The Quest to the Uncharted Lands Page 21

  Stella slowed the group’s pace as the wreckage rose up before them, looking for signs of people. The wolves slunk low to the ground, their bellies making soft swishing sounds over the grass. A makeshift camp had been set up outside the wreckage, with a handful of medical tents to house wounded crew members, but Stella saw none of the ship’s scouts anywhere in the area.

  “Something’s not right,” she whispered to the Tinker. “We should have been stopped by now.”

  But no one confronted them. They got all the way to the first row of tents before a voice called out, “Stop! Who goes there?”

  A lone guard stepped out of the shadows to block their path. He was human, with long, stringy brown hair, a face full of exhaustion, and a bandaged wound on his neck. When his gaze fell on the Tinker and his mechanical wolves, the man jumped and took an involuntary step back.

  “It’s all right!” Stella called out, holding up her hands to keep the man from panicking. “We’re here to help!”

  At the sound of the raised voices, four more crew members emerged from the medical tents and gathered around Stella and the Tinker. None of them looked like they should be out of bed, and some had been injured so badly they could barely stand. They kept their distance from the wolves, but Stella could see the scientists casting curious glances in their direction.

  “Where is everyone else?” Stella demanded, addressing the guard. “Captain Keeler and First Officer Drea—I need to warn them about the Faceless man.”

  And she had to find Cyrus and her parents.

  The guard shook his head and spat on the ground in disgust. “No need,” he said. “Captain and the first officer are scouring the ship for him right now, along with anyone else who isn’t wounded or trapped somewhere.”

  One of the injured crew members, a woman with short red hair and her arm in a sling, spoke up. “Soon as you disappeared, the Faceless man started attacking the crew, catching people alone, trying to pick us off one by one,” she said. She cupped the elbow of her injured arm. “He’s gotten at least six of us that way. He’s relentless.”

  “He won’t stop until you’re all dead,” the Tinker said, his gaze darkening behind his spectacles.

  “What about Cyrus?” Stella pressed the guard. “Do you know if he’s still in the medical bay? Are my parents there too?”

  “I don’t know,” the guard admitted. “The captain ordered me out here to keep watch over the wounded in case the Faceless man came for them. I don’t know what’s going on inside the ship. No one’s reported in for over an hour.”

  “I’ll leave one of the wolves out here to help stand guard,” the Tinker offered. “We’ll take the rest inside. Our first stop will be the medical bay.”

  The guard’s face creased in relief, but it was short-lived as he eyed the big mechanical wolves. “How do they…er…work?” he asked.

  “I’ll program one to follow your commands,” the Tinker said. “All you really need to do is point at what you want him to bite.”

  Stella waited impatiently as the Tinker opened a small panel on the back of a wolf’s neck and made some sort of adjustment she couldn’t see. She had to stay calm. Help was here. They would bring the rest of the wolves onto the ship, and together they would find the Faceless man. Like the Tinker had said, he didn’t stand a chance.

  If she repeated the words enough, maybe she would start to believe them.

  When the Tinker was finished programming the wolf, the small crowd dispersed, with the guard helping the injured crew members back to their tents. Meanwhile, Stella quickly led their rescue party to the ship.

  The shortest route to the medical bay that the wolves could fit through was the hole that the boiler had blown in the side of the ship’s engine room. So Stella, the Tinker, and the remaining wolves climbed through the gap amid jagged shards of wood and metal, back through the dark remains of the engine room, and out to the corridor and the stairs leading to the medical bay.

  Distantly, Stella heard shouts and footsteps echoing in various parts of the ship, but it was impossible to tell what the voices were saying or where exactly they were coming from. She quickened her pace, determined to get to the medical bay. She had to know if Cyrus was alive, and it was as good a place as any to start to find her parents.

  When they arrived, they found the room a shambles—worse than it had been after the crash. In addition to the debris littering the floor, tables and cots were overturned all over the room, as if a storm had torn through it.

  Or an attack by the Faceless man.

  Stella looked around wildly, but there was no sign of her parents. The room appeared to be deserted…all except for a small form buried under a pile of blankets in one corner of the room.

  Cyrus.

  Stella ran across the room, falling to her knees at her friend’s side.

  “I’m here, Cyrus,” she said, pulling back the blankets so she could search for his pulse. “I’ve brought the Tinker, just like I promised.”

  There was no response. He was unconscious, but Stella’s trembling fingers found a faint pulse still beating at his neck.

  The breath left Stella’s body in a rush that made her head swim. “He’s alive,” she said, gesturing frantically for the Tinker to join her. “You can still save him.”

  The Tinker came over and gently ushered Stella aside so he could examine Cyrus. “Yes,” he murmured after a moment, forehead creased in concentration. “Yes, I believe we got here in time. But there’s also the matter of the Faceless man.”

  “I’ve already thought of that,” Stella said, rising to her feet. “I think I know where he is. If he’s got my parents and he’s trying to evade the captain and his search team, he’ll need a good place to hide, somewhere he can see an attack coming.”

  And the best hiding place on the ship was the cargo bay, where Stella and Cyrus had stowed away for days without anyone being the wiser.

