"Hold on to something bolted down!" Julian yelled.
"Nothing is bolted down! It's a piece of scrap metal!" Skid screamed back, gripping the jagged edges of the hull plate with her good hand and hooking her legs around Julian's waist.
Julian didn't wait for permission. He kicked off the cliff edge.
For a second, there was weightlessness. The curved piece of the Rusty Pelican's hull hung in the air, a pathetic silver leaf against the massive white backdrop of the mountain.
Then, gravity took the wheel.
WHAM.
They hit the snow-covered slope at a forty-five-degree angle. The metal didn't slide; it hydroplaned on the powder. They accelerated instantly, rocketing down the mountain like a bobsled with no brakes.
"Steer left! Left!" Skid shrieked as a massive boulder loomed out of the spray.
"I don't have a steering wheel!" Julian roared.
He slammed his crystal hand into the snow on the left side, using it as a rudder. A plume of ice exploded into his face, blinding him, but the drag worked. The sled banked hard, scraping past the boulder with a shower of sparks where metal met rock.
The wind roared in their ears, drowning out the gunfire from the valley below. They were a blur of speed, tearing through small saplings and jumping over ridges.
"We're coming in too hot!" Skid yelled, seeing the crash site rushing up at them. The battle was directly in their path.
Julian saw the line of Frost-Walkers—big men in bone armor firing crude rifles at the burning wreckage. They had their backs to the mountain. They didn't hear the death sled coming.
"Brace!" Julian shouted.
He didn't slow down. He aimed.
The sled hit a mogul of ice and launched into the air.
WHOOSH.
They sailed over the heads of the rear guard. The Frost-Walkers looked up, their eyes widening beneath their fur hoods, just in time to see two screaming figures flying on a piece of spaceship hull.
They crashed into the center of the Frost-Walker formation.
CRASH-THUD.
The impact was devastating. The metal sled plowed into a mounted warrior riding a Woolly Strider (a six-legged beast covered in shaggy fur). The beast bellowed and toppled over, knocking down two other warriors.
Julian and Skid were thrown from the sled, tumbling through the snow. Julian rolled, coming up on one knee, ignoring the spinning of the world.
"Friendly incoming!" Julian shouted towards the burning wreckage.
From behind a piece of twisted fuselage, a familiar figure popped up.
"Julian?" Lyra yelled, firing two shots at a charging tribal. "You certainly know how to make an entrance!"
"Get to cover!" Julian grabbed Skid and dragged her behind the fuselage.
The surviving pirates—about five of them, ragged and bleeding—were huddled there. They looked at Julian like he was a ghost.
"Where's the Captain?" one of them asked, reloading a steam-rifle.
"He took the pod," Skid spat, clutching her splinted arm. "We're on our own."
The Frost-Walkers recovered from the shock. A horn blew—a deep, resonant sound made from a hollowed-out tusk.
From the tree line, the Chieftain emerged.
He was a giant of a man, standing nearly seven feet tall. He wore armor made from the skull of a Harvester beast, and his weapon was a massive hammer powered by a piston engine on his back.
"Surrender!" the Chieftain boomed, his voice carrying over the wind. "The Sky-Iron belongs to the Clan! The flesh belongs to the mountain!"
"Friendly bunch," Julian muttered. He looked at Lyra. "Ammo?"
"Three rounds," Lyra checked her cylinder. "And the pirates are dry. We can't hold them off, Julian. They have numbers."
The Chieftain raised his hammer. The piston hissed, priming for a strike. The Frost-Walkers began to advance, tightening the noose.
Julian looked at the Chieftain's hammer. He looked at the wreckage around them.
"I need a distraction," Julian whispered.
"I'm fresh out of lightning," Lyra said grimly.
"Not lightning," Julian said. "Smoke."
He pointed to the leaking fuel tank of the tail section. It was dripping glowing blue Aether into the snow, pooling near the enemy line.
"Lyra, can you hit that puddle?"
Lyra squinted. "It's fifty yards. Moving target."
"I'll make them stop moving," Julian said.
He stood up. He walked out from behind the cover, hands raised.
"Wait!" Julian shouted.
The Chieftain signaled his men to halt. He glared at Julian with icy blue eyes.
"You speak for the sky-people?" the Chieftain grunted.
"I speak for the boom," Julian said.
He didn't use resonance. He simply pointed at the puddle.
Lyra popped up and fired.
BANG.
The bullet struck a piece of flint rock next to the Aether pool. A spark jumped.
WHOOMPF.
The raw Aether didn't explode like gasoline; it ignited with a flash-freeze reaction. A massive cloud of super-chilled blue vapor erupted, expanding instantly.
The front line of the Frost-Walkers vanished in the mist. The sudden drop in temperature cracked their bone armor and froze the mechanisms of their guns.
"Run!" Julian yelled.
"Where?" Silas (one of the surviving pirates) screamed. "We're boxed in!"
Julian pointed up. Not at the mountain, but at the sky.
High above, the three black dots they had seen earlier were diving. The Imperial Drones. The Vultures.
They had seen the thermal flare of the explosion.
"Incoming!" Julian roared.
A high-pitched whine filled the valley. The drones released their payload.
EEEEEEEE-BOOM!
The first bomb hit the ridge above the crash site. It wasn't a frag grenade. It was a Sonic Charge.
The explosion didn't throw fire; it threw a shockwave that shattered the rock face.
Thousands of tons of snow and ice cracked loose.
"Avalanche!" The Frost-Walker Chieftain realized the danger. He forgot about the prisoners. He turned his mount. "To the Caves! Retreat!"
The Frost-Walkers scrambled toward a dark opening in the canyon wall, riding their beasts hard.
"Follow them!" Julian commanded.
"Are you insane?" Lyra grabbed him. "They'll kill us!"
"The mountain is falling on us, Lyra!" Julian pointed at the wall of white death rushing down the slope. "We follow them or we get buried!"
They ran.
It was a desperate sprint through the snow, chasing the very enemies who had been trying to kill them seconds ago. The ground shook as the avalanche roared behind them, devouring the wreckage of the Rusty Pelican.
The Frost-Walkers vanished into the cave mouth.
Julian, Lyra, Skid, and the few pirates dove in after them, sliding on the icy floor of the cavern entrance.
Outside, the world turned white. The avalanche slammed into the canyon floor, sealing the cave entrance with fifty feet of packed snow and rock.
Darkness fell instantly.
Silence returned.
Then, the sound of a dozen hammers cocking.
Julian raised his crystal hand, lighting it up. The blue glow revealed the Frost-Walkers standing in a semi-circle around them, weapons raised. The Chieftain stepped forward, his piston-hammer idling menacingly.
"You run fast, Sky-Person," the Chieftain rumbled. "But now you are in my house. And there is no back door."
Julian looked at the sealed entrance. He looked at Lyra.
"Well," Julian whispered. "At least we're warm."