The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1)

by Winchester, Matthew

  “Hi there,” she said happily, turning to me.

  I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t stop my eyes from bulging wide. Instead of returning her greeting, I stared, dumbfounded, at the menacing falcon that was perched on her left shoulder. The bird wore a leather helmet that was similar to mine, and the eyes of the helmet were darkened, probably to prevent the falcon from being disturbed by all the people walking around around. The rich color of it matched the bird’s dark feathers quite well.

  Darby quickly noticed me noticing the raptor – not that it was difficult to see – and she gave a lighthearted laugh at my expression. “Oh, don’t worry. That’s just Georgie. She’s much friendlier than she looks.”

  “I hope so,” I muttered, still gawking at the falcon. I had seen what they were capable plenty of times.

  Killian sidled up beside me, patting Darby on her falcon-free arm. “Hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” he told her before turning to me. “This is Elana Silver. I met her at a shop nearby. She’s a local. She’s very nice.”

  Darby turned to me and cocked her head to the side, seeming very birdlike. “Elana Silver…” she muttered. “Why does that sound familiar?”

  “I thought that same thing!” Killian exclaimed. “Elana, this is my friend, Darby Quinn. She and I are both entering the race tomorrow.”

  Grinning widely, she stuck out her hand and I shook it, unable to fend off her enthusiasm. “You live here?” she asked. “In Adams?”

  I nodded, peering around at the busy docks. “I do. It’s strange to see it so crowded.”

  Darby shrugged, making Georgie the falcon bob a few inches into the air. “I’m used to crowded, I guess. It’s not so bad. Hey, I like your slacks!”

  Momentarily thrown by her sudden change in topic, I looked down at my pinstriped pants. “Oh…thanks. I really like your…” I took a moment to look her over and spotted a small hourglass pendant hanging from her neck, “necklace.” It wasn’t a lie, either. I thought it was genuinely nice.

  Grinning, Darby grasped the hourglass and inspected it. “Thank you! It’s very, very old. It was made by someone name LeJeune.”

  I hadn’t heard the name before, but my attention was focused elsewhere. Her outfit was just a strange as Killian’s, but in an interesting way. Around her neck, she wore a dark brown, ruffled lace collar, something that belonged inside a wealthy woman’s dress. Her shirt appeared almost golden, which matched the collar well, and it puffed up around her shoulders. Below that, though, she wore a brass-colored corset, cinching tightly over the shirt and accenting the curve of her hips. Her belt, which was a dark leather, held a few pouches and two large silver buttons that her suspenders were attached to.

  Her legs were covered in skintight black leggings that were so thin I could see her skin through them. Over them, she wore a short pair of brown cutoff slacks, which – at best – reached to the middle of her thighs. Her leather boots were huge and clunky, covered in buckles, and looked to be about two sizes too big for her.

  Killian was right. I liked her immediately.

  Pulling the oversized goggles off her head, Darby shook out her short, reddish hair and slapped Killian on the arm. “Did you get your tobacco?”

  He nodded. “I did, indeed. It was an excellent price, too. I think I’d also like a sweet roll from that fellow over there.” He nodded toward Mr. Wilkerson before turning back to Darby and I. “Would either of you like anything?”

  Darby stuck out her hip and cupped her narrow chin with one hand. “Hmm…yeah, I think I’d like some cookies, if he has them. Jam tarts!” she said excitedly.

  Killian nodded and began weaving his way through the crowd.

  “Good choice,” I said, watching him go. “Jam tarts are the best. Not too expensive, either.”

  “I know, I love them!” Darby said with a laugh. “So, Elana…I have to ask…what do you think of Killian?”

  I raised an eyebrow, opening my mouth slowly. “Uh – I…well, he’s fine, really. I mean, I guess he’s a little…”

  “Weird!?” she exclaimed, grinning widely.

  I couldn’t help but let out a sudden burst of laughter, mostly out of relief that she wasn’t mad at me for thinking that way. “I, uh…I didn’t want to just come out and say it,” I replied, still smiling stupidly.

