There was a spatter of applause as it did, and with shock she realized the training circle was surrounded by iron guards, with Rig standing directly behind her.
“How much shadow ore is in this spear?” Nori asked her.
“It's pure shadow ore. I separated it out myself.”
She wondered what Quardi, Garek's father, had decided to do with the leftover slag. He was convinced it would turn out to be useful, and had decided to make a number of things with it to see what properties it had.
“That explains it.” Hanson took the spear from her. “Your dexterity with it is exceptional. I don't think there's a person here who could do better with their weapon.” She looked around the circle and no one contradicted her.
“Why is that?” Rig asked.
“Because pure iron doesn't make a good weapon. We have to mix it with other ores to make it harder and sharper.” The person who spoke was the guard who'd thrown discs at her in the forest, Linus.
It sounded to Taya as if the Iron Guard would have had to develop more control than her, because they had less ore in their weapons.
“I'd like you to show me the control methods you teach new recruits.” She looked around at the guards surrounding her. “I killed a man because I couldn't control my Change well enough. I never want to do that again.”
“How did you kill him?” Etta asked, eyes glittering with malice.
“I was slashing the air in front of him with my knife, and I got too close. I slashed his throat.”
“Your knife is that sharp?” someone asked, disbelieving.
Taya took out her knife. “Throw one of your discs into the air,” she said.
Rig smirked, and Taya remembered he'd used her knife before, he knew how sharp it was.
Etta took out a disc and threw it directly at her.
She sent her knife straight at it, and by absolute chance, hit it dead center. The blade went through the iron disc like it was made of wood.
There was a moment of absolute silence, and Taya called her knife back. Rig stepped forward and while she held the knife hilt, he pulled the disc off the blade with a grunt.
“We should be mixing shadow ore with our iron,” Nori said into the quiet.
“You'll have to find your own,” Taya told him. “I need every bit of it I've taken from Shadow.”
At his crestfallen expression, she relented a little. “I felt it in some metal in Kardai. I think they have access to it from somewhere.”
“Unless they're also in league with the sky raiders,” Hanson muttered.
Taya shook her head. “I felt it in some old metal sculptures in a rooftop garden. They weren't made recently.” She gave a wry smile. “And the last thing the sky raiders would do is give up any shadow ore, especially not for decorative statues. It's the whole reason they're here in the first place.”
Hanson accepted that with a slow nod. “It doesn't matter anyway. We have other things to think about than what would be nice to mix with our iron. Do you have small discs like this?” She fingered the discs that hung from clips on her uniform.
Taya nodded.
“Go get them.” She leaned down and picked up a wooden practice dagger from a collection on the floor beside Nori.
Taya could see a place to slot a disc on the base of the hilt.
“That's how you train your recruits?” To maneuver the dagger with such a small amount of ore would be incredibly difficult she realized with a thrill of anticipation.
Nothing they'd done for her so far with regard to her abilities had been particularly challenging, only her physical fitness and guard training had been lacking.
But this . . . this looked like it would stretch her. And that's what she needed. Time was running out for them all, and she needed to get better fast.
Chapter 11
Garek tried to focus on the job ahead, rather than worry about Taya surrounded by a potentially hostile guard.
“The general will keep her safe. That's why we've been stuck in that forest for the last five months. Because she didn't want to continue to do harm to lost talents like Taya.” Kima had been watching him carefully since he'd taken off, trying to work out how to fly the sky craft, Garek was sure, but his face must have been more expressive than he thought for her to pick up what he was thinking so unerringly.
“And yet, there is a threat, just under the surface, that things won't go well for Taya if we don't come back.” Aidan was leaning against the long, rectangular window of the craft. He didn't look over at them as he spoke, his gaze focused on the hills and valleys below.
Kima shifted uncomfortably. “She can keep Taya captive without harming her. You're perfectly fit, after all.” She slanted a look at Aidan, but he was still ignoring them both.
Garek chuckled. “Not even Habred, the liege of Harven, could keep Taya prisoner, even when he locked her in the cells in his guards' barracks.”
Ness, who stood on the opposite side of the window to Aidan, looked up with interest. “I heard part of this story when you were telling the general about Habred's complicity with the sky raiders, but what was Taya doing in Harven?”
“She was kidnapped by guards who knew Habred wanted her. But he didn't keep her long.” Garek still felt a surge of satisfaction at that knowledge. He wondered what Habred was doing right now.
Panicking, at least a little, he was sure.
“With all due respect, the general is a lot more competent than Harven's liege,” Kima said.
Garek looked at her for a long, long moment, felt the tension in the pilot's chamber ratchet up. “Good thing it doesn't matter, then, doesn't it?” He spoke quietly. “Because I'd never abandon Taya.”
The breath everyone was holding was released, and no one said any more as he skimmed across the undulating landscape of northern West Lathor, toward the border.
After about an hour he was forced to climb higher as the Dartalian Range came into view, covered by thick white cloud.
He looked over at Aidan, but the princeling shook his head.
“No sign of sky raiders,” he said. He'd kept watch constantly, and as soon as the others realized what he was doing, they'd been eager to help.
