The Silver Ship and the Sea

by Brenda Cooper

  “So it’s an invitation that we can refuse?”

  She swallowed hard and licked her lips yet again, the conflict in her eyes even brighter, her neck and cheeks flushed red. “Town Council is recalling you. It can’t be refused. They chose me to come. Of all of us, I know you best.” She paused, looking down and then back at me. “I thought you would prefer me.”

  “And they are recalling us for?”

  “I told you. To include you in the talks we’re having.”

  Sure, just so we could have our equal say. I didn’t believe her. “And I am to come back to my own room and live with you?”

  She hesitated. Like Tom, she couldn’t flat-out lie. Or wouldn’t. So foolish or not, I would try to escape. I shrugged, doing my best to look resigned. “It doesn’t appear like you’re leaving me any choices. It will take time to pack and put the fire out. And don’t you want to find Joseph and Alicia first?”

  She looked at the two men behind me. “Search the camp.” They faded into the darkness.

  Kayleen’s eyes were fixed on Nava’s, her brow furrowed, her face pale. We shared a glance, and I could tell from the fear in her eyes that she knew what I did—we could not go with Nava.

  Paloma spoke up, her usual soft voice full of anger. “I won’t go back until I know what you plan for my daughter. And why. Bryan breaking Garmin’s arm does not begin to justify you stealing in here in the middle of the night.”

  Paloma was right. They had sent a force to capture us, when we would have come home on our own in a few days or weeks, riding happily into town.

  Nava paced, scowling, her shoulders rigid. She took a steadying breath, and then another. She seemed to calm a little. “You have to obey the Council, Paloma.”

  “Not this time.” Paloma stood her ground, feet planted. “Don’t test me when the order is about my child.”

  Paloma was very popular. Forcing her might be a test for Nava, back home. Instead of taking her on directly, Nava simply said, “We will bring Chelo and Kayleen home.”

  I stepped next to Kayleen and Paloma. Nava didn’t like it—she gestured me away. I stood my ground, taking Paloma’s other hand. It trembled in mine, or perhaps our hands trembled together.

  “Look,” Nava said, “you’re overreacting. It’s going to be fine. Council just wants to talk to you. If they wanted to hurt you, they would have sent us to do that. We’re simply here to escort you back to Artistos.”

  I didn’t think for a minute that she believed her own words, or her own reasonable tone. Escort us to jail? Not home. I’d already established that. “We’re not going.”

  Nava brought the barrel of the stunner up.

  Tom stepped between Nava and us, between his wife and us.

  Nava’s face crumpled, as if the strength had gone out of her. She dropped the stunner barrel back down, her eyes glittering with tears that didn’t quite spill down her cheeks. She opened her mouth as if to speak, then looked away.

  Tom spoke firmly. “I am Town Council. I did not agree. I suggest you tell me what’s driving this, and let me make a decision.”

  “We had a quorum.” Nava’s lower lip trembled and she bit it hard, as if trying to control it with her teeth.

  Anger laced Tom’s voice, making it lower and fuller. “Nava. My vote does matter, my opinion matters. At least to me. And unless you remove me from the Council, it matters to Artistos. Whatever drove you up here, you chose not to include me, even though we talked every day.” His jaw trembled and he stopped for breath, staring at her, trying to force an answer.

  She searched his eyes, tears now flowing down her cheeks in small streams that reflected the firelight.

  A voice from behind us and to the right, behind the two shadowy figures I hadn’t been able to identify. “I believe I mentioned that little problem to you, Nava.” Akashi. Akashi himself. My heart raced.

  She swore softly, and anger replaced the vulnerability in her face. Her whole body trembled. Her knuckles on the gun were white. “Tom was in the physical company of the people we were talking about. We couldn’t risk alerting them. And we don’t know how much Joseph can read the nets.”

  “I think the problem is that you do know he can read it, all of it, and you are afraid he’ll exercise his ability. Hiding things from this particular set of young adults won’t serve us well, Nava.” I followed Akashi’s voice to see him between two trees, mounted on a hebra. He held his own stunner in his hand, casually pointed just a bit away from Nava, and clearly not at us. “Put your gun in your pocket,” he said, evenly, as if he were asking her to have a cup of tea.

  She looked down at the gun in her hand, then at Tom, then stood still, gazing at Akashi, her neck red, her eyes blazing with frustration. She slowly, exaggeratedly, slid the stunner into her right front pocket, making a production of the movement.

  Akashi didn’t drop his gun. “Now, why don’t you ask Stile to go ahead and get the tack on the hebras, including the pack beasts, and one for Alicia and one for Joseph, and lead them out to the road. I’m positive you won’t stun anyone. We’ll just head on down and camp by the spaceport. You can see us coming, we can see you coming. After you cool off a bit, we can all meet and talk.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Nava said, glaring not at Akashi but at Tom.

