Read The Airship Aurelia (The Aurelian Archives) for Free Online

careful.”
                  Reece noticed Tilden fingering the ALP, which had somehow gotten turned a little more in his direction. “Cut that out,” he snapped. “Gideon, you and Tilden take Owon to Mordecai. I need to speak to Po.”
    Owon rose with smooth grace and allowed Gideon and Tilden to take either of his arms and march him towards the spiral staircase. He'd learned going quietly, saying nothing but wearing that creepy smile of his, had more effect on his captors than death threats.
                  With a sigh, Reece turned to Po. She had taken Tilden's spot before the lantern and was massaging her bare feet in its small area of warmth.
                  “Po,” he said tiredly, “where are your shoes?”
                  “I'm waiting for Gideon to buy me a new pair. He promised he would,” she answered cheerfully.
                  There came a clang and a muffled curse. By the sounds of it, Gideon had missed a stair.
                  Nivy pointed at the wireless and spread her hands in question.
                  Po bit her bottom lip sheepishly. “It's just so dark in here. The music fills it up, you know? Makes the dark less…powerful.” She perked up, dimples sinking in her cheeks as she smiled. “But we'll prolly be done rewirin' the auxiliary lights tonight, Cap'n.”
                  “Good. How's the Afterquin coming along?”
                  “She's just been asleep so long, I worry she's forgotten how to be an engine.” Po had a habit of making an engine sound like a living, breathing thing—even the Afterquin, and Aurelia's engine filled an entire room. “And then she's missin' those essentials still. I can substitute parts, but once she goes airborne, there's no tellin' how fast she'll burn out the subs.”
                  Reece had that part under control. A few good things had come from growing up on the edge of wealth and politics. First, money wasn't, and never had been, hard to come by for him…mostly because he never remembered to spend it, and it had a habit of gathering interest when he let it sit in his accounts. Secondly, the upper class provided friends like Scarlet, who could negotiate the color out of a crayon. If anyone could get her hands on the confidential records listing the owners of Aurelia's auctioned-off parts, it was her.
                  “How long until she's ready? Ten days?” Reece asked.
                  Po stared at him. “I…didn't you say we had a couple'a weeks still?”
                  “Will it take that long?”
                  “Workin' only four hours a night? Probably.”
                  “What about working on her during the day? I'm going to have Mordecai forge some maintenance requests. The museum itself could hire you. They'd essentially be paying you to fix Aurelia for us.”
                  Po twiddled her fingers as she counted in an undertone, her eyes shut tight in concentration. “Well, if we can get in nine hours'a work a day…which'll be tough, because Tilden and Gus need to keep up their shop, too…maybe five days? Seven, tops.”
                  Nodding, Reece leaned over and carefully unwound the tapered wick inside the lantern. The flame flared violently, and he squinted.
                  “There's something else, Po. But listen…you can say no.”
                  Po scooted closer to him, looking up into his face with an earnest, puppy-like expression that made him smile.
                  “Aurelia needs a mechanic, and you're the best there is. But I don't want anyone coming along who doesn't want to. I need a crew who is ready to take my orders, and if someone feels talked into coming, they might not be too keen on that. This job is going to be dangerous… very dangerous. Everyone who comes is