Percy pursed his lips. “We met pockets of aether in Peru. So it’s not unlikely. Aether doesn’t stay confined to the aetherosphere as completely as we once thought.”
“Wouldna Rodrigo or Rue sense something, if this were true?”
“Maybe, difficult to know. We don’t have enough case studies. We need another supernatural creature aboard. One who doesn’t sleep as much as a cat.”
Arsenic nodded towards Lady Sakura. “Weel, she’s a supernatural. Aye?”
Percy wrinkled his nose. “Obviously. She’s one of the fox shifters we were meant to find.”
Arsenic was pleased to have confirmation. It made her feel a lot better about her inability to diagnose the patient. She didn’t ask how Percy figured it out, she trusted him.
Arsenic fell back on their customary exchange of ideas. Bouncing her thoughts off him as soon as they appeared. “And she’s ill because of aether exposure. The same that’s impacting Tasherit. But she’s been here longer so it’s got her worse.”
“Or it, whatever it is, affects different types of supernatural creatures differently.” Percy’s red eyebrows were drawn down in thought. The light of the red lantern above made his face devilish. As if he were the malignant spirit, and not poor old Formerly Floote.
Percy continued speculating. “What if Edo is tethered the same way a vampire queen is tethered to her hive or an Alpha werewolf to his pack? What if there is no visible connection keeping the Paper City from drifting away, because it’s aetherically based and therefore invisible to the naked eye.”
Arsenic liked that idea. “As if this whole city were charged with aether?”
Rue interrupted them. “Are you two theorizing? Now is not the time for rampant hypothesis! We are in a precarious position. Next thing you’ll both descend into Latin while the rest of us are assassinated around you.”
Arsenic looked up.
There appeared to be some sort of stalemate.
Rue explained. “We’re refusing to leave without return of our weapons. They don’t get to keep everything they confiscated!”
“Canna they boot us regardless?”
Rue grinned evilly. “Nope. Turns out we have a few more bullets than they thought stashed aboard. One Gatling gun is loaded and pointed at their biggest lantern. I don’t know for certain, but Lord Ryuunosuke’s attitude would seem to indicate that whatever keeps the lanterns alight and afloat is also explosive.” Her tawny eyes were filled with glee.
“You saying that we are currently threatening their entire city?”
“Might be.” Rue looked sublimely casual about it.
Arsenic turned to see who manned the guns – Spoo and Virgil.
“With children?”
“They’re excellent shots,” said Rue.
Arsenic tilted her head and took a deep breath. “We are at an impasse?”
“Indeed we are.” Rue was a little too cheerful.
Primrose was attempting to pass around fresh tea.
Arsenic glanced back at Percy. “Does your sister never stop?”
“Tea is her answer to everything. I once broke my arm and she tried to give me Lapsang souchong.”
Arsenic gave his arms an appraising look. “Healed straight?”
“Pray don’t concern yourself, Doctor, I had an excellent surgeon. Amazing how efficient people get when one’s mother is a vampire queen.”
The main deck was a tableau.
A massive glittering gun was aimed at the red balloon above them. The Japanese soldiers, for their part, were pointing wicked-looking handguns at the Custard’s officers. Arsenic was shocked to find one pointed at her.
Lord Ryuunosuke still looked shaken after his ghostly encounter.
Lady Sakura had reappeared in the door of her litter, reasonably calm.
Arsenic walked over to her, ignoring Lord Ryuunosuke’s warning hiss and the gun pointed at her.
“She is still my patient,” she said to him, via Percy, who walked with her.
She bent down to look inside, shielding the tiny woman from outside view with her body.
“What are you, Lady Sakura? What species?”
“Kitsune,” said the lady, no shame or dissimulation. “The best species, of course.”
“And you’re the leader of the kitsune in this area?” There was no other explanation for keeping one such as her hostage than that they wished to guarantee the obedience of others with her presence.
