by Janice Hardy
No, not left. Been kidnapped and hauled away. Or arrested like Danello and Aylin.
And Tali.
My gaze slid to the Healers’ League dome. Tali should have been there learning to heal, and she would have been if the Duke hadn’t used Geveg’s League and its apprentices for his twisted experiments. He’d ruined everything he’d ever touched. Even his own family.
“Um, Nya?” Aylin whispered, tugging on my sleeve. She pointed inside one of the buildings, the window broken but not boarded. Candles flickered on a small table against one wall. An offering bowl sat between them—under the reward poster with my face on it.
“Is that a shrine?” It couldn’t be. Not here, not in Geveg.
“I guess the sainters didn’t stop just at the farm.”
And they weren’t going to stop spreading their belief in me. But folks here knew me. They knew I wasn’t sent by anybody to do anything. Saints, most of them wouldn’t even hire me, so how could they—I glanced back at the shrine and swallowed. Worship me? It was wrong in every sense.
Worse, it might make the Saints mad.
“Let’s hope that means the people here are on our side,” I said, moving away from the window.
I slowed when we got closer to the bridge, staying behind whatever cover I could find. Even when there wasn’t a war, the bridges were usually guarded, plus they made convenient ambush spots. I peered through the darkness. Nothing but stone and shadow, though a good ambush wouldn’t appear as anything else.
Water swished under the bridge, splashy pops and gurgles that sounded like no one had hired leaf pullers in a while. The canals must be clogged with water hyacinths. Getting around in a pole boat was probably impossible.
Someone near the bridge coughed. I held up my hand and crouched. The others dropped behind me. So there was an ambush waiting for us. I could barely make out square shadows, like some kind of barricade at the foot of the bridge. Zertanik’s town house was in a Baseeri neighborhood, so it was probably controlled by Baseeri soldiers. We’d have to find another way there.
I signaled a retreat and we crept away from the bridge, hiding in the shadows behind a building.
“Think all the bridges are guarded?” Aylin whispered.
Danello nodded. “Probably. They’re natural choke points, easy to defend.”
“Any other way in?” Quenji asked.
“Yes,” I said, “but we’d have to cross three bridges and go through League Circle to do it. I’m sure they have the League well guarded, probably by Undying.”
Soek looked up. “Rooftops?”
“Tali would never be able to make it. What about lower?” I pointed to the canal. “There’s a pole boat dock not far from here. We can slip into the water there, swim across Grand Canal, and climb out on the other side. Those soldiers at the bridge won’t even see us.”
“That’s better than climbing?” Danello asked.
“She won’t fall and break her neck. She’s always been a good swimmer.”
“You’ll have to untie her hands.”
I hesitated.
“You could wrap the rope around her waist,” said Soek. “She can swim and you can keep a hold of her.”
“That could work.”
“What about crocodiles?” Aylin frowned. “Don’t they hunt at night?”
“Crocodiles?” Quenji said. Soek looked just as concerned.
“They’ll be in Half Moon Bay or along the farm isles where the animals are.” Unless the water hyacinths made good hunting grounds. I glanced at the plants covering the dark water. We wouldn’t even see a croc if it were in there. Not until it had one of us in its jaws.
“I don’t know,” Soek said. “Maybe we should take the boat? There has to be a place to dock on that isle.”
I shook my head. “Not through these plants. They’re too thick.”
“I guess we get wet then.” Aylin sighed. “These were new sandals, too.”
We slipped around the buildings and along the lakewall to an overgrown dock. The jewelry shop above it had been closed for a while, even before we’d left Geveg. No Gevegian could afford jewels, and the Baseeri who could would never buy them from a Gevegian shop.
I tied the rope around Tali’s waist. She just stared into nothing, not even trying to run. I took a deep breath and untied her hands. They flopped to her sides. I shoved the rope into my pocket.
“We’re going for a swim, Tali, okay?”
