by Blooding, SM
I tsked and shook a finger at her. “You think so, but I was born and raised on an airship.”
Fear spread over her features. “You belong here. You are mine.”
“No.” The door to the balcony was definitely open, a cool breeze blowing through and ruffling my shirt and her long dark hair. “Good-bye, Nix.”
I turned and sprinted toward the balcony, launching myself in the air. I didn’t know what was waiting for me below, but I knew this was the only way to escape.
Anything was better than what she had planned for me.
CHAPTER 10
YOU ARE MINE, PRIMUS
When I’d heard Haji’s call, I knew I could trust him. I didn’t know what I was jumping out onto, but I knew I’d be okay.
I didn’t realize he was going to try and kill me.
Below me, and coming up fast, was a two-winged machine with propellers that would dissect me into about a million pieces if I missed.
What was he thinking?
He brought the plane to meet me with too much speed. He sat in the covered cockpit, watching something, glancing at me periodically.
The wingspan was short and only wide enough, really, for my upper body. And right on the tail where –
I stopped worrying and aimed. Well, as well as anyone could aim while falling several stories through the air. The wing and I collided, the force ripping across my chest. I latched on, but the wing surface was slippery and the propellers were—trying to—
My feet scrambled to stay clear of them. They were going to eat my feet!
I slipped.
The propellers in front were sucking me in.
I curled in a ball and sank, straightening my body once I was clear, making myself an arrow aimed directly at the ground.
Which was coming up fast!
I heard the motor whine again and flattened out. Haji had better figure this out quick or I was going to die. And then I’d have to figure out how to come back so I could haunt him.
He brought the machine below me again, staying fairly even with my descent. He motioned with his hand.
I had no idea what he meant, but he brought the contraption closer, this time with my body aligned with the entire wing span.
I breathed a sigh of relief, or tried to. Breathing was difficult when the air you’re falling through is trying suffocate you, but I was relieved.
This time, when I came into contact with the flying machine, it was with a little more grace. I wrapped my arms and legs around the wings as much as I could and fought to just stay on.
Dear Sky, how I missed good old fashioned rigging!
The propellers I hadn’t even seen on the wings moved from where they were anchored on the bottom to the top, rising mere inches from my body. I closed my eyes and prayed that today wasn’t the day I would die, and waited for him to land the bird. It bounced a little, and then the whine died down and the force of the propellers slowed until I no longer felt like I would be sucked to my death.
We were in the middle of a landing area of sorts for similar looking birds. There were several metal circles like the one Haji had landed on, and a long landing strip and. A bank of long, tall buildings similar to the laboratory ran along either edge. Where were we?
The cockpit glass opened. “What in the eleven ice hells were you thinking?” Haji demanded.
I carefully pried myself off the wings and slid under the still moving propellers. The wings were melted with an imprint of my body. Whoops. “What was I thinking? What were you thinking? You gave me the signal!”
He hopped out of the cockpit, putting his goggles on his forehead. “To come to the balcony, not throw yourself off of it.”
“Well, I’m terribly sorry I misunderstood a signal we’ve had since we were kids.” My voice rose with each word, my gestures growing wild. I’d nearly died. I’d very nearly died and it would have appeared to the Sky as though I’d killed myself. Steam rolled off me in waves.
Haji stood in front of me, his eyes buried in deep, dark circles. “Do you want to explain why you decided to just jump?”
I swallowed hard, staring at my best friend in all the world, and turned away, forcing myself into a cooler mind.I didn’t need to add self-combustion to the list of mistakes. “I ran out of time.”
“Are they after us?” His voice was much calmer as he kept even with me.
I nodded. “Tell me you have a plan.”
“I had a plan. But we’re about to lose our window.” He started jogging. “We have to move fast.”
I heard a high-pitched whir and spun. Crap. It was one of those floating face scanning devices. I ran to catch Haji and pulled him behind some crates.
He gave me a sour look and ducked back down after he saw what we were hiding from.
The sound of the face scanner’s spinning fans filled the air as it stayed for several minutes, obviously searching for us.
“We need to hurry,” Haji whispered harshly. “We’ll miss our opportunity.”
I nodded and put a finger to my lips, peering over the crates. The floating scan disc moved on. I motioned to Haji and followed as he led the way through one of the buildings, past the large hangar door, out through a man door, and into the heart of the city.
Now I knew where I was.
He headed toward the docks I’d barely glimpsed from my rooms.
I stopped. Keeley. Had she had time to talk to Joshua? Would they be ready and willing to go?
Haji stopped and looked back.
I had to find out. Coming back here to Sky City would be next to impossible. If I didn’t get them out now, I risked never seeing them again.
Haji pulled his ears back and came to stand next to me. “Tell me you’re not about to do something stupid.”
“I have to do something.”
“Stupid.”
I held up my hands and backed up a few steps. “I just have to make one quick stop.”
“We really don’t have time, Synn.”
“I’ll make it fast.”
He rolled his eyes and ran after me.
Finding the laboratory was easy. I wasn’t too sure how easy it would be to get in. So I opted for the cool approach. I strolled in like I owned the place.
