Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  Though, where was she going to get that? She didn’t have her botanist handy to refresh her poisons and tinctures.

  It didn’t matter in any case. The opportunity to escape was now, while everyone was off the ship.

  Though, why would Synn fail to secure her door? Was this a trap? What did he intend, if it was? Was this a test of her loyalties?

  Well, if it was, she didn’t care if she passed or not. She wasn’t loyal to him. He should be grateful to her. For what she’d done.

  She’d been the reason Kadar hadn’t given the nanites to Synn.

  She’d been the reason Synn had been sheltered from the pure blood battles.

  She’d been the one to protect him when he’d been too young to defend himself.

  The menagerie was empty except for the plants.

  Frowning at the large, empty space, she stopped. Perhaps, this, whatever this was, had nothing to do with her. Perhaps, it wasn’t a trap or a test.

  If that was the case, then the time to escape was perfect.

  She could see a door at the very back and headed for it.

  She turned her nose up at the musky scent of the lethara in the moisture heavy air. Even with the creature gone, she still had the horrible smell of “home.” Shankara hadn’t been “home” for so many years now, but the smell of lethara, the sight of it twisted her soul. The only way she liked letharan was dead.

  The wheel on the door was stuck, or too heavy for her to turn. She rose on tiptoes to peer through the circular window at the top, but saw only empty docks.

  Docks. That’s not where she wanted to exit in any case. In order to leave that way, she would need a plane and she didn’t see a single plane, or any other kind of flying vessel.

  She turned, her eyes narrowed, and spied a door to her left. Darting toward it, she spun the wheel. It gave with surprising ease, the door giving a metallic groan as she opened it. She was met with a metal-grate staircase that spilled into a large room that spanned the entire mid-ship. It was open from the bottom floor to the top, which was a grand total of four floors. A large ceiling of sorts broke the space in half, though it didn’t fully encompass anything.

  Wings. Was that where the wings went? She’d studied his designs. When she made it back to Sky City—and she would—she would take his designs with her, though she had no idea where he hid them. She’d committed to memory everything she could.

  People milled around below. Peering through the metal grates of the stairs and walkways, Nix saw lines and lines of cots. People carried in the wounded. There weren’t many yet. A boy wearing the uniform of the Han and three or four others.

  Ah. Battle. With the Han.

  Perhaps, not the best time to escape.

  Though, if Synn’s ship was on the ground without the menagerie, the battle had to be fairly far away. Synn wouldn’t risk his ship.

  Nix crept down the stairs, her eyes on the bay of open doors before her.

  A girl with long, red hair worked on someone laying on a cot. Blood dripped from the wounded man’s hand onto the floor. There was something in the fiery glow of her hair that tugged on Nix’s memories.

  Keeley. The little wench who had distracted Synn while he’d stayed in Sky City.

  Nix nearly growled. Dear, sweet Keeley. The only thing that burned about that child was her hair. A simpering dolt of a small-minded woman.

  Aiyanna looked up, her dark eyes scanning the bay.

  Nix ducked into the shadow of the corner and watched, her breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t be caught. Not again. She needed to get out of this oppressive environment. If she never saw another toilet except to use it again, it would be too soon.

  Aiyanna shook her head and returned her attention to the child on the cot in front of her, working to remove his uniform, his skin blistered and red.

  Curling her lip, Nix continued down the remaining flight of stairs, imagining how Keeley and Aiyanna must feel over the child. Such weak-hearted women. Burned and wearing the uniform of the Han. Did they even realize who had hurt the boy?

  And when they figured out, how long would they weep over it? How long would they wail about it? Oh, and the endless torment Synn would inflict upon himself when he saw the damage he’d caused the boy, who by all intents and purposes, looked as though he’d survive.

  She needed to find stronger people.

  Nix shook her head and slipped through the shadow to the door. No one arrived to stop her. Tarot was watching out for her.

