The Unwilling Aviator (Book 4)

by Heidi Willard

  The corners of Ned's mouth twitched. "What an interesting room," he commented.

  "Only if you're interested in bugs," Pat muttered. Ruth smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

  "Glad you like it!" Hugh chortled. He opened the other two doors and showed that the rooms were much the same as the first. "Did you need anything else?" he asked his customers.

  Pat's eyes swept over the dry tinder that made up the walls. "A match," she mumbled.

  This time Hugh heard her and frowned. "What for?" he growled.

  "For the candles," Ruth spoke up. "The rooms are very dark."

  Hugh's face brightened and he nodded his head. "Those are in the nightstands beside the beds. I'll just let you folks get comfortable, but if you need anything just holler and have your purse ready!" He strolled down the hall, and out of sight and hearing.

  Pat swung around to Ned and her teeth ground together so hard sparks flew out. "What in the world are you thinking having us stay here?" she growled.

  "We need some place to stay," he pointed out.

  Pat slammed her fist into the wall to her right and her fingers sunk several inches into the wood. "But this rotten, disgusting place?"

  "It's all we can afford unless Sins can supply us with money to go to a better place," Percy suggested. The party turned to the assassin, who merely glared back at them.

  "I believe we should accept that as a 'no' and make ourselves comfortable here," Ned insisted.

  "I will keep the bugs away from you," Ruth promised Pat as she led the furious girl into their room beside the first one shown.

  "That's no comfort, Ruth," Pat replied. They shut the door behind them and the five men were left to divvy up the remaining two rooms.

  "As the youngest I suppose Fred and I should take a room," Percy suggested.

  "Apprenticeship supersedes age affiliation, so I will keep Fred with me," Ned replied.

  Canto glanced between Percy and Sins, then looked to Ned with a deep scowl. "Ah'm not sharing a room with them," he argued.

  Sins strode past the group, opened the window at the end of the hall, and slipped out into the darkness. Percy turned to Canto and shrugged. "It seems it will only be the two of us."

  Canto continued to frown, but Percy and he willingly went into their room across the hall from that of the girls. That left Ned and Fred with the first room shown, the one with the fine view of the dank alley one floor below them.

  CHAPTER 8

  Ned led Fred inside and quietly shut the door behind them. Fred looked at the bed, shuddered and turned to Ned. "I can take the floor-" Ned put his wizened hand over Fred's mouth and pressed a finger to his own lips. Ned's eyes dodged over to the wall that adjoined the one with the girls. Fred's eyes widened when he clearly heard their voices drift through the thin wood.

  Inside the room Ruth sat on the bed while Pat paced the floor, though carefully. A wrong step and she would have practiced walking on air with one foot. Ruth turned her head to and fro watching her agitated friend wear holes in the existing holes. "If I ever get a hold of that castor without his staff I'll-" Pat punctuated her sentence with another punch into a wall. It left a dent.

  "He means well," Ruth argued.

  Pat turned to her with her mouth agape. "Means well? He means to kill us all! That has been his very intention since I first met him at the temple!"

  Ruth covered her mouth to hide her smile. She composed herself, set her hands in her lap, and straightened. "I am sure if he had meant to kill us then we would be dead," she argued.

  "He seeks to do us in in the most painful way possible, and this filth of a place may be it," Pat insisted. In the other room Ned glanced at Fred and quietly chuckled.

  "Our stay here will be short. I promise I will not rest tonight until I find the stone. Then I will try my best to win it in the tournament," Ruth promised.

  Pat stopped her pacing, sighed, and strode over to plop herself on the bed. She grasped Ruth's hands in her own and looked the girl in the eye. "You don't have to go through with this insane plan if you don't wish to," Pat reassured her.

  Ruth smiled at her worried friend. "But this is what I wish."

  Pat tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "You wish to fly in one of those death machines?" she wondered.

  Ruth nodded. "Well, I had hoped to fly in one of those machines, but never to win in any tournament. It is the winning part I worry I can not achieve," she told them.

