by Rachel Grace
The captain shook her head, backing up until she bumped into her first mate. “Why would the Khepri not tell me when he obviously told her? He pointed me toward the Siren instead of bringing me directly to her side. Instead of scaling the walls of the Copper Palace itself. Why waste all this time?”
An odd, out of place whirring grew closer, as if in answer, and they all turned their attention to the darkness.
“He certainly knows how to make an entrance doesn’t he?” Phina’s voice held a trace of admiration, despite her restlessness. “Though on a night like tonight, I’d rather it didn’t glow like the rest of those bugs he’s so fond of sending to guide us. He should understand our need to stay hidden.”
Glowing bugs? Dare thought back to her initial attempt at escape from the Siren, and what she’d seen in Bodhan’s room with Phina. Was this what it had been? The Khepri guiding her? Them?
“Who is this Khepri? And why does he bear the queen’s seal?”
Bodhan lowered his voice, his eyes on the blue-green glow moving toward their camp at a rapid pace. “He is, without question, the most brilliant inventor Theorrey has created. He is the leader of our unusual consortium, such as it is, and the queen’s right hand.”
The queen’s right hand? She had never heard that title before. Surely she would know him. No one knew those filling the queen’s palace better than she. Unless he wasn’t in the palace.
Another memory struck Dare with a sudden, almost physical blow as the glow brightened.
Queen Idony standing on her enclosed balcony, a strange light bathing her. She was speaking in a hushed tone, but when Dare knocked to announce her entrance, she’d laughingly confessed she had been talking to herself.
She’d thought she knew every secret the queen had. Apparently she’d been mistaken.
“Khepri’s hummingbird,” the captain murmured. “Freeman, hang one of the blankets on a sturdy branch behind us.”
Dare watched the big man move with surprising swiftness before returning her attention to the brass bird hovering just out of reach. It did hum. She could hear it, perhaps because of the rapid, barely visible flapping of its mechanical wings.
It darted toward Dare and she stepped back instinctively for fear of being hit by the tiny brass bird. But it did not attack her; instead it hovered in front of her, its clear crystalline eyes full of seeming impatience.
Then the copper and brass marvel did something truly odd.
It tilted its head to one side and glanced down at Dare’s right hand while she looked on, uncomprehending. After a moment it fluttered down until it was even with her fingers, before lifting to her eye level once more. It did that twice before Dare, utterly fascinated, began to catch on.
She lifted her right hand slowly, palm up toward the busy automaton. She trembled with the excitement of discovery as it instantly landed on her skin, the cool metal buzzing with clockwork life. She could also make out a closed panel on its rounded chest etched with that strange segmented bug again. The symbol for the Khepri.
She heard Phina snort softly. “I think it likes you.”
It folded its little wings against its sleek body, and the panel opened, revealing a circular depression within its clicking inner mechanism that seemed to be missing a gear.
Bodhan bent down at her side, leaning close to study the opening in the dim light of the fire. He must have seen something she didn’t because he straightened and spoke to the captain, his tone urgent. Anticipatory. “Captain Amaranthe, did you bring it as I requested? My wrist brace?”
Freeman slid the device from his pocket and walked closer to hand it to Bodhan, who instantly began to tap the largest theorrite crystal in the center with a definitive rhythm. “The Khepri sent me something ages ago, along with some of his more florid prose. I’d nearly forgotten about it.” A loud click came from Bodhan’s device and the gem turned clockwise on its own. “The basic meaning seemed to be”—he caught Dare’s gaze with his light blue stare and winked—“keep this close until the right one comes along.”
He lifted the theorrite crystal out and placed it in his pocket. Between the conductor of his brace and the leather, there was a small compartment. He stepped closer to Dare so she could look into it. It was a copper gear. Miniature but intricately precise, though a closer look revealed unusual grooves etched into it like the rings of a tree. The perfect size for the bird’s missing piece.
“What is that?”
