The Tinkerer's Daughter (21 page)

Tinker walked in at that moment. “I hope I’m not interrupting,” he said, “but we really need to get going.”

“Not at all,” said Analyn. “I was just entertaining Breeze with old stories of my youth. I’m sure she’s glad for the chance to escape.”

I rose to my feet and gave Analyn a hug. “You’ll have to tell me the rest when I get back,” I said. She smiled and then shooed me out the door.

I found myself standing on a narrow mountain plateau. I was surrounded by makeshift tents, and I was surprised to recognize many of the faces around me. “Where exactly are we, Tinker?” His answer surprised me.

“Actually, we are not far from the area where you bombed the Kanters. The refugees have been talking about it ever since.”

I spun around, scanning the landscape at the base of the mountain. Dense trees blocked most of the view, but I could still see some of the devastation that the Kanters had left behind them. I could also see some of the wreckage. I immediately thought of the bodies that the Kanters had been taking with them. “There were two wagons…”

“They’re buried, now,” he said. “You did the right thing. It would have been wrong to let the Kanters have them like that.”

I felt sickness welling up in the pit of my stomach. “How could they do it, Tinker?”

He stepped around the horse and motioned for me to climb up behind the saddle. He helped me up, and I moaned as my insides twisted up. My wounds were mostly healed now, but there was a certain amount of pain that would be with me for some time.

“They’re evil,” he said. “They consume human flesh and worship demons. Do they need any more reason for their madness?”

“I suppose not.”

He climbed into the saddle and guided the horse through the camp, towards a deer trail that led down the south side of the mountain. We were at the edge of the woods when I heard a voice calling out my name. Tinker pulled back on the reins, and I twisted in the saddle. A moan escaped my lips as my body absorbed the strain.

“Breeze! Breeze!”

I almost laughed aloud as I saw Robie come flying out of the tents and down the hill. Shue, Jesha, and several other children from school were following him. He ran up to us and breathlessly started talking, all in one long gasping sentence:

“I saw you the other day when you flew your… plane… and you were throwing the cannon charges… down on the Kanters… It was amazing… We all saw it… Where are you going? Can I fly your plane when you get back?”

The other children swarmed up behind him. They were all smiles and waves. Very different from the last time that I had seen them. I wanted to feel happy, but I had to keep control of my emotions. I knew better than to put too much trust in anyone too quickly. “You want to fly?” I said. Robie nodded emphatically and I heard a few of the other children murmuring in agreement. “I’ll be back in a few days. I’m going to need pilots. They’ll need to be strong and healthy and smart. You think you can do that?”

“Yes!” Robie said. “Anything you want. I’ll do anything!” Again, several others were agreeing.

“Good. I’ll need no less than three but no more than five to start with. You’ll have to prove yourselves. Go to Mrs. Trader and ask her about geography… Oh, and ask about engineering too.”

“When will you be back?” he said

I glanced over the group, wondering if any of them could live up to my expectations. The last few days had been hard on them for certain, but prior to that they’d been simple-minded fools in my opinion. Of course, it didn’t help that they’d accused me of being a spy and an assassin.

“Soon,” I said. “Just be ready.”

Robie saluted me, and the other children followed his example. I have no idea what inspired them to do it, and I had to force myself not to break out in laughter. Thankfully, Tinker heeled the horse and we vanished into the shadows of the forest.

“You’ve got some powerful admirers,” he said once we were down the hill a bit.

I chuckled. “So I noticed. How exactly did that happen?”

He twisted in the saddle and gave me a sideways glance. “You’ve changed, Breeze. I noticed it as soon as I heard you speak. You don’t sound like a shy little girl anymore.”

“I guess I’m not,” I said. “I’m not really sure what happened. I was just trying to get things done. I found myself getting more forceful out of frustration. I found myself talking to nobles and generals as if they were children.”

“Sounds about right,” he murmured.

“What do you mean?”

