The Vastness

by Hausladen, Blake;

  “I told you she wouldn’t want to go out,” Franni said, and I shifted my vision to see that she had not come alone.

  I opened my eyes and had to blink a few times to get a glimpse of the man.

  “Opan!”

  “It is good to see you too, Emi.”

  “I missed your return to the city. The road to Kuet had so much more traffic on it now. Is it Arilas Opan or King Opan now?”

  “Arilas. Rahan would prefer we remain a province of his Zoviya.”

  “Ohh. Well that’s not so bad, I guess.”

  “Not at all,” he said, but his weakened connection to Rahan told me he was lying. He changed the subject. “Who are all the men in the yellow robes?”

  “Yellow? Who do you mean?”

  “She never opens her eyes anymore,” Franni said, which inspired her threads to combine even further with Opan’s. I suspected they were grinning at each other. She had shown him in but was certain to linger.

  “And you never leave me be,” I said to her and turned to Opan.

  “The ones I mean were walking across the lawn when I arrived. Three of them.”

  “Ah, they are with Avin. He has some special project for them. I am glad to hear that terrible yellow linen found a home. And you can stop hovering, Franni. Opan is here to say hello, not to ask me to marry him. I love you, but you meddle.”

  I open one eye in time to see the face she made at me.

  “Got one open at least,” she said.

  “They are an odd group,” Opan prompted.

  “Are they?” I replied, not sure what at all to say. I let my mind’s eye wander along the shores of the river instead, and my attention was drawn again to the one crossing we could not stop. Yarik’s bridge would be done in a matter of days. The rumbled of the water through the thin gap made it hard to sleep sometimes. The dark patch of nothingness north of the city was what I watched when sleep wouldn’t come. The bottled river was rising and the fields north of the city had flooded, leaving a wide black crescent free of people.

  The gap in the conversation startled me back. I forced my eyes open and had to squint against the sun beaming in across the well-swept floor. Franni has opened the curtains. The clutter of gifts upon the tables and in the corners made me want to close my eyes again. The Warrens were making everything known to man, and each craftsman had seen fit to send me the first of whatever it was they had made. A storeroom below was filled with more of the same. Opan had found himself a place between an oak cabinet full of clothes and a shoe stand that sprouted new boots and slippers like leaves. I had not tried any of them on.

  “Sorry for all the clutter. I forget about it all when I have my eyes closed.”

  He chuckled. “It is a bit of a beehive, but I do love all the motion and Kuet loves the flow of it all down the tithe road. The situation in Ol Keshkari is much improved with the road secured. My brothers are in control of the valley once again. I’ll be headed back soon, so wanted to stop by before I departed. Franni thought you might want to ride through the Warren with me. I understand that you have not gotten a tour of any of the tower homes that have gone up along Cutter Street.”

  Franni added, “Did you know there are five stories high? The number of bedrooms in each—the people of the Warrens are making their way out of the lodges at last. If you went you could get a look at all the new pennants the girls have made, too.”

  Opan said, “You have a friend there, too, do you not? I have heard stories.”

  “Stories?” I asked and fixed my eyes on Franni.

  Franni was smiling. “She does. Her name is Pia. A girl from our lodge on Yellow Row. The two of them were very close. They searched the Warrens together to reunite Pia’s family. The rest of us talk about it all the time. Such an adventure.”

  My face blazed and my stomach churned.

  “She is from Havish?” he asked and Franni nodded. “Well, she’d be easy to find then—especially all together as a family. Not many of those in the Warrens.”

  “Shut up, both of you,” I said.

  “Emi? Are you angry?” she asked. “Don’t you want Pia to visit?”

  “She hasn’t and she won’t. Now shut up about it.”

  They both wilted back and the threads connecting us withered. I was hurting them. Opan took Franni by the arm and pulled her out of the room.

  “Wait,” I said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I got a little angry.”

  Opan kept moving. “It’s all right, Emi. We are fine, just a bit warm is all. We’ll leave you alone for a bit, if that is okay?”

  “No, please.”

  He came to a halt. “We are happy to stay with you if that would please you.”

  He was doing it to keep me calm, but it was not helping. I started to cry. Franni hurried across.

  “I would hug you so close, dear. I am so sorry.”

  “Am I hurting you?”

  “No dear, it is gone now. I just got a little scorched.”

  “Have I done this to you before?”

  “Only once while you were sleeping. Bad dreams. You haven’t had much to do, so we thought you might like to move around a little. See the crowds and get some sun before it gets any colder.”

  While she spoke, her threads returned to the way they had been. Opan’s, too. I didn’t understand it.

  “What’s wrong, dear?”

  “Can you pretend to be angry with me?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Opan approach. “I think I do. Like this, Emi?”

  He tried to change his feeling toward me, making faces as he did it. The bond between us only grew.

  “You can stop, that didn’t work at all. It’s like the threads are always emotions—more wants or needs.”

  Franni looked to Opan who was nodding his head. “How can you test it?”

  I asked him, “Who is someone you really want something from, someone you don’t like very much?”

