The Silver Ship and the Sea

by Brenda Cooper

  “We can all hear you; we patched you through some speakers. How are you? How is the band?” Tom asked.

  Akashi sounded too happy, stage-cheerful. “Hello, everyone. We’re wintering at the edge of High Canyon Falls, near Hunter’s Stream. We’re almost settled, and Liam just returned from setting the dragonbirds free. No one’s been hurt. Are you still out fixing data nets? How is that going?”

  A small ironic laugh escaped Tom’s lips. “Oddly. We’re making good enough progress we’ll have time to come up your way.”

  There was no answer for so long that Tom asked, “Are you there?”

  “Yes. Perhaps that is better than going back to Artistos right now.” Akashi’s next words were measured. “Fixing the nets up here would be good; we’d like to get our communications with Artistos clear.”

  Tom raised his eyebrows as us, asking us wordlessly.

  Alicia grimaced and shook her head, her eyes dark and angry. Don’t agree. Joseph’s dark eyes met mine, unreadable, but he held Alicia’s hand. Torn again, I suspected; wanting to follow Alicia anywhere, but not yet shorn of all good sense. Beside me, Kayleen smiled encouragement, her expression eager. She would want to see Liam. I did, too. As much as I wanted to free Bryan, riding back to Artistos didn’t feel right. I looked back at Tom, nodding. I’d take responsibility for getting Alicia there.

  Alicia pursed her lips and looked away, her body rigid. She said nothing.

  “All right,” Tom said. “We’re almost all the way around the lake. We’ll be back where we separated from Liam, at the fork in the High Road, by midafternoon tomorrow. Which way do we go from there?”

  “Don’t. Stay put. I’ll send a guide. That will be faster.”

  “We have a map,” Tom protested. “And Alicia. Surely she knows how to find a roamer band.”

  “Yes, but you don’t know all the dangers.” Akashi seemed to be picking his words carefully.

  Tom pursed his lips, glancing from me to Alicia to Joseph. “When will someone meet us there?” he asked Akashi.

  “Sometime in the morning, the day after tomorrow. If you camp by the river, back up to the cliff. It’s safer.”

  “All right,” Tom said. “Paloma twisted her ankle a few days ago. We ride slowly.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Tell her good traveling. We’ll talk when you get here.” The crackle in the speakers deadened to stillness.

  Tom turned off the data reader. “Shall we eat?”

  Hours later, Tom and Kayleen woke Alicia and me for the second watch over the hebras. Destiny hung directly overhead, lighting our way as we walked Ink and Sand down for water. The grass was already so wet with dew that I slipped twice as we made our way to the bank, careful to stay inside the perimeter. Far off, behind us in the hills, I heard a pack of demon dogs, and the call of two wild hebras, probably herd lookouts giving direction. Ink danced and threw her head, perhaps reacting to the dogs and the wild band of hebras. Sand pricked one ear forward and one back, but otherwise she simply pulled me down toward the lake. Two clear silver paths of moonlight, from Destiny and Summer, reflected on the dark water, intersecting in a V near the shore. We stood in the moonlight while Ink and Sand drank in quick slurps, one at a time, the other always standing and listening, ears swiveling.

  “Why did you let Tom decide what we would do?” Alicia asked.

  “Because he chose the right thing for us. I don’t like making Bryan wait, but we need more information, more time. We need to find Jenna.” I sighed. “Or let her find us.” Stripes lifted her head and butted me gently, asking for a scratch. Her beard dripped water. I scratched her anyway. “We can’t risk Hunter taking the headband, not yet. Not until”—I swallowed—“not until we have a good way to keep it. I bet things at home are worse than Tom is saying. Akashi was too quiet. He didn’t sound like he wanted to say anything specific. I bet he knows about Bryan. Besides, Akashi’s advice is almost always good.”

  “Waiting for someone else to tell you what to do again?”

  What? Who wouldn’t want to listen to Akashi? “Should I just do the opposite, by reflex? We’re going to have to pick our battles.”

