It was just after the new year. On the 350th and the first, the majority of the Perfectorate’s workforce had enjoyed its only two consecutive days off a year. Clubs and bars had been packed. Normally responsible citizens had been letting loose, swinging to the latest electro-jazz hits, sipping cocktails, trying those bright little pills they’d always been curious about–one time couldn’t hurt. Sometimes Giana envied them. The simple luxury of colored lights on the dance floor, cutting loose with your friends, one night stands, that hope that maybe this time it would be something real. But she had a crew relying on her, and delicate business relations to foster and a reputation to maintain. At least, in the days following the New Year, she could count on business booming for the Silver Falcon.
She tried not to get excited about the New Years sales boom of her addiction antidote and blackmarket magical hangover cures. She’d started the side business with the benevolent intentions of helping people rid themselves of the magical addictions Lanomar Swift infused his essence drugs with–but she sure did make a lot of profit this time of year.
Which was why she was trying to not be annoyed by the letter in her hand, typed on neat, crisp Perfectorate letterhead. Apparently her ship had the “honor” of being selected to escort a Spireborn senator as part of his diplomatic tour of the workforce of the city states. She was to report to a rendezvous point tomorrow morning, where he would board her ship with two inquisitorial guards and a reporter, and she was to show him a day in the life of a silver trader.
Her eye twitching, she ordered her crew to raise the flags signalling to skyfallers that they were closed for business and reroute their course from trailing three stops behind Swift to the damn Spire. She wasn’t worried. She was fully equipped to ply an honest trade for a day or two, leaving no one the wiser. But it was so much less profitable than the blackmarket essence trade.
***
The next morning, she had her crew stand at attention on deck in their finest uniforms, the shadow of the spire falling across them. The structure was impressive, built on a cluster of islands tethered together with steel and magic. It towered over everything else. It was warm this near the temperate winds of the capital, but she still wore her jacket. If she was going to have to pose for a bunch of propaganda photo ops with some blithering politician, she was going to look good in them. Senator Carl Midweather arrived right on time decked out in five colors with a pair of inquisitors marching behind him in their dress clothes. Flash bulbs exploded around them as he boarded the Silver Falcon and shook Captain Coastrunner’s hand.
“Welcome aboard, Senator Midweather,” she said. “It’s an honor to have you riding along for the day.”
“And it’s an honor to be amongst the workers that make the great gears of the perfectorate keep turning,” said Midweather. They both might as well have been reading off a script. The reporter scribbled in a notebook beside him. Midweather leaned in. “Now, don’t let me get in your way, Captain. I’m here to be a quiet observer. Just do everything as you normally would.” He beamed at her, and she gave him her most diplomatic smile back. It wasn’t like she’d had to go completely off course to pick him up, or that she’d had to call in favors with the nearest silver mines and distributors to make sure she could complete a run and get him back to the spire in time for dinner.
“Well in that case, we should get moving, senator,” said Giana. “Dilly, give the good man a tour of the ship.” Dilly stepped forward and ushered Midweather away from the main deck. The man seemed harmless enough. A sheltered rich boy vacationing in a world he didn’t understand while the Perfectorate picked up the tab. It was the inquisitors and the reporter she’d have to be careful around. She took a good look at the two inquisitors as they passed, and it wasn’t until then that she noticed that the one on the right was staring at her with a nervous smile. He was tall and black-haired, clean-shaven with a bit of a hook nose. And she’d remember those blue eyes anywhere.
“R…Rell?” she stammered, despite herself. His smile widened.
“Ah, so you two know each other!” The other voice scraped against her nerves and she turned her focus to the man on the left. They’d never met, but she recognized him instantly. Thick eyebrows. Young, but with permanent frown lines creasing his forehead. John Arbiter. The man who’d tried to take her and Rellion down all at once by hiring a member of her crew as an informant.
She tried to keep her expression even. “We were neighbors as children. A funny coincidence.” Although she was sure it wasn’t. They couldn’t give him anything.
“Giana,” Rell started, but she cut him off.
“We both have jobs to to do right now,” she said. “There will be time for catching up later.”
