by SM Blooding
She bit down on her lips and rolled them out slowly. “How much do you need?”
“Apparently, we’re almost out.”
“I’ll make arrangements.” She walked away.
“What?” I shook my head unsure if I should call her back, or let her go. What game was she playing? Was she going to hit me with a bill so large, I had no way of paying it? And in that way, she could get me to sign on as her knight?
I clenched my fists and walked to the docks. I had to figure out how to deal with that woman. Somehow, I had to get smarter.
It felt odd going to the docks and not boarding a Samma vessel. I searched for the Hebo Kowka. There were actually several Kowka’s at the docks. Once they realized there was no limit to the seats, all of their captains were competing.
That was something I was going to have to think about. Did we want to limit the seats, or did that go against everything I was trying to do? I had no idea.
I found the Hebo and leapt onto the loading platform swinging in from the dock. It was loaded with several boxes, and bales of sea flax. They were still under repairs. That was good to know and something to be watchful of. It wasn’t unheard of to make repairs while in the air. We did it all the time.
I jumped from the platform, landing lightly on my feet.
Eosif stepped down from the quarterdeck.
I headed in his direction.
“I vas interested to hear that my observer vas the El’Asim.”
I shrugged. “It was either this or stay in Ino City and be inundated with paperwork.”
He smiled slightly and pointed under the stair. “Your bag can go there for now.”
I tucked it under the last step before following him to the quarterdeck.
“I noticed you do not stay at the helm,” he said as I cleared the stairs.
I acknowledged that statement with my chin. “Do you know where we’re going?”
He raised his eyebrow, but said nothing.
I shrugged and watched. I was there for observation. I found a space against the rear rail and leaned against it.
Watching the crew as they lifted the Hebo Kowka into the sky was nice. The white sails popped, their air jelly fattened, his long tendrils flailing with a wind I didn’t feel.
Tall, bulbous clouds hung over us, their dark underside writhing like a boiling shadow. But the wind was free, and the sails were full. I closed my eyes, listening to their strange language. It wasn’t pretty.
Their air jelly had touched the underbelly of the storm when Eosif turned to me and crossed his arms over his chest.
I didn’t move. I was enjoying myself. It was a rare moment when I wasn’t needed to solve some sky-shattering problem. I hadn’t realized until that moment just how stressed I was. Up here, on a strange airship, there was nothing I could do about anything.
A slow smile crept over Eosif’s harsh face. “Vould you like to help us solve the clues?”
I sucked air through my teeth, feeling the most relaxed I had in almost a year. “I could take a look.”
“You are supposed to just observe.”
I shrugged and pushed off the rail. “The way I see it, you already proved yourself. I really don’t know that my being here serves any purpose except to make the people on the game council happy.”
The corners of his mouth turned down and he tipped his head before turning around and heading down the stairs. He shouted something in his language.
“What do you call your language again?”
“Vrmuusian. I’m surprised you’ve never heard of it.” Sarcasm laced his words.
I chuckled as we cleared the stairs and retrieved my pack. “You live in the one place most people fear, so I can see why.”
He threw me a sly smile. “It does serve many purposes.”
The captain’s quarters were divided into two by a partition. The bed could be seen on the other side through the slats. I had never seen anything so monstrous on an airship before.
The other half had a large desk by the bank of windows. A larger table dominated the center of the room. A map covered the far wall, the curtains pulled back and tied with silk cords. I had no idea why they would want to put a curtain over the map. That didn’t make sense.
Several people stood around the table, speaking in Vrmuusian. It didn’t matter what language they spoke. I could see their frustration. It was in their frowns and in the way they tossed the paper and writing utensils.
Eosif walked to the table and pushed the piece of paper toward me. “Perhaps you can shed some light on our clues.”
I glanced at it and snorted, pushing it back to him. “You write in a completely different alphabet.”
He smiled smugly and read the clues. “Grab the fruit that bleeds vhile drawing your blood.”
I frowned. How easy were they trying to make it? I shook my head. “That’s a prickleberry found on the Koko Nadie Islands.”
Eosif narrowed his eyes. “The Koko Nadie are largely unpopulated. How do you think people vould know about this?”
I opened my mouth and widened my hands. “I know how I learned about it, but . . . ” I let that thought trail off. I had to admit, I didn’t understand what Marko Dudyk was thinking when he set up the tests. “They’re very abundant on most of the islands, but they don’t look like much. What are your other clues?”
The Kowka closed his eyes and quirked his lips. “Ve are to capture the fury of the sky.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “That could be one of two things. Wind.”
“I have no idea how to capture that.”
I shrugged. “Or lightning.”
He took in a deep breath. “And how vould ve capture lightning?”
I grinned. “You’re in luck because I just happen to be quite good at that.”
“Does it appear as though the game vas rigged for you to vin?”
I thumped the table. “Most of the air fleets know how to harness lightning. It’s our currency. What do you use for trade?”
He bared his teeth in what might have been a smile. “Sky cat pelts.”
