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an
ungainly pile and skidded down the slope. Mud spattered her, and
rocks dug at her through her clothing.
    Something landed on her. Rope?
    Kali tried to bat it away, but it was
everywhere. Not just rope, she realized. A net.
    Before she could reach for a folding knife
in her pocket, the ropes tightened about her, scooping her up like
a fish in the river.
    “ Kali!” Cedar
shouted.
    Now, he woke up. Great.
    The net constricted movement, and Kali
couldn’t get an arm free to dig into her pockets. It swung her into
the air. In fits and jerks, a rope slowly pulled her up. Clanks
sounded above her—someone winding a winch.
    Kali snarled and thrashed without any
strategy, aside from an overriding desire to damage something. She
was angry at herself for running up the hill without a plan, and
for being captured like some dumb animal. Her thrashes did nothing;
the net merely tightened.
    Then something rammed into her from
behind.
    “ Tarnation! What now?”
Kali demanded.
    “ Sorry,” Cedar said from
behind her ear.
    Kali twisted her neck—even that was an
effort in the suffocating rope cocoon. Cedar clung to the outside
like a spider. His eyes still had a glazed cast to them, but his
jaw was clenched with determination.
    He drew a knife and started sawing at her
ropes. “I thought you might like to get down.”
    “ Yes, thank you.” Kali
could be calm and polite when someone was working to set her free.
So long as he finished before whoever was working the winch got
them on board. Already, they were nearly twenty feet from the
ground. The fall would not be pleasant.
    “ Get him off!” a man
yelled from somewhere above. “Shoot him!”
    “ I believe someone is
making plans for you,” Kali said.
    Cedar’s swift cuts were opening up her
prison, and she gripped the ropes above her head with both hands so
she wouldn’t fall free when the support disappeared.
    “ Not plans I’m partial
to,” Cedar said. “I’ll have you down in a second.”
    Wood creaked above them, and Kali looked up,
fearing they might weigh too much for whatever winch was operating
up there. She wanted freedom, yes, but she didn’t fancy the idea of
a long drop while still entangled in the ropes. A man wearing a
black bandana around his head and holding a shiny steel six-shooter
leaned out through a trapdoor.
    “ Look out,” Kali barked,
afraid Cedar, intent on cutting her ropes, hadn’t seen the
man.
    But he was already in motion, not jumping
free to escape the gun like a sane person would do, but shimmying
up the rope. The pirate’s finger tightened on the trigger, but
Cedar was already pumping an arm to throw his knife. The blade spun
upward and lodged in the man’s chest.
    The revolver fired anyway.
    Kali buried her head beneath her arms, but
no bullet pierced her flesh. Before she could lift her eyes to see
if Cedar had also avoided being hit, something slammed into her.
The force snapped the remaining ropes still binding her into the
net, and her legs flew free. Twine seared her palms, and she almost
lost her grip, but she clenched her fingers tighter around the
rope. The dead pirate tumbled past her and smashed into the rocky
shoreline below. Cedar had disappeared into the airship.
    Gunshots sounded above, followed by a clash
of steel. That meant Cedar had his sword out. He might need help,
but storming a fortress wasn’t anything Kali was trained for. She’d
have to try something else.
    Kali swung her legs up and found a toehold
in part of the netting that had not been cut. She climbed a few
feet up the rope, but stopped well below the trapdoor. Twenty feet
away, mounted on the bottom of the hull, the twin-ducted fans
hummed along.
    While gripping the rope with one hand, Kali
dropped the other into a pocket and withdrew a grenade. Wind
battered her, whipping her hair free of its braid and into her
eyes. She squinted, trying to judge the distance for a toss to the
closest fan.
    “ Cedar!” Kali yelled. He
would be better at