Taya was incidental to him? Garek took a deep breath. It shouldn't surprise him. It was, in fact, completely in character.
There was a shift and a murmur from the Gara guards around him at the admission.
The rules of walking the walls were that when it was your turn, you kept family separate. You did not correspond, you truly gave yourself to your duty for that time, because it was finite and you would go home. But equally, family was respected. There was an understanding that communities and families were sacrificing to send their strongest to walk the walls, and they were honored for that.
“They were just there to offer you a job, not force you back.” Utrel's gaze flicked from Vent, to Aidan, to Garek. He wet his lips.
That was a lie, but Garek didn't expect anything else from Utrel. “If that's so, why did they drag Taya away with a knife to her throat?”
The light breeze that had been blowing since they'd arrived died at that moment, so even though he didn't raise his voice everyone heard him.
“Did you see them do it yourself?”
Garek raised a brow. “Very good, Utrel. You know I'd never stand by and let that happen. No. I was assisting the liege in Juli at the time. But there are several witnesses here who did.”
“Like me,” Kas said.
“And us,” Nostra said, and Garek realized Darla and Haz were standing right behind her. Utrel's gaze flicked to her, over her shoulder to his own two guards, and then back to her.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“The commander of Juli's Day Guard.” Nostra met his gaze. “Your men abducted Taya of Pan Nuk in front of an entire Juli guard unit.”
Utrel swallowed.
“The time for stalling is over.” Garek lifted him a little higher, then let him go in disgust. “Give me some useful information, or I will take Gara apart until I find her.”
FOURTEEN
Taya drifted in and out of consciousness, aware on some visceral level that the day wore on, time passed, and that she was being pulled and dragged, rattled and jostled. Sometimes she came out of the darkness suddenly, with her head clear, her senses sharp, even if only for a short while, other times she was hardly able to stay in the moment.
There was one consistent thread, though.
Pain.
It stabbed at her head, it tightened its grip on her muscles, until she felt like her whole body throbbed with it.
Nausea was also a constant, but she wondered after the third or fourth time she fluttered awake whether some of that might be hunger.
She put an open palm on her belly, and thought back to when she'd last eaten.
She couldn't remember.
She couldn't hold on to the thought, though, and drifted off again.
The next time she woke, it was to a feeling of lightness, of flying rather than the scraping, jittering movement of the stretcher dragged over the hard, uneven ground.
She was careful to keep her eyes closed, to look through her eyelashes first.
Gaffri was holding the end of the stretcher by her feet, and she realized Fek must be holding the front. She wasn't being dragged anymore but carried.
She wondered if that meant they had made it to the foothills of the Dartalian Range, and the terrain had become too difficult.
She felt the prick of tears behind her eyelids at the pleasure of not having her bones rattled, and her throat tightened in fury. What was wrong with her?
She hadn't cried when she'd been abducted and taken to Shadow, or when she thought she'd never see Garek again. Now it seemed she couldn't stop.
Gaffri shifted his grip, and she focused on him again almost with relief. He looked pale, tinged gray, and sweat gleamed on his forehead and his cheeks.
"I don't feel well." He wasn't looking at her, his eyes were fixed on what she assumed was the back of Fek's head.
There was a slight rocking of the stretcher and she guessed Fek turned slightly to look back at him.
"You don't look good. I can hear water up ahead, let's get there, take a break."
Gaffri made a sound of agreement, but it was bitter and surly.
They hadn't reconciled, obviously, and she wondered if that was to her advantage or not.
While they went at each other, they'd leave her alone.
There was no doubt she owed a lot to Fek's sense of self-preservation, but she refused to give him any more credit than that. If he thought it would be better for him if she died or was hurt, he'd kill her or injure her himself, and without a second thought.
Gaffri was the one who was motivated more by ego and hubris. He wanted to be the big man.
It still puzzled her how he'd made captain in the guard, and not Fek. Kissed the right asses, probably.
