Riwenne & the Airship Gambit

By Kristen S. Walker

A young prophet still learning her powers. A single city standing against the might of the empire. Can the dream of the rebellion last?

Fifteen-year-old Riwenne never considered herself a prophet, but when she rescued Lyndamon City from destruction, people called her a miracle worker. Now the city she saved is under an even greater threat. When they declared their independence, the rest of the empire prepared their airships for an attack. Lyndamon is still defenseless from the last battle and they don’t have resources to rebuild.

In a desperate bid to protect her fragile home, Riwenne must find more divine warriors to fight for her cause—but not everyone with a god’s power is on her side. When mysterious warriors attack, she must persuade them to join her team or she must defeat them. Still haunted by her last kill, Riwenne is reluctant to use lethal force again.

Between negotiating with gods and her new relationship, Riwenne barely has time to rest. Her sleep is haunted by nightmares of what she’s done and visions of what could happen if she fails.

The fate of the gods hangs in the balance.

Riwenne & the Airship Gambit is the third book in a steampunk fantasy series for teens. If you like magical girls, giant airships, and fast-paced adventure, then you’ll enjoy Kristen S. Walker’s series of guns and gears.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristen S. Walker
• Release date: Jul 24, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463261798

Kristen S. Walker

Fantasy author Kristen S. Walker dreams of being a pirate mermaid who can talk to sharks, but she settles for writing stories for teens and adults. She's proudly bisexual, Wiccan, a liberal feminist, and lives in northern California with her family and two rescued pets. To find out more about her stories, please visit kristenwalker.net.

Book preview

1

The Airship Threat

Lyndamon’s white towers gleamed in the light of dawn. Once the city had floated in the sky, but now it floated on the ocean, cradled in the middle of the bay. Not much else had changed. Cable cars, suspended on narrow lines between the tall buildings, still zipped above the streets. Clanging bells called people to worship in the temple. Neighbors smiled and greeted each other as they left their homes.

I saw my friends walking together, laughing like they didn’t have a single worry in their minds. I ran to catch up, always the last one out the door. Guys, wait for me!

A shadow crossed my path. I looked up. An airship, painted with imperial military colors, loomed over the street. Then a second one joined it, and a third.

I stopped and stared. There was a whole fleet of airships blotting out the sky.

I reached for my friends. Watch out!

Explosions drowned out the sound of my voice. The attack had already started. A bomb dropped right in front of me, and my friends disappeared.

The buildings crumbled around me. The dust clogged my nose and throat. I shielded my face with my hands, but the heat cooked me. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the end.

And yet, all the destruction raining around me left me untouched. When I opened my eyes again, there was nothing but smoke and rubble.

With the buildings gone, my eyes went straight to the heart of the city, where the temple used to stand. There was a dark figure standing on a pedestal, impossibly tall, glowing blood red from her shoes to the tips of her long, wild hair. She raised her arm, and I knew when she let it fall, everything would end. A mysterious force rooted my feet to the ground. I could do nothing but stare.

Three lights flashed in a triangle around her: gold, bronze, and pink. Three warriors stood against the dark figure. They clashed together, and for a moment, it seemed they might win. But each one fell and the dark figure was triumphant.

My feet came free at last and I stumbled forward. I don’t know how far I had to run, but my lungs burned and my muscles ached.

Then the dark figure turned toward me and our eyes met.

Lyda! I gasped. She was the head priestess who I had once sworn to serve. The leader of the Central Province. And my mother.

There was a gun in my hand, although I don’t remember where I got it from. I raised it to aim at her even as I shrank back. I didn’t want to kill anyone else. The blood… I just couldn’t take another life.

The sun rose red directly behind Lyda. She raised her arm again.

Riwenne, Quilla’s voice whispered in my ear. Pull the trigger. Stop her before she destroys everything.

No!

I let the gun fall from my hand.

Lyda dropped her arm, and everything went black.

My throat was raw from screaming.

Kyra smoothed my hair back from my face, slick from sweat. She sat on the edge of my bed and cradled my head on her lap, her black and purple hair draped around us both like a curtain. That sounded like a bad one, she said in a soothing voice. Do you want to talk about it?

I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer. Yes, I croaked. But not yet. We’d better get everyone. I think… this one was important.

