“I saw it,” Letty said, sitting up. “They stopped, and a pair of brutox came to look at the caravan. They didn’t do anything.”
Ahmet sighed in relief. “Well, in the future, please mention it to the next watcher, so I do not suffer such a fright come the morning.”
“Fine,” Letty said, getting to her feet. “Will we have time to train before we get moving?”
“This morning, and likely this morning only. I have a stop to make in a few hours; you will have some time then. Though, you should rearrange the space in the tub here and practice on the move,” Ahmet looked down at Dean, who rolled over and covered his ears. “Up boy, there’s no time to lie about. We must meet the sun and the wind,” Ahmet said, giving Dean a slight kick.
“Uhhh, fine,” Dean mumbled, sitting up.
Ahmet hopped over the side.
“What did he mean by, ‘meet the sun?’” Letty asked. “There is no sun down here.”
“That’s Elazene mysticism, they think they can sense the sun and moon,” Staza said, yawning.
“It has to do with the wind,” Blue interjected, showing himself. He had bedded down in a basket full of silks. “They can feel the moon and sun in the wind. I haven’t gotten the hang of it myself, but it’s serious enough for them. If they fail to greet the sun properly, they won’t travel.”
“I haven’t seen them greet anything,” Dean said.
“They’re secretive about it,” Blue responded.
They poked their heads out of the cart and saw Petri in the brush, facing away from them. She had her hands raised to sides of her face; her fingers spread open as she raised her palms to the sky.
Maybe it’s their ritual. Or she might just be stretching.
“Let’s not waste any time,” Emma said, about to devour a packaged pastry, but Ahmet re-appeared, bearing food.
“Eat, and have some tea, it might wake up the melekh here,” he said grinning at Dean.
They had their tin cups at the ready, before enjoying a musty tea with a thick vegetable stew.
The groggy morning conversation died down as they ate.
“Good breakfast,” Emma mumbled between sips. “Beats the food at school by a mile.”
Dean and Letty agreed.
Petri appeared a minute later and cleared their bowls.
“That was delicious, thanks,” Letty said.
Petri looked her way and nodded. Letty could see that her eyes were smiling beneath the helm.
Emma readjusted Petri’s ladybug helmet, which was askew and caught up in her curly hair.
“Thank you,” Petri said, giggling and rushing off with the bowls. There was a clatter, and Letty looked over to see the tin bowls rolling on the floor and Petri bent to gather them.
Ahmet whistled a few minutes later, and the caravan was on the move. The side trail they had camped on was bumpy, but Ahmet led them back to the main road and a smoother ride.
“Let’s make some space,” Letty said, pushing cargo around.
“There’s a hatch there,” Blue said, pointing at a covered door on the floor.
Inside was more space. They put some of the cargo away, after asking Ahmet’s permission.
“Fine, but keep your heads down, you’re still not dressed properly,” he replied.
With the space cleared, Staza led them in stretches. They did as well they could, considering the limited space, and the jostling of the cart. Dean and Emma weren’t steady on their feet. They tipped over mid-stretch.
Quill and Staza faced off with the wooden clubs, and Quill made a better showing than Letty expected, but Staza still had the edge.
When it came time for Emma and Dean to spar, Emma tripped over a basket, and Dean stumbled to the side of the cart to throw up again. Letty scowled.
Emma was patting Dean on the back and looking embarrassed as the Caspians scoffed. Ahmet yelled at them about a wasted breakfast from his position on the lead cart.
“Practicing in a moving cart might work for you guys, but we’re not ready,” Letty said, standing by Emma and Dean.
“I have an inkling,” Blue said, watching the events from atop a pile of cargo. “Why not wake up early, like the Elazene, and spar before breakfast. You can make up the lost sleep by napping in the cart.”
They considered Blue’s proposal.
“I like it,” Emma said, still patting Dean on the back.
“Ugh, me too,” Dean mumbled, his face still over the side.
They agreed on the new plan and put the cargo back in order.
