Take Back the Skies (7 page)

‘I'll give you a hand, shortie,' Fox assured her. She bit her lip as he stepped close, taking one end of the chain from her hands. The heat in the room seemed to increase tenfold as Fox leaned over her, reaching the gear easily.

‘On three,' he murmured, fingers poised and ready.

‘One, two, three.' On the last count, Cat quickly unhooked the chain from its cog, waiting two beats before looping the new one tightly in place, and clipping the two ends together before the chain could tangle. She stepped back in satisfaction, nearly colliding with Fox, the redhead squeezing her shoulder.

‘Easy does it, brat. Not bad, though. Let's see how you do with some of our more complicated pieces.' As she turned, he wiped a hand across his forehead, pulled his undershirt off and dropped it to the floor to join his shirt and waistcoat. Cat's cheeks turned a fiery red upon seeing his bare chest, and she resisted the urge to groan. She'd never been attracted to anyone before; why did it have to start now?

For the first time since arriving on the
Stormdancer
, Cat managed to wake up at the right time on her own. It had only taken her four days to get used to the schedule. She shuffled into the galley, rubbing her eyes.

‘Sleep well?' Fox asked as she slid on to the bench beside him, earning himself an annoyed look.

‘Who decided that this unreasonable hour would be the perfect time to start the day?' she grumbled. But things improved as Alice placed a steaming plate of eggs and ham in front of her. Cat was surprised by the richness of the fare Alice fed them, but didn't comment, assuming their travelling allowed them to escape the rationing.

‘I believe that would be the sun, when it decided to rise at dawn,' Ben remarked as he dropped into his own seat with a yawn. ‘Are you all right? You sound a little … off.'

Cat's eyes widened a fraction, and she coughed, making a mental note to remember to disguise her natural voice. She welcomed the distraction when Matt bounded into the room, smiling brightly and looking perfectly refreshed. His green eyes were alert, and he clapped Ben heartily on the back as he swung his long legs over the bench.

‘Good morning!' he greeted chirpily.

Ben shot him a glare. ‘It's far too early for you to be so bloody chipper. Especially since I was up all night in the control room.' Matt's bright grin immediately became a worried frown as he stared into his friend's tired eyes.

‘You should go back to bed – you'll be in no fit state to fly like this. Can Harry not take over for a while?' he asked.

Ben shrugged, swallowing a mouthful of egg.

‘He's up there now, but we'll hit the Secondary in about an hour, so he'll need me for that. It's been getting worse lately – even the natives are struggling to pass. They're mostly detouring through Mericus. It's not like they want to stop in Anglya, anyway.'

Cat frowned at that comment; sure, the relations between Anglya and Siberene weren't as good as they used to be. At the start of the war, with Anglya fighting in both Erova and Kasem, Siberene had bid unsuccessfully for independence, but she had thought they were on relatively agreeable terms now. And wasn't Mericus steadily becoming a war-torn wasteland as Anglyan soldiers pushed them out of Erova? Filing it away under ‘things to ask about once they've told me what on Tellus is going on', she leaned forward.

‘Are we nearly at Siberene?' she asked hopefully, eager to get off the ship and see somewhere new.

‘Almost. Depending on how fast we can get through the Secondary storm barrier, we should be there by noon,' Fox informed her. His hair was messier than usual, and there was a small violet smudge on the bridge of his freckled nose that made her wonder if he'd been working before breakfast.

‘Brilliant! Is there anything I can do to help?' she offered, but Matt shook his head.

‘No, I've got it covered. Fox, why don't you babysit the sprog today?' he suggested.

Fox turned, his gaze meeting Cat's. ‘I think I can handle him until lunch,' he agreed.

‘What are you planning?' she asked suspiciously.

‘Nothing you should worry about, shortie. Come on, let's get going, if you're finished?' he prompted, staring pointedly at her empty plate. She nodded, thanking Alice as she followed Fox with some trepidation. Instead of taking her towards the manhole, Fox turned towards his bedroom. Hovering unsurely in the doorway as he rifled through the haphazard piles in the bottom of his wardrobe, she most definitely did not stare at his backside as he bent over, though the faint pink on her cheeks betrayed her. She longed for days past when silly things like hormones and attraction didn't factor into her life, but hoped whatever she was feeling for Fox would dwindle in time. She would soon get used to his features – no matter how handsome she might find them – and think of him as nothing more than a friend.

