Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  We rose above the random planks of flax, and came to the third level of the city. Here’s where our market was. It wasn’t much. We had a few shops, but the Vash had very little need for markets. It was a nomadic gathering place where Neira’s people could come and trade as they willed. Most of that occurred in the wilds still, anyway.

  The fourth level of the city housed Keeley’s hospital. Technically, it belonged to Doctor Derby, but I barely knew the man, and I knew how much time Keeley had invested in the place.

  The platform stopped and we got off, pushing against the wind as a sudden gust tore through. The Maizah, Najmah, and Jihan dropped out of the storm, preparing to land at the docks. I narrowed my gaze, waiting for the sixth and final ship to leave the storm. A moment or two later, the Karida joined them.

  To the unknown eye, they looked pretty much the same. But the Karida was marginally smaller and her accentuating copper lines were painted blue. The Maizah was longer and shorter, and her copper lines were straight, no artwork, and were unpainted. The Basilah dwarfed them all, longer, taller, wider. Her copper lines flowed like Sakin letters and were painted red.

  They were all beautiful, though.

  My feet hadn’t stopped while I was checking on my fleet. The floor was wide and open with very little to interfere with traffic coming in or out. The hospital itself was nothing more than a few curtain walls of varying colors. They’d used whatever pieces of material they could get their hands on. Doctor Derby had wanted more permanent walls of flax or something stronger, but we lacked the materials he’d requested.

  The silk curtains stretched the width of the floor, but only about half the depth. The lethara’s tendrils worked to keep the area tidy, something older letharan couldn’t do. He lowered his screen from his hood. Within moments, the wind was blocked, though I could still hear it whistle through the levels directly below us. The rest of the Khayals still needed to dock and the screen wouldn’t complete its journey to the water until they were all safely inside.

  I burst through the deep blue silk curtains. “Keeley!”

  The space inside the make-shift hospital was open. Cots were neatly arrayed in long rows, inviting colored blankets folded on top of each of them. Along the back, more curtains were hung. Keeley’s workspace.

  “Keeley!”

  A tall man walked out of the back, letting the magenta curtain swish behind him. “Admiral El’Asim, Keeley is busy. Can I assist?”

  I watched Doctor Derby with a careful eye. His pale hair was feathered back, his blue eyes sparkling behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles. He shoved his hands in the large pockets of his brown overcoat as he walked at a slightly hurried pace. Keeley hadn’t agreed to see me in months. The last time we’d been together, I’d terrified her. Would I ever see my friend again?

  I sighed and gestured to Oki lying limp in Kenta’s arms. “My sister. We took her from Ino City where she was being held for execution. I believe my mother might have given her something to induce sleep or worse. Her breathing is steady, but she will not wake.”

  Doctor Derby quickened his pace. He gestured to a cot, pulling a device out of his pocket. He shoved the curved tips into his ears, and placed the device located on the end of a string against Oki’s chest. “How long has she been like this?”

  Kenta knelt beside the cot. “About two hours.”

  The doctor narrowed his eyes and stashed his instrument, opening her eyelids and peering inside. He nodded curtly and rose. “I will need you to leave so Keeley and I can work. When we know something, we’ll send for you.”

  Kenta ground his teeth. “I am not leaving.”

  Doctor Derby sighed. “The rest of you must leave. You, do not get in our way.”

  I had to trust in my friend and I had to trust in the man she trusted more than she trusted me. I just hoped Oki would survive whatever Mother had done to her.

  Enhnapi: Aiyanna

  AIYANNA DISEMBARKED FROM THE LAYAL with no clear intentions, as was normal as of late. In her training to become a priestess, she’d always been busy. Leisure was a luxury a priestess could ill afford.

  Oh, but here. She rested her hand on the outer skin of the Layal and almost imagined she could feel the ship shiver.

  The veil of Enhnapi’s lethara was in place, cutting off the torrential winds of the incoming storm. She recalled as a child living on the ocean boats through storms like this. Typhoons. Well, now that they were on land, she supposed it was called a hurricane, though why a storm gained a new name simply because it came into contact with land was something she didn’t understand.

