“Yukiko has returned.” Bitterness soured her voice. “She’s thrown in with these Guild rebels, if you can believe it.”
“We heard about the rebellion. Rumor is they’ve been killing Guild hierarchy. We figured if Kin managed to get back into the good books, he might become a target—the Guildsman who captured the great Daichi, leader of the Kagé insurgency.”
Kaori bowed her head, grief-stricken. “Gods…”
“You have to tell them, Kaori. If Yukiko has the ears of these Guild rebels, you have to let them know not to touch Kin. He can take down the Earthcrusher. And the way Daichi talked, the explosion will take half the Tora army with it. Kin is on our side.”
Kaori closed her eyes, whispering.
“Father, how could you…”
*
Fingers slipping from the railing.
Pipe descending toward his head.
Denying it all, with everything he could muster.
Kin lunged with his free hand, stabbing the flight controls on his wrist as the blow crashed on his head. A burst of sparks fired, rockets igniting, another blow to his skull, another, another. Insensate, eyes filmed with blood, fingers slipping free. Twisting as he fell toward the transmission. Blue-white flaring at his back. Spinning and crashing against the safety railing. Teetering, rockets still burning, and with one last ragged gasp, pulling himself over, falling twenty feet to the engine room floor.
His rocket pack flared again and died, controls at his wrist spewing another bright burst of sparks. Blood in his mouth. Breath burning in his lungs.
The Artificer on the service ladder cursed, looked up at Shinji on the gantry above.
“Idiot, you missed!”
“Well, get down there and finish him!”
“Get down here and help me!”
Drawing an iron wrench from his tool belt, the Artificer dropped to the floor to end what his comrade started.
*
“Kaori, are you receiving me?”
Betrayal after betrayal …
“You must speak to Yukiko! Kin isn’t to be touched!”
Yukiko. Michi. And now her father also? To trust that bastard Guildsman more than he trusted her? To throw away his life at the word of that traitor, and say nothing of it to his only daughter? Handing over his katana to Yukiko was bad enough. After all Kaori had given up. All she’d lost. Years at his side. And in a handful of weeks, Yukiko and that bastard Kin had more of his trust than she’d earned in a lifetime?
She stood slowly, lips pressed together, thin and bloodless.
“Kaori?”
Teeth clenched so hard, her jaw ached.
“Kaori, can you hear me?”
“No,” she breathed. “No, I don’t hear you.”
She flicked the switch, Isao’s pleas clipped into ringing silence.
*
Shinji pounding down a spiral stairwell, pointing at Kin, shouting to his fellow assassin.
“Stop him, he’s on his mechabacus!”
Kin’s fingers were flitting across his chest, a complex dance on the device’s face, like a street minstrel on the strings of his shamisen. The message was being transmitted over the Earthcrusher’s internal channel, a distress call heard by every Guildsman aboard the colossus.
“Assistance required. Engine room.”
“Stop him, Maseo!”
The second Artificer crashed into Kin, trying to pull his hands from the device.
“Stop him!”
“Accident.”
Maseo fell still, staring down into Kin’s battered metal face. “… Accident?”
Shinji reached the engine room floor, stalking toward Kin, fists clenched. But as he drew close, an upper hatchway cracked open, another Artificer stepping onto the walkway, peering down at the three gathered below.
“By the First Bloom!” he called. “What happened?”
The two would-be assassins stared at each other, silent and grim. Kin dragged himself up on all fours and looked to the Artificer on the gantry above. His voice was matter-of-fact.
“I slipped,” he said.
“… You slipped?” The Artificer leaned over the railing, his voice incredulous.
Kin got slowly to his feet, gave a creaking shrug.
“My pack misfired. I nearly went right into the gear-train. Brother Shinji saved my life.”
More Guildsmen began arriving in the engine room, all glowing eyes and chattering questions. They were met with the same explanation, repeated by a bloodied, battered Kin, now surrounded by concerned brethren. There was praise to the First Bloom, praise slapped onto Shinji’s back, until finally it was resolved Kin should visit the medical station. The Fifth Bloom insisted it was too much fuss, that skin was strong though flesh was weak, but finally relented.
“Very well, brothers. It is better to be certain.” Kin turned to his would-be killer. “Perhaps my savior would be generous enough to escort me?”
“… Of course, Fifth Bloom.” Shinji bowed. “I would be honored.”
“The honor is mine, brother. I am in your debt.”