“Let’s speak with Lady Nagamochi now,” Ariq said.
***
As he’d hoped, on the deck of Lady Nagamochi’s airship, one of the empress’s automatons sat upon a throne. So the empress had probably already seen the machine.
“Good evening, Governor.” The captain of the guard greeted Ariq as he crossed the gangway stretching between the two airships. Cables tethered the two airships together, side by side; neither would have an advantage of position over the other. She inclined her head again as Taka crossed over behind him. “You have recovered well.”
She wasn’t only referring to the torture, Ariq understood, but to this display of strength. But the Skybreaker was only that—a display. Any real power he brought onto this airship stood in a line on the eastern edge of his town.
He greeted her in return and bowed to the empress when the shivering white light filled the automaton’s eyes. “I hope that this time, we can come to an agreement more suitable to us both.”
Lady Nagamochi smiled. “Perhaps we will. What are your terms?”
“Her majesty recalls her fleet. I keep the Skybreaker and never use the machine except to defend my home.”
“Those are not new terms, Governor.”
“But now you see her size. And you see how many people will die if you pursue this.” He stepped aside, making certain the empress had an unobstructed view of the machine. “My people and yours would all die without reason. I am not your enemy.”
“Her majesty is not your enemy, either—but there are many who will be. We only seek to help you, Governor. How many will come now that it is known that you have this machine? What warlord would not seek to take it from you by any means?”
Help him? He shook his head. “No one knows I have it. Aside from the Wajarri, who have known I’ve possessed it from the date I built my town here, only you and your sailors have seen it. To everyone else the Skybreaker is still only a rumor—if they have heard of it at all. I have kept it a secret these many years and it will remain one.”
“What it will remain is a threat to her majesty’s people.”
Fighting his frustration, Ariq looked out over the water. “What terms do you propose, then? If I won’t give it over, what will you threaten? My brother’s life? My town?”
“We don’t wish to do either,” Lady Nagamochi said. “But it is true that our fleet is prepared to act in any way necessary to persuade you.”
With firebombs. “Do you see what stands at the eastern side of my town?”
“Her majesty and I have both seen. The Wajarri will not interfere. They will not help you.”
“Unless you attack them or endanger their territory. Are you so certain that not one of your firebombs will damage a walking machine? Are you so certain that none of the sparks from the burning homes will alight on a bush and burn through their lands?” When she didn’t immediately respond, but studied the line of walking machines again, he pressed, “My town and Nippon are not enemies. The Wajarri and Nippon are not enemies. But that can quickly change, because the Wajarri are friends to the people of my town. They are a friend to
me
, because my interests serve theirs. And they are here to make certain that the interests I share with them are not threatened.”
Lady Nagamochi looked to the empress’s automaton. It didn’t speak.
Ariq filled the silence, instead. “Ask her majesty if that machine is worth a war with every tribe that is friend to the Wajarri.”
The captain of the guard didn’t ask. The automaton remained quiet—the empress was apparently still weighing her options.
He would offer a heavier weight. “I am not your enemy,” he said again. “This misunderstanding began with the marauders’ attacks. I have already made Ghazan Bator pay for what he has done. In the hope of friendship between our peoples, I will give his conspirator, Admiral Tatsukawa, over into your custody.”
Her brow creasing, Lady Nagamochi glanced over the side of the airship, to where the admiral’s ironship floated in the water below. “He is in your custody?”
Not yet. At his side, Taka signaled to Captain Corsair. Though Ariq didn’t look behind him, he knew that one of her crew would be waving a flag—signaling the Skybreaker.
It moved quietly. Though powered by enormous engines, the surrounding mechanical flesh and water muffled most of the sound. Even the hum from the empress’s automaton sounded louder than the machine.
Lady Nagamochi sucked in a sharp breath as it came toward them. “Governor? Do you threaten us?”
“No. I am offering my help,” he said quietly. “Do you see how slowly it moves? That is because I told my soldiers not to use its full speed, because the machine’s wake would overturn every ship in your fleet.”
As it was, swells were battering the sides of the heavy ships. When it passed by one of the hovering airships, the disturbance in the air sent the vessel into a slow spin. As if realizing what she’d done, Tsetseg lifted one of the tentacles and gently stopped the airship’s rotation before moving closer, until the machine’s broad side filled the sky ahead.
“I believe that is demonstration enough, Governor.”
“This isn’t a demonstration,” he said. “As I told you, I am delivering Tatsukawa into your custody.”
One long arm reached for the ironship, the mechanical flesh glistening under the midday sun. The tentacle curled beneath the heavy ship and lifted it out of the sea as easily as Ariq might lift a peapod from a bowl of soup.
Metal shrieked. The ironship’s hull popped and groaned. Water rained from its sides as the arm swung up toward the pair of tethered airships, and stopped when the upper deck was level with theirs. Ariq could have fit fifty of Lady Nagamochi’s imperial airships on that ironship’s deck, yet the tentacle was thicker than the ship was wide.
“I believe Tatsukawa is aboard,” Ariq said. “So I have delivered him to you.”
The captain of the guard exhaled a shaky breath. “Thank you, Governor.”
With a flick of her fingers, she sent her guards forward. Without hesitation, they slid a gangway over to the ironship’s deck and rushed across.
“Captain.” The empress’s metallic voice suddenly projected from the automaton. “It seems that the information we gathered regarding the governor and his town was incomplete.”
Immediately Lady Nagamochi’s attention fixed on the empress. “Yes, your majesty?”
“We were led to believe that he was a threat,” the empress continued. “But a friend to the Wajarri is also a friend to my people. We do not have to fear our friends—especially one whose interests so closely align with ours. Neither of us wishes to see any bloodshed.”
The other woman bowed. “Yes, your majesty.”
