Rav stuffed the last of his belongings into his backpack and took a deep breath as he scanned the room. He still couldn't believe he was doing this.
Father was going to be furious, but there was nothing he could do but disown his son. Manish had slipped Rav a copy of the contract Father had signed to seal this apprenticeship. It contained provisions for ending it, giving Rav more power than he'd thought he had. He just had to take the step himself.
And even disownment wasn't a given. Rav had solidified his reasoning: he wouldn't work on an airship, and he wouldn't work for a criminal. With luck, the latter would become reality once the biological station received the very tangible evidence still hidden in Rav's bag. Until then, knowing that the captain would tell his latest tale and be laughed at for his lack of proof was its own kind of compensation.
The captain was in the navigation room, laying his last directions on a table-sized map. He glanced up and frowned at the paper Rav put in front of him. "What's this?"
"I quit."
The man blinked. His eyes scanned the page. It was an offer of full-time employment, effective immediately. A glower made valleys of his forehead. "Poached you, did they? Foul women."
Of course he would blame the women. He would blame anyone but himself.
"Do you need anything else from me?" said Rav.
"Any words to take back to your Father about this?"
Rav removed the job offer. Beneath it were three envelopes, already stamped and sealed. One each to Mother, Father, and his sister Aarohi.
The captain pocketed them with a grunt. "You're a waste of good talent. Enjoy your cursed island. If you change your mind, we're back every few months."
And that was it. Rav forced himself to walk, not dance, back to the exit. The climb down the rope ladder felt more like floating.
"All went smoothly?" said Gurdeep.
Rav just smiled and nodded. He was certain he would start crying if he said a word. Relief, excitement, and a residual tremble from facing the captain made a tangled mess of his chest. They stood together, one with arms crossed, the other hugging an overstuffed backpack, as the crew finished their last checks. Rav waved as Manish came to the railing. The man had a sparkle in his eye. As the ship's ballonets gusted over their heads, he glanced over his shoulder, then pointed surreptitiously to Rav's backpack, sealed his lips, and grinned.
The ship trundled forwards as the engines coughed to life. They watched it until it was just a speck in the distance.
"Bless that man," said Gurdeep. "You were lucky to be aboard with him."
"What do you mean?"
Before the woman could answer, something perked up under the fabric over her shoulder. "Yes, you can come out now," she said, patting the bump. It found its way to her sari's edge. A small, white dragon's head poked out into the sun.
"He makes sure the relevant correspondence never passes through his captain's hands," said Gurdeep, oblivious to Rav's shock. "His wife used to work here before she passed. We invited him to stay, but he fought for school for his little girl, and he doesn't want to take her from that. Or from what family she has on the mainland. So he stays on the ship that lets him visit both. Now... he told me he suspected you were carrying something? He said he tried to talk to you himself, but the captain kept getting in the way."
Could he trust her?
No, that was silly. Of course he could. She had another dragonette on her shoulder, watching him with bright, curious eyes. What else had Manish known about? Rav took off his backpack in a daze. When all he owned was laid out on the dock, he lifted the newspaper-wrapped ball from the bag's bottom.
"Oh good, you kept her warm," said Gurdeep, kneeling beside him. Her strong hands were gentle, peeling back the layers. "Is it just torpor? Poor thing. Darika? Bring us a blanket. And get out the solar incubator."
Rav's heart caught in his ribs, suddenly beating in a chest much too small for it. He hugged the balled-up dragonette. "She's... alive?"
"Yes, she is. Just stressed."
Torpor. A state some species entered when food was scarce or conditions too stressful to tolerate. It was like a deep sleep, but some took it to the point where their vital signs became nearly imperceptible. Rav ran a hand over the dragonette's wings. Wrapped around her, they would shield her from weather and dehydration, keeping her safe until conditions improved.
She was alive.
He hadn't killed her.
He hadn't killed her!
His hands shook. Gurdeep had asked a question that he hadn't heard. She repeated it as he finally looked up.
"Did she have water before she entered this state?"
She had emptied the lid Rav had left for her. He nodded.
"Good. She should still be fine, then, when she wakes up. Maybe just a little hungry."
Darika returned. She was the youngest at the station, with a bright smile and cutting intellect. She dropped the blanket with a gasp when she saw what Rav was holding. "Arey! Is that the last one? The one we couldn't find?"
Gurdeep retrieved the blanket and bustled the dragonette into it. "Unless they found another nest on the islands. She is the right age."
"The nest had other eggshells," said Rav. Pieces were slotting together in his brain much too fast, making him slightly dizzy. Empty eggs and no other dragons. "Five of them together. But she was the only one I found."
"That's the one, then." Darika clapped her hands delightedly.
"Are there more islan—" Rav lost his words and train of thought simultaneously as another dragonette poked over Darika's shoulder. Rav looked quickly at Gurdeep. She still had hers. It had tumbled into her lap and was poking its sister with its nose.
"Sky-islands? Oh, dozens." Gurdeep shooed her charge off the new arrival, but managed only to get her wrist wrapped in a dragon tail. She held it out to Rav. He cautiously unwound it and let the excited dragonette make a necklace of herself on him instead. She snuffled his ear.
Gurdeep went back to rubbing his dragonette's wings the way a mother cat would warm a kitten. "The birds take cover when there's an island nearby. We go up in the research balloon and note down as much as we can before they float away. These poor dears were from a nesting mother we knew was in the area before the hunters got her, but there could well be more nests we don't know about yet."
A research station doubling as a rescue operation for baby Skydragons. Rav still wasn't sure if he was dreaming. His emotions were a jumbled ball of lines slowly unraveling. They hit him in waves, making him want to laugh one minute, cry the next. He held it down. He could save that for later.
She was alive.
He helped warm the dragonette—and fend off not one but two of her siblings now eager to help—then surrendered her to Gurdeep and Darika to bring back to the station. He was left alone on the dock.
The sun was warm, and the rich smells of the forest and the sea wafted over him as the breeze rocked to and fro. Rav stretched out his arms, feeling as if he could sail the ocean on the soft air. There was no sign here of any of the danger said to plague this place. No clouds, no storms. And no sky-islands. He hoped Dreamcatcher would sail all the way back to the mainland without a glimpse of the cloud banks that hid them. He hoped they would never see those clouds again.
"Rest in peace and I hope you land somewhere pleasant if you have to jump," the man at the port had said.
Rav closed his eyes and tipped his head back to smile up into the blue, blue sky.
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