Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide Volume V

Dark Skies Over Deadwood-1

Dark Skies Over Deadwood

by Dana M. Evans

Dana Evans has been many things: doctor, professor, author, and life-long geek. When she’s not writing she can be found haunting her local comic book shops, wandering a renaissance fair or cosplaying at conventions. She spends a lot of time visiting the 1800s with her steampunk group and would love to steam her way through the sky. A history buff, she’s spent time exploring places as diverse as the standing stones of Wales, Salem Massachusetts and old west towns like Deadwood and Tombstone. She lives in Ohio with her supremely lazy cat, Kanda.

The dawn air bordered on cold as it slid over the Minerva’s wooden deck. Aurelia tightened her aviator’s scarf and settled her goggles over her eyes to keep the chilly sting out. Her boots thumped unevenly—heavier on the right side thanks to her spring-driven prosthetic leg—as she crossed to the captain of the best airship in the country. Aurelia’s mother stared out at the horizon, piloting her ship below the clouds.

“Are we almost to Deadwood?” Aurelia asked as the ship’s sapphire-hued air bladder rustled in the wind.

Her mother chuckled and pointed off the starboard forward railing. “Just follow the crow. We’ll be there before noon.”

“I can’t wait to see Whirlwind Horse.” Aurelia loved the old Lakota merchant. Whirlwind Horse made coming to Deadwood worth it. Her mother’s airship had two major routes: from Pittsburgh to the west taking coal and steel and returning with the various ores dragged out of the ground. The other route took some of the gold, silver, and steel to Italy. Aurelia loved Italy and couldn’t understand why her grandparents had ever left. While she wasn’t on the ground often—usually in the coldest of months—she did like the home they shared with her grandmother out in the country outside of Pittsburgh.

Compared to Rome or even Pittsburgh, Deadwood seemed rough and unruly. Having to deal with airship pirates was all the rough and unruly Aurelia needed in her life. Her right leg twinged painfully at the thought of pirates, and she reached down to rub it, feeling only metal beneath her fingertips. It seemed strange that a missing limb could hurt so often and so badly, darn those air rats. Her mother could legally hunt pirates, and the Minerva often did.

“Why aren’t we there yet?” Aurelia whined, typical of most twelve-year-olds wanting to be there already. Her mother ignored it. “Will we be here long?”

“Long enough for you to get into trouble.” Her mother laughed.

Aurelia made a face at her then tromped out to the railing, running her fingers over the polished wood. She loved watching the land sail by. When a pirate attack took her leg, Aurelia’s mother feared she’d never want to sail again, but there was no place Aurelia would rather be. Pirates would learn to fear her.

Aurelia refused to give up her ship-board trousers and boots when she headed into town—corsets and layers of underskirts were designed by the devil. Her stump ached from the stress of clumping down from the airship docking piers at the top of the hill near Mount Moriah Cemetery. Whirlwind Horse’s mercantile and dry goods sat closer to the bottom of the steep hill not too far from the Bullock Hotel. Her phlogiston gun thumped against her hip as she walked.

Ground-side noise made Aurelia want to cover her ears. People were everywhere, their voices loud enough to be heard almost a deck-length away. Sounds rumbled out of the saloons even though it was barely past noon. Several of the taller buildings had their second stories shuttered. Aurelia wasn’t supposed to know what went on in those roosts for the soiled doves, but she did. She dodged cowboys who’d come for entertainment, miners on their day off, women out shopping for their households, and kids running about everywhere.

Aurelia strolled past the No. 10 Saloon, resisting the urge to peek inside. Everyone knew Wild Bill Hickok had been killed there. She couldn’t help being curious. If her mother caught her trying to get inside a saloon, she’d be skinned and made into part of the Minerva’s air bladders. At the end of the next block, she turned the corner.

Whirlwind Horse’s store was big, one of the best in all of Deadwood, if you asked Aurelia. Her grandma said if Tecumseh hadn’t avoided being executed all those years ago and hadn’t banded the Natives together, things would have been different and worse, at least for them. Now they found a way to share the land with the European colonists. Tecumesh’s success made Aurelia very happy because she hated to think of anything bad happening to old Whirlwind Horse.

When she walked up to the front door, a Lakota boy sat outside on the wooden sidewalk. He was about her age and looked angry enough for two people. He scowled at her as if her mere presence offended him. It could, she knew, between her being a girl in pants and the fact the alliance between the Natives and the Europeans was uneasy.

“Is Whirlwind Horse working today?” she asked, determined to be as bright as he was gray.

“Grandfather’s in.”

She didn’t know Whirlwind Horse had grandchildren. “I’m Aurelia Marchetti.”

His glare lessened. “From the Minerva? Grandfather is expecting you.” He stood and opened the door for her. “I’m John Spotted Crow.”

“Nice to meet you.”

John followed her in. “Tunkashila,” he called, catching Whirlwind Horse’s attention. “Someone from the Airship Minerva is here.” His eye slid to her. “Looks kinda young though.”

Aurelia gave him the hairy eye.

“Aurelia!” Whirlwind Horse boomed, throwing his arms wide. She ran to him and let him envelop her. He smelled of tobacco and his thick, graying braid tickled her neck. “And Kangi, she’s the same age as you. How are you, my girl?” Whirlwind Horse let her go with a pat on her shoulder.

“Fine. Mom and the crew will be along with some goods for you later. She’s let me loose.”

“Wakan Tanka, save us. If anyone should have been named Whirlwind, it’s you.” He smiled, and his grandson snorted.

“What are you laughing at?” she demanded.

John turned with a flip of his glossy, raven braid. “Didn’t laugh.” He banged his way back out.

“Doesn’t talk much, does he?”

