Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  “Down there? On that?” Clove shook her head. “I agree with Emeryss. You’re insane. I’ve said that a lot, but I really mean it. You’re crazy.”

  Emeryss tried to hold her back. “You’re jumping two, three steps ahead. We still have to avoid those guys—”

  “Would you rather die here trying or in Revel when this thing arrives?” Adalai asked. They didn’t have time to regroup and plan and discuss. It was now or never. They had the chance now, they needed to take it.

  “Adalai!” Emeryss scolded. “There are too many people down there—”

  “How do we get the people out of our way, so we can get on that ship?” she asked Clove.

  Clove shrugged. “I-I…”

  “Nothing?”

  “I mean, I guess a fire. Shouting fire. Starting a fire. Setting off the fire alarms. I don’t know.”

  “Do it.”

  “I can’t just make a fire or make the alarms go off. We need a fire alarm panel, and—”

  “Can you use that?” Adalai pointed to the lock mechanism at the door.

  “No, that’s not—” Clove pressed her hand to her forehead. “Do you not know what a fire alarm is?”

  Adalai didn’t care. They couldn’t sit around and wait on this. Getting in was almost impossible. Getting out would be just as bad. They’d never get another chance to sabotage the airship than right here and now. Who knows? Maybe she could blow it up. Maybe she could set it on fire with its own laser.

  That sounded like a great idea, actually.

  If these two scared jelts weren’t going to do it, then she would. She opened the door an inch, stuck her foot in the gap to keep it propped opened, materialized a dagger, and jabbed it into the sensor next to the door.

  A loud air horn rang out from the walls. A thick, metal bolt jutted out from the door frame meant to lock the door, but the gap from her foot had prevented that.

  The alarm was so loud; however, they crouched and covered their ears. She motioned for them to check the window quickly.

  Emeryss took a deep breath and peered down from the side. She nodded and mouthed, “They’re gone. They ran out.”

  Perfect. She opened the door, finding black stairs leading down into the hangar, and headed for the Goliath.

  Chapter 20

  Goliath’s Hangar — Sufford — Ingini

  Clove despised Adalai’s recklessness.

  Foolish. Brash.

  She wasn’t perfect, either, and even Cayn used to say she had a reckless edge to her, but not like this. Not this dangerous.

  One step at a time, they made for the bottom.

  Adalai peered around the corner of the stairwell and into the hangar.

  “It’s clear. The alarm cleared them out.”

  Clove and Emeryss joined her at the bottom of the stairs and looked around Adalai for themselves.

  Guards with communication devices at their shoulders had walked out two doors on the far end. It was empty.

  “It won’t take long for them to figure out it was a false alarm,” Clove said. She pointed toward the underbelly of the airship.

  The cargo hold ramp was down, except it wasn’t just a ramp, it was as big as a bridge capable of driving at least four-carriages wide onto the airship.

  Adalai grabbed them both by the arms.

  Blackness.

  Crates.

  Blackness.

  Crates.

  Blackness.

  Ramp.

  Blackness.

  Shiny white cargo hold.

  Clove gasped for air. “I… told… you… not… to… do… that… without… warning me… first. I think I’m going to throw up.”

  Adalai smiled and scanned around them.

  The cargo hold alone might have been as big as Pigyll’s. Finished in bright metallic trim, it was pristine, and hardly like the airships she was used to. It even had a lift to reach the other decks, and it was enclosed completely in glass.

  Adalai approached it. “We should take a stairwell to be safe.”

  Stopping to check around each corner and in any open door, the enormous ship was empty as they made their way to the stairs.

  “They really take fires seriously.” Adalai half-laughed. “Get some water, guys.”

  “We have to find it and pump it in. We can’t just conjure it,” Clove bit.

  Adalai shrugged. “So, where’s this dashboard?”

  Clove looked around at the walls and stairs. Big yellow lettering on the stairwell read GL.

  Ground Level?

