Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

Adalai roared. “We know what they’re doing, we know how they’re going to attack, and we know the layout of the airship! I’m not risking my life to save an Ingini when I’m about to end their chance at winning this war.”

  “We were supposed to be gathering information to help end the war,” Grier said.

  “That’s what I meant,” Adalai snarled at him. “Let’s not pretend that this has anything to do with stopping the airship, Jahree. You like her, and that’s the only reason you’re so bent out of shape. Because when it came to tossing Ingini or suffocating them in Marana, you didn’t think twice—”

  “Yes, I like her,” Jahree exploded. “She’s just like us, Adalai. You keep making it about Ingini this, and Ingini that. I don’t see it black and white anymore, and I’m not going to let her get in trouble for us. She is a friend. If you were kidnapped, I’d risk my life to save you, too.”

  Emeryss nodded. “We need to do the right thing and rescue her.”

  “Why?” Adalai waved her hands at them. The blaring alarms of the hangar still rang in the air behind them. “These are her people. She’s so smart, she can figure it out—”

  “I promised to help her,” Jahree said. “She’s done nothing but help us, and she has no one else. We’re finding her.”

  “And what if I say we’re not?” Adalai lifted her chin. “What if I say she’s not our problem anymore?”

  Jahree’s nostrils flared. “Adalai, are you seriously going to do this?”

  She raised her eyebrows. If she had to pull rank, she would.

  “I’m done with this shit,” he roared, and then lifted one finger to her face. “You can pretend all day long that you’re the leader, but we’re not the Zephyrs anymore. And I’m done after this trip. You’ve done nothing but make insane decisions without our input—”

  “To save others!”

  He shook his head. “I liked the no-nonsense, no hol-shit version of you before, but this is becoming insane. Sometimes you don’t have all the answers.”

  It was hol-shit. If he wanted to stick his neck out and waste time, fine. That would be on him. She would do what was right.

  “You’re not alone in this,” Jahree said. “You say you’re worried about others, but act like you’re the only person here. This isn’t the one-man show of Adalai featuring the crew that does whatever she says.” Jahree started the climb up the plateau.

  “Then what kind of soldier are you?” she called after him.

  “I’m getting the others, and I’m figuring out how to find Clove,” he hollered back. “I’m right on this.”

  Right? No, what was right was protecting the country he’d sworn an oath to.

  Grier and Emeryss followed him without another word.

  Emeryss looked up at Grier.

  He shared the same stunned ‘what in the world were they going to do’ look the rest of them had.

  Vaughn had promptly dropped his head to the back of a chair. “This is so bad.”

  It was the most anyone had said since Adalai and Emeryss had shared what they’d found. And Vaughn’s words were probably the most succinct way of putting it.

  “We have to do something,” Vaughn said. “We can’t let this go. Dammit, Adalai.”

  “What?”

  “If we’d just quit after the mines, if you hadn’t kidnapped Kimpert—”

  “We wouldn’t know how bad this really was,” she said.

  “Yeah, exactly. We’d be home, blissfully unaware.” He rubbed his face. “I don’t mean that, of course.”

  No, but Emeryss understood. This had gotten too big.

  “And now Clove is gone, too,” Jahree said.

  Adalai rolled her eyes. “What were we going to do with her, anyway?”

  Their bickering had continued the entire way up into the ship and throughout the discussion, and Emeryss wasn’t sure they’d ever reach a compromise.

  “I was going to help her find her brother—”

  “And?” Adalai asked. “You’re lucky I didn’t kill her the million times I had the chance. You forget she’s the enemy—”

  “And so are you,” Jahree said, eyes glaring at her.

  “To her? Yes. That’s the way war works. I’m sorry her people are such terrible human beings. I’m sorry that our country only wants to unify the east and west into one sane, healthy, non-destroyed country—”

  “You know it’s more than that, Adalai,” Grier said. “They don’t want a king.”

  “Because that bitch back there is so much better?” She gestured toward Kimpert back in the cargo hold. “No, they’re fooling themselves. I’m sorry if I missed how much better Ingini is doing compared to Revel.”