Nightmares were common for me these days, ever since I’d first killed someone. Pomavar Tanaja. I’d never forget that name. He was an engineer who created bionic prosthetics for people with missing limbs, but he had twisted his creations into something dark by the bloodstones they needed for power. I was only trying to stop him from doing harm, but I killed him. The worst part was, his death had solved nothing.

I didn’t know who had the largest part of the blame for what happened. Was it my father, Minister Rennu, who used the bionic limbs to create a personal army to defend his evil plans? He was dead, by his own hand, because I was too slow to stop him. Was it my sister, Nexita, who had taken the first bionic arm and used it for destruction? She had given it up, and she tried to atone for her mistake every day. Was it my mother, Priestess Lyda, who created bloodstones through ritual sacrifice? She had fled the city, and it diminished her power when she lost her position as head priestess.

The real culprit was Chysa—the sun goddess. She had manipulated every member of my family, given them the bloodstones for human sacrifice, and promised them power. The other gods were all secondary to her, but Chysa still wanted more, demanding absolute worship and devotion. They had banished the only goddess who had stood against her, Quilla, her sister and the goddess of the moon, for disobedience. Chysa controlled the Empire of Arkia, and we couldn’t find peace until we defeated her.

Every night in my dreams, I saw death. Most of the time, it was nothing but my guilt and fear come to haunt me. But I’d had true visions before which warned us of new enemies before they attacked. This latest nightmare felt like a glimpse of our future.

When I had calmed down, Kyra left me to gather the others. I got out of bed and forced myself to dress. I could wear whatever I wanted these days, but I settled for a practical brown dress with a white blouse and low-heeled boots. I’d been cutting my pink hair to shoulder-length, so I didn’t have to do much but untangle a few snarls in my curls.

Our bedroom had a homey feel that I’d never experienced anywhere else. It wasn’t large, with barely room for our two beds, a wardrobe for our clothes, and an overflowing bookshelf. But it had a warm fur carpet, brightly colored blankets with matching curtains on the window, and sparkly lamps all around. Even Tika, the sandpiper who insisted she wasn’t like a regular bird, had built a little nest on the windowsill. It was as small as the temple dorms or the sleeping bunks on our airship, but this one was ours.

The previous owners had abandoned the house after the attack on the city. It was a narrow building tucked between several other houses on the same block. But it had several floors, adding up to enough bedrooms to house most of our friends. Amena and Janera shared the room below ours, and Vilqa and Nexita were in the room across the hall. The other rooms were a combination of living space and headquarters for our little group.

The ground floor of the house had been the business of the previous owners, a cafe called Fruit Tea Parlor. We didn’t have the time to run the business, but we took advantage of the space as a meeting area. By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, most of the others were sitting around a large table. Janera, wearing a frilly apron with her chestnut-red hair caught in a messy bun, was in the cafe’s kitchen heating pastries and tea for everyone.

The front door opened with a chiming bell. Deryt loped in, brushing his shaggy blue-black hair out of his eyes. Uqra the golden-headed quetzal bird rode on his shoulder. She must have brought him from his workshop at the former Ministry of Research & Development, just down the street.

Deryt dropped into an empty chair and raised his eyebrows. So? What’s the emergency this early in the morning?

I stood at the head of the table and covered a yawn with the back of my hand. Sorry, guys, I mumbled. I wouldn’t have dragged you all in here if I didn’t think it was important.

Kyra put her hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me into a chair. Eat something, you’ll feel better.

I barely reached for the food before Janera piled a generous serving onto a plate and handed it to me, along with a steaming cup of tea. Thanks. You’ve been busy.

Janera beamed. It’s not a big deal. I couldn’t sleep last night, so I stayed up baking.

My eyes widened at the amount of food. Janera’s lifelong dream was being a baker, but she’d never had access to a good kitchen before. Now she was baking up a storm. I loved tasting all the new recipes she experimented with, but I didn’t want her creations to come at such a high price. Why couldn’t you sleep?

She shrugged. I don’t know, some kind of restless feeling in the air. I’d rather be up and doing something than tossing and turning in bed all night.

