by G. Howell
I stood. Slowly and stiffly. They watched, talking steps aside as I passed them and then falling into step behind me. Back to that room down the hall.
That proclaimed Mediator Lord Jaesith aesh Raeshon was still seated at her desk. The revolver was gone, the paperwork was still there. When I came in she didn’t look up from the ratty piece of paper she was reading. A guard hooked one of my sleeves with a claw to stop me in the center of the room. I stood there, watching her as she finished. There was something amusing there because she chittered, laid the stained and creased parchment on the desk and looked up at me. “You really needed this?”
I looked again. It was that bit of paper that said I was actually a person, officially notarized and signed to prove it. I just waved an affirmative.
“And you managed to elude capture for so long? Without assistance? Remarkable,” she mused. Then flicked her ears and gestured to the cushion. “Please, sit.”
I did so, crossing my legs and putting hands on knees.
“You’ve had enough time to think about my offer,” said Jaesith. “Your answer is?”
I slowly nodded, glanced at the paper on the desk and then met her steady gaze. “Count me in.”
“That is yes?”
“A.”
“Huhn, just like that?” If she’d been human, perhaps she’d have arched an eyebrow.
“Not that simple,” I said. “It’s not an easy choice, but on other hand, where else am I going to go? Those other want to kill me; the governments can’t protect me. And your argument... is not without its merits.”
“You think so?” she said, her tone inviting further explanation. She’d planned this, I knew. She’d given me enough time to think, but not enough time to really come up with a detailed plan. That’d been her intention, I suspected. Now, in the middle of the night, when the thoughts might be muddled and disorganized, she’d called me onto the floor to prod and see what my choice really was.
“You were right about my kind,” I said slowly, carefully. “We did go through a similar time... when the country was divided into north and south and those two factions had to join. Now, my nation is among the most influential. Not the largest, but because we are united, we are more productive, stronger, and peaceful.”
She rumbled; a low, thoughtful growl.
“I think that has to happen here,” I said. “As small countries they can be only... fragments of what they could be. Just shards. And as time goes on joining them would only become more difficult. I think you were right: now is a time when they can be united with a... ah... not as much trouble, especially with what help I can offer.”
“And you would be willing to do that?”
I shrugged. “My options would be... what? I don’t think I have anywhere else to go.”
Jaesith aesh Raeshon studied me quietly for a few seconds, her black pupils catching the lamplight and glittering like bronze mirrors. Then she tipped her head, just slightly. “Not entirely altruistic motives then. I think I would be surprised if they were.”
“None of us are perfect,” I said quietly.
“No,” she said and hissed softly. “Very well, then I think the next step is going to be to get you out of Open Fields.”
“Will that be a problem?”
“Oh, I don’t believe so.”
“The gates are being watched, aren’t they?” I asked. “I’ll be hiding under hay or something?”
“I thought the water route would be faster,” she replied.
“But the Ironheart can catch anything else on the water...” I started to say and then trailed off, catching her confidently expectant expression. I felt my jaw drop and gasped, “You’re not...”
Her tufted ears flickered. “As you said, the Ironheart is fast.”
“It needs a crew. And the guards...” I protested and shook my head. “That can’t possibly work.”
“I think it has an excellent chance of success,” she said. “The guards are a non-issue, and as for the crew... we are prepared for that as well. Once out on the lake I believe that vessel can outrun anything else.”
“To where?”
“North. There are safe harbors for us there. Places where we can consolidate our position. Where we can muster our forces. Where you can help us prepare for what is to come.”
To prepare for war. She didn’t say it. Was she living in her own little happy place to think that wouldn’t happen? I looked at her and tried to read something in the metal shimmers of her eyes; to find something in her expression, but it was a futile as it’d been with so many of the other noble Rris I’d encountered. Important Rris who played important games and had experience hiding their cards. Was she really as mad as I thought? Or was she fully aware of what would ensue and just didn’t care?
She must’ve noticed my stare. She bared teeth, just a small flash of white behind thin black lips and stone-textured fur. “You will be ready? We leave just before dawn.”
------v------
Dawn proved to be a couple of away hours at the most. Before then we were moving out.
The coach was rattling its way through the brick-arch of the gateway as the stars began to dim. We weren’t alone: other coaches had gone before us and there was another pulling out behind us; Mediator cavalry on elk and llamas were clattering out into the waking streets, all of them spreading out and scattering to all points of the compass. Our carriage was bound for the docks.
Through a gap in the drawn curtains I got a glimpse out over the city as we turned a hilltop corner: a sky of fading stars above while below stood serried rows of dark rooftops, chimney tops and weather vanes silhouetted against a sprawling swathe of rippling dimness. That was the lake, stretching away to a distant shore and reflecting the brightening heavens and horizon; the streamers of cloud turning to gold under the touch of the rising sun. Two dim red pinpoints were the signal towers at the harbor entrance, their light soon to be eclipsed by the coming morning.
Iron rimmed wheels hammered on the cobblestones. Every bump was transmitted straight through the axles to the cab. The jolting was alleviated a little by the upholstered seats, but the bumps still rattled my teeth as the carriage took the hill at what seemed like a risky pace. Brakes squealed gratingly as the driver applied them liberally to prevent the carriage overrunning the team drawing it.