“Get down back there! A patrol is coming up,” Ahmet called out to them.
“Quick, get under the blankets!” Letty said, pulling her friends away from the sides. “The monsters they ride are huge. They’ll spot us if we don’t get down.”
They clambered under sleeping bags and blankets. Dean groaned from under a pile of backpacks.
Ahmet stayed silent as the percussive beat of locomotion came closer.
Letty watched Emma under their blanket. Emma had a single eye peeking out. The creature was just in sight, and Emma’s face contorted, first with disbelief, then with horror.
She might scream.
Letty grabbed her arm, which only made Emma moan in fear.
“Shh!” Letty whispered, pulling Emma towards her and putting a hand over her mouth.
The insects rumbled by without ceremony, and their riders barely cast a glance down at the carts.
A minute later, they heard Dean cackle. “This is completely ridiculous. We’re throwing up—I’m throwing up, because I get motion sickness. We’re practicing with wooden clubs, and there are things out there like that.” He let out a painful cackle before continuing, “What the hell are we doing?” His head fell back woefully and smacked into the hull.
Emma started to cry.
They aren’t wrong. Why didn’t I freak out when I saw the ravager last night?
Letty hugged Emma reassuringly, while the Caspians wore silent sneers.
After a minute of despondency, Staza blurted out, “I didn’t cry when we saw the metal snakes in the tunnels.”
“The subway,” Letty said.
“Right, the subway—or the herds of iron carts,” Staza spoke mostly to Dean.
“They aren’t the same!” Dean snapped. “Giant bugs ridden by human shaped insects! And they want to capture or kill us. The subway just—well—it just moves people around, it isn’t dangerous!”
“No. You could fall onto the rails,” Emma said, wiping her face.
“Right! But that would be your own fault, it isn’t our fault the bugs want to kill us,” Dean retorted.
“Call them brutox, not bugs, and yes, it is your fault. You knew the risks; I saw Letty berate you. She gave you a chance to go home,” Quill argued.
“If someone had mentioned building sized centipedes…” Dean mumbled to himself.
They sat in uncomfortable silence for so long that no one wanted to break it.
The Caspians are disgusted with us and we need them, but my friends are useless, and I’m not much better.
“I suppose,” Blue poked his face out from under a blanket and spoke, surprising everyone, “we should be grateful there aren’t any ravagers in the free city. Now that you’ve seen one, the shock won’t be so great when the next patrol comes along,” Blue finished with uncharacteristic sympathy for the surfacers.
Everyone stared.
Blue looked uncomfortable. “But you put on a disgraceful performance during training, so, sick or no, you had better keep practicing,” he finished snidely and poked his head back under the blanket.
Staza smirked. She stood and approached Dean. “Come on now, there’s no going back,” she said, smacking him in the shoulder. “And you need to realize that Letty could cut a ravager down to size.”
Dean looked up with red eyes, “But then it would just fall on you.”
Quill and Staza both laughed. Letty couldn’t help herself and joined in. Eventually Emma, and even Dean, h
ad to giggle.
A moment later, Ahmet was there, looking down on them. “Stop enjoying yourselves. We must halt for a while, and now you may practice. If you see anything, get back in the cart and hide. Keep an ear out for Petri’s call, she has better eyes than even me.”
Grateful for the interruption, Dean clambered out of the cart, and nearly stumbled on the last step. The others followed, with more grace. Despite its size, the cart was crowded with so many bodies inside.
Staza and Quill broke out into a spontaneous torrent of stretching. They goaded Emma and Dean to join in. Letty looked out towards the brushland, reaching off into the distance. She spotted Ahmet carrying a heavy bag.
He’s armed.
Letty saw his makeshift mantis limb in one hand. She wondered if they should help him. Ahmet disappeared behind a stand of thorny shrubs.
Petri approached and regarded them speculatively.
“Petri, is your father safe out there? Should we go to help?” Letty asked.
The others stopped stretching to listen.
