by SM Blooding
I gave Isra our heading and stepped out of the command room. My observer followed me like a shadow. I paused. My gut nagged at me. Could I trust my crew? Were they all loyal to me? What were the reasons each of them had volunteered to fly with me?
I wasn’t about to pull the entire crew so I could look them in the eye, but a part of me was tempted to. We were a small ship, and anyone could run her to the ground with ease. She was strong, but she was fragile at the same time.
I turned and headed back through the door that led to the underbelly of the ship. Instead of going to the command center, I turned left, walking past the door to my room. I could hear the conversation before I started down the twisting stairs that spilled into a large room banked on all sides by windows. A large table dominated the room.
The men I’d requested to meet me were already discussing what needed to be done.
My observer—what was his name?—settled along the wall behind me. I really needed to sit down with that man and see what he was made of.
“Sky cats are the cruelest hunters I’ve ever met,” one man said loudly, pounding his fist against the table. It sounded like Razi.
I agreed as I walked toward the long plank at the rear of the room and poured myself a mug of water. “We only need a feather. I would prefer if we didn’t have to kill for it.”
“Have you ever caught a cat and not had to kill it?” another demanded.
I turned and leaned against the banquet ledge. “No.”
Silence was the immediate answer.
“We only need a feather,” I repeated.
“Sayyd,” one of my father’s oldest advisors, Bahaa, said with a tired sigh, “they will not kindly give up a feather for you.”
“Is it possible to secure a feather in the attack?” I asked. Sky cats didn’t stop by for visits. They were after the air jellies, and if there was a possible human for dinner, all the better. They were wild and ferocious. “Feathers fall all the time.”
The older men stared at one another, their heads tipped.
Bahaa rubbed at his full, gray beard. “Sayyd, you’ve never fought one.”
I rubbed my chin. “I’ve never had the opportunity, no.” Which seemed odd to me since we spent a great deal of our time in the clouds where the sky cats resided. My father had been the best lightning trapper in generations, and as far as I knew, he’d never lost an air jelly or a man to the cats before.
Which brought up another question. How?
I narrowed my eyes in thought.
Bahaa nodded, as if seeing the train of my thoughts.
I raised my eyebrows at him in question.
He smiled and sat down in one of the many chairs. “Your father created what he called a lighting array. It protects the hull of our ship, all of our ships, from the likes of the cats.”
“I’ve never heard of this.”
“You didn’t have to. You’d never been Marked.”
A couple of the men flinched.
I swallowed. “And now that I have my Mark, I wouldn’t be able to help anyway.” The Mark of the El’Asim was lightning. My Mark was something different, a mix of Ino and El’Asim both.
“You are right.”
“It’s similar to the lightning cannons Joshua made for you, isn’t it? Powered by the storm Marks of our Family.”
Another man, younger, stepped forward. “We all take turns when we’re in the clouds to charge it. It doesn’t take much.”
I leaned back in my chair. “So how do we draw a cat toward us? Turn it off?”
Bahaa thumped the table. “Yes. That is exactly what we do.”
“But how do we protect our jelly?” the younger man asked.
Bahaa looked at me. “We use his Mark.”
I dug a fingernail into the bridge of my nose and thought about it. I knew how to use my Mark in many ways. There were all sorts of things I could do to protect our jelly, our ship, and our crew. All we needed was a feather. “I’m sure I could figure something out.”
Bahaa leaned forward, clasping his large, calloused hands in front of him. “This is what we need to do.”
I leaned forward and sighed with relief. At least we had a plan for the most challenging part of this mission.
Now I just had to perform. No problem.
CHAPTER 17
MY SHADOW
The men cleared the room, each with their orders. They knew what needed to be done. Now all we had to do was secure some algae, a rock, and find a sky cat to snare a feather from. No problem. Easy.
Right.
My shadow stood against the wall, his pale eyes watching me intently.
I rose and grabbed another goblet, filling it with water. I gestured with it and sat it down on the table. “We need to talk.”
He raised a blond brow, pausing for a moment, then sat. “Vhat vould you like to speak about.”
I took in a deep breath, resettling myself in my chair. I had no idea how to handle this situation. Had I stated there was only one slot for a winner in these games? What was the intent of these games? A seat on the new family council. Was there a limit to how many chairs there were?
The other man was patient.
“Let’s start with your name.”
He didn’t even twitch. “Pavel Novokshorov.”
“What is your origin?”
His eyes narrowed minutely. “I do not understand the question. Perhaps my Adalic is not so good.”
“Your Adalic is very good. What language do you speak?”
“Vrmuusian.”
I frowned and blinked. “I don’t think I can repeat that. Were there vowels?”
He didn’t enjoy my humor.
I cleared my throat and shifted in my chair. “Where are you from?”
“The air.”
This was all very . . . unhelpful. “Why have I not seen you before?”
“Because you have not looked.” He let his head fall to the side as he stared at the goblet in front of him. “You are the Great Family El’Asim. The vorld knows about you. But vhat do you know of the world? Hmm?”
