Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) (46 page)

I dismounted and clutched Paloma to me, my heart sinking at how thin her shoulders seemed to have become. “How is Kayleen?” she whispered into my ear.

“She’s as well as possible.”

“That’s good.” We held each other, waiting. When light touched the rocks above us directly, I let her go, keeping my silence. I led Stripes toward Sand. Akashi had picked this spot for us. It appeared well-chosen: steep drops and dense forest cover would make it tough for people to find us, and the pile of rocks jumbled at the top would be cover from above if a skimmer came. The sun painted bright orange bottoms on wispy morning clouds, and the tall shadows of Stripes’s legs looked like knives.

As soon as the three hebras were tied out to graze on the sparse grass, we gathered close near the rocks, looking down. Artistos did, in fact, lie easily visible below us. From this angle, we saw the fields and the hebra barn first, the cliffs down to the Grass Plains falling to the left. The town itself spread away from us, an uneven rectangle of buildings and streets leading to Commons Park, and beyond, to the Lace River.

“I hope everyone is ready,” I said.

Tom pulled Paloma into a sideways embrace, looking down at her tenderly. “I’m sure they are,” he whispered. She leaned into him, bending her head down. Her hair had become fully gray in the weeks we’d been home. She had come here ahead of us at her own request, wanting quiet. A healer, she had concocted poisons to kill. The stress of it showed in dark circles smudging her hollowed cheeks and a slumped forward tilt to her slender shoulders.

Still, when she looked up at Tom, a light glow filled her features. During the summer of our trip around Little Lace Lake, all of these relationships had been under the surface—at least me and Liam, and Tom and Paloma. Only my little brother and wild Alicia had come together then.

The three of us waited.

We had decided not to communicate via earset until the fighting started, hoping for surprise. I pictured Kayleen lying down on a blanket
in the cave. She’d be near the front, for clear access to the data she needed. Hunter would be beside her, helping her as I would if I were with her. Or at least as well as an original human could help an altered. Liam would be nearing the town, creeping up on it, using his frizzer in hopes of avoiding an early alarm, following a least-surveillance path Kayleen had mapped out for him the day before. Ruth and her group should be below us and to our right.

All told, over a thousand people filled the forest, and five hundred more waited just over the ridge, ready to join the battle. Fifteen hundred against less than fifty, and we worried about whether or not we would have enough.

The whole world seemed to hold its breath, waiting. Even the baby inside me slept, or waited.

I
perched on a rock two meters above Paloma and Tom, savoring a moment alone after the frenetic pace of preparation. What did I want? For everyone to live. There were already so many holes in our company. I didn’t even want the Star Mercenaries to die. Making them go away would be enough. As if I could hope for such a simple, positive outcome. Even though I’d learned better, it was part of me to hope. Today, hope felt like a curse.

Artistos slept on, unawares. Sunshine painted the flecks of silica in the rock below me with bright colors. It glinted off the top of the
Dawnforce
, slid partway down her squat, silver sides, and then separated individual roof tiles on the hebra barn. If only I could be down there, creeping up on the invaders.

I wasn’t doing anything. Yet. A fluttering heel-kick to the inside of my belly reminded me why. I folded my stomach, and thus the baby, in my arms, hoping it felt me hold it. Would I even be able to birth it? And into what?

But it wasn’t my job to worry, regardless of the fact the baby’s very presence made me more afraid of any bad outcome.

My job was to watch.

What to watch for? A puff of smoke? Movement among the trees? The Lace Forest slept below us, the town streets empty.

The first sign of life was Ruth, loud and amazed and proud, in my right ear. A whisper. “We killed one.” Because everyone used the same earset frequency, we would all hear. She and her team of two hundred fifty should be flowing down through the Lace Forest. Were they
already in town? “The one we saw must have been a guard. It’s deserted here.”

Kayleen, her voice loud and firm in my ear. Commanding. “Stay slow. Don’t set off the perimeters.” But one down, and we hadn’t lost anyone yet. That I knew of.

Maybe this would work.

Below me, Artistos looked as if it slept.

Kayleen, lower this time. “They know you’re there.” Silence. “They’re chattering.”

Was Liam all right? I held my silence, dropping down next to Tom and Paloma. “Be careful jumping with that baby,” Paloma cautioned.

