Reaping the Aurora

by Joshua Palmatier

  Cason instantly motioned to some of her people watching from a cautious distance. “Get a crew together and bring all of the spars and sails out from the storage room.” The group raced off, half of them splitting away toward the main hall, the others heading toward storage. Cason faced Kara again. “Now, tell us how to get out of the University through the tunnels without running into the Gorrani.”

  “Allan will show you.”

  The ex-Dog stepped forward. “Not until you help us bring the Wolves up from below.”

  “Deal. Sorelle and Jaimes, stay here and help her set up the barge. As soon as you’re done, find us in the tunnels down below. Allan, come with me.”

  Allan turned back to Kara, almost said something, then shifted toward Grant instead. “Don’t let her leave without me.”

  “I can’t,” Kara said. “You’re the only one who can get me close to the Nexus.”

  “I don’t trust you not to try on your own.”

  He left before Kara could protest, trailing after Cason. A group carrying spars and rope appeared from the direction of the storage room. Three others held folds of the sail up overhead, grunting under its weight, their sinuous form like a snake. The ley fabric sparkled in the sunlight.

  Sorelle planted herself in front of Kara, blocking her view; Grant emitted a low growl of warning. “You’d better have a way to get us out of here.”

  “I don’t lie, and I don’t trade in people’s lives.”

  Sorelle flinched, her face going slack, revealing the scared young girl beneath the tough façade. Then the scowl returned. “I’ll be watching. Don’t try anything.”

  The first of the spars arrived and she, Sorelle, and Jaimes began attempting to sort them out, Jaimes climbing up on the deck of the barge to scout out the layout of the rigging there. One of the young boys hauling the sail had worked on a river ship and joined him. Between them and Sorelle, they managed to lay out the rigging on the ground, others spreading out the sail so they could align the grommets at the edge of the cloth with the attachments on the spars and the hull.

  “That’s it!” Jaimes shouted from up above, pointing with one hand as he spoke. “The rope must run from there, through those holes in the sail there, then back through these hooks on the spar, back and forth, until it reaches the end. This section here attaches to the short mast in the middle, and that larger spar works the same as the smaller one, but at the back end of the barge. The sail lays flat.”

  “But what about this piece?” someone yelled from the ground. “And what’s this hook for?”

  Jaimes looked toward his helper, who shrugged. “You’ve got me. I’ve only ever worked with vertical sails.”

  Sorelle snatched the piece from the boy on the ground and inspected it. “This is used to keep the ropes from tangling when you’re up in the air. And that hook is to help guide the barge into its berth at one of the towers.”

  “I don’t think we’re going to need that,” Kara said.

  “Right.” Sorelle turned away from her. “We need to start handing up the spars and sail. Are you ready?”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  Jaimes grinned at Sorelle’s “I’m not the captain!” reply, then vanished over the deck railing. A bunch of those on the ground began handing up the spars. The rope had already been taken up to the deck.

  Someone ran up to Sorelle from the direction of the main hall. “Sorelle! They’re starting to bring up the Wolves.”

  “Grant, you’d better go keep the Wolves under control.” When he hesitated, Kara motioned him away with one hand. “I’ll be fine. Now go, before someone gets eaten.”

  Grant gave a grin that was a little too full of teeth, then trotted away.

  The next few hours were full of grunting, sweat, and curses as Sorelle, Jaimes, Kara, and the rest of Cason’s crew hauled the spars and sails up onto the top of the barge and rigged them to the stump of the mast and the mechanisms at the prow and stern. The edges of the mainsail were tied to the sides of the craft as well. It was a smaller vessel than the ones Kara had witnessed for the first time rising above Seeley’s Park, moments before the explosion that had killed her parents. Those ships had been built by the Baron for show, to stun the crowds gathered in the park. After that, the lords and ladies and merchants—anyone with enough influence and money—had built their own craft, with the permission of the Baron and the Primes. This craft could carry maybe twenty people. That, coupled with the fact that all the work had to be done beneath the smothering folds of the sail itself, caused more than a few short-tempered arguments and at least one brawl. Thankfully, these kinds of barges had flat bottoms, so the deck was level and not canted to one side.

