Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  Najat raised her head, her curly hair tied back in several tight braids, her dark eyes sharp. The scar on her upper lip made it appear to curl in a snarl. “Then why do we risk our people for someone who doesn’t want nor asked for our help?”

  Valid point, but she always had valid points. Najat’s words were like blunt-force instruments, which was one reason why she hadn’t had many friends growing, including me. She could make me angry just by speaking. “Because he and Neira’s people have an understanding.”

  “Why do we care?” Qamar’s voice was husky as if her vocal cords had been damaged somehow. Her features were harsh, her hair shorn short. “That is Neira’s agreement. Let her send her people to die.”

  I didn’t know Qamar as well as Jamilah did, but she intimidated me. I didn’t know how to speak to her. Her opinions were strong and she voiced herself firmly. Aside from the fact she always appeared to be mad, I really didn’t know much about her.

  Rajih straightened his back and shoulders as if unfurling himself, his eyes focused on me. “We are trying to realign our allegiance with the Vash.”

  I met his aged gaze. Another of my father’s advisors. “You were always wise. Yes.”

  “Why?” Najat demanded.

  Her blunt tone always made me feel defensive, but we didn’t have time for that. I needed to step back and just speak to her, realizing that she was just speaking to me. “She is the leader of a very powerful tribe.”

  “She is not unlike all the powerful women in your life, Synn.”

  Which was a jab. She was calling me weak. “I hope you’re including yourself on that list.”

  Her brows flicked and her eyes lost the dagger of intensity she’d had before.

  “You forget yourself, Commander,” Jamilah barked. “Synn was the boy we grew up with.” She lowered her gaze in respect. “The El’Asim is the man who leads us, who protects us.”

  “Who sends us to war,” Qamar snarled in her broken, husky voice. “Do we forget how many we have already lost?”

  Every commander in my fleet lost their families the night my fleet was blown out of the sky, which was one of the many reasons I’d chosen them. “We do not.”

  Qamar opened her mouth.

  I held up a hand to stall her. “The Vash are a good ally.”

  Ryo stepped into the circle, his burn scar gleaming in the light behind me.

  It was time for them to know what the stakes were. “The Great Families have reconvened.”

  Rajih glanced at Mudar in alarm.

  The burly man narrowed his eyes, the rest of his expression hidden behind his thick beard.

  Qamar breathed a sigh of relief.

  I shook my head. “They form against us. Ino Nami leads them. She’s the one who had Oki imprisoned.”

  “Imprisoned, Sy—” Najat stopped herself, the scar on her lip deepening as she pursed her lips. “El’Asim. Do we know what Oki did? What her offense was?”

  What her offense was? My Mark hissed along my neck. “She was trying to lead her people to safety, toward a life of peace.”

  Najat glanced at Qamar in confusion.

  Qamar rubbed her nearly bald scalp, but she didn’t look nearly as baffled.

  “Our mother,” Ryo said quietly, “poisoned our sister in order to regain control of the Great Families. Our sister nearly died yesterday. That is the reason we engaged in battle and that is the reason we went to Ino City, why we took on refugees.”

  Rajih narrowed his eyes, his grey eyebrows lowered. “Who has she realigned with?”

  “Shankara.” I cleared my throat. “LeBlanc. The Han.”

  “The Han is not Family,” Qamar stated, her sharp features growing sharper. “He is a man.”

  “With an army. Same as Lombardi or Tokarz. Yet, she has aligned with them as well.”

  “Tokarz.” Najat’s shoulders tightened, her neck straightening. “You are sure?”

  “Quite. She’s gathered these people against us.”

  “Against the League of Cities,” Rajih asked, his voice a quiet rumble, “or against you?”

  I didn’t have an answer to that. “Does it matter?”

  He nodded, his lips quirked. “So, we align ourselves with the Vash, a large tribe.”

  “Who remained hidden for centurns,” Najat said, punctuating the air with her pointer finger.

