Bryce (Captain in the Empire's army) and Masha (who is not what she has claimed)

Captain Bryce watched as they led the rebel prisoners into the yard. Too many of them were young. They looked so scared as they waited for the gallows. Bryce squared his jaw as the first prisoner was ( )ought forward. He had to remind himself that these were traitors, terrorists bent on killing as many innocent Empire citizens as possible. Beside him Masha’s ( )eathing grew uneven as the noose was fitted around the young boy’s neck. Bryce reached over to squeeze her hand. “You don’t have to watch this,” he whispered in her ear, but she just shook her head minutely and continued to face forward. Bryce studied her face for a moment, but decided to let her make her own decision.

The judge was reading the boy’s sentence before the executioner yanked the lever and the boy fell. Masha flinched violently as the boy yanked to a halt and hung there. Bryce turned to her in concern to see that she was pale and trembling slightly. “Masha,” he whispered again, “are you alright? Really, you don’t have to watch this. How about I just ( )ing you back to your quarters? I don’t need to be present for this, we can just—” He cut himself off as Masha whispered something too quietly for him to understand. “What was that?”

“I can’t do this,” she repeated to herself. Suddenly she turned to Bryce, a dark determination in her expression as she whispered fiercely, “I need you to stop this. The third boy from the end, with the scar on the cheek, I know him, he’s important to me. I need you to stop this execution from taking place. I will do anything for you if you will just save him. I will do anything for you, give you anything I have to give, I will take his place on the scaffolding if that is what you want, if you only take him now and send him home. He doesn’t deserve this end. I will do anything, Bryce, please,” she begged desperately.

Bryce felt his blood run cold. His head was suddenly light and for a moment he thought he could faint. He thought back to how Masha had reacted to when the prisoners were first ( )ought in, to how she had listened avidly to all of the military’s war ( )iefings, how she had known so much, too much, about the methods of the rebels. And he knew with sudden certainty that she was a rebel spy. His blood went from cold with dread to hot with fury as he stared at her. Everything she had told him, everything she had ever said, had been a lie. She was a rebel, she was one of them. He had no idea how long he stood there before he grabbed her shoulder hard enough to make her wince, but then he heard the scaffold open again as another prisoner was executed. Masha flinched at the sound and threw a terrified glance towards the yard. Bryce followed her gaze to the third boy from the end, who was now only four people away from his own execution. If Bryce was going to do something, he had to do it now. So he swallowed down his fury and tried to keep his hands from shaking. “You’ll give me anything, you say?” he demanded.

Her ( )eath stuttered slightly, but she stared back determinedly and repeated firmly, “Anything. Absolutely anything. You have my word.”

He stared at her another moment before roughly yanking her towards William. “Take her back to her quarter,” he said to William in a low voice, “and see to it that she doesn’t leave, do you understand?”

William looked between Bryce and Masha in confusion but nodded, taking her by the shoulder and starting to pull her back into the building.

Bryce quickly headed down the stairs to the edge of the yard where a soldier was standing guard. “I need you to ( )ing me the third prisoner from the right,” Bryce told him firmly.

The soldier looked at him in confusion. “He’s meant to be executed,” he said slowly.

“I know, but new plans have been made for him. He must not be killed now. This orders come from the general himself.” The soldier hesitated and Bryce snapped, “Are you questioning my authority on this matter?”

The soldier still looked unsure but quickly shook his head. “Of course not, Captain Bryce, I’ll just—” and he quickly walked to the soldier standing sentry at the edge of the scaffold. He whispered something quickly, and the sentry looked over towards Bryce in confusion. But after some more whispers and gestures, the sentry nodded and the guard walked over to the third prisoner from the end, unchaining him from the other prisoners and leading him towards Bryce.

