Mountains before they entered the range itself and Mary cut the thrusters.
“We’re going home,” Jacob said.
Alice put her arm around his shoulders. “I know it hasn’t been that long, but it feels like ages.”
The clouds weaving through the mountains obscured their view for a time, until Mary took the Skysworn lower, and they exited the cloud bank entirely.
A long road took a winding path up the mountain, and at its peak sat the towering walls of Ancora, but something had changed.
“Are you seeing this?” Mary asked. “Smith, get up here.”
Smith didn’t answer, but it wasn’t long before his footfalls sounded on the deck outside. It could have been moments, or it could have been hours, and still, Jacob wouldn’t have registered the man’s arrival. Instead, he stared at the border of the Lowlands and the pale stone walls that stood nearly as high as those of the city.
“Look, by the old town square,” Mary said, pointing off to the east.
“Docks,” Smith said. “Lower and wider than I expected, but they look serviceable enough.”
“How?” Jacob whispered.
Smith turned to face him with a wide grin. “Pretty sure that crane of yours is how, Jacob.”
“That’s impossible. Just to get the wall rebuilt. It’s not possible …”
Alice undid her harness and hurried to the windscreen beside Smith. “Is that … is that another crane? Two other cranes?”
Jacob blinked and fumbled with the buckle for his harness before joining Alice. “Archibald sent another one?”
“Two,” Alice whispered, her voice cracking. “That’s why they’re moving back into the Lowlands. Gods, Jacob. Look at it.”
Huge swaths of the fallen stone and foundations of the Lowlands had been cleared. It took Jacob a moment to remember Ambrose had been using the foundations to rebuild the wall. But his surprise came from far more than that. New foundations for homes had been laid, built of smaller stone that wouldn’t have worked for the walls.
One of the cranes still moved on the wall to the far east, and the speed and skill being employed to place larger stones were staggering. Whoever was piloting the crane had mastered it. But there were two other cranes, one building the docks and another helping to rebuild nearby homes.
The outer wall itself was fortified with enormous stones at the base. It made no sense. There was nothing like that in the foundations of the Lowlands. They would have been more suited to holding up the castle or the city walls themselves.
“Swing around to the quarry,” Smith said. “I have to see this.”
“Quarry?” Jacob asked.
Smith pointed to the west. The far side of the mountain was where invaders often struck from. The base had been sheared off and harvested—rectangular forms dotted the ravine and the flanking mountain. Each slope had been cut away in tiers, like exaggerated versions of the benches where Archibald held his sessions in Bollwerk.
“Charles’s place is still there,” Mary said.
Jacob forced his gaze away from the quarry and the widened road leading up the mountain. The strange shape of Charles’s workshop was indeed still there, and Jacob wanted to go back again. Wanted to step back into that place as if he could wrap the memory of his old life around him.
“Archibald,” Mary whispered. “What are you up to now?”
Smith patted Mary’s shoulder. “I am quite sure he is solidifying his alliance with Ancora for all time. And perhaps more likely, solidifying his partnership with Jacob.”
“With me?”
Smith nodded. “You have a legacy to carry on. We might have Charles’s notes and some of his schematics, but you, you actually learned from him. Much like I will carry on Targrove’s legacy, assuming the old man does not outlive me.”
Mary choked out a laugh as she steered the Skysworn back toward the new airship docks. “That old man will outlive us all.” The lower they got, the more people were visible all around the city.
“It’s almost strange to see Ancora without one of Bollwerk’s ships hovering over it now,” Alice said. “Do you think Archibald pulled them all away?”
Smith nodded. “To reinforce Fel, I suspect. Or perhaps to make another supply run. They have clearly been busy.”
“Look at those docks.” Mary whistled. “Those are going to put Belldorn to shame, and that’s saying something.”
“Hydraulic locks?” Smith said, leaning forward. “Are those water lines beside the cleats? They must have run the hoses into the reservoirs.”
“How?” Jacob asked. “Ancora doesn’t have strong enough pumps for water lines that big.”
Smith smiled. “Maybe they didn’t know that yet. Or maybe Frederick has been up to something behind your back.”
“I wouldn’t complain if he was.” Jacob studied the docks and lines, still in disbelief at how much had been done since they’d been gone. “This is amazing.”
