I blinked, my heart stopping.
The old woman nodded. “Now you’re listening.” She sank into the hard-backed chair. “I’ll try to make contact again soon. I’ll use your priestess to find a suitable conduit.”
“What’s your name? Who are you? What are you?”
The old woman stared hard at the door, her voice low. “I am Boubmadnomon.”
I tried to piece that name in my mind.
She licked her wrinkled lips. “We are the Skyborne, Synn. And so are you.”
“What do you—”
Carilyn stumbled forward as if released.
The old woman’s shoulders sank as if the weight of age had suddenly returned. Her back curved forward as she exhaled a long breath. When she looked up at me, her brown eyes were clouded by cataracts. “The El’Asim,” she said, her voice crackly and strained. “Thank you for saving us. Thank you.”
I looked at the window, staring to Neira and Nix, but seeing only myself and Aiyanna. What had we just discovered?
NEIRA MET AIYANNA, CARILYN AND I in the hall. “What was that?”
As if I had any idea. “Do you know what nanites are?”
Her face screwed up in confusion.
Carilyn shook her head, one finger raised, her blue eyes focused inward. “I vaguely recall a report. Um, I’m trying to remember. I think Joshua wrote it? Perhaps. I don’t know for sure. But it mentioned something called nanites. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought it was just some scribbles since none of it made sense.”
“Does that happen often?” I raised my eyebrows.
“You’d be surprised, but, yes. Quite. The scientists and engineers we’ve collected are dedicated to their research, staying up for days, forgetting to eat or drink, and that’s with us practically pouring it down their throats.”
I rubbed my eye. “We need that report.”
“It’s in Sky City.” She turned, the heels of her shoes clicking with each long-legged step. “I’ll retrieve it.”
Moments like this one made me question the people around me. Carilyn had earned my trust more than once. As had Aiyanna, but I wondered at how closely tied they were to the Hands of Tarot.
Did that even matter? My entire life, the Hands of Tarot had been the enemy. My entire life, I’d been wrong. The Great Families weren’t the enemy. The Hands of Tarot weren’t the enemy.
This invisible entity. Boubmando—something.
A star ship? The Skyborne? Could it be more bizarre? More preposterous?
“What did the nanites mean,” Neira said, grabbing Aiyanna’s wrist, “the thing possessing that woman. What did it mean when it said you would find it a suitable host?”
The priestess opened her mouth and shook her head, her shoulders rising.
“You don’t know or you can’t say?” I asked.
Aiyanna flattened her lips for a moment. “I don’t know, but I will ask the High Priestess and see what she knows.”
Neira yanked her hand away from the priestess. “Who can we trust? Our theory was that if people hadn’t been introduced to the liquid—the nanites—they were safe.”
“Something is wrong with our theory.” I pounded my folded thumb against my forehead. “The programmer said the Marks are tied to these nanites. Everyone with a Mark has them. The only people without these nanites are the people with no Mark.”
“They could be in the water, in the ground,” Aiyanna whispered. “None of us are safe.”
“How many people have Marks?” I looked pointedly at Neira.
She thought, then shrugged, her mouth widening. “I don’t know. Less than half of us, I guess.”
Us. “You’re Marked.”
The color drained from her face.
I paced away, then back. “What do we do with the Ino refugees, then?”
Neira didn’t immediately answer.
“I’ll speak to Hehewuti.” Aiyanna broke away and headed down the hall. “She is here. She might offer guidance.”
Hehewuti. Vash name. High priestess of the Hands of Tarot.
Too many connections I didn’t fully understand. How had a member of the Vash tribe become high priestess of the Hands of Tarot?
Neira glanced at the interview door.
“You’re thinking of leaving them all, aren’t you?”
Her eye twitched before she turned to me. “I have to, Synn. I have a people to lead. They could be spies for Ino or this programmer or both.”
“Or they could be good people. This programmer seemed—” I didn’t know what words to say. “She programmed these nanites—whatever that means—to give us a fighting chance. Don’t you think she might be trustworthy?”
Neira tipped her head, her eyes closed. “She said they were going to destroy our world.”
“No.” I swallowed hard. “She said they were going to alter our world so we couldn’t live in it.”
Her brown eyes opened. “How? How would someone do that?”
I raised my shoulders.
“What kind of people could sail the stars?”
“She didn’t seem horrible.”
“But unable to breathe our air.”
I raised my face to the ceiling. “What would it be like to sail the stars?”
The corners of her eyes pinched and her lip curled.
“I sail the skies and I love it, but what it be like to sail the stars? How many planets are out there like ours? How many planets like theirs are there? How many different kinds of creatures?”
She slashed her hand. “We have our own problems down here.”
“We do, but imagine what it would be like to land on a world that was trying to kill you. With its air.”
“I don’t have time for imagining, Synn.” She turned and stalked toward the exit. “I have people to protect. But you, by all means, imagine.”
I felt like a child by her rebuke, but I knew. If I could just understand them, I’d have a better understanding on how to end this war before more people were murdered without a good cause. Let her keep her feet on the ground. As long as she led our people, then I would investigate these nanites and this new foe further. That’s where the real battle lay.
