Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  He tucked a lock of her hair that had fallen out of its ponytail behind her ear. “No. It was my day off. I was sent here to pick up my last paycheck, and I heard the alarms go off. I came running to help, you know. Sounds like no one was killed.”

  She nodded. Cave-ins weren’t a regular occurrence, but they weren’t rare enough. Everyone had plenty of practice with what to do every time the alarms went off. Sufford would be closed the rest of the night while families closed shop to be with loved ones and to help get the mine up and running again.

  “Wait… Your last paycheck?”

  “Actually,” he continued. “I was hoping you’d come back from your shipping trip, so I could tell you I’ve taken another job. No more mines.”

  She glanced up at him. Out of the mines. That would be great for him. He didn’t need to waste away like his father or her parents.

  “Lark said they need pilots for the UA, and I thought it would give me a little more money. I signed up.”

  He’d signed up. For the war. To fly. To fight. To die.

  She might not have wanted a long-term relationship, or the white picket fence and kids with him, but she didn’t want him to die.

  He smiled for a moment, but it faded. “What’s wrong? You don’t think I can handle the training?”

  “No, no, it’s not that—”

  “Then what is it? I was thinking I could put a down payment on a house… somewhere north? I heard, uh, Nilkham is nice this time of year.”

  “Mack—”

  “I’m serious.”

  “Please, don’t do this. Drop your name. The UA is dangerous. People die, a lot of people. War is not a game.”

  “Neither is the money.” He shrugged. “And you do it.”

  “Not for the UA.”

  “If I become a pilot and help win the war with the Goliath, I could buy anything a couple of poor people like you and me could ever want.”

  She wiped her nose. “I already told you—”

  He nodded and smiled. “That’s right. You want to be alone.”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “You’re right, I wouldn’t.” He looked just over her shoulder and then back at her. “I’ve never been subtle, Clove, but I’m going to tell you I don’t want to be alone from you when this war is finally over.”

  She sighed. He didn’t get it. He never would. Life was not that easy to go marrying people and living happily ever after.

  And when the war was over, she’d… What had he said?

  “Wait. You said we’ll win the war with the Goliath? What’s the Goliath?”

  He winced and scratched his flat stomach. “Eh...”

  “Mack.”

  He looked around, lips pressed together in a thin line. “I wasn’t supposed to say.”

  “You better now. You owe me.”

  “I owe you?” he grinned again.

  “Look at me. I’m a mess. I even cried on your shoulder.”

  He chuckled. “I know. You must really miss me, right?”

  “Tell me.” She glared, not really meaning to sound as harsh as she had.

  “It’s just something Lark was telling me. It’s nothing we can really talk about.” He brought his mouth to her ear. It reminded her of those cold nights when they were back in school, when they’d sneak out to the fields outside of Ethrecity, sharing beers a few years too young and messing around until the sun came up.

  It was just before her parents had died and he had to quit school to help his dad. Just before reality called for them and the struggle against Revel had begun to show through the cracks and seams of Ingini.

  Memories were nice, but that was all they were.

  “It’s an airship,” he whispered, his lips almost grazing her ear.

  “What?” She’d forgotten what they were talking about.

  “The Goliath. It’s a new airship. They’re calling it an X-Class, twice as large as a Super S. It’s in Sufford.”

  She pulled back. “That’s impossible. They don’t have a hangar big enough—”

  He pointed behind them back in the mine. “It’s underground. Brand new. They built it out here for the UA. Something huge is about to happen.”

  Those tracks that led on to Sufford and Ethrecity underground. All those crates of grimoires, the demand for large amounts of ether-fuel…

  “What does it do?” she whispered.

  Emeryss and Sonora had been talking, eying her and Mack. Her time was up.

  “I have no idea, but it’s a big deal. The Ingineers have been in Sufford for four weeks straight. The ether coming in and out of there are on enormous pallets. It’s something big, Clove. Something that’ll end the war for sure.”

  End the war. That’s what she wanted. But… “Do you know anything about any grimoires?”

