Spiritwalker 3: Cold Steel (4 page)

“We Taino did not have horses before the fleet from the Empire of Mali came. They
are useful animals, beautiful in form and intriguing in their behavior. Do you not
think so, Perdita?”

Two could play that game of batey! “I’ve not had the opportunity to study the habits
of horses. We did not own any at the house where Beatrice and I grew up as devoted
as sisters.”

“Ah, Beatrice.” His expression shaded into a grave smile. “I wondered how soon you
would mention her. As you already know, Perdita, when General Camjiata came to Sharagua,
he offered Queen Anacaona a trade. In exchange for Taino gold, soldiers, and weapons
for his Europan war, he would give her son and heir for bride a young woman who walks
the dreams of dragons. Such a woman is precious beyond jewels, for she can see the
meeting places and crossing points of the future. With such a bride, my claim to the
duho
—the seat of power—would be strengthened. Naturally, my mother accepted on my behalf.”

“Bee won’t stand by and let me be condemned. She’ll never forgive you if I die.”

He sat back against the upholstered seat. “Yet if I am to be accepted as the next
cacique, I must see the cacica’s murderer brought to justice. Since it was my honored
mother’s wish that I succeed her brother as ruler of all the Taino, you may comprehend
my dilemma.”

“I think you should just let me go, Prince Caonabo. My hand did not kill your mother.”

“You speak as do the feathered people, disguising your meaning beneath words that
hide the truth. I was there the night it happened, on what you call Hallows’ Night,
on the ballcourt. I saw a saber-toothed cat break my mother’s neck. I saw a swarm
of creatures with teeth and claws rip my mother apart. I saw a hunting hound run off
into the night carrying my mother’s head in its jaws. So pray excuse me if I neglect
the usual polite talk and cut to the heart.”

“Truly, Your Highness, I think we have passed the point where we need concern ourselves
with polite words.”

His gaze was steady, not angry. “I heard what you said to the maku spirit lord that
night. You addressed him as ‘Father.’ You said, ‘Are you going to let that fire weaver
destroy me? I guess you can’t stop her.’ Do
you not think those are strange and careless words with which to ask for the death
of another person? Because I do.”

The cavalcade reached the boulevard that fronted the sea, a long stone-built jetty.
Waves sighed against rocks and piers; it was a gentle evening, with a gentle wind
and a gentle swell. A wagon drawn by a dwarf mammoth trundling along the boulevard
caught the prince’s attention. When his gaze flickered that way, it was all the distraction
I needed.

Born to a human mother, I had been sired by a creature of the spirit world. That meant
I could reach into the interstices that wove together the mortal world and the spirit
world and draw those threads around me to hide my body from mortal eyes. With satchel
and cloth-covered cane clutched against me, I wrapped myself in shadow. A bounce on
the forward seat gave the impression I had leaped out of the carriage.

Prince Caonabo’s attendants shouted in alarm. I held my breath and rode the jolt as
the driver hauled the horses to a halt. Soldiers scattered to search for me. The prince
passed a hand over his face. For no more than a breath, he smiled as if my audacity
reminded him of something that amused him greatly. Then a captain ran up, and Caonabo’s
expression settled back into cool reserve. He beckoned to the soldier. As the captain
mounted into the carriage, rocking it, I stepped off.

The shouts of the soldiers covered the thump I made on landing. I dodged away and
caught my breath under a hissing gas streetlamp, in full sight but entirely veiled
by my shadows. Carters and wagoners on their way home pulled aside. One old carter
lit a cigarillo nervously, puffing smoke. Young toughs swaggered into view, as if
hoping the Taino would push them into a fight. A young woman with a baby strapped
to her back grabbed a ripe papaya out of the basket she was carrying and cocked her
arm to fling it at the prince, but an older woman grabbed her elbow to stop her.

A whistle shrilled. As the Taino soldiers resumed formation, I crept away down a side
street.

The victory drums heard from a distant ballcourt ceased as I hurried down dim streets
too unimportant to warrant street lighting. The smoke of cook fires coated the air.
Merchants and artisans were closing up shop. The last transport wagons and carts shared
the roadways with people making their leisurely way home from work, the market, or
the batey game. No volley of shots disturbed the night, so presumably the prince had
moved on before trouble started.

