Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven - Sugar and Spice

Breakfast the next morning was a little tense. We had little scones with butter and some beans, a few bowls of some sort of grain that was cooked in a light oil and some hardy greens to go with it all.

I sat next to Amaryllis, Clementine took the head of the table and across from us, and Rosaline perched on the edge of a chair next to Awen. Clementine was eating as if she was a machine, her eyes scanning over some pages stacked next to her meal while her younger sister, Rosaline, had big bags under her eyes and seemed to miss her mouth with every-other spoonful.

Awen seemed a bit distracted too. She was looking to me, then to Rosaline with an expression that I couldn’t pin.

It made for a very quiet breakfast, which was just unacceptable.

“So! What’re we doing today?”

That jolted Rosaline awake. Her head was halfway to her plate already. “Work!” She said.

I couldn’t snort because I had a mouthful of grains and that would have made a mess, but I did chuckle a bit.

Amaryllis, on the other hand, just huffed fondly. “Finish your breakfast, you moron,” she said. “Did you plan on sleeping the day away at work?”

“She’d better not,” Clementine grumbled without looking away from her papers.

Rosaline yawned huge. “Yup. Got a sofa in my office and everything. Oh! Didn’t you girls need to come to the docks at some point? Clem-Clem mentioned something about that.”

Clementine nodded. “They do. Their mission requires a subtle, unobtrusive way to enter Sylph skies. We can’t let them just ride along with some merchants. Too much of a risk there.”

“Are we getting our own airship?” I asked.

“No,” Amaryllis shot down my dream. “We’re getting a ship to bring us to Sylphfree and back. It’ll probably be one of the family’s ships.”

“So we don’t get to keep it?” I asked.

Rosaline giggled. “Maybe! Who knows? We have a few old sloops and skiffs.’

“We are not sailing all the way over the Trenten Flats in a skiff,” Amaryllis said. “Neither of these two know anything about sailing, and while I don’t doubt that Awen would pick it up, Broccoli is likely to dash us into a mountain or capsize us in something as light as a skiff.” She huffed again, but this time it was an irritated huff. “Isn’t there a yacht free?”

“You’re not taking a yacht,” Clementine said. “You’re meant to be subtle, and that would be the opposite.”

Rosaline waved her wing in the air. “We’ll see what’s free. We got a few ships that came into the breakers.”

“What are those?” I asked.

Amaryllis was the one to answer. “It’s where old, dilapidated, broken down ships are sent to be scrapped.”

“That would be perfect,” Clementine said. “Some old rust bucket that no one would look at twice.”

“Are you trying to get us killed?” Amaryllis asked.

“You haven’t seen the ship yet. I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Clementine looked up from her paper and grinned. “Don’t be an idiot.”

The two sisters started a nice friendly round of morning bickering while the maids and butlers, all looking very fresh and snazzy in their uniforms, came around to bring us some tea and such. I thanked the maid placing things next to my plate, then turned to Rosaline who seemed a bit more awake.

“I really like those maid dresses. Do you think I could get one of those little hats fitted for my ears?”

“Awa,” Awen whispered.

“Oh, I’m sure you could,” Rosaline said. “But before that, you’ll need some proper clothes.”

“I guess?” I said.

She shook her head. “No no, proper-proper. Clem-Clem said that we’re going to a big to-do with all the important birds that are heading to the diplomatic meeting. You’ll need to dress all presentable-like to go.” Rosaline grinned the smug self-satisfied grin of someone that was about to play a trump card. “I can wear whatever because my reputation is so terrible. Maybe one of those maid dresses. They certainly get a reaction out of Awen here.”

I smiled right back. “Maybe we can dress her up like that?”

“N-no, that would be, it would be inappropriate,” Awen said with much arm flailing.

Rosaline and I giggled over the sounds of Amaryllis and Clementine’s escalating argument.

I looked over and made sure that Amaryllis was still taking some time to eat and noted that they had a sort of system where one of them would take a few nibbles while the other called them dumb, then they would finish eating and switch.

Sisterly love was so beautiful!

Rosaline smacked the table twice, then bounced to her feet. “Right, I’m done with breakfast. Come along my little chicks, it’s time to show you the world of airshipping.”

I pushed my empty plate aside and jumped to my feet too. “Alright! I’m ready. By this time tomorrow, I’ll be Sky Captain Bunch.”

Amaryllis squawked mid-argument and turned to me. “If you think for a moment that I’d let you be the captain, you’re pulling at the wrong tail feathers.”

“You don’t have tail feathers,” I said. “But I do have a tail.” I wiggled my floof as proof. “Which means that I get to be the captain.”

“That wasn’t even an argument!”

Soon, a few more of the nice staff people came and took our plates away, and then we all shuffled off to finish getting ready for the morning. Now that Rosaline was awake, she was making quite a bit of noise, like a small feathery tornado set in the middle of the room. No one seemed to mind though, and the staff were all smiles as she hugged some of them and begged others for stuff with big eyes.

Clementine just walked off to somewhere else in the house, which kind of left me and Awen and Amaryllis just standing there.

“Do you want to show us your room?” I asked Amaryllis.

“You make it sound so juvenile,” she complained.

