Half a Soul Apart, page 3
He roared in pain. He instinctively grabbed Hessy as his friend moved to forcefully restrain Nattie.
They had managed to cause a commotion that quickly began to escalate. More militia soldiers were making their way over to their corner but so were the Craggen locals, eager to defend Hessy and Nattie. Rich came at speed, pushing into the cluster of soldiers unbalancing some of them. It nearly turned into a full out bar brawl. Even Ethel came with a tray raised in her hands.
Hessy struggled to get out of the middle of it, but she couldn’t pull Nattie free. The soldier was still grappling with her. Hessy was just considering on using her fists to beat his chest when a deep voice resonated within the walls, bringing the raucous to a silence.
“Stand down!”
The two soldiers that had started it all immediately stood straight, their arms flat by their sides, their lips tightly closed obediently. The other soldiers had also snapped to attention with salutes.
Nattie took advantage of the sudden calmness and the two girls started to head towards the door. Hessy caught sight of Lieutenant Halcrow near the door. His single eye followed them briefly before he went over to his soldiers.
Nattie pulled her out the tavern, giggling.
“Great, Jupiter.”
Hessy’s adrenaline lingered, but she also started laughing. “That was almost fun.”
“I had it under control but that was too far him calling you what he called you,” Nattie said. “We might have just slimmed our chances of getting recruited by General Rudyard, you do know that?”
“I hope not. It wasn’t really our fault. I guess Mr. Arman won’t see it that way though.”
“Well, at least those militia soldiers know now,” Nattie said.
“Know what?” Hessy asked as they walked arm in arm.
“Not to underestimate us.”
Nothing was said about Hessy or Nattie’s actions the next few days that followed. Either Mr. Arman had decided not to punish them, or nothing was mentioned to anyone about it. Hessy decided to keep her head down and avoid any ruby uniformed soldiers as much as possible. She had to have a clean record if she had any hopes of being recruited and starting a bar fight with future colleagues wasn’t a great first impression.
After a slow morning on the second deck, Hessy realized she was going to need some inspiration before she could finish Yellow Bee.
She got up from the floor and stretched out a cramp in her calf.
“Where are you going?” Nattie asked.
“To pay a visit to Jupiter,” Hessy said whilst she was still feeling brave.
“Be careful, ay?” Nattie said.
***
Hessy got her inspiration from the sky and the place where she felt closest to it was in Jupiter’s Temple.
The only problem for Hessy was that it was on the west peak of Craggen.
Hessy began her hike, following the rope railings and stone steps that scaled up the steep trail. She looked up, ignoring the spinning in her head as she gazed at the black stone temple of Jupiter which loomed over Craggen like a storm cloud.
Hessy climbed the steps of the temple on all fours, not daring to look down behind her, knowing it would be too much. The climb grew steeper and steeper with every step and just as she neared the top, her clumpy boot clipped the edge of one step making her stumble. In a panic she grabbed the rope with both hands to steady herself. Her spanner was loosened from her tool belt and dropped down the steps one at a time. She looked back and saw it leave the path and fall into a cluster of boulders where it lodged.
“Ah, shit. Come on,” Hessy complained. She thought about leaving it, but it was a good spanner, her lucky one and it was just off the path.
She took a deep breath and slowly started to retrace her steps back down to where her, now not so lucky, spanner had gotten itself stuck. Hessy lay down on her stomach, flat against a wide step and peered over the edge of the path. Her spanner was within reaching distance as it glinted helplessly in the sunlight.
To reach it Hessy was going to have to let go of the rope.
She lay there trying to persuade herself to lean down enough to retrieve her spanner when a shadow passed over the sun. At first, she thought it was a cloud but when she turned her head upwards, she found Lieutenant Halcrow staring down at her with a smile dancing at the corners of his lips.
“What are you doing?” he asked. He stood straight up, the incredible heights clearly not phasing him one bit.
