From the Ashes of Victory: The Complete Series, page 209
part #0 of From the Ashes of Victory Series
"We defend ourselves until we're out of danger. I didn't choose Hannah to tend bar just because she can pour a mean drink and hold a conversation. She can shoot a tin of beans off the head of a drunken mule at 400 yards, and Betsy can do it at 350. The rifles they brought are a damn sight bigger than seven mils, too." Barrett glanced down at the windspeed indicators, then the engine temperatures, all perfect. "I've gotten this hulk around the world twice, and I'll be damned before I fail the third time on account of some second-rate pirates with pea-shooters mounted to shit that should've been scrapped on the drawing board." She looked directly at Millie. "Or a stubborn witch."
Deeper the Raven dove, faster and harder.
The leading edges of her wings were white-hot, burning with purpose and desire.
Embers trailed behind, marking her path down.
Down.
Into the dark, where the last of her demons cowered.
They would die in the light.
The Raven worked.
With the engines surging and idling at random to keep the ship in place, it was impossible for Katya to know what was happening by the sounds from outside. Inside, there was no screaming and the alarms had stopped, but no-one had called back to tell them the danger had passed, either.
That left the one she was sitting next to.
Katya was doing her best to contain the heat, but Vita was working with energies far beyond anything Katya had any experience with. Opening more vents would help, but if too much heat escaped too quickly, it risked throwing off the buoyancy of the ship. The cargo and three witches had to absorb as much as they could first, but aluminium could only take so much before it began to warp. Katya had taken off her coat and gloves, and though they would have been useless against bullets, it still left her feeling more vulnerable. Particularly to circumstances.
She had every faith in her beloved, it was everyone else who risked tearing her away now.
"Vityusha, my shadow, you need to come back. The captain is going to move the ship whether your mind is aboard or not!" Katya's hand hovered over Vita's shoulders, straining against the desire to touch her.
"She cannot hear you, Katya." Elise's calm visage was slipping, her platinum brow bowed in concern.
"The hell she can't. If there's one person she will listen to, it's me."
If Vita could break her promise, then Katya could break her rules. Throwing her arms around the woman she loved, Katya kissed her fully and fiercely. Tears streamed down her cheeks but boiled away into steam before they could reach her chin. Whether it was from the heat of Vita's work or the strength of the Firebird's passion, both were equally intense.
Within the heart of the earth, things were clear.
There were no borders to get in the way, no names, only the veins that connected everything into a single web. Rock, mineral, metal, it was all earth. All one, from the same source, made of the same things. With more experience navigating it, the resistance weakened until the Raven knew no resistance at all.
No obstacles.
All that remained was the will to see the work done.
She had glimpsed her goal before, but now she knew.
She was it.
From behind came a pull. A call.
To slow down, to… retreat?
No.
Return?
Why?
She began to feel heavier, slower.
Into the silent tomb of the dead star came a voice, clear and bright: "I love you, my shadow."
The shadow.
Paired to the light.
The living star, blinding and brilliant.
The Raven would see that it continued to burn.
"Three minutes, Miss Brown! You sure you don't want to go back there and give her a smacking?" Barrett said. She snatched up the telephone. "May, keep signalling that we're almost ready. Won't have this all cocked up at the last moment."
Millie did want to go back and give Vickie a thumping, but that was the adrenaline and the captain's presence talking. If Vickie was still working, she had a good reason, and if Kat couldn't bring her around, then it must have been doubly true.
Still the planes circled, the pilots pointing down with increasing fervour, which meant they were likely nearly out of petrol. Millie hadn't seen them so much as flash a weapon, let alone ready one, and she would be damned before she ran from something that had presented no threat.
And might yet be easily threatened.
"What if we spooked them off? If they know whose ship this is, I say we use it against them."
Captain Barrett flicked her toothpick between the corners of her mouth. "Is this your plan B?"
Millie looked over at the captain not as an amiable passenger or even a normal witch, but as the Red Knight, revealing the parts of her that Niamh had forged—as one whose battle-proven loyalty to her sisters made Barrett's fealty to the Longs look like little more than that of a mercenary's. "Yes. Draw their attention, at least. Plan C is to rip their wings off if they feel brave."
The toothpick stilled, and Barrett gave a respectful nod. "Very well. You have permission to spook, Miss Brown."
Millie didn't hesitate, and grabbed a flask of tea on the way out the door.
The tomb of the dead star was no longer a barrier but a conduit.
A conductor.
When struck hard enough, it rang, shocks reverberating from tremors on the opposite side of the world, reflected and refracted by its molten iron heart.
Like a bell.
The others…
The demons…
The work…
The purpose…
The danger…
The guilt…
The end.
All at once.
The Raven's will took shape.
The cargo hold was sweltering and growing hotter by the moment.
Vita was magically incandescent and Katya had topped out her ability to contain the heat being produced some time ago. She'd also stopped fretting and pleading. It was obvious Vita was working with intent, and Katya had to trust that she knew what she was doing. They had come too far together for her to do any less. "I'm with you, my Vityusha. Now and always."
