They’d buried Anatoly Blinov at the edge of the abandoned airfield before leaving. Klara had retreated to her bunk as soon as they took off, avoiding the lounge where Yeger and the others drank to his brother’s life.

  For the second night in a row, sleep had evaded her.

  She’d still been awake when the airship touched down outside Krepost Lozvinsky before dawn, and Mikhail and Yuri had departed to find the gate where the Warrior Guild had set up a base. The gate where Elana Koskova apparently waited.

  Even if they had invited her to go, she’d have declined, having no desire to be anywhere near her uncle.

  Klara rubbed the back of a grease-stained hand across her eyes. It felt like someone had poured sand into them. She blinked rapidly, trying to focus on the disassembled gas rifle on the workbench in front of her.

  The sun hadn’t even crested the horizon yet, but Klara had given up on sleep and found her way to the armoury. Weapons always needed maintenance.

  Her father had always said Yuri was the one to get Mother killed. And yet… the way Yuri spat the words out last night, the venom dripping from them… had Vera died giving birth to her? Did Yuri blame her for his sister’s death?

  A knot jammed in Klara’s throat and she drew a shuddering breath, pushing back the memory as she picked up the empty foot-long gas canister that latched to the side of the weapon and checked the valve. Then she moved onto the brass tubing that wound from the canister to the firing cylinder atop the gas rifle. When the trigger was pulled, the gas in the cylinder detonated, slamming the firing rod into a steel bolt akin to a crossbow bolt that sat in a groove along the top of the stock, launching it with enough force to penetrate even strength boosted muscle.

  The armoury door creaked and Klara looked up to see the rat-faced Matvei step through.

  Klara grunted a greeting and turned back to the gas rifle. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Matvei grabbed a crossbow from a rack on the wall and brought it to the table opposite her. Without a word, he set it down and began testing it.

  For several minutes they worked in silence, each focused on the task at hand. Klara finished the gas rifle and fetched a second to clean.

  “Do we have a hope against the Alchemists?” Matvei asked with his nasally whine as he pulled the trigger from the crossbow and greased it.

  “Of course we don’t.”

  “Then why try fight?”

  With a vicious jerk, Klara ripped the gas cylinder from the gas rifle. “If we don’t, who will?”

  “The Sentinels? The Warrior Guild? Once they hear what happened to Ledavsk, they’ll fight.”

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  “The Sentinels can’t afford to defend the gates and fight Alchemists. And the Warrior Guild? I’m sorry, but they won’t join this fight unless there’s no other choice. We spent a decade as Warriors being taught to fight only for ourselves. No, Matvei, this fight is between Sentinels and Alchemists.”

  Matvei snorted. “Fair point.” The wiry man finished the crossbow he was working on and grabbed another. “So you’re going to die trying to fight the Alchemists in a vain effort to stop them before they destroy the Sentinels and Serovnya with them?”

  “Yup.”

  Matvei paused, then looked up from his crossbow. Klara met his gaze. “Not many people will go to war knowing for sure they’ll not come back,” Matvei said. “I can’t speak for the others, but… I will fight and, if Lady Death wills it, die at your side.”

  Klara studied his face, looking for a hint of uncertainty. She saw none. “You’re really willing to die for this? Why?”

  Matvei returned his attention to the crossbow, his movements stiff and forced. “You wanna know why I joined the Warrior Guild?”

  “Ah, sure.” She didn’t, but he had just offered to fight with her.

  “I grew up in a small town down in South Serovnya. Got bullied a lot as a kid. Matvei the Rat.” Matvei glanced up, a smirk on his lips. “And no, not because of my charming good looks. See, me mum wasn’t exactly what you’d call… faithful to Dad. Turns out it was common knowledge to everyone except me and Dad—Dad was a gentle giant of the not so bright variety. I didn’t even know he wasn’t my dad until I was eight.

  “I clued onto it the same time he did. We returned early one day from visiting a circus who’d come to town. We found mum on the living room floor tangled with another man. Dad, gentle, na?ve Dad, thought she was being assaulted. He beat the man to death. Turns out he’s not so gentle when it he needs to be.”

  Matvei finished cleaning and greasing his crossbow and paused, the muscles in his jaw working. “I can still remember my mother, naked and screaming at him to stop. It wasn’t until the mucker she was screwing was dead that Dad realised what was really going on. He fled, taking me with him. Left everything behind.

  “Wound up in Kosgrad. He put his merchant skills to use, got me in school. Still bullied. Didn’t take long for people to work out he wasn’t really me dad. But he’d changed. I think he aged twenty years that day. Never saw him smile after that. Real cutthroat merchant. Unpopular, but more than good enough to keep the job.

  “I knew he cared about me, but I knew he couldn’t look at me without seeing Mum’s betrayal. Our relationship rotted over the years. I joined the Warrior Guild because they had the youngest recruitment age and ensured I’d never have to see Dad again.” Matvei picked at a chip on the bench a moment before continuing, “It was stupid, leaving Dad. He sacrificed everything to take care of me, a kid who wasn’t even his own.” Matvei looked up, steel in his gaze. “I’m not going to make that mistake again, Koskova. 24th Squad is my family now. I will die before I turn my back on them.”

  Klara swallowed. The gas rifle she’d been working on had lain untouched since Matvei began his story. She looked at it, seeing the mess of parts in need of cleaning.

  “I suspect Yeger will fight,” Matvei said after a moment. “And after the death of her countrymen to Alchemists, I think Maria will too. Dunno about Nika though.”

  “I won’t ask anyone to fight who isn’t willing,” Klara said. “You all heard my uncle, he’ll take any of you on as crew. What we’re going to attempt will, as I said, likely end with our death. But, if we can find a way to hit the Alchemists where it hurts most, maybe we can give the Sentinels a chance. With any luck, Mikhail and Yuri will be back in a few hours with Elana and she’ll give us some clue as to what we can do.”

  “And if she doesn’t?”

  “Then we find someone who does.”

  Matvei’s face pinched into a frown and he cocked his head.

  Klara eyed Matvei, her face grim. “We’ll hunt down Zinaida Voronina and assassinate the Alchemists’ general.”