A minute ticked by, and eventually Taya turned, lifting the shield to the guard. Her arms were shaking from holding it so long, and she couldn't stand him behind her any longer. He took it automatically, and she got to work fetching more of the scrap the sky raiders had stolen, piling it up near the fire.
She looked over at Quardi, and their eyes met.
He looked far too cheerful.
“What do you plan to do with my ship?” Falk stared dully at Garek from the floor.
He'd spent the night in Garek and Opik's room, loosely tied and lying on a thin pallet, but Garek had removed the bonds so he could eat. Garek didn't want him too cramped and stiff. An appearance of normality was everything.
“I'm going to steal it, and fly until I find another sky raider craft, and then I'll follow them. Find where they are taking their prisoners.” Garek broke off a piece of the surprisingly fresh, fragrant bread made in Haak's kitchen, added some butter and honey, and handed it to Falk. The serving boy from the kitchens had also brought up a jug of hot, spicy galal and Garek poured both of them a cup.
Falk sat up and took the cup with both hands, gave a sigh of pleasure as the first sip went down his throat. He took a bite of the bread, and then looked at it in surprise.
Garek took a bite himself and chewed slowly. It was early still, but they had to get a cart and enough wood and tools to look as if they were carpenters. Opik was out looking right now, promising Garek he had friends who could supply what they needed.
“Not that I'm not curious about where they go and why, I truly am, but why are you so interested? Interested enough to try to fly something completely beyond anything Barit has ever seen, and then to make contact with our most dangerous enemies.”
“I'm not planning to make contact with them if I can help it. At least, not friendly contact.” Garek drained the last of his galal. “What is your deal with Aidan Hansard?”
Falk went still, then continued eating his bread, taking his time.
Furiously thinking how to answer, Garek had no doubt.
“Why do you ask?” Falk said eventually.
“Because he seemed upset that we'd made off with you last night. I recognized him right away.”
“Maybe he's the guard the town master appointed to keep an eye on my safety.” Falk held out his cup for a refill of galal. Garek poured for him, and then for himself, as well.
“Aidan didn't much like the town master, the way I remember it,” Garek eased back in his chair. “And his conscription year ended the same time as mine did, just over a week ago.” He took another bite of bread. “My guess would have been that he got out of here as quickly as he could, but, as he's still here, he's working some plan of his own. He certainly would never sign up for a permanent position.”
Falk said nothing to that, and an idea wormed its way into Garek's head.
“You're selling secrets to him, aren't you? The secrets of the sky raider craft.” He'd always had the impression that Aidan came from a lot of money. His clothes and his spending were just a little too extravagant. He could have simply been someone who played fast and loose with his earnings, but something in his manner told Garek he was used to being obeyed and having servants pick up after him.
He knew Aidan hadn't enjoyed the Guard. He'd wondered occasionally why he'd stayed.
Conscription was a full year, with no early release, but if his family were as wealthy as Garek guessed, he could have found a way out. But Aidan had stuck to it, although not in a 'make the best of it' way.
He didn't take the service seriously, and was continually insubordinate. He didn't follow orders without question, and while he wasn't completely disruptive, he riled the guard master as much as possible.
For that, Garek had liked him.
Falk was staring at him. “That's quite a leap you're making.”
Garek shrugged. “I'm right, though.”
Falk looked away, and when he turned back it was with eyes that glittered with frustration and annoyance.
Garek gave him a lopsided smile. “I don't care what your deal with Aidan is. I don't care about anything but getting into that craft and making it fly. The sooner you help me with that, the sooner I'll be gone.”
“That craft is everything to me. Months of research. But I haven't managed to work out how to fly it, so for you to think you can just get in and make it go is . . .” He ran a hand through his hair, blew out a breath. “And even if you could do that, which I very much doubt, if you think the town master isn't going to look at me very closely when the thing disappears, you're wrong. I'm the first person he'll suspect.”
Garek set down his plate and his cup. “You wouldn't even have that craft if it wasn't for me. Now tell me, what have you learned about it?”
Opik knocked softly at the door, and stepped inside, carrying the fresh scent of crushed leaves and coming rain with him. “Found someone who can lend us their cart and gear, but it'll only be ready by eight.”
Garek gave a nod, and Opik slid onto the other chair at the table, helped himself to some food.
They both looked at Falk.
“All right. I'll tell you what I know, but at least tell me why. Why are you doing this? It's an incredible risk.”
Opik opened his mouth, but Garek shot him a look. The old man closed it again.
Garek gathered the plates and cups onto their tray. “All you need to know is it's a risk I'm willing to take.”
Chapter 12
“Here.” Quardi held out the ten thin needles of shadow ore she'd made that morning, and the firelight glinted off them as they lay in his palm.
Kas leaned across Taya and lifted one, touched the tip and let out a startled cry of pain. “Sharp.” He sucked the tip of his finger, and held the needle to the light. “Why did you make this, particularly?”
Quardi made a face. “My question, as well.”
Taya shrugged. “I was too afraid of the guard to think of anything else. It wasn't enough to make anything significant, anyway.”
