Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  “To you.” Neira leaned back, releasing a long breath. “They don’t know me.”

  “Then fix that. Join the world.”

  “I don’t know if I want to, Synn. The world looks to you. I only want to keep my people safe, and I’m struggling to do that right now between the Han and Lombardi.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “I…am the wrong person to lead the League.”

  “And I think that such a simple acknowledgement is proof that you are wrong.”

  “No.” I stared at the leather wall behind her. “Look at what I’ve brought to my world, Neira. Destruction, death, thoughtlessness.”

  Her expression remained blank.

  “I don’t help. I am built to destroy.”

  “All of those things were already here. You’re a tool.”

  At some point, I had to admit it. I wasn’t made to lead; not like she was. She understood how to lead. She knew what to do, how to do it. I…needed others to tell me.

  “Hmm.”

  I blinked and lowered my gaze. “I’m lost.”

  “I thought you would seek your vengeance on Tokarz.”

  I winced. “He may or may not have had anything to do with the destruction of my tribe. Ino Nami gave the order and put the plan together.”

  Neira’s dark eyes widened. “No.”

  “I heard her admission with my own ears.”

  “And she lives?”

  I rubbed my jaw.

  Narrowing her eyes, she leaned in. “What happened?”

  I hadn’t even told Aiyanna what had really happened, but I couldn’t keep the truth from Neira. “As we spoke, it was as if something else took control of her body. And there was a voice inside my head.”

  Neira straightened her back, her expression sharpening.

  I flexed my fists and ground my jaw, feeling stupid. “That voice seemed to take control. It made me leave.”

  “Were you made to drink anything?”

  A frown of confusion fluttered between my brows. “I was given a glass of water.”

  She rose. “There is something I should show you.”

  Outside her tent, people began filtering onto the floor, sitting at their family circles, preparing for the evening meal.

  Neira kept her voice low, pulling me to walk shoulder to shoulder with her. “Why aren’t you reacting, Synn?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Ino Nami ordered the destruction of your fleet. Iszak Tokarz admitted he did it, and yet they both still live. Why?”

  Would anyone understand? “In the past, I have been too rash. Everything I’ve done so far has been without thought. Something happens. I react with violence. People die. The last time, hundreds of my people died.”

  “But you did not kill them.”

  “I did so through my ignorance and stupidity.”

  Neira stopped me, gripping my arm firmly. “Your mother murdered your people.”

  “I allowed it to happen. I thought I was smart enough, strong enough, to stand up to her, to bring a new way of life—”

  The palm of her hand smacked against my cheek with enough forced to whip my head to the side.

  My Mark hissed around my neck, but the Mark where she gripped me remained cold. My cheek stung. I brought my gaze back to hers, fury blazing through me.

  “There.” She took a step closer, our bodies centimetres apart. Her dark eyes flashed with violent victory as she whispered, “That is what your people feel, Synn. Your surviving family. Those who flock to you. They feel this anger, this rage, this betrayal. They have different stories, but this is their pain, their fight.”

  “I will not allow my rage to bring about the deaths of any more of my people!”

  “Do not allow your doubt still your action, either!” Her whispered words were accompanied by spittle. “Staying your hand, doing nothing is not smart.”

  “Killing my mother when surrounded by her guards, her loyal people? That wouldn’t have helped anything either.”

  “You really think you would have been killed?”

  I lowered my nose to hers. “I would have done significant damage to their lethara.”

  “So?”

  “That’s what she would have said. I helped destroy a letharan city. They scream. Did you know that? They scream as they fight to keep their people safe—as they die.”

  She punched my arm, pushing me backward a step. “You did not destroy Egolda City. Nix did!”

  “But I hid from her, ignoring the consequences of my actions. Others paid that price for me with their lives and their homes.”

  She released my arm and hit me with the side of her hand. She clawed her fingers, slammed her fist into my chest, and spun away. Her fingers smoothed over her tight braid. As she turned back to me, her tongue running over her bottom lip, she pointed her finger at me, her hand shaking. “You’re a buffoon, Synn.”

  I ran my tongue along my canine, my lips pursed in pissed-off agreement.

  She stepped closer to me, her voice low. “So, you didn’t do great. You didn’t play the smartest moves. Maybe, on your own, you’re not as smart as Ino Nami, or Shankara, or Nix, or anyone else out there who wants to kill you.”

  I swallowed.

  “But they’re pitting themselves against you—the smartest leaders I know are pitting themselves against you. They see something in you that terrifies them.”

  I shook my head, the flame of my rage spent. “I don’t know what that is.”

  She rolled her eyes, and slapped her thighs. “I thought I’d seen something at the games.” She turned away and called over her shoulder. “Too bad you were so easily broken.”

  I choked, my eyebrows high as I scrambled after her. “Broken? Easily? Do you have any idea what I went through? Are the stories just stories to you? Have you never had people you loved taken from you?”

  “Violently,” she spun to shout in my face. “Do you honestly think you’re the only one?”

  “We’re surrounded by people who have lost everything, Neira.”

  “Exactly! We all understand! We’re all feeling what you feel. We’re standing beside you, but we might as well be invisible!”

