Even after all we’ve been through, it feels safe to be back in an Academy ship. I know I’ve lost all their trust, and vice versa, but at least it’s familiar.
Theo sits in the very back of the cabin, wrists and ankles cuffed to the seat. It’s a stronger hold than back in the cruiser, not that he’s awake to feel it.
Eva takes the pilot’s seat. Everybody else spreads around the cockpit. Cassius stands in the corner, shoulder against the wall. Skandar reclines in the co-pilot’s chair. I sit on the floor next to Avery.
“As far as I see it,” Eva starts, “we’ve got two options. Either we head back to the Academy and beg them to forgive us, or we keep flying around in circles.”
“Nope,” I say.
She scoffs. “What do you mean, ‘nope’?”
“We don’t do either. You heard what Ryel said. The invasion’s begun. We’re gathering an army. That’s all we can do.”
Skandar raises his head. “But Jesse, you didn’t see what Alkine-”
“I don’t care what Alkine showed you,” I reply. “It’s too late.”
Cassius taps his foot against the wall. “We can’t do anything if we’re too weak to fight.”
I wince. “I haven’t eaten since before Syracuse.”
“A few more hours and we’ll be exhausted,” he continues. “We need to refuel.”
Eva frowns. “And where are we supposed to do that? Skyships will have checkpoints. Chosen Cities are impenetrable. Even the Fringes… we’d waste all sorts of time trying to find a place with any food.”
The cockpit falls silent. Cassius’s foot taps echo along the walls.
Avery stands. “I know the place. It’s perfect!” She moves to the console and punches in a set of coordinates.
Eva glances over at the information. “What’s Lenbrg?”
“The Fringe Town Avery and I stayed in last spring.” I sit up. “Of course!”
Avery turns. “It’s peaceful, and it’s off the radar. They have food, and it’s on the way to Siberia. If Alkine contacts the shuttle, we’ll just switch off the volume. Play dumb. It’ll look like we’re heading back to Skyship. Then, when we land outside Lenbrg, we’ll dismantle the radar. Disappear. I can do it. By the time the Academy sends someone looking, we’ll be gone.”
Eva crosses her arms. “You can disable the radar?”
“I trained at the Lodge,” she counters. “I can do a lot of things with a shuttle.”
My shoulders slump. “The Fringers won’t be happy to see us coming back. Not after all the trouble we caused them.”
“We’ll have to deal,” Avery says. “I’ll take a bunch of peaceful Fringers over Madame or the swarm any day.”
I glance over to Cassius. “What do you think?”
He’s silent for a moment. I notice a twinkle at the end of his finger-a spark ready to ignite. “Go ahead. Wherever we go, we’re screwed. Just keep that in mind. We’ll recharge, but we won’t have long before we have to fight again.” He pivots and leaves the cockpit.
I turn back to Eva. With a great sigh she pulls on the steering and changes direction. “Setting a course for Lenbrg,” she mutters. “You better be right about this.”
– Every last bit of me wants to give in to sleep, but the fact is, I haven’t had a chance to talk properly with Avery since Syracuse. And there are things I need to know before I can let myself drift off peacefully.
We sit in the back of the cockpit. Her head leans on my shoulder, eyes half closed. Eva dimmed the lighting and programmed the console on auto-pilot. We’ll take turns keeping watch.
“How are you feeling?” I reach over and pull the hair from her eyes.
“Don’t worry about me.”
“What was it like, after Seattle?”
There’s a silence before she answers. I can’t see her face from this angle, but I’d imagine she’s troubled. “I don’t remember anything inside the city after Madame showed up. I woke up laying on my back in the cabin of a cruiser.”
“If I hadn’t passed out, I would’ve-”
“Shh.” She yawns. “They restrained me with some sort of fluid pumping into my arm. I don’t know… it made me sleepy, and in a way I was grateful for that because it meant I didn’t have to think. My brain was crammed-so many things swirling around at once. I thought about you, and all that happened since we’d left the Academy. I thought for sure Madame captured you. It was only when they brought me back to the Lodge and I realized that she was missing that I could even hope you might have escaped.”
I close my eyes. “Do you think she’s dead?”
“Now?”
“Yeah,” I whisper, “after what happened in Syracuse.”
“No. People like Madame don’t die.”
My heart sinks. She’s right. “You were at the Lodge all those months?”
“Mmm hmm.” She nods. “After they pulled Madame from the wreckage and nursed her back to health, I still asked about you. I was convinced they were hiding you somewhere. You wouldn’t believe how many secret rooms and passageways she’s got in that building. Even I don’t know them all.”
“When did you finally find out?”
“Madame told me when she was well enough to speak. She told me what Cassius had done and that you and the entire Academy split from the community. I didn’t completely believe her. I wanted to, but there was no way to know if she was telling the truth or not.” She raises her head and meets my eyes. “You wanna hear the sickest thing?”
“Sure.”
Avery smiles. “She kept my room.”
“What do you mean?”
“My room… the one I grew up in. She had it kept just the same as I remembered. I’d have thought that after all those years I’d spent at the Academy, all those months of estrangement, she’d have replaced it with something else. It was so weird going in there and seeing all my old things. I could barely stomach it knowing what I do now. She wanted everything to be like it was back then, like I was her make-believe daughter.” She pauses. “I didn’t know it then, but she’d been pumping medication into my system on that cruiser ride. And she’d been sneaking it into my food and seeping it through the vents in my room.” She runs her hand over her head. “And then one night, they put me under and installed the harnessing device.”
“Alkine said coming to look for you would be a mistake.”
She falls back to my shoulder. “Of course he did.”
“But I don’t trust anything he-”
“Listen,” she interrupts. “You’ve got so many more important things to worry about than little old me.”
“But-”
“Shh. You know, I can’t help but feel responsible.” “For what?”
She sighs. “If I’d never been in your life, you’d never have met Cassius or Theo and none of this would be happening. Pearls would still be Pearls and you’d be a happy Skyship kid getting closer to graduation.”
“I was never all that happy.” I shrug. “And we both know I was never gonna graduate. Besides, this was going to happen either way. At least with me around, we’ve got a chance of fighting back.”
“You believe that?”
I wince. “I’ve got to. It’s what’s keeping me going.”
“Good for you.” Her eyes close. “I feel stupid for ever thinking you were a wimp.”
“You’ve changed your mind?”
“Of course I have.” Her voice trails off. “You’re gonna be a hero.”
I swallow. Or die trying.
“Now go to sleep, Jesse. We both need it.”
I close my eyes. She’s right, at least about the sleep thing.