The guard looked between them. “No trouble,” he said, and raised his gun again. Something in the way he held it was too eager, as if he'd had enough of petty squabbles. The other guard moved closer.
“Why do they say you don't belong on their side?” Taya forced her suddenly weak legs to move, forced herself into the open ground between the groups. She caught Kas's head shake, the flare of temper on his face, and ignored it.
“My father was Illian. They've said over and over I should return to the land of my father. They've said it since I was a child. They even call me Min of the Illy. When they aren't calling me witch.”
The Kardanx bared his teeth at her.
“If she is of both places, and the Kardanx have said she should be on our side, not theirs, why are you making trouble?” Taya addressed the Kardanx, and he turned his bared teeth in her direction.
“Yes.” The guard was watching her. Although she couldn't see through the tint of his window now, she remembered the intent, focused yellow gaze from the guard at the mine site, and forced a little more steel into her spine to keep her legs from trembling. The guard turned back to the Kardanx, and the hum of his gun engaging could be heard by all. “Why are you making trouble? Again?”
“He is not.” An older man stepped forward, level with his big compatriot. “There is no trouble. The woman can go to the side of her choosing.”
There was silence for a beat, then the guard disengaged the gun, and everyone let out a breath.
“Disperse.”
As if the bell had been rung for a town meeting, everyone was suddenly in motion, moving to their shelters, or the open cooking areas.
The woman stood alone and uncertain.
“You can never stop. Never leave well enough alone.” Kas stood beside her, his anger coming off him like sparks from a fire.
“Whatever happened here, it was far from well enough.” Taya gritted her teeth.
“Well, she's your responsibility, then. You can ease her into the camp.”
Taya lifted her shoulders. She hadn't expected anything else. She took a step towards the woman. Min, she'd called herself.
“And Taya? We have to talk. About before. At the mine.”
Taya knew it. She looked over her shoulder, gave a reluctant nod.
Kas rubbed a tired hand over his face. “And be careful of that Kardanx. By the look on his face today . . .” He shook his head. “If he gets you alone, he'll kill you.”
Chapter 5
“Here it is.” Lait Pollar, the town master, opened the door of the small storage room within his stables, and pointed to a wooden chest.
Garek opened the door a little wider, to let in more light, and saw the small space must hold the full contents of Kas's house. Some of the things were Taya's and he forced himself to turn away from them, pull the strongbox out, and close the door.
“I put the money, and all of Kas's letters in there.” Lait handed him the key.
When it was open, Garek saw there was a fair sum inside. He was surprised Pollar had left it untouched, or if he had helped himself, he couldn't have taken much. There were parchments addressed to Kas scattered amongst the money bags, and then, in a substantial pile, the letters Taya had written to him.
He pulled the money out, put it in the sack he'd brought along, and then chose three letters. One from the bottom, one from the middle, and the one from the very top. He would read the rest when he had her safe again.
There was a small crowd around them, mostly from Pan Nuk, but a few local Haret townspeople as well. When he rose from his crouch, Pollar put a hand on his arm.
“You aren't going to bring Garamundo down on us, are you?”
There was silence as everyone absorbed that. Realized the possibility.
“I'll try to do it without them knowing who has stolen the craft.” Garek hefted the money bag over his shoulder. He reached down for a second bag at his feet, the bag he'd brought with him from Garamundo, with everything else he owned.
“And if they realize it's you?” Pollar's voice was panicked.
Garek smiled, and Pollar took a quick step back. “I'm from Pan Nuk not Haret. Send them there, if they come to give you trouble about this.”
“You don't play games with Garamundo. They won't accept us sending them to Pan Nuk. They'll be looking to make an example.” It was the guard master. He leaned against the door frame to the stable, and there was a tic in his cheek, as if he was having difficulty holding himself under control.
Garek shrugged. “I'll try to be discreet.”
“Try very hard.”
Garek cocked his head. “You seem to know a lot about how Garamundo will react.”
“It's my job to know. My job to keep them informed. I can't inform them of what you're about to do, because they'll want to know why I didn't stop you. So make sure they don't find out.”
“Did you tell Garamundo about what happened at Pan Nuk?” Garek heard the way his voice dipped lower.
Pollar and the guard master exchanged a look, and it was Pollar who replied. “We did.”
“Exactly how long ago was everyone taken?” Something was building in him. Something dangerous and hot.
“Two months.” Lait tripped over the words.
“So.” He took a breath. Taya had been in their hands for two months. Two months wasted walking the guard walks of Garamundo, looking for sky raiders. Sky raiders who had already taken everything precious to him.
“You sent them a report. Did you ask them to tell me what had happened?” He knew he was drawing the Change. The room was fading in and out of clear detail.
“We did.” The guard master's voice was low, almost guttural.
“Funny, they didn't pass the message on.” He was drawing more and more air to him, until the room was thick with it. Almost too thick to breathe.
“They wouldn't pass it on, and you know it.” It was Opik, his voice, fearless and calm, helped Garek find his own inner peace. Helped him bring it down a notch. “They were already keeping you longer than is allowed. If they told you, you would have come home, no matter what, and they would not have had much recourse to stop you.”
