As Fek shoved her between the shoulders again, making her stumble, she enjoyed the thought of what Garek would do to them. She'd like to participate.
“So, what happens when we get to Luf?” she asked as they climbed the tight, narrow path up the first mountain that stood between West Lathor and Harven.
She knew it was just the beginning of the difficult terrain. There were round, green hills and valleys beyond this mountain, which comprised the last easy stretch, and then they'd hit the Dartalian Range, sharp spikes of sheer gray rock which started in Dartalia and curved like a scythe between West Lathor and Harven.
Fek grunted, and gave her another shove. Her temper snapped as she stumbled again and she pretended exhaustion, stopping, hands on knees, as if to catch her breath.
Slowing them down was the plan. Slowing them down at every turn, at every opportunity.
“You think the Harven liege really wants me? Do you even know what for?” She made her voice breathless and faint.
If she was right, what the Harven liege would have heard about her from Luci and her people was reason enough for his interest, but she wondered if he'd shared the information with the Gara town master, and whether that had been passed on to Gaffri and Fek.
“Move.” Fek shoved her again, and she let his push take her over, and she lay, collapsed and panting, on the hard, rocky ground.
“Get up.” Gaffri loomed over her.
She blinked at him, and then closed her eyes, trying to keep her body loose, although she wanted to brace for a kick. It felt good, even with a few rocks digging into her back, to just lie for a moment. To rest.
“Has she passed out?” Fek asked. There was no emotion in his voice whatsoever except mild curiosity.
“If she has, then it's because you pushed her over.”
“Barely.”
She felt the toe of his boot nudge her side.
“Carry her, then.” Gaffri's voice sounded closer, as if he were crouched down.
“Are you crazy? I can barely get in enough air to breathe myself. And I'm already carrying her pack because it was slowing us down too much with her carrying it. Maybe you can take a turn.”
She heard Gaffri grunt, and wasn't sure if that was a yes or a no.
“Air's getting thinner the higher we go.” He nudged her again. “Probably what's wrong with her, too.”
Interesting.
She'd been on Shadow for the last four months, and she was used to thin air. Since she'd been back on Barit, she'd barely been able to get over how easy it was to breathe.
So she had another advantage over them. That was good. As good as the knife that was still hidden in her boot.
She hadn't used it yet, but they had to sleep sometime. She couldn't take them both, but she could probably take one. And she could use her newly expanded lungs to run as far away from them as she could.
“We might as well have a break,” Gaffri said from somewhere to her left. “Hey.” He shook her. “Wake up. Get something to drink and eat, because when we go again, we're not stopping until nightfall.”
She lay still for another beat, and he shook her again, harder.
She let her eyes flutter open.
He dropped Janu's pack next to her. “Eat. Drink. Or go without.”
She struggled up on her elbows, and then pulled herself up to a seated position and leaned against a rock protruding from the mountain side.
She got out a canteen, sipped from it, and saw Fek and Gaffri were occupied with their own canteens, their own food.
They were getting used to her obeying. Being under their control.
That was good.
Because it wasn't going to last.
TEN
The liege's advisor, Hector Dartan, was a tall, imposing figure. Garek watched from the edge of the room as he strode into the sitting area of Aidan's chambers just as the first Star light of the day bathed everything in rose gold.
His dark hair was pulled back severely, and his dark eyes flicked to Vent in a way that told Garek there was no love lost between him and the guard master.
Vent had straightened from his guard's slouch against the wall when Dartan came in, and he rubbed a hand over a dark-skinned jaw stubbled with gray. There were deep creases around the guard master's eyes, and he had the thickset body of an aging warrior, but he was considerably bigger, and wider, than the liege's advisor. He yawned, a deep, noisy sound that seemed to involve his whole body.
It was the first time he'd done so, which made Garek sure it had been deliberately timed to coincide with Dartan's entrance.
These two probably tried to find ways undermine each other daily.
No wonder Vent said the right hand didn't know what the left was doing in Juli. What Vent had forgotten to mention was that he was part of the problem.
“Now we have the sky craft back,” Aidan said before either Dartan or Vent could speak, “we have to decide what to do with it.”
Garek lifted a brow, annoyed with even having to be here. It had been too late to leave for Pan Nuk last night, and he'd known he wouldn't get far in the dark. Better to save his strength and get going early and fast in the morning. Aidan had convinced him they needed this dawn meeting before he left, but his patience was already wearing thin at the posturing, and Vent and Dartan had only been here a few minutes.
“Before we do anything with the sky craft, I need to go back to Pan Nuk and get Taya. Then, perhaps it would be a good idea for us to fly over Harven, Fabre and Kadmine and see what they're up to.”
“Spy on them from the air?” Vent sounded intrigued. “That would be . . . useful.”
“And the best part is, they'd think you were a sky raider, and simply be grateful you didn't attack them or try to steal anything. They'd never suspect it was us.” Aidan nodded, although Garek had already outlined the idea to him last night and he'd approved it. Just another reason why this meeting was a waste of time.
Dartan cleared his throat. “There seems to be no downside to that. Except wasting time to go and get your intended is out of the question.”
