Above World (11 page)

President Iolanthe sat on a throne at the far end of the Oval Chamber. Most of the Aviars kept their wings folded against their backs when they weren’t flying, but the president kept hers spread out to the sides, as wide as the wings of a giant manta ray. He felt insignificant in her presence, which was probably the point.

As they got closer, Hoku noticed that the president’s right wing wasn’t a wing at all, but a mechanical device attached to the throne itself and painted to look like a wing.

Aluna nudged him. “Do you see —?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“I bet she can’t —”

“No,” he agreed.

He wanted to study the fake wing, but he forced himself to look at the president’s face instead. Aluna managed to do the same. President Iolanthe wasn’t as old as the Kampii Elders, but she was still old — at least thirty or forty. Hoku liked the way her short black hair stood up in all directions, like ruffled feathers. She wasn’t a big Aviar, not compared to High Senator Electra and the other warriors, but she looked wiry and strong, and not an ounce of her body wasn’t muscle or skin. Unlike the other Aviars, she wore only two pieces of jewelry: her breathing necklace and a thin golden cord encircling her brow.

The senators escorted them down a long dusty-red carpet and deposited them within a few meters of the throne. When Senator Niobe bowed, she gave Hoku a shove. He took the hint and bobbed a quick bow of his own.

“First things first,” President Iolanthe said. “My loyal senators tell me you are Humans, but you don’t carry yourselves like those barbarians.” She leaned forward slightly in her throne, her icy-blue eyes piercing in their intensity. “So tell me . . . exactly who and what are you?”

H
OKU HAD NEVER SEEN
a woman with eyes like that. They were bright but hard, like glittering scales on a poisonous fish.

“I’m Aluna, and this is Hoku,” Aluna said. “We’re Coral Kampii from the City of Shifting Tides.”

“Mermaids!” the president said. Feathers rustled as the senators shifted in their stances at her side.

Hoku frowned. No one used the
M
-word anymore.

“No,” Aluna said through gritted teeth. “We’re Kampii.”

The president seemed to recover herself. She leaned back into her chair and smiled. Her real wing gave a little flutter, but the mechanical one remained still.

“Yes, yes,” she said. “My apologies, young ones. You are indeed children of the Kampii splinter. And from the hidden city, no less! Though”— she lifted an eyebrow artfully —“not yet old enough to have earned your tails?”

Hoku saw Aluna grind her teeth. He was positive that she was sifting through insults in her head, trying to find the best one. He closed his eyes and begged their ancestors to grant her patience. A rash decision could turn them into bird food.

Luckily, a guard interrupted them. “Her Future Royalness, Vice President Calliope!”

Everyone turned at the sound of shuffling wings and feet. Hoku’s mouth dropped open. The Aviar shuffling toward them was none other than the radio girl they had met by their cells.

Calliope was dressed in more traditional warriors’ clothes now, a shimmering silver breastplate hanging awkwardly from her hunched shoulders. She kept her gaze on the floor as she hurried down the carpet. Her hands, now bereft of her beloved radio, twisted around and around each other like coiling eels. He’d never seen anyone look so out of place in his life.

“Daughter,” the president said, “I’m glad you could finally join us.”

Calliope blushed and dropped her head even lower. She rushed to the small throne at Iolanthe’s side and tried to disappear into it.

If the president was embarrassed by her daughter’s behavior, she hid the disappointment well under a heavy veneer of disgust. Hoku balled his hand into a clumsy fist. He’d never hit anyone before, but for the first time, he wanted to.

President Iolanthe glared at her daughter for another long moment before turning back to Aluna and Hoku, a dangerous new spark in her eyes.

“And so tell me, children,” the president said. “What brings our ocean cousins so far from their watery sanctuary?” She leaned closer. “We found you amid the slaughtered bodies of your foes. Have the mermaids joined forces with Fathom and his army of Upgraders?”

“No!” Hoku blurted out. “Those other people killed the Humans. They flew across the water on a dragonflier. They tried to kill Daphine, too, but she got away. We didn’t have anything to do with the Deepfell. Except that Aluna saved one of them. That’s what happened to her necklace.”

“Hoku, stop!” Aluna’s dark face was tense and pinched. “Don’t say another word.”

He ignored her and continued to babble. She’d be mad later, but right now, he wanted the Aviars as allies, not enemies. “The Upgraders — is that your name for those people? For the people who change their bodies with tech? We’re not on their side. And we’ve never even heard of Fathom.”

“We’ll trade with you,” Aluna said, cutting him off. “We have information you want, and we need help. We’re looking for HydroTek — our people’s safety depends on us finding it. If you help, we’ll tell you everything we know about what happened on the beach and the Upgraders we saw.”

No one said anything. Aluna stared at the president, and the president stared back at her. For a brief, wonderful moment, Hoku thought the Aviars might actually be willing to help them.

President Iolanthe laughed. Not a nervous giggle, like he was prone to, but a full-throated belly laugh so loud that it filled the entire Oval Chamber and echoed off the carved Aviars watching from the ceiling.

“Our people are dying, and you think it’s funny?” Aluna said quietly. Hoku recognized the look in her eyes. He grabbed for her arm, but she shook him off as if he were a stray strand of kelp. “Stop laughing!” she yelled, and launched herself at President Iolanthe.

High Senator Electra intercepted her halfway to the throne. The Aviar held her spear sideways, creating a barrier. She was trying to stop Aluna, not kill her.

Aluna didn’t even break her stride. She just jumped, used Electra’s arm and spear as a launching pad, vaulted over the Aviar’s shoulder, and kept running for the president.

