by Elise Kova
“I’m going to take a short walk.”
“I’ll wait here.” The girl gripped the bench seat for support. He would have to let her imbibe tonight or else she would certainly be beyond help.
“I’ll be right back,” he promised.
Cvareh strolled away, at least until he was out of eyesight. His pace quickened and he ducked into a side alley, wedging himself between some shipping crates. With a quick glance, he rose his hand to his ear, magic crackling into his skin and across the void that separated him and Nova.
“Petra,” he whispered.
“I was beginning to wonder, little one.” Genuine relief flooded her voice and Cvareh felt instant guilt at the idea of making her worry.
“I haven’t been in a position to talk.”
“Yveun Dono sent Riders after you. But I heard no word of capture or kill and I know he would boast of it had his red bitch been successful.” She was utterly triumphant at the sound of Cvareh’s voice, knowing they had so far thwarted the best efforts of House Rok. “Still, with your silence—”
“I move slower than expected, but safer than we predicted.” It was irony to say given all he had faced, but with Arianna he had been far safer than he would’ve been venturing out on his own. Though his luck might be thinning on that front.
“You have made an ally?” Nothing escaped his sister.
“I have.”
“Who?”
“She is—”
“She?” Petra’s expression was readable through the word. She’d heard the shift in his tones, the note placed under the pronoun at the mere thought of Arianna.
“—the White Wraith,” he finished determined.
“My brother has befriended the infamous White Wraith?” The echo of Petra’s chuckle whispered back to him. “You’re certain she’s on our side?”
“I am,” he affirmed.
“She has quite the reputation. I don’t know if I would trust her.”
“Then trust me. There’s nothing she would do that would hurt me.” Why was he so confident? She’d spent days illustrating how little she thought of him. She’d spent hours annoying him for the sake of it.
“What have you done to tame this beast?”
“Just trust me that I have this under control.”
“Do you?” a voice spoke from above him.
Cvareh’s head snapped up to the top of the pile of crates he’d been hiding between. There, perched at their top as though she had materialized out of thin air itself—like a wraith—was the woman in question. The connection with his sister fizzled from lack of focus and his hand fell from his ear.
“Tell me what control you’re exercising.” With the grace and nimbleness of a cat, she dropped before him, rising slowly. “You know what hangs on your response.”
“Florence is safe.” It was mostly true, at least.
Arianna visibly relaxed, leaning against the crates with her arms lazily folded over her chest.
“How did you find me?”
“I’ve been waiting for you to mess up and use enough magic to leave a trace in the air.” She reached forward and he expected her to grab him, to smack him, to grab her dagger and hold it to his face in an instant. But her hand wrapped around his shoulder in an almost reassuring manner. “I’m glad you’re all right as well.”
“You just want your boon.” He laughed nervously, not even knowing why he was nervous, not knowing why he was so eager to write her off.
“Oh I do.” She didn’t waste breath on denying it. “But I’m still glad to see you in one piece.” Arianna stepped away and, for the very first time, he wished she hadn’t. “Now, take me to her.”
Cvareh led the way, though his relief at seeing the white-clad woman faded quickly. Florence’s shoulders sagged as she continued to clutch at the bench, waiting diligently for her master’s return. Waiting even if it meant her death. It was a loyalty that could not be bought and in that brief moment, he wondered if it was a loyalty Arianna had actually earned.
Arianna stopped in her tracks a few steps away from the young woman. She spun on Cvareh and he was surprised she didn’t burn her cheeks for all the fire that sparked from her eyes underneath her goggles. She knew. He could sense it with every move she made.
“What did you do to her?”
29. ARIANNA
“Now listen—” The Dragon held up his hands, pleading for something she wasn’t about to give him.
“What did you do to her?” she repeated, her voice rising. She didn’t care if the world heard her, if they all watched as she tore the man limb from limb.
“I didn’t—”
“He didn’t do anything I didn’t expressly ask for.” Florence was on her feet. Arianna watched her fingertips track along the bench, keeping her steady. The girl looked frail. Her steps were small, her ankles threatening to revoke their support at any moment.
“Flor… You…” She didn’t have words. The world had fallen away, crumbling into a vortex of emotions. The anger, confusion, rage, and panic she’d felt for days not knowing if she’d ever find her Florence again vanished. Pure relief flooded the vacant hollow in the center of her chest. Ari scooped her up, holding her, stabilizing her. “I’m so relieved.”
“I am too.” Flor’s arms snaked around her waist, holding her in kind. Arianna sighed softly into her hair, content to know the most precious person in her world was safe once more. Both their hands pressed into the other’s left shoulders for a long moment.
But there was a smell that interrupted her bliss, that tainted and changed it. Ari finally pulled away, bracing herself to handle the truth that was already apparent. “You reek of him.”
“Arianna,” Florence spoke firmly and evenly. “There was no other way. If we hadn’t made the effort, I would’ve died. There was an accident after the Wretches—we’re lucky to be alive at all.”
Ari chewed over her tongue to keep it from spitting venom. She had never wanted Florence to endure the pain and danger of becoming a Chimera. She had never wanted the girl to feel the draw of magic, the lust of possibility for one more organ, one more scrap of stolen power.
