Flash Gold - Hunted Part 2

"I don't use it anymore. What's important now is that we can move forward with this task. If we leave now and walk fast, we can get to Bosomhall's claim today. From there, I can spy on John Wilder and-" Cedar clenched a fist, "-find out where Cudgel is."

Kali let him drop the name issue, though she planned to pry the secret out of him someday.

"Did you find our eavesdropper?" she asked as they squished down the muddy street toward the river beyond. A road meandering past the docks would take them out of town and toward the claims.

"No. I followed her for several blocks, which was difficult since she seemed cognizant of being tracked and chose well-traveled streets."

"She?" Kali asked.

"I thought the tracks might belong to a boy at first, but hips give a gait a distinctive sway, usually identifiable in one's footprints." They turned to follow the waterline. "The tracks left town and veered into the trees. The trail ended behind a hill where two lines gouged a snow drift. Logs might have rested there, or boards. They were parallel, like a pair of large skis. Ideas?"

"I...no."

"Coincidence perhaps. She may have taken to the trees. I chose to return for our meeting instead of scouting further."

"Good." Kali stopped before the last dock. It sported a tiny log boathouse. "A girl likes to hear that a man would rather turn his back on intrigue than miss a scheduled date with her."

Cedar tilted his head. "I returned because the possibility of finding Cudgel is my priority."

"I see. I'm incidental." She strode onto the dock.

"No, I didn't mean to imply you weren't important. I-where are you going?" Thumps sounded as he jogged to catch up with her. "I'll keep an eye out for this woman. If she's a threat to you, I'll protect you. Or I'll watch your back while you hurl smoke nuts at her and shoot her. Whatever you wish."

"So long as Cudgel isn't around?"

"Kali..."

She stopped in front of the tiny boathouse door and lifted a hand. "Relax, I'm not angry. I know Cudgel's your life's quest. And I'm just... Look, I appreciate that you humor me by listening to me prattle about my work. Not many people want to have anything to do with me." And if she wished he might be more than a business partner, well, that was not something she should wish for.

"I don't humor you," Cedar said. "I'm interested in your work. Especially when you're making weapons and explosives. And modifying my rifle."

She smiled. That did seem to tickle him. She had modified the loading mechanism on his Winchester to work like hers, automatically chambering a new round after the first bullet fired. She wondered what those dancing hall ladies thought when he insisted on sleeping with the rifle.

"And I'm currently interested in why we're standing here. The mining claims are that way." Cedar pointed upriver. "Unless you intend to steal a boat?"

"No, I made a deal with a fellow who lost his fis.h.i.+ng boat last fall. I fixed his furnace in exchange for free rent."

"Free rent for what?"

"You'll see." Kali patted her pockets. "Uh oh, did I forget the key?"

"It doesn't look like you forgot anything." Cedar's eyes crinkled at the corners as he nodded at her lumpy, bulging packsack. "Except a blanket. Or did you intend to share my Euklisia Rug?" he asked, naming his fancy bedroll. "To further the guise of us as lovers?"

Heat flushed her cheeks. "No! I mean... I just a.s.sumed since Sebastian offered employment, he would provide the basics." Dear Lord, this plan would involve her having to back up her thoughtless proclamation. Possibly for days. One ill-considered word. She groaned.

"You needn't appear so appalled," Cedar said. "I've been told I'm a fine companion. True, my face is a little battered, but I make up for it with what's beneath my clothing." He smiled, but it faltered immediately. "I didn't mean anything lurid by that. Just that some women have suggested my physique is pleasant to, uhm, need help with that lock?"

Kali shook her head and dug out a couple of fine tools. Quicker to pick the lock than run back through all that mud to the workshop. "I'm sure you're fine." More than fine. "I just don't sleep with men whose names I don't know."

"Ah."

If she had thought her statement would motivate him to reveal his name, she was mistaken. He merely watched her until the lock thunked and she pushed the door open.

