Garek twirled his finger in the signal she knew was guard shorthand for 'let's go'.
With one last touch, Taya skirted the old men and ran back to the ramp behind Vent and his guards.
She turned to look one last time at the gardens and the group of Kardanx standing in a tight group, waiting for the chaos and confusion created by their arrival to descend.
A few raised their hands in farewell, and then the ramp closed. When Garek turned the sky craft around to face them, they waited only a few minutes before the doors burst open and guards dressed in bright colors spilled into the garden.
She saw the surprise and fear on their faces, and then the shock as they registered the presence of their own countrymen.
“Did you see? There was shadow ore in those sculptures.” She looked over at Garek, touching her fingers to her cheek as she remembered the feel of the smooth metal against her skin.
Garek hovered them in the air just above the garden. “Was it really necessary to touch them?”
She glanced over at him, saw his mouth was set in a grim line. “Now we know the Kardanx either mine, or have access to a mine, with shadow ore.”
He inclined his head. “True.”
He said nothing more, and she sighed as at last he lifted them higher and rose above the city.
“You're annoyed I left the sky craft.” She slid a hand along his shoulders.
His jaw bunched a little. “Yes.”
“I'm not used to checking in with someone else. I'm sure you're not, either.”
For a beat he said nothing, then he shot her a rueful smile.
“True,” he said again.
She laughed, leaning into him, and then he dipped the sky craft left and turned for home.
THIRTY-EIGHT
It was just after dusk when the sky craft reached Pan Nuk.
The sound of the engines changed as Garek came in to land and everyone in the pilot's chamber began to stir.
Taya had dozed, lying on his pallet near the pilot's chair.
Dom had fallen asleep leaning against the wall, and Vent had looked asleep, too, but he came to his feet as if he'd been wide awake the whole time.
Lena and Fen came through from the back, Fen covering up a yawn as they presented themselves to Vent for orders.
“We have a lot to do,” the guard master said, peering out the window, then he spun back to Garek. “This isn't Juli.”
“I never said it was. The whole point of the rescue was to bring back the people of Pan Nuk.” He concentrated on landing lightly at the end of the main street, but kept the engines running.
Taya had stumbled to her feet. “What would you like me to do?” She smothered a big yawn.
“Get everyone out. I'll go set this down where we hid it last time.”
She nodded, giving Dom a hand up, and then walking through to the back without acknowledging Vent or his scowl.
Garek lowered the ramp, heard the shouts of happiness from outside as everyone worked out their people were home.
“You need to get out, too,” he told Vent. “I've got a hiding place for the sky craft, and it's a little way from the village. Kas will find you somewhere to sleep.”
Vent looked like he was going to argue, and Lena and Fen held still, waiting.
“Why can't we drop them off and go on to Juli?”
“Because I'm tired, and this is my village. Taya will want to see her family, and we all need a rest.”
He held Vent's gaze, and with a huff of ill grace, Vent turned on his heel and stalked out, Lena and Fen slouching behind him.
There was a clatter of feet running up the ramp, and Taya came into the pilot's chamber with a few Pan Nukkers.
“They're going to help cover the sky craft and stand watch,” she said, walking over to his chair and resting a hand on his shoulder. “The doors are all still there for you to land on.”
This sky craft was becoming a millstone around his neck, Garek realized as he set it down in the valley. He was torn between doing what was safe--spending the night under it like he'd done before--or walking back to the village and a comfortable bed with Taya.
“I almost can't wait for it to fall apart,” he said staring up at it, his arm hooked around Taya's shoulder.
“It's a burden,” she agreed. “And a huge advantage.” She slid her arm around his waist and turned them in the direction of the village.
“You don't think I should sleep under it again?”
She lifted her head. “If we have to, but after dinner. I don't mind where we sleep, as long as we have a little privacy.”
And just like that, he didn't mind, either.
THE GUARDS CAME JUST after dinner.
Vent stood when they appeared suddenly in the flickering light of the fire, and Taya saw his surprise.
She stood herself, and Kas, Garek and Eli rose, too.
“What is it?” Vent asked them, and she noticed at last that they were in Juli guard uniforms.
Garek was watching Vent, rather than the newcomers, a frown on his face. “Who are these people?”
Vent hesitated. “Members of the liege's special protection unit.”
The liege's bodyguards, in other words. Why would they be here?
“How did you know we'd be here at all?” Garek asked them, and Taya remembered that of course Dartan thought Garek and Vent were off on the border with Kadmine, spying on an enemy camp.
The leader of the group of four studied them all, his gaze skipping over the men and lingering first on Min, and then on Taya, the action deliberate and somehow threatening.
He finally turned back to Vent. “Dartan wanted us to leave a message for you, in case you came back here rather than returned to Juli.” He paused. “As I see you have.”
“We just arrived a few hours ago,” Vent said, and there was a defensiveness to his tone.
“Where's the sky craft?” The guard looked past the camp fire, toward the village.
“Hidden.” Garek was suddenly beside him, and the guard stepped back in surprise. “What's the message?”
