A Future, Forged

by Aiki Flinthart

  ‘At least we’d be together,’ she muttered.

  ‘And either executed or sent off to Melcor as slaves, tomorrow.’

  A long silence fell, broken only by the crackling of burning seaweed bricks in the hearth.

  Teya lay on her left side. ‘Go away. I’m tired.’

  The mattress shifted and Dallan’s footsteps faded toward the door. ‘I’ll send breakfast in early for you. We have a lot to do in the morning if you want to save him.’

  She didn’t reply, fighting to keep captive a cry of despair. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing he had her where he wanted her. The door lock clicked and Ying’s bare feet slapped on the timber floor. The bed bounced as she clambered in and snuggled under the covers.

  ‘You must be exhausted,’ Ying whispered. ‘Get under the quilt and get warm. Morning will bring light into darkness.’

  ‘Morning brings hunger and someone else trying to take what you fought to hold onto yesterday.’

  Ying’s cold fingers crept into hers. ‘It doesn’t have to be that way.’

  ‘For you, maybe.’ Teya pulled free. ‘You told him where I was going, didn’t you?’

  Long lashes veiled Ying’s eyes and her cheeks grew rosy. ‘I had to. I was so worried. And I’m glad I did. He’s right. Gen-kin would know how to ward. Your gift only works on those without wards. You’d have been caught.’

  Teya sat up, swallowing when the room spun. ‘Then teach me how to ward and how to get through their wards.’

  Ying chewed on a lock of hair. ‘But it’s forbidden. A non-xintou can’t tell when you push through their wards. It’s one of our strictest rules of etiquette.’

  ‘I’m not of Xintou House. I don’t care about your etiquette. If I’m going to get Perrin, I need to fade so no-one can see me.’

  Doubt shadowed Ying. Teya changed tack. The girl had been well-drilled in Xintou morality. She wouldn’t go against her House Mistress without a strong reason. What would make her? Ahhhh…

  Teya forced her thoughts onto Perrin, picturing his maimed foot, his mischievous giggle; his sparkling eyes and dirt-smudged gaunt cheeks; indomitable; innocent. She let the despair and fear she’d buried well up until it lodged in her chest and blurred the room. She dwelled on how lost and lonely he must be, how afraid, how young, how alone. He was her only family now; her reason for continuing the daily struggle to live. She opened her darkest thoughts, focussing on the agony of losing him and the pointlessness of life without him.

  Ying threw her plump arms around Teya’s waist. ‘Oh, please, don’t,’ she whispered. ‘I’ll help.’ She sniffed, gazing at Teya through eyes of drowned darkness. ‘We’ll start now. I can teach you to ward so…’

  ‘So I’m not so loud?’ Teya suppressed a flare of triumph.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ying murmured. ‘I’ve never felt such pain. I’m so sorry.’ She touched Teya’s scarred back. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Teya pulled away. ‘You’ve led a sheltered life, then.’ She pointed at the window. ‘There’s a lot of it out there, where I come from.’

  Ying slid out of bed, settled in a padded armchair and folded her legs, tucking her long nightgown under her feet. She straightened her spine.

  ‘Very well.’ She gestured to another chair. ‘Sit and let’s begin.’

  Teya dropped into the seat.

  ‘The teachers at the House always say creating wards is a bit like building a wall.’ Ying centred on Teya. ‘But I always think of it more like gentle hands cupped around my thoughts, hugging me.’ She gave herself a hug as though to demonstrate.

  Teya sent her a dry look. ‘The wall sounds good to me. So I just build one? All round? Even the top and bottom?’

  Ying nodded with a patient little smile. ‘It will take practice. And you need two walls. One around your innermost secret thoughts. And one that protects your Outers—the thoughts you don’t mind sharing with others sometimes.’

  Teya pictured two walls. One deep in her mind and another growing inside her skull, between her brain and the bone. Something light but strong. Alzin, perhaps—the aluminium alloy that weishi wore as body armour. When she was done, she opened her eyes and found Ying gaping at her.

  ‘I can’t read you now,’ the xintou whispered.

  ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yes…but…’ She nibbled on her hair then spat it out. ‘Fine. Let me try to get through. You might feel like something’s poking at you. If you do, re-inforce that part of your ward to stop me.’

