“Nivy,” Scarlet said, twisting on the bench as the announcer continued to call out fencers, “did you learn anything? About Hannick?”
“What about Hannick?” Po asked, frowning. Up near the ceiling, a mechanized score board was lowered on chains to hover above the ring…or strip, according to Talfryn’s teachings. It flickered, screen activating, before giving a loud rebellious buzz and shorting back to black. The crowds booed; someone threw a hat at it.
Gideon, who had been glancing back and forth between Scarlet and Nivy, grunted with sudden comprehension and informed Po, “Scarlet Girl had you followed.”
Instead of disparaging Gideon for ratting on her, Scarlet blinked at him, looking taken aback and strangely touched. To Hayden’s knowledge, it was the first time he had ever called her that. It was always Po Girl, Nivy Girl, and just…Scarlet. Or some adjective in place of, like Fussy, or Sassy. This was her initiation.
“Followed?” Po repeated. “You still think he’s no good, don’t you? Even after he stuck his neck out for us with his father, and helped us eliminate all those suspects you thought up?”
“All that did was keep us here longer, Po.” Scarlet had pulled out an ivory fan and begun waving it in front of her flushed face. Hayden didn’t envy her the superfluous bulk of her skirts in this crowded, steamy room. “He made it seem helpful, but he didn’t just eliminate suspects for us. He took them away. It took us the better part of the last four days to find as many leads as we did. He batted them down without blinking.”
“And he didn’t stick his neck out too far,” Gideon added. “‘Cause his head is still on.” When Hayden and the others stared at him in mystified silence, he griped, “Oh, comon’. Everyone knows that’s what that means. You stick your neck out, your head gets lobbed off. You see what I’m sayin’?”
Whiskers twitching, Mordecai said earnestly, “Maybe King Pryor don’t have an ax.”
“Or maybe the wind caught it.” Po gestured, her hands blowing off course. “You know, threw off his aim.”
With a playful growl, Gideon threatened, “You’re gonna hope my aim gets thrown off in a minute.”
Nivy, never one to be bothered with tact, chose to ignore the whole exchange and move on. She snapped her fingers once at Scarlet and started to sign, but just then the crowds catapulted to their feet with deafening roars, making the whole bench rattle. Hannick’s name had been called.
The prince, his uniform a terrific royal red, strolled along with a hand on the hilt of his sword, grinning with approval at his reception. He took his time joining the other fencers and gave his younger sister a wide berth even though she was clapping politely for him. Hayden shoved his jolt of annoyance to the back of his head impatiently.
Most of the crowd didn’t even notice when Reece came out on Hannick’s heels and slid into line nonchalantly, tightening his arm bracers. Contrary to popular belief, Reece never exactly minded attention, but he rarely went looking for it. That was one thing, at least, that set him apart from Hannick.
“Well, I suppose that’s something,” Scarlet said in response to Nivy’s gestures as the crowd at last settled in to listen to the reading of the tournament rules. “Still, we ought to keep an eye on him.”
“What about Owon?” Hayden thought to ask. “How is he faring in the brig?”
Although the Vee had not specified in his and Reece’s agreement how he expected to be housed, he hadn’t seemed bothered by Reece’s insistence he be taken into Oceanun custody rather than given a room of his own. In fact, to Gideon’s great annoyance, he had seemed pleased when his leash had been relinquished to the Oceanun guards. The only thing that had effected his chilling smile in the least had been Hayden asking how his stock of serum was holding up…just out of curiosity. One of the serum’s big disadvantages was the transience of its effects; it needed to be taken three times daily, and Owon’s luggage was limited to a single black bag he had managed to keep hidden in the cargo bay right up until the guards were sent for him, and the pain agents he had stolen at the start of their voyage. Reece had looked ready to chew nails when Owon had casually tossed the bag over his back and said he was sure they’d meet again.
As Mordecai patted down his pockets for a sparkstarter, he mumbled around his cigar, “We should’a sent him on his way with a care package. Some candles and flowers, a card with all our handprints on it, that sorta thing. The place ain’t exactly homey.”
“But did he seem to be going through withdrawal?”