  It was dark before Jaimes and Sorelle agreed that the setup was as good as it was going to get. They stood next to Kara, staring up at the ship in the light thrown by the ley geyser, the folds of the sail draped over its sides, rope hanging down, slack. Grant stood behind them, a Wolf at his heel. The other two Wolves were roaming about the yard.

  “Are you going to be able to make it fly?” Sorelle asked.

  “What do you mean?” Jaimes asked, wide-eyed.

  “Before the Shattering, there was a whole system of towers built to make these things fly,” Sorelle explained. “All those towers are gone.”

  Jaimes shot a look at Kara. “Don’t tell me we spent most of the day rigging this up when you can’t make it fly.”

  “I can make it fly,” Kara said, with more conviction than she felt. “The towers were built to create enough ley energy to keep the ships in the air without individual Wielders or Primes watching over them.” She gestured toward the tower of ley light beyond the walls. “I’d say we have plenty of ley energy unleashed at the moment.”

  “Besides,” someone said from behind them, “that’s not our concern.”

  Kara faced Cason, approaching with a small escort of her own people. “Where’s Allan?”

  “Down below, in the tunnels. That’s a neat trick of his, blocking the ley.”

  “What do you mean?” Sorelle asked suspiciously.

  “You’ll see soon enough. I have the rest of our group packing up as many of our supplies as we can manage to carry. I’ve already sent a scouting party into the tunnels beyond the nearest blockage, searching for the easiest way out that puts us well beyond the Gorrani’s territory. Allan is keeping the way open as we shift supplies into a temporary staging area on the far side. If you two are done here, I need you to go help with that.”

  “I want to see if this will work,” Jaimes said, crossing his arms and staring at Kara in expectation.

  Both Cason and Sorelle shifted toward Kara as well. Even Grant moved forward.

  Kara shook her head, then reached for the ley as she focused on the ship.

  She’d done this once before, before the Shattering. During one of the blackouts, she’d used the sails of a crashed barge to lift the mast off a trapped man’s leg, freeing him. This shouldn’t be any different, even if the towers that had been built back then had been destroyed. In fact, this should be easier; she’d been working during a blackout back at that time, when the ley was at its weakest.

  The moment she touched the ley, it surged through her, fierce, chaotic, and breathtakingly strong. She hissed as she caught it and reined it in.

  “What’s wrong?” Cason asked, tense.

  “Nothing.” Kara steadied herself. “Nothing. The ley is stronger than I expected here, that’s all.”

  “It will be worse near the Nexus,” Grant said.

  Kara ignored him. Drawing the ley from beneath them, she sent it surging upward, through the barge and into the sail.

  The cloth rippled down one edge, the shimmering that appeared embedded in the material intensifying, glinting like stars. All of those watching gasped. Kara let the flow of ley increase steadily, tight and controlled, and the sail belled ou
t and lifted, the far end snapping once before the ropes pulled taut. Sorelle drifted forward in awe. The sail—attached at either end to the ship by long horizontal bars—looked exactly like a hammock, except upside down.

  Kara edged the strength of the ley higher. With creaks and groans, the prow lifted from the ground, then the stern. Within moments, the entire ship was hovering ten feet off the ground. But it was pitched to one side, and the bow was lower than the stern. Kara adjusted the flow of the ley, increasing it in some areas, lessening it in others, the ship rocking this way and that before leveling out.

  “There,” Cason said, “you’ve seen it. Now go help with the supplies. I don’t want to be inside these walls when dawn breaks.” She turned to shout at the rest of the Tunnelers who’d gathered to watch, everyone scurrying back to the main hall. Kara let the ship settle back to the ground, the wood of the hull cracking and popping ominously. Sorelle and Jaimes watched with disappointment. Then Sorelle shook herself, resuming her usual scowl, before glaring at Kara and following the others. Jaimes departed reluctantly, casting a few last glances back as he crossed the yard.