“It’s started?” Tom asked.

“Yes. Ruth says she killed one.”

“I can’t see anything,” Paloma whispered, standing on tiptoes, craning her neck.

“Over by the River Walk.” Tom hissed, pointing.

Squinting, movement resolved into two tiny, barely distinct figures. The strongs, or at least some strongs (whether the ones I had met or not), racing down the neat, even path that ran by the river, fast for all their bulk. I spoke into the earset. “Two fighters headed in from the industrial area. They’re running. Watch out!”

A steady, slightly maniacal laugh. Ruth. “Maybe we spooked them.”

Maybe you’re too sure of yourself. But then, Ruth and her band were good hunters. “Maybe. They’re coming toward you. Watch yourself.”

No laugh this time. “I will.”

Liam. He’d be separating from Akashi, skirting town as long as he could, heading for the water system. There had been no particular defenses on our water plant in the past, but Kayleen had told me it was masked from her. Liam would get close, then wait until the battle was more fully joined, hoping to be ignored. He carried poison from Paloma, something meant to kill anyone who drank it.

Paloma squeezed my hand. I glanced at her—fear filled her eyes, and hope. Or maybe the two combined, which Akashi called prayer.

The silence leaked into forever. I filled it with a breaking whisper. “Akashi and his group should be directly between us and the town.” He and two hundred fighters took the closest approach to the ship and the camp surrounding it. I couldn’t yet see them.

Paloma fidgeted, her hand up to keep the sun out of her eyes. “Do you see Stile?”

Trees obscured much of the view. Sunshine glinted from something, a brief flash, nothing more.

If they knew we were there, they weren’t doing anything about it yet. Surely they knew. So why so quiet?

A bright green seed-bird flew out across the open ground only a few meters from us, sat, and cocked its head, regarding Paloma with its small brown eyes. A few of the feathers on its tail were ragged, and one dragged at the bird’s feet. A touch of wind brushed my right cheek, a shadow streaked across the ground, and the small bird was caught in the talons of a large day-hunting canopy owl. It didn’t even have time to cry out. The owl streaked into the forest with its prize. Surely a bad sign, unless by some miracle, we were the owl. Paloma and I shared a nervous glance and Tom shook his head. “It’s nothing. It must be nothing.”

Waiting sucked.

Kayleen, in my ear, her voice lightly touched by the craziness that had taken her before. “The alarms! By roamers’ field.” A high whine hit my ears, and it took a moment to be sure it was from Artistos and not the earset. I stood, craning my neck like Paloma, trying to see. “Stile!” Kayleen called. Anguish broke from her voice into my ear. “Stile! No!” A plaintive, “Anyone?”

And I knew in that moment what we had done to her.

Joseph had been linked to Steven and Therese when they died in the rock fall. It had taken him months to recover.

“Kayleen!” I screamed.

Paloma grabbed my arm, her eyes begging for information. I put a palm softly over her mouth, took a deep breath and reached for more control. Tom came behind her, circling her with his long arms, his round face and round eyes radiating concern.

I had no time for them, only for her. “Kayleen, stay above it. Go out if you have to.”

“He’s dead. They’re all dead.”

Just hours ago, they’d been in the cave with us, getting ready, laughing and joking with their loved ones.

Silence. I breathed into it, questing for a different path to focus her
down. “Find Akashi, Kayleen.” Akashi could hear us. He’d know what was happening. Not that he could help much from wherever he was. But was he okay? “Akashi,” I whispered.

He answered. “Take care of Kayleen. We’ll take care of ourselves.”

“Kayleen,” I whispered, picturing her alone with only old Hunter beside her. Hunter was wise and strong, but this was not his job, not something he knew. “Kayleen. What’s happening with the others?”

“I…I …they’re all dead.”

“Everyone?” I demanded of her. “Or just Stile and his group?”

“S…Stile. Stile died.”

“So save the others. Pay attention to them.” Joseph had shunned the nets entirely for months after the quake, as if the blame for the rock fall had been his. A side effect of hearing our parents’ dying screams and being unable to do anything to help them. “Kayleen, stick to just the earset for now, be as blind as I am.”

“I…I can’t.”

“You can.” I wanted to stroke her face, to hold her. We three had to live, had to be strong.