The tiny woman inclined her head.
Arsenic could not see how this dignified yet meek immortal could be so much a threat. But then again, vampires could often appear unthreatening, yet they were the most dangerous of the supernatural set. Countess Nadasdy was reputed to look like a dairymaid, yet she’d killed thousands without mercy over the decades.
“Help them, Doctor. If you cannot help me, help them.”
Arsenic was shoved aside by Lord Ryuunosuke.
Percy, silly man, yelled and tried to step between them.
Lord Ryuunosuke was not quite so tall as Percy but he was more substantial. He brushed the ginger academic aside with a flick of his wrist, at the same time pulling Arsenic up and holding her with one hand to the front of her bicycle suit.
“What are you doing, little doctor?” He spoke English after all.
“One might ask the same of you, my lord. What do you need her for, so badly?”
His face remained impassive.
“Edo is killing her. Whatever it is that separates her from her people is making her weak.”
“That’s your professional opinion?”
“How fare the rest of her kind below? I hear they are ill too? She is their queen, is she not? Their Alpha?” Arsenic wondered what it would be like for a werewolf pack to be separated from their Alpha for years or decades, knowing she was right there, far above them. Or vampires separated from their queen, the tether still present between them but stretched, constantly stretched.
Percy raised himself on both elbows. “Goodness, that’s not it, is it?” He looked at Arsenic. “It is possible to do that?”
Percy’s mind buzzed with the possibilities. Could a single tether hold an entire city in place? Was it strong enough? Was a tether so solid a thing as to profoundly affect the tangible world? He supposed it must be aether that facilitated form-shifting. Aether must be both particulate and wave, both reality and probability. So it had some substantial physical manifestation.
“Arsenic!”
“Aye, Percy?”
They were crouched together, having been thrust aside by Lord Ryuunosuke.
“You think it’s possible that Lady Sakura herself is being used to keep Edo from drifting? That it’s her tether to her pack that is keeping the Paper City in place?”
“Aye, Percy.”
“That’s brilliant!”
“It would account for her illness. It would account for the effect on Tasherit and Formerly Floote.”
“But can one tether interfere with another in such a way?”
“I think if it is fraying. It is like aether, leaking. Aether that is meant to hold a kitsune to her people. Who knows what kind of effect such a thing might have on those around. Perhaps there is something more tangible than simply culture that keeps packs and hives apart.”
Percy nodded. It was well known in England that vampires and werewolves took many lovers, but never each other. His mother described the very idea as revolting.
“They are using a supernatural like an anchor.” Percy’s mind boggled.
But then again, it was not so improbable as pockets of aether. As fat-sucking vampires. As anything else they’d encountered in their various adventures. Ugh, he hated the word adventure. So threatening. Although this would make an excellent paper.
Except, of course, there was a niggling concern. Poor Lady Sakura. Percy could not help but imagine someone doing such a thing to his own mother, trapping her and using her as a lynchpin. It was outright abuse.
Percy was sickened and offended.
It was out of character for him to be so overwrought. Yet he was. To understand the supernatural from a dispassionate outsider perspective was one thing, but to manipulate it for one’s own ends? Well, that was downright ungentlemanly.
Percy stood, drew himself up to his full height, and ignoring the tension about him, and the guns pointed at him, and everything else, he thrust an accusing finger at Lord Ryuunosuke.
“How could you, sir! You torturer! You malignant, nasty, despotic…” He was running out of terms and searched for the right phrase in Latin. But even Latin deserted him.
Lord Ryuunosuke crowded him back, using his bulk and proximity to force him and Arsenic away from Lady Sakura, until they were pressed against the railing on the side of the deck.
“Uh, Percy…” said Arsenic, clutching his arm.
But even Arsenic’s touch did not distract him.
Percy was angry. Percy rarely got angry. But such a thing! To trap an innocent supernatural creature and keep her prisoner, use her in such a brutal way. Even Percy had a moral compass. And this flipped the pikelet!