They slowed and she sensed them turning. Before they came to a complete stop, Gaffri dropped his end of the stretcher with a vicious downward shove.
Taya didn't have time to brace herself or grab the sides. She slid off the stretcher, hit the ground, and bounced, crying out as sharp rocks dug into her and she sucked in dust.
"What is wrong with you?" There was a chill in Fek's voice, high above her head. The sound of it was almost tinny. "You're like a child."
"What's it to you if she has a few more bruises?" Gaffri challenged. "You put the biggest ones on her. I'm just adding a few small ones."
"If we've got this wrong, if there's a reason the Harven liege wants her for herself, not something to do with Garek, then it will matter because she will have been deliberately hurt, whereas the other injury was genuinely an accident. Why is that hard for you to understand?"
Gaffri scoffed. “She can't call a Change. She's not a guard or even the town master. Her only value is as Garek's intended.”
“That we know of.” Fek crossed his arms. “We wouldn't be running toward Luf, with no idea what's going on, if we were trusted with all the secrets.”
"Relax.” Gaffri smirked. “I'm not going to kill her. And this is a hard journey. Not to be taken lightly by little girls from country villages. Who will even raise an eyebrow if she comes out of it a little battered? That logic should cover your own ass, as well."
Fek's lips thinned. "Understand this--if you're capable. I'm not going down for a single one of your mistakes."
Tired of them, sick to death of the whole thing, and done with spitting grit out of her mouth, Taya pulled herself up in small, careful movements.
Fek looked down at her, and so did Gaffri. Despite Gaffri's bravado, there was a little edge of fear in his eyes as he studied her.
She must look close to death.
She felt it.
"Can I have some water?" she whispered to Fek.
He dropped Janu's pack to the ground, rummaged around inside and handed her a water pouch, and she sipped at it in tiny little swallows until she could drink without feeling like she had splinters in her throat.
When she was done, she took the food Fek offered her, dried berries and nuts, and some small pieces of dried meat, all mixed together.
She ate it carefully, one piece at a time, chewing carefully.
She only managed to get a handful down, but she felt less nauseous afterward, and took a small pouch filled with the mixture from Fek to nibble on later.
Gaffri lifted his shirt and rinsed his side with water from the tiny spring that gushed out of the mountain side. It looked inflamed and bruised, but it seemed to be healing. He spread it carefully with ointment from his pack and then turned his head, catching her watching him.
“West Lathor is finished,” he said, with a nasty smile. “You and yours will be under the Harven boot soon enough.”
“Harven doesn't have a boot,” she said, her voice calm, although her heart was thumping, because he looked so gleeful at the prospect of his own people being harmed. “They're Illian, just like us. There may be a skirmish, a fight between guards for dominance, but no matter who wins, why would they deliberately be cruel to their fellow citizens?”
He shot her a sidelong
look, ripe with condescension, as if he knew more than she ever could.
“I'll tell you what I think,” she said settling herself back on the stretcher. “I think there are two, maybe three states who see an opportunity to take more land because our liege hasn't held together well since the death of his wife. And maybe they're right. Maybe we do need a better leader. But even if they send in an army, I can't think of a single good reason to hurt us, to make it harder for us to live.”
“Maybe before the sky raiders came, that was true. But now the weak are protection for the strong, because the sky raiders can pick off the weak so much easier.” It was as if he couldn't hold the words back, spitting them out at her.
She shook her head. “The sky raiders don't care about our borders or who is who. They see us as indistinguishable from each other.” She had heard that from the mouth of a sky raider herself, back on Shadow.
“The weak are never indistinguishable from the strong.”
She lifted her head at that, but Gaffri looked away, ignoring her, and he took the front of the stretcher this time, and didn't talk again.
FIFTEEN
Kuan Vaar, Garamundo's town master, was sweating.
Garek could only tell because the light from the window of his office fell at just the right angle, glinting off the beads of perspiration on his upper lip.
