Pressed, p.21
Pressed, page 21
She pushed open the wooden door at the top of the stairs, the creaking of it loud to her ears. But there was no one around. The hallway was quiet as she made her way back to the small room. It had all been abandoned. Not a guard remained. How long had she been falling in and out of sleep? And why would they leave their posts with her captive like that? Fiona hurried to the window, watching for anyone who could stop her, and gasped at the sight: Shade had sunk farther below the Plateau. They had gone miles down at this point. No wonder it was empty.
Fiona swung between competing urges. She wanted to get back to Spine, but where would she end up at this point in the landscape? And her mother and Henrietta might still be in Rise. Were they safe? Hawkport had spoken plainly about his feelings for the Queen. Whatever he had planned on the Plateau could end badly for everyone. No, she was the only one who knew he was a danger. She had to get to the palace to warn them and then her family. With the island sinking, she required a fast way off it. Hopefully there was an airship left to see her safely. Fiona strode out the unguarded door and ran toward the docks.
She wasn’t a pilot. There were the basics she learned watching others as a young girl interested in flying and what little Henrietta had taught her and Gaili over the last couple of months. It would have to do. She reached the large docks that should’ve been packed with people. Fiona’s heart sank. Row after row of the landings were empty. The only airship left had clearly seen better days. She rubbed her temples and moved quickly to it. “It can’t be as bad as it looks.” She hurried to the gangplank, leaping up it as fast as she could. The wooden deck had many holes that she could slip right through if she wasn’t careful. Boards peeled up as if they were old paint. The hull seemed to be scraped repeatedly by some heavy cargo, leaving it thinner than it should be. The faint smell of sheep and dung still lingered as she moved carefully about it. Clearly not a premier-class ship. Whatever it had been used for before, it had to be her friend now. She patted the ship as she had seen Henrietta do a hundred times. “I’ll call you Second Betty.”
Fiona unleashed the ropes as another rumble tore through the sinking island. It was clear that whatever was causing the islands to sink wasn’t letting them fall in any sort of natural, graceful way. The sooner she got off the island, the better. She checked the gauges as the captain had taught her and moved to the steering wheel. There was not enough power for a full flight. But perhaps enough to get her in the air and seen by another ship?
She flicked and pressed and flicked and pressed, but nothing happened. “Come on, Second Betty. We can do this.” But the ship refused to budge. Frustrated, she hit the steering wheel with her fist and kicked the pedal. The airship seemed to roar with life, the noise of it filling Fiona’s ears. She glanced at the gauges, but nothing had changed. Everything was still at zero. What then was that noise?
An elegant airship crested over the side of the building and beelined toward Fiona. Its bronze and mahogany hull shone in the sun as it approached the ship, lining up side by side. A small window opened in the top cabin and Henrietta’s voice rang out, “Need a lift?”
“Yes, Captain!” Fiona grinned, rushing to the side of the ship. Deckhands tossed her a rope ladder and she grabbed on, pulling herself up the rungs as best as she could. As soon as she got to the gleaming wooden deck, the ship lifted off and away from the island.
Fiona quickly made her way to the captain’s cabin, where Henrietta commanded the wheel, calling out orders to prepare for a wind-throttling affair.
“How did you know I was here?” Fiona asked after hugging the captain.
Henrietta chuckled, peach cheeks reddened once again from the whipping wind of sailing. “I know how to read between the lines of your notes by now, mistress. Thought it was a bit odd that the ink was smudged and note was already opened though. I was sure you hadn’t sent it like that.”
Fiona sighed and paced the small cabin. “Indeed, I had not. Lord Henry Hawkport instigated this entire affair. I should’ve known that someone might be reading my correspondence, but I didn’t think it would be him.”
“That explains why those lazy barons knew they would be safe on the Rock. A Hawkport captain showed up to see them off the island, but I made sure we didn’t go with them. I took your mother back to the palace and placed her in care of the Travel Guild.” She squared her shoulders, standing taller.
There was a story there, for sure. “Lazy barons?”