Still hidden, I crept into the compound belonging to the household of my husband’s
trusted friend, Kofi. Vai’s sister Kayleigh was busy in the big open-air kitchen,
laughing with other young women as they helped with the cooking, supervised by Kofi’s
mother and aunts. Wheels scraped behind me. I stepped out of the way as the household
menfolk entered, pushing empty carts. Kofi was at the end of the line, a tall, broad-shouldered
young man with scarred cheeks and his shoulder-length black hair in locks. Falling
in beside him, I tweaked the hem of the sleeveless singlet he wore.

“Kofi, it’s Cat,” I whispered. “I’m in trouble. Meet me in the back.”

He startled, eyes going wide, but without a word he helped the other men sweep out
the carts and store them for the night. Then he grabbed a lantern and beckoned to
Kayleigh. She looked surprised but excused herself to his mother. I walked behind
them as they made their way to the back courtyard and entered a shed for broken axles
and wheels not yet repaired.

When I unwrapped the shadows, Kofi jumped back in alarm. Kayleigh chuckled. My secret
ways did not trouble her, for she had
grown up in a hunters’ village and with a grandmother who was a wise woman with strong
magic.

He frowned, glancing at Kayleigh as his shoulders tensed. “I tell yee, Cat, yee shall
not ever do that in front of any but them who know yee well. It don’ seem natural.”

“My apologies.” I kissed Kayleigh on the cheek and Kofi likewise. “I’ve been accused
of the murder of Queen Anacaona by Prince Caonabo. He came to the boardinghouse and
arrested me himself. Once we were away from Aunty’s, I fled.”

“Whsst!” Kofi rubbed his forehead. “Now yee’s a fugitive, Cat. It make yee look guilty
of the crime.”

“How can I be sure the Assembly won’t hand me over to the Taino?”

Kofi rested a big hand on my shoulder. “Cat, every Expeditioner shall call the cacica’s
death an act of war, and yee a soldier fighting against the Taino in defense of Expedition.”

“That will scarcely help me if I’m brought to trial and everyone believes I killed
her!”

“I don’ have the authority to let yee seek refuge here. I must ask permission of the
elders of the house.” He shifted broken wheels off an overturned wagon bed so we could
sit. “Wait here.”

As he stepped outside, I said, “I told Uncle Joe to send Rory here. I don’t want the
Taino to take him into custody. Because he’s the one who killed the cacica.”

“I don’ see it that way.” The lamplight made his scars shine, a reminder that he had
endured torture in the cells of Expedition’s Warden Hall for being a radical and revolutionary
agitator. Few things intimidated him now. “’Tis true yee made the suggestion and yee
brother struck the blow, but ’twas the maku spirit lord, the one yee call master and
sire, who had the power to command it done. Seem to me the spirit lord is therefore
the killer.”

He walked off, taking the lamp to light his way. In the darkness, Kayleigh took my
hand. She was a sturdy, big-boned young woman, not more than seventeen, who looked
like her older brother if not nearly as striking. We had not always gotten along,
but I was very glad to have her next to me tonight. “What do you mean to do, Cat?”

“I have to get to Europa. I just have to figure out how to get there, for I’ve no
money for a berth on a ship taking passage over the Atlantic.
I’ve already been warned off trying to walk into the spirit world here in the islands.
An
opia
came to me looking just like Vai.”

She snickered. “That must have startled you.”

Heat burned in my cheeks, for I had kissed the opia quite passionately before I realized
he was the spirit of a dead ancestor, wearing Vai’s face. Being dead, opia could wear
any face they wished. “Yes, it was quite disconcerting. He’s the one who explained
why the Taino spirits are so angry at me.”

“Why is that? For it seems to me that here in the Antilles, living people and their
dead ancestors are not often hostile toward each other. But perhaps the spirit people
here wish to protect the spirit lords of Europa, who might be in some manner their
cousins.”

“Quite the contrary. Long ago, Taino fire mages wove a protective spirit fence around
their islands to keep out the Wild Hunt and any other spirit visitors from other parts
of the spirit world.”

Kayleigh nodded. This casual talk of the spirit world seemed perfectly normal to her.
“I suppose that spirit lords protect their territory just like princes and mages do
in the mortal world.”

