by Jenn Reese
Aluna dropped the spear to the ground, pressed a button on her talons, and watched the long chains retract back into their canisters.
“There. We practiced. Now I’m going for a walk.”
Calli didn’t argue.
High above, a group of senators circled. They drifted in calculated patterns, watching for enemies. Aluna never went anywhere without feeling their gaze prickling on the back of her neck. Still, she turned her back on Calli and started to walk. She needed privacy, even if it was an illusion.
She gave the basin that housed Skyfeather’s Landing a wide berth. There was too much activity — scavenging parties were always leaving or returning, Aviars with their beautiful wings fluttering everywhere. Aluna hugged the lip of the mountain and walked away from the ocean. On days like today, it hurt to see so much blue.
Traveling this direction, the scrubby green covering the mountain slope turned into forest, then into an even bigger and scarier forest. The trees crowded so close together that it was impossible to see the ground. She suspected that not even the Aviars’ enhanced eyesight could penetrate the thick layers of green. It would be difficult to fly through the dense trunks and branches. With wings, it would be hard to even walk through the brush without losing feathers. All of which made it the perfect direction for her escape . . . if only she could figure out how to survive several hundred meters of an almost sheer drop to make it to the tree line.
The Above World felt lonely. She missed the water’s embrace, the sound of dolphins laughing, the monthlong soliloquies of dying whales. She missed Daphine and practicing with Anadar. She even missed Ehu and Pilipo, despite the fact that they annoyed her most of the time. Her father, now, he was a fish of a different color. She didn’t exactly miss him, but she did wonder sometimes if he’d be proud of her, of everything she was trying to do.
Far below, the trees began to move. Strange, since there was almost no breeze; even the Aviars had to flap to stay in their positions. Aluna looked closer. Only a few of the trees shook, a small cluster that seemed to be moving closer and closer up the mountain. Something was cutting through the forest like a harpoon through the water. Something big. And it was headed straight for Skyfeather’s Landing.
The Aviars were under attack.
ALUNA WAVED HER ARMS above her head, trying to get the guards’ attention, but the Aviars had already changed formation. An alarm screeched inside the basin, and then another.
She ran, legs and arms pumping, wishing she had a tail and that the world was made of water. She made it halfway back to the ocean side of the mountain rim before she saw Calli flying straight at her.
“Attack!” Calli said. “Upgraders!”
“Is it Fathom?” Aluna panted.
“Fathom never leaves HydroTek,” Calli said. “But the Upgraders are bad enough on their own. They’re here to steal our tech and kill as many of us as they can. Killing is the part they like most.” She tugged Aluna’s arm. “Come on, we have to get inside!”
Aluna hesitated. Calli was safe, as safe as any of them. Now was her chance. She could escape right now, while Skyfeather’s Landing was enveloped in chaos. Maybe Calli could help her scale down the side of the cliff.
Then she saw the look on Calli’s face. Wide-eyed panic. Fear. Aluna needed Calli calm — or at least as calm as the girl could manage — before they could attempt the escape. And it’s not like Aluna could leave without Hoku.
“Let’s go,” Aluna said, and took off in a sprint toward Skyfeather’s Landing. Calli flew by her side, easily keeping pace. “Will they be able to scale the slope?”
“Yes, they have creatures with spiked hooves and machines with special treads,” Calli said. “We’ve tried different barriers and traps, but they always find a way around them.”
They reached the lip of the city. Normally, Aluna could see Aviars fluttering to and fro, filling the space with a frenetic and lively energy. But a shark had entered their waters. Now the Aviars flew in tight formations, looking larger than their individual selves.
Aluna headed for the thin, crumbly stairway carved into the side of the bowl and forced herself to slow down. This was no time to take the stairs two at a time, slip, and find herself plunging to her death. Calli’s wings twitched and fluttered anxiously as she hovered nearby. All around them, alarms screeched and Aviars called out orders.
“My mother —” Calli said.
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Aluna grumbled. She couldn’t risk taking her eyes off the narrow steps in front of her.
