Aeralis (13 page)

“I’m impatient to hear we’re still waiting around, making small talk with duchesses at parties instead of leading the revolution.”

I didn’t recognize the voice.

“Soon,” another voice purred, one that I did know. Korr. I strained to hear. “Tell them to be patient. There are matters of delicacy that must be resolved.”

“Matters.” The first voice sounded less than thrilled to be given the brush-off. “What matters?”

“The instruments of our liberation are complicated,” Korr said. “Patience.”

The other man made a noise of annoyance, but he didn’t press the matter.

My mind spun with thoughts long after they’d left the greenhouse.
Matters of delicacy that must be resolved. The instruments of our liberation are complicated
.

An idea sparked in my mind.

~

“Korr!”

He and Adam were bent over his desk, speaking in low tones as they examined a map. They both straightened as I stopped in the middle of his plush rug and crossed my arms.

“Yes?” He said it crisply, impatiently. He appeared to be in the middle of something and even shorter on patience than usual. Maybe I could use that.

I didn’t waste any time stating what I had put together.

“You have the PLD, but you haven’t used it,” I said. “Because you need to use the gate at Echlos, too. I’m guessing you wanted my father’s journals so you could learn how to link them. Now, why would you want to do that?”

Korr folded his arms and said nothing.

“To transport soldiers?” I continued. “The PLD is small and can be easily deployed inside a building.” I paused. “Or a palace.”

Korr said nothing as he gazed at me, his eyes black with an undefinable emotion.

“But you have to have it properly linked to the gate, so that passage through the gate will link travelers with the gate created by the PLD,” I continued. “And right now the gate only takes people back in time. It’s a matter of delicacy that must be resolved, yes?” I said, using the same words Korr had used in the greenhouse.

Korr stiffened as he realized I’d overheard him, that he wouldn’t be able to lie to me. Still, he said nothing.

I had to focus. I had to be clear when presenting my idea, the idea I’d had after overhearing Korr earlier. “You need something that can show you how to reprogram the gate,” I said. “You thought you could use my father’s journals. The journals are gone. They burned. However, I can do you one better. I know of a
man
who could do it.”

The room was silent for the space of several heartbeats while I waited for his response. Korr stirred slightly and lifted one gloved hand to his chin. His eyebrows drew together in a slash above his nose as he pinned me with a stare.

“A man?”

“Yes. He’s—he’s here in Astralux, but he’s in trouble.”

Korr smiled shrewdly as he observed my expression. I was struggling to keep it blank, but something of the desperation I felt must have leaked through my eyes, my posture, because he said, “This man, he has some personal significance to you. This is why you’re in Astralux in the first place, isn’t it? Who is he?”

“That doesn’t concern this deal I’m offering you. The point is that he’s being held in a labor camp, and I need him freed, but I can’t do it alone. If you help me, I’ll help you. I’ll convince him to fix the gate. He’ll listen to me.”

It was a gamble; I wasn’t entirely sure that Borde would help Korr, and I wasn’t sure Korr would believe me anyway. But I had to try.

Korr’s eyes narrowed. I was a prisoner to his stare, a bird to his snake. The seconds ticked past, marked by a clock on the wall, and my heart beat in time with them. Korr stepped around the desk and paced to a window that overlooked the street. He moved the curtain aside and gazed at the palace in the distance, then exchanged a long glance with Adam while I held my breath and pretended I wasn’t coming apart at the seams, like an old barn battered by icy wind. My blood hummed. My back prickled with sweat.

Korr turned back to his desk. “All right.”

Two words, spoken sharp and low—they might be the thing that saved my family. I put out a hand to brace myself against the wall as my legs sagged in relief.

“All right,” I said, struggling to keep my voice calm. “What now?”

“Well, where is he?”

“Working on it,” I said.

“Get me the name of the camp where he’s being held, and we’ll make our plans,” Korr said. He waved a hand, and I was dismissed.

I left the room, still shaking.

A footstep made me turn. Adam had followed me out into the hall.

“Good thinking,” he said, his voice unreadable. “Brilliant, really.”

