Lewis parks's Arc

Chapter 6 of 7

By morning Grit had the flying machine pulled to the middle of the workshop floor. The cloth wings were spread. The frame sat on a wheeled cradle. Grit walked a slow circle around it, pointing. Strut. Strut. Cable. Cable. He stopped at the engine block and tapped a hollow socket near the base. "Heart's missing," he said. "Needs a piece I never could pour. Without it, the wings stay folded. Without the wings, you don't go over that house. Deal falls apart." Ember crouched by the socket and put her hand inside. She pulled it out and stared at her palm. "I don't know this shape," she said. "I make blades. Edges. Not whatever this wants to be." Lewis pulled a notepad from his pocket and started sketching. The socket was round at the base and forked at the top, with three small channels cut along the inside. He held the sketch up. "It's not a part," he said. "It's a holder. Whatever sits in there has to spin and feed three lines at once. We don't forge it. We grow it." Grit squinted. Ember tilted her head. Lewis kept going. "Crystal bush in the side yard. The branches fork. If we cut one at the right node and shave it down, the shape is already there. You heat-treat the channels. That's your edge work." They worked through the afternoon. Lewis cut a forked branch from the bush by the workshop door and trimmed it to fit. Ember set up a small fire in Grit's pan and ran the heat along the three channels until they hardened to a glass shine. Grit fed the piece into the socket. It clicked. The wings lifted an inch on their own and held. Grit laughed once, sharp. "Third time," he said. "Told you." The workshop door rattled. Then it splintered. Sedrick stepped through, wand raised, the crow on his shoulder. He looked at the machine, at the wings, at the children. "You don't get to leave the ground," he said. He pointed the wand at the engine block. Ember moved first. She grabbed the hot pan off the fire and threw it. The pan hit Sedrick in the chest. His cloak caught. He swung the wand toward her, and Lewis shoved the wheeled cradle hard. The frame rolled. A strut caught Sedrick at the throat and pinned him to the wall. The wand dropped. The crow flew at the broken door and was gone. Sedrick slid down the wall and did not get up. Grit checked him and shook his head. "Done," he said. He dragged the body behind a tarp without looking at them again. Ember stood by the machine with soot on her hands. Lewis stood beside her. Neither moved for a long second. She looked at him. "You grew the part," she said. "I burned the man." He nodded. She took his hand. He did not let go.