For those not looking as closely, he appeared calm but affronted as Vent and Aidan shouldered their way in to his inner sanctum and tossed Utrel on the floor at his feet.
Garek lounged just inside the room, leaning against the wall and looking around curiously.
He'd never been inside.
Judging by the interest from the crowd of guards and curious onlookers who'd followed them in from outside the Towers and had gathered in the annex, he wasn't the only one. Vaar's aide tried to block the mob, wringing his hands in panic.
Vaar had always been careful to come across as well-heeled but not opulent. In a place like Gara, where at least half of the city's inhabitants were struggling to make ends meet, he would never have survived long any other way. His office, though, showed what a carefully cultivated lie that version of himself was.
There was something slightly obscene about the luxury of it.
In fact, it was more a sumptuous hideaway than an office, with its thick rugs and ornate carved furniture. There was a desk, but it was very much to one side of the room, not at all the central focus.
That prize went to the low couch beside an even lower table, covered with tiny bowls of delicacies. It seemed Vaar made himself very comfortable while he attended to his duties.
“And what is this?” Vaar's voice faltered just slightly, before he strengthened it. He cleared his throat, catching sight of Garek. “Aren't you--?”
“Quiet.” Aidan made sure his voice carried as he cut Vaar off, and Garek knew he was playing to the crowd watching from the wings as much as he was to Kuan Vaar. “You stand accused of treason.”
Vaar drew himself taller as he recognized Aidan. “You're one of my guards.”
“I did do some time walking the walls,” Aidan agreed. “But I think I may have forgotten to mention I'm Aidan of Juli, the liege's son.”
There was an audible gasp from the spectators, but it was Vaar Garek was watching, and the town master froze. He took just the smallest step back, and then hardened his face, his gaze flicking to the side of the room in such a calculated way, Garek guessed it contained a secret escape route.
“Enough.” Garek pushed away from the wall, walking so that he was between Vaar and whatever it was the town master wanted so badly behind the thick wall hanging.
None of this was getting them any closer to finding Taya.
“You sent a guard unit to my village, with instructions to bring me back. You also told them to bring back a woman named Taya. Where is she?”
“This is about my . . . my offer of a job?” Vaar seemed stumped. He looked down at Utrel for the first time. The guard master was still prone, with Vent's boot resting on his back. “If Gaffri was a little overzealous, I apologize, but I don't understand why you would involve the liege's son and . . .” He deigned to notice Kas, Vent and Nostra for the first time.
“Vent, guard master of Juli, and my Day Guard commander, Nostra,” Vent introduced himself with a polite smile.
“Kas. Town master of Pan Nuk.” Kas paused. “Brother of Taya of Pan Nuk.”
Vaar looked from face to face, considering, cool. “Gaffri hasn't returned yet, so I have no idea whether your accusations are true or not. I don't have any information on what's going on.”
“We don't either.” Aidan lifted his brows. “What does the Harven liege want with Garek and Taya, and why would you help him get them?”
“I . . .” Vaar looked at Utrel again, and for the first time, Garek saw some genuine fear flicker in his eyes. “That is an outrageous accusation.”
“Nevertheless, it is the truth.” Garek spoke quietly, and he held Vaar's gaze until the town master looked away.
“There was some mention that Garek had . . . done the Harven a . . . favor?” Vaar tried to sound as if he were struggling to remember something of little consequence to him, but he had begun to to look genuinely panicked. “I think they wished to thank you?”
“By sending a unit to abduct me? By carrying Taya away with a knife to her throat?”
“I don't know anything about that?” Every sentence Vaar issued sounded like a question, and he cleared his throat again.
“Where is Gaffri taking Taya?” Garek's voice was so harsh, Vaar flinched.
“They won't be back until tomorrow at the earliest. And the ambassador never said why he wanted the woman.” Utrel spoke for the first time, and there was an edge to his voice, as if he was trying to claw back some pride.