She pointed after Midweather, and the inquisitors marched after him, though she caught Rell looking over his shoulder at her once. She avoided his eyes and started shouting orders to her crew. She didn’t know what was going on, but she hated it. Rell might have been born into being an inquisitor, but she’d always had a better sense of intuition than him.
Dilly managed to keep Midweather and his entourage entertained for most of the morning, but Midweather wanted to watch the silver shipment be loaded onto the crawler, and Giana also had to be there to oversee, which put them all in the same room again.
“So how do you know Rellion?” Arbiter asked during a lull.
“I told you. We were neighbors.” She signed her name on a clipboard full of papers Dilly had handed her.
“Neighbors don’t keep pictures of each other in their lockers,” Arbiter said.
She handed Dilly the clipboard back. “I haven’t seen Rellion in 10 years, sir. I don’t know what he keeps in his locker, and frankly I don’t care. Now please make sure the Senator stays farther from the silver vaults. I’d hate for him to get injured on your watch.”
“Is that a threat?” said Arbiter.
Giana sighed and rolled her eyes. At about that time, in the distance, Rellion tugged Midweather out of the way of a crane. “It most certainly is not.”
Arbiter hurried over, just as Midweather was thanking Rellion profusely.
“You saved my life, son,” Giana heard him say. “I’ll be recommending you for promotion after this is over.”
Arbiter’s back was to her, but she could see the tips of his ears reddening. She smirked and continued with the day’s work.
She managed to deliver the shipment before closing time, but just as she was charting a course back to the spire, her radio crackled to life.
“Rimward Spire Receiving Dock to Silver Falcon. Do you read? Over.”
“Captain Giana Coastrunner aboard the Silver Falcon. Yes, I read. Over.”
“Captain, a leviathan has been sighted moving through the void between your location and the Spire. Skyfaller teams have been dispatched to herd it out of Perfectorate space, but it is slow-moving and potentially dangerous. Over.”
“Orders in regards to senator Midweather? Over.”
“Drop off time is changed from 6 p.m. to 10 a.m. Please offer the senator appropriate accommodations for an overnight stay. You will be compensated fully for the inconvenience. Over.”
“Roger.”
Giana hung up and rested her forehead in her hands. Her watch patted her thumb with the tip of its band, and she shoved it back under her sleeve.
“Dilly!” She called into the intercom. Moments later, Dilly was at her door.
“Arrange the best sleeping quarters you can for the senator. Looks like he’ll be an overnight guest. Make sure the inquisitors take it in shifts to guard the door. If anything happens to him, it’s going to be my ass.”
“Yes, Captain. He can have my room for the night.”
“Thank you, Dilly.” She was glad she hadn’t had to ask. She honestly wasn’t sure what proper procedure was right now–nothing like this had ever happened on her ship before. He was a five-color politician. Part of her wondered if she ought to offer him her own room, but she felt like that sent a problematic message. He might be her superior in every way as far as society was concerned, but the Falcon was still her ship, and she was still in charge out here.
She invited Midweather to the Captain’s table that night. She answered all his silly questions about driving a crawler and the metal trade in great detail. She caught Arbiter glaring at her several times over the course of the meal, but he and Rell stayed silent and ready to defend their charge. Rell kept trying to catch her eye, but she ignored him. Hurt feelings were nothing compared to one of them letting something slip on accident. The man had taught her inquisitorial magic when they were teenagers for void’s sake. If anyone else in the room found out, they’d both get tossed into the void.
It wasn’t until the dishes were cleared and Rellion had escorted Senator Midweather back to the first mate’s quarters that Giana ran into Arbiter snooping through her cargo holds with a lantern. He jumped and dropped a bar of silver when she flipped on the main lights. The clang rang out in the metal hold like a gunshot.
“You should be resting up for your shift on watch,” said Giana.
“You’re not my superior,” said Arbiter.
“I’m the Captain of this ship, and I’m ordering you to return to your quarters.”
“Why? What are you hiding, Captain?” Arbiter picked up the silver bar and examined it.
“I’m ordering you to return to your quarters and rest so that Senator Midweather is not in danger during your shift.”
Arbiter smirked as he put the silver bar back where it went. “Come on, Giana. We both know you’re up to something.”