I had thought I’d known a great deal about it.
He nodded. “Precisely. You know nothink. Yeah?”
I sat back in my chair. “Just because I haven’t seen your tribe before doesn’t mean I know nothing of the world.”
He raised both eyebrows, his fingers playing along the rim of his goblet.
“I think you have learned to hide well.”
His eyes closed and opened again in mere slits.
I didn’t mean to insult him. “Which is not a bad thing.” I leaned forward, hoping he’d understand what I meant to say. “You stayed out of sight. You were able to survive without dipping into our politics, or being raided by the Hands. Have you lost any children to them?”
His head shake was almost a twitch.
“Have you lost any of your people to them?”
He was still as his gray gaze rose to meet mine.
I watched him for a long moment before sitting back. “Trust me. There are good things about being invisible. My only question is why you decided to come out of hiding now.”
He didn’t immediately answer.
I let him have his time.
His leaned back in his chair. “Ve decided that if the vorld is going to change, perhaps it vould be a good idea to be seen.”
“Do you think that’s a smart move?” I asked quietly. My mind pulled up images, memories, of what had happened just in the past year. “Just because the world is changing, doesn’t mean that it’s changing for the better.”
“But you are giving all the tribes a voice. Yes?”
I gestured with one hand. “I’m trying. I haven’t succeeded in anything yet.”
“Then I say that is good enough.”
I let that settle in for a moment, then smashed my lips together. “Perhaps not. Having a voice is one thing. Making the Great Families realize they have to listen is going to be another.”
“And that is
why you lead them.”
I snorted.
“Aw, but you do. Yes? We speak your language in a Sakin city. You called for the games, opened the door to the vorld, and the Great Families, they listened. Yeah? They opened their doors. They sat behind you while you addressed the rest of us. You even had the four queens sitting behind you, and none of them stood up to silence your vords.”
I drummed my fingers against the table, still in awe over the fact that all of that had happened. “I think they saw the power of the crowd. If they had stepped up to tell them something different, there could have been a riot.”
“Precisely, El’Asim.” He tapped the table hard with his knuckle. “Today, the big people are listening to your voice, and your voice is telling them to listen to ours, and vith that, they have seen that our voice is strong. Stronger than theirs maybe.”
I met his gaze. “I hope so.”
His expression pulled taunt as he draped one leg over the arm. “As do ve all, El’Asim.”
That seemed to be exactly what we needed to break the ice. “So what do I call you?”
“You may call me Pavel or Novokshorov or anything you vish.”
“I’d prefer you to call me Synn.”
He smiled. “You have not yet learned that a name has great power. They call you the El’Asim, and you vould have me, a no one, call you by your given name?”
I rubbed my eyebrow and took a long drag of my water. “I am not the El’Asim. At least not yet. I am still a boy in many ways.”
“In the body of a man.” He looked at me, sober. “That is a thing of concern.”
I shrugged. “What can you tell me of the captain of the Hebo Kowka?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “The Hebo Kowka,” he repeated with extra emphasis, but the only difference I heard was inflection, “is captained by my brother.”
“Oh.”
He nodded. “Yes. He is my twin. I have a great respect for him. He is a fair captain, swift in justice, and a mighty varrior.”
Which was probably why he was their captain. “Why are your ships in the shape of sky cats?”
Pavel grinned, his arms open. “Vhere do you think ve live, El’Asim?” He craned his neck forward, shaking it. “In the one place the volrd fears to go.”
I chuckled. “That’s . . . brilliant.”
He dropped his arms. “Yes. It is.”
“And that’s how you were able to hide from the rest of the world?”
He didn’t answer, but his supreme smile did.
I saluted him with my goblet. “I would never have thought of that.”
“I think that there are many things you have not yet thought of.”
I let out a long breath and settled deeper into my chair. Probably so. “Like what?”
“Like—” He sat up and leaned his elbows on the table. “Vhat intentions do you have for this gathering?”
I puffed out one cheek and released it. “To give everyone a voice.”
“And ve are all competing for a voice?”
“Yeah.”
“For vhat? How vould that vork?”
“Uh. Well, I was thinking about a council of all the tribes. It seems only fair. The Hands are offering a treaty. Why shouldn’t everyone have a chance at this peace?”
“So, how many seats? How many tribes? How big vill this council be?”
I opened my mouth, but I had no answer. The sheer number tribes was astounding. How could anyone manage that?
“Precisely.” He steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “And who vill lead it?”
I bit the inside of my lip.
“Whoever leads this council vill have to be able to stand up to the Great Families and the queens and make them listen. That sounds like you.”
“I’m not sure I’m the best person for it.”
“Because of the power the Nix queen has over you? Or because of the control your Ino mother has over you?”
I pursed my lips.
“It has not escaped our notice that your Ino brother runs your El’Asim fleet and that your Ino sister commands your letharan city.”
I still didn’t have any answers.