“No, I think you can go a little faster.”
High Senator Electra plucked Aluna off the stairway the way a pelican plucks a fish out of the ocean. In a flash of wings, Aluna was flying. The three of them plunged toward the Palace of Wings at a terrifying speed.
Aluna looked everywhere but the ground. She saw dozens of Aviars fighting around a tunnel opening to the right. She couldn’t see what they were fighting, but she could feel its growls in her bones. An Aviar screamed. A spray of red hit the other Aviars, and Aluna averted her gaze before she saw any more.
All the other Aviars had fled into the city’s catacombed walls. The farmers had abandoned their cliff-side crops, and the chickens and pigs that normally milled around the bottom of the basin had been herded to safety. Only the senators remained.
Above them, a creature made of metal screeched into view. No, it was a Human sitting in a flying metal artifact. She recognized it from Hoku’s description: a dragonflier! Just like the ones that had attacked her sister and brothers on the Trade Rock. The Human controlling the device directed streams of green liquid at any Aviar brave enough to get within range.
“Insectoid,” Electra said. “We’re not safe out here. Calli, keep up with me.”
Electra folded her wings and they plummeted. Air flew past Aluna’s face so fast that it stung. She wanted to scream. She opened her mouth and air rushed in, billowing her cheeks out like bubbles in the deep ocean. The Palace of Wings surged toward them. They’d never be able to stop in time.
Electra opened her wings and swung her legs under them both. Air whooshed by Aluna’s ears. They landed on a platform near the point of the spire and jarred to a stop. Calli wasn’t as lucky. She hit the stone too fast and fell to one knee with a sharp cry.
“Calli!” Aluna said.
Electra dropped her and bent by Calli. “Can you stand? Is it broken?”
All Aluna could see was wings. All she could hear was a tiny sob.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Calli said.
“You have to get inside,” the high senator said, motioning to the palace entrance behind them. “Aluna, help Calli walk — there isn’t room in the passage for her to fly. Take her to the president. I’ll take care of anyone who tries to stop you.”
Aluna nodded. She’d rather be on guard duty herself, but she knew what Electra was capable of. They’d been training together for weeks, and there wasn’t anyone alive she’d trust more to watch her back. Not even her brothers.
“Come on,” she said to Calli. The girl’s ankle was already swollen and an angry red. Calli winced with each step, but kept moving.
When they made it inside the palace entranceway, Calli stopped. She turned to Aluna, her eyes wide and intense.
“We have to do it now, while there’s so much confusion,” Calli said. “I’m going to help you escape.”
HOKU TOOK ANOTHER huge bite of his sandwich — a delicious Aviar concoction with different types of food layered between two pieces of a spongy substance called bread. Senator Niobe had recommended this combination of foods, including a bright-yellow substance called mustard that he was learning to love almost as much as his artifacts.
Oh, the City of Shifting Tides had good cooks, too. His own mother could work miracles with a net full of clams. But there was no escaping the frigid salt water that soaked every meal and surrounded every taste bud. Kampii ate out of necessity, not pleasure.
But so many different
animals and crops grew in the Above World! You could grill food over a fire, or boil it, or steam it. And the spices! Little specks of orange or red or black that brought whole new sensations to his mouth and stomach. Senator Niobe ordered him something different every day and seemed to delight in watching his reaction as he ate. The way she talked about it, Hoku suspected that she’d rather have been born a cook than a warrior. The two had equal status in Aviar society, and a cook was a lot less likely to get impaled on her enemy’s spear.
Hoku licked the mustard off his fingers and tried a few more combinations on his water safe. He found the repetition relaxing: advance a number, try to open the box, and advance the number again. In some ways, he didn’t even care what was inside. The safe itself was enough of a joy. He’d gotten in the habit of tracing the mermaid design on the lid while he was reading.
