Read Lust Plague (Steamwork Chronicles) for Free Online Page A

pain throbbed up her arm and she could barely feel her fingers. She craned her neck to check out the ground. Treetops blurred past, but coming up fast was cleared farmland. She’d never get away from him there. Time to go. She pressed the button, heard the bang as the charges set off, shearing the securing bolts and the ropes. Then the whole seat shunted sideways, tumbling in the air, free. Missed the blades, thank the gods.
    Suddenly only one strap held her to the seat—a seat that was diving groundward. Silence . Just the tearing wind. Hair whipped her face. The gyro sped on without her. Yank . The parachute blossomed. She grabbed at the seat’s edge and hung on.
    One second, two. Going too fast, too low . With a jerk and a crackle of branches, the seat hit the trees, caught, and fell again. Leaves, branches tore past—a blur of green. Something scratched a long line down one arm.
    With a thump that jolted everything sideways, the seat stopped, slowly tilted, and toppled over onto sloping ground. Wet earth and leaves skidded past. Her hair cushioned her skin.
    She went to rise, only to find her arms still bound to her sides. The ropes around the seat were gone but not the loop that went around her waist, connecting both her wrists.
    “ Ji ba! Ahh!” She ground her teeth for a few seconds before her anger subsided.
    With a lot of wriggling, she managed to sit up, then stand. The bastard tied these well . She’d just have to find a way to cut herself loose. The goggles on her face would have to stay. If she tried knocking them off and they caught, she might end up half-blinded.
    After trying for five minutes to undo or cut the ropes using projections on the seat and then some branches, she gave up.
    South . The gyro couldn’t land here, and if he came after her, he’d have to find her first. She aimed to make that damn hard to do and started marching where south should be.
    Even with my hands tied, I—Shit! A branch scored her ankle. While hopping to relieve the pain, she almost fell. Panting, she found that calm spot in her thoughts and went on.
    When about half an hour had passed without Sten appearing on her trail, and she could only hear her crunching steps in the leaf mulch, she relaxed. Her feet hurt, her hands felt like someone had pumped them full of blood, but she was free and alive. Maybe Sten would forget her.
    Once the forest ended she’d stand a fair chance of finding a farm or a village where she’d be safe. Make a plan. Find a telegraph office. Get updated info. Then decide the next step. And right now—keep going. Plod onward.
    The forest surrounded her, trees like bars against the sun, letting in a few glints and spears of light—cracks in the fabric of this murky green and brown landscape.

    Sten swore when the bang cracked the air, making metal sing. The gyrocopter lurched. Something had hit the blades above.
    Kaysana? A glance sideways told the story and made his heart seize up.
    Still strapped to the chair, hair torn by the wind, Kaysana free-fell down into the forest. A chute puffed out. Then she vanished, swallowed by the trees. One last sway of foliage and she might never have existed.
    A chute? This was deliberate. The woman was freakily determined.
    “Damn!” The controls wobbled under his hands. The gyro shook, making his teeth rattle. Even his eyeballs seemed to vibrate. The world became a blurred mess.
    “What-t-t-t has that-t-t sneaky woman done? Hang o-o-n, Cadrach!” The wolf cowered.
    By applying all his strength, he wrestled the craft around in a staggered circle, back toward the forest. “Down! Down, you cantankerous bit of half-assed machinery.”
    Twenty feet, ten… thump, clang , and crumple—the gyro hit dirt, spun in a half circle, and coughed to a sizzling, hissing halt.
    He freed Cadrach, then climbed out. After dragging the goggles from his head, he stood there, whistling and thinking while dubiously eyeing the edge of the forest that waited, two hundred yards