“I can’t tell if that was a compliment or an apology.”
He peered at her. “Both. I could’ve been kinder to you.”
“You could have at least said a little more.”
He smiled. “I don’t know about that.”
She laughed, and then her eyes turned serious. “I could have been kinder too.”
She scooted herself back against the headboard. Her dark hair fell straight to her shoulders, framing her small chin. Her pink lips turned up in a soft smile.
“I’ll forgive you on two conditions.”
Perry leaned back on his good arm and stole a look at her. Her body belonged in tight clothes, not in camos. He felt guilty looking, but he couldn’t help it. “Yeah? What are they?”
“First, tell me what your temper is like right now.”
He covered his surprised gasp with a cough. “My temper?” No way this was a good idea. He searched for a gentle way to say no. “I could try,” he said after a moment, and then pushed a hand through his hair, shocked at what he’d just agreed to do.
“All right. . . .” He fiddled with the edge of his cast. “Scents, the way I get them, are more than smells. They have weights and temperatures sometimes. Colors, too. I don’t think it’s like that for others. My bloodline on my father’s side is strong. Probably the strongest line of Scires.” He stopped himself, not wanting to sound boastful. He realized his thighs were flexed tight. “So, my temper right now is probably cool. And heavy. That’s what sorrow is like. Dark and thick, like stone. Like the scent coming off a wet rock.”
He glanced at her. She didn’t look like she wanted to laugh so he kept going. “There’d be more. Most of the time, a lot of times . . . there are a few scents in a temper. Nervous tempers are sharp scents. Like laurel leaves? Something bright and tingling like that? Nervous tempers are hard to ignore. So there’d be some of that probably.”
“Why are you nervous?”
Perry smiled down at his cast. “That question makes me nervous.” He made himself look at her. Looking at her wasn’t working either, so he pinned his gaze on the lamp. “I can’t do this, Aria.”
“Now you have an idea how it feels. How exposed I feel around you.”
Perry laughed. “That was tricky of you. You want to know what I’m nervous about now? That you have a second condition.”
“It’s not a condition. It’s more of a request.”
Every part of him was locked tight, waiting for what she’d say next.
Aria pulled the covers over her, hugging them close. “Will you stay? I think I’d sleep better if you stayed here tonight. Then we could miss them together.”
His impulse was to agree. She was beautiful sitting against the headboard, her skin looking smoother, softer than the sheets pulled up around her. But Perry hesitated.
Sleeping was the most dangerous thing a Scire could do with another person. Tempers mixed in the harmony of sleep. They tangled up, forming their own bonds. Scires became rendered that way, as had happened with him and Talon.
He didn’t know why he thought of this only now, but he didn’t need to worry. Scires seldom rendered to anyone outside their Sense. And she was a Dweller. The furthest thing from being a Scire. Besides, he’d been sleeping within feet of her for more than a week. What difference would another day make?
Perry’s eyes flicked to the soft carpet, then back to Aria. “I’ll be right here.”
Chapter 26
ARIA
Marron had a running countdown to when they could safely power up her Smarteye. He showed it to Aria in the morning, when he took her down to the Navel.
Seven hours, forty-three minutes, and twelve seconds.
It was an estimate, but Aria knew enough about Marron to take the numbers for their worth. The room was spare and cold compared to the rest of Delphi. A collection of computer equipment. A desk and a couch. It had a sacred air. She had the impression no one came down there except Marron. Aria noticed a vase of roses sitting on a little coffee table.
“You liked the other one so,” Marron said, beaming, then he quietly set to work on her Smarteye at his desk.
Aria sat on the couch, her stomach rolling with nerves. She couldn’t tear her eyes from the numbers on the wallscreen. Was the recording of Ag 6 still in the Eye? Was the “Songbird” file? Would she be able to find Lumina and Talon? Only an hour had passed when Marron invited her on a walk outside. She agreed right away. Her feet were still sore, but she’d go crazy down here all alone. Time had never moved more slowly.