Right. “Well, then it would appear as though the last round was rigged for you.”
He acknowledged my statement with his chin, and glanced down at the paper.
“What is the last clue?”
He rubbed the paper between his fingers. “A baby air jelly.”
“Well, this should be easy. What are we going to do for the remaining days of the games?”
He clapped me on the back. “I recommend ve get drunk.”
“Well, if you’re serious about courting my sister . . . ” I waited for his reaction.
His expression sobered immediately.
Dear Sky Father, what was I doing? “Then I need to give you some helpful clues to keep you alive.”
CHAPTER 27
VODKA AND LIGHTNING
Retrieving the prickleberry didn’t take long. Neither did harnessing the baby air jelly.
When night arrived, the storm unleashed. Blanketed in the clouds, we were safe from the fury. Thunder rumbled around us. The sound of rain fell in the distance, along with the whispered sounds of gales. It was an odd place to be, tucked into the heart of the storm, protected by the clouds that usually promised danger.
We found ourselves on the deck, surrounded in a pale world of darkness. But it was far from still. Several people grabbed guitars, while others grabbed bottles, passing cups around and filling them.
It smelled horrible. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to taste it either. Father had kept a flask of something that smelled vaguely similar. I’d made the mistake of trying some once. I’d slept through that night, through the morning and half way through the following afternoon.
Eosif threw his drink back, slammed the cup down on the deck beside him, and pulled a blue guitar across his lap.
The mood around the deck lightened as everyone hollered, clapping.
He tuned the guitar with nimble fingers, and then started into a song I
’d never heard before, his voice rising into the cloudy air with a dark ruddiness. His crew joined him, voices joining in from all around the ship, including the shrouds.
At the end of his song, though, he handed the guitar over to the person beside him.
She took it, checked the tune, and started another song, her voice rising into the night in a soft croon. I couldn’t tell what the words meant, but I didn’t have to. The notes, the music, the looks on the faces gathered around her. She was singing about love.
With the voices of the crew joining hers through the chorus, Eosif leaned over, tapping my cup with his. “Bottoms up, yeah?”
I grimaced and left it on the deck.
He pulled back, a mocking smile on his lips. “Are you trying to tell me that the great El’Asim cannot stomach his liquor?”
I knew he was goading me. I could say no, leave the cup on the deck. I should.
But I was on the airship of the man who might very well marry my sister and take over my fleet. The sense of “smart” shifted.
I knocked the liquid back.
And nearly died.
The liquor singed my throat and slowly ate it. It burned its way to my toes. I never knew anything could do that.
Eosif laughed so hard, tears streamed from his eyes. He clapped me on the back, trying to help me suck in air.
It was a long moment before either of us could speak. The guitar had been passed off to someone else, a young man with a higher voice than the female. Few voices people sang with him, but there was a lot of drinking going on, and if they were drinking this, I doubted they had a voice left.
That song ended and the guitar dug deep. There were no words. Just a lot of hollering and the stomping of feet.
Whatever coursed through my veins shifted something in my brain. It was like I was drunk . . . only . . . it was completely different. My brain and my body were on different plains.
My hands found the beat and the counter tempo to the song. I leaned forward and pounded the deck.
The crew stopped stomping, watching me in surprise.
I just grinned, unable to stop myself, and continued. I might not be able to play a guitar or sing a song, but I knew how to drum.
The guitar was passed down again, but I wasn’t finished. When the guitar’s string were strummed again, it was in Eosif’s hands. He watched me with a continuous chuckle, his chords joining the beat. The men around us crooned, though if they sang words, I didn’t know.
The night passed quickly. My cup kept being refilled. An empty bucket was placed in front of me, replacing the hard deck. Others joined me with upturned buckets, mop handles, anything we could bang. I discovered I did have a voice for singing.
It was amazing.
I don’t remember finding a place to sleep. The last thing remember, I’d handed my upturned bucket to someone else, my stomach feeling queasy. I might have muttered something about how I needed to go to bed.
I woke up the next day to a gray world, one leg draped over the edge of the hammock strung up in the corner of the captain’s room.
I got up—no. I tried to get up. What actually happened was I fell out of the hammock and landed on the floor. The world spun and my stomach threatened to curl. I lay on my back, and watched the ceiling spin.
Eosif’s smiling face entered my rotating vision. I knew the man probably wasn’t dancing around me in circles. He didn’t appear to be the type of man who would do that. However, in my head, he wouldn’t stand still.
I closed my eyes. If I didn’t, I was going to hurl.
He threw his head back and laughed.
That was not great. The sound of his laughter was like a spring trap of hammers in my head. I flung an arm over my eyes and flailed at him with the other. “Shhhhhh.”
He continued to laugh, but much quieter. He knelt beside me and sat a cup down on the floor. “Here. You vill vish to drink this. Yes?”
I glanced at the cup out of the corner of my eye and then closed them again with a groan. “I’m pretty sure I don’t.” My voice was a croak and my throat was sore.