  “Maybe on the bridge,” she said.

  Adalai led them up the stairs several flights until the stairs stopped. When they stepped out, it seemed they were only on the mid-level deck and not anywhere near the top.

  “There has to be another stairwell.” Adalai led them out and down the corridors.

  The walls were a creamy white, gentle on the eyes, and definitely not something you’d see in an Ingini ship. Save for the green and blue markings on the floor, leading them down the corridor, there was a pink-painted line along the wall near the ceiling.

  Indicators of fuel-lines?

  She’d seen it before on larger ships. It made repairs faster if everyone knew where to head for faulty engines.

  Following the pink line, Clove pointed down a side hall and made for the center of the ship.

  “This isn’t the bridge,” Adalai said.

  No, but it made more sense now that she understood the scope of the ship. It would be a floating building, maybe even a whole city, and Scuffle always said that big ships had to put their engines in a more efficient place to lift a heavier load. They didn’t actually need to reach the bridge.

  Around several corners, across walkways overlooking other passages, she made her way to the center with Adalai and Emeryss at her heels. They hurried down halls and past several rooms and wings, careful to be quick but not make too much noise.

  The pink lines took a sharp turn, and there on the wall were three dashboard panels.

  They stopped.

  “Is that them?” Adalai asked.

  Clove nodded. “But three.”

  “So?”

  “I’ve never seen three before.” Clove put her palm to one. “It’s on. It’s connected.”

  Adalai pulled her dagger out and pressed herself against the wall where they’d come from. She peered around the edge. “We’re clear so far.”

  Clove swiped through the screens, pressing menu options and folders. “There are several weapons on this ship,” she said.

  Adalai leaned over. “What kind? A laser?”

  Clove shrugged. “I don’t know. Some of it’s locked, but I can tell from how the fuel-lines move through the ship. They’re powering tons of things for the surface. It has to be guns of some sort. But—”

  A clank in the hangar echoed up from a hallway behind them.

  Adalai peered around it but shook her head.

  “But what?” Emeryss asked.

  “They’re powering three massive things in the center. They’re in a line. See?” She pointed to the screen, and Emeryss nodded.

  Adalai looked over her shoulder. “Okay, so?”

  More echoes came from the outside. The workers were already returning from the false alarm.

  “We’re out of time,” Adalai said. “If we don’t destroy this thing right now, we’re done.”

  “We can’t just destroy a ship in one second,” Emeryss snapped. “Unless you want to die with it.”

  Clove placed her hand against the panel and closed her eyes. The trance washed over her, more quickly than before. The undulating clouds of ether swam and floated beside her as the rest of space faded away, leaving her and the panel she was connected with.

  Bright purple ether flowed into the panel.

  She swiped at it, but it didn’t move or waver.

  If she willed it to sever its connection, an alarm could go off again, and the Ingineers could just reconnect it.

  But why purple?
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  Why not blue-green like all the other Ingini connections?

  She peered down at the panel where a sigil pulsed at her. She’d never seen that before.

  Was that—

  Clove gasped, and the ether disappeared. She was back in the airship with Emeryss right beside her.

  “What did you see?” Emeryss asked.

  “A sigil. There’s a sigil on the panel. The gun from before, they’ve done it here with the ship.”

  “What?” Adalai asked. “What kind of sigil?”

  “A purply-pink one.” Clove rubbed her eyes. They were starting to burn. “Like the grimoires out there with the crates.”

  Adalai and Emeryss shared a look they didn’t disclose.

  “What? What is it?” she asked.

  “Try again,” Emeryss urged. “We need to see that sigil.”

  Clove closed her eyes, went back into the ether, and came back quickly. “I dunno, my eyes are killing me. It has three loops at the top with some hashes on the side—”

  Emeryss looked around them. “We need paper or something—”

  “We don’t have time for this,” Adalai groaned. “Go back in, look at the sigil, make it out with your finger on the wall or something, so we can try to guess it. Hurry!”