Henrietta’s nostrils flared and she shook a fist to the air as if they were right in front of her. “The most they accomplished this week was getting too sotted to properly save themselves. I’m all for a good drink but they aren’t worth flying into the wind if you get my meaning. To the dark edge with them.” Henrietta tugged on the brim of her small cap. “If retiring into court means I have to sit around and wait on the charity of those not fit to lead, then I was better off before. I get more done for people flying the good flag than they ever will.” She moved a graying strawberry curl out of her face and grinned at Fiona. “Besides the crew on this ship deserves a good steward. They agreed to host my talents quickly enough. Isn’t that right, crew?” Henrietta shouted out.
“Aye aye, Captain,” said sailors just outside the doorway.
Fiona laughed and surged forward. She gave her friend’s shoulder a quick squeeze. How Henrietta had gotten an entire crew of people to follow her in less than a week she could absolutely fathom. “Well, seems with a lick of paint you’ve got a foot into Rise and outside of it now.”
Henrietta winked. “Hold on there, lass. She turns tight like you wouldn’t believe.”
Fiona sat in the only available seat in the cabin and allowed herself a brief moment of relief before turning her focus to her next task.
Henrietta pushed the airship for all it was worth. It should’ve taken half an hour at full speed to get to the palace, but with the island so far sunk it was half an hour just to get halfway up the Plateau. It seemed the island was farther west than before as well. Were they not only sinking but spreading farther from the Plateau? Why? Henrietta didn’t bother trying to hide from other airships. Speed was her objective, and as they got toward the top of the Plateau, she truly shined.
With more momentum than Fiona thought any airship was capable of, they darted toward the palace grounds. Henrietta weaved in and out of the buildings, and just as it seemed they were about to crash into the air docks, she maneuvered the ship swiftly into place. “Throw out a rope, crew, and guard the Nimble Faun as best you can. Captain Henrietta needs a place to stash her for a bit. When it’s all said and done, you’ll be treated handsomely.”
The crew nodded to the captain, clearly already smitten with her, and she saluted back as her and Fiona turned away from the docks and toward the palace proper.
The courtyard was choked with frightened people clutching their belongings, displaced from their swiftly sinking homes. Fiona pushed through the crowds, flashing her decree at a Travel Guild jacket.
“Find Gilded Marcia and bring her to the Low Gallery at once!” she ordered.
Fiona raced into the chaotic palace, frantically searching for her mother. She found her with Henrietta in their quarters, her mother anxiously pacing as the captain tried to calm her.
“Fiona!” her mother cried, pulling her into a fierce embrace. “My dear girl, I was sick with worry.”
Fiona squeezed her mother tight. “We must go back to Spine at once, we’re not safe here.”
Her mother opened her mouth to argue, but the captain cut in, “The lass always speaks true. We best be on our way.”
Lavinia nodded slowly, shock threatening to overcome her. She looked around the room, grabbed her gloves and squared her shoulders. “I’ll follow.”
With no further protest, Fiona led them swiftly to the Low Gallery. What was usually an empty thoroughfare where statues and tapestries outnumbered the guests was packed with nobles going to and from their rooms. Several were arguing with palace guards about getting their belongings to a safe location away from the displaced commoners outside the palace. Travel Guild jackets watched on from the fringes, only intervening when a situation was escalating.
Gilded Marcia arrived, pale human face tight as her short black hair was pulled into a severe—even for her—bun at the top of her head. Her back was straight as a board and her mouth set in a thin line. Among the many humans, she stood out, even if Fiona didn’t know she was secretly a faekin hag in disguise. Luckily no one looked twice at her, perhaps too afraid to. Though she didn’t reach the height of most jackets around her, it was clear by her very demeanor that she commanded them. “Investigator Thorne,” she said curtly.
“Gilded Marcia.” Fiona stepped closer to her and whispered, “Jackets are needed to guard the Queen and find Lord Henry Hawkport. He’s working with the Painted Edge, and I believe he’s going to do away with the Queen in the midst of the chaos.”