  I looked away, my gaze roving over the gathering people. They kept their distance, but they watched us.

  Neira gripped my arm and dragged me to the edge of the floor. “Look at those ships, Synn.”

  Even four stories down, they were huge. Easily the biggest ships I’d ever seen. They looked like giant dragonflies from up here.

  “Those are war machines. Tell me all you like that you’re trying to do the smart thing, but we all see what you’ve done. Whether you’re able to admit it to yourself or not, you’ve been preparing for war this entire time. We’ve stood by you, waiting for the day you would take us there. You have a mind for it. You understand it better than most. Just look at those ships, Synn. Look at them.”

  I didn’t have to. I’d designed them…to survive.

  Neira jerked on my arm, though without enough force to actually turn me.

  I obliged.

  She took a breath, forced patience settling over her sharp features. “The time of waiting, of rebuilding, of hiding is at an end. You have your information.”

  I didn’t disagree with her. “But the voice—”

  “And after what I’m about to show you, that will make more sense.” She gripped my face with her hands, her lips pursed, her expression hard. “Now is the time to fight. Let us fight.”

  I knew she spoke the truth.

  I just didn’t know if I was capable of losing everyone around me. That was exactly what would happen if I failed this time.

  She brought my forehead to hers. “Then don’t.”

  SHE RELEASED ME AND TURNED away, her braid clipping my arm. “I’ve been wondering how long it would take you to ask the right questions, to see what was right in front of you.”

  Why were all the women in my life smarter than me? “What?”

  She glanced at me ov
er her shoulder as she led me away from the elevator platform. “The voice.”

  “So you know of it?”

  She latched onto a rope that led straight up.

  It seemed odd as the elevator platform was located on the other side of the floor. Why free-climb a rope when we could take the platform? “You’ve heard of it?” What I really wanted to ask was, So, I’m not crazy?

  She ignored me and climbed instead.

  I’d never seen a rope used to move from one level to the next. Ramps? Yes. Elevator platforms? Yes. Stairs? Yes. This? No.

  When I pulled myself to the next floor, she turned and walked away at a wide-stride pace. “We’ve been researching the voice for turns. It’s one of the many reasons our tribe remained under your ra—dar.”

  A turn was a single set of seasons, which could take anywhere from four to six years. “I don’t understand. Why did you have to hide while researching this?”

  Her lips took on a cocky tilt. “You’ll see. We’re nearly there.”

  I didn’t know where we were. The ceiling from the floor above was closer than normal on a letharan city. And how far had we climbed? Was this somehow a half floor? And how had they hidden it? A letharan city was open all around. It was a jellyfish. Not a lot of room to hide.

  Tall, thick walls rose from the floor all the way to the bottom of the floor above. The area in front of me had been dissected into smaller rooms and a maze of hallways.

  Following, I tried to figure out what the purpose of this area was. First of all, the secret entrance? Second of all, why waste the space this way? What was the intent?

  A scream permeated a door we passed.

  I stopped, listening.

  A man shouted. The door was thick enough I couldn’t quite make out what he said. He spoke Sakin, which was only odd because in Enhnapi, they should have been speaking in Xious. That was, of course, if people knew the language. A people who had spent centurns hiding couldn’t expect everyone to know their language upon entering their city.

  So, if they were speaking in Sakin, they were speaking to one of the Ino. So, who had screamed? Were the refugees I’d brought being tortured?

  Neira tugged on my arm, her head tipped to the side. “Come on. This is something you need to see.”

  A woman screamed again on the other side of the door.

  “What are you doing to them?” My hand on my belt dagger, I reached for the doorknob.

  There was none.

  Neira put her hand on my arm. “Synn, trust me and let me show you.”

  I narrowed my gaze at her. What did I really know about this woman, her tribe, their traditions? What had I subjected the Ino to? Torture? “They’re refugees.”

  “Follow,” she said slowly, “me.”

  How could she be all right with this? It didn’t make sense to me. Torture was torture, and that was wrong.

  But what if what I heard was something else?

  Like what? For the love of sky. A man had yelled. A woman had screamed. There was no way that was innocent.

  Neira entered a room three doors down from the room with the screaming woman. She closed the door behind me. “Your priestess will be joining us soon.”

  A single, stone table dominated the room. Stone. Something that heavy in a letharan city? It didn’t make sense. “Why? Neira, explain yourself.”

  She leaned on her wide-spread palms, her head hanging. After a long moment, she pushed off and knelt, disappearing behind the table.

  I leaned forward, standing on my tiptoe to see her, but failed.

  She rose, shaking something out of her face, two glass jars in hand. She held them, watching me.

  I shook my head and raised a shoulder. “What?”

  “What do you see?”

  Two glass jars? A silver, metallic liquid filled the bottom of both of them. I stooped to peer closer.

  Neira set them in one of the natural dips of the rock table. “Go ahead. Look.”

  Releasing a frustrated breath, I picked up one of the jars and peered inside. The metallic fluid was…alive. It moved. It had a water-like appearance, but it was made up of several smaller, glittering bits, like grains of sand that constantly shifted. “What is this?”

  “We’re not sure.”

