But he wasstuffed. Between tasting cakes and pies and meats and spices and brews at the market’s food festival, Durae wantedto collapse in his bed. However, the Innovation Awards were in three days, and Mama had insisted on seeing the schematics before Durae could take flight with Blaze. Durae desperately wanted to be on the ship for the takeoff that was bound to make Blaze a legend.
Papa and Father were still pub-crawling their way through the market with other nobles. Meanwhile, Uleyri was enjoying an evening with the couple she had danced with at the Emberleigh celebration. A proposal seemed likely.
Durae was trying not to think about what life would look like after the market ended, but the time was drawing closer and closer.
It wasn’t this moment, though. For the time being, he was in his family’s suite at the inn with cooling cups of tea sitting at the edges of the table. Blaze had brought his tube of designs and laid them out for Mama. Durae had taken over talking about the plans and what work he’d already seen finished on Blaze’s craft. In addition to Blaze’s designs for his current-sized craft, he had brought the plans for a much larger ship.
“You could let the inventor speak for himself,” Mama said with amusement.
“He’s spent the last week poring over them. I think he knows them better than I do,” Blaze remarked fondly. It was a newer quality his voice had taken on, and Durae had noticed it seemed to only come out when Blaze was talking to him or about him.
“It’s fascinating!” Durae grinned over his shoulder at Blaze. “You are a genius. I’ve told you that, haven’t I?”
“All very exciting,” Mama said distractedly. She frowned and slid a few papers closer to her.
“Something wrong?” Blaze asked. His relaxed attitude vanished as he snapped to attention, clearly honing in on the pages Mama had directed her focus.
“Durae, could you fetch my sketch pad from my bedroom,” she murmured.
A knot formed in Durae’s gut, and he rushed from the common room to find what she asked for. Blaze’s hopes—and his own—were so high that if something were wrong with the designs at this late hour, they’d both come crashing down. Durae realized he wasn’t worried that disappointment would take the shine off their relationship, but he wanted Blaze’s invention to work. He’d put too much time and effort into it for it to fail a mere three days before the competition.
Durae grabbed his mother’s pencils and charcoals in addition to her sketch pad and hurried back to the table.
“No need to be frightened,” Mama said as she took her materials. “I want to check a few things.”
“Check what?” Blaze said.
“A few numbers. The celestial diamond described here, that’s what you’ve put into your engine?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve also calculated that it could sit in an engine five times its size.” Mama was writing quickly. Each scritch of her pencil pulled strings to tighten Durae’s anxiety.
Knowing how much Blaze feared his airship’s failure, Durae went to stand behind him and wrapped his arms around him. He leaned his chin on the top of Blaze’s head and held him.
“I don’t need as many secondary crystals to draw on the celestial diamond’s connection to the force of anti-gravity,” Blaze said.
“Correct. What I think is that you’ve underestimated the power, and it will overwhelm a very important control, especially since you went with a steel component here. You should use copper.” Mama handed over her calculations.
Still frowning, Blaze took the paper from her and examined what she’d written. Color drained from his face, and he pulledhis schematics closer. Durae sat beside him and attempted to look over the writing, but Blaze had it at the wrong angle. He glanced up at Mama and started to ask for a pencil, which she handed over before he got a word out.
A minute later, he announced, “Fuck.”
“What?” Durae asked.
“She’s right. There is a high chance the steel control for height would snap under pressure. I wouldn’t have the problem of falling out of the sky. I’d soar upward with no way to get back down.” Blaze placed the new calculations on the table and wiped a hand across his lips. Squeezing his eyes shut, he swore under his breath.
Gently, Durae put his hand on Blaze’s shoulder. “Is it a complicated part? You still have two days?—”
“To have a custom part rush ordered and then turn around and enchant it before the competition? It would be tight. And expensive.” Blaze rubbed his palms against his closed eyes. “And it would be best if it were copper from the Quicksilver Mountains. Which means finding a merchant I can trust to give me a price on the ore that doesn’t suck and?—”
“And I will pay for it,” Mama said.
“Lady Mae, I …” Blaze opened his eyes and swallowed hard. His hands went to his lap. “I wasn’t trying to fish for coin.”
“It is a small investment in a prototype that I wish to see succeed,” Mama replied. “Our gondolas do not use celestial diamonds for this reason, but these calculations and enchantments do what our magic has yet to achieve. I am thoroughly impressed, Blaze. You deserve the opportunity to see this work.”
Blaze gave a weak smile. “Thank you.”
