She noticed Min had taken her food cautiously, but she soon relaxed and struck up a friendship with Noor and Pilar, and ate the bread with gusto, as if it were familiar to her.
It tasted like something that would come from Kardai.
Eventually everyone drifted off to bed, and she was alone with Kas in the small structure they'd built from planks of wood and thick gray canvas. She took off the strange open shoes she'd found with the clothes, with their gossamer thin straps that wove over her feet in a complex pattern, and sank down onto her mattress.
It was thick and soft, and so wide, there was only room for it and Kas's mattress in the room, with a thin space between the beds for walking. The thick down stuffing cocooned her, and she groaned with relief at lying down after another day hacking at rock with a pick. She brushed her hand over the sheets, so soft and smooth, she didn't know if they were very fine dar fibers or thick silk. When she'd first unfolded them, they'd carried the scent of sweet perfume and far away places.
“These remind me of that scarf you bought me last year.” Taya ran her hand over the sheets again, and turned to look at Kas. He was sitting on his low mattress, elbows on knees, watching her. His fair hair was still damp from his own wash and it stuck up slightly over his forehead in an endearing way. “The fine blue one that matches my eyes.”
He sighed and leaned back, propping himself up on his elbows. “I didn't buy you that.”
She frowned at him. “Yes, you did, you met a trader coming over the pass--”
“I lied.”
That stopped her.
“Garek sent you that scarf.”
Her heart stopped beating for one terrible, painful moment, and then started up again, hammering in her chest. She couldn't speak.
“I think Garek is dangerous.” He bunched his hands into fists, and his arms bulged with muscle honed into even more definition after over a month working down the mines. “I don't know anyone who can draw the Change as strongly as he can, and he will always attract the attention of the powerful. He will either be a tool of destruction for the liege of West Lathor, or he'll be too big a threat to be allowed to live. I've known that since his first Change.”
He was watching her, and when she said nothing, he sat up properly. “Taya, I don't want you caught in the middle, damn it. You never have any sense of self-preservation. You made a deal with the sky raiders today, for Star's sake. And you manipulated everyone, including the sky raiders, during that scene the Kardanx made when we all got out the transporter. And for what? So a Kardanx woman could live on our side? What more will you do for Garek? You'd take on the liege himself if you thought you had to. And you wouldn't win.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” She didn't know what to feel.
Anger. Rage. A terrible, terrible sadness. And an understanding. An empathy with her brother.
He loved her.
But he was such an idiot.
“Because today taught me something. Nothing I did to ease you away from Garek had any effect, did it? You set a course, and even if it means hitting a sky raider on the metal leg of his suit with a bare fist, you see it through.”
She shrugged. Looked up at the ceiling, such as it was. Decided to change the subject. “The sky raiders look like us, more or less, but bigger, and with thin faces. Their skin is covered with short, smooth fur, which is a pale yellow. And they have too many teeth. I didn't see his hands, but his shoulders and neck were like ours, the head was about the same shape. The eyes, though.” She shuddered. “They were golden yellow. And . . . cruel.” She felt foolish saying that, but she thought it accurate.
“You saw him through the visor?” Kas leaned forward.
She turned to look at him. “He did something to the visor, cleared it so it wasn't so darkly tinted any more, and let me see right in.”
“Why?”
“Because we were having a conversation, and I think he wanted me to look him in the eyes.”
“How did you get them to intervene?”
“I told him if they allowed the Kardanx to take Jerilia, production would slow because the Illy and Kardanx would take the fight underground into the mine.”
Kas blew out a breath, and gave a reluctant laugh. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again, shaking his head.
“Where did you get the knife, Kas?” She hadn't forgotten the reason she'd forced herself across the clearing to take on the sky raider guard. The quick flash of Kas taking a knife from the back of his pants.
He went still. And then understanding slowly crept over his face. “You didn't act today for Jerilia so much as me, did you? You didn't want me to fight.”
She held his gaze, said nothing.
He rubbed his forehead. “It was in the crate of star fruit that came a couple of days ago. It's just a fruit knife. Must have been left inside by mistake, and they didn't check it like they do the clothes and the furniture they bring us. They don't expect anything but food in the food crates.” He paused. “Quardi sharpened it for me in his forge.”
“Try not to use it.” She closed her eyes.
“Don't put me in a situation where I'll have to.”
Her eyes flew open in outrage. “I had nothing to do with Jerilia being taken by that thug. I'm just the one who fixed it without resorting to violence.”
“True. But later, you needled that big Kardanx--Ketl, I hear he's called. He lost face today. He'll go after either you or Min. He won't let that insult slide.”
“I'll keep Min close. And stay close to you.” She stretched, heard a bone click into place in her back.
“And now that we've danced around it, and talked about everything else, let's talk about you calling the Change.” His voice was so low, she was forced to turn on her side to face him again.
“Are you sure I did?”
He tapped the long, blunt fingers of his hand on his knee. “I'm sure. What did it feel like?”