  I looked at her over the lid of the jar in my hand.

  “Wait for Aiyanna. She has information.”

  I set the jar down and raked my fingertips along my scalp. “When did you have time to ask her to join us?”

  Neira’s eyebrows rose and a wide smile rode her lips as she chuckled silently. “Synn, you are the one I hadn’t intended to invite to this gathering. I’d requested she and I meet weeks ago.”

  Taking in the room, that’s when I noticed the rectangular planks on each of the eight walls of the room. I’d heard of areas like this. Now that I was thinking, it was highly likely Ino City had an area similar to this one. An interrogation center. The El’Asim never had any reason for such spaces. On the other side of each of those planks, would be a room. In that room, was probably a person, one of the Ino refugees. And they were being tortured.

  Neira folded her arms over her chest, watching me.

  “These people are under my protection.”

  “And had you dealt with them, they would not be in these rooms now.”

  I opened my mouth to speak.

  “But you would also not be allowed to dock in my city.”

  “Aiyanna and Carilyn vet everyone we take in.”

  “You really are the least observant person I’ve ever met.” Neira tipped her head to the side, biting her lip. “How do you survive? How do you lead?”

  I didn’t even know how to answer that.

  “Aiyanna has been working on this project with the Vash for years. Carilyn was introduced to it about a few months ago. She helped us discover personality tells, ways to determine if a person has been infected before we test them.”

  “Test them?”

  Neira looked away. “I won’t lie, Synn. The test is harsh and sometimes, the people don’t survive.”

  The door opened.

  Nix stumbled into the room first, her hands bound in front of her, her eyes hiding behind a blindfold. She spun. “Is this really necessary?”

  A man entered the room and guided her out of the way.

  Aiyanna stepped lightly into the room, her hands spread to guide her blindfolded steps.

  Her guard held one hand. He released her and undid her blindfold. “We have arrived.”

  Aiyanna blinked several times. Her gaze landed on Neira. A soft smile lit her face as she bowed, her hands palms together in front of her face.

  Neira returned the gesture.

  “Are we there yet?” Nix slapped her bound hands against her thighs. “Can I please be allowed to see?”

  “Cola,” Neira chided, “you did not need to leave her blind.”

  The dark man snorted, but removed the blindfold.

  Nix took in the group and tsked. “And here I had high hopes of an entertaining evening for once.”

  Neira shook her head slightly. “She can be untied.”

  I didn’t know the men, but I had seen them before in the past several months. They didn’t hesitate in following Neira’s instructions.

  “Synn,” Aiyanna said, her voice full of surprise.

  I took a few steps away from her, maneuvering the table between us. “You’ve been a part of this for years?”

  She closed her eyes, her mouth open. When she reopened them, she licked her lips. “I was sworn to secrecy.”

  “What other things don’t I know about you?”

  “Quite a few, actually.” Aiyanna snorted, her chin jutted forward. “Do you even realize that in all this time, you only started asking me about my life today?”

  “I know about you.”

  “No.” She looked away in disgust. “You know what you think you know. That I am a priestess. That I don’t have a life. That I sit around praying and reading cards all day and all
night.”

  Both of my eyebrows rose. “And what do you do instead?”

  She pierced with her gaze, normally so soft. “I help people, Synn. The people of this world, not simply the people of my clan.”

  Nix chortled in the corner.

  I gnashed my teeth. Everyone knew so much more than I did. Why?

  Because they cared. Because they were smarter. Because they were more observant.

  I could be angry or I could try to do as they had done and open my eyes. I really just wanted to lash out, but my anger wasn’t at them. It was at myself. How could I claim to be a leader when I didn’t see the world around me, hear the people who surrounded me? What kind of lover could I be if I never asked questions? If never sought to know the person more than what they presented themselves to be?

  Aiyanna slid her hand in mine. “I am glad you’re here. I wanted to tell you months ago.”

  “He wasn’t ready then.” Neira set another jar on the table with a clank. “He had the temerity to ask a question. I thought it deserved an answer.”

  Nix stepped forward, running a rough-nailed finger along the uneven edges of the stone table. “Why are we here, akicita.”

  That was a new term. “What did you just call her?”

  “Relax.” Neira chuckled softly. “She called me a peacekeeper.”

  “Oh.” I wasn’t even going to ask how Nix knew Neira’s language better than I did. I’d learned enough to survive, to be able to follow most conversations. And in Enhnapi, we followed a lose set of language rules. We spoke them all. So, if we didn’t know a word in the language we were using at the time, we’d replace it with one we did know.

  It didn’t escape my notice, however, that Neira chuckled. She seemed at ease, something I’d never seen in her before. She’d always been uptight, rigid. She knew Aiyanna enough to relax. Nix as well.

  How well did she know Nix? How was Aiyanna connected to all of this? I had thought the Vash had been cut off from the world, but I was beginning to realize they’d simply been removed from the politics of my world.

  Aiyanna cleared her throat. “All right, Synn. Let’s begin. The Seven Great Families devoted a great deal of energy to maintain the purity of blood.”

  Nix pushed away. “Tell me you did not bring me out here for a history lesson.”