Hanson opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Etta stepped forward.
“She could be anyone. How can we trust her? She could be from Kadmine or Harven, trying to discover our secrets.”
Garek flicked a look at her, and Etta took a step back, eyes wide.
“She’s from Pan Nuk. I confirm it.” Aidan spoke, his voice soft, but full of authority. Garek thought his hands were shaking, and realized it was with rage.
Etta shot him a scornful look. “You confirm--”
“I take the liege's word.” Hanson dipped her head, and Etta's mouth dropped open. It seemed the general hadn't gotten around to letting the guards who’d had to walk back from their campsite yesterday know that Aidan was now their commander-in-chief.
“Liege?”
“It seems hiding in the forest is a sure way to miss out on the latest news.” Rig's rumble of a voice silenced the mutters from all around them.
“Abducting the future liege, or the liege himself--either way, it isn't a path to reclaiming your place in West Lathor.” Aidan flattened his hands against his thighs and glared at the general.
She sent him a wry grin. “No. I was desperate. I wanted to return, to help West Lathor against the forces gathering against us, but at the same time, I wanted to honor your mother's wishes and my own sense of what is right.” Hanson opened her hands and spread them in front of her, and she and Aidan stared at each other for a long, long beat.
Eventually, he nodded.
Hanson seemed to relax a little. “I accept your offer, Taya.”
She held out her hand, eyes on Taya's knives, and Taya passed one over.
Hanson ran a light fingertip over the hilt. “These are well made.”
“Garek's father and I made them together.”
“You shaped them when the metal was liquid?” Hanson's gaze shot to Taya's face.
She nodded.
“How did you work that out?” Etta's tone was dripping with suspicion.
“Quardi, Garek's father, is a metalsmith. He understood the implications immediately when we realized what Change I called. He knew without doubt how the Nordren created such intricate metalwork. We tried it, and it worked. I suppose I'll get better with practice, but for now, I make the shape and Quardi hones it for me.”
“Is this all you have?” Hanson tested the weight of the knife.
Taya shot a look Garek’s way, and he met her gaze, leaving this as her call.
Eventually she shook her head. “There is more in the sky craft.”
“I thought you said the ore destroys the sky craft systems?” Kima frowned.
“That's why we keep it in water. It seems to insulate it.”
“What do you have?” Hanson seemed less interested in the details--Garek could hear the eagerness in her voice to get Taya in a training ring.
“Spears, arrows, discs for protection. The knives.” Taya nodded toward the discs hanging from the general's own uniform. “I tried to remember what the iron guards were wearing in the paintings I saw in Juli.”
Hanson chuckled. “Not much in those paintings is accurate.”
Taya lifted her shoulders. “I had nothing else to go on.”
“Well.” Hanson took a step back. “Go fetch your other weapons, and let's begin.”
Taya hesitated, then stepped around her, heading for the sky craft.
Garek fell into step with her, as did Rig, Ness and Aidan.
“Stop.” Hanson's voice was sharp, and they all turned to look at her. “Some of you need to stay here.”
Aidan shook his head, the look on his face stoic, but when he stepped forward to offer himself as what was to all intents and purposes a hostage, Hanson shook her head.
“Taya stays.”
Garek looked Hanson directly in the eye. She had his measure, all right.
She might not be quite her old self, but she hadn't lost her edge. She knew he would leave Aidan behind if he had to. He would never leave Taya.
“I'm the one who knows which box is which,” Taya said.
Hanson's lips thinned. “I bet your intended does, too.”
Garek flicked a look at Taya, and she sighed. “Do you mind?”
Garek shook his head, but when his gaze met Hanson's, he made it clear he did mind.
A lot.
Taya landed hard on the ground and rolled, coming up in a crouch.
The hollow, blunt spear of iron that had been thrown at her hovered in the air above her head. From its position, she guessed it would have struck her if someone--Hanson--hadn't called her Change and stopped it midair.
Even if it had hit her, it wouldn't have done much damage. She had checked it carefully before the tests began, and so had Garek.
But even though she hadn't been hit, and would barely have been hurt even if she had, Garek glowered from the sidelines.
He didn't like the antagonistic nature of the tests, the hard physicality of them.
His attitude was probably only because she was the one being subjected to them. He must have endured much worse in his own training.
She straightened and walked toward Ness, who held out a cup of water to her.
“Were you tested like this as a guard?” She took the cup and gulped the water before waiting for an answer.
Ness hesitated, then nodded. “But only after I'd been in the guard for a good six months. The Iron Guard usually get their recruits sent to them after the first three months of general training. I think they're forgetting that no one arrives to walk the walls with the kind of experience they're testing for now.”
“Problem?” Etta called. She was standing next to Hanson with a smirk on her face.
Taya turned to look at her. Debated her options. She didn't like people who spouted excuses, but equally, if this was going to work, they needed to be realistic about her abilities.
Eventually, she shrugged. “I've never been a guard, and I've never received any training. I gather the Iron Guard receives their recruits after at least three months in the general guard intake. I haven't had three months, and I haven't had any of the advice and training those who have a calling get in their villages before they arrive to walk the walls.”
