Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  Chapter 26

  Pigyll — Ingini

  The crick in Clove’s neck hurt something fierce, and she groaned as she rubbed it. She’d fallen asleep in one of the chairs the previous night, and they must have put her to bed in her bunk.

  Someone knocked on the privacy screen.

  “Yeah?” she said groggily and slid it open.

  Mack stood there smiling at her. “You’re awake? You okay?”

  She looked up at the ceiling of her bunk, trying to recall the night’s conversations with Emeryss, Jahree, and Grier about scribing, trances, and grimoires.

  “Yup, I’m okay.”

  Mack held out a steaming bowl of grain. “They call it breakfast. Doesn’t smell too bad, actually.”

  She peered one eye at him. “It’s not bad. You haven’t tried it?”

  “Is it better than hol-sticks and warm beer in the morning?”

  She smiled. “Yes, but only a little.”

  Originally, she hadn’t wanted him to come. But when he’d threatened to turn them in, she knew it was only because he was worried for her.

  But she also believed him. He would definitely do it, and including him was smarter than not.

  She took the bowl, swung her legs over the side of her bunk, and swallowed a scoop. “Thanks.”

  He crossed his arms. “You got yourself pretty deep in this mess, didn’t you? Last time I saw you, you were carrying a gun around these people.”

  “It was a little rougher at the time. We didn’t have a common enemy. We didn’t know how much we’d been lied to.”

  “You still have the gun just in case?”

  She nodded toward the bridge. “Yes, but it’s hidden.”

  “Good.”

  She took another bite. “You need to understand that Cayn and I would have gone down anyway. I could have been picked up by anyone. Here, I feel like I can actually do something.”

  She knew he didn’t fully understand her position on it. He despised the Revelians, blamed them for his parents having to work in the mines, blamed them for his dad’s illness, for her parents dying. Anything that went bad in Ingini, he’d blamed on the Revelians. And she had, too.

  Until she got to know them. And Jahree.

  Mack hadn’t gotten the chance to do that, and here, he’d listened to them for her. He’d joined up with them to find her.

  “Thank you for helping them find me,” she said.

  “You know I’d do anything for you,” he whispered.

  She knew. She also knew she’d do anything to help him, too. It was why when Adalai announced he was now in their custody, she’d promised if they did anything to him, Adalai would be dead.

  She didn’t trust Adalai as far as she could throw her, and she’d be damned if she hurt Mack.

  Clove might not have been able to give him what he wanted or reciprocate everything he felt for her, but he was like family. As much as Scuffle was. He was a piece of her home.

  He reached his arms around her and hugged her. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  He smelled like ether-fuel. The kind that was refined and used to fill ships and machines without dashboards. He was solid, all stubborn muscle and bone. He was the incarnation of hard work and loyalty.

  She pulled back and ate another bite.

  “I’m not going to lie,” he muttered. “I’ve missed this.”

  She scoffed. “Being on airships with the RCA?”

  “No,” he chuckled. “Us being close. Just this.”

  “Be serious. What we used to do was quick, not close.”

  He laughed. “We didn’t have the time. We had to hurry and get to it before we got caught with our pants down.”

  She giggled. There weren’t many moments like those, but enough to laugh at.

  “Do you remember that fruity ethyrol we used to bring and drink entire bottles of?”

  She groaned, closing her eyes. “Yes, I do. I will never forget how cheap that shit tasted.”

  “Funny thing is I still don’t think I could afford anything better.”

  She laughed, and he did, too.

  He rested his arm against the bunk above hers. “To think how far we’ve come.” He looked around. “It sucks. This whole thing sucks.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I get why, but how, Clove? How can you work with them like this?”

  She took a deep breath. “I didn’t at first. I was forced to. I guess, I’m still sort of forced to, but I don’t mind as much. They’re doing the right thing. They’re actually not as terrible as we all thought.”

  He raised his eyebrows. He didn’t believe her.

