Family

by Emily Thompson

  Myra knelt close behind Twist and wrapped her arms around him, resting her chin on his shoulder. Twist took a deep, slow breath, letting his Sight relax into her ghostly touch, as the clockwork melted into cool, soft flesh once again. He only caught a whisper of concern in her emotions before they vanished from his mind. He could easily guess that his silent and dark mood was the source of her concern.

  “I’m all right,” he said softly.

  Myra remained quiet for a moment longer. “Are you angry with your father? Is that why you don’t want to meet him?”

  Twist looked down to his watch in his hands. Jonas had apparently found a chance to tell her about the vision. Twist could only hope he hadn’t told everyone over the card game.

  “I don’t know,” Twist responded. “I suppose I am, a bit.”

  “I’d be very happy to see my father again,” she offered.

  Twist smiled, remembering the tale of her legend. Myra’s father had spent his entire life and fortune giving Myra the happiest existence he could. As if in thanks for this lifetime of kindness, the princess had sacrificed herself—jumping in front of a flying arrow—to save his life. Just before her spirit had slipped from this world, it had been bound to her clockwork puppet and freed from any future threat of death.

  “You actually knew your father,” Twist said. “I’ve never met mine.”

  “I imagine that would make you nervous.”

  Twist half laughed at her innocent interpretation. “Yes, it does,” he agreed.

  “Well, you don’t have to worry. I’m sure he’ll be ever so proud of you, once he gets to know you. You’ve done amazing things, and you’re a wonderful man.”

  Twist couldn’t help but smile at her assessment of him, exaggerated as it was. He took her right hand and raised it to his lips. “Your approval, my dear, is worth more to me than anyone’s.”

  Myra’s hand gripped his supportively. “Then you should rest easy, because you certainly have it.”

  Twist nodded, smiling wider still as his heart began to lift with her delightful sentiments.

  They settled down together, Twist’s head resting on her shoulder while they held each other close. It wasn’t long at all before Twist felt himself drifting off into a deep and silent sleep. He was very grateful for the fact that he usually didn’t have any dreams when he slept in her arms. Tonight, he didn’t want his thoughts to run away with him.

  When he awoke, the morning sun was filling the cabin with golden light. As he remained still, nestled under the warm covers beside Myra’s chilly form, he could just detect a soft sway in the airship. They must already be on their way north. Myra hummed softly to herself with a soothing song. It took a moment for Twist to realize that she was holding her left hand aloft, turning the glittering diamond ring on her finger to catch the sunlight.

  “I’d have thought a princess would be bored of jewels by now,” Twist mentioned lightly.

  “Oh!” Myra gasped, looking to him. “I didn’t know you were awake,” she chided as he lifted himself up on one elbow to look down to her. “But you know,” she said, smiling at her ring again, “this is much more than just a jewel.”

  “Yes, it’s a stolen relic from a vampire stronghold,” Twist said with an earnest nod.

  “It’s not just that, either!” she snapped, swatting at him but clearly not very cross.

  “Oh, you mean that you just like pretty things,” Twist said, pretending to be pleased with his own logic.

  “You’ve become a terrible tease,” Myra said with a pout. “I think Jonas is a bad influence on you.”

  Twist laughed lightly and took her hand. He looked at the ring—the solid symbol of their love—and kissed her hand before looking back to her face. “You’re right. He’s a terrible influence. He’s shown me how wonderfully entertaining it can be to tease the woman I love.”

  Myra smiled. “I shall have to speak to him.”

  “Be careful, darling. He may taint your behavior as well.”

  “But then we would be a pair of scallywags!” Myra gasped.

  “Good heavens, what would society think!?”

  Myra giggled brightly. “Oh, you can be such a rascally devil. Come now, you should eat something,” she said, already moving to get up. “There isn’t much of the morning left.”

  “Yes, dear…” Twist sighed, letting her move away.

  The moment she slipped from his touch, her soft skin vanished into copper and clockwork once again. Twist felt the now-familiar feeling of his Sight emptying of her spirit, leaving his mind comparatively hollow and empty. They both readied themselves for the day before heading out in search of breakfast.

