Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2)

by Michelle Diener

  Gern had left the door open when he'd let her out, and as she stepped back inside he closed it and locked it in one smooth movement.

  He'd taken the key to her door off the keyring, she noticed, and he slid it into his pocket, rather than back with the others.

  She lifted her head and exchanged a quick look with him before he turned to face whoever was coming toward them.

  It was the four guards from the night before. Some of them moved stiffly, and while one had a split lip and the other a cut on his cheekbone, quite a few of their bruises looked a few days old.

  “You're cleared,” the woman said to Fek. “Apologies for the rough treatment, but we had to be sure of you.”

  Gaffri must have woken while she was washing up, and he was on his feet.

  “I told you,” he hissed to Fek.

  Fek leaned against the bars. “How were we cleared?”

  “An assistant to the Harven ambassador to Garamundo just arrived in the city last night. He vouched for you.”

  Fek relaxed a little. “What did he have to say?”

  “Apparently the town master and town guard of Garamundo have been arrested. The ambassador sent a messenger to our liege as fast as he could to let him know the news.”

  Gaffri made an involuntary sound. “Arrested?”

  Fek looked over at him, his expression forbidding. “So it's just luck we're out today. We could have been in here longer if the messenger hadn't arrived last night.”

  The woman nodded and lifted her hands up in a placating gesture. “You know how it works.”

  “It was thanks to me we never went back to Gara. I told you this was the better course.” Gaffri was scowling at Fek.

  “Maybe.” Fek agreed easily. “Well then, let us out.”

  Gern looked over at the woman, and at her nod, moved forward to unlock the door.

  He stepped back and Fek and Gaffri shuffled out.

  Gaffri stretched, yawning widely, and took a step toward his pack.

  Taya's gaze went to it and then she flicked a desperate look at Gern, but he wasn't looking her way. She opened her mouth to speak when all four guards struck out at Fek and Gaffri in a coordinated attack.

  As he fell, Fek ducked a blow by a guard holding what looked like a cosh, and it only glanced off his head. He landed, dazed but still conscious, on the floor. The guard stepped in and hit him again.

  Taya stared, mouth open.

  “I'm assuming you had a good reason for that?” Gern asked, voice tight.

  “Orders,” the woman said. The look she sent Gern was earnest, and fake. “They were probably spies. Had some big story about how they were doing our liege's bidding, but it turns out that West Lathorian, the big one who flies that sky craft, was expecting them. Asking after them at the gate. Waiting to give them instructions, most likely.”

  The laugh that rose up out of Taya's throat was unstoppable. She put a hand over her mouth and tried to turn it into a cough.

  Habred would know why Garek was looking for Fek and Gaffri. That it was in order to get her back.

  Now he was planting a story to tidy up his loose ends.

  “You got something to say?” one of the men asked her.

  It they were going to spread a story like that, maybe she could benefit from it. “Am I free, then?” She stepped closer to the door.

  All four guards seemed suddenly uncertain.

  “Maybe,” the woman shrugged. “But that's not our decision.”

  “When will I hear?”

  They ignored her, lifting up Fek and Gaffri and walking away.

  “What's going to happen to them?” she asked Gern as they disappeared into the darkness of the passage on the left.

  He forced his attention back to her. “I don't know.” He shook his head. “Nothing good.”

  “What's going to happen to me?”

  He put his hand on the bars, his face tight with unhappiness and worry. “There have been things going on. Disturbing things. At least for the last six months, but maybe longer. I'm afraid you're going to get caught up in them.”

  He looked down the passageway in the direction of the staircase again and shook his head. “I don't think we'll see those two ever again.”

  That had been her conclusion, too.

  “We have rules.” He seemed to be trying to convince himself. “You're West Lathorian, a fellow citizen of Illy. They need to have due cause to charge you with something. Need to allow you to see your ambassador.”

  “But no one knows I'm here. And until he can be sure I'll cooperate, I'm sure Habred will want to keep it that way.”

  Gern rubbed the side of his nose in agitation. “I have to think. I don't know what to do about this.” He turned to the door. “I'll get you some breakfast.”

  She watched him go, then stood against the bars of the door for a few minutes, enjoying the Star light filtering through the high windows on her face, and then reached out to the knife in Gaffri's pack.

  It fell over, and she pulled on the shadow ore, crouching down and straining as the other items inside weighed the pack down.

  When it was halfway to her, the knife burst from the top of the pack, slicing through the leather flap and shooting toward her.

  She let out a squeak of surprise and stopped it just short of her nose, then reached out a trembling hand to grab the hilt and pull it through the bars.

  The sheath Quardi had made for her had never left her boot, and she pulled it out, slid the blade home and pushed it all back into her boot again.

  Gern stopped dead when he stepped back in with a tray of food and a mug of something hot and fragrant, his eyes on the pack.

  “Fell over,” Taya said.

  He relaxed, gave a nod. There was a slot built into the cell door, and he lifted the flap, slid the tray through, and turned to leave again.

  “What can you tell me?” Taya asked, before he could leave. “Is there any news?”