  She slipped through the door and fell to her hands and knees on the wet ground. She hadn’t expected the drop that waited on the other side of the door, but she should have. The ship lay almost on its side.

  She didn’t have time to wonder. She grabbed her bag and took off for the woods. She didn’t know where they were or how she would regain contact with Sky City. First thing she had to do was make it safely away.

  Ducking behind a tree, she looked around to see if anything looked familiar. Trees. Plants. Bushes. A darkening sky. The sound of crashing surf.

  Excellent. It was about to rain on top of everything else. She scaled the mountain, skirting large logs and thick vegetation. For the first time, she was grateful not to be wearing her court gown. There were no trails to follow. She merely worked her way down. If they were in the Koko Nadi, which was probable as it seemed Synn spent most of his time there, she knew of several ways to get in touch with Sky City. She might even be able to coax the elusive Garrett into allowing her the use of his communications console.

  At least she hoped. She’d never actually met the man, but she had heard stories.

  A boom rocked the area. Rocks and dirt jumped at her feet. The trees swayed. The leaves quivered.

  Shouldn’t there be animals? Why didn’t she hear of any of those? Where were the birds? It didn’t matter where they docked, if they were on land, there should be birds.

  She turned to see where the shock had come from and held her breath in shock and wonder.

  It had been turns since she’d last been here.

  She’d been there to steal the Librarium, the Great Families’ great deposit of information.

  Her breath escaped her body explosively. They were on Kiwidinok outside Pleron City. And there was no way to get word to Sky City. Not from here.

  What could she do? Stay? Flee? Go back?

  If she continued to flee, there was no way off this landmass, no way to another island. They were simply too far away to travel by boat, or at the very least a boat she could piece together.

  If she went back, she could help Keeley with the sick and wounded. That would buy her some merit with Synn. Perhaps he would let up on his chores list, or allow her some small bit of freedom to which she could then use a more opportune time to flee.

  Her decision made, she picked up her skirts, though they were short enough not to require it. Tribal wear was extremely flexible.

  A branch snapped behind her.

  She spun, a lie on the tip of her tongue, ready to be issued.

  She didn’t speak it.

  A dozen Han soldiers crept through the woods toward her. “What do we have here?” the leader said in a broken Sakin, the language of the Ino. “Queen Nix.”

  She backed up a step, trying not to stumble and as the ground shook again. “I’m with the El’Asim now.”

  The lead soldier smiled. “We are killing him now. So, no, Queen Nix, you are with us.”

  On the far west side of the continent, Rose pulled the trigger. Ammunition spilled from her guns into the sea of planes around her, missing most of them. She growled, pulling up, attempting to miss the return spray. “We need some way to identify us from them!”

  Bettie laughed. “That’s easy, Captain. They’re the slow ones!”

  It wasn’t that easy.

  The air exploded to Rose’s right. She flinched, but kept Wise Girl headed in an unmodified trajectory. Up, over and back into it.

  Planes were everywhere.

  One zoomed
by, so close, his fluttering wings nearly whacked Rose’s dome.

  “Sparks!” Rose barked.

  “I missed you by a metre.”

  Which was a real possibility. “A metre’s a lot shorter up here.”

  Planes whizzed by in front of her like threads from a crazed embroiderist creating a frenzied pattern on a napkin. The only way to make out the enemy was by the slight billow of smoke that trailed them.

  Rose smirked. “They have to be about out of fuel by now.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m out of bullets,” Doris shouted. “Going in for a reload.”

  Rose needed to do that as well. She’d already sent Bennen’s crew back to the Najmah for a reload. Three of the enemy planes turned, heading away.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Rose fluttered first her right, then her left feet to accelerate forward. She buzzed through the other planes, missing more than one of them by what felt like centimetres. She reached for her lightning gun controls and pulled the trigger.

  Lightning reached out, latching onto the tail of the one closest to her. The engine seized, stalled, then the trail of smoke emitting from its rear ceased.

