The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) (39 page)

Nivy abruptly lifted her head, and preoccupation, not sleep, made her expression distant. She shook her head at Scarlet and made a flurry of sharp gestures, only half of which Hayden caught. Scarlet seemed to do alright, though.

“I doubt he even realizes he’s doing it,” Scarlet said reasonably. “And despite what you might think, I’m not trying to criticize him. I just know him.”

Her shoulders dropping with a sigh, Nivy grudgingly nodded, glanced sideways at Hayden’s abandoned muffin, and raised an eyebrow. Hayden obligingly slid his plate over to her. The muffin disappeared a moment later.

The city below began to grow agitated. More and more round windows in the towers Tallie had pointed out as private apartments blinked with light.
The Aurelia
should have been on her way again three times over by now. Hayden tried to hide his guilt as he folded up his napkin and pushed back from the table. Regardless of whether or not what Scarlet said about Reece was true, it was true about
him
. Of all the things he should be feeling about their predicament…cheerful wasn’t one of them.

He began digging in his pockets, finger snagging on a hole, but Scarlet stood and insisted,
“Let me.” From her purple clasp, she pulled out a few heavy Oceanun coins and clicked them down on the table. While Hayden had been taking his private fencing lessons and Reece had been befriending Prince Hannick, Scarlet had been dutifully studying the Oceanun way. Her soft, flowery Northern practically sounded native now that she’d been able to polish it. Of course handling Oceanun money came easily to her.

Hayden guiltily avoided looking at her.
“Thank you.”

Smiling, she gently took his arm and led him from the restaurant. Nivy trailed them as she picked at the remains of Scarlet’s scone, which she’d wrapped in a napkin. The restaurant opened up unto a round hub of eateries, shops, and clothing emporiums, all centered around a waterfall pouring down through the middle of the room from the floors above. It flicked Hayden’s lenses with cool water as they circled it, but he was well enough used to being wet or damp all the time now to not really be bothered.

“I ought to get my hair done while I still have the chance,” Scarlet mused, eyeing a window display of dolled-up mannequin heads that Hayden found a little unnerving. On her other side, Nivy snorted and pretended to fawn, fanning her face with a hand. Scarlet’s expression soured. “Perhaps you should come with me, Nivy. You’re looking a little frayed.”

Before Nivy could do more than make a disgusted face, Po’s voice called,
“Hayden! Scarlet!”

Scarlet instantly stiffened on Hayden’s arm; her fingers curled into the bend of his elbow, making him glance at her worriedly. Then he looked up to see Po flouncing their way with none other than Prince Hannick as her escort, and he understood her tension. He’d been warier of the prince ever since Talfryn had warned him to be careful, but there was no accounting for the irritation he felt towards Hannick now, watching him mosey their way with his hand covering Po’s on his arm. He’d felt something similar the times Sophie had come home from working at the postal office in tears over being picked on. Protective, possessive. And not just of Po. The rest of them had hardly seen Reece at all since Hannick had decided to take him under his wing.

“Well, look at you all, up and about at this unreasonable hour,” Hannick said in greeting.

“
We’re not the only ones, it seems,” Scarlet replied, glancing hard at Po. Po, who was gazing happily around at the milling crowds on tiptoe, seemed not to notice. Unlike the rest of Aurelia’s crew, who had been trying to conjure a list of possible suspects for King Pryor to cross-examine, Po’s part in solving the mystery of the anai had interfered with her wanting desperately to explore the city. Reece had set her to fine-tuning the Afterquin till “she could sing to its hum”. She’d been scarce ever since.

Hannick smiled a lazy smile, eyeing Scarlet’s flat expression.
“I just encountered your crewmate here on my way to the fencing hall. Poor thing was a little lost.”

“
Well.” Scarlet stepped forward, took Po’s other arm, and expertly eased her away from him. “We thank you for returning her to us.”

Tearing her eyes away from a parts shop across the hub, Po frowned and said,
“Hannick was gonna show me the docks.”

