The Iron jackal

Forty-Eight

T he moon looked down on them from a sky full of stars, benevolent now. It washed the desert with a serene light. Frey stood on the softly whispering sand, Silo by his side, and let his eyes roam the maze of cracks on its surface, the great dark rift that crossed it aslant like a wound.

The Ketty Jay was behind him, her tail towards him, cargo ramp open. Nearby was the Tabington Wrath that the Century Knights had arrived in, a state of the art heavy fighter craft that didn’t look quite so impressive when it was half buried in a dune. Between them, his crew had built a campfire and lit it with the remainder of Professor Pinn’s Incredible Flame-Slime. Malvery, Pinn and Ashua were singing lustily, passing a bottle, already drunk off their arses. Ashua and Malvery were leaning on each other like old comrades. Crake sat with them, taking a sullen swig now and then, sunk in gloom. He’d taken the annihilation of the Azryx city rather hard.

It probably wasn’t the wisest thingullen swig to do to light a fire out here where it could be seen for kloms in any direction, but he reckoned they deserved to blow off steam. The Sammie patrols surely knew to stay well clear of this place in case they dropped out of the air. Besides, if they hadn’t seen the city go up, they certainly wouldn’t spot a little fire.

As to the others: Jez was nowhere to be found, Harkins was in the infirmary recovering from a mysterious knock to the head, Bess had gone to sleep in the sanctum, and Ugrik was wandering about arguing with himself. They were all safe and more or less alive. Relief soaked into him slowly, easing his tired body and tired mind. If just one of his crew had died on his behalf, he’d have been a lesser man for it. He was glad to have avoided that grief.

‘You did good, Silo,’ he said.

‘You too, Cap’n.’

Samandra came hobbling over, using a rifle as a makeshift crutch. Malvery had set and splinted her ankle, and she carried that foot gingerly, wincing with the pain.

‘Think we’re about ready to go,’ she said. ‘Long as I don’t try anything clever, I reckon I can still fly her with a broken paw.’

‘How’s Grudge?’

‘He’s awake. Bit embarrassed at what happened. Lost a few brain cells, but he won’t miss ’em.’ She gave Silo an unfriendly stare. ‘I got your doc to thank that he’s here at all.’

‘So I’d say this kind of cancels out that whole incident at the Mentenforth Institute, wouldn’t you? I mean, it’s only you and Grudge that know it was us that trashed the place, and we did lead you to some highly important military secrets which were-’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Samandra. ‘You’re off the hook. Again. Besides, I guess that relic we were chasin’ got destroyed along with everythin’ else, right?’

Ugrik, who was passing within earshot, cackled to himself.

‘Yes,’ said Frey, grave and earnest. ‘Yes, it did.’

Samandra touched the brim of her hat. ‘Well then, I guess this is it. I got a whole storm of shit to deal with back home. Least, I will when the Archduke hears about what went down here.’

‘You’ll keep my name out of it, though?’

‘If you like. And there I was thinkin’ you enjoyed all that newfound fame o’ yours.’

Frey wrinkled his nose. ‘Fame isn’t really for the likes of me. Think I amp;rsquoeight=; d rather just be quietly rich.’

‘Yeah, well, good luck with that,’ said Samandra, turning to go.

‘Hey, wait. You’re not done yet,’ said Frey. He raised his voice and waved at the campfire. ‘Crake! Get over here!’

‘Oh, for rot’s sake…’ Samandra began, but Frey held up his hand.

‘You, stay. We’ve just done a damn great service for our country, not to mention saving your partner’s life, so the least you can do is-’

‘You ain’t no patriot, Frey! You were out to save your own pretty arse!’

‘And you were out to kill it. Look where we ended up. Ah, Crake!’ he said, as Crake approached in a nervous hurry.

‘Miss Bree,’ said Crake, with a charming note of terror in his voice.

‘Mr Crake, of the golden tooth,’ said Bree poisonously. ‘I do believe we’ve met.’ Crake’s face collapsed.

‘Now, now, fellers,’ said Frey. ‘This won’t do. I pride myself as someone with a little experience of the delicate business between a man and woman. Let me give you a few plain truths so you can stop bloody well dancing round each other.’

Crake looked horrified. ‘Frey, don’t!’

Frey ignored him. ‘This man,’ he said, thrusting a finger at Crake, ‘is the bravest man I ever knew. Not a few hours past he took on a daemon which made that thing which smashed up the city look like an enormous pansy. He’s a loyal friend, loyal as you are to the Archduke no doubt, and what he did to you he did to save my life. Just like you’d kill any one of us to save your Archduke’s life. Isn’t that right?’

‘Damn straight,’ Samandra said, glaring at them all.

‘So quit this wounded pride bullshit, Samandra. You know what duty means. It means doing stuff you don’t always want to. Now I know for a fact that this feller is crazy over you-’

‘Frey!’ Crake nearly screamed.

‘-and I know damn well you got a flame for him too, so will you both just be adults, kiss and make up?’

