Airships, Crypts & Chocolate Chips

by Erin Johnson

  I blinked quickly to keep my tears back, but they still fell and ran into her blonde hair. “I’ll be careful. But, just in case—” I sniffed. “You are the best friend I’ve ever had.”

  “Ahem.” A tiny cough came from my handbag where Iggy hid inside a metal lighter. “And what am I, then?”

  I rolled my eyes but corrected myself. “The best girlfriend I’ve ever had. I love you so much. You are so talented and kind and fun—and the only one who could wrangle our rag-tag baking team together.”

  Maple let out a shuddering sob. She whispered, “Look after Wiley, too, will you?”

  I whispered back, “Oh, that guy? What, are you into him or something?”

  She chuckled, then sniffed, then nodded as she sobbed against my shoulder.

  I rubbed her back. “I will. We’re all going to be fine. We’ll see you back in Bijou Mer.” I hugged her tight one more time.

  She turned, hiding her face in her hands, and walked off sniffling.

  Hank watched her go, then turned to me, his brows pinched together. “She does know you’re not going to actually see any of the criminals, right? This prison tour is going to be extremely safe. I’ve asked Urs about it.”

  I grinned. “You asked Urs about it?”

  “Uh, yeah.” He sniffed. “When you said you were going, I had to verify that security protocols would be in place.”

  “And?” I lifted my brows.

  “You and the other ladies will be just fine. Urs is accompanying your group himself.”

  The room tilted and I suddenly felt a little dizzy. “Is he now?” So we not only had to pull off a prison heist, but we had to do it right under Urs’s nose. No biggie.

  “They’re leaving soon,” Iggy’s tiny voice hissed from my handbag.

  “Did you hear something?” Hank looked around.

  I stepped closer and grabbed his arm. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?”

  Hank’s face fell. “Oh. Right.” He looked to the side.

  I rubbed his arm, down to his wrist. “What’s wrong?”

  He shook his head and held the papers out to me. I shifted my handbag to my other arm and grabbed several small papers from him. One side of each page had been torn, leaving jagged edges. I flipped a sheet over and found most of the words blacked out, though some handwritten passages remained visible.

  I frowned. “What are these? They’re blacked out like the pages in the file.”

  Hank nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. His face and neck looked pale with blotchy patches of red. “Exactly. I was looking through the file again today and found these.”

  I shook my head. “Do you mean you hadn’t noticed them before?”

  He shrugged and took a few steps to the right, then spun on his heel and marched back. He continued to pace. “I don’t know how. I’d gone through that file dozens of times, looking for any clue. But this morning, these pages were sticking out of the folder and caught my eye. They could’ve been spelled to only be visible on a certain day, or maybe I subconsciously ignored them… I don’t know.” He jerked his chin at them. “Will you read them?”

  I looked doubtfully from the papers in my hand to my clearly agitated boyfriend. “Okay….”

  “Make it quick,” Iggy whispered. “Or you’re gonna miss the airship and everyone dies.”

  “No pressure or anything,” I muttered.

  Hank froze, his eyes wide. “I mean… you don’t have to. I just—I’m freaking out. A bit. And I’d really appreciate it if—”

  I waved a hand. “I’m sorry—I was…” I remembered Francis’s weird excuse from last night. “Thinking of a joke I heard.” I dropped my eyes to the pages before he could respond to my nonsensical answer. I read:

  He’s so out of control—like I was when I first tried to exercise my powers, but worse actually. He’s just a boy and hasn’t learned restraint. But he needs to.

  The next words and most of the page had been completely blacked out. I scanned down and found the next legible passage.

  I’m afraid he’ll be a danger to himself and others if this continues. I only hope I can get through to him.

  More erased passages. I flipped through page after page.

  I’m afraid Hank might hurt me if I—

  I am afraid Hank will go too far and kill me.

  I looked up. Hank tugged at his hair and paced back and forth, back and forth, across the width of the hall. He glanced at me, but didn’t stop moving. “What do you think?”