  He paused, shook his head. “I promised you you wouldn't be hurt, and I'll keep that promise. But give me some time to work out what needs to be done.”

  She nodded. What else could she do?

  She would like to believe Gern, and she was sure he was sincere, but she knew, as did he, that if he helped her, he'd most likely suffer the same fate as Gaffri and Fek.

  There were things going on here neither of them understood, and maybe it would be better if she escaped on her own.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Taya had just started cutting through the second hinge in the cell door when Gern returned.

  She froze, as surprised as he was, and then crouched down, sliding the knife back into her boot.

  Gern raised his brows. “Can't see how a knife'd cut through the hinges. They're steel.”

  Still crouched low, she grabbed hold of the bars at the bottom of the door and shook them, and the fact that the bottom of the door was now hinge-free became apparent.

  Gern whistled. “What's that knife made of?”

  “Shadow ore.” There were probably reasons to keep that to herself, but she decided he hadn't looked too upset at catching her trying to break out.

  He whistled again. “Can I see it?”

  She straightened, pulling the knife out of her boot as she rose up, and offered it to him on her palm.

  He took it carefully, touched the blade and then stuck his bleeding finger in his mouth, eyes wide.

  “It's sharp,” she told him, with a grin.

  “You didn't have it before, or you'd have found a way to escape those two,” he said, handing it back to her.

  She nodded to the pack that Gern had replaced neatly against the wall. “It was in the bottom of Gaffri's bag. And I was a little out of things for a while. I needed time to recover.” She gingerly touched the side of her head, but the graze was scabbed over now and it wasn't as sensitive as it had been. The headache was almost entirely gone.

  Gern sucked in a breath, looking from the pack to her. “How did you get it out, then?”
/>
  She stepped back, tossed the knife into the air, and held it there. “I call it. I call the shadow ore Change.”

  “Bargat told me you did, but I couldn't see it in my head. It's different to calling the air or the water Change.”

  Taya shook her head. “I don't think it's different, it's just that when those things are called, the caller has so much more volume to work with. My calling seems to be specifically this one type of metal. My brother calls the earth Change. I think I call an earth Change too, but there's a lot more of whatever it is he calls in the earth than I do.”

  Gern's focus was still on the knife, so Taya let it drop into her hand, and went back to work on the hinge.

  “Thought it would be better if I escaped on my own,” she said. “That way, you can't be blamed.”

  He grunted in agreement. “You'll need to hurry, though. I don't know their plans, but if Xinta and her crew come back to take you, there's nothing I can do.” He took her breakfast tray away, came back with a sandwich and some cold water, and took the knife from her, working the second hinge while she ate.

  He broke through before she'd finished, and started on the top one. When she was done, she brought the tray over and put her hand out to take over, but he shook his head.

  “Save your strength.”

  “Can you tell me about Garek? What he did while he was here?”

  Gern grunted, his concentration on the blade he was using. “Rumor was that our liege had invited him. That's not likely, though, given what someone I trust has told me about Habred's plans.”

  “Invading West Lathor, you mean?” Taya asked, and Gern froze and lifted his head.

  “You know about that, do you?”

  She nodded.

  “Well.” He shook his head again, went back to sawing through the metal. “Habred went along with Garek's story. Probably didn't have a choice with Luf being so pro-West Lathor at the moment.”

  “So they met?”

  Gern tilted his head from side to side. “Could have met a couple of times, for all I know. I saw him hanging around the palace enough. What I didn't know, but learned last night, was he also spent a lot of time down at the gates, talking to the guards. Xinta was right when she said he spread the word some fellow guards from Garamundo were due in, and if they could let him know when they arrived, he'd be grateful.”

  “He was waiting for me.” She leaned against the wall. “I wonder why he left before we got here?”

  There had to be a good reason. And she had to believe he'd be back.

  “Heard a rumor.” Gern wiped some perspiration from his forehead with his forearm. “A story about some Dartalians being attacked, one so badly, your intended took him back to Valian.”

  Taya frowned, trying to work it out. There were surely good doctors in Luf, so why had Garek taken the Dartalian back to his home capital, unless there was something more to the story?

  Eventually, she shrugged. She would have to find out when they found each other again.

  “Looks like you're almost there--”

  The door to the cells slammed open and a man stepped in. Gern turned, tension in every line of him.

  Taya took a step back, heart hammering.

  The man wasn't in uniform, but he held himself ready, like a guard, and his expression, when he caught sight of her, was one of disappointment.

  “What are you trying to do? Bring the ax down on us all?” Gern's voice was fierce, his shoulders stiff, but now he seemed more furious than afraid.

  The door swung closed, and the man stood silently for a moment, taking in the scene.

  “What's going on, Gern?” He was breathing hard, as if he'd run to get here.

  Gern shook his head. “Taya, this is . . . Mu.”

  Mu--the name of a character from the legends, the guard who'd outwitted a monster from the shadow pits, only to be outwitted in turn by an old lady.

  She understood. Better that she didn't know his real name.

  Gern turned back to working the hinge. “Mu's cousin was once held here, in this very cell, even though he wasn't a guard. He'd fallen on hard times, due to his fondness for firebrand, and he preferred to sleep on the streets rather than at home, because those he loved tried to get him to change his ways.”