Hessy felt her face heat up instantly. Of all the people to see her like this. “Nothing. Just getting my spanner.”
Lieutenant Halcrow’s smile broke free as he glanced down to where Hessy was indicating. Without support he confidently bent over and plucked the spanner out from the rocks and placed it into her waiting hand.
She got up onto her knees and pocketed the spanner. Her legs were still shaking.
“Thank you,” she said to him more than a bit embarrassed.
She waited, hoping he would just leave, but he didn’t. She could feel her cheeks reddening.
“Are you going to get up?” he asked.
She knew what an idiot she must look like to him, hugging the rope railing while he stood there at his ease.
“Are you hurt?” he asked as an afterthought.
“No, I’m fine, thank you. I just need a moment,” she admitted.
Thankfully, he seemed to understand her awkward behavior.
He stepped over her in one stride and continued up the summit like they were any other stairs.
Hessy pulled herself forward on hands and knees and made her own way up at a much slower pace. When she made it over the last step she had to pause and catch her breath.
Jupiter’s Temple was a colossal black building supported by pillars on all sides. On the ruined roof sat black gargoyles, vigilantly watching the comings and goings of everyone, their hollow eyes always following the visitors.
Hessy could never look at the gargoyles’ ugly faces for too long. It always made her feel as if entities beyond their world were watching her. She hurried underneath them and into the large entrance. She walked through the cool, onyx temple, her clumpy boots echoing loudly off its walls. Inside was a high, decorated ceiling with rows of pillars leading to the oversized statue of Jupiter. Well, it was just a statue of a man half naked. It was cold up in the sky so why would an image of Jupiter be half naked? The statue’s features were appealing but mysterious at the same time and looking at the face Hessy was reminded of Lieutenant Halcrow, without an eyepatch.
The temple hadn’t been a place of worship for centuries and had become a sort of attraction instead, to tourists or to those who dared making the climb. Hessy only came because of the temple building itself. It held a sort of mystery for her. She knew it was older than the Craggen town, but no one knew for sure who had built it. Some far-fetched ideas were that Jupiter himself had put it here.
She didn’t go towards the statue, instead she made her way to the side of the temple where there was an opening in its roof, revealing the indigo sky above. She watched the clouds move and slowly change, inspiration starting to spark.
“So, you made it.”
Lieutenant Halcrow had silently come from behind her. He was looking up at the gap as well.
“Sorry about before,” she said sheepishly, wiping her palms on her stained trousers. She glanced sideways at him. His brown eyepatch was on her side. His face had seen much sun and he had a charming smile twitching at the corner of his lips. He turned to face her then and it caught her by surprise at how striking he was with his bright amber eye.
“You’re afraid of heights,” he said simply.
“Silly, huh? Considering where I live.”
“I guess you chose the wrong place.”
Hessy laughed. “Well, I didn’t have much of a choice. Just got dropped off really.”
Hessy thought this was a good time as any to get on the lieutenant’s good side, maybe smooth things over by what had transpired at Eagle House.
“I want to apologize, lieutenant,” she began.
He looked confused at that.
“The fight I started with your men. Well, it won’t happen again,” she said. “It was just a slight misunderstanding.”
“You have absolutely nothing to apologize for,” he said, surprising her. “I know exactly what happened.”
“Oh,” she said. She wasn’t expecting that.
“So, are you working on anything? Have we seen one of your inventions perhaps?”
“Yellow Bee.”
Lieutenant Halcrow smiled. “That drone has come up quite a lot. A lot of questions surround it, however.”
“I’ve yet to write my report, and an instruction manual,” Hessy admitted. “It’s just not my strong suit, spending hours in front of a typewriter. Words on a page, all that.”
“Does the inventor of that craft have a name?” he asked.
“Hessy. I’m Hessy Fairbird, sir.”
“It takes a lot of grit to climb up to this temple, especially for someone with a fear of heights. It’s that kind of attitude we’re looking for, Hessy,” he said.