Mary drifted into the bay farthest from anyone on the ground. “Check and see if the dock is ready for us, would you, Smith?”
Smith slapped the control panel and headed to the door. Jacob couldn’t hear exactly what he was shouting down to the worker on the docks, but Smith turned and gave a thumbs-up soon enough.
Mary maneuvered the Skysworn until the reinforced bow ran into the hydraulic locks. The long, padded arms opened and rotated forward, hooking over the bow to hold the ship in place without having to tie it off on all corners.
“Eva’s going to be jealous,” she said with a grin. “Belldorn is too windy to have something this fancy. They’d either snap off the docks or damage the ships.”
Smith came back inside as she finished talking. “I think you are correct. And that is likely why the docks are built so low. They will need a higher tier for larger ships, but this will expand Ancora’s trading possibilities.”
“I want to speak with the dockhands,” Mary said. “I’m curious what size ships they plan to have dock here. Why don’t you two go ahead and find your families?”
“You know where Bat’s old house is?” Jacob asked.
Mary nodded. “We’ll come find you when we’re done looking things over.”
“I need to check the Skysworn,” Smith said, reinforcing Mary’s statement. “Running the thrusters so long is risky, and I need to be sure we are ready to leave when the time comes.”
Alice hurried back to the lockers and grabbed her pack. She threw Jacob’s leather satchel to him and started for the door. “We’ll see you soon!”
Jacob glanced between Alice and Mary, smiled, and hurried after Alice. The cool mountain air filled his lungs, and he followed Alice across the gangplank and into the reconstruction of Ancora.
* * *
Jacob didn’t recognize the dockhands as he and Alice raced by them. They raised a hand in greeting, and as fast as they said hello, they were hurtling down the stairs that spiraled down two stories to the streets. Jacob’s boots hit the stones outside what had once been a restaurant that served some of the best soup in Ancora.
“I bet Smith would have liked The Kitchen.”
“The what?” Alice asked, turning to face him. She paused, studying the ground around them before nodding. “It’s … easy to forget what was here. The streets are kind of haunting.”
“I know.” Jacob took a deep breath, and they continued on, passing the docks’ supports and several piles of metal plating. That wasn’t anything Ancora manufactured. He was sure of it. That meant it probably was Archibald shipping supplies in. Jacob wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about that, knowing how Archibald liked to manipulate people to his advantage. Regardless of Archibald’s intentions, Jacob was grateful.
“That has to be where they’re moving people.” Alice pointed to the far southern side of the Lowlands. Before the Fall, there hadn’t been a direct line of sight to the streets below the lift. In time, perhaps they’d be hidden again, but for now, they were plain to see.
Thick timbers and stone peeked above the edge of the ravine. Homes that looked something like what had once stood in the Lowlands. Homes that looked remarkably like where Alice used to live, only longer and larger and to each other. Jacob realized they were likely apartments or some other kind of boarding house.
“Do you want to go?” Jacob asked.
Alice shook her head. “We go to Samuel’s first. We already know my mom is well. Let’s find your parents.”
Jacob didn’t argue. It was farther to the new construction in the west than it was to the gates that led to the Highlands. It was good to see them standing wide open.
They were halfway there when a tremendous thud sounded to the east. Jacob and Alice slowed, looking toward a billowing cloud of dust and debris. Another of the cranes had come to life, maneuvering massive stones into place where the walls would soon meet.
“Wow.” Jacob just stood and watched for a time. “We’re going to have to find Ambrose, too.”
“Yes, we are. It’s amazing what he’s done here. It wouldn’t have been possible without you, Jacob.”
He gave Alice a crooked smile and shook his head. “No, any tinker could have done it with Charles’s designs.”
Alice sighed and placed her hands on her hips. “Keep telling yourself that.”
It was nice, what Alice said, but Jacob wasn’t so sure. Even if he had helped bring the Titan Mech arm into being, it was Archibald who’d had the resources to build them. Smith or Frederick or Targrove could have designed what Jacob did. He knew it. But if they had, would Archibald still have helped Ancora like this? Sending more cranes? Jacob didn’t know. He hoped the answer would be yes, but he just didn’t know.
Alice slowed.
“What is it?” Jacob didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
“It’s the Square. Or it was.” She turned in a slow circle, gesturing to the street around them.