“So it seems. Anyway, I was able to cut a gate in the spirit fence. The Wild Hunt
rode through the gap I made. My sire would never have been able to reach the cacica
if not for me.”

“It’s not as if you did it on purpose! You were just trying to save your cousin’s
life, for it was her the Wild Hunt wanted to kill.”

“Yes, but the cacica died regardless.”

“You’ll need to sail to Europa, then. If we can’t get the bank to open Vai’s account
to you, you shall have the money Vai settled on me when I married.”

“I can’t take your dowry.”

“Of course you can! It’s mine to give, because Vai settled the funds on me according
to Expedition law, which follows Taino law in giving women title to households and
the family purse. Which do you think I would rather have? The money, or my brother?
You have to go to Europa. The hunters of our village can help you rescue Vai out of
the spirit world. Shh!”

Lantern light shimmered, illuminating carts lined up against the back wall: The family’s
business was local transport. Kofi shepherded his mother, his aunts, and the eldest
men into the dusty shed. I received
their blessing, which they gave by each one touching a hand to my hair. His mother
offered me a cup of juice. After hearing my tale, they agreed that I might stay for
one night. As for my brother, however, they were not so sure, for they had never met
him and wished to know more about his character and manners.

One of Kofi’s brothers appeared, escorting Rory and Lucretia. I smiled to see them
safe, until I noticed the inappropriately intimate manner in which their fingers were
intertwined.

“Rory,” I murmured, “did I not tell you to stay away from her?”

Rory released Luce’s hand. He sauntered right past me to greet the older women, his
smile as bright as the lanterns. With his lithe young man’s body well clad in one
of Vai’s fashionable dash jackets and his long black hair pulled back in a braid,
he surely delighted the eye. The men watched in astonishment but I knew what was coming.
He offered chastely generous kisses to the women’s cheeks and tender pats to their
work-worn hands.

“My apologies. I mean no offense by charging into your territory without an invitation.
But I must obey my sister. You understand how it is with a sister who speaks a bit
sharply to one even though she is the younger and ought, I should suppose, to look
up to her older brother. Please, let me thank you. Your hospitality honors and humbles
me. The food smells so good. I’m sure I’ve never smelled better.” He had routed two
already and turned to the remaining skeptic. “That fabric is beautifully dyed, and
looks very well with your complexion, Aunty.”

A cavalry charge at close quarters could not have demolished their resistance more
devastatingly. He turned his charm on the old men, drawing them out with irresistible
questions about their proud and memorable youth.

I went over to Luce, grasping her wrist. “Luce. He’s a tomcat.”

She lifted her chin. Because I treated Luce as a little sister, I often forgot that,
at sixteen, she was old enough to marry. “I know me own mind, Cat! I’s old enough
to do as I wish.”

“Be sure that he makes a habit of charming women of all ages and dispositions. And
men, too.” I glanced over my shoulder. Rory was now seated between two of the women,
chatting easily with all six of the elders about how things had been different in
the old days. His
easy lounging grace made the overturned wagon bed seem like the most gracious reception
hall couch.

“He cannot help what he is!” Luce’s gaze flashed at me from beneath lowered lashes.

“True words,” I agreed. “You’re blushing. I want you to go home, Luce.” She drew in
breath for a retort. “I need your help! Go home and get everything ready. Vai’s tool
chest. His clothes chests neatly packed, all my things put in. In the morning fetch
the winter coats I’m having made on Tailors’ Row.” I glanced up at Kofi, who had come
over to stand beside me. “We might have to leave in a hurry.”

“So yee might,” he agreed. “I shall be going out to speak to the president of the
Assembly and some other folk about the situation.” He pinched Luce’s cheek with the
familiarity of an older brother. “That man is trouble, gal. Mind me words.”

“Sweet trouble,” retorted Luce. “I’s no fool.”

“I doubt me that,” retorted Kofi in the tone of a man who has seen a girl grow up
from a toddling scamp. “Do as Cat ask. Don’ forget to pack Vai’s mirror and razor.
And extra soap.”

“I know Vai is vain but surely that is a bit much,” I said.

Luce giggled. “I never knew a man could spend so much time in front of a mirror.”

Kofi frowned reprovingly at us. “’Tisn’t only vanity. ’Tis a shield.”