  “Which could denote cowardice,” I offered, “or cunning. Naj, she has the largest tribe I’ve ever seen. She has more resources, more power than even Ino. She has more people, more weapons, more food, more water. More pleron.”

  Najat flattened her lips and looked away. “Pleron,” she said her tone laced with disgust.

  “Think about it, Naj. Look at how far our weapons and our technology has advanced because of it. Our command centers are filled with it. Our weapons are stronger, more capable now.”

  “And so is theirs.”

  Qamar rubbed the stubble on her domed and dented head. “If the Vash are so strong, then why are we going to war? Is she using us as fodder, people to die instead of her own?”

  “I’m trying,” I said, using my hands to emphasize my point, “to bring her back to the league. Qamar, you don’t see her the way I do. The people of the League of Cities need her, her ability to lead, her ability to protect.”

  “We have you.” Her rasping tone was low, as though she didn’t believe her own words.

  “I am many things, Qamar, but a great leader? I think we can all agree I’m not that.”

  Ryo raised his head, his eyes narrowed.

  “When I created the League of Cities, I didn’t understand the full impact of what I was doing or how it would affect the world. And it has. For one moment, the smaller tribes thought they had a fighting chance. They thought they could come out of hiding, walk in the commerce of the world the Great Families had created.”

  Najat’s lips pursed, her scar punctuating the creases as she folded her arms over her chest.

  “Then someone struck down the El’Asim Family.”

  “And I’m still wondering why Tokarz hasn’t been dealt with yet.” Qamar’s eyes blazed.

  I met her violent gaze. “Because the true culprit was Ino Nami. She put together the plan. She ordered the destruction.”

  “Ino Nami ordered the murder of her own daughter, her son.” Najat gestured to Ryo, her face filled with fury. “She is cruel, callous, but not that evil.”

  “She was and she is, and that is what we face. That is what we must protect the League of Cities from.”

  Najat shook her head. “I do not understand this.”

  “Blood,” Ryo said.

  Qamar flinched.

  “She has enacted the blood purge.”

  Qamar took in a quick, deep breath. “Synn, we must protect our people.”

  “The Hands of Tarot tried to defeat us. The Great Families tried to eradicate us. Both have failed. What do we do to protect our Family? Hide?”

  Jamilah gauged her fellow commanders.

  Qamar’s dark eyes narrowed, her nostrils flaring.

  Najat stared at me intensely, her scarred lip adding an element of ferociousness to her look.

  Mudar raised his head, his expression hiding behind his beard.

  Rijah closed his eyes momentarily, then opened them again, soul-seared wisdom filling his gaze like pleron.

  Ryo turned, the burn scar marring the resolute and angry set of his lips.

  “No,” I whispered. “We didn’t fall. Look around you. We’re stronger now. Our fleet has grown. We’re more powerful. We are the mighty. And Ino Nami shall regret she didn’t kill me when she had the chance.”

  Jamilah raised an eyebrow. “My El’Asim, what do we do?”

  It still felt so weird that they would be looking to me for direction. “Neira is the better leader. She is the stronger tribal member. We respect her and we do what we can to aid her. In creating the League of Cities and then giving her control of it, I’ve given her more issues to deal with than she ha
d previously.”

  Rajih took my face, bringing his forehead to mine in the Family greeting.

  I took a moment to revel in it. For so many years, I’d taken this greeting for granted. But now, with their lives in my hands, to hold their faces, to touch their head to mine, to feel their breath, to know they lived meant more than I could vocalize.

  He pulled away, his wizened eyes softened with understanding. “If she is under attack, then we will assist.”

  Mudar released a sigh that sagged his massive shoulders. He pulled my head toward his bearded face, stooping to receive the greeting.

  I felt like a child in his presence due to his size alone. I smiled up at him as I broke our embrace.

  “I do not like it.” He straightened, towering over us. “But if my El’Asim commands it, I follow.”

  “You will keep the Maizah out of harm’s way, anyway. Your vessel is much too important.”

  Qamar frowned, but took the greeting of Family. “I do not agree.” Her voice cracked on the last word.