The prisoner looked confused until he caught sight of Bryce. He then quickly turned to the balcony where Bryce had been standing with Masha, and then back to Bryce. His eyes widened and he looked more fearful than he had when he had been waiting for his own death. Bryce nodded curtly at the guard in thanks before firmly pulling the prisoner back in the direction of the dungeons. The prisoner waited until they were out of earshot of the yard before he said quietly, “She asked you to, didn’t she?”

Bryce felt a dark anger swell up that this boy, this rebel knew more about who Masha really was than Bryce did. But rather than strike at the prisoner like he wanted to, Bryce simply said formally, “Your sentence has been reprieved. You will remain in the jail until such time as an envoy can be arranged to take you back to the edge of the rebel territory. You will then be released with your given word that you will never return to our lands. Should you ever renege on your promise, your sentence of execution will be reinstated and there will be no second chances.”

The boy looked terrified. “What deal did she make with you?”

Bryce considered simply not answering but instead said, “Anything I want from her.”

The boy winced. “If there is anything I can give you, if there is anything I can promise you, I will give anything to go in her place, I will do whatever—”

“There is nothing I want from you,” Bryce interrupted. “She has made her deal, and she will be held to it, just as I will uphold my end. I promised no harm would come to you, and so you won’t be harmed. However, if you ever return to our lands, you will be killed, and no deal will get you out of it. Meanwhile, I plan on taking what I want for my end of the deal.”

“Are you going to kill her?”

“After I’ve taken what I want from her?” Bryce asked coldly. “We’ll see.”

The boy looked like he was in physical pain as Bryce handed him over to a prison guard, giving instructions on where he was to be kept. With that, Bryce spun on his heal and headed towards Masha’s quarters.

Sky Denizens and Surface Dwellers

The small airship skid several yards along the rocky ground before jerking to a sudden halt.

“Well, could have been worse,” Zeph said optimistically.

Lark frowned. “Let’s take a look at the damage before we start thanking our luck.”

“Aye aye, Captain Rigger. You’re the boss,” Zeph said with a mock salute before slipping over the edge of the ship.

Lark rolled her eyes and glared at the sky. It had been years since she had seen the underside of clouds. She usually found the white fluff comforting, but there was nothing calming about the black masses rolling overhead. God, she hated the surface.

Usually she liked working on such a tiny transport ship. It was quiet and she didn’t have to fight to assert her authority—sarcastic comments from Zeph aside—but a crew of ‘her plus one’ did make it more difficult when they ran into trouble. “How’s it look?” she called to Zeph.

“The hull’s fine,” he yelled back. “Rudder’s messed up a bit, but I can fix that easily enough. Portside is kinda scratched up, but we can fix that once we get to a dock. But the energy-mod is pretty much fried.”

Lark cursed. “What about the backup solar cells?”

Zeph hummed. “Um…passable? But currently at zero capacity.”

Lark glanced at the dark sky again. It would be a long time before enough sun came through to charge their ship. So for now, they were stuck on the ground. She was about to say as much to Zeph when motion caught her attention. She leveled her pistol in the direction and narrowed her eyes as two figures moved toward them through the rough landscape.

When they were within shouting distance, they stopped. “Looks like you’re in some trouble, yeah?” one called to them.

Lark relaxed slightly, but didn’t lower her pistol. They held themselves like humans rather than like terra terrors, and the ability to speak intelligently—albeit with that weird gravelly accent—was a good sign. Still, they didn’t have to be terrors to be a threat.

“Not our best landing, no,” Lark yelled back. “But we’ve got a pickup on the way. We’ll be out of your territory soon enough, don’t worry.”

The person made a sound that might have been laughter, but it was hard to tell from this distance. “No, you don’t. That ship’s barely a dinghy. No way you’re equipped with a radio with enough range to call for backup. Look, if we come closer, could you not shoot us? We can probably help.”