She looked at me. Still no recognition, but another spark. Maybe being home again was reminding her who she was.
“I’ll go in first.” I slid into Grand Canal. Cool water soaked my clothes but not enough to drag me down. The water hyacinths scratched my arms, their dangling roots tickling my skin. My feet didn’t touch bottom.
“Now your turn.” I held out my hand like I used to when we were little, playing on the beach behind our villa.
She stared at the water, head cocked, and jumped in. The splash echoed off the lakewall, getting louder after Tali bobbed to the surface and started thrashing. I slipped in behind her and wrapped an arm around her.
“I got you, it’s okay.”
She writhed and I loosened my hold, tipping her so she could float on her back. She’d always loved floating. She calmed, staring at the stars, arms out at her sides. I tugged her along and she moved easily.
“We’re good.”
Danello slipped in next, then Aylin, then Quenji. Soek hesitated, wiping a hand across his mouth. He closed his eyes and slipped in. He held his chin high, paddling like a dog. I guess he’d never done much swimming, but at least he knew how.
The lakewall rose above us, casting the canal in shadow. I kept one hand on Tali while I swam, pushing the plants aside with the other. It was dark enough to get lost down here, swimming in circles, never finding the wall just beyond your reach. Getting more and more tired until something brushed against your leg and—
Stop it.
I shoved the thoughts away and swam harder.
The current rippled around me as we reached the cross canal between the warehouse district and North Isle. I pulled my fingers away from the curve of the wall and swam straight as I could, focusing on a faint reflection of moonlight on metal ahead. A lamppost, maybe. The flames were out like all the rest.
The reflection slid sideways and the current nudged me farther into Grand Canal. I kicked harder, knocking the twisted hyacinths aside.
A gurgle and a soft splash came from behind me. I stopped and trod water, nerves tight, though I couldn’t say why. Tali was fine, still floating. Another gurgle, like someone drinking too fast.
Drowning. Someone was drowning.
“Who’s in trouble?” I called back.
“What?” Danello asked.
“Stupid plants,” Quenji said.
“I’m okay,” called Soek.
Aylin didn’t say a word.
“Find Aylin, now!”
I swam toward the voices, the dark shapes on the water, dragging Tali with me.
“Aylin?” Where was she? Had the current swept her away? Was she back by the wall? Images of Aylin cold and still rolled through my mind.
“I can’t find her,” Quenji said, voice frantic.
I kicked something soft under the water. Sank down and found an arm. I yanked hard, dragging myself under, but hauling her closer to the surface. I let go of Tali, praying she’d stay afloat. I kept pulling, kept kicking. Aylin’s face broke the top of the water and she sucked in a breath—and some water—and started coughing. She flailed at me as if trying to climb me out of the water.
“Stop struggling or you’ll sink us both.” I wrapped an arm around her chest just like I’d done with Tali and slipped under her, keeping her afloat. “I got you—rest, breathe, it’s okay.”
I reached for Tali while Aylin hacked up water. She was still floating, and I pulled her closer to me.
“Nya,” Quenji whisper-yelled. “I see torchlight coming this way.”
Guards.
>
“Go under,” I said. Heads submerged, even Aylin’s.
“Tali, we have to go under. I need you to take a deep breath and hold it. Can you do that?”
She ignored me.
“Inhale, now!”
I let us sink a little, and Tali sucked in a breath. I tucked tight, making us heavy, and dropped below the water. Tali struggled, fighting me, clawing back to the surface. I held on, kept us both under.
I’m sorry, Tali, but be still.
How long could she hold her breath? Long enough for the guards to look and leave?
Tali clawed at me, drawing blood. The gouges in my arms stung. Her fingers grew tighter and tighter on my arm while I counted the seconds. Twenty-five, twenty-six…
Light shone above, smeared and flickering through the water. The guards must be looking over the lakewall, holding the torch out to see into the canal. The pale glow hung there.
Thirty-two, thirty-three…
Tali flailed. I held on tighter. The light was still there.
