BERT FELT LIKE his arms were on fire, but he didn’t dare let go. Cat hung on below for dear life. Well, maybe for dear not-breaking-an-ankle, but still. He wasn’t going to release her. They had stacked up some junk to make reaching the window easier and Cat had boosted him, agreeing he’d have a better chance to pull her up after. He was splayed on a raised platform on just the other side of the window, trying his best to get her in after him. They had used a three-legged stool as their last booster in the junk heap, but one of the legs had snapped just as Cat reached up. Trusting a stool found in a refuse pile was probably not the smartest thing they’d done.

  “Take a breath, Bert and then pull with all you have,” Cat said, her eyes wild. “I’m going to put my feet on the wall and walk up the side bit-by-bit. As long as you keep pulling, I’ll be able to reach the edge.”

  Bert nodded, took his breath and pulled with everything he had. In his mind, his arms stretched like a ball of dough being worked in a kitchen, but he knew it was just how it felt. He dared a look down. As promised, Cat was focused on keeping her feet bent to the wall and was making her way up rather quickly. After what seemed like forever but was certainly mere moments, she pulled her hands free of his and grabbed the edge of the window. Wasting no time, Bert reached over and grabbed the back of her tunic and yanked her up the final stretch, falling back himself to rest on the scaffolding.

  After many deep breaths, Cat reached over and patted his arm. “Thank you,” she said between breaths. “That could have gone much worse I suppose.” She sat up and took her first look around.

  Bert, not wanting to be outdone and despite the burn in his arms and shoulders, sat up as well. They were fairly well hidden in a darker corner of the shipyard. Unless someone came up here to collect something, they should be fine to take a look. Getting down would be the real challenge. Looking around, the vast majority of the fifty or so people were centered in the middle of the building, working on the ship itself. Unlike the sleek warships they had seen in the sea outside, this ship was more like a super-sized trading cog. It was much wider and shallower than a warship and had an enormous ballista in the middle of the vessel, in between two masts. The ship also had a thin layer of metal hammered into places on the hull.

  Cat tapped on his shoulder and pointed near the back of the ship. “Look,” she said quietly, “there’s an archer’s nest there that looks like it could easily sit three archers. It looks like they’re building more up at the top of each mast as well. Bigger ones that could hold many men.”

  Bert nodded. “I think the point of these ships is pretty clear. The metal to prevent or at least slow burning. The ballista to try and take a dragon from the air. The archers would likely use the modified bows we saw in Wyrmgate and in the field. Wait…what’s that thing hanging from the side of the hull?” He strained his eyes trying to make out what he was seeing. A brass mechanism sat on each side of the hull. Each had a crank on the side like you might see to raise or lower a drawbridge. A long sewed leather arm of some sort stuck out from one of the mechanisms and was sitting haphazardly up on the deck. The other mechanism had its arm coiled up on a piece of wood sticking out from the hull. Men below had a third arm that was even longer. They were greasing the arm with some sort of liquid fat. There was so much of it that he caught a whiff of it from up here. He watched as Cat took it all in and said nothing, not wanting to alter her idea of what was going on.

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  Eventually she turned to him and shrugged. “I have no idea at all. I’ve never seen anything like it before. I couldn’t even place a guess.”

  Bert shrugged as well. “I am stumped as well. Perhaps we can mention it to someone with more knowledge of warships. It must be a weapon of some sort. Maybe the long leather arms can carry a blade a vast distance? Maybe they want to use it to cut a dragon in the air, or wrap around one and pull it down?”

  “Your guess is as good as mine.” She went quiet for a moment, continuing to look around the shipyard and the boat under construction. “I guess that’s about all we’ll be able to piece together from here.” She laid back down to better hide them from view.

  Bert copied her. “I counted six of these covered shipyards. We have to assume each is building a dragon-fighting vessel as well. I’m imagining each is likely at a similar stage close to completion. Six vessels like this would be a lot to deal with from the air. I wouldn’t dare risk Yellow above even a single one. A single bolt from that ballista would certainly kill him in an instant. We must take this news to Mira and the others as soon as we can.”

  “Or,” Cat said simply, leaving the rest of the statement to Bert’s imagination.

  Bert tried to guess what she was hinting at when it suddenly hit him. “No, you don’t mean…”

  “Why not? We could try and destroy at least one of these before leaving. There must be some sort of sabotage we could accomplish together. Sneaking in later and setting it ablaze? Drilling holes in the bottom and hoping their don’t notice? Messing with the equipment somehow? Launching the ship early so it sinks in the harbor?”

  Bert considered her ideas, but shook his head. “Elayne said men worked here all hours of day and night. I don’t think we’d be able to get enough time to set any fire large enough to do damage. Holes would be noticed and fixed well before launch. If we set the boat out now, they’d just pull it back in to restart work. The only way we could set these boats afire would be to call in Yellow. Even then, we’d likely only be able to burn one before he ran out of flame. Then we’d have to escape far enough not to be followed so he could rest.”

  Cat nodded agreement. “I guess the best we can do is get out of here and bring the news to others so the existence of these ships isn’t a surprise to anyone. Do you think you could draw one? We could send it to Eldritch through Elayne and he could send copies all over.”

  Bert nodded happily. “A great idea. I think it’s time to go then. Let’s try and find a way down the window and head back to the Red Turkey. I think if you help me drop down, I can catch you at the bottom. Let’s move before we run into the rough men she mentioned.”

  As if his words made the men appear like magic, Cat reached over and covered his mouth as two men entered the space below them, talking loudly.