Amena tossed her golden blonde hair over her shoulder. I thought I was the one who was restless. I was trying not to bug you, so I went up on the roof to work on some new songs. She rubbed the callouses on her fingers from strumming guitar strings.

Tika cocked her head to one side. That’s an odd coincidence.

I shot a look at Kyra, who frowned. It sounded like more than a coincidence. Did anyone else have trouble sleeping?

Nexita shuddered and said nothing, hiding behind her glasses and bright blue hair. Like me, she couldn’t sleep without seeing the horrible things she’d done.

Vilqa raised their hand. Their green hair had grown out since we first met, but they still cut it asymmetrically, shorter on the left side. I was up late reading textbooks. Our non-binary member didn’t have much of an education, so they were making up for lost time with extra studies.

Deryt leaned back and folded his arms. So, there was mass insomnia in your house last night. So what? That doesn’t sound like an emergency.

Janera rolled her eyes at him. When she first met Deryt, she’d said he was attractive and tried to flirt with him. But after months of getting no response, she’d given up, and now she often got annoyed by his know-it-all attitude. I couldn’t blame her. I’d always thought he sounded condescending, even if he didn’t mean to be that way. As usual, he seemed oblivious to everyone’s reactions to him.

Kyra put her hands protectively around my shoulders. If Riwenne says it’s an emergency, we should listen. She’s our leader.

It’s not just the lack of sleep, I said. I took a deep breath, looking around at my friends. Their smiles reassured me. I think I had a vision last night. It was like the first time I dreamed about the mechanical beasts and the bionic witches. There’s a new enemy coming to attack us.

Janera gripped her butter knife. A new enemy? Just point me at ‘em!

Amena and Deryt shared a look. They’d both grown up in the rebellion, so they had more experience than the rest of us. If there’s a new enemy, we need to tell Eberet and the other leaders so they can plan our defense, Amena said.

Deryt frowned. Although I’m not sure what more we can do. We already have our hands full with the empire breathing down our necks.

My confidence grew as they took me at my word. I had been afraid they would question the vision, and I’d have to argue with them. It’s still the empire, I explained. It’s always the empire, and the sun goddess, isn’t it? What I learned is how they will attack.

Everyone leaned forward to listen.

Airships filled the sky, I said, the images floating before me again. They bombed the city until there was nothing left standing. In the middle of the rubble, Priestess Lyda was glowing. Three new warriors stood against her, but they fell. Then—, my voice cracked.

Kyra rubbed my back. It’s okay, take it slow. Did you see any of us in all this?

I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head. You didn’t survive the first attack, I whispered. Then, at the end, I failed to stop Lyda, too. Quilla told me to do it but I—couldn’t. So Lyda destroyed everything.

I opened my eyes and sipped my tea. The hot liquid soothed my throat.

Deryt grunted. We should concentrate on rebuilding our aerial defenses, then.

Amena nodded. The guns we can make easily, there’s plenty of metal in the city. But guns aren’t enough. We should have our own airships to keep them at a distance.

Janera cleared her throat. Won’t we be needing food more? Can’t build anything on an empty stomach.

I looked at the table full of pastries. We’re short on food?

Janera rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Well, not yet. The city’s stores are full from the last harvest, and that should last for months. But when that’s gone, there’s nothing new coming in. I’ve been telling the new Council that we should prioritize planting gardens to grow our own food.

I’d never considered that before. Lyndamon was a city built on rock, with almost nothing green in the whole place. When it was the capital of the Central Province, every other town and city in the region sent us food as part of their taxes. But now the rebels had taken over, the empire would cut off our food supply, and we still had many people to feed.

Kyra knocked her hand on the table. You told the Council, that’s the important thing. She nudged me. And we’ll tell the Council about this potential threat, too. Then they’ll decide the best course of action. It’s not our job to make all the plans ourselves.

She was right. I breathed a sigh of relief. Things had gotten so big that a group of seven teenagers wasn’t enough to do everything. When we took the temple priestesses out of power, Lyndamon needed new leadership. I’d refused to let us young, inexperienced kids try to run anything. We’d organized an election, and everyone voted on the members of the newly formed Council. We could all submit our suggestions to them, plus Amena and I both acted as spokespeople sometimes, but then we followed their directions.

The only responsibility I had was to our team. So why did I feel like the weight of the world was still on my shoulders?