  “We made it that way!” Jahree shouted. “Can you not see that? Can you not see we are partially to blame for this mess? That our own people are destroying their country while using it to get rich in ours?”

  “I see it, all right, but that doesn’t mean they need to keep this mega airship and murder thousands of our people.”

  “We’re to blame, too,” Grier mumbled. “Stadhold. We kept the knowledge from them and the grimoires.”

  “They’re doing fine, trust me,” Adalai said, leaning back against the pilot’s chair. “You wouldn’t feel so sorry for them if you saw the technology we did.”

  “Still,” Emeryss said, “Clove helped us, and she looked terrified when she was taken. I still think it probably wasn’t one of the UA there. They probably would have shouted for back up, instead of trying to sneak her out.”

  “She knew that guy at the mine,” Adalai said. “Maybe she knew this person, too. She’s probably fine.”

  Jahree knocked his knuckle on the table. “She knew someone from the mine?”

  Emeryss nodded. “They hugged.”

  “Can we find him, then?” Jahree asked. “Could he know who would want to take her?”

  Grier shrugged. “How do we find him?”

  “This is crazy,” Adalai growled. “Absolutely crazy. Are you forgetting about the airship? We need to alert Revel—”

  “I can’t contact Revel from here,” Sonora said. “It’s too far.”

  “And what do you want me to do about the sigil, Adalai?” Emeryss asked. “Clove is the Ingineer. If we’re going to do anything about it, then it’s going to have to be with her.”

  Adalai huffed.

  “It’s possible Kimpert knows where she is,” Urla suggested. “Or maybe she knows who that friend of hers was.”

  “Good idea,” Jahree said. “Then we move and figure out the rest.”

  Kimpert first half-laughed and curled up tighter. “I can’t speak when my teeth are chattering from the cold.”

  She was looking pretty rough. Aside from the welts on her face and the cut on her cheek from Adalai pushing her against the bars, her hair had fallen out of its pins, and her skin was looking greasy in some places and dry in others. Her outfit was marred with dirt and oil from sitting on the ground. She’d never resorted to taking off her heels though.

  Jahree ignored her complaint. “Where would Clove be?” he repeated.

  “How would I know? I don’t keep tabs on former employees.” Her arms were crossed, and her head rested against the back wall.

  “She was grabbed when they were leaving the hangar,” Jahree continued.

  “Then they have her. You’ll never get her back, now. And no, I don’t know where they’ll take her. It’s the UA.”

  Emeryss stepped up. “It looked like the person who took her didn’t want to be found either. Their arms came out of nowhere. It wasn’t like one of the guards. It was someone who wanted her quiet as far as we could tell.”

  Kimpert shrugged. “I’ve already told you enough.”

  She was referring to the Goliath. She was referring to Adalai having made a very convincing reason to save herself by sharing where it was by murdering Hall.

  “For one second,” Jahree started, “can you go beyond the money and realize that if Ingini goes through with that ship
, that if this ship leaves that hangar and attacks, then it will kill thousands, maybe even millions, of Revelians.”

  “Yes.” Kimpert smiled.

  Emeryss exhaled. “Aren’t you tired of this, Kimpert? Aren’t you tired of the fighting and the sneaking and the death?”

  Jahree nodded. “If we can stop the airship from leaving, all of that can be avoided—”

  Kimpert laughed. “I swear you’re like kids when it comes to this game. There’s no end. You realize that? There’s no end to this. Stop the war, kill the king, kill the CEOs; it never stops. Everyone wants power. Everyone wants control. Everyone wants money. Look, don’t feel bad, but that’s how it’s always been. That’s how the system in place now got set up because people wanted power.”

  Emeryss swallowed. “Don’t you want your people to come to terms with Stadhold, so you can train your Ingineers? We saw what you’re doing with the grimoires. Everyone can benefit from sharing knowledge—”

  “So now, you want to share knowledge?” Kimpert stood. “When the world thought we were the bad guys—”

  “Thought?” Grier blurted. “You murdered tons of Casters, hunted Scribes.”

