⇤First ←Prev Archive Next→ Latest⇥
Part 2: CLEANING HOUSE
Ham found Maira on the steps of the front door, kneeling over a stone urn and dry-heaving.
‘You did well, holding it in that long,’ he said. Maira turned, wiping spittle from her chin. She took deep, ragged breaths and sat with her back against a pillar.
'Coming back here was a bad idea,' she sighed. 'Is anyone else coming?' Ham glanced into the lobby.
'Your mother's stepped out,' he said. 'Brother and sister too. Want me to send them away?'
'No, leave it. I can deal with them.'
Ham nodded. Leticia must have caught the movement, because the next sound Maira heard was the clacking of her heels on the stonework. She stopped short as Ham took her hands gently in his.
'Now listen Letty,' he said. 'Before you begin, I know what you're going to say. This wasn't-'
'He told me he destroyed it!' Leticia snapped, voice quavering on the edge of hysteria. 'I asked you and you promised me it was dismantled! How many years? How many years and you both lied! Did he ever use it again, Ham? Tell me!'
'Mom, you're being unreasonable,' Maira said. She saw her siblings at Leticia's back and groaned. 'Am I going to have to explain this whole thing to them?' she asked. 'Hey Salem, hey Annalise. Good to see you again.'
Salem was a good four years younger than Maira. He was slight and smartly dressed, hair plastered down on his head. By contrast Annalise was a head taller - despite being the youngest by another two years - and was dressed in a careworn pink sweater and pyjama trousers. Her hair was wild and frizzy, cascading down her back. Both of them backed up Leticia as she rounded on Maira.
'I don't understand why he'd leave it to you!' she argued. 'If Ham is telling the truth, he had no reason to go near it - no reason to keep it! - for all these years! So why is it yours now?'
'Maybe because I cared enough to ask him about it,' Maira responded. She stood, slowly and unsteadily, and lowered the glasses to give her mother a pointed look over them. 'Or maybe he finally understood why I got so much distance from this family.' She turned to her siblings. 'Do you two wanna go explore an airship?'
'Yeah!' Annalise gasped almost immediately, bouncing on her heels in excitement. Salem sighed and shrugged.
'I guess,' He said noncommittally. 'Better than talking to relatives.' He coloured, shoulders hunched, as Leticia gasped.
'Salem Christopher Deanfleet! I'll wash your mouth out for that!' she gasped. 'Ham, we still need to talk about this-'
'Sorry mom, he's coming with me!' Maira chipped in brightly. 'So's Sal and Anna - Sal's right, it's better than hearing my great-aunts misgendering me again. And I don't think I'll be coming back.' She beckoned to her siblings with a jerk of the head and began to head down the gravel driveway. Ham squeezed Leticia's hands and grimaced.
'Sorry Letty. It wasn't my decision to make. But it wasn't yours either.'
Bolthead Scrappers was on the outskirts of the village, on the edge of the swirling vortex of clouds. It was lit by a perpetual twilight, a dirty grey light edged with sickly yellow which gave everything a toxic aura.
On the walk there, Maira filled in the history for her siblings.
'Dad used to be some kinda pilot,' she said. 'The Fallen Star was his personal airship, a cargo hopper - technically illegal to even be flying one, at the time.'
'So dad was, like, a pirate?' Annalise asked. Hesitant, but also hopeful.
'Smuggler's probably more accurate,' Salem corrected, kicking at a stone. 'I looked up his criminal record at the mayor's office a while back - a lot of convictions for transporting contraband, illegal border crossings, you name it.'
'Well that sounds unpleasant,' Annalise sighed.
'Not the way dad told it,' Maira said. 'His stories - they were daring tales, keeping just one step ahead of the Umbrella Men, fighting dragon riders, sailing across borders in a storm! To hear him tell it, he was a hero.'
Well he would be, her mind supplied, in his own stories. He'd been... an okay father, he'd done his best to understand her, but the pressures of tradition and the rest of the family had shoved his personality back into the darkness. He had become Administrator Deanfleet, and that meant upholding tradition.
'He was relieved when you came along,' she remarked to Salem. 'A son to continue his legacy. Are you officially an Administrator yet?'
'Not yet,' Salem replied. 'I'll be getting the robes and the ceremony in spring.'
'Is it a public thing? I might come back for that.'
'A private function, I'm afraid. They had too many security threats when they were public, too many powerful people in one place.'
'Dad said the threats were a sign the Administration were doing something wrong,' Annalise said. 'He said the Administration needed to evolve if it was going to continue.'
'Yes, well,' said Salem. 'Words like that made little impact. After all, what action could he take? Open up the house to every poor citizen who wants sunlight? It'd be the Royal Revolution all over again! Besides, you wouldn't want to give up your nice room and your good food, would you?'
Maira pursed her lips as Annalise shook her head, mollified. Salem was going to make a great Administrator, and that wasn't a good thing in her books. Administrator meant all the bad things she'd suffered, for family and tradition and privilege. She felt the letter through her jacket; well maybe her dad had softened in recent years.
She looked down into the village, where life was beginning. There was the distant sound of hammering, and her alcohol-pickled senses finally caught what was out of place to her eyes.
'Hey Ham, what's that structure they're building in the middle of Bolthead?'
'Hm? Oh yeah - it's a Spear. Dorian's idea, light for the people. He paid for it himself. Some people think his death will change things - they'll just be asked to tear it down again - so they're building it quick. Making the most of it, as they say.'
Maira stared at the structure, already lancing up high over the rest of Bolthead. They were close enough now that see could see the pale-faced villagers roped to the scaffolding, sunken-eyed and thin with malnutrition. Ham caught her stare and nudged her shoulder.
'Hey,' He said. 'Let's show you to your ship. Nearly there, yeah?' Maira nodded.
'Right,' she said. 'Lead the way, Ham.'