Although Aluna had the freedom to roam Skyfeather’s Landing, Hoku was restricted to his room and an exercise chamber they foolishly thought he’d want to use. He didn’t mind the confinement. Calli found time to spend with him almost every day. Sometimes she stopped by late at night, when the senator guarding his room was napping by the door. Those were his favorite visits. They kept their voices low so even Aluna couldn’t hear them. He’d already learned more about technology than he would have if he’d spent his whole life under Elder Peleke’s tutelage.
And being with Calli made him feel good. He liked her more than he ever liked Jessia back in the City of Shifting Tides. Jessia was nice, but Calli was special. She was smart and clever and teased him, but not in a mean way. He loved the way she bit her lip and stared into the distance when she was thinking really hard.
A bell clanged somewhere higher up in the Palace of Wings. Another bell joined it, then another.
Hoku hopped over to the window. The sun burned low near the rim of the mountain, its light dotted with the normal flurry of winged women in the sky.
An Aviar shouted somewhere above him. He twisted his neck to see her and almost missed the squad of senators that shot up past his window, flying in a tight pack.
He saw another group fly up to the right, and two more to the left, their spears glinting and ready. He’d been at Skyfeather’s Landing for weeks, but he’d never seen the Aviars perform drills like this.
He ran to the door and flung it open. Senator Niobe stood outside in the hallway, clearly agitated.
“Get back in the room,” she said.
“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”
Her hand tightened around the shaft of her spear. “Get back in there before I put you back in there myself.”
“What’s going on? Are we under attack?” he said. “If we’re under attack, then who’s attacking? What do they want? Is it Fathom?”
Niobe glared at him, but then softened. She always did.
“Fathom’s Upgraders, here for raiding and revenge.” She spat on the floor. “But we’re ready for them, and for whatever warped tech they use against us. We’ll stain the clouds with their blood.”
Hoku could tell she was angry. Angry at the Upgraders and angry at being stuck guarding him when the colony was under attack.
“Go,” he said to her. “I’ll stay in my room with my books.”
“I have to guard you,” she said, but he could tell she was wavering.
“I’ll be safest here,” he said. “If anyone comes looking for me, I’ll hide under the bed.”
She narrowed her eyes. “You won’t try to escape?”
“When there’s a war going on? Tides’ teeth, I’m not stupid! And besides, I still have half my sandwich left.”
“Okay, then,” she said, nodding. “Stay here. But if the Upgraders penetrate this deeply, do yourself a favor and jump out the window or fall on your spear. Better death than to let them harvest your parts.”
“Uh . . .” Hoku said, not at all certain he wanted her to leave now.
“Good luck, boy,” Niobe said. She bolted down the corridor toward the yelling and was out of sight in three flashes of a tail.
Hoku waited another flash or two before he was convinced the good senator wasn’t going to change her mind and come back.
“Aluna!” he said. “Can you hear me?”
No answer. She wasn’t close enough to hear. She was probably with Calli. That gave Calli a much better chance at survival . . . but also a better chance of being in the middle of whatever chaos was occurring up in the skies.
He looked back into his room. The bed was covered with open books, crumbs, and the silvery water safe. The desk held the designs he’d been working on — his ideas for mechanical wings that might someday allow him to fly. He didn’t want to leave Skyfeather’s Landing. Not now, and maybe not ever. But Aluna and Calli could be in trouble.
Hoku pulled an Extra Ear out of its pouch and secured it in place. He had a much better chance of finding Aluna and Calli if he could hear them, and the device would increase his range. Then he took a deep breath, shut the door, and sprinted down the corridor to find his friends.
ALUNA LOOKED AT CALLI, uncertain what she’d heard.
“You’re helping me?”
Calli nodded, her face pale, her lips pressed into a thin line. “I want you to want to stay, but you don’t. Does that make any sense? If you go now, no one will blame the high senator and no one will blame me. It’s the perfect chance.”
For the first time, Aluna saw a hint of President Iolanthe’s power and charisma deep in Calli’s eyes.
“But what about your mother’s safety?”
“She’ll be surrounded by senators,” Calli said quickly. “And directing our forces. And screaming at people. And cursing her inability to get out there and fight herself.”
Aluna nodded. Her father would have been the same way.