Mordecai took so long trying to light his cigar, Gideon answered for him. “He might’a been a little creepier than usual. That’s all I noticed.”
“It’s a little weird, isn’t it? Him not bein’ here?” Po asked. “I’d kinda gotten used to him. Oh, look!” She squeaked excitedly as the announcer backed out of the ring so the first two contestants could take their places on the strip. “It’s startin’!”
The competition was fierce and furious. Hayden knew only the little about fencing Tallie and Reece had taught him, but he could’ve known nothing at all and still oohed and covered his eyes at some of the bouts, they were so fast-paced and closely-matched. He’d always thought the quiet intensity of The Owl’s fencing matches unnerving, because they’d put him on the edge of his seat, about to combust with no outlet. But there was something about the screaming crowds making every match out to be a life or death fight that was electrifying. By three matches in, he had chewed his nails down to nubs.
Reece’s name, along with Hannick and Talfryn’s, climbed from bracket to bracket as the day and the tournament wore on. Hayden felt acutely embarrassed watching Tallie fence at her finest. He’d suspected she was holding back at their practices, but he hadn’t realized how much. She was a whiplash blur with her jabs, thrusts, and cuts; out of everyone’s, her matches were the shortest and most unvaried. She would dance forward and score, return to her line, dance forward and score, return to her line, and then before the crowd could even really work up to the proper level of excitement, a bell would sound the time, singing her another victory, and she would wave her thanks and return to the bench. Hayden caught her eye once. She saluted him, grinning breathlessly.
Grunting, Gideon elbowed him and wondered, “She grinnin’ at you like that?”
“Well,” Mordecai said, leaning back and forth as if to test whether or not her eyes would follow him, “she sure ain’t lookin’ at me.”
“Under Delegate Talfryn has been giving Hayden fencing lessons,” Scarlet informed them with a wry smile.
Hayden felt himself turning as pink as a turnip. “And that’s all, thank you,” he painfully added as Mordecai and Gideon swapped a meaningful look and mouthed, Fencing lessons! “She’s just a—oh, forget it.”
Po touched his arm sympathetically as he dropped his face into his hands. “Ignore them, Hayden. I think it’s sweet you found yourself a nice girl to spend time with.”
“But I don’t—”
It was the blessed announcer who saved him from what no doubt would have been a blundering attempt at changing the subject. As he called Reece up for his next bout, Po gasped, “Oh, he’s goin’ up against that other girl! She looks nasty.”
Gideon suddenly stood. “I’ll be back,” he mumbled.
Dragging his pink face up out of his hands, Hayden asked curiously—and because yes, he was still hoping to divert the attention away from himself, “Where are you going?”
“I’m gettin’ twitchy. Need some fresh air.”
Hayden rose hopefully. “Would you like me to come with you?”
“What are we, Twelves?” Gideon snorted, giving him a knowing look as he began angling his big shoulders through the crowd that did nothing but enflame Hayden’s blush.
The bout was a particularly brutal one, punctuated by a lot of gasping, wincing, and whimpering from Po. Reece’s opponent, the “nasty” girl in yellow armor, was very good, but more than that, she was quick to press her advantage, not to mention her luck with the judges. She kep
t Reece dancing on his toes and Hayden balanced precariously on the edge of his seat. As the time wound down, Reece barely scraped up the points he needed to take the match, scoring three in quick succession. The girl threw down her sword, tore off her helmet, and stomped in the direction of her changing rooms with a ruddy, tear-streaked face.
“There’s our Reece,” Mordecai declared, applauding proudly, “always makin’ the girls cry.”
Even though there was no way Reece could have heard the comment, the first thing he did after tearing off his helmet and shaking out his sweaty hair was peer up at their place in the bleachers. They all waved encouragingly. Well, except for Scarlet; she just twiddled her fingers noncommittally.
That was when, with a whoosh like a sharp inhale, the lights went suddenly dark.
Scarlet’s twiddling fingers shot to Hayden’s sleeve and held it fast as they looked around with the rest of the startled spectators. Thankfully, there was enough watered-down blue light falling through the hall’s skylight ceiling to keep the crowds from an all-out panic, but it didn’t stop the nervous whispers, the gasps and uneasy stirring in the shadows. It didn’t stop a fierce dread from clenching Hayden’s stomach into knots as he craned his neck to look back at his friends.