Crake, who had been staring aghast at Frey, now switched his gaze to Samandra to see what her reaction was to all this. She was looking at him thoughtfully, searching his face. Finally she sighed.

‘Can you hold this?’ she asked Frey, handing him the rifle she was using as a crutch. She hopped forward a step and put her hand on Crake’s shoulder to steady herself. ‘Why don’t you go ahead and hold me by the waist, Crake? I’m a bit uncertain on my feet.’

Crake looked like he barely dared to touch her, but he put his hands on her waist as instructed, wearing an expression of bewildered hope.

‘Just let me get my balance here,’ said Samandra, tottering. ‘There,’ she said. Then she unleashed an uppercut to Crake’s jaw that lifted him into the air and dumped him on the sand, out cold.

Frey gaped at her as she hopped back and reclaimed her crutch. ‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘When he wakes up, tell him he can call on me. He knows where to reach me, though I daresay I’ll be fairly busy for a while.’

‘Uh,’ said Frey, looking at the unconscious daemonist. ‘Alright. I’ll do that.’

‘Good seein’ you again, Captain Frey,’ she said with a wink. She nodded at Silo with markedly less affection and then made her faltering way back towards her aircraft.

‘Smoothly done, Cap’n,’ said Silo.

‘You can’t say I don’t know women,’ Frey said, gleefully ignoring the sarcasm.

Pinn and Ashua were rolling around laughing by the fire as Malvery wandered over, swaying slightly. He looked strange without his omnipresent glasses perched on his blobby nose. ‘Anything I can do?’ he asked, eyeing Crake, who was beginning to stir.

‘Give him a hit of grog. He’ll be fine.’

‘Right-o,’ said Malvery. ‘Hey, Cap’n. Can I have a word in a minute?’

‘Course.’

‘Just let me deal with this feller first.’ Malvery took Crake by the arms and began to drag him away, the daemonist slurring nonsense as he went.

Frey watched them go. A cool desert breeze skated across the grey dunes. ‘Poor Malvery,’ he said. ‘Dunno how he’s going to take it when I kick Ashua off.’

Silo turned his head and gave him a flat look.

‘Well, she can’t stay,’ said Frey. ‘I’ll drop her wherever she needs to go, but I can’t have her on board.’

The rest didn’t need to be explained. The fact that he was attracted to erever sheher, however improbably, was enough to guarantee a messy ending if they were around each other for long enough. Frey had learned through bitter experience that liaisons with the crew were a bad idea, but he didn’t trust himself in the face of temptation.

‘You made her a deal,’ said Silo.

Frey rasped. ‘A deal doesn’t mean anything if it’s made under duress. We needed those supplies. Your people did.’

‘Ain’t right, Cap’n.’

‘Since when did you care? She’s not crew.’

‘She saved my life, I reckon. Didn’t have to do nothin’, but she did. Look at her with the Doc. Crake likes her too, I see that. She wants to be here, an’ I say she’s earned her place.’

Frey shook his head. ‘Can’t, Silo. You know how I am. We’ve got a good balance here. She’ll ruin it.’

‘You want me as first mate, she stays.’

Frey turned to him in surprise. ‘You learned to throw your weight around fast enough, didn’t you?’

‘She got value, Cap’n. And the whole crew heard you make that deal.’

Frey rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and spat. That was true. Breaking a business deal with a stranger was no problem, but that girl had insinuated herself too much already. If the crew started to doubt his promises, it would all be over.

‘Bollocks,’ he said angrily.

‘That the kind of “bollocks” a man say when he agree, or when he don’t?’

‘The first kind,’ Frey replied, sulking. ‘Damn, I’m gonna regret appointing you as my conscience.’

Silo chuckled. ‘That what I am?’ he asked. Then, seeing Malvery heading over, he slapped Frey on the back and slipped away into the Ketty Jay.

Frey was still cursing to himself when the doctor arrived, a small metal box in his hand. Frey recognised it as the one he’d been carrying earlier. This time, he saw the emblem on its side: the sigil of the Awakeners.

‘Tell me you didn’t find that in the city.’

‘If I did, it’d be a lie,’ said Malvery.

‘You looked inside?’

Malvery showed him the broken lock.

‘What’s in there?’

‘Orders. The kind for deliveries. Can’t read the Samarlan, but they’re printed in Vardic too.’

Frey felt a weary resignation creep over him. He’d had enough tonight. New revelations had lost their power to shock.

‘The Awakeners are getting supplies from the Sammies?’

‘Best I can make out, they’ve been getting supplies of Azryx tech from the Sammies.’

Frey did his best not to think of the implications. ‘What you wanna do?’ he asked.

Malvery was turning the box over and over in his big hands, studying it uncertainly. ‘Thought I’d maybe give it to the Century Knights. What do you think?’

‘It’ll mean civil war.’

‘And if I don’t, and it turns out to be civil war anyway, the Archduke ain’t gonna have any idea what the Awakeners have in store.’

‘On the other hand,’ said Frey, ‘this whole squabble between the Archduke and the Awakeners might blow over.’

‘Maybe,’ said Malvery, though he sounded even less convinced than Frey was.

