Chapter 14: Flesh and Bone Sun Hats

Halfway through recounting that final year at the University, I had turned away from Ludger and lowered my voice to a whisper.

Ludger stared at me imploringly and nudged me with its beak when I fell silent.

Well, at least it released me from its literal iron grip, and not just to continue exploring. However, every time I opened my mouth, I shuddered as I recalled what lay beyond that red curtain, and the decision that led to me sleeping in an iron-bound closet of a living quarters: covered in soot from a long-extinguished gas lamp. I stared at the stars that didn’t come close to illuminating anything past the porthole’s frame. The stars are only studied by fortunetellers and navigators. Yet, my heart started pounding as I stared at those pinpricks of light: trying and failing to grasp the scope of what I could only define as pretty lights. I screwed my eyes shut, buried my face in my hands, and pressed myself against the iron door on the opposite wall. The stars. They make me feel so small. How could I have once been a University student? Look at me now. And when the Headmistress sees me again…. My olive features paled, and I clutched fistfuls of my dark hair. "Oh, by the three hells, what am I going to do when I have to face her? None of the carrier crows we keep aboard can possibly deliver my letter before we arrive. And let's not forget that the Headmistress has sensitive skin. She wouldn’t leave the University for a bit of fresh air even if you held her at gunpoint, and if she refuses to see you before the researchers, they’ll crack your ivory structures open. They’re going to blow their gaskets once they see all the monsters, no offense, that I’ve smuggled into the Empire!" Pulling my scarf tighter to suppress my heaving breaths and the pounding of the arteries in my neck, I glanced at Ludger when the creature made an inquiring twitter. I forced myself to smile. "To think we would run into complications, and all because the Headmistress doesn't have a sun hat.” I mimed the shape of a sun hat over my head.

Ludger squinted at my hand gestures while eyeing the shape of my head from every angle. I wondered whether the creature would take up hat-making to meet my offhanded request when it scrambled through the porthole.

I craned my neck to follow the clinking of Ludger’s talons as it scaled the side of the airship. After several minutes, I yelped when a frozen eyeball set in craggy flesh and bone peered into the porthole.

However, after Ludger blew their pieced-together flute, the rounded block elongated into a rod with eyeballs and fangs protruding from the end they dropped through the porthole.

I sighed once I saw it was only the salmon shark… or whatever it was now.

Before I could tell Ludger frozen shark wasn't my choice of comfort food, its flute blared. I backed farther against the door until iron rivets dug into my skin when the creature’s threads of light molded the block of flesh and bone into the shape of the sun hat I had mimed.

When the threads receded into Ludger’s eyes, it outstretched its wings toward the block: now vaguely hat-shaped.

As the silence stretched, Ludger bowed its head and kicked the “sun hat” which didn't budge.

"No, no! Only the Headmistress decides whether your work ought to be kicked or cherished, and I'm thinking she may lean toward the second option. Remember, she is a wizard in bioengineering. Once she sees that flesh and bone mold like putty when you hum a little tune, we’ll have blown her mind before her gasket has a chance to explode!" However, I shuddered at the thought of Ludger barging into the Headmistress’s office before plopping this thing onto her desk. "Though, she is a very busy woman. Even when delivering a once-in-a-lifetime discovery, one does not simply scream and expect to be heard by the Headmistress. Oh, but I know a far classier way to send our message: no need for carrier crows nor infiltrating the University. I have a knack with radios." The only issue was, the airship’s broadcasting equipment was locked in the Foreman's office, and every time I went to deliver my midnight research reports, I’d find her sitting bolt-upright at her desk. No, the only time she proved capable of anything but silently staring was while mooring the airship. "But to worm ourselves past all the deckhands, you’ll hide among the other salvage I’ll bring to her office for ‘inspection.’ Now hold on!"

Ludger danced by hopping from one talon to the other at the mention of deckhands.

"Remember what I said about shotguns? Besides, I might have educated you on the Headmistress’s professional life, but how will you charm her without learning of her ‘gentler’ qualities?" I sighed audibly as Ludger nodded vigorously. What made me think breaking into the University with a carnivorous birdman could end without us getting riddled with bullets? Buttering the Headmistress up over the radio makes infinitely more sense. Still, I eased my grip from my scarf and neck knowing I wouldn't have to face the Headmistress after clawing from the other side of the Walls, begging to be let back in, and bringing more than traces of carnivorous plants into the last human civilization.

You are reading story The Paradox Palace at novel35.com

You can find story with these keywords: The Paradox Palace, Read The Paradox Palace, The Paradox Palace novel, The Paradox Palace book, The Paradox Palace story, The Paradox Palace full, The Paradox Palace Latest Chapter