Pilar took the needle from Kas and leaned in even closer to the fire to see it better. “It's well made, for all that, Taya. They aren't identical, but they are smoothly formed. It would take a mold to get them like this in the usual way. And even then, they'd need to be sanded down.” Although he'd seen what happened to Kas, he touched his finger to the tip as well, and winced.
Taya took the needles from Quardi gingerly, and Pilar dropped the one he'd taken into her hand.
She didn't feel as sick as she had this morning, but the ore affected her still, made her lightheaded.
She tried to lift the needles into the air simply by thinking about it, like she'd done down the mine, and she could feel them stir on her palm, like something alive, waiting to break free.
Eventually she looked up, caught Kas staring at her. “I can't lift them.”
“You'll still need a strong emotion for that. At least at first.”
She sighed. “I think I should keep these on me. To practice when I have a chance.” She frowned. “They're terrified of the ore coming close to them, though, and they've made us build the stockpile far from the landing area at the mine. I think the shadow ore makes their equipment break down, like the diggers down the mine. But Min, you brought the piece we just smelted with you, and they didn't notice and the transporter didn't break. I can only assume it's because it was such a small piece.”
Noor moved across and looked at the needles without touching. “I'm pretty good at hook weaving.” She tugged at an intricately woven hair band that pulled her dark, tight curls back from her face. “I found some interesting yarn in the Stolen Store. It has a stretch to it. I could make you a headband like this, weave the needles into it like decoration.” She bent her head, so Taya could examine the head band, and when she straightened, Taya gave a nod.
“Could we make stripes across the band, and hide the needles inside them?” She touched the ore. “The sky raiders will recognize this if they see it, and they do not wan
t any of it near them or their ships.”
“Makes you wonder why they've gone to so much trouble for it.” Pilar stretched his back and lifted his arms, wincing. “I didn't realize how good I had things, helping Quardi in the forge. Today was hard work.” He looked across at Quardi. “For mining the seam, our picks work well enough, but we need to build a hand-cranked crusher to separate the ore from the rock once it's taken above ground.”
“Why would you help them like that?” Min had been unusually quiet, sitting with her dinner near the fire.
“It's not them I'm thinking of.” Pilar shrugged. “We have to do the work. Might as well make it safer and quicker.”
She conceded the point with a nod of her head. “Our turn to do the dishes?” she asked Taya.
Taya gave a groan and nodded. She stood and carefully slipped the shadow ore needles into her pocket. Min was gathering everyone's bowls, and when they had everything, they walked together to the river.
They were in the rhythm of cleaning and rinsing at one of the four wooden washing basins on the river bank when Taya noticed something odd about the water. It rose in little spikes, before collapsing on itself. She stopped stacking bowls and stared.
“You draw the water Change, don't you?”
Min looked up, stricken, and all the little water spikes in the basin collapsed. She rubbed a hand over her forehead. “I do it without thinking. It's an exercise, and when I'm distracted or tired, I forget to make sure I only do it where no one can see.”
Taya touched her arm. “You're with the Illy now. We consider that normal.” She paused. “Well, not normal, but special.”
Min looked at the dirty dish water, and made a hundred spikes of water rise up for a moment, then let them collapse. “I can't work it right here. It isn't the same as in Kardai. I could make much bigger spikes, and whirlpools. Even small waves.”
Taya nodded. “Kas and the other Changed in camp have also found that. There is too much difference in the earth and the air on Shadow for them. Or the mix of elements isn't the same. You're the only one in camp who can call the water Change, but it isn't surprising that you're having the same problems as the others. This isn't Barit.”
Min stood, and instead of tipping the basin on its side to drain the water, she funneled it back into the river in a wide, shallow arc.
“Next time, I'll get you to fill the basin like that, too.” Taya grinned at her and nudged the bucket she'd used earlier to fill the big tub.
Min blushed. “Keeping quiet about it is so ingrained.” She looked across to the Kardanx side of the camp. “Not that it helped. Too much happened when I first called the Change. Too many people saw too much.”
“I heard the Kardanx kill their Changed. You're lucky to be alive.” Taya followed her gaze. The Kardanx sat around their fires, eating and talking, just like the Illy, but the laughter was louder, the talking easily edging into shouting. Too many men, too close together. With too much blood on their hands, and the time to think about it.
“They were working their way up to killing me.” Min turned her back on the Kardanx camp. “The law makes it impossible to kill someone who calls the Change without the permission of the haidai. A haidai is like the Illian lieges, I think.”
“And they didn't get permission?”
“The haidai is my grandfather.” Min crouched down to pick up a armful of bowls. “He disowned my mother when she moved in with my father. They didn't even have a Kardanx marriage ceremony. My mother had received an excellent education, far better than most women get in Kardai. It made her angry that the very oaths the men swore to protect and honor women were used against them, as a way to keep women from equal power.
“She came to realize that over time, whatever could be twisted to give women less agency was twisted. So that the life of women in Kardai now bears almost no relation to the original way of things when the Mother oaths were first sworn.”