"Huh," he said.

"What?"

"You can pick locks."

Kali shrugged and walked into the boathouse. "I can make locks. Picking them is easy."

"Remind me not to throw you in shackles."

"Is that something you contemplate often?" Kali untied a tarp draping a chest-high, six-foot-long object that rested not in the water but on the dock.

"Not...often." Cedar smiled and lifted a finger, as if he might say more, but the words changed to a gasp when she removed the tarp, revealing the machine beneath. "Whoa. What is that?"

The reverence in his tone warmed her far more than the spring weather, and she forgot his fumbled words on the dock.

"Just a little hobby," Kali said. "You know I've been antsy waiting for the parts I ordered to come upriver. I'm calling this a self-automated bicycle." Few bicycles had tires that thick and rugged-or a smokestack for that matter-but it was close enough. "It'll take time to heat up the boiler, but it can take us up the trail at ten to twenty miles an hour, depending on the terrain. We can be at Sebastian's claim in time to watch him cook us supper." She pointed at the broad seat. "I made it big enough for two."

Cedar touched the head-high smokestack rising from the compact boiler in the back, then slid his hand along the st.u.r.dy black frame. "It's fantastic," he breathed.

Kali grabbed a shovel from a coal bin in the corner, intending to load the firebox, but Cedar took the tool from her.

"Allow me," he said.

"If it'll make you feel useful."

"Your grat.i.tude always warms me."

Kali smirked. "Are these the times you start thinking of shackles?"

"Maybe."

Her humor faded. "Cedar, I'd like to ask a favor before we go. Can I give you something to hold for me? I, of course, figure I can handle myself in a brawl, especially if I have my tools, but I don't believe an army could get through you."

Cedar, a shovel full of coal poised in the air, tilted his head, eyebrows raised.

Kali checked outside the door to make sure n.o.body was lurking on their dock, then fished a tiny bundle out of her pocket. She unwrapped two vials filled with golden flakes that pulsed with soft yellow light.

"With the help of my model, I've done some calculations," Kali said, "and I don't believe I'll need the entire brick you saw to power the airs.h.i.+p. I shaved off some flakes in case I need to use them on something to help you with Cudgel."

Cedar gazed not at the gold but at her face. "I'm not quite clear on what your flash gold does but I know it's precious, especially to you. I appreciate this gesture."

"It's a power source," Kali said. "More than that, it's...well, it has properties. You can imbue it with commands, sort of like teaching a dog to sit and stay. Nothing fancy, mind you, and not a long list, but, a sample as large as my brick could accept a series as complicated as a punchcard program for a loom. My father was working on even more complexity when he died. He was always disappointed I couldn't..."

A whistle of steam escaped from the vent. The bicycle was ready.

"Never mind." Kali pressed the vials into Cedar's hands. "Take care of them."

"I will," he said.

PART II.

The self-automated bicycle or SAB, as Kali shortened it to in her mind, chugged over the uneven trail, its broad tires thus far handling the roots, rocks, and snow patches. The mud was more problematic, but it thinned as they climbed away from the mora.s.s pooled beneath Dawson.

The sun came out, dappling the forest floor, and Kali found herself enjoying the trip. The road narrowed to a trail following the river, and she and Cedar had to duck periodic branches, but that did not bother her enough to tear the grin from her face. So far the SAB was doing well on its first expedition.

The wildlife seemed less enthused with the machine. Whenever it neared, shrubbery thrashed as critters fled the trail. A part of her hoped a stubborn moose would stand in their path, staring them down, so she would have an excuse to try the steam horn.

"When do I get to drive?" Cedar asked a couple of miles into the trip.

"When you build one of your own," Kali said over her shoulder.

She was trying to ignore him and the fact that her lack of handles or grip bars for the rear pa.s.senger meant he had to use her to hold on. The sensation of hands resting on her waist-and twice all the way around her when they ascended a steep incline-was not...unpleasant but it made her think of things unrelated to mechanics and steering. Things that were wholly inappropriate, given that they were on a quest to find and kill someone.