He switched to Japanese and tried to remember every mean word he’d learned. Which hadn’t been a lot, but he could get creative. He called Lord Ryuunosuke a rotten fruit, and a limp cherry blossom, and a dead dog, and a flat dumpling, and then …
All breath left him at the force of the shove. He was airborne and he was falling.
Arsenic was a decent student of human nature but even she had no idea why it was the dumpling insult that did it.
Nevertheless, apparently it was flat dumpling that drove Lord Ryuunosuke to physically shove Percy overboard. He may, or may not, have intended to kill him. She’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt. He did not know his own strength, or he did not realize Percy’s fight was all mouth and he had no physical defences.
But he shoved hard enough to tip the professor. And Percy was tall enough for the railing to be hip height. He stumbled over his own feet. Arsenic knew it was going to happen a split second before it did. Since she was there, close to him, touching, she did the only thing she could think of.
She dove after.
Of course, this was a daft thing to do. She was a doctor and her instinct was to try to save people. But honestly, she couldn’t fly.
Above them everyone screamed.
Or Arsenic assumed they screamed. She was too busy listening to the sound of air rushing past her ears.
She folded herself tight so as to gain a tiny bit of momentum, because Percy was right there, falling too. He wasn’t screaming, but she suspected that was because Lord Ryuunosuke had knocked the wind from his lungs when he shoved.
She hit Percy, thank heavens, and wrapped herself about him tight, one arm and both legs. They were lined up so she was plastered against his front, like lovers.
Instinctively, if convulsively, Percy wrapped himself around her. Long gangly arms about her neck, legs twined with hers.
“Dinna strangle me, Percy,” she yelled, “but hold on!”
She reached behind, above her bottom, where a thick corded ribbon flapped. She tugged at it, pulling hard.
The obi about her waist unfolded and the pillow beneath unfurled. A huge silken parachute deployed above them, sky blue and beautifully wide. It flapped a moment and then caught.
They jerked. Percy coiled himself even tighter around her. His eyes were screwed shut. He seemed to have recovered his breath because he was muttering over and over again, “Oh no oh no oh no oh no.”
“I got you, m’eudail,” said Arsenic, feeling proud of herself. Her mother’s training had come in useful, remembering all those times she’d been made to climb up walls and swing from ropes, and jump from one roof to another.
“Mother, must I?” she’d always said. “I hardly see how this sort of thing will help a doctor.”
“You’ll learn what I have to teach you, Nic.” Preshea had insisted, eyes hard.
Her mother wasn’t loving but she was often right. Not that Preshea had shoved her daughters over the sides of airships on the regular. But she had taught them how to stay calm in a crisis, and how to weigh and balance options, and how to make use of the tools provided.
The silk held them steady, slowing their descent. Percy stayed wrapped firmly about her. The dark of Japan below stopped rushing towards them and instead began to sway gently as they got closer.
Arsenic calmed enough to enjoy the sensation.
Flying, she thought. I’m basically fall-flying.
She threw her head back and yelled into the night, “Wheeee- eeeeee!”
Percy had never been so scared in all his life.
It wasn’t that he had a particular fear of falling, until he was, in fact, plummeting to his death from a dirigible.
This is it, he thought. Lose my temper and here I am. He hadn’t even managed to dredge up any famous Latin insults.
Then thin strong arms were twined around him. And legs, too. And in midair he was in an intimate embrace with a doctor. He was even more horrified by the idea that he’d somehow pulled Arsenic overboard with him. Worse than his own death, he’d caused hers, too! He moaned in misery and opened his eyes.
I should apologize before we both become eternally procumbent.
Except she was giving him instructions to hold on. Like he would ever let her go. And calling him m’eudail, which was wonderful, whatever it meant, but she couldn’t have called him that while they were actually still alive?
He closed his eyes.