  Pat smiled and gave Ruth's hands a light squeeze. "I'm sure you'll try your best, and regardless of whether you win or lose we'll destroy the stone."

  Ruth furrowed her brow. "Do we know what sort of treasure to find to destroy the stone?" she wondered.

  Pat opened her mouth, thought for a moment, and then groaned. "No, we don't." She turned her face toward the wall adjoining their room to that of Fred and Ned. "Ned, does your book say what sort of item we're looking for?"

  The girls heard a slight cough from the other side of the wall. "I shall consult it presently," Ned replied.

  In the mens' room Ned turned to Fred with a sheepish grin. "It seems our secret is out," he whispered.

  "We can still hear you," Pat called through the wall.

  "My apologies, my dear Pat," Ned replied in his normal volume. He walked over to the bed, rummaged through his cloak, and pulled out the book they'd consulted at Tramadore.

  Fred stepped up beside him with his brow furrowed. "But that book can't tell us where the treasures are," he reminded Ned.

  Ned glanced from the wall to the young man, and lowered his voice to a ghost of a whisper. "I don't believe Pat is in the mood to be reminded of that, and I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions to counter hers. The treasure location is a complete mystery to me." Ned plopped the book on the bed and the wood groaned beneath the weight. He opened the book and flipped through the pages until he came to the section on the Region Stones. His finger traveled down and across the pages as he read out the names of the regions. "Ralcott, Sterning, Dirth. Ah ha, here is Kite." He tapped his finger on the entry.

  "What does it say?" Fred asked him.

  Ned looked over the contents and pursed his lips. "It says I'm an old fool for trying to look at this thing in a dark room. Perhaps opening a window would help the light. Would you be so kind as to open our sole source of fresh air?" Fred went over to the window and flung open both glass panes. A strong gust of wind swept into the room and blew over Ned, who held the pages down with his hands. "Perhaps too far, my boy!" Ned yelled over the gust.

  Fred slammed the panes shut and turned to Ned with a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

  "No harm done, but away from that window," Ned told him. Fred walked over to stand beside Ned and looked at the ancient pages. He frowned when he noticed that a faint haze covered the indecipherable words.

  Fred pointed at the strange haze. "What's that?" he asked Ned.

  The old castor smacked down his apprentice's hand. "Pointing is a bad habit," he scolded. Ned paused and glanced at Fred with a raised eyebrow. "But what is what?"

  "That mist over the page." Fred swept his hand through it, but it didn't dispel the fog. "It's covering the words."

  Ned's eyes flitted between the young man and book. He pushed the book toward Fred. "Read it."

  Fred's face fell. "But I can't read," he reminded Ned.

  "Try."

  Fred sighed and leaned forward over the pages. He squinted his eyes, but he could barely see the pages through the mist. The young man straightened and shrugged. "I can barely even see the words." He turned to Ned. "Can't you see the fog?"

  "Perhaps holding onto the book would help," Ned suggested. He picked up the book and pressed it into Fred's hands.

  Fred stumbled back and juggled the book for a moment before he got a good grasp of the edges on the front and back covers. He looked down at the open pages and his eyes widened when the haze was absorbed into the inked words. The union bolded the words so they glowed on the parchment. Fred yelped when some of the
haze slipped onto his hands and entered his body. He dropped the book, clutched at his hands and stumbled back against the hallway wall.

  "Is everything all right in there?" Pat called through the wall.

  "Everything is fine," Ned replied.

  "No, it's not!" Fred protested.

  The men heard the girls' door open, and in a moment theirs was opened to reveal Pat with Ruth behind her. Pat stomped into the room and surveyed the book on the floor, Fred clutching at his hand and Ned putting on his most innocent face. She turned to Fred while Ruth shut the door behind them. "Do I want to know what's happening here?" she asked him.

  "I wish I knew," Fred replied.

  "Fred was merely practicing his magic-spying ability," Ned told them.

  Fred whipped his head over to Ned. "Huh?"

  "Your unique ability to see magic," Ned rephrased. He strode over and picked up the book. "You saw a magic even my wise and experienced eyes couldn't see." Pat snorted at the first compliment. Ned held the book out to Fred. "Let's pick up where you dropped off."

