“Sort of.” Falk joined them. “More vigorous than rusting, and given we're three hundred standards from the coast, nothing to do with salt. I think it's the make-up of our air. Wherever the sky raiders come from, their climate is very different. Their metal breaks down on contact with our atmosphere.”
Breaks down was right. Garek looked at the ship with a sinking heart. Would this rotting hulk even fly any more? He'd risked time and energy to come to Gara to steal this ship because it was already down and someone had been studying it, but looking at the large blisters of disintegrating metal, he wondered whether to abandon his plan of stealing this one and instead take down a new one.
“If our air is so poisonous, why are they so keen to be here?” Opik walked under the disc and looked up at the ladder Falk had placed there, leading into a neat circular entrance to the ship.
Falk patted the side gently. “I don't know. When Garek brought the ship down, that opening was like that. I think that's what the pilot used to escape, and fortunately it didn't close again. But even though it was open, most of the air inside the ship was unbreathable when I first got in there. More of the bad air was being pumped in all the time. That was the first thing I did--work out where the pump was and change it to pump our air, in case I ever triggered that door closed while I was inside it.”
“How'd you change the type of air it was pumping?” Opik asked.
“I had to wear a mask with a tube going out of the craft so I could breathe, and then I found and took off the vent cover. There was a dial of some kind, a glowing light under glass, and I turned it, and checked the air, turned it and checked, until I got the right mix of gases. I ended up sick in bed for a week, after breathing in all that poison.”
“You think the solution is permanent?” Garek hadn't thought of the air he would breathe in the craft. “I hope it keeps pumping Barit air when I take it up into the sky.”
Falk shrugged. “It's worked so far, but I haven't had a chance to focus on it. I've just been trying to preserve the ship. Almost everything I do is focused on finding a way to stop the disintegration.”
“And? Have you found a solution?” Garek joined Opik at the bottom of the ladder, and started to climb.
“Nothing.” Falk paused. “Please don't touch anything in there.”
Garek turned back to look at him from halfway up the ladder. “If I'm going to fly it, I have to touch.”
“What happened to the sky raider flying this thing?” Opik started up the ladder as well.
“I hit the craft with a strong blast of air, and flipped it. The loud noise they make cut out and I saw something drop out of the craft. If it was the pilot, he was in a type of padded suit with something on the back that let out a little spurt of flame. He got clear of the falling ship and went straight up.” Garek shrugged. “Didn't see him come down, so he probably got away. I was too busy controlling the ship's fall to the ground to pay attention.”
He pulled himself up the final rung and stepped onto the smooth floor of the ship, and as his foot touched it, an amber light flickered to life, lighting the pitch darkness of the interior. A small whirling sound started up. Most likely Falk's air pump.
Opik whistled again as he joined him, and then Falk pulled himself in, as well. “That's why I don't like unnecessary visits inside. I don't know how long the lights and pump are going to last. Every time someone steps in here, it must be using up whatever is fueling them.”
Garek ignored him and moved across to the sculpted seat set on a slender column that rose from the floor. He lowered himself into it and stared at the solid wall in front of him. “How do they see out?”
Falk walked forward, and despite his irritation at their intrusion, there was an edge of excitement in his movements. He tapped something above his head. “There's a thin line here, you can barely see it. It goes along the entire circumference of the disc, and there's another one here.” He pointed to a parallel line at knee level. “I think it's a window. My guess is when the ship is operating, this lightens and becomes transparent.”
“And how do they power and fly the craft?” Garek leaned back in the chair and suddenly realized how comfortable it was. As if it had been made for him. Or someone just like him.
Interesting that the sky raiders were the same general size and shape as they were. Well, a bit bigger, because Garek was head and shoulders above most people.
Since their ships had first appeared in the sky, the sky raiders had become the bogey men of Barit. Monsters from everyone's darkest nightmares.
“I don't know how they pilot it. I've searched every inch of this craft for a lever or button or opening that would turn it on.”
“On your own?” Opik walked around the perimeter, tapping the walls.
“I'm the only person the town master has allowed to study the craft.” Falk didn't say more than that, but Garek could read between the lines. The town master was keeping any discoveries made as secret as possible. With just Falk to watch, he could have more control, although even that hadn't worked that well, if Aidan had found a way to bribe Falk already.
“Where's the privy? Where's the food?” Opik arrived back at the ladder. “Just looks like one big round room.”
“I can only imagine this is a small craft, like a raft on a boat. The people-stealers, like the one that flew over the city yesterday, are about ten times this size, and there will be a larger vessel somewhere up in the sky, too high to see. Perhaps not even in the atmosphere, where it will surely be subject to the same deterioration as the small ships.” Falk traced the thin line of the dark window with a fingernail.
Garek examined the armrests of the chair, smooth extensions of the curve of the seat. He ran his fingers over the metal, but even here there were irregularities, small bubbles of deterioration. There was a hole at the end of the left armrest that didn't look like a reaction to the Barit atmosphere, though. Garek peered closer, and then pulled the sewing kit each guard in the Garamundo barracks was issued to mend minor rips in their uniform from the bag over his shoulder, and pulled out a needle.