  “I mean, don’t get me wrong. Adalai is the worst. She’s absolutely got a power complex, but the rest of them are fairly nice, and they didn’t shoot me down, and they didn’t even know what their military was doing invading Fort Damned. And I don’t know, they’ve been honest this whole time.”

  “Adalai tossed out Hall?”

  She nodded. “He was actually an RCA member. He’d moved over here to call the shots with some traitor they have over there. He was getting rich off us.”

  “Then, see, it’s just more bad Revelians, Clove.”

  “He was doing it because Kimpert was working with him. She wants to rule Ingini, Mack. They’re all bad. And I believe the Zephyrs, everyone other than Adalai, really feel bad and want to do it right. And I do, too. Our laser took out thousands of people, Mack, instantly.”

  He ran a hand through his dark hair and adjusted his shirt.

  “I mean, instantly,” she continued. “Emeryss was telling me, and really, it sounded horrific. Children and civilians, and just anyone and everyone. It wasn’t even an RCA fort or anything like that.” She inhaled. “That’s not right, Mack. I hate Revel, but I’m not sure Ingini knows how to run a country any better than they do.”

  He blinked a few times and looked at her. “All right.”

  She tilted her head. “All right, what?”

  “If you trust them, I’ll go with it for now.”

  She grinned. “That easy? You just agree with whatever I say or think that quickly? Are you dumb?”

  He shrugged and smirked. “You happen to be pretty smart. I happen to think the world of you. I’ll trust you.”

  She shook her head.

  He reached out for her empty bowl. “I’ll take it back for you. I’m on my way to take a shower, anyway. Can you believe they added a shower to Pigyll?”

  She smiled and squeezed her eyes shut. “I really like the upgrades, well, except for the missing laser I paid a lot of money for.”

  He left for the small closet of a shower in the back, and she stood and stretched, rotating her head and neck to get the ache out.

  The airship bobbed.

  They were still flying.

  She walked up to the bridge, where Jahree sat flying alone. Grier and Emeryss must have still been asleep.

  “You never parked us for the night?” she asked him.

  “No.” He checked the navigation screen. He was clearly still getting used to flying an Ingini ship without his ether, but he seemed to enjoy it.

  “Why?”

  “I wanted the practice. It’s kinda nice not worrying about ether and just flying. Also, I didn’t want to get there too late. If Scuffle isn’t going to help us, then we need another plan just as fast.”

  She sat herself down in the copilot’s seat. “He’ll help us, or me, anyway. He always has.”

  Jahree nodded without looking at her. “Good.”

  After a pause, she mustered up what had to be said. “Thank you for coming and trying to find me. You guys didn’t have to come back for me.”

  Jahree smiled. “You think I’d leave you there? I keep my promises, and technically, we didn’t save you. You apparently did okay on your own.”

  She rested her chin in her hand. “I’d still be sitting in that box waiting for Cayn to never show up.”

  He tilted his head. “I doubt that. You’re too strong.�
��

  She smiled to herself and leaned back in the chair. “Can I ask you a more serious question?”

  “Go for it.”

  “What do you want for Ingini?”

  He looked at her a couple of times before returning his focus to the window. “What do you mean?”

  “What do you want for us? To come under your king’s rule or keep things the way they are without war?”

  “Me? Or am I representing all of Revel when I answer?”

  “You.”

  He took a deep breath. “I want none of that. I think Ingini has done well enough to establish themselves as their own country. I think we have a lot to learn from each other, and keeping things separated is dangerous and doesn’t help us as a whole. Us, as in mankind.”

  He’d meant the greater good. She’d never considered what was better for all of mankind.

  “I don’t want wars,” he continued. “I don’t want the fighting or spying or rules about not helping the other. It sounds cheesy, but I think if we could all be honest about what’s going on, it’d solve a lot of the issues.”

  “How do you mean?”

  Jahree licked his lips and rotated his head back and forth as if weighing what to say. “I mean, you played that drinking game with Adalai.”

