Daughter of Dragons

by Jack Campbell

  "The Urth people would overhear your cavalry informing you, would they not?" Alain asked.

  "Sir Mage, if you have any better suggestion I would welcome it."

  "Unless those Mages who send messages are available, I can think of none. The Bakre Confederation will send out cavalry as well," Alain said.

  Mari studied the map. "The Confederation is probably already sending out cavalry to search for Kira, because they'll think they are doing me a favor. I sent out warnings not to cooperate with the people from Urth, but if the Confederation picks up Kira they'll be doing that without knowing it. There won't be any way to keep it quiet, and then the Urth people will fly in and demand what they have every right to: Jason."

  "Even if the cavalry is ordered not to pick up Kira," Alain said, "she will not know who she can trust. She will do all she can to avoid being taken. That is wise, because not every official or individual soldier in the Confederation can be trusted to put our requests above their own desire for reward."

  "The more we can tell people about the true motives of the people from Urth, the better," Mari said. "We need to send messengers out by horse, ship, and train. The Urth people seem to have odd blind spots. Kira left me a note with a lot of information in it, but that Talese Groveen just used what she called her sensors to look around and never seemed to think or ask about written messages."

  "I have not seen any of them use paper," Sien said. "Always they move their hands before them as if taking notes in that manner."

  "The hand and finger movements are some sort of interface to electronic records," Mari said. "The sort of thing mentioned in the most advanced technical manuals we have, but still beyond what we can make. If we send written messages, the Urth people might not try to stop them because they no longer think messages can come in that form."

  "Those Mages who can send and receive messages," Alain said, "can also assist."

  "Yes," Mari said. "But they can't grasp any technical terms or concepts, so anything like that would be garbled. We'll have to be careful how we phrase anything sent that way."

  "What else do you intend?" Sien asked.

  "First, visit with Camber and tell him that the Empire better not try anything with Kira."

  Sien nodded. "Camber still has great influence with the Emperor, but the Emperor grows old, and numerous princes and princesses in the Imperial household grow ever more bold as they maneuver for power and status as successor. Some of them may attempt to take some action if they think Kira is within their reach. And for all the respect Camber holds for you and Alain, his loyalty is to the emperor and the empire."

  "I know," Mari said. "The empire has been chafing at the restraints on its actions almost since the signing of the peace accords after the war with the Great Guilds. Until the ship from Urth arrived, my biggest worry was that the empire would push too far and finally trigger a large-scale conflict. For now I'll do what I can to prevent the Imperial household from trying anything relating to Kira. Second, Alain and I are certain that the people on the Urth ship are keeping track of where we are. One of those drone things always seems to be nearby. So sometime after midnight Alain and I are going to get some horses and sneak out of Pacta, riding south to Tiaesun."

  The queen's eyebrows rose. "The unpleasant Talese Groveen will be certain that you are going there to aid and protect Kira and the boy."

  "Thus keeping her attention focused on the south."

  "Can you be certain that Kira went north?"

  "It's what I would have done," Mari said. "There are more routes north and more places to hide among people. She and Jason can't afford to hide out by themselves until they're so far from here that two people alone in the countryside wouldn't immediately draw the attention of the ship from Urth. Alain, let's go talk to Camber. It's going to be a long night. I hope Kira gets a better night's sleep than we will."

  * * *

  The idea of waking up in the country to the singing of birds, the rising sun shining a glowing welcome to the day, had appealed to Kira when she was a little girl. The reality—waking up stiff and sore from the hard ground and yesterday's exertions, insects buzzing around so loudly that the birds could barely be heard, morning dew chilling her while the sun glared into her eyes and as yet provided little warmth—wasn't nearly as fun.

  Especially when the person she woke up with was a tired, sore, grumbling-under-his-breath Jason.

  "Your feet are swollen," Kira said as she helped him get his boots on.

  "Yeah," Jason said, gritting his teeth.

