Architects of Ether

by Ryan Muree

  “That’s Mack’s brother,” she whispered. “He’ll die—”

  “They’re all going to die.”

  “I can’t let him die, though. That’s all Mack has left.”

  “I’m about to leave you to die and tell Jahree to kiss my ass if you don’t hurry up!”

  Even if she did tell him to get off the airship, he wouldn’t believe her. It would jeopardize everything they were risking their lives for. It would jeopardize her getting Cayn back.

  “Here!” Adalai pulled her around the final corner to the three dashboards. They were jet black with soft lights running along their sides.

  This was it.

  She swallowed again, her throat dry. Mack would be crushed over Lark being on this ship and dying, and she’d be crushed because she’d done it to him.

  Cayn or Lark? It wasn’t even a choice.

  A voice broke over the airship’s comms. “Engines ready. Take your positions. Waiting for clearance.”

  Maybe they could Blink to Lark and take him with them. He wouldn’t understand at first, but he would eventually. Just like she did. Just like Mack.

  She closed her eyes, entered her trance as swiftly as she was able, and saw the three dashboards before her. Ether welcomed her, tufts of ink in all the colors of the universe floated by.

  She held up her hand and reached for a pink-purple ether cloud hovering just off the dashboards.

  “Please, I need new coordinates for Teleport.”

  The whispers started, and the ether attached to her fingers, dripping off like Grier’s blood had from his hand. She etched the new coordinates into the first panel.

  “Hurry!” a voice said beyond the trance, threatening to pull her out.

  She refocused on the waves of ether undulating around her and reached out to the second dashboard.

  Her fingers moved swiftly, changing one or two numbers in the coordinates to their new target: right outside Sufford, too far apart to stay in one piece. It was so small, so insignificant, the Ingineers wouldn’t notice. It was just like she had practiced.

  “They’re coming!” Adalai shouted through the void.

  One more left.

  The ether moved through the dashboard in the shape of the sigil as she updated the final panel. Standing back, the sigils looked barely different from before. They’d look identical to an untrained eye—

  She was jolted back, the air sucked from the void, from her mouth, from her lungs.

  Adalai had pulled her from her trance and Blinked them out of the ship. They were crouched behind a crate, and Adalai was propping her up.

  “Are you with me?” Adalai asked. “Are you back?”

  Clove nodded, trying to fill her lungs with as much air as she could and fighting off the sleepy haze that threatened to pull her under. “Wait. We have to go back to get Lark—”

  “Didn’t you hear them? They got clearance. They’ve started opening the hangar. We can’t go back. Hold your breath.”

  She did, and the world fell into darkness.

  Chapter 34

  Sufford — Ingini

  Adalai had a difficult time catching her own breath with so many jumps in quick succession.

  Clove was on her knees in the grass, gasping and coughing.

  It hadn’t been nearly as bad as jumping off a cloudscraper, barreling toward the city streets with four people hanging on, but it hadn’t been easy.

  She checked her wrist.

  Her Blinks were running dangerously low. She’d have to use it more rationally until they could get back to Revel to deliver the news. Otherwise, they were safe, Clove had supposedly changed the sigils, and they’d see soon if they’d saved the day.

  And if not, then the RCA would be prepared.

  Once she was back in Revel, delivering the news to the king and his advisors, she’d figure out how the whole thing led to conspiring against their own people.

  Orr would have to reinstate her officially. He’d have to face the fact she’d known what she was doing, and Nendrik, or whoever Silverfox was, would face charges with penalty of death.

  Mack was patting Clove, getting her to cough up her phlegm and spit. “Just breathe.”

  Clove wiped her mouth, eyes squeezed shut. “Mack, I—”

  She was fighting back sobs, no longer gasping for air.

  “What happened?” Grier asked.

  “She’s just upset that they’re all going to die, right?” Adalai answered for her.

  Mack didn’t need to know the truth right then and there before the damn thing blew up—if it blew up.