  “Yeah?” She was still pretty pissed about it, too. Adalai still claimed it as a win, but it was stupid from the start. Clove would never win a history trivia game in a room full of Revelians.

  “Your answers were wrong, but even I could tell that they weren’t wrong for what you’d been told,” he said.

  She jerked her head in his direction. “They weren’t wrong. I was a history fanatic in school. It was the only thing I was good at, seriously.”

  “Right, so that would mean that our answers were wrong. So, either someone is not remembering the details correctly or one of us is being lied to.”

  “And you think you’re the ones being lied to?”

  “After Kimpert and Hall?” He shook his head. “I think we’re both being lied to.”

  “Then who would have all the answers? Who’d know the truth? You’d think it’d be recorded somewhere to keep safe.”

  They looked at one another for a brief second.

  “The library,” Jahree said.

  As much as it’d interested her to find the truth, it wouldn’t help them now. It wouldn’t help them convince Scuffle to help them sabotage one of the greatest airships in Ingini history. It wouldn’t end a war, and it wouldn’t bring back Cayn.

  But she also couldn’t help being curious.

  “Someone should tell Grier,” she said.

  “There?” Jahree pointed ahead of him at a yellow patch in the middle of a green field.

  Scuffle’s ramshackle house and barn sat just off the side, surrounded by several lush, green apterick pastures.

  They all looked on through Pigyll’s front window.

  “Yeah, right there,” Clove said.

  Mack stood just beside her. “It’s been ages since I’ve seen Scuffle.”

  It was right after her parents had died. Scuffle had come to make sure she and Cayn would be okay.

  “What are those?” Grier asked, peering out of the front window. “Those things in the fields.”

  “Aptericks. You know, the giant bird things. He’ll let you ride one if you want,” Clove said.

  Grier looked back at her, his eyebrows raised in shock as a smile crept across his face.

  “This should be good,” Emeryss said.

  “Is he there?” Jahree asked. “Should you have contacted him first?”

  Clove shook her head. “He’s always there. He’s probably just inside or working in his barn.”

  Jahree set Pigyll down gently and cut off her engines.

  Clove rose from her seat and took a deep breath. “It’s probably best if I speak to him first, and then bring you all in… or out. He has no filter. He’ll tell you exactly what he thinks the moment he thinks it. He does not care.”

  They shared weary glances.

  “Since Adalai’s not here, I don’t really feel like I need to worry about one of you hurting him. Right?”

  They nodded.

  “He’s practically another parent to me. I spent a lot of time here growing up, and he tried to help us out after our parents died. I owe this man a lot, and I don’t want to regret bringing you here.”

  “We promise, Clove,” Grier said. “We don’t want to cause any trouble. We’ll follow your rules.”

  She nodded. “Okay, then—”

  “Clove?” Scuffle called from the back.

  They all jerked in the direction of his voice echoing up the airship.

  Clove’s heart fell. “So much for that plan.”

  “What in Goddess’s name have you done to Pigyll?” he boomed. “And why is the CEO of Ether All sitting in a cage back here?”

  “How’d he get on?” Grier whispered.

  “I opened the cargo hold because I thought she was going right out,” Jahree whispered back. “I didn’t know he—”

  “And since when did you start working with Revelians?” Scuffle had stepped into the bridge with his arms crossed and his ratty overalls as dingy and smeared with mud as ever. What remained of his gray hair was matted down with sweat. His youngest daughter, Lana, stood just behind him.

  Lana was tall and thin, like Cayn, but had blonde hair and a small nose. She was more like a distant cousin. They’d played together when they were children, but not much more than that. They’d lost touch once her parents died, and she hadn’t thought of her since.

  “Hi, Lana.” Clove signed with her hands. It’d been a while since she’d used any sign-language and tried to smile at her clumsiness in apology. Scuffle’s scowl made it difficult, though.

  Lana gave a half-smile and a tiny wave in response.

