Margaret pushed her away.
“Look,” Kara said. “David needs you. Cam won't be hurt. Believe me. But if we don’t leave now, hell, we’re probably going to be thrown into gaol with her anyway. Besides, Cam's never going to leave without her Aerokin. Trust me, between you and her, she'll choose the Meredith Reneged every time.”
Margaret hesitated a moment more, before running back towards the Dawn.
“We need to hurry,” Margaret said, and Kara smiled.
The Dawn 's limbs struck out and out. Engines fired, even as they passed through the doorifice.
“They got Cam,” Margaret said to him.
David nodded. “She'll be all right. What use is it for Mother Graine to hurt her?”
“Mother Graine was ready to kill you,” Margaret said.
“She'll be all right. You can't do anything about it now. None of us can. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is,” David said, though he looked about as happy as she felt.
The Roslyn Dawn rose gracefully from the hangar, and not a shot was fired, until she was almost free and in the open air. The shot went wide. The Dawn fired a burst of shot in response, and every soldier within the hangar dropped to the floor.
Cam was already gone.
“They won't hurt her,” Kara Jade said. “Believe me. We don’t harm our own much.”
The Dawn hit the air, bio-engines roaring, the northern wind a sudden beating presence. Margaret could feel the Aerokin working against it.
“There’s no one to catch us,” Kara Jade said. “You’ve the fastest Aerokin and the finest pilot on your side. They'd sooner catch the wind than me.”
Margaret looked around the familiar space of the Aerokin's gondola. Leaning by the doorifice was her endothermic weaponry. Cam had gotten that much done before they'd caught her. Margaret picked up the bag, scanned its contents, the familiar weapons: swords and rifles that had saved her life so many times.
She found no comfort in them now, just carried them to her bunk at the rear of the Aerokin. She walked back to the doorifice. It opened at her approach, and the slightly cloying, slightly musty smell of the Aerokin faded.
Drift was already a way behind them. No Aerokin had followed, instead they had gathered in the airspace over the Caress.
“They know it's pointless following me,” Kara said from behind her.
“This was too easy,” Margaret said. “All of it was too easy.”
“What are you saying?” Kara rested a hand on her back. This close to the open doorifice, a single push from Kara would be enough to send her falling.
Margaret turned. “Are you part of this, too?”
Kara's face stiffened. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Was all this just some elaborate scheme, a test to see how determined David was to succeed?”
“You’re seeing wheels within wheels,” Kara said. “And none of them make sense.”
Margaret flashed her teeth. “So you weren’t in on it, then. You’re as much a dupe as David. Question is, did you pass or fail the test Mother Graine had set for you?”
Kara frowned. “Look, we made it to the Dawn, and she’s the fastest Aerokin to ever live. No one, not even my sister, could catch us here. I see what you’re suggesting, but as a test, it’s far too complicated.”
“I don’t think so; they needed to see that David — that we were all capable of doing this. I’ve no doubt that if we had failed we’d all be dead by now.”
“Think that way, if you must. And I won’t argue. In fact, I’d prefer it to be that way.”
“Manipulated?” Kara asked.
“We’re all of us manipulated, but if what you think is true then it means there’s a chance for I and the Dawn. We might still be able to return.”
“I think you’re right,” David said from behind them. “I think Mother Graine only showed us that room so I would know that she could have kept me in a place you would never have found me. That room, it did things to me. Weakened me, and the longer I’d have stayed there the worse it would have gotten. There’s no way I could have escaped from it. But here we are in the sky again.”
“They won't follow us,” Margaret said. “We've jumped through her hoops, and ran her maze.”
Kara shook her head. “She is the last survivor of her kind. The Mothers of the Sky have always ruled us. Now there is only one. Something beyond terrible has happened, and we are fleeing it.”
“We’ll make it better,” David said.
Kara laughed. “Do you really believe that? I mean, look at you both, Mr and Mrs Grim. Him with his cold hands. And you with those cold eyes. I could drown in the doubt and sadness in this cockpit.”
“And you’re doing a wonderful job of lightening our hearts,” Margaret said.
“I’m not here to lighten your bloody hearts. I’m here to get you north, like I promised I would. And I damn well will.”
“And that’s all you need to focus on,” Margaret said.
David glared at her, then shook his head.
Kara laughed. “It’s going to be such a fun trip.”
She jabbed a finger at David. “You, cold boy. Get me my rum. We’ve hours of flying to do, and I’m itching to get drunk.”
“Is it ready?” the eldest asked, peering at the peculiar contraption.
The second Old Man nodded.
“Will it work?”
“It will work,” the Old Man said. “It need only make one journey.” He lifted the machine in his hands, bound it to his body, and let them lead him to the great doors of the airship. Two of his brothers pulled the doors open, and he turned to the eldest one last time. “I will be swift.”
“And we will follow,” the eldest Old Man said, gesturing for him to go.
The Old Man stepped into the sky. The mechanism bound to him shuddered. It roared. And he did not fall.
CHAPTER 31
The truth about the Deep North was this. There was always something waiting to stop you. Tearwin Meet might be reached, but always at a cost. No one had survived beyond its high walls, and few lived to reach them and return. All we had were a few rough pictures, including, remarkably, one of the earliest examples of Immediacism — the artist didn't have long to dwell upon those high walls. Even the decision to travel north was a dangerous one.
THE FREE AEROKIN ROSLYN DAWN 1500 MILES NORTH OF THE ROIL
By the end of the first day, even David could tell the Dawn was struggling. Kara stood cursing at the control panel, mumbling beneath her breath between louder exclamations. She'd gotten drunk and sobered to a terrible hangover, so bad that she’d downed handfuls of the healing salve at the heart of the Aerokin — and even some coffee, which she went to great pains to explain was more valuable than anything else on the Dawn, which was why she couldn't possibly share any — but apparently her headache was of world-ending proportions.
“What’s happening?” David asked.
“Those headwinds,” Kara said. “Headaches, headwinds, we're damned and doomed.” She swallowed more of the Dawn 's gel, washing it down with coffee. She winced. “I'd heard that the winds had picked up, but these are incredible. We’re going to have to approach Tearwin Meet, low and slow, and when the winds are at their weakest.”
David frowned.
