From the look of him, the slave was still more boy than man. Sky helped him sit on the ground, patted his back and stood.
She stepped close to Ceti and lowered her voice.
“Ceti, if he’s Ahala’s personal slave, he has information about your enemies that Tabor needs, and quickly.”
Ahala’s personal slave. The words, first spoken by the imperial soldier, finally clicked in Ceti’s overloaded brain. This could be the break they were looking for.
Ceti grabbed one of his crew by the arm and ordered him to report directly to Commander Tabor and relate what had just happened and that they had Ahala’s personal slave. Tabor would not need anyone to tell him what that meant. “Tell the commander to meet me at my workshop.”
“Sky, bring your friend and come with me. Quickly.”
“His name is Laughing Dog,” Sky took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Ceti, I don’t know if he can go anywhere quickly. He can barely walk. He’s been beaten recently and his breathing sounds very bad.”
“He does not have to walk.” Ceti knelt down and picked up Laughing Dog.
The name was all wrong. The escaped slave had likely not laughed in a long time. His arms were covered in bruises and there was a cut over his eye. He was light, likely malnourished, and a close look at his face confirmed Ceti’s guess that he was just out of boyhood.
Ceti felt his anger rise. No one should be treated like this, slave or not. No wonder Sky had defended him with such fury.
And he did look very much like Sky, this poor slave. He had the same straight black hair and dark eyes. Ceti clenched his jaw at the thought of anyone doing this to her. He’d not thought too much about slaves. That was Dinah’s personal dragon to slay.
Now he understood.
Sky tugged at his sleeve. “Ceti, are you sending for Tabor? It’s urgent I speak to him.”
Ceti nodded, realizing she could not understand what he’d just ordered. “We’re going to my workshop. Tabor will meet us there.”
He looked once again at the young man in his arms, now limp and possibly unconscious. He switched back to his own language and addressed his work crew. “I need another messenger. Get to the medicus headquarters. Tell them I need their best at my workshop. This one’s going to need care.”
“Done, sir.” The youngest crew member raced off down the street.
“And you, Alaric!” Ceti pointed to another man. “Bring me that horse and cart over there.”
Alaric obeyed quickly and Ceti set Laughing Dog in the cart and began leading the horse at a good clip. Sky walked at his side. Ceti offered to let her ride in the cart with Laughing Dog. She refused, pointing out the horse could go faster without her weight.
“Why are we going to your workshop instead of directly to Tabor?” she asked.
“It’s defensible,” he said. “We can see people coming from all sides. Plus, it’s closer than the villa and it’s quieter.” And it was his sanctuary. After what just happened, it was the only place that he trusted Sky to be safe.
Chapter Seventeen
Sky’s heart didn’t stop hammering in her chest until Ceti carefully placed Laughing Dog down on the bed in Ceti’s workshop.
Tears came to her eyes as she thought of the boy he’d been. He and his older brother had been inseparable. Flying Hawk and Laughing Dog, the younger brother so named because of his innate good will and because of the way he followed his older brother around.
Until the day he’d gone missing.
When it became clear he wouldn’t be found, Flying Hawk had changed his name to Quiet Dog, in honor of his brother. The warrior had never completely recovered. He’d become morose and without joy. It was the main reason she’d turned away from a marriage with him, despite the push from their clans.
Quiet Dog had been right all along. The Romans did take his brother.
Yet, it was also Romans who saved him.
Laughing Dog groaned, opened his eyes and tried to speak, but only a croak came out.
“Get him some water, Ceti, please,” she said.
“What information does he have about Ahala?” He poured a cup from a jug in his workshop and handed it to her.
She helped the boy drink from the cup. “He was delirious, mumbling so many things about our villages being in danger and Ahala being worse than slugs or snakes. He needs some water and rest before he will make sense, I think.”
Laughing Dog had also been pleading with her to save his life. She would not mention the pleading. The boy had suffered enough indignity.