  She nodded, her profile nearly a silhouette. Her voice was almost belligerent as she said, “I hate agreeing with you about that. I hate waiting. I’ve waited all my life to be free of the band. Only…only I’m not really free. There’s always something to keep me from doing what I want.” She reached into the shallow water and picked up a stone, skipping it across the lake surface. Ink warbled at her and splashed water on her torso with her head. Alicia glared at her hebra, then splashed Ink back softly, laughing. She looked at me. “I’m sorry. I’m fighting everything. That’s not fair.”

  I reached toward her, but she pulled away, leading Ink toward the bank. We rotated through the rest of the beasts in awkward silence, and went to sit by the fire.

  Kayleen and Joseph were there, sharing a log for a seat. Flames crackled and snapped in a good-sized fire, releasing sparks to drift briefly over our heads, red stars winking out one by one.

  Kayleen said, “We had to wait for Tom to go to sleep. Joseph wiggled out of the tent right past him, and he kept right on snoring. Joseph wanted to talk to us, and this is a good time. Isn’t the fire pretty?”

  I laughed and gave her a little hug. “Shhhhh…you’ll wake your mom. Yes, it’s pretty.” I looked over at Joseph. The fire’s reflection danced in his dark eyes. His fingers drummed on his knees and his right foot tapped impatiently against his left calf.

  “What did you find?” I asked.

  He kept his voice low. “I changed data buttons, and the one I’m reading now is about the New Making.”

  “Can you fly it?” Alicia asked.

  He laughed. “Hardly. I don’t even know yet if this data button will tell me how to. But I know some of what it looks like inside, how they expected the crew to live. I know how to make food and use the toilet and take a shower, and what the sleeping rooms look like. It’s not that same silver inside. It’s got lots of color, mostly soft blues and greens. It’s pretty simple outside the living areas; pipes and storage—lots of storage.” He threw a small log on the fire, watching as yellow flames embraced it. “I want to get in there and see what they left. There may be ships. The button shows ships. Smaller than the ones we use to go back and forth to Traveler. But I don’t remember any stories about them—us—using ships like that. Do you?”

  I shook my head. “No. The New Making doesn’t look big enough to hold ships inside it.”

  “These were only about six times as big as a wagon.” He looked at Kayleen. “It has a big garden. Paloma would love it.”

  “I bet the garden is dead after all this time,” Kayleen mused.

  “Well”—Joseph shrugged—“there’s that. I wish I could show you the pictures I’ve been seeing in my head. Maybe after a while I can figure it out.”

  “Can you pipe what you see through the projector?” Kayleen asked.

  I shook my head. “Jenna said not to risk it near anyone.”

  Kayleen looked pained. “Paloma and Tom wouldn’t turn us in. I know they wouldn’t.” She picked up a stone and threw it out across the water, so Ink and Sand both raised their heads. “But you’re right. Did you see anything else?”

  He shook his head. “No. And…I don’t think the projector would show you the data the way I see it…it’s layered and twisty, and I have to follow idea-threads, which work like a bad knot. Data lays on data and points to data, image on image.” He stared at the fire for a few moments, then yawned. “I don’t exactly know how to direct questions yet…I just sometimes know how to go down a path of questions that relate, one to another. If I make up my own new question in my head, I don’t know how to start answering it.” He yawned again. “I thought you’d want to know about the ship.”

  He glanced at Alicia and gave me a hopeful look, but I said, “Go to sleep.” I told him the same thing I’d told Alicia earlier. “We’ll save our energy for the imp
ortant fights.”

  He nodded, gave Alicia a slightly too long hug, and slipped back into the darkness. New Making. I had yearned to see inside it for so long, had been entranced and puzzled by its mysteries. Alicia had dreamed of it. Joseph had obsessed about it when he was about ten, drawing pictures of it every evening. And now we were learning something about it. At last. At least Joseph was. The projector nearly burned in my pocket, but I resisted, feeding small sticks into the fire and humming.

  Tom and Joseph together relieved us for the next watch, pretty much ruining any chance to find out if Joseph had learned more about the ship. But maybe, I thought as I yawned sleepily, maybe he and Tom would repair some of the damage they’d been inflicting on each other.

  Long before I had enough sleep, I woke to the smell of fish cooking over the fire. The windless air was surprisingly cool. I pulled on my shoes and coat and took a seat by the fire. “You guys were fishing?”