Garek smiled at him, a quick flash of amusement, and said nothing.
Aidan cleared his throat. “Garek won't fly the sky craft until he has Taya. He was forced to leave her behind in order to keep the sky craft out of sky raider hands. But now he's shaken them off, he's going to get her.”
The liege's son and the liege's advisor stared each other down.
“There must be someone else who can fly it,” Dartan said.
“There isn't. Besides working the controls, which I could probably do because I've watched him, Garek doesn't just fly it. He calls his Change to help him with it, more than I think he even realizes himself. And there is no one who can call the air Change better than Garek.”
Garek shifted impatiently and Aidan sent him a sideways glance of admonishment, then focused back on Dartan.
“We're hardly under imminent attack, Dartan. Unless you know something I don't?” Aidan gestured with his arms, hands palm up. “We can afford to wait the five or so days it'll take Garek to get Taya and bring her back here.”
“What about that scientist you've sent for from Gara? Doesn't he know how to fly the craft?” Dartan wouldn't look at Garek now.
“You've sent for Falk?” Garek leaned back against the table behind him, and crossed his arms over his chest, his eyes narrowed as he looked over at Aidan.
“I didn't tell him about the sky craft. I sent a message to him, offering him a job here, and he accepted. With alacrity, which tells me things haven't been all that good for him in Garamundo since you stole the sky craft from his laboratory.”
“No.” Garek rocked back against the table. “The town master wouldn't have been happy with him about that. But also, he knows you flew off with me in the sky craft, so my guess is it's more about finding out what we did, and how the craft worked, than feeling under pressure from the town master. Also, I bet he guesses we still have the craft, so he probably thinks he'
ll have access to it again.”
Aidan grunted in acknowledgment. “Didn't think of that, but you're right.”
“Let's hope he keeps his mouth shut about what he knows.” Dartan's frown deepened.
“Well, now we've had this nice chat, I'm off.” Garek had requested a travel pack from the guard master, and Vent had brought it with him to the meeting. He handed it over.
Garek nodded in thanks, and then went still as Dartan grabbed his arm.
He met the liege's advisor's gaze with a hard stare.
“I don't like your attitude.” Dartan blinked and dropped his hand. “I don't like being forced to let you do whatever you feel like doing.” His lip rose in a sneer. “You're a citizen of West Lathor, and the liege is your ruler.”
“When my ruler can walk in a straight line and speak without slurring his words, I might even consider listening to him,” Garek said softly. “But my whole village was taken, and he didn't even know, let alone try to help. I've sacrificed a lot of my life already to my obligations as a citizen.” He stepped back. “You don't like me, don't want to use me, that's fine. Find someone to bring down another sky craft and learn to fly it.”
Dartan's look should have been able to drop him dead on the floor. “I do have someone else who can fly it.”
Garek frowned, then realized who he was talking about. “Dom.” He gave a nod. “If he's still here in Juli, and not back in Kardai, then by all means. But he needs a sky craft to fly in, because he won't get mine out from where it's hidden. Until you can get him his own one, you'll have to put up with me and my unreasonable demands.”
He shouldn't have felt angry when he walked out of the room, but he realized his hands were in tight fists.
He forced himself to relax, and then turned in surprise when he heard Aidan jogging to catch up to him.
“Where is Dom?” Garek asked.
“Still in Juli.” Aidan gave an embarrassed shrug. “His mother chose to stay, and I've given both of them the right to remain.”
“That's good.” Dom wouldn't have an easy time if he returned to Kardai, and his mother wouldn't, either.
“I wish I could come with you,” the princeling said. “This place is a mess.”
“Take it over,” Garek said, and readjusted the pack on his back. “You know it's time.”
Aidan rubbed a hand over his recently cut hair, and sighed. “I'm starting to believe you're right about that.”
GAREK PUSHED HIMSELF HARD, calling the Change and stepping into the inbetween for short, accelerated progressions on the road to Pan Nuk.
He had to choose empty stretches with no possibility of meeting anyone or anything, because if he hit something while he was in the inbetween, it was generally reduced to tiny pieces.
He also didn't want to tire himself too much, too worried about what he'd find in Pan Nuk. The secret fear the sky raiders had returned to take everyone back was a sick dread that had him balancing speed and energy on a brutal knife's edge.
He forced himself to stop for a break in the early afternoon when he came to a bridge that crossed a wide stream.
He climbed down to the water's edge and splashed its icy snow melt onto his face, then drank before he pulled himself onto a rock just below the bridge itself and found the rations Vent had packed for him.
He'd just finished eating, and was buckling his pack up again, when he heard the sound of running feet.
He pulled himself up until he was crouched beside the bridge but able to duck under it easily.
His eyes were level with the heavy wooden planks and he noticed the boots first.
Guard boots. Juli guard uniforms.
He wondered what they were doing here, but stood and stepped out to block their way when all ten of them were at least halfway across the bridge.
He heard the arrows being notched from the back, saw the hands go to swords at the front, but his gaze was drawn to the captain. She was in the lead, and unlike her guards, she already had her sword in her hand.