  Kira had never realized that one word could carry such depths of accusation. She felt sympathy but knew she couldn't afford to give in to it. "We have to keep moving."

  Progress was slow, though. Jason was obviously doing his best, but even an easy pace was giving him trouble. Kira let him take brief breaks, but got him moving again each time before he could stiffen up. Despite some ugly looks, Jason always got back to his feet. At least the road, slightly rutted dirt that it was, offered an easier path than striking overland, and despite swings to either side to avoid natural obstacles, was clearly tending north.

  They reached a place where the road met another going east to west, a low bluff defining one corner of the crossroads. As they paused to let Jason rest again, Kira heard something. "Jason, we need to get off the road."

  "Why?" He didn't get up.

  "Because there are horses approaching! Can't you hear them? And they're being ridden pretty hard. The riders are trying to get somewhere fast." Kira grabbed Jason's arm and tugged him to his feet. "Up on that high ground! Fast! We have to hide!"

  Too shocked or scared to complain, Jason hastened along with her up one side of the bluff and into the thick grass on top. Kira pulled him down next to her and then tried to calm her breathing and her racing heart. Insects swung lazily down to land and crawl across her skin. "Don't move," she whispered to Jason. "No matter what." She could catch glimpses of the road through the grass, its hard dirt surface not showing obvious signs of their recent footsteps.

  The riders came up out of a dip in the road to the west, moving at a canter in a cloud of dust and sweat. There were a half dozen of them, Kira saw, one with a Mechanic rifle, another with a Mechanics Guild revolver, and the rest with swords and crossbows. As they reached the crossroads, the leader slowed the group to a halt, the horses hanging their heads and blowing heavily.

  The leader swung his arm toward the south, along the road that Mari and Jason had just come up. "I'll take Ivor along the road. The rest of you string off and go overland, you two to the west of the road and you two to the east. Stay in sight but spread out."

  "We ought to walk the horses a while," another suggested.

  "Yeah. She can't have come this far yet, not dragging that whelp from Urth with her, so we can afford to go a little slower now. That Confederation cavalry looking for her is still off to the east near the rail tracks."

  "What if we see her?" one of the others asked in a voice rendered hoarse by dust.

  "Yell to alert the rest of us, then wait for us so we can rush her all at once. We want her alive, but if we can't do that I'll take her dead."

  Kira heard Jason's breath catch and hoped he wouldn't betray them.

  "Mari won't pay to get her back if she's dead," a fourth rider objected.

  "We'll still get the reward promised for the boy. But, yeah, I want her alive. I want the joy of listening to her screams as we chop off her fingers one at a time and send them to her mother."

  Kira felt her entire body go cold despite the growing heat of the sun. She looked toward Jason and saw him gaping at her, horrified.

  But some of the other riders laughed. "You want her to die slow?" one asked.

  "Die? Blazes, no! Mari will get her back alive, but that girl won't be in very good shape by then!" More laughter followed the statement.

  Kira concentrated on breathing slowly and carefully, her eyes focused on the strands of the grasses just before her face. She knew what hat
e was, had heard of the things hate could cause people to do, but had never heard hate spoken so clearly, had never heard it directed at her.

  Fear threatened to paralyze her, but Kira remembered her father's calm face, her mother's determination, and let some anger build in her to help her think. She was lying on her stomach, unable to reach her pistol without moving a lot, but if the riders saw them and started coming up the bluff she would have time to—

  One of the riders glanced up toward the top of the bluff, seeming to look straight at Kira through the screen of grass stalks.

  She stopped breathing, wishing she could still the rapid beating of her heart, which felt like it was loud enough to be heard down on the road. Her right hand quivered, ready to plunge inside her jacket where her pistol rested.

  Chapter 6

  "Let's go." The rider looking toward Kira finally glanced away as he and the others dismounted, the group spreading out on the road and to either side, the men and women leading their horses as they walked them south away from the crossroads.