“You don’t think it’s…” he trailed off hoarsely. What if Scarlet was right, and the crew had lingered here too long? What if those spiny black Kreft ships appeared, and bombs started falling like they had on Atlas when he’d had to leave Father and Sophie behind in Tutor White’s basement? What if—
He jumped and then deflated with relief as the lights popped back on, duller than they had been, but on. The crowd made a nervous, self-conscious attempt at a celebratory cheer. The crew was a silent island in a sea of cheering.
The announcer tried with commendable gusto to get the tournament’s momentum back up, but the next few bouts and the excitement over them felt stiff and forced. Eventually, Mordecai stood and nodded for the others to follow him. The tournament still had several bouts left, including Reece’s deciding match against Talfryn, but the crew shuffled their way out without complaint. Besides, Hayden didn’t even see Reece down among the thinning ranks of competitors’ anymore.
Out in the corridor, Mordecai beckoned for them to join him in a cozy drinking lounge off the beaten path. The lounge was cool, dimly blue, and damp, like an underwater cave, only with marble floors and posh little booths where the Oceanuns could enjoy their drinks from the glass bar in private. Mordecai strategically stopped before the hissing and sputtering centerpiece fountain and waved them in close even though the lounge was nearly empty, whiskers twitching ominously.
“What’s wrong?” Po asked.
“I got a feelin’,” he said. “Bad one. Down in my gut. Somewhere behind my kidney.”
With a small shudder, Scarlet guessed, “I presume that to mean you think the power outage has something to do with the missing anai?”
“The Oceanuns were too nervous, didn’t ya notice? At least for it to be a common occurrence. The king’s been keepin’ the missin’ anai hushed up, but they won’t have missed the fact the ferries haven’t been runnin’. Wouldn’t be surprised if some’a them were startin’ to get suspicious. ‘Course, power goin’ out in an underwater city twice in one week…does make a man feel a mite clinophobic. Maybe that’s all I’m sensin’.”
“Claustrophobic,” Hayden corrected absently, frowning at the fountain. “Clinophobia is the fear of going to sleep.”
Mordecai nodded sagely as he twirled a mustache around his finger. “Had that once, too. Then I fell asleep.”
Hayden barely heard him. He stared blankly down the corridor, his mind churning like the fountain, restless, agitated. After weeks of nervously pacing The Aurelia’s infirmary and unsuccessfully chiseling at The Heron’s encrypted book, Neserus had felt like a haven, a place he could actually relax, or if not relax, at least take a moment here and there to give reality the slip and just…not be so frightened all the time. The sparkling, happy city and his comfortable bed and Talfryn had all helped him pretend he and his friends were momentarily safe. And maybe they were. But at least on Aurelia, they knew what was out to get them.
Blinking, Hayden realized he was staring at Reece marching their way with his brown hair more mussed than usual and his expression deadly. He was still in uniform, but his helmet and sword were nowhere to be seen, which Hayden couldn’t help thinking was probably for the best. He looked in a mood to hurl them.
“Reece!” Po exclaimed, spotting him. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ve been disqualified from the tournament,” he answered shortly as he reached them, hands on his hips and mouth twisted in disgust.
“Why? What did you do?” Scarlet demanded, and he glowered at her.
“Nothing but win repeatedly, that I know of.” With a glance at the bar with its glass columns of brightly bubbling brews, Reece decided, “I need a drink,” and wheeled its direction as if just realizing he was dying of dehydration. By all means, not a good sign.
Hayden winced at Scarlet and shrugged, but it was Nivy who made the brave first move, spinning up onto the stool next to Reece, leaning back against the counter, and locking him in an inquisitive stare. Sighing, Reece flagged down the fellow tending the bar and asked for something strong. Something flammable were his exact words.
Once he had in his possession one Turtle Blue—a fizzing house special that turned Hayden green just by sitting there—he spun his stool around to face his audience grimly. “Another anai was stolen.”