“I think it’s yours, princess.” Bodhan nodded toward the Khepri bird. “More precisely, yours to put into that.”
Dare frowned in confusion, but the bird seemed to understand, turning its head to study what Bodhan held. With her left hand, she reached for the small mechanical piece carefully, praying she would not drop it onto the soft, wet ground beneath their feet.
Before she could touch it, she was stung by a type of static charge that arced across the space between the gear and her skin.
“Ouch.” Dare looked down at the improbable creature in her hand, relieved that it appeared unaffected by the jolt or her surprise.
Her fingers tingled as they did when she’d touched the dodge on the ship. She flexed them and made a fist to regain sensation. Now prepared for the shock, she touched the gear with her fingertip and gently withdrew it. It was so light it clung to her skin.
She brought her new acquisition toward her right palm and the open panel of the automaton. As she moved the gear closer she felt a force, like that of a magnet, cause the gear to wobble, then spin off her finger and snap into position inside the bird’s chest.
The gear and its surrounding clockwork began to turn and the panel shut with a decisive click. The messenger’s wings flexed and stretched, humming into flight once more, this time heading toward the blanket that Freeman had put in place.
Hovering beside the fabric, the automaton beat its wings faster than it had before. She heard a crackling sound much louder than the fire and felt a static charge building in the air around them.
Traces of the energy began to coalesce around the body of the bird and arc between its wingtips. Its crystalline eyes started to flash with bright white light, the energy seeming to pool in its head. Its beak opened and the flashing light shot from its eyes onto the blanket, creating flickering images that Dare prayed everyone else could see.
“Queen Idony,” she gasped. A grainy image of her queen like the one taken by an artisan’s amphitype. Only this was not a single smiling queen frozen in time. Each flash of the bird’s eyes changed her expression in the tiniest of increments, until she appeared to be speaking. Her mouth moving.
“The beak is an opening for sound, I believe.” Bodhan’s low whisper sounded close, but she couldn’t look away. “It is a message, Dare. A recording made by the queen herself.”
A recording? Like the automaton at Trader’s Square? A voice, sounding metallic and far away but still recognizable, echoed around the small camp. “If you have retrieved this message then my Chalice is in your company. Her unique markers alone could initiate this recording.” Dare watched the queen’s smile wobble in the shuttering pictures. “What we knew would be has come to pass. I have been taken from the palace against my will. The Theorrean Raj, selfish and greedy though they may be, could not have done this on their own. But they are deceived if they think he will share power if he is allowed to reign again.”
If who were allowed to reign again? Dare took a step closer to the bird, straining to hear every word.
“There is too much to tell, and too little time to explain. Captain Amaranthe, you will need more than your Freeman and Seraphina, no matter their talent, to man the Deviant now. Bodhan of the Siren may be your greatest ally in this. Trust him.”
Dare could feel the captain and Bodhan’s tension at the mention of their names, but she could not look away from her queen’s flashing face. There was such sadness in her eyes, and it broke Dare’s heart to see it.
“Go north and send my regards to those within Tower Orr. They
can help.”
“Dare…” The voice paused and the queen seemed to look directly at Dare. “The life of my Chalice is precious to me. No harm must come to her.” The recording skipped for several anxiety-ridden moments. “I gave my Arendal Sword a dagger before he went missing. Find it if you can. Find me if you can. I can endure, but my time may soon be winding down.”
The beak closed and the bird’s eyes ceased to flash. Her queen was gone. Again.
“Damn it, what happened? Why did it stop?” Phina had walked toward the blanket, her hand touching the fabric where Idony’s face had been. As if she could maintain the connection by will alone.
The captain ran a rough hand through her dark hair. “That is all we have to go on? A dagger and a tower I have no knowledge of? She knew more than that, I could hear it. Why wouldn’t she just tell us?”
Bodhan’s low voice was thoughtful. “Perhaps she knew someone was listening and was unable to say more.”