"Good lord." Elise pointed with her free hand at the diamonds.
As though God had decided to finally do something about avarice, they were slowly being erased from existence, converted directly into energy. The more that vanished, the more Vita's magic intensified. And so did the heat.
Overhead, someone ran down one of the catwalks, and Elise jerked her head to the sound. "Millie!"
"I could feel what Vickie's doing from Mars, I'm gonna buy her some more time!"
"Where are you going?" Elise shouted.
"For a walk!"
Time meant nothing.
The work needed to be done.
It would be done.
Then the light would be safe.
The Raven's will was formed: a gleaming bright hammer.
She drew it back.
The demons quailed.
Her heart soared.
The moment Millie popped her head out of the maintenance hatch, a wave of vertigo washed over her and her witchscale responded before she told it to. With no time for such a reaction, she shoved the feeling aside and clambered onto the spine of the ship armoured from head-to-toe. The view was spectacular, the air bitingly cold, but Millie took in both only as an assessment of her surroundings, judging how much ship there was between her and oblivion if she put a foot wrong. Being the longest and widest flying machine ever built, there was quite a lot, but it wouldn't seem that way as she was sliding off.
Looking unbalanced and terrified wouldn't spook a kitten, so she strode as confidently as she could manage towards the back of the ship. The taper would give her a better chance of being seen, as well as drawing attention away from the gondola at the front.
It didn't take long.
The moment the first plane caught sight of her, it dove sharply, peeling away before the pilot managed to recover.
One thing Millie hadn't thought about from inside the gondola was that Juno's sheer size meant the pilots couldn't actually see each other, and she had to introduce herself to them one by one as they came round the back.
As tempting as it was to give them all the double-fingers, it quickly became apparent that someone who looked like Millie walking along the top of an airship was more than interesting enough by itself, and the planes rose to circle her specifically.
Which meant no-one else on the ship could see them anymore.
"Shit."
Whatever Vickie was doing, she was doing a lot of it, and still needed time. The ship needed to remain free of bullet holes and Britain needed to avoid a war. With the energies building below, Millie guessed she didn't need to hold the pilots' attention long; all she had to figure out was how to do it in a way that would keep them from opening fire. She couldn't touch them, she couldn't talk to them, and any gestures she flashed might risk unintentionally insulting their mothers or some other cultural wire-crossing.
The youngest-looking pilot had no such qualms, however, and in addition to emphatically pointing down, waved his scarf around and waggled his wings. It was an odd display, one that only heightened Millie's discomfort with the entire affair. If they were pirates, they were dandy pirates and not very good at it. If they wanted a ransom, they had picked perhaps the stupidest, most dangerous target in the world.
Still, the pilot looked almost desperate, pointing to Millie and then himself again. He never brandished a weapon or even hinted he had one, which made it even harder to credit it as a challenge, but she had no idea what the hell it was.
No threat, no weapons…
On the next pass, he got so close Millie could almost make out yelling, but since it was coming from only a few feet behind the rattling exhaust of the engine, it was hopeless to make out, even if she'd understood Russian.
Perplexed but needing to try something, when he returned Millie gave him a friendly wave.
He returned it with a look of relief.
And a smile.
The floor of the cargo hold was growing hot to the touch as the diamonds vanished with increasing speed and Katya, mistress of fire, could barely breathe.
Elise was even worse off, yet somehow maintained her composure. "Victoria's body is not responding to external stimuli. We must open the vents or the heat will harm her."
"So would moving the ship! We can't—"
"I know the risks! Millie is on top of the ship! Moving it threatens them both, but staying this way will kill Victoria. We must do our part and trust those we love. Open the vents, Katya."
It was so hot, Katya couldn't think. Her mind was soup, threatening to run out her ears. How could she choose in her state?
She ran her hand down Vita's cheek, unable to tell sweat from tears. Brushing her hair back, Katya kissed her on the right temple. "I love you, my Vityusha. Now and forever, wherever you are."
Living star.
Beacon.
Guiding light.
The reason.
The hammer was ready.
With a triumphal scream, the Raven struck her will against the world.
It rang clear and pure.
A thunderclap ripped through the cargo hold, exploding the mail bags and blowing open the vents, sending smoking postcards flying out with the rush of hot air. The ship followed, rearing upward and squashing the three witches against the floor. Katya and Elise both held on to Vita with all they had even as Katya's gorge rose against the movement. She forced it back down, swallowing it with the saliva that flooded her mouth.
As suddenly as it had shot up, the ship suddenly stopped, rendering them temporarily weightless. They knew a brief moment of complete disorientation as they floated above the metal deck before crashing back down again.
"I have you, Vityusha," Katya managed when the motion finally stopped.
Then Elise screamed.
