Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  Kenta nodded slowly. “No one says that out loud.”

  “But we all know it.”

  Relief released the last of Chie’s pent-up worry. They really had listened.

  “What did Synn say?” Kenta asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

  “To gather everyone at the dock,” Chie said. “I’ve passed the information along as best I could. People are packing. They’re starting to draw attention, though. Oshiro Kota noticed.”

  “Then Ino Nami will be informed soon.” Kenta’s jaw jutted to the side as he paused for thought. “We know her messenger.”

  Hitoshi nodded. “We do. I will send someone after him. Make sure he doesn’t get his message to Ino Nami.”

  “Excellent.”

  The sound of cannon repercussion sounded faintly.

  “Are we under attack?” Hitoshi asked.

  The alarm sounded for general quarters.

  Kenta narrowed his eyes then smiled. “We are. Ino Nami. So this is the reason we breached in the middle of a storm.”

  Chie shook her head. “Oki breached us to send a message to Synn.”

  “No.” Kenta flexed his hands. “Ino Nami has been in control of her city. Trust me. Oki was not the one who breached us.” He chucked his chin at Hitoshi as another repercussion sounded over the blaring siren. “She’s drawing the El’Asim out.”

  “Perfect cover for him to come into Ino City, then,” Hitoshi said.

  “Indeed.”

  Hitoshi leaned down and pressed a kiss onto the top of Chie’s head. “Make sure you’re at the docks in time. None of our belongings are worth your life.”

  She pressed her shoulder into his chest, taking the warmth he offered. “And you?”

  “I will meet you there.”

  “And Oki?”

  Kenta narrowed his gaze. “I have a plan. Go, Hitoshi. Stop the messenger.”

  Hitoshi disappeared out the back.

  “Chie,” Kenta said, grasping her arm lightly and guiding her out the back. “Will you do a thing for me?”

  He didn’t have to ask. She knew he was going to save her best friend, and Chie would do anything for Oki.

  Anything.

  I REMOVED THE HEADSET AND gave it back to the man in the communications chair. The situation was worse than I’d thought. True bloods? Tainteds? Father had shielded me from that. The only thing I knew of that entire ordeal were stories. How could this be real and why would Mother be a part of that?

  My gaze settled on Nix. She’d been discovered by the Hands of Tarot because of Shankara’s need for true bloods in their ranks. She would never have become queen, would never have released her reign of terror on the world if it hadn’t been for that. And Nix wasn’t that much older than I was. Eight years, maybe?

  I couldn’t think on that. Right now, I had to figure out how to land the Layal at the Ino docks, rescue who knew how many people, and save my sister.

  Okay. How was I going to do that? Ino City was being attacked.

  Invitation to approach. To land? Perhaps.

  What awaited me when I landed? How did I get information to the refugees of what dock I would be on? Where to go? Ino City docks were immense. How could I tell them how many I could take with me? How would I buy them time?

  Where was Oki being held? How could I get her free? How could I talk Mother into simply letting her go?

  If this “true blood” agenda was real, there would be no way of talking her out of it. None.

  What if the “true blood” agenda was fake? What if it was something devised to get spies onto my ship.

  Dirt! I needed information. I needed to get into Ino City and see for myself.

  Well, I knew how to do that and Mother wouldn’t see it coming. “We’re going to Ino City.”

  Jamilah frowned at me in question.

  “The pretense,” I said, more for her benefit than for the rest of the crew, “is to save Ino City from attack.”

  “The real reason?” Jamilah asked.

  “To save Oki from execution and take as many refugees as we can.”

  “Refugees?”

  “Ino Nami seeks to set a blood purge on her city.”

  Hisses and sounds of startlement sounded around the command dome.

  Nix chuckled low and long. “Oh.” She clicked her tongue. “Nami.”

  “Someone take Nix back to her duties,” Jamilah commanded.

  I mouthed the words “thank you” to her, and continued. “Engage the attacker. I’ll be exiting the rear and entering Ino City to gather more information.”