  The Ino refugees were herded from the cargo hold and onto the docks. They looked around them, some of them realizing the danger they might be in. Who could say if this life would be any greater, any safer than if they’d stayed in Ino City?

  Yet, here they were, and it was time to vet them.

  Did Synn have any idea what that even meant? The man was so clueless, saw so little of his world. She couldn’t comprehend how someone with so much potential could see and experience so little.

  She had to stop being mean. She was just stressed. Synn had done a good thing in saving as many of the Ino citizens as he could. That was the thing that kept drawing her toward him. When she’d first met him in the cell in the House of Swords, he’d been an angry young man, confused and unsure of what he was supposed to do.

  He’d grown, though. The man he was becoming was strong, smart, and kind-hearted. But, more than that, he was just. He didn’t punish for the sake of power. He didn’t need to seek power. He had everything he needed and wanted.

  He was a good man and that warmed her heart in ways she was afraid Tarot wouldn’t understand. Priestesses were allowed to marry, have children, but she was a high priestess. She hadn’t read anywhere that she wasn’t allowed to have a family outside of Tarot, but she’d never heard of a priestess who had before.

  “Aiyanna.” A woman in the traditional dress of the Vash approached her, her hands raised in front of her face.

  A thrill of welcome rushed through her, but a thread of apprehension followed it. “Nu’ami.”

  The other woman stopped and spread her hands and beamed a smile.

  Aiyanna’s smile widened as she gathered her sister priestess in a warm hug. They’d been friends since the day the Hands of Tarot had taken Aiyanna in as a young girl.

  “It has been too long.”

  Pulling back, Aiyanna looked at Nu’ami for the first time in over three years. The girl had grown a full head taller, at least. Her curly, dark hair was tied back and covered in a blue and pink scarf. Scrawny as ever, her leather patchwork tunic and leggings seemed to hang off of her. “Do you ever eat?”

  Nu’ami elbowed her. “I eat like a ganglo lizard. That hasn’t changed.”

  “You do at that.” Ganglo lizards ate their weight in food every day. Aiyanna wrapped her arm around the other woman’s shoulders and walked hip-to-hip up the dock. “What brings to you to me, sister?”

  “Someone sent me to fetch you.”

  Aiyanna pulled her head back, looking at Nu’ami from the corner of her eye. “Who?”

  The other woman took a step back. “Hehewuti.”

  “No.” Aiyanna’s mouth gaped for a moment. The high priestess, one of the few people in the Hands of Tarot that ranked higher than the four queens. She wanted to speak to her? “Here?”

  “Where else would she be?”

  “In Sky City.” Where the Hands of Tarot belonged. Blessed Tarot, what had she been thinking, reveling in the freedom she’d discovered on board Synn’s ship, in this city? She was a servant of Tarot.

  “Yanna.” Nu’ami tipped her head to the side. “Her people are here. Sky City is not, nor will it ever be her home.”

  Hehewuti had been born here at Lake Chatan in the Vash clan. And yet, for the past few turns, she hadn’t returned home. Not once in almost twenty years.

  Aiyanna had a feeling she knew why the high priestess was there. She’d
been receiving odd dreams as though Tarot were speaking directly to her.

  Had Tarot chosen her? Would he overtake her as he had the others he had chosen? She hoped not. She didn’t want that life anymore. Before Synn, she would have been happy with that, but now? No.

  She wanted more time, more time to live, to be free.

  “Come on,” Nu’ami said, wrapping her arm around Aiyanna’s waist. “I’ll take you.”

  In truth, Aiyanna didn’t need a guide. Now that she was aware of the high priestess’ arrival, she could feel where Hehewuti was. She walked with Nu’ami anyway, afraid of what that meant. “Tell me what you’ve been doing while we were apart.”

  Nu’ami beamed a grin up at her. “Well, as you recall, I was assigned the Vash tribe as soon as I graduated.”

  Which had irked Aiyanna immensely. Of the two girls, Aiyanna had scored higher in everything and had a deeper connection to Tarot. So when Nu’ami had been called away to mission, it had hurt. However, now, she realized why. Her mission was Synn, and had been all along. The only thing was that Aiyanna couldn’t be sent on “mission” to find him. She’d had to wait for him.

