He’d left his marriage torc behind, and the absence of its weight around his throat left him feeling off-kilter, which was no way to be when meeting with Mainspring. Blaine had a feeling he’d need all his wits around him to match words with that woman.
The airfield’s main gate came into view up ahead. Blaine caught sight of Mainspring by the gate, and Honovi pulled the motor carriage to the side of the street. He braked to a stop and locked the wheels in place before turning off the engine.
Mainspring and her cogs approached, the woman giving Blaine a nod when he finally climbed out of the motor carriage, the trade tongue slipping free of her lips. “You’re cutting it close. I thought you’d changed your mind.”
Blaine tilted his head, meeting her gaze through the veil she wore and replying in the same language. “If I had, you would have been informed.”
Honovi came around the motor carriage to stand beside Blaine, catching his attention. “I’ll hand off your trunk to the porters.”
He spoke in E’ridian, and Blaine switched to the language he considered his native tongue these days. “This isn’t a permanent goodbye.”
Honovi raised his hand to run his fingers through Blaine’s shorn hair, the absence of his braid almost as jarring as the emptiness around his throat. “I’ll find a way to follow you.”
It wasn’t what theComhairle nan Cinnidheanwould have preferred, but Blaine had no doubt his husband would somehow build a road back to him. Blaine forced a smile before pulling Honovi into a kiss that was as desperate as all the ones from earlier. He wanted to remember the way Honovi felt in his arms; the way he tasted; the timbre of his voice. Blaine packed away the memories in a tight little ball he hoped to never forget.
“I know you will,” Blaine said when they parted. Honovi managed a rictus of a smile that looked ghastly in the shadows cast by the nearby lamppost. Then he stepped away, out of reach, and Blaine’s fingers curled on air. The ache in his chest didn’t fade. “I’ll write you.”
“No, you won’t,” Mainspring said.
Blaine turned his head to look at her, irritated by her eavesdropping and wondering just how much E’ridian she knew. “You seem to think you get a say in this.”
“You risk too much on our end if you remain in contact with anyone here in E’ridia.” She kept her voice low, a quiet murmur within their close conversation circle, not wanting to be overheard.
“The clans will require updates, and I promised to provide such to my husband and myceann-cinnidh. You can call me whatever you like for this shadow game of yours, but I am clan, and that will not change.”
“He’ll send such communication through our embassy in Amari,” Honovi said, staring at Mainspring.
A flash of annoyance flickered across her eyes before she imperiously held out her hand. “I’ll see that ring you spoke of during the meeting.”
Blaine slipped his hand into his flight jacket pocket, retrieving what she wanted to look at. He held it up for her perusal but refused to relinquish it. In the glow from the nearby lamppost, he could just make out the shadowy grooves of a crest he hadn’t claimed for years.
Mainspring nodded after a moment. “Very well. Now, let’s be off.”
She turned and headed for the gate that would lead to the airfield and the launch docks, her cogs following dutifully at her heels. She seemed to have every expectation that Blaine would follow—and she would be right.
Honovi snagged him by the elbow, reeling him in for one last kiss. “Safe travels and strong winds.”
Blaine nodded and forced himself to walk away from the man he loved, refusing to look back.
For I am starshine lest you guide me wrong.
The song prayer whispered through his mind, and Blaine let the memory of drum beats and chanting and eerie pipes in a Star Order temple drown out the desire to stay by Honovi’s side. Duty was never an easy thing to keep.
The sun was dipping below the horizon at the edge of the Sunrise Valley, casting the airfield in long shadows and turning the mountains on the horizon aglow in burnt oranges. The sky above was darkening, with the first stars shining in the east. Despite the hour, the docks still bustled with workers loading and off-loading cargo from airships.
It was a long walk to the far edge of the airfield, where a large Ashionen airship was anchored, its design nowhere near as sleek as one of E’ridian make. Mainspring presented their travel tickets to the attendant on the dock with a little flourish. The attendant took them after glancing at the pocket watch in his other hand before putting it away. “You almost missed the gangplank closure.”
“It’s a good thing we didn’t,” Mainspring said lightly. “We had a bit of trouble with lost luggage, but it was thankfully found.”
The attendant checked the tickets beneath the glow of the gas lamp bolted to a post and punched a hole in the corner of each one, indicating they were cleared for boarding. The porters had made it to the assigned dock and were already halfway up the secondary gangplank that provided access to the cargo bay of the airship. Blaine’s party went up the main gangplank for the decking.
An attendant on the open-air deck directed them toward the interior. The enclosed space was the first-class dining room, the shutters over the interlocking glass panels folded back for the evening flight.
They took a narrow, twisted set of stairs belowdecks, where another attendant checked their tickets and directed them to their berths: two interior rooms, with no windows and no beds, only two benches facing each other, with shelves bolted overhead for carry-on luggage, and a single gas lamp turned low giving off light.
Mainspring’s two cogs went into the room across the narrow hall from theirs. Mainspring only carried with her a satchel, which she tucked out of the way on the shelf over one bench. A blanket was folded on each thinly cushioned bench, with a pillow stuffed into rough linen cases perched on top. It was a far cry from the captain’s quarters Blaine had always shared with Honovi.
“We’ll land in Foxborough before sunrise to catch the steam train. I’d rather our transfer happen under the relative anonymity of darkness,” Mainspring said.