Must be humiliating, Garek acknowledged, lying face down on the floor when you were used to being the big man.
“And when they do come back, where will they bring Taya? I'm assuming not here. Wouldn't want the town master implicated in the kidnap of a West Lathorian citizen on the orders of another state.”
Vaar's eyebrows rose. “I must protest these baseless accusations--”
Tired of hearing his lying voice, Garek created an airless bubble around Vaar's head, and watched him frown in puzzlement, and then wave his arms in panic. He eased back a little, his gaze direct. He was getting tired of asking this. “Where. Is. She?”
Vaar sucked in air. “That was you? You can do--”
He did it again. Let it go on a little longer this time. Then released Vaar again. “I will not ask nicely again.”
Vaar stared at him as if he were both a monster, and a chest of gold. “They were going to bring both of you to the cells. In the older section we don't use anymore. But they really aren't back yet. They couldn't have gotten back so fast.”
Garek looked at Vent, and he nodded in turn to Nostra. She stepped out of the room.
Might as well check the cells, although Garek was inclined to believe they hadn't made it to Gara yet. Even running flat out, Kas hadn't managed to reach Garamundo by the time Garek had caught up with him. They'd seen no sign of Gaffri and Taya on the way in, but he and his thugs could have hidden and waited for the sky craft to pass. They might only be approaching the gates in the next few hours.
“Now that the pretense that you're a loyal West Lathorian is over,” Aidan said over Vaar's silence, “you can tell us what Habred of Luf wants with Garek and Taya.”
Vaar tried to outstare him, and then grimaced. “He didn't say.”
“So even with no explanation, you were happy to do his bidding?” Aidan asked lightly.
“Not happily, no.” Vaar bared his teeth. “I spent a year keeping Habred unaware of Garek, hoping he didn't hear about him, hoping to keep him my little secret, but we have a deal.” Vaar's lips formed a thin line. “The deal is when Habred and his cronies in Fabre and Kadmine take West Lathor, I keep my job, as long as I follow orders.”
This was the first direct confirmation they'd had that Fabre and Kadmine were in league with Harven. It was good to know who they were going up against.
“So you were promised protection for helping three other states take Garamundo and the rest of West Lathor?” Garek raised his voice this time, learning from Aidan, wanting to kill any remaining sympathy the crowd might have for their town master.
Vaar opened his mouth to refute, realized there was no unsaying what he'd just said, and at the sound of the angry muttering from outside, eventually said nothing. Utrel scoffed out a laugh and then silence settled over everyone, including the spectators.
Eventually, Vaar made a face, lifted his shoulders in a way that said he didn't understand the fuss. “I was just trying to survive.”
“Yes, I can see things are difficult for you.” Aidan looked deliberately around the opulent room as he spoke, and while he couldn't very well talk, princeling that he was, his words hit home with the crowd anyway.
Garek could hear the whispers and mutters gaining a violent edge.
“Kuan Vaar, town master of Garamundo, you are formally taken in by the Guard of West Lathor on the charge of treason.” Vent obviously knew the tricks, too, because his voice was clear and succinct, and pitched to carry.
Garek watched Vaar's lip lift in a sneer. He'd been a slippery leader, hard to pin down, never with a straight answer, but he'd been diplomatic enough to skate through, always giving just enough to appease the factions around him.
Garek had never liked him, and had known Vaar had seen him as a game piece, to be moved around for his own benefit. So it was quite satisfying to watch Vaar leap past him, aiming for the wall, and to beat him there and stand directly in his way.
Vaar bounced off his chest.
He felt the impact, but it was muted by the leather armor Vent had given him to wear over the fine levik wool shirt Taya had made him.
Garek bent to help Vent lift the town master up and shackle his wrists.
“I could have made you great. A rich man, if you'd agreed to work for me,” Vaar hissed at him as Vent motioned two of his guards to move the town master to the other side of the room.
Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2) Page 10