Garek lifted up, but tried to keep under the cloud cover, sticking close to the mountains. The high-pitched whine warning of their proximity to shadow ore began to sound through the craft.
He accelerated and rose at the same time, putting them in the cloud and blinding them all. The warning clamor continued until they broke free of the misty white into the bright blue of a Star-lit sky.
“What was that?” One of the iron guards who'd come along looked at him with wide eyes.
“There's shadow ore in the mountains. Taya says it isn't concentrated enough for mining--there are only tiny flecks of it in the rock--but it's enough to interfere with the sky craft, so a warning sounds when we get too close.”
“This is not good for seeing what the Harven are doing.” Aidan scowled down at the rippling sea of white.
“We're going in more or less the right direction, and maybe we'll get lucky and there'll be a break in the cloud.” Garek had been over this range slowly and carefully when he'd been looking for Taya, and he'd been back since then to spy on the combined forces of Harven, Favre and Kadmine with Falk.
He had a good sense of where they were.
Everyone leaned against the window, foreheads pressed to the transparent material that was like glass, but far clearer and far stronger than any found on Barit that Garek had ever seen.
He moved as slowly as the sky craft would allow, almost drifting across what looked like a landscape of deep snow, with the occasional black peak of the Range poking through.
The cloud cover thinned a little as they reached the center of the range, forming and clearing and then reforming again as the winds blew and buffeted the craft.
Aidan gave a cry of discovery. “I see it. On a small escarpment surrounded by mountains.”
Garek nodded. That was the place
he'd found before.
“We need to go lower. It's hard to see.” Kima put a hand on either side of her face as she bent her neck to get a better look.
“Can't go lower without the possibility of crashing.” Garek circled the spot.
“And the cloud is moving in.” Ness sounded disgusted. “There are a few buildings down there, and what looks like a training ground, but I can't see anyone.”
“And it's gone.” Aidan's voice was soft as thicker cloud rolled in, obscuring what little they could see.
“Anyone see troops?” Garek asked.
Aidan shook his head, his brows turned down in a deep scowl.
Kima suddenly laughed.
“What's so funny?” Aidan grumbled at her.
“How quickly we got used to being able to spy on our enemy from the air.” She made a big gesture with her hands. “We're complaining we can't see better, and the cloud is blocking us, when it's amazing that we were able to come all this way in such a short amount of time, and try to see if our enemies are where we think they are. It would have taken us weeks without this sky craft, and even then, we'd have had to know where the camp was.”
Aidan looked at her in surprise, and then gave a nod. “It is saving us time. But I wish we could have seen better.”
Garek turned the sky craft around in a slow, lazy circle. “I don't think this is going to clear up soon.”
Aidan nodded in agreement. “It's too thick. It looks like it's getting worse. We'll have to come back tomorrow.”
As he finished speaking the whole craft shuddered a little, caught in a sudden crosswind.
Garek banked and then skipped the craft across the clouds, moving around a mushroom of black and gray that was growing out of the white near the edge of the range.
Kima was right, they had gotten used to the sky craft. It was a powerful weapon, and one he kept forgetting gave them an edge.
Unfortunately, they needed the edge, because in this fight, they were definitely the underdog.
Taya slid into the water just out of sight of camp with a tight gasp at the temperature, but also with a sigh of relief. It felt like she'd been under scrutiny the whole day, with as many guards as had free time following her training from the sidelines with avid eyes.
Just to be alone, and to know Rig was out there somewhere, making sure she stayed that way, even if it was just to dip her shivering body into the cold clear stream that ran past the camp, was bliss.
She quickly scrubbed the sweat of the day off her and was hopping back into her trousers when she heard the shriek of the sky craft overhead.
She dressed faster, and found Rig almost vibrating with impatience when she joined him on the bank, his whole focus on the waterfall and the way Garek was maneuvering the sky craft back under its spray.
As soon as she joined him, they jogged along the river's edge and as she watched Garek's sure, skillful control of the sky craft, the weight of worry on her shoulders lifted.
He was safe.
She and Rig reached the curve in the river closest to the waterfall, and both of them jumped down into the shallow stream and began wading toward the sky craft.
“Stop.”
The footing was treacherous--rocky and unstable--and Taya fell as she looked behind her at the person shouting.
Rig must have seen her come unbalanced because he reached out as she flailed her arms, and caught her just before she landed on some nasty looking rocks.
He hauled her to her feet, and they both turned to face the Iron Guard unit standing on the bank.
“You can't go to the sky craft. You have to wait for them to switch it off and come out.” Nori's jaw clenched as he spoke.
“I keep forgetting we aren't allies, we're considered hostages.” Taya couldn't erase the hurt in her voice. She'd spent the day in friendly and open discussions with most of the guard. She'd never once felt restricted, but that was all an illusion.
No one said anything as the sky craft powered down and then the door opened.
Taya didn't turn around to watch as Garek, Aidan, and the others waded through the water toward the camp, she kept her gaze on the guards lined up along the bank with weapons raised.