She searched for Perry as they moved through Delphi’s halls. She’d stayed awake listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing during the night. But when she’d woken that morning, he hadn’t been there.
Aria immediately noticed a change in the courtyard as she stepped outside with Marron. Only a few people were moving about, compared with the bustle she’d seen when she stormed in with Cinder.
“Where is everyone?” Aria glanced at the sky. She’d seen much worse than the veinlike flows above.
Marron’s expression sobered. He looped her arm through his as they continued on the cobblestone path. “We had a few arrows over the wall early this morning from the Croven. They were careless shots fired before daylight. Aimed to strike fear more than anything else. In that, they were successful. I was hoping they’d have relaxed by now, but it appears . . .”
Marron trailed off as he looked toward Delphi. Rose and Slate hurried toward them, Rose’s dark braid swinging behind her. She was talking before she’d even stopped.
“The boy, Cinder, is gone.”
“He left through the east gate,” Slate added quickly. He looked furious with himself. “He was already out when the tower spotted him.”
Marron’s arm tensed around hers. “This is intolerable under the circumstances. It cannot happen. Who was on that post?” He strode off with Slate, still ranting.
Aria couldn’t believe it. After everything, after carrying him there, Cinder had gone? “Does Perry know?” she asked Rose.
“No, I don’t think so.” Rose pursed her lips in disapproval. Then she rolled her eyes. “You should try the roof first. That’s where he usually is.”
“Thank you,” Aria said, and then dashed for Delphi.
Rose called out behind her, teasing. “Your feet look like they’re healing!”
Aria took the elevator to the top of Delphi and stepped onto the roof, a vast stretch of cement with only a wooden rail framing the perimeter. Perry sat against it, gazing up at the Aether, his wounded arm propped onto his knee. He smiled when he saw her and strode over.
When he reached her, his smile fell. “What happened?”
“Cinder’s gone. He left. I’m sorry, Perry.”
His face tightened, and then he looked away and shrugged. “It’s all right. I didn’t even know him.” He was quiet for a moment. “Are you sure he’s gone? They looked for him?”
“Yes. The guards saw him leave.”
They walked to the edge of the roof. Perry propped his arms on the rail, lost in thought as he stared across the trees. Aria took in the long sweep of the wall, curving wide around Delphi. She saw the gate she’d run through just yesterday, and the towers, evenly spaced around the perimeter. Some seventy feet below, animal pens and gardens made neat geometric patterns of the courtyard. She’d just been down there.
“Who told you I was up here?” Perry asked. The disappointment had faded from his face.
“Rose.” Aria smiled. “She told me lots of things.”
He cringed. “She did? What did she say? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
“You really don’t.”
“Ahh . . . that’s cruel. Now you’re just kicking me while I’m down.”
She laughed and they fell quiet again. The silence between them felt good.
“Aria,” he said after a while. “I want to wait for the Smarteye with you but I can’t stay in the Navel. Not for long. Makes me skitty being that
deep underground.”
“It makes you skitty?” For a lethal creature, sometimes he used words that struck her as utterly childish.
“Shaky? Like you can’t be still?”
She smiled. “Can I wait with you up here?”
“Yeah,” he said, grinning. “I was hoping for that.” He threaded his legs beneath the wooden rail, letting them hang over the edge. Aria sat cross-legged beside him.
“This is my favorite place in Delphi. It’s the best spot to read the wind.”
She closed her eyes as a breeze swept past, searching for what he meant. She smelled smoke and pine on the cool wind. The skin along her arms tightened.
“How are your feet?” he asked.
“They’re still a little sore, but much better,” she said, moved by the simple question. With him, it wasn’t small talk. He was always looking after people. “Talon’s lucky to have an uncle like you,” she said.
He shook his head. “No. It’s my fault he was taken. I’m just trying to fix it. I’ve got no choice.”
“Why?”
“We’re rendered. There’s a bond between us through our tempers. I feel what he feels. I don’t just scent it. Same for him.”
