The solicitation surprised Effie to silence, which her tutor misinterpreted for reticence.

  “Please don’t misconstrue my intentions,” he stammered. “We’ll both be arriving by the same coach, and I know we enjoy each other’s company—at least, I suspect⁠—”

  “Stop,” Effie said.

  Muldoon paled. “I’m sorry, Effie—I shouldn’t have⁠—”

  “I would love to have you as my escort.” Effie bowed to him. “You honor me.”

  Color restored, Muldoon seemed to grow a foot in an instant. His entire bearing brightened at her acceptance. They looked into each other’s eyes for a long time without speaking.

  She saw this neat young Patrician anew, recognized his foreign features as handsome and exotic—noticed his rich attire, always tailored to perfect form. She couldn’t have found someone more unlike Kai anywhere in the Eight Skies of Ciel. He was sharp where Kai was blunt; soft where Kai was hard; lean in all the places Kai had thickened; so refined where Kai was hopelessly coarse. Effie could almost taste the flavor of their student-teacher relationship changing as they stared at each other.

  She didn’t mind it at all.

  31

  VANNA

  Vanna leaned against her washbasin, nervously watching the door to the cottage. Bael sat at her kitchen table, looking over her scribbled notes from Kai’s scouting report.

  He shouldn’t be here.

  He’d arrived at her cottage door in the middle of the night—a flagrant breach of the protocol they’d established to keep them both safe. Like any small village, Volturnus was lousy with busybodies. The last thing they needed was a mysterious caller providing fodder for gossip around Janus’ hearth. Fortunately for both of them, nobody ever visited Vanna besides Kai—and occasionally Effie.

  Wouldn’t that be an unfortunate twist?

  Vanna tapped her elbow impatiently while Bael continued to read. “You’re certain nobody saw you?”

  “As certain as one can be,” Bael muttered, eyes still scanning the parchment.

  Vanna slammed her hands down on the table in front of him, glowering at the top of his braided head. “You’ll have to do better than that. If Ansel’s agents connect us⁠—”

  “Peace, Vanna.” He finally looked up. “I’m reasonably adept at remaining unseen. You might say it’s a core competency of mine. Trust.” He tapped the parchment with a finger. “This is very interesting.”

  “Something you can use?”

  He nodded gravely. “Kelestina must be hosting some kind of summit. Three Celestial flagships and an Armada galleon?” He made a clucking sound with his tongue. “I know some people who will find this very interesting, indeed.”

  “You know who’s on those ships?” Vanna pried.

  “At least two more Shards,” Bael said. “By the designs, I’m guessing Hallidrax of Vangulmark and Minerviana of Takomar. An interesting cadre; no friends to Admiral Siprichor.” He glanced back down at the parchment and shook his head. “I don’t see any colors for the galleon…”

  “My scout didn’t catch them.”

  “That’s an unfortunate oversight.” Bael sounded annoyed. He chewed his lower lip, quickly bouncing one foot beneath the table. “Not even a glimpse?”

  Vanna rolled her eyes. “He said it might have looked like a bear.”

  “Not a bear,” Bael said. “A sun badger. That’s the banner of the Fifth Umari Legion. If their officers are over Aquilon, then they’re a month away from Toran. That represents a major opportunity for the Hellicon League to press their advantage.”

  Toran again. Bael had a one-track mind. Vanna let her impatience seep into her voice. “What does it mean for Volturnus?”

  “Probably nothing,” Bael said absently.

  “Nothing?”

  Bael looked up from the page at her. “The Shards love their formal events. Given the crowd, I’m guessing this summit is social in nature. I don’t think this impacts Kelestina’s plans for Volturnus one way or another.”

  Vanna exhaled and took a seat at the table. “That’s a good thing, I guess.”

  “This is a very good thing.” Bael rolled up her parchment notes and tucked them inside his cloak.

  “What are you doing here, Bael? We’re not supposed to make contact inside the village.”

  “Extenuating circumstances.”

  Vanna leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “What kind of extenuating circumstances?”

  “The unfortunate kind.” Bael drummed his fingers on the tabletop as Vanna waited for him to elaborate. “The Volturnian conscripts we exfiltrated never made it to Tamarind.”