  His shook his head. “You know the laser in Fort Damned?”

  She nodded and eyed Emeryss. She’d said she’d annihilated it, but only after it had blown a hole through the city and all the lives in it.

  “It jammed and broke apart. The CEOs that funded it were furious, made headline news and everything. They’re very involved with the Goliath, according to Lark. It’s like our greatest achievement or something. He said that they said that this will be the airship that ends all wars,” he whispered.

  Her mind raced back to the laser on Pigyll.

  “Will it kill whole cities, too?” she asked.

  “I assume so. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

  The point was that her brother was still over there in Revel in one of those cities, and she had to get him out before the Ingini did anything. She’d better get these idiot Revelians their information as fast as possible.

  “When are they going to use it?” she asked.

  He half-laughed. “I don’t know that much, Clove. I wasn’t even supposed to know that.”

  She nodded.

  “Lark said that he gets a break when all this blows over. He said he’d see me in a couple of weeks.”

  “Clove,” Emeryss called to her.

  She peered at them and then back to Mack.

  “Who are they?” he asked.

  “Some shipping people I have to help. It’s part of the job,” she lied.

  “You’re shipping people? You’re just a taxi?”

  “Something like that.” She backed a few steps away from him. “I’m sorry, but I have to finish this job. I have to get back to—”

  “To where? Where are you going? Can I come? Can I help?” Mack held out his hands for her.

  She lifted hers and backed away slowly. “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry, but no. It’s not like a regular shipment.”

  He inched toward her and tried again. “Clove?”

  “I’ll be back soon.” She turned to head toward Emeryss.

  “We’ve already signaled for the airship to come pick us up just off the hill there,” Emeryss said pointing.

  She nodded, joining up with them, still unable to form words.

  “Are you okay?” Emeryss asked.

  She nodded again. No. She wasn’t okay.

  “Was that a… friend?” Emeryss was looking at him, but Clove wouldn’t turn around.

  “Yes.”

  If she looked at him, she might lose her grip and ask Mack to come, she might ask him to stay or fight to stay or shoot to stay. It wouldn’t have ended well, and it wouldn’t bring Cayn home.

  They sneaked off through the trees and over the hill to Pigyll waiting with its engines turned on. The cargo hold popped open where Adalai was waiting for them, and Sonora, Grier, and Emeryss stepped inside.

  “Clove, wait!” Mack had followed her. He was jogging up to meet her. “Wait a minute. Who are these people?”

  Adalai hung on the edge of the cargo hold. “Let’s go, Clove. Now!”

  She cringed and faced Mack. Adalai would kill him. The UA would kill him. “I’m sorry, but—”

  “Just come right back, okay?” He hugged her close again. He smelled like
Dimmur, like fried hol-sticks, cheap beer, and metal crates.

  “Clove.” He pulled away and looked down to where she’d stashed Cayn’s gun inside her suit. “Is that a gun?” he whispered, barely moving his lips. When she didn’t answer, he looked up past her shoulder at the Revelians behind her. “Who are they, Clove?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  “You have a gun. Are you in trouble? I can get you out. I told you I can—”

  “I know. That’s not it, I swear. I just—”

  “Now, Clove!” Adalai barked.

  “Do me a favor?” She stepped back toward Pigyll. “Don’t join the UA. Don’t die.”

  She ran back into the cargo hold, leaving him behind.

  Chapter 13

  Pigyll — Ingini

  The cargo hold door closed, casting them in darkness until the running lights kicked on.

  Emeryss turned to Clove whose eyes were swollen and red.

  That man was someone she cared about. “Are you okay, Clove?”

  She nodded and turned away, freezing in place and jaw dropping open.

  Emeryss turned to see what she was staring at and found two perfectly constructed cages holding two people. One was the foreman, head back, tongue out, but breathing. He was asleep with drool down his chin and shirt. The other cage held that Kimpert woman from inside the mine.

  “Oh no,” Sonora said. “Adalai, you kidnapped their foreman and this woman? What is wrong with you?”

