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“Carry this below deck. I’m going to make one more trip to the old jar factory before it turns dark.” Aapeli glanced up at the sky.
Liberty took the box of jars. She couldn’t help but look skyward too. It was worrying to see how fast dusk was settling in. “It’s awful late. Maybe we should just stop for the night. Besides, you’ve always said we shouldn’t go into Forbidden after sunset.”
“The great thing about being me is I can break my own rules.” He flicked the end of her nose and grinned. “My rules are meant to keep you safe.”
“But who’ll keep you safe?” She looked at the sky again. Worry filled her voice. “The jars will still be there tomorrow. We’re both tired and hungry. Let’s stop for the night.”
Aapeli laughed and headed back down the ladder. “I won’t be long. Carry those to the storeroom and by the time you clean up and fix us a meal, I’ll be back.”
Liberty sighed and shrugged. There was nothing to do but what he said. Once her father set his mind on something, come hell or high water, he was going to do it.
Once the jars were in the store room, Liberty took extra time to scrub her arms, legs and face with a wet cloth and change into a clean shift. She was looking forward to the return trip and having the water tanks full again. Since they were running low, they were making do with a cursory scrub. Maybe if she didn’t whine, and she explained to her father all the reasons she would be more useful off the airship with him at Big Lake, she could talk him into letting her swim there. Why not? She was already a better shot and could keep a lookout while he refilled the tanks. Such sound reasoning made her hopeful. There was no way her father could argue against such solid facts. He might even be impressed with how she had reasoned it all out.
If he agreed, she could wash her hair in the lake. Liberty had taken to running her fingers through the dirty, tangled curls every morning and braiding it so it wouldn’t hang in her eyes.
Liberty laughed out loud. Hell, what did it matter if she had dirty hair or not? They had never seen anyone else in The Forbidden Lands in her entire life, and probably wouldn’t see anyone until they dropped in at Shatter’s to trade. He certainly wouldn’t notice a little dirt on anyone.
Maybe her father would take some time on the way to trade for dried fish at Waters, and to visit Tinker and Mary. They hadn’t stopped in to see them the last few times they’d flown over their place. If Father got it into his head they were running behind schedule then he wouldn’t this time either, but Liberty really hoped they would. Tinker and Molly were such sweet people. No matter what her father said about love, it seemed to her that the world needed more of it, if Tinker and Molly were anything to go by. They made it look like the most wondrous thing in the world.
Not that Liberty ever said that to her father – not if she didn’t want to listen to a long drawn out lecture about how dangerous it was. But as far as she could see, love only led to more love. How could something so wonderful turn into hate? But who was she to argue with her father? He was always right about everything else, so he had to know something she didn’t.
Liberty laughed out loud and rolled her eyes. It was silly thinking about love anyway. She was in the middle of The Forbidden Lands. Who was there to meet and fall in love with here? Not a damn soul. Tinker and Molly were the only couple she had met in all of her and her father’s travels who actually admitted to loving each other.
All the other people Liberty knew were loners and seemed quite happy to remain so. Besides, she couldn’t imagine someone like Shatter, Waters, Polly, Billy or Golden allowing anyone else into their lives. Who would kiss Shatter with his layers of spit and deer jerky on his chin? Waters always smelled like fish. Polly loved her bees too much ever to love a human, and Billy, well, he never failed to smell like his goats and his old cheese.
Now, Golden was an altogether different matter. She had a pleasing personality and beautiful long hair that matched her name. Out in the sun it sparkled. Even though Golden kept it piled on top of her head in a loose bun, by the end of the day those long curls would escape and fall down the nape of her neck.
It was easy to imagine someone falling in love with Golden. The truth was, Liberty had secretly hoped Golden and her father would fall in love. Liberty longed for a mother and wouldn’t have minded staying there with Golden, with her open fields and rows upon rows of apple trees.
Liberty shook her head. Why was she wasting time thinking about love? It wasn’t a possibility for her. The population had dwindled to only a handful of people, so what were the odds she would ever meet someone her own age, and even if she did, it wasn’t likely she would be willing to leave Airus. The skies were her home. The world was a dangerous place but Airus gave her freedom and safety. She loved the feel of the wind on her face and watching the scenery below her change.
Her newly scrubbed skin made Liberty feel like a new person. Even though it was out of character, as she started out for the galley she sang the song her father sang to her whenever she needed cheering up.
As she left the cabin, she glanced up at the sky. “Father should be returning soon. I better stop dawdling.” If he was as hungry as she was, he would want more than cheese and apples. Hurrying into the galley, she searched through every drawer, looking over all their food supplies until she remembered the gifts Golden had handed her before they’d boarded Airus at their last visit. Liberty rummaged through the apple drawer until she spotted what she was looking for.
She carefully unwrapped the pears and set them aside. Maybe she should wait for Father to return before cutting them. He still had to clean up before dinner. She headed back out on deck and was surprised to see how dark it had become. Where the hell was he?
She headed over to the railing and looked out into the dark, foreboding remains of the city. Its starkness sent a shiver down her spine. The wind was up and howled through the trash littered streets and broken buildings. What The Great War hadn’t destroyed, the eight hundred years since had certainly reduced what had surely once been a beautiful place into nothing more than a crumbling shambles. As a child, Liberty had imagined the sound the wind made to be the whispers and voices of the ghosts of those killed during the war, and of those who’d starved during the desperate times afterwards when food and water had become so scarce.
Liberty now paced the deck from bow to stern. Her growing concern only made the wind sound more and more like cries and screams. Nothing had ever convinced her it was other than the victims of that war trying to get someone to notice they still walked the streets of Forbidden.
“Where is he?” There was no way he would stay out this late. Even he wouldn’t break the rule about being back onboard before dark. That rule was to protect them and Airus. The airship was their home and refuge and so had to be safeguarded.
The wind whipped Liberty’s hair into her face and stirred her already frayed nerves. The harder it blew the more certain Liberty became that something had happened to her father. He would never purposely not be here to make certain the airship was securely grounded – rule one: take good care of your home.
Liberty ran into the cabin and slipped out of her clean shift. She grabbed the dirty clothes she had taken off earlier for she couldn’t go stumbling around in the rubble without proper protection, and she had no intention of returning to the airship until she’d found Father.