“Certainly not! You would wake the dead. Be ready, if anything should come up the road,” she said, climbing up the cart to take watch. “And don’t forget these!” She yelled throwing the bag of carrots down to Letty.
Oh right, these disgusting little carrots.
Letty took one before tossing a pair to the Caspians. She regarded it scornfully, before gulping it down.
“Well, at least we don’t have to eat those things,” Dean muttered to Emma.
Letty tossed the bag back to Petri, before joining the others in the calisthenics. They ended the stretches with a painful set of toe touches before pairing off to spar. Dean with Emma, and Letty with Quill, while Staza walked between them, directing.
“You’re gripping the club like it’s a hammer! Don’t learn the wrong lesson. Imagine what will happen when you have an actual weapon,” Staza said to Letty. “Hold it like a pen, that way you have more control.”
Letty watched Staza demonstrate with her dagger.
She’s right. I’m much clumsier with a club than the Argument.
Letty faced off with Quill, who had been holding back. She swung, and Quill responded by deflecting her club with force, knocking it from her hand. Everyone saw.
“Damn it,” Letty muttered, lifting her club from the floor.
“You also need to respond to what’s happening, Letty. His whole body showed you he was going to put force in that swing. You need to change your grip as the situation demands.”
Letty readied her club, but hesitated, not sure of her grip. Quill batted the club from her hand again.
“I know!” Letty snapped before Staza could lecture her.
She readied her club for a third try. This time she let Quill go for the first swing. She stepped back to dodge and then lunged forward, thrusting with the club as if it were a bladed weapon.
Quill caught her with an upswing. His club cracked into her fingers, knocking her weapon loose once more.
“Damn!” Letty snapped, cradling her hurt fingers. “It won’t be like this – I’ll have the Argument!”
Quill and Staza shared a look, and Dean and Emma stopped sparring.
“What if something happens? Maybe you lose the Argument; maybe you come up against the Counter. You need to know how to fight. Don’t take it personally,” Staza said, surprised at Letty’s attitude.
Letty scowled, but then relented.
She’s right, I don’t know why I’m so furious—I just thought I had him.
Training continued, for better and worse, until Letty heard a rustling nearby.
“There, there, young warriors!” Ahmet’s voice called out to them.
He had lost the big bag he set out with but returned with two others.
“Proper outfits!” he said, laying the bags down carefully. “Be gentle, we must take care about the leather, I’ll grease the straps, but you’ll have to polish the plates.”
He pulled pieces of brutox plate armor out of the large bags.
“Petri! My grease pot, please,” he called, laying out the breast plates.
A moment later, Petri appeared with a small pot and brush. Ahmet took the brush and carefully applied a coating of grease to the various leather straps. He inspected the buckles and found that several fittings needed replacing. He was about to open his mouth when Petri handed him a toolbox.
“Aha, thank you, my dear. Now would you please take watch on the cutter? I would hate for us to be surprised,” he said, opening the box.
“Yes, Ada,” Petri whispered, before running off laughing, her arms waving as she went.
“She is a sweet girl, and she loves to laugh,” Ahmet said, replacing a broken strap and buckle with pieces from his supply. “Like I said, I will get these in good order, but you have to polish them. I’ll show you how. Some of these suits are quite handsome, this one for instance,” Ahmet said, holding up a helm that featured piercing mandibles and at least six multifaceted eyes, “what is he?”
“A spider,” Emma blurted.
Ahmet laughed and motioned with the helm as if it were alive. “A wolf spider, blue gray like a sky. He leaps on his enemies, but he also sees far,” Ahmet said, almost lovingly, before throwing Emma the helm.
Emma nearly shrieked, but then laughed instead, as she caught the helm and inspected it.
“I have new helmet liners too, go on and pull the old one out.”
It’s weird, the way he talked about ‘a sky,’ like a singular sky, and not the sky, the way we refer to it. How does he even know what it looks like? They must have stories about the surface.
Emma pulled the old helmet liner out. It was stained dark brown in a few places. She held the liner out for Ahmet to see.