“What is that?” Falk frowned. “What are you doing?”
Garek pushed the needle into the hole. The hole curved slightly, and he had to alter his angle before he reached the end. He heard the faintest snick, and then pale golden lights flashed to life on the arm rests, as if the metal was just a thin transparent skin with the lights below it.
Behind Falk, the wall went from black to gray to transparent, and they were suddenly blinking as Star light shone in.
Falk turned to look out into the enclosed area, and then slowly turned back.
“Three months,” he said, and there was almost nothing in his voice, his dark eyes narrow and snapping. “Three months I've been working on this, and you just sit down--”
“You weren't curious about that hole?” Garek looked down at the lights that seemed to form the shape of dials.
“I didn't notice it! I've only sat in that chair twice, and both times, I was looking for something more obvious than a tiny hole at the one end!” Falk's voice was fraying at the edges. “I've been trying to save this ship so I could have a proper look at my leisure.”
“Well, maybe they have very long, thin fingers,” Opik said, peering down to look at the little hole. “Or long, sharp claws, eh?”
Garek lifted his gaze to the old man. “Hmm.”
He stretched out his arms, bent his fingers, and yes, if he had long, sharp claws, that hole would be very nicely placed. “I think you have it.”
It was good to know in advance he'd be facing claws.
One thing was clear, Falk couldn't help him fly this. He knew nothing.
No time like the present, then, to try and get this into the air.
“Maybe you should get my supplies.” He looked up at Opik again and jerked his head to the ladder.
“What? Now?” Opik's eyes widened.
Garek nodded. “Time is wasting and I might not have another chance. If it will even
lift off, in its current state.”
“And the book-boy?” Opik slid his gaze to Falk.
“Get him off, too.” Garek studied the lights on the arm rest again.
“I'll get your stuff out the cart. Let's go.” Opik waved to Falk, then started down the ladder. “Garek wants to get this thing up.”
Falk stalked forward, and crouched beside the armrest to look at the lights himself. “You're not going to try and fly this now. I need to study it.”
“Sorry.” Garek grabbed Falk's wrist, and Falk jerked his gaze up. “I mean to get this working before it falls into a thousand pieces of rusted metal and I have to waste even more time trying to bring down another ship. Get off with Opik, and if you want to make yourself useful, help him bring up my supplies for the journey. You can take notes as you watch me fight this thing into the air if you like. As soon as I've got my equipment, I'm going to start pressing on these light buttons and you aren't going to be in the ship when I do.”
Falk stared straight into his eyes for a long beat. “You're serious.” His words were hushed.
“At last you seem to understand.”
“You're insane.”
“That may be.” Garek gave a twisted smile. “Now get off the ship, Falk.”
Falk backed away, walking slowly, and then looked down when the ladder rattled. Opik came up the ladder with the food, water, and the few bags with tools and clothes Garek had brought along hovering in the air in front of him. Garek kept forgetting the old man could draw the air Change.
Falk raised his arms in a gesture of surrender at the sight. “Just tell me what's the rush?”
Opik piled everything in a corner and gave Falk a grin. “He won't tell you.” He walked back to the ladder casually. “See you back at home, then.”
“With luck. Thank you for your help.” He gave the old man a nod. “Time's up, Falk.” Garek touched the pad of his forefinger to the light-dial at the end of the armrest.
Nothing.
He pushed harder. Still nothing.
Then he remembered what Falk had said about the light dial behind the air vent. He moved his finger in a circular motion, following the outside of the glowing dial, and the sound he'd come to dread over the last year rumbled from beneath his feet, louder and louder as he moved his finger further and further around the disc of amber light.
“Star take it, Garek!” Falk ran for the ladder, temper and jealousy burned into his features. As he swung down, he gave a cry, and disappeared abruptly as if he'd lost his footing.
The rumble of the engines had certainly destabilized the ladder, and Garek hoped Opik had the sense to move it. It would block the opening if he ever found the correct button to seal himself in.
He studied the panels again, and thought the straight line of lights under his righthand fingers might be up and down. He'd have to work out how to turn when he was in the air.
He ran the tip of his forefinger gently up the line, and felt the craft strain beneath him, wanting to lift up. He went higher, and the scream of the engine drowned out everything. He traced his finger on the dial under his left hand even further along the circle, giving it even more power, then tried again.
The ladder clattered, and he looked across just in time to see someone tumble into the craft. The ship lurched once, and then lifted, hovering, and as it did, a metal sheet slid across the opening to close them in.
He wavered a moment, not knowing whether to try and get rid of his unwanted passenger, or whether any delay would give the guards the chance to bring him down.
Then the man who must have pulled Falk off the ladder and scrambled inside rolled to his feet and Garek saw his face.
Garek set his finger on the up-down line and pushed hard upward.
As the craft shot straight into the air, shuddering as it clipped the retracted wooden roof of the building, he watched Aidan Hansard lose his footing again.
