The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) (48 page)

“Stay out of this, Hayden,” he advised. “Go back to your books and forget you saw this, and you’ll be happier for it.” He sighed, inspectin’ his bleedin’ hand with what seemed like genuine regret. Po shuddered when his eyes returned to her. “Oh, Po. It didn’t have to be like this. A nice girl like you, I bet—”

He grunted, rockin’ forward on his toes, and spun with narrowed eyes to stare disbelievingly at Hayden. He’d shoved him. Hayden had shoved him. Maybe this really all
was
a dream, then, because Hayden wouldn’t hurt a fly, even if it was out to spit in his soup.

“
Don’t touch her, Hannick!” Hayden snapped, voice crackin’.

Scowlin’, Hannick stepped up to tower over him, and Po used the chance to wriggle back between two bypass funnels. She realized dully she wasn’t even cryin’, not really. She couldn’t blink to make tears.

“Don’t you
dare
talk that way to me,” Hannick growled. “I told you to
go
. Now you
do it
, before this ends badly for you.”

Hayden had already started waggin’ his head.
“This is our ship, and you can’t touch her like that.
You
need to go. The others will be here soon, and—”

“
Don’t be daft, Hayden. You really think they’re still alive? I saw the north pier. Have you any idea how near your chambers that was? And just between you and me…” Hannick leaned in and lowered his voice, but Po still heard. She thought she was meant to. “I think you can write off Reece and Scarlet. Last I knew, they were locked in a flooding changing room. Doesn’t exactly bode well, does it?” Comprehension dawned on Hayden’s blanched face while Po was still strugglin’ for it, and Hannick patted his shoulder. “If you
really
want to protect your crew, you ought to go see about finding them.”

Everythin’ in Po seized up like a badly-oiled contraptor as he turned towards her again, expression smug. Before she could more than choke on the cry lodged in her throat, Hayden seemed to come to himself. Lookin’ suddenly fierce, he grabbed Hannick by the sleeve to pull him back around. Smugness turned to outrage in a second, as if Hannick just couldn’t believe Hayden’s nerve. Truth be told, Po couldn’t rightly believe it either. Nor could she believe when Hannick swung a punch for Hayden’s head, and Hayden ducked cleanly underneath it and sank his fingers into Hannick’s shoulder in a jab that made him stagger and gasp.

Back before Po’s da had left, his brother Rory would sometimes come to call, and she’d always hated every minute’a his visits, because the man had had a temper like a drunk boar. The sorta things that set him off were small and stupid and embarrassin’. That was the kind’a blind anger she saw in Hannick’s eyes now. He was a spoiled-rotten bully who wasn’t used to bein’ made to look the fool, and Hayden was just a good person, tryin’ to do what was right even though Po knew he had to be at least as scared as she was as Hannick suddenly surged at him. The two’a them went to the floor in a tangle’a limbs and a smack’a bone hittin’ flesh over and over again.

When Hannick leaned up, jerkin’ Hayden up by the collar so Po could see his dazed face and cracked spectacles, somethin’ in her snapped awake. She breathed in a sob and breathed out,
“
Leave him alone
!”

Hannick punched Hayden one more time across the face, spillin’ him to the ground. Pantin’, he turned to find Po. Mouse that she was, Po squeaked and instantly started scrabblin’ back into the Afterquin’s workin’s, tryin’ to lodge herself where he couldn’t reach. His hand swiped the back’a Gideon’s coat, barely missin’ her as she squeezed into the gut engine bypass and ducked under a connector drippin’ oil. He came around the other side’a the connector and cut her off with a hungry grin, peerin’ under the vent at her all patient-like, because he knew she was trapped, same as she did.

Just as he reached to grab for her, somethin’ struck him hard across the back’a the skull. With a grunt, he fell forward onto his knees, clutchin’ his head in both hands. In his place stood a battered Hayden with a wrench from her toolkit, and Po couldn’t tell if he was just stunned by what he’d done, or only halfway conscious. He rocked on his feet, droppin’ the wrench. It clattered loudly to the floor.

“
Come on, Po,” he said, lickin’ his bloody lip as he held out a hand for her. “We’ll find the others.”

