Skykeep

by Joseph R. Lallo

  “Yes, I’m starting to feel pampered,” Nita said, sticking her hands between two bars to be locked up.

  Lil’s eyes opened wide as she noticed about an inch of brass chain dangling down beneath Nita’s shirt.

  “Hold on there, darlin’. You need to fix your shirt some,” Lil said, tucking the chain into Nita’s waistband.

  When the evidence was hidden, she let Nita step back and had her own hands secured. They were led to the upper deck. It looked quite different lit by the moon and a few phlo-floods. The darkened surface of the deck seemed to fade out into the almost black surface of the fug. Patches of clouds speckled an otherwise spectacular starry sky. Some long pieces of lumber, presumably delivered at some point between yard time and sundown, were lined up on the deck. The wood was waiting to be cut, drilled, installed, and sealed. Even with seven people on the work crew, it was likely to take more than a single night. The guards handed out tools and work commenced. It became obvious that there weren’t really seven people on the crew, there were five. As expected, the Ebonwhites didn’t even pretend to lend a hand.

  Nita was on one side of a team saw, with Donald working the other. He turned out to be a monster of a worker, but Nita was no slouch. The two made an excellent pair, trimming wood to length quickly and efficiently. Lil, based upon her past behavior, wasn’t trusted with anything more dangerous than a piece of chalk and a measuring line. Nita grinned at that. If they knew half of what Lil was capable of, they wouldn’t have let her have the measuring line, either. Kent was doing a great deal of the hammering and positioning, so he was frequently at Nita’s side, requesting boards of certain lengths. He also used these moments to deliver brief descriptions of what he knew of the design of the prison. The aircraft guns were at the base of the anchors. There were at least four. They were targeted via long speaking tubes similar to what the captain used in the Wind Breaker. So on and so forth.

  At the beginning and end of each cut, Lil had to measure for the next piece. It was during those brief breaks in activity that she and Lil collaborated.

  “This chalk is gumming up my fingers something awful,” Lil announced. “Mind if I wipe my hands on your shirt, Nita?”

  “Fine,” Nita said breathlessly.

  Lil stepped up behind Nita and carefully revealed the watch, clicking it open. “Eleven twenty-five. I’ve got a good view of the south from the edge of the worksite. I’m going to get an angle.”

  “Okay,” Nita said. “I’ll try to buy you time.” She turned to Donald and spoke up. “Donald. Maybe we can slow down a bit on this one? I’m getting a little winded.”

  “We’ve been making good time. We can probably ease up a bit,” he said with a nod.

  Their rhythm slowed, and Nita watched out of the corner of her eye as Lil paced over to the edge of the deck. Since the planking had been damaged, there was no railing anymore, and Lil was mere inches from the edge. She stretched a bit, then slowly extended her arms in front of her. To an untrained eye, it looked like just another stretch. A quick and dirty navigator would recognize her lining her pinkies up with the horizon, then quickly walking them upward, one on top of the other, until she reached the point of a certain star. She then stooped and scrawled a few marks on the plank at her feet and did a few side bends before seeking out the moon to count off some more pinkie-widths.

  “So… is it true? Are you really members of the Wind Breaker crew?” came a slimy voice beside Nita.

  She turned. Beside her was the younger of the two Ebonwhite brothers, Lars.

  “That’s right, we are. If you don’t mind, I’m trying to work,” Nita said.

  “You don’t look like you’re trying very hard,” he said.

  Nita lined up three or four poisonous barbs about how little work he and his brother had been doing, but she let them slide.

  “You know, it was really quite a black eye to the Ebonwhite family when you robbed that warehouse,” Lars said. “Uncle might never live it down.”

  “Knowing what I know about the Ebonwhite family, I’m sure I’m not the only one who wishes it was more than a black eye.”

  “It is true. The small minded such as yourself no doubt believe him a villain. Those who would foment chaos always see the voice of order as a hindrance rather than an asset. You cannot begin to respect my uncle on the same levels that my brother, Nils, and I do.”