  “I really want to hear from my uncle if he is alive or not. I despise him—if he is still alive, that is.”

  I closed my eyes and studied the threads that reached out from Opan. His connection to his bodyguards and attendants was strong, and I was pretty sure I could tell where he had friends in the city—if “friends” was the right word for it. There was also one thread that reach east across the river to the large camp where Yarik’s had his army. It was a strong thread.

  “He is alive,” I said. “Yarik has him at his camp outside the city.”

  “I’ll be damned. What a thing to learn. I am happy to have helped you.”

  The quality of Opan’s threads all changed as he heard the news. The threads connecting us diminished, and the ones between him and Rahan began to blaze.

  “Why did this news make you want to see Rahan? What do you want from him?”

  My knowledge startled him and he hesitated before he answered. “I would have Rahan condemn my uncle to death for his betrayal.”

  “You will not be happy until you get a chance to ask. Go, Opan. We’ll take that tour another time.”

  “Thank you, Emi. I will visit you again as soon as I have returned to the city.”

  He kissed Franni on the cheek before he hurried out.

  Franni was bushing when she sat in a chair, her connection to Opan flaring as brighter than her connection to anyone else.

  “Fancy him, do you? I asked.

  She blushed hotter, but then began to laugh. I joined her and it was the best I’d felt in a while.

  “That sure was exciting,” she said. “Is there anything I can get for you, dear? I need some air.”

  “No,” I said, my eyes already closed as I wondered how else I could use this new knowledge. I was considering Avin’s three priests when she got up to leave. “Wait. Could you have Avin join me?”

  “Now? You will be seeing him later tonight, remember?”

  “Yes, I know. Please have him come right now. He will want to hear this. Tell him to bring the priests.”


  She hurried out and sent one of the ready freemen to find him while I pondered what I was seeing. It could not be that simple.

  Avin was not happy, I could tell, when the freeman interrupted him. It took the old priest a bit of time to make his way across to me, too, his connection with me diminishing as he came.

  “Don’t be so cross,” I said as he entered, which startled him.

  “I am sorry, Emi. A great many things are in motion today, and I will be with you all evening. What is so urgent?”

  The priests followed him into the room, and as I studied them, I reconfirmed at once what I’d seen.

  “It’s easier when I am close to people,” I said, which earned confused looks from all four me.

  “Emi, please,” Avin said. “Today is not the day for this.”

  “Oh, but I think it is, Avin. I have found your weeping children.”

  “What?”

  I ignored the question and reexamined all the connection between the three priests and the rest of the world. Dim threads extended from all three into the Warrens, though there was no way they could all be friends with the same set of former slave. They would not have met any of them and I turned my attention on the cluster deep in the center of the rows and alley.

  “Oh, no,” I said.

  “Emi, you are trying my patience. Please, dear girl, explain.”

  “I’ve found them, Avin. I don’t entirely understand it yet, but I can see your connection with the children.”

  “But we do not know them, Emi.”

  “That doesn’t matter, it would seem.”

  “Then what is the problem? We can collect them all tomorrow, if you know who they are.”

  “Avin, someone has already gathered them together, and they are being moved.”

  The four men all began speaking at once, and it was not helpful. Avin was beside himself. “Who has them?”

  “Hush. Your yelling made it harder. They are in the center of the Warrens heading east toward the river. I cannot tell who has them. People from the Warrens, I think. They have connections with many people on both side of the river.”

  “Do you think they could get them across? How many of them are there?” Avin demanded.

  “There are seventy-two children in the group that is being moved.”

  The number stung them into sudden silence. The quality of their threads changed as though whatever they’d been working on had been forgotten.

  “Come,” Avin said. “The timing of their move cannot be a coincidence. Someone tipped them off. We must be after them. Now.”

  “Tell me what you would do with them, first.”

  Avin did not want to answer, and the condition of his connection to the three priests suffered terribly. Avin did not want them to hear his answer.

  I said, “If I go with you now, will you promise to tell me later?”

  He swore that he would, and we hurried out. One of the freemen that moved out onto the lawn with us kept making eye contact and smiling. He was Kuetish like Opan, his hair thick and his skin rich ebony. His face was a bit askew and scarred, his chest covered in yellow ribbons. His eyes kept smiling.

  “Natan?”

  His soul blossomed as I called the name and it was too strange to watch our threads intertwine as we hurried down. How had I not been connected to him like Opan was to his uncle? The shock and happiness at seeing him made it has hard to continue along as the knowledge that connections between souls were as complicated as the workings of a great loom.

  Natan must have been close the entire time. Had Franni kept him out of sight? That would be just like here. Natan had survived Tin Bridge, and many bloody encounters since. How hard had he been working to catch my eye? I did not know what to say to him or what to feel.

  Our group caused a commotion amongst the Hemari guarding Talley Bridge, and I was glad that we did not run into Franni or Opan on the way after all their efforts to get me outside.