  “You stay here and help Cyrus,” Stella told the Tinker. “If you see any of the crew, tell them you know me, and tell them I’ve gone to the cargo bay to rescue my parents.”

  “I can’t let you go alone!” the Tinker said in alarm. “The Faceless man is the olarans’ responsibility. As a representative of my people, I should be the one to deal with him.”

  “I brought you here to save Cyrus!” Stella said, her voice rising. They didn’t have time to argue about this. “Don’t you understand? If he dies, all this was for nothing! And I don’t care what happens to me, as long as I can save my parents. Please, don’t try to stop me.”

  The Tinker pursed his lips, taking in her determined expression. “If you insist on doing this, at least let me send some of the wolves with you,” he said. “They’ll protect you from the Faceless man.”

  “Agreed,” Stella said. “But please hurry!”

  The Tinker quickly went to program the wolves, and after what seemed like an eternity, Stella was on her way to the cargo bay with three of them in tow.

  They reached the hallway where she’d first met Cyrus. Stella touched the support column where she’d hidden while she’d watched him use his power. The column had been bent almost in half by the crash.

  Cautiously and quietly, they worked their way down the stairs and into the cargo bay itself, but it was slow going. Many of the storage crates had been knocked over and smashed by the crash, and the floor was covered in debris. Eventually, they found a path to the back corner of the bay, to the camp where Stella and Cyrus had hidden for five days at the beginning of their journey, secretly getting to know each other.

  “That’s far enough,” a voice rang out from the corner, yanking Stella from her thoughts.

  The Faceless man stepped out from the shadows. He wore the form of the young man Stella had encountered at the top of the crow’s nest during the ice storm. Was this his true form, then? Stella found that mattered little. All she cared about was what lay behind the Faceless man. Her parents, bound and gagged, their backs pressed against one of the tall storage cra
tes.

  Stella fought the urge to run to them. When they saw her, they uttered choked cries, shaking their heads as their eyes bulged with fear.

  The Faceless man’s eyes rested on Stella and hardened. “You disobeyed me.”

  “I do that a lot,” Stella said, forcing her attention away from her parents and to the Faceless man. The wolves stood on either side of her, red eyes bright in the dim light of the cargo bay. “If I were you, I’d give up now,” she advised. “You tried everything you could to destroy this expedition, but it’s time to admit you failed. I’ve brought back help, and the captain’s closing in on you. It’s over.”

  “No,” the Faceless man said, his bloodshot eyes defiant, even in the face of the giant wolves. “If I have to give my life, so be it. I’ll take as many of you with me as I can. If I don’t, you will be the ruin of the olarans. Your people will tear us apart and steal the very essence of what we are!”

  “You attacked us!” Stella countered. “You would have even killed Cyrus to get what you want. But if you’d taken even a moment to try to understand us, things might have been different.”

  How could so much blind hatred exist in one person? Stella might almost have felt sorry for the Faceless man, had he not threatened to take everything from her. “This is a new world now,” she said, “and you don’t get to decide how we’re going to live in it.”

  “You’re wrong,” the Faceless man snarled. He backed toward her parents, drawing a knife from the waistband of his trousers. There was nothing in his eyes. No fear, no doubt, and no sympathy.

  It was time for Stella to make her move. The blood thundered in her ears, and her right hand trembled, but she took a single step forward.

  “The alagant’s representatives are coming,” she said, hoping to distract him. “They’re going to help the Iron Glory. If you’ll let my parents go and surrender, the captain will turn you over to them. You can give them all the warnings about our people that you want.”

  She waited, hardly daring to breathe. When the Faceless man glanced down at her parents, Stella took another step forward. When he looked back at her, the determination in his eyes wavered for just a second.

  Stella risked another step, moving slowly, keeping her hands at her sides so she wouldn’t scare the Faceless man, and so that he wouldn’t see the way she had her thumb pressed into the center of her right palm.

  “Stay where you are!” the Faceless man barked. He brandished the knife and started to turn toward Stella’s mother.

  That was more than Stella could take.

  She tightened her grip on the Lazuril rod in her right hand.

  It was wrapped in one of the sleeves of the invisibility suit, the ends hastily stitched together in flight using the Tinker’s tools. To all appearances, she held nothing at all in her hands.

  “Protect them!” Stella shouted, and let the wolves loose.

  The Faceless man tensed as the wolves ate up the distance between them in seconds. He turned, slashing the knife at Stella’s mother, but at the last minute, one of the wolves tackled him, knocking him off his feet as the other two put their giant bodies protectively in front of Stella’s parents. The knife skittered away behind a crate.

  Before the Faceless man could recover, Stella darted forward, and in the same motion, she activated the Lazuril rod. There was a brief flash of blue, sparks spitting from its tip, before it connected with the Faceless man’s chest.

  A jolt of pain traveled up Stella’s arm to her shoulder. The Lazuril rod sparked and burned through the invisibility suit, illuminating the Faceless man’s wide, bloodshot eyes for a brief instant before the shock of the weapon knocked him prone. And just like that, he lay unconscious on the cargo bay floor.