I didn’t reply. Part of me wanted to ask him for advice, tell him my plans, or share my musings, but there was a rift between us. Our old camaraderie had been replaced with something new, something painful. It was as if a part of me had been amputated. I bled regret for the loss of him as we stood there, but I was silent. He was silent, too.

Adam turned to go back into the room. He paused at the door. “Talk to Raven if you need information. She has connections everywhere. She’ll find out where he is. Ask her to do it as a favor to me. She owes me one.”

Were they so close that they owed each other favors now? Something uncomfortable prickled in my chest.

Adam turned and went back into the study before I could ask anything, and I wouldn’t have known what to ask anyway. Words lay thick on my tongue, but I swallowed them and went to find the information I needed.

FOURTEEN

DOCTOR TERRADE WAS still rattled from his ordeal the night before. He sipped tea on the couch of his guest suite as I tried to ask him questions about the man called Meridus Falcon. His hands shook as he lifted the teacup to his lips.

“I’ve told you all I know,” he said repeatedly. “He’s been arrested for treason. It was on the paper.”

“Yes,” I said, shutting my eyes to gather my patience. “But can you tell me anything else? Something you didn’t write down, perhaps? What else do you remember?”

His bitter laugh turned into a wheeze. “I can’t remember any of it. That’s why I write it all down. My memory is failing me, so I keep record of every conversation, every snippet of gossip I hear at parties and social functions these days, and I read them over when I return home. It’s become useful to some other people for reasons I’d rather not know, but I cannot help you further. I only have my notes, and that is all I have written regarding this Meridus Falcon.”

I went to find Raven.

~

Raven studied me as I explained what I needed her to find out. She smiled at the mention of Adam and favors, but she didn’t comment further on that.

“Falcon, eh?” she said when I’d finished. “He and I should meet. We’d be two birds of a feather.” She grinned at her joke, but I didn’t.

Her smile rearranged itself into her customary smirk at my lack of expression.

“Can you do it?” I asked. I had no patience for her today.

She shrugged. “There are men who have that information, and men are always eager to tell me things. I have a Thorns mission tonight—a gala at the home of the Head of Records. I’ll find out your information.”

“I’m coming with you.”

She dimpled. “You? What would you do at an Aeralian party? There are no monsters to slay, Bluewing. Only men.”

I wouldn’t let her mocking dissuade me. “This is important,” I said. “I want to make sure you do it right.”

She laughed. “I know how to do my job, Frostie. I don’t need you looking over my shoulder.”

I simply folded my arms.

“All right,” she said, giving me a measuring look. “I leave for the party at sunset. Be ready if you plan to come along.”

I nodded, and she slipped past me and down the hall without another word.

“Lia.”

I turned; Gabe stepped from the library.

“I guess I’m going to my first Aeralian party,” I said.

Gabe dropped his gaze to his hands. “I heard. At the home of the Head of Records, no less. Edmund Steelgray. He has a fine conservatory. One of the finest in Aeralis.” He hesitated. “I need you to do something for me.”

My instincts sharpened as foreboding pierced me. I waited for him to explain.

“There’s something at the Steelgray estate that I need. But I can’t go. I’d be recognized. And I can’t ask Raven—I don’t trust her, and no one else can know about this.”

“Not even Korr?”

“Not him,” Gabe said. “Especially not him. Please, Lia.”

“What is this thing you need so desperately?”

“It’s a book of records.”

I waited for him to tell me more, but he didn’t. He chewed his lip and waited for me to refuse. I could see by his expression he thought I would. Mistrust stirred in my stomach—I’d had a lifetime’s worth of betrayal in the last year—but along with it came memories of Gabe at my side in the Frost, climbing through windows, risking his life to help my family, my village.

I sighed. I owed him this, at least.

“Tell me where I can find it.”

“Truly?”

“Yes, truly.”

He stepped closer to me, and we were inches apart. I put out my hands. I could feel the heat of his skin even though we weren’t touching. His eyes became soft, and the naked vulnerability that colored his features made me ache. I’d caused this sadness. I’d caused his tentative hope, and his heartbreak.

A shiver of regret and self-loathing curled inside me, but I pushed it away. I wouldn’t dwell on that now. I reached out and touched his hand with mine. His skin was warm. Sparks slipped up my arm, and I shut my eyes.