I caught a handhold as the carriage swayed and jolted around a corner. It smelled of musky, hairy bodies in there, a smell that permeated the interior padding and wasn’t helped any by the other Rris in there. Jaesith aesh Raeshon and the armed Mediator officer beside her were holding onto loops of velvet cord hanging from the ceiling to brace themselves against the swaying and were watching me steadily. When I tried to nudge the curtains aside to see outside again she said, “Don’t. We don’t need someone seeing you before time. We’ll be cutting things close as it is.”
I sat back while we clattered along our way and they watched me. If they were wondering if I was thinking about making a break for it they’d be disappointed. I didn’t have any intention of running. Not just then. I had… something in mind, but I couldn’t be sure of just how successful it might be.
“You understand that this is just temporary,” aesh Raeshon said.
“Ma’am?” I blinked.
“This... skulking about,” she elaborated with a fluid little gesture that managed to encompassed the cab and the city outside. “It won’t last. You’re our guest. Once established you will be able to get whatever you need, whatever you want. You help us, and we can help you.”
“That would be... nice,” I said, carefully.
“Huhn.” Tendons under her fur flexed visibly when she tightened her grip on the handhold as the carriage rounded another corner and she cocked her head. “It would be. I would like to do that. But there is just the possibility that perhaps y
ou’re not being entirely honest with me,” she said with those amber eyes scrutinizing my face. “For you I suppose it would be tempting to simply wait. To say what you think I want to hear. Do you think that’s an unreasonable supposition?”
My heart lurched, hammering through my exhaustion. I’m not sure how well I hid that, but how well could she read expressions that’d have to be alien to her? And what could she misconstrue, to my disadvantage? I just tried to hide it as best I could and go on the offensive. “No, ma’am. But would it be unreasonable for me to not be sure whom to place my trust in? Rris... People I thought were my friends have been trying to kill me. I’ve been running for my life.”
“And we gave it to you. That counts for nothing?”
“It counts for a great deal,” I said. “I’m afraid I find all this very confusing. And frightening. Your world is quite different from mine and it seems like every day I find something I’d... taken as normal isn’t normal here. And the other way around also.”
Her ears twitched and then the carriage was passing through another gateway, this one familiar to me.
“Almost there,” she smiled serenely at me. It may have been completely fake: I couldn’t tell. “We’ll just have to find a way to persuade you, a? Huhn,” she mused and then my heart lurched anew when she said, “I think we will collect that teacher. I’ve heard she has been a good influence on you.”
The coach drew to a halt. “Ma’am, I would prefer that she were left alone,” I tried to sound calm.
A Mediator outside opened the door and held it. Jaesith aesh Raeshon stood, bending under the overhead. “No, I don’t think so,” she said as she dropped out of the car. I followed, wincing as my battered feet landed on rough cobbles. The docks; the V.I.P section where the Ironheart was berthed. There were Mediators where the guards should be, all heavily armed. I gawked for a second, then hurried after their commander as she strode toward that one particular berth.
“Ma’am, she isn’t involved...” I said to her back as she stalked ahead. Her officer was behind me, more Mediators falling in behind him.
She didn’t look around. “I think she became involved when she met you,” Jaesith replied. “You have an affection for her that goes beyond the normal, that is a fact that is known. To myself and others. And given the chance they will use this fact against you. I don’t want to have you worrying about her. Perhaps someone would seize her and threaten to harm her, just to keep you under their control. Safer to have her where you can see her, a?”
I swallowed hard, choking back a protest. She wasn’t threatening; she was telling me how it could be, but she wasn’t threatening. That would probably come later.
So I followed her, from the old cobbles of the quayside to the newer flagstones of the wharf. The officer was right behind me and behind him Mediators fell in at a respectful distance, but also blocked any retreat back onto the quayside. There was a guardhouse further along, at a point where a spiky-toped iron fence crossed the wharf. Beyond that lay the Ironheart, looking so out of place amongst the forests of masts and tangled webworks of rigging prevalent on the masted vessels in the harbor. Dark curls of smoke rose from the twin stacks into the still morning air.
“You have the engines started,” I noted.
“A. As I said, we have experts in such matters,” she said.
Whatever I was going to say next was forgotten. Near the gangplank stood a stack of crates and barrels and assorted baggage waiting to be loaded. A pair of furry feet were jutting from behind one of them. They belonged to one of the two guards who’d been assigned to me back in Shattered Water. They were both laying there, just pulled out of the way like castoff garbage; laying there staring up at the dawning sky with gore-besotted fur and slashed throats and horrible expressions. I swallowed hard and then turned back at the Mediator lord waiting on the gangplank. She just looked slightly puzzled.
“That... was not necessary,” I choked, staring down at the surprised-looking faces again.
“Yes, it was,” she said and made a curt gesture to the Mediators behind me. “Get him on board. We don’t have time to play around.”
