The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives)

by Courtney Grace Powers

  Po stood, her hands braided around the bed post. Her eyes looked huge in the dark, twisting his gut. “Is it Scarlet?” she whispered, barely audible.

  “Is it…no it isn’t Scarlet! Why does it have to be anyone?”

  “Because,” Po timidly came around the bed despite Reece’s obvious frustration, “why else wouldn’t you want this? Out here, where it’s so lonely, questin’ like we are and…and not knowin’ if we’ll ever see home again…we ought to take our chances as they come, right?”

  Swallowing with difficulty, Reece tried again in a strained voice, “That isn’t—”

  “I’m not askin’ you to make any promises,” she inserted quickly, and Reece could feel himself losing ground because he hadn’t dug in his heels when he’s had the chance. It wasn’t that Po was being manipulative; on the contrary, she was being absolutely guileless, probably without even realizing it. That was why he found it so hard to let her down as she stared up at him with those wounded doe eyes. “Just…just think about it, alright?”

  After a moment of frowning, hating himself some more, and wishing Hayden would wake up just so he would be spared having to answer, Reece forced his head to nod haltingly. No promises, she’d said. He could think about it. He would think about it, whether he wanted to or not. He just didn’t know that any amount of deliberation would make him feel something he didn’t feel.

  Po acted as if he’d gone down to one knee. She beamed at him, dimples out in force, and while he stood there stupidly, rose to her toes and kissed his cheek. “G’night, Cap’n.” She retreated to her side of the room, bare feet pattering against the smooth wood.

  Reece waited till she’d burrowed under her covers before rubbing the heels of his hands miserably into his eyes. He sat heavily, then flopped back into his bed. Hayden’s snores made for an almost comical backdrop to his distress, but he couldn’t even bring himself to snort. Maybe he was glad they were stuck on Oceanus for the time being. Maybe he was glad he had a whole city to lose himself in while Gideon seethed and Po daydreamed. Maybe tomorrow…no. Because he would still be captain tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and that’s exactly what he wanted, what he’d always wanted, and yet…he was starting to wonder if he was really any good at it, and on top of feeling a dozen other things he didn’t even know how to begin sorting out, that made him angry. He’d wanted this since before he even really understood what an airship was. He’d worked for it, studied for it, earned it. How dare his bleeding brain go and doubt that now?

  Jaw taut, Reece turned over on his side, staring blindly into the dark. Thanks to the weighty silence, he could hear when Po’s soft breathing joined Hayden’s. A flash of bright blue made him look twice at the bed across the room, where Gideon was lying awake, watching him with a dark expression. As soon as their eyes locked, he rolled back over, shutting Reece out.

  Po was right. It was lonely out here. He’d just never felt it this keenly before.

  XIX

  Scarlet Ashdown, Whim-Checker

  “You’re worried.”

  “Aren’t you?”

  Hayden took a slow bite of puffy muffin bread, using the time it took for him to chew and swallow to mull over Scarlet’s question. They were sitting at a round table in one of the city’s restaurants, this one a tasteful, clean, but small establishment tucked into a tower corner where two glass walls joined at a point. The view was spectacular, but the city in all its grandeur was quiet. Hayden suspected he himself would still be sleeping if not for the fact this was the start of their fourth full day in Neserus, and his body was still having trouble breaking from Honoran time. He wasn’t sure what Nivy’s excuse was. Her arms were folded on the table, her messy dark head lying atop of them, and she seemed to be dozing.

  Wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin, he finally admitted, “I’m always worried.”

  Scarlet’s lips pinched into a small smile as she stirred her drink—not tea, but something denser and iced that smelled faintly of fruit. “So am I, lately. But that’s not what I meant.”

  “I know.” Hayden sighed, leaning back only to quickly sit forward again. The restaurant’s delicately-carved wooden chairs with their curvy legs and spiraled arms were pretty, but hardly comfortable, and he was already nearly as sore as he’d been following the crash of The Jester a few months ago. Why was it after three nights running of fencing with Talfryn, he still felt as if someone had tied his muscles into knots and pinned them that way? Tallie kept saying the soreness would fade the more he practiced, but he was no longer convinced. He’d seen her arms when she rolled up her sleeves, and she was mottled with yellowing bruises. Surely that proved his point.