“For Vent's ears only.” The guard's mouth formed a mulish line and he straightened his jacket. He looked around at them, as if expecting them to leave their seats so he could talk with Vent privately.
No one moved.
Vent shook his head. “Come on, then. Let's move away a little.”
He moved down the path the guards had come in on, and with a flare of his nostrils, the guard strode after him.
The three left behind spread out a little, as if blocking the path of anyone who might try to follow them.
Taya heard Vent exclaim, and then go quiet, but he moved back to the fire almost straight away. “We need to fly back to Juli tomorrow.”
Garek said nothing, his expression neutral.
“We'll catch a lift back with you,” the guard said.
Vent glanced over at Garek, and Taya thought she saw him wince.
“I didn't catch your name.” Kas spoke for the first time, stepping closer to the guard. “I'm Kas, the town master.”
The guard didn't look like he was going to answer for a moment. “Ewen.”
He didn't introduce his three companions and after an uncomfortable silence, they each offered their own names.
As Kas invited them for dinner and kept their attention, Garek crossed over to Taya's side.
“Let's go,” he murmured, his lips brushing the shell of her ear.
She looked over at Quardi, gave a little wave goodbye, and he blew her a kiss from across the fire.
The guard, Ewen, watched the byplay, ignoring Kas as her brother made a suggestion about where they could pitch their tents for the night.
“Are we going back to the sky craft?” Taya had to half-jog to keep up with Garek as he towed her by the hand.
“No. I'm going to trust it's hidden well enough. I don't like these new guards. We know there's a traitor in Juli, betraying us to the sky raiders, so I'm not leading anyone I don't know or
trust anywhere near it.”
“Vent doesn't know where it is, either, so he can't tell them.”
Garek hummed in acknowledgment. “True, but I don't think he would anyway. It doesn't seem like he's even in control of Ewen and his team. It's as if they're outside his command.”
Taya had picked that up, too. “Maybe they only report to the liege.”
Garek had led her through the warmth of the forge, through the smaller opening into the enclosed courtyard, and into the small room he'd always had as his own at the back.
She could hear laughter and loud voices from the homes around them, but it was a good sound, a happy sound, that embraced, rather than excluded. The sound of a homecoming.
They didn't turn on a light.
They didn't need to.
With the door off its frame, part of the landing pad for the sky craft, moonlight filtered in.
Garek stood in front of her and slipped her jacket off her shoulders, throwing it over the chair beside the bed.
He worked the buttons of her shirt, and she reached up and did the same to his.
When they both stood with buttons undone, he leaned forward to rest his forehead against hers.
“I didn't want you to go out alone to confront the sky raiders on Shadow.”
He reached a hand through the flaps of her shirt, and she shivered in reaction as his warm fingers caressed her ribs, just below her breasts.
“I know.”
She saw his lips lift in a quick smile. “You didn't show it.”
“It was the only option. And we didn't have time to waste.”
He lifted his hands off her body and used them to push back her hair, to lift her face to his. “I don't like it when the only option is for you to risk yourself.”
“We'll have to make sure the odds are better next time, then.” She leaned forward, kissed his chin, and then placed tiny, quick kisses along his jaw as she unbuckled her trousers and pushed them down her legs.
When she kicked them free, she saw he'd done the same, and they stood for a moment, naked in front of each other, neither touching.
Taya drew in a deep breath. “I love you.”
He lifted her up, and turned as she hooked her legs around his waist, setting her down on the bed, and lowering himself over her.
“When I was walking the walls of Gara, I never thought I'd hear those words from you again. I thought you'd be tired of waiting for me, tired of the silence. And instead, you wrote to me, sent me presents, waited. Everything I could have wished for.” He held himself above her, placed a kiss on her breastbone. “I don't know what I did to deserve you.”
She lifted her hands and reveled in the smooth, hot feel of his skin as she swept them down his sides. “I'm sure you can figure it out.” She grinned up at him, and saw him go from serious to wicked.
“Maybe I can.”
She laughed as he tickled her, clamping him closer so he couldn't get access, and then went still, looking into his eyes.
“If this whole mess didn't include the safety of West Lathor, if Pan Nuk wasn't going to be affected, what would you do?”
“It was always going to include Pan Nuk,” he said, as serious again as she was. “The sky raiders face no real opposition, so they were always going to keep coming back.”
She felt like her energy for the fight had been drained away, but he was right. Until they got rid of the sky raiders, there would never be an end to it.
“Then we have to keep fighting.” She closed her eyes, tried to find the well of determination and anger she'd been using to fuel her resistance up until now.
“We do.” Garek kissed her then drew back, and when she opened her eyes, she saw the wicked gleam was back in his. “But not right now.”
THIRTY-NINE
Garek woke completely, lying in the darkness with the warmth of Taya pressed against his side.
The sound that woke him came again, the faint scuff of a boot on the stone flagging of the courtyard outside his open door.
He touched Taya to wake her, pressing a finger against her lips as her eyes fluttered open, and then easing out of bed to stand in front of the bed, ears straining for every sound.