  Breakfast was served on the open deck of the ship, under pale, golden light. The Vimana usually carried no more than her crew, which numbered merely five. With the addition of Twist, Jonas, and Myra, along with the two gypsies, the djinn, and Jeffery, the eight seats that were forever secured to the floor around the dining room table simply weren’t enough. It had been decided that until the passengers shrank in number, everyone would take meals under the shade of the airship’s balloon rather than in the cramped dining room.

  Even with the change in location, everyone seemed to have already fallen into habits. The gypsies always sat close together around the picnic-style offering of food in the center of the deck. Jonas and Myra always sat on either side of Twist. The Vimana’s crew chose seats near each other, leaving the two spots nearest the kitchen open to Arabel and Aazzi, who tended to serve. Twist took his teacup from Myra once she’d finished adjusting it for him—it was a hearty, bold brew with just a touch of cream but no sugar—and smiled at the comfortable sameness of these many, tiny routines.

  A sudden buzzing sound roused Twist from his thoughts. Skye’s pendant watch—hanging around Myra’s neck by a long chain, once again—was ringing. Smiling brightly, Myra lifted the watch in her hand and opened the caged cover with a flick of her thumb. A second flick caused the clock face within to flip over, as a rich blue light rose from within to light her copper face. The buzzing stopped.

  “Hello?” she said happily to the watch. “Skye?”

  “This is Rook central command, calling the civilian, Myra,” a tinny, distant voice from within the light responded. “Will you accept a call from the A.R.S.E?”

  A startled snigger erupted from many of the others. “The what?” Jonas asked, grinning.

  “It’s that research station in Australia,” Twist told him, trying not to grin as well. “They really need a new acronym.”

  “Is it Storm again?” Myra asked the watch pleasantly.

  “This call is from a civilian named Kima,” the voice within the watch replied. “She specifically asked to speak to a ‘Jonas’ and ‘Twist,’ as well.”

  “Kima wants to talk to us?” Jonas asked, looking puzzled.

  “May I relay the connection to you?” the voice in the watch asked, sounding impatient with Myra’s lack of reply.

  “Yes, please,” Myra said to the watch.

  Jonas shot Twist an anxious glance. “Should we…?” he asked, nodding toward the privacy of the empty dining room.

  Twist easily guessed at his reason for caution. If Kima wanted to speak to them, then it must be something about her son, Storm. The boy had a tendency to speak about dear secrets and strange, confusing things as casually at one might talk about the weather. It wouldn’t be prudent to speak to or about him where everyone might hear.

  “Probably a good idea,” Twist nodded, already getting to his feet. “Excuse us,” he said to the others as Jonas and Myra got to their feet.

  A woman’s voice issued from the watch, but Myra asked her to wait for just another moment as they headed off. The others made no comment, though Twist could easily guess that they would gossip about Kima’s son and his odd fascination with Twist and Jonas while they were away. Twist, Jonas, and Myra entered the empty dining room and stood close to Myra as she lifted her watch on her open palm.

  “All ri
ght, Kima,” Myra said to her watch. “Twist and Jonas are here with me. Please go ahead.”

  “Jonas?” Kima’s voice asked uncertainly, with an accent that Twist recognized from Kima’s tribe. “How did things work out in Africa?”

  “You were right,” Jonas said, smiling slightly and glancing to Twist. “Twist is fine. I didn’t see the whole thing, after all.”

  “Well, that’s very good news,” Kima’s voice said, sounding surprised. “I’m glad he’s all right.”

  Twist watched Jonas, perplexed. He vaguely remembered Jonas asking to call Kima through a Rook mirror room, just after having his vision of Twist’s supposed death at the hands of twenty vampires. But, considering how much Jonas hated to talk about his visions at all, it seemed very odd that he would go so far out of his way to tell Kima about it. But, of course, Storm had known about the vision as well.

  Jonas looked at Twist silently, the anxiety now clear on his face. “Did you just call to check on Twist, then?” Jonas asked the watch.

  “No, not really,” Kima muttered. “I’m very worried about Pahmut.”

  “Who?” Twist asked, confused.

