“Part of it feels like a nightmare.”
Durae flinched. “Of course. Gods, Blaze. It looked like your drawings.”
“We don’t know if it’s an exact copy.”
“The engine is out on the deck. I saw too many similarities for it to be a coincidence, even at a distance.” Durae wrapped his arms around one of Blaze’s, cuddling into him. “You’re both from Manabelt, but have you even run into each other?”
“I tried to get him to support my prototype,” Blaze said. “I had a meeting with him. He said … he said I needed more time.Needed to work in his workshops and hone my craft. But he managed to throw enough gold at his own to beat me to it.”
“Not his own,” Durae said defiantly. “It is the bigger version of yours. Did you show him the designs? He might have had a charm to increase his memory so he could write them down?”
“The table,” Blaze said. “He made certain to spread them out on a table in his office. He must have used it to copy them.”
“The bastard!”
A painful realization struck, and Blaze closed his eyes tightly. The world was darkness behind his eyelids, but perhaps it would be safer to retreat there for the next week than to face anything else. “I’m ruined.”
“You are not,” Durae replied.
“I am!”
“Blaze—”
Anger suddenly surging in to fill the hole left by grief and disappointment, Blaze shot to his feet. “I had my engine half completed before I left Manabelt, and I still have a piece to place. If he’s accomplished the complete construction, then he hasn’t done it alone, which means he has told others that it is his design. We don’t know how many people he’s had working on it or how many others he’s been pursuing. And added to that is that his is of an impressive size! Look at this ship! Even if anyone believed me, no one would care!”
“You haven’t placed the piece,” Durae said slowly. His eyes widened.
“I knew the dance was special to you, and I wanted to make an appearance,” Blaze said. “As important as my ship is, I was willing to risk the time. I figured a magical night was worth a sleepless one.”
Durae hurried to his feet. “That’s not what I was talking about—though, for the record, I am incredibly moved by that and find it endearingly romantic. He stole your design, Blaze.”
“I know!”
“You haven’t replaced the steel mechanism,” Durae said. “And the celestial diamond that Gustus has is twice the size of yours. It took my mother, an accomplished scholar in cosmomancy who has a high familiarity with enchanted conveyances, to find the flaw! She’s one of the top ten scholars in the field. What are the chances that Gustus consulted someone who knows as much as her? He plans on having a full ship when he shows it off at the competition. Wehaveto tell people! Lives are at stake!”
“But what if no one believes us?” Blaze asked.
“Then we keep trying,” Durae replied.
And if Blaze had not already made room for Durae to conquer his heart, he would have done so again upon seeing his fierce determination. He was a force of nature. Blaze clutched the heart compass in his hand.
Perhaps, together, they could accomplish the impossible.
CHAPTER 17
Though Blaze had expressed his concerns about others believing what they had to say, Durae had believed that others they talked to would have the common sense to realize that they were telling the truth. But somehow, Lord Gustus had spread word through the night that “greedy liars” were attempting to smear his good name to keep him out of the running for the Innovation Awards. Not a single elf in the Everend Market’s Inventor’s Row had assented to letting Durae put one of his handcrafted flyers on their stall. No one was willing to spread the truth.
“We might have better luck with those from Emberleigh, and my family name should carry plenty of weight with the Dun Steorrans,” Durae said. “Mack will certainly be able to convince the locals, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know,” Blaze said.
Durae clenched his jaw. Until Blaze had discovered that Lord Gustus had stolen his designs, he had had a steady light in him. He wasn’t always the most talkative, but that was no bother. Their silence could be as comfortable as their kisses.
Now, Blaze’s silence was bleaker than a cloudy sky in midwinter.
What they needed was food. They’d rushed out to the main market area without a thought of food. Durae’s stomach was starting to complain, and they had only just begun what was promising to be a very long day. With Blaze plodding along beside him, Durae walked through the area dedicated to astrology and arcane services. Stopping to talk to anyone who wasn’t preoccupied made their stroll much longer, but Durae’s hope was right. These were mostly his people, or at the very least knew to respect the word of Navisoras. Several took flyers and promised to spread the word.
“I told you this wasn’t pointless,” Durae said.