  “What?” Vanna’s heart stopped beating in her chest. “You told me your smugglers were reliable.”

  “They usually are.” Bael shrugged.

  “Then what the hell happened?”

  “Sparrowhawk says the new Governor of Aeolus is keeping a close eye on all the sky routes west out of the archipelago. She’s got a heavy gunship at her disposal. It’s possible she intercepted our man.”

  Vanna felt a sharpness in her chest—like an Avian’s taloned claw tightening around her ribs. If she’d sent Nayla and Jin to their deaths, she’d never forgive herself. She’d never forgive Bael, either. “What will happen to them?”

  “Hard to say.” Bael curled one end of his thin mustache around a finger. “I doubt they’ll be harmed, if that’s what you’re worried about—though the condition of their transport is likely to be less than comfortable. The Shards wanted them for the Armada. That’s where they’re headed—even if it’s in chains.”

  “This wasn’t supposed to happen!” Vanna realized she’d balled up the fabric of her flight suit in angry fists and quickly released the tension.

  “Casualty of war, I’m afraid.” If Bael didn’t stop twirling his mustache, Vanna was going to gust across the table and rip it off his face. “There are no guarantees in this game we play. We save who we can and move on after injury. If you dwell on every minor setback, you’ll never stay ahead of the ax.”

  “This isn’t a minor setback, and it isn't a game—not to me! Not to Volturnus!”

  “Wait.” Bael raised his palms to absorb her outrage. “There’s more.”

  Jokai save us…

  “Sparrowhawk made contact with our friend,” Bael said. “She had an interesting story to tell. It seems Bone Adder’s been lurking in the Lees of Nevis, raiding merchant vessels and living fat.”

  “The Lees of Nevis?”

  “Six independent islands surface west of Grenport,” Bael explained. “They’re lightly policed and well-positioned near the richer trade routes. Popular pirate ports, for obvious reasons. According to our friend, Captain Whitefang’s taken a peculiar interest in lumite freighters hauling Avernian ore.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Vanna said. “Why would a pirate working for the Shards hit Avernian freighters? That ore belongs to the Crystal Throne.”

  “Why, indeed.” Bael passed one hand thoughtfully over his phalanx of braids. “I haven’t untangled it yet, but Sparrowhawk says Nevis has gone quiet. After months of lucrative pillaging, it seems like Captain Whitefang has moved on.”

  Vanna pointed an accusatory finger across the table at Bael. “Maybe you’re wrong about this Whitefang. Maybe he isn’t working for the Shards. Maybe he’s just a pirate, after all.”

  “Could be.” Bael tilted his head, considering, then shook it. “But it doesn’t smell right. The Shards are up to something, and Bone Adder’s at the center of it. My instincts tell me this is the first phrase of a larger composition.”

  Vanna jumped at the sound of her cottage door slamming open. Bael eyed her warily, then turned to glance over his shoulder. Kai stormed inside like he owned the place in an obvious state of pique. He looked like he’d just come from drills, sandy hair windswept, flight suit spattered with mud. He made it five steps inside the cottage before he noticed Bael seated at the table with Vanna.

  “You!” His feet ground to a halt in the entrance to the kitchen.

  Bael waved genially. “Been a minute, kid.”

  Ignoring the greeting, Kai’s eyes shot to Vanna. “What’s he doing here? Are you mad?”

  “Don’t you knock anymore?” Vanna wasn’t in the mood for his hot temper.

  “Haven’t knocked in months,” he shot back. “You never seemed to care before.”

  “Well, now she’s got company,” Bael said. “Care to join us?” He glanced over at Vanna for approval, but Kai didn’t wait for a second invitation. He brazenly claimed the seat between them and planted his elbows on the table.

  “Well?” Kai prompted, looking from one to the other. “Did you tell him?”

  Vanna closed her eyes and massaged her temples with the pads of two fingers on each hand. Her permanent state of exhaustion had graced her with an unrelenting headache that throbbed behind her eyes.

  “You’re the scout, aren’t you?” Bael made the connection out loud, ever quick to assemble the pieces of any puzzle laid out before him. “Well done, kid. Gonna save a lot of lives with the information you gathered.”