  Darby waved her hand. “Ah, don’t worry. I think that’s why I like hanging around him, though. Weird is more fun.”

  I looked over at Georgie the falcon, still sitting serenely on her shoulder. “Yeah, it has its…charms.”

  “So, are you going to be entering the race?” she asked. “It’s easy to see that you’re a pilot.”

  I shook my head, feeling my smile melt away. “No, I – I won’t. I don’t really like the race,” I said, unsure of why I was being so forward. “Actually, I’m surprised you’re entering with your friend. I wouldn’t be too happy about having to compete against someone I cared about.”

  She nodded. “I understand. Killian and I aren’t competing against each other, though. We both just want to see how well we can do. We would love to win, of course, but we’re not going to do anything to jeopardize each other.”

  I shrugged. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that. The race changes people. Contestants kill each other just to give themselves a better chance. It turns men into animals.”

  Darby’s eyebrows and forehead wrinkled slightly at my words. She looked almost hurt by them. “I don’t believe that,” she said softly. “I don’t think people could lose that much of themselves in just a couple days.”

  “What if it was down to you two?” I asked her, suddenly feeling compelled to make her see my point of view. “What if he was in the lead and you were right behind him, and the finish line was just a minute away? You’re saying you wouldn’t give him a little tap on the tail? You wouldn’t roll underneath him and take the wind out of his wings?”

  “Of course not!” Darby said, looking insulted. “I would be happy for him. He deserves to win just as much as anyone. Probably more than some.”

  “All right,” I said. “What if it was the other way around? What if you were in the lead with him right behind you? Would you trust him not to put you into a spin? You think he’d just let you win?”

  Darby shook her head, smiling confidently. “Of course I’d trust him. He’s my friend. That’s worth more than any prize money.”

  She was unwaveringly optimistic, almost to the point of naivety, but I couldn’t help but smile back at her. Despite the fact that she completely disagreed with me, I was glad. I think I would have felt bad if I’d ended up making her doubt her friend.

  Before I could respond to her, a harsh, feminine voice sounded from behind me. “It’s that kind of weak-minded idiocy that gets so many of you fools killed every race.”

  To my left, a woman emerged from the crowd. Darby and I both turned to look, and I felt my eyes widen ever so slightly. She was tall and slender, but she looked quite powerful, despite her build. Just like most of the people on the docks today, she was a stranger to the Gap. Unlike the other newcomers, though, I recognized her immediately.

  Her hair was jet black, which matched her dark eyes well, and it was pulled back into a loose ponytail. A pair of sleek, brand new goggles rested on top of her head, and they looked to be accented with several tiny jewels. She wore a low-cut hemp shirt, and had some sort of leather shoulder holster wrapped around her. The bottom of it circled tightly around her ribcage, and the top buckled around her throat like a choker necklace. Being that there was no gun attached to the holster, it seemed the entire purpose of the thing was to accent her bust line. The fact that her shirt wasn’t even long enough to cover her midriff only confirmed my suspicions. The leggings and shiny, thigh-high leather boots made it obvious: this woman loved attention.

  As if that weren’t enough, she was wearing a red cape, made out of some kind of fabric that looked very soft to the touch. There was some writing on the back of it, but I was more focused on t
he brooch she used to hold it together around her collar. It had the inverted triangular Dominion logo, but it had “Shiloh” stamped underneath it. It looked a lot like the one I’d just received from Alice, which meant that I was right. It had come from a city.

  “Who are you?” Darby asked the rude woman, forgoing any attempt at goodwill. I couldn’t blame her. I would have done the same thing.

  The woman scoffed smugly. “I’m going to be the first one at the finish line…waiting for the rest of you lot to cross.” She then paused for a moment, looking me up and down. “If you even make it that far.”

  “You better believe we’ll make it that far,” I snapped. My mouth was forming the words before my brain could catch up. What was I saying? I wasn’t even going to be racing.

  Instantly, her conceited smirk evaporated, leaving behind an expression that I could only describe as icy and hard. “The race is not a game for children,” she spat, sauntering toward me. She stopped just a few inches from me, her eyes burning with cold fire. “Stay home…unless you’re that eager to join mummy and daddy.”