What happened next was almost dreamlike. Except it was too terrible to be a dream, too awful
not
to be real, if that made sense. Because by now in a dream, she would have woken up, startlin’ awake before she hit the ground.

She reached tremulously for Hayden’s hand, and Hannick shot up with a wild shout. He planted a foot on Hayden’s and shoved him in the chest so Hayden flew back even while he was still anchored in place. There came a fleshy crack and a
pop
, and Hayden screamed as he landed, doublin’ over to grasp at his ankle. Po’s stomach flip-flopped. It looked like he had his shoe on the wrong foot, the way it had twisted grotesquely. Then Hannick cursed, drew back his boot, and as Po cried for him to stop, kicked that same ankle. This time Hayden was silent, pale and sweatin’ as he planted his forehead against the ground and shook with pained sobs that were quiet echoes’a Po’s own.

There was a flash, a blur’a movement that made even Hannick pause. Someone else was in the forest’a engine parts with the three’a them. Before Po could feel any proper terror at the realization, Hannick gave a startled shout and was sucked backward outta the circle by someone with a too-white hand twistin’ his arm into a vicious-lookin’ lock. Owon slammed Hannick into a wall, as calm as a cool wind. He hissed somethin’ in an unpleasant undertone, and Hannick stopped wrigglin’ and went as white as chalk.

The others were there too, in varyin’ states’a dishevelment. Scarlet had a bandage tied around her bloodstained hair, Reece’s jacket was torn in places, and Nivy looked about ready to fall over, but all’a them stood at attention, straight-backed, fierce, and so much braver than Po would ever be. Scarlet and Nivy rushed her and Hayden, who could barely even pull himself together enough to tell them he needed a pain agent, and fast.

Reece and Owon had a brief exchange that Po scarcely even heard.

“We shall deal with this one,” Owon told Reece as Hannick whimpered.

“
What happened?” Reece demanded sharply.

“
He was assaulting your crewmate. Hayden Rice apparently attempted to intervene. Then we intervened better.”

The ship rumbled. Po could hear water nearby, maybe lappin’ up the cargo bay ramp. For such a gentle sound, it scared her near senseless.

“We would advise you to run, Reece Sheppard, as you seem to do best. If The Kreft’s attacks are slowing, it is because they mean to board the city. You will not last long then.”

“
You’re staying?”

“
Would you rather us remain with you?”

Reece’s stony silence was his only answer. Owon chuckled and said,
“It was always our intention to stay here, Reece Sheppard, though we nonetheless…
approve of
Nivy Noemie’s decision to free us from the brig, even if it did save your morose little life. Regardless, we can accomplish no more aboard your vessel. Ferries from the other cities will be arriving shortly. Give us the anai you confiscated, and we shall return the stones and see the city’s defenses raised.”

“
Why would I trust you with them?”

“
Because if you do not, we will drown with the city, and we have no wish to die before we have accomplished our goals. We are not motivated by nobility, but necessity.
That
is what you can trust.” As Reece grimaced and hesitantly passed Owon the rucksack that had been slung across his back, Owon’s eyes ticked towards Hannick, glintin’. “The accoster shall face justice for his actions.”

“
He doesn’t deserve justice,” Reece snarled, glarin’ at Hannick, who tried to look defiant but ended up just lookin’ sulky. Po hated him for how he’d touched her, for how he’d hurt Hayden, but right then, she didn’t care about justice or even vengeance. She just didn’t want to have to look at him anymore. “If I had my way, Hannick—”

“
You would kill him?” Owon guessed.

Po’s beloved engine room, her safe place, seemed to drop another ten degrees. After a beat, Reece said,
“I would make sure his people did.”

Owon
tsked
. “We will take our leave then, before you give us another reason to wish you ill. If it makes you sleep better at night, Captain, he shall suffer for his actions. We shall…ensure it.”

Either Reece believed him, or he was just washin’ his hands’a Hannick and Owon altogether, because when Po blinked and looked up, Owon was escortin’ a strugglin’ Hannick from the ship and Reece was droppin’ to his knees by Hayden’s head. His face was stricken.

