Into the Still Blue

They were so different, inside and out, but they stood exactly the same way. Arms crossed. Ankles crossed. Their posture somehow both relaxed and alert. It was as close as they’d come to each other since Roar’s return.



“Like how they used to be,” Brooke amended.



“Has this ever happened before?”



“Never. And I hate it.”



Incredible. They actually agreed on something.



Aria rested her head against the wall and closed her eyes. The Hover hummed along, and the journey had turned smooth, but she knew it wouldn’t last.



A team, Reef had called them earlier. But they weren’t. Not even close.



They were six people with at least a dozen different agendas between them.



It didn’t matter. It couldn’t matter.



They needed to rescue Cinder. They needed a heading, and they needed Hovers to reach the Still Blue.



Her eyes fluttered open, finding Roar.



They needed revenge.



8



PEREGRINE



Soren set the Belswan down in a clearing with a distance of about thirty miles between them and the Komodo. They decided to hike to a vantage point and observe from a safe distance.



Perry asked Roar to watch over the Belswan. Someone needed to guard it, and Perry needed Brooke for her eyes.



Roar agreed with a shrug, and Jupiter offered to stay as well. Perry waited outside, hoping Soren would stay too, but he emerged from the Belswan, jogging down the ramp behind Aria and Brooke.



Soren still wore his pale gray Dweller clothes, which would make him stand out like a whale in the woods, and he had a forty-pound pack taken from the supply room slung over his back.



Perry shook his head. “We’ll be back by tonight. You know that, right?”



Soren shot him a seething look and marched on.



They climbed to a cluster of stone outcroppings at the top of a hill. The spot would give them plenty of cover. Most importantly, it offered a clear view of the valley. The Komodo itself lay hidden behind a small slope in the distance. Hess and Sable would surely have sentinels posted along that ridge, and possibly also a patrol.



Perry sat beside Aria on the same rock, settling in to watch. They planned to assess their options from afar before moving closer.



They’d left the Aether storm behind at the coast, and the Aether flowed more calmly here, rolling in waves instead of turning in eddies. He didn’t see the red sparks, but he had a feeling he would soon. Thick clouds drifted across the sky, casting wide shadowed patches across the plateau, and he smelled rain coming.



“What was it your father used to say about patience?” Aria said after a little while.



Perry smiled. “It’s a hunter’s best weapon,” he said, happy she remembered something he’d told her months ago. Her temper was low and cool, at odds with her lighthearted comment.



“You all right?” he asked.



She hesitated, the shadowed look in her eyes reminding him of their argument. “I’m fine,” she said, a little too brightly. She tipped her head. “But Soren might need some help.”



Perry saw him and laughed. Soren had gutted his bag, emptying all its contents. Supplies spilled everywhere around him, and he was looking through a pair of binoculars, searching the distance.



“Perry, due east,” Brooke called from behind them.



He searched the low hills there. A Hover like the one that had taken Talon skimmed over the plateau.



Soren shot to his feet in excitement. “That’s a Dragonwing. Fastest Hover in existence.”



“It’s circling,” Brooke said. “It’s following a specific route around the Komodo.”



“A patrol,” Perry agreed.



They kept up their surveillance into the afternoon as massive thunderheads moved in, clotting the sky. The patrol followed the same route every two hours. Armed with that information, they returned to the Belswan and gathered in the cargo hold to discuss their options.



“We can’t outrun a Dragonwing,” Soren said. He rapped his knuckles twice on the metal floor of the Belswan. “Not with this slug.”



At the center of their circle was a light stick from the Belswan’s supplies. Perry turned the dial down to limit its brightness. In less than five minutes, the glaring light had given him a headache.



“A Dragonwing is built to do two things,” Soren continued. “One, catch anything it wants, and two, destroy it. If they’re running patrols, then they’re ready for us. At the very least it means they haven’t forgotten we’re out here. There’s no way we can get close without drawing them into a fight. If that happens, we’re done for. We’d be annihilated. Wouldn’t we, Jup?”



Jupiter startled, surprised to hear his name. Then he nodded. “Definitely. Very annihilated.”



“Twig and I got close,” Roar said. He stood away from the group, alone by the open bay door, his dark clothes blending into the darkness. “It’s not hard to do on foot.”



A gust of cool air blew into the Hover. It smelled more like rain by the hour.



“You want to go on foot?” Soren said. “All right, we could try that. We could run up and throw spears at the Komodo’s steel walls. Wait. Do you guys have any of those catapult things? Those are champ.”



Roar shrugged—he couldn’t care less about Soren’s comment—but Aria winced.



Perry remembered her making similar biting comments when they’d first met. That felt like a long while ago, though it’d only been half a year.



“What do you recommend, Soren?” he said tightly. He had far less tolerance for Soren than Aria did.