“One thing I’ve learned over the years is that authority has to be taken just as much as its earned. People who get ahead in this world don’t just wait around for somebody to promote them. Sure, they might work hard, but for the most part they pretty much just take what they want.”

“That doesn’t sound like a good thing.” I was thinking of Prince Sheldon and his ambitions.

“Often it’s not,” he said. “But sometimes it can be a very good thing. Take General Corsan, for example. Do you know where he came from? He was a farm boy in South Bronwyr. He wanted more than a life of feeding chickens and milking cows, so he joined the army.

“He grabbed every opportunity that came along; even when he was afraid he might not be up to it. Usually, he managed to pull it off. Now he’s one of the most powerful men in the kingdom, and he’s right where he should be.”

“How do you know so much about him?” Tinker shrugged.

“I came from South Bronwyr, too. We went to the same school for a few years. Then he took off and became a living legend. Meanwhile I finished school and grew up to be a crazy old hermit.”

I laughed. “You’re not crazy, Tinker. When was the last time you saw him?”

“About five years ago, shortly after I invented my black powder charges. I sold a few charges to Baron Par’Tishan so his servants could clear out some old tree stumps. He spread the word, and pretty soon the general showed up asking for a demonstration.

“I showed him how they worked and he placed a standing order. He wanted the recipe, of course, but I wouldn’t give it to him. A man’s got to see to his own fortune, you know.” He gave me a wry smile and I laughed aloud.

“Tinker, just how much does the army pay you?”

“Well, lets just say I live in my little valley because I find palaces to be pretentious.” We both laughed until my stomach started to hurt and I had to force myself to take deep, slow breaths.

I spoke to the trees a little as we descended the mountain, and they confirmed what I had suspected, that Cinder had brought me to them. She had dragged me into an irrigation ditch, and then pulled me out of danger with my body floating gently in the water. Not only had the fresh water helped to cleanse my wound, but it saved me from additional injuries I might have sustained by being dragged across the rough ground. It also kept me safely out of the Kanters’ view.

Upon reaching the woods, the trees had recognized me and carried me from limb to limb across the many miles to the refugee camp. I thanked them for saving my life. The trees, as always, were quiet and gracious.

We passed a small graveyard at the base of the mountain. Actually, it wasn’t so much a graveyard as a mass grave. It was in a shady grove, overlooking a small pond. It seemed a nice enough final resting place for the people who otherwise would have been food for the Kanters.

It was a sad testament to what the Kanters had done, and I felt hatred welling up inside of me. I knew the suffering that they had caused, the pain of children who no longer had parents. It served to remind me of the importance of my mission.

I was anxious as we left the shelter of the trees, but Tinker assured me that all the Kanters had moved on. “They didn’t stay to defend the defeated provinces,” he explained. “I guess they assumed that there weren’t enough humans left to threaten them.”

“That doesn’t seem very smart,” I said.

“It’s not. There’s a good chance the angry farmers who escaped their initial attack will rally, and attack the Kanters from behind. If that happens, the Kanters will be trapped between the angry mobs and the army. Personally I’d rather face the army.” We both laughed at that.

It took about an hour to get to the crash site. We found the wreckage of my plane easily enough. I looked out across the plain, knowing that the Kanters were out there somewhere. Suddenly something was bothering me.

“Tinker, everyone seems to think the Kanters are mindless barbarians. Judging from how they live and fight, it seems like it’s probably true.”

“You’ll get no argument from me.”

“So how did they get smart enough to build cannons and riverboats and catapults? How did they figure out that they could put an army together with archers and footmen, or that they could disguise themselves by traveling at night and painting their swords?”

Tinker shot me a look. “What are you saying, Breeze?”

“I don’t know. It just seems like… like maybe they had some help.”

Tinker surveyed the damaged machines around us, and paused to scratch the stubble on his chin. “Now that you mention it, it does seem awfully sophisticated for that bunch.”

“What if they had help?” I mused. “I mean, you already said you didn’t think the Tal’mar were helping them, but what if somebody else did? Maybe someone who wanted to overthrow the king?”

