The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) by Courtney Grace Powers Page A

and pulled out a stack of rectangular paper shields. They'd divided the money in two to cut the risk of loss in half. Raft took the stacks, glanced his thumb over their edges, and nodded approvingly. It was like something out of a story, Hayden thought with interest, wondering if Raft would lick the shields to taste them for bad ink, like the characters in those stories always did. But all Raft did was catch him staring and glare suspiciously. Hayden shrank back, embarrassed.
                  “Got those maps you asked for,” Raft said to Reece.
                  “Good. But I'd like to look over the supply lists first and double-check them with your estimates.”
                  Raising his dark eyebrows, Raft growled, “Don't trust me, boy?”
                  “You, I trust,” Reece said dryly, glancing towards the hearth with meaning.
                  “You got somethin' to say, Sheppard?” Kayl snarled, his blue eyes bulging. “I notice you're carryin'. You remember what I said would happen if you ever carried a gun when I had one on me?” The Pan reached towards the holster strapped to his leg, licking his lips.
                  “Settle, Kayl,” Raft ordered sternly, pointing a knotted finger. “If you and Sheppard wanna shoot it out, you wait and do it where there aren't innocents around.”
                  After a moment, Kayl huffingly slid his hand off his holster. As he turned to go, Po said in a very audible whisper, “Just forget him, Cap'n. My da always said that a man who goes lookin' for fights has too much time on his hands.”
                  Hayden couldn't help but smile at Kayl's flummoxed expression.  They were kindred spirits, he and Po. The innocents Raft had probably been referring to. His stomach sunk slightly. When Aurelia left…Po would be alone. Hayden would be alone.
                  “Do you have a place for my crew to wait while Gid and I look at those lists?” Reece asked Raft in an undertone, eyeing the den of Pans muttering amongst themselves. “Some place they won't be bothered?”
                  Raft jerked his chin at a beefy Pan with his head shaved to a single stripe of black hair and said, “Zesper, take them to the back lounge and start them a fire so's they don't freeze to death on us.”
    Hayden stayed close to Po and Nivy as Zesper led them through the chilly warehouse. Most of the walls were exposed brick, and the windows that hadn't been boarded up only had curtains to keep out the snow, sleet, and wind. They passed a number of Pans, and not just men, but women, who despite being no less scary, were at least prettier. Not that Hayden really looked. Most of them were bigger than he was.
    Zesper led them down a bottlenecking corridor and into a sitting room with cement floors, white walls, and a drafty wooden door to the back alleyway. There were a few seats beneath a hanging photon lantern, and a small hearth with wooden carvings of what looked like antlered horses on its mantel, cobwebs strung between them.
                  After lighting the fire, Zesper stood, gave them one calculating look, and left.
                  “Wonder why Reece wanted us to come,” Po mused as she hurried over to the fire and backed up to it, rubbing her arms. “Don't seem like we're doin' much good. Or much of anythin'.”
                  “It's for unity,” Hayden answered. “He's reinforcing the feeling of being a crew.”
                  Po nodded. If she was wondering why Hayden had come along—seeing as he wasn't part of the official crew and all—she had the grace to not ask. If she had, Hayden wouldn't have had an answer.
                  He sighingly sat on a leather loveseat he realized upon closer inspection was actually the back seat of a gutted automobile. Turning his satchel upside-down, he