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“Are you sure you tied down the tarp?” I asked.
“Ardis,” he said, “for the thousandth time, I’m sure. They won’t see us coming.”
I dug my fingernails into the scabbard. “The Grandmaster is meeting with Margareta tonight. This is it, Konstantin. We don’t have time for mistakes.”
“I don’t intend to make mistakes.”
“Then you might want to double-check the tarp.”
He softened his voice. “We won’t let them take Wendel.”
I bottled up my emotions and stared straight out of the windshield. “How much farther?”
“Twenty minutes. Just twenty minutes.”
I nodded and counted down in silence.
“And remember,” he added, “be extremely careful with the Eisenkrieger. We only have two prototypes, and we have to bring this one back in one piece. I don’t want a single dent or scratch on it. Do you swear?”
“I swear, I won’t scratch your precious Eisenkrieger.”
A corner of his mouth tugged into a crooked smile.
We left behind the glittering lights of Vienna and drove into the darkness. One by one, the night swallowed the buildings around us. The humming of tires on the road lulled me into a trance. My mind circled through the same thoughts again and again.
He loved me, and I couldn’t save him.
A hollow hurt lingered inside me. I hugged myself, pretending I was just cold. I waited without speaking until Konstantin pulled into an empty weed-choked lot. Brick factories loomed in the shadows.
“Are we here?” I asked.
Konstantin nodded at the truck’s odometer. “That’s about seven kilometers.”
When he killed the engine, it was deathly quiet, broken only by the sound of rain.
“Can you pilot the Eisenkrieger while I take some readings?”
“That’s why I’m here.”
I opened the door of the truck and grabbed my sword on the way out. I craned my neck to look at the black sky. Wind scattered rain onto my face.
Konstantin flicked on a flashlight and yanked off the tarp from the Eisenkrieger. “Get in.”
I blew out my breath, fogging the air, and climbed into the back of the truck. Biting my lip, I handed him Chun Yi. I had been holding it so tight, the scabbard’s sharkskin left its pattern on my hands.
He held the sword gingerly. “What do you want me to do with this?”
“Hold onto it for me.”
“I could leave it in the truck?”
I shook my head. “We’re not leaving my sword.”
Konstantin sighed, but he tucked the scabbard under his arm. I lifted myself into the cockpit of the Eisenkrieger. In the darkness, I fumbled for the ignition before I turned the key. The Eisenkrieger hummed to life.
“Let me take the first measurement,” he said.
He opened the front panel of the Eisenkrieger and hooked up the pocket watch lookalike. He bent over the dial and rubbed rainwater from the glass with his sleeve, then squinted at whatever the numbers told him.