She swallowed, trying to ignore the strange thrill that shot through her at his words and his smile.
“Thank you, lieutenant.”
***
The next few days flew past in a blur. Everyone was putting in extra hours in their desperation to get their inventions finished, or as near to. Hessy was admittedly proud of her own work. The shape of the drone was very like a honeybee, made with different materials that she could get her hands on including thin willow and wind up mechanical wings on each side. The only thing left was getting to writing the report and submitting it to Mr. Arman as soon as possible.
Sometimes, the militia soldiers were overseeing their work, striding amongst the apprentices, questioning them.
When there were no more fine-tunes to make on Yellow Bee, she left it on the second deck with a tarpaulin over it and had taken a typewriter into the now empty workshop. There she was undisturbed to write her report.
When Hessy wasn’t eating in the mess hall with the other apprentices or stretching her legs in the hangar, she worked and slept in the workshop, occasionally lighting the stove if it got too cold.
“There you are.”
Hessy looked up in the middle of fighting with a jammed piece of paper in the typewriter.
It was Nattie.
“Hoi.”
“How are you getting on?” Nattie asked.
“I want to say I’m finished, but I don’t even want to think about how many more pages I have to wrestle into this thing,” Hessy said.
“Haven’t seen you about for a while,” Nattie said, playing with the frayed ends of her pleat. “Why don’t you let me give you a hand. I owe you.”
“You owe me? For what?” Hessy asked.
“For those handsome assholes you so nicely rescued me from,” Nattie grinned.
“You were the one that served him a hot drink,” Hessy pointed out. They both laughed at that.
Nattie gathered up all her papers and studied them with a critical brow. “Your spelling is so bad. And what the heck does this even say?”
Hessy huffed and snatched the paper from her accusing finger. “It says ‘horn-handled screwdriver’.”
“No, it really doesn’t,” she groaned. “Move out the way.”
Nattie sat smartly with all Hessy’s papers laid out before her. She began typing ten times the speed of Hessy on a good day. She never took her eyes off the page. Occasionally she would ask Hessy questions about Yellow Bee.
When Nattie wasn’t satisfied with the answers Hessy gave, she elaborated on it herself.
Hessy didn’t realize she had dozed off until she was roused awake.
Nattie’s almond brown eyes were circled with red and the whites of her eyes were bloodshot.
“You’re finished,” she said.
Hessy got to her feet. “Really?”
Nattie handed over a neat brown folder. The instruction manual, the report and some of her best diagrams were all inside.
“Wow, Nattie,” Hessy said genuinely touched.
“It would be a shame if you got left behind because of sloppy written work. Next time don’t leave it until last minute,” Nattie said. “All you have to do now is hand it to Mr. Arman tomorrow.”
Hessy slept deeply in her own bed for once, refreshed for the next morning. She walked up from Craggen Down to the Aviation Institution with her report tucked safely under her arm, smiling to herself.
The sun hadn’t fully risen yet and even though it was still summer, she could feel a frosty chill in the air. Her ears popped when she yawned.
As she climbed up the steep steps to the hangar, all she could hear was Nattie. She was screaming so lividly her voice was tearing. Hessy broke out into a sprint. What was going on? What was happening to her?
There was chaos as she entered the second deck of the hangar.
Nattie was the center of attention. The other apprentices were with her too, all with the same anger directed at the militia soldiers. Nattie was red in the face, yelling loudly as Mr. Arman tried to calm her down.
At her feet were bits and scraps of a broken drone. Had someone done something to Nattie’s invention, Ladyfly? Hessy tried to squeeze past, but she couldn’t get close with the commotion surrounding her.
Mr. Jerry was there as well, trying to get control of the apprentices.
“You pathetic scabby weasels! How dare you touch an inventor’s work!” Nattie yelled.
All Hessy wanted to do was comfort her friend.
“Nattie!”