I counted over a dozen Mediators loaded on board the Ironheart. I stayed at the stern, waiting uneasily behind the wheelhouse as the guards from the dock hurriedly untied the mooring lines. I could see into the cockpit from there and watched as another Mediator carefully went over the valves and gauges and engine room signaling tabs with a checklist. From below my feet came the pervasive thump of the idling engine as it stood ready.
“We’re ready,” Jaesith said as she stepped up behind the pilot. “Everything’s working?”
“Ma’am,” the other acknowledged. “Although...the pressure in the boiler seems high.”
She turned around to look at me. “He’s the expert. Is that normal?”
I shrugged. “Yes, ma’am. It should be. That’s why the engine works well. Hot and high pressure. If it cools too much you will have less power and use more fuel.”
“And we can tell if that is going to happen?”
“That tube,” I said, pointing to a slim vertical glass window dotted with condensation. “If the water level falls there, you lose pressure.”
Jaesith looked at the pilot who in turn glanced at his notes. “That is accurate,” he said.
She snorted and wrinkled her muzzle. “Then we go,” she said.
Mooring lines were cast off, the big hemp ropes splashing down into the water. In the wheelhouse the pilot shifted the throttle indicator and the throbbing beneath the deck picked up the pace slightly. The light of the direct morning sun was only just beginning to flow over the highest hilltop chimney and roofs as the Ironheart pulled away from the berth and out into the millpond mirror of the harbor. Moving slowly and cautiously at first the pilot brought the ship around to point the sharp end toward the harbor mouth. Water beneath the stern roiled as the throttle was opened another notch and the propellers pushed the mass of the ship toward the open lakes.
Jaesith stood beside me to watch the docks falling away. There were armed guards and other Rris racing onto the waterfront. I didn’t have to guess who they’d be. They were too late anyway.
“A lot more convenient than sails,” Jaesith mused. “I could get used to this.”
“You need more than just ships,” I said. “You need a whole system to maintain and supply them.”
“Which is what you are going to assist in providing,” she said and cocked her head as the pace of the engine picked up again. Then I flinched as she cuffed my arm, just hard enough for me to feel the scrape of claws against my skin. “I’m sure you’re going to enjoy your stay with us.”
I closed my eyes for a second and around me the world seemed to reel: a combination of the movement of the ship and the waves of exhaustion that were becoming harder to ignore. How long now? Three days since I’d slept properly? At least that. I grinned while cool morning air and the smell of coal smoke brushed past, then blinked myself awake again. Twin walls of stone drifted past on either side as the ship drove its way out between the twin towers at the harbor mouth.
“That look is... amusement?” she said.
“Sometimes,” I said and looked at her. Something must’ve alerted her because she stepped back, unfortunately. Just out of reach. And there were too many guards around... I grinned again, this time completely humorlessly. “Those guards... you really shouldn’t have done that.”
Then I dove over the stern railing. Cries from behind me were cut off as I hit and cool water closed over me. For a few seconds I was surrounded by roiling bubbles from the propeller wash and the pervasive thump of the Ironheart’s engine before I twisted and got myself oriented and started swimming. The deep drumming of the engine sound pulled away toward the lake as I struck out in an underwater breaststroke and I remember thinking that if I never saw the bottom of an
other city’s harbor again it would be too soon.
Eventually, towards the limits of my air, my hands hit stone. That would be the tower on the right hand side of the harbor mouth, I hoped. I surfaced for a gasping breath and then followed the curve of wet stone. Around the back - in the lee of the tower and the lake wall - was a little stone jetty. It wasn’t much more than a ledge with a rusty mooring ring where a rowboat might tie up, but it was the only spot handy. Water streamed from my hair and my clothes as I hauled myself onto lichen-coated stones still chill from the night before. It’d be some time before the sun came around to warm them up.
A narrow staircase climbed up the stone face of the harbor wall from the dock, doglegging back on itself four times before reaching the parapet on top. I limped hurriedly up the worn steps, my feet slapping against the cold stone. At the top I crouched to check out the length of the battlements. They were wider than I’d expected and at intervals along their length semicircular towers protruded lakeward. The brutal metallic logs of canon were arrayed along the battlement, their covered muzzles nuzzling at the crenelles. Further clusters of cannons were arranged on those semicircular parapet towers, splayed out so the cannons were able to come to bear along the wall as well as on targets out on the water.
Closer to hand on my other side, to my right, the signal tower rose another couple of floors higher still. The door from my level was wood and iron and closed fast. Higher up on that tower smoke was still rising from the guttering navigation beacon.
Carefully, my wet feet leaving prints on the flagstones, I started off along the parapet. Once I paused at one of those wedge-shaped openings cut into the top of the wall to provide the big cast cannon there with a wide arc of fire. That wall was built from stone and over a meter thick, built to withstand direct fire from other weapons like that. Through that embrasure I could see a rectangle of lake and in that frame the shape of the Ironheart, idling. As I watched it started moving again, swinging around to head south. I felt my stomach clench in anxiety. Was it the right thing to do? Would this work? They’d go after Chihirae now, there wasn’t much doubt about that. If I had to, could I catch them? That vessel was the fastest thing around and I’d jumped off because of a plan that, now I looked back on it, had a lot of little flaws.