  “I’m actually doing something about this,” she said. “I’m fixing it. Grier wants me to feel bad about the Ingini having to work in the mines. Well, I said I’d do one better and fix this mess. I’m fixing it. She’s responsible for—”

  Clove roared and launched herself at Kimpert’s cage. “Let me in there! Let me get her! I want her out now, and I’ll kill her myself!”

  Kimpert jerked back but lifted her chin a little.

  “You did this!” she screamed at Kimpert through the bars. “You did this to us! You ruined everything!”

  The Zephyrs stepped back, silent.

  “I was doing my job. It’s business,” Kimpert stammered out. “It’s not personal—”

  “Hol-shit, it wasn’t personal!” Clove shook the cage with all her might.

  Mykel bit his lip. “I’m not sure the cage will hold if you keep—”

  “Good!” Clove screamed. “Get her out of here, and I’ll kill her for you! You all came here to kill us, to ruin our lives, well, let me help you get rid of one more Ingini.”

  Sonora glanced at Grier and Emeryss. “Clove, that’s not… Well, we…”

  “He might be dead because of you!” Clove yelled at Kimpert.

  “I do not understand what you’re talking about,” Kimpert said cool and even, barely a tremble in her voice.

  And there should have been. She should have been terrified and apologizing. This woman had no idea who they were or what they could do, and she was seemingly unafraid.

  “You don’t know because you don’t care about any of us.” Clove’s voice cracked. “You don’t care about anything but money and your business and your hangars. You fired me! We would have starved to death!”

  The raw anger. If Clove had ether, it would have been turbulent and roiling off of her.

  It broke Emeryss’s heart a little. It was the most they’d ever gotten out of Clove. Something in that mine had broken her. Maybe it was seeing that friend of hers or seeing Kimpert, but something had broken her.

  The airship landed, the engines cut off, and Jahree joined them in the back. “What is going on?”

  Adalai raised an eyebrow but must have thought better not to open her mouth.

  Kimpert cleared her throat. “Clove, I highly doubt you would have starved. Your brother was an excellent escort if I remember correctly.”

  Clove roared again. “We had to take crates to Fort Damned for money from a guy who threatened to skin us if we messed up!”

  Kimpert’s upper lip curled into a snarl. “Trent? He’s skimming off my shipments?”

  Kimpert hadn’t really listened to Clove because she was still too selfish.

  Clove’s voice cracked again as her bottom lip quivered. “Cayn and I were caught in the invasion in Fort Damned. They shot me down in Revel. I’ve been a prisoner all this time. Cayn might be…” She swallowed and squeezed her eyes shut. “I did everything you asked, I trusted you, and you don’t even care!”

  Emeryss glanced at the others, registering the same pain and guilt on their faces pulling on her own heart. The Ingini would have killed them given the chance, and they did in Marana, but Clove’s brother had been Clove’s only family and clearly meant so much more to her than they’d understood.

  Now it was clear why Clove was willing to help the enemy to find her brother, why she was always demanding information about him.

  And if Revel had started the invasion like she’d said, then what did that make them? And if Clove’s brother had died in the crash? Her chest ached for Clove and what would come of her. What would come of any of them after this?

  “This woman is the one receiving the grimoires before they’re being passed on. She knows who she’s getting them from,” Grier said, arms crossed.

  “Where are you getting them then?” Urla asked.

  Kimpert smirked.

  Adalai’s nostrils flared. “Aurelis.”

  Everyone turned to her in stunned silence.

  Someone in Aurelis was handing over grimoires to Kimpert, to Ingini, to the enemy. They were putting their own country at risk, for what?

  If Grier was relieved that it wasn’t Stadhold sending the grimoires over, he didn’t show it. The truth was bad enough without pointing fingers at who’d guessed right or wrong.

  “Aurelis?” Jahree repeated.

  Kimpert gave nothing away.