Lavinia gasped, hand clapping to her mouth. “Fiona!”
Marcia nodded, ignoring the interruption. “At once. Anything else?”
“I’ve seen Sadie,” Fiona said, leaning in and dropping her voice even lower, “and more importantly, I think I know where she is. I believe if we can retrieve the island and the person she took, then we can save Rise. We need to get back to Spine first.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” Marcia stated and raised her chin, watching her.
Fiona didn’t argue. She would be glad to have Marcia’s talents in search of Sadie and Richard. They needed all the help they could get. She nodded. “Glad to have you, Gilded.”
Marcia wasted no time in leading them all toward the banquet chamber. It had been taken over by the Travel Guild as soon as necessary apparently. Jackets flanked every entry and exit. Rows of Travel Guild ornithopters lined tables, while other equipment spread out from wall to wall. In a matter of moments, she had given orders to many jackets, sent a coded message back to Guild headquarters, and instructed ornithopters to be given to the assembled group.
It was a strong command center run by a strong woman. Fiona was a bit relieved she wasn’t fighting against Marcia and her force. Fiona put on her new ornithopter, briefly saddened about her long-standing one now living in the tunnels of Shade, and then helped her mother with hers. She muttered, “May the forests of Spine forgive us for our abrupt entry.”
Marcia grinned, a wide, elusive thing. “I think we can do one better than that.” She cocked her head to the Privy Garden, the largest green area on the palace grounds. It had been cordoned off and jackets stood guard blocking the entry. “We don’t have time to get to an official pagemark,” she said and grabbed a satchel off the table, “so we’ve had to make our own.”
The Privy Garden was big enough to turn the page, but where would they end up? Fiona grabbed her mother’s trembling hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Henrietta whispered to them both, “What a way to start another adventure.”
Lavinia nodded and smiled, her shoulders relaxing a little. “I suppose it’s good to be careful what you ask for, isn’t it, Captain?”
Fiona frowned at the odd statement, but before she could ask any questions, Marcia grabbed her hand and Henrietta’s. With no more than one breath in and one breath out, Marcia turned the page to Spine amid the manicured lawns and pink roses of the garden.
The world gave way before them to a forest below and bright blue sky around. Marcia pulled her rip cord and took a step, tugging the rest of them with her. They all followed suit and soon hovered above the army of perpetual fall trees in the unending forest.
Fiona tried to determine where exactly they were, but everywhere she turned was the same. They were truly in the thick of it. Before she could look toward the sun and figure out their position, a page turner secondhand reflex, Marcia whistled loudly, gaining their attention.
“We’ll land over here,” she said, pointing to a thicket of trees, “and then you can tell me where we’re headed.”
Fiona opened her mouth to argue, but Henrietta and Lavinia did as commanded immediately. Sighing, Fiona followed suit. “We need to go back to my home. I left Gaili and Matteo working on a way to get to Sadie.” Though she hadn’t known it at the time, of course. If she had, she would’ve focused on finding the troublemaker from the beginning with Richard someplace safe.
“Which page is it?” Marcia said. She began to rub her hands in circular motions over the bark of one trunk before moving to another and doing the same. What in the world was she doing?
“I think the time for working with the Guild has come, mistress. For better or worse.” Henrietta whispered to Fiona, then helped Lavinia down through the trees.
She hadn’t realized how much she had been hesitating to answer until then. Fiona nodded, unaccustomed to being so transparent with the Travel Guild. But where would secrecy get her? It didn’t help Richard or Rise. “Gaili and I discovered a new page, or at least what we assume is a new page, a few months ago during the incident on Copper.” She quickly went into the details of what she saw when Clara tore Copper, adding that it was her idea to keep it a secret and not Gaili’s, lest the withholding of information be in some way unlawful.
Marcia squinted, her eyes turning to slits in a very unhuman manner, and she shook her head at Fiona. “You should not have kept that information from the Guild. We’ve had an incredibly hard time tracking them down, and it would have been better to know they may be somewhere even our spotters haven’t found.” Marcia leaned against the tree, her frustration with Fiona clear and making her human visage a touch more frightful than she could possibly know.