When he’d drained the mug of water, Laughing Dog cleared his throat. His face looked more alive, his eyes more alert. Perhaps his injuries were not as bad as she feared. He grabbed the edge of her deerskin vest with more strength that she’d thought he possessed.
He raised his tear-streaked face to her. “I can’t let my family see me like this, especially my brother.”
“They won’t. We’ll get you healed and washed and properly dressed before going to them. I swear.”
He rested his head on her shoulder. “Thank you, Sky. Thank you.”
She held him and stroked his hair, torn between anger at those who’d done this to him and worry that he was too injured to survive the trip home.
“Ahala is all the dark places rolled into one,” he said. “We must stop him.”
“We will.” She nodded, thinking of the knife at her throat last night. I should have spoken to Tabor this morning, not stalled in indecision. “Talk to me, Laughing Dog. Tell me what we face.”
Behind her, she heart Ceti step closer, probably to hear better.
“Ahala gave Legate Makki information about our villages. He knows where they are. They’re going to attack as soon as they destroy the rebels in this city.” His voice was a low rasp, but the words were clear. “They want to make the whole of our lands Roman territory. Makki intends to present his victories as a gift to the new emperor.”
“How does he know where our villages are?” She must get warning to her mother, to Shorakapkok and to all the clans. Now.
Laughing Dog closed his eyes. “May the Corn Goddess forgive me, I told him. I was overseas. I was desperate for home. I thought Ahala wanted to learn about us. I thought he wanted to help. He paid such careful attention to the stories I told. And he was my master and so much more gentle in the beginning than the last one...”
Laughing Dog dissolved into a coughing fit. Sky put her arms around him and held him close. If all the Romans who ever abused him were here now, she would kill them the same as she had the imperial soldier.
“Hush...our people will be safe. We have moved the villages since you were taken, Laughing Dog.”
Laughing Dog made a strange gurgling noise in his throat.
“Sky.” Ceti spoke only her name but she knew he wanted her to hurry her questioning. He wanted more information about the imperial fleet.
“Ahala and Makki know. They know.” Laughing Dog whispered.
“Know what?” Sky asked.
“There is a betrayer in our tribe.” Laughing Dog hissed out the last word. “Ahala has been working with someone in one of the clans.” His voice dropped to a quiet whisper. “I taught Ahala our language, I told him of our people and our villages, but I swear, I had no malice, I just missed home.” He choked back a sob. “But this betrayer deliberately chose to put himself on Ahala’s side. He provided the information about the villages and how to get to them. That’s how the messengers found all of you.”
“One of us is helping Ahala?” Her voice caught on the words.
“What messengers, Sky? What’s he talking about?” Ceti asked.
She waved the words away. “In a moment. Say that again, Laughing Dog.”
“A man of the clans has been reporting to Ahala for several full moons now.”
Slimy son of tree snakes and weasels.
It seemed Romans were not the only people who nourished evil.
“Who is he?”
Laughing Dog shook
his head. “I don’t know. I heard his voice, once, but never saw him.” He closed his eyes. “I wasn’t supposed to hear even that. I was beaten after. But I tried. I tried to do my best for the People. Then, when all seemed lost, I saw you on the wall and it seemed like a vision, a sign from the sky gods, to finally send such a one to rescue me. I swam and then I ran...”
She held him tight again as he dissolved into silent sobs.
“Sky.” Ceti put his hand on her shoulder. “What does he know about Legate Makki’s fleet?”
She laid the boy carefully back down on the bed. His eyes remained closed but silent tears rolled down his cheek. “He knows much about the fleet, I imagine. But I need to talk to Tabor first. There are things that need to come from me.”
“I’m here.”
She stood and turned to the new voice. Tabor was in the doorway of the workshop. He had a sword strapped to his waist but he was not wearing armor.
“What have you been hiding from me, Sky of the Lenape?”
Ceti immediately put himself between Sky and Tabor.
“I don’t like your implication, Commander.”