  Avin sent a Hemari to Rahan with a report of us and a promise that he would return to the fortress in time—in time for what, I did not know. The condition the Hemari bearing the report told me this news would be very poorly received. I was not able to keep my eyes close enough as we moved to figure out what Rahan and Avin were up to as we hurried across, but whatever it was, I was throwing their plans into chaos. When the messenger reached Rahan, and his connections to those around him became a spider’s web in a tempest.

  We started down Thorn Street and the reaction of the people that filled the streets was odd. They ignored me as if they did not believe it could be me. Everyone went about their business. How strange it was to see so many people moving around so freely, taking no note of armed men rushing down the road. A column of soldier would have sent every soul within ear shot to their knee just a season before.

  “Which way?” Avin asked me, and I had to get my mind turned back around after having my eyes open for so long.

  “They aren’t moving very fast, but are almost to the river. We’ll want to take Gatehouse Road, just here to the left.”

  We hurried along, and it did not take long before I was out of breath. It had felt good at first to be moving, but I was starting to slow down.

  “How far?” Avin asked.

  I gulped air and tried to get a fix on them.” They are close, just a bit south and east of us. There,” I said, and pointed.

  When I opened my eyes, the scene didn’t make sense. Gatehouse Road was very wide, and there would be nowhere for them to hide.

  “We should be able to see them.”

  “Where?”

  I pointed again and moved toward the spot. As we got closer, I got the feeling that I had it a bit wrong, and with each step my stomach began to sour.

  I was standing right on top of them, when I opened my eyes to an empty patch of street. “There are there,” I said, and pointed down.

  “What? Where? They are below us?”

  “Yes. We are right above them.”

  “I don’t understand. Where are they going?”

  I closed my eyes tight and tried to remember all the places along the way that I had seen them. They had moved more or less in a straight line east. “I don’t know where they are going, but I think they came from Central Plaza.”

  “What is in the plaza? Is that the place where Rahan delivered all the bread to the Warrens?”

  “And where the old priests of the Warrens gathered. There is a tithe tower there.” As I said it I remembered the day that Pia and I had been inside the tower, and the bloody tables that filled the room. I also remembered the children that had been rescued from Black Row and the way they had wept after they were healed. I began to feel sick.

  “The priests took them. We must save them,” I was shouting and stamping my feet. I wanted a different magic then, and tried with all my might to make the rock and road that separated us from the terrible priest vanish. Nothing at all happened.

  Everyone backed away from me. Avin was looking east. “Could they get beneath the river? Is there a way underneath?”

  One of his priests said, “I know of routes under the east branch that connected the palace to the Priests’ Quarter. Sikhek would use them to visit the Exaltier without being seen. I’ve never heard of one along the south branch, but it is not that much wider here. But why wouldn’t Yarik use it to move men across to attack?”

  “This isn’t Yarik’s doing,” I said, as I studied the kidnappers. “They have friends on the other side of the river, but they are not with Yarik. This is someone else.”

  Avin went pale. “We must stop them.”

  “Jump on my back, Emi,” Natan said. “We will run like the wind.”

  “You will burn.”

  “Than that is my end. For the children of the Warrens, I would risk it. Hurry.”

  Avin began to object as I grabbed Natan’s solid arm. Nothing happened, Natan tossed his spear to another man, and I jumped upon his back. He took firm hold of my legs and began to run.

 
“We’ll race ahead,” I shouted back to Avin as the freeman began to sprint with me down the street, “Catch up if you can.”

  He yelled at us, very interested to stay together, but his voice faded as the freemen sprinted along the twisted streets that lead to the plaza. Natan muscles were thick and hard. He ran with my weight faster than the rest, spring and leaping through the crowds like a great cat. Our skin grew warm and wet, but not from my magic. I held on tight, my heart racing as alternated between his powerful touch and glimpses of the stolen children. The freemen were swift. We found the plaza almost deserted, and the tower at it center unchanged.

  “There are three people inside,” I said and I jumped free of Natan. “We’ll need lanterns to get through the sewers. Go find some.”

  Several of the freemen fanned out into the buildings around us while we hurried across to the tower. Natan told his men to kick in the doors.

  “Wait a moment,” I said.

  “Why, my goddess? We must hurry.”

  “If these three are working with the rest, we want them to lead us through the sewers. It would be very hard to convince them to do so. If we storm in, they won’t get the chance to flee. Let’s knock on the door instead and I keep track of them as they try to escape.”

  It had not taken a close look at any of them as we’d run through the Warrens, but as I looked at them then it sank in how much they had changed. They wore fresh-made bluecoats and carried all the weapons of the Exaltier’s warriors. Natan and three others had on blue-crested helmets and wore breastplates like Benjam.

  “You are Hemari now.”

  “Yes, my goddess. This pleases you?”

  “It does. Very much. Rahan and Blathebed have been true.”

  “Yes, my goddess. We are proud to serve them, and you.”

  I think I smiled for a moment before pointed him toward the doors. He gave the door a thump and yelled for those inside to surrender. The reaction of those inside included a great deal of running around and the brightening of a set of threads that reached back east toward their fellows.