She snapped out of her reverie when Fox straightened up, turning and facing her with an odd look before holding out a pair of leather-cushioned brass goggles similar to the ones hanging around his own neck. She stared at the item blankly for a moment before the meaning clicked into place.

‘You're taking me up on deck?' she breathed. She'd been yearning to see what the world looked like from the sky.
Fox's grin widened, and he nodded, pushing the goggles into her hands.

‘I need to tighten some of the rigging, and you're going to help me. Grab your coat, it'll be chilly outside,' he warned.

She didn't waste any time in rushing to her own room and grabbing the heavy wool and leather flight coat she'd been given by Alice, shrugging it on and doing up the silver buckles and buttons as she jogged back. Fox had on a long charcoal wool coat, buttoned tightly up to his chin. The grey made his eyes look even brighter than usual, and she tried to ignore the fluttering of her heart.

‘I'm sure I don't need to warn you to be careful up there. As safe as the ship seems, we are, in fact, miles in the air. You won't bounce if you fall out,' Fox said, climbing the ladder.

‘I'm not simple,' she retorted sharply, scrambling up after him. His patronising words had irked her – after all, she wasn't a baby! Fox merely smiled, a look in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher. He stopped at the door to the control room, sticking his head in. Cat peered round, seeing Harry sitting in Ben's usual place at the wheel, eyes fixed on the curved glass viewing screen.

‘Keep her steady – I'm taking Cat topside,' Fox called.

‘Aye. Will do, lad, but keep an eye on him up there. And don't stay up too long. I don't want you up there when we hit the Secondary.'

‘Don't worry, we won't be up long. I just need to tighten some of the rigging on the mainsail – I noticed it was starting to slip the other day.'

They hurried to the ladder under the trap, Fox hoisting himself up first and Cat securing her goggles before
scurrying after him. It was odd, wearing flight goggles; they were tighter around her head than work goggles, and tinted the world a few shades darker. When she poked her head up through the trap, the wind buffeted her, and she was immediately glad of them. Fox took her hand, hoisting her up the rest of the way. She was embarrassed to have to grip his arm tightly as she tried to get her balance, her feet set apart as she stood her ground against the fierce wind. Fox waited patiently, not commenting on her death grip on his forearm, until she finally let go, only wobbling slightly.

‘You all right?' he checked, and she nodded, looking up at him. His hair looked brown through her goggles, and his freckles stood out even more than usual.

‘Fine. This is incredible!' she exclaimed breathlessly, staring up at the tall cream sails billowing from the main mast, the red and silver wind pennant at the top streaming straight out behind them. Clouds drifted lazily above them, the endless blue-grey sea churned far below them, and she could see for miles. Right on the horizon there was a growing dark area, the near-black clouds swirling ominously. Cat assumed it was the Secondary storm barrier, and could see why Harry didn't want them on deck when they reached it. It looked terrifying. She could hardly imagine how the earliest, primitive skyships had made their way through it, nearly five hundred years ago when Anglyans first began exploring outside their own land. Surely they would have been blown to pieces!

Fox stood behind her to keep her from getting buffeted too hard by the wind, and she leaned against the high wooden railing, standing on tiptoe to peer over the edge.

‘Careful, don't lean too far,' Fox warned, his voice rough in her ear as he craned his head down to make himself heard. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, and she arched away from him instinctively; it was that or lean towards him, and she couldn't risk giving anything away.

Fox raised an arm, pinning her even closer to the railing, and pointed to a dark shadow off to the left. ‘If you look over there, you'll see Adena. There's a little town, right in the centre, full of people who don't ever leave the island. They grow their own food, have their own society rules, and marry their cousins to keep their numbers up. Some of them have up to eight or nine children,' he told her. ‘Their island is slap bang in the eye of the Secondary so very few people ever visit, and no native has ever left there.'

