coal.
It was a marvelous combination of traits, and she’d seen how much his wholehearted engagement with life affected those around him, how often he inspired laughter and joy, and how his involvement in the most commonplace activities seemed to imbue them with a bit of adventure.
No wonder that she loved him so. And she could never consider that part of him a weakness.
“It’s a strength,” she told him. But then, seeing that was one of her strengths. Just as she often had to do with her crew: recognizing what was best in them, and then making use of it. “Do you know what mine is? But of course you knew—that’s why you came to us. You’d listened to all of those stories about me, and recognized that I could rescue your brother.”
“And you refused to help,” he said again.
“No, we offered to help—we just refused to go. But if you’d asked how we would have gone about rescuing your brother, we’d have told you everything. We would have given you a plan, money, names. But that wasn’t exactly the way you wanted it to happen, so you forced our hand.” Smiling, she crushed out her cigarillo in her palm. “And that is where you became the idiot, trying to poke us where we’re vulnerable instead of bringing out the best in us. Archimedes, because he’s loyal, and because when a job needs to be done he prefers to do it himself—and because after studying that job, the risks to me and my ship don’t seem as dire as they first did. And me, because I’m proud, and I’ll be damned if I let someone else take a job that I could do better. So we’d have aligned ourselves with you and offered to go. If you’d only been patient, if you’d seen that in us, it would have been a manipulation worth being proud of, a game truly well played. Instead, you made enemies of two people who’d have been far more useful to you as friends.”
“You think that matters to me?” Frowning, he shook his head. “It’s not important how I did it, as long as it’s done. There’s nothing to regret here.”
Of course he would tell himself that. Expressing any regret would be too akin to admitting that he was mistaken—and justifying the means with the end was a coward’s way of taking responsibility, and the last resort of tyrants. In Yasmeen’s opinion, it took true courage to admit to being wrong. She doubted he had the ability to admit it even to himself.
And any man who didn’t regret the loss of Archimedes Fox’s friendship was a fool.
Lighting another cigarillo, she regarded him with cool amusement until he’d had enough of it and walked away. A few minutes later, Archimedes joined her, his spyglass in hand and coiled excitement in his posture. Whatever he’d seen, it must not have been one of New Eden’s flyers.
Without a word, she offered her cigarillo in trade for the spyglass. An airship was coming in from the north, flying low to the water. At a far enough distance, it would be almost indistinguishable from a sailing ship—a trick to avoid New Eden and used by many airships in the region, including Lady Nergüi.
Yasmeen lowered the spyglass, met his eyes, and saw the same hope that this was the message they’d been waiting for. “It might not be,” she warned him.
“Such little faith. I, on the other hand, will be waiting for you in the autogyro.”
So that they could easily travel to the other airship when it came close. “That’s a bit of a wait. It’s still a good distance away.”
“I’ll spend the time composing odes to your lips. But as I can’t kiss you now, I will settle for this.” He passed her the cigarillo, and watched her mouth as he exhaled slowly. The same taste, the same smoke. Sharing these with Archimedes was one of her favorite intimacies, a simple act that had become an exquisitely sensual ritual—yet one that could be performed in full view of the crew. “What did Bilson have to say?”
“He was telling me how heartless I am and how clever he is.”
“You always have enjoyed a good piece of fiction.” He lifted the spyglass again. “It’s The Blue Canary.”
One of the skyrunners in Scarsdale’s hired fleet. Fierce satisfaction took her in its grip, and she gave Vashon the order to hail the other airship.
Bilson was about to see his pieces all falling down.
* * *
Yasmeen had