CHARLIE
We were still over the sea when Ruby’s engine began to sputter.
I glanced at the fuel gauge, then flicked it with my finger. It was pegged to “E.” Out of gas. Shit.
Petrol was hard to come by in wartime, and Bo had warned me before we set off that neither plane had a full tank.
That didn’t stop me from cursing him, his mother, and the horse they rode in on.
Still, I was glad when I glanced back and saw the plane he and Kitty flew was still airborne.
Their chances of landing safely with a blind pilot instructing an erudite party girl who’d never flown before were already slim.
If they ran low on gas, their chances dropped to zero.
We’d cut a long arc across the Olam Sea, heading northeast from Admar to avoid Rograd Point, the northernmost tip of the Isle of Dorhane, where the frontlines of the war were. There were far too many eyes down there, and I didn’t want to be seen by any of them—Admite or Maethalian.
After passing the island, we’d tacked southeast again.
A peninsula jutted into the sea north of Issastar, a vast tract of fen and moorland where, according to legend, the elves of yore cultivated silver rice and where wisps hovered at night, waiting to lure travelers to their death in the bogs.
I’d flown over it often enough during my past searches for Essa to know it was isolated and open—and situated between Issastar and Charcain to the south and Umsir to the northeast. It was a perfect place to land—if we could get there.
My engine coughed. Burped. Chugged. I leaned out of the cockpit and looked down at the sea racing past below, puzzling whether I’d rather cut altitude so I’d hit the water from a lesser height, or maintain altitude and try to glide as far as possible—and possibly make it to shore.
I looked ahead, then, squinting into the misty distance. And thank god, I caught sight of shapes on the horizon—the dark specks of distant rocks, the white of sea froth, and, further out, the ghostly, faint outlines of the Yrdam Mountains.
“Come on, girl. Just a little further,” I told Ruby.
The engine coughed twice more, then, with a final shudder, it expired.
Ahead of me, the propeller’s motion slowed, then stopped.
The silence that ensued was so total, it was jarring.
The engine’s clamor had left ringing in my ears, which was replaced after a moment with the faint breath of the wind.
I’d practiced stalls plenty of times. It was unnerving, but manageable. The key was to maintain altitude and not make any drastic moves that would deprive the wings of their ability to provide lift.
And so, I sat, one hand on the control stick, breathing in the wind, taking in the beautiful sights of the sky and sea, and thinking of Essa. Imagining her here with me, the wind pushing back her hair, her fingers gently brushing my cheek, her lips on mine…
I watched the moors grow nearer, nearer, nearer, then spread out before me, yellow gorse and purple heather dappling the expanse of green grasses.
Nearer still… jagged black rocks dotted the coastline, rising from the sea like dagger blades stabbed through a body, hard and sharp and deadly enough to smash my plane into toothpicks if I hit them.
I pulled up just a touch, coaxing as much lift as possible from the wings, offsetting the plane’s front-heavy engine, and we drifted past the deadly rocks coming, at last, over the land.
I exhaled, finally able to breathe again as Ruby and I settled down into the grasses like a weary man sliding into bed after a long day’s work, a smooth landing that would have made my old flight instructors proud.
As soon as I was down, I unbuckled and got out, turning to watch Bo and Kitty’s approach.
I was prepared to witness the worst—a splashdown in the sea, a fiery crash on the shore.
Instead, I watched with relief and bemusement as they came in some fifty yards from me and settled into a landing every bit as graceful as mine had been.
I shook my head in wonder. Damned Bo. I’d forgotten what a flight prodigy he was. Even using someone else’s eyes, he was amazing.
“Not bad, Cuz,” I called as I approached.
Kitty was already clambering out of the cockpit, buzzing with excitement. “Wooo!” she crowed. “That was amazing!”
Bo had a dumb grin on his face, too. “Credit to your friend here,” Bo said, climbing out of the cockpit. “She’s a natural.”
“Aw, stop. You’re too sweet,” Kitty said, reapplying her lipstick. I couldn’t help but notice her fangs were looking extra long.
“Yeah, well. I ran out of fuel and made it in on a fart and a prayer,” I grumbled. “But I’m glad you two had a good time.”
“We were running on fumes, too,” Bo said. His boots hit the ground, and he stretched, reaching for the sky. “Sorry. Like I said, fuel is scarce these days with the rations.”
“Yeah,” I said, taking in our surroundings. “It’s even more scarce here, believe me. I hope you two like Maethalia, because it’s going to be a long swim back to Ironberg...”
Kitty was lighting a cigarette—ignoring me.
I fought the urge to curse at her.