  Fred vehemently shook his head. "That thing tried to do something to me."

  "It tried to show you the secret to the treasure of Kite," Ned replied.

  Pat raised an eyebrow. "How?" she asked him.

  "I can't be sure until Fred reads the book," he told her.

  "But he can't read," she reminded him.

  "That's what I told him," Fred spoke up.

  "Nonsense. You don't know until you've tried." Ned didn't give Fred much chance to refuse as he once again shoved the open book into Fred's unwilling hands. He cringed against the wall and waited for the pages to do something horrible to him. Maybe turn him inside out or, even worse, into a girl.

  Ruth and Pat's eyes widened when the black-lettered words in the book glowed. They sprang from the pages and took on three-dimensional shapes that resembled familiar landmarks. Tall cliffs towered over a small village set in a large valley. Two black dots appeared on the west side of the valley, one at the northwest and the other to the southwest.

  Ruth pointed at the one to the northwest. "Is this not where the stone resides in the Senex?" she asked her companions.

  "It is!" Pat gasped.

  "Can I let go of this thing now?" Fred pleaded.

  "In a moment," Ned replied. He stepped closer and stroke his beard as his sharp eyes looked over the geography. "Old castor magic is certainly something to be admired."

  "Please?" Fred yelped.

  "Stop being such a coward. It's only a book," Pat ordered him. She tapped on the unknown black dot to the southwest, and her finger sank into the image like it was made of ink. Which it was. She pulled her hand back, but kept her eyes on the ball. "What is this other dot?" she wondered.

  "The treasure, no doubt," Ned told her.

  "How could this book not be used before to show us the way?" Pat asked him.

  "That is a very good question, and comes down to Fred's carelessness. He opened the window and allowed a gust of wind to sweep over the pages, thus igniting an ancient sympathetic magic," Ned explained to them.

  "Can I let go now?" Fred persisted.

  "In a moment, my dear apprentice," Ned answered him. "The wind is as much a part of this region as the people, and when the castors hid the treasures they created these pages to show the way."

  Pat rolled her eyes. "In case they forgot?" she guessed.

  Ned shrugged. "Even castors aren't perfect, close as we are."

  Ruth tapped Pat on the shoulder and nodded at Fred. The young man stood with his back pressed against the wall and the glow of the pages nearly blinding him. "Could he please let go of the book?" she asked them.

  Ned chuckled, pressed his palms against the upside down front and back covers, and snapped the book shut. Fred breathed a sigh of relief, and was even more grateful when Ned took the book from him. Ned looked the young man over and frowned. "You should have told me the book was using your castoring abilities. I would have taken it from you sooner."

  Fred shot him a deadly glare and stumbled over to the bed. He collapsed on top of the dingy covers and sighed. Pat looked at the boy and folded her arms. "It couldn't have been that hard holding a book open," she argued.

  "On the contrary, my dear Pat. This old form of castoring takes concentration and energy, and Fred has little practice with either of those traits," Ned countered. He walked over to the bed, dragged the nightstand from the wall to the center of the room, and opened the book to the entry on Dirth. "Now to test out my theory that these pages do indeed use magic to bring forth the locations of the treasures." He rummaged through his cloak and pulled out a vial and stopper full of a brackish liquid.

  Fred raised his head and wrinkled his nose. "Isn't that marsh water?" he guessed.

  "Exactly. Let us see what one drop does to these pages." Ned unstopped the vial and tipped the mouth so a small drop dripped from the lip and onto the page. Fred sat at attention when he saw the same mist rise from the pages. Ned turned to him. "Can you see the magic?"

  Fred nodded. "Can't you?" he wondered.

  Ned smiled and shook his head. "You are the only one among us, my boy, who has that unique ability to see magic that one wants to keep hidden."

  "We know he sees magic. Now what?" Pat asked the old man.