I grabbed one of the Vash as she walked out of an interrogation room. “Can you please have Nix escorted back to her chambers?”
The woman glanced at Neira’s retreating form, then back to me. “I’m not an errand girl, El’Asim. Get one of your own people to run your errands for you.”
I pulled back and bit my lips to keep from saying anything stupid. I was used to people doing as I ordered. I was the El’Asim.
The Vash didn’t seem to think I’d earned that title or that it meant anything.
And after my past performance, who could blame them?
Du’a? I called with my mind.
I am here.
Warmth and peacefulness settled over me at the sound of her voice inside my mind. Can you send someone to retrieve Nix?
Do you want her blindfolded? With the question, came an image of Nix brought to the interrogation arena blindfolded, her hands bound.
Part of me said yes, but another part, the one who had listened and learned something that day, said no. If the Vash are really that interested in keeping their secret areas secret, then they’ll have to escort her back themselves.
An annoyed agreement followed the path of our bond before Du’a’s presence slipped from my mind.
I exited the maze of corridors and rooms and peered ahead. It was dark outside the opaque walls of the lethara. The storm had either blanked out all light, or time had progressed faster than I thought.
I glimpsed Neira’s retreating back to my left and jogged to catch up. She had slipped through an unseen opening in the straight wall that cordoned off this area. I found the small space she’d disappeared through and followed her into what they called a market.
Few stalls filled the area, but people milled around. They prepared their weapons, refilled quivers and tightened bow strings,
checked pistol cartridges.
I frowned. Were we heading to battle? Wouldn’t Neira have mentioned it if we were?
Wait. She had mentioned that a series of islands were under attack. Maybe she was just preparing.
Ryo ran toward me. “There you are!”
I grabbed his arm. “How did you find me?”
“Du’a.” He walked beside me, his strides wide. “We have problems, brother.”
“What?”
“We have word that Peacock Rock is under attack.”
I looked at the darkness beyond the letharan veil again. “Even if we surfaced, we couldn’t take off in this storm. Unless it has passed?”
He gnashed his teeth and shook his head.
Neira had paused, listening to our conversation.
“Did you know Peacock Rock was under attack?” I asked.
She narrowed her eyes. “We do not call it that, but yes.”
“And you said nothing.”
She raised her chin, her eyes narrowed.
“How long have they been under attack?”
“For several hours.”
I straightened my shoulders. “If the Han is nearly as capable as you say, Garrett is in trouble.”
“Trust me,” Neira said, turning to walk away. “Garrett is more capable of pushing the Han back than you might think.”
I really didn’t think so. I’d saved Garrett’s life after I’d been instrumental in destroying his city. Egolda City. He’d taken the few survivors with him and formed what he now called Peacock Rock, a community that lived within the mountain in a small chain of islands. He’d agreed to stay because he and his people would be safe. The caves would protect them from the elements, would provide for them during the long winter, and would hide them, pretty much, from everyone. I jogged after her. “They’re a peaceful people, Neira.”
“You may think so, but they are there because I allowed them to stay. They were allowed because they proved themselves capable.”
“Garrett chose to be neutral.”
“In the fight between the Hands of Tarot and the Great Families. In the fight to protect our lands? I assure you. No.”
“How involved are you in our world?”
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, but didn’t break stride on her way to the elevation platform.
One of my people disembarked, nodded once to me and walked purposefully to the market.
“Where is he going?” Neira asked.
“To collect Nix.”
She stopped at the platform and glared at me. “How does he know where to go?”
I smiled and wagged my eyebrows. I realized I should tell her, but it was nice, finally, to have her in the dark for once. If she pressed the matter, I’d tell her. But how she hadn’t made the connection of the falcons and our ability to share information was beyond me.
She turned back to the platform and boarded. “I’m going up. You go back to your ships.”
I stepped onto the platform with her. “If you’re planning a battle, I’m coming with you. Once this storm breaks, you’ll need my ships.”
She narrowed her eyes, but nodded.
A girl of about the age of eight or nine ran to us before the grate could close. “El’Asim! El’Asim! Come quickly.”
I frowned at her, not knowing who she belonged to. She had the look of El’Asim, though, with the clothes and the dark hair in twin braids, the dark skin, and dark eyes. “Where?”
The girl took Ryo’s hand and dragged him on the platform with us. “To the hospital.”
That got Ryo’s attention. He stopped balking and settled beside me. “It is Oki?”
The girl nodded, her dark braids bouncing with the effort. “Come see. Come see.” She grabbed the rope and tugged.
The elevator platform took us to the hospital and the four of us ran, Neira bringing up the rear. When we burst through the scarf walls, we found Oki sitting on a cot, Chie sitting on one side of her, grasping her hand, Kenta on the other side. Hitoshi stood not far off, keeping his eyes on the surroundings.
Ryo beat me to her cot and knelt, taking her free hand and pressing it to his mouth. “Oki.”
She extracted her hand from Chie and cupped his scarred cheek. “Ryo.”