Jacob sucked in a breath. They were standing only a few feet away from where the stage they’d once danced on for Festival would have been. There was no rubble left, no sign of what had happened there. As if the entire area had simply ceased to be. The thought sent a shiver down his spine.
Alice shook herself. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to this. Come on. Let’s get out of here. It’s … unsettling.”
“Yes, it is.” Jacob nodded and followed. He glanced back, catching sight of the sloping cone of Charles’s workshop. He was going to get back there on this trip, even if it was only for a moment.
Closer to the top of the hill leading to the gates, they had a better view of the reconstruction to the south. Jacob gawked at the somewhat chaotic piles of lumber and stone, brick, and tile.
“I guess we know where all the rubble went.” Alice looked up at him.
Jacob rubbed his chin. “It looks like they organized it into building materials. That’s what they’re building the new homes out of? It’s a good use of resources, but it’s … I don’t know.”
“It’s sad.” A small frown crossed Alice’s lips. She turned away from the Lowlands and strode toward the gate.
Jacob stayed at her side, greeting two guards with a nod as they entered the Highlands. As different as the Lowlands looked, transformed in an instant by the Fall, the Highlands could have been pulled straight out of Jacob’s memory. Almost nothing had changed, except the streets were far more crowded than they had once been.
He squeezed Alice’s hand and couldn’t help but smile at the small cluster of people waiting to get in to the Wildhorse. Baddawick’s haunt looked busier than ever.
Alice started toward the hospital. Next door, the candy shop still displayed Cocoa Crunch in the window. A lure that was impossible to resist for any self-respecting Ancoran kid.
“I wonder if the owners here ever visited that candy shop in Belldorn,” Alice said.
“I doubt it. Not many Ancorans journeying to the Crystal Sea.”
“Maybe they will now. If they know Belldorn is in the same fight. That has to be a bond, doesn’t it?”
“I don’t know, Alice. I hope so. There’s so much out there to see.”
The street curved gently around the corner and opened up when Samuel’s home came into view. Bat had left him a tremendous inheritance when he passed. The family home had served generations, and maybe, if they could overcome Ballern, it would serve generations more.
“Do you hear that?” Jacob asked. “It sounds like an engine. A big one.” He frowned and looked toward the wall. “I can’t tell where it’s coming from.”
Alice followed his gaze to the wall. “Do you think it’s a train?”
“The tracks were destroyed. There’s no way.” Jacob frowned and cocked his head to the side.
Alice shrugged and walked up to the outer door of the workshop, glancing down the long street that led to the Castle. Parliament stood as gilded and full of excess as ever.
“Do you really think things will change here?” Jacob asked.
Alice turned to look him in the eye. “Did you see the new walls around the Lowlands? We have defenses against Red Death and Walkers and all manner of creatures.”
“I know that, but what will that do to the divide between the Highlands and the Lowlands?”
Alice raised an eyebrow. “You really didn’t pay attention to Miss Penny’s classes at all, did you?”
Jacob raised his hands in surrender. “About what?”
“Most of the merchants moved to the Highlands when the walls were built. It protected their investments and kept them safer from natural disasters.”
“Like invaders.”
“Yes, Jacob, like invaders. I can’t imagine it’s an appealing idea to have a Walker stampede through your building and run away with your wealth.” Alice lifted the lock on the workshop door. The back panel slid open, revealing a combination. “Do you think they changed it?” But before she finished asking the question, the lock clicked open. “Never mind.”
Jacob slid the door open and followed Alice inside. The workbench looked the same as they’d left it, and he almost laughed when he saw the wood and metal still bolted to the floor. “You know, Charles told me that probably wouldn’t move again. Guess he was right.”
Alice closed the door behind them and threw the bolt into the floor lock. “Let’s see if anyone’s home.”
Of course, they already knew someone was home. They could hear the voices and laughter echoing up from inside the house.
Jacob slipped through the doorway and down the short hall to the kitchen. No one was there, but it smelled like yeast and bread and some sort of roast. It smelled like home when his mom would cook more bread than they could possibly eat for a holiday feast. They continued to the living room, where they found the source of the laughter, and Jacob’s heart leaped.