Oh, Ceti.
She wished for nothing more than to hug him for his fierceness or dissolve into his arms, as she had this morning. But she couldn’t let him stand between her and the truth.
“What he implies is true, Ceti. I know where Legate Makki’s fleet is,” she said. “I was ordered by my tribal elders not to discuss it.”
“That’s what you meant by the messengers?”
“Quiet, Ceti,” Tabor said. “Why are you telling me now, Sky?”
She pointed to Ceti. “Even if Laughing Dog had not just told me that Makki never intended to keep his promises to us, your people have proved their worth. Ceti and his crew never hesitated to rescue Laughing Dog today.”
She put her hand in the middle of Ceti’s chest, hoping he would read the plea in her eyes. “Will you watch over Laughing Dog? He knows you, he knows you saved his life. If he wakes up, he won’t be terrified. And he’ll talk to you.”
Tabor gestured and a man came out of the shadows behind him. “This is the medicus. With Ceti’s help, he’ll look at your kinsman’s injuries as we talk.”
Ceti nodded, curtly, and stepped away from Sky. “You should have told me.”
“I know.” She could see his fury in the stiffness of his shoulders. She desperately wanted to soothe it but there was no time.
She walked with Tabor out into Ceti’s workshop. She heard men near the outer doors, but no one else was inside. She blinked several times to get used to the light from the gas lanterns, so different from normal light.
Ceti had promised to take her here and show her all these clever things. Now, she had barely time to look around. She noticed circular walls of the workshop were very like Lenape wigwams though these were full of shelves that were loaded with tools. Cloth had been laid over a small workbench, the ends of it touching the floor.
Tabor grabbed a very thin sheet that looked like tree bark from the shelves. He spread it out flat on top of the enormous table in the middle of the workshop. He put Ceti’s hammer on one edge to keep it from rolling up again.
“Show me where the fleet is on this map,” he ordered.
She peered at what he called the “map.” Oh, how interesting! It was a detailed drawing of Mannhatta and the surrounding lands. She supposed some of the lines in the water showed the depth? Or the current? What were those odd scribbles?
Words.
They had to be words. How did one capture words? For that matter, what was this substance that contained the drawings? It wasn’t bark, it was something more pliable.
Enough. Those questions didn’t matter now. She traced the coastline down from the great Weehawken rocks to the Raritans cove where the fleet had anchored.
“Here.” She put her thumb on the place, just around the corner of the Raritans Island.
“Hidden, but close.” Tabor slapped the table, startling her enough to make her step back. He muttered in Latin.
“Think, Sky. Can you tell me how large the ships are? Length? How many masts? Could you see the weapons they were carrying? How many cannons?”
“The ships were four masts each,” she said. “But I didn’t see any cannons. There were many skinny doors on the sides of the ship, perhaps three times as many as the hands on my fingers.”
“Four masts, at least thirty cannons each.” Tabor winced. He muttered to himself again as he poured over the map. He raised his head.
“What else do you know, Domina? Can we expect help from your people?”
He was being courteous. She hadn’t expected that after the other night, when he’d been suspicious and accusing. But, then, he’d been right. She had been hiding something.
She almost dropped her head, feeling ashamed. If her mother was here, Lake Wolf would not be ashamed. She would say that she’d been looking out for the best interests of her clan.
“My mother is the leader of the Wolf Clan,” Sky said. “She and the leaders of the Turtle and Turkey clans agreed to keep the location of the imperial fleet secret. As her daughter, I was also so ordered.”
Tabor nodded. “What did Makki offer to you?”
“To be left in peace,” she said. “All he wanted, he claimed, was to put down the Roman rebellion here. He also asked for an alliance, but that was refused by all the clans.”
“And you believed he would let you alone?”
She shook her head. “None of us trusted him. But the vote was that there was no reason to stand in his way and prevent him from killing other Romans.”