  Lash nodded and turned to his console, one hand on the earphone covering his ear.

  “How many refugees are we taking?” Jamilah asked.

  “That’s part of the information I’ll be gathering. When I come back, I will have a better plan.”

  Jamilah raised her eyebrows, taking in a deep breath, and sank into the co-pilot’s seat.

  I turned to the communications officer whom I’d probably have to replace. I needed my technicians to be able to work their equipment. To have a communications technician who couldn’t keep us in the information stream would be detrimental. “Tell the Basilah to ready round for a high flank. Ryo’s riding point.”

  “Are you sure that is wise?” Jamilah asked.

  “I need Ryo to meet his rage. I need his head, so the sooner he can expel the anger, the better.” I tapped Lash on the shoulder and gestured with my chin to the pilot’s seat.

  He nodded, completed what he was saying, and took the seat he’d been hired for.

  I glanced at Ghaz, narrowing my eyes.

  She licked her lips, raised her chin and walked to Jamilah, relieving her of co-pilot.

  Jamilah narrowed her eyes at me as she rose. “I thought we were only testing one thing at a time.”

  “This isn’t a test.”

  She glanced over my shoulder. “May I recommend the Najmah and the Karida join Ryo in the high flank?”

  I nodded. “Najmah to the south. Karida to the north. Basilah to the west. Is the Jihan ready for battle?”

  As the newest ship in our fleet, it was close enough to being complete to take to the air, but still missed some minor components.

  “Rajih says yes.”

  “Let him to take the east. I want him to remain high for as long as possible. If the attacking airships retreat, he needs to close the gap, but not at the detriment of his ship.”

  “He’s aware of his charges, Synn,” Jamilah said quietly. “Kadar taught him well.”

  I swallowed hard as bile rose in my gut. I didn’t want to lose another life, but I was built for war. Death followed me wherever I went.

  I put my hand on the door leading to the rear of the ship. “Keep the Maizah in the storm as close to the super cell as she can stand it. I don’t want anyone getting close to my communications ship.”

  “Aye, Admiral,” Jamilah said before completely ignoring me.

  I spun the wheel to seal the thick door behind me and stepped into a narrow hallway. A slight breeze ran along the walls. Doors lined either side. This was the heart of the Khayal Layal. Behind each door resided her engines, her heart, her soul.

  The wall abruptly ended on my left and muggy air hit me like an invisible screen. Vegetation in varying sizes and colors filled the large cavern.

  This was the Layal’s heart. The menagerie.

  Air jellies floated near the top, chittering to one another with clicks and squeaks, their jellyfish tails fluttering behind them. Three of them appeared to be playing chase. They were baby letharan, truth be told. Their bodies produced the gases that kept us afloat. In the Samma’s, we’d kept one in a harness, offering him protection in exchange for his service. We didn’t keep individuals in service long. They didn’t much enjoy being harnessed and they were poisonous, lethal when angered.

  However, here, we were able to protect them better and give them a better way of life. Baby letharan were delicate, their only defense being a toxic poison
that seeped along their skin. As they matured to adolescents, as most of these had, they were able to produce an electric shock. In the air and in the ocean, they had many predators, sky cats being the fiercest. Few letharan survived into adulthood. Most that did were bonded to a tribal leader and a city was built within their tentacles. The older the letharan, the wiser they were. A valuable asset.

  I had bonded with an older adolescent, his longest tendrils touching the shallow pool of water lining the bottom, his medusa nearly touching the ceiling when he puffed his body up. As a letharan aged, they needed water more, for the nutrients mostly. He flared his hood and whoofed a puff of bitter-smelling air down on the younger jellies.

  They quieted, turning their belled hoods toward me.

  My lethara reached out a smaller tentacle and wrapped it around my bared neck. He was at the age where this simple touch wouldn’t kill me, but if he chose to, he could with ease. I nuzzled my face into his clammy, opalescent skin and smiled. I called up emotions of thanks, sending them through my hand.

  An answer met my heart, one of graciousness.