  I opened my mouth and shook my head, unsure what to say.

  Hank didn’t wait for my response. “I think I accidentally killed him. I killed Colin, the only friend I’d ever had, I killed him.”

  My jaw dropped. “What? That’s—no way.”

  “You read his words. That’s Colin’s handwriting and those are pages torn from his journal. I remember he kept one.” His dark hair stuck out at odd angles from him tugging on it.

  “Okay, but we already know your mom forged his handwriting to send you postcards. Maybe someone did the same with these journal entries?”

  Hank shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He took his clipped strides back and forth, like a caged animal. “It sounds like him. He was clearly talking about me being out of control. He was afraid of me, Imogen.” He scoffed.

  I licked my lips. “Even assuming he wrote this, so much of it has been blacked out. By who? And that takes away the context.”

  Hank held a hand to his mouth and bit the tip of his thumb. “It makes sense, doesn’t it? That’s why my family was afraid of me. That’s why no one talks about me as a kid, why it’s taboo. And that’s why my father seemed shady about it.” Hank whirled on me, his eyes wide, the whites visible. “I probably accidentally killed Colin with my out-of-control magic, and my father covered up the crime. He’s actually been protecting me, all this time, from the guilt and the legal fallout.” He shook his head. “He’s actually been protecting me.”

  I scoffed. “Hank, but how would you have killed Colin and not remember? You said you were fourteen when he disappeared, right? And that you were in control of your powers by then?”

  Hank shook his head. “You saw me at the ball the other night. I slip. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I—” He shook his hands, his eyes welling with tears. “How much I hold back, I just explode sometimes.”

  A very faint, “That’s what she said,” floated up from my purse.

  I ignored it but made a mental note to scold Iggy later.

  “He could’ve spelled me to forget. It’s not easy, but with enough time and the right wizards, it can be done. And my father clearly has the resources.”

  I frowned. “What about the lab? And the box, then?”

  Hank dropped his arms limp at his sides. His eyes pleaded with me. “I want you to be right. I really do.” A tear trickled down his cheek. “But that lab was probably something my father paid for to develop swallow’s mew. He knew he needed some way to contain me if I got violent and dangerous, and Colin agreed. He was a swallow too, and he probably volunteered to test these things out.” He gestured wildly with his hands.

  I folded my arms. “This is your father we’re talking about, with these virtuous intentions? The guy who abandoned the Fire Kingdom when they were in need? The one your mother’s afraid of? The guy who’s treated you terribly your entire life?”

  Hank’s chest heaved. “Look, I don’t know, but it would explain why he treated me that way, right? Why he was always watching me, like he was waiting for me to mess up. Why he always seemed both suspicious of and afraid of me.”

  I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t make sense at all. Not with the Hank I know. You make dad jokes and dance with me at parties and love baking. You’re fair and kind and brave.” I stepped forward and took his trembling hands in mine. Weirdly, his panic had eased mine somewhat. “I know you.” I looked up at his glossy blue eyes. “I know I haven’t known you that long, but believe me, I know you. You ar
e the best man I’ve ever met.” I wrapped my arms tight around his middle and pressed my cheek to his heaving chest.

  Hank dipped his head and took my face in his hands. He kissed the top of my head and held his lips there for a long while. “You know me how I am now, I don’t doubt that.” He spoke into my hair. “But you didn’t know me as a kid, or how bad off I was.”

  He pulled away and gently took the pages from me. He backed down the hall.

  “Hank.” I reached out.

  He shook his head. “You have to go. And I have to think this over.”

  “We’re going to miss the ship,” Iggy hissed.

  Urg! I wanted more than anything to follow Hank and talk to him until he felt better. There was no way he was a murderer and I hated that he was doubting himself. And on his birthday! But Iggy was right. We had to go.

  I cupped my hands and shouted, “I love you!” I turned away from Hank and sprinted to the airship hangar.

