by Amy Braun
For now, I assured myself. I turned away, storing his words into the back of my mind. I had a reputation for being drastic, and I was sure that my planned escape would be enough to get him back.
To distract myself, I decided to take the plunge and look down onto my home. I gripped the edges of the domed raiding skiff and pulled to my feet. Compared to the smothering darkness of Hellnore, Aon’s grim clouds were light and playful. I could almost imagine them stretched over a blue summer sky.
If only I remembered what a blue sky looked like. It had been over ten years since I’d seen one.
As we descended, I pressed my hands against the glass and looked at the ground below. I turned my head left and right, trying to recognize a piece of the city. Looking for a Hellion raiding skiff or a much larger airship.
But I saw nothing. No ships, no buildings. Nothing but dead grass stretching for miles.
This wasn’t the ruined cobblestone ground of the Barren, the former military garrison of the Sky Guard. It wasn’t the struggling farm areas.
It wasn’t home.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Thought you wanted to go home, darling.”
I shot Davin a glare, not even concerned that he’d left the helm specifically to taunt me.
“This isn’t Westraven,” I shot.
His chuckle was muffled behind his mask. “No, but this is Aon. Technically your home.”
Dread began to build in my stomach. I looked at Riley. Emotion was void of his face.
“I don’t trust you not to do anything that will hinder or aggravate us,” he said in a voice that reminded me of the Vesper’s. “Your materials can be acquired outside of the city.”
“Outside of the city…” I repeated, the words not seeming real to me.
Davin laughed again. “Bet you never thought you would make it past the barricade, did you, darling?”
Chapter 7
Sawyer
The new recruits were terrible sailors.
I didn’t expect much after we made our trip across the barricade into Satbury, the tiny neighboring province of Westraven where Beck claimed the Brigade was hiding, but I’d hoped for better than this. While Nash exhausted his patience and Gemma screamed at the recruits to hurry up, I spent half my time untying and retying knots, barking orders and scrutinizing failures. No one was happy, but this was life on a ship. I told the hard truths and reminded them of the most important one of all:
They should be lucky I wasn’t like the other men in my family.
The unintended threat worked better than I wanted it to.
I spent the rest of my time with Beck. Not just because I wanted to know more about this army of his, but because I didn’t trust him. Maybe it was coincidence that he found me when I decided that fighting Crosley was a good idea, but I didn’t understand why he returned.
He was a straightforward man, so I thought it best to just ask him as we traveled through the air in the Dauntless, going to this hidden settlement where we could concentrate our efforts without the distraction of being killed.
“Most of the Sky Guard was killed in The Storm,” he explained to Gemma, Nash, and me at the helm of the ship. “Most, but not all. A few squads were told to run past the barricades when they were still under construction. We were told to get reinforcements.”
“Sounds like you got the easy way out,” I said, trying to see if he was lying.
One stone-cold look proved that he wasn’t.
“Think whatever you want about Sky Guards, Sawyer,” warned Beck, “but if you accuse me and my men of being cowards again, I will make you bleed for it.”
I believed him. I nodded so he could continue.
“By the time we made it into Satbury, the ship had done most of the damage.”
“The Behemoth?” asked Gemma.
Beck shook his head. “Smaller than that. Less firepower. We called it the Bastard.”
“So there were more ships,” Nash said, glancing at me with the smallest bit of I told you so on his face.
“One for every province,” answered Beck. His eyes were distant and grim. I wondered if he was thinking about friends he lost outside of the city. I couldn’t help but feel guilty about my earlier words, and knew it was too late to change them.
“Compared to Westraven, most of Aon is small,” he continued, “only a few hundred people in each province. Not a much of a resistance.”
We fell silent. I didn’t know anyone outside of Westraven, and neither did Gemma and Nash. But I could allow myself a minute of sympathy and grief for the small towns that didn’t have many places to hide and had no real military to protect them. The Storm had devastated Westraven, but it would have annihilated a small town.
“We picked up some survivors along the way. Made a small town of our own. Basically a shantytown. But it’s enough, and we’ve gotten help.”
“Who runs the town?” I asked.
Something flashed through Beck’s eyes, too quick for me to catch. If I didn’t know better, I would have said it was hesitance.