  Shaking her head to herself, Scarlet sat her chin on her fist and stared out the window. The color of the water rippling on her face made Hayden think of a rainy day at home in Caldonia. A pang of homesickness suddenly joined his other pains.

  “I don’t like it. Three days of clue hunting, and we’ve nothing to show for it. Someone is obviously using us to cover their tracks, and we can’t afford this delay. I know Reece knows it,” Scarlet added when she saw Hayden hesitantly open his mouth. “I simply don’t know that he’s willing to take the necessary precautions to do anything about it.”

  “So…you think Reece is…being careless?” Hayden asked, prodding his muffin morosely.

  Frowning, Scarlet said, “No. Reece can be plumb-headed at times, but even then, he’s never careless. I think he’s allowing himself to be distracted.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hayden. You’ve known him for nine years. Say we were on Honora, and the duke forbade him from doing something he felt like he needed to do.”

  Slowly, Hayden nodded, seeing her point. “He would do it anyways.”

  “Exactly. Reece trusts his own judgment more than the rules, for better or worse. So why is he content to let Pryor keep us docked when he knows we could escape, if need be? The supplies we purchased have already been loaded—I checked myself.”

  Hayden looked at her over the tops of his spectacles. “You think we should forget finding the culprit, defy the king and run?”

  “Not…precisely in those terms,” Scarlet said, busying herself with furiously stirring her drink. “I merely think we need to be prepared. After what happened on Leto…I fear dallying any one place too long. Reece should too. I don’t think he’s happy about the situation, but he’s not nearly unhappy enough, nor fully committed to solving the mystery of the stolen anai.”

  Nivy abruptly lifted her head, and preoccupation, not sleep, made her expression distant. She shook her head at Scarlet and made a flurry of sharp gestures, only half of which Hayden caught. Scarlet seemed to do alright, though.

  “I doubt he even realizes he’s doing it,” Scarlet said reasonably. “And despite what you might think, I’m not trying to criticize him. I just know him.”

  Her shoulders dropping with a sigh, Nivy grudgingly nodded, glanced sideways at Hayden’s abandoned muffin, and raised an eyebrow. Hayden obligingly slid his plate over to her. The muffin disappeared a moment later.

  The city below began to grow agitated. More and more round windows in the towers Tallie had pointed out as private apartments blinked with light. The Aurelia should have been on her way again three times over by now. Hayden tried to hide his guilt as he folded up his napkin and pushed back from the table. Regardless of whether or not what Scarlet said about Reece was true, it was true about him. Of all the things he should be feeling about their predicament…cheerful wasn’t one of them.

  He began digging in his pockets, finger snagging on a hole, but Scarlet stood and insisted, “Let me.” From her purple clasp, she pulled out a few heavy Oceanun coins and clicked them down on the table. While Hayden had been taking his private fencing lessons and Reece had been befriending Prince Hannick, Scarlet had been dutifully studying the Oceanun way. Her soft, flowery Northern practically sounded native now that she’d been able to polish it. Of course handling Oceanun mo
ney came easily to her.

  Hayden guiltily avoided looking at her. “Thank you.”

  Smiling, she gently took his arm and led him from the restaurant. Nivy trailed them as she picked at the remains of Scarlet’s scone, which she’d wrapped in a napkin. The restaurant opened up unto a round hub of eateries, shops, and clothing emporiums, all centered around a waterfall pouring down through the middle of the room from the floors above. It flicked Hayden’s lenses with cool water as they circled it, but he was well enough used to being wet or damp all the time now to not really be bothered.

  “I ought to get my hair done while I still have the chance,” Scarlet mused, eyeing a window display of dolled-up mannequin heads that Hayden found a little unnerving. On her other side, Nivy snorted and pretended to fawn, fanning her face with a hand. Scarlet’s expression soured. “Perhaps you should come with me, Nivy. You’re looking a little frayed.”

  Before Nivy could do more than make a disgusted face, Po’s voice called, “Hayden! Scarlet!”