“We are still friends, Gabe.”

“Friends.” He pronounced it bitterly. But when I tried to withdraw my hand, he captured my fingers with his and pulled me forward until my hand was resting against his chest. I opened my eyes in surprise.

“Lia,” he breathed.

It was too much. Inside I was splintering with pain and drowning with the warm ache of want. But he wasn’t—I wasn’t—

Adam
.

Even though we were barely speaking, his name still filled my mind.

I drew away from Gabe. “We shouldn’t talk about this now. There’s no time, and I...” I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to him.

“You’re right,” Gabe said, sighing quietly as he stepped back. “Let me tell you how to find the study were the records are kept.”

~

Darkness blanketed the city, punctured at intervals by glowing glass streetlamps that lined the river. Fog hung heavy in the air above us.

The dress I wore dug painfully into my sides and itched at my shoulder blades where a cascade of lace fell down my back like a pair of tattered angel wings. My hair was heaped atop my head and strung with pearls—paste knock-offs, Raven had informed me, although they looked real—and I wore a mask of gray satin.

“You look like a regular Aeralian,” Raven had announced upon seeing me, which was the best compliment she seemed capable of bestowing.

Gabe had been more admiring. He’d met me in the hall for last-minute instructions about my side mission on his behalf, and the sight of me in Ann’s dress had rendered him speechless. He’d finally managed to drag his eyes away and review with me what I needed to do.

I, however, felt like a child playing pretend in her mother’s gown. Even though the dress fit my body well, I didn’t know the person I’d seen in the mirror. I’d worn cloaks stained and torn from passage through the Frost for so long that I didn’t recognize myself without them. But Gabe’s wide-eyed wonder had felt pleasant.

Raven was dressed a bit more daringly in a plunging black gown with a narrow skirt and long, gem-studded sleeves that ended in a web of lace at her fingertips. Her costume was complete with a sliver of a red mask across her eyes to match the bright red color on her lips. She wore her hair down long, a sleek waterfall of rich back curls.

“Isn’t it customary to wear it up?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said. “Your goal is to blend in. Mine is to stand out.”

A steamcoach pulled up to the front of Korr’s house, and we climbed inside, our gowns rustling.

“Are you supposed to be going to parties if you’re just a maid in Korr’s house?” I asked.

Raven laughed. “I’m not a maid. The official story is that I’m his ward, visiting from the backwater plains of Aeralis. That way I can be seen at parties, and I can do my work of getting information out of all kinds of desperate, attention-hungry men. But yes, I do pull my weight around the house, if that’s what you mean. We all do. Korr let some of the servants go so he could have better control of who sees what goes on in the house, and we all have to pitch in a little.”

I found it hard to imagine Korr without a full retinue of servants, but I didn’t say that.

The steamcoach rattled as it crossed a bridge of steel and stone. Mist swirled around us, obscuring the view, and a spasm of apprehension gripped my chest. I turned my head and found Raven watching me.

“You’re a bit of a puzzle,” she said. “You’re fierce, but nervous, like a little bird. You act as though you have no fear, but look at you—you’re quaking.” Her smile turned contemplative as she remembered my moniker. “Bluewing,” she said.

Was she mocking me? “When you love someone, you face your fears for them,” I said.

I expected a smirk in response, but Raven leaned back as if actually considering my words. “Perhaps so.” She lifted one eyebrow. “I wouldn’t know.”

I chose not to respond. We rode in silence for a few minutes.

“Adam says you owe him a favor,” I said quietly.

Raven laughed, low and throaty. “Yes. He helped me out of a situation by pretending to be involved with me. It was rather enjoyable.” She observed my expression. “Jealous? I thought you two were no longer speaking.”

“We’ve had a disagreement,” I said stiffly.

Raven cleared her throat. “When we reach the party, we’ll disembark from the steamcoach together, but separate as soon as we’re inside. I do my best work when I’m on my own, and a girl like you wouldn’t keep company with a girl like me anyway.” She shifted on the seat, crossing her legs and swinging one foot as she spoke. “We can meet again by the coach house at midnight. I suggest you try to find out any information you can, but in all likelihood, you won’t. So don’t feel too badly about it.”