“I’m not at liberty to say.”
“What?” protested Gemma. “Why?”
“I’m just not. You’ll meet them soon enough.”
I matched Gemma’s glare. “Asking for our help then keeping secrets isn’t the best way to establish trust,” I pointed out.
Beck turned a sharp, dark gaze on me. “We’re humans. That means we’re on the same side.”
“I’ve met plenty of humans who acted otherwise,” I told him darkly.
Beck didn’t argue. Silence hung thick in the air. I sat up and stretched my legs, gazing at the horizon.
Satbury was worse off than I thought it would be. The rolling hills were covered in yellow, tinder dry grass. Charred trees jutted up from a forest that looked more like a scattered collection of sheared and broken bones. On the peak of one of the upcoming hills were slanted buildings clustered together like uneven teeth. We were still a couple hours away from it. Same as with the recruits and volunteers training on the deck, I wasn’t expecting much.
“What made you come back to Westraven?” Nash asked Beck from behind me.
“We saw the Behemoth fall,” answered the soldier. “It’s always been in sight from the town. We saw it collapse, and were ordered back to the city to see what was going.”
“Ordered by this mystery person you refuse to tell us about?” accused Gemma.
“The same,” Beck grumbled in response.
“Sounds like they have quite the stranglehold,” I grumped from the side of the ship.
I felt more than heard Beck rise from behind me. I turned around and balled my fists, waiting to see if he would make a move against me.
“You have no idea,” Beck growled. “No idea what’s had to be done to preserve our life out here. Westraven has food. Satbury was a small place before we got there. It’s been nearly impossible to rebuild. Don’t believe me? Take another look around.”
I kept my hands closed and my eyes on him. I didn’t need to see the sight again.
“Then how do you expect to sustain fifty more people?” questioned Nash. He remained sitting, but I knew my friend would be ready to fight Beck at a second’s notice. His loyalty was unquestionable, and he had a bone to pick with Beck.
The soldier turned his dark eyes from me so he could look at Nash.
“We’ve got Scavenging Days the same as you,” he replied, “but ours last for weeks at a time. We have to move further out into the provinces and search them top to bottom. All while under the watch of Hellions. Satbury is a waypoint. It isn’t home.”
That was good to know.
“It doesn’t seem like you have that problem, though,” I said, gliding over the information he revealed and nodding in the direction of the town. “There are no ships hovering out there.”
“After we saw the Behemoth fall, we decided to push our luck. We had some engineers make advanced weapons for us that helped take the Bastard down. He smi
led dryly. “You can say you inspired us.”
We didn’t respond or smile back.
“Regardless, our people will make sure you’re safe. The recruits as well,” he tossed a nod in the direction of the crowded deck. “If nothing else, we’ll have members of the Brigade train them. Take some of the burden off your shoulders.”
“Won’t hear me complain about that,” I said. “No point in them putting up a fight unless they actually know how.”
For the first time in the conversation, Beck nodded his agreement.
“We have a little girl on board the ship,” Gemma said. Beck turned to her. “Will she be safe in Satbury?”
My heart lurched suddenly. Abby couldn’t come with us to Hellnore. It was beyond dangerous, and the Vesper had already gained control of her once. Who was to say he wouldn’t do it again? Claire would do anything to protect her little sister. We all would. No matter how much we cared about her, there was no denying that Abby was a liability.
“Yes,” Beck confirmed without hesitation. “We have elderly in Satbury and Sage Grove. Women and a few other children. Nothing will happen to her. I give you my word.”
If only I knew what it was worth, I thought.
“You do know who we are, right?”
“You mean, marauders? Or you being the son of Robertson Kendric?”
No emotion passed through his eyes when he said it. Whatever he was feeling was a mystery to me.
Beck shrugged. “The past is in the past where it belongs. We’ll all survivors now. Anyone pretending otherwise is fooling themselves.”
One of the recruits called Beck’s name from the deck. He’d been helping with weapon and combat training on the first leg of the journey, so no doubt someone was eager for his advice. He glanced around the crowd until he saw the person he was looking for, then raised his hand to acknowledge them. He started toward the stairs, then turned to face us.
