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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Eight - Clearing the Air

  I pushed the brush forwards, carefully edging it along the sides of the pnk so that not one drop dribbled off the edge. The wood beh took on a beautiful wet sheen that matched the rest of the deck.

  L the brush, I used the sleeve of a big shirt Gen-Gen had found for me, and wiped at my forehead. There was still a lot of the Beaver Cleaver’s deck to cover in varnish, but what I had done looked great. The sticky paint-like stuff made the wood look a lot darker and shinier, and with a bit of well-focused ing magic I could remove any dust or stray leaves that nded ouff before it dried.

  Gen-Gen had even helped me find a big floppy hat covered in colourful stains.

  New Skill Acquired: PaintingRank: F

  The ship was really ing along. Awen had repced some of the pulleys with a bit of help from some meics that Rosali, and the hull was pletely repainted already.

  The entire ship was ed from top to bottom already, which certainly helped make it look newer.

  All we o do was finish up the painting and bring in some new furnishings for the inside. We didn’t need all that many bedrooms and rooms inside, and since we werely using him for cargo hauling or anything, the room ihe Beaver was kind of... vast.

  At least, it was vast when I sidered how spa an airship was usually at a premium.

  I was dipping my long-handled brush ba the pan of varnish when I heard some king from off to the side. A head of blonde hair soon appeared over the side of the ship betweewo poles of a dder, followed by Awen’s big inquisitive eyes. “Ah... hi,” she said, just her head and shoulders poking over the gunwale.

  “Hey!” I said. “You might want to wait before ing back up. I just paihat part of the ded it’s probably still wet.”

  “Oh,” she said with a gnce down. “Yes, okay. I wasn’t here to...”

  She psed into silence for a moment.

  "To?" I finally prodded.

  Awen didn’t meet my eyes for a moment. I saw her hands tighten and loose oopm of the dder. “Broccoli, I need help,” she said in a voiall I had to strain all four ears to hear it.

  I dropped my brush to the side and walked n the prints I was leaving oill-wet deck. “Okay,” I said. “What do you need?”

  “Awa, it’s not that u-urgent!” Awen stammered. She wiggled her hands about in denial a bit, started to tip backwards, then seized the rung again. “Um... but, but if you want to talk now then that’s okay too, I suppose. Not here though.”

  I nodded and stepped up onto the ship’s railing. “In the workshop?” I asked. “I’m kind of curious to know what you’re w on.”

  “Ah, yes, okay.” Awen said before she started to scramble doweps.

  I hopped down and nded in the courtyard below with bent knees and a big huff of expelled breath. A gnce up the ship a dozeers up showed Awen moving down with surprising acrity.

  I might have taken the dder too, but it wasn’t as fun, and I was wearing an old ratty skirt that one of the maids had insisted I wear instead of my battledress. They were probably worried I’d get it stained. Ladders and skirts just didn’t mix.

  Awen nded with a soft thud on the grass o me, then she spent a moment brushing her clothes before turning my way. “Um. This way?” she asked.

  I nodded along, a bit of a smile tugging at the er of my lips, but I didn’t wao think that I thought she was really cute when she roper-like because that would make her feel bad.

  Awen led me over to the workshops that she’d practically been living in since Rosaline showed them to her. I supposed that she had years of pent-up tinkering to work through, and now that she had all the tools she could want or her disposal, she was going all out.

  There were a lot of projects strewn about and half-finished. I could only guess at what half of them were even supposed to be.

  The tension in Awen’s shoulders loosened a bit as we stood in the shop. She faced some of the maes and kniacks c an otherwise tidy workbench.

  I wao ask her what she needed help with, but I had the impression that she didn’t just need a pair of hands to lift something up, so I gave her some time to get her thoughts in order.

  That could be hard sometimes. I often found my mind going to all sorts of weird pces when I let it.

  “Broccoli,” Awen began. She picked a wrench from the workbend started to fiddle with it. “Did you ever fall in love before?”

  That expined what this was all about, at least in part. I took a moment to think of a niswer for her. We would probably be retreading some earlier versations again, but that was okay too. “Not really,” I said. “At least, not in the way you mean.”

  She turhe wrench over slowly. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  I found a cleared bit of bend hopped onto it so that I was sitting. “There’re..” I paused and ged tactics. “There’s a pce where I’m from that speaks a different nguage. They have a bunch of words for love. They mean different things. Like how you might love your parents and siblings, or how you love a friend, or you might love someone who’s really special to you.”

  Awen nodded her uanding.