Thirty-seven, thirty-eight…
Tali slammed her head against my nose, and bright pain filled my head. She broke out of my hold and started for the surface. I grabbed her leg, dropped my weight, drew just in case I could heal drowning. My chest tightened a little, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. She kept heading up.
The light vanished. Tali broke the surface. I popped my head out of the water a heartbeat later, sucking in a quiet breath. Tali was gasping, but not coughing. Maybe the heal had done some good after all. Or maybe some part of her knew she had to stay quiet.
“I’m so sorry, but we had to hide,” I whispered. “The soldiers would have captured us. You don’t want that again.”
She backed away from me, breathing too fast, whimpering. She was still on the edge of panic. I wasn’t too far from that edge myself.
“I’m sorry, Tali, I had to.”
Danello and Soek surfaced, their heads rising out of the water like turtles next to us. Quenji and Aylin were already up, close to the wall.
“We gotta get her out of here,” Quenji said.
“This way, I think.”
Tali wouldn’t let me touch her. I couldn’t find the rope around her, but it had to be there, dangling below, possibly tangling up her legs. We should have risked the soldiers.
I swam toward where I’d seen the light. “This way to the dock, Tali.”
For a moment she glared at me, but she swam forward and followed. The others moved in around her, keeping her between us. Soon the lakewall emerged from the shadows.
Darkness broke ahead, and I spotted steps leading up. My fingers found the flat surface of a pole boat dock. Still no lamps lit, but the stone reflected enough moonlight for us to get our bearings. I climbed out and helped Aylin up, and she collapsed on the dock.
“Climb out, Tali.”
Tali stared at me, then felt her way around the dock edge and pulled herself out. She flopped down and sat there, head low. Soek and Quenji crawled out and dropped beside us. Quenji slid a hand over and took Aylin’s. Danello came out last.
“When this is all over,” Aylin said, “I’m moving to a mining town. No water anywhere.”
“I’m with you there,” Quenji said.
We caught our breaths and wrung some of the water out of our clothes. I wanted to help Tali, but she flinched away every time I reached for her. I managed to get the rope, but that was it. No retying her hands. But maybe I didn’t need to. She hadn’t screamed or tried to get away.
“Are you hurt?” Soek whispered.
I looked at my arms, covered in deep scratches. “Tali got scared.”
“Want me to heal it?”
“No, I’ll be okay.” I didn’t want to waste our pynvium on a few scratches. Even if they did sting. I sucked in a breath. The pynvium! I’d left it on the skiff in my backpack, which was still tucked away in the cabin. I looked at the others. No one had their packs.
Danello crept to the stairs and peeked over the top.
“See anything?” This dock was public, so there were no buildings to hide behind. Just an open square framed with benches and a few palm trees, their fronds rustling in the breeze.
“Seems quiet. If that torch was a patrol, they’re gone now.”
I stood. Tali didn’t. I tugged the rope. “Time to go, Tali.”
She shook her head. My heart soared. She’d responded!
“Just a little farther, then you can sleep. Come on, you can do it.”
She shook her head again.
“Tali, get up.”
She got to her feet, moving as if she hadn’t slept for a week. I hoped we wouldn’t have to run.
We crossed the too-high grass to the street, staying in the shadows again. At Beacon Walk we turned right, heading away from the Sanctuary, the only light on this isle that I’d seen so far. Well, aside from the patrol.
Zertanik’s town house was halfway between the Sanctuary and his pain merchant shop close to the League. A residential block for those with money but not wealthy enough to afford the aristocrats’ district or the terraces. Folks who had enough to be paranoid about holding on to it.
Most of the first-floor windows along the street were boarded up, a good thing for us. No allies lived in these buildings. A few gates were barred, heavy boards across them. No sounds of fighting, no sounds of any kind, really, just the soft tap of our footsteps on brick. My pace quickened the closer we got to the town house.