A look of confusion crossed his father’s face before the rough stubble of his beard and mustache parted for a wide grin. “Jacob Arthur Anders, what are you doing here?”
Jacob wasn’t exactly sure what had happened because he was suddenly crushed in a hug that threatened to steal his breath away.
Alice squeaked when she met the same fate, and they were both ushered into the living room. Jacob’s mom stood there with her hands clasped before her, gesturing for them both to come closer. She wrapped them up in the same hug, and Jacob thought he might never escape.
“Hi, Mom.”
“It is so good to see you two. Come, come, have a seat, will you? We have bread and stew if you would like anything. Alice’s mom actually made the stew. She should be back later, dear, if you’d like to wait.”
“It’s great to see you, Mrs. Anders.”
“So formal, dear. I think we can move past that now.”
Alice smiled as she stepped away.
“What brings you two back here so soon? After we left you in Cave, I thought it would be weeks before you were back.”
Jacob wrung his hands together. “Well, we can’t stay all that long. There’s trouble in Ballern. How much have you heard about Mordair and what happened in Belldorn and Fel?”
“Snippets here and there.”
Jacob’s dad stepped closer. “Not much more than that, and you’d have thought we would with as much time as we’ve spent with the new Parliament.”
“The what?” Jacob asked.
His dad offered a small smile. “It looks like we all have some catching up to do. Take a seat, take a seat. Will the rest of you excuse us for a time?”
There were various grunts and nods of acceptance as people left for the back of the house or the kitchen. Jacob didn’t think they’d be out of earshot, which told him his parents trusted the others in the house.
Alice took a seat at the end of a long, plush couch, and Jacob joined her. His parents sat down opposite them, studying the pair through barely concealed smiles.
“It is good to see you together.”
Jacob sat up a little straighter. “Please don’t make this weird.”
“We would never,” Jacob’s dad said with absolute insincerity. He continued before Jacob could finish his groan. “In all seriousness, things are changing in Ancora. Those in Parliament who survived the Butcher’s reign and were loyal to him have been cast out.”
“Alive?” Alice asked.
“Of course! Archibald volunteered to take them into Bollwerk. Reckon he wants to keep a closer eye on them.” Jacob’s dad leaned forward. “But why on earth would you ask if they were alive?”
Alice’s eyes focused on the carpet. “We’ve been to … less benevolent places these past weeks.”
Jacob imagined that was the nicest way Alice could have possibly made her point. Flashes of Dauschen and Fel roared through his mind. Burned and hanged bodies on the walls, broken children and families caught up in a war that wasn’t their own. His fists tightened.
“Jacob?” his dad said.
He shook himself out of that memory. “Sorry, what?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, yes. Sorry.”
Jacob’s dad bit his lip, and then continued as if the exchange hadn’t happened at all. There was a time his parents wouldn’t have let that go without interrogating him for every last thought in his brain, but times had changed. It was easy to forget the days were hard for everyone.
“Yes, well, Parliament. We kept the name, you know? It’s easier for everyone to identify who leads this city if as little changes as possible. I think we can all agree there have been enough changes in Ancora.”
Jacob’s mom smiled. “What did you think of the Lowlands? Remarkable, isn’t it?”
“It is!” Alice said. “When Baddawick sent us my mom’s message, I was so worried. I had no idea how much had been done here.”
“Between the machines and the volunteers, it’s been a stunning transformation. Archibald sent laborers from Bollwerk, did you know?”
Jacob’s eyebrow rose and he stared at his mom. “He did? He didn’t … I mean, he never told us. Just told us about the supply ships.”
“They came in on the ships. Helped train the miners on how to run those machines.”
Jacob’s dad nodded when his mom finished talking. “And that’s when I got roped into helping with Parliament.”
“What do you mean?” Jacob asked.
“The miners wanted me to speak for them. Baddawick was there, of course. That man has his fingers in everything. The members of Parliament who stood against the Butcher still remain, but everyone else is gone. They elected the rest of us in a Town Hall gathering.”
“Samuel will have a seat with Parliament if he wants it. The captain of the Spider Knights volunteered him. I think it’s a tribute to everything Bat did for the Knights over the decades.”
Alice took a deep breath. “I don’t know if Samuel will want that or not. I think he’s enjoying seeing the world.” She paused. “Despite how much he complains about it.”