Hannick nodded slyly, or so it seemed to Hayden. He felt himself bristling. Nivy’s expression was mild, but she had that air about her, the one that usually made him wonder if he should duck for cover.

“Don’t worry,” Hannick reassured them. “I’ll keep my eye on her.”

For a moment, he and Scarlet stared one another down, all cool, elegant smiles and straight-backed postures, poised, polished, polite. But for all their smiles, the tension between them was thick and dull, like a slow throb. Even Po caught on to it, glancing back and forth between them, looking suddenly unsure.

“Po, Love, perhaps you should start on ahead, stop by that shop I can see you eyeing,” Hannick finally suggested. “I’ll be right there.”

Po hesitated.
“I
do
gotta look for a new undulator.” She looked at Scarlet as if asking permission. “The other one’s been rattlin’ a bit, you know?”

Scarlet nodded tightly, eyes still waging war with Hannick’s. With a wince for Hayden and Nivy, Po backed out of the conversation, spun, and made for the shop at a jog, blonde braid hopping against her back.

Scarlet waited till she’d gone before stepping up to Hannick with her hands in fists at her sides. Nivy flanked her from the right. Hayden thought he’d look ridiculous, trying to look as fierce as they did naturally. He settled for hovering behind them and feeling foolish.

“
Did you have something to say, Ms. Ashdown?” Hannick asked,
still
smiling. How did he do that? “Or were you just wanting to better admire my eyes?”

Irritation snapped to anger that swelled in Hayden like a balloon, pressure-filled and pushing against his insides till he thought he might burst with it. He’d been angry before…plenty of times, in fact, no matter what Reece and Gideon thought. But there was a distinct difference between frustration or even annoyance and this welling, itchy…
heat
. He didn’t like it. And he didn’t know what to do with it. So naturally, he just kept hovering, fidgeting empty-handedly.

Scarlet hardly batted an eye at Hannick’s cheek. Beside her, Nivy stood with her arms folded. Scarlet was impressive. Nivy was just unsettling.

“I know what you are, Prince Hannick,” Scarlet said coldly.

“
Oh?”

“
Yes. I’ve known men like you. You parade your superiority and put on a good show, but I see the truth of the matter.”

Hannick dipped his head and lowered his voice.
“Which is what, Ms. Ashdown?”

“
That you are not a man at all, but a spoiled little boy who will not be content until he’s broken everyone else’s favorite toy. You stay away from that girl, Hannick, or you’ll have me to answer to.”

Hannick affected a meek expression that was nearly convincing and bowed deeply at the waist.
“Well, I don’t know what I’ve done to offend you, but you have my promise, I’ll be on my best behavior. Now, if you’ll excuse me. Perhaps I’ll see you at the tournament later?”

When Scarlet simply glared at him, he shook his head bemusedly, bowed again, and turned to go. He hadn’t once acknowledged Hayden’s presence.

Once he’d gone, Scarlet deflated with a huff and brushed down the front of her layered, lavender dress. “Well, that’s that. Are you alright, Hayden?”

“
What?”

“
You seem upset.”

“
Oh. No. I…” What was there to explain? He’d been angry. Not jealous. Not offended.
Angry
, and a useless angry at that, because what did he have to show for it? It hadn’t even felt good, like some people pretended it did. In fact, now that the heat of it had dulled, he just felt foolish and cranky. “I think Reece must be finally rubbing off on me, after all these years.”

“Well, let’s hope not,” Scarlet muttered. “Goodness knows one Reece is more than enough to be getting along with.”

“
You really think Hannick is…what you said?”

“
I know he is.”

“
How?” When Scarlet looked at him, Hayden flinched and added, “Sorry. I agree something about him is off-putting, but—”

“
When you work in politics,” Scarlet cut him off curtly, “when you
live
in politics, you begin to see patterns repeating themselves.”

