Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) (7 page)

The wind tugged on me, using the wings like a sail to haul me out of the
Layal.

I jerked on the thick leather strap around my chest, and again on the two around my waist and leapt.

Within a few metres, I breached the bottom of the storm. Rain hit me like a thousand ice hammers. My Mark and my mind connected and my wings pushed hard, taking me into a high spin.

The Sky Gypsies buzzed around me, seeking targets.

I found an air current and allowed my wings to catch it, the wind racing past my ears, deafening any other sounds except the loudest.

Ino City blazed like a bon fire a few hundred metres below and to the north. The seas raged and writhed around her.

Airships.

The reports were correct. These weren’t ordinary ships. The sails were still there, but now giant plumes of smoke billowed from tall stacks that had replaced the masts. Giant propellers spun at their stern.

They turned their bows in our direction like fast moving whales and headed straight for us.

They looked slow and heavy, but they moved quicker than I’d imagined. Before we’d had an opportunity to gain much distance, they were on us, their lightning cannons lashing out, touching the Gypsies with explosive fingers.

Rose had made a few alterations of her own, however, and had wrapped each of her birds in the same copper webbing as the
Khayals
. The electricity rippled away, flinging from their wings.

As one Gypsy flew past, the wing rose, redirecting the enemy’s lightning back on the attacking ships.

I scanned the ships, dodging one way, then the other as a crackling roar ripped through the air. The lightning had found a target.

Searching for a figurehead that would tell me who the attacking force was, I zipped through the melee, dodging planes and bolts of lightning. I wanted it to be Iszak Tokarz, the man who
boasted
he had destroyed my tribe. He couldn’t have done it alone. He wasn’t nearly that brilliant, nor that resourceful, but the blood of my people bathed
his
hands and needed revenge.

Ino City had to be my objective. Oki. Ino Nami. Blood purge. I gnashed my teeth at the air and pointed myself toward the looming, glowing city.

Du’a screeched beside me, meeting me wing beat for wing beat. We shared the same currents, sinking lower in the sky, closer to the swelling ocean, the salt water spraying us as the waves crashed. The rain was warmer down there, easier to bear.

Barely.

This was a really big storm.

The lights of Ino City beckoned through the flashes of lightning and cannon blasts. Thunder roared, blaring out all sounds, vibrating through my chest, making the metal feathers of my wings rattle.

Then I heard the all too familiar sound of screaming.

I stopped, my wings beating hard to maintain altitude.

A ship fell from the sky battle.

My wings were not designed to fly while standing still. The wind ripped around me, pushing me backward, then pulling me forward again. There was nothing I could do for those people. If that really was Tokarz, then those people had known what they were signing up for.

Unless, they hadn’t.

I couldn’t think of that. I turned and headed toward Ino City again.

Letharan
have a veil that falls from their hood that shields their city from wind and water. It’s how the city can survive under the waters. I pressed my palms to my sides and dove for the churning ocean waves, fear thrumming through me.

I was an airman. Water was not a friend of mine.

The currently pulled hard. The waves pushed me down.

Du’a’s serpentine tail latched onto my arm.

Fighting through the water, I propelled us both toward the calm, blue water that beckoned before us.

Once we crossed under the protective wall of the
lethara,
the pull, the fight, the battle of the ocean was gone. Tucking my wings in, I pushed with my feet and hands to the top, my lungs ready to explode. My mouth cleared the calm water and I gulped the air like a starving man. Oh, how I hated being under water.

Du’a chirped as she breathed beside me, then took the air, flinging water off her feathers like a mini storm.

I scanned the docks. Minimal activity. No ships in port. The Ino dinghies were tipped upside down in a long line on the far end. There was no way I could leave the water this close to the city and not be spotted, but I hoped. I hoped the right people would see me and would
not
spread word of my arrival.

Well, and there would be questions. Who was that strange man flying within the city walls? As far as I knew, no one had wings.

Du’a squawked and gained altitude.

I looked up. The hood of Ino’s
lethara
towered high overhead, nearly a hundred metres. That’s where I needed to go. Ino City’s control room because
that
was where my mother would be.

I pushed out of the water using my wings and feet—which was not nearly as graceful as it sounded—and flew upward. I released my Mark just enough to heat the liquid off of my body. I couldn’t leave puddles. I had to work in stealth for this to work.

The docks zipped away and was replaced by the market, then several levels of housing, and more buildings. Staying as close to the screen as I could, I increased my speed, not caring about the city. I’d seen it before. The final level appeared and I slowed. More people. More opportunities to be caught.

Staying high, I flew toward the stone tower-like structures that made up the family quarters. An open tiled floor connected each tower. I flew to the top-most level and ducked along the exterior wall, perching precariously on a ledge not meant for standing on. No one populated the blue tile in front of the elevator platform. Beyond that rested the control room.

My heart racing, I stepped out of hiding and into the bare space. I hop-stepped as quickly as I could to the nearest column, turning my nose a little at the smell. I wasn’t raised around
letharan.
I wasn’t used to the dank, musty odor the older, larger jellyfish had. The thick tendril column pulsed beside me.