Jacob grinned and turned back to his dad. “So, you’re part of Parliament now?”
His dad sighed. “I hope not.”
That got a laugh from Alice. “What do you mean? You could do so much good.”
“I know, Alice, I know. It’s just … politics. I can’t stand them. All the agendas and swindling and lying.”
“Maybe it will be better without the Butcher.”
“Oh, I’m sure you’re right about that. At least for a while. But things always degrade over time, don’t they? I approached Parliament on behalf of the miners and got pulled in without thinking about it. After my experience with my lungs, though, I want to fight for them. I do want to do that. And if this is the best way to do it, so be it.”
Jacob fought off a shiver that ran down his spine. It had only been months since he thought his dad wasn’t going to make it. Everyone thought he’d gotten the black lung. It used to be a shared fate for all the miners until their masks and filters improved.
“I might be able to help too,” Jacob said. “With the miners, I mean. We know so many amazing tinkers now. Between all of us, I’m sure we could make better equipment for them. Make the mines safer.”
“You’d change a lot of lives, Jacob.”
Jacob’s mom reached out and squeezed his dad’s arm. “When this is all over. Please don’t worry about it now. You have enough. You’ve done enough.”
“I haven’t done enough until Ancora is safe. And that means Mordair has to be imprisoned or killed.” His voice took on a harsh edge. “That’s all that matters.”
His parents gave each other a look, one he remembered from his younger days. They didn’t like what he’d said. He could understand why, but that didn’t change his goals. Everyone in Ancora would have peace. Alice would be safe. And Mordair would join his brother in the ground.
* * *
The conversation lightened after that. Alice gave Jacob a meaningful glare anytime he protested his parents’ worries, and he slowly caught on to the fact he was upsetting them. His life might have become swarmed in conflict and terrible things, but that didn’t mean he had to worry them with all the details.
Instead, he sat back and let them explain more of what had happened in the Lowlands—the veritable army of Archibald’s volunteers, and the unmatched skill of the miners when they took control of the Titan Mech arms.
“I wondered how they dug the quarries without any signs of collapses,” Alice said. “That’s a really sensitive job.”
Jacob’s dad nodded. “It is, but the miners know the mountains better than anyone. I’d say it was a natural job for them once they learned their way around the cranes.”
“It’s amazing, truly.”
“If you think the Lowlands are something, you should really visit the train station. The miners finished that first.”
Jacob furrowed his eyebrows. “The … train station? You mean underground?”
He nodded.
“That was all buried in the battles after the Fall.”
“Well, Jacob, things may have changed a little since you’ve been gone. Parts of it are still destroyed, but the gates and trestle have been rebuilt. I suspect they’ll come back to work on the finer details after the wall is done.”
Jacob stared at his dad in plain confusion.
“How?” Alice asked.
“Archibald sent more of those cranes to Dauschen. Some of them mounted to the railroad tracks. Have you seen them? Magnificent machines.”
“Of course we’ve seen them. Jacob designed them.”
Jacob’s dad blinked.
“No, I didn’t. Charles designed them. I just modified them a little bit. And Frederick.”
“So modest,” Alice said.
Jacob’s mom smiled at him. “Between the rails and the airship dock, Ancora can be a hub for travelers and traders alike.”
“We’re still a bit out of the way in the mountains, Mom.”
“You’d be surprised at the things we heard in Cave. There are more than a few residents who want to visit Ancora and Dauschen now that they’ve met citizens from each. I think the Fall solidified a bond no one realized was missing.”
“That makes me sad,” Alice said. “It shouldn’t take such an overwhelming tragedy for people to want to know their neighbors.”
Jacob gave her a small smile. “We all get stuck in our ways, I guess. I used to think there wasn’t anything more exciting than sneaking into Charles’s workshop.”
Alice reached out and took his hand. “Why don’t we take a walk to the underground? I’d like to see what’s become of the old shops and station. And your parents can finish talking to their friends.”
“Come back for dinner, won’t you?” Jacob’s mom asked. “Alice, your mother should be here by then, too.” She looked up at the clock on the buffet across the room. “Two hours.”
