Instead, they were separated by miles and anger and it was justwrong.
“He won’t be alone in this. I promise.” Adry’s voice held a soft fierceness that reminded Fieran of his mama the night before.
“Thanks, Adry.” Something in Fieran’s chest finally unwound. He was still worried for Merrik, of course. Still dying a little that he couldn’t be there when his brother was hurting so much.
But Merrik wouldn’t go through this alone. Adry would see to that.
After talking a few minutes more with Adry, Fieran hung up. Gathering his strength, he pushed to his feet and carried his plate to the main table, where that morning’s newspaper lay waiting for him.
As he read, he ate the cold eggs and toast since he didn’t have the energy to reheat them. It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever eaten. Not by far. Funny how much lower his standards for food had gotten since joining the army.
As he finished, the door opened, and Mama strode inside. When her gaze rested on him, she smiled. “Good morning. Did you sleep well?”
“Yes.” It turned out that eating chocolate chip cookies and talking through difficult things had a way of tiring a body out.
“And how are you feeling?” Mama briefly rested her hand on his shoulder before she collected his empty plate.
“I’m fine.” He started to swivel on the chair to stand, but a stab of pain lanced through his hips and into his legs.
He must not have hidden his wince well enough because Mama paused, her smile fading. “You overdid it last night.”
“Maybe a little.” Fieran remained sitting rather than getting up.
Mama set his plate and fork in the sink and turned back to him. “I’m going to take you in to the hospital so the healers can take a look at you.” When he opened his mouth to protest, she speared him with one of herlooks. “I know you’re probably fine, and it’s just a precaution. But if nothing else, you should get another dose of healing magic.”
He snapped his mouth shut. She had a point. More healing magic wouldn’t hurt.
“All right.” Fieran shifted in the chair, trying to find a more comfortable way to sit. “Can we stop at the AMPC afterwards? There’s someone I need to talk to.”
Mama’s smile returned, a glint in her eyes. “I’ll pull the car around once I see if Eugene can keep an eye on Ellie and Tryndar for a while.”
Chapter
Eight
Pip had her head and upper body stuck in the engine compartment, the rest of her crammed into the footwell with the control column squishing uncomfortably into her side. At least the rudder bar had been removed since they didn’t need it for what they were designing. “What if we made this linkage here more…adjustable? That way it can be fine-tuned when installed on each aeroplane to take into account the variations of models and engines?”
“That…might work.” Louise stood beside the aeroplane’s fuselage, bending over as she fiddled with the gear above Pip’s head. “That would solve one problem, at least?”
“Doesn’t solve the other problems.” Bennett perched on a stool pulled up to a table on the other side of the fuselage. Various gears and linkages spread out before him as he assembled yet another prototype.
“Don’t be such a downer. Each problem we solve is one step closer.” Louise shrugged and spun the gears, testing the way they moved.
Pip wasn’t sure she shared either Louise’s optimism or Bennett’s frustration. The three of them had made progress in the past few days. The model they’d come up with worked…atleast some of the time. The army would probably be satisfied with it. After all, working some of the time was far better than none of the time.
But all of them felt they could do better. There had to be a way to make a synchronization gear that worked all the time. Or at least, worked as reliably as could be expected for a piece of machinery.
“Hello, Louise. Bennett. Is Pip around?” Fieran’s voice came from somewhere beyond the fuselage.
Pip jumped, then yelped when she bumped her head on the underside of the engine.
Through the opening in the fuselage, Pip could see Louise’s grin a moment before she spun, likely to face Fieran. “She’s in the aeroplane.”
Pip wiggled out of the footwell and sat up in the space where the seat would have been, if this had been a functional flyer. She reached up to check her hair, only to find that her bun had half-fallen out, and some of her hair was sticking out in all directions.
Argh. She needed a mirror. And a few minutes to compose herself before she faced Fieran.
She wasn’t going to get either of those. He was standing there next to his sister, leaning on a cane and grinning at Pip in that way that did something squiggly and squeezing to her insides, uncomfortable and yet delicious all at once.