  Scarlet instantly stiffened on Hayden’s arm; her fingers curled into the bend of his elbow, making him glance at her worriedly. Then he looked up to see Po flouncing their way with none other than Prince Hannick as her escort, and he understood her tension. He’d been warier of the prince ever since Talfryn had warned him to be careful, but there was no accounting for the irritation he felt towards Hannick now, watching him mosey their way with his hand covering Po’s on his arm. He’d felt something similar the times Sophie had come home from working at the postal office in tears over being picked on. Protective, possessive. And not just of Po. The rest of them had hardly seen Reece at all since Hannick had decided to take him under his wing.

  “Well, look at you all, up and about at this unreasonable hour,” Hannick said in greeting.

  “We’re not the only ones, it seems,” Scarlet replied, glancing hard at Po. Po, who was gazing happily around at the milling crowds on tiptoe, seemed not to notice. Unlike the rest of Aurelia’s crew, who had been trying to conjure a list of possible suspects for King Pryor to cross-examine, Po’s part in solving the mystery of the anai had interfered with her wanting desperately to explore the city. Reece had set her to fine-tuning the Afterquin till “she could sing to its hum”. She’d been scarce ever since.

  Hannick smiled a lazy smile, eyeing Scarlet’s flat expression. “I just encountered your crewmate here on my way to the fencing hall. Poor thing was a little lost.”

  “Well.” Scarlet stepped forward, took Po’s other arm, and expertly eased her away from him. “We thank you for returning her to us.”

  Tearing her eyes away from a parts shop across the hub, Po frowned and said, “Hannick was gonna show me the docks.”

  Hannick nodded slyly, or so it seemed to Hayden. He felt himself bristling. Nivy’s expression was mild, but she had that air about her, the one that usually made him wonder if he should duck for cover.

  “Don’t worry,” Hannick reassured them. “I’ll keep my eye on her.”

  For a moment, he and Scarlet stared one another down, all cool, elegant smiles and straight-backed postures, poised, polished, polite. But for all their smiles, the tension between them was thick and dull, like a slow throb. Even Po caught on to it, glancing back and forth between them, looking suddenly unsure.

  “Po, Love, perhaps you should start on ahead, stop by that shop I can see you eyeing,” Hannick finally suggested. “I’ll be right there.”

  Po hesitated. “I do gotta look for a new undulator.” She looked at Scarlet as if asking permission. “The other one’s been rattlin’ a bit, you know?”

  Scarlet nodded tightly, eyes still waging war with Hannick’s. With a wince for Hayden and Nivy, Po backed out of the conversation, spun, and made for the shop at a jog, blonde braid hopping against her back.

  Scarlet waited till she’d gone before stepping up to Hannick with her hands in fists at her sides. Nivy flanked her from the right. Hayden thought he’d look ridiculous, trying to look as fierce as they did naturally. He settled for hovering behind them and feeling foolish.

  “Did you have something to say, Ms. Ashdown?” Hannick asked, still smiling. How did he do that? “Or were you just wanting to better admire my eyes?”

  Irritation snapped to anger that swelled in Hayden like a balloon, pressure-filled and pushing against his insides till he thought he might burst with it. He’d been angry before…plenty of times, in fact, no matter what Reece and Gideon thought. But there was a distinct difference between frustration or even annoyance and this welling, itchy…heat. He didn’t like it. And he didn’t know what to do with it. So naturally, he just kept hovering, fidgeting empty-handedly.

  Scarlet hardly batted an eye at Hannick’s cheek. Beside her, Nivy stood with her arms folded. Scarlet was impressive. Nivy was just unsettling.

  “I know what you are, Prince Hannick,” Scarlet said coldly.

  “Oh?”

  “Yes. I’ve known men like you. You parade your superiority and put on a good show, but I see the truth of the matter.”

  Hannick dipped his head and lowered his voice. “Which is what, Ms. Ashdown?”

  “That you are not a man at all, but a spoiled little boy who will not be content until he’s broken everyone else’s favorite toy. You stay away from that girl, Hannick, or you’ll have me to answer to.”

  Hannick affected a meek expression that was nearly convincing and bowed deeply at the waist. “Well, I don’t know what I’ve done to offend you, but you have my promise, I’ll be on my best behavior. Now, if you’ll excuse me. Perhaps I’ll see you at the tournament later?”

