Page 55

“The male part of the squadron is, anyway.” Pip nudged Fieran with an elbow, giving him a teasing smile. “The female mechanic and pilots have been snug in a barracks this whole time.”

“True. Such privileged status.” Fieran gave her a slight nudge in return.

Adry’s heart gave a squeeze. It was both strange and beautiful to see her older brother in love like this. A part of her wanted to gag and another part wanted to aww, and she wasn’t sure which part would win out just yet.

“They are very luxurious tents, thanks to the platforms and sheltering trees the elven half of the squadron created.” Merrik rolled his shoulders in a shrug before he glanced at Adry. “It really is not bad. I am not sure a hastily built barracks would be any more snug.”

“Very true.” Fieran laughed, then half-turned around, walking backward, to face Adry. “I heard you’re getting a room near Dacha’s in the elf officer quarters.”

Adry kept her smile in place, but her stomach sank. She’d known she wouldn’t get attached to a regular elf army unit.

No, she was in a special Laesornysh unit under her dacha’s command. That meant she got special treatment, such as a room in the elf officer quarters, usually reserved only for higher ranked officers. Not for lowly lieutenants who had only passed their warrior test a few weeks ago.

Perhaps Merrik sensed her discomfort because he gave her a soft smile and a small nudge with his shoulder. “The elf officer quarters are a short walk from the aerodrome. We will be close together.”

Given how sprawling Fort Defense was, that was a good thing. If she’d been stationed by the main elf army, she would have been miles away from Merrik. At that point, she might as well have stayed in Estyra for how often she’d see him.

“Definitely a good thing.” She swerved to nudge him back, reveling in the ability to do that. She was here. With him. Who cared if she received special treatment because of her magic and last name?

The four of them arrived at another platform, this one for a tram that traveled up the bluffs rising high above them where they stood on the floodplain by the Hydalla River.

After climbing onto the tram, they took seats for the short ride up the bluffs. Sitting beside Merrik, Adry peered out the window as she got a sense of the sprawl of Fort Defense. The whole defensive complex probably covered more square miles than the entire elven city of Estyra.

At the top, they exited the tram onto another platform. Before them, the huge nested hangar—formed of many different metal buildings all smushed together into one long series of buildings—stood, its metal roofs and sides glinting in the sunlight. To their right, the broad airfield stretched outward while ahead and to their left was another square of buildings.

Fieran and Pip once again led the way, heading straight for the large hangar. Fieran motioned at the barracks that he said belonged to the other two squadrons stationed there before entering the hangar through a large open doorway in the side, the metal door rolled open.

As Adry stepped into the shadows inside the building, her boots scuffed on the concrete floor, the sound echoing off the metal sides and roof along with all the other bootsteps, voices, creaking, banging, and general cacophony of work.

All around the hangar, various aeroplanes were parked in orderly rows wing tip to wing tip. Their two wings and fuselage were painted a dull gray-blue with the red, gray, and green circles of the Alliance painted on the undersides of the wings. Presumably the circles were painted on the top of the upper wing as well.

The sides of the nose of each fuselage were decorated with some kind of painted icon. All of the aeroplanes within view had a tree behind various other emblems, from just an elf ear to a sword or a bow and arrows.

A large group of elves and humans—mostly men but also a few women—clustered in the center of the hangar in the broad avenue between the rows of aeroplanes. At their approach, the whole group turned toward them, the elves, generally, with solemn expressions while the humans were grinning.

“Half-Breed Squadron, this is my sister, Adry.” Fieran stepped to one side as he gestured to her.

“And my girlfriend.” Merrik swung their clasped hands, a soft smile on his face as he looked down at her.

Anyone else might have said those words as if staking a claim on her. But Merrik’s tone held nothing but pride, as if he couldn’t quite believe he was privileged to be able to say those words.

“Adry, this is the Half-Breed Squadron.” Fieran waved, the gesture turning more authoritative as the whole pack rushed forward. “Not all at once! Line up in an orderly fashion.”

The pilots leapt to obey, arranging themselves into a line.

Adry resisted the urge to shake her head. It turned out Fieran’s bossy older brother tendencies had their uses. He’d come into his own as captain of his squadron, that bossiness now tempered into an authority he wore easily and comfortably.

As the first one in line approached Adry, Fieran opened his mouth. But Pip tugged on his hand, pulling him a few steps away. When Fieran sent her a look, she stood on her tiptoes and whispered something to him.

Adry smiled at the sight. Fieran had better not mess this up. She rather liked Pip and agreed with Louise. She wanted Pip for a sister someday.

With Fieran out of the way, that left Merrik to introduce his squadron to her. She smiled and shook everyone’s hands, glad to finally have faces to put to the names she’d been hearing about for so long. Lije, Stickyfingers, Aylia, Tiny, Lt. Rothilion, and more. She knew them already thanks to Fieran’s letters and Merrik’s stories.

Once the introductions were out of the way, Merrik tugged on her hand, his grin as wide as she’d ever seen it. “I would like to show you my aeroplane.”

“I’d love to see it.” Adry gripped his hand as the two of them slipped past the line of aeroplanes before anyone else could rope them into conversation.

“This bay and these aeroplanes belong to the elven pilots.” Merrik gestured at the line of aeroplanes behind them before he led her to a large door, which took them directly into another hangar bay. “This one is for the human pilots. Or half-human pilots, as the case might be.”