“And what might that be?” said Giana. She was calm, even though he was standing on top of one of the ship’s main essence holds. The magical radiation was dulled by the silver, and the hatch was hidden. She’d had the hold built for a moment like this. Under normal circumstances, she would be concerned about him reading her mind. She knew he had the ability. But he would have to be far more stupid and reckless than she pegged him for to use off-the-books inquisition magic on the same ship as a senator.
“You’re working with Swift,” said Arbiter. “I know you are. And Rellion’s tied up in it too. I just have to prove it.”
Giana laughed. “So you weaseled your way into escort duty and pulled some strings to get Midweather assigned to tour my ship? Sorry, John, but all it’s gotten you is a free meal and a crewman’s bunk for the night.”
Arbiter flushed. “I visited the bunk you assigned me before I came down here. There’s a name plate on it that says ‘Marti Downs,’ but…” she watched his expression change as the truth turned into a lie. “I haven’t met anyone by that name on this trip.”
“He no longer works here,” said Giana.
“What happened to him?”
“It’s not my concern what happened to him after his contract with me ended,” said Giana. Then, with a smile. “Why do you care so much?”
Arbiter flushed a deeper shade of red. “One day, I’ll find out what your game is, Coastrunner,” he said. “And yeah, you may be climbing above your station now, but by the time you retire, you’ll be lucky if you get a four-by-six and a bowl of gruel a day.”
“Big words from a man who can’t even get a promotion,” said Giana. Arbiter shoved past her, shoulder-checking her hard enough to send her stumbling into the wall. She considered filing charges for assault, but that would be a stretch, and she didn’t have time to be that petty.
Giana took a brief nap instead of sleeping that night, then passed temporary command to Dilly and made sure she was in the hall between the first mate’s quarters and the crew quarters when Rellion was scheduled to come off watch. He caught his breath when he saw her.
“Giana, I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t write. I’m sorry I never looked you up. I was under strict orders not to…”
She clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him to the shuttle bay.
“Giana, I…” He started again, but she silenced him with a look.
“Do you seriously not realize your friend Arbiter is looking for every piece of dirt he can find on either of us? Now shut up until we can be sure we’re alone.” She pulled an old ring of keys from her pocket and unlocked her old S class. It had been forever since she’d driven the thing, but she wasn’t saying shit until they were at least an island over.
She made a bridge from the open bay door to a little island next to them, and only after the cab had made landfall did she turn to Rellion.
“It’s good to see you, Rell.”
“It’s good to see you, too. What’s going on, Giana?”
“I’m catching up with an old friend.”
“What was all that about Arbiter? Why are we out here?”
“I…” she shook her head. “Arbiter has been snooping around. He’s trying to get you fired, Rell, and he’s trying to prove I’m working with Lanomar Swift, which I’m not, but…” She took a deep breath. “You and I both know what I’m hiding.” She touched his inquisitor’s badge, then laughed. “I’m sorry. It’s been so long.”
“Look, that was all in the past,” said Rellion. “We’ll only be here until the morning. He won’t find anything out.”
“I’m not really worried he will.” Giana felt herself almost blush. “But I know you’re only here for so long. I wanted to talk to you before I left. I know it’s stupid.”
“Nothing you’ve ever done has been stupid,” said Rellion.
Giana smiled sadly. “I asked your father to let me say goodbye.”
“I did too. Did you get my watch? Did you find the note?”
Giana nodded. She touched the watch under her jacket and almost showed it to him, but she could risk him realizing it was alive. Her aeo magic was one thing she’d never admitted to, not to him, not to anyone. “It meant a lot.”
They stood there staring at each other for a moment, the awkward weight of ten missing years of conversations weighing down the air between them.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” Giana said at last.
“A walk would be nice.”
They left the cab of the crawler and made their way a little ways across the island. It looked to be an abandoned lumber yard. Cranes and saws rusted around them. A few rats scurried between rotting stacks of wood.
“Bet we could build a fort if you wanted to,” said Rellion, gesturing to some planks.
Giana laughed. “I think I’m past forts.”
“Besides, your husband would probably think it was weird if you were building them with some other guy, eh?”
“I’m not married,” said Giana.