  And they still needed to get out of Ingini safely. They couldn’t have him all pissed off, threatening to turn them in, and making a fool out of himself. He could find out later when they were long gone.

  It sucked, but that was life.

  Clove glared up at her.

  “Sob stories don’t save you,” Adalai said to her.

  The ground rumbled.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Grier said. “Everyone else is waiting by the airship.”

  The others hugged Clove when they’d returned, and simply nodded to Adalai. They knew she wasn’t much of a hugger, but she’d even gotten a few congratulations out of it.

  She knew they’d come around and understand.

  “If it works, we’ll be able to see it from here.” Clove sniffled. “I set the coordinates to these open plains. Far enough to break the ship, but it shouldn’t crash into any part of the city.”

  They all stood together at the edge of the plateau, looking down on Sufford and their secret hangar. The lights were still on, and the small siren was still crowing across the city.

  “I’ll be right back,” Clove said, waving for Mack to stay and Mykel to follow her.

  “Is the ceiling opening up?” Vaughn pointed.

  They all squinted, holding their hands up to block the sun. Sure enough, the ceiling doors to the hangar were pulling back.

  “It’s still not wide enough,” Emeryss said. “I’m telling you that thing is huge.”

  Clove stepped forward with a whimpering Kimpert in one hand and an ether-gun in the other. Mykel had let her out of the cage and had shackled her wrists and ankles together.

  “Where’d you get a gun?” Adalai asked.

  “I’ve had it.” Clove stared her down.

  Mack immediately knocked out the back of Kimpert’s knees, forcing her to kneel.

  “I want you to see this,” Clove said, facing Kimpert toward the hangar. “I want you to watch everything you’ve worked for, everything you’ve done to us, come falling down.”

  Kimpert’s eyes widened. “What have you done, Clove? What did you do?” Her shrill voice made Clove smile, and for a moment, Adalai respected Clove’s ruthlessness.

  It appeared Clove truly did hate Kimpert for what she’d done to her people—enslaving them, lying to them, keeping the money and the resources to themselves.

  Revel wasn’t perfect, Adalai already knew this, and they had a mole as well, but what Kimpert had done was beyond redemption. Revelians weren’t starving or enslaved workers. They weren’t scraping from the bottom up while the best lived large.

  Did Revel have classes? Of course, but she rose up the ranks. Orr had shown her how, and that meant anyone could—unlike Ingini.

  The ground trembled softly at first and then quaked.

  They looked on as the entire hangar split in half and moved aside, knocking the fake homes out of the way as the ground opened up.

  “What in the world?” Vaughn breathed.

  “Now, that… That’s a big enough opening,” Emeryss said.

  Sure enough, a platform rose from underground, slowly revealing the gargantuan X-Class Ingini airship.

  Best yet, it only took a few Revelians to sabotage their greatest creation, and they’d gotten an Ingini to do it for them.

  She looked sideways at Clove biting her lip and holding Kimpert by the arm with her nails.

  The platform stopped, a
nd the Goliath glistened in the sun in all its doomed glory.

  “I can’t watch this,” Kimpert said, closing her eyes.

  Mack jostled her. “You better, or I’ll tape your eyes open.”

  The engines whirred to life, and the Goliath lifted.

  “Such a shame,” Mykel mumbled. “It really is a beautiful ship.”

  “Don’t forget. Looks can be deceiving. It’s a murder boat. It’s mass-murder with wings,” Adalai said.

  “Now what?” Vaughn asked. “Will it just break apart?”

  “Not until they activate the Teleport,” Clove said.

  “You what?” Kimpert shouted. “Clove, what did you do?”

  But Clove didn’t answer her.

  The Goliath floated effortlessly several feet above the platform before it finally rose in a straight vertical into the sky.

  “How high will it go, you think?” Mack asked.

  They all shielded their eyes and followed the reflective metal as it rose in altitude.

