Chapter 14 #2
“Keep that handy. It would be nice to be able to prop that up and wander the skywalk occasionally during my watch.” Fieran checked the chart table, poked his head outside, and glanced at the charts again before he finally strode to the wheel.
After a moment, he grinned and held one hand out to her.
“Would you like to steer? It isn’t right that you’re the only one of us who doesn’t know how to fly this thing. ”
“I think it’s more I don’t have the navigational skills to take a watch by myself.
Piloting can’t be that hard.” Still, she gripped the wheel as Fieran took half a step back, giving her space.
The wheel was so tall that the top of it was level with her nose.
“Besides, I don’t mind the excuse not to take a watch. I’m here for the engines, after all.”
“Engines that you rigged to run without supervision for the most part.” Fieran’s warm breath brushed her hair as he stationed himself behind her, his hands resting lightly over hers on the wheel in a semi-embrace.
Pip resisted the urge to lean back against him, even though it was incredibly hard to focus on adjusting the wheel against the air currents shoving at the airship. “Give me enough time, and I’ll have this whole airship rigged to run by itself. Just you wait.”
“Always making me obsolete.” Fieran’s chuckle was far too close, making the hair on the back of her neck prickle.
She flushed as Fieran trailed a light kiss on her cheek, then her neck. One of his hands dropped off hers to rest on her waist instead. A part of her—a large part of her—wanted to lean into him. Forget steering. Forget the mission.
Instead, she shook her head slightly. “You’re distracting me. Not to mention, you’re the one officially on watch.”
Fieran’s sigh was hot against her neck a moment before he pulled back, putting a cold layer of space between them. “Fine, fine. No kissing and no distracting.”
“At least while we’re on watch.” Pip wasn’t sure why she was clarifying that. While they were on this mission, they were pretty much always on duty, needing to be alert rather than distracted.
With a light laugh, he returned his hand to its place over hers on the wheel. “We? I seem to recall this watch is mine.”
“Yes, but I think I might as well stay up with you. Keep you awake and help run the airship and all that.” Pip wiggled her fingers beneath his on the wheel. “It will probably take a few hours to teach me how to fly an airship.”
“True, true.” Fieran nudged her left hand slightly to prompt her to turn the wheel a fraction. “Although you are doing a good job of flying it already.”
“Steering is easy. Steering in the right direction is the hard part.” She nudged the wheel back the other way at his prompting. “Although, I’m a little curious why your Uncle Edmund knows how to fly an airship. Surely he didn’t learn in the three days we had before leaving.”
“I’ve learned not to question how Uncle Edmund knows things.
” Fieran laughed, his shrug bumping his arms against hers.
“I assume he learns how to drive, fly, or pilot any new vehicle, just in case he needs to hijack something while spying. After all, he and my uncles put this plan together way too quickly for it not to have already been some kind of plan Uncle Edmund had brewing in the back of his mind.”
“After hearing his stories tonight, I’d believe it.” Pip laughed, letting herself lean slightly against Fieran as she stood in the circle of his arms.
“That’s Uncle Edmund for you.” Fieran tightened his grip over her hands on the wheel, taking over the bulk of the steering.
“I always knew I never could get away with anything growing up. Even if I somehow hid it from my parents—which was difficult enough already—my Uncle Edmund was bound to know about it.”
“Again, doesn’t surprise me.” Pip leaned even more against him, no longer even pretending to steer the airship. Semi-snuggling with Fieran—in a very non-distracting kind of way, of course—was better.
For a moment, they lapsed into silence. Outside the large windows, the stars gleamed so brightly they were visible even through the slight reflection from the low lights in the pilot house.
When Fieran broke the silence, his voice was a low, almost somber murmur. “Do you remember our first airship flight?”
“Of course.” Pip told herself sternly that letting go of the wheel to instead wrap her arms around Fieran would definitely cross the line into distraction. “I was already falling for you then.”
“As I was with you.” Fieran’s breath brushed her hair, but he didn’t cross the line by kissing her. Instead, he cleared his throat. “Do you remember that discussion we had about last names?”
“Yes.” Pip found herself swallowing, something in her chest twisting at the tension growing between them.