  Akashi’s voice was still evening-tea reasonable as he said, “Like you, I brought company. We don’t want anything except friendship between roamers and Artistos.”

  Nava, defeated, hung her head and mumbled, “You can saddle your own damn hebras.” She looked at Tom, a huge question in her eyes.

  She didn’t let the question cross her lips, but Tom crossed to her, standing by her side. He looked in Akashi’s direction, and said, “I will go back to Artistos for now. I think I’m needed there.”

  Paloma looked from Tom to Nava. Her voice was firm, and louder than usual as she proclaimed, “I’m staying with my daughter.” Nava jerked her head quickly, a tiny unsurprised nod, and Tom mouthed the word “good” over Nava’s head, so that we could see.

  Akashi turned his hebra around, riding toward the road. He stood there, apparently alone, a dark silhouette standing silently in a dark night, watching. I smiled when I saw Tom saddle Sugar Wheat. His choice would slow the group down and leave us the best hebras.

  Nava and Tom led the others away, down the hill toward Artistos. Although it was hard to tell for sure in the darkness, I didn’t see either of them look back.

  There were eight of them. Eight, to bring back four. I wondered if Nava knew it would not have been enough to make us come quietly. Was it Akashi’s presence that convinced her to leave, or Joseph’s and Alicia’s absence?

  19

  The First Road

  After Nava and her force of would-be captors clattered around the bend, down toward Artistos, Akashi whistled softly into the silence they left behind. A few moments later, Liam rode up next to Akashi, emerging into the edge of the firelight. He grinned at his father. “Nice job!” Liam’s light hair looked dark in the low firelight, his eyes like dark pebbles in the dark lake of his face.

  “There’s only you two?” Kayleen asked, her eyes wide above her smile of welcome and relief. I felt the same.

  A small smile crossed Akashi’s face. “Apparently, that was enough.” He gazed out over the camp. “There are also only two of you here,” he pointed out. “And Paloma, of course.” He smiled at her. “Thank you for staying. Joseph and Alicia are with Jenna.”

  I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, knowing they were safe. Or at least not captured, or hurt.

  “Tom and I were taking the watch together, and we didn’t see them leave.” Paloma drew her brows together in a puzzled look. “We didn’t hear them leave, either. How did they get through the perimeter?”

  “Mom,” Kayleen said, “I’m sure Joseph just turned the perimeters off.” She giggled, releasing stress and adrenaline. “At least he turned them back on. Otherwise we wouldn’t have known whe
n Nava showed up.”

  I hadn’t known. We were all exhausted; too exhausted. I’d slept four hours at most, and more sleep didn’t seem likely. How did Joseph and Alicia end up with Jenna, anyway? They hadn’t even left a note. Why didn’t Jenna take me? The silence of the bells meant she must have come all the way into camp.

  Liam interrupted my unspoken questions. “We better get ready to move. We need to be at the spaceport before they send a welcoming committee. That grass will hide a host of people.”

  I shivered. It hid paw-cats rather well, too.

  “What happened in Artistos to make them come after us?” Kayleen asked.

  Akashi answered. “Some idiots beat Bryan up, pretty badly. He’ll recover, if they let him. Artistos has become more”—he spread hands out in front of him—“divided since you left.”

  I should never have left Bryan. Never. Fear for him swept through me in a dizzying wave. “When? When did he get beat up?”

  “Last night. Jenna tried to stop them, but they ran her off. Shot at her again.” Akashi sounded disgusted.

  No wonder she came here. But what for? Why didn’t she wake us all? Maybe Nava and the others were close on her heels.

  Akashi said, “You scare them enough they want you where they can see you. Now they’ll have to fill Tom in, and Tom can drag that out, buying us some time. I hope.” He paused, looking toward Artistos. “But don’t count on it.”

  “Who beat him?” Paloma asked.

  “Kids. Garmin’s friends, apparently.”

  “Do you know how the fight with Garmin started?” I asked. “How he broke Garmin’s arm? It’s not like him.”

  “The same thing,” Liam said. “A bunch of kids hating someone different.” He sounded disgusted and his jaw looked tight with anger. “I heard two of Bryan’s brothers even helped.” He, too, looked down toward Artistos. “Bryan’s alive, and not likely to get any worse. I hear he’s in the hospital. We should pack up.”

  Akashi said, “Liam’s right. We need to move. We’ll take the First Road, so best, perhaps, to pack goods on riding hebras and loose the pack hebras. They’ll go home.”

  “But what if we need them later?”