  I knew it.

  She knew who I was, just like I knew her. Maybe it was my familiar face that had drawn her to Darby and me in the first place. Maybe she wanted to gloat to me, to crack open a few well-rehearsed insults. Either way, I wanted to reach up and slap my calloused hand across her smooth, perfect face. Sadly, I didn’t. I couldn’t even think of anything to say to her. All I could do was stare up at her with my eyebrows set, trying not to blink first.

  “You shouldn’t underestimate us,” Darby said matter-of-factly. “We might be the best pilots you’ve ever met.”

  The woman let out a loud cackle. “Doubtful, gypsy.”

  Being called a gypsy was clearly not Darby’s favorite thing in the world. A flash of anger flitted across her face before her normal softness returned. “What makes you so sure you can win?” she asked.

  Nice tactic, I thought. I could see what she was doing, trying to play on this woman’s boastfulness, to get her to reveal something about her strategy in the race. Unfortunately, the woman seemed to pick up on the hidden message just as easily as I did.

  She made a show of pulling a large, sparkling gold pocket watch from her leather holster. “A better question would be ‘why did I bother talking to worms like you when I could be doing something much more fascinating, like rearranging the socks I packed?’”

  With her scathing sarcasm still hanging in the air, she whirled around on her heel - flinging her red cape at us - and strode off into the crowd, effortlessly making a path between the bustling citizens.

  At that moment, Killian found his way back to us, a half-eaten sweet roll in one hand and a thick stack of jam tarts in the other. He handed the cookies to Darby, but his eyes were on the slender, retreating figure of the woman that had just been with us. I also glared after her, suddenly curious as to what was written on her stupid cape.

  “I say,” Killian muttered. “Who was that?”

  I sighed, watching the woman disappear totally into the crowds. “You should know. That was Audra Carina,” I told them simply, not even bothering to hide the salty disdain in my voice. “She won the last race.”

  I wish I had known then. I wish I had known that I’d just met the woman who would haunt me for years to come.

  I would have killed her right then and there.

  After saying goodbye to Darby and Killian, I made my way back to Nichols’ shop, still stewing about my encounter with Audra. That, the abundance of people stumbling around in my way, and the ceaseless conversation about the stupid race, and I was in a downright foul mood by the time I arrived. I barged through the door with my teeth gritted and slammed it closed with an angry grunt. The force was enough to ring through the entire shop and rattle all four of the rickety walls, but Old Man Nichols didn’t even look up from his work. He remained hunched over a small circuit board even as I paced furiously around the floor, my boots leaving scuff marks in the faint layer of metal shavings.

  Finally, after I still hadn’t sat down for several minutes, he arched an eyebrow in my direction and let out a slow breath. “If only getting angry solved problems,” he said calmly. “You’d have conquered the world by now.”

  I sighed and shook my head. I didn’t feel much like chatting at the moment, and I definitely didn’t want to hear some sort of lesson about emotional control. I decided to just keep quiet and continue pacing. I didn’t know why exactly I was so worked up, but I knew it had a lot to do with Audra Carina. Was I really so vain that her barbs and insults got to me that badly? No. No, I didn’t think so. It was the disrespect, the complete and utter contempt she had shown for Darby and me. If she only knew. If she only knew how good I was. I flew a small cargo plane for a living. Not some fancy Shiloh-based jet. But I knew I could beat her in a race. At that moment, I would have gone up against anyone.

  Behind me, I heard Nichols sealing up one of his tin boxes. Without a warning, he was suddenly beside me, handing me a small package. “Delivery. Rainier. She’s expecting it as soon as you can.”

  As soon as the box - which was only about eight inches long - was in my hands, he turned from me and headed back to his workbench where he once again hunched over the circuit board he’d been working on. I closed my eyes and drew in a slow breath through my nose. I knew what he was doing. He was sending me out because he knew it was the surest way to calm me down. It also meant I was doing more harm than good by being around him. That made me feel a little guilty. Nichols went out of his way for me at every opportunity, and I was bringing my uncorked teenage angst into his place of work.