  “Yes, I understand you respected him so much you were embezzling from him.”

  “I contend that our alleged embezzling was never adequately proved,” he snapped. “However, this does not alter the fact that we have been placed here, and that we shall not be released until someone in a position of influence, like our uncle, decides to speak on our behalf. Regardless of any supposed limits on our sentences, to my knowledge no one has ever left this place alive without a good word from the outside… And Nils and I know precisely how best to prove our allegiance once again.”

  At the edge of hearing, Nita detected the ring of a blade. Her body took control of the situation, releasing the saw and leaping aside just in time to turn an angry lunge at her back into a grazing slash at her side. Lars clearly hadn’t expected to need a second attack and wasn’t prepared to deliver it. Nita swept a kick at his hand, sending the knife flying into the poorly lit center of the courtyard. She then grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked his head down to crack it on the stout handle of the team saw. Ebonwhite crumpled to the ground, a welt quickly forming on his forehead.

  It all happened quickly enough that most of the rest of the work crew didn’t notice until Lars started muttering slurred threats and trying to get to his feet, but Nita didn’t linger long enough to hear them.

  “Are you all right, Nita? He looks like he got you,” said Donald, the one fellow inmate who had observed the whole exchange from the other side of his saw.

  “Where’s the other one?” Nita said insistently. “Where’s his brother?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Nita walked as quickly as she dared toward Lil. If she broke into a sprint, especially as the commotion surrounding her groggy assailant began to spread, there was little doubt the ever-present snipers might take it as reason enough to take her down.

  “Lil! Watch yourself!” Nita said.

  “Just a few more seconds, Nita,” Lil said, her voice hushed as she worked her fingers upward.

  From the darkness near the base of the damaged tower, the shorter of the Ebonwhite brothers was approaching. The moonlight glinted off a blade in his hand.

  “Drop the knife!” Nita called out.

  All heads turned to Nils. Like his brother, he was unaccustomed to dirty work such as this and briefly froze as he realized he’d been discovered. When he spotted Nita heading his way and saw that Lil was still angling her hands at the sky, he decided to take his chance, running for Lil. Nita broke into a run as well. She and Nils met just barely three steps away from Lil. The wiry fug person, despite the longer running start, couldn’t muster much momentum and was forced back to the very edge of the broken decking before he got his footing enough to bring the pair to a stop.

  “I’ll kill the both of you,” Nils growled, knife firmly in hand as Nita wrestled with him. “Uncle will have to let me out then.”

  She struggled against him as guards began to rush forward. There were only three guards on duty, not counting the sharpshooters, and seven prisoners. Since most of the prisoners were currently working with tools that could quickly render them a threat if this was part of a coordinated act of violence, they began securing every prisoner, starting with those they deemed the greatest threat. This meant the very instant she was through with her observations, Lil’s hands were behind her back and shackled. Donald and Kent were secured as well. All the while Nita continued to fight with her assailant.

  Desperation, fury, and a deceiving amount of strength made Nils a match for Nita. It was all she could do to keep his weapon away from her. At the edge of her mind, she heard calls erupting from the prisoners
and the guards. Some calling for her blood. Some calling for Nils’s blood. The guards were calling for the warden. Then, after an eternity of trying to wrench the knife away from him, Nita finally got a firm grip around his throat with one hand and his wrist with the other. It was then that a single, commanding voice rang out above the rest.

  “Drop him,” Warden Linn ordered.

  “If I drop him, he’ll kill—” Nita began to object, but with a distant clap of gunfire and a sudden limpness from her attacker, it became clear that the order was not meant for her.

  She released her grip, and both knife and wielder fell to the ground, the latter featuring a large and gruesome reminder of the power and skill of the sharpshooters. Nita placed her hands behind her back without being asked and was quickly secured.

  “What’s this?” muttered the guard.