Du’a hurtled through the air past my head and settled on a rafter in the next room.

Settling my wings along my back and tucking them in as far as the mechanism would allow, I took in a deep breath and prayed I would find the information I was looking for.

A
RE WE CONNECTED
?
I
ASKED,
projecting my thoughts toward Du’a.

We are.

I pushed past the thrill of hearing her voice and listened to the conversations in the command room. So far, no one had spotted me. The column I hid behind was thick. Everyone was busy, too busy to look for an intruder who should not be there.

What did I need?
I asked myself, fighting the blind instinct to step out of hiding and confront my mother. Where was my sister? Had my mother really destroyed my fleet using Tokarz to do so? Was she really planning a blood purge?

No. I was not good at politics and that woman excelled at them. I needed to listen. Listen. And hope that I got the information I needed so I could develop a plan to save my sister and as many Ino as I could.

“Where are they?” Ino Nami demanded, her hands fisted behind the wide, blue obi bow of her sash, her voice crackling with age.

“Just out of radar range,
Koko Heika
,” a meek mannered female said, bowing her head.

I had never in my life heard my mother, or any person of the tribes, addressed in this manner. I vaguely recalled these words and what they meant, but they were so ancient. Empress? Had the technician really just called my mother Empress?

“He has better radar,” Mother spat. “What do my eyes in the sky see?”

“They are fighting,
Koko Heika
,” a man said. He lifted one headphone from his ear and turned to her. “So far, we only see his planes.”

“Any sight of his other vessels? I want to see what he’s done, how he’s modified them. I want Balbir’s ships to draw him into battle.”

Balbir Shankara? The two largest tribes; Ino and Shankara.

Our League of Cities was too new, to inexperienced, too small. If we stood up to them, if we fought, we didn’t stand a chance.

“
Sama
,” a familiar voice said, his tone laced with concern. I sought out Ino Yotaka’s weathered form, finding brief comfort in the craggy features of my old instructor. “Be careful. Balbir is not a man to command easily.”

A temporary wall spanned two columns, partially closing off the control room. Behind the column, I was too exposed, though, hiding behind the thin wall didn’t add much more concealment. I ducked behind it anyway.

“Where is the Han?” Ino Nami demanded.

The Han? I prayed to the master of the holy Library that my mother had not asked the Han’s position because the tyrant was an ally. The Ino, Shankara,
and
the Han?

“He is not good in this kind of fight,
Sama
Nami
.
”

For the love of dirt! My mother had created an alliance of her own to rival the power of the League of Cities? Because I had left her? Because I refused her control?

I shouldn’t be surprised.

Yet, I was.

“I am aware, Yotaka-
saan.
” She spun on him with a snarling sneer.
“
And I think you forget your place. Where are the El’Asim’s vessels? Where are his airships?”

“In the storm,
Koko Heika,
” the first female said, her voice barely over a whisper.

“In
this
storm?” Ino Nami stilled. “Impossible.”

“We knew he was making modifications.” Yotaka took a step forward, his hands tucked into his large, bell sleeves. “He may not be a brilliant tactician, but he is well adept at design.”

“What is he thinking?”

“I believe,” Yotaka said, raising his voice and turning his head in my direction, “he is ensuring his fleet is not decimated.”

I jerked, my breath caught in my throat. Had he seen me? I’d been sure no one had. Would he betray my location?

“Perhaps you did your job too well when you ordered the destruction of his Family.”

“You don’t have to yell it, you senile old man.”

The breath escaped from my body as the full weight of their words crashed into me. She’d been the one to murder my tribe on the day my sister had wed. My mother. My own mother.

My mother.

No. She was no longer my mother.

Suspecting something like this and then hearing it out of her own mouth changed things. It added substance to my will, my want for revenge.

My Mark hissed beside either ear.

I balled my hands into fists. The wall I hid behind was thin and flammable. I quieted my Mark, pushing down my rage.

“It was never a true Family in the first place. Their blood was tainted, mixed.”

“But pure enough to bond.”

Ino Nami pierced Yotaka with a steely gaze. “Able to bond, yes. If their blood had been pure, they would have been able to do so on a more regular basis.”

“We lost many bonded when you destroyed his Family.”

Her face screwed up, her lips twisted. “We lost
few
bonded. The number was so minuscule as to be worth the cleansing!”

Bonded? What did blood have to do with bonds? Was she talking about the bond our tribe shared with the falcons? The one I was developing with Du’a and my
lethara?
The bond I wasn’t supposed to have?

She spun and walked in sweeping steps towards me.

I scrambled to hide completely behind the temporary wall, praying there wasn’t enough light behind me to provide a shadow through the screen. How had Yotaka seen me? Would she find me as well? And what happened if she did?

“It is imperative we cleanse the blood, Yotaka-
saan.
” Ino Nami stopped several metres away from me and turned back to the command room.

The second confirmation. The only other thing I needed with Oki’s location.

“We are all aware of our priorities,
Sama
Nami
.
” Yotaka walked sedately past her. He met my gaze and flicked it behind me.

I moved as far as I could, but a tiled wall blocked any further movements.