“I know you believe me selfish, but there’s more than just my needs entwined with that reveal.” Fiona stopped, not wanting to get further into it. They should be moving to get to the city as quickly as possible. What was Marcia waiting on? Did Fiona dare risk her temper again by asking?
In fact, what was Marcia’s compulsion? Did it compare to her sister’s alliteration in obfuscating her name and her penchant for riddles, or Mac’s creations and her preference for never leaving the Thread?
The trees rustled as if agitated themselves at her thoughts. She shifted away from them, shaking her head. The forest didn’t move. Well, it didn’t stir as if it were upset, at any rate. What was going on?
From the trees strode the Elder druid, their pine-green hair windswept. Their chest rose rapidly, seemingly out of breath. How had they found them?
Marcia moved from the tree she had been leaning on and bowed to the druid. “Elder. We need to be in the turner district. At once.”
The Elder turned to them, blinking with almost reptilian eyes. Or so it seemed. In a moment the odd look was gone. Fiona wondered if she had really seen anything at all.
The druid frowned, assessing the group. “So many?”
“Time is of the essence, Elder,” Fiona said, shaking off her amazement and taking a step forward. “A Guardian’s life is at stake. If you can get us there quickly, we can answer your questions afterward.”
The Elder sprang back. “Yes, of course. We’ll need a larger tree.” They strode away at once.
The group followed quickly after. Fiona glanced at her mother, whose mouth had been resolutely shut the entire time, but her wild eyes told her that she was overwhelmed. She had never been in the position of comforting her mother more than she had this last week. What could she possibly say? Her work wasn’t for the unread. Deep inside she knew her mother thought what she did was unusual and perhaps frivolous. To see one’s home cataclysmically change, to see what people once thought impenetrable crumble around, could upset an entire worldview. What must her mother be thinking?
The Elder stopped ahead of a large spruce tree, its trunk the width of a Guild-run carriage. They placed their hands on the rough bark and spoke in a low voice. Fiona strained to hear but didn’t understand the almost throat-ripping words. Before she could remark on it, the tree opened its trunk, bark peeling away like double doors, and a welcoming air of scented needles wafted toward them.
“Follow me.” The Elder stepped into the tree.
Marcia waved her hand. “It’s safe. Just follow.”
“That’s safe?” her mother said incredulously.
“As much as walking down a lane.” Marcia nodded with a measure of softness to her face.
“More so, I suspect. No rippers in here, Lavinia,” Henrietta said, entering first and disappearing.
Fiona was practically overflowing with questions, but she grabbed her mother’s hand and pulled them both in.
Warm.
Dark.
Sleep.
They stepped out onto the edge of trees and a familiar path Fiona knew to be a short distance from her home and the edge of the turner district. The Elder was already on the path standing next to Henrietta, rocking back and forth on the balls of their feet. “Come, come. Don’t stay too long.”
Lavinia yawned. “My, I could use a nap.”
“Yes.” Fiona nodded, feeling oddly drowsy herself. “But that will have to wait.”
Marcia exited and the tree closed with a resounding snap. “Joining us?” She said it with more familiarity with the druid than Fiona could quite believe. Marcia was not of the same rank as the Elder. But perhaps she had been in Rise too long. Rank wasn’t everything.
“Needs must keep me away, I’m afraid. Does the Binder know?” The Elder tilted their head.
“I sent jackets to report as soon as I arrived in Rise. But the Guardian…that is new information. Will you?” Without waiting for the Elder druid to answer, she barked out, “Fiona? Where to?”
“Right,” Fiona said, snapping out of watching them. She trotted toward the path. “This way.”
The Elder bounced back away from the rest of the group. “Fiona, a quick word if I may,” they said in a cracking voice.
She hesitated. What could they possibly have to say to her besides admonishment for going and getting the Guardian captured? Perhaps it’s what she deserved. She turned to Henrietta. “Will you show them to Mistress Humbledraft, please?”
