Hammer of Time (The Reforged Trilogy) (32 page)

"We have not yet collected the sands we promised Queen Maeve."

"I think the queen would rather keep her people alive than make more glass," said Panna. "Besides, if this goes at all well, we can use some of the profits to send someone else up here to collect sand. Someone that the locals won't accuse of theft."

"Perhaps that man's accusation was not a lie," interrupted Syle. Anthem shot him an angry look, but Syle held up a handful of red cenmark chips. "Cyrene had them."

Where could she have kept them? Panna wondered. Cyrene didn't have a suit of glass armor yet and her pale body was dressed in only a few scarves, better suited to the warm, overcrowded cargo hold than Ballad's leather. But Anthem took the plastic squares and clenched his fist around them. He thought a moment and then stalked to the airlock. He threw the plastic cenmark chips into the sand outside and slammed the doors shut.

"We are done here," Anthem announced. "Panna, check on Captain Sinnay. If he is well enough, please ask him to return us to Kaellisem at once. Ballad, help me get our people back into the hold and secured for the flight."

"What of me, sir?" Syle asked.

"Clean the blood from the floor, remove the bodies and reflect on the life you have taken," Anthem told him.

"Yes, sir."

Panna made her way up the stairs into the Blue Phoenix, but paused to look down at Syle as the fairy squire searched the cargo hold for a mop. Was he smiling?

"Love doesn't overlook flaws. It helps you correct them."

– Xia (233 PA)

"You flew with a head injury?"

Duaal winced at the sharp sound of Xia's scolding. "Only a little," he protested. "Bherrosi isn't that far away. And the ship's com was uh… slightly broken."

"I should have been with you," Xia said. She examined the computer screen. "We should have waited until I finished the inoculation cycle. Luckily, you don't seem to have done any serious damage. You have a very hard skull, Duaal."

"Don't I know it?" he groaned. "This whole thing really backfired on me. We were supposed to keep Anthem out of Maeve's hair for a week, but now we're back early and with two of her knights dead."

"I
told
you to leave the whole thing alone."

Duaal ignored that. "Did Logan at least manage to get that crown off her while we were gone?" he asked.

"No, I don't think so. Gripper says that when Maeve isn't running Kaellisem, Ferris is having her work on some sort of show."

"Damn it." Duaal examined the Ixthian's work in a small mirror. The cut on his scalp was gone and the bruise already fading to a dark brown. "We'll just have to try harder. Nice work, Xia. I'll be back to my handsome self in no time."

Xia turned away, gleaming metal and ceramic instruments in her silver hands. They clattered into the sink, bouncing off one another and nearly out of the shallow basin. Duaal slid off the cold exam table and put his hand on Xia's sharp shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I should have been there," she said again. "Maybe I could have–"

"You can't be everywhere. You can't, Xia. You stayed because the Arcadians here need you. They've never had a doctor. And we needed you to stay close to Maeve. She's the key to everything we're trying to do here. If she dies, Xartasia wins."

"Maeve is fine!" said Xia. She stared down into the sink with whirling red eyes. "At least, her body is. There's nothing I can do for everything else she's going through. But people are dead because I…"

"You couldn't have known what would happen in Bherrosi," Duaal told her gently. "And you can't go back and change it, Xia. Don't break your heart over what could have been."

The white-haired doctor sighed again, but this time it sounded more resigned. Her compound eyes shifted rapidly through a rainbow of color as she looked at Duaal. "You've grown up so much," she said. "You're a good man, Captain Sinnay."

Duaal turned away to cover his blush and laughed. "Don't tell anyone," he told Xia. "You'll ruin my reputation."

________

Xia sat at the table, reading the news and ignoring the clinking and crashing from the kitchen as her daughter dropped another cup. Xas' new skin had not entirely hardened yet and the soft spots were slippery. She would have to learn how to deal with it. After all, the girl had four more molts before reaching her adult size.

The front door slid open and then shut in a pair of hydraulic hisses. Xia looked up from the computer screen. "Good evening, love," she said. "How were classes today?"

"Successful," Xen told her as he came around the corner. He hung his coat on the rack and carried a large datadex to the dinner table. "How are the larvae?"

"Successful," Xia answered with a smile. "For the most part. Xas is trying to do the dishes."

"Can't you get Xol or Xid to help?" her husband asked.

She shrugged. "Xas needs to figure out for herself when she needs help and ask for it. Pride isn't a very useful trait."

Xen nodded in agreement. "I suppose not. You're as wise a mother as you ever were a doctor."

"I was an excellent doctor," Xia pointed out.

"And now you're an excellent mother."

"I could have been both."

Xen picked up his datadex and turned it on with a flick of his finger. "Unless you want to trust the upbringing of our children to someone else, one of us needs to be available to them. I would be happy to take up your position, if you like."

Xia sighed. "No. My superior size, patience and medical knowledge make me the better choice."

"Until adolescence. When schooling becomes a major factor, and my experience at Poes Nor changes things, we will renegotiate."

"Agreed."

There was another crash from the direction of the kitchen and the sharp scent of anger. Xas knew better than to swear in her mother's house, but the young Ixthian could not help the rush of chemical language. Not yet, at least. Another thing she would have to learn. It was not only Ixthians who could understand those smells, but the Lyra and Dailons. If Xas really wanted to become a politician – that was the girl's ambition this week – she would have to school not only her verbal habits, but her silent ones as well.

"A new student's just transferred into my two-ten class," Xen said suddenly.

"Now?" Xia asked. "It's halfway through the semester."

