by Blooding, SM
“You said there was something large in the sky, larger than a queen ship but smaller than Sky City.”
“Oh.” He blinked and stood up. “I’d forgotten about tha’.”
“You’ve been busy. Anyway, I think it’s a refueling station.”
“A what?” Ryo asked, puzzled.
“A refueling station.” I opened one hand. “Think about it. They burn their fuel without a way to replenish it. With all their ships—even with Sky City—they need a way to keep them up in the air. What’s the best way of doing that? A station with the fuel they need.”
Everyone shifted in place as they thought about that.
“So,” Yvette said, her violet eyes gleaming, “there should be bi-planes—”
“And other aircrafts,” I injected, “like the ones with the flapping wings and the weapons.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“We can just destroy the station and take the planes. Baleze!”
“Now, hold on a minute, Yvie,” Joshua said, holding up a hand. “This isn’t fantastic.”
Keeley leaned in. “If we destroy the station, how do we refuel?”
Haji shook his head, making a slashing motion. “How do we take this station? We have a water-bound lethara and airships that show up on their ra-dar. We are out gunned, out maneuvered, and would be shot down.”
That was a very valid point.
“We need this station,” I said, peering at everyone through my eyelashes. “Sky City is housed in an altitude we can’t achieve in an airship.”
Keeley sat down.
Haji took in a deep breath and leaned in. “But I was on an airship. That is how I arrived at Sky City.”
I shook my head and picked up a teardrop shaped vase, watching the milky liquid shift inside. “Sky City only allowed airships on certain days and at certain times.” I set it down on the table along the wall. “It makes sense. This is the reason we were never able to find it, why we never trip across it.”
Yvette crossed her arms over her chest.
Joshua glared at the plans on the table.
Ryo was lost in thought.
“In order to take out Sky City,” I said, rising to my full height, stretching my back, “we need to disable the city’s weapons, destroy their reserve of gas, take their—”
“Without their gas,” Joshua said, standing up, “the city falls. There are innocent people in tha’ city.”
“No more innocent than the people they destroyed,” Yvette growled.
Keeley rubbed her arm. “We’d be no better than them.”
I nodded. “True, true and true. So we need to devise a way to take out the gas at a slower rate, bringing Sky City to the water.”
“Or land.” Haji narrowed his eyes, tipping his head in thought.
“But what land mass is big enough for the city?”
He nodded absently. “There are a few.”
I shook that off. “It doesn’t matter. It will land where it is, and we need to see—” I motioned to Joshua, “—if we can find a way to save as many of the citizens as we can.”
“The only ruddy way ta do tha’ is ta take control of the blasted refueling station.”
I nodded. “Agreed.”
We all sat in silence as the thought worked its way to feasibility in our minds.
Joshua looked up first. “We’ll have ta destroy the laboratories in Sky City.” He glanced at Keeley. “The Librarium.”
Ryo chuckled and relaxed. “Maybe not. I might have an idea.”
I nodded, content. Finally. A plan that might be worth something.
Well, if we succeeded.
But that’s why they called them plans.
CHAPTER 36
WHIRRING MOTORS
It took us about a week of gathering information and dialing down a plan of attack that would work, one of which was taking the Suhayl Samma and removing all her markings. It was going to be dangerous, traveling without a fleet, but we knew that was the only way we’d get close enough.
The most difficult thing was rearranging the ecosystem.
The Samma’s ecosystem surrounded our falcons and the air jellies. I knew of other tribes of airmen, but none of them had spitfyre falcons. They had other creatures, yes, but none quite so temperamental. However, in return, the falcons kept a lot of the parasites off of our ship.
The first thing we had to do was to remove anyone with a falcon and the actual birds themselves. Then we flew around the surrounding area, collecting parasites, foreign wind stars, flatworms and other creatures so that whoever manned the refueling station couldn’t tell the Suhayl Samma’s origin. This took weeks.
I didn’t know how the other airmen did it, keeping their air jellies alive without the protection of the falcons. It was exhausting keeping the poisonous worms away from our air jelly. As it was, we had to borrow additional blue dragons to syphon off the accumulating toxins our jelly was excreting. It was a very dangerous situation. The blue dragons were everywhere, able to hide in shoes, bedding, clothes, cups. Several on our crew came down with the jelly sickness.
Luckily, no one died.
The other thing we did was install lightning cannons to her hull and along her wale, creating a battery of weapons. No one knew that the El’Asim had a new weapon, so it was unlikely that we’d be discovered that way.
Joshua kept an eye on his radar, watching the sky. The refueling station stayed fairly close to our location. We maintained an altitude just out of radar range, at least by Joshua’s calculations. How that was possible when we were watching them was beyond me. The only thing I knew for certain was that we remained undisturbed.
Watching the ground beneath us over the passing weeks was interesting. People lived down there along with several other creatures. Keeley showed only mild interest because the observation area made her squeamish. It was underneath the keel of the ship. In order to properly observe, she’d have to leave the ship. Once on the Yusrra Samma, she wasn’t getting off.
But it was time.