  When Scarlet simply glared at him, he shook his head bemusedly, bowed again, and turned to go. He hadn’t once acknowledged Hayden’s presence.

  Once he’d gone, Scarlet deflated with a huff and brushed down the front of her layered, lavender dress. “Well, that’s that. Are you alright, Hayden?”

  “What?”

  “You seem upset.”

  “Oh. No. I…” What was there to explain? He’d been angry. Not jealous. Not offended. Angry, and a useless angry at that, because what did he have to show for it? It hadn’t even felt good, like some people pretended it did. In fact, now that the heat of it had dulled, he just felt foolish and cranky. “I think Reece must be finally rubbing off on me, after all these years.”

  “Well, let’s hope not,” Scarlet muttered. “Goodness knows one Reece is more than enough to be getting along with.”

  “You really think Hannick is…what you said?”

  “I know he is.”

  “How?” When Scarlet looked at him, Hayden flinched and added, “Sorry. I agree something about him is off-putting, but—”

  “When you work in politics,” Scarlet cut him off curtly, “when you live in politics, you begin to see patterns repeating themselves.”

  Shuffling his feet, Hayden nodded, though he didn’t necessarily know what he was agreeing with. Nivy clicked her fingers to get their attention, then jerked her chin after Hannick, taking a few experimental steps.

  Scarlet nodded. “Probably a good idea.”

  Nivy needed no more invitation than that. She ducked into the crowd and in no time had disappeared altogether. Hayden relaxed slightly. Nivy would beat Hannick blue before she let any harm befall Po, but she wouldn’t more than teach him a lesson, whereas Gideon, for example, would probably return the Oceanun prince to his people in small, thought-out pieces. It was no doubt for the best he and Mordecai had been charged with checking in on Owon in his new home in Neserus’s brig this morning.

  “Let’s walk,” Scarlet suggested, taking up his arm again. He marveled at how easy it had become for him not to blush when she did that, though it did wipe his mind blank of his worries for a moment he wished could have lasted longer. As she led him down a quieter, glass-enclosed tunnel where they were nearly alone save for the occasional passerby or rushing school of shimmering fish, Scarlet looked at him sideways and pursed her lips. “I’m sorry I sna
pped at you.”

  “It’s alright.”

  “No, don’t say that. It’s not alright.” She considered her hand where it braced his arm, thoughtful. “You don’t have to be so…nice all the time, Hayden.”

  “I don’t try,” he admitted with a grimace, making her blink up at him. “It just happens.”

  After a moment, Scarlet laughed and gave his arm a tug to pull him playfully off-balance. “Taking a leaf out of Reece’s book indeed. Speaking of poor examples. I think it’s nigh on time we went and found our esteemed captain, don’t you agree?”

  Hayden decided not to mention the incriminating fact he’d unfortunately been serious.

  By the time Hayden and Scarlet returned to the guest suite to rouse Reece and talk over their troubles, the suite was empty, though a trail of general untidiness made it clear Reece had just recently left in something of a rush. It looked like he had worn his blanket halfway to the water closet, then left it strewn behind with yesterday’s socks and trousers. The water closet still dripped; the mirror in the head was fogged with steam between sloppy finger swipes. This is how it had been with him lately. Of course, this was rather how it had always been with him; Hayden had simply forgotten, thanks to their weeks confined to The Aurelia.

  “This is absurd,” Scarlet huffed as she irritably picked up Reece’s socks, folded his trousers over her arm, and toed his blanket back to the foot of his bed. “We ought to be keeping better tabs on each other. What if we need to leave in a hurry? Reece isn’t thinking.”

  “Maybe that’s why he left so suddenly,” Hayden suggested doubtfully. “Maybe he’s just…organizing our departure.”

  “Reece? Organize?” She flapped Reece’s wrinkled trousers at him pointedly, and Hayden couldn’t help but smile when a few Honoran shields and cogs shook loose to add to the mess on the floor. Giving up, Scarlet tossed the trousers aside with a sigh and squared her shoulders. “You know where he is, don’t you?”