Lark was tempted to protest the insult on her precious ship, but a voice in her head (which sounded suspiciously like Zeph) told her to bite her tongue and just agree. She studied them as they approached. A boy and a girl, almost definitely human. Surface human, of course, but human nonetheless. Well, maybe not a boy and girl, Lark amended as they neared. They were at least in their late teens, but were both the sort of undersized and sharp-boned skinny that came from years of skipped meals. They looked filthy. Then again, Lark was unused to seeing the dusky skin and clothes of surface-dwellers. Maybe that was just their…color?

The two stopped further from the ship than Lark expected, and she realized with surprise that they were wary of her and Zeph, despite having the home advantage.

It was the male who had yelled from afar, and he was the one who spoke now. “So, power-mod fried?”

“Yep. Can you tell us where the nearest air mechanic is?” Zeph said pleasantly.

The guy hummed. “Air mechanics only hang out at the base of Sky-Cities.”

“Okay,” Lark said, finally approaching. “So where’s the nearest Sky-City?”

The girl pointed east. “About one hundred miles that-a way.”

Lark felt her jaw drop. “That’s the closest?”

The girl nodded and pointed west. “That way’s more like three hundred miles. That direction,” pointing north, “is only maybe seventy miles, but you got the mountains between here and there, so it’d take a lot longer. And that way,” pointing south, “is impassable.” She regarded Lark carefully before saying, “So, you got names?”

Lark was still trying to process the fact that they were hundreds of miles from civilization, so it fell upon Zeph to answer. “My name is Zephyr Pinion and this is Captain Lark Rigger. Nice to meet you. Can I ask your names?”

The girl stepped closer to the ship, studying the ruined power-mod, and the guy answered. “I’m Snail. She’s Kin.”

It took Lark a moment to realize that Kin was actually the girl’s name, rather than an assertion that she was a family member to…Snail. Who would ever name their kids Snail or Kin? Well, apparently someone who was willing to live in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Living on the surface sucked no matter what, but why would anyone ever live so far from a Sky-City? How did they even survive?

The girl—Kin—spoke again. “If we get you some arc-connectors, verbed wire, and a tress-board, could you fix the power-mod?”

Lark frowned. “You said there aren’t any air mechanics near.”

Snail huffed. “We’re not totally inept. We can’t fix it, but we can salvage some supplies. Wouldn’t work long term, but it could get you to the next Sky-City.”

Zeph nodded. “Could you get us a couple mica ports, too?”

“Probably,” Snail said. “What d’you have to pay with?”

“Only a few hundred Foils,” said Lark.

Snail snorted. “And what good are Foils to us? This far from a Sky-City, your currency isn’t worth anything. What about rations and electronics?”

Lark gave a slight nod to Zeph, giving him permission to make the negotiations. He was better at that sort of thing. Meanwhile, she watched Snail and Kin again. Their clothes were torn and ragged. They were warm enough for the moment, but it would be growing cold soon, and the holed fabric wasn’t going to help much. Kin had an impressive mess of scars on her cheek and Snail’s lip was caked with blood. Lark could almost count the ribs under their too-loose shirts.

They definitely weren’t civilized like the sky denizens she lived and worked with, but maybe they were alright. They weren’t robbing them, weren’t murdering them. Actually, they were helping, and Lark made a mental note to give more rations than whatever they agreed upon with Zeph. She and Zeph didn’t need the calories nearly as much as these two.

Zeph and Snail finished their negotiation, and Snail stepped away. “We’ll get the supplies and be back in maybe two hours. Maybe three.”

Kin paused and nodded to Lark. “Keep that pistol out, yeah? Not all of us down here like sky denizens much. Anyone else comes across you, they might be more inclined to take what they want.”

Lark blinked. Kin was grinning. Did she find the possibility of them being robbed amusing? But before Lark could analyze the expression further, Kin began to walk away again. “Oh yeah,” she called over her shoulder. “’S gonna rain within the hour. Just so you know.”

Lark glanced to the sky and cursed again. She had only been under rain once, and she wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. Helpful surface-dwellers or not, Lark still really hated the surface.