“Oh, me neither,” said Rellion. She was surprised. They were both 27. Another year and they’d be assigned spouses by the government. But she wasn’t the type who had time for romance. Except now, she supposed. In this abandoned manufactory while a senator slept aboard her ship and a rival inquisitor guarded him. This was absolutely idiotic. She should have just let Rellion do his job and go back to his precinct in the morning, even if it meant being separated for another decade. But she didn’t turn back.
As they walked, their hands brushed against each other once, twice, then Rell grabbed hers. She was glad for the dark. She blushed as she laced her fingers through his. She really did feel like a dumb teenager again, now that he was here. They walked a few steps side by side, then she pulled away.
“What’s wrong?” said Rell.
“You don’t even know me,” said Giana.
“I want to again. Giana, when Arbiter put our names up for his job I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t care, because it was a way for me to find you again.”
She scoffed. “Don’t tell me you’ve waited for me for ten years.”
“Well, no…” Rellion shoved his hands in his pockets. Despite the Inquisitorial uniform, he looked an awful lot like the teenage boy who used to sneak into her old fort. “But I missed you. You were my best friend, and my first girlfriend, and if Dad hadn’t sent me away, we probably would have…well, I would have liked to…”
Giana looked at him. “I missed you too, Rell. But our worlds are too different. You’re an inquisitor. I’m a merchant captain. You wouldn’t even like me if you knew more about me than the stupid fort.”
“There is nothing I could find out about you that would make me not like you,” said Rellion. “You’re smart and capable and brilliant and kind. I want to hear about your travels, about all the adventures you must have had. I want to…”
Giana put a finger to his lips, kissed him once. She looked at him standing there in the shadows, and all she could see was a future full of lies, of deceit, of the fear that someday he would dip inside her thoughts again at the wrong time like he had that evening so many years ago, and everything would be over. “It won’t work,” she said. Even in the dark, she could see moisture glinting in the corners of his eyes. “Come on. We should go back. Don’t trust Arbiter. That was the point.”
They walked in silence for a moment. Then a pair of headlights broke the darkness. The dirigible was small, expensive, and coming at them entirely too fast. It had approached without running lights until it was nearly on them. Giana recognized Lenomar Swift’s trademark maroon paint job.
“Get down!” Giana screamed. She threw herself over Rell as a pair of tommy guns sprayed bullets across the lumberyard. Rell swore and struggled out from under her. Swift must have been tracking her, must have seen her personal craft leave the main ship. But now? Did it have to be now?
In the shock of the moment, she hardly registered that Rellion was standing up next to her, readying his own Perfectorate-issued sidearm, returning fire at the crooks. He darted past an old crane and into a dilapidated building for cover. It was little more than a covered open-air workshop. When the gunfire stopped, he bolted up a rusty ladder, jogged across the open-air second story toward a vantage point where he could see the craft. The dirigible was sailing on. It was just a drive by. Just meant to scare her into submission. But nothing could scare her more than the crack of splintering wood that echoed from the building. One moment, Rellion was crouching in front of a broken pain of a grimy window, taking a last shot at the departing vessel, the next the floor was crumbling beneath him, and he was falling, tumbling, rushing head first toward the concrete ground in a spray of rusty nails and splintered wood. There was no way she could reach him in time. In a panic, she sent an arc of green light through the darkness towards the crane Rellion had run past. Green aeo magic rippled across it, and in one smooth motion born of her need, it reached out for Rellion at angles it never should have been able to bend into. It caught his fall, swung him outside of the collapsing building, and set him gently on the ground. She severed its magical connection to her as soon as he was safe. It flowed back into its original shape and went dark, but she knew he’d seen everything. She only hoped the building’s remaining walls had blocked her actions from the dirigible’s line of sight. She jogged to his side. He was still on his back. She hoped she wasn’t too late…
“Rell,” she said softly. He scrambled to his feet, and this time the gun was pointing at her.
“It’s Rellion Lawholder, 7th Precinct Lieutenant, and you, Captain Giana Coastrunner, are under arrest.”
Giana put her hands up. They were shaking, but she didn’t drop her gaze from his. “Don’t do this.”
“You’re an aeo witch, Giana!” There were tears in his voice. “The voids am I supposed to do?”
“Look the other way!” said Giana. “I didn’t know what else to do! I saved your life!”
“How long have you been lying to me?”
“Lying isn’t a crime, Rell!”