  Kimpert scoffed. “Only if you believe everything you’re told, Keeper.”

  Grier visibly steeled himself.

  “We were cut from ethereal knowledge,” she continued, “but now, after we’ve adapted, grown, tested, solved… Now, you want to be included in our knowledge? Sure, but I’ll expect to be paid in return, or all of you can rot in the void for all I care.”

  “We’re going to stop you,” Jahree said. “Just like Adalai told you. We’re not letting you profit off this war.”

  “Good luck with that.” She glowered at him and then turned away in her cage.

  This wasn’t going to work.

  “You seriously hate Clove that much?” Emeryss asked.

  Kimpert didn’t move to argue.

  “Those mines were—are—terrible, and I’ve only spent an hour or two in them. You fired her from doing some job, and it meant she’d have to go back there, and you knew it.”

  Kimpert couldn’t look any farther away, but she tried.

  “You fired her for more money, and she had to do the unthinkable—work for a man who threatened to kill her—just to survive, and she did. And then she got caught in the war. And then she survived an airship crash, survived being captured, survived possibly losing her brother—her only family.”

  Kimpert closed her eyes.

  “And you knew that. You knew from the beginning that it would probably ruin any chance she had at getting out of her situation.” Emeryss wrung her hands.

  “I didn’t have a choice,” she spat. “It wasn’t personal, and I had other people I needed to pilot. I’d given her the original jobs out of pity.”

  “And now, she might be in trouble,” Emeryss said calmly. “If you were able to feel sorry for her back then, can you at least care about her for five seconds now and tell us where she might be? You’re pretty confident we can’t stop the Goliath. You’re confident you’re going to win and come out on top, or you wouldn’t have told us about the hangar. At least help us find Clove so she can go back to her life someday.”

  Kimpert bit her lip and took a deep breath, letting the silence settle and press in. “If she was working for Trent, he’s the only one who would cause her any trouble—that I know of. Her other boss, Branson, was annoying, but he’s too stupid to know about that hangar and not dumb enough to sneak around it. Trent would be there because he wants the grimoires.”

  “The skinning guy?” Vaughn asked.

  “He works out of Ethrecity,” Kimpert said. “He’s got a hanger on the north side.”

  “What about her friend?” Emeryss asked. “Not very tall, but dark headed, looked like he worked in the mines, too? She seemed close to him.”

  Kimpert shrugged. “I don’t know him at all. I only knew of her brother.”

  Emeryss glanced at Grier, and he shrugged. “Well, it’s a start.”

  “Start?” Vaughn threw his hands up. “It’s their capital. It’s as big as Aurelis and probably just as populated. That is literally like finding a grain of sand on a beach, and she was our Ingini guide. We have no idea what we’re looking for.”

  “We have a lead,” Emeryss said. “That Trent guy. We can ask around—”

  Kimpert laughed. “Try telling people you’re looking for Trent, and you’ll find yourself on the other end of his blade.”

  “We could go back to the mine to look for her friend,” Grier said. “If they’re close, he’ll want to help.”

  “Assuming he doesn’t figure out who we are and what we did to her.” Vaughn crossed his arms.

  They didn’t have a choice. Too much was at stake not to risk it.

  “Okay, let’s do that first. Jahree?” Emeryss turned to him.

  “Back to the mines it is,” he agreed.

  Chapter 22

  Outside Gruskul Mines — Ingini

  Grier adjusted his sleeve to hide his bracer as best he could and stepped off the airship’s ramp onto the dying grass.

  Jahree had set Pigyll down out of sight from the mine again to keep it undercover.

  This time only Grier, Adalai, and Jahree were going in.

  “But not in the mine, right?” Jahree shivered. “I hate dark enclosed spaces.”

  “No,” Grier said. “I hope.”

  “We’re not because we’re not wasting any more time.” Adalai took the lead toward the exit of the mine.

  “You could have stayed behind, Adalai,” Jahree said. “No one said you had to come.”