Frey regarded him for a time before he spoke. ‘I’m not a man with a surplus of loyalty to my country, Doc. It’s kicked me in the pods too many times for that. Seems to me this is the kind of decision a patriotic man should make.’

Malvery harrumphed and looked away with a furrowed brow. Then, as if reaching some kind of resolution, he gave a quick nod. He tucked the box under his arm, dug into his pocket and pulled out a medal. Frey stared at it as he pinned it to the breast of his sweat-stained shirt.

‘Since when did you have a medal?’

‘Had it a long time,’ said Malvery. He straightened up and firmed his chin. ‘Just didn’t deserve to wear it till now.’ He gave a smart military salute, arm held across his chest. ‘Cap’n.’

Frey did his best approximation of a salute in return. ‘Do what you have to, Doc.’

Malvery held his gaze a moment longer, then strode off towards the Century Knights’ aircraft. Frey thought he walked lightly for a man carrying the future of his c0"› ountry.

‘What now, Cap’n?’ said a voice above him, making him jump. He looked about for the source, and found Jez. She was crouched on the Ketty Jay ’s tail assembly, gazing out across the desert. The sight of her unsettled him. Sitting up there, poised as she was, she looked like something wild.

‘Come down if you wanna talk to me, Jez,’ he said, in an attempt to reassert himself after his fright. ‘I’m not yelling at you up there.’

Jez dropped off the tail of the Ketty Jay, plummeted ten metres and landed beside him in the sand with a soft poomph.

Frey swallowed back an oath and looked around to make sure neither of the Century Knights were about. ‘Can’t you be a bit subtle?’ he said. ‘I’m doing my best not to let the whole world know you’re half Mane.’

She regarded him with an amused light in her eyes. No, not just amused: her eyes were literally brighter than before, reflecting the moonlight like a wolf’s.

‘There’s something different about you,’ he said.

‘Just the same old Jez,’ she assured him with a grin. And maybe it was the way she smiled, or a trick of the shadows, but damn if her teeth didn’t look sharper than before. Then she tilted her head slightly, and the shadows moved, and it was as if he’d never seen it. ‘Well? We got a plan?’

‘The plan is to get out of this desert, for a start,’ he said. ‘Get as far as we can tonight, hole up and hide from Sammie patrols, then back to Vardia when night falls again. I need to buy Crake some new gear and Harkins a new Firecrow and then…’ He shrugged. ‘We’ll see what’s what.’

‘Sounds good,’ she said. ‘I’ll get on it.’ She took a few steps towards the cargo ramp, then stopped and looked back over her shoulder. ‘For what it’s worth, Cap’n. I’m sorry. About her.’

He gave her a wan smile. ‘No need,’ he said. ‘I’m not done yet.’

She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. ‘You don’t stop, do you?’ She half-turned back towards the Ketty Jay, and paused there. Frey saw moisture glittering in her eyes. ‘She’s lucky to have you, Cap’n,’ she said. And then she walked away, before he could ask her what she meant by that.

He wandered a little way from the aircraft and the fire, kicking sand as he went. Behind him, he could hear Pinn and Ashua drunkenly taking the piss out of Crake for getting punched out by a woman. It brought a little smile to his lips.

Dark times lay ahead, there wasn’t musquo; t much doubt of that. But he’d seen dark times before, and he’d survived them. Back in those days, he’d faced the world alone. Not any more, he thought. Those days were gone.

His crew had been more than just a crew for good while now, but it had taken the events of the past few days to make him truly believe that. Maybe he’d just needed them to prove it to him. A lifetime of insecurity and impermanence had left him as a man who didn’t come easily to trust.

But he was sure of them now. After everything they’d done for him, for no profit and at great risk to themselves, he could scarcely be otherwise.

The glue that held them together was equal parts necessity, friendship, habit and desperation. But it held them fast, and Frey was deeply grateful for it. The men and women of the Ketty Jay were the only family Frey had ever had. And just like a family, they were exasperating, hilarious, fractious, affectionate, demanding, self-sacrificing, and he couldn’t get rid of them if he tried.

He looked up at the moon, and felt as if he was teetering on the edge of something. Change was coming. Soon it would be time for the heroes to stand up and be counted.

Well, let them. Frey had his own concerns. He had a crew that had just swelled by one, and they’d be looking to him to steer them through the chaos ahead. That was his task. That and something else.

He looked at the silver ring on his finger.

He’d made a vow. A promise of atonement. And he meant to keep it.

He’d gone some way from the Ketty Jay now, and the immense quiet of the desert surrounded him. Here was limbo, a pause in the world. He was nowhere, and that suited him fine.

There was a feeling that had been growing inside him, for how long he didn’t know. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he’d had his suspicions from the start. Now he needed to name it, to try it on his tongue to see if tasted false. He didn’t dare do it in front of anyone else, so he said it to the moon instead.

‘I love her.’

He stood there a long while, letting the sound of it run through him. Finally, he nodded to himself.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘There it is.’

Then he turned and walked back to the Ketty Jay, and his friends, and whatever would come after.