  Cason held Kara’s gaze. “You’re an extremely dangerous woman.”

  Kara didn’t know how to respond, so she kept silent.

  Cason finally looked away, toward the ship. “I’ll send Allan up as soon as all of my people are on the far side of the ley tunnels. If you are here to fix the ley, I wish you luck.”

  Then she spun on her heel and didn’t look back.

  One of the Wolves brushed up against Kara’s leg and sat down on its haunches. She ruffled the fur on its head between its ears without thinking.

  “Let’s load our own supplies onto the barge while we wait. As soon as Allan shows up, I want to lift off. We need to be at the Nexus tomorrow.”

  Grant tilted his head back to the stars, the streak of the comet blazing across the constellations. It had grown, its tail now twice as long as when they’d watched it from the plains.

  “Are you concerned about Morrell and Marcus? Will they be ready?”

  Kara headed toward the main hall, where they’d left their satchels. “It doesn’t matter. I’ll do whatever I can once we reach the Nexus, whether Morrell has managed to rebuild the node in Tumbor or Marcus has regained control of the Nexus at the Needle.”

  Grant huffed, then whistled, the Wolves loping toward them both.

  The main hall was in uproar, Cason’s Tunnelers racing in all directions, carrying bags and satchels and crates, or hastily packing whatever materials remained. But the frenetic activity had taken on a hopeful note, one far different from what they’d encountered when they’d first entered the hall the day before. The expressions on the Tunnelers’ faces were excited, the noises of the hasty exodus punctuated by bursts of laughter and chatter. Everyone steered clear of Kara, Grant, and the Wolves. Cason watched over it all, hands on hips, occasionally issuing an order or helping heft a particularly heavy sack or basket.

  Kara had slung her satchel over one shoulder, was reaching for Allan’s, when a hollow thud echoed through the building.

  Around the hall, everyone halted whatever they were doing. Someone asked, “What in hells was that?”

  Cason started toward the door to the hall. She hadn’t made it halfway there when it burst open and some of the Tunnelers dressed as guards stumbled into the room in a panic. “It’s the Gorrani!” one of them shouted. “They’re attacking the main gates with a battering ram!”

  Cason swore. “Couldn’t they have waited one more gods-damned night?” She didn’t wait for an answer, another hollow boom echoing through the chamber. “Jaimes, get everyone down to the tunnels. Get them through. Leave the damned supplies! Everyone move, move, move! Sorelle, get as many competent men together as you can and head to the wall. Stall them. Keep them from breaking through for as long as you can. I’ll join you in a moment.”

  The entire room exploded into action, Sorelle calling out names as she raced for the door, the rest of the people dropping the heaviest bags and crates and racing toward the doorway leading to the storage room and the crack that led to the tunnels below. Cason herded people out, forcing some to abandon their supplies. Kara flung Allan’s satchel over her shoulder and thrust Grant’s into his chest, catching his attention.

  “Come on. We’re leaving.”

  He gave a short, rumbling bark and the Wolves streaked out ahead of them, following in Sorelle’s wake, but cutting right toward the barge. Grant and Kara raced behind, Kara reaching out to snatch up the sail that had settled back down over the deck with the ley. It billowed up fast enough to lift the front of the barge from the ground, her control of the ley less finessed than before. Restraining it, the barge settled again. The Wolves leaped through the shattered hole in the side of the hull. Kara climbed the ladder leaning against the barge’s side, the booms from the battering ram louder outside than in. Grant guarded the base of the ladder until she’d reached the top, then climbed up beside her. They flung their satchels to the deck, Kara moving to the side railing to where she could see the main hall and could watch for Allan. She couldn’t see the gates from this vantage.

  “Should we lift off?” Grant asked.

  “No. We have to wait for Allan. There’s no way we’ll make it to the Nexus without him.”

  Kara began drumming her fingers against the wood of the railing. The thuds from the gates continued, although now they were joined by shouts and screams from the wall. An occasional stray arrow shot up from over the roof of the building beside them, visible against the ambient light from the ley geyser. Moments later, something caught fire, the glow of the flames washing the buildings yellow-red. A column of black smoke appeared, rising from somewhere beyond the wall.