  “And risk you two getting kidnapped also?” she asked. “I don’t have the time for that either.”

  Jahree rolled his eyes. “It’s so nice of you to pretend to care.”

  “No, Jahree. You made it perfectly clear you’re done with me. So, fair’s fair. I need you to pilot the airship, so I have to make sure we’re as quick as possible. Because if we miss them launching that stupid airship into Revel, all this would have been for nothing.”

  She was lying.

  Grier might not have known her for long, but she wore her heart on the outside. It was easy to tell she was afraid, that she wanted to get back in with Orr, that the RCA was all she had, that she took this shot at leading the Zephyrs more serious than anyone else would. She wanted to succeed, she wanted to please Orr, and she wanted the recognition for it.

  So, she did care; she had to. This was her crew. She took every success and failure personally. She might have thought she had all the answers, but she owned them and moved forward.

  It was one thing he’d wished he was better at. He might not doubt that they needed to do something about the Goliath, but he was doubting everything Stadhold had a hand in—what he had a hand in.

  The fact he’d been Emeryss’s jailer hadn’t escaped him, and it kept him up. Had the other Keepers realized this? Was Emeryss the only Scribe they had hunted down to drag back or was it because of what Avrist had said about her being Neerian? Were they all at fault?

  His gut, the inner voice, or maybe even the Goddess had told him yes, that it was. That Stadhold was in the thick of it without the attention, and that made him sick. Every training session. Every cover-up. Possible histories rewritten. Manipulation.

  He wanted the truth, and every rock they overturned here in Ingini seemed to show a side of Revel they hadn’t considered. The only thing missing from the whole equation was Stadhold.

  He needed to have conviction because he needed answers.

  Adalai wasn’t always right, and they definitely needed to find and save Clove, but at least Adalai could face whatever she was up against.

  Put a sword in his opponent’s hand or an ether-gun, even a grimoire, and he’d know exactly how to counter it best. Facing someone like the Librarian, facing his family, facing the truths whenever he uncovered them… That was something different.

  “Saving Clove is not for nothing,�
�� Jahree said. “We’re doing the right thing.”

  “The right thing by one Ingini, instead of millions of Revelians.” She huffed. “I should call you a traitor right now.”

  Jahree stopped and glared at her. “Do it. Because like Emeryss had explained, she can’t see the sigil or the dashboard. She can’t help stop the airship—”

  “We can blow it up.”

  “How and with what?”

  She waved her hands around. “Urla. Urla can ignite it with lightning. I’ve seen her cause fires with them. And they had those Fireball guns.”

  “Yes, and blow it and herself to the otherworld. Why don’t you go back there and tell her that plan, mighty leader?” Jahree shouted.

  But Adalai managed to dig in her heels while walking. “Grier still has to get back to Stadhold to alert them. We still have to warn Revel somehow. We don’t have time to play this game with an Ingini.”

  Grier stepped over the last hill overlooking sparse highwood trees at the back exit of the mine. “We’re here.”

  The sluggish pace of miners and contractors rebuilding and fixing the mine buzzed about. Not nearly as crowded or chaotic as when the cave-in happened, but it was still plenty busy.

  “I didn’t say you were a traitor,” Jahree continued quietly. “I’m asking what’s a country worth defending if that country is stabbing everyone else in the back, stealing, pulling strings on wars and death, making deals with the people they’ve convinced us to hate?”

  Adalai’s face was bright red. “Yeah, and I get it. I’m just as mad as you are.”

  “Are you?”

  “That doesn’t change that we need to stop this airship before it leaves. It doesn’t change that we have to alert Orr.”

  “Have you accepted that Orr could be behind this?”

  “It’s Nendrik, Jahree. I know him. It’s Nendrik. And that still doesn’t mean that we have enough time to run around the country to find Clove.”

  Jahree ignored her and joined Grier.

  Adalai was seething, but she was stuck. She wanted so badly to be respected as the leader, but it was falling through her fingertips. Her crew was losing confidence in her because her ideas had become more radical, more dangerous.