Jacob’s dad held up a finger. “And you don’t have to go sneaking down to the basement of the inn anymore, either. There’s a proper staircase just inside the wall beside it. Apparently, it had been there for some time, just bricked over.”
Alice mimicked a whine. “But I wanted to climb down the rusted ladder that felt like it was going to fall out of the wall.”
Jacob laughed. “We’ll be here.”
* * *
Walking through Ancora was more than a little surreal. Jacob remembered how tall everything had seemed in the Highlands before he’d been to places like Bollwerk and Belldorn. Now the inn he’d once felt towered over everything except the city wall itself didn’t feel as large.
“I swear this was taller last time we were here.”
Alice glanced at him, then looked up. “I know what you mean.”
They walked to the end of the street, and Jacob frowned, looking for the nearest entrance to the wall. “Do you think it’s in a watchtower?”
Alice paused. “Look, people are going into that one.” She pointed to the nearest watchtower built into the pale stone of the city wall. They followed the loose line of Ancorans going in and out, which was an unusual sight in itself. In the past, Jacob had only seen guards making their way in and out. Those guards did their best to keep citizens out, and even Charles needed to use a Steamsworn medallion to get past them.
Jacob slowed in the entryway to the tower, the wide stone steps leading up above them. Instead of ending at a small storage area like other towers they’d been in, this showed the edges of broken stone. A trail of pebbles led to where something had been chipped away to reveal the descending stairs.
They followed the spiral down, voices echoing all around in jarring contrast to the silence they’d sought the first time they’d snuck into the underground. On the third turn, he saw the bricks and large stones that had broken free and crashed down the stairs.
Alice led the way down them, and through a cracked stone archway that took them out onto the platform. They weren’t far from the gate with the enormous shell of a dead invader, but it was gone now, buried by a cave-in that might never be moved.
But another curve of the tracks had been cleared entirely, reaching out to the open air of the far wall. Jacob stared at the bright wood of the rebuilt trestle.
“How did they do that? I don’t understand how the broken trestle could have supported the weight of an arm while it was being rebuilt.”
“I guess you still have a few things to learn.”
Jacob blinked at Alice’s wide grin.
“Come on, Jacob, look at the train.”
She grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, snapping him out of his daze at what waited in the underground. The station had mostly survived the collapse, and while one of the inner buildings had been utterly crushed, some of the others were bustling with people.
The bookstore might have been destroyed in the last conflict, but now a small café had taken its place; the same tables and chairs sat around the outside as if the place hadn’t seen scores of Ancorans and Fel soldiers alike fall to the invaders.
Charles had said something to him years before when Jacob’s grandmother died. He wasn’t sure he’d ever understood those words quite so clearly. The world doesn’t stop, Jacob, and it never will. Take time if you need it, but don’t expect the world to wait. It won’t.
He studied the entrance to the catacombs, where the fallen stone doors had been erected once more, and then his eyes settled on the train. A train he’d seen parts of before, beneath Dauschen. But it hadn’t been so filled with supplies and people at that point. This looked like something between a passenger train and a freighter full of construction materials.
For a moment, he wondered how the materials would be unloaded before a track switched with a squeal and a Titan Mech arm rolled into the station on wheels.
It settled onto the track next to the train, maneuvering its arm over the car where two crewmen cleared the way for the fingers to close on a bundle of dark gray beams. Steam escaped as the pressure shifted and then cut off as the arm lifted into the air and settled the weight over its center.
Jacob couldn’t see the driver, but he didn’t miss the lantern hooked on the mining helmet. “It’s brilliant. Who knows machines better than the miners?”
“Only the tinkers, I imagine,” Alice said, briefly putting her arm around his waist.
Jacob smiled at that and watched the arm move down the tracks, circling to the left as it exited the station. “They must have laid new track to load and unload. They’re going to take it to the lift, or maybe have one of the crawler-mounted arms carry it up. Alice, it’s more than I could have hoped.”
“It’s amazing, Jacob. They couldn’t have done it without you and Charles. No matter what you say.”
Maybe they could have eventually, but it would have taken time for someone else to understand the way Charles worked. Jacob didn’t doubt that. They could have asked Targrove or Smith or any of Belldorn’s best tinkers. But would Archibald have gotten involved if it wasn’t for Jacob? Would they have found the old journals if Samuel hadn’t been digging through the rubble? Maybe not.