He chuckled. “Drink. There are herbs that vill help your head.” He stood up. “You are teaching us to harness lightning today.”
I groaned and let my arm fall back over my eyes.
“Or are you going back to bed like a boy, El’Asim?”
I wasn’t going to let him goad me again. “Yes. I am.”
He laughed. “I vill have someone bring you breakfast.”
By the time breakfast came, I’d managed to pull myself into a sitting position, my legs splayed in front of me, my hands dead on the floor, my shoulders slumped. I felt like the gassy end of a jelly. Flaccid.
Eosif placed a wooden plate in front of me with something that looked like it was still living.
This was not going to end well. My stomach already felt like it was going to retch its way up my esophagus, or maybe force its way through the lower regions of my abdomen. I wasn’t sure which.
Somehow, the man talked me into eating. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked. Eating and drinking did make me feel a little better. The world stopped spinning. Mostly.
I rubbed my face and stared at him incredulously. “What was that stuff last night?”
Eosif sat beside me, a smile on his angular face. “Vodka.” His eyebrows flicked upward. “Do you like it?”
I groaned and leaned back, only to right myself again as the world threatened to spin. I was able to get it back to rights, but the threat was still there, lurking just on the outside regions of my brain. “No.”
He laughed. “It is a fun thing we do sometimes, vatching those who are not Kowka try our liquor for the first time. You do not have anything like these? Yeah?”
“Oh, we have something. Kind of.” I concentrated on keeping my stomach where it belonged as I belched.
He clapped me on the shoulder, nearly sending me to the floor. “You have become a man!”
I rolled my eyes and concentrated on breathing. That seemed to help. “I was a man before.”
“So I have heard.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew I didn’t want to go there.
“Did the queen really take your virginity?”
I glared, massaging my head. “No.”
“Ah, you were a man before she took you to her bed.”
This was not something I wanted to talk about with my future brother-in-law. “No.”
He looked at me expectantly.
This conversation needed to end. Now. “She never shared my bed.”
“Rumors say a man is only allowed to leave after she has bedded him.”
I closed my eyes. The world spun a little less that way. “Never happened.”
“Then that is a good thing, I think. Yeah?”
I frowned at him. “Why do you and your brother always say, ‘yeah’? Half the time when you say it, I’m pretty sure you mean something else.”
He just smiled. “What does she have over you?”
“Nothing.” I meant that.
The look he gave me said he didn’t believe me.
“I heard stories.” He lifted one shoulder. “Your Nix, she is a very evil woman.”
My nod was slow, my gaze unfocused as the past came back to me in a flood, sobering the moment.
“It is said that she had you broken, that you are bonded to her. Is this true?”
“I was.” I rubbed my arm. “She’s very manipulative, cunning, toxic. It’s hard to explain.”
“I have seen the voman, and I have seen the two of you. At the dance. You vere not then who you vere last night.”
I snorted with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ve ever quite been the way I was last night.”
He pointed at me. “That is the joy of vodka.”
It was time to change the subject. “What are your intentions toward my sister?”
His eyes dropped as a smile lit his face. “I do not know. A life with her vould be challenging.”
&nb
sp; That was one way of putting it. “You have no idea.”
“But I think I vould accept it.”
“Where would you live?”
“Here, of course.”
Relief flooded me, but at the same time, frustration. “And how would she adapt to your way of life?”
“It vould have to blend. Hers to mine. Mine to hers. I think . . . ” He pulled his leg in and propped his elbow against it, gesturing with the hand that was propped. “I think ve could make it vork. If she vere willing, of course. I cannot and vill not force her.”
That was good. “What do you like most about her?”
“It is too early to decide.” He met my gaze with an almost boyish grin. “But she punched me in the face. That voman has spirit.”
I stood. The world didn’t spin. “Well, at least you understand that. If you didn’t, I’d be worried.”
He stood with me. “Vould you give me your blessing?”
I snorted. “Eosif, you enjoy the part about her that drives most men mad.” I grasped his shoulder. “If she accepts you, then you have my blessing.”
He grinned, holding me up as I stumbled.
We both laughed as he guided me to the deck. “Are you ready to catch lightning?”
Probably not. “Most definitely.”
CHAPTER 28
THE LEAGUE OF CITIES
We spent the last day resting from the liquor we’d drunk. All right. They didn’t need the rest. I did.
There was a lot of laughter at my expense, but that was fine. I joined them. The stories they told of what I’d done—I didn’t remember half of it.
But in turn, I laughed at their attempts to collect lightning. We’d made a rendezvous with the Yusrra Samma to pick up the lightning canisters, and then I’d taken them under the fury of the storm to collect the fury of a storm.
We had one small canister.
By the time we made it back to Ino City, we’d both learned a great deal about our families, our ways, and there was a lot less distrust between us.
“I hear you have communication equipment.”
“We have the ability to communicate with almost everyone, and we’ve discovered ways to make it easier.”
“This, I think, could be a good thing. Yeah?”