“Who are you?” Her voice was clipped.
“Garek of Pan Nuk.”
He was surprised to see her mouth drop in surprise, and then her body relax.
There could be only one reason for that, although he couldn't understand why. “You've come from Pan Nuk?”
She nodded, walked toward him, with her team following warily behind her.
“My guard master sent us to Pan Nuk the night you landed in Juli.”
Garek's eyebrows rose. “Why?”
“The princeling said you would be flying the sky craft there the day after, and although Vent was against that, he thought it best there was a guard there to keep watch over it in case you got your way.”
Well, that made perfect sense. Garek simply hadn't credited Vent with that much tactical forethought.
“Well, the sky craft is back in Juli, so I won't stand in your way.” Garek stepped to the side so they could pass him.
“You brought it back?”
“Last night.”
Suddenly her blade was against his throat, and her eyes were hard as they locked with his. “Even if you left Juli as soon as you set down, you couldn't have come this far on the road yet.”
“I only left this morning, but then I have an advantage.” He called the Change, and slid backward into the thick, golden air of the inbetween, putting a few steps between himself and the captain's blade. He could have gone further, but staying in the inbetween too long would cost more than he could afford to pay just to make a point.
When he reappeared, he said nothing as he saw her come to grips with him no longer being within reach.
“You call the air Change. And are strong enough in your calling to find the place between the particles that no one can see.” The captain looked at her sword, then slid it back into its scabbard. “My apologies. My name is Captain Nostra of Juli's Day Guard, and the reason we're returning is not purely because you were not in Pan Nuk with the sky craft. Guards from Garamundo had arrived before us in Pan Nuk, looking for you.”
That got his attention, and he walked back toward her.
There was a struggle from amongst the thick knot of her team, and belatedly he realized he'd given them barely a second glance.
Now he saw two guards push through, dressed in Gara uniforms.
“Haz,” he said softly, “and Darla.”
The Juli guards shifted a little more, and he saw another familiar face. He struggled for a moment to remember it. “Darrin.”
“So you do know them?” Nostra asked.
He gave a brief nod. “These two, I'd trust. Him,” he pointed to Darrin, “I wouldn't, but I see you've worked that out already.” Because now he could see Darrin was loosely restrained.
“There were three others,” Nostra said.
“Gaffri.” Darla spoke for the first time.
“Gaffri was in Pan Nuk?”
“Gaffri, Fek, and Janu,” Haz said.
So all of Utrel's bully boys.
If they'd been despatched to round him up and force him back, the Gara town master had truly lost all sense.
“You say part of the reason for your quick return was the presence of the Gara guards in Pan Nuk. Why was that?” Garek was starting to get a cold, sick feeling about this.
“It seems they were there to ask you to return with them to Garamundo at the town master's request.”
So he was right.
“When they found you weren't there, and then heard you were working for the liege,” Nostra's eyebrows lifted a little at Garek's startled look, but continued on, “they obligingly offered to wait for your return, and help the villagers restore Pan Nuk while they did so.”
Garek was already shaking his head. “Gaffri wouldn't--”
“No. But he needed an excuse to hang around.” Darla rubbed her upper arm with a nervous hand. “Neither Haz or I knew about it, but he was under orders to get you, and a woman named Taya. And according to Darrin here, it came as a request from Harven.�
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Garek went still, his eyes never leaving Darla's face.
“Gaffri insisted on waiting for you as cover so he could find out which one was Taya. And then . . .” She trailed off under his stare.
“Then early yesterday morning, while Taya was on watch duty, he, Janu and Fek grabbed her.” Nostra filled in the silence. “We wouldn't have known about it for hours if they'd managed to do it quietly.” A smile danced briefly across Nostra's lips. “But Taya can make a lot of noise, and there was a stand-off.”
“You got her back?” He didn't know how he got the question out, but Nostra was already shaking her head.
“They threatened to kill her if we followed them, and I believed them. They were like trapped animals. They had a nasty surprise when they learned the liege was involved with Pan Nuk. With you. And when my unit arrived, I think it pushed Gaffri into coming up with a plan he thought would give him the most leverage.”
“What happened to Taya?” That's really all he cared about. His gaze swung to Darrin, and the guard looked away.
“They had a knife to her throat. They said they'd let her go at the top of the pass and we were to wait for her to walk back down to us or they'd kill her.”
“But she never walked back down.” He made it a statement, because why would Gaffri let her go if she'd been part of his mission? She was the only bargaining chip Gaffri had left because Garek hadn't been there.
“No.” Nostra swallowed. “Her brother ran up with some of the other men, as well as me and some of my team, and we tracked them to where the path splits three ways.”
“And then?”
“Then Kas found some of her hair on the Gara path, and he and a few others from your village went after her. I decided it was vital my guard master know what's happening in Garamundo, so I lent them two of my team and we parted ways. We've been running ever since.”
Garek stood for a moment, weighing up the options in his head.
Why would Gaffri go back to Gara if he thought things had gone bad there? Then again, why had he taken Taya if he didn't intend to return, because surely the only value she had in his eyes was as an object achieved in his mission?
Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2) Page 7