When tonight was done, Klara knew she would never work for her uncle. Raiding airships just was not her idea of a good day—or night. She reached the Machtvoll airship and swung inside through a door that Yuri had knocked in, thankful to be out of the harsh wind. Once again, his gunners had shown exceptional skill in hitting flying targets.

  Klara found herself inside a clean and well lit passage without a hint of the rust or wear and tear that Vera’s Revenge had. Nor any of the scruffiness the Alchemist airship had had. This thing had clearly just come out of a factory.

  At Yuri’s signal, the crew moved down the passage, stretching along the outer edge of the gondola. A series of circular windows lined the wall to their left while to their right, several closed doors led off the corridor.

  Yuri’s crew checked each door as they passed. Reaching a still open door, Klara peered in. The walls were covered with hooks and racks, and a workbench sat against the back wall, a neat array of tools clipped to it. The room was an armoury. She assumed that once the Alchemists had the airship, they would quickly fill this room with weapons.

  She moved on as the crew hurried down the corridor, weapons raised.

  A floorboard creaked above them, and Klara looked up.

  Someone was on the floor above them.

  She caught Yuri’s attention and pointed up. He nodded and indicated to a stairwell they had just reached.

  Three crew hurried up.

  A second later, yells broke out above. Swords clanged, and a man screamed.

  Klara winced, hoping that they hadn’t killed anyone. The Machtvoll crew weren’t their enemies. They probably had no idea that the Alchemists would use the airship to kill thousands of Sentinels.

  The rest of the crew climbed the stairs and Klara braced herself, preparing to see aftermath of the combat.

  She stepped into the corridor. No corpses. Klara let out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.

  Machtvoll crew, wearing light tan coats—with their necks uncovered—knelt, hands behind their heads. Except for one of the three, who nursed his arm, blood seeping between his fingers. Yuri’s crew had already removed their weapons.

  “Good job,” Yuri said. “Tie them up and find somewhere to hold them until later.”

  “Yes, sir,” a crewman said, hauling one of the Machtvoll crew to his feet and tying his hands roughly behind him.

  They quickly bound the other two Machtvoll crewmen and led them off.

  Klara glanced at Mikhail, noting he looked far less pale than he had before the assault. Now they were inside the airship and had taken some of the Machtvoll crew without trouble, he seemed to have relaxed somewhat.

  Lucky him.

  They wound through the airship, moving quickly, quietly, climbing through the giant gondola. Four levels later, they reached a wide ramp leading up into the mainframe. At least, Klara guessed it led into the mainframe. The gondola couldn’t be that big.

  The three crew Yuri had left behind joined them as they stared up at the huge double doors standing guard at the top of the ramp.

  Klara looked around. They stood on a landing. Behind them was another set of intimidating doors. Did they lead to another ramp? One continuing down to the rear of the gondola? She supposed that made sense, as they were nearly at the front of the gondola now. But why have such a large ramp for the mainframe? In any airship she’d been in, there was barely enough room for a narrow catwalk between all the hydrogen cells, let alone anything needing to use a ramp five yards wide.

  “Do we find a more… private way up?” Klara asked Yuri.

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  “It wouldn’t be a bad idea,” Yuri said with a nod. “I don’t trust this ramp. Depths, I don’t trust any of this design. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  Oh good, that’s reassuring. Klara spied a small door on the opposite wall of the landing and pointed to it. “Maybe through there?”

  “It’s as good a door as any,” Yuri said. He strode towards it, his knife out. Reaching the door, he paused and put his ear to it. After a moment, he nodded to himself and opened the door.

  Nothing leapt out.

  He stepped through, and Klara followed.

  They found themselves in a dim, cramped room with a single ladder at the back leading up into the darkness. Yuri peered up, squinting.

  “Well, it looks more private,” Klara said.

  Yuri snorted. “Indeed.”

  “Ladies first?” Klara asked. Hanging at the back and following everyone else was wearing thin. She needed to be a part of things, to actually do something again.

  “Suit yourself.” Yuri stepped to the side and waved towards the ladder with a half bow.

  Slipping the knife she’d taken from Yuri’s armoury into its sheath, she climbed the ladder.

  Unlike any ladder in Vera’s Revenge, this felt secure and well made. Not that Vera’s Revenge wasn’t well made, of course, it was just rather... well, old.