Shuffling his feet, Hayden nodded, though he didn’t necessarily know what he was agreeing with. Nivy clicked her fingers to get their attention, then jerked her chin after Hannick, taking a few experimental steps.

Scarlet nodded. “Probably a good idea.”

Nivy needed no more invitation than that. She ducked into the crowd and in no time had disappeared altogether. Hayden relaxed slightly. Nivy would beat Hannick blue before she let any harm befall Po, but she wouldn’t more than teach him a lesson, whereas Gideon, for example, would probably return the Oceanun prince to his people in small, thought-out pieces. It was no doubt for the best he and Mordecai had been charged with checking in on Owon in his new home in
Neserus’s brig this morning.

“
Let’s walk,” Scarlet suggested, taking up his arm again. He marveled at how easy it had become for him not to blush when she did that, though it did wipe his mind blank of his worries for a moment he wished could have lasted longer. As she led him down a quieter, glass-enclosed tunnel where they were nearly alone save for the occasional passerby or rushing school of shimmering fish, Scarlet looked at him sideways and pursed her lips. “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

“
It’s alright.”

“
No, don’t say that. It’s not alright.” She considered her hand where it braced his arm, thoughtful. “You don’t have to be so…
nice
all the time, Hayden.”

“
I don’t try,” he admitted with a grimace, making her blink up at him. “It just happens.”

After a moment, Scarlet laughed and gave his arm a tug to pull him playfully off-balance.
“Taking a leaf out of Reece’s book indeed. Speaking of poor examples. I think it’s nigh on time we went and found our esteemed captain, don’t you agree?”

Hayden decided not to mention the incriminating fact he’d unfortunately been serious.

By the time Hayden and Scarlet returned to the guest suite to rouse Reece and talk over their troubles, the suite was empty, though a trail of general untidiness made it clear Reece had just recently left in something of a rush. It looked like he had worn his blanket halfway to the water closet, then left it strewn behind with yesterday’s socks and trousers. The water closet still dripped; the mirror in the head was fogged with steam between sloppy finger swipes. This is how it had been with him lately. Of course, this was rather how it had
always
been with him; Hayden had simply forgotten, thanks to their weeks confined to
The Aurelia
.

“
This is absurd,” Scarlet huffed as she irritably picked up Reece’s socks, folded his trousers over her arm, and toed his blanket back to the foot of his bed. “We ought to be keeping better tabs on each other. What if we need to leave in a hurry? Reece isn’t
thinking
.”

“
Maybe that’s why he left so suddenly,” Hayden suggested doubtfully. “Maybe he’s just…organizing our departure.”

“
Reece? Organize?” She flapped Reece’s wrinkled trousers at him pointedly, and Hayden couldn’t help but smile when a few Honoran shields and cogs shook loose to add to the mess on the floor. Giving up, Scarlet tossed the trousers aside with a sigh and squared her shoulders. “You know where he is, don’t you?”

Hayden nodded unhappily. He did, or at least, he suspected he did. He hoped Scarlet waited till Reece at least put down his sword before upbraiding him in front of the entire fencing club.

A stream of excited chatter over the much-anticipated tournament swept them towards the fencing hall as the usually airy corridors grew busier and louder with every few steps. Oceanun money was already changing hands as grown men and women laughed over their gambles and made good-natured jabs at their friends. Hayden felt like one of the fish outside, caught up in a school of bright blues, oranges, yellows, and greens—Oceanun girls in tied-off tunics and leggings sporting the colors of their favorite teams. Except he was wearing grey and trying not to get stepped on rather than actually swimming.

“
Lovely,” Scarlet complained, squeezing with him into the horde of fans gathered outside the fencing hall. “All this fuss, and the swords aren’t even deadly.”

Someone happily tapped Hayden’s shoulder as he chuckled.
“Hello, Hayden.”

For a moment, he forgot to say hello, a little stunned by Talfryn’s teal blue fencing uniform with its armored shoulder pads and black leather gloves. Despite her impish smile and braided crown of hair, she looked ready for war.