  Clove closed her eyes, slipped back into the ethereal realm, memorized a few more strokes, and came back. She took her finger and smudged a glass plate beside it in the sigil’s shape.

  Emeryss shook her head. “I’m sorry. I need more. It could be anything still.”

  Clove went back and forth several times, her eyes burning and watering all the while, even though the trance had become easier and easier to slip into. “I can’t. Not anymore.”

  It was like she’d been crying; her eyes ached, tears were dripping down her cheeks.

  “Please,” Emeryss whispered. “One more time.”

  She made the last few marks on the glass with the tip of her finger. “This was the hardest part. It’s like this with dots between.”

  Emeryss and Adalai twisted their heads at different angles.

  “Have you seen this sigil before, Adalai?”

  “This definitely looks like illusion ether,” Adalai said. “But different.”

  “That’s what I thought,” Emeryss said.

  “This part is all wrong.” Adalai pointed. “It’s like it wants to be a Blink sigil, but these extra flares at the side. It looks primitive, rustic—homemade.”

  Emeryss tilted her head again. “Numbers.”

  Clove blinked several times, the burning finally fading the longer she stayed out of the realm. “Numbers? Then the dots make it—”

  “Coordinates,” Emeryss breathed.

  Clove tried to remember the numbers. “Those numbers are not for anywhere in Ingini.”

  Adalai leaned in and tilted her head in the same way Emeryss had.

  “They’re going to Blink to a specific place?” Emeryss asked.

  “Not they, but it.” Adalai pointed at the floor of the airship. “They’re going to Blink the airship to a specific set of coordinates into Revel.”

  Clove’s head started to hurt. “How? How could they do that?”

  “It’s Teleport!” Emeryss and Adalai had said it together.

  “There is a Teleport sigil,” Emeryss whispered. “I’ve seen it before, years ago. It’s for a decent-sized distance, three-thousand units at most, but nothing like they’d need. And for a whole ship?”

  “That’s how they get the ship in!” Adalai’s eyes were glazed over as she stared at nothing. “A massive airship to Teleport into Revel, and we would have never seen it coming.”

  More voices came from down the hall.

  Adalai moved to the edge and nodded. “They’re here! Fix it now!”

  “Fix it?” Clove looked back and forth at Emeryss and Adalai. “I can’t fix it.” She rubbed her eyes over and over again. “What does she want me to do?”

  The voices were closer.

  “They’ve blocked us in,” Adalai said.

  Emeryss slipped next to her against the wall. “We’ll be caught.”

  Clove’s heart leaped into her throat. “Just make us invisible—”

  “I can’t! I’m all out of it.” Adalai cursed and grabbed both of them before a crew member turned the corner.

  There wasn’t time for Clove to hold her breath or get oriented. The world fell away multiple times.

  Darkness.

  Hangar.

  Darkness.

  Crates.

  Clove fell to her knees and puked on the cement floor. Between her eyes hurting and the Blinking… “Goddess, I hate you.”

  “I saved your ass,” Adalai whispered.

  “No, I’m helping you save your ass!” Clove wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

  “Guys, we need to go. Maintenance people are everywhere,” Emeryss said.

  Adalai peered around the crate. “We’ll stick to the walls where the shadows are between crates. We can make it to one of the doors at the far end near the exit.” She grabbed Clove’s arm again.

  “No!” Clove yanked free. “I’ll run and jump between crates if I have to.”

  “Don’t be an idiot.”

  But she was already moving to the wall, using the crates as cover.

  Adalai and Emeryss Blinked safely three crates ahead of her. It wasn’t like they’d made tremendous progress.

  Clove poked her head out, checked that she was clear, and ran behind the nearest crate.

  Adalai and Emeryss Blinked farther down, closer to a side door, and looked back to wait for her.

  She was right there behind them.

  “Come on,” Adalai mouthed, eying two maintenance members coming near the crate.