He heard something louder than the rush of the wind. He heard a hollow flapping cracking sound, like the biggest kite in the world.
Then Arsenic gave a tremendous jerk, and his arms tightened about his lady reflexively.
The air about his ears quieted.
They were no longer falling. They were no longer rushing full tilt through the air. He was drifting, cradled in Arsenic’s arms.
He cracked one eye and then the other. Above him the stars were gone. He expected to see the rapidly disappearing Paper City but he saw nothing, emptiness.
Not emptiness, fabric. Like a tent. He twisted his head. There was the moon, not quite full, near the horizon, glittering over the ocean. There was Japan, a dark blob against the shimmering sea, moving closer to them. But slowly, illuminated by the prismatic colours of Edo. Colours that they interrupted in part, a smudge in the filtered light, because above them, supporting them, slowing their descent, was a massive… pillowcase?
Parachute? supplied his addled brain.
“Wheeeeeeeeeee!” said Arsenic.
He gripped her tighter. His muscles convulsed, semi-frozen in fear. Also, it was cold.
Percy shifted his gaze to look at the woman in his arms.
Her eyes were bright over his shoulder, watching the land they were floating down towards.
“It looks like we’ll land just outside of Tokyo, in the countryside,” she reported, happily.
“Where? What? How?” he babbled at her.
“Lady Sakura gave me a parachute.”
“Oh.” For once in his life Percy really couldn’t think of anything to say. “Sorry about the, erm, intimacy of our current predicament.”
“Dinna let go!”
“Never!” Percy hooked one hand into the belt at her waist, which seemed to be holding them both up.
“I dinna mind,” she added. “If you dinna.”
Percy snorted. “I’d respond in Latin, but my Latin has entirely deserted me. Suffice to say I should like to have embraced you under less dangerous circumstances.”
“Would you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Bonnie. Now, hold on, we’re down in a few moments, could get bumpy.”
“Delighted to be alive, frankly, Doctor. Bring on the bumps.”
“Good, because you’re on the bottom.”
“A model for our future life.”
“Is it?”
“Anything you wish.”
“Right now, ground would be good.”
Thump.
ELEVEN
Temples in Motion
The thing is, one never expects to see someone actually fall out of an airship.
Spoo racked her brain. She’d been a long time aboard dirigibles, ever since she was old enough to know a puffer from a probe, but in all that time she’d never seen someone tumble overboard. Certainly not someone she liked.
To see the doctor follow immediately after old Percy, apparently of her own will, was even more startling.
Spoo might have screamed.
Fortunately, everyone was screaming so no one noted her moment of weakness. Spoo was well aware of the ragging that she’d endure from fellow decklings, if they ever found out. She had a reputation to maintain.
Everyone rushed to the edge to watch them plummet to their deaths, because who wouldn’t? It wasn’t as if humans could look away from horror.
Plummet they certainly did, for seemingly long moments, and then a poof of fabric bloomed above them like a massive bathing cap and caught in the wind.
“By Jove,” said Spoo, to no one in particular, “that’s a parachute, that is! Did you know they had themselves a parachute?”
No one answered her but there were a great many sighs of relief.
The railing was crammed with Spoo’s crewmates but also the enemy. Spoo defined the enemy, for the time being, as the Japanese soldiers, one tarted-up lordling in a suit made of fish scales, and his ladybird. Spoo knew she was supposed to be impressed by all the fancy fabrics and gussied-up noggins, which was why she wasn’t.
After all, she’d once seen Lord Akeldama up close and all sparkles, so it’d take a deal more than robes to impress her. Something like. These Japanese folks were like something, but Spoo wasn’t sure what just yet.
Spoo’s immediate thought was of Virgil (since she couldn’t do anything for the poor sods gone parachuting). She glanced about to see her friend with a shaky hand pressed to his chest, beads of sweat on his brow, and as near to an actual fainting fit as Spoo had ever seen in a non-aristocrat.
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