  Nita heard a heart-stopping jingle of delicate chain. The scuffle with Nils had once again dislodged the watch chain, and the guard seized it and pulled the watch free. He held it up to the warden.

  While the rest of the workers were secured, and Lil surreptitiously scuffed out the marks she’d created, the warden approached and took the watch. He held it in his hand and looked first to Lil, then to Nita.

  “Take them to the infirmary on level five. Return the prisoners to their cells. Work will resume tomorrow night, and I will personally select the crew,” the warden instructed. “I have a number of questions, and before the sun rises I mean to have the answers.”

  #

  Nita bit her lip and winced in pain as one of the guards sewed up the gash Lars had opened on her side. Now that the intensity of the moment was past, it was clear just how deep it really was. The guard, who evidently was also the medic for the facility, had applied some sort of numbing agent to the wound before stitching, but perhaps by design it had not been nearly a sufficient dosage.

  They were on level five now, which was in the center of the facility and thus half-immersed in the fug. It gave the air a choking, barely breathable quality, something that was doubly trying for Nita as she tried to hold still for treatment.

  “At least give her one of those breathing things until you’re done,” Lil said.

  “Breathers are given only with the warden’s permission or in life or death situations,” the guard said coldly.

  “And additionally,” came the warden’s voice from the doorway, “the breathers in this facility will not permit you to speak, and you both have a great deal to answer for.” He addressed the guard. “When you are through, bandage the inmate and stand guard at the door.”

  “Yes, Warden.”

  It took two more pulls of the needle to finish closing the wound. Then came a swab of ointment and a bandage wrapped around her midriff. When the guard was through and in place by the door, the warden revealed the watch.

  “This, I presume, is the ‘destroyed’ watch for which Assistant Warden Blanc requisitioned a replacement.”

  “It is,” Nita said, stifling a cough that sent a bolt of pain through her side.

  “Why did he believe it was destroyed?” the warden asked.

  “Because your supervisor is a fool. But I’ll wager you already knew that,” Lil said.

  The warden looked to her impassively, then back to Nita.

  “We stole it and threw something over the side to make him think the watch was gone,” Nita said.

  “Why did you steal the watch?”

  “It’s a nice watch. I never had a watch before,” Lil said.

  “If you won’t speak to me honestly, I see very little reason to allow you to speak at all. Guard, take Miss Cooper down to level six. It is deeper in the fug, but she should be able to survive there until Miss Graus has answered my questions, provided she answers quickly.”

  “Don’t tell him nothing, Nita,” Lil growled as the guard took her by the arms and guided her out the door.

  Nita watched uncertainly as the guard dragged her friend away, then turned back to the warden. It was truly unnerving how completely calm his expression was. There seemed to be no malice behind this action, despite the suffering it was calculated to cause. It was all simply part of a procedure to him, a way to get what was required to do his job properly.

  “Speak,” he said.

  “When you put Lil in isolation, the light is blocked for a reason, isn’t it? If the isolation was meant to punish fug folk like you, then it would let the light through to torture you during the day, but you block the light… It’s because without light there’s no telling how long one has been inside, isn’t it? A day is as good as a week, because it feels that way.” She gave a hollow, painful cough.

  “The purpose of this discussion is for you to answer my questions. Not the other way around.”

  “We stole the watch because we both knew that Lil would be locked up again, and if she had some way to tell the time, she would handle the isolation better.”

  The warden measured her with his eyes. “And if I ask your friend, she will say the same?”

  “Of course not,” Nita said. “She’d rather both of us die than give you people a straight answer. She’s lost a lot more to the fug and its people than I have.”