  After a few rungs, she reached a trapdoor and slowly pushed it open, straining to hear the swish of a blade coming for her.

  No swish, just a soft hum, audible over the distant throb of the airship’s many engines. It sounded like mother soothing a child, though there was no tune Klara could recognise, and it had a quality to it that set her teeth on edge. Whatever made it was not human.

  Curious yet cautious, she pushed the hatch all the way open, lowering it quietly to the floor behind her. Then she clambered into the mainframe.

  Her jaw sagged behind her half-mask. “Uncle Yuri?”

  “What?” Yuri’s muffled voice asked from below.

  “You need to see this.” Klara gazed around the expanse of the mainframe—which should have been impossible. The interior of an airship mainframe was supposed to be filled with hydrogen cells that obscured everything.

  Not this one.

  Not a single hydrogen cell was anywhere in the entire three hundred yard long… well, cavern. Instead, numerous floors rose either side of the mainframe walls, reminding Klara of the interior of the Warrior Guild main hall in Kosgrad. Several ramps ran up beside the floors, giving easy access to each level.

  Klara slowly turned, taking in the sight.

  Then she saw a giant, humming, dull red ball of glowing stone suspended in the dead centre of the mainframe.

  If her jaw could have sagged further, it would have. A spider web of metal beams that stretched to the mainframe held the orb in the centre of the mainframe. Beneath it, a furnace burned.

  Heating the orb? Why?

  “What the depths is that?” Yuri asked, sounding baffled.

  Klara spun to see her uncle pull himself into the mainframe and stand.

  “I don’t know,” Klara said, “but whatever it is, I don’t think it’s good.”

  “There are no hydrogen cells,” Yuri said, turning. “Why are there no hydrogen cells? How is this thing staying in the air?”

  “How should I know?” Klara asked. “I’m not the airship expert here.”

  “Mikhail, get up here!” Yuri said, crouching by the hatch.

  Boots thudded against the metal rungs, and a moment later Mikhail stuck his head through the hatch. “Whoa.”

  “Yeah,” Klara said, “but what is it?”

  He scrambled into the mainframe and walked towards the red orb. “I’m not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say it was how this thing”—he gestured to the mainframe—“is staying in the air, as there appears to be no hydrogen keeping us afloat.”

  “How does it work?” Yuri asked, joining Mikhail.

  Klara caught up with Mikhail, and the three of them stared up at the orb.

  “Well,” Mikhail said rubbing his chin, “perhaps by changing the temperature of the orb it adjusts altitude? I mean, that’d explain the furnace, but it’s hard to say for sure. We’ll need to ask the crew. More importantly, though, is the fact that this entire airship has been built to hold armaments. Lots of armaments. Right now it doesn’t matter how the orb works—evidently it does—how much weight can it support?”

  Yuri walked closer to the orb. “Agreed. A regular airship like Vera’s Revenge can carry twenty tonnes of personnel and equipment. The way this one has been designed leads me to believe that number is much higher. Example, if you loaded this mainframe, it’d be thousands of tonnes equipment.”

  “If one airship can carry thousands of tons of Alchemist equipment and soldiers,” Klara said, “then it’s no wonder they quickly captured Ledavsk. How many of these airships do you think they have?”

  “It doesn’t really matter how many they have,” Mikhail said, “the more pressing question is how much equipment do they have. What I want to know, is why they need so much space?”

  “He’s right,” Yuri said. “Even one of these airships could hold close to an entire battalion. From what I understand, though, the Alchemist Guild has been buying these from Machtvoll for years. Whether all the airships have this technology—magic—in them I don’t know, but we may be walking into a far more dangerous situation than we anticipated.”

  “And why do you think they need so many huge ramps?” Klara asked. “I mean, even a steam cart doesn’t need that much space. So what are they using them for in here?”

  “I think the only way we’ll find that out,” Mikhail said, “is if we talk to the captain. And we need to get my mother in here because if anyone can understand this technology, it’ll be her.”

  Yuri nodded as behind them, exclamations of disbelief sounded.

  Klara glanced back to see the rest of the squad clamber through the hatchway.

  “Shall we go talk to the captain, then?” Yuri said.

  Klara looked past the orb to a small, blocky building at the far end of the mainframe. “Let's.”