The Suhayl Samma was ready. The red sails and worms were gone. The sails were now white, the worms a spiraled blue and green. Her hull still had a few blue feather stars, but for the most part, she was covered in red wind stars. She no longer matched the sky from underneath. It was a sad sight to see. The people who called that ship home had removed most of their belongings. The children had been relocated to other ships.
All that remained were warriors, those that were ready to take a stand, knowing there was a very good chance they’d never make it back.
Ryo, Keeley, Yvette, Joshua and Haji joined me on the quarterdeck. It had taken a lot of encouragement to get Keeley to join us. I’d even asked her to stay behind, but she’d refused, saying we would need her. We would.
She’d be an airwoman yet.
We took the Suhayl Samma, now called Glory Sunrise, out of port. Joshua plotted a course that would take us up in elevation so that we’d be higher than the station before connecting to it. If the mission failed, we could claim we didn’t know they were there. Easy enough. We’d even devised a way to conceal our radar if we were boarded.
The only thing we hadn’t quite figured out was how to get on the platform. We knew we could outmaneuver the ungainly refueling station. It, however, had planes that if launched would succeed in shooting us down.
The sky was quiet.
Everyone was on high alert.
Gradually, whirring filled the air.
The crew didn’t even flinch, all eyes forward, watching the growing black dot.
Planes hit the air like sphynctor bugs on wings. The crew watched their progress, wary and ready.
We needed to get closer.
The planes swept over and around us in a long, roaring rope, leading us to the platform.
Maybe the question of boarding would be solved for us.
I motioned for Keeley to get below decks. She could shield us from the airship. Yvette and Joshua were already in the rigging
where their Marks would work best. Joshua was a lot lighter on his feet now than he had been, and Yvette had taken quite a liking to the ship. They would work best with their Marks up there, where they had a bird’s eye view of the fight.
I nodded, breathing in through my nose, shaking out my hands as we lowered in elevation. We were outnumbered, out-gunned, and they could fly better. We had no hopes of winning.
But we had to.
Ropes with metal hooks latched onto our rail, bringing us down. “Trim the sail,” I ordered, before going down to the deck.
On the platform stood a high ranking officer in the colors of the Swords, blue military pants and silver trench coat, his black top hat harboring the light of the sun. Beside him was a lackey, a clipboard in hand. “Are you the owner of this vessel?” the officer asked in clipped Handish.
I nodded.
“State your name and business.”
I hadn’t thought we’d be interrogated and hadn’t prepared for this. “Anik Rampal.” I don’t even know where the name came from, but I continued in clear Handish. “We’re on our way to pick up cargo in Salgon City.”
The officer clasped his hands behind his back and hopped a bit. “Salgon City is no longer available as a destination, Anik Rampal.” He glanced at the clipboard his assistant held. “You look very familiar.”
I smiled tightly, my hand almost going to the scarf tied loosely around my neck. I’d grown accustomed to it. It was better than having people stare at me because they could see my Mark.
He stepped to the side. “Would you mind joining us?” He met my gaze significantly. “Please.”
That didn’t sound like a light request. I paused only briefly before leaping over the rail. “Is there something wrong, Knight?”
His eyebrows raised and a slight smile grew along his lips. “Your Handish is impeccable.”
I shrugged. “We’ve been trading with the Hands for nearly as many turns as I’ve been alive, sir.”
He nodded once, his gaze never leaving mine. “Then how is it that I’ve never heard of the Glory Sunrise or of Anik Rampal?”
My heart leapt. I really wasn’t good at lying on command. “I just recently took the ship over from someone else.”
His eyes gleamed. “And what was the name of the ship before you took it over?”
I knew I was done. He knew. I raised my chin and took his dare. “The Suhayl Samma.”
He stood still for a long moment. “This day has been long in coming, Synn Primus.”
Damn it. “And what day is that?”
“The day I am rewarded for bringing in the single most dangerous fugitive of the Hands.”
I clucked my tongue. “You really think you’re going to take me in?” I let out a whoop and brought out the two swords strapped to my waist, my crew falling in around me on the deck. “I doubt that.”
His eyes flared as he took a step back, his hand going to his chest. “You dare threaten a vessel of the queens?”
I smiled, gesturing with one of my blades. “You forget, I’m dangerous. I endanger the vessels of the queens all the time.” I attacked.
Lightning flashed all around us, touching objects and sending electric sparks through the air. Rain fell, cold and slick. Wind and what little dust could be found up here spun in raging walls of protection around things that needed to be saved, glass forming as the lightning touched it, melting it in midair.
Fire leapt with a wild vengeance. Ryo found clusters of fighters and trapped them in fiery rings.
My lava hot blades kept a clear path all around me.
The queens’ men laid down their pistols, their hands raised in surrender.
This was too easy.
Well, almost. We’d lost eleven of our crew, and the Hands’ men littered the platform.
The Knight of Swords smiled grimly, bowing under the power of my swords, his hands laced behind his head. “We were able to get a broadcast out. Reinforcements are on the way.”
Someone walked up behind us. “No, actually,” Joshua said with a smirk. “We blocked your transmission.”