  “I have a family here, Yanna. A real family. I have a husband now, a child.”

  “A child.” Aiyanna expelled a shocked breath, her feet stopping.

  Nu’ami turned to face her. “Yes. Can you believe it? We are so happy, the three of us. And his mother and father have accepted me.”

  “And Tarot allowed you to marry?”

  “Oh, Yanna,” Nu’ami said with a throaty laugh, “Tarot does not demand celibacy. He wants us to intermingle, to carry our light to the people and how best than to live with them?”

  “And do these people believe in Tarot?”

  “Does faith of anyone matter to Tarot?” Nu’ami flattened her smile, her eyebrow raised.

  Aiyanna rolled her eyes. She knew better. “All I mean is, do they truly accept you?”

  Nu’ami lifted one shoulder. “They do not always agree with me, but, yes, they accept me.”

  “Well, then,” Aiyanna said with a breathy whisper. “I am happy for you.”

  Nu’ami returned the hug and continued walking through the shanties made of leather hide. “She has been here for a day already, Hehewuti. I think she came specifically to speak to you.”

  Which did not bode well for her. “After I am finished with the high priestess, perhaps we could rejoin and swap more stories.”

  “You could join us at the family fire tonight.”

  Aiyanna forced a smile. “I would deeply enjoy that.” A family fire. A husband. A child. Were those things forsaken for her? Had she simply assumed she couldn’t have a family? Would it be possible for her to settle down? With Synn?

  Would he even want to? She represented something he hated. Would he ever look at her the same way she sometimes thought of him?

  Hehewuti’s pull was hard to ignore. It tugged at Aiyanna’s heart like a signal fire beaconing home. She stopped outside a hut and turned to Nu’ami. “I will see you tonight, then, at the family fire.”

  Nu’ami frowned, looking further ahead. “This isn’t the tent.”

  Aiyanna winced, ducked her head, and pasted on a smile that was meant to dispel any concern. “Tarot has led me here. Trust me. This is where I am meant to be.”

  A light shone in Nu’ami’s eyes as they widened slightly. She blanked all emotions from her face and nodded. “Of course.”

  Sighing, Aiyanna ducked into the tent.

  Three people sat in a circle around a small fire bowl. They did not look up when she entered. They kept their legs crossed, their eyes closed, their faces pointed to the sky.

  Hehewuti was not among them.

  Skirting around them, she pulled aside a blue scarf and discovered the high priestess tucked behind it, her position similar to the others sitting in the center of the hut, but her eyes were open, waiting. Watching. Scarves of varying shades littered the floor around her. Her gray and silver hair cascaded freely down her back. Her face, free of the wrinkled ravages of time, shown in the slight light penetrating the leather walls. How old was the high priestess? She seemed ancient, but looked young.

  Aiyanna kept her emotions in check and sank to the hard plank floor, resting the backs of her wrists on her knees. She said nothing, as nothing needed to be said. She closed her eyes instead and let her mind seek the flows of life around her, the calming presence of Tarot.

  Calm was not what he offered.

  Her breath caught in her throat. Screams echoed emptily to her ears. Flashes of light like flaring fire storms filled her vision.

  “War is coming,” Hehewuti said quietly.

  Everyone knew it, even though many hoped it could be averted. Ino Nami wanted war too badly, though why? Why?

  “He is not ready.”

  Aiyanna didn’t have to ask who “he” was. Synn. He’d been the center of too many readings, too many visions. The will of this war centered on him.

  Hehewuti’s brilliant blue eyes flashed as she latched onto Aiyanna’s wrist. “You must bring him into the fight. Bring his heart. Bring his mind. His soul must lead this war.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  The high priestess pulled back, closing her eyes, her expression blank. “We will no longer have a world to call home.”

  Enhnapi: Keeley

  KEELEY PUSHED BACK HER CURLY red hair and studied Oki’s blood through the lens of Carson’s microscope. She’d gotten over her amazement of it months ago, but a thrill of excitement still filled her each time she placed a slide onto it. The red blood cells appeared fine.

