Into the Still Blue

Soren grinned. “Go on, admit it. I saved your life.”

His tone was friendly. He had changed in the past week, Perry thought. The way he looked and the way he spoke.

“You helped,” Perry said. When Sable had left him for dead, Perry had shot right to the storage lockers, Soren’s wisecrack loud in his mind. He had hoped the Dragonwing, a smaller craft than the Belswan, also carried the raft. Luck had been on his side. He’d immediately located the inflatable boat, which had assembled with just the press of a button. He could say one thing about the Dwellers: they built good ships.

Perry had escaped the Dragonwing with only seconds to spare. He’d watched the Hover sink behind him and then he’d come through the barrier of Aether, the last of the Hovers in the fleet soaring above him.

They’d pulled ahead quickly then. The fleet had probably made the journey there in hours, where he had spent a day battling rough seas, and then two more in calmer water.

Three days alone, but they hadn’t been difficult. He preferred hunting, but he was a fisherman by birth. He’d been fine with the ocean ahead of him, a new sky above. His only real problem had been the lack of water.

Dehydration, he’d realized quickly, was worse than burns or the pound of a mallet. By the time he’d dragged himself and the raft up the beach, into the cover of the trees where Roar and Soren found him, reality had lost its sharpness. He’d thought that maybe he was only imagining that he’d reached land when Roar and Soren showed up.

“It would have been easier on me if you’d taught me how to fly the Hover,” Perry said to Soren now. “Could have saved me a few days.”

Soren grinned. “You keep saying you want to learn, Outsider. I’m ready. I’ll teach you anytime.”

“I’m proud of both of you,” Roar said. “I just have to say that.”

He was joking, but there was a seed of honesty there. Perry was sharing a jug of water with Soren. They were talking easily. Perry had never thought it possible.

He sat up and asked the question that had been on his mind all day. “How is she, Roar?”

Roar met his eyes directly. “How would you be if you thought she was dead?”

Perry couldn’t even stand to imagine it. He found himself biting down into his teeth. “What has Sable done?” he said instead.

Silence.

“Tell him, Roar,” Soren said.

Perry leaned back and shut his eyes. He already knew.

“Reef.”

“Yes,” Roar said. “Gren, too. The moment we got here. Twig was shot, but he was holding on when we left.”

Reef. Perry sucked in a breath and held it there, pushing back on the pressure. In half a year, he’d become so much to Perry. Brother. Father. Friend. Adviser. Perry’s eyes blurred, another gap opening inside him.

“I’m sorry, Per,” Roar said.

Perry nodded, bracing himself. “Marron?”

“He’s fine. At least he was when we left.”

It made sense. Marron was brilliant and respected, but he wasn’t ambitious or aggressive. He’d never challenge Sable for power—he’d reason for it. Reef had represented the only real threat to Sable. He would have picked up the Tides as his own. He’d have done it for Perry.

“Sable has control of everything,” Soren said. “You could feel it even before he set down on the beach. As soon as you left with Cinder, he took control. He’s a madman. Completely psychotic.”

“He’ll be completely dead soon,” Perry said.

For the next hours, he talked with Roar and Soren about the camp Sable had set up. They discussed the basic layout of the settlement, the surrounding geography, and the advantages Sable had—which were many.

When it was late, Roar said, “What are you thinking, Per?”

Perry rolled his shoulders back, his muscles finally loosening and feeling stronger. “We go after him. But we have to do it the right way. If I show up and the Tides see me, it could turn into an uprising. It could escalate and become us against the Horns. That can’t happen. They have all the weapons. . . . It’d be a bloodbath. Worse than the Komodo.”

Roar crossed his arms. “Then we hit him fast.”

“Right. And while he’s not expecting it. We’ll come up on him tomorrow night in the darkness. We get close, and we take him down when he’s not looking.” He looked at Roar and Soren. “It means you have to trust me, and do exactly what I say this time. No mistakes.”

49

ARIA

Sable was planning a party.

“What we need is a celebration of our triumph. An event to celebrate a new beginning,” he said, his bold voice filling the quiet afternoon, though he spoke only to her. He turned in profile, waving out beyond the Hover door to the sandy beach outside. “Darkness and ruin are behind us. We left that poisoned land and we made it here. Most of us. The good lot of us. And this land shows every sign of being more hospitable. More robust. We’ll flourish here. Our lives will be so much better, and that deserves a feast.”

They were in the Belswan’s cargo hold. Aria hadn’t stepped outside since she’d freed Roar and Soren two days ago. She had come back to the camp just before dawn, and found her father pacing by the Hover. “It took you long enough,” Loran had said as she slipped inside. Right back to here, her prison cell.

She’d had no company other than the two mute guards who kept watch over her, and Sable, who visited her in the mornings and afternoons. Each time, he’d talked at length about his search for the best location to establish a city, carrying on a one-sided conversation about progress and the future, his words airy, floating right past her.