  Kai sat up straighter in his seat and puffed out his chest. How easy it was to fluff him up with a little commendation. Vanna had only grown increasingly convinced she’d made the right decision keeping him out of Bael’s operation officially, though he kept finding ways to force himself deeper inside.

  “I think I know what all those ships are doing up at Aquilon,” Kai said, still riding the wave of Bael’s approval.

  Vanna stopped rubbing her temples and looked at him.

  “Care to enlighten us?” Bael prompted.

  “Kelestina’s hosting a Solstice Ball,” Kai said. “There will be other Celestials and Patrician lords in attendance from across the Doric Sky.”

  “How do you know this?” Vanna asked.

  He deflated, then—lines of color blossoming on his cheeks.

  “Kai…” Vanna prodded.

  “Effie,” he said, glancing up at her sheepishly. “She…invited me to be her escort.”

  Vanna closed her lips, expression frozen as she watched him.

  “I turned her down, obviously,” he quickly added.

  “Well, that was stupid,” Bael said. “Just think of all the information you could have gathered from inside a Celestial ball! And you just pissed that opportunity away?” Bael’s eyebrows bent inward as he chastised Kai. It was the closest thing to anger Vanna had ever heard from the Kenshan.

  Kai raised his voice in sputtering defense. “I don’t want to go to a ball at Aquilon! Not with anyone—but especially not with her.”

  “You damned infant.” Bael pressed a palm across his face, shaking his head.

  Kai stared at Vanna for support, but she wasn’t in a giving mood. “He’s right,” she said. “You should have considered the opportunity. You could have at least talked to me before throwing it away.”

  Her answer cut him much deeper than Bael’s disappointment. He tried hard to hide it, but she saw the wound plainly in his glassy eyes. “That’s your response.” It wasn’t a question. “After all we’ve been through together—I thought you of all people⁠—”

  “Enough, Kai.” She needed to stop him before he said something to humiliate her in front of Bael.

  Kai huffed and slumped back in his seat, staring at Vanna like a kicked puppy.

  “Maybe we can weave something of value from this misstep,” Bael said. “Sabotage only gets you so far, and it’s starting to feel like the trade winds are turning against us.”

  Vanna didn’t like the sound of that. Any time Bael spoke in metaphor, it presaged some dire appeal.

  “We can’t risk smuggling anymore conscripts out of the archipelago—not with the Governor of Aeolus and her airship on high alert. It’s time to raise the stakes—move toward liberating your islands in truth.”

  Is that all?

  “I thought you said you and Sparrowhawk couldn’t fight a war for us?” Vanna pressed.

  Bael bent his head to her, still stroking his beard. “And so we can’t. At least, not alone. Our friend hovering out around Nevis is willing to help us. She’ll bring some much-needed muscle to our cause.”

  “What kind of muscle?” Kai asked.

  “A Leviathan.” Bael let that pronouncement sink in, weighing the silence it elicited. “A heavy one, too. Hekuba Klaeda’s no freedom fighter, but as luck would have it, she’s got her own ax to grind with Aquilon. She can counter Governor Sigyn’s gunship and go tooth-to-claw with Bone Adder if it comes down to it. If we set the stage for her, she’ll hit Aquilon and decapitate the beast.”

  Another Leviathan pirate. Jokai fend, what had she gotten the Zephyrs into? Vanna’s head swam with fiery images of Leviathan locked in aerial combat over Volturnus. They’d ventured far beyond the realm of subterfuge and into all-out war. Decapitate the beast? What Bael suggested—it was nothing short of armed rebellion against the Crystal Throne.

  She glanced over at Kai, but he’d become fixated on Bael, his strong jawline set and unreadable. “Won’t Kelestina bring in the Armada at the first sign of trouble?” he asked.

  Bael spent an eternity considering the question. “It’s possible,” he finally admitted. “But if we act quickly to shatter her hold, there’s a good chance the Shards will cut their losses in the Zephyrs and move on. Kelestina and her sect—they’re out of favor with the military elite, and the Armada’s got every eye they can spare in the Doric Sky turned toward Toran. We have a window.”

  “You really think the Celestials would just give up the whole archipelago?” Kai’s skepticism mirrored Vanna’s, while Bael’s nod exuded confidence she didn’t share.

