Half a Soul Apart, page 18
She put her head on her knees and closed her eyes for a small rest.
Just for a minute, she thought but she quickly fell asleep.
Another day’s travel lay ahead of them and Jupiter’s Domain never remained calm for long. The winds were always on the breath of change.
To Starsland
Hessy wasn’t one to predict the weather spot on every time, but she was proven right as clouds ruined their fine morning sail and threatened them with rain. She hoped a storm would at least hold off. Raphael wasn’t bothered by a little rain and he remained well in control against irregular pushes of easterly winds.
Hessy held on, making sure that everything in the engine room was in shape. They did however have a small problem and one that she would only reveal to Raphael after they got safely through the wet spell. One strong gust of wind unsteadied her against the boiler. Her elbow was singed before she leapt off it with a cry.
“Hang on!” Raphael called back to her.
Hessy steadied herself into a safer position, grabbing a handle above with her other hand on the ground. The airship was honest in Raphael’s hands, pleasing him as much as the old lady could.
“Are we nearly at Luffiat?”
“No, why?” he demanded, hearing it in her voice.
“I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell me now, Hessy.”
“Well, I may have miscalculated the amount of peat, slightly.”
She waited for his angry answer. Silence came from the cockpit.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yes!” he snapped and then he groaned. “How much have we got then?”
“Enough for three, four hours more.”
“We’re not going to make it to Luffiat then.”
There was nothing Hessy could do about it. The peat was good. It had done them well, but each slab didn’t last as long as she had hoped. It burned faster than other peat she had worked with on Craggen.
This had been an emergency, not a contest for the most innovative invention. She rubbed the back of her neck, annoyed with herself, regardless.
“I’m sorry,” she told him after a while.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s irrelevant now.”
Hessy had an idea. She got back into the cockpit and she began to empty all the treasure out the two sacks. Maps chased after a large, rough jewel that skittered in front of him.
“What are you doing? Burning gold?”
“No. The sacks,” she said. “I’m going to need the pilot’s seat too.” He looked at her to see if she was joking but she waited for him to stand up.
He got to his feet. “I suppose you’ll want the coat off my back as well.”
“Maybe.”
“Hessy!”
“What?” she said, kneeling as she started to unbolt the wooden seat off the cockpit floor. “If you want to get to Luffiat, this is how. Anything like this, anything that can be burned. Without peat it’s not much. This is not going to burn as hot or as long but it’s our only option.”
She left Raphael standing unhappy at the helm as she dragged the heavy seat back down to the boiler room. She lay the seat, all three empty sacks and her tool belt in a heap. She fed the last of the jungle peat into the furnace and shut the door tightly. She had to adjust the level of air going into the balloon which meant less power. She got to work on dismantling the pilot’s seat as fast as she could into smaller pieces so that it could fit through the door.
She returned to the cockpit to see if there was anything else to burn. She spotted the wooden helm in Raphael’s hands.
“No,” he told her blatantly, catching her looking at it. “Do you still want me to pilot this thing?”
She looked above, gnawing her lip. “What’s outside?”
“Everything we need. Here,” he muttered, shrugging out his heavy coat. She took it feeling guilty.
“I think I have enough.”
“How much time have we gained?” he asked.
“Another hour,” Hessy said.
“Is that all?”
“It’s just an estimate. All this is a little out of my depth, technically my apprenticeship hadn’t yet finished.” Hessy turned away to fight with the boiler.
“Hey.”
It was like a thin string pulling on the corner of her heart. His voice was so deep and warm.
“You’re doing fine,” Raphael told her.
How was it that in these moments, the moments that were most life threatening, she could feel so happy?
They came into the region of Luffiat just a little over an hour.
“That’s it!” Hessy called.
There was still just enough steam power to spin the propellers as they began to move closer and closer to the ground.
It was an autumn terrain carpeted with red and brown leaves. Even the placid rivers drifted the russet leaves downstream and under footbridges. She could see some houses in the distant which was at least a good sign.
The Cloudtail slowed as Raphael guided it downwards. The pressure inside the balloon began to sag but they were nearly at the ground, just a few hundred more feet. He brought it across a river safely and onto heathered hillocks. There were moss-covered rocks, but Raphael avoided them skillfully.
“Hold on to something,” he said.
Hessy went to the side of the cockpit, hanging onto the door’s lever tightly. They weren’t going fast at all, but the first kiss of the ground made her loose her footing. She braced again, hanging on tighter.
They touched the ground three more times before they came to a stop.
“The rest we need to do on foot,” Raphael said.
“Fill as much as you can in your satchel and pockets with this gold,” he told her opening the access. “We’re going to need it.”
Hessy took as much gold and other jewels that she could physically carry.
“Let’s go. It’s going to be a long trek to Luffiat train station,” Raphael told her, setting off through the purple heather.
Hessy got out and followed with Maps. She stopped, looking back around at the Cloudtail they were about to abandon. At least she had made the old lady soar proud one last time. She had kept her promise to the airship. She hoped that someone else would find it and give it a third life.