  I moved to break the embrace.

  A ping of curiosity zipped through me like electricity.

  Speaking letharan was difficult. They existed on a much higher level of consciousness than me. What was he curious about?

  He lowered himself and an intricate sense of tightening entered my mind. Tightening. Like…the pressure of descent.

  Oh. He was asking why we were descending. Right. I gathered my thoughts and sent them to him, relaying as much information about Ino City, about my sister possibly being in danger. I didn’t know how much of that he would get. Did he understand politics, or was that below him? How could he comprehend what I sent him? I barely did.

  His tentacles took on a red glow.

  I nodded and patted his skin. “Be careful. Keep the menagerie under control and the ship flying. We’re not losing anyone tonight.”

  He woofed again, his hood rippling along the edges as he rose.

  A dozen falcons resided in the high branches of the thicker vines of the mini-rainforest. They squawked, but not at me. Their little heads swiveled one way, then the next, puffs of smoke seeping through their beaks. They kept the ecosystem balanced, where my lethara kept it under control.

  I whistled and raised my right forearm, protected with a leather brace.

  A brace I never thought I’d wear.

  Every spring, as we entered our adulthood, we would venture to the craggy peaks where the spitfyre falcons roosted, and we’d take younglings. Back on our airships, we would bond with them and train them.

  I’d been imprisoned by Nix, Queen of Wands. I’d lost my opportunity to bond with one of them.

  But when my fleet had been destroyed, some of the falcons had fled unscathed.

  It was said, however, that once a falcon bonded to a human, they could not re-bond.

  I didn’t care. They had been in our world too long. I couldn’t release them to the wild. So, I kept the dozen or so that had survived, knowing I would never share the bond my father had, or my sister.

  One falcon separated from the rest, launching herself gracefully into the air, her serpentine tail rolling with her movement. With a deafening screech, she landed on my arm.

  Du’a. Somehow, we were bonding to one another. It didn’t make sense. There was no reason for it. It shouldn’t be happening, and yet? It was.

  She wrapped her serpentine tail around my shoulders, her claws digging into my leather jacket. A flash of emotion akin to curiosity hit me with a vision of blank fog.

  “We’re going to Ino City,” I told her.

  A picture of the great letharan city filled my mind with a tremble of danger.

  I nodded. “Exactly. I need you to stay here. Guard the menagerie. Keep them safe.”

  She let out a screech that made my left ear ring, fire belching from her beak.

  Another falcon answered, followed by the rest until the structural members of the belly of the Layal quaked.

  Visions assaulted me. The little blue creature that kept the toxins of the air jellies from poisoning the crew. The little gold ring creature that kept the area at the right temperature. The moss bugs. The stick walkers.

  I held up my free hand. “What are you telling me?”

  The visions stopped and a feeling overwhelmed me. Assured safety and protection.

  “Thank you.” Sometimes, I didn’t know if speaking animal was really that frustrating, or if I really just wasn’t good at it. It might have been both. “Now, stay here and keep our home safe.” I lifted my arm to launch her toward her perch.

  I am going with you, Synn Kadar El’Asim, Du’a’s soft, bell-like voice said inside my mind.

  My heart lightened. My shoulders straightened as though the weight of my soul eased. She didn’t speak often, but when she did, it had an immense effect on me. “You will stay.”

  I am needed beside you.

  “You are needed here.”

  And will you make me stay?

  I didn’t know if she had a stronger will than me, or if there were simply things she couldn’t comprehend, like obeying orders. I snorted to myself. Obeying orders? I struggled to understand how to do that, too. So, perhaps, she and I were better suited for one another than I’d initially thought. “Then, I need you on my shoulder. My arm is tired and we’re about to fly.”

  You should build bigger arms.

  The man she’d originally bonded to had been one of the largest men in our tribe. I was nowhere near his size or might.

  I cleared the door at the back of the menagerie and sealed it behind me. Wind whipped around us as Du’a cradled my head in the elbow of her wing. The dual claws at her wing-wrist curled around my forehead, threatening to puncture my skin.