I looked up and blinked until my eyes had cleared enough to read the numbers on the clock. Will you guys have time to come with me to the Council meeting?

Amena nodded at Deryt. Yes. We’ll be there to give our recommendations.

Janera gestured at the pile of food, more than we could ever eat in a day. I need to give all these leftovers to someone. Bribery might make them agree to my garden proposal.

Tika clacked her beak in a chuckle.

Everyone else agreed quickly, because they also saw that we were running out of time. I smiled at them again.

Guess we’d better get ready for the dawn ceremony, then. I stood up.

2

Official Duties

We hurried down the block to the temple complex. The square outside was filling up as people waited for the doors to open, but we weren’t heading for the front entrance. Janera nodded to the guard sergeant on duty, Raisha, who let us in the side door. She’d trained as a cadet under Raisha, back before all this started.

Sergeant Raisha saluted. She knew us by sight now. I smiled up at her, grateful that some temple guards had stayed. It made the place less weird to have a few familiar faces still around.

We hurried into the back dressing chamber where Eberet was waiting, already in his robes. He brushed his bright green hair out of his eyes. You’re all so punctual this morning, he said, looking at me.

I was too anxious to feel embarrassed by that remark. Couldn’t sleep, I said with a shrug. We have something important to talk about later. Will the Council have time to hear us today?

Eberet sighed. The Council will get nothing done if we spend all our time listening to concerned citizens. He pulled a notebook from his pocket and flipped through the schedule. It will be tight. Does it need to be today?

Kyra folded her arms. You’ll want to hear from your prophet. This is the top priority.

Eberet raised his eyebrows at me. I flinched at the term ‘prophet’ which he’d been trying to stick on me ever since I saved the city. But Kyra was right. If my dream was a true vision, the warning was important. I nodded.

I’ll squeeze you into the morning session, then. Eberet’s tone grew serious. He scribbled in his notebook and closed it with a snap.

I turned to the metal hooks on the wall. Our robes hung, waiting for us to get ready. Once, Kyra and I had worn plain white novice robes in this temple. Now, each one of us had a different color, representing the god or goddess we were sworn to serve. We designed them to slip over our street clothes, then we could take them off after. I didn’t miss wearing a heavy robe all day or trying to keep it clean.

My robe looked white at first glance, but it shimmered when I picked it up, revealing the silver threads woven through the fine wool. Silver for Quilla, the moon goddess.

The others made a rainbow behind me. Kyra in red for Xiso, Nexita in Linar’s orange, Amena with green for Qachmy, ocean blue-green for Sawycha on Vilqa, Sano’s sky blue on Deryt, and Janera in Omer’s purple.

My mind flashed back to the lights I’d seen in my nightmare: bronze, gold, pink. Would there be more of us soon? I always wanted more friends, and more warriors would help the fight.

Eberet wasn’t the champion of any god, but he’d been a high priestess in another temple once. They stripped him of his title when he came out as a trans man, but we didn’t limit clergy by gender in our new utopia. If Deryt could be a divine warrior, then Eberet should be a high priest. He wore the black robe with pride.

The bells echoed through the enormous stone building, signaling the open doors. It was almost time. I closed my eyes, trying to focus on what we needed to do.

When we liberated the city and the sun goddess’s priestesses abandoned the temple, I didn’t want a dawn ceremony. At first, no one even wanted to set foot in the temple tainted by past human sacrifices. But people in the city missed the familiar routine, and we wanted to encourage worship for all the gods who the sun goddess had pushed aside.

Eberet, as a former priestess and an expert in theology, had written our new ceremony. We kept it at dawn because most people were used to the time, but we were careful to never name Chysa or the sun. It had become an act of defiance.

I hoped when the sun rose every morning, her light touched our temple expecting prayers of devotion and felt the rejection as we chanted the names of every other god but her. It was nothing compared to what she’d done to the others, especially her own sister, Quilla, but it was a start. I wanted her to know that her days as the leader of the gods were numbered.

The steam-powered organ played the opening notes of the ceremony. Time to go. There were no novices or lower-ranked priestesses to walk out before us, so we lined up in the hallway and filed into the sanctum.