Joshua grabbed my arm before I’d made it two steps in the door and dragged me to a shadowed corner. “I thought ye’d show up after the heroic jump off the tower,” he whispered. “This way. So this is your helper, eh? Keeley said she thought there’d be an extra person.”
I stared at him in surprise. “What?”
He stopped and turned to me, a purely serious expression on his freckled face. “Keeley an’ I’ve been plottin’ our escape for years, developing the technology that would get us off this city.”
“And you’re telling me that you’ve just now made it?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “No’ really, but after ye took the dive, we knew we couldn’t wait.” He rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh. “Come on. We need to leave. Nix’s soldiers were already here, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they’d stayed.”
“How are we getting out?” Haji asked in Handish.
Joshua turned to me with a perplexed look on his face. “I can’t understand anythin’ he’s saying.”
Haji looked at me in surprise. “But I speak perfect Handish, better, I think, than he does.”
I nodded. Now was not the time. “Let’s just go.”
“We trust this man?” Haji asked me in Adalic.
“Yeah. We do.”
He shook his head and fell a few steps behind me. “You’d better be right, Synn.”
I hoped I was, but I had a feeling they were just as trapped, if not more so, than I was.
Plus there were the little things that Joshua said, the way he acted whenever Varik was around. Yeah. I trusted him.
He led us through the back streets and alleyways I didn’t even know and brought us into a large building.
“Here’s the hangar we’re lookin�
� for,” Joshua said lightly. “Now we just need to get everything loaded and be off.”
I walked into the hangar and stared in surprise at the monstrous bird-like machine propped up on rolling jacks. “What is that?”
“Tha’,” he said, pointing to it with a grin, “is my invention to get us out of here.”
“It didn’t come in anything smaller, perhaps a bit faster?”
He laughed and started pulling rigging ropes off of the wings. “Not if we’re taking all o’ our studies with us. No.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“Our entire laboratory is in here.” He stopped and looked at me. “Well, come on. Let’s get going. They’re going ta be tearin’ the city apart looking for you soon enough, like as right. Best we’re off before they catch on.”
Yvette ducked under the tail of the flying machine in knee-length pants, stockings and a white shirt, a leather bodice of sorts holding her belt of contraptions and gadgets. “Ah, so the garçon has arrived.” She sent me a tight lipped glare. “Thank you for expediting our time table. We really could have used the extra weeks to finish.”
“Yvette,” Joshua said. “Have you loaded all of your things?”
She nodded.
“How many trunks of clothes are we going to be loaded down with?” I asked.
She glared and disappeared on the other side again.
Haji removed the rigging from the wing. “What is this?”
“I call it an aerioplane.” Joshua smiled proudly. “It works differently than the bi-plane in the fact tha’ we’re able to carry cargo. It took a bi’ to figure out how to carry heavy loads, but I think I did all right.”
“Yeah,” Yvette yelled, “though landing this thing’s going to be a bit of an issue.”
My hands paused on the rigging. “What’s she talking about?”
Joshua’s looked like he was trying to shake off his concern. “It’s nothin’ to worry about. We’ll be fine.”
“Uh-huh. Define fine.”
“Well.” He took in a breath and tipped his head. “It’d be best if we were to find a long, soft, flat place to land.”
“And why’s that?”
“Well, the bi-planes can land vertically. My aerioplane needs a runway in order to gain enough force to take off.” He winced. “The heavier we are, the harder it is to take off.”
“And without landing gear,” Yvette said, popping up under the wing, “it’ll be that much harder.”
“Without—Wait.” I followed Joshua into the belly of the beast. “We won’t be able to land?”
“It’ll just be a bi’ rocky is all.” He shrugged. “I really could have used an extra week.”
“Well, I’m sorry. No one told me.”
He stopped in the middle of what looked like a cargo bay. “We couldn’t tell ye, now could we? You were being tortured by Nix. Ye would’ve told.”
I shook my head.
He took a step forward. “I knew Varik before. He’s a Bahrain, a close cousin of mine. We grew up together.”
Huh.
Joshua was quiet for a long moment. “I know what she does, Synn. Ye’d’ve told her.”
I watched him disappear deeper into the ship. “What do you need me to do?” I called.
“When I tell ye,” he yelled back, “push.”
I closed my eyes and shook my head. “Push?” Oh, this couldn’t be good.
By the time I stepped out of the belly of the aerioplane, the rigging had been removed and motors were starting to whine. Propellers emerged from bulbous tubes on the wings and slowly began to turn.
Keeley came out from the bowels of the ship and tugged on the blocks in front of the jacks.
I shook my head and tried to find a good place to push from. There weren’t many places. Luckily there were only two rotors on each wing. After my run-in with Haji’s saving me, I knew I didn’t want to get in the middle of all that.
“You’ll want to stay close to the cargo bay door,” Keeley yelled.
I nodded and made my way to her. She had her hands on the plane, ready for the direction. Haji and Yvette were on the other side. With a shake of my head, I put my hands to the plane and prepared.