She turned pale at the sight of her, her cheeks streaked with angry tears. “Aw, don’t Hessy, don’t come closer – you shouldn’t have to see this.”
Hessy frowned and then looked to the floor between her and Nattie. At first, she thought it had been Nattie’s invention. But then she started to notice tiny details that were all too familiar. She reluctantly made the connection. The folder slipped out her grasp. It was Yellow Bee. Her drone invention looked like it had hit against the side of the mountain and smashed into unsalvageable bent pieces. She stared at it, shocked.
“Let me get you out of here, Hessy,” Nattie said, fighting back another outburst. “Come on.”
Hessy turned to Mr. Arman, her voice trembling, unable to hide tears. “Who did this?”
Mr. Arman cleared his throat. “They won’t go unpunished. However, I’m afraid there’s nothing you can do about it now, what’s done is done.”
Hessy pulled free of Nattie and left the hangar, not trusting herself to break down right there in front of everyone.
She got as far as Craggen Down entrance before collapsing onto the top step, shielding her eyes against the dawn.
“Hessy.”
She didn’t look at Nattie as she sat down next to her and put a sympathetic head on her shoulder.
For the past few weeks whenever she looked at the sky, she always imagined Yellow Bee flying in it. It seemed so empty to her now.
Becoming a militia soldier just got so far out her reach. That one and only chance had been crushed just like her drone.
The Darkturnalus
Hessy sat cross-legged against her broken, squint, bed frame sketching out another Yellow Bee design halfheartedly. It was the day before the Caelum Militia were set to depart. All the apprentices had been selected, nine in total. Nattie, Arky, Rich and even Abe Hall, of all apprentices, were amongst them.
Hessy was trying to muster enough selflessness to show herself and wish Nattie well. Chances were, she wouldn’t return, but Hessy hadn’t been able to go to the hangar. She wasn’t concentrating on her sketch and the charcoal pencil punctured straight through the parchment. She sighed, placing the sketch down and massaged her neck.
A knock on her door made her jump. No one ever knocked on her door. She never had visitors, except for Nattie. But she would have just barged in, knowing Hessy’s lock was broken. The only other person who knew where she lived, because he had put her here himself, was Mr. Arman.
Hessy approached the door a little apprehensively. If it was Mr. Arman, she would rather pretend she wasn’t in. The knock came again, a polite knock. If it was Mr. Arman he would have huffed and puffed and blew her house down by now.
She opened it.
There standing in her doorway was Lieutenant Halcrow.
Hessy was so surprised that she didn’t know how to react.
He held up something familiar. Yellow Bee’s folder.
“I thought you might want this back.”
“Ah,” she said, taking it from him, wondering what use it was to her now.
She saw him eyeing the inside of her room with what looked like pity. She raised an eyebrow against it, opening her door wide.
“Should I invite you in?”
“I’ll make this quick,” he said, stepping inside.
There was nothing to be done, so she didn’t bother trying to hide the mess around them. She freed a wobbly stool for Lieutenant Halcrow to sit on.
Her cheeks flushed as she could only fill a copper bowl with water as all her mugs needed a good wash. She handed it to him.
“You don’t have much guests, do you?” he asked, his lips twitching into a smile.
They sat in silence for a while until the lieutenant brought up the dreaded subject.
“I was sorry to hear about your drone. For what it’s worth, I would have been more inclined to take on Yellow Bee than the others.”
Hessy gripped her hands tightly. “Yea, well maybe next time.”
“Or why wait? I must ask if the militia is really the direction you want to go in? You have a lot of talent, there are plenty shipbuilding businesses around in the north. I bet they would be lucky to take you on.”
“Caelum Militia aren’t controlled by Nordvestur Federation,” Hessy said. “And you make a real difference to central Rultia.”
“Not always,” Lieutenant Halcrow said. There was a hint of darkness in his voice and it made her look at him more closely. His expression was neutral though.
