The other two Alchemist soldiers lay face down in the corridor, blood pooling around their heads. They’d obviously followed Matvei and Nika. Yeger frowned as he stepped up to one, his gas rifle aimed at the fallen man. An ambush? With their hardened skin, they shouldn’t be dead. Matvei and Nika only carried blades and grappling pistols.

  He nudged the body. Nothing. With a flick of his foot, he flipped the man over. “Oh, hit the eyes. Clever,” he murmured and stepped over the corpse, continuing down the passageway to their exit, Maria in tow. The Machtvollian might be hard to understand and a little too fixated on rules, but curses was she a devious one. For a Machtvollian. Sending both those soldiers out the hole had been cunning.

  After a minute they approached the final door, beyond which lay their exit.

  A short, wiry figure in a black coat appeared in the doorway, arm raised, and before Yeger could speak, reflex triggered.

  He blinked, baffled, then saw the throwing knife flying toward his skull. Yeger sighed, and with speed boosted muscles, reached up and snatched the handle as it reached him, stopping it an inch from his eye.

  “It’s us, you fool,” he growled as reflex stopped.

  “Sorry,” Matvei said, dropping his hand, another throwing knife clenched between bare fingers.

  Yeger stepped aside, ushering Maria past, then spun and walked backwards into the room, gas rifle up.

  As soon as he was inside, Matvei shut the door and slammed the bolt in place. For all the good it’d do against boosted soldiers.

  A giant hole marred the exterior wall, shards of wood jutting inwards from where he’d smashed through only ten minutes earlier.

  Nika sat on a cot against the side wall, her forehead red where she’d been constantly rubbing sweat away before it froze. A bloodstained bandage was wrapped around her upper thigh.

  Yeger scowled, the Alchemist muckers had obviously aimed low, realising that even with speed extract, it was tough to avoid shots to the waist and thighs.

  “They shot her inner thigh,” Matvei said, stepping up to Yeger, his voice barely audible above the engine. “While it didn’t pierce her muscle, there was plenty of skin and some fat down there to be damaged. She’s in a lot of pain and can’t use her leg.”

  Yeger rolled his shoulders. The fingers of his left hand tingled in sympathy with the graze across his shoulder from where he’d taken a gas rifle bolt. Trubnikov better have a lot of healing extract available… this “rescue” mission was turning into a circus.

  “And”—Matvei cleared his throat—“Vera’s Revenge is gone.”

  Yeger gave him a sharp look, then marched to their exit. Sure enough, the moon hung in the sky where previously Vera’s Revenge had kept pace with the Alchemist airship.

  He drove a fist into the wall, shattering another plank of wood. “That guildless mucker!”

  “He can’t have left us,” Maria said, her thick accent muffling her words as she approached and peered through the hole. “Not without reason, anyway.”

  “Sure, his reason was he didn’t care.”

  “Yeger—”

  “No Alchemist, even a weapons master, is worth this.”

  “Yeger…”

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  “We’re going to die here, or worse, be tortured and then thrown in the depths.”

  Crack!

  “Ow!” Yeger rubbed the back of his head, glaring at Maria, who returned his glare.

  She pointed out the hole. Down.

  Yeger looked. “Clouds.”

  “Let your eyes adjust to the dark, fool,” she said, her Machtvoll accent thickening with her anger.

  He squinted, trying to block out the flickering light of the gaslamp behind him. As his eyes gradually adjusted, a massive, strangely solid cloud became visible.

  “Vera’s Revenge,” Maria said, “I guess he figured we’d need a quick exit.”

  “How?” Yeger said, suddenly anxious. He could still hear the screams of terror in his head as the two Alchemists had been ripped into the night.

  Maria gave him a funny look. “Doesn’t the Warrior Guild here do airship combat?”

  Grateful for the half-mask hiding his burning face, Yeger shook his head.

  Maria shook her head and stepped back from the hole. “Our exit plan has changed,” she said, raising her voice as she addressed all three. “Trubnikov has Vera’s Revenge positioned below us. On her mainframe, he’ll have several crew members lashed on. When we drop, angle toward them. They’ll catch us.”

  “Wait,” Matvei said, “you want us to jump and just hope Trubnikov has the crew on the mainframe to catch us? Do we look stupid?”

  Maria shook her head. “Of course not—”

  “How do you propose I jump with this?” Nika asked, pointing at her leg.

  “Well, it’d be a lot easier if we had parachutes,” Maria said, “but I’ve not seen one in Serovnya yet.”

  “Parachutes?” Matvei asked.

  “Yes, a large canvas bag that slows your fall.”

  Yeger looked from Nika to Matvei. He agreed with their points. He’d rather make a stand here than jump.

  “Yeger,” Matvei said, “tell her it’s a bad idea.”

  He wanted to side with Matvei. But… Maria, well, she was smart. For a Macht… Yeger glanced at Maria, who also watched him, silent disappointment in her eyes. A flicker of guilt sunk its fingers into him. She was just smart. Smarter than him.

  Matvei frowned. “Yeger?”

  Yeger turned to him. “If Maria says we jump…” ugh, the words hurt. “Maybe we should trust her and jump.”

  Stunned silence met him.

  “Are you serious?” Nika yelled. “You agree with this madness?”

  Yeger shrugged and stepped to the side, letting Maria take the centre.

  Maria stared at him for a moment, then turned to the others. “This jump will be easy with reflex triggered. Just tuck your arms and legs to your sides and angle towards your target. Fling your limbs wide to slow down as you near the crew, aim to pass right by them, so they can grab you. A head on collision could break bones, even with strength. And don’t forget, you have grappling pistols for a reason. Use them in case of emergency.”

  Maria moved to Nika’s side and offered her a hand. Nika hesitated a moment, sighed, and let Maria help her up.

  “This will hurt. A lot, I’m sorry,” Maria said.

  “Let’s get this over with, all right?” Nika said through clenched teeth.

  Maria turned to Yeger. “Matvei should go first so he can inform them of Nika’s injury. We’ll go second if you can go last?”

  Yeger grunted his agreement and hefted his gas rifle, taking up guard by the door. He glanced back in time to see Matvei disappear through the hole.

  A shout resounded from deeper in the airship, and Yeger leaned forwards, listening. Sure enough, boots thudded in the corridor outside. “Move!” Yeger said, stepping back from the door and aiming around head height. Hitting the muckers in the eye would not be easy.

  “Matvei’s landed, we’re going now,” Maria said.

  Yeger heard a step, a grunt, and then silence. A sudden sense of loneliness swept over him and he knew he was by himself in the room.

  The door exploded inwards, filled with the black coated form of an Alchemist soldier.

  Yeger fired.

  The Alchemist’s head snapped back, and he slumped, dead before he hit the ground, a bolt through the eye.

  Without stopping to see how many more there were, Yeger turned and ran. He slung the strap of the gas rifle over his shoulder and pulled his goggles into place as he flung himself into the night before he considered what he was doing.

  Because it was dumb.

  As the night slowed to a glacial crawl around him, a grin split his face as he began to appreciate just how dumb it was.