  “I love you. And I love Amaryllis. And I love e too when she’s not being a pain it.” Which reminded me... where was e? I set that aside for the moment.

  “I think I see,” Awen said. She turned around fully, still idly fiddling with the wrench. “Broccoli, do girls where you’re from like... irls?”

  “Some of them do,” I said. “Not all of them, of course.”

  “Oh. Bae that’s... not something that’s normal.”

  I didn’t know what to say about that. I really wao hug her, because hugs made things better, but I wasn’t sure if that ropriate just yet. “I guess you make it normal, then,” I said.

  Awen smiled wistfully for just a moment before the expression dropped with a sigh. She set the wrento the bench behind her and pressed a hand over her heart. “I don’t know how I’ve been feeling,” she said. “About Rosaline and about... you. It’s all weird, and I don’t know if I have the words for it. But it’s--it’s not nice, but it’s also not bad.”

  I tightened my grip on the edge of the table I was sitting on. “I think that maybe you’ve been through a lot? Like getting away from your family, and being free, and then being around me and now with Rose. You had a lot of big adventures in a short time.”

  Awen nodded. “I guess. I just don’t know what to do now.”

  I grinned over to her. “You do whatever you want Awen. I’ll always be there to support you,” I said.

  She smiled back, a small smile, but a smile still. “You make it really hard sometimes,” she said.

  I was going to ask what she meant, but Awen stepped across the room and came to stand right up in front of me.

  “Broccoli,” she said.

  “Awen?”

  And then she leaned forwards and pressed her lips against mine. Just a quick peck that ended as soon as it began.

  Awen scampered back, face blossoming in bright red. “I’m... sorry. It’s just, you said that I was free, that I could do what I wanted and I’ve wao do that since I met you. And I know you’re not that way. And that’s okay. I think, I think I’m better now. But it’s all thanks to you and--”

  “Awen,” I said. Now I was the one blushing a bit. “It’s... okay?”

  She looked down, not that it did much to hide the indessence of her face. “I... okay,” she said. “I’m going to date Rosaline.”

  I blihat had e from nowhere. “Uh. Alright.”

  “I don’t know if I feel the same way about her as I do... but that’s okay. She’s nice, and friendly, and I think that even if things don’t work out we’ll still be friends. So it’ll be o learn and--” she swallowed as her faehow got even more red. “And try hings.”

  I nodded. “That does sound nice,” I said. “ I be your bridesmaid if you get married?”

  “Awa! No! It’s too soon for that kind of thing!”

  I giggled and jumped off the bench to pull Awen into a big hug. She tensed for just a moment before loosening up. “So,” I said. “Want to show me what you’ve been building?”

  “Yes!” Awen said. She nodded her head like a crazed woodpecker and started to gesture at things. I let her go so that she could show off better.

  “What did you make?” I asked.

  “I started by improving on the design for my crossbow. It’s got a sight now, like a telescope. I still o mark its ranges But that’s an issue for ter.” She grabbed my wrist and pulled me deeper into the workshop while her voice grew faster and more excited. “I got to thinking. My uncle always said that air-piracy was a bit of a problem, and that the best way to get past them was to be an unappealing target. Even tigers hesitate to eat a hedgehog. But the Beaver Cleaver isn’t very scary looking, so that wouldn’t work.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “So I had another idea.” She stopped before a big thing aured at it. “This!”

  I stared. It was about the size of a bike, with a bench at the back, set atop a pair of steel rails and a sort of turnable base with little notches to lock it ihe entire front of it had not o three recurve crossbows mounted oop the other with a plex meism that I suspected was made to reload it with the pull of a k.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “It’s a rapid-firing automatic ballista,” Awen said. “It’s like my crossbow, but it fires much bigger and stronger bolts.” She opened up a box o the chair and pulled out a three foot long shaft with some fletg on one end and a gss head oher. “See the head? It’s a bulb that you fill with anything you want. I was thinking some reats could do the trick. Rosaliioned ohat catches fire when in tact with the air. So it could be very dangerous against wooden ships. And we could fill them with acids too! If we e up against a more modern ship it could do a lot of damage to their hull. But I think the kiic damage alone would do a lot.”

  “Yes!”

  “And the rails,” she went on. “I’m thinking that we make them go from one side of the ship to the other. So that we could fire from both sides with only one devid it be safely stored in the cargo hold until it’s needed. I made it so that you turn it by moving your foot on that pedal, and unlock it with the other foot, and when you’re not moving, that third pedal ks new bolts into the feed.”

  I smiled a her babble on until Amaryllis found us some mier and started yelling at us to get ready for evening.

  ***

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