“Hey.”
She looked up the slope. Raphael was holding his hand out to her. “You did good, Hessy.”
He had no idea what ruckus his words caused in her chest. She reached out, enjoying the warmth he provided, certain of what they were walking toward hand in hand.
PART THREE
Evergreen Express
Hessy and Raphael were getting stares as they sat caked in jungle dirt with a loud tailless tiger cub on the platform of Luffiat station. Hessy knew they were alarmingly out of place as they sat waiting for the train to North Starsland to arrive.
Around them were a great number of aristocrats. Women in long frocks and delicate lace umbrellas were peering at Hessy like she was a creature in a zoo and gentlemen in top hats shook their heads disapprovingly at Raphael.
“So where are we headed again? Scarry is it?”
“Scerah,” Raphael corrected. “We'll take this train and go North, just about as far North as you can go into Starsland.”
“Nattie and the others should be there by now?”
“Should be.”
Maps yowled unhappily in Hessy’s arms, wanting to get down so he could explore, but Hessy didn’t trust him with so many aristocrats around. A woman with a frilly green umbrella and a tightly laced corset was eyeing Maps suspiciously.
Raphael didn’t seem to notice the attention, or he did and just didn’t care, even though he was the most suspicious looking one out of the bunch.
Maps gave an embarrassingly loud, long growl. Everyone on the platform turned to gape and whisper.
A shrill whistle sounded, drowning out Maps’ noise. There, chugging merrily around the corner was a gleaming, emerald colored steam engine, billowing thick purple smoke with amber embers sparking out the chimney. It came to a steady halt, whistling with content, white steam blowing from its sides.
Hessy tucked Maps under her arm and went eagerly forward. She handed her ticket over to a bewildered luggage porter, but he quickly composed himself with a friendly smile and handed her a key.
“Please, madame, your compartment is down there and to the left. Compartment 12. Welcome aboard the Evergreen Express, pride of the North.”
Hessy could get used to travelling like this. Green satin curtains hung on either side of a large window with a pink sofa underneath it. She had her own vanity table with an oval mirror and a large, luxurious bed. She even saw a private bath on top of that. She grinned, taking off her muddy boots, looking forward to washing off all the jungle earth.
The lock clicked and her door was slid open, before she had a chance to undress, luckily.
It was Raphael. He looked down at his ticket and checked the number on the door.
“Ah,” he muttered, coming into the compartment.
“A-are we sharing?” Hessy asked, heat rushing up her neck.
“The ticket officer at the station obviously got the wrong impression about us.”
He nodded towards the bathroom. “You go first,” he said, settling himself on the sofa, shoving poor Maps aside.
Hessy hurried into the bathroom but the door didn’t have a lock. She didn’t know why she was getting so flustered as she turned the tap letting hot water burst into the copper rimmed tub. She undressed, frequently looking at the door, even though she knew he would never come in.
She sat in the tub, lathering her skin and hair with a lavender soap bar which was the best smelling thing she had encountered in days. She scrubbed until her body tingled with its calming floral scent and until the water around her turned a murky red. It was a quicker wash than she had been looking forward to as she pulled the chain and rinsed the tub. She wringed out her wet hair and changed.
Raphael was looking out the window as the train began to pick up speed. A thick redwood forest blurred past.
“It’s been years,” he said.
“Since you were home?” Hessy asked.
Raphael tensed. “Home … I haven’t thought of it as home, not for a long time. If Allen even recognizes me.”
“Is he your father?”
“As good as,” he said turning around. He smiled, amused.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said innocently.
She couldn’t keep his gaze long without feeling something more for him. It was like a pleasant awakening in her stomach. Her eyes fell on the bed and it hit her that there was just the one.
“I-I’ll take the sofa,” she said, quickly.
“You can have the bed, I don’t mind,” Raphael said, squeezing past her and into the bathroom.
“You’ll never fit on the sofa,” Hessy said.
She sat, stroking Maps as she waited. The cub wiggled on his back, tapping her drying, red strands playfully whenever she moved her head to look out the window. She enjoyed watching the changing scenery from the thick, redwood forests outside of Luffiat to a wilder landscape with snowcapped mountains.
Raphael came back out looking pretty good cleaned up. His dark hair was tangle free and slicked back. His face was clean, free of mud, the scars now more visible but they didn’t even bother her. She had become so used to them by now. So yes, looking at him, she still thought he was handsome in his own way.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Starving,” she said getting up.
“Come on, first class doesn’t end here.”
They left Maps in the room which he didn’t seem to mind as he dozed on the sofa, purring.
Raphael led the way down the corridor of the sleeper car to where two green uniformed porters stood. Gilded doors were opened for them and a luxurious dining car was revealed. Not everyone was in frocks and fancy suits, but Hessy saw that the two of them were the ones most underdressed.
