Above World (15 page)

Her hand tightened around the shaft of her spear. “Get back in there before I put you back in there myself.”

“What’s going on? Are we under attack?” he said. “If we’re under attack, then who’s attacking? What do they want? Is it Fathom?”

Niobe glared at him, but then softened. She always did.

“Fathom’s Upgraders, here for raiding and revenge.” She spat on the floor. “But we’re ready for them, and for whatever warped tech they use against us. We’ll stain the clouds with their blood.”

Hoku could tell she was angry. Angry at the Upgraders and angry at being stuck guarding him when the colony was under attack.

“Go,” he said to her. “I’ll stay in my room with my books.”

“I have to guard you,” she said, but he could tell she was wavering.

“I’ll be safest here,” he said. “If anyone comes looking for me, I’ll hide under the bed.”

She narrowed her eyes. “You won’t try to escape?”

“When there’s a war going on? Tides’ teeth, I’m not stupid! And besides, I still have half my sandwich left.”

“Okay, then,” she said, nodding. “Stay here. But if the Upgraders penetrate this deeply, do yourself a favor and jump out the window or fall on your spear. Better death than to let them harvest your parts.”

“Uh . . .” Hoku said, not at all certain he wanted her to leave now.

“Good luck, boy,” Niobe said. She bolted down the corridor toward the yelling and was out of sight in three flashes of a tail.

Hoku waited another flash or two before he was convinced the good senator wasn’t going to change her mind and come back.

“Aluna!” he said. “Can you hear me?”

No answer. She wasn’t close enough to hear. She was probably with Calli. That gave Calli a much better chance at survival . . . but also a better chance of being in the middle of whatever chaos was occurring up in the skies.

He looked back into his room. The bed was covered with open books, crumbs, and the silvery water safe. The desk held the designs he’d been working on — his ideas for mechanical wings that might someday allow him to fly. He didn’t want to leave Skyfeather’s Landing. Not now, and maybe not ever. But Aluna and Calli could be in trouble.

Hoku pulled an Extra Ear out of its pouch and secured it in place. He had a much better chance of finding Aluna and Calli if he could hear them, and the device would increase his range. Then he took a deep breath, shut the door, and sprinted down the corridor to find his friends.

A
LUNA LOOKED AT CALLI
, uncertain what she’d heard.

“You’re helping me?”

Calli nodded, her face pale, her lips pressed into a thin line. “I want you to
want
to stay, but you don’t. Does that make any sense? If you go now, no one will blame the high senator and no one will blame me. It’s the perfect chance.”

For the first time, Aluna saw a hint of President Iolanthe’s power and charisma deep in Calli’s eyes.

“But what about your mother’s safety?”

“She’ll be surrounded by senators,” Calli said quickly. “And directing our forces. And screaming at people. And cursing her inability to get out there and fight herself.”

Aluna nodded. Her father would have been the same way.

“So where do we go? Your water and waste must be funneled somewhere. It sounds gross, but maybe we can find one of those chutes and follow it.”

“No, all of our water and sewage is recycled,” Calli said. She took a step and collapsed. She would have fallen to her knees if Aluna hadn’t caught her. “This way,” she said, brushing the tears away from her eyes. “There’s a secret tunnel under the palace that leads to an old escape passage. It goes all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. They installed it all after my mother lost her wing.”

Calli had never mentioned the passage before, not in all of their discussions about her escape. But she was mentioning it now, and that had to be good enough.

“Now is not the time for stiff wings,” Calli said. “Let’s go!”

Aluna nodded and helped Calli hobble down the corridor. Twice they hid in alcoves — Aluna’s sweaty back pressed against cool stone — as messengers ran by. And still, the alarms screamed and screeched, adding to the growing chaos.

“A few more passages,” Calli said, huffing. The girl winced with each step. Aluna shifted her shoulder to take more of her weight.

“Hoku!” Aluna said suddenly. “We need to go back!”

“We’d never make it,” Calli said. “We’ll find another way to get him out. Hoku is smart. I am, too. We’ll find a way.”

Aluna closed her eyes and nodded. Calli was right. She could help Hoku more from the outside, even if it meant raising an army of Kampii to come rescue him. The Aviars were fierce but honorable. They’d treat him fairly. Still, her stomach clenched at the thought of leaving him behind.

They rounded the last corner and heard metal clank against metal. Senator Niobe stood in the hallway, struggling with an Upgrader who had clearly emerged from the hidden door in the wall. At first, Aluna thought the man was a Human. Then she caught the glint of metal where his eyes should have been. Instead of fingers on his right hand, five thin metal blades dripped a mixture of blood and green fluid. Niobe had the man’s wrists gripped in her hands and was trying to fend him off. Four parallel cuts in her shoulder told Aluna that she’d already been hit . . . and possibly poisoned.

“The passage is already open. You can make it out,” Calli whispered. “Now, while they’re both fighting!”

Escaping was the right thing to do. Aluna’s people needed her. The Aviars weren’t her people; they were her captors. She owed them nothing. If she didn’t leave now, she might never get another chance.

The Upgrader’s bladed hand inched closer to Senator Niobe’s face. The Aviar gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep its poison tips away from her eyes.

Aluna edged toward the passage. Neither Niobe nor the Upgrader appeared to notice her. She kept her body low and crept steadily along the wall. And it was from that vantage point that she saw the needles coming out of the Upgrader’s boot. One swift kick and he’d pump vile green fluid into the senator’s body.