  Kira inhaled cautiously, feeling weak with relief. She waited until the group was at least a hundred lances away before daring to whisper to Jason. "We'll have to wait here until they get far enough way they won't see or hear us."

  Jason shook his head. "You've got to go back."

  "What?"

  "Didn't you hear what they said?"

  Kira had to take another deep breath to control her voice. "Yes, I heard. I told you my mother's enemies might come after me."

  "You didn't say they'd torture you and maim you and…and who knows what else!" Jason insisted.

  "I didn't know," Kira admitted.

  "I never would've agreed to let you come along," Jason said. "I'll keep on north, keep trying to hide, maybe draw them off if they come back this way, but you head east. That cavalry they talked about will protect you, right?"

  Kira lowered her forehead to the dirt, fighting off an urge to run, to give up now before something horrible happened. Her stomach had tightened into what felt like a permanent knot in her midsection. If only she were her mother, absolutely fearless. "If we do that, you'll be caught within the next day or two, and your mother gets that drive back, and millions of people probably die."

  "You know what?" Jason said. "I don't care. Not right now. Not if it means there's a danger of something like that happening to you!"

  "I'm not worth millions of lives, Jason."

  "You are to me! And…and to your mom and dad!"

  Kira raised her head up enough to turn it to look at him. "Jason, my mother always says that no one counts for more than anyone else, and my father says that every person is a reality, something special and unique that helps form the world we think we see around us. I can't believe I matter more than so many other people. I mean, I guess I could start to believe it if I let myself, but I can't afford to start believing it."

  "This isn't philosophy class, Kira!"

  "If I only believe something when it's easy, when it doesn't cost anything, then I don't believe it, do I?" Kira asked him. "I knew it was dangerous. I'm not giving up."

  Jason looked back at her, angry and frustrated. "You are like your mother!"

  "Give me a break."

  "Try being like my mother for a little while! Long enough to be safe!"

  "No." The riders were much farther away. Kira rose up enough to pull out her pistol and check the magazine, making certain the safety was set before she placed it back in its holster. Her Aunt Alli seemed to be speaking to her, repeating a familiar lesson. Don't let having a gun make you confident, because confident people do stupid things, and if you need a gun you can't afford to be stupid. Thinking that it wouldn't be too hard to stay scared in this situation, Kira tried to smile at Jason. "This is important. We'll get it done."

  "Kira, please…"

  "Jason." She didn't want to just shut him down, because she could tell he was scared not for himself but for her. "Listen. Even if we did what you said, there would still be a chance that I'd get caught by those guys or someone like them before I found that cavalry. And you'd certainly get caught pretty soon. If something really bad is going to happen, I want it to be while I'm trying to get something important done, not while I'm running. How about you?"

  "You're asking me? You really want to know how I feel about it?"

  "Yes."

  Jason screwed up his face, hesitating as he thought. "I'd want to, uh, go down fighting."

  "Then let's do that. They're far enough away and not looking back. Let's head north, but be careful until they're completely out of sight."

  They eased cautiously down the bluff, keeping its bulk between them and the riders for as long as possible, heading north at a fast pace. Jason was obviously still having trouble walking, but he kept moving with a new determination.

  As the riders finally vanished from sight behind them, Kira remembered something. "Jason? When we were arguing, I said I wasn't worth millions of lives, and you said something like I was as far as you were concerned. What did you mean by that?"

  He kept his head down so Kira couldn't see Jason's expression as he paused before answering. "Um…you're my friend. I mean, someday you might be my friend. Maybe."

  "Well, it's kind of ridiculous, Jason. Friends are important, but not that important."

  "Yeah. I guess you're right."

  There was obviously something else that Jason wasn't saying, but at the moment Kira was too busy listening and watching for any other danger to spend time worrying about whatever Jason had meant.