Hanson frowned at Etta, then walked across the open training area toward her.
Garek, who'd been standing opposite her, watching everything and everyone, moved to join them.
She felt a shiver in the air, the mirage that was Garek calling his Change without realizing it. She saw him flicker in and out of view, before he solidified as he reached her.
Hanson had seen it--and felt it--too. She sidled away from him, and Taya thought she saw a few guards raise their crossbows a little.
“You assume too much.” Garek stared Hanson down. “You have lived as a guard for too long. Taya has never so much as run a training loop, let alone walked a wall.”
Hanson obviously decided that it would be easier to talk to Taya than Garek. She ignored him and kept her gaze fixed on Taya's face. “You're right. I was stolen from my family when I was eleven. I have never known anything else. Everyone thinks the Iron Guard is recruited from the general intake, but they aren't. They've already spent years being trained by me and others under my command. They arrive to walk the walls as if they're genuine recruits, and then are funneled into the Iron Guard so no one questions who they are or discovers their secrets.”
“Why do you keep it a secret?” Taya asked. “The Iron Guard would be even more feared if people knew they called the iron Change.”
Hanson shook her head. “Two reasons. One, it would mean we wouldn't just have to keep an eye out for Nordren coming in and nosing around West Lathor villages looking for lost talent. It would mean we would have to worry about Kadmine, Harven, Dartalia and all the other Illian states doing the same. And second, it's much more frightening to not understand how someone does the things they do--aim so perfectly, throw with such force and precision--than it is to know it's simply someone's calling.”
Garek
met her eyes, and she could see he was still furious, and unwilling to give Hanson any leeway.
She needed to spend time with Hanson, and she knew she was too sensitive to Garek standing there, waiting for an excuse to react, to concentrate properly.
“Will you try to keep in mind I'm completely untrained? I'm physically stronger than I was before I was captured, because I did hard labor on Shadow, but I don't have the skills of a guard.”
Hanson gave a formal bow. “I apologize. Garek is right, I assumed too much, and that makes me a poor leader. We'll adjust the program, and make sure we are careful with you.” She turned to Garek at last. “Your intended is safe with us. You have my word.”
Garek gave her a narrow-eyed stare.
“Why don't you use the day to fly over the border and check what Harven, Kadmine and Favre are doing?” Taya suggested to him. “It's a waste of your time to stand here watching me roll around on the ground.”
The look he flashed her could have scorched.
She held out her hand and tugged him a little way away.
“Taya--”
She slid her arms around him and went up on tiptoe to reach his ear. “I can feel you scowling from the sidelines. It distracts me and makes me nervous that one wrong move from me, and you'll retaliate against my sparring partner.”
She felt him tense under her hands, felt the sleek muscles in his arms bunch.
“I will retaliate.”
She smiled against the skin of his neck. “I know. That's why I want you gone. I can take a little bruising in the cause of helping bring down the sky raiders. And you're scaring the Iron Guard.”
He hesitated. “I don't want to leave you with these assholes.”
“Hanson is too invested in the success of this, too guilty about leaving West Lathor to its own devices, to wish me harm. I'll be fine. Go and take a look at what's going on. Take one or two of Hanson's people with you. Maybe it will help persuade her to come back to the fold.”
He leaned back to look at her. Gave a slow nod. Then he turned to Hanson.
“I'm leaving my intended in your hands. I don't think I have to tell you what will happen if she's hurt under your watch.”
Hanson tipped her head to one side and gave a slow nod. “Where are you going?”
“I'm taking Aidan to check the border in the sky craft. You can send some of your unit to observe if you want.”
At least three people stepped forward eagerly.
Hanson pointed to Kima, and then nodded to the other three. “Can they all go?”
Garek gave a guard signal that must have meant, let's go, because everyone who wanted to come smiled and then trotted toward the sky craft.
She reached out and grabbed his hand. “Be careful up there.”
He pulled her close, kissed her forehead. “You be careful down here.”
He gave Hanson a last, hard look, and strode away.
Chapter 10
“I thought I had no calling.” Taya lined up her aim and threw her spear at the wooden target Hanson had set up for her. “Unlike Garek, I wasn't taken under anyone's wing and trained, and if you want to find people like me, understand that they will have lives that they've built outside being a guard. I have my own business that I run. If I didn't know my calling could help defeat the sky raiders, I would not want to leave what I've already built. That is something you'll have to deal with. Free choice from your potential recruits. If you want them to consider their options earlier, you'll have to travel the villages looking for those who've just come through puberty and don't think they call a Change, and test them. Let them know before they make a decision on a trade or occupation that they have another choice.”
Hanson grunted, squinting against the sun to check where the spear had hit, and then walking toward the upended tree stump which had been chipped a bit on the edges to make it look roughly like a person.
General Hanson tried to pull the spear out, and eventually had to put a foot on the trunk and haul at it before it came loose. She lifted it on her palm, testing its balance.