  18

  The Countess

  The Duchess of Audrey, head of the ladies’ salon committee, patted her shimmery white curls and nibbled the corner of a cracker. “Hm. And where did you say you’re from, Countess? I must confess, I was certain I’d met all the aristocracy of the kingdoms.” She blinked her hazel eyes.

  “Or at least heard of them,” Louella muttered. She sat beside the duchess and stared daggers across the narrow corridor at me. A cushy velvet bench seat ran around the perimeter of the narrow passenger compartment. Well-dressed women from the salon group, at least forty of them, sat side by side and filled the ship.

  Annie sniffed. “Why, we’re new money. My husband, earth rest his bones, made a fortune in the horse manure business. Bart & Sons Horse Dung. Are you familiar with it?”

  The duchess sniffed and politely shook her head. Louella made a face.

  “Well, we did very well for ourselves.” Annie raised a porcelain tea cup to her lips. “Ol’ Bartholomew had a way with our horses. Maybe it was the feed, or the way he’d sing to them, but they produced more manure per head than any horse in the kingdoms.”

  The duchess blinked rapidly. “Truly?”

  Louella folded her arms and snorted. “The singing made them—” She rolled her hand, a diamond tennis bracelet glittering at her wrist. “You know.”

  “Made them defecate?” Annie’s eyes twinkled and she gave a tight smile. “Well, I can’t say for sure. But I will tell you this.” She set her tea cup on the saucer and leaned across the aisle. The duchess, Louella, Emmaline, and I leaned in, too. “My Bartholomew’s voice had quite an effect on me. Here.” She pressed a hand to her heart.

  The duchess clicked her tongue and smiled.

  “And here.” Annie pressed her hand to her stomach. “In my bowels. I was regular as the sunrise for all thirty-four years of our marriage.” She looked down and shook her head. “After he passed away, earth rest his bones, I was constipated for eight months.”

  The duchess gasped. “No.”

  Annie nodded and leaned back in her seat.

  Louella sneered. “Are we really talking about this?”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Where was Annie coming up with this?

  “Anyway, I lost myself for a while there, after dear Barty left me. Earth rest his bones.”

  I covered my mouth and looked at the floor, hoping I’d look appropriately sober, instead of about to lose it with giggles.

  “Earth rest his bones,” the duchess murmured.

  “He was a simple man. And though we’d made a fortune, he preferred to stay true to our humble beginnings. We stayed on our farm, wore the same handwoven clothes we’d always worn, and collected manure the old-fashioned way.”

  Louella held up a hand. Her cheeks had lost their rosy color. “I don’t want to know what way that is.”

  “But as I’ve aged and our sons have grown into men and taken over the family horseshit business...”

  I choked on the cookie I’d been eating and Annie slapped my back. A quiet stream of laughter came from my purse.

  “…I’ve decided, I’m an old lady and while I may not have much time left, I’m going to live it up. So I’ve gotten myself some fancy clothes, moved to the big city, bought myself an airship…” She patted the polished wooden windowsill behind her. “…and am enjoying the high life.”

  “Cheers to that!” The duchess raised her teacup in salute.

  “So that’s probably why our paths haven’t crossed before.”

  “Fascinating,” the duchess breathed. “I must say, I admire a self-made woman like yourself.” She lifted her chin. “Before I married the duke, I came from a family of schoolteachers.”

  Yann, followed by Wiley, ducked out the door at the front of the ship. Wiley sported a mustache and Yann long hair—a little disguise. They wore their stolen uniforms, though some spells had changed out the buttons and added epaulettes and disguised them as crew uniforms. Yann held a tray of champagne flutes, while Wiley carried a silver platter laden with prosciutto crostini and shrimp salsa served in endive leaves. Little twitters of excitement rippled through the airship as the men served drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

  The duchess leaned forward and winked. “Kudos on your choice of staff. So handsome.”

  Annie and the duchess chuckled, while Louella frowned. I could practically see the jealousy brewing on her face.

  She cleared her throat. “Mm-hmm. I’d like to bite off a piece of that ass. Am I right?”