The inside of the temple still looked the same. Stonemasons had carved the white marble walls with sun glyphs and icons of Chysa, shining with gold gilt. Huge glass windows stretched up to the vaulted ceiling. The altar, a stone table, was on a dais under the large eastern window. The steam-powered organ took up the northern wall.

People inside the temple got to their feet when they saw us, but they no longer bowed their heads. I didn’t want to feel higher than anyone else. I met their eyes as I stepped into the sanctum, smiling at each person I saw, silently thanking them for coming.

We lined up on the dais at the front of the room out of necessity. Kyra, Nexita, Amena and I were all too short so when we’d stood on the floor, people sitting in the back couldn’t see us at all. We flanked the altar, letting Eberet take the center position.

The organ music ended and Eberet began the chant in Old Ursan. Traditionally, only high priestesses learned the ancient language. He was trying to teach the rest of us in our spare time, but it was difficult, and we didn’t feel confident enough to join in yet. His deep voice, echoing alone through the vast chamber, was so different from the chorus of women that used to sing.

The rest of us watched the window, waiting for the moment when the sun would appear. In the old ceremony, this used to be when Lyda created a sunstone from Chysa’s power. But we’d sworn never to rely on her magic again.

Green light flashed just as the sun crested the horizon. In unison, we raised our godcrystals, shining with their own power. The rainbow lights united and formed a barrier, shielding us from the sun’s harsh rays.

The organ started playing again, the familiar melody of the morning prayer. I heard paper shuffling as congregants opened the pamphlets to read the new prayer. We’d had the old version memorized since birth, but they needed a reference for the new one.

O Brave Quilla, shine your guiding light

Onto our daily work and devotion

Share the sky with your divine companions

We ask you all for your blessing and protection

---

Sawycha, cradle our city in your waters

Omer, fill our pantries with your crops

Xiso, feed and clothe us with your herds

Qachmy, give us the bounty of your jungles

Linar, grant us the spark of invention…

The song went on for a long time, naming every deity we knew about, and the list got longer whenever Eberet discovered new names in his research. Tika said it was impossible to list everyone. Myths stated there were five hundred gods, but Tika said this was a metaphor and the gods couldn’t be counted. But we had to try. Centuries of neglect had weakened the other gods but with our prayers, they would grow stronger. By bolstering as many gods as we could, we’d build our army against Chysa.

The seven divine warriors, connected with our chosen deities and channeled the prayers directly to them. Eberet described us as vessels for power, but Nexita said it was more like conduits and the energy could flow both ways. Eberet and I held a broader connection to the other gods.

There were less than three hundred thousand people in Lyndamon since we’d liberated it,. The empire held over four million citizens. It was only a tiny fraction of the prayers that Chysa received, split among countless gods. And she’d had several centuries of exclusive worship until now.

But we prayed with a strength of conviction that I think most imperial citizens didn’t have. Every person in this city had seen what happened when the sun goddess’s priestesses abandoned them, their own minister destroyed the machine which kept the floating city in the sky, and they’d faced the terror of falling to their deaths. When I called on them to pray to other gods, they’d followed my lead, and the gods answered by saving us. Our lives were proof that our prayers mattered.

I felt the energy flowing through me, connecting my friends and fellow citizens to the infinite divine. We all mattered. We had more power now than I’d ever seen in this temple.

When the list of gods finally ended and the organ faded away, we lowered our arms. The light of our godcrystals dimmed as we put them away. Most of us had lockets we wore around our necks, while Vilqa and Deryt had less feminine amulets which they pinned to the front of their clothes.

The terror of my nightmare had faded away, along with the exhaustion from restless sleep. I was reenergized and ready to face the day. I looked around at my friends and smiled.

Kyra took my hand as we left the sanctum. Feel better?

I nodded. Always do after a ritual like that. It’s so exhilarating.

Good. I always worry that you’ll push yourself too far.

I know, but I’m getting better at controlling it. I haven’t passed out in weeks.

She grimaced. With you, that just means you’re due for another episode soon.

I was in too good of a mood to argue with her, so I kissed her on the cheek. Between you, Tika, and Nexita, it’s like I have three mothers. It’s sweet that you’re concerned about me.

We’d just reached the door to the dressing chamber. Kyra yanked me to