  Carson worked at the table behind her, several tubes of glass propped up in a stand before him. Each one was filled with a different color. He took a dropper and released some of Oki’s blood into each.

  “What are you looking for?” Keeley asked in Keltak. It was nice having someone to speak her language with. No accents to have to listen through. No struggling to find the right word in the right language only to find the wrong word in the wrong language.

  “A reaction.” He set the dropper in the bin beside him and expelled a breath. “I have a theory as to what’s wrong with our patient, but it’s not good.”

  Keeley removed her slide from her scope and placed it in the same bin as the dropper. “What do you think it is?”

  Carson pressed his lips together. “Let’s wait to see wha’ we discover before I go running off at the mouth, yeah?”

  She raised her eyebrows and secured the vial of blood in the cool storage.

  “You have to see him eventually, you know.” Carson glanced at Keeley from beneath his nearly invisible eyelashes. “I can’t keep hiding you forever.”

  “I know,” she whispered. The last time she’d seen him, his all-consuming wrath had terrified her. She didn’t know if she could handle it again. She’d trusted him with her life once, had felt safe with him, but she’d stood beside him.

  Until the day he’d turned his lava on her.

  They’d been talking. He’d been working on his plans. Something had angered him. She didn’t even know what. Maybe it was something she’d said. She couldn’t even remember.

  The next thing she recalled, his lava surrounded her, heating the air rapidly, choking the breath from her lungs, flushing her face until it felt as if her skin was starting to peel back. Her clothing constricted. The smell of her hair burning assaulted her nostrils.

  And the rage streaming from his blue eyes was directed at her.

  She’d never forget that. Ever.

  He’d caught himself. He’d recalled his Mark. He’d apologized profusely.

  He scared her now and she wasn’t getting over it any time soon. She’d thought being his friend would be enough to help him, that she could somehow keep him from the edge.

  But the destruction of his Family had been too much, too much for her to be able to help. She wasn’t strong like everyone else.

  “I understand, Miss Bahrain. I really do,
but he does seem to be doing much better than before.”

  Keeley shook her head, licking her lips. She didn’t have to ask if he was reading her mind. He read her as if she was a book.

  “Look, dove, do you want to be a terrified mustrat for the rest of your life?”

  Mustrats were disgusting rodents with multi-fingered noses. They were scared of their shadows and rarely came out from the dirt. “No.” She glared at him, rearranging the gauze on the long table. “I just need more time.”

  Carson sighed and turned to the man who entered their area. “You’ve been hiding for two months, Miss Bahrain. How much more time do you need?”

  She wanted to yell at him, to tell him he was wrong that she had every right to react as she had.

  “Mr. Farlow,” Carson said with a sigh. “You have the Khayals properly stocked, I hope.”

  The medic nodded. “I believe we are as ready as we ever will be.” His accent was ruddy and Keeley couldn’t place him, but that was more common than not lately. This new world Synn had built.

  What had he thought? That he could change the world and no one would strike back? That Nix wouldn’t want to destroy his Family as she’d destroyed the Bahrains, or the Fursts, or the Umira? Yes, Keeley had heard Iszak Tokarz claim responsibility for the crimes on the El’Asim, but he was a bottom feeding leech. The man could be cruel, but he wasn’t smart enough to blow nearly an entire fleet of ships out of the air without a single cannon, a single gun.

  It had to be Nix. It made sense, too, why the Hands had agreed to sign the treaty. Queen Dyna was many things. Stupid was not one of them. No. She’d turned Nix over to the League of Cities as a bargaining chip to be allowed to align with the league.

  The Hands of Tarot. The destroyer of tribes, of her tribe, aligned with the League of Cities as a beacon of hope?

  Keeley wanted to vomit.

  And Nix? Why was she still alive? Her war crimes against the tribes was undisputed. She should be dead.

  Keeley missed the days in Sky City when things were simple. She’d worked in the laboratory with her brother, studied with her best friend, Yvette. Back then, there had been no danger, no worries.