“I know you don’t trust me, and I don’t blame you. I even understand your reasons. But we’re not going be able to do anything against the Hellions if you don’t at least try.”
I stifled a laugh. “Someone’s already told me something similar. Hope you don’t mind if I trust her more than you.”
Beck shook his head and walked down the steps, leaving me with my friends. He was probably exhausted of my stubbornness. That I could understand at least.
Nash and Gemma approached me. She leaned against him, looking so small next to his broad, imposing frame. She looked like she belonged there.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Nash asked.
I turned to the ledge again, draping my arms over the banister and staring into the approaching horizon. “You were the one who told me to get help.”
“I’m not sure this is what I meant.”
“Who better than the Sky Guard?” I asked. “They’re trained soldiers. They probably have weapons. Maybe they’ll even listen to Beck when he tells them not to shoot us on sight.”
“It’s not the Sky Guard I have a problem with. It’s everything he didn’t tell us. We know a little about this town and the people in it, but him not willing to tell us who runs Sage Grove has me worried.” His frown was hard when he said, “It wouldn’t be the first time someone connected to the Sky Guard would have deceived us.”
My fingers dug into the wood of the ledge. Thinking about Riley and how he’d betrayed us– how he’d been instrumental in breaking Claire’s heart and capturing her– infuriated me like nothing else. Puppet or not, I wouldn’t hesitate to wrap my hands around his neck and choke the life from him after what he did.
I took a deep breath and calmed myself down. “Beck seems like a man of his word. But we’re going to watch every move he makes. We’re going to look for the faults.” I turned back to my friends. “The second something doesn’t feel right, we’re gone. We take as many recruits as we can, and we leave.”
Gemma and Nash nodded. They believed the same thing I did, that there was a reason Beck followed us after my fight with Crosley. He wanted something.
And I had a feeling I might be standing on it.
“Not sure I expected to see the outside world like this,” Gemma remarked. Both Nash and I looked at her. She swept her arm out lazily, drawing our attention to the desolate wasteland surrounding us.
Before becoming part of my crew, both Nash and Gemma had sought refuge past the barricades. They thought there would be some kind of clean slate where they could erase their pasts and build a new life. I wondered if they ever regretted their missed opportunity.
Then I saw the way they looked at each other, and knew better.
“For better or worse, we’re stuck with Beck and his friends for now.”
Nash looked past me to the town. He jutted his chin in its direction. “Least they’re welcoming us.”
I followed my friend’s gaze and saw a thin trail of smoke rising from the town. It looked dark, but controlled. We hadn’t noticed any Hellion skiffs descending from the blackening clouds over our heads.
Still, I didn’t know what this signal meant. I stalked to the front of the helm and searched for the soldier.
“Beck,” I called. There was no need to hide our voices. The Dauntless was cruising low to the ground so the volunteers wouldn’t get motion sickness. The last thing I needed right now were Nash’s annoyed glare and Gemma’s angry shouting if they had to clean up fifty puddles of vomit.
The former Sky Guard sergeant bounded up the steps of the quarterdeck, pulling to a stop beside us. I pointed to the smoke billowing into the sky. It was thicker than before.
“What kind of message are your people trying to send us?”
My words trailed off as I looked in his eyes, and saw the horror there.
“We don’t use smoke signals,” he whispered. “Ever.”
Sharp understanding cut through me. I sprinted for the helm and started barking orders.
“Drop sails! Full speed ahead! Get this ship moving!”
The recruits shifted nervously on their feet, unfamiliar with what I was asking. Gemma and Nash launched forward, repeating the same orders and whipping the crew into shape. They scurried around like rats, each man and woman looking for something that would help the ship pick up speed.
I gripped the helm with white knuckled hands. The wind whipped through my hair as we careened toward the smoking town.
“Tell me your men know when to hide and when to fight,” I said to Beck, keeping my gaze on the smoking horizon.
“They do. Why?”
I tightened my hold and turned the wheel ever so slightly.
“Because I think we’re about to walk into a trap.”
Chapter 8
Claire
I didn’t know where the smoke had come from.
We arrived a few hours ago, drifting quietly into the shantytown that Davin chose to raid. He happily leaped from the skiff and led the Hellions on a search for carnage. Riley stayed near me, returned to his blank, deadpan self.