  There, a nudge against the outer alzin wall. Teya thickened it and filled in a hairline crack. And another. She bared her teeth as the prodding grew harder and more cracks appeared. She filled them as fast as Ying created them.

  Finally, Ying sagged in her chair, panting. ‘Wasai! I can’t get through your wards. I mean, I only learned how a few months ago, but still. How do you do it?’

  Teya permitted herself a smile of satisfaction. ‘Maybe I have better reason to need strong wards than your House sisters. This is important to me.’

  Ying cast her a dubious look.

  Teya touched her temple. ‘So how do I make sure they stay, even when I’m asleep. And I can’t spend every waking minute thinking about wards.’

  ‘You don’t have to. We don’t really understand it, but there’s something instinctive in a xintou’s mind when it comes to wards. It’s harder for non-xintou. They have to rethink their wards two or three times a day. If they forget, it’s easier to break them. But once I’ve tried to get through a few more times, your mind will understand and they’ll stay without you having to do much.’

  Cocking her head, Teya asked, ‘Can I try getting through your wards?’

  The younger girl shrugged, confident again. ‘Sure. But you have to relax…’ she let out a long, slow sigh ‘…and open your heart. Xintou must always use their gifts from a place of love and compassion and trust. Anger and fear will make it more difficult to access your powers.’

  Teya sneered faintly. Anger helped her get through each day. Anger at Han. Anger at his Xintou. Anger at a world that let people like them do horrible things without justice. It gave her strength to keep going. Compassion was wasted on people like that. And trusting people was plain stupid.

  But she breathed slow and deep, just in case. It couldn’t hurt. She wasn’t angry now, anyway. Determined, though. This would be a useful skill against Gray-Saud and his pet Xintou.

  She extended a thought. Ying’s wards looked like they were made of that volcanic glass…obsidian. That was the name. Shiny, black, brittle-looking. Teya considered. The surface was smooth. Not a crack or a flaw. So maybe, if she couldn’t pry it open, she could smash it? She pictured a hammer of steel, solid and heavy. She swung it hard into the obsidian. A crack appeared.

  Ying jumped and squeaked. A thrill screwed through Teya’s stomach. She inserted a steel dagger into the crack and twisted. The gap widened. Ying uttered a little scream, her eyes stark. Teya drove the dagger-thought through her ward and into her Outers. Not far beneath lay a second layer of obsidian. This was easy. She smashed the hammer against that. Ying whimpered as cracks appeared. Teya pried at them, picturing doing the same thing to Shana’s wards. How wonderful it would be to see that woman squirm.

  ‘Stop! Stop! Please,’ Ying whispered, her face a rictus of agony. ‘Oh, please? If you break through my Inners we’ll be in danger of Fusion. We could both die.’

  Teya hesitated, steel thought-dagger poised. She had a xintou at her mercy. She’d be doing everyone a favour by killing her.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TEYA

  Teya withdrew her thoughts and checked her alzin wards were solid. Ying huddled in her chair, eyes glistening with tears, arms wrapped around her soft body.

  Swallowing a surge of guilt, Teya patted her shoulder, but Ying flinched away.

  ‘Sorry,’ Teya muttered.

  Ying peeked out, still curled in a tight ball as if that would protect her mind.

&nbs
p; Teya shifted in her chair and scuffed the bamboo floor with her bare toes. ‘I’m really sorry, Ying. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was imagining breaking Shana’s wards.’

  The xintou stayed silent, sniffling. Then she rubbed at her nose.

  ‘No,’ she said, her jaw set. ‘You scared me, but you also showed me my wards are weak. It’s never been my best skill. The House mistress who teaches it always rolls her eyes at me. So teach me to do what you do. Then I can put yours to the test—and strengthen mine.’ She nodded. ‘What did you picture? What were you thinking and feeling?’

  Teya hesitated. Did she want to give away her methods? Well, the xintou was genuinely trying to help.

  ‘I was feeling…excited.’ It sounded wrong to say it out loud. Especially after Ying’s instructions about compassion and trust.

  ‘Well, that’s better than anger, anyway.’

  ‘And I pictured a hammer. Made of steel.’