“I had been thinking about it for the past year.” Florence squeezed her forearms. “As a Chimera I can do more; I can make my own weapons better than with your help. Not that your help isn’t marvelous, but it’s that—”
“I know, Flor.” Arianna smiled tiredly and squeezed the girl’s arms in reply. She wasn’t sure if Florence was trying to convince her, or herself. But what was done was done.
If she could smell Cvareh on her, the girl had already ingested quite a bit of his blood. Florence’s body would go into full rejection if they didn’t complete the transfusion sooner rather than later. There was no going back.
“But this does change things.” Arianna thought aloud, looking between Florence and Cvareh. “I’ve been here for five days now, no sign of the Riders, so I’ll trust we lost them in the Underground. Cvareh, did they know where you were headed?”
He shook his head. “Most would reason I’m headed to the Rivets, I would think.” He patted the folio strapped around his waist.
The Rivets? What exactly does he have? Ari regarded him skeptically for a long moment.
“Then I think we should risk an airship, instead of traveling on foot across Ter.0,” she decided aloud.
“Are you sure that’s wise? We’ll be easier to find in the air.”
“We will be.” There was no point denying or disagreeing. “But if the Riders have headed down to the Rivets in Ter.3, they won’t be anywhere close enough to smell you.”
“Still…”
“You’re sure they don’t know where you’re headed?” she pushed at his indecision.
“They shouldn’t know.”
It wasn’t the answer she was looking for, but it would have to be enough. Florence wouldn’t—couldn’t—make the trip on foot. She needed a transfusion within the week, and an airship would guarantee their arrival well before then.
>
“Don’t do this on my behalf,” Florence interjected quickly. The girl was too smart. Of course she put together the reason for their change in plans. “After all we’ve been through to get this far, if we’re caught now because we take a risk just for me, I would never forgive myself.”
“And if we let you die what was the point of making the effort to save you at all?” The Dragon clad in grubby Fenthri clothing crossed over to Florence. Ari watched as he patted her pupil on the shoulder in admiration.
Despite his face being almost entirely covered, Ari knew clearly what his expression was. She could almost feel it. She didn’t want to allow the fractures shaped like his face upon her heart. She didn’t want this Dragon to cut down the measuring stick she used to keep the world at length with his tenderness toward Florence.
“You made your decision, and it seems we have as well.” She never thought there was a space for her and the Dragon between the two letters of the word “we”. “We’ll get on an airship tonight. Most of the vessels here seem to be headed for Faroe, but we should be able to find at least one to Keel.”
“Ari, most of our supplies…” Florence shifted uneasily from foot to foot. “I lost them in the accident in the caves.”
“We didn’t have that much anyway.” She brushed off the girl’s concerns, focusing on what was important—the fact that she was all right. “Plus, I’ve had five days here waiting for you. What do you think I’ve been doing?”
“I should’ve never doubted you.” Florence laughed, but it was a hollow sound that served only to hide a wince.
“No, never,” Ari teased. The world was right with Florence at her side again. She’d spent most of her life without the girl. But now she couldn’t imagine a world that didn’t have her in it, and she would fight tooth and nail to keep her there.
Cvareh led them back to the place they had made their home. It was a small stretch of fabric suspended between some crates that offered little protection from the elements. Curled underneath it were her two filthy prison birds—thin, worse for wear, but in one piece. Helen’s eyes rose and grew wide as she realized who she was looking at.
“Oh, you made it,” she said dryly.
“You should’ve never had any doubt,” Ari proclaimed, heaping on an equal portion of her own brand of arrogance. Doing so made her guilt potable. Florence had been forced to stay in this squalor for days while she had been sleeping in relative comfort in the abandoned store she’d broken into.
“Well, now that our little family is finally back together, what’s the plan?” Will looked at Arianna.
“You did your part.” She wasn’t going to bury the lede. “As far as we’re concerned, your freedom has been earned and you owe me nothing further.” Boon aside, she didn’t actually enjoy the feeling of people owing debts to her. She didn’t want anything from anyone.
“We’re leaving for Keel on the next airship we can find,” Florence explained.
Her two friends shared a look.
“You are,” Helen agreed. “But we’ve been talking, and since your teacher will not be hunting us down, we’re going to head back into the Underground.”
“What? Why?” Florence looked frantically between her friends.
“We’re not bad at this whole ‘moving people’ business,” Will started.
“And we think it can be a business,” Helen interjected.
“Minus dealing with the Wretched.” Arianna couldn’t stop herself.
“Yes, well… When we’re moving things—people—we’ll do so on our own terms. We’ve learned every time we’ve maneuvered down there.”
“You’re not joining us?” Florence couldn’t seem to process it.
Will shook his head. “Flor, we’ve always ridden in separate trikes. Sometimes we can ride side by side, but our destinations are different.”
“Unless you want to join us, instead?” Helen asked hopefully. “We need a Revo for protection, just in case. You really are brilliant with gunpowder.”
Florence fought to hide a smile at the well-deserved flattery.
“Plus, you could help ferry more people out of the Guilds, just like you, to live a free life doing whatever they choose.”