  Tom laughed. “I taught him to hunt. I figured I’d teach him to lake fish.”

  Joseph was already good at fishing the Lace River. I glanced over at him, and he grinned and stretched his arms in front of him. “We thought we’d better make breakfast before we woke you sleepyheads.” He gestured toward the tents. “So how about if you wake everyone and we eat and go?”

  “How about she has a cup of tea first?” Tom asked. He nodded at Joseph. “You can go wake the others. Give me a few minutes to talk to Chelo.”

  I curled my hands around the cup Tom handed me, enjoying the warmth, watching a flock of small brown birds dart over the trees we’d taken the wood from.

  Tom pitched his voice low, leaning in toward me. “Paloma and I are a little worried about you and Joseph and Kayleen, about the choices you might make. We are more worried about Alicia. She doesn’t listen. At best, she’s a distraction for Joseph. At worst…well, she might lead you into trouble.” I was sure he meant to say something worse about Alicia, but instead he just scraped the fish over with his knife, concentrating on the pan and the fire. When he finished, he looked at me. “Can you control her?”

  Not really. No. Joseph would never forgive me if I said the wrong thing, and got Alicia locked up with Bryan. Tom was asking about control, but how would I control her? How had I so far? “Alicia trusts us more than she trusts anyone. And she wants family. So, yes, I think I can.” A log disintegrated into glowing goals. “She can only earn your trust, or not, if she’s free to make decisions.” I sipped at my tea again, thinking about goals. “And you need to earn hers. In fact, remind Nava the trust she wants isn’t a one-way effort. Tell her that I need her to take good care of Bryan, and that we’ll do our best to take care of Alicia.”

  He blinked, looking startled at my audacity.

  I heard Kayleen chattering at Paloma and took our last moment of quiet to add, “Thank you for all you’ve done. You did help Joseph.”

  He nodded, watching the fire and not me, and said, “It’s getting hard to know what helps him, or you, and what hurts.”

  I stood up and went to help organize camp.

  By early afternoon, we finally finished circumnavigating Little Lace Lake, coming back to the point where we’d first seen the lake, at the top of the crater wall. It had taken six nights to return to this spot; it seemed as if a year had passed. I felt different than I had cresting the crater on the way over, but the same problems we had left, and worse, waited below in Artistos.

  From the crater wall, it was only half an hour back to the three-way fork. Following Akashi’s suggestion, we nestled our tents against the gray-black cliff, so the stream ran between us and the road. A thin line of forest filled the gap, and thankfully, someone had built a corral we could use for the hebras, shaded by near-elm and river whites. We laid the perimeter to include the corral.

  When I went to fill my canteen at the stream, I looked back, and could hardly see our camp. If I hadn’t known where we were, my eyes would have slid across the tents. I stopped and looked down the path, toward Artistos, and my feet wanted to start down: to return to this past spring, to collecting herbs for soap with Therese; to run stealthily and fast to the center of town by the hospital and liberate Bryan from the dark jail; to gallop down the cliff and stop near the New Making, safely, alone except for my brother, to open the ship and peel its secrets.

  I could do none of those things, not now.

  On the way back, I petted each of the hebras in turn. “Well, Stripes,” I whispered. “At least we’ll see Liam and Akashi.”

  After a cold dinner, and just as full dark cloaked us all, I followed Alicia into our tent, leaving Tom and Kayleen the job of tending fire and taking first watch. I meant to stay up and chat with Alicia, but I was out cold as soon as I closed the door behind me.

  I woke, groggy, realizing I had dreamed the entrance bells chimed friendly entry. Or did they? I listened carefully. Nothing. Then a step outside the tent.

  Cold air assaulted my cheek. Someone opening the tent door from outside.

  Did Alicia hear it, too? I couldn’t hear her breathing. I extended my arm, expecting to touch her arm or shoulder. Her bedroll was merely a jumble of empty blankets. And it wasn’t Alicia coming in, whoever it was smelled wrong. Joseph? No…not his smells. I blinked, staying still. Traces of the hot fiery scents of the smelter, of Artistos. Adrenaline surged through me, so it took an act of will to stay still. What to do? Play as if I were asleep? Who was here?