  Rose’s heart lurched, her eye twitching.

  Enemy.

  She couldn’t forget that.

  Or the fact that a human being, much like herself, sat in that cockpit, fright filling his chest as his plane went down.

  Yeah. She couldn’t think of that.

  She brought herself into position behind the next one and pushed the button, releasing her lightning.

  A flash of lightning joined hers from above, latching onto first the one plane, then the next.

  “Good shooting, “Najmah.”

  “That wasn’t us, Captain,” their communications officer said with a clear tenor.

  Rose raised her nose to the sky, her eyes widening in heart-wrenching horror. The storm had gone from gray to green just north of them. Getting caught in that kind of storm could be disastrous for the Sky Gypsies. “Najmah, this is Captain Rose. Veer south. The storm is coming round again and growing.”

  The Najmah banked slowly.

  Rose didn’t have time to watch it. Other enemy planes had decided it was time to head south as well, probably to refuel.

  A spray of bullets laced the air.

  She flipped Wise Girl, sending her nose to the ground to get out of the line of fire. “Listen up, boys and girls! Get out of the path of the storm. Head south!”

  Rich followed an enemy plane toward the growing storm. His plane was easy to spot with its red tail and feathered wings. His was the only one with feathered wings, and it wasn’t something Rose would ever replicate.

  “Rich,” she yelled, bringing her nose back up, shooting lightning at the converging enemy planes. “Get out of there. Head south.”

  “I’ve almost got him, Captain!”

  “I don’t—” Her breath caught in her throat. She dodged to the left, releasing her lightning spray. The lightning tagged first the one plane, then danced to the next.

  Both of the still-wings fell from the sky.

  Rose turned Wise Girl toward the Najmah, intent on getting more ammunition.

  The clouds in front of them began to spin. “Funnel. Funnel. Damn it, Rich. There’s a damned tornado building right above you.”

  He released a spray of bullets.

  The enemy plane twisted in midair, then jerked to the right, the wind taking hold.

  “Holy buckets of brass!” Rich shouted. He jammed the nose of his plane straight up, disappearing into the darkened cloud bank.

  “Like I said,” Rose said, her heart hammering in her chest. “Get out of the way of the storm. It’s time to bring ‘em in.”

  “Agreed,” Najmah’s communications specialist said in her right ear. “Call them all in. We’re bearing south as fast as we can. The storm is moving too quickly.”

  She relayed the information to the rest of her squad and the remainder of Bennen’s.

  The enemy planes rushed back to the landing pad, where ever that was because Rose and the Sky Gypsies hadn’t found it.

  Best of luck to them.

  She just hoped they could outrun a storm of this magnitude.

  Shankara had ceased its bombing. They struggled to stay afloat. The lethara was in such agony, that he couldn’t even drop its veil or curtain so they could go below the crashing waves. The rising sea waters battered him. He flailed, trying to help his city by holding up falling platforms, but he simply couldn’t. The poor creature was in too much pain.

  Victory.

  Ryo closed his eyes, a dark, cold feeling rocking his chest.

  When he opened them, something drew his attention.

  A ship, like the old sailing vessels of the El’Asim. Blue sails along three masts. Dark ornamentation along the rail. This one, however, had a strange symbol painted brazenly on its dark hull.

  Tokarz.

  “Suzu!” he shouted.

  “Aye, sir!”

  “Do you see that ship?”

  “Where?”

  “Just starboard.” He didn’t understand their form of measurement yet. He’d only been at it for a few weeks, and they were in the midst of changing it. He doubted they did either.

  She twisted in her seat. He could see the bottoms of her boots and her seat. She stilled, then lowered her face to look at him through the floor. Her lips formed one word. “Tokarz.”

  He nodded, his grin feral. “Let’s give him a little justice. Once and for all.

  Suzu needed no further urging.