It would be a noble cause, Arianna admitted. One that would resonate strongly with Florence as someone who had used that method herself to avoid the fatal outcomes of failing the Dragon tests. Florence had every reason to say yes.
And yet, Arianna desperately wished she wouldn’t. If Florence disappeared with these two, she would likely never see her again. Florence would become her own White Wraith, operating outside the law and in the greatest secrecy possible. She would be at constant risk.
Arianna wanted to be happy for the girl. She wanted to support blindly. But the panic the very thought put in her made her tongue act differently.
“You could stay,” she said softly. Florence looked at her in shock—shock Ari hoped wasn’t stemming from excitement and relief. “But you should come with us to the Alchemists first. You won’t last long without being transitioned to a full Chimera, even less without Dragon blood.”
If the girl leaves these two, the chances of her ever rejoining them decreases greatly, a nagging voice in the back of Arianna’s mind assured her. She only wanted what was best for Florence. She hadn’t lied.
Florence looked between Ari and the two Ravens. She desperately wished she knew what was going through the girl’s head.
“I can’t.” Florence shook her head. “Will, Helen, I can’t go with you.”
“You’re sure? Will you meet us after you become a Chimera?” Helen squinted at Ari skeptically while the Wraith fought to keep a triumphant smile off her lips.
“I don’t know… But Arianna is right. I need to go for that, at the very least.” There was no room for hesitation in Florence’s words and Arianna was pleased to note that her student clearly thought of the whole matter as her idea. “I’ve come this far. I need to see Cvareh through to the Alchemists. And even after that, who will make Ari’s canisters for her?”
“She can always buy them.” Arianna was going to sew Helen’s mouth shut. She did not want to lose Florence to these people. She felt like the girl had only just entered her life and now they were trying to take her away.
“The canisters they sell in Mercury Town are wretched.” Florence shook her head firmly. “I’d never let her have those.”
“I’m lucky to have a Revo like you looking out for me.” Arianna nudged Florence’s shoulder with her own, satisfied it seemed she had no intention of leaving her side anytime soon. It wasn’t every day you had the opportunity to meet another gear that fit so well against your own.
She mused on the fact as she led them all to where she had been holing up, promising Will and Helen some supplies to get them on their way. Meeting the two Ravens had proved to Ari how special Florence was, how unique it was that she had slotted nicely into Ari’s world. But it equally illuminated something else she never expected. Everyone she’d met in her life could be organized into two categories: those who fit in seamlessly, and those who didn’t.
She never expected Cvareh to fall in with the former, rather than the latter.
30. CVAREH
Of all the ways to travel, the airship was the one Cvareh liked the best. Anything was better than the Underground—he’d consider diving head first into the Gods’ Line before venturing down into those forsaken depths again—but it wasn’t the most recent harrowing experiences that colored his opinion on the matter. They had traveled decently well on the train, and he had traversed skies and land alike on the backs of boco on Nova. But this, this, was something completely different.
The ship was hoisted on magic and mechanics. A giant balloon, filled and strapped into the top of the airship, supplied the majority of the lift. The rest was seen in the faint trail of magic that glittered off from the propellers on each of the golden-tipped wings, fanning out widely. The front of the airship was pointed and drawn up like the bill of a
fish-eating water bird. But the back was open. Multiple tiers of viewing decks connected in to the dining room, the gaming parlor, and at the end of the residences that filled the top deck entirely.
Everything was done in pale woods and iron, accented with other dark and light stones like marble. As pretty as it was comfortable, it was the closest to home he’d felt the entire time. And that was no small wonder, as Dragons seemed to be regular patrons on airships. There were aesthetic elements the Fenthri regarded as fascinating marvels—like the curling vine-like banisters, or the wave embellishments around the cabin windows—but for a Dragon, they were nothing more than calls to the aesthetic that surrounded them on Nova.
Even now, as he stared down at the lower observation balconies, he could see the inspiration of some Dragon designer at work in the way the tile was laid and the arcs were off-set slightly. Cvareh rested his elbows on the wooden railing and watched the faint trails of magic spiraling in the wind before disappearing. It had been such a wonder, the first time he’d seen magic manifest itself in the physical world. Now it was commonplace, so much so that he didn’t even think about it. And, if he did think about it, it was associated with Yveun Dono’s Riders and their gliders. It was something that brought grief, not wonder. Yet another thing the Dragon King has taken from us all.
“What’s so fascinating out there?” Arianna rested her elbows next to his. For a whole day, she had worn proper clothing. The coat of the White Wraith had been safely tucked away and forgotten about.
Now, her coat was of a military-inspired sort, intricate roping braided down her chest, knotted on either side and tied over clasps in the middle. The design was mirrored on the sleeves and collar. He particularly appreciated the designer’s choice to add a similar embellishment right at the small of the back, though he said nothing about it.
He didn’t want to admit that he had studied the taper of her trousers or the shine of her shoes. He would never confess to admiring the elegance with which she could tie her cravat to emphasize her Rivet pin. And he didn’t even dwell too long on how aware he was that the roping on her jacket brought out the purple of her eyes.