  The warden took a breath. “I have attempted to show you and your crewmate consideration. I knew that survival for you would be difficult, and to perform my task of extracting information from you, it was in my best interest that we maintain a relationship of respect. Until this moment, I’ve felt that decision was a sound one. You were not entirely forthcoming, and I suspect you were not entirely honest, but unlike your friend, you at least didn’t show contempt for my intelligence. I no longer feel this is the case. The watch went missing immediately prior to Miss Cooper’s most recent stay in isolation. She was searched before being placed inside. She did not have the watch. Your explanation does not hold to scrutiny. Listen closely, Miss Graus.”

  He stopped speaking, but a moment later Nita knew what she was to be listening for. Distantly she could hear the agonized coughing of her crewmate. It was a long, painful, ragged sound. There was little sign that she was able to get a single breath of air without releasing it again in a fit of hacking.

  “It is possible I overestimated the quality of the air on level six.”

  Nita tried to remain strong, but each burst of the horrid noise cut into her.

  “I was forced to order the death of one of my inmates today. I do not regret it. He had a knife and he was threatening the life of another inmate. The question of how he and his brother secured the knife is one that shall be investigated tirelessly. Nils will be put in the ground, and Lars will for many weeks wish that he had been. His punishment begins in just a few hours with the first of several dozen day-long stays in isolation. It is my duty to keep you all alive and as healthy as I can so that your incarceration will be a long one. But I can and will end a life if it serves this purpose. If you want Lil to survive the night, speak. And if it is a lie, make it an excellent one, because if I don’t believe you, Lil will stay on level six until morning.”

  He gazed into her eyes. At the sound of Lil’s distant coughing, Nita shut them and shook.

  “We were trying to find out where we are,” she said in defeat. “A watch, the night sky, and a sailor is all it takes to find out that sort of thing. So we stole the watch and manipulated the supervisor into putting us on the repair detail.”

  “And did you succeed?” the warden asked. “Do you know where we are?”

  “No. The Ebonwhites attacked before Lil could say anything about it.”

  “And you wanted to know where you are so that you could escape?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you plan to escape?”

  “We didn’t know yet, but we knew this was the first piece.”

  Linn considered her words. The air shook with Lil’s coughing.

  “You will be separated. Each of you will be kept in separate cells on level four. You will remain separate until further notice, and you will be permitted
yard time on alternating days. I do not take this breach lightly. The isolation cell is going to be getting a great deal of use in the days ahead. You, Miss Cooper, and the surviving Ebonwhite will be taking turns in it until I decide that you’ve been made to properly regret your actions. Guards! Take Miss Graus to the northeast cell block on level four. Cell one with the window. When she is secured, take Miss Cooper to cell three of the same block.”

  A guard entered, and Nita was manhandled out into the hallway. The rough treatment made her side ache terribly, but right now nothing mattered to her but the terrible sound of Lil’s suffering. She could still hear it even as she was brought up the stairs to the next level, where the air was marginally more tolerable but a haze of purple still hung in the stinking atmosphere. Her cell was identical to the one she’d shared with Lil with the exception of the presence of a window, and it was clear that it was not there for her benefit or comfort. The glass was stained with the purple film that seemed to accumulate on every surface that spent any time in the fug, and the same discoloration marred the wood and bars around the edge. The window leaked terribly, which meant that each breath of wind gave her a fresh dose of fug.

  The terrible sound of Lil’s coughing lingered for a few minutes, then slowly began to draw nearer. When the guards brought her to the floor, they didn’t even do them the kindness of walking Lil past Nita’s cell, instead bringing her via a different stairwell and locking her away with a cell between them.

  It was nearly five minutes before Lil seemed able to breathe again without pain.

  “Lil! Are you okay?” Nita called out.

  “Quiet!” ordered a guard stationed between the two cells.

  “What did you tell these monsters?” Lil wheezed.

  “I told them everything,” Nita said.

  “Why?!” Lil cried.

  “You will shut your mouths, or one of you is going back to level six,” the guard threatened.

  Both women quickly dropped to silence. Nita climbed onto the top bunk, where the air was marginally clearer, and began to tap on the wall, forming a slow, deliberate message in inspector code.