She couldn’t imagine being linked with a person that way. She thought of what both Roar and Rose had said about Scires keeping to their kind.
Perry leaned forward, crossing his arms over the rail. “Being away from him, it’s like part of me is gone.”
“We’ll find him, Perry.”
He rested his chin on the rail. “Thanks,” he said, his eyes fixed on the courtyard below.
Aria’s gaze moved to his arm. He’d pushed his sleeves up above his elbows because of the cast. A strong vein laced the swell of his bicep. One of his Markings was a band of angled slashes. The other was made of flowing lines like waves. She had the urge to touch them. Her eyes trailed up to his profile, following the small rise at the top of his nose, finding the thin scar at the edge of his lip. Maybe she wanted to touch more than his arm.
Perry’s head snapped over to her and she realized he knew. Heat bloomed across her cheeks. He’d scent her embarrassment, too.
She scooted to the edge and swung her legs over the side of the roof like him and tried to look interested in the goings-on below. The courtyard showed more signs of life. People were moving here and there. A man split firewood with practiced thwacks of an ax. A dog barked at a young girl who held something high, out of its reach. As much as she concentrated on what she saw, she still felt Perry’s attention on her.
“What are you going to do after you find Talon?” she asked, switching tactics.
He relaxed over the rail again. “I’ll get him home, then form my own tribe.”
“How?”
“It’s a matter of winning men. You get one who’s either willing or forced to follow your lead. Then another and so on. Until you have a group big enough to stake out some land. Fight for it, if need be.”
“How are they forced?”
“In a challenge. Winner either spares the loser’s life and earns fealty that way, or . . . what you’d imagine.”
“I see,” Aria said. Fealty. Allies. Oaths taken at the point of death. They were ordinary concepts in his life.
“Maybe I’ll head north,” he continued. “See if I can find my sister and get her to the Horns. Maybe I can fix that ruffle before it’s too late. And I want to see what I can find about the Still Blue.”
Aria wondered where that would leave him and Roar. It didn’t seem fair to keep two people who loved each other apart.
“What about you?” he asked. “When we find your mother, will you go back to those virtual places? The Realms?”
She liked the way he’d said Realms. Slow and resonant. She liked even better the way he’d said when we find your mother. Like it would happen. Like it was inevitable.
“I think I’ll get back to singing. It was always something my mother made me do. I never . . . I never really wanted to sing. Now I have the urge to do it. Songs are stories.” She smiled. “Maybe I’ve got my own stories to tell now.”
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
“You’ve been thinking about my voice?”
“Yeah.” He gave a shrug that managed to seem both shy and offhand. “Since that first night.”
Aria had to rein in a ridiculously proud smile. “That was from Tosca. An ancient Italian opera.” The song was for a male tenor. When Aria sang it, she brought it up just enough to get it into her range, but still kept its lost, mournful quality. “It’s about a man, an artist who’s been sentenced to die, and he’s singing about the woman he loves. He doesn’t think he’ll ever see her again. It’s my mother’s favorite aria.” She smiled. “Besides me.”
Perry pulled his legs around and sat against the rail, an expectant smile on his face.
Aria laughed. “Seriously? Here?”
“Seriously.”
“All right. . . . I have to stand. It’s better if I stand.”
“Then stand.”
Perry rose to his feet with her, leaning his hip against the rail. His smile was distracting, so she gazed up at the Aether for a few moments, breathing the cool air into her lungs as anticipation stirred inside of her. She’d missed this.
The lyrics flowed out of her, springing straight from her heart. Words full of drama and wild abandon that had always embarrassed her before, because who flung themselves at raw emotion like that?
She did it now.
She let the words fly across the roof and past the trees. She lost herself in the aria, letting it carry her off. But even as she sang, she knew the man below had stopped cutting wood and the dog had stopped barking. Even the trees hushed to hear her sing. When she was done, she had tears in her eyes. She wished her mother could’ve heard her. She’d never sounded better.