The other Aviars started to move, but they were so much slower than Aluna, who had grown strong in the ocean’s dense waters. Hoku watched her heading for the president, who had, thankfully, finally stopped laughing.

Aluna sprang for Iolanthe, arms outstretched, fingers curved like claws.

The president moved in a blur. She raised an arm and swatted Aluna in midair. Aluna crashed to the stone floor, rolled, and came up in a crouch. Her cheek blossomed red from the hit, and blood dotted the corner of her mouth.

Four guards surrounded her, their spears set to kill. High Senator Electra positioned herself between Aluna and the president, a murderous look in her eye. Aluna studied them all like a trapped animal waiting for its chance to strike.

Hoku couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t blink. If anyone moved, people would get hurt. People would die. He couldn’t bear the thought.

“Enough!” President Iolanthe yelled. “Stand down, Senators. Release the warrior.”

Reluctantly, the senators raised their spear tips and stepped back. Electra was the last. She moved ever so slightly to the side, still trying to keep herself in between Aluna and the president.

Aluna stayed crouched and wary.

“Well done, Aluna of the Kampii,” President Iolanthe said, smiling. “I am greatly impressed.” High Senator Electra looked as if she’d swallowed a stinkfish.

The president continued, “If only our own children exhibited such bravery and resourcefulness.” All eyes turned to Calliope, who squirmed in her throne and kept her eyes down. “Yes, we are quite impressed with the gift our waterlogged brethren have sent us. We are impressed, and we accept.”

“Gift?” Hoku ventured. “Gift” didn’t sound good. Not good at all.

“Gift,” the president said. “The Kampii girl Aluna will be appointed aide to the vice president. She will instruct my daughter in the ways of the warrior spirit and help prepare her for her future rulership.”

“But —” Hoku and Aluna said together.

“Men are not permitted to stay at Skyfeather’s Landing,” the president continued, “but we will make an exception for the boy Kampii —”

“Well, that’s something,” Hoku muttered.

“The boy will be kept as our honored guest, to ensure the continued loyalty of his friend,” the president finished.

“Mother, no!” Calliope said. “You can’t do this!”

Everyone in the room stared at Calliope. Her defiant pose wilted immediately.

“I see my plan is working already,” President Iolanthe said, clearly pleased with her daughter’s brief outburst. “Yes, yes. This will work nicely. Guards! Take the boy back to his cell.”

“Wait!” Aluna said. “I’ll agree to stay and help your daughter, but only if you promise to keep Hoku safe, and if you give us what we want in return.”

President Iolanthe waved her hand. “Now, this is a bargain I can understand, Aluna of the Kampii. Very well. No harm will come to the boy while you remain at my daughter’s side,” she said.

Aluna finally stood up from her fighting stance. “And you’ll tell us how to find HydroTek.”

The president looked at Aluna for a moment, then nodded. “I will tell you what we know, although I don’t think you’ll enjoy hearing it.”

P
RESIDENT IOLANTHE
leaned back, her real wing rustling. “History is not a fixed truth. It changes with the speaker, just as no two feathers will ever find the same path in the wind. So first, our story.”

Aluna shifted her weight to a more comfortable standing position. History may be different, but Elders were the same everywhere.

“Hundreds of years ago, when we were all Human, the world started to run out of space,” Iolanthe began. She spoke loudly, her voice filling the Oval Chamber and echoing off the Aviars carved into the ceiling. “Humans were spread across the land, crammed into every niche and nook that could support life. They were using up the world, and their time was running out.”

“So they changed,” Calliope said. She blushed when everyone looked at her, but stammered on. “They looked at the places that couldn’t support Humans, and they made themselves fit anyway.”

“Like the Kampii and the Deepfell, and the Aviars,” Hoku said. “We live in the oceans and you live in the skies.”

Calli grinned at him, and that silly fish grinned back at her.

“Yes, boy,” President Iolanthe said. “And like the Equians and the Serpentis in the deserts, and like all the splinters whose names have been lost to us. Some Humans even made skyships and left the world altogether.”

“The legends say they wanted to go to the stars,” Calliope said.

“In order to live in these places, the LegendaryTek companies — HydroTek, SkyTek, SandTek, and the others — gave us wings or tails, or four fast hooves to cross the endless sands. They became our saviors. Do you see? Once we agreed to modify ourselves and rely on the tech they created, they exerted complete power over us from their domes. They kept us weak.”

“Yes, weak,” Aluna said. “And helpless. That’s how I felt in the City of Shifting Tides. That’s why we need to find HydroTek.”

“You don’t need to
find
HydroTek,” President Iolanthe said. “You need to
take
it.”

“Take it?” Hoku asked. “How?”

“We were lazy at first,” High Senator Electra said. “We did nothing to protect ourselves until it was almost too late.” She looked at President Iolanthe with admiration, and maybe something more. “It took a young leader to show us the way.”

Iolanthe waved off her praise. “A man came,” she said. “His name was Tempest, and he called himself Master of the Sky. He’d been Human once, but born from some process that twisted his body almost as much as it twisted his mind. He and his warriors — Upgraders more metal than flesh — assaulted the SkyTek dome and claimed it for their own.” She leaned forward on her throne. “They thought we wouldn’t fight. They were wrong.”

“The battle was bloody and we lost many warriors,” High Senator Electra said, glancing at the president’s missing wing, “but now all Aviar strongholds that were once beholden to SkyTek are self-sufficient. We don’t need anybody but ourselves anymore.”