Dare rubbed her temples, trying desperately to think. What was it she was trying to say about Cyrus? She’d given him a dagger? If it was so important, why had she sent him away with it in his possession?
She had just seen proof that Idony knew of Captain Amaranthe and the Siren. She had called Bodhan an ally. Her faith in him had been justified, not that she hadn’t already learned to trust him. To trust what she felt about him.
So why did she feel as though her heart was splintering? As if she never knew the queen at all?
And who was the man she spoke of? The one who had fooled the members of the Raj?
Agonized screams broke through the group’s silence, and all of them flinched in surprise when a blood-covered Wen pulled down the blanket and appeared before them.
Wen dropped to his knees. “Gebby. I told him we shouldn’t have come here. It took him. Biggest marsh cat I’ve ever seen bit his arm clean off and dragged him into the marsh. Please, he was cryin’—beggin’ me to help him. Captain, please.”
Dare turned to reach for the blade in her boot but stopped when she saw that the hummingbird, its mission complete, had disappeared the same way the dragonfly had.
The captain strode into the darkness, shouting orders. “Freeman, with me. Phina, in the trees now, I need your eyes. Wen, stay with Bodhan and Dare. We will return as quickly as we can.”
“I could help.” Bodhan lifted his hands, grimacing at the clinking of metal that kept them connected. When the captain disappeared as if he hadn’t spoken, he muttered, “Perhaps not. She is just doing this for spite now.”
Dare wanted to talk to him about what they’d just witnessed. Wanted to run after Captain Amaranthe and help Gebby. The kind crewman did not deserve such a gruesome fate. She knew of more than one marsh creature that had the ability and the aggression to kill a man.
“I think I should help them,” she said. “Just let me—”
The distinctive cock of a pistol closed her throat. She looked up in time to watch Wen, now on his feet with a calm expression transforming his features, raise another cocked weapon and aim it at Bodhan’s heart.
In the chaotic moments before, she hadn’t sensed what she did now. Intense delight. He’d laughed while slitting Gebby’s throat and covering himself with the stupid man’s blood.
She swayed at the strength behind his sadism. “You killed him.”
Wen’s smile dimmed. “Lucky guess.” He steadied his aim. “Three guesses what I’m thinking now, Chalice. Come on,” he wheedled. “I dare you.”
Chapter Ten
Dare mentally brushed away the negative feelings swarming round her head like insects and focused on her options.
Bodhan was vulnerable, still shackled despite the queen’s words. The captain and the others were searching for Gebby, believing him alive. Dare was livid, but she was Wode. Though she hadn’t had much use to practice those talents in the confines of the palace, they were a part of her.
She was no longer trapped beneath the sea or hovering over Theorrey in a flying machine. She was on solid ground.
Here, rage could enhance her abilities. Wode were of the earth, they said. Strong and numerous as the mountains and as molten at the core. She had taken down Nettles, and this man was a lanky half-wit compared to him. Only his aimed guns gave her cause for hesitation.
She could hear Wen’s heart racing with the thrill of his success. Could sense Bodhan’s nearly imperceptible movement as he edged his way toward something he could use to protect them.
“Either you are brighter than I originally gave you credit for, capable of overcoming all of us with nothing but two rusty pistols and your wits,” Bodhan said derisively, “or you are a pawn in a bigger plan. I’m laying my wager on pawn. And pawns never play alone, so how about you tell us where your friends are?”
He was using the opportunity to distract their attacker. Clever. She would think he had done this before.
Dare’s gaze narrowed on Wen’s unsteady grip on his weapons. “You’re right, Bodhan. I can feel others. Not the captain or Phina. Strangers. And the marsh has gone quiet, a sure sign we are no longer alone.”
Wen paled. “It’s true then? You are what my lord has been searching for? The blood in the chalice who can read minds?”