“How would you feel about a change to your last name eventually?” Fieran’s voice sounded slightly strangled, as if he was feeling the same tension she was.
Pip stilled, her heart hammering. Was he asking what she thought he was asking? “Is that…is that a proposal?”
She wasn’t sure if she wanted it to be. Yes, she wanted to marry Fieran. And an impulsive proposal while they were headed toward danger was just the sort of thing he’d do. She’d say yes, if he was asking.
But a part of her also wanted the full experience. A properly romantic proposal, the elven traditional gifts to ask for the family’s blessing, all of it.
Behind her, Fieran froze too. “No. Is that all right? I just thought…there are a few things we should talk about. Before we get there.”
Pip’s breath whooshed out. “No, I mean, yes. I mean, don’t take this the wrong way, but I was hoping it wasn’t. Because you’re right. There are things we need to talk about.”
Up until now, they hadn’t talked much about the serious things. While their intentions were serious, they’d simply enjoyed courting, getting to know each other more deeply as people without pressuring each other to move the step beyond that.
But now Fieran was inching across an unspoken line, testing if she was ready for taking the step in their relationship where they started talking about a future that was dreamed together.
“Good.” Fieran’s voice turned low, soft against her hair. “And just so you know, when the time comes, there isn’t going to be any question about whether or not I’m proposing. You’ll know.”
Pip forced herself to laugh, struggling to keep herself from tensing. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Now about last names…” Fieran’s tone warmed, holding the memory of their last discussion of last names all those months ago on a different airship in distant skies. “It’s not as straightforward as you’d think it would be, is it?”
“No.” This time, Pip’s low laugh was more genuine as she shook her head.
With their three heritages in the mix, they were working with three different naming conventions.
“It’s a mess, isn’t it? While humans generally go by the man’s last name, dwarves go by the clan name.
But the couple can choose to join either clan and take on either clan name. ”
“Since I don’t have a dwarven clan, would that automatically make us Clan Detmuk?” Fieran shifted as he braced himself as the airship tilted under a gust of wind.
“Kind of. Unless we moved to Mt. Detmuk to live, we wouldn’t be officially joining the clan.
But like you said, you don’t have a dwarven clan, so we could be considered a part of the clan the way my parents are.
” Leaning into Fieran to brace herself, Pip shrugged before she glanced over her shoulder at Fieran.
“Between the two of us, our elven heritage is the majority. Perhaps we should follow the elven naming convention.”
“What convention?” Fieran barked a laugh, his fingers flexing on the wheel. “For a people who are normally quite strict on rules, propriety, and tradition, the elves have devolved into chaos over the change from titles to last names.”
“True.” Pip shook her head with another laugh. “I’ve heard many elves just keep their own names or come up with a new family name altogether. Others just keep tacking on names as if collecting them.”
“Perhaps that’s what you should do.” Fieran leaned closer to speak in her ear. “Pippak Detmuk Inawenys Laesornysh.”
“That would be a mouthful.” Pip couldn’t imagine going around with that as her legal name. “But maybe just Pippak Detmuk Laesornysh? I’d like to keep my link to my dwarven clan and that way I’d still have my dwarven and elven heritages combined. But I’d be claiming a link to you and…”
And she wasn’t sure what else to say, her face heating as her words trailed off.
“I like the sound of it.” His tone lowered still further. “It’s a mouthful I’d share with you, if you wanted. I’d take on the Detmuk part, if that’s what you’d want.”
She tugged her hands free of the wheel so that she could turn in the circle of his arms, placing her back to the wheel. She needed to face him for this discussion.
His gaze had been focused above her head, staring at the windows to the stars beyond, but as she turned, his eyes dropped to meet hers.
She rested a hand on his cheek. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re Laesornysh through and through, and I’d never want to change that.
I’d like to keep Detmuk for myself, and maybe it could be an option for our children if they wanted to embrace their dwarven heritage, but you’re Laesornysh.
Our children will likely be Laesornysh, or a rather interesting version of it depending on how your magic mixes with mine. ”
A slow smile spread across Fieran’s face. “You said children.”
She had, hadn’t she? Well, if they were going to open up discussions about what a future together might look like, then she was going all in. “Yep, I did. What do you think? Three? Four?”