Rig did the same beside her and after a moment she felt the warm, solid weight of Garek's hand on her shoulder as he, Aidan and Ness fanned out on either side of them, a solid line of defense.
“Put those weapons away, unless you actually plan to use them.” Garek's voice was short.
She could feel the tension rise and then crest as Kima and the three other guards who'd spent the day in the sky craft stumbled through the shallow water, slowed to a stop, and then moved around them.
“What's going on?” Kima's tone had a sharp edge to it.
“She was going to meet the sky craft. I've got orders she isn't allowed near it while its engines are running and they can escape with her and Aidan.” Nori's words were stilted and stiff.
Kima sighed and shook her head. “She was probably just going to greet them.”
“Probably,” Nori agreed. “And if she wasn't?”
Kima splashed her way to the bank, threw her hands up in disgust, and disappeared into the darkness.
The three guards who'd gone with her were stumbling a little as they struggled to carry something large between them.
“What the hell is that?” Nori snapped.
“Dinner.”
There were a few whoops and others jumped in to help carry what seemed to be most of a levik.
Taya turned and slid her arms around Garek. “I'm glad to see you safe and sound.” She rested her head on his shoulder, and let the relief she'd felt earlier reclaim her again.
He smoothed back her hair, and she felt his lips press against the top of her head.
Then he lifted her out of the water, swung her into his arms and carried her up the bank. “All good?”
She nodded, and he glanced over at Rig.
“No trouble.” Rig agreed as he scrambled up behind them.
“Hanson was personally involved all day.” Garek set her down and Taya shook out arms tired from repeated throwing. “It was helpful.”
“But . . .?” Garek had heard the hesitation in her voice.
“I'll tell you when things are quieter.” She meant when they weren't out in the open, surrounded by the Iron Guard.
They moved to the hut they'd been given, and with delight, she and Rig discovered they had a share of the food the sky craft crew had bought on the way home. Garek had brought the sky craft down at a small village on the way back, and once the villagers had gotten over the shock of West Lathorians in a sky raider ship, they'd sold them a butchered levik, fresh bread, and fruit.
Garek had taken a levik leg for their little group, leaving the rest for the camp.
“Did you tell the villagers they were in the presence of their new liege?” Taya asked Aidan as she helped Garek turn the leg over the flame.
She grinned when he nodded.
“There's never a down side to making it known I'm the new liege. And to showing the world we've taken a sky craft. That we're fighting back.” Aidan lifted his shoulders. “That whole valley will know the news by now, and any merchant who comes through that way will, too.”
“Did you see anything interesting?” Rig asked as he flopped down beside the little fire pit they'd taken over near their hut.
Taya knew he would have loved to have gone in the sky craft today, instead of spending his time on the sidelines, watching her try to throw a wooden knife over and over again without using her hands.
“The weather was bad,” Ness told him, and Taya detected a conciliatory tone in her voice. “The clouds covered most of the range. We caught a glimpse of their camp but no details and eventually we had to turn back.”
“We'll have to go back tomorrow.” Aidan was crouched beside the fire, chewing on a piece of fruit.
“I wonder if they're still there,” Garek said. “When Falk and I patrolled that camp two weeks ag
o, training exercises were going on in the yard, but today I didn't see anyone in the quick window of visibility we had.”
“Me, neither,” Ness agreed. “Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.”
“What's the situation here?” Aidan had found a comfortable spot to sit, and he looked at Taya over the tops of his knees. “Will Hanson let us go?”
She shook her head. “I would have said yes before that little scene when you arrived this evening, but that showed us all the truth. They weren't prepared to let Rig and I get anywhere near the sky craft while its engines were running.”
“And your progress?” Garek was watching her over the leap and crackle of the fire between them as they turned the levik, and his eyes gleamed in the firelight.
She shrugged. “It seems my control is naturally better, because my weapons are made with pure shadow ore, whereas their weapons are made of iron mixed with other ores. But because they've had to compromise on that, they're actually more precise than I am. They've had to grow stronger because they're carrying around extra weight which they can't control.”
“What does that mean for you?” Aidan asked, and she could see his mind working as he filed the information away to use later.
“It means they had a lot to teach me today about control. It was hard work, and while I didn't do badly, this is not something that I'm going to excel at overnight. It's going to take practice.”
“What's wrong with that?” Ness sat cross-legged beside her.
“We don't have time for me to train and study for weeks, which is the minimum time to get really good at controlling my weapons with the kind of precision they have.” She twisted her lips in a wry smile. “The sky raiders need to make a move. They've lost their slaves on Shadow and they'll have to decide whether to replace them or come up with an alternative plan. Every day they delay, their sky craft deteriorate more. They have to be decisive. And I have to be ready when they make their move.”
“What do you mean, their sky craft are deteriorating?” Ness asked.
“The metal the sky raiders use corrodes fast in our atmosphere. Faster than iron. At some point, the sky craft will be too dangerous to fly, and it'll disintegrate to a rusted hull.” Garek didn't sound that sad about it.
Shadow Warrior (Sky Raiders Book 3) Page 7