“You’ll have to forgive his ill manners. My daughter and her husband were killed in a fire several weeks ago while Kangi and I were out. I was teaching him some of the ways of the wicasa wakan, a holy man, just as my grandfather taught me.” His voice cracked as tears sprang to his eyes. A few coursed down his wrinkled cheeks.

“I’m so sorry.” Aurelia hugged him again. He rubbed her shoulders.

“Thank you, dear.” Whirlwind Horse took a step back, wiping his eyes. “Kangi misses his parents and the plains. Maybe you could give him a friendly ear. It’s not been easy on him moving here.”

Aurelia tracked Kangi’s path, unsure of that. She moved around so much she didn’t feel particularly attached to any one place, except the Minerva, but she did know how it felt to lose a parent. “I can try.”

She could practically feel Whirlwind Horse’s mood lightening. “Pilomaya,” he said. Thank you, one of the few words in Lakota she knew. “And did you come just to visit, Aurelia, or was there something I can help you with?”

“Looking for a gift for Mom’s birthday, but it can wait.”

“I’ll set some things aside she might like.”

“Thanks.” She thumped her way outside to find John. He was right where he’d been when she met him. Aurelia decided against sitting next to him. It wasn’t very ladylike to squat on the sidewalk like a toad. More importantly, her prosthetic leg made getting off the ground tricky sometimes. She settled on leaning against a free hitching post.

He eyed her warily. “Yeah?”

“Why does your grandfather call you Kangi?” It might seem a strange question, but it was bugging her. She liked to learn and knowing another word in a different language could only be a good thing.

“It’s my name. Your people call me John Spotted Crow.” He waved a hand at her. “But in Lakota Kangi Gleska means Spotted Crow.”

“Mmm, which word means crow? I only know the few words your grandfather taught me.”

Tension fled his shoulders, loosening them, as if it somehow meant something that his grandfather trusted her and so should he. “Kangi means crow.”

“Would you rather I call you Kangi?”

He lifted a shoulder, letting it fall. “If you want. Do they call you Aurelia?”

She nodded. “They told my grandparents we’d do better with more English names, people being weird about foreign-sounding stuff and all, but we took to the air. No one cares much about that stuff on airships.”

Kangi smiled faintly. “I know how you feel. Back home, we don’t use the English names.” He tugged his long braid. “I don’t mind being called Spotted Crow, but I prefer Kangi.”

“Then I’ll call you Kangi.”

“Grandfather sent you to talk to me, didn’t he?”

“I would have anyhow. I don’t get to see a lot of kids my age. I’m sorry about your parents though. I lost my dad two years ago, so I know the hurt.”

Kangi squeezed his dark eyes shut tight. “Thanks. I still can’t believe they’re gone.”

“It’s terrible.”

They didn’t say anything for a few minutes and then Kangi asked, “Want to go do something?”

“Whatcha got in mind?” She bounced on her heels.

He opened his hands. “Sadly, nothing.”

“Ever been on an airship?” When Kangi shook his head, Aurelia asked, “Want to see the Minerva?”

Kangi glanced over his shoulder at his grandfather’s store then sprang to his feet. “Tunkashila, may I go to Aurelia’s ship?” he bellowed.

Whirlwind Horse poked his head out. “Fine. Take the day off. You deserve it. Have fun. And you.” He pointed at Aurelia. “Don’t fill my grandson’s head with ideas of high-flying adventures.”

She chuckled. “Why else take him? Plenty of fun to be had in the air.”

Whirlwind Horse sighed and retreated inside.

“I guess there are airship pirates around here,” Kangi said.

“Anywhere they’re pulling gold and silver out of the ground you get thieves. Wish I could take you for a flight. Anyone named Spotted Crow should be in the air.”

He smirked at her and started up the walkway. They didn’t get more than a few steps when a Chinese boy blasted around the corner, stumbling to a stop when he saw them.

“Hey, Kangi! Oh, Aurelia! You’re back!”

“Hi, Ling.” Aurelia threw her arms wide and hugged him.

“I guess you know Ling Xue,” Kangi said dryly.

“Mom deals with his uncle. Ling, we were just about to go to the Minerva.”

“Can I come with you?” Ling asked in his soft accented voice. “I was coming to see if Kangi had the afternoon free.”

“I do.”

“Sure. Mom would love to see you.”

“Kangi, do you have your pony?” Ling asked.

He nodded. “Why?”

Ling gestured to Aurelia. “Didn’t you notice?”

“He just met me.”

“Do you mean her limp?”

Aurelia hiked up her pant leg to show off her shiny metal prosthetic leg. “Lost it to airship pirates.”

Kangi’s eyes widened. “Terrifying.” He darted down the alley and came back with a small mud-brown mare. He held the mare steady. “Can you ride? Wind is pretty mild.”

Aurelia wrinkled her nose. “I’m not very good.”

“I’ll help.”

Kangi helped her up then swung up behind her. He nudged his horse into action. As Wind lurched forward, Aurelia buried her fingers in the pony’s wiry brown mane. Kangi kept Wind to a walk so Ling could keep up, chattering excitably about everything Aurelia had missed since the last time she’d been in Deadwood.

Kangi murmured in her ear. “You ride like a sack of flour.”

She reached back and pinched his lean belly. He yelped then laughed, offering up no apologies. Boys, they were all annoying sometimes. They reached the top of the hill quickly enough, and Kangi hitched Wind to one of the many posts near the docking piers.

Aurelia waved them on, leading the way up the ladder to the Minerva. The Minerva’s belly was opened as workers emptied her hold. They’d fill it back up with different goods. Aurelia ignored them as she had little to do with those goings-on. When she climbed on deck with her companions, she quickly spotted her mother leaning over the side, watching the procedure.