  I pulled away, my hands remaining cupped around her face. “I understand.”

  “Try not to get us killed.” Her voice grew coarser as she continued, “Of if you do, make sure it is for a good reason.”

  Najat narrowed her eyes and gripped my head, studying me before accepting the greeting of Family. “You have grown.” She broke away and met my gaze. “My El’Asim.”

  I didn’t know why Jamilah had started calling me “my El’Asim.” That title had never been given to my father, a far greater leader than I ever could be. And I certainly didn’t know why they all were following suit. “I’m barely the El’Asim.”

  Jamilah chuckled and slugged my arm. “Keep thinking that. It’s healthy for you.”

  I rolled my eyes and stepped up to my brother.

  He stared down at me for a long moment.

  I raised my hands, but did not grab his head.

  His dark eyes searched mine, emotions clashing over his scarred face. “Why did you save me?”

  Emotion built in my chest. I grabbed his head and pulled it to mine, whispering fiercely, “Why did you reach out to be saved?”

  His forehead crumpled, his teeth bared as he twisted his head away.

  I kept him with me. “You fought, Ryo, to live.”

  Najat put her hands above mine, taking his head and bringing it to hers. “Live, Ryo.”

  Qamar maneuvered between Najat and myself, taking Ryo’s head for her own greeting. “Fight.” She shook his head with her grasp and pulled away. “You are ours now. And we don’t let our own fade away while they still breathe.”

  The rest of the commanders took their turns swapping greetings with each other. It felt as if we reclaimed each other in that moment, as if we’d been wandering aimlessly without family or tribe. Without purpose.

  “Come on.” I gave my commanders and friends a feral smile. “Let’s show the Vash how the El’Asim fight.”

  I ENTERED THE LAYAL FROM the rear. Captain Rose’s planes filled the docks, her pilots running through their flight checks. Rose was nowhere in sight. That didn’t mean she wasn’t there. She likely was. The docks were vast. A lot of birds. A lot of people. Not chaos, though. She didn’t allow that.

  Everyone had something to do, and I didn’t want to interrupt them, but I did need to find Rose, advise her of the situation and discuss it with her.

  Wings clipped the air near my ear.

  I jumped, startled, and looked up, glaring at Du’a with a smile.

  She sent me a line of chiding and rebuke, but continued her flight.

  I headed for the nearest, arching bay bridge.

  After several moments, Du’a swooped upwards and landed lightly on the railing beside me.

  I glanced at her.

  She remained silent, her head twisting one way, then another, her bright eyes watching everything.

  Captain Rose approached from the direction Du’a had come from, a rag in her hand. She finished wiping them and stopped next to me, stuffing the rag in the pocket of her coveralls.

  I took in her non-flight ready appearance. “Should I be concerned?”

  She shook her head. “I’ll be ready when you are, sir.”

  “Fine. I don’t know exactly what we’re heading into yet. We’re a bit blind at this point.”

  “We’re underwater.”

  “Yes. We are. We’re also under earth. Our sonar and radar aren’t picking much up. There’s a hurricane out there. We might not even be able to utilize your people.”

  Rose ducked her head and lifted a shoulder. “I prefer to keep my people alive, sir, but if you need us, you can count on us.”

  “I know it.” I gripped her shoulder. Something was off with her today. “Are you all right?”

  I didn’t know enough about Rose. I had the feeling I could trust her. I believed she had a good gut that would keep her on a good path. But aside from that? I knew practically nothing.

  She brushed me off. “Fine, sir. Just let me know when you need us out there. The Sky Gypsies will be ready.”

  I took a step back and really assessed her.

  She didn’t tell me anything, vocally, non-verbally. Her normally active face was blank. That was telling.

  Fine. If she wanted to keep to herself, she could. “I need your mind in the game out there. You’ll be my first line of sense. If I send you out there and the winds are too much, you pull your people back.”

  Her eyes focused inward as she dropped her gaze. She nodded. “Anything else, sir?”