“So where do we go? Your water and waste must be funneled somewhere. It sounds gross, but maybe we can find one of those chutes and follow it.”
“No, all of our water and sewage is recycled,” Calli said. She took a step and collapsed. She would have fallen to her knees if Aluna hadn’t caught her. “This way,” she said, brushing the tears away from her eyes. “There’s a secret tunnel under the palace that leads to an old escape passage. It goes all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. They installed it all after my mother lost her wing.”
Calli had never mentioned the passage before, not in all of their discussions about her escape. But she was mentioning it now, and that had to be good enough.
“Now is not the time for stiff wings,” Calli said. “Let’s go!”
Aluna nodded and helped Calli hobble down the corridor. Twice they hid in alcoves — Aluna’s sweaty back pressed against cool stone — as messengers ran by. And still, the alarms screamed and screeched, adding to the growing chaos.
“A few more passages,” Calli said, huffing. The girl winced with each step. Aluna shifted her shoulder to take more of her weight.
“Hoku!” Aluna said suddenly. “We need to go back!”
“We’d never make it,” Calli said. “We’ll find another way to get him out. Hoku is smart. I am, too. We’ll find a way.”
Aluna closed her eyes and nodded. Calli was right. She could help Hoku more from the outside, even if it meant raising an army of Kampii to come rescue him. The Aviars were fierce but honorable. They’d treat him fairly. Still, her stomach clenched at the thought of leaving him behind.
They rounded the last corner and heard metal clank against metal. Senator Niobe stood in the hallway, struggling with an Upgrader who had clearly emerged from the hidden door in the wall. At first, Aluna thought the man was a Human. Then she caught the glint of metal where his eyes should have been. Instead of fingers on his right hand, five thin metal blades dripped a mixture of blood and green fluid. Niobe had the man’s wrists gripped in her hands and was trying to fend him off. Four parallel cuts in her shoulder told Aluna that she’d already been hit . . . and possibly poisoned.
“The passage is already open. You can ma
ke it out,” Calli whispered. “Now, while they’re both fighting!”
Escaping was the right thing to do. Aluna’s people needed her. The Aviars weren’t her people; they were her captors. She owed them nothing. If she didn’t leave now, she might never get another chance.
The Upgrader’s bladed hand inched closer to Senator Niobe’s face. The Aviar gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep its poison tips away from her eyes.
Aluna edged toward the passage. Neither Niobe nor the Upgrader appeared to notice her. She kept her body low and crept steadily along the wall. And it was from that vantage point that she saw the needles coming out of the Upgrader’s boot. One swift kick and he’d pump vile green fluid into the senator’s body.
She was almost there. A crisp breeze blew out from the open passage, promising fresh air and sunlight and freedom. Focus, she told herself. Keep your head in the hunt.
The Upgrader pulled back his foot to kick.
Instead of diving for the passage, Aluna dropped onto her back and kicked her own legs out in front of her. She trapped the Upgrader’s swinging leg between her own, like using a crab’s claws to trap a fish. Her legs were thick and strong from a lifetime of swimming. Despite his size, he couldn’t budge his leg.
Aluna couldn’t watch Niobe die, not when she had the power to save her.
With the Upgrader suddenly off balance, Niobe swung both his wrists to the left. Together, they swept him off his feet. Aluna kept her eyes on the needles sticking out of his foot. One wrong move and she’d get whatever venom they held. Niobe slammed her knee into the man’s chest, but couldn’t afford to let go of his wrists.
Aluna grunted, trying to break the man’s leg between her own. “Break,” she said. “Break!” But his leg wouldn’t snap. Was it even made of bone and flesh?
“Surrender!” Niobe screamed, but the man continued fighting.
The sound of metal thwacking bone pierced the cacophony of battle noise, and the Upgrader’s body fell limp.
“It’s over, child,” Niobe said, her breath coming hard and fast. The senator untangled herself from the Upgrader and stood up, pressing her right hand against the gashes in her shoulder. “The boy took care of him.”