  “High enough to think they’re not detected,” Clove said.

  “We won’t see it split apart?” Mack asked.

  “If it works, we’ll see it fall,” Grier replied.

  Adalai smiled.

  “I can’t see it anymore,” Urla said. “Or is it just me?”

  Emeryss shook her head. “I can’t either. That’s really high.”

  They waited in silence. The alarming in the city had stopped. The wind barely blew.

  Come on.

  Come on.

  A loud boom echoed from somewhere well above them, but it ricocheted off the buildings and made it sound like it came from everywhere.

  Sonora cried out and curled in on herself, gripping her ears in pain. “Whatever that was,” she shouted, though she hadn’t needed to, “broke the speed of sound.”

  But nothing happened. Nothing else rumbled. Nothing else moved.

  “It didn’t work,” Clove mumbled. “It didn’t work, or they fixed it already, and that was them Teleporting to Aurelis.”

  “Aurelis?” Kimpert shouted. “It wasn’t going to Aurelis, you morons!”

  Clove glared at her.

  Adalai crossed her arms. “Nice try, tart-hole. We heard it was being launched days ago on your comms. We saw the dashboards.”

  “It was scheduled to launch for Revel, but not Aurelis!” Kimpert shrilled.

  “That’s just as bad!” Adalai shouted back at her. “You would have destroyed another city, tons of lives. That ship—”

  “That ship was our defense against Revel!” Kimpert screamed. “That ship was to keep Revel from conquering us!”

  Adalai’s heart stopped, she swore it did, and it lodged itself in her throat. “But we heard—” Adalai turned to the others. “We heard it. They were launching it in four days.”

  “Because that was Revel’s deadline!” Kimpert’s wrinkles were more pronounced, strained on her aging face. She was telling the truth. “You’ve doomed us. They’re going to kill us.”

  “How do you know this?” Grier asked her.

  When she didn’t offer it up, Mack shook her shoulder. “Speak now, or we’ll split you in three!”

  “Because I set it up!” Kimpert snarled. “It was just supposed to be a mild border battle inside Revel. Lose a few thousand, flex our muscles, show off the airship, and Revel would retaliate but hold back. They were going to take the Goliath for themselves. It was a hand-off.”

  Mack and Clove exchanged glances. “A hand-off for what?” he asked.

  “We give them the airship tech, and they don’t take us over. They make it look like they can’t, but they’re really in control. Their precious king will stop at nothing to actually take us—”

  Clove punched her in the face, square in the jaw. Kimpert’s head whipped around, and a welt formed where her skin had darkened. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Why didn’t you tell us?”

  Adalai’s hands and legs were shaking. Everything felt wobbly like she wasn’t in her own body. “Because the trade was her becoming your leader.”

  Kimpert’s tears ran down into her mouth.

  Urla shook her head. “Revel gets tech, our people are none the wiser, and she gets to look like the hero to Ingini, staving off Revel forces.”

  “Guys.” Vaughn pointed upward. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Three small blazing hulls were falling from high altitude, trails of smoke and sparks in a perfect line.

  It worked. Clove did it.

  Mykel’s voice cracked. “Is that—”

  “What happens if Revel doesn’t get the Goliath?” Emeryss asked Kimpert. “What happens?”

  Kimpert clenched her jaw and glared at them.

  Adalai shook her head. “Revel won’t attack just because of—”

  Jahree spun on her to argue.

  Sonora gasped. “We warned them. We told them they were attacking—”

  “They won’t!” she shouted. “Once they see that nothing is coming, they won’t attack. That’s not what—”

  The three fireballs came into view, revealing themselves as falling hunks of the Goliath, plummeting toward the ground with the metal groaning until it crashed.

  The ground trembled and threatened to break apart beneath their feet from the force. Dust, debris, balls of flame burst forth from the wreckages as the three pieces of the ship lay perfectly separated on the plains-side of Sufford.

  It was completely demolished with likely no survivors on board.