  “That’s Storm’s real name,” Jonas answered.

  Twist nodded, vaguely remembering that the boy had chosen to use his English name after being away from his tribe, in an English-speaking world, for a few years. Apparently, his mother still wished to refer to him by his true name.

  “What’s going on, Kima?” Jonas asked the watch in Myra’s hand. “Is he still trying to hijack the transporter?”

  Twist remembered the strange device, hidden under the Rook outpost, which had sent Skye all the way up to the spaceship where Jonas was held captive, in the blink of an eye. All that device would need to safely send a person clear across the world were coordinates and a willing traveler.

  “No, not any more,” Kima answered with a heavy sigh. “They finished fixing it yesterday, but thankfully they won’t let him use it. Now he won’t eat. He won’t talk to me. He didn’t even tell me that Twist was all right. Whenever I see him, he’s just…cold. He’s nothing like himself anymore. All he wants to do is sleep and try to catch more of your dreams.”

  Myra gave a mournful tone, listening with sympathy, as Kima’s voice grew more distraught. Twist felt the buzzing at his neck grow heavy with a similar emotion and found Jonas’s expression clearly concerned.

  “How can we help, Kima?” Jonas asked, his voice comforting and earnest.

  “Is there any chance that you can come here?” she asked, her tone reluctant and miserable. “I wouldn’t usually ask, it’s just…well, he has always listened to you. Maybe seeing you might calm him. I just don’t know what else to do.”

  “Could you talk to him, like this?” Myra asked Twist with a nod to the glowing watch she held.

  “We just spoke to him the other day,” Twist pointed out. “I’m not sure talking will help.”

  “You’re right,” Jonas said, nodding. “Kima?” he asked, his tone soothing and full of concern for her and her clearly insane son. “Twist and I are in France, and we need to finish something just now. But as soon as we’re done here, we will head to Australia. You have my word.”

  “Oh!” Kima gasped, her heartbreaking relief clear as day in the tinny blue light. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you! Thank you so much. I’m sure that seeing you will help. I’ll tell Pahmut that you’re coming. That may just calm him until you arrive.”

  Myra smiled at this, but Twist couldn’t help but find it curious that Jonas had so easily agreed to help Kima. Twist, of course, felt for her as well and would be glad to try to help. But Jonas hadn’t even glanced to him to ask before committing them all to the task. He’d given the woman his word without hesitation.

  “It’s no trouble, Kima,” Jonas said, with a soft smile on his lips and a blush of warmth in the buzzing at Twist’s neck. “I’m just sorry this is happening at all. We’ll get him under control. Don’t worry.”

  Kima continued to praise their kindness, clearly feeling that she was being saved from a terrible and helpless fate, while Jonas continued to speak gently in hopes of calming her. Once they had all said their good-byes, Myra shut off the blue light and looked to Twist and Jonas worriedly.

  “What’s happened to sweet little Storm?” she asked, her tone uneasy.

  “Kima’s right,” Jonas said grimly. “He’s become obsessed. I don’t have a clue why, though.”

  “He’s helped us in the past,” Twist mentioned. “When you were taken by the scaly beasts,” he said to Jonas, “Storm worked very hard to help us to get you back.”

  “And,” Myra added, “he called the Rooks to attack Loki’s ship in the Caribbean. If he hadn’t done that, you might not have escaped.”

  “Yeah, but he’s just a boy,” Jonas countered. “I mean, I’m grateful for the help, but why does he care so damn much about us? We didn’t even meet him until the thunderstorm hit us over Utah.”

  Twist shook his head. “We’ll have to deal with all of that later. There’s nothing that we can do right now.”

  “True,” Jonas said with a heavy sigh.

  “But, Jonas,” Twist said gently, “I have to ask. What’s going on with you and Kima?”

  Jonas’s gaze shot to Twist, his eyes a very bright green and startled. “What?”

  “You don’t talk to her the way you talk to anyone else,” Myra mentioned to Jonas.

  Twist felt slightly relieved to find that he wasn’t the only one to have noticed something strange. “Yes, you seem to care very much about her,” Twist said to Jonas. “But we hardly know her. I feel as if I’ve missed something.”