  The bay doors were open wide below the catwalk. Three levels of docks lined the bay, a plane resting at each landing pad. Captain Rose’s pilots scrambled for their posts, applying their goggles over their flight caps.

  I met Captain Rose on one of the many arched walkways connecting the docks.

  “Ino City, sir?” she shouted. Lightning lit the sky below us, shining amber on what little hair peaked out from under her cap.

  I nodded.

  “Are we rescuing your sister, sir?”

  I shrugged my eyebrows. Seemed she knew the mission already.

  The world lifted slightly as we began our decent.

  She quirked her lips and shook her head. “Never liked your mother, sir. Just sayin’ it out loud.”

  “It hasn’t been proven she’s our enemy.”

  “And when it is, sir? What then?”

  Then, we would act. We would have to, but was I ready for war? Against her? She was one of the greatest, strongest leaders of our world, and others joined with her. Was I ready to take that on?

  The winds shifted, quieted for a brief moment as we entered the storm.

  A rib-rattling roar tore through the bay.

  I tapped Rose on the shoulder and walked for the dock.

  She shouted something at me, but her words were lost to the wind and the deafening sounds of the rotors of her planes as they started up, preparing for battle.

  I walked to the end of the dock, shedding my vest and shirt as I went. My Mark was useless inside a plane or a vessel like the Layal, but out there?

  Du’a climbed to a rafter not far from my head, her gaze intent on the storm surrounding us.

  The Layal stopped her decent.

  The pilots in the cockpits closest to me stilled, their attention caught on the gray scene outside the bay door. Flashes of lightening, the rumbling of thunder, the roaring of wind, the whining of engines.

  As one, Captain Rose’s Sky Gypsies took to the air, rising just enough to the clear their landing pads, then tipped their noses downward and disappeared. Some had webbed wings that flapped. Others were still-wings with only the power of rotors and engines to propel them.

  I knew from experience they were
not to be taken idly.

  I reached for my pleron metal wings and strapped them to my chest. My neck Marks rose and connected to the base of the wing unit. They jerked outward.

  The wind tugged on me, using the wings like a sail to haul me out of the Layal.

  I jerked on the thick leather strap around my chest, and again on the two around my waist and leapt.

  Within a few metres, I breached the bottom of the storm. Rain hit me like a thousand ice hammers. My Mark and my mind connected and my wings pushed hard, taking me into a high spin.

  The Sky Gypsies buzzed around me, seeking targets.

  I found an air current and allowed my wings to catch it, the wind racing past my ears, deafening any other sounds except the loudest.

  Ino City blazed like a bon fire a few hundred metres below and to the north. The seas raged and writhed around her.

  Airships.

  The reports were correct. These weren’t ordinary ships. The sails were still there, but now giant plumes of smoke billowed from tall stacks that had replaced the masts. Giant propellers spun at their stern.

  They turned their bows in our direction like fast moving whales and headed straight for us.

  They looked slow and heavy, but they moved quicker than I’d imagined. Before we’d had an opportunity to gain much distance, they were on us, their lightning cannons lashing out, touching the Gypsies with explosive fingers.

  Rose had made a few alterations of her own, however, and had wrapped each of her birds in the same copper webbing as the Khayals. The electricity rippled away, flinging from their wings.

  As one Gypsy flew past, the wing rose, redirecting the enemy’s lightning back on the attacking ships.

  I scanned the ships, dodging one way, then the other as a crackling roar ripped through the air. The lightning had found a target.

  Searching for a figurehead that would tell me who the attacking force was, I zipped through the melee, dodging planes and bolts of lightning. I wanted it to be Iszak Tokarz, the man who boasted he had destroyed my tribe. He couldn’t have done it alone. He wasn’t nearly that brilliant, nor that resourceful, but the blood of my people bathed his hands and needed revenge.

  Ino City had to be my objective. Oki. Ino Nami. Blood purge. I gnashed my teeth at the air and pointed myself toward the looming, glowing city.