“But perhaps as leader of this great council, a more powerful council than any ve have seen yet, that you need neither fleet nor city.”
This was the kind of conversation I needed to have with my advisors, but who were they? My friends? Haji was busy in the games. Joshua had completely disappeared. Keeley hid with the healers. Yvette was still getting reacquainted with her mother and their Family. Who did that leave?
“Can I trust that what we say here won’t leave this room?”
“No.”
I raised my eyebrows and blinked.
“I vill tell my brother and his advisors. El’Asim—Synn, the vorld is vatching you. If you are to gain my trust and the trust of my brother, I cannot keep secrets from him.”
I pressed my thumb into my temple and let out a dark sigh.
“The schedule of events shows that all the competitions are vinding down to a final vinner. Vhat is the purpose of that, if not to crown a leader of the council?”
“There’s no way we know that I’ll win.”
“I think you are missing somethink. Somethink big.”
I opened my hands.
“Your mother is behind all of these competitions. I am sure she vill rig them so that you are the victor.”
Was that a bad thing? I had the ability to wrangle the queens and the Great Families. I had so far. Who else could do that?
“But then who vould be pulling your strings? If this event does happen, does your Nix queen gain the power of the council through you, or does your mother?”
“No one would.”
He narrowed his eyes.
I pinched the bride of my nose. How had things gotten so complicated?
“If we are competing—” He held up a finger. “—for a voice on your council and—” He held up a second finger. “—for the leadership of it, then you need to be prepared for consequences. People vill not be fighting fair. People vill die.”
How was I going to keep it under control, and who was I to assume I needed to be the one to do it?
CHAPTER 18
FULL MOON DANCE
I stood at the railing. We’d dropped in elevation since there was no storm in our immediate area. Birds filled the air with a loud cacophony of calls. The spitfyre falcons in the trestle trees looked on, and occasionally squawked. We remained high enough to keep the bugs at bay.
Peacock Rock’s mountain rose tall, green, and formidable before us. I directed the crew toward the peak. I happened to know there was cave close by. I just wasn’t sure where exactly it was.
I hooked a rope ladder to the rail as we got closer to the mountain face. An old advisor of my father’s, Barak, joined me and Pavel.
I stumbled as I landed on the rocky ground. Walking with the movement of my ship and then suddenly finding myself on land took a moment to get acclimated to. A rock outcropping jutted from the face of the mountain. Lush, green trees and other plants surrounded us, cutting off our line of sight.
“Vhat are ve doing here?” Pavel asked, looking around.
“Algae that glows in the dark.” I gained my bearings and headed down. The path, if you could call it that, was not meant for human feet, especially feet as big as mine. I held onto the cliff wall with one hand, careful of each step.
I watched for the cave entrance that was hidden behind a screen of green. Pushing away the vines, I stepped into the cave. It wasn’t quite tall enough for me to stand upright.
Pavel blinked. “Does anyone else know about dis place?”
I shrugged. “I have no idea. But flameless fire? It has to be something underground, and what’s more underground than caves?”
He gave me a look that said I was stupid. “Lightening, perhaps?”
I nearly hit my head with a rock that dipped down from the ceiling. “Oh. I don’t know why I didn’t think of th
at.”
He shook his head and followed. “I had thought it was an easy thing for you, your Mother giving you an easy vin.”
I stooped and folded myself sideways to scrape through the next section. The sunlight filtering through the cave opening was weak and we hadn’t quite hit the algae-lit areas. “Maybe that’s the reason I hadn’t thought of it.”
He didn’t say anything.
Barak cleared his throat as he wedged himself through the opening. “Should we not have brought torches, sayyd?”
I took another shimmying step and tripped into a large cavern lit entirely by algae. I grinned, my face raised to the air as I gained my feet. “No, Barak, we should not have.”
Pavel made a sound of exclamation behind me.
I stepped further into the cavern, heading toward one of the four tunnels. “They would not have done us any good.”
I hadn’t made it far when I heard a male voice call out ahead of me. “El’Asim.”
I crested the bend and saw a man. I recognized his face, but didn’t recall his name or where I’d met him.
He turned and headed back the way he’d come.
“Sayyd,” Barak murmured, “do we trust this man?”
“Yes, Barak. We do.”
He didn’t seem soothed, but he backed away, taking up the rear.
We entered the common cavern.
Pavel eyes scanned everything, from the people, to the glowing moss, to the food.
“Back so soon, are you?” Garrett called out in his native tongue.
I grasped his forearm. “I come in search of a flameless fire.”
He snorted and clapped my shoulder. Turning away, he gestured to someone close by. “How much do you need?”
“One torch will be fine.”
He nodded and the woman left.
“You wouldn’t by any chance happen to know the best place to get a tear-shaped rock from the island of Selphie, would you?”
Garrett glanced at me in surprise. “We have a few. We’re attempting to figure out if we can use them as a fuel source.”
“Hmm.” The corners of my mouth pulled down. “Could you spare one, or point us in the right direction?”