  “You just killed our only Ingineers!” Kimpert screamed, wailing between words. “You just killed Ingini!”

  “You sold us out!” Clove screamed at her.

  “They weren’t going to die!” Kimpert continued. “They were going to get transport back. How do you think they learned to teleport the damned thing in the first place? Revel gave us everything we needed. They just needed us to figure it out and make it look like they stole it.”

  Adalai balled her hands into fists for strength.

  “You hear that?” Mykel asked.

  Sonora nodded and turned toward the western horizon.

  White clouds were thick and high.

  “Oh, no.” Emeryss covered her mouth.

  Clove’s eyes shot to Adalai. Hate. Pure hate filled them to the brim.

  A fleet of Revelian airships broke through the clouds and headed straight for Sufford.

  Chapter 35

  Sufford — Ingini

  Grier willed his shield to materialize. “Sonora, can you alert everyone in the city?”

  “Yes!”

  “Tell them to get out now!” He took off down the slope, balancing his weight as he slid.

  Emeryss was just behind him, along with the other Zephyrs.

  They couldn’t stop the Revelian fleet, they couldn’t stop the destruction, but they could save lives. They could get as many Ingini out as quickly as possible.

  Revelian fleet incoming. Sonora’s voice came through shaky at best. Please, evacuate your homes to the plains as quickly as possible.

  Grier checked the horizon. The fleet was still moving in.

  The launch wasn’t counting down to invading Revel; it was counting down to Revel invading them. That was the only explanation for the RCA being so close already. They’d already been at the border ready to attack, and when the Goliath airship didn’t arrive…

  As more of the fleet moved out and through the clouds toward Sufford, the shadows cast on the ground revealed burning ash. They were destroying everything in their path.

  Had Stadhold known about this? Had they encouraged it?

  It didn’t matter what hand they had in this ridiculous war. Even if they did nothing, they were to blame, too.

  He charged forward, bracer up, shield out and ready.

  The Ingini might attack him, thinking he was part of the raid, but he wasn’t willing to drop the shield for it.

  “Get into the houses! Knock on every door!” Emeryss shouted.

  Some had hurr
ied out of their homes already, most likely from Sonora’s words. But not everyone had listened. There weren’t nearly enough people running away.

  The Zephyrs split up, barging through doors of homes and into businesses.

  Emeryss was somewhere behind him, but as long as he heard her voice that would have to be good enough.

  A door on a small house on the edge of the street was locked. He rattled the handle and then busted through the door.

  A family of four, crouching in the corner, screamed at his entrance.

  “What are you doing?” he shouted.

  “Please, don’t kill us!” The mother quivered, arms around her three children.

  “You can’t stay here. You have to get out of the city. Run!”

  They jumped up and scurried past him and out of the door.

  More screams echoed through the streets.

  Revelian fleet incoming. Sonora’s voice came through again.

  She was across the way, blasting through a locked door and urging the boarded people to leave instead of hiding. Please, evacuate your homes to the plains as quickly as possible.

  He moved to the next home and the next. He sounded gruff and harsh, but if it got them to move any faster, then so be it. Not all of them would get out in time, but he had to try.

  He burst through another small house one street from where he’d started.

  A couple with a small baby wrapped in blankets cowered behind a dresser. The man had an ether-gun aimed at Grier. “Don’t come any closer!”

  Grier lifted his hands. “I’m not the enemy. I’m trying to get you out.”

  “I’ll send you right back where you came from!” The man pulled the trigger, and Grier lifted his shield enough to deflect the pulse. It bounced back and struck the wood in the wall.

  The woman screamed. The baby started crying.

  The man was a miner at best, still in his uniform with ether stains on it. Not a fighter. Not a gunner. Not a threat. None of them were.

  “The fleet is too big. We’re trying to get you out. Run for the plains, for the coast, anywhere but here,” Grier urged. “Please. You’ll all die if you stay.”

  The man swallowed.