“Yes. That's exactly what happened.” Garek could picture Utrel, the guard master of Garamundo, reading the report and then flicking the parchment across his desk, his mouth in its familiar thin line. He'd have had no problem hiding what had happened in Pan Nuk from Garek. Especially with only two months left of his conscription.
Garek's cold fury at the thought was tempered by knowing the rage Utrel would feel when someone stole the sky raider craft from the city. The satisfaction of that helped to bring him fully back from the Change.
“I can help you.” Opik held something in his hand, and Garek realized it was a travel sack, much like his own.
“How so?” He didn't have time to wait for old men. He planned to call one Change a day. Enough to get to Garamundo fast, but not be too tired when he got there.
“You aren't the only one here who calls the air Change, Garek.” Opik pulled a little Change to himself, draping it around him for a single moment, and then releasing. “And I grew up in Garamundo, I can smooth your way there.”
Garek considered. He couldn't approach the friends he had made amongst the guard, not without endangering them, and himself. He could use a helper. “If you can keep up.” He gave a cool nod.
“I think I can.” Opik tipped his head to look Garek in the eye. “You aren't looking forward to going back.”
“I swore I'd never set foot in Garamundo again.” He closed a tight fist around the necks of his sacks.
Opik rocked back. “Something tells me they'll wish you didn't have cause to return, either.”
When Taya washed the grit and sand from the mine off her, she felt calmer. More her old self than before.
Even though it made sense that she would be happier when she was clean, she couldn't help but think the sand itself had something to do with it. When she touched it to brush it off h
er skin and clothes, it was as if something reared its head inside her. Like she was hungry but didn't know for what.
She scooped water from the bucket in front of her, and sluiced her arms, the water dripping onto the rough hessian sacks they had laid as a mat over the meager grass of the river bank.
No one would get into the river itself. The water was dark and cold, and they couldn't see the bottom. Instead they'd taken to scooping buckets of it up and washing on the bank and hauling what they needed for cooking and drinking back to the open kitchens to boil.
Beside her, Min, the Kardanx woman, shivered as she lifted her tunic over her head. They had the privacy of the dark of early evening, and a thick sheet strung between two poles to shield them from view.
“Thank you.” Min splashed water on her body and rubbed, keeping her eyes down. “For earlier, at the mine, and here in the camp.”
Taya pulled her own tunic off, hurrying to get the wash over with as fast as possible. Now the Star had set in the night sky the air was turning cooler by the minute. “I couldn't let you go back there against your will.”
“The man in charge of your side. He was angry with you for doing it. Will you have trouble?” Min rubbed herself with a small square of cloth lathered with soap smelling of warm, sweet spices, and rinsed herself.
“I won't have trouble with Kas. He's my brother.”
Min picked up a towel to dry herself and looked across, her dark hair clinging in wet tendrils to her neck and shoulders. “I'm sorry he's unhappy to have me here.”
“He isn't unhappy you're here. He's angry I risked myself.” Taya shrugged, and took the soap from Min. It smelled more lovely than anything she'd ever used before.
While she washed, she watched Min pull on a bright green silk gown. It had short sleeves, but swirled down to her feet, clinging to her body where it was still damp.
The clothes the sky raiders provided for them never failed to bemuse Taya. That went for the soaps and the towels, the sheets and the pillows, too. Whoever was in camp was made to unload the transporter when it arrived, carrying everything the sky raiders stole from Barit to a small tent just off the landing area. Everyone called it the Stolen Store.
She guessed some of the things must have been raided from a rich merchant train between Kardai and one of the far countries to the east. Some had definitely come from Garamundo or Juli, from the traders coming or going from the two big cities of West Lathor. She lifted up the pale blue robe she had chosen to sleep in tonight, with its silver embroidered edging and wide sash.
This one could well have come from the castle of the liege of West Lathor.
“Do you think they do this on purpose?” Min fingered the silk bodice of her gown, and then leaned forward to touch the silver thread edging Taya's robe. “Do they understand the strangeness of working all day down a mine, in the filth and dust, and then coming back to these clothes, this soap?” She shook her head. “The soap alone would be a month's wages where I come from. And the gown.” She pulled the skirt out and let it go, let it twirl around her. “I would never have worn a gown like this in my old life. That I wear it here makes me nervous.”
“I don't think they know. Or if they do, they don't care.” Taya dipped her fingers into a jar of perfumed lotion and smoothed it into her hands, rough and callused from hauling rocks. “They don't care if they steal from the rich merchant trains or small, poor villages. And there are goods from both in the Stolen Store. They're stealing right now--” she pointed to the large crescent in the night sky that was Barit, “to get us food. Whatever they scoop up with the food they'll dump in camp as well. It's nothing to them but a way to keep us alive, warm, and able to work.”
Min followed her finger. “Why do you point there?”
Taya frowned at her. “Because that's Barit. Right there.” She took Min's hand and lifted her index finger to the correct place.
Min's hand shook beneath her own. “How do you know?”
“The position of the constellations. And there is Lanora.” She moved her hand to Barit's moon. “We're on Shadow. Barit is just where it should be.”