Hayden was surprised only by the fact he wasn’t actually surprised. A part of him had known the instant the lights had flickered out something bad had happened, because there was no such thing as hiccups where the crew of The Aurelia was involved anymore. There were earthquakes; there were shockwaves.
“That’s why they disqualified you?” Scarlet asked. Reece nodded into his cup, and she tsked. She seemed to have forgotten she was mad at him in light of his bad news. At least one good thing had come from the theft, Hayden thought tiredly. Pryor had put them back on the same side. “Now Pryor is just getting desperate. You have five hundred witnesses to provide you with a steel-clad alibi.”
“He must want to be seen doing something. He has nowhere else to point his finger, and a city beginning to wonder why,” Hayden reasoned, and was rewarded with a look of approval from Scarlet and a resigned nod from Reece.
Grimacing, Po offered, “He could’a waited a whole’a ten minutes, though. Wasn’t fair’a him to disqualify you when you were so close to winnin’.”
“Nah,” Reece mumbled into his cup, his voice a distorted echo, “he couldn’t afford to let me win. The crowds would have made a fuss if their champion was stripped of his victory. Kind of kills the celebratory mood.”
All of that made sense, but there was one thing Hayden was stuck on. Reece was annoyed at being disqualified, and piqued at Pryor besides, but that didn’t account for the way he was quickly drinking down to the dregs of his Turtle Blue, or clenching his mug in a tight white fist. There was more still to come; he was just toeing the waters, trying to decide whether it was best to wade in or just jump and get the cold shock over with.
“Before you drink your brain to numbness,” Mordecai drawled, prying the cup out of Reece’s stony grip, “mayhaps you ought’a tell us what else you got on your chest.”
Reece rubbed his eyes, which was a clever trick for getting out of looking at any of them. Hayden knew. It was his trick. “Where is Gideon?” he finally asked, his voice as taut around the question as his fist had been around his cup.
Everyone looked at Mordecai while Mordecai thoughtfully considered the Turtle Blue. Slowly, his forehead gathered into wrinkles. It was like some sort of switch had been flipped; the bright old loony pirate had been turned off so their eyes could adjust to something darker, something that looked a lot more like Gideon.
“What are you suggestin’, there, boy?”
Unfazed, Reece ans
wered, “I’m suggesting it would be good if he had an alibi this time, Mordecai. I had a whole room of witnesses putting me at the fencing tournament when the anai went missing, and Pryor still wants to punish me for it. What do you think he’ll do to Gideon? Before, we were only sort of stuck here. If they arrest Gid—”
“They did,” Talfryn pronounced as she rushed up breathlessly, startling Hayden’s heart into his throat. She squeezed into their circle unabashedly, wincing as she brushed shoulders with a very stiff Scarlet. “Or they will, once they find him.”
“How do you know?” Scarlet asked, scrutinizing her with a glimmer in her green eyes that put Hayden, at least, on edge. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the tournament?”
Talfryn shrugged. “I forfeited when I left to find you all.”
“So Hannick won,” Reece remarked, clucking.
“He will, yes, but only because neither you nor I fought him, and he knows it. His victory won’t be nearly so sweet, now.” Looking pleased with herself, Talfryn smoothed an auburn curl back into place and glanced at Hayden. “They’ll probably keep him overnight, but they won’t harm him, I promise you.”
“They couldn’t if they tried, but that ain’t the point,” Mordecai rumbled, making her jump. “The point is that boy’s innocent, and they got no right to blame him just ‘cause it makes the most sense. Cap?” He looked to Reece, who had bowed his head into his hands and was mindlessly scrubbing his fingers through his hair.
Reece grunted and hoisted his head up with visible effort. He looked as if he could use his Turtle Blue back, but Hayden didn’t think Mordecai meant to return the cup until it was good and drained. “Well, I’ve got a plan, but everyone should know in advance…you’re not going to like it.” He looked around at their assorted expressions, from Mordecai’s dark, calm stare to Po’s fretful cringe and Scarlet’s skeptical squint, and seemed to come to a decision. “We leave Gid in the brig overnight.”
The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) Page 29