Keeley tried to get her hair out of her face, shooting me a smile. “I’m glad you came.”
I gave a tight lipped nod. I really hoped we weren’t going to die.
The roar of the engines rose. She tried to say something else, but I couldn’t hear. Lights flashed ahead of me, and the aerioplane started moving. Glancing back, Keeley was digging in her heels, pushing with all her might. Oh, right. I put my back into it.
The hangar bay doors let in the streaming sunlight. The path was clear.
We pushed the heavy beast along a wide sidewalk to an even wider metal road of sorts. The motors got even louder.
“Get ready,” Keeley shouted.
Get ready for what exactly?
We waited, the pitch in the motors changing, the plane starting to tug a little as though it were on a leash.
“Go, go, go!”
Keeley meant “push and run really fast” when she said that, I soon found out.
Behind us, I heard men shouting and a weapon fire.
The plane bumped.
Keeley let go and ran for the bay door.
Yvette and Haji were right on her tail.
I really needed to keep up.
The door was rising and the plane was going faster and faster. The plane lifted from the rolling jacks and then fell back down. I was running out of time. I put in a burst of speed and leapt for the door. I tucked and rolled and the door closed behind me.
“That was close.”
Haji shook his head at me with a look that said, “What have you gotten us into this time, you idiot?”
There was one more bounce and some shouting from the front of the plane. Keeley disappeared toward the source of the sound, shouting, “Hold on to something.”
Like what?
I looked around and found rope tying the cargo into place. Good enough. The floor of the plane lifted. There was a dip and then a drop so big, it sent us headed toward the ceiling.
We’d fallen off the edge of the city.
We leveled out.
Haji and I shared a triumphant smile.
And then my head split open. I fell to the floor and curled up, my mouth open in a scream. I pushed back toward the bay door, trying to get it to stop.
A single voice threaded its way through the pain.
You are mine, Primus. Swear it.
And I had.
CHAPTER 11
DEAR MOTHER OF DIRT
My fingers clawed at my scalp, trying to assuage the pain exploding inside. Nothing helped. The others asked me if I was okay. I’m pretty sure. I don’t know. The pain blocked my ears.
I had to get off the plane. My fingers searched for the button to the door.
Something hard smashed against my fingers.
I roared. Steam rolled over me in waves. The metal underneath my hand turned molten.
Someone’s fist slammed into my face. There was a lot of shouting.
The thought of getting off that plane made the pain in my head dissipate. A little, which was enough to be a lot. I needed to go back.
The cockpit. I needed to get to the cockpit and send the plane back.
I made a mad dash for it.
Joshua was waiting for me at the door with a pan.
The pan made a new explosion resound in my head. I was thrown to the floor writhing. I had to get back!
“What’s wrong with him?”
I barely registered what I heard. My eyes could see nothing.
“This isn’t normal.” Keeley.
I turned to her and roared through the pain, unable to speak actual words. I. Had. To. Get. BACK!
“He’s been compulsed.” Joshua.
“Compulsed?” Yvette. “What does that even mean?”
“I was wonderin’ why we weren’t being followed.
Now I know.” Rummaging. “Nix expects ‘im to just come back. No matter where we take ‘im.”
“What can we do?” Keeley.
“I might know someone.” Joshua. “But the only thing tha’ will make him feel any better is knowin’ he’s going back to her.”
I didn’t. Didn’t want to. Wanted to leave. Get the hell out of there.
I was pushed back down. “Don’t worry, lad. I know. We’ll get you back. I promise.”
I sagged with relief as the pain subsided.
“Josh,” Keeley said indignantly. “You can’t be serious.”
“Oh, but I am.” His voice trailed off. “I’m also certain he’s goin’ ta be the one to kill the bloody bitch.”
I snorted, reeling from the ebbing of the throb.
“Josh.”
I started to register the outline of people. Joshua turned to me and sent me a fuzzy smile.
“Well, this is just fantastic,” Yvette said, one hand on her hip. “I didn’t escape just so I could get caught again, this time to be imprisoned and possibly murdered like the rest of my Family. You’re taking me to the nearest city and you’re dropping me off.”
“Well, first,” Joshua said, kneeling beside me with a roll of rope in his hands, “we have to figure out how to land this thing.”
“So we’re not going back right now?” I asked, my voice a bare whisper. All the different sounds were starting to register with a pounding resistance.
He took my hands and bound them together. “Not yet, lad, but you just—”
My brain felt like it was being squeezed. I fell back and arched my back, trying to get anything to stop the—
Hands gripped my face. Words were shouted at me, but nothing made sense. Someone was in my face. I could feel the spittle of the words against my chin.
“…going back.”
Ebb.
“We’re going back.”
Flow.
“You’ll see Nix again.”
Breathe. Light flared. The shadow of his head bobbed in front of me. Fingers dug into my head.
“We’re going back.”
I closed my eyes, exhausted. “Make it stop.”
“Listen to me, lad. We can’t land on Sky City. We’re too heavy and there’s no landin’ gear.”