“Since we were teenagers?”
She looked away.
“Since we were kids?”
“You’d lie about it too if you were born an aeo mage. You’ve seen the voids-damned propaganda.”
“I would have understood. We told each other everything.”
She scoffed. “So that’s why you’re pointing a gun at me, eh?”
He holstered his pistol, his frame shaking with tears. “Giana, I don’t know what to do. It’s the law. I’m an inquisitor.”
“Don’t put it on the books. You never put our old lessons on the books.”
“And do you know how much that’s haunted me?” His voice echoed off the metal equipment. “I work with dozens of mind-readers, Giana. It’s bad enough I have to hide my childhood from them. Now this? I was fired upon and returned fire. I have to write reports on this, and there will be an investigation.”
“Just don’t mention falling through the floor. It’s irrelevant!”
“I work with inquisitors 10 hours a day. You really think John is going to look the other way when this memory comes up in some testimony? Because it will. This isn’t the distant past. This is an on-the-job-incident and…”
“Inquisitors look the other way sometimes…”
Rellion raised his voice as he continued. “…and when it comes out that I covered up a crime of this magnitude, we’ll both go over the edge!”
“All I did was save your life,” said Giana. And she’d do it again. She knew she would.
“And now I have to save me life,” said Rellion. “I don’t know how to save yours.”
Giana dropped her arms to her sides, balled her hands into fists.
“It’s not what I wanted,” said Rellion. She didn’t need to read his mind to know he was telling the truth. Here, the dark smoothed the few lines on his forehead. His shoulders were slumped, and he wore the same panicked expression he had when he was 17 and their parents had walked in on them. She wondered where they’d be today if his father hadn’t sent him away.
“Then quit,” said Giana, an idea coming to her clear and certain as ideas sometimes did in times of crisis. She unclenched her fists.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I can’t just quit my job. It doesn’t work like that.”
“It does if you get married,” said Giana.
“And who am I going to marry?” said Rellion.
Giana raised an eyebrow at him.
“What? You?”
“You got a better idea to keep us both alive?”
He blinked at her.
“Marry me,” said Giana. “We’re getting close to 28 anyway. I can support us. You can quit with your honor intact. Arbiter can get his promotions and stop meddling in your life.”
“You don’t want to marry me.” Rellion took a step back. “You’re just trying to get out of being arrested.”
“They aren’t mutually exclusive!” shouted Giana.
“I don’t believe you!”
“Then look for yourself!” Giana took a deep breath and let down her mental defenses. She held her hands out to him and walked forward. When she repeated herself, she wasn’t shouting. “Look for yourself.”
He hesitated. “If you’re giving me permission.”
He closed the distance and muttered a spell. She felt him slip into her thoughts. She didn’t hide anything. There were the memories of their years as childhood sweethearts, the love she once felt for him, the hope that that love could grow again. There was fear, too. There was so much they didn’t know about each other. She hoped that her being the breadwinner and him knowing about her magic would solve her initial fears about starting a courtship, but marriage was a big step. Still, it was better than being tied to a stranger. And she thought about him often. She was touched that he kept a picture of her in his locker after all these years.
She felt the connection break. He looked her in the eyes.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?”
“Okay, I’ll marry you.” He took her hands in his. They were both shaking.
“Really?” He’d be giving up a lot for her. A higher paying job. Prestige. That promotion the senator had promised him.
“You’d do the same for me.”
She nodded once,wrapped her arms around him tight for a few seconds, then held him at arm’s length. “In the morning then. At the Spire. We’ll get there early and tie the knot just before we drop off the senator.”
“A plan, then.”
They smiled at each other, terrified but hopeful.
“We should go back to the Falcon,” said Giana. “Dilly will be worried.”
They walked back to her S class, hand in hand. She rubbed her thumb across his index finger, memorizing his knuckles and calluses, the base of his fingernail. This wasn’t how she’d pictured this moment. But then again, she’d never really pictured it at all.
***
The wedding was quick. Rellion used some favors to get them to the front of the line at the Perfectorium. They said their vows and signed on all the lines the notary directed them to.
“Congratulations. And I assume we’ll need to draw up your resignation paperwork?” the notary said, nodding to Giana.
“No, his,” she said.
