Above World (14 page)

“I promised to help you escape, and I will,” Calli added hastily. She dropped her handful of rocks into a pile by her side. “I was just hoping you’d stop wanting to leave. I was dumb to even think it.”

Aluna shifted to her feet and dropped her remaining rocks back to the earth.

“I wish it were different. I like you — I really do,” Aluna said, and she meant it. Calli smiled. “But we’re captives here. We can’t leave, and we can’t truly be ourselves. If you and I got in a fight, you could probably have me punished, maybe even killed.” She looked at the girl, the so-called vice president of the Aviar, and felt a surge of pity. “We can’t truly be sisters like this.”

Calli stood up suddenly, but kept her eyes on the ground. “We’re supposed to be practicing. I don’t want to get in trouble.” She grabbed her spear off the ground and readied it. Aluna didn’t have the heart to tell her it was upside down.

She pulled out the weapons she’d been learning, a pair of tiny, sleek talons. She held a silver canister in the palm of each hand. With a flick of her wrist, the tips of the canisters opened and two sharp claws attached to long, slender chains flew out. She spun the chains in the patterns High Senator Electra had taught her. Not only could she stab someone’s eye out, she could use the talons to wrap around her opponent’s leg or neck or weapon. She did that to Calli now. One of her talons shot out and wound itself around the grip of Calli’s spear. Aluna yanked. Calli’s spear jerked out of the girl’s hands and landed straight into Aluna’s.

“Wow,” Calli said. “That was fast.”

Aluna dropped the spear to the ground, pressed a button on her talons, and watched the long chains retract back into their canisters.

“There. We practiced. Now I’m going for a walk.”

Calli didn’t argue.

High above, a group of senators circled. They drifted in calculated patterns, watching for enemies. Aluna never went anywhere without feeling their gaze prickling on the back of her neck. Still, she turned her back on Calli and started to walk. She needed privacy, even if it was an illusion.

She gave the basin that housed Skyfeather’s Landing a wide berth. There was too much activity — scavenging parties were always leaving or returning, Aviars with their beautiful wings fluttering everywhere. Aluna hugged the lip of the mountain and walked away from the ocean. On days like today, it hurt to see so much blue.

Traveling this direction, the scrubby green covering the mountain slope turned into forest, then into an even bigger and scarier forest. The trees crowded so close together that it was impossible to see the ground. She suspected that not even the Aviars’ enhanced eyesight could penetrate the thick layers of green. It would be difficult to fly through the dense trunks and branches. With wings, it would be hard to even walk through the brush without losing feathers. All of which made it the perfect direction for her escape . . . if only she could figure out how to survive several hundred meters of an almost sheer drop to make it to the tree line.

The Above World felt lonely. She missed the water’s embrace, the sound of dolphins laughing, the monthlong soliloquies of dying whales. She missed Daphine and practicing with Anadar. She even missed Ehu and Pilipo, despite the fact that they annoyed her most of the time. Her father, now, he was a fish of a different color. She didn’t exactly miss him, but she did wonder sometimes if he’d be proud of her, of everything she was trying to do.

Far below, the trees began to move. Strange, since there was almost no breeze; even the Aviars had to flap to stay in their positions. Aluna looked closer. Only a few of the trees shook, a small cluster that seemed to be moving closer and closer up the mountain. Something was cutting through the forest like a harpoon through the water. Something big. And it was headed straight for Skyfeather’s Landing.

The Aviars were under attack.

A
LUNA WAVED HER ARMS
above her head, trying to get the guards’ attention, but the Aviars had already changed formation. An alarm screeched inside the basin, and then another.

She ran, legs and arms pumping, wishing she had a tail and that the world was made of water. She made it halfway back to the ocean side of the mountain rim before she saw Calli flying straight at her.

“Attack!” Calli said. “Upgraders!”

“Is it Fathom?” Aluna panted.

“Fathom never leaves HydroTek,” Calli said. “But the Upgraders are bad enough on their own. They’re here to steal our tech and kill as many of us as they can. Killing is the part they like most.” She tugged Aluna’s arm. “Come on, we have to get inside!”

Aluna hesitated. Calli was safe, as safe as any of them. Now was her chance. She could escape right now, while Skyfeather’s Landing was enveloped in chaos. Maybe Calli could help her scale down the side of the cliff.

Then she saw the look on Calli’s face. Wide-eyed panic.
Fear.
Aluna needed Calli calm — or at least as calm as the girl could manage — before they could attempt the escape. And it’s not like Aluna could leave without Hoku.

“Let’s go,” Aluna said, and took off in a sprint toward Skyfeather’s Landing. Calli flew by her side, easily keeping pace. “Will they be able to scale the slope?”

“Yes, they have creatures with spiked hooves and machines with special treads,” Calli said. “We’ve tried different barriers and traps, but they always find a way around them.”

They reached the lip of the city. Normally, Aluna could see Aviars fluttering to and fro, filling the space with a frenetic and lively energy. But a shark had entered their waters. Now the Aviars flew in tight formations, looking larger than their individual selves.

Aluna headed for the thin, crumbly stairway carved into the side of the bowl and forced herself to slow down. This was no time to take the stairs two at a time, slip, and find herself plunging to her death. Calli’s wings twitched and fluttered anxiously as she hovered nearby. All around them, alarms screeched and Aviars called out orders.