  “Copy,” I said glumly.

  Without another word, I left the shop and slowly made my way toward the docks, fighting the crowd every step of the way. More than once, I was tempted to use the metal box in my hand as a blunt weapon. Maybe then people would clear a path. It took me nearly ten minutes to make the two-minute walk, but I eventually came upon the familiar cradle number eleven. My ship was sitting serenely amidst the chaos, beckoning me to hop inside and get both of us into the free air. I was all too happy to oblige.

  As I approached, I checked the area for Rigel, hoping he would somehow find his way back here from the crowd. I spotted Toby, looking slightly ragged and flustered, and made my way over to him.

  “Hey,” I said.

  He looked down at me and smiled, probably just to see a familiar face, but then his frazzled expression returned. “I saw him earlier,” he said. “He was going to get someone to cover him for a bit.”

  “Cover him? For what?”

  Toby folded his arms and shrugged. “He wanted to find you for something. That’s all I know.”

  His eyes blinked rapidly as he spoke. Either he was suddenly averse to the air on the docks, or he knew more than he was letting on. I had no idea what he would be keeping from me, though.

  “Hey, Ellie,” I heard from behind me.

  Spinning around, I looked up into Rigel’s hazel eyes. “There you are. I need to head out,” I told him, staring around at the undulating horde of visitors around me. “As soon as possible.”

  “Stellar!” he said enthusiastically, his face lighting up with a grin. “I’ll help get you untethered. Do you, uh…Do you think I can come with?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “To Rainier?”

  “Yeah,” he said, still smiling excitedly. “I wanna go. Toby said he’d try and cover my area, and I was hoping I could ride with you.”

  I nervously scratched the back of my elbow. After the morning I’d had, I was sort of looking forward to some alone time. Also, it wasn’t very often that Rigel asked for a ride anywhere. Any business he ever needed to attend to could be done here in Adams, and just about every time I was going somewhere, it was during his work hours. This time, though, he had actually gone out of his way to get out of work just to come on my delivery run.

  “Why?” I asked him. “What do you want to do in Rainier?”

  He shrugg
ed. “I just want to go. If you don’t want me to ride with you, that’s okay. I can find someone else.”

  “No, no,” I said quickly, hoping I hadn’t hurt his feelings. Despite my wish to be alone, I was going to have to bite the bullet. “Yes, you can come with me. But I’m not going to be there for very long. I only have one delivery.”

  Rigel smiled with relief. “Then I’ll be quick.”

  He grabbed Toby and the two of them made for the cradle, getting the hooks and cables off of my landing gear as I climbed into the hatch and tucked the package into one of the cargo straps on the wall of the hold. I continued to the cockpit and quickly ran through my preflight checklist, making sure my gauges were all working and that all my instruments weren’t making any odd noises. After ensuring my flaps were in good order, I started up my turbines and waited for Rigel to climb inside. When he finally did, he pulled the hatch door shut and gave me a thumbs-up in my mirror.

  The traffic around the docks was much heavier than usual. I never, ever had to wait to leave or to land, but today I was delayed several minutes because the control tower didn’t want to have a collision in the air.

  “I don’t remember it ever being this bad,” I said to Rigel as we finally got underway.

  He had come to sit on the steps behind me and lean into the cockpit to talk. “I don’t either. Maybe that’s because we didn’t have to deal with it on the last race. You weren’t flying yet. I was still hosing down the docks and carrying luggage like a cabin boy, but I do remember it was pretty busy.”

  “Hm,” I responded. He was right, I suppose. I hadn’t taken up flying until after my mother had passed. It wasn’t until then that I had finished what my father had started when he began building the Cloud Kicker. Luckily, there wasn’t much that had to be done. Some wiring, some riveting, a little bit of welding, and it had been pretty well completed. I had made my own mods over time, like the hydro thrusters and the solar cells, and now it was the best ship in the Dominion. In my eyes, of course. I would always be indebted to Old Man Nichols, though. He had paid money, every month for those three years, to make sure the Kicker was allowed to rest on cradle eleven.