She was almost there. A crisp breeze blew out from the open passage, promising fresh air and sunlight and freedom.
Focus,
she told herself.
Keep your head in the hunt.

The Upgrader pulled back his foot to kick.

Instead of diving for the passage, Aluna dropped onto her back and kicked her own legs out in front of her. She trapped the Upgrader’s swinging leg between her own, like using a crab’s claws to trap a fish. Her legs were thick and strong from a lifetime of swimming. Despite his size, he couldn’t budge his leg.

Aluna couldn’t watch Niobe die, not when she had the power to save her.

With the Upgrader suddenly off balance, Niobe swung both his wrists to the left. Together, they swept him off his feet. Aluna kept her eyes on the needles sticking out of his foot. One wrong move and she’d get whatever venom they held. Niobe slammed her knee into the man’s chest, but couldn’t afford to let go of his wrists.

Aluna grunted, trying to break the man’s leg between her own. “Break,” she said. “Break!” But his leg wouldn’t snap. Was it even made of bone and flesh?

“Surrender!” Niobe screamed, but the man continued fighting.

The sound of metal thwacking bone pierced the cacophony of battle noise, and the Upgrader’s body fell limp.

“It’s over, child,” Niobe said, her breath coming hard and fast. The senator untangled herself from the Upgrader and stood up, pressing her right hand against the gashes in her shoulder. “The boy took care of him.”

“The boy?” Aluna untangled her legs from the Upgrader’s and sat up. Hoku stood by the man’s head, shaking. He held a dented metal lantern in his hand. A lantern he’d clearly used to bludgeon the Upgrader’s skull. As she watched, the lantern fell from his hand and clanked to the floor.

Hoku’s voice cracked. “Is he . . . ?”

“Unconscious,” Niobe said. “Good work, boy, even though I told you to stay in your room.”

Hoku looked pale as a milkfish. Aluna opened her mouth to tell him it was okay, to tell him he’d just done what needed to be done for their survival, but she didn’t get a chance. Before she could speak, Calli hobbled into his arms.

“You saved us,” Calli said. She hugged him and kissed his cheek.

And Hoku kissed her back.

H
OKU STOOD
next to Aluna on the red carpet of the Oval Chamber and fidgeted. The Upgrader attack had been repelled, the dead had been counted, and the prisoners had been “taken care of,” according to Senator Niobe. But now President Iolanthe wanted to speak with them, and he didn’t know why.

Unless it was the incident in the hallway. Not the part with the Upgrader, but the part where he kissed the president’s daughter right on the lips in front of everyone.

His insides warmed at the thought. It was difficult to even remember the whole head-bashing aspect of the fight in light of the kiss. His first kiss. Calli had kissed him. He had kissed Calli. They had kissed. He was now a person who had kissed another person, and been kissed by them in return. He would never be the same as he was before. Kissing changed everything.

He looked over at Calli, his face hot. She sat on her throne and smiled and blushed and lowered her eyes. Hoku grinned back, and blushed some more, and lowered his eyes, too. Yes, yes. Kissing changed everything. He hoped to be kissing again very soon. And very often. He was highly in favor of kissing.

Beside him, Aluna crossed her arms in front of her chest and shifted her weight. He could practically hear her frustration. She’d had the chance to escape, and she hadn’t taken it. It had been her choice, and now she was beating herself up over it.

The senator by the entrance yelled, “All rise for Her Royal Highness, President Iolanthe!”

An odd thing to say, Hoku thought, since they were standing already. But he tried to straighten up anyway.

The president strode down the red carpet looking off balance with only one wing behind her. She nodded to Calliope and took her seat, unfurling her wing to match the metal wing built into the throne. He had no idea why they bothered with the pretense. Two wings, one wing, no wings — President Iolanthe scared the ink out of him.

“The Upgraders have been repelled with minimal losses to our people,” the president began. “A prisoner has been released with a message for Fathom: we will never bend. We will never break. Skyfeather’s Landing will never be his!”

The Aviars cheered and clanged their weapons against their armor. Hoku was surprised to find himself cheering right along with them. When the noise died, the president continued.

“We are especially pleased that the vice president came to no harm during the skirmish. For this, we have High Senator Electra, Senator Niobe, and our ocean cousins to thank.”

Hoku stood even taller. For once, he’d actually done something brave.

“The warriors Aluna and Hoku will approach the throne.”

Warrior!
Him? He glanced at Aluna, and she gave him a quick grin. They walked forward and stopped a meter from the throne.

The president spoke to Aluna. “A few weeks ago, when you first stood before us in this hallowed chamber, I appointed you aide to the vice president. It was my intention that you would teach my daughter about bravery.” She looked at her daughter, then back at Aluna. “I did not expect that you would also teach her about honor.”

Hoku heard wings rustle behind him as the Aviars reacted to their president’s words.

“You had the opportunity to leave,” Iolanthe continued. “Calliope informed me of your plan —
after
the battle, of course. I’m not surprised. I would have schemed similarly in your place.”

And then the president smiled. The harsh lines of her face melted smooth, and Hoku saw, for one fragile moment, what she would have looked like had she been born a Kampii. Or a Human. Or anything except the ruler of a war-torn people.

The president reached for the clip at her waist and unhooked something. It looked like a pair of the talon weapons that Aluna had been training with for the last few weeks.