A scream tore Jacob from his reflections, and his hand instinctively moved for the air cannon on his back. The air cannon that was stowed neatly onboard the Skysworn. His hand balled into a fist.
Alice sprinted toward the train. Jacob followed, vaulting over the railing and onto the bridge, where they raced over the tall arc and came down on the far side. He could already hear the yelling before they reached the scene.
“All will be cleansed! All will be shown the true path to the light. The path of the Dark Fire!” A man in a black cloak stood spewing those words while the limp form of an elderly man lay crumpled at his feet.
“He stabbed that man! I saw it!”
“Guards!”
“You would deny the gods their traitorous enemies? I will smite them in their name, for the time of man has come and gone. This is the age of the Great Machines!”
Alice slid to a stop as the cloaked form raised a long blade above his head. Her wrist launcher unlocked and spun up, but before she could take a single shot, a mountain of a shadow moved.
Jacob winced at the sound of snapped bones, the blade clattering onto the stone platform. The man’s feet went out from under him as the mountain lashed out with one violent sweep of his legs, and his voice cracked with violence.
“Threaten my son!” He hammered down on the cloaked man’s face with a terrible fury before the guards finally reached the confrontation.
Jacob wasn’t sure if anyone was going to stop the beating, but the moment the guards arrived, the huge man stepped away and turned, revealing a long, braided beard.
Jacob slowly tilted his head to the side, not sure he could believe his eyes. “Owen?”
“Vaughn is good,” Cage said, stepping up behind Owen. “He might end up a little sore from that punch to the ribs, but he’ll be okay.”
“Cage?” Alice said.
Cage glanced between the shocked look on Alice’s face and the shocked look on Owen’s face. “So you do know them!”
* * *
A few minutes later, once the guards had dragged the attacker to jail and the wounded off to the hospital, Jacob and Alice found themselves seated at the café beside Hefina while Owen looked over Vaughn’s injuries.
“He punched you?” Jacob asked.
Vaughn winced and nodded when Owen poked a little too hard at his ribs.
“Not broken,” Owen said.
Cage stopped just short of rolling his eyes. “I told you they weren’t broken.”
Alice frowned and studied Cage. “How … how do you two know each other?”
“Me and Owen? He’s my cousin. We had a good laugh when we realized we both knew you and Jacob.”
“You’re from Fel?”
Cage nodded. “I’d appreciate it if you kept that quiet. With zealots like that showing up in Ancora, I doubt being associated with Fel is going to be a positive thing for a while.” He turned to Owen and his family. “You three should keep that quiet too. You look like you could be from Dauschen, so stick with that story.”
“Why was that disciple here?” Jacob asked. “I thought the Children of the Dark Fire were Ballern’s problem.”
“They’re everyone’s problem, Jacob,” Owen flexed his fingers against the table. “They’ve been an annoyance in Fel for years, but I never dreamed they’d … just attack an innocent man.”
“He’ll live,” Cage said. “Let’s be thankful for that.”
“I never thought he’d punch me when I tried to stop him,” Vaughn grumbled. “It does hurt a bit.”
Owen ruffled Vaughn’s hair. “I know I yelled, but I’m proud of you, son. That was a brave thing. Just … try to be more cautious when it comes to zealots, will you?”
“And perhaps a little less brave when the zealot has a knife?” Hefina asked.
Vaughn grinned.
“Are you staying in Ancora?” Jacob asked. “My mom’s cooking a huge meal tonight. I’m sure you’d be welcome.”
“We couldn’t impose like that,” Owen started.
“Then you’ll come as my payment for fixing your fishing net after you tried to sink us.”
“I didn’t try to sink you!” Owen barked out his face twisted in a look of horror.
Vaughn laughed, apparently catching Jacob’s teasing tone a bit faster than his father had.
“Yes, well, I could use some dinner.”
“You’ll come too?” Jacob asked, turning to Cage. “I’d like to hear more about what’s been happening in Dauschen.”
Cage rubbed his neck and shrugged. “I’d be happy to. It would be good to hear what you’ve seen in Belldorn. I get most of my news filtered through Archibald, so you know how that goes.”
“Do we ever,” Alice said under her breath.
Cage laughed and tapped his hand on the table.