Tabor nodded, still the very picture of courtesy. This is a man who knows how to hide his fury. “The Lenape thought to let us kill each other.”
Sky swallowed hard. “You don’t seem disturbed by this.”
“As the consul of Manhatos, I am appalled. But as a military commander, it’s a sound tactical decision, if short-sighted. You’d still have to contend with the victor.”
“That is what I said. The solution seemed unacceptable.”
“That’s why you came after Ceti.”
“It’s one of the reasons. I needed to know what sort of people you were.”
“And?” Tabor uncrossed his arms and put a hand on his sword. “What sort of people are we?”
“I know that you, Commander, would prove a good ally.”
“My city needs your tribe’s help. We need more than information. We need fighters.”
She took a deep breath. This would commit her clan and perhaps her whole tribe. But the choice was clear. Her mother would do the same if she was here. The situation had changed. “Ceti and his crew rescued Laughing Dog. He, myself, and my clan are in your debt. That debt will be honored.”
“How many fighters can you supply and how fas—”
A hand reached out from behind and closed over Tabor’s mouth. The attacker pulled Tabor tight against him and stabbed the Roman commander in the gut.
Tabor collapsed to his knees, blood already soaking his tunic. The movement revealed his attacker.
Ahala.
Chapter Eighteen
Sky grabbed for the knife sheathed at her waist, her eyes fixated on the thin blade in Ahala’s hand. It seemed to have no more substance than a flash of light and it was coming at her just as fast.
“Ceti! Help! Killer!”
She’d never get her knife out in time to stop the attack, but at least Ceti had warning.
Unexpectedly, Ahala stumbled. Sky launched herself at him, leading with her shoulder. The impact sent both of them tumbling to the floor. She landed on top of Ahala. That thin knife flashed at her again.
She rolled onto the floor, away from Ahala, toward Tabor, drawing her knife as she moved.
Yet she doubted her blade would be enough. Ahala had longer arms and she knew he was stronger because of how he’d held her down last night. And she was no warrior.
I need a better weapon.
She curl
ed her hand around the sawdust collected on the floor, tossed it in her attacker’s eyes, and gained the time she needed to get to her feet.
Ahala coughed and took a moment to wipe the dust out of his eyes. She lunged at him, her knife held out tip forward for a quick jab to the heart. He evaded her attempt easily, a slight grin on his face. The light from the lantern caught the surface of his strange little knife once more, now in his left hand.
She backed up to gain space between them and draw Ahala further away from Tabor, but her hip hit the edge of the table, trapping her. Ahala rushed her. She swept her knife in front of her, not expecting to hit him but hoping to delay the killing blow.
He evaded her move with one sidestep, grinning wider now.
She blindly patted the table with her empty hand. Tabor had used Ceti’s hammer to hold down the map. It should be on there still.
Ahala closed in on her, only three steps away. She finally marked that he was dressed all in black, like a shadow.
She stabbed at his stomach, not really expecting to hit him but hoping to push him back. He grabbed her wrist and twisted before she could react. A sharp pain shot up her arm and she lost hold of her knife.
Again, a flash of light came at her.
“I promised your death to you,” Ahala said.
She felt his breath on her face, the sharp pain caused by the corner of the table jammed into her hip, and wished she could have flown once before she died.
“Sky!”
It was a cry of anguish. Ceti rushed toward them, sword drawn, but he had to go around the edge of the center table to reach them. Ahala still had time to kill her.
But Ahala stalled his killing stroke and turned to face the new assault. He kept hold of her wrist, twisting it sideways, doubling her pain.
He clearly regarded her as little threat.
I am She Who Was Born Under Fire in the Sky, slime.
Her seeking fingers finally curled around the handle of the hammer. It was heavy. No wonder it had felled the centurion in one blow.
She had to twist her body to tighten her grip. The pressure on her captive wrist increased. This time, the jolt of pain went all the way to her shoulder. She took a deep breath, and swung the hammer at Ahala’s head with all the strength she had.
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