  Ned turned back to the book and clasped the edges as Fred had done. Again the mist lowered into the pages while the dark light rose up, and the pages projected a three-dimensional view of Dirth's geography. Two dots appeared on the map. One lay in the city, and the other was in the marshes at the City of the Stars. Ned smiled and gave a nod. "I was right. The book holds maps to the treasures and the stones. I imagine if we were to apply a stone from Tramadore and dirt from Galaron we would find their resting spots."

  "I don't understand something," Pat spoke up. She nodded at the book. "If you hold the book that you stole-"

  "Heroes don't steal, they appropriate," Ned corrected her.

  She scowled at him. "If you have the book from the library in the temple of Phaeton, then how did Canavar find where some of these hidden stones were and how were they not noticed before by anyone else?"

  Ned shut the book and the images were sucked back into the pages. "Magic, my dear Pat. The ancient castors hid the stones as they did these maps. Canavar has the same gift as Fred here and saw through the magic. He then tapped into their abilities for his own purpose. Unfortunately, using their magic meant they were no longer hidden from sight. As he wasn't as skilled at hiding the stones he hid them as gifts to the city. In the case of String, he tampered with what they had already discovered."

  "But some of those gifts were given fifteen years ago. What has he been planning for that long?" she asked him.

  "That is for us to find out, and stop," Ned replied. A rumble from the bed caught everyone's attention, and Fred sheepishly smiled at his friends.

  "I guess I'm hungry," he explained to them.

  Ned smiled at the young man and set the book on the centered nightstand. "I couldn't agree with you more, my boy. We'll settle this day by settling our stomachs with some of the fine cuisine of this wonderful establishment. It's nearing nightfall, and there's not a better time for supper then when it's time for supper."

  Pat's face fell. "You're joking, right?"

  Ned chuckled, and there was that familiar twinkle in his eyes. "It may be our greatest adventure yet."

  CHAPTER 9

  Ned led his young charges out into the hall where they were met by Percy and Canto. "What were you all doing in there?" Percy asked them.

  "Making some useful discoveries, but the explanation can wait until we've eaten a tasty dessert," Ned replied. He walked down the hall, and Percy turned to Pat.

  "Does he mean here?" Percy asked her.

  Pat sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately, yes, but perhaps the food will convince him otherwise," she hoped.

  Canto's eyebrows crashed low over his eyes and he glanced between the faces of the teenagers. "Ya haven't even
tried the stuff and ya already say it's bad. Give it a chance before ya start complaining." He marched down the hall after Ned.

  "I think he is right," Ruth softly agreed.

  Pat pursed her lips, but nodded. "He may be right. Let's at least try the food before we make any final judgments."

  "And hope the final judgment isn't our final judgment," Percy joked.

  The four of them walked downstairs and found Canto and Ned at a large table against the wall to the right of the stairs. There were two dozen other tables, and three-quarters of them were full. People played cards and made shady deals over plates of steaming food, and Pat admitted, but only to herself, that the food didn't smell half bad. More torches were lit along the walls to keep back the coming darkness outside as the sun dropped below the horizon created by the cliffs. The table easily fit the six of them, and the noise of the room ensured they wouldn't easily be overheard.

  Ti bounced over to them with a smile on her lips and three trays balanced on one arm against her ample anchors. "What can I get for you?" she asked them.

  "The cheapest the house has to offer, and some information on him," Ned replied. He nodded to a fellow a few tables away. The man wore a stained jacket with a tight-rimmed hat, and he was downing a half-gallon glass of drink that wasn't lemonade. "Is he an aviator?" he asked Ti.

  She glanced at where his gaze lay and sighed. "He is, but somebody would be doing him a favor if they would keep him out of the skies. His name's Crash Enburn. He's signed up for the tournament, but in that condition he's bound to hurt more than himself. Hugh and I are resting our hopes on him not finding a squire in time so he'll be disqualified."

  "Aviators have squires to carry their equipment?" Pat wondered.

  Ti laughed. "No, they do that themselves. It's a tradition for the aviators to carry their kites up the long stairway to the cliffs as a show of their trials and perseverance. What squires do is go up in the air with them and give the kites balance and a second pilot in case something goes wrong with the aviator," she told them.