Xen shrugged, not looking up from his datadex. He was a proficient multitasker, a trait he and Xia had made sure to pass along to their seven offspring. "I warned her and even gave her the opportunity to take the test next week, but she finished today and scored in the top percentile."

"Did she transfer from a similar course at another college?"

"No," Xen told her. His long antennae waved rhythmically as he read. "She came straight from Cyrus."

"The farming colony?" Xia asked archly. "The human one?"

"Yes. I was surprised, as well. Humans usually can't keep up with my advanced courses, but this one seems to be an exception."

"You'll have to see if she will agree to a redprint," said Xia. "I'd be curious to take a look."

"So would I," Xen agreed.

"What's this brilliant girl's name?"

"Elsa De Marn."

________

Maeve shook her head and then recentered the slippery glass crown atop her black hair. "Please, do not let the numbers concern you," she told Panna. "You and Sir Anthem brought back plenty of the Bherrosi sands and at far too high a price."

"Yes," Panna agreed in a small voice. The wingless girl's eyes were rimmed in red.

"The fault for that lies with me, my queen," said Anthem. The knight was on one knee, his wings pressed against the sandy ground in a gesture of utter subservience. "I am sorry."

"It is
not
your fault," Maeve told her consort. "Get up! I have heard a dozen accounts of what happened in Bherrosi, Anthem, and only your own report blames you. Ballad, in fact, takes responsibility for the whole thing, as well."

"Ballad held only daytime duties for guarding against–" Anthem began, but Maeve raised her hand and he fell instantly silent. There were
some
benefits to being queen.

"Enough," she told him and turned to Panna. "I have not gotten to your report yet. Please, tell me whether any of my knights are to blame for this tragedy."

"No," Panna said. "None of the living ones, at least. The man who led the attack said that someone had stolen from him and Syle found some money on Cyrene. That seems to be what started all of this."

Maeve nodded. Anthem had gathered all twenty-two of his remaining knights in the flat red north field, along with the white-wrapped bundles of their dead. Ferris had already flown away to take care of the funerary details, for which Maeve was grateful. She raised her wings.

"Sir Anthem," she said. "Stand forward."

Anthem stood and stepped forward. His dark eyes were not red like Panna's, but remained downcast. He held his spear point-down, the ribbons trailing in the dust. He truly was ashamed. After all she had admitted to him, after she had shouted at him and sent him away to Bherrosi, Anthem Calloren was actually sorry that he had disappointed her. Maeve reached out and touched her fingertip to the knight's cheek. He raised his eyes to Maeve's.

"No knight can win all battles," she told him. "No matter how bravely fought. Especially those begun from within. Fight for me and for Kaellisem as you have, Sir Anthem, and I will be forever proud. You are master of my knights and my heart, now and ever."

Maeve was rather proud of the little speech. She had not even asked for Panna's help with it. But Maeve could not help stealing a glance behind her, to where Logan Coldhand stood his daytime vigil over Kaellisem's queen. His expression was stony. If Maeve's politic endearment bothered the Prian hunter, she could not tell.

Maeve looked back to the assembled knights. "Ballad, come to me."

The young Prian fairy approached slowly. He was still wearing his black leather, but Maeve was sure that some of the deep slashes in the jacket were new. Ballad went down on one knee, as Anthem had.

"I'm so sorry, my queen–" he said.

"Enough," Maeve told him. She was tired of apologies. They did not bring back the dead. "You have done no wrong, Ballad Avadain. By all counts, you fought hard and honorably for the safety of our people and your brother knights."

"Cyrene and Sellesian died," Ballad argued.

"We cannot save everyone," Maeve told him. "Not yet. Are you arguing with your queen?"

"No," Ballad said and then blushed, correcting himself. "I mean, not anymore. I'm done now."

"Good. Now, if you insist upon some punishment, I will grant it. Sir Anthem, give me your spear."

Anthem dusted his weapon clean and held it out to Maeve, haft first. She took the spear with a sudden rush of excitement. Gods, how long had it been since she had held her own? Since she had worn armor? Not since her coronation… Maeve spun the spear, bringing the gleaming blade around to point at the kneeling Ballad.

"By the grace granted me by Erris All-Singer and the first of our order, Anslin Sky-Knight," Maeve declared, touching the spear's glass blade to the crest of Ballad's right wing, "you are now a royal knight. Rise, Sir Ballad."

Ballad stood and spread his wings, then swept the right one across to his shoulder. His eyes were bright. "Thank you!"

Maeve still held the spear leveled at Ballad. "You are the first Arcadian to be knighted since the fall of our kingdom. In Kaellisem, at least. I cannot say whom my cousin may have raised up. But a great burden falls to you, Sir Ballad. Ten thousand years of glory and responsibility lives again with you. Be strong. Be great."

"Yes, my queen!" Ballad almost shouted.

Despite the gravity of the moment, Maeve smiled helplessly at Ballad's youthful enthusiasm. Reluctantly, she handed the spear back to Anthem. "Have Hyra make Ballad's armor," she instructed her consort. "And… and your other students, too."

"It will set back our other glass orders, Majesty," Anthem pointed out.

Maeve stopped smiling. "I know. But have it done. No knight should be without armor. Perhaps if Sellesian and Cyrene had theirs, they might have lived."

"Yes, my queen," said Anthem.

________

"You knighted Ballad?" Ferris gasped. "The Prian boy with no hair and the skin jacket?"

"It was more armor than anyone but Sir Anthem wore in Bherrosi," Maeve told the aging duke. "It may well have saved his life. And yes, I did. He is well suited to knighthood. Ballad is loyal and an able combatant."