“Ah, the last keeper saw some action. Imagine if they hadn’t worn the helm at all,” Ahmet said as he snatched the liner from her and tossed it into a nearby refuse basket.
“Is there anything for me?” Petri asked ingratiatingly from her post.
“No, my dearest, only for these larger friends of ours. Your suit is new, anyway.”
“But why do they get new clothes? I am your daughter, not them.”
“Tut-tut, dearest, of course you are my daughter, but these suits are far from new. A few I suspect haven’t seen use in centuries.”
Letty saw that some of the straps had wasted away, though the plates were still glossy and solid.
“Many of these breeds have not walked the earth since before my grandfather’s time. Look here, the green wasp. What a collector wouldn’t give for this set,” Ahmet mumbled as he brushed a fine coating of dust off the wasp helm.
“A green wasp?” Staza asked.
“Yes!” Ahmet said, tossing her the helm. “It suits you. You are the fastest, and the sharpest. I will teach you how to polish, and then you will teach the others,” Ahmet said, as he laid out the rest of the wasp.
“Ahmet, sir, don’t we owe you something for these suits, and the work, of course?” Dean asked.
Ahmet surprised everyone by sitting up and jabbing an angry finger in Dean’s face. “There must be absolutely no talk of business now!” He sat back down and shook his head.
Dean was shocked.
“Please excuse me, surfacer; I should have said something before,” Ahmet apologized. He ran his hand over a deep-purple breast plate. “The dead have offered up their skins for us—” he tossed Dean a purple ant helm. “Twilight forma: Their queen holds court in the free city. They were one of the only breeds to show an aptitude for business.”
Dean held the helmet at arm’s length.
“Snow moth, with scorpion chest,” Ahmet pronounced before tossing the helm to Quill. “You will wear them both. As you fly towards the light you must also keep a fury in your chest.”
Quill looked thoughtful as he listened and admired the helm.
His suit is from two insects. Ahmet’s old caravan guards had mismatched suits too.
“And for you, girl, I found
something extraordinary,” Ahmet said, holding the final helm and tossing it towards Letty.
I don’t recognize the type.
The helm was a bright, creamy white, lined with metallic black at the segments and powdered red at the cheeks. The body was similarly colored.
What is it?
Ahmet sensed her confusion and pulled a heavy bundle out of a bag. He rolled the bundle out, and then it made sense.
A butterfly.
It was a cape molded in the shape of wings.
Everyone else gets to wear an aggressive suit, and I’m stuck looking like a princess.
Ahmet could tell that Letty wasn’t pleased. “You would have preferred something more intimidating? Let me just say that you should be careful when you put on the cape.”
That gave Letty some pause.
Ahmet cast a serious glance around at his novice guards. He stood and spoke, “Would everyone please put their helmets on the ground, facing me?”
It seemed a strange request, but his seriousness allowed for no argument, and they did as they were told.
“Heads bowed, and no talking,” he said, carefully adjusting the direction of the helms to his satisfaction.
Everyone bowed their heads. Ahmet was silent. All they heard was breathing and the tinkling of wind through the bridles of the nearby brutons.
Finally, Ahmet spoke, but his voice came softly, and Letty strained to hear, “If we bear you as mantle, will you bear us as progeny?” He stopped and kept an eye on the helms, as if something might happen. When nothing did, his voice became louder as he continued, “When we bear you as mantle, please share your essence. Enemies once, kin hereafter, enchained alike in life and flesh, hear our promise to you, whose coil and duties shed centuries hence: Our tears, through your eyes, fall to one end alone.”
He’s praying to the helmets? No, he’s praying to the dead brutox. It’s like a pledge. ‘If we bear you as mantle, will you bear us as progeny?’
Petri burst into the silence. “It’s good!” she yelled, picking up the spider and handing it to Emma. Ahmet seemed pleased by this and stood by as his daughter passed out the other helms.
“Don’t hurt this one, Letty; it’s going to be mine after you,” Petri said, as she reluctantly handed over the butterfly helmet.
The Ryle of Zentule Page 29