Bodhan laughed. “Ah, blessed ignorance. Do not tell me it was your idea to volunteer to crew for the bloody Captain Amaranthe as someone else’s spy? You don’t have to read minds to guess what she does to spies. Let’s just say it takes time. Quite a bit of it, so I’ve heard.”
Wen shuddered, his eyes blinking rapidly as if he feared he’d faint. He attempted a weak sneer. “Cursed bitch won’t get the chance. I sent out the beacon. He knew she would come, don’t you see? Knew I could get close. So I’ll take little Miss Dare here, get my reward, and the rest of you can meet my other shipmates.”
His lord. His ship. Was Wen implying he was a crewmember of the other airship? The fictional airship?
Bodhan seemed to think so. And his worry for her was tangible. It was also unnecessary. The gun aimed toward him, along with the glimpse she’d been given of the queen, had been the catalyst that reminded her who she was, and why she was here.
Bodhan would not be harmed.
She caught his eye, wishing for an instant he could feel what she felt for him. That he shared her ability. That he knew.
“You know what I love most about our campsite?” she asked.
He lifted one eyebrow, perhaps thinking she’d lost her mind as she took several steps back. The land dipped until she stood beside one of the trees that sprouted up through the wet grass.
Dare grinned. “You don’t need Phina’s senses to know that the heavier you men are, the louder your boots splash in the muck.”
In an instant, she’d kicked out behind her and ducked to avoid Wen’s reflexive shot. She heard a loud curse as she and Wen both hit the attacker lurking in the tall grass and darkness. The sound of a large body splashing as it sank into the marsh music to her ears.
Her leg was still high in the air and she deftly reached back with one hand to pull the slim blade out of her boot.
“Are you sure you’re pure Wode? I have never seen a move like that from someone without Felidae blood.” Bodhan’s impressed tone pleased Dare immensely, though she knew the reaction was inappropriate to the moment.
“Just Wode,” she assured him. “What I lack in size I make up for with other abilities.”
He had moved as she spoke, using her as a distraction. He reached Wen’s side and brought the metal on his wrists down hard on the skinny man’s head. Wen crumpled in a boneless heap and Bodhan crouched down low to grab a pistol, tossing it toward Dare before reaching for the other. “Indeed. Remind me never to make you angry, princess.”
The sound of the shot had sent the others out of hiding. Dare counted perhaps ten pairs of boots running toward them in the darkness. These men were not trained to move silently, which she found odd. Surely stealth would be a requirement for those who crewed the mythical shadow airs
hip.
She hoped the captain had heard the commotion as well. Quiet or not, the numbers were against them. Dare moved strategically toward the center of camp, closer to Bodhan and higher ground.
They appeared through the mist and the darkness, men who varied in weight and size, but wore the same dark clothing, the same stripes of red painted across their faces like bloody claw marks.
The same distinctive weapons.
Dare narrowed her gaze and made a quick mental inventory of their raised hands. Every man she could see wore the same fingerless black leather gloves. Each glove was fitted with sharp retractable blades attached at each knuckle. Simulated Felidae claws? She had been expecting guns similar to Wen’s, but these men were nothing like the skeletal deckhand.
They charged Dare and Bodhan with loud roars, fists high. She fired one-handed into the mob, holding her blade up and ready with the other.
She moved to stand directly in front of Bodhan, noticing as she did that their attackers seemed to be scattered, closing in from every side.
Dare opened her mouth to order him to turn around and fight back-to-back with her as Cyrus had taught her, but he was already moving into position, shooting his nearest attacker as she did the same. “I prefer being front-to-front with you,” he quipped, “but I suppose this will have to do for now.”
His teasing was short-lived as a clawed hand came close enough to scratch the fabric of her jacket and a small patch of skin at his side. She heard the useless clicking of his pistol and he swore. “I also prefer not to be shirtless and chained without my pistol when costumed marsh devils attack.” He grunted as his fist connected with someone’s flesh. “I am a simple man.”