I nodded. “That’s what makes it fun! Come on, I bet we’ll learn all sorts of things about you!”

“You hardly need to see my room. What do you expect to find there?

I tapped my chin. “People’s rooms can be very important. They’re that person’s most private place, so they’re very special. I wish I could show you mine. I had a lot of cool posters and a huge bookcase and even a little desk with a broken laptop. Oh, and some paintings!”

“Ah, you paint?” Awen asked.

I nodded. “I do. I watched all of Bob Ross.”

“Um?”

Amaryllis huffed, rolled her eyes, and folded like a piece of soggy paper. “Fine. I suppose I ought to show you myself before Rosaline or Clementine think to use it as blackmail. But if I hear one snicker from either of you, I’m practicing my puppetry with your bodies.” She led us both through the house. We had to climb up one of the sweeping circular staircases to the second floor and march down a corridor before we reached her room.

She paused before her door, a talon over the curved handle.

“You won’t mock me, right?” she asked.

I couldn’t help but smile. She sounded a bit different, a bit more vulnerable. And yet she was willing to show us.

I wrapped my hands around her waist from behind and tucked my face in the crook of her neck. Even my ears joined in the hug, wrapping around the top of Amaryllis’ head like a furry crown.

“Get off me, you moron,” Amaryllis grumbled weakly.

Once hugging time was temporarily set aside, Amaryllis spun the door handle and pushed into her room.

Awen and I followed only to pause a step in.

“Whoa,” I said.

The room was bright. The walls were pink. Not the neon pink I was used to, but a soft pink with beige and cream highlights, with the occasional touch of soft pastel blues. The paintings on every wall were of flowery fields and open skies, while the curtains and drapes and even the bedding were all covered in little flowers.

Amaryllis stood to one side, arms crossed and face burning as we took in her room.

Half of her bed was covered in a sea of dolls and plushies of animals and fantastic creatures. One--a plushie of one of those flying whales--was as big around as I was.

“Wow,” I said. It was the girliest place I’d ever seen.

I stared at Amaryllis who was wearing brown pants and a black shirt under her familiar leather jacket, her goggles dangling over her neck. She looked for all the world like a punk ready to chew someone out.

“Wow,” I heard Awen repeat.

“It was a phase, that’s all,” Amaryllis said.

“You liked cute things,” I said. “That’s... okay. It’s okay to like cute things. Right Awen?”

“Awa, yes? I, ah, I like cute things.”

“Shut up, both of you,” Amaryllis said. “I’m over it now. I just didn’t have time to change my room up and the servants kept it this way.”

“She’s lying!” Rosaline sing-songed from the door. “She had plenty of time!”

“Rose!” Amaryllis snapped.

The older harpy slid into the room and pulled Amaryllis into a big birdy hug. “Don’t worry. Your friends won’t think you’re any less cool just because you’re the girliest girl who's ever girled. Some of them even like girls a lot.”

“Are we going to the airshipyard now?” I asked. I couldn’t stop myself from rocking back and forth on the balls of my feet.

Rosaline let go of Amaryllis to glomp onto me. “We are!” she cheered a moment before grabbing my hand. “C’mon, let’s go! The coach is waiting for us! You can mock Amaryllis while we go.”

I shook my head. “I’d never mock Amaryllis, even if she had a side of herself she wasn’t ready to show us until now. It’d be awful to betray a friend’s trust like that.”

“Idiot,” Amaryllis grumbled.

I reached back and pulled her talon, and she, with a roll of her eyes, caught on to what I wanted and grabbed Awen’s hand next. We formed a little line as we moved through the house and out the front where a carriage was parked in the entranceway.

I hopped on, then helped Awen up while my harpy friends flapped aboard.

There were a pair of big stout horses at the front, both connected by reins to the front of the carriage where a young harpy boy in a spiffy outfit was waiting for us to settle down. As soon as all our butts were planted in place, he whistled and we were off.

“The yards are a pretty dangerous place,” Rosaline said. “There are lots of machines and big moving parts. So stick close to me. We won’t be venturing into the most dangerous parts, but it’s best to stay safe.”

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll keep all legs and arms and ears close until you say it’s safe.”

Rosaline snorted and nodded. “Sure! I bet you’ll love it. It’s very noisy and chaotic. And there are a lot of very fit young men and women in sweaty uniforms.”

Both Awen and the carriage driver choked at the same time.

“Can we talk about literally anything else?” Amaryllis asked.

I nodded. “So, which one of your plushies is your favourite?”

“What?” Amaryllis asked. “What kind of dumb question is that?”

“I had a teddy bear I liked a bunch. I slept with him every night. I didn’t bring him when I came here for adventure though.”

“Please don’t compare me to you,” Amaryllis said.

Rosaline leaned forwards. “It’s that one that looks like a harpy. I think it looks a lot like Clem-Clem, and it has these little joints, like a puppet.”

“Rose,” Amaryllis warned.

“I checked in on her last night and she was sleeping with it.”

“Rose!

“She had it cuddled up against her chest and was muttering about you two while hugging it.”

I’d never seen Amaryllis’ face turn such an interesting shade before. “Rose!” she squeaked.

***