  “Come out, Chelo.”

  Nava.

  I pushed blankets away, the cool air bracing me further. Holding my voice to a casual tone was hard. “I’m coming.” I pushed through the door into a blast of even cooler air, looking around.

  Nava stood a few feet away from me, her hands at rest. Her own voice sounded like mine; a strained attempt at casual conversation. “It’s time for you to come home.”

  Stars spotted the dark, moonless sky. “It’s the middle of the night,” I said, looking around. The fire was ten meters from the tent, splashing light on Tom, who stood at one side of it, and Kayleen and Paloma, close together, on the other. Two men stood so far out of the firelight I couldn’t make out their identities for sure. Sweeping my gaze across the broad circle of darkness, I picked out two figures leaning against trees and another standing in the corral, scratching Sand’s forehead gently, looking in our direction. I squinted, recognizing Stile by the way he moved, one arm a little jerky. He’d brought us the little urns full of Steven’s and Therese’s ashes. He had always been kind enough to us. He clipped a lead to Sand’s face harness and then reached for Ink.

  “Where is your brother?” Nava asked. “And Alicia?” The way she said Alicia’s name worried me.

  I looked around. Alicia and Joseph both appeared to be missing. Had Alicia talked Joseph into going after Bryan by themselves? Was that why Nava was here? Was she trying to tell if I sent them? I shivered and stepped toward the fire. It was too bad I was apparently the last one to wake—any surprise on Tom’s and Paloma’s faces would have registered and fled by now. I looked anyway, and saw only resignation. Had they known about this?

  “I don’t know where they are.” I turned to face Nava. “Do you?” I asked her, forcing a calm I didn’t feel. “Do you know where they went?”

  She seemed startled that I would ask her. “No.”

  I calculated my chances of bolting, including the chance of getting Kayleen to come away from Paloma’s side and run with me, find my brother and Alicia. Not good. Paloma and Kayleen stood close, holding hands, Kayleen supporting some of Paloma’s weight. Any escape for Kayleen meant abandoning Paloma. She’d never do that, even though Paloma, surely, was safe from Nava.

  Nava stepped inside the flickering light of the small fire, so there was a circle of five of us. She held a stunner in one hand, pointed toward the ground.

  “Why are you here?” I asked her, watching Tom’s face rather than hers. Tom squinted and a tight clench of his jaw muscles narrowed his round face.

  She must have seen me
look at Tom because she stepped nearer to him even though she spoke to me. “I thought I should explain about Bryan, thought you needed to know from me what happened. You asked to be included in the discussions at home.”

  Right. She brought at least five men to invite us back casually. I stalled. “I would love to know what you have been talking about. And about Bryan.” My voice shook, and I fought to sound firm. “Why don’t you sit here by the fire and tell me?”

  “I’ll tell you everything when we get back.”

  Tom put a hand on her shoulder and leaned down to look into her eyes. I’m sure he thought we would not hear, but I was close enough to understand his hissing whisper. “What’s this about? You didn’t tell me you were coming up here.”

  She flicked her eyes at me. “Later.”

  “No. Now.” He looked around. “But not here. Come with me.” He pulled at her arm, pulling away.

  Her own reply was as low and hard as his. “When we get back.”

  He stopped pulling on her, looking back and forth between Nava and me.

  “Stile?” Nava called. “Are you ready?”

  “Almost,” he called back, his voice coming from near the hebras.

  I looked around carefully again, counting six of them, including Nava. No, more. They must have ridden here, so at least one person watched their hebras. And two of us, if I thought of Tom and Paloma as neutral and Joseph and Alicia as escaped. Were they in Artistos, or had they just gone off somewhere to kiss and talk? I swallowed, alone and outnumbered. “Nava? We did what you wanted. We fixed things. Joseph learned to go back into the data nets. Why are you forcing us home?”

  She licked her lips. Her eyes looked like Joseph’s when Alicia and I asked him for different things. So she was torn. Her words, however, belied the indecision in her eyes. “I’m offering you the voice you wanted, encouraging you to come back. We want you all to come back for now.”