“I was angry. So, so angry that the Kardanx had killed their women. Just looking at them, realizing for every man standing there, at least one woman was dead. It was like I was in a tunnel, and there was a high-pitched roar in my head.”
Kas lay down on his bed at last. “There is something here on Shadow that's calling the Change in you, Taya. It's the only explanation. Something down that mine, perhaps, that's buried too deep on Barit for it to affect you back home. Strong emotion is what calls the first Change. The strong emotion of adolescence is usually the trigger, but you're past that. So you used the anger you felt. Every time you let a strong emotion take you, you'll be a step closer to calling a full Change.”
“You think it's an earth Change. Like you?”
Kas looked across at her. Then blew out the lantern between them and plunged them into darkness. “I don't know. If there is a chance you can call a Change here, you should try it. Out of sight of the guards. No matter what Change you call, it could be useful if we have a chance to escape. My Change is useless here, so are the others, and the Kardanx killed their Changed off over two hundred years ago.”
“Do you think that's why they call Min a witch? Because she can call the Change? Her father was Illian.”
Kas made a hum of interest. “Perhaps. Ask her. Ask her what she can do, and if it's been affected by Shadow.”
They lay quietly for a few minutes. “We should tell as many people as we can about my calling a Change here.”
“Why is that?” Kas sounded reluctant.
“Because if I can suddenly do it, maybe others will be able to, as well.”
Chapter 7
Only when the city gates disappeared behind them, and the cart he and Opik were sitting in had rumbled its way deep into the twisting cobbled streets of Garamundo, did Garek start to relax. Even then, he kept a surreptitious watch from under the deep hood of his cloak, searching the crowds around them for signs of a spy or a watcher the guards at the gate may have sent after them.
“This is as far as I go.” The merchant turned into a
yard that lay next to a large warehouse, and jumped down.
Opik and Garek swung down as well.
“Our thanks.”
Opik had done the talking on this journey, and Garek didn't see a reason to change that now. He let the old man hand over the coins they'd negotiated with the grain seller and then followed him out onto the street.
“You're scaring the natives.” Opik flicked a glance at him as they shouldered their way through the crowds.
He tried to relax his body, move less like he was about to charge into battle, grudgingly conceding that people were making an extra effort to get out of his path. The grain merchant had looked a little nervous, too, come to think of it.
Tension had ratcheted tighter within him with every mile they'd journeyed closer to Garamundo. He'd wanted to smash his way through the gates the same way he'd done back in Haret, had had to force himself still and calm at the back of the cart as they'd waited for the noon day opening of the gate.
Garamundo only opened its main gates three times a day. Morning, noon and sunset. If you got there early, you had to wait.
It was a sensible precaution against attack, but Garek struggled not to resent the arrogance of it. They had to control everything in Garamundo. Even the flow of traffic through their enclosing, imprisoning walls.
“Did you see the guard party stopped at that tavern back in Pan Itan?” Opik led them into a quieter lane running at an angle to the main street, but even though the crowds were thinner here, he kept his voice low.
“Yes.” Garek gripped his sacks a little tighter. “I'm surprised it took them that long.”
“You think they're after you?” Opik made the question light, but Garek wasn't fooled.
“They could only have left Garamundo after sunrise this morning to be in Pan Itan at ten. They gave me six whole days.”
“But if they wanted you, why didn't they simply stop you leaving in the first place?”
“They offered me a full commission in the guard before I left. Well, the town master did. My guard master didn't want me to stay. He knows I'd take his job in a few years if I did. When they made the offer, I said I'd think about it, but I hadn't seen my family in two years and I wanted to go home.” Garek rubbed his cheek. “But I knew they'd get twitchy. Start thinking about the other city states that would take me. And how they hadn't exactly made a friend of me when they'd forced the extra year of conscription. I knew they'd be coming with . . . let's say an offer I couldn't refuse.” He let the dry sarcasm he was feeling come through.
They'd have approached him with a combination of a carrot and stick, he'd known that long before they'd even made the first offer. Known he'd need to get to Taya as fast as possible and then run.
Even if running was against his natural inclination.
He was much, much better at standing his ground.
But sometimes a smart fighter knew when the odds were against him.
“Were you tempted?” Opik asked. “A man with your talents could do well for himself in Gara.”
Garek gave a thin smile. “No.”
“You'd think they would have left sooner, if they already knew what happened at Pan Nuk. That everyone was gone.”
Garek stopped. That wasn't something he'd thought about. Why had they waited so long? It would have been a good opportunity to persuade him back, fresh from finding his village decimated, while vengeance sang loud and strong in his heart.
“The guard master may not have told anyone. Either he did it deliberately, because he doesn't want me back, even though the town master does, or he forgot about it.” Garek started walking again. “Both make sense, knowing him.”
“Well, the good news is that that guard party after you will take two days to get to Pan Nuk, even at a hard ride--” A high-pitched whine cut Opik off. A sound Garek knew all to well, and hated now more than ever.
He looked up, saw the liquid silver of the sky raider craft as it hurtled low over the city, dipping left, then right as it screamed overhead.
It would be targeting the merchant trains leaving the Far Gate, from the direction and the height of it.
