Arianna stormed past him, the paper still in hand.
Cvareh was left to catch his balance as her shoulder clipped his. He was left wondering what he had done, how his branch of peace had been turned into the first shot fired in a new war between them. He turned to call after her and, as if sensing his intention, she spun in place.
“And don’t you think about coming near Flor or me ever again,” she snarled, then continued in toward the cabins.
The other patrons of the ship whispered to each other, tittering as though they had just witnessed a scandalous lovers’ quarrel. Cvareh didn’t know what they had seen. Because this wasn’t the Arianna he knew. At every turn the woman seemed like she was someone different. Every bit of clarity he’d gained into her true nature only served to confound him further.
31. Florence
Ari slammed the door behind her so hard the desk that was bolted to the wall next to it shook, a small tool rolling off its surface. Both Arianna and Florence paid the out-of-place screwdriver no mind. Ari looked at anything else but the paper she’d left on the table with a shout. She set to pacing the narrow cavern, her feet quickly forging ruts in the plush carpet.
“What’s gong on?” Florence finally asked, when it was clear the woman had no intention of doing or saying anything more than fevered mutterings.
“I knew it. I should’ve known all along,” Ari seethed. “He was never our friend, Flor. He’s a Dragon and a King’s man in his own way. He works for the King himself.”
“What?” The machine in Ari’s mind had jumped three gears and Florence couldn’t figure out how she’d gotten from one spot to the next.
“This whole time, he’s been working for the King. It’s been a ploy to get us to trust him. It’s just like last time. He came down and he’s convinced us that he can be trusted, never mind what his real motives are.”
“Ari, stop.” Florence grabbed her friend by both shoulders, which trembled slightly under her fingers—a feeling Florence had never felt from Ari before. Fear and rage mixed potently, bleeding into her veins.
She kept herself calm. It would do no good if Florence blindly agreed to what Ari was claiming. One of them had to keep her head and sort through this as logically as possible. Florence tightened her grip. “Arianna, take a deep breath and get a grip on yourself.”
“Flor, you have no idea—you, you bled so much for this man, you put yourself in a position of being forced to become a Chimera—” The word still brought ample shame to Arianna’s face. “And he was playing you all along.”
“I don’t believe you,” Florence declared. Her head was getting fuzzy from standing so long. She was practically bedridden all the time now from the effects of Dragon blood without being a proper Chimera. It had only taken one day on the airship for Florence to realize that Arianna had made the right decision in taking the risk, at least when it came to her own wellbeing. She would’ve never made it in a trek across Ter.0.
“You have no idea what he’s done. What he intends to do.”
“Then tell me.” Florence sat, finally. Her hands fell from Ari’s shoulders to grip the woman’s fingers. She pulled Ari down toward her. Arianna reluctantly obliged, falling onto the narrow bed they’d been sharing for the journey. “What happened that has you in such a state? You and he were fine over dinner.”
Better than fine, actually. It had been slow coming, but in the weeks they’d spent together, Arianna and the Dragon seemed to have found a kind of mutual peace. After the floating prison and the Underground, that peace blossomed into appreciation. Florence had watched it grow all along, two people determined to hate each other realizing just how much they could complement each other.
Florence knew why she liked Cvareh: He reminded her of Ari. Certainly, they weren’t identical. But they were both driven, both determined; they both set course for something only they could see on a distant shore. She suspected Ari saw much the same in the man, that he sparked memories within her. But now, those memories seemed to be rife with pain.
“He wants to see Loom forever under the thumb of the Dragon King. He wants to keep us under the Dragon’s control for eternity,” Arianna repeated her earlier words, unhelpfully.
“If you want me to believe you on this, Ari, you’ll have to give me some better proof,” Florence encouraged gently.
“My word isn’t good enough?”
Florence gave her an encouraging smile, and shook her head. “Not this time, I’m afraid. I know Cvareh. I’ve already formulated my own thoughts and opinions on him. This is not a story of times long gone that you recount for me and I must take at face value. This is a situation in which I have my own empirical evidence to support what I believe to be true. If you want me to change my mind, you must present new evidence.”