  They kept moving north as the sun rose to their right. Jason didn't want to take any breaks, but Kira forced him to, growing more worried about his physical condition. They couldn't afford to take a long stop, but Jason was clearly pushing himself hard.

  At one point, as they walked along a higher stretch of the road, she caught some glints of light far to the east and pointed them out to Jason. "There's some cavalry. That's sunlight reflecting off of their helms."

  He squinted, his face drawn from effort, sweat drawing lines through the dust. "Why do they still wear armor that gives them away like that? It's not going to stop a bullet."

  "It still stops other weapons," Kira said. "I don't know. Change is really hard when nothing changed for such a long time, I guess." She heard something and held up one hand to stop Jason's reply. He waited while she listened, his eyes wide with worry. "It's a wagon," Kira said. "Two horses pulling it."

  Jason gave her a baffled look. "How can you tell that?"

  "I can hear it!" A moment later the wagon came into view. Kira saw one man on the bench, and a brace of horses trudging steadily ahead. The wagon wasn't covered and had only low sides, so unless someone was lying down there was no one else on it. The driver didn't seem to have any weapons. "Let's wait for him."

  Kira waved as the wagon drew near. "Can you give us a ride?"

  The man, middle-aged and slightly stout, looking like someone who had spent a life working the fields, pulled back on the reins to bring the wagon to a stop. He eyed Kira and Jason with slow appraisal. "I'm going to Denkerk. Where are you headed?"

  "Debran," Kira said, deliberately misstating her destination. "But we need to see someone in Denkerk on the way, so if you can take us there that would be great. We can pay."

  "No need for money if we're going the same way. Wouldn't mind the company." The man jerked his thumb to indicate the bed of the wagon, where some bales and barrels were lashed in place. "There's enough space for one of you to ride back there and the other up here."

  Despite Jason's obvious distrust of the wagon driver, Kira got Jason into the back where he could recline against one of the bales, then pulled herself up next to the driver. He flicked the reins, the horses ambled back into motion, and the wagon began rattling down the dirt road again. It was a rough ride, but far better than walking.

  "Where you going in Debran?" the driver asked.

  "Family," Kira said, thinking that since she was actually
heading for Danalee Aunt Alli and Uncle Calu sort of qualified for that description, though she had no intention of contacting them even if they had gotten back from Pacta Servanda. She indicated Jason, making up a story as she talked. "He's my step-brother. We were down in Tiae seeing some people on his side."

  "Oh. Down in Tiae? When I was a boy nobody went to Tiae for fun. No, sir. It was worth your life to go south of the Glenca. That was before the daughter fixed things. I guess you're too young to remember that."

  "No," Kira said. "I was born after that."

  "Did you see her when you were down in Tiae? The daughter? No? That's a shame. I've always wanted to." The driver gestured vaguely toward the west. "My sister now, she's older. She was in the daughter's army and saw her a lot. Still proud of it, too, I tell you. If the daughter called right now, my sister would come running, ready to fight for her again."

  Kira nodded wordlessly, imagining the proud veterans of her mother's army facing whatever weapons the ship from Urth had.

  "I don't know how many young folks would answer, though," the driver said. "If the daughter called, I mean. They don't know what it was like before."

  "I'd answer," Kira said. She had never really thought about it before, but the moment the driver spoke of it Kira had known what she would do.

  "Good for you." The driver gave her a sidelong look. "You got people looking for you?"

  Kira hoped her expression hadn't frozen too obviously. This man didn't seem to be the sort who would have access to a far-talker. "Why would anyone be looking for us?"

  "Don't know, but I passed some folks in a hurry a ways back who was looking for a boy and girl. That's not you?"

  "None of our friends should be looking for us," Kira said.

  The man nodded, his eyes on the road ahead. "One of them said there was a reward. Don't worry. I didn't much like that fella's attitude anyway. Like some Mechanic in the old days. Seeing as you're willing to fight for the daughter, I don't see any sense in helping someone like that, reward or not."