Cat's eyes widened; how did a woman have nine children without her body giving out? She hadn't known anyone in Anglya to have any more than three.

‘Have you ever been?' she asked, having to shout to be heard over the roar of the wind. It whipped at her hair and numbed her cheeks, and she wished she'd brought gloves like Fox.

‘Oh no, we can never get close enough, even with Ben's excellent flying,' Fox said with a sigh, sounding wistful. ‘I've been to Ropastal, though, round the other side of Siberene. The people there are beautiful,' he added.

‘Wow. I'd love to travel to every country one day, and the islands! I've read stories and seen pictures in newscasts, but I'll bet it's even more amazing in reality,' she murmured, imagining flying in the
Stormdancer
all the way across the world as far as the exotic and colourful Kasem, meeting
people and seeing animals she had only seen drawings of in her books. She said as much to Fox, who smiled.

‘Now Kasem's somewhere I definitely haven't been. Harry's taken me to Mericus and Erova plenty, Siberene the most, and even Dalivia once. But maybe one day I'll bug Harry and Ben into flying us to Kasem. That would be an adventure.'

Cat turned, smiling at the infectious grin on Fox's face.

‘It would that. Now, what was it you were saying about tightening the rigging?'

Tightening the rigging, in actual fact, turned out to be more of a lesson on the different knots used to secure different parts of the ship. It was interesting, and surprisingly fun, though Fox did jokingly threaten to tie her to the mast and leave her there more times than strictly necessary. Cat was just finishing a bowline knot to secure the rigging nets to the deck when Fox whistled sharply, causing her to look up. He didn't say anything, merely pointed towards the horizon. The dark grey storm clouds she'd spotted earlier were far closer now, and Cat gaped. No wonder most ships didn't attempt to fly through the Secondary; it was terrifying!

No one knew how or why the gods had formed the storm barriers where they did, but they were all over the world, and never seemed to move very far. Most seasoned pilots knew ways around the worst parts, and some – like Ben – dared travel through them.

‘Time to go in?' she called, and Fox nodded, the tail of his coat whipping out behind him. Tugging on the running end of the knot to tighten it, she tucked it neatly out of the
way and clambered ungracefully to her feet, having to hold out her arms to steady herself as she hurried over to where Fox stood by the open trap. He let her go first, dropping down behind her and stopping halfway up the ladder to fasten the catch on the heavy metal trap.

‘So, what do you think?' he asked, a grin on his wind-flushed face, pulling his goggles down to hang around his neck. Cat didn't try to hide her delight in what she'd just experienced.

‘It's amazing! I can't believe how far you can see from up there, and the sea is so fierce!' she gushed.

Fox nodded, his expression telling her he understood exactly how she felt.

‘Humbling, isn't it? Knowing there's all that space out there, all those people in foreign lands, and you're just one of them. But … it's beautiful when the sky is clear. Especially when the sun rises and sets – the water glows purple, it's really quite something.'

‘That sounds wonderful,' Cat breathed. Fox hummed in agreement, glancing over at her, and there was so much awe on his face that Cat's breath caught in her throat for just a moment. He was beautiful when he wasn't scowling. ‘Possibly even worth getting up earlier than usual for.'

Fox laughed, and the moment was gone, leaving Cat feeling strangely bereft. ‘I'd definitely say so,' he replied. ‘But you won't see it for days yet – the storms are far too wild for a clear sky. No chance of anyone from Siberene being unlucky,' he joked. Cat smiled ruefully; in any of the six countries, being born under a clear sky was considered bad luck. Anglya was seeing more and more clear skies, and
people were beginning to regard it as a sign that the country was cursed.

‘Nice for them. I don't suppose Alice might make me some tea? I can't feel my hands all that well,' she confessed, her numb fingers stuffed deeply in the fur-lined pockets of the coat.

Fox sent her a somewhat sheepish look.

‘I'm sorry. I should've told you to grab gloves as well. Remind me next time.'

She shook her head.

‘No harm done. At least, not if I can beg a cuppa,' she added.

‘You'll find Alice in the laundry room. Go and ask nicely and she'll no doubt oblige.'