  Stella dropped the Lazuril rod and fell to her knees, clutching her arm, but the pain wasn’t as bad as it had been on top of the crow’s nest when she’d grabbed the exposed rod with her bare hand. She might end up with another burn on her hand, but that was a small price to pay.

  As the pain slowly ebbed, she pushed to her feet and ran over to her parents, removing their gags and yanking and tearing at the ropes that bound them until they were both free and could throw their arms around Stella.

  And that was all it took. The tears Stella had been holding back finally broke free. The three of them stood in a group, crying and hugging, and for the first time since the crash, Stella felt like her world was put back together again.

  The captain and several crew members burst into the cargo bay while Stella was still holding on to her parents, the three mechanical wolves standing guard over the unconscious Faceless man.

  “Eliza, Martin,” the captain called out in concern. “Are you all right?”

  “We’re fine,” Stella’s father said, walking over to him. “Stella got here just in time.”

  The captain eyed the wolves with some trepidation. “We spoke to the Tinker,” he explained. “He said you all were down here, confronting the Faceless man.” The captain gestured to two of the crew he’d brought with him and then to the unconscious man. “Secure him,” he commanded.

  The wolves backed away as the crew approached, taking the Faceless man into custody.

  “How is Cyrus?” Stella asked, finally pulling away from her mother. “Is he going to be all right?”

  “I don’t know,” the captain said, turning to Stella’s parents. “For now, let’s get you all out of here. There are more wounded who need attention.”

  “Of course,” Stella’s mother said, her professional mask slipping back into place. “Lead on.”

  They made their way back to the medical bay, with Stella quickly filling the captain and her parents in on everything that had happened since she’d left the ship, including the fact that help from the alagant was on the way.

  When they arrived at the medical bay, the Tinker was still working on Cyrus. Thin wires ran from two different machines the Tinker had brought to Cyrus’s body and attached with small round pads to his chest and arms. The Tinker was checking the settings on the machines, but he looked up when Stella and the others entered the room.

  “How is he?” Stella asked at once, crossing the room to Cyrus’s side. She glanced at the strange machines. “Is he going to be all right?”

  “It’s still early yet in the procedure,” the Tinker said. He saw her studying the equipment and tried to explain. “The machine stimulates mechanical activity in olarans. It’s a delicate process because it requires equilibrium—too much regenerative energy can damage our organic components. Too little, and it won’t be enough to bring him back.”

  “Do you have the balance right?” Stella asked, her throat dry with fear.

  “I believe I do,” the Tinker said solemnly, “but there are no guarantees in medicine. Time will tell.”

  Stella knew that all too well. She would have to trust in the Tinker’s judgment.

  “Stella,” her mother said, coming up and putting a hand on Stella’s shoulder. “Your father and I have to check on the crew outside, and there are still some who’ve been injured or trapped in other parts of the ship, but we’ll be back when we can to check on Cyrus.” Her gaze fell on the Tinker. “It looks as if he’s in good hands here.”

  Distracted, Stella pulled her attention away from Cyrus long enough to introduce her parents to the Tinker.

  “Healers, the both of you?” The Tinker looked delighted as he shook her parents’ hands. “What a remarkable family. When we have more time, I would love to talk to you both. One of the things we hoped to accomplish when we came in contact with your people was to learn more about your medical treatments. We hoped to study with your doctors who specialized in certain areas of medicine.”

  “We’d be happy to talk,” Stella’s father said. “But for now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to see to the crew.”

  “Of course, of course,” the Tinker said, stepping back while Stella gave her parents another quick hug. Then they left the medical bay with the captain, leaving her and t
he Tinker to wait and see if the procedure on Cyrus would be successful.

  Now that the fear and excitement of the battle with the Faceless man had passed, time seemed to slow, and with each passing minute, Stella’s restlessness grew. Her injured wrist still ached, and there was a new blister forming on her hand where she’d held the Lazuril rod, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave Cyrus’s side long enough to even go get a bandage.

  The worst of it was that she couldn’t tell if the machines were doing Cyrus any good. He was still deathly pale. She wasn’t allowed to touch him to check his pulse, so she had no idea what was going on inside his body.

  Finally, about twenty minutes later, the Tinker turned a switch on one of the machines and sat back with a sigh. “The machines have done their work,” he said. “All that’s left is to wait and see if he wakes up on his own. If he does, that’s a very hopeful sign.”

  Stella nodded, watching the rise and fall of Cyrus’s chest. Footsteps approaching the medical bay made her look up. The captain re-entered the room, followed this time by First Officer Drea.

  “Is everything all right?” Stella asked, noting the concerned set to the captain’s face.

  “I hope so,” the captain replied, glancing at the Tinker. “Our scouts just spotted three airships headed this way from the west, flying fast.”

  “That would be the palace guard and the alagant’s representatives,” the Tinker affirmed. He flicked a switch on each of the machines and stood up. “If you don’t mind, I should be there with you to meet them. They won’t all speak your language, but this will be recorded, in our history books at least, as the first official meeting of our two peoples.”

  “What about Cyrus?” Stella asked. “Is it all right for you to leave him?”

  “I won’t be gone long,” the Tinker assured her. “He needs to rest, and if I’m not mistaken, so do you.”