They were seated at a spacious table with comfy cushioned benches on either side instead of chairs. The gold curtain had been drawn on their window and a crystal gas lamp provided light from the sill instead.
She raised her eyebrows at Raphael as the porter served them wine. Hessy only took half a glass and watered it down when the porter wasn’t looking. Except from the honey liquor put in coffee on Craggen, she had never really had a proper drink.
Raphael looked at his full glass in his hands a frown appearing on his face, but he didn’t look uncomfortable as such, just resistant. As if he knew this life all too well.
“You mentioned Allen before,” Hessy said, distracting him. “You said he was like your father? Did he raise you?”
“He took me in when I was just a boy,” he said. She saw he was struggling to be forthcoming as usual.
“After my parents died,” he added.
“I’m sorry,” she said, though she could never know that loss herself. She could only imagine what that felt like.
“He’s a very good man, Allen,” Raphael said.
“What happened to them? Your parents?” she asked.
He glanced at the curtained window, probably wishing he could see out of it.
“It’s complicated. The black and white version? They died during one of Nordvestur’s invasions.”
Hessy sat back in her seat, shaking her head.
“I’m sorry,” she repeated. What words could help with something like that? They failed her, none offering the strong sincerity that she was feeling. “I understand why you turned to the militia of Rultia.”
Raphael looked at her.
“Do you?” he asked.
Hessy pressed her lips together uncomfortably. Had she offended him?
“I mean they were a change, right? An escape? They made you believe they were something that they weren’t,” she said carefully. “I guess we’re the same in that sense.”
Raphael smiled. “I guess we are.”
He couldn’t keep the smile on his face for long though.
“Just, facing Allen. I don’t know if I can, like this.”
“He’s your family,” Hessy said simply. “He picked you to be his son, right? I’m sure he will understand once you talk to him, if he is as great a man as you say.”
She didn’t know what else to say to make him feel better as he drank from his wine, thoughtfully.
“We’ll see.”
Hessy lifted the watered wine to her lips and took a sip. It was a little like strong, heavy scented juice. The taste of it lingered on her tongue and lips.
“Not too bad,” she said.
Raphael’s smiles were becoming more and more frequent and she was shy and pleased that it was mainly because of her. She didn’t want to get to the end destination when the journey alone with him was as good as this. She hoped things didn’t change once they got to Scerah.
Time ticked leisurely onboard the Evergreen Express, encasing them both in a carefree bubble as they dined together, enjoying each other’s company. Hessy tapped her fingers on the table in time with piano music and Raphael enjoyed the wine which made him the most relaxed she had ever seen him.
Hessy could have stayed there the whole night but as the porters began to clear up and the music came to a stop, they politely and respectfully suggested that they retire to their compartment. Before they left, she took some leftover fish and folded it inside a napkin when the porters weren’t looking.
Hessy used her own key to open their door, while Raphael leaned against the corridor window. He swayed now and then, looking like he’d had one too many glasses, but she didn’t mind as she guided him onto the sofa, placing a rug over him.
She turned red when he took her hand, his eye drowsy as he tried to look at her.
“There’s so much I want to tell you, Hessy. There’s something you need to know,” he said earnestly but he let her hand go, drifting off.
She wanted to kiss him on the forehead, but she didn’t. Even with water in the wine it had a bad enough effect on her.
“You can tell me later,” she whispered.
“Hmm …”
Before Hessy headed into the bathroom to do a quick change, she placed the fish on the floor for Maps. He leapt on it a second later, gulping it down.
She decided to keep her vest and long johns on before creeping back into the room but by then Raphael was already sound asleep, which made her smile.
She got onto the bed, the first bed she’d slept in since her one back on Craggen. Once Maps had finished his snack, he joined her on the bed and began kneading her ribs like a cushion.
“Ow. Just lie down already,” she whispered.
He hit his head under her chin, purring madly. At least she wouldn’t be cold tonight, with a tiger cub scarf round her neck. Hessy, safe and comfy drifted off, the rocking of the steam train putting her into a deep sleep where the darkest corners of her mind lay waiting.
***
Hessy was racing through a jungle that was on fire. Half- souls hunting her blood. Through the burning trees and deathly smoke, she saw their eyes. It was a blackness so dark that if she were to look into them, it would suck her in and eat her soul. Just as she could see an opening in the flames, her feet stopped moving. She was stuck and the Half-Souls thundered behind her getting closer. They were going to tear her to pieces, and she was just standing there.
Why was she letting them catch her? She struggled, screaming. She looked down and saw red quicksand. She was getting sucked deeper into it the more she struggled. The sand was rising fast, coming past her waist. The fire circled round, trapping her. The Half-Souls’ breath was on the back of her neck. Then she saw someone on the other side of the fire. She opened her mouth to scream for help, but nothing came out.
Then a Half Soul spoke, right in her ear.
“Are you trapped, flightless bird?”
“Hessy!”
She flailed in the Half-Souls’ clutches, a scream forming at the back of her throat. They had her.