  Ying’s jaw dropped. ‘Maybe that’s it. Xintou House mistresses teach ways that are less painful for the receiver. And not many people think about using steel—I guess because it’s so rare and doesn’t come to mind.’

  ‘What does the House teach?’

  ‘Imagining you’re dissolving the ward with weak acid. It takes longer, though.’

  ‘Acid’s less painful? Your mistresses are nasty.’

  Ying snorted a giggle then became serious. ‘Be careful. Fusion isn’t the only risk. Xintou work is exhausting but it sneaks up on you. I’ve seen girls faint and fall into comas for days because they forgot to rest and eat.’

  Teya rolled her eyes. Soft, pathetic girls, maybe. Resting and eating had been luxuries for the last five years.

  It took another hour before Ying was satisfied both of them had the strongest wards possible. Teya was still able to break through Ying’s outers, but not easily or quickly. Every time she got frustrated, Teya found the hammer harder to picture. It faded into insubstantial nothing. Maybe there was something to Ying’s instructions about keeping her anger under control. She’d have to think about it. Anger had sustained her this long. She’d never considered letting it go. Not until Gray-Saud was dead.

  Ying could not break Teya’s wards at all—which pleased Teya, though she hid it from Ying. Whether a more experienced xintou would be able to penetrate them was impossible to know. Ying had only been at Xintou House for three years. At least it meant Teya had some protection against Shana, next time they met.

  By the time they climbed into bed, both girls were yawning and snippy. Teya’s eyes were sand and her mind mud. Her stomach rumbled but there was only water to drink. Not the first time she’d gone to sleep hungry.

  She sank into a storm of nightmares in which Han Grey-Saud took her instead of her mother, heedless of Perrin’s protests; in which Perrin’s decapitated head adorned the spear of Grey-Saud’s weishi as her mother watched in disinterest and nursed her new son.

  Teya awoke to the pink of dawn with salt-tears crusting her cheeks and the sheets crushed between her fists.

  #

  TEYA

  A knock sounded on the door and Teya padded across the room to unlock the brass latch. Dallan swung into the room, followed by a servant bearing a tray laden with food. When the servant departed, Dallan joined them at the breakfast table.

  Ying, tousle-haired and heavy-eyed, yawned, groaned and rolled over in bed.

  ‘Up you get, Ying,’ Dallan said, pouring himself a cup of pale blue lancha tea. He offered the pot to Teya, who poured a cup, ladled in three teaspoons of honey and sniffed the aroma in appreciation. Then she poured pink gidfruit juice into a heavy green glass and sipped while Dallan dumped pastries and scrambled eggs onto her plate.

  Ying dragged herself, grumbling, out of bed and slumped in a chair, staring vaguely at the food. Teya poured the girl a cup of lancha tea and winced. Her shoulder had stiffened in the night and hurt more than ever.

  Dallan pointed at her injury. ‘Make sure you move it. Keep the muscles warm but don’t tear the stitches again.’

  Teya bit down the impulse to say he wasn’t her father and to stop telling her what to do. She cocked her head. Time for an experiment. She slowed her pulse and prodded at his wards as Ying had taught, searching for a weakness. There: a slim crack in his concentration. She inserted a wedge and used her steel hammer to drive it deep. His wards crackled and split. A wave of dizziness blurred her vision. She gritted her teeth and pried his Outers open. Then she faded herself from his sight.

  ‘Gaisi!’ Dallan’s cup fell from his grasp and smashed on the timber floor, spraying hot lancha tea onto his blue silk trous. He swore again and dabbed at the liquid with a napkin, scooping up the broken crockery.

  Teya relaxed her thought and hid a smile behind slurping her tea. Her hand trembled but the honey would restore her strength.

  He visibly regathered his composure and turned thoughtfulness on her. ‘That was…impressive. You’re a quick learner. And skilled if you got through my wards so easily. I’m glad Ying was able to help you control your gift.’

  Ying sat up straighter, beaming.

  ‘Remember,’ he added, ‘I couldn’t feel that, but a xintou will. Use your gift with care. Any other abilities I should know about?’

  Teya and Ying both shook their heads.