  Jonas’s face took on a sour shade, the buzzing at Twist’s neck going chilly. “She’s in a tough spot. Her son’s insane. She’s away from home, all alone, on the wrong bloody continent. What’s wrong with feeling sorry for her?”

  “There’s nothing wrong,” Twist answered quickly, hearing a rising bitterness in Jonas’s voice. “It’s just…” Twist paused, finding no true bitterness in the buzzing sensation at his neck. Through his Sight, he sensed nothing but a quiet, anxious fear in the other man.

  “It’s just unlike you,” Myra finished gently. “It’s curious, is all.”

  Jonas stared back at each of them in turn, his expression guarded. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Myra frowned, puzzled. The buzzing at Twist’s neck grew more anxious, nearly making him shiver. Whatever was happening between Jonas and Kima, Jonas wasn’t about to reveal it. Pressing him would only make him more uncomfortable.

  “I guess it’s not that odd, at all,” Twist said as lightly as he could.

  Myra looked to him, somewhat surprised.

  “Come,” Twist said with a smile, “let’s go finish our breakfast and face the gossiping rabble, shall we?”

  The relief in the buzzing at Twist’s neck was clear enough to Twist, even though none of it showed on Jonas’s face. Jonas merely nodded and put on a light smile.

  “‘Gossiping rabble’ is right,” he said, heading for the door. “Let’s go spoil their fun.”

  Myra gave a silent sigh but said nothing else as she and Twist followed after Jonas.

  After finishing the morning meal with the others—and explaining generally the issues surrounding Kima and Storm—Twist, Jonas, and Myra eventually found themselves alone at the open bow of the airship, as if out of habit. The clear morning light danced over the patchy clouds that stretched out on all sides just below them, making the clouds blindingly brilliant.

  The sky above was a perfect blue, and the chill wind whispered over the gray wooden bow of the airship. The rigging that clung to the huge, single, white balloon above creaked gently, but there were no other sounds in the quiet of the sky. Twist peered over the edge of the ship for a moment, spying more of the green, calm country below through gaps in the cloud cover.

  “You’re getting better about heights, aren’t you?” Jonas remarked, drawing Twis
t’s attention.

  Twist gave him a questioning tone.

  Jonas nodded at the enormous distance between the airship and the ground. “Looking straight down like that used to make your head spin.”

  “Oh…” Twist frowned in thought. “I suppose I’m adapting,” he offered with a shrug.

  Jonas smiled at him proudly. “I knew you’d learn to love the sky as much as I do.”

  “Nonsense,” Twist said, shaking his head. “I love Myra. Skye is just a good friend.”

  Myra laughed at this, her smile as bright as the sun at his so easily voiced affection.

  “You know very well what I mean,” Jonas grumbled at him.

  “Yes, yes,” Twist said with a long-suffering sigh. “I suppose the sky and I are getting to know each other well enough,” he admitted, glancing up into the pure blue around them.

  When Twist looked back at them again, his languid mood went suddenly cold. Where Jonas and Myra had been standing an instant before, there was now nothing but empty deck. He looked around but found them nowhere in sight. Howell was no longer standing before the helm at the other side of the now-silent airship. There was no one at all, anywhere in sight.

  While Twist struggled to understand what could have happened to everyone, he heard a soft chuckle from behind him. His blood ran cold at the sound. Twist turned to find Kazan standing a few steps away, in his human form—dressed in blue, Japanese-style silks as he had been on the day that Twist had killed him. His orange eyes gleamed with an evil greed.

  “Hello, little one,” Kazan said as if pleasantly. “It seems we’re all alone now.”

  “You’re not real,” Twist muttered, snapping his eyes closed as his heart began to pound with naked fear. “This is a dream.”

  “Is it?” Kazan asked, his voice drifting closer. Twist opened his eyes to see the human-looking dragon now grinning at him from just one step away. “Dream or not, I’m real to you.”

  “Please, I didn’t mean to kill you!” Twist said as he backed a step away, not meaning to sound so desperate. “You were going to eat me!”