Tinker’s eyebrows narrowed and he spoke to me in calculated words. “I don’t follow the intrigues of court and state, but I’m sure there are any number of people who would like to place themselves on the throne, if that’s what you’re getting at. I can think of a
very small number
of people with the resources to do that. Be very careful about what you say, and who you say it to, Breeze. This line of reasoning borders on treasonous, and the penalty for treason is death.”

“I understand.” I wanted to push the subject, but Tinker was clearly uncomfortable with it. Even out there, with scarcely a living thing around us, he was afraid someone might overhear our conversation. It gave me a chill.

The more I thought about it, the more certain I was that someone had put the Kanters up to it. It just made sense. They were too primitive to have the technology that they were using, and I couldn’t imagine what would have motivated them. They didn’t seem to be the nation-conquering type.

Unfortunately, even making the accusation was enough to get me killed. In fact, being a half-breed Tal’mar had almost been enough to get me killed. I didn’t want to think of what tortures might lie in store for a genuine Tal’mar traitor.

I forced the problem to the back of my mind. For now I had more immediate problems. Like getting the gearboxes, controls, and cables out of my old plane. Tinker and I set to work on gathering what we could and discarding those parts that were damaged beyond repair. The gearboxes were intact, but one of the springs had been destroyed by the cannonball. Tinker used leather thongs to compress the remaining springs and then he tied them to the saddle.

I also found my old sword among the wreckage. I never had used that thing. I unsheathed it and held it for a moment, remembering the day I’d found it up in the rafters of Tinker’s barn, buried in a box of old weapons. It was a good memory. A simpler time.

“You still have that thing?” Tinker said.

I smiled. I shoved the blade home and tucked it under my belt. I didn’t care if I wouldn’t ever use it; I wanted it with me. I wanted to keep that memory.

I turned back to the work. Within an hour, we were back on our way.

Tinker spent the entire night modifying the plane. I helped him throughout the evening, until I finally became so exhausted that I fell asleep on a stool in the barn with my head resting on the table. Tinker must have taken pity on me, because I woke the next morning in the windmill, curled up on that dusty old bench.

The rest had done me good. I could feel the changes in my body; that I had healed considerably since my accident. In fact, I was quite ready to go on another mission.

I wandered back to the barn, and found Tinker there, still working. He had been up all night.

“It looks great!” I said. The barn doors were thrown wide to make room to remove the plane, and the morning sun splashed across the fresh paint.

“As you can see I’ve given it the same paint scheme as the last. I’m not sure if it ever helped or not, considering that you were shot down…”

“It helps,” I assured him. “That never would have happened if I hadn’t been flying so low. How did you manage to fit two seats in there?” I didn’t notice it until I got up close. Tinker had cut open the top of the fuselage, just like before, only now there were two seats. They looked a little out of place on the smaller plane, and I was a bit worried about whether it could actually carry the extra weight.

“The opening is slightly larger,” he said. “And unfortunately, the seats are smaller. But I figured you’d need to carry passengers while you were getting your pilots around. At least until you have your new planes.”

“I suppose I will.” I hadn’t even thought about that. Once again, Tinker did what he did best.

He went to the rear of the fuselage and opened the stow compartment. “If you look here, you’ll see that I’ve modified the spring assembly slightly. I’ve replaced one with a slightly heavier version.”

“What will that do?”

He shot me an exhausted smile. “That remains to be seen. The concept however, is to allow you longer flights. If my theory is correct, you’ll be able to double your distance by dropping into the highest gear once you reach altitude.”

“That’s fantastic!”

“Yes, well That’s the good news. It seemed prudent, considering what lies between us and the Borderlands. I didn’t want you making any unnecessary landings. The bad news is that you will fly slower. The overall flight will probably take about twenty-five percent longer.”

I listened carefully as he spoke, and I began to circle the plane. “How much weight can it carry?”

“That remains to be seen. You may be able to carry more than before because you have a smaller, lighter fuselage. On the other hand, the wingspan of this plane is smaller.”