  Four other ships appeared on the horizon, all with different markings as if they were a gathered armada of orphans. Ryo wasn’t interested in the other ones. He only wanted Tokarz.

  “Be careful of his lava cannon! The shield doesn’t stand up to it.”

  Ryo laughed, laying the center of the much smaller vessel in his sights. He waited for the lava cannon to strike.

  It did, sending out a whip of lava that hardened in the air before it closed even half the distance. The air was too cold, the rain too thick.

  None of that mattered to Ryo’s plasma cannon though. He pulled the trigger. A pulsing ring of what almost appeared to be smoke raced out of his cannon.

  A near perfect circular hole was removed from the center of Tokarz’s ship. Rigging and rope held the two sides together along with the single rib that ran from bow to stern.

  Ryo waited.

  The other cannons along either side of the Basilah continued to shoot, taking care of the remaining four ships.

  Tokarz’s ship sank slowly to the ground.

  Slow was good. Ryo would have his revenge with his hands. Around Tokarz’s throat.

  Kiwidinok: Nix

  NIX TOOK IN ONE DEEP breath, one hand held out in front of her. “No. You don’t want to do that, not if you wish to live.”

  The leader flinched, then regained his sneer. “You are one woman.”

  Nix’s Mark lifted off her shoulders, burning through her clothing without her control. They flared over her head in a dark orange light. “I said you don’t want to do this.”

  The men stopped, their eyes widening as they took in her Mark.

  She looked up. It wasn’t the fire of Ino, but it wasn’t quite the lava of Synn. She narrowed her eyes, her mind running as quickly as it could. What had the programmer said? Something to the effect that her Mark and Synn’s worked differently together.

  How differently?

  Nix allowed her lips to curl, rejoicing in the sultry feel of pure power that she’d missed for so many long, insufferable months. “Turn around.”

  Like puppets fighting their strings, the men turned.

  Fire. That could control men’s minds? How incredibly useful.

  “Now march.” She might not be able to get far on her own, but with these men in her control, surely she could find a way to get word to Sky City. No need to go sniveling back to Synn. Not now.

  One of the men shouted and disappeared as if he’d f
allen into a deep hole.

  The man next to him did the same thing.

  Nix watched as one by one the enemy men in her control walked right over the edge of a cliff. The final man gone, she stood on the edge, watching the surging sea.

  Oh, the things she could do with this new gift. Yes. The world was indeed hers.

  I didn’t know how far into the mountain we’d traveled. Even as a boy, I’d never ventured this far down. We had taken care of one rigger, four destroyers. All we needed to find were the three land eaters.

  We could hear them over the sound of the incoming storm. But we didn’t know where they were. The sounds echoing off the rock walls gave no indication as to their location.

  We had passed through Pleron City quite a while ago. Buildings carved out of the rock face. It wasn’t much to see from the staircases, but I knew if you were to step through the doorways, you’d become lost in the maze of rock-formed rooms.

  The grandest of which had been the Librarium, the place where all the documents and books the Great Families had possessed had been located.

  The Hands of Tarot had stolen it around the time I’d been born.

  And then, when I brought Sky City out of the clouds, I’d stolen it again and deposited in Ino City.

  Ino Nami. The single most powerful person and controlled by the Skyborne. Our greatest enemy was the one holding our greatest wealth of knowledge.

  Though, the Skyborne probably thought our wisdom was rudimentary at best.

  The falcons who had flown ahead, reported back through Du’a.

  We have found them, Synn, she said, her soft voice filling my mind with a vision of what she saw.

  I gestured to the people who remained with me. We’d left a few people at each of the Han’s mechanical creatures to stand guard. With only one way in or out, having the Han’s men attack from both sides would be disastrous. “They’re just ahead. Three land eaters. They’re focused on mining. There are only a few men guarding them.”

  “Finally,” Jamilah said beside me. “I will feel a lot better back on the Layal.”

  “And in the air,” I agreed.