“
Bogrosh
,” he cursed. He clutched Hayden’s shoulder. Hayden’s head rolled, and he looked at Reece through what seemed to Po like a haze’a pain, as if he could barely see him. Nivy was daubin’ the sweat off his face with a ripped sleeve that was soaked through already. “Hang on, Hayden. What do you need?
What do you need?
”

“
Reece.” Scarlet grabbed his sleeve.
The Aurelia
jumped and rocked; a sound like tricklin’ made Po’s breath catch. “He mentioned pain agents.”

“
Talfryn…she…leaving…” Hayden murmured incoherently. His eyes rolled back, and for the first time, he relaxed, unconscious.

“
Infirmary,” Reece said instantly. “Nivy, take the helm while I get Hayden there. Scarlet, I need you with me. Po—” He looked at her, expression twistin’, and reached and caught her face on the side opposite Hannick had struck. As gentle as Hannick had been rough, he turned her chin to make her look him in the eyes. “Po, maybe you should go to your room.”

Po would rather be unconscious than alone right now, but all she said was,
“I-I can do somethin’.”

Reece studied her face, nodded, and stood. Nivy brushed past him as she rushed towards the bridge, and the contact seemed to shake somethin’ outta him, makin’ him blink. He quickly looked around. 
“Where are Gideon and Mordecai?” he suddenly demanded. Nivy froze at the other end’a the engine room to slowly look back at them.

The semblance’a calm Po had managed slipped like a curtain. She clamped her hands over her face to hide from all’a them. She couldn’t take their stares. The cloyin’ shame. The vast emptiness threatenin’ at the edges’a her vision, a sadness that would go on forever if she let it take her. The feelin’a everythin’ changin’ in her all at once without the hope’a ever goin’ back.

She looked up with the rest’a them at the sound’a wet footfall ploddin’ up the bay ramp, stupidly hopin’ that maybe she’d see Mordecai swaggerin’ in, complainin’ about his socks bein’ soaked, or his back botherin’ him. Not that she didn’t want Gideon back safe and sound too, but Gid had always struck her as invincible. Mordecai…he was tough as nails, yeah, but he’d taken care’a her. And the people who took care’a her were the ones who always left her in the end. First Da. Then Agnes.

Now Mordecai.

Whoever was comin’ had taken care to close the ramp behind them. It loudly grumbled closed, sloshin’ through water, and when it clicked and hissed into place, the sound was the sound’a horrible finality, of no goin’ back and cold, sinkin’ dread.

Gideon emerged from the dark doorway, drippin’ wet, his dark hair pasted to his forehead. His eyes were red. Slowly, like a man with a limp, he came forward, reached inside his waistcoat, and drew out somethin’ sleek and silver. Every eye was on Mordecai’s revolver as he set it on the corner of a heat compressor and let it drip there. The sound’a it sent shockwaves through Po.

“It’s just us,” he murmured. “It’s time to go.”

XXIII

Being Fine

The Voice of Space. The cold, impenetrable endlessness that never got any closer. Stars smudged by; distant planets were brief blots of color, there and then gone. The black in between…that was The Voice, the substance of the universe. The part of it that was supposed to speak to airship captains like the sea spoke to nautical pilots, letting them know a storm was coming.

Reece stared out the canopy window at it, and for the first time, he heard nothing.

             
He’d only slept four or five hours on and off since
The Aurelia
had barely escaped into the Rhea more than three days ago. The Kreft were hot on their trail—which had been their grand, heroic plan for saving Neserus—and it wasn’t that he trusted Nivy with the helm any less than he trusted himself anymore, but…he couldn’t have slept anyways. The times he ripped his eyes away from the blessedly distracting canopy window and tried, all he could think about was his colossal failures and what they had cost his crew.

             
Nivy and Scarlet were the only ones he’d seen since they’d merged into the Stream, narrowly avoiding an impatient blast from The Kreft that would have split Aurelia in half at the wings. Nivy kept him awake and for all intents and purposes,
sane
while he steered the helm and watched the green graph radar. Scarlet brought him food and news of the others. Hayden was in bad shape but stable. Po had moved in with her for the time being. Gideon was…Gideon.