  “You have to become ungovernable,” Bael said. “Pull up the provincial governors—root and stem. If we do that, Klaeda will take care of Aquilon. The Crystal Palace shatters, and Kelestina gets the Long Drop. With their feudal host expended, the Crystal Throne won’t throw anymore good after bad.”

  Vanna counted her own heartbeats as she chewed over the possibilities. She’d begun this course to save her people from military conscription, but even as she took her first seditious steps arm-in-arm with this Kenshan saboteur, she knew what the ultimate goal would be—what it needed to be. They couldn’t operate in the shadows forever. Volturnus was too small, its skies too crowded with watchful eyes. Whether it was Kendy or Ansel or Kelestina herself—someone was bound to unearth her treachery. Time wasn’t on their side.

  Liberation was the only happy ending for Vanna and Volturnus. Every other path led to discovery and execution.

  “This rebellion,” Vanna said. “What would it look like?”

  “Only one way to do it right.” Bael slammed the edge of one hand against an open palm. “A coordinated strike. Sleeper soldiers on every island rise up against their governors in a simultaneous attack. Depose the governors, eliminate their agents, and let our friend on the Leviathan deal with Aquilon.”

  “How do you expect us to manage that?” Vanna shook her head. “We’re only two people and an Avian.”

  Bael glanced around the kitchen table. “I see three in this very room.”

  “Kai isn’t part of this.” This was the point when Vanna typically objected, but the words no longer held any power or any truth.

  “Who put you in charge of my life?” Kai’s chair slid across the floor as he jumped to his feet. Vanna watched the lines of his muscular arms tense as he extended one calloused hand to Bael. “I want to join the resistance.”

  Bael eyed Kai’s open hand hungrily. Vanna knew what he saw—over six feet of seasoned flier, braided with lean muscle and cursed with the vulnerability of youth. Bael saw nothing of the shy boy who used to scamper around the village after Effie, nor the gangly adolescent impatiently awaiting his Gift. Bael didn’t know him for the eager lover that Vanna had accepted into her bed—and how could he? As Kai stood in her kitchen—pledging his life to a foreign pirate out of obstinance and misplaced hurt—Bael saw only one thing.

  An asset.

  Bael accepted Kai’s hand, and Vanna watched them shake. “You know the terms,” Bael said. “I’ll give my life for you, and I expect nothing less in return.”

  “So be it,” Kai said. When the deal was done, he turned to Vanna, projecting his victory. Whatever he was hoping to receive in return, Vanna’s flat affect denied him. Suddenly awkward on his feet, he sank anticlimactically back to his seat.

  “Three, then.” Vanna surrendered. “Hardly an army.”

  “We will need more,” Bael agreed. “I have a few contacts around the islands that will help. You’ve met some of my people on Avernus. We’ve made inroads on Nimbion and in the Spurs, as well. On Aeolus, I’ve got an open channel to Commander Halle.”

  “You’ve been busy,” Vanna grumbled. Bael revealed the depth of his support to reassure her, but it only unsettled her more.

  Bael actually had the gall to wink at her. “Can’t expect a man of my talents to sit on his thumbs.”

  “I thought Halle banished you,” Vanna said.

  “Aye. You didn’t leave her with much of a choice. But who do you think helped me get set up on Volturnus?”

  Vanna hissed. “That sneaky bitch.”

  Bael wagged his finger at her. “Don’t be so quick to judge. That sneaky bitch commands sympathetic fliers. They’ve already sacked a governor’s manse once. They’ll be ready to strike at Sigyn when the time is right. But Volturnus is the crown jewel. Governor Ansel commands the largest staff, and he’s got enough conscripts to turn his manse into a fortress. You’ll need to find like-minded compatriots and turn them to the cause. Your sister…” Bael began tapping his foot beneath the table again and stroking his bearded chin. “She must be in pretty deep to receive an invitation to Kelestina’s ball…”

  Vanna couldn’t deny it. Effie had immersed herself in the culture of the Shards. Each time Vanna saw her, she felt her sister drifting further away. Kelestina may have returned Effie to Volturnus, but she’d never felt more out of reach.