But now it seemed his search had ended.

Sable turned back to her, the look in his eyes restless, manic. “I had a field cleared this morning. It’s beautiful, Aria. It sits right beside a small river that flows down from the mountains. You remember my home in Rim? Proximity to water is essential to any prosperous civilization. I’m going to build a similar city, but I’ll improve upon it.” He smiled. “I’m getting ahead of myself. A city will come soon enough. First, we’ll dance on the very ground that will become the streets of Cape Rim. Then tomorrow we set about the work of establishing a new civilization.”

Finally, he turned his full focus on her and frowned. He seemed surprised that she wasn’t swept up with him.

“Aria,” he said, moving closer to where she slouched against the inner wall of the Hover, beneath the window where she’d last seen Perry’s ship.

Sable knelt, studying her. “Will you come with me tonight as my guest? I’d prefer to not to force you.”

She smiled. “And I’d prefer you dead.”

Sable’s pupils flared with surprise at hearing her speak. He recovered quickly. “That will change. One day it will be better between us.”

“No, it won’t. I will always hate you.”

“Will you be the only one, then?” he asked, eagerness tingeing his voice. “The only one I can’t bend to my liking?”

Aria couldn’t answer that question. If she told him yes, she would only feed his sick obsession.

Outside, Kirra approached with Marron. Sable must have heard them, but he didn’t turn to look. He kept his gaze on Aria, as if by the force of his intensity alone he could bend her to his wishes.

Kirra stepped inside, her red hair losing its brilliance as she moved into the shadow of the Hover. She had a nasty bruise over her jaw, where Aria had hit her.

Marron was disheveled and sunburned. He brought a trembling hand up, covering his mouth when he saw Aria. Did she look as dead as she felt?

Kirra’s lips curled into a cruel smile. “He’s here, Sable,” she said.

“Wait outside with him,” Sable replied. “I’ll be along soon.”

It was unnerving, the way he spoke with Kirra behind him while staring at Aria.

“She’s going to betray you like Olivia did,” Kirra said, anger seeping into her voice.

“Thank you, Kirra. Outside, please.”

Kirra shook her head at Aria and dragged Marron outside.

“Are you going to hurt him?” Aria asked when they were gone.

“Marron? No. I need him. I’ve called him here to get a status report. Nothing more.”

For a long moment, Aria just breathed as relief swept over her.

Kirra had stopped to speak with someone outside, her voice drifting into the Hover.

“How can you stand her?” Aria asked.

Sable smiled. “She’s served me for many years. I like her well enough, particularly when there is no one better around. Before you say anything, remember that she’s a Scire. Kirra knows where she stands with me and she accepts it.”

That word, Scire, took Aria right to Perry. She looked down at her hands, unable to hold Sable’s gaze.

“I’m tired, Aria. I want peace.”

“You want peace now that you have everything.”

“Not quite everything.”

She looked up. The desire in his expression nauseated her. At least he knew that. Her temper would tell him so without her having to say a word.

“We could accomplish great things together,” he said. “The Dwellers look to you as a leader, and you have the respect of the Tides. We can rebuild here. We can bring them together. Can’t you see it? Can’t you picture what we could be?”

“I can picture all the ways I want to end your life.”

Sable sat back on his heels, letting out a sigh. “You need some time. I understand. I’m in no hurry. You’ve suffered quite a lot.” He stood, pausing, his lips turning up. “I’ll send your father for you later.”

She froze, her heart squeezing in her chest. How long had he known about Loran?

Sable’s smile widened. “No need to worry. He’s a trusted warrior. A man of great character. That should make you very proud. He is very valuable to me. Almost indispensable,” he added with a smile. He moved to the ramp, turning back for one last comment. “Oh, and I’ve been meaning to tell you. Your friends who mysteriously disappeared? Roar and Soren? Not to worry. I’ll find them for you. My people are looking for them.”

Loran arrived to fetch her at dusk.

“He knows,” Aria said, as he walked up the ramp.

Loran crouched in front of her. “Yes.”

“You’re in danger because of me.”

“I want to be.”

“You want to be in danger because he knows you’re my father?”

“I’d prefer that he didn’t know, but he does. It was bound to happen. He was bound to scent how I feel. He is like all Scires . . . a master at using leverage to get what he wants. An expert manipulator.”

“Not all Scires are that way,” she said.

“No . . . you’re right. Not all.” With a sigh, Loran sat. “Sable applies pressure on the psyche,” he said, his voice unhurried and soft. “He’s very pleased to have learned that we’re connected. I have the respect of his soldiers, and he is wise enough to know that he needs me to keep order. And now he’s confident that I won’t step out of line. He has found a very big weakness of mine.”