The bed creaked as Taya rose off it, but although he winced, he decided it could have just as easily been the sound of a restless sleeper.
He looked over at her, the thin light of the moon just silhouetting her naked form. She made a face of apology and then lifted up her shadow ore knife to show him she was armed.
Her other weapons, her spears and her sword, were all at her and Kas's house, out of reach, but the knife was better than nothing.
“Ewen?” Taya mouthed, and he nodded.
It could only be Ewen. The question was, was it just him and his three companions?
It was possible they were only the front guard, scoping the terrain while more hid in the hills and waited for the all clear.
Or, and this was something he hoped wasn't so, the message Ewen had brought for Vent's ears only was an order to help Ewen capture either Taya or himself. Or both of them.
But he guessed it was Taya.
Hadn't he foolishly set this up by bowing to Vent's advice and telling Dartan they would be dropping Taya off in Pan Nuk before they went to the Kadmine border?
Dartan would have thought his guards would be able to take her with no resistance. It would have been a shock to them to find Vent and himself here.
And now he realized it shouldn't even be a surprise.
If Habred wanted her, why wouldn't Dartan want her too, if he was the one in communication with the sky raiders? The sky raiders wouldn't care who took her, as long as they had her.
And he could just imagine why they'd want her.
She was a living, breathing shadow ore finder. And they were here to find shadow ore.
He pointed to the corner of the room, the place of deepest shadow, and after a moment's hesitation, Taya complied, disappearing completely in the darkness.
He took up position beside the doorframe, waiting and listening.
Someone stepped into the room, a second person just behind them, and called an air Change. He felt the air compress and then expand rapidly over his bed.
He waited, wanting to see if there was anyone else coming before he committed, and in the faint light which seeped in through the door, he made out two figures outside.
All four of the liege's bodyguards would be in this plot. They were a team.
The person in the lead reached the bed and went very still, looking down at it.
“What is it?” The intruder behind him edged closer as well, his voice a whisper.
“They're not here.”
“Shit.”
They both turned, and as they did, Garek did to them what they had just tried to do to him and Taya.
He slapped the air hard on either side of them, then forced it away so fast, it almost made a vacuum.
The guard who was closer to him fell, screaming, but the one by the bed must have had a split second to build a protective layer of air over his ears, and while he staggered, he didn't go down.
Garek stepped closer, and pulled the air from the guard's lungs. He fell backward, half on the bed, half off, and Garek stood over him.
He sensed the two guards outside in the courtyard burst into the room behind him, but when he looked over his shoulder, he saw Taya's knife slashing at them, the shadow ore glimmering deep purple in the moonlight.
They stumbled back, frightened by the sight of a knife without a wielder, and Garek turned back to the man lying at his feet.
“What is it?” Quardi's voice bounced off the walls of the courtyard, coming from the forge, and he must have been holding a lantern, because a warm, yellow light spilled out and brightened things up.
There was more shouting and when he turned again, he saw Taya's knife was spinning in place in the open door, and the two guards had retreated to the courtyard. He just caught a glimpse of Kas and perhaps Min, before he turned hi
s focus once again on the man lying at his feet.
Ewen.
He was wide-eyed, hands scrabbling at his throat, lips turning blue.
“Garek?” Taya stepped out of the shadows, and the light spilling into the room from outside gave her skin a golden glow.
She was glorious and gloriously naked.
She tipped her head in query at him, and he remembered Ewen.
He tore his gaze away from her and decided he wanted answers more than he wanted to see Ewen die, but only just.
He released his hold and Ewen turned onto his stomach, gagging and trying to suck in air.
Kas appeared in the doorway, and the knife spun up and over, into Taya's hand.
Kas lifted a hand over his eyes at the sight of his naked sister, and then cupped it so he could just see Garek.
“Why don't you two get dressed, and then you can tell me what happened.”
THE VILLAGERS of Pan Nuk were tired of being attacked.
As Taya stepped back out into the courtyard after pulling on some clothes, she could see it in the way Eli and Lynal shoved Lena and Fen into the courtyard.
Vent was already there, he'd come running at the sound of fighting, and now he stood over the two guards who'd come into Garek's room, Ewen and Timu, his face a tight, neutral mask.
One of the other men who she'd kept back with her knife sat against the forge wall, bleeding from a slash to his face, but there was no sign of the other one.
“Where's the second man, the one--?”
Quardi had rolled his chair over to her when she'd stepped out and he reached over and touched her arm lightly, stopping her in mid-sentence. “Taya . . .”
She frowned down at him. “What is it?”
He sounded so worried.
“He didn't make it, Taya.”
She tried to understand what he was saying. “I didn't try to kill them, just keep them back,” she said, but her voice faltered toward the end.
Quardi lifted his shoulders. “That knife is incredibly sharp, and it got him in the throat.”
She had slashed the knife with as much control as she could, but it had been dark, and she wasn't as precise as she had a feeling she could be if she only had a chance to practice.
Calling the Change (Sky Raiders Book 2) Page 26