“There it is.” It was more overgrown than we’d left it, with trash in the courtyard like all the other buildings we’d passed. No lights shone in any of the windows. None were boarded up.
Danello hurried forward, but I caught his shoulder. “Easy. Anyone could be in there.”
He nodded and we moved slower, checking the shadows and the likely places someone might be hiding if they were guarding this building. The places we’d watched from when we were hiding here.
No sign of anyone. The front door wasn’t locked, and the entrance room looked as abandoned as the courtyard. Drawers and cabinets hung open, and it looked like everything worth having was gone.
We stepped farther inside, the occasional creaks sounding loud as screams. No doors opened, and I didn’t hear anyone moving around on the upper floors.
“Soek and I will search upstairs,” Danello said. “Quenji, Aylin, you take the bottom floor. Nya can guard the door with Tali.”
Tali was looking around, her eyes wide, her mouth open a little. Did she know this place? Did she remember? I sat on the stairs and talked to her, but she ignored me like she had all night. Like a good little soldier, she only listened when I gave an order. I wiped my eyes.
Danello and Soek returned shortly after Aylin and Quenji were done.
“There’s no one here,” Danello said. “It looks safe.”
“So we start searching?” Quenji asked.
Soek shrugged. “If there’s anything left to find.”
“Nya said the owner was a thief,” Quenji said. “Thieves hide stuff. I found jewels inside a table leg once.”
A fuzzy image popped into my mind, of bookshelves and something hidden behind them that made my skin itch. What was it? The image cleared. A small locked box I’d found hidden behind some books months ago when we were living in the town house. We’d been looking for valuables to sell, but the box had bothered me so much, I hadn’t wanted to open it.
“There might be something in the library,” I said.
“Let’s see if it’s still there,” Quenji said.
I nodding, praying it was and that it held some clue to helping Tali.
NINE
Danello made a torch out of some ripped fabric and a broken table leg while Quenji found some flint in the kitchen. It took a few strikes of the flint to light the torch, but it gave us enough light to see by. I just hoped it wasn’t bright enough to be seen from the outside.
Tali had curled up in a chair, her eyes closed.
“I’ll stay he
re and watch her,” Aylin said softly. “Soek can guard the door.”
“No one gets in,” he said, hefting another table leg.
I smiled. “Thanks.” I hesitated, then turned back to Aylin. She’d almost drowned, and I hadn’t even said anything. What kind of friend was I? “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Shaky, lungs hurt a little, and I don’t want to go anywhere near water for a long time, but I’ll live.”
I hugged her, then hurried up the stairs. The library was in shambles like the rest of the town house, but the looters had ignored the bookshelves completely. The heavy tomes were dusty, but the same as we’d left them.
“Feel anything?” Danello asked.
I stepped closer to the shelves, my hand out. At a few feet away, my stomach started quivering, just like it always did when I was near glyphed pynvium. “Here.”
Danello handed Quenji the torch. He dragged the books away and set them on the floor in piles. The small box with the lock was still there, tucked in the alcove. My skin crawled, the sense of overwhelming wrongness just like before.
Danello took it. “Heavy. Could be the box, though. Do you sense anything else?”
“Not with that thing so close.”
He took it into the hall. “Better?”
The quivering stopped. “Yes, thanks.”
“See what you can find,” Danello said, setting the box down and coming back inside. “I’ll clear the rest of the books. If he hid one thing back there, he might have others.”
I walked slowly around the room, running my hand over shelves, checking drawers that had been yanked out and tossed on the floor. No quivers. Not even a flinch.
Whoomp.
Danello cried out a heartbeat before the prickling of fine sand blew across my skin.
“Danello!” I ran to his side, fighting the instinct to draw away his pain the instant my hands touched him. He was woozy, but conscious.
“I’m okay, no need to heal me,” he said, groaning. “Hands sting a bit, that’s all.”
“What did you touch?”
“The books. I was reaching for them, but I wasn’t really looking at them.”