I recalled the heat from my Mark, my swords turning from seething orange to cool steel as I sheathed them. “How did you manage that?”
“By accident. Call i’ a happy whoops, if ya will.”
I chuckled and continued in Adalic, “Find a place for the survivors below decks.”
Ryo nodded curtly.
“Let’s see what we have and if we can figure out how to fly this thing.”
The crew scrambled.
One thing my father taught me long ago was that you didn’t have to be as smart or as good as anyone on your crew, but you had to know how to guide them. I just hoped I could do that successfully because I literally had no idea what to do if we couldn’t figure out how the platform operated.
Haji went below decks with Ryo, a distant look in his dark eyes and a thick frown on his forehead. Yvette and Keeley joined us as Haji and Ryo disappeared behind a large group of the Hands’ men.
I surveyed the platform. It was massive, but most of it was flat except for a small cabin that held a door and a massive control tower encased in glass at the very center. There were large hoses sprouting from the deck in regular intervals, and a long runway. The rest of the space was allocated for the birds. It was obvious what this place was built for.
“C’est fantastique!” Yvette said in wonder. “What do we do now?”
I shook my head. How did my father do this, always have the answer? “Did that seem a little too easy to anyone besides me?”
Yvette’s lips tightened. “They underestimated us. That is a good thing.”
I winced, my eyes narrowed against the sun. “I guess.”
“Do you think they have something else planned?”
I nodded. “I do.”
“Well, they probably needed to get a communication out, and they didn’t succeed in doing that.”
“No, but that doesn’t mean they won’t continue to try.”
“What do you plan to do with the survivors?” Keeley asked as we walked along the line of aircraft.
We approached one of the vessels with the flapping wings. In the air, they’d seemed so small, but close up, I felt a bit dwarfed. “I would like to keep them on board. They know how this thing works and how to fly—” I pointed my hand in the direction of the planes. “—those.”
“But if they can’t be trusted—” Yvette started.
I nodded. “I know. They’ll just have to be watched. Very carefully.”
Yvette glanced at me through her thick lashes. “You’re going to ask Haji to keep them docile, oui?”
I wasn’t happy about it. “Yes.”
“It’s going to take a lot of energy.”
I nodded and stopped, looking around and really taking in the magnitude of what we’d just done. I stared at the Golden Goose as it floated not far from us, the mooring ropes having been removed, and shook my head in wonder. We’d accomplished something impossible.
Yvette and Keeley did the same, their eyes widening a little as the full impact of it hit.
“How in the love of dirt do we fly this thing?” I asked.
The whirring of the motors was my only answer.
CHAPTER 37
THE STARS ARE AMAZING
The good news was that we weren’t losing elevation, but how long would that last? I knew an airship could, in theory, remain aloft indefinitely without a crew, wandering aimlessly along the wind, but a vessel like this that burned fuel instead of regenerating it? Who knew?
I pushed aside my anxiety. This had been too easy. Either Nix wanted me to have the refueling platform, or she didn’t think we’d be that easy to catch. Either way, it didn’t look good, but then again, we already knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
I headed toward the door I’d seen Ryo disappear through with Haji and the survivors, leaving Yvette and Keeley behind. Nervous energy filled me. I had no idea how we were going to get the information from the
remaining crew. We could try with Haji, but I didn’t want to start thinking of him like a tool, or have him assuming I only wanted him for what he could do for me. Our friendship was rocky enough already. I didn’t need to add that.
If we didn’t use Haji, though, that only left torture because I seriously doubted they’d volunteer the information. I’d seen first-hand the kind of terror the queens inflicted on them. No doubt they had family members and/or friends remaining in Sky City.
I passed through the door and entered darkness. Up ahead was a bright orange light. I followed it. The hallway was short and narrow, constricted. On my left were arched metal doorways with circular valves for handles.
The corridor turned abruptly. I could stay on this level or descend the twisting staircase. Voices drifted up from below, so I followed.
The stairs went down several stories, and I could see why. The room was filled with massive machinery: gears, pulleys, engines, fan housings. The bowels of the station were immense.
There was a platform about halfway down with a row of arched metal doorways. Ryo and Haji were standing on the open metal grate walkway suspended over a long row of fan housings far below.
I did not like this ship.
Ryo glanced at me as I met up with them. “What’s the plan?”
He would have to ask that, wouldn’t he? I knew eventually I’d disappoint him and my mother, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. I had bigger problems. “We need to know how to fly this thing, how to keep it in the air, and it would be nice if we could figure outhow to fly the smaller planes.”
“Interrogation?” Ryo asked.
I raised my eyebrows and bared my teeth in distaste. “Do you have a better idea?”
He flinched but headed through the door behind him.
I looked at Haji. He looked tired. “We’ll find a place for the survivors soon.”
He nodded, his gaze focused inward.
I leaned against the metal wall and listened to the heartbeat of this whirring, roaring ship. Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to become one with it. I listened to the high pitched whine, the whir-whir-whiiiiir of one of the fans that was out of sync with the rest.