  Cason emerged from the main hall, charging toward the gates with a small group of five at her heels. The sounds of the fighting escalated for a short time, and then suddenly a large group of Tunnelers raced toward the main hall, funneling inside.

  “They’ve abandoned the front gates,” Grant said.

  The booming of the battering ram increased, coming in shorter intervals, as if the Gorrani had been energized by the Tunnelers’ retreat. It was joined by the pounding of drums, a strange counterpoint that thrummed in Kara’s skin.

  She kept her eyes locked on the doors of the main hall. “Come on, Allan, where are you?”

  She flinched when the next thud was accompanied by a crack and a roar of triumph rose from the Gorrani. The next was followed by a groan of wood and the third with the splintering of the gate’s massive planks.

  Kara reached for more of the ley as the Gorrani drums began beating out in frenzy and their roar of triumph broke into hissing chants. She could feel them pouring through the breach, invading the University grounds. The sound of their outcry changed, no longer muted by the wall itself.

  The first of the changed Gorrani appeared on the open grounds before the main hall at the same time Kara increased the flow of ley to the sails. The barge lurched upward, one of the Wolves in the hull below howling in protest as Grant and Kara both snatched at the railing to steady themselves. Kara clenched her jaw as she concentrated, attempting to even out the flows and keep the barge level. She only partially succeeded, the vessel rising canted to the port side. The Gorrani hissed, a few of them flaring flaps of skin from the sides of their necks and head as they pointed toward the barge. Some of them appeared to spit venom.

  The ladder clattered down the side of the barge as it rose, then dropped to the ground. More and more Gorrani appeared, spreading out, a large group gathering beneath the barge. Archers appeared and Kara felt small thuds through the railing she gripped with whitened knuckles as arrows punched into the flat bottom. A few shot up from the side, embedding in the ley-shimmered sail. Both she and Grant ducked, Grant grabbing her shoulder and shoving her toward the center of the craft, where the shortened mast stood.

&nbs
p; As they moved, they rose above the roof of the storage building, the wall and gates coming into view. Gorrani leaped over the discarded battering ram, the gates stove in like the hole in the barge, one torn from its hinges and leaning against the other. The ley geyser appeared over the wall, then the harsher flames of the fire. One of the buildings across the street from the University’s wall was ablaze.

  As soon as they rose above the gates, the entire barge shuddered.

  “What was that?” Grant asked.

  “I’m getting interference from the ley geyser. There are eddies of ley here, like currents in a river. They’re more intense above the buildings. I wasn’t expecting it, but I think I can control it.” The shuddering lessened, but didn’t go away. “That’s the best I can do.”

  Grant craned his neck. “We’re drifting. We’re now over the second storage building.”

  “I know. I’m trying to keep us inside the University grounds. It’s harder than I anticipated.”

  “It will likely only get harder as we get closer to the geyser.”

  “I know.”

  Grant paused. “The Gorrani have stopped shooting arrows at us.”

  “Good. We need to keep an eye out for Allan.”

  Grant edged back toward the railing, growling once in warning when the barge lurched hard to starboard. The Wolves below howled.

  “Sorry!” She muttered something else under her breath thinking that Grant wouldn’t hear, but his ear twitched and he gave her a baleful look. She waved him toward the edge. “Watch for Allan!”

  Grant cautiously peered over the side. “The Gorrani are attacking the main hall. Cason must have had her people blockade the doorway as they fled. The building is surrounded.”

  A small hollow of emptiness carved itself out of Kara’s chest but she couldn’t spare the attention to let it overwhelm her. Keeping the barge more-or-less stationary in the ever-shifting currents of ley didn’t allow for any distraction. She couldn’t think about what it would mean if Allan were trapped underground, if he couldn’t reach them, or even if he’d been killed. She’d have to risk repairing the ley from a distance in that situation. It was the only option.