He brought his forehead down to hers in the Family greeting.
She closed her eyes before pulling away. She studied his face, touching his burn scars lightly. “You lived.”
“I wish I had not,” he whispered.
I stood beside Chie and squeezed Oki’s arm, fighting back the guilt at having saved a life that hadn’t wished to be saved. But I felt that every time he said it. “You’re awake.”
Oki glanced at Kenta. “She was really going to execute me.”
“Yes.” There was so much to catch her up on and I didn’t want to do that while her health was still in question. “Did Doctor Derby or Keeley discover why you slept so long?”
Oki and Kenta exchanged a glance. She shook her head, biting her lips, the silver letharan baubles in her hair chiming with her movement. “I am fine now, that is all that matters.”
I touched the symbols that had denoted her status as ruler of the Ino people. So much had changed in the span of a day.
She pulled them from her ravaged black bun and stared at them. “She was never going to give Ino City to me, was she?”
I couldn’t shield her from the knowledge. There was no point. “No.”
“Makoto?”
I didn’t know how to say it nicely. “He’s pure of blood, pure Ino. We are nothing but the blood bastards she never wanted.”
But what did that mean, now that we knew about the nanites? Did it mean that his connection with the nanites was purer?
Or that he had the nanites in his system that hadn’t been reprogrammed by Bobprano—crap. I really couldn’t remember her name. The programmer. Did it mean that Makoto had the old programming? That he was being controlled by the people who wanted to destroy our world?
Oki released a harsh breath, staring up at the dried flax ceiling, her eyes rimming red. She breathed through her nose and shook herself. “She had a lover. We all knew of him.”
I had not, but that didn’t surprise me. It saddened me as my father had been loyal to her.
“She is going to give Ino City to a male.”
Ino City was matriarchal, which, when I’d been a kid, had puzzled me and infuriated me for Ryo, who was older and should have succeeded her. “It would appear so, unless she intends on living forever. You don’t know with her.”
A flicker of a smile flitted across her lips. “Quite so.”
I sat on the edge of the cot, then stood up again after nearly tipping it.
She moved her feet. “No, sit, Synn.”
I found a place where I wasn’t spilling the cot over. “What happened?”
Oki shook her head. “I knew things weren’t going to go well. Mother wasn’t pleased with the league’s decisions, but I didn’t think she had enough power. I had amassed quite the following. The people of Ino wanted to follow me. But she had me arrested. There was nothing anyone could do. Everyone has family. What will she do to the family members we left behind? Chie’s mother. Ino Izumi is a valued member of Mother’s council, but will her proven loyalty be enough? What of the others who are not as trusted? Will Mother kill them?”
“They’re here.” Though, I didn’t know if “here” meant they were any safer.
Kenta squared his shoulders, his gaze resting on Oki. “Our people are being interrogated, Synn. Why? Are we now prisoners of the Vash?”
I shook my head. They had enough on their shoulders. They didn’t need all the other information I had, too. “It is a precaution. We do this to all refugees we take in.”
“Have you taken in many?” Kenta demanded.
“Yes.” I took in a deep breath and met my sister’s blunt gaze. “I don’t have many of my own people left, but many flock to my banner. They want to join me, but have to be vetted fir
st.”
A ghost of a chuckle escaped her. “Baby brother.”
Worry and anger raged through me. I’d discovered so much information in the past hour alone. The nanites. The Skyborne.
Oki lowered her gaze, her shoulders sagging. “She has her city back. She has seen your new ships, and she has a spy, probably many, in our ranks.”
Neira stepped just into my line of sight. “We have methods to ensure no spies enter our camps. Trust me, Ino Oki. We are well skilled in this.”
“I am no longer Ino,” Oki said fiercely.
Chie shook her head, her face bridled with anger and hurt.
“From now on, we are the Yasu Noriko.”
I blinked in surprise. Though, if I had been in her place, I probably would have done the same thing. I wouldn’t want to be associated with a mother willing and capable of sacrificing her own daughter.
Or decimating nearly an entire tribe—with her daughter and her son on board.
“Where did that come from?” I blurted out. Yasu Noriko was Adelic, so the same language as the El’Asim, which roughly translated to “peaceful law.” But it was just so random.
Oki raised her chin, her gaze lowered. “It is time I acknowledged I am half El’Asim.”
“Then why not take on the El’Asim name?”
“Because,” she said softly, “I am not El’Asim, either. I want a new start with a new name.”
Kenta nodded. “It is a good name.”
I couldn’t argue with it, but it did hurt that my sister did not want my name. “Well, at least you’re safe. We’ll let Neira and Carilyn sort through everyone to determine who are spies and who are safe and then we’ll find you a proper place on the League. It is where you belong.”
Neira cleared her throat.
I tipped my head to the side. “Then, Neira will decide where you are to be placed on the League.”
Oki smiled, then chuckled as she shared a glance with Neira. “We have many things to consider.” Her expression saddened. She gripped Ryo’s hand and released a long sigh. “We have a long, new path before us.”
Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3) Page 16