“My mother —” Calli said.

“I’m going as fast as I can,” Aluna grumbled. She couldn’t risk taking her eyes off the narrow steps in front of her.

“No, I think you can go a little faster.”

High Senator Electra plucked Aluna off the stairway the way a pelican plucks a fish out of the ocean. In a flash of wings, Aluna was flying. The three of them plunged toward the Palace of Wings at a terrifying speed.

Aluna looked everywhere but the ground. She saw dozens of Aviars fighting around a tunnel opening to the right. She couldn’t see what they were fighting, but she could feel its growls in her bones. An Aviar screamed. A spray of red hit the other Aviars, and Aluna averted her gaze before she saw any more.

All the other Aviars had fled into the city’s catacombed walls. The farmers had abandoned their cliff-side crops, and the chickens and pigs that normally milled around the bottom of the basin had been herded to safety. Only the senators remained.

Above them, a creature made of metal screeched into view. No, it was a Human sitting in a flying metal artifact. She recognized it from Hoku’s description: a dragonflier! Just like the ones that had attacked her sister and brothers on the Trade Rock. The Human controlling the device directed streams of green liquid at any Aviar brave enough to get within range.

“Insectoid,” Electra said. “We’re not safe out here. Calli, keep up with me.”

Electra folded her wings and they plummeted. Air flew past Aluna’s face so fast that it stung. She wanted to scream. She opened her mouth and air rushed in, billowing her cheeks out like bubbles in the deep ocean. The Palace of Wings surged toward them. They’d never be able to stop in time.

Electra opened her wings and swung her legs under them both. Air whooshed by Aluna’s ears. They landed on a platform near the point of the spire and jarred to a stop. Calli wasn’t as lucky. She hit the stone too fast and fell to one knee with a sharp cry.

“Calli!” Aluna said.

Electra dropped her and bent by Calli. “Can you stand? Is it broken?”

All Aluna could see was wings. All she could hear was a tiny sob.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Calli said.

“You have to get inside,” the high senator said, motioning to the palace entrance behind them. “Aluna, help Calli walk — there isn’t room in the passage for her to fly. Take her to the president. I’ll take care of anyone who tries to stop you.”

Aluna nodded. She’d rather be on guard duty herself, but she knew what Electra was capable of. They’d been training together for weeks, and there wasn’t anyone alive she’d trust more to watch her back. Not even her brothers.

“Come on,” she said to Calli. The girl’s ankle was already swollen and an angry red. Calli winced with each step, but kept moving.

When they made it inside the palace entranceway, Calli stopped. She turned to Aluna, her eyes wide and intense.

“We have to do it now, while there’s so much confusion,” Calli said. “I’m going to help you escape.”

H
OKU TOOK ANOTHER
huge bite of his sandwich — a delicious Aviar concoction with different types of food layered between two pieces of a spongy substance called bread. Senator Niobe had recommended this combination of foods, including a bright-yellow substance called mustard that he was learning to love almost as much as his artifacts.

Oh, the City of Shifting Tides had good cooks, too. His own mother could work miracles with a net full of clams. But there was no escaping the frigid salt water that soaked every meal and surrounded every taste bud. Kampii ate out of necessity, not pleasure.

But so many different animals and crops grew in the Above World! You could grill food over a fire, or boil it, or steam it. And the spices! Little specks of orange or red or black that brought whole new sensations to his mouth and stomach. Senator Niobe ordered him something different every day and seemed to delight in watching his reaction as he ate. The way she talked about it, Hoku suspected that she’d rather have been born a cook than a warrior. The two had equal status in Aviar society, and a cook was a lot less likely to get impaled on her enemy’s spear.

Hoku licked the mustard off his fingers and tried a few more combinations on his water safe. He found the repetition relaxing: advance a number, try to open the box, and advance the number again. In some ways, he didn’t even care what was inside. The safe itself was enough of a joy. He’d gotten in the habit of tracing the mermaid design on the lid while he was reading.

Although Aluna had the freedom to roam Skyfeather’s Landing, Hoku was restricted to his room and an exercise chamber they foolishly thought he’d want to use. He didn’t mind the confinement. Calli found time to spend with him almost every day. Sometimes she stopped by late at night, when the senator guarding his room was napping by the door. Those were his favorite visits. They kept their voices low so even Aluna couldn’t hear them. He’d already learned more about technology than he would have if he’d spent his whole life under Elder Peleke’s tutelage.

And being with Calli made him feel good. He liked her more than he ever liked Jessia back in the City of Shifting Tides. Jessia was nice, but Calli was
special.
She was smart and clever and teased him, but not in a mean way. He loved the way she bit her lip and stared into the distance when she was thinking really hard.

A bell clanged somewhere higher up in the Palace of Wings. Another bell joined it, then another.

Hoku hopped over to the window. The sun burned low near the rim of the mountain, its light dotted with the normal flurry of winged women in the sky.

An Aviar shouted somewhere above him. He twisted his neck to see her and almost missed the squad of senators that shot up past his window, flying in a tight pack.

He saw another group fly up to the right, and two more to the left, their spears glinting and ready. He’d been at Skyfeather’s Landing for weeks, but he’d never seen the Aviars perform drills like this.

He ran to the door and flung it open. Senator Niobe stood outside in the hallway, clearly agitated.

“Get back in the room,” she said.

“Not until you tell me what’s going on.”