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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven - Sugar and Spice

  Breakfast the m was a little tense. We had little ses 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 o Amaryllis, Clemeook the head of the table and across from us, and Rosaline perched on the edge of a chair o Awen. Clementine was eating as if she was a mae, her eyes sing over some pages stacked o 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 Rosalih an expression that I couldn’t pin.

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

  “So! What’re we doing today?”

  That jolted Rosaline awake. Her head was halfway to her pte 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, oher hand, just huffed fondly. “Finish your breakfast, you moron,” she said. “Did you pn 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 offid everything. Oh! Didn’t you girls o e 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 ’t let them just ride along with some merts. 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 t 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 Tres in a skiff,” Amaryllis said. “her 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 oo answer. “It’s where old, dipidated, 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 y 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 m bickering while the maids and butlers, all looking very fresh and snazzy in their uniforms, came around t us some tea and such. I thahe maid pg things o my pte, then turo 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 o dress all presentable-like to go.” Rosaline grihe smug self-satisfied grin of someohat was about to py a trump card. “I wear whatever because my reputation is so terrible. Maybe one of those maid dresses. They certainly get a rea out of Awen here.”

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

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

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

  I looked over and made sure that Amaryllis was still taking some time to eat and hat 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 bouo her feet. “Right, I’m doh breakfast. e along my little chicks, it’s time to show you the world of airshipping.”

  I pushed my empty pte 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 turo 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 aff people came and took our ptes away, and then we all shuffled off to finish getting ready for the m. 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 pined.

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

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

  I tapped my . “People’s rooms be very important. They’re that person’s most private pce, 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 ptop. 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 Clemehink to use it as bckmail. But if I hear one snicker from either of you, I’m practig my puppetry with your bodies.” She led us both through the house. We had to climb up one of the sweeping circur staircases to the sed floor and march down a corridor before we reached her room.

  She paused before her door, a talohe 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. A she was willing to show us.

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

  “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 pce I’d ever seen.

  I stared at Amaryllis earing brown pants and a bck shirt under her familiar leather jacket, her goggles dangling over her neck. She looked for all the world like a punk ready to chew someo.

  “Wow,” I heard Awe.

  “It hase, 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 ge 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 rog bad forth on the balls of my feet.

  Rosali go of Amaryllis to glomp onto me. “We are!” she cheered a moment befrabbing my hand. “, let’s go! The coach is waiting for us! You 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 bad pulled her talon, and she, with a roll of her eyes, caught on to what I wanted and grabbed Awen’s ha. We formed a little line as we moved through the house and out the front where a carriage arked iranceway.

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

  There were a pair of big stout horses at the front, both ected 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 pnted in pce, he whistled and we were off.

  “The yards are a pretty dangerous pce,” Rosaline said. “There are lots of maes 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 chaotid there are a lot of very fit young men and women iy uniforms.”

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

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

  I nodded. “So, whie 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 advehough.”

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

  Rosaline leaned forwards. “It’s that ohat 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 o 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 su iing shade before. “Rose!” she squeaked.

  ***