“I recommend we get a Hover. There’s no way we’re breaking into the Komodo without one. And I mean a Dragonwing, not this flying heap. But I hate to break the news to all of you: there’s no way we’re getting one.”



“There are a bunch of Dragonwings outside the Komodo, aren’t there?” Brooke said. “We could divide up. Some of us could distract the patrol and give the rest of you a chance to get close to the fleet on foot.”



Soren snorted. “You can’t just walk up and take a Hovercraft. And a distraction would never work. Any disturbance on a routine patrol would get reported back to the command leader at the Komodo. If you create a diversion, you’re basically putting everyone on high alert.”



“What if we contact them first?” Aria said.



“And say what? Our feelings were hurt when you tried to kill us?”



Perry leaned forward, forcing himself to ignore Soren. “What are you thinking?” he asked Aria.



“That we’re approaching this the wrong way,” she said. “We have to get way ahead of them.” She looked at Soren. “Can you hack into their communications from this ship?”



“Honestly, Aria, sometimes I feel like you don’t even know me.”



“Answer,” Perry snapped.



“Yes. I can.” Soren looked at her. “For the last time, hopefully: I can hack anything.”



Aria smiled. “Perfect.”



9



ARIA



Her plan was this: they would transmit a false message to the Dragonwing, sending the patrol on a mission to assist a downed Belswan—which they would pretend to be.



If the order came from a Dweller commander, Aria reasoned, the pilots would have no reason to check it. When the patrol unit came to assist, they’d walk into an ambush. Aria and Perry would have their team waiting, ready to overpower the crew. They’d take over the patrol ship and then return to the Komodo disguised as the regular team.



It was the same way she’d entered Bliss when she’d been searching for her mother. She’d put on a Guardian uniform and walked right in.



Why fight the enemy when you could fool them?



“I like it,” Roar said, when she’d finished explaining. “It’s a damn good plan.”



Aria caught his eye and smiled in thanks.



“It would get us close,” Perry said, nodding. “Closer than any other option we have.”



Aria looked at Soren, who stared into space, lost in thought. She wondered what he thought of the plan most of all.



“It all depends on you,” she said. “The only way it’ll work is if you break into the Komodo’s communications system.”



Soren looked at her and nodded. “I can do it. No problem.”



She never doubted it. For all the trouble he was, Soren had one skill she could always count on. In a way, it was what had started everything.



Soren stood. The glazed look in his eyes was gone, replaced with fevered anticipation of the challenge. “I’m going to run a basic vulnerability analysis to get a look at the Komodo’s attack surface.”



Aria had no clue what that meant. Judging by the blank faces around her, she wasn’t alone.



Soren rolled his eyes and wiggled his fingers in the air. “You know. Feel the security system up a little to see what I’m dealing with.”



A laugh burst out of Jupiter, but he muffled it when Perry stood.



“Uh, sorry,” Jupiter said.



She forgot how commanding Perry could be. How he could quiet people with a look when he chose to.



“Get to work, Soren,” he said, and then turned to Brooke and Roar. “Let’s start outside. I want a full sweep of the terrain. If we’re going to draw them to us, I want to be in the strongest position possible.”



Brooke looked at Soren and wiggled her fingers in the air, parroting his gesture. “That means we’re going to feel up the surrounding area a little, Dweller. See what we’re dealing with.”



Soren’s eyes never left Brooke as she grabbed her bow and headed outside with Perry and Roar.



“What was her name again?” he asked when she was gone.



Aria stood, trying to hide a smile. “Laurel,” she answered on a whim. Soren irritated everyone else. Let him be on the receiving end for once. Inspired, she added, “I think she likes you, Soren.”



Then she jogged outside.



Perry was buckling a black belt with a Dweller pistol in the holster. He seemed comfortable with carrying the weapon, though he’d held it for the first time only a week ago. His bow and quiver also rested at his feet. Aria smiled to herself. Instead of choosing a weapon from her world or his, he’d decided to take both.



“Do you need me?” she said. She could scout as well as Roar and Brooke, who had already disappeared into the darkness.



Perry looked up. His hair was tied back with a leather strip, but a piece fell forward, a blond wave coming to rest at his eyebrow. “You want the truth?”



Aria braced herself for a comment about her arm. “Always.”



“That’s my answer. But it’s probably better for you to keep an eye on things here.” He grinned, sweeping his bow and quiver over his shoulder. “I’d do it, but I’m worried my fist might find Soren’s face.”



As she watched him walk away, she tried to shake off the feeling that he’d left too quickly. He’d just said he needed her always. Why couldn’t she focus on that?



When he reached the edge of the woods, she called out, “Be careful.”



She knew he would be. It was just a way to stall. To feel close to him a little longer.