Akashi whispered in my ear. “We’re laying the first of the traps now. We’ll be making noise soon.”

Hearing his voice sent a relief washing through me.

Tom and Paloma hadn’t been able to hear my earset conversations. I tore it from my head, looked full into Paloma’s eyes, fixing her in place. “Remember when Mom and Dad died? Remember Joseph?”

She nodded. Tom grimaced. “Yes.”

“Something happened to Stile. Maybe to everyone that was with him. I don’t know what. Kayleen said he’s dead. Akashi is okay. Liam is silent, but he should be. I haven’t heard from Ruth for a few moments.” Kayleen was in trouble. Tom should be leading this whole damned colony, and he was letting me do it from here. Anger peeled up my spine, forcing clarity. I thrust the earset at him. “Go on. You take it. I’m going to Kayleen.”

Tom stood blinking at me, the earset lying in his palm like a small dark bug with a single long tail curled around it.

Other people could help Liam. “I’m going to Kayleen. She needs me.”

Tom closed his fist around the earset and glanced down at Artistos.
Smoke rose from at least one place, now. Probably us—we’d agreed that burning might send them out of town. A high squawk came from the earset. Ruth’s voice, unintelligible.

She was War Council, like us. I peeled the bud from Tom’s inert hand and stuffed it into my ear. “I didn’t hear that. Are you okay?”

Labored breath punctuated her words. “Some wounded. Three dead. Can’t see anyone.”

She would have heard everything I had said on the earset. “Look,” I said. “I’m going to Kayleen.”

“Everything will be done by the time you get there.”

“Then she’ll need me.”

Akashi’s voice. “Travel safe.”

“Thank you.” I tore the earset free again and thrust it at Tom, not even waiting to be sure he put it on. They’d figure it out. I grabbed Paloma by her shoulders. “I’ll keep her safe if I can.”

I
only waited long enough to see Paloma’s nod before I raced for Stripes. As soon as I mounted, Stripes turned her head completely around and stared at me, a thing only hebras can do, her ears forward, her head a little cocked. “Go,” I urged. “Go, now.” I flicked the reins on her slender neck and whether it was the reins, my command, or my feelings that drove her, she raced to the top of the steep path, and started down it with no protest. We hit the Old Road and turned up. Full light illuminated the path. Stripes took it at a pull, rocking as she almost hopped up, then continued to pull, to leap, to clamber. She knew how badly I needed us to move. My knuckles turned white on the saddle-pommel and my free hand, holding the reins, clutched Stripes’s neck.

It took forever, and all the time I wanted to scream.

People were dying below me in town. Stripes splashed across a stream, almost lost balance on a slippery rock.

The slender branches of a lace tree tangled in my hair, and I let them pull a chunk loose. How could I have forgotten what Joseph went through?

Liam was down there sneaking toward a dangerous target. Stripes and I were halfway up the Old Road, now. Through the worst part.

Akashi, hopefully, was being chased out of town by mercenaries, drawing them to traps he’d set.

Stripes stepped carefully around a waving trip-vine.

Something flew out of the redberry bushes beside the path and
Stripes—thankfully—just snorted and ignored it, pushing ahead, nearly jumping up the last bit. I patted her neck, and whispered sweet thanks into her back-turned ear. And then the Old Road was behind us and the wide, flatter High Road flashed by beneath Stripes’s feet.

Each breath, each moment—they all took forever.

It would be okay. Really, it would. Once I got to Kayleen, I could help her.

I dropped Stripes into the corral near the fork in the High Road, stopping just long enough to strip her tack. She had a stream for water, and enough natural grass to make a meal or ten. Still, for all of Stripes’s efforts, and mine, by the time I dropped into the cave, I’d missed at least an hour of the fight.

As expected, Kayleen nested near the opening of the cave. She lay on a pile of blankets, Hunter sitting next to her, rubbing her temples. My heart sank at the sight of the earset in his ear; clearly, Kayleen couldn’t manage it right now. He looked up at me, frowning and worried. “She’s going in and out. Sometimes she’s coherent, sometimes she’s yelling and screaming.” Her open eyes looked vacant, but she breathed and her skin had some color.

She was safe. Was Liam? “What’s happening in Artistos?” I asked Hunter.