  “Oh my.” Emmaline, sitting on my other side, pressed a hand to her chest.

  The duchess curled her lip at Louella. “My word, such vulgarity.”

  “I—” Her mouth hung open, speechless. She gestured at Annie. “We were just discussing horse poop!”

  Annie flashed her eyes and whispered behind her hand to the duchess, though everyone could hear. “Spoiled.”

  “Uh!” Louella huffed and folded her arms.

  As Yann and Wiley moved down the aisle separating us from the duchess and Louella, I whispered in Annie’s ear, “You are brilliant! How did you think of that?”

  Annie chuckled. “I’ve been working on my character for a few days now. You’re a fan of the countess?”

  “Oh yeah. I seriously thought I was going to lose it.”

  “Ladies?” Wiley held the tray of snacks in front of us. He winked.

  I plucked a crostini off the tray and popped it into my mouth whole. I’d have assumed I’d be too nervous to eat. But nope. I was devouring everything in sight. A sort of last meal.

  Emmaline tapped my shoulder. “Your friend is amazing! I’m so glad you asked me to invite her.”

  I nodded, my mouth too full to speak. Maybe something good would come out of all this. Maybe Emmaline would go up in social rank thanks to her association with Annie’s amazing countess. I munched on my bread and prosciutto. Totally worth breaking into a high-security prison for.

  “This is your captain speaking.” Horace’s low, slow voice sounded over the brass speakers in the wooden ceiling above. The chatter quieted. “We are now approaching our destination.”

  Emmaline grabbed my shoulder and gave it a little shake. Excited squeals went up from around the ship.

  “If you look out our right-hand side, you’ll be able to make out the floating sky island of Carclaustra Prison.”

  The women on the right side of the ship spun in their seats to look out the row of windows that spanned the length of the room, while all of us on the other side rose and flooded the aisle to get a look. I stood with everyone else.

  “Located in an isolated region of the Air Kingdom with nothing but open sky all around and advanced magic technology, Carclaustra is the safest place in the kingdoms. Unless you’re a criminal.”

  The women giggled.

  Since when did my brother put on the charm?

  As the ship swung around, the island came into view. A long landing platform jutted out from the side of the mostly round hunk of land. Besides that, the gray, windowless buildin
g, many stories tall, occupied every other inch of the buildable space on the island. A small white airship painted with a red cross sat atop a landing pad on the roof of the prison. Horace guided us to the end of the landing platform. The ship dropped lower and lower until we pulled up beside the ramp and hovered in place.

  I looked at Annie on my left, and Yann and Wiley to my right. Everyone looked focused—and grim.

  I took a shaky breath. Here we go.

  19

  Greetings

  I stayed standing and watched out the window. At least two dozen guards in black uniforms and chest plates swarmed down the landing platform in formation toward the ship. I glanced towards the cockpit. Horace had been right that they’d send a big group of them. Yann and Wiley edged through the crowd of women, turned the wheel on the door, and pushed it open. Four clean-shaven men with buzz cuts entered the ship, their wands held aloft.

  “Oh my.” An older woman pressed her hand to her pearls.

  I sat back down, as did the others who stood, to clear the aisle. The guards spread out. Two moved toward the back of the ship where I sat with Annie and Emmaline, their boots clomping down the narrow wood corridor. They glared at each of us. The other two moved toward the front of the ship and one banged his fist against the door to the crew cabin. Horace opened it, wearing a uniform of his own.

  The guard grunted. “We’ll need to see your personal license as well as the license and air field permits for this ship.”

  I leaned into the aisle to see. Horace stood, silhouetted against the bright sky visible beyond the windshield. I jiggled my leg with nerves. He wore another man’s face. I knew he would, of course, but it was still a shock to see. He looked about twenty years older, tanned, with a trim brown beard and bright white teeth. Only as swallows could we pull off a disguise so convincingly. I bit my lip as I wished for the hundredth time that his previous prison sentence didn’t keep him from entering with us and helping.