  “No.” Frowning, I watched her leave, wondering what I’d missed, what I hadn’t seen. What had Neira said? I looked over my people. Today, that stopped. My people, all of them, needed to belong, needed to feel a sense of tribal togetherness. It was time to bring Rose into my tribe.

  Rose made it back to her plane, the Wise Girl, tossed her rag and sagged against the table beside it. Her shoulders drooped as she scrubbed her face with the palm of her hand.

  First line of sense? She was out of her depth.

  Who’d made her captain in the first place? She didn’t know the first thing about leading these pilots. Kids. Most of them were sky humping kids.

  She’d known most of them for only a year or less. They’d been given to her by Queen Nix when the Hands had found out about her Mark. Queen Nix had thought she could get something special out of Rose, but what?

  She didn’t know the answer to that. Shortly after assigning Rose her personnel, she’d become obsessed with Synn, leaving Rose alone to work on her planes and get to know her crew.

  Jake was the crew’s funny man. She had a hard time taking him seriously, but he would surprise her occasionally with random sparks of interest.

  Ethel was a huge help. Rose thought the only reason Ethel had stepped up and helped lead the squad the way she did was because someone had finally believed in her, had given her a chance. If that’s all it took, then Rose wouldn’t balk.

  But the others? Eugene? Sigmund, Walter, Bettie, Percy, Doris, Agnes, the two Richards?

  Erik?

  Her hands shook as she reached for the screw driver. She’d trained them to fly, knowing that most of them wouldn’t come back. They’d accepted that they’d die in battle.

  Erik had died because of her design, and she didn’t know how to fix it. Her motor.

  She’d killed one of those kids. He’d been barely sixteen. He shouldn’t have been in that plane to begin with, but he’d begged her. Pleaded.

  He hadn’t been shot down. He’d just taken too much altitude and couldn’t get his engine to start back up again.

  She clenched her hands, her shoulders tense. That stupid, dirt-eating engine. And now they were heading into a battle, into a hurricane. She’d never flown in a hurricane, hadn’t flown through much of a storm before. She didn’t know the first thing about what went on in there. She’d had no reason to.

  Her engine had died. Why? Were the same conditions that had killed her engine in that s
torm?

  A wave of lightheadedness washed over her. She touched her lips with her quaking fingertips.

  Who’d been dumb enough to make her captain?

  I made it back to the command dome. We’d been underground for nearly a full day. Dark boding twisted my gut. I had no sense of time, no light, no shifting environment.

  “We’re clear, Admiral,” the new communications officer said, her voice pleasant but firm.

  I nodded and glanced at the sonar.

  Nothing. We were still blind.

  “Take us under the veil.”

  Lash and Ghaz flipped switches and dials, controlling the yoke. The Layal shifted under our feet. Relief released a breath I hadn’t even realized I’d been holding.

  I turned to the communications officer. “Name?”

  She glanced at me, but maintained most of her concentration on her headset and the lines of paper in front of her. “Wa-sna-win.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Storm Woman. Let us hope you bring us good luck.”

  “I do not bring luck, Admiral,” she said, her tone firm as she wrote a message on one of the papers in front of her. “I bring ability.”

  I smiled and turned back to watching our progress. “Even better. You’re assigned to me by Neira?”

  Wa-sna-win shook her head at me, and spoke into the mic. “Negative, Basilah. Await orders.”

  “What did Ryo want?”

  “To join us.”

  I gripped the back of her chair. “He is to stay until we’ve assessed the situation. I don’t want to endanger my ships more than we have to.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  “Atmospherics,” I said to the young man standing beside me. “What do you have?”

  He flung his hand at the screen. “A bunch of nothin’, sir. The readings are all over the place.”

  “I need to know what that means.”

  His pale grey eyes met mine, his red hair shining bright even in the dreary light pouring in from the window. “Okay. What it means is this. The winds are too damned strong to fly in. They’re tossing the ocean like a damn ball. We’ll be lucky to break the ocean’s surface without breaking the damn ship in half. There ain’t nobody in that air, sir.”