“You've used this before, to bring down a sky craft?”
Taya nodded. “Garek helped me, though. He propelled it harder than I could, and I aimed it.”
Hanson nodded thoughtfully. “I've wished for a long time for more openness between the Iron Guard and the other units. If we had guards on our side who could call the air Change, we would be stronger.”
“There is a synergy to cooperation like that,” Taya agreed. “I saw it between my brother, who calls the earth Change, and Garek, and I've felt it myself with Garek when we've worked together.”
“I'm sure the other guards would love to share in our glory.”
Taya hadn't heard Etta come up behind her, and she turned quickly, in time to see the hard look in the guard's eyes.
Rig had remained behind, rather than going with Garek, and he took a step closer to her.
Taya gave him a quick shake of her head and she could see his reluctance as he came to a stop.
“Except we don't do what we do for the glory.” Hanson's voice was cold, almost cutting, and Etta looked away.
“Given we have to go easy on her, Nori wants to know what test you want him to set up?” Etta kept her gaze down, but her tone was anything but respectful.
“I'll speak to Nori myself.” Hanson strode off, her back straight as the spear she still carried in her hand.
Taya wondered whether she should call it back. Decided now was not the time to mess with the general.
“It's interesting to me that you keep mentioning how untrained I am, yet Yanni, of the Juli Night Guard, told me you were the worst recruit in his intake. He said you didn't try, didn't seem to care, and that everyone was astonished when you were accepted into the Iron Guard and they weren't.” Taya was shorter than Etta, and she looked up at her. “Obviously none of them were ever going to get into the Iron Guard because they didn't call iron, but now that the general has explained you had already been trained for years before you arrived in Juli, pretending to be part of the general intake, why did you pretend to be worse than you were?”
Etta smiled. “To mess with their heads. They were pathetic. They could barely hold a spear properly. Some had only ever used longbows, they'd never even seen a crossbow.” She gave a short laugh. “But still, they thought they were little Stars in the sky. The look on their faces when I was promoted to the Iron Guard and they weren't . . .”
A sharp intake of breath had both her and Etta turning. Hanson stood behind them, and Taya felt a quick thrill of respect for the general being able to walk up behind them without making a sound. “You jeopardized the whole system in a petty power play?”
“A system you're trying to pull apart at the seams, remember?” Etta's thinned lips were a mirror of Hanson's own.
“I'm doing it at a level that will end it for good in an official way. You were just opening us up to being discovered by spies and mischief-makers.”
Etta hunched a little, then shrugged. “What are we doing with her?” She flicked a venomous look Taya's way.
“We're going to see how good her control is.” Hanson turned and walked away, obviously expecting to be followed.
Rig shot her a look and shooed her with his hands and she started after Hanson.
“Troublemaker.” Etta hissed at her. “Been saving that little story, have you?”
Taya grinned, unrepentant. “I didn't expect Hanson to listen in, I just wanted you to know I'm not some helpless little village girl you can push around or play like you played Yanni and the other guards in your intake unit.”
“They were never my unit.” Etta had fallen into step with her, and she kept her voice steady. “I was stolen out of my bed when I was twelve years old. I've never seen my family again. I can't even remember where I'm from. My unit is the one I was forced to live with from that time onward. The general intake charade was a joke and I marked time there, bored out of my mind.”
“I'm so
rry about that. I don't think it should have happened to you, but why are you so hostile to me?”
“Because you got to live your life as you wanted to.”
“They never would have taken me, even if they had come to Pan Nuk looking for recruits,” Taya reminded her gently. “I don't call the iron Change.”
Etta pulled away, walking a little faster.
“What would you have preferred to do?” Taya asked. “If they hadn't found you?”
Etta looked over her shoulder at Taya blankly, and then strode away.
Taya watched her go, feeling her annoyance and dislike of the woman morph into something closer to understanding and pity.
When she reached Hanson and Nori, the other deputy who'd accompanied Hanson the day before along with Kima, she saw the worry and sadness on the general's face as she watched Etta disappear amongst the huts.
“She's angry. My fighting against the way things are done has struck very close to the bone for so many of them. Forced them to confront the harm done to them, often by me. I'm both the guilty party and the force for change at once.”
Nori made a sound of denial, and she glanced over at him, patted his arm.
“It's true. I deserve their anger, just as the person who stole me deserves mine.”
Nori was shaking his head, and Taya noticed he was holding her spear in his hand.
“What do you want me to do?” Taya asked.
He sent her a look of deep gratitude for the change of topic.
“Can you lift this into the air?” He raised the spear.
Taya lifted it before he'd opened his hand all the way, and his arm jerked up. He let go, eyes wide, and he and Hanson studied it, hovering parallel to the ground.
“Can you make it vertical?”
She did that.
“Spin it?”
She had a few false starts, but she eventually worked out how to do it.
“Call it to your hand.”
She pulled the spear to her, and enjoyed the little thrill that raced through her as her hand closed around it.
Shadow Warrior (Sky Raiders Book 3) Page 6