  ‘She doesn’t seem to have any of the usual xintou gifts: telepathy, empathy, or even foreseeing,’ Ying said, nibbling on a sweet bun. ‘She can hear words if I put them into her mind, and I can hear her replies. But she can’t reach out to my mind and start a telepathic conversation. It’s very strange. She’s good at warding, though. And at getting through wards. She finds even the tiniest crack. But she’s terrible at controlling her emotions.’

  Teya glared and Ying offered an apologetic smile.

  ‘But otherwise,’ Ying added, ‘she only has that ability to cast illusions.’

  ‘Illusions?’ Dallan’s attention sharpened on Teya. ‘Can you show someone more than your own invisibility?’

  ‘I…I don’t know,’ she lied. Flames and screams. A woman’s cry for help. A door smashing open. She shuddered.

  Ying chewed her hair. ‘I guess you could send any picture you like. Sort of like telepathy, but without words.’

  ‘Try,’ Dallan said. ‘Show me my teacup, full and intact on the table.’

  ‘She shouldn’t do too much, shenshi,’ Ying said, earnest. ‘We were up late and she hasn’t eaten yet. You know how tiring xintou work can be.’

  He sighed. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Don’t mother me, Ying. I’m a big girl.’ Teya studied her own cup—a thin-walled thing of delicate beauty, translucent and painted with geometric patterns in grey and copper. It had been a long time since she’d tried anything but her own invisibility. Concentrating, she created an image and drilled it into the crack in Dallan’s mind.

  He laughed. ‘Oh, well done! That is incredible.’

  The room darkened and tilted. Teya clutched the cup with weak fingers. She fought the urge to vomit and forced herself upright in the chair.

  With a wondering expression, Dallan reached for the imaginary cup and waved through empty air. ‘Wasai!’

  Teya dropped the image. A fluttery tension in her chest confused her for a moment until she identified the feeling: pride. Something she hadn’t felt for over five years; the desire to have someone’s good opinion; the relieved thrill of praise. She clenched her jaw and replaced her cup on the table with more force than needed. The crockery clattered in the silence.

  Ying jumped and blinked sleepily. ‘You should eat, Teya. You’re so pale.’

  Teya ignored her, folding her arms to hide the shakes. She considered Dallan.

  ‘What, exactly, do you want from me? And how are you going to help me get Perrin?’

  ‘Excellent questions,’ he replied, stretching his legs beneath the table.

  ‘Then you’d best give me some excellent answers,’ she snapped. ‘It’s already morning and I’ve wasted too muc
h time with tea and mind-games.’

  ‘I want your help.’ He paused and inspected Ying. ‘Ying, how much are you in your mother’s confidence?’

  Ying smothered a yawn. ‘I don’t know, shenshi.’ She assumed an air of haughty dignity that contrasted oddly with her mussed hair and sleep-wrinkled robe. ‘But my loyalty lies with Shunu Neri Qin-Turner, since I’ll be her next Bonded Xintou after my mother retires.’ Her cheeks flushed. ‘As long as I don’t do anything silly again.’

  He smiled. ‘Yes, Neri told me you’d falsely accused a senior student of something and that’s why you’ve been sent away for a few weeks.’

  ‘Oh, I learned my lesson. I’ll always make sure I have proof before I say anything bad about anyone. And I should have known a xintou wouldn’t do something terrible.’

  Teya said nothing. The girl was naïve and as brainwashed as the rest of Mamlakah’s people. Everyone believed xintou were untouchably perfect.

  ‘What about your loyalty to your House?’ Dallan asked.

  The girl’s dignified certainty faded. ‘Why? Are you planning something with Jun Neri and my mother that Mistress Rua would disapprove of?’

  ‘It depends,’ he hedged. ‘Do you know how she feels about Jun Fourth Grey-Saud?’

  Ying repeated the conversation she’d overheard from Mistress Rua and Dallan’s doubt segued to grim satisfaction.

  ‘In that case, no, I don’t think Mistress Rua would disapprove.’ He hooked his hands behind his head. ‘Han Grey-Saud has too much influence. I suspect he’s…’ He slid Teya and Ying a sidelong glance. ‘Well, Jun First Jenna Zah-Hill is young and impressionable. She’s only eighteen and with her parents dead, she lacks reliable guidance. She’s also the first female Jun First for over a hundred years, and many of the male lower juns are making noises about whether a woman can do the job.’