Perry closed his eyes when she was finished. “You have a voice as sweet as your scent,” he said, his words deep and quiet. “Sweet as violets.”
Her heart stopped in her chest. He thought she had a scent like violets? “Perry . . . do you want to know the words?”
His eyes flew open. “Yes.”
She took a moment to think through the lyrics, and then to muster up the courage to tell him—everything—without looking away.
“How the stars shone. How sweet the earth smelled. The orchard gate creaked, and a footstep pressed on the sand. And she entered, fragrant as a flower, and fell into my arms. Oh, sweet kisses, lingering caresses. Slowly, trembling, I gazed upon her beauty. Now my dream of true love is lost forever. My last hour has flown, and I die, hopeless, and never have I loved life more.”
They reached for each other then like some force had pulled their hands together. Aria looked at their fingers as they laced together, bringing her the sensation of his touch. Of warmth and calluses. Soft and hard together. She absorbed the terror and beauty of him and his world. Of every moment over the past days. All of it, filling her up like the first breath she’d ever taken. And never had she loved life more.
Chapter 27
ARIA
When she went back to the Navel with Perry, only forty-seven minutes remained on the time counter. Roar was at the control table with Marron. She had a vague notion of them speaking together quietly, and of Perry pacing behind the couch. She couldn’t focus on anything beyond the numbers on the screen.
Mom, she pleaded silently. Be there. Please be there. I need you.
Perry and I need you.
She expected fanfare when the counter reached zero. An alarm or some sort of noise. There was nothing. Not even a sound.
“I have the two files here,” Marron said. “Both stored locally on the Smarteye.”
Marron pulled them up on the wallscreen. One file had a date and a timer on it. The readout showed twenty-one minutes of recorded time. The other was labeled SONGBIRD.
Aria didn’t have any memory of Perry joining her on the couch or taking her hand. She didn’t know how she hadn’
t noticed. Now that she did, he felt like the only thing keeping her from drifting off the couch.
They’d decided to check the files before trying to contact Lumina. Aria asked to see the recording first. This was the file they both needed. Barter for Talon. Evidence that would clear her name. Then she braced herself for fire and Soren. For the sounds of Paisley dying. She couldn’t believe she actually wanted it to be there.
A smoldering forest appeared on the wallscreen. Paisley’s panicked voice burst across the room. Images Aria had seen through her eyes played out on the screen. Her feet blurring beneath her. Flashes of Paisley’s hand linked with hers. Shuddering images of fire and smoke and trees. When it came to Soren grabbing Paisley’s leg, Perry spoke at her side. “You don’t have to watch all of it.”
She blinked at him, feeling like she’d stepped out of a trance. There were still six minutes left, but she knew how the recording ended. “That’s enough.”
The wallscreen went dark and silence came. They had the recording. It should have felt more like a victory, but Aria felt like crying. She could still hear the echo of Paisley’s voice.
“I need to see the other file,” she said.
Marron selected “Songbird.” Lumina’s face took up most of the wallscreen. Her shoulders reached from one end of the room to the other. Marron adjusted the image to half the size, but she remained larger than human.
“That’s my mother,” she heard herself say.
Lumina smiled at the camera. A quick, nervous smile. Her dark hair was fastened as she always wore it, pulled back from her face. Behind her there were rows of shelves with labeled boxes. She was in some sort of supply room.
“This is strange speaking to a camera and pretending it’s you. But I know it’s you, Aria. I know you’ll be watching this and listening.”
Her voice was loud, everywhere in the room. She reached up and smoothed the collar of her doctor’s smock.
“We’re in trouble here. Bliss has suffered serious damage in an Aether storm. The Consuls estimate forty percent of the Pod has been contaminated, but generators are failing and the number seems to be climbing every hour. The CGB has promised help. We’re waiting for them. We haven’t given up. Neither should you, Aria.
Under the Never Sky: The Complete Series Collection Page 19
