Page 32 of The Dragon Queen #3
“We need to get these cogs done faster,” Nancy said. “We need these thimble things.”
“Gimbals,” Roland corrected.
“Gimbals.” She nodded to me. “That’s what’s going to save our boys, isn’t it, Pippin?”
“Your Majesty?—!”
Lady Oxford was about to splutter more, but I cut her off with a gesture.
“It is,” I replied, “at least that’s our hope.”
“Then we need to make them properly,” Maggie said. “If Hallin…” She looked around her. “Rider Jericho and all the other dragon riders are depending on this piece of kit, we need to make it as reliable and well made as possible.”
“They’re going to drop them from the sky!” Nancy snapped. “All your hard work blown up in seconds, just like the king did the shipwreck.”
Both women sucked in breaths to start arguing, their allies ready to also leap into the fray.
“This isn’t about cogs and gimbals,” I said, staring into each woman’s eyes in turn. “You’d never even heard of the things before yesterday, I’d wager.”
“I had.” A young woman raised her hand and then looked around her furtively. “I mean my father was a sailor and they use them for…” Her voice trailed away as the silence grew.
“Then we at least have one team member with some practical experience,” I said, and for just a second, there was a little half-hearted chuckle that went up around the table. “But for those of us with landlubber fathers, I think these cogs,” I picked up one from the table and held it out, “represent something else. Hope.” I tossed it down on the table and then turned to the woman closest to me. “What do you hope for?”
“Me?” Her voice came out in a funny little squeak and she blinked, then looked around her. “Oh, well…” It was that long sigh that let me know something was coming. “My brother–brothers really, if the youngest can persuade my father to let him go–Bill’s signed up for the infantry, and Charles wants to do the same, but my mother… She cries at night when she thinks no one can hear her, wondering if either of them will come back. The men are all caught up in the glory of the thing.”
“As they should be.” I frowned as Lady Oxford bustled forward. “The king’s forces will prevail.”
“Except they don’t always, do they?” Nancy’s lips flattened into a line. “Those that stole those dragon eggs, they were Royal Riders, right up until the point they weren’t. They turned traitor.”
“Well, that won’t happen again. We have the gods on our side,” Lady Flora said.
“So where were they when those traitors cut down the guards stationed around the hatching sands?” Nancy’s voice became flat, desolate. “One of them was my cousin. In the infirmary now, and he still hasn’t woken up from being conked on the head. People get hurt in a fight, milady, and that’s not always decided by who’s right or who’s wrong.”
“So you seek to make sure our side is given every advantage.” I stared down at the pile of cogs. “When you work, you can push aside those fears.” In my mind, I saw Lady Oxford’s needles working then to create socks for soldiers. “You feel like you’re doing something, anything to even the score.”
“It’s better than hanging around the keep like a bad smell,” Maggie grumbled. “The riders are hardly ever there now, and when they are, they’re preoccupied and exhausted.” Her gaze was sharp, almost cutting into me as her eyes met mine. “We need to do what we can to help our boys.”
“And we will.”
I pawed through the pile of cogs and then said, “Who among you has a hand for drawing?” The sailor’s daughter and Lady Flora indicated that they were. “I’ll get you to transcribe the template onto the metal. Master Roland?”
“Yes?” He looked relieved now that order was restored.
“Can you calculate how many cogs are needed for the first batch and what size and work with the ladies to trace out that number?”
“Of course.”
“Nancy, you’re fast at cutting out a rough approximation of the cogs?” I asked. The woman nodded sharply, then shot Maggie a look. “I’ll get you and anyone else with the same skills.” I cast my eye over the piles of cogs, seeing several that were larger than others. “To piece out the cogs with your saws.”
“But if they aren’t right, they won’t work,” Maggie complained.
“Your attention to detail is exactly what’s needed.” I looked back at Lady Oxford. “And milady, the way you described every architectural feature of the palace makes me think you’re similarly inclined. You’ll use the files to shave off the excess metal, ensuring that each cog fits the template.”
I looked up and down the table.
“You are correct, doing something is the best way for us to cope. We can influence the outcome of this war, perhaps in a small way, perhaps not, and I hope…” The weight of what I was saying hit me then, because without intending to, I saw it, the destruction of the dragon city, the carnage that resulted. The Royal Riders, the free dragons and their human companions, everyone had died in that attack. I blinked it away, forcing my attention to come back to the room. “It’s imperative that every dragon, every loyal soldier, no ma tter who’s son, cousin, or brother he is, comes back to his family in one piece, so let's do what we can to make that happen.”
“Well, I don’t know how you did that,” Roland muttered as he came to stand beside me, both of us watching the women move.
Now that they were working together, not against each other, things seemed to happen much faster. There was some conferring, occasionally people’s voices started to rise, but before I could step in, other women talked through the conflict and refocussed people back on the task.
Because this work mattered.
Not many of us could say their job was a matter of life or death, but ours was. At the end of the day, Roland had requisitioned some of the more capable women, getting them to construct the first finished gimbals. He had integrated a hook into the device upon which the explosive would hang, but for now, we used one of his big iron pots. Roland had the ladies laughing as he pretended to be a dragon, galloping across the workshop, his hands acting as claws. As a proof of concept, it was a strange yet effective thing.
“This will work…” I took the first gimbal from his hands, staring down at it with something akin to reverence. “This will work.” I swept in and gave the man a hug, his arms going around me belatedly before I pulled away. “I need to get this up to the keep, to the general. The riders need to trial it.”
People started to stand up, caught up in my excitement.
“None of that, ladies.” Roland was all business now. “You’ve shown what you’re capable of. Let's get a hundred more of these done before the general comes down to praise each and every one of you for all your hard work.”
Perhaps I should’ve stayed with the noble ladies, or at least not desert them in the middle of Cheapside, but right now they weren’t my focus, the device was. I ran out into the street and flagged down the nearest carriage, climbing in before it even stopped.
Unaware it was occupied.
“Well, well, we meet again.” Marcus’ gold tooth flashed as he grinned at me from where he lounged against the worn seat. “Anyone would think you have an interest in me, my queen. ”
“Marcus…” I was shoving the gimbal behind me, then making for the door, when he thumped his walking stick against the roof of the carriage, indicating that it should drive on. The rattle of the wheels, the sway of the carriage made clear we were on our way.
But to where?
“Where the hell are you taking me?” I snapped. “Make the carriage stop this instance!”
“Got that queenly hauteur now, have we, lass?” His smile widened. “No, I don’t think I will. You’ve been a busy little thing, working away in that tannery, but you asked something else of me. As I am ever your servant?—”
He went to bow, but I cut him off.
“Where, Marcus? What the hell did I ever want but to keep clear of you?”
“The lads.” There wasn’t much he could say to have me going still, but this worked all too well. “And those bleeding dragons of theirs. Clever creatures, dragons, I never realised how much.”
“You’re taking me to see Lance and Jenkins, Billy and Harley.”
“You remember their names? Well done.” My eyes narrowed. “No, love.” I hated that term of endearment coming from his lips. “I’m gonna show you a glimpse of a possible future.”