  Adalai stepped up beside Clove, glared at Kimpert in the corner, and pointed to the sleeping foreman in the next cage. “Do you see him? Do you know what I did to him? I made his brain think he was in a make-believe world for over an hour. His brain thought he was on a beach somewhere, laying out in the sun and swimming in the ocean.” She held up her wrist and pointed to a tiny sigil there. “See that? I have one more just for you. Want me to see what I can destroy your mind with?”

  Kimpert’s eyes grew large, but her mouth remained shut.

  Adalai fashioned an illusionary dagger in her hand and waved it in front of Kimpert’s face. “Have you ever been stabbed by an illusionist’s dagger? It’s not like a real dagger. It slices like a real one, but it does more than that.”

  “It burns,” Clove cut in. “It burns you from the inside out. It crawls through you, lighting you on fire along the way.”

  Emeryss held her breath. Clove would only know that because of Adalai trying to get information from her.

  “Who in Aurelis is getting you these grimoires?” Adalai asked Kimpert.

  Kimpert shook her head. “I-I don’t know their real name. We-we have codenames.”

  “Enlighten me,” Adalai pushed.

  Tears bubbled up at the corners of Kimpert’s eyes.

  “Do you know what she can do?” Adalai pointed to Sonora. “She can make you deaf with a whisper.” She pointed to Urla. “She can stop your heart before you even realize she’s moved.” She pointed to Jahree. “He can pull the air from your lungs and never give it back.” She pointed to Vaughn. “He can crush your body with a pebble.”

  Kimpert’s tears broke over the edges.

  “Codenames. Now.”

  “H-H-He’s Silverfox.” Kimpert dabbed at her cheeks. “I’m Greenkitty.”

  Jahree scoffed, and Adalai looked like she was about to vomit on her shoes.

  Vaughn whistled. “This is bad. This is so… so bad.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Clove shouted. “Pet names? You’re killing tons of innocent people for…”

  Kimpert’s eyes fell to her gold ring, next to her silver ring, and a couple of gemstone bracelets.


  “For money.” Clove half-laughed. “Of course.”

  “She’s literally sleeping with the enemy?” Mykel shivered. “I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but this is it.”

  Without missing a beat, without batting an eye, Clove lifted her chin. “Does Silverfox know about the Goliath?”

  Emeryss had no idea what the Goliath was, but at that word, Kimpert’s eyes widened as if speared through the chest, as if the word itself had summoned a behemoth beast from the depths of the void and called for her.

  Kimpert scurried up and wrapped her dainty, manicured hands around the bars. “Don’t you dare, Clove! You have no idea what you’re dealing with!”

  Clove grinned, but it wasn’t genuine happiness. It was smug, a warning, a threat. A promise. “Cayn might be gone. All over some books. Stupid books and a fancy airship.”

  Emeryss and Grier exchanged quick glances.

  A pause lingered as Clove’s sinister stare called up terror in Kimpert’s eyes. “Are you going to kill me?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  It was a bold move to say that, but it seemed even Adalai didn’t care that Clove had taken the lead on punishing her.

  “What is this Goliath?” Grier asked. “I gather it’s an airship, but what does it do?”

  Kimpert looked at her nails, silent.

  “He asked you a question!” Clove exclaimed half a second before Adalai got the chance and closed her mouth.

  “I’m not telling you a thing!” Kimpert’s cheeks had flooded bright red. A purple vein showed itself across her forehead. She was livid but trapped.

  “You will, and then we’ll find a way to stop you.” Adalai smiled at her.

  Would they? That wasn’t what they’d set out to do. Emeryss agreed they couldn’t ignore this problem with the grimoires, but was it theirs to solve? Adalai would see it as such, but would Grier?

  She looked over at him again. His brow was lower than usual. He cast his eyes down as he rubbed his bottom lip with an index finger. His behavior in the mine wasn’t out of character. It was him, justice incarnate, uninhibited by reason or logic. It was his core, and if this Goliath was going to be a threat to Stadhold or kill tons of people in Revel, Grier would risk his life to stop it.