“Sounds good to me.” Fieran grinned down at her before he glanced up, turning the wheel slightly as the deck shifted beneath their feet with a strong gust. His grin vanished a moment later.
“Once the war ends, where would you want to go? What would you want to do? I can probably get a post in the Flying Corps reserves in Aldon if you wanted to work at the AMPC. Or I’m sure the Alliance will be expanding their aerodromes.
They might even set up one near the western rail terminal, if you wanted to return to your home there.
I’ll follow you wherever you want to go, and I’ll support whatever dreams you want to pursue, Pip. ”
She swallowed, dropping her gaze away from his to stare instead at the star-filled windows.
For the past few months, it had been hard to envision the future when the war seemed to be all there was. All consuming. Never ending.
But now they were very likely staring at the end, if Fieran’s dacha and uncle had anything to say about it. And if the stories were to be believed, ending wars was their specialty.
She could go anywhere. Do anything.
She could return home. To the peace and quiet of her childhood home at the far western rail terminal. She could go back to fixing trains and…and…
Fieran would hate it out there. He’d go insane with boredom within a month or two.
And, truthfully, so would she. She’d outgrown her life there and, despite how the thought filled her chest with a hollowed out sense of mourning, she wasn’t going to go back, except to visit her parents.
Would she have left all those months ago if she’d known that she would never return to live there again? Yet she wouldn’t trade the life she had now to go back. She wouldn’t want to miss out on falling in love with Fieran. Or on making all the new friends she had in the squadron.
Yes, she’d lost a piece of herself. But she’d gained far more than she’d lost.
“I don’t want to go back to the western rail terminal.
Not to stay, anyway. I’d like to visit, of course.
” Pip drew in a deep breath and forced herself to meet his gaze.
“I’d like to stay with the squadron for as long as there is a Half-Breed Squadron.
They won’t disband or reassign anyone right away, not until everyone is sure whatever peace treaty ends the war is going to last.”
Fieran’s smile was wide, gleaming in the depth of his eyes. “I’d like that.”
“I know.” Pip wrapped her arms lightly around his waist. “You belong with the squadron. And I’m content where I’m at. But eventually…”
“Eventually the humans will retire. Or the Alliance will downsize the Flying Corps. Or they’ll promote me to the point I’m stuck behind a desk…” Fieran took one of his hands off the wheel to rest lightly on the small of her back.
“And when that happens, I’d like to finally take a position at the AMPC.
It’s where I was always meant to be, I think, even if I hadn’t had the courage to take that step before now.
” Pip swayed closer to him. It was far too tempting to rest her head against his chest. “I really liked working there while you were recovering in Aldon. It felt like home.”
“I’m glad.” Fieran’s grip on her tightened, as if he wanted to tug her fully into an embrace. “And you know whatever job you get at the AMPC someday will be entirely because of you and your talents. Nothing at all to do with me.”
“I know.” Pip felt the confidence of that all the way to her bones. She’d earned a place there if she wanted it.
“The moment you’re discharged from the army, Uncle Lance will be waiting with a pen and a hiring contract.” Fieran’s light laugh reverberated in his chest.
“If he can remember the day.” Pip grinned, remembering how absentminded the inventor would get.
“You know him well.” Fieran’s laugh deepened. “In that case, Louise would be there to make sure you were hired.”
“Yes, she would.” Pip would love having Louise for a sister someday.
Fieran’s breath washed against her as he pressed a light kiss to her hair.
“There’s a good chance you might be able to stay with the squadron and work at the AMPC.
The army will remain stationed at the border for a while.
But probably sooner than you think, they’ll go back to peacetime status.
There’s a good chance I’d end up stationed in Aldon or even downgraded to reserve status where I would be free to travel between Estyra and Aldon as needed. ”
“That sounds really nice.” Pip gave in and leaned against Fieran.
If she closed her eyes, she could picture it. Fieran still flying with the squadron. Her working with the AMPC during the week and hanging out with the flyboys in the evenings once everyone was off duty.
It was a future so tangible she could taste it, sweet as the donuts Tiny’s girlfriend made.
They just needed to end the war to actually make it happen.