Rellion blinked rapidly a few times, then nodded once.
“You do realize that inquisitor is a higher tier profession than crawler driver?” she said.
“I’m married to my work,” said Giana. She blushed. “And him.”
“It’s okay. I’m not the jealous type.” Rellion flashed her a boyish smile, then kissed her. The notary watched them with the expression of someone who’d already done this too many times this week.
They made it back aboard the ship in time to see the senator off.
“It was a pleasure having you aboard, senator,” she said as she shook his hand. “I hope the unexpected setbacks didn’t dampen your enjoyment too much.
“You handled them quite well, Captain. It was an honor to travel with you,” said Midweather.
The reporter had Giana pose with Midweather and his guards for one last photograph. After the flash bulbs went off, Arbiter grabbed her elbow. “How did you know my name was John?” he hissed.
“Inquisitor’s full names are public record,” Giana said, still smiling.
He humphed, but didn’t press the matter. “Come on, Lieutenant Lawholder. It’s time to get back to the precinct.”
Rellion took a sidestep toward Giana. “Actually…I don’t work for the precinct anymore.”
“What?” said Arbiter.
“And his name’s Coastrunner now,” said Giana.
“It’s what?” said Arbiter.
The reporter started scribbling in his pad again.
“It’s true,” said Rellion. “After years apart, I’ve remembered just how much light Giana brings to my life. We got married this morning.”
“I couldn’t leave my post as Captain,” Giana said. “But I also couldn’t pass up an opportunity for the man I love to stand beside me for the betterment of the Perfectorate.”
They were speaking for the reporter’s benefit, and for Arbiter’s, but while the words were nothing but empty propaganda, the game behind them was real, and they were finally playing on the same team again.
Midweather beamed at them and smooshed them together for another photo. “Who would have thought that my little visit would spark such a beautiful romance! Sometimes the gears of the Perfectorate are more finely tuned than even we realize!”
“Well put, senator!” the reporter beamed.
It wasn’t that well put, Giana mused as she kissed Rell for the photo and her crew whooped and applauded behind her, but maybe there was some tiny bit of truth in it.
“So do we get the day off for the reception?” Dilly asked after al the outsiders but Rellion had cleared the ship.
“Not on your life,” Giana barked. “We’re days behind schedule, crewmen! To your posts! Let’s get the voids out of here!”
“Some romantic you are,” said Dilly.
“Oh I didn’t say I wasn’t taking the day off.” Giana handed Dilly the charts for the day. She’d know what to do. She took Dilly a few steps away from Rellion and leaned in. “And keep the you know what on the down low around that one for a bit. One shock at a time, eh?”
Dilly laughed through her nose. “Just when I think I have you figured out, Captain. Congratulations by the way.”
“Thanks.” Giana grabbed Rellion’s hand, ready to drag him back to her quarters. It was to keep him out of the way until the essence work was over, sure, but also because it was her voids damned wedding day. She paused and called back over her shoulder. “Tell the galley to bring cake and champaign to my quarters in an hour.”
“We…don’t stock champaign!” Dilly said.
“Rum, then!” said Giana.
“Classy,” said Rellion with a smile.
“That’s what you get when you marry a pirate,” said Giana with a dangerous smile. She’d leave it to him decide is she was joking or not, but to his credit, he didn’t pry.
“I wasn’t being sarcastic,” he said, and let her lead him to her cabin and the start of a life they’d both given up on a decade before. There was still work to do. She needed to find them a house where Rellion could live. They’d have to decide which of their assets to pass down to their children and which to save for retirement. Hell, they’d have to decide how many children they wanted and if she’d be training them in her old S class or if he’d insist on putting them in training as inquisitors.
“Hey, thanks for saving my life.” Her internal monologue quieted at the sound of Rell’s voice.
“Thanks for saving mine,” she said. Rellion brushed her hair behind her ears and they stared into each other’s eyes for a moment. Maybe, for one day, behind closed doors, she could just enjoy life without a plan A, B or C. It wasn’t New Year’s and there weren’t any colored lights, but she was pretty sure she had some electro-jazz records somewhere, and if the paperwork held up, this one night stand was going to turn into something very real indeed.
Crawling the Edge: The Coastrunner Chronicles 