“See to Admiral Tatsukawa before you return, Captain.”
“I will, your majesty.”
The empress’s eyes went dark. Lady Nagamochi stared at her for a long moment before looking to Ariq. She bowed. “I am glad you are a friend, Governor.”
So was Ariq. He tried to speak, but everything inside him seemed to tremble, like a muscle held taut for too long before letting go. His people were safe. His town was safe.
He’d
won
.
Perhaps embarrassed by Ariq’s stunned immobility, Taka returned her bow. “We are grateful to you, Captain.”
Grateful.
No, they weren’t. The empress and the captain had forced him to this point. He shouldn’t have to be grateful when they finally acted as they should have from the beginning.
But Ariq would not say so. Instead he said, “My brother believes that you still suspect him of treason.”
And he wished that Taka didn’t care what they suspected him of. His brother had been innocent, yet he’d still been stripped of his honor. But Ariq could not give it back to him.
Lady Nagamochi could—and did, when she looked to Taka and said, “Of course I do not. And her majesty also knows that you weren’t aware of your mother’s activities or assisting her. It was only misfortune that you suffered while the guards at the prison discovered that truth.”
“Misfortune, yes.” Ariq nodded. “Just as it would be misfortune if the fleet lingered too long near my shores and was accidentally swept away in the Skybreaker’s wake.”
Lady Nagamochi grinned and inclined her head. “Yes, it would. So I will wish you well, Governor.”
He bowed and started back to the gangway—stopping only when the imperial guards suddenly appeared on the ironship’s deck again. Admiral Tatsukawa wasn’t with them.
Ariq frowned, but Taka only said, “Come,” and led the way over to
Lady Nergüi
. One of the guards spoke quietly to Lady Nagamochi. Without a change of expression, she nodded, then glanced at Ariq.
“When they found him, my father was already dead,” Taka said beside him. “I do not need her to tell me that. He would die with whatever honor he had left.”
Not the justice Ariq would have preferred, but good enough. “Tell Captain Corsair’s crew to wave the flag, then,” he said. “And let our people know we’ve won.”
Won without a drop of bloodshed. His mother had been right. That truly was the best victory.
But it would be even better when he shared it with his wife.
***
He waited for her in the Skybreaker’s chamber. Almost three hours had passed while enough water was pumped from the cavern for them to exit, and everyone inside would still have to swim from the machine to the ladder. Ariq swam out to the machine, instead, waiting near the entrance as Tsetseg emerged, then Cooper, and finally his heart appeared in the entrance tunnel, surrounded by mechanical flesh.
With wide emerald eyes, she looked up at him. “Did you see what we did?”
Crouching, Ariq grinned. “I did.”
“Did you see how
high
we were?”
He reached in for her hands. “I did.”
“And we lifted that ship right up out of the—Oh!” She gasped and laughed as he hauled her up. Her arms circled his neck. “Did you see the fleet run?”
All but Commander Saito, who would continue patrolling these waters. “I did,” he said before kissing her.
And finally felt that he’d won.
XXXV
By that evening, Zenobia had never danced so much in her life. She had never laughed so hard or so long. She had never been surrounded by so many friends.
She had never been so in love and so unafraid.
The kraken still roasted on the beach, and the townspeople had built a bonfire nearby, the flames leaping into the sky. Never had she seen such a celebration. She’d eaten until she was about to burst, and drank sour arkhi until her head swam, then cheered Ariq on when he stripped off his tunic and handily defeated opponent after opponent in a wrestling pit—even after his soldiers began rushing him in groups.
When Ariq finally withdrew from the competition and started toward her across the sand, the sweet ache in her chest almost undid her. Oh, but he was
such
a man.
Taking her hand, he pulled her out of sight behind the kraken shell, and kissed her until her knees gave out. He caught her against him, and his grin was amazing, terrible. Beautiful.
“Happy, my wife?”
There were no words to describe how happy. So she kissed him again, loving his warmth and his smell and the feel of him. Here they were, in almost the same place as when he’d first said that he wanted her in his bed, yet everything was so different. She was his. He was hers. And what had begun as a simple journey had become so much more.
“I love you,” she told him. “More than I ever dreamed. You are the adventure I never expected. And I hope it never ends.”
“It won’t,” he said. “I swear it.”
She believed him. But he seemed already determined to prove it, sweeping her up against his chest and trudging across the sand.
Laughing, she looped her arms around his neck. “Where are you taking me?”
“I’m abducting you.”
“Truly?” With a grin, she laid her cheek on his shoulder. “And what will my ransom be?”
“Your heart.”
“But I can’t give it to you,” she said.
He frowned down at her. “Why?”
“Because you already have it.” When he smiled, she let go a heavy sigh. “I suppose if I can’t pay the ransom, that means you’ll never let me go.”
“I won’t.”
“Then take me home . . . oh, wait. Wait. You can’t. Take me to
Lady Nergüi
, instead.”
He didn’t change his course. “Why?”
“Because Yasmeen can officiate a marriage aboard her ship,” she said. “And I need to make you my husband.”
He abruptly stopped. Carefully, he set her on her feet and cupped her face in his big hands. His dark gaze searched hers. “You’re certain?”
She’d never been more sure of anything. “Yes. Absolutely certain.”
“You still have walls.”
“And those will probably never fall,” she told him. “But you, Ariq—I will
always
let you in.”
His eyes closed. “My wife. I could not love you more.”
She would make sure that he did. Taking his hand, she tugged him toward the docks where
Lady Nergüi
hovered. “Come, my husband. You and I cannot board an airship without some excitement befalling us. So let’s see what awaits us this time.”
And even if the only excitement came from the vows they spoke, no doubt their marriage would be its own adventure. The greatest one.
Ariq swept her up and carried her toward it.