  “They arrested him for being a street sleeper?” Taya asked. Street sleepers were unknown in a place like Pan Nuk, but in cities like Juli and Gara, there were people who looked as if they had no roof over their head.

  “The guards rounded them up, but they didn't arrest them. They brought them here.” Mu looked straight at her, considering, and curious.

  “I recognized Mu's cousin amongst the others,” Gern said. “Mu had pointed him out to me once when we'd gone out to the tavern. So I told Mu he was here.” Gern sighed, and he seemed to cut more vigorously at the hinge than before.

  Mu watched him with a frown. “Why are you telling her the story? Who is she?”

  “An ally, one of the prisoners from Shadow.”

  Mu gaped at her, then turned to Gern.

  He held Mu's gaze. “Someone has to get the message out to the other states, and she has the trust of enough people that she'd be believed,” Gern closed his eyes for a moment, at if his words caused him physical pain. “You can take her down the same way as the others, but this time it'll be on our terms, and for the good of Harven.”

  Mu rubbed a hand over the back of his head, moved his shoulders to loosen them, and then gave a nod. “I came when Gern told me Rinwal was here, and we spoke, just a short conversation, but he wasn't reasonable. He hadn't had any firebrand for a few hours, and he was belligerent--most of the street sleepers were.” Mu was watching Gern saw at the hinge, as if he'd only just noticed what he was doing and was confused. “And then, the next morning, guards herded them out.”

  Taya waited, sure the story must be going somewhere important, but unsure where.

  “It wasn't the first time it'd happened. The first couple of times, the people in here really were guards who'd committed a crime. Xinta told me they were being transferred to the main prison because they'd been found guilty. But the street sleepers weren't guards. They were citizens who hadn't done anything wrong that I could work out. Xinta and her friends took them down a secret passage, one I'll get Mu to take you down when you're free. It goes right out of the city--must have been built as an escape hatch in case Luf was ever besieged.” Gern gave a crow of triumph as the hinge gave. He handed her back her knife, and she slipped it into her boot.

  He stood back, and Taya pulled the door inward with a scrape of metal on stone. There was just enough space for her to fit through. She reached back for her sleeping bag and sidled out.

  “Give me a few minutes to get you some food and water.” Gern stopped beside the door and looked over his shoulder at Mu. “Tell her the rest of it. It's your story to tell.”

  Taya crouched beside her pack and started going through it, neatly setting each item aside to repack. Mu was silent, and she looked up at him to encourage him to speak.

  He blew out a breath. “As Gern said, Xinta and her team took Rinwal and the other street sleepers down the tunnel. She wouldn't tell Gern where she was taking them, so he called me and the two of us followed.”

  Taya watched him carefully, saw that his hands were shaking, and he grabbed hold of the fabric of his trousers to keep them still. Noticing that her gaze on him made it more difficult for him to speak, she went back to repacking her bag.

  “Once we were out of the tunnel, which came out in the forest about half an hour from the city wall, a trader met Xinta on a relatively disused track. I heard Xinta promising the street sleepers they'd be given firebrand if they got into the trader's cart, and so they did. And they did get firebrand. Bottles of it. Xinta and her friends headed back, and we decided Gern better go back as well, in case someone came looking for him. I followed the trader.”

  He said nothing for a while and Taya paused as she was rolling her sleeping bag into a tight roll
, and looked up. “What happened?”

  Something terrible.

  She'd seen that look in people's eyes in the sky raider camp on Shadow. The haunting look of seeing tragedy first hand.

  “They didn't go that far. Maybe two hours on the road--long enough to get out of the woods and down into a valley that had low bushes and a lot of open fields. And then a sky raider craft came screaming overhead.” He rubbed the back of his head again. “I threw myself down in the bushes, and I was thinking, at least there's nothing to steal here. They'll pass over.”

  Taya stood mute, unsure if the path he seemed to be leading her down could possibly be correct.

  “They didn't pass over, though. They landed, and even those who were far gone on firebrand realized they were in trouble. They tried to get out the cart, but they were all hit by a white light. The screams . . .” His gaze met hers.

  “I've been hit by white lightning. I know.” She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to shake off the memory.

  “You were hit by the white lightning and lived. Rinwal and the others didn't live.” He sucked in a breath, and then fisted his hands. “When the white lightning shut off, something got out of the craft. It was in a dark blue suit that covered its whole body. It walked to the cart. That's when I realized the trader hadn't been hit. That he'd run back, and was close to where I was hiding. He'd even loosened his zanir's harness, and it had run away from the cart. He watched the sky raider from a distance, and when the sky raider turned and went back into the craft, and it flew away, he stood looking at the cart full of bodies for a long time.”

  “When was this?” Taya asked, her voice hushed.

  “Six or seven months ago, now.”

  “They hadn't got the strength of the white lightning right.” She, Kas, and the others had speculated when they were on Shadow about that. About how they were the only ones there, yet the sky raiders had been taking people for a few months before they'd been taken themselves. They'd also wondered at the delay between being abducted and arriving at the camp.