When he'd been part of Garamundo's Guard, the reports they'd had in for the last two months were that the sky raiders had switched from stealing people to stealing food and trade goods. Of course, they could be taking people from outside of West Lathor, but the little intelligence they received from Kardai and some of the far eastern countries was that the same pattern was being repeated there, as well.
Pan Nuk must have been one of the last villages they'd hit.
He stared after the craft until it disappeared beyond the high roofs of the palace and the Hall, and wished he could call the Change without giving himself away and ruining his plans. He'd have to let this one go.
“Get down!” Opik was crouched on the street, and grabbed at the hem of his cloak, gave it a tug.
Garek was about to tell him there was no danger, not in the narrow streets where the sky raiders couldn't reach with their craft, when he noticed he was the only one standing. Everyone else was crouched with arms over their heads, pressed up against walls or in doorways.
“They're gone,” he said, and pulled the old man to his feet.
Opik hunched his shoulders and drew his lips back in a snarl, his teeth standing out white against his dark skin. “You stand out too much. Let's go.”
The ride to the mine in the pale dawn was smooth and uneventful, and when Taya stepped out, she kept her eyes on Barit, a fat crescent of pale blue and white in a gold-touched sky.
It looked close enough to reach out and touch.
She thought of Luca down there, alone, and Garek. He would be coming to the end of his second year in Garamundo. He might even be on his way home.
She shivered at the thought of him, coming to Pan Nuk. Coming to that empty, ruined place that was once his home.
What would he do?
She rubbed her arms, suddenly agitated. Afraid for Garek in a way that confounded her. The hairs on her neck rose, and nausea burned her throat.
Let him not do anything crazy.
It took her a moment to realize the night shift were already waiting to one side, filthy and far quieter than usual.
“Eli?” Kas called to the Pan Nuk levik farmer who worked the night shift.
“We finally found what they were looking for.” Eli shuffled forward with the rest of the crew. They looked more exhausted than usual, as if they'd been pushed harder.
The way it usually worked, they'd hack at the rock, bring it up, and the guards would look it over.
But the sky raiders were never happy with what was presented to them. Everyone had worked out they were looking for something their prisoners had yet to find.
She would have to ask Eli later what had happened when they had finally found what the sky raiders were after. Had they danced around? Whooped for joy? Or just hissed?
The sky raiders didn't go down the mine's long, meandering tunnels--couldn't, she guessed--not without making themselves vulnerable to attack in the narrow, circular burrows that stretched in all directions from the mine entrance. But more than that, their machines didn't work well in the shafts.
She'd found no pattern to the tunnels, no logic. She'd seen the robotic diggers they'd originally used to dig the tunnels abandoned and rusting down some of the dead-ends, as if they'd broken down and simply been left, sometimes with a sharp digging claw still embedded in the rock. It looked to her as if all sense of direction, all control had been ceded the moment the diggers got underground. Like a compass point too close to a magnet.
They didn't use the diggers any more. Hadn't since they'd brought their first transporter full of prisoners to Shadow.
Now they used the Illy and the Kardanx.
If the diggers didn't work well below ground, Taya guessed the machines the guards sat in wouldn't either.
To compensate, the sky raiders made sure they didn't need to go down the tunnels. They used a strange screen set up
near the mine entrance that showed each person down the mine as a red and yellow blur, and they could measure how much work had been done.
Neither the Illy nor the Kardanx had understood what the screen was at first.
Quardi went down the mine the first day they were put to work, after the camp had been built, and then sat up against the wall of the tunnel. He swore he would not lift a finger to help their abductors. A few of the Kardanx had joined him, and one or two other Illians.
The sky raiders had waited until the shift was over, and then shot everyone who had sat instead of worked in both legs.
Clever, Kas had said. A more constant reminder than a few dead bodies, which would have to be buried. The injured were a burden for them all to carry, to care for, in the camp.
But Quardi joked their captors had lived to regret it, probably more than he did.
On the third day of work, the sky raiders' picks had crumpled in a heap of rust and fatigued metal on the first strike to rock, and they'd had to come to Quardi with a pile of metal taken from Barit, had to set up a forge and put him to work making picks that could withstand Shadow's atmosphere.
A guard watched him constantly, making sure he didn't craft other, more dangerous things that could be used against them, but he had to work sitting down while his legs healed, and the sky raiders had had to give him Pilar as an assistant to help him.
But whether they regretted injuring their only blacksmith or not, no one had spent the day leaning against a tunnel wall after that.
“Take your equipment.” The hiss of the guard jerked her out of her thoughts, and she moved with the others to the picks the night shift had piled to one side. The transporter took off behind them, and she closed her eyes against the swirling dust.
But they weren't handing the picks out to everyone, today.
The men were given tools, and the women were herded to one side. “Go to where the seam was uncovered. The stronger ones break the rock, the others carry it out.”
It was one of the longest sentences she'd ever heard a guard speak. She saw the pile of ore was to one side of the mine entrance, away from where the transporter landed. Away from where the guards stood.
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