  Two arms reached out from the wall beside her, wrapping around Clove’s mouth and waist and pulling her back.

  Chapter 21

  Goliath’s Hangar — Sufford — Ingini

  Adalai nearly jumped back toward Clove on instinct.

  Emeryss gasped only to snap her mouth shut before anyone had heard them.

  It wasn’t a crew member or a worker who’d grabbed Clove, or they would have made a big stink about it. It had to be someone else. Someone possibly spying on the Goliath, too.

  Shit.

  Jahree would kill her.

  They couldn’t go back, or they’d get caught, too. But Emeryss still looked as if she wanted to chase after Clove.

  Several Ingini communication devices chirped with indeterminable chatter.

  “We have to go!” She grabbed Emeryss and Blinked them, again and again, out of the hangar, around a side hallway, up toward the surface, and toward the exit. Whatever hallway Clove had been pulled into, it was part of the underground complex. There’d be no finding her if they got caught.

  And honestly, maybe it was better this way. One less Ingini to worry about shooting them in the back while they slept.

  Except… She groaned to herself.

  She continued Blinking them down hallways, through rooms toward an exit—any exit.

  Adalai hated what Clove represented and hated even more that Jahree was right about her being useful. And now, they’d be moving forward blind.

  Still, it wasn’t worth going back and trying to find her right then. And stopping the Goliath took precedence. Saving thousands of lives was more important than one woman. They’d figure out what they’d need to do next without her. Going back or wasting time finding her would be just that—a waste. She’d be fine in her own country, and they’d be okay without her.

  She Blinked them through corridor after corridor, wing after wing, door after door. Past workers, maintenance crew, and guards. Ingini scrambled and shouted. Alarms went off again.

  When they’d finally Blinked outside, above ground, Jahree and Grier came running for them, and Emeryss coughed and heaved for air.

  Jahree caught Adalai before she fell to her knees exhausted. “You set off the whole complex—”

 
“It’s bad. It’s so bad. You have no idea how bad it is,” she panted.

  “What?” Grier had helped Emeryss stand and catch her breath.

  “Where’s Clove?” Jahree asked.

  “Taken,” Emeryss replied. “Just now as we were trying to run. Someone grabbed her. I don’t think it was one of the workers. It was someone else.”

  “What?” Jahree glared at Adalai.

  Bent at the waist, breathing deep breaths, she shook her head. “I know what you’re thinking, but Emeryss is my witness. I didn’t leave her there. We would have been caught if we stayed or tried to follow her!”

  “That’s not the point—”

  “It wasn’t the workers,” Emeryss panted. “It was someone else. I think it was someone snooping, too, because they didn’t want to be seen. I mean, we Blinked right past them and didn’t even see them.”

  “You could have gone back!” Jahree exclaimed.

  Adalai stood straight up. “We would have been caught! Okay? I went to grab for her, but two workers turned and blocked us off.”

  Jahree huffed and headed in the direction of the airship. “We need to find her—”

  “Why?” Adalai followed after him. “Why? Why is she more important than what we just saw, Jahree? Why is she more important than Emeryss’s and I’s safety?”

  “She’s not!” he boomed. “But now we’re sitting, blind and vulnerable, in enemy territory.”

  They continued hurrying toward the plateau and out of view of the hangar.

  “We’ll be fine!”

  “We need her,” Emeryss said. “If we don’t want to blow up that airship, then she’s the only one who can disconnect those panels.”

  “The airship?” Grier asked. “You saw it?”

  “We saw it!” Adalai yelled, but at Jahree’s back. “It’s ten times bigger than you’re imagining. It has multiple weapons strapped to it, and it’s going to Teleport right on top of us in Revel to destroy us. So, please tell me how going back and rescuing Clove right this moment is more important than living another day to stop that thing.”

  Jahree finally stopped and stared her down. “How do you know this? How did you figure that out, huh? Clove? Clove helped you figure it out, right? We need her back!”