"Prototype"
Tamar sat at the breakfast table with her brother in the old mountain observatory their fearless captain had turned into a base. They made periodic trips here, usually just the three of them, when the crew of the Volkvolny was granted a lengthy shore leave and Sturmhond wanted to spend some time working on his inventions. Or Nikolai, as few such as Tamar and Tolya knew him by.
It was a quiet morning in the mountains, until the sound of engines suddenly reverberated throughout the Spinning Wheel, growing louder and louder as they revved up. They both sat up straighter.
"He wouldn't…"
Tolya's eyes were wide with alarm. Yes, he would.
They jumped up and tore through the passages, reaching the stone hangar just in time to see Nikolai taking off in his Saints-forsaken flying contraption. They were too late to stop him; the sailing air craft slid off the ledge and dropped. The twins ran to the edge and looked down, dreading the sight of a fiery crash below. But the flying vessel was sailing westward, albeit jerkily in its test flight.
Tamar shook her head in exasperation. Neither of them understood their friend's obsession with creating a ship that could traverse the skies. Granted, many of his inventions worked, but not without a fair amount of trial and error. And when that trial and error involved crashing and burning, Tamar wanted to knock some sense into Nikolai. Up until this point, his tests had taken place closer to the ground. She couldn't believe he'd graduated to a full flight test without telling them.
They watched the ship wobble on its journey, its horizontal top sail fluttering unsteadily. Then the vessel dipped to the side and took an abrupt nose dive toward the ground. Tamar's breath caught in her throat as it crashed, a plume of black smoke immediately billowing into the air. Cursing in Shu, she spun on her heel and took off at a run, Tolya right alongside her. She was going to kill Nikolai. If he'd even survived the crash.
They had to take the elevator down, which moved far too slowly for their liking. Once at ground level, they grabbed their horses, not even bothering to saddle them, and rode out with all haste. The handful of men Sturmhond had stationed at the base just gave them odd looks, as they couldn't see the crash site from their angle and apparently hadn't heard it.
The twins rode hard toward the rising smoke, their racing hearts keeping beat with the horses' pounding hooves. When they finally reached the wreckage and dismounted, Tamar immediately stilled her inner mental scape and listened for that third heartbeat. Tolya had done the same, because they snapped their gazes in the same direction at the same moment.
The ship lay on its side, the broken mast draping the sail over the deck and obscuring visibility.
"Nikolai!" Tolya shouted as he climbed over the bulwark.
Tamar followed, eyes scanning the deck. She spotted their friend crumpled in the curved corner of the ship's stern. If he hadn't moved since crashing, then he'd been knocked out.
The two scrambled over to him. Tamar could sense his heart beat and knew he wasn't dead. But she saw a nasty gash on the side of his head, which had painted half his face in grisly bright red.
Tolya grabbed his arm, hard. "Nikolai!" He pressed his other hand to their captain's sternum, no doubt utilizing his heartrending to assess the damage. "No internal bleeding," he reported a few moments later.
Tamar nodded and focused on Nikolai's head. Their Grisha abilities were honed for offense, not healing, though they were capable of handling some things. Like their foolish friend getting himself tossed out of the sky.
She used her senses to trace along the edge of his skull. There was bruising, but no break or give. The wound was superficial, and while the amount of blood looked alarming, it wasn't uncommon for head wounds. Tamar wasn't even going to try healing the concussion, though, as brain work was delicate and required a properly trained Healer.
Nikolai moaned as they coaxed him back to consciousness. His eyelids moved sluggishly, his gaze unfocused for a few extra long moments. He finally started trying to pull himself into an upright position, and the twins braced and helped him. He squinted at the wreckage and then at the Spinning Wheel a few miles away.
"Not bad," he said.
Tamar bristled. "Not bad? You're lucky you're in one piece after that stunt!"
"What were you thinking?" Tolya added in exasperation.
"She was ready for a test flight," Nikolai replied blithely. He reached a hand up to the side of his head, but Tamar slapped it down.
"Don't touch it," she snipped.
Nikolai lolled one of those charming, boyish smiles at her. "I'll be fine. I have you two to patch me up."
"Not if you break your head," Tamar retorted. "We're not trained for that. And if you bust that clever brain of yours, there will be no more inventing."
He sighed dramatically. "Yes, yes, I'm sorry."
Tamar snorted. "And yet, you're just going to do it again, aren't you?"
The blasted prince couldn't hide the small smile. "I've discovered manning the sails is a two-person job. Although a Squaller would also do."
"You'd have to find someone crazy enough to go out on this thing with you," Tolya remarked as he helped Nikolai to his feet.
"One day you will appreciate my genius," he said before stumbling drunkenly.
Tamar ducked in to catch him. "You've crashed another ship. Brilliant job."
Nikolai waved a hand dismissively. "I learn something from every failure, and so it is not a waste." His mouth did turn down as he swept his gaze around the wreckage. "The men at the base were getting lazy anyway. Now they have something to clean up."
Tamar shared an eye roll with her brother over their friend's head. They stopped talking as they maneuvered their way down from the wreckage and over to the horses. Nikolai furrowed his brow at the lack of saddle and tack.
"And you call me wild."
"We were understandably in a hurry," Tamar pointed out. "Tolya, pick him up."
"Hold on, hold on," Nikolai protested, though the wobbly sway to his posture and eyes belied any air of authority. "Just…bring it around," he said with a slight slur and gesturing vaguely at nothing.
Tamar sighed but clucked her tongue and coaxed her horse into walking over to the edge of the wreckage. "Ten kruge if you fall on your ass."
"Is that a bet or a dare?"
She crossed her arms and waited.
Nikolai stumbled his way up onto a piece of debris to get himself more on level with the horse, and from there he struggled to keep his balance as he swung one leg over the animal's back. He could not hold back a groan as he slumped over the animal's neck, and Tamar finally took pity on him. She climbed up behind him, wrapping an arm around his waist so he wouldn't fall off, and using just her legs to steer the horse. Tolya mounted his, and they started the paced ride back to the base. Tamar periodically checked Nikolai's head wound and used her power to ease some of the pain and nausea she knew the horse's lurching gait was not helping with.
When they reached the base, the guards were surprised and confused and asked if they needed help.
"We'll take care of him," Tolya told them. "But the great Sturmhond has crashed another ship. Send out a retrieval crew."
Nikolai practically fell off the horse, but Tolya smoothly caught him, and then they half-carried him into the elevator to head up to his rooms. There, they deposited him on the bed and got out supplies to clean and bandage the head wound. It was a lot of blood to wipe away, but as suspected, the actual gash wasn't that deep.
"We can't do anything about the concussion," Tolya repeated. "You'll just have to rest. And we'll wake you every hour."
"Mm," Nikolai mumbled.
"Have you learned your lesson?" Tamar asked.
He prized his eyelids open a fraction to peer at her and flashed that irritating grin. "I just need to invent the sky version of a life boat."
Tamar huffed and shook her head fondly. "Or you could keep your feet on the ground where they belong."
Nikolai merely smirked and closed his eyes again. "If I can build it, it's meant to be."
"Why do we follow you?" she lamented.
"Sturmhond pays very handsomely."
"Yeah, that's not it."
His lips twitched. "Then it must be my winning personality."
"You certainly won't be winning any prizes for flying any time soon," Tolya said, patting his arm. "Now rest, my friend."
"Just you wait," Nikolai murmured, already drifting off. "One day we will cross the sea by sky."
Tamar and Tolya shared an amused look. It was a lofty, pie-in-the-sky dream. But if he did manage to pull it off, well, they'd be there at his side. Like they'd always be.