Min sat. Almost dropped straight down onto the ground. “This is Shadow?” She reached out a hand and patted the ground, as if to make sure it was still beneath her.
“Yes. You didn't know that?”
Min shook her head. “If some of the Kardanx know, they haven't shared it with the rest of us. Certainly not with the women.”
“It's no secret.” Taya wound a towel over her hair and squeezed out as much water as she could. “We can see Barit, and the Star warms us, just as it did on Barit, but that doesn't make escape any more likely.”
“No. But it doesn't feel so terrible, somehow. So frightening. I know about Shadow.”
Taya tipped her head up to look at the sky. “I think that's why we were taken. I was taught at school that Shadow was once part of Barit, back when the Star was young. That something happened and a big part of the planet was smashed off and became Shadow. Even if the plants and animals aren't exactly the same, you can see what their cousins on Barit would be. We can survive here.”
“That's why the sky raiders hide inside those metal suits. They can't survive here.” There was an edge to Min's voice, a certainty.
Taya snorted. “Even whatever their ships are made of can barely survive. Do you see how quickly it breaks down? That's why the transporters lift off into the sky every night. Not so we can't take one over and commandeer it, but because every moment it's down here, it's rusting that much faster.”
“The guards' suits, too.” Min lowered her voice. “They are getting worse and worse.”
“Taya.” Kas's voice came from a few feet away. “Are you finished?”
Taya stepped out from behind the sheet. “Yes. Sorry. Didn't mean to take so long. Where will Min sleep?”
Kas looked back at the camp, then to her again. “Pilar moved in with Noor a few days ago. He says Min can take his old tent.
Min stepped out from behind her. “Thank you.”
Kas gave a shrug. “It's Taya you need to thank.” He waited for them to join him, and Taya could see the strain around his eyes, and the worry.
She knew most of it was for Luca. An impossible journey away, and on his own.
They'd been taken so fast, so violently, they didn't even know what had happened to those who hadn't been taken with them. Thinking back to that cold, cruel interest in the eyes of the sky raider guard at the mine, she shivered.
But some of the worry tonight was because he was convinced she'd started to call the Change at the mine site. He hadn't said anything to her in the transporter, for fear of listening ears, and they hadn't had a chance since then, but she knew it was weighing on him.
It was certainly weighing on her.
No one from the Illy could call their Change properly since they'd come here.
Kas thought it was because, while Shadow had once been part of Barit, and was similar, the air wasn't exactly the same. It was a little harder to breathe here, everyone was out of breath more quickly.
The sand was different, too, not completely so, but enough for it to be noticeable.
Those who had tried to call the Change, out of sight of the watchful eyes of the guards, behind canvas and wooden walls, could only sustain it for a few minutes, before they were forced out.
Kas called the earth Change, and he could barely lift a thin line of sand from the ground, and even that was a struggle.
Of the six Changed amongst them here on Shadow, every one had a similar experience.
The problem was, Taya wasn't one of them. She had never been able to call the Change.
Until now.
Chapter 6
They ate their meal around the fire with Min, Pilar, Noor, Quardi and a few others; Harvi, one of the farmers who lived just outside Pan Nuk, and his wife, Pec, along with their two sons who helped them with the leviks. Jerilia sat with them, much quieter than usual, but composed and calm.
> It had been Kas and Pilar's turn to make dinner for the Pan Nuk villagers tonight, and it was as eclectic a mix as the clothing.
The sky raiders had taken all the leviks with them when they'd raided Pan Nuk, with enough hay and grass to sustain them on the journey to Shadow. But once they were here, they'd died of starvation in two weeks, unable to get the sustenance they needed from the strange grasses and vegetation.
Harvi and Eli, another Pan Nuk farmer who worked the night shift, had watched at first with horror, and then cold anger, as both their flocks, built up over a lifetime, collapsed and died.
They'd eaten nothing but levik for over a week after that, until the left-over carcasses had spoiled and had to be buried.
There had been a growing fear of starvation in the camp, but they needn't have worried. The sky raiders weren't about to let production slow due to lack of food. Particularly when they could steal it from Barit.
When the last carcass was buried and everyone had gone over a day with nothing to eat at all, a big transporter had arrived. The guards had organized the unloading of crates, shimmering with condensation from their time in cold storage. Exotic foods Taya had never seen, as well as very familiar local Illian dishes. The whole of Barit was their marketplace, and if there was anything to enjoy about this experience, Taya didn't know whether the clothes or the food were better.
Tonight's dinner was fish, char-cooked over a hot fire, and tiny green peas, eaten raw, so sweet and plump they exploded in her mouth. The bread was buttery, with a crusty texture and a musky spice mixed through it, warmed over hot coals.
She ate sitting next to Quardi, as she always did; making sure he was comfortable, checking on his legs and how they were healing, bringing his food to him. He loved the fuss, and she loved him. Even if he hadn't been Garek's father, she would have loved him, but because he was, there was no filter on her heart when it came to him.
It was the memory of Quardi, lying crumpled on the ground outside the mine, that had forced her to approach the guard today. To make sure Kas didn't end up their victim, too.
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