"Do you still not trust me fully?" Cedar asked. "Or are you simply unable to relinquish control over your devices?"

She smiled. The latter, of course, but... "How can I trust a man with so many secrets?"

"Are you referring to my name again?"

"That and other things. Aside from those brief revelations at my old workshop when you were trying to enlist my aid against Cudgel, you've never spoken about yourself. You-"

A shadow fell across the trail-a large shadow.

"What's that?" Kali slowed down.

It disappeared as quickly as it had come, and beams of sunlight found the forest floor again.

"A cloud?" she asked.

"No," Cedar said.

Yes, that had come and gone too quickly to be a cloud. Eagles were common in these parts, but that had been too large a shadow to indicate a bird.

Kali stopped the SAB and dropped her feet to the ground. Spruce and pine branches created a latticework overhead, impeding the view of the sky.

"An airs.h.i.+p?" she asked, thinking of the pirates who had attacked her in the dog sled race months earlier.

"I don't think it was that big," Cedar said. "And it moved quickly for an airs.h.i.+p. Listen."

With the chugging pistons of her vehicle stilled, Kali could hear more of the sounds around her. No hint of bird chattered cheered the forest. Something else sounded in the distance however. Faint clacks and clanks.

"Some sort of machinery?" Cedar suggested.

"Hm." The sounds were already fading, as if they belonged to a vehicle driving-or flying?-away. The idea seemed preposterous. Who up here besides her made such things? The townsfolk of Dawson, while not quite as quick to curse her and call her a witch as those of Moose Hollow, thought her peculiar and her inventions doubly so.

The sounds faded altogether, leaving the forest silent except for the soft rumble of her own vehicle's idling engine and the rush of the nearby river.

"Maybe it's nothing," Cedar said. "We could be close to a claim where people are using steam machinery."

"Or maybe somebody's hunting me," Kali said. When she had left Moose Hollow, she had not told anyone where she was going except her friend Nelly, and n.o.body had attacked her since she arrived in Dawson. Given the proximity of the two towns, and the size of the bounty on her head, she was surprised it had taken this long for anyone to find her.

"A possibility," Cedar said.

"Should we take any precautions?" she asked, willing to concede to his wisdom when it came to matters of battle.

"Yes."

"Such as?"

"You should let me drive so I can familiarize myself with the workings of the vehicle."

She glared over her shoulder and found him smiling.

"Are you truly using the possibility of a new and dangerous enemy to further your argument for why you should be allowed to play with my bicycle?"

"If we're attacked," Cedar said, his smile widening, "and there's an incident rendering you unconscious, I should know how to work this contraption so I can port you back to civilization."

"You needn't look so excited at the prospect of my incapacitation."

"I merely believe in being prepared. May I drive?"

"No." Kali shoved the lever that controlled the speed, and the SAB surged forward. "If I'm knocked out, wave smelling salts under my nose. I'll rouse myself enough to drive."

They continued onward for another hour, navigating around mud puddles and horse droppings on the trail. Twice more Kali heard the clanking sound in the distance, though whatever was making it did not venture close enough to be seen through the evergreen canopy. Nor did another shadow darken the path.

They came to the edge of a meadow with the burned hull of an abandoned log cabin hunkering in the middle. Half its roof had caved in, and the door hung from a single, rusty hinge. Drifts of snow framed the clearing, though it had melted in spots touched by sunlight, leaving patches of matted dead gra.s.s.

The trail pa.s.sed through the meadow, but Cedar gripped her shoulder before they entered it.

"Stop here," he said.

"A likely ambush point?" she guessed.

"Yes."

Kali gazed at the unimpeded expanse of sky before them. "I am reminded of the open area where that airs.h.i.+p attacked us on our last outing together." She eyed the sky again. She did not hear any of those clanks at the moment, but...