Chapter 14
“I'm not sure having assassins after Min will make much difference.” Pilar put an arm around Noor and drew her close to make room for Min and Taya when they returned to the fire. “Most of the Kardanx are after both your blood anyway.”
Min shook her head. “Wishing me ill and killing me are two different things. I've lived with the threat of death over me for a long time and I've come to understand that even if someone wishes you dead, taking a life is never easy.”
“You think the Kardanx will threaten you but not actually hurt you, but these assassins will?” Kas leaned closer to the fire, just like he used to at home, and Taya felt a deep sense of loss that Luca and Garek weren't here.
“Won't actually hurt her? You're forgetting one thing. Most of the Kardanx men killed someone just before the sky raiders took them.” Taya still couldn't fully stretch her mind around it.
Min looked up, and the firelight glinted off her eyes. “I won't defend them, but I will say it would have been hard for them. They would have been ordered to do it by the village heads, and it's a deeply ingrained part of the Mother religion. But it wasn't easy. Reading a few lines every Thanks Day from the Guardian and putting into practice what those lines say--they are very different things. I was with them all the way from Barit to Shadow, straight after they'd done it, and most of the men were in shock. Some were crying, and it takes a lot to make a Kardanx man cry.”
“You were lucky they didn't try to kill you and the other women with you in the ship.” Noor spoke softly, and Taya had been thinking the same.
“Some did try.” Min rewound a piece of thread around the bottom of her plait. There was a shake to her voice. “One was screaming over and over, 'Why should you be alive, and her not, why should you be alive?'”
“What happened?” Quardi spoke for the first time.
Min shrugged. “They didn't have weapons, obviously, and so the sky raiders had time to stop them while they were beating and strangling us. After that, they put bars between the women and the men. They used that white flash on them, to stop them. Like when they caught us.”
The fire popped and crackled in the silence.
“That explains why they didn't try to kill you when we got to camp and there were no more bars separating you.” Pilar's voice was quiet. “To have that a second time . . .” His voice faded away.
“There are other things the men can do, though, that won't leave us dead.” Min hunched her shoulders. “I feel bad for the women still there, although two have family members among the men. One wife who was on the other side of the village, whose husband didn't get to her before the sky raiders, and one whose son prevented his father from killing her.”
There was silence again.
“That wife . . .” Noor's voice trembled. “How can things ever be the same between her and her husband?”
Min nodded. “And the woman whose son protected her . . . she won't speak to her husband, and he slinks around, ashamed and confused, and the son is ostracized by most of the other men, although there are some who think he was right. Other men whose sisters were killed or whose mothers were, who think it was wrong.”
“I've been watching the Kardanx women when I can, after what happened to Jerilia.” Kas rocked a little on his seat. “I think Ketl chose to grab an Illian because the Kardanx women who are left are seen as untouchable. It's not just that they're afraid of the lightning again. They're thinking more clearly now.”
“I hope so. If they harm them . . .” Taya had always thought her gift was reading the subtle changes in body language everyone gave off, understanding people better because of it. Before she knew she could call a Change. So she would start watching, too.
“We'll do something if they change their behavior.” Kas rubbed her shoulder.
“And what can we do?” Pilar asked.
Taya looked over at him across the cheerful dance of the flames. “I'll go to the sky raiders again.”
Kas squeezed her shoulder. “I agree. I'll go with you.”
No one else spoke, but around the fire, Taya
thought the mood swung away from gloom and helplessness, and into determination.
“Garek. I thought it was you last night.” Aidan spoke from his position on his back, head canted awkwardly against the curve of the wall.
Garek didn't answer, his focus on the sky as he shot the craft upward.
The ship shuddered, and he turned and saw he'd hit the roof of the tower, causing a shower of clay tiles. The side of the ship dipped and then he gave it even more power and shoved his finger up with force, and suddenly they were above Gara.
Now to figure out how to turn.
He studied the lights as they rose ever higher.
It made sense that it would be easy and at last he noticed the horizontal line just at the curve of the arm rest.
He moved his finger left and one side of the craft dipped and they turned toward the east, the direction the sky raiders usually went in after an attack.
Aidan grunted as he slid along the floor again and then pulled himself to standing. He gave a cry and jerked back from the window when he realized how high they were.
Garek didn't know if it was because he called the air Change, but he felt no fear at all. Just a deep sense of satisfaction that he had managed to complete the first step in his plan.
He knew he should feel awe at the technology he was controlling, but he'd had over a year of watching the sky raiders and their strange, amazing ships. He no longer saw them as wondrous. They were deadly. They were weapons used against his people. And if he could turn that around and use them right back, he'd shelve any wonder and awe for later.
“So which liege has put you up to this?” Aidan spoke again, leaning against the wall with his eyes determinedly not on what was happening outside. “I'll match what they're paying you, and double it.”
“Will you?” Garek started ascending at a steep angle. He hadn't caught sight of a single sky craft to follow. Finding one would have been great luck, but he hadn't expected it. The sky craft numbers were less now, and it had always been unlikely. He would go up as high as he could and look for the bigger ships. The people-stealers. “How do you know I'm not working for the liege of West Lathor?”
Sky Raiders Page 8