  Clove took a deep breath and signed as she spoke. “Scuffle—”

  “Don’t talk to me like I’m old and going senile. Out with it.”

  Jahree and Emeryss stood still as poles, and even Grier lifted his chest to straighten his posture.

  “This is Mack,” she said, spelling out his name with her hands and gesturing to him right behind her left shoulder. “You remember when we were kids…”

  But Scuffle’s eyes were trained on the Revelians. He didn’t care one iota about Mack. This wasn’t going to be easy, but Scuffle never did make being honest easy.

  “This is Jahree. He’s a pilot for the RCA. This is Emeryss. She used to be a Scribe. And this is Grier—he’s a Keeper from Stadhold. And that back there is Kimpert. My old boss and traitor to Ingini… that we’ve kidnapped.” She exhaled all the air she’d been holding in.

  Scuffle huffed. “You brought the whole damn world with you? Where in spirit’s name is Cayn?”

  They shared glances with one another. She wasn’t really sure where to go from there or how much to share.

  “You better come out with it, girl.”

  “Revel attacked Ingini—”

  “I know,” he said. “Everyone knows. You were in the thick of it, weren’t you? Just like I said. Didn’t I warn you?”

  “Yes, and we got shot down. I don’t know if Cayn survived. I haven’t found him yet, but if he did survive like I did, then he’s probably being held prisoner in Revel.”

  Scuffle’s features instantly softened before he blinked and put his hands on his hips. Lana seemed to have no problem reading her father’s lips when he was this mad. “You want me to help you find him? Get your new friends to do it.”

  “No, actually, we came to ask you for help on stopping an Ingini attack. We want to stop the war.”

  Silence.

  Scuffle didn’t so much as smack his lips or click his tongue or curse at her. She’d expected him to do that much, but there was nothing. His expression blank, he spun to leave and signaled Lana to move on with him. “Let’s move the birds.”

  Jahree and the others looked at Clove. She shrugged, and they f
ollowed Scuffle out.

  Chapter 27

  Ethrecity — Ingini

  Adalai stared down a door at the top of the cloudscraper’s stairwell. The roof was supposed to be on the other side, however, when she’d Dispersed and slipped under it, she’d found more hallways instead of a roof.

  They were going to have to scale the remainder of the building from the outside.

  “No,” Sonora said. “I nearly fell off an airship. I’m not about to climb on the side of a cloudscraper.”

  “Mykel can make something for us, can’t you?” Vaughn looked to him.

  “I have some sticky sap from my snack earlier. It would take me a minute to—”

  “Just do it!” Adalai ordered.

  “Easy, Ada,” Sonora said. “You’re scaring me with all these demands. You’re sounding—”

  “Like a leader?” She was tired of their questioning her.

  This is what had to be done. This is what leaders had to do. Orr would have done this if it had been him, and he would have supported her doing this, too. Stopping evil required incredible acts of courage. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be war. There wouldn’t be loss or sacrifice.

  This was always going to be dangerous, and they were acting like this was news.

  She had been right to kill that mining foreman. She had been right to kidnap that Kimpert woman. She was right about this. The sooner they all saw it, the better off they would be.

  If they didn’t, Orr would. And they could go back to their boring lives, being nothing, having nothing, doing nothing of importance.

  She hadn’t clawed her way up from the bottom to achieve nothing.

  “Like a leader? More like a tart-hole,” Vaughn said, then quickly raised his hands at her narrowing gaze. “I’m just saying what everyone is thinking. You need to calm down. This is stressful for everyone. We wanted to come over here and help. We’re all risking our lives.”

  Yes, it was the least they could do. Risk their lives to save millions, and it would even save stupid Ingini lives, too. They couldn’t whine and complain.

  Mykel had dug into his pocket and retrieved a wrapper of his earlier snack he’d purchased off a street vendor. The brown gooey filling was still on the wrapper in places. He picked it off the paper, held it in his palms and closed his eyes. “Sugar. Some sort of gelatin. A thickening agent—”