“First order of business, we have to get out of the open,” I pointed to a stand of oak trees not far away. “Let’s get these planes stashed. If we can come up with fuel later somehow, we might need them. And anyway, we don’t want our enemies to find them and go sniffing around for us.”
Bo nodded.
“Then, we’ll go our separate ways,” I said.
Kitty gave me a sharp look. “What?”
“You’ll go to Umsir and find out the cure to vampyrism—if there is one,” I said. “And I’m going south to get Essa.”
Kitty shook her head. “No. No way. That wasn’t the plan, Charlie. We should stick together.”
“I’ve been thinking about that the whole way here,” I said. “Heading south to Charcain, I’m walking into a war zone. I’m not taking a blind man and a girl who wears high heels in the bathtub. No offense—” I nodded to Bo.
“None taken,” he said, then rubbed his chin. “High heels in the bathtub, though… That’s quite a mental image.”
Kitty beamed, but her smile disappeared when she turned back to me. “We need you to come to Umsir with us, Charlie. Who’s going to keep us safe?”
I reached into the pocket of my flight jacket and pulled out a .38 revolver. I checked to make sure it was loaded, then gave the cylinder a spin, clapped it shut, and offered the weapon to Kitty.
“Between your vampyre strength and Bo’s sheer asshole-ish stubbornness, I think you should be fine.
From what Essa told me, the Oracle is friendly, and Umsir is full of warrior priestesses.
Once you get there, it should be one of the safest places in the kingdom—and definitely a hell of a lot safer than where I’m going. ”
Bo knew me well enough to understand I wasn’t up for a debate. “Alright,” he said. “I’d rather stick together, but I guess that makes sense.”
“What!” Kitty said. “You’re on his side?”
“He’s walking into a civil war,” Bo said gently. “We’d just slow him down.”
Kitty gritted her teeth—which was unsettling to see, now that she had fangs. But she didn’t argue.
“Umsir is about a two days’ hike from here,” I went on. “You two can wait for me there once you get the information you need from the Oracle. After I get Essa, I’ll come back and find you. If it’s been more than two weeks, you can probably assume I’m not going to make it back.”
“Oh, stop,” Kitty said. “You’ll be back.”
I gazed off to the south, where Issastar and Charcain awaited. “Not without Essa… And with her in the hands of those traitorous bastards, I might already be too late.” I gave a resolute nod. “Let’s get moving.”
We tied a rope between the planes and used Bo’s plane to tow Ruby over to the grove of trees, where we stashed and camouflaged both aircraft.
I got my saber and gun belt from my cockpit as well as my flight bag, which contained what meager food, supplies, and ammo I’d brought with me.
Then I turned to Bo and Kitty to say our goodbyes.
I hugged Bo first. “I wish you hadn’t come, man,” I said as I clapped him on the back. “But now that you’re here, stay safe, alright?”
“Don’t worry about me,” Bo said. “Take care of yourself. And find that girl of yours.”
I turned to Kitty, who opened her arms for a hug. Instead, I put out a hand for a handshake.
“Oh, come on, Charlie. We might never see each other again,” she leaned in, conspiratorial. “We should really exchange a little blood before you go...”
Those words, and the scent of her, stirred a hunger in me that hit like the crack of a whip.
And my mind flashed back to waking up in bed with her, naked and feeling electrified, with the taste of her on my tongue.
A wave of hunger came over me at the thought, so strong that it almost doubled me over.
Yes, her blood might heal me faster. It might give me strength for the journey ahead. But it felt like too much of a betrayal of Essa. I shook my head.
“No. And if you drink my cousin’s blood, I swear to god…”
She feigned offense. “Charlie! What do you think I am? A monster?” Her grin betrayed lengthened fangs, glinting behind the blood-red of her lips.
She did, in fact, look a little monstrous, and I wondered for a second whether it would be safer to take Bo with me than to leave him with her.
But the two were already turning and heading off together toward the mountains that waited to the northeast, trudging through the grassy terrain arm in arm.
I turned and faced south, where the moors seemed to stretch on forever beneath a pale blue late afternoon sky.
Somewhere in the distance, beyond my vision’s reach, Essa waited.
And by God, I was going to find her. Nothing—not golenae, not knights, not mages, not even the blood hunger that even now made my head ache and my hands tremble—was going to stop me.
Ever since I’d become a vampyre, the simnal part of my mind seemed to have shut off. I couldn’t hear or feel Essa or Parthar at all. And still, I tried to send a message.
I’m coming, Essa. Wait for me.
Then, with one hand on the hilt of my saber, I started walking.