Taya took her share of the clean bowls and stood. “What happened?”
“She tried to make changes, to recall the old ways and the women who had ruled with men, studied with men, and fought with men for the honor of Kardai. She was banished to the mountains where my grandfather had a small house. My father was living in the village near the house and they fell in love. Maybe it was the final rebellion my mother could think of.” Min drew in a deep breath. “Whatever their reasons, I think they were happy.”
“They're dead?”
Min nodded. “Killed by bandits when I was seventeen. The mountains are full of them.”
There was something in her voice, though.
“You don't think it was bandits, do you?” They had reached the area where the bowls and cutlery were stored, but they were the only ones there for the moment.
“No.” Min set her bowls down carefully. “I think they were murdered. I think it was pure luck I was in the woods that day, and wasn't killed with them, and I think ever since, my grandfather has been working on killing whatever conscience he has left so that he can order his granddaughter murdered, too.”
“Why would he kill them at all? Surely he could have ignored them? Let them be?”
Min fussed with the spoons. Then braced her hands on the rough counter and bowed her head. “In Kardanx inheritance law, there is a strict hierarchy. The children born of a man and his first wife get almost everything. If the wife dies and a man takes a second wife, the children from the second marriage get only a fraction of the father's wealth. If there is any to get. The same goes for a woman who is widowed and remarries. Her children from her first marriage inherit her and her first husband's wealth, not her children from her second marriage.”
“And your grandfather remarried.”
“Yes. He has a son with his new wife. And only if my mother were dead could her half-brother inherit my grandfather's lands and wealth. For years some of the haidai have been trying to change the law to exclude daughters, to protect them, naturally, from greedy men who would only marry them for their money.” Min made a face. “But there are enough haidai who only have daughters who don't like that idea, and have fought any change. The women who inherit still have to put the land and wealth in the hands of their husbands anyway. So they aren't burdened with the terrible, terrible weight of controlling their own finances, of course.”
Taya thought of something. “The fact that you call the Change surely made it easier for your grandfather to kill you? If it's within the law.”
“The haidai can only order the death of a witch if he's personally seen him or her call the Change with his own eyes. And my grandfather has steadfastly refused to see me since I was born.” Min pushed away from the counter, and stood tall.
Taya could find nothing to say to that. She reached out a hand, and touched Min's shoulder.
“It's funny. In the days before the sky raiders came and took everyone in the village, I had a strong feeling of being watched. I think my grandfather was about to make his move.” Min laughed, and there was a genuine, wry humor in it. “The sky raiders probably saved my life.”
“Unless . . .” Taya looked over at the Kardanx camp one last time. “Unless they scooped up your grandfather's assassins with everyone else.”
Chapter 13
The guards seemed more perplexed than suspicious. Garek could tell they weren't used to Falk bringing workmen with him.
“For the frame over the craft,” Falk muttered to one of the two guards at the gate, running a hand through his hair. Garek had given him hot water and a comb after breakfast, but he still looked as if he'd just rolled out of bed. “Let them in, will you?”
After a moment of hesitation the guard cheerfully opened the side gate so they could bring the carpenter's cart and horse around the outside of the tower. Opik's cheeks were flushed with exertion and his white hair stuck out from under his hat--he looked like a pix from the tales Garek used to hear around the fire as a child, completely harmless and friendly.
Someone had to balance out Garek's dark bro
odiness, Opik had told him, when he'd mentioned it as they were setting out. Otherwise they'd be arrested by the guards for sure.
Garek left him to lead the cart around and entered the main tower entrance right behind Falk, a scarf wound about most of his face, and a hat pulled low. The sudden cold snap of a false autumn was a boon, allowing him to cover up. He knew two of the guards by sight, and had the feeling he'd seen the other two at some time or another.
Once through the door, Falk disappeared off into the gloom, but Garek stumbled to a halt, gaping. Opposite the door, a large section of the tower's stone wall had been removed, opening the space out into the inner courtyard. A wooden structure had been built up against the tower, making the area the size of the circular tower and the inner courtyard combined.
He forced himself to focus back on Falk, his eyes a little better adjusted to the darkness, and saw he'd walked to a massive cogwheel. Falk turned a handle and as he cranked, the circular roof of the wooden structure lifted up and back on itself in sections, flooding the area with light.
There, in the inner courtyard, was the sky raider craft--a sleek silver disc nestled between two crescent-shaped brackets. He'd had a good look at it when he'd brought it down, but Garek was still awed. Although . . .
“What have you done to it?” Panicked, he ran forward and lifted a hand to what had once been the smooth silver of the ship's side.
“I haven't done anything.” Falk tugged at his already-wild hair. “I'm spending more time trying to find a way to reverse or at least stop the disintegration than I am on working out how the damn thing is built and works.”
A large double door to one side of the wooden structure swung open, and Opik stepped through. He let out a low whistle. “Bigger than I thought it'd be. They look smaller up in the sky.” He left the horse and cart where they were and walked across to stand next to Garek. Rubbed a finger over the bubbling metal. “Rust?” He frowned. “Is this rust?”
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