Millie was so utterly baffled by her unexpected connection to the Russian pilot the horizon suddenly falling away was a distantly second surprise. Even as her knees buckled and her ankles raced up to meet her shoulders, she watched her flask roll off the side of the ship with a kind of detachment. The tea spilled and splashed, running down the waterproof skin in steaming rivulets, only not as quickly as they should have. Then her mind caught up and she realised what was happening.
She followed them over the side.
Witchscale tendrils sprouted in every direction in desperate search of purchase as the ship rocketed upward, but there was nothing to grab onto. Skin and sky flashed, one replacing the other so quickly she grew immediately disorientated. She flung her limbs out to try to stop herself from bouncing off of every aluminium rib, hoping against hope she could generate enough friction to slow down.
But witchscale was frictionless, and suddenly there was only sky.
"Millie!"
Elise's cry punched straight through Katya's heart and straight through the other side. They both turned to the rear as they felt Millie slip down the side of the ship and plummet into oblivion.
The sound Elise made in response was the single worst thing Katya had ever heard.
Terror and anguish exploded in Millie's mind, but it wasn't her own. The Bond became a live electrical wire connected directly to the back of her head, nearly blinding her with the intensity of Elise's terror. But Millie didn't have time to be scared. Witchscale flared out to cancel out her tumble, allowing her to fall flat. With her armour up there was no real sound, and once past the initial acceleration, no real feeling as she plummeted earthward.
There was a reason she and Elise made sure to say 'I love you' every time they parted.
It was the only sentiment Millie allowed to pass across the Bond from her end. She had along ago accepted that she could die at any time, but had always imagined it would catch her by surprise.
In a way, she supposed, it had.
"Wake up! Millie needs you!" Katya cried as she cradled Vita's limp form, unable to keep from rocking back-and-forth. Millie was falling slowly, but without knowing how high they were, there was no way to tell how much time she had left. "Vityusha!"
With a violent, sucking gasp, Vita jerked back to herself hard enough to nearly knock them both over.
"Vityusha!" Katya cried, and redoubled the strength of her embrace. "Oh, my Vityusha, I was afraid you wouldn't come back!" She desperately kissed her partner over and over again, smearing her with tears and mascara.
Every time Victoria came back to herself there was significant disorientation. It was usually because of the size discrepancy between where she had been and where she was, and on this occasion it was especially marked. She felt tiny and slow, her thoughts sluggish.
She had no idea why Elise was screaming and Katya was crying.
Groaning with discombobulation, it took a moment for Victoria to get some manner of cooperation out of her tongue, small and pointless as it felt. "What?"
"Millie fell off the ship!"
The fog enveloping Victoria's senses was thick; she couldn't have heard that right. Why would Millie do that?
Juno had risen so far so fast Millie was looking down on the Russian planes as she fell, only now manoeuvring to catch up. If the intent was to spook them, it had worked, going by the look on the young pilot's face as she hurtled past.
From behind came not machine gun fire but the thrum of Vickie's power solidifying again, a pulse of magic that passed straight through witchscale to shake Millie's bones.
At least Millie had the satisfaction of knowing that her plan had succeeded. Vickie was back, and Juno could get underway again. Elise was taken care of.
All that was before Millie was the desert.
But what about those behind?
Who would remember Aisling now?
Who would make sure the girls could take care of themselves?
Were Vickie and Kat getting married or not?
Who would carry Elise over the threshold into her new house?
Below Millie, the ground grew ever larger, filling her vision with frozen sand.
She didn't much care for it.
With a wrenching effort she spun away, looking back up to her heart and soul, her life, the source of the warmth in the back of her mind. The thread that had pulled her through colder moments than this.
And that was her chance.
Witchscale tendrils fired from her fingers so fast they hissed, lancing straight towards the nearest Russian plane. With a snap and a twist they caught on the crossbar of the landing gear and wrapped themselves around it. She had barely fused them into a single rope when she jerked to a sudden stop and was yanked back up again, screaming as her shoulder was torn out of joint. Through a haze of pain she managed to curse herself and distribute the pull over her entire armour sheath until she barely noticed her own weight. Blinded by the fire in her shoulder, she hung free for a moment until she could see straight again. Eventually her thoughts cleared along with her vision, and she began drawing herself up on nothing but magic and willpower.
As she rose, she realised she was going to need both arms to do more than dangle. Taking several deep breaths, she constricted her armour over her dislocated shoulder and with a quick snap, popped it back into place. Somehow, it hurt worse than pulling it out had, but she managed to remain conscious.
Which was all to the good, because she was going to need to be to figure out what to do next.
Katya could feel with the others that Millie had not only stopped falling, but was coming back up. Only one of them knew why or how.
"She caught one of the aeroplanes!" Elise exclaimed in both astonishment and overwhelming pride.
"I'm sorry, she did what?" Vita asked. She was still disorientated and needed to cling to Katya for support, but even if she had been completely recovered she would have likely asked the same question. If she hadn't, Katya would have.