  Liam rode over next to me, looking down, concerned. “You’ve never been down the First Road. It will be hard enough to manage extra hebras for Joseph and Alicia. With luck, they’ll find us before we get to the trail.”

  I reached a hand up to him and he took it, squeezing quickly, and the warmth from his touch went all the way up my arm to my chest.

  Then he swung down, and shifted his gaze away from me. “Paloma—you’re still hurt. We’ll take care of packing. You can be our watcher.” He led her to a spot by the stream where she would have a good view of both directions of the High Road and be able to call out any trouble to us.

  Akashi marshaled us through the process of gathering camp, shoving saddlebags to bulging with unfolded clothes and blankets, and saddling the hebras.

  Liam returned from helping Paloma. He climbed up Ink’s mounting strap, balancing with each foot in a separate mounting rung, trying to help me tie a pack meant to sling over a bare back to the top of Ink’s saddle. He whispered at me. “I’m happy to see you.”

  “Me too,” I replied. “Did you know they were coming?”

  “No.” He threaded an extra lead line from the back saddle ring over to the rings on either side of the saddle hump. “Here—hold this.”

  I took the line while he leaned on the pack, flattening it in the middle, pulling the line tighter. He continued. “We were about to ride into camp when we saw Joseph and Jenna and Alicia. They were heading up toward the lake. Jenna told us not to expect them until sometime tomorrow afternoon.”

  Going to the cave. For what? I couldn’t ask.

  “Akashi had me wait outside camp when we first spotted Nava. Dad’s been included in some of the talk, via earset, since he is part of Town Council.” He grimaced. “No one told him they were coming here. They betrayed him. He thinks they heard our conversation with you yesterday and wanted to beat our ‘guide.’” He reached a hand for the line, his fingers brushing my arm lightly, leaving a trail of warmth. “We were just lucky no one saw us.” He tied the line expertly, using a slipknot he could manage with one hand and his teeth.

  “I’m glad you came,” I said, my voice husky.

  “Me too.”

  After he climbed down, I leaned into him, not thinking, and kissed him on the lips. Briefly.

  He raised his eyebrows in surprise, but grinned and went off to loose the extra hebras while I blushed, thankful for the darkness.

  Liam and Kayleen bundled Paloma on Sand, and then Akashi and Liam each took one spare beast.

  “Have either of you been up or down the First Road?” Liam asked, looking from me to Kayleen.

  We both shook our heads.

  “All right. Do what we say when we get there.” Liam patted his hebra, a tall animal with a dark hide spotted with light streaks—not quite stripes like my own animal, but like the sun falling through a glade in strips of light. “This is Star.”

  I put a hand out to stroke Star’s soft cheek. “What about the others?” I fretted. “Will they know how to find us?”

  Akashi laughed. “Quit worrying about Joseph. He’s nearly grown, and Jenna is with them anyway.”

  The rest of us mounted, and followed Akashi to the right fork, which rose up the middle of a low hill. Deepening shades of dark implied a sharp drop twenty feet to our right, and a low rise made a dark slash to the left. The path was wide enough for us to ride five abreast. Ink and Legs, unhappy to be temporary pack beasts, pranced at the flanks of the outside mounts. Even going uphill, Akashi and Liam kept the hebras breathing hard up, their long necks extended. The beasts seemed to sense our worries as they responded to our urges for speed.

  Stars, but no moons, filled the sky overhead, offering little light. Every once in a while, a meteor streaked overhead, a bright snake arcing across the sky. One briefly lit the path in front of us with a flickering yellow-white light.

  Our passage sounded noisy against the quiet of the sleeping forest. I was sure that if we yelled, they would hear us all the way down in Artistos. Akashi and Liam rode on the two sides, Paloma next to Akashi, then Kayleen, and me next to Liam. Kayleen chattered softly. “Where is the First Road? Paloma told me about it, but she didn’t say where it started or ended. Why don’t you use it to get to Artistos?”

  Akashi answered her. “The High Road is faster, and besides, the First Road is too steep for wagons.”

  “Is it safe at night?” Paloma asked.

  “No.” Akashi’s voice was matter-of-fact. “But Destiny will rise by the time we get there. It will help.” He changed his tone into a comic query. “Unless you prefer to ride through town?”

  Twenty minutes later, Akashi pulled up by a wide spot in the road. Sure enough, Destiny’s light now touched our side of the mountains. The path we were leaving turned, rising upward, toward the mountain passes, wide and clear and well used. A dark and narrow path branched west, heading down into thick forest.

  “Liam,” Akashi called. “You lead. Then the girls, then the two extra hebras, then Paloma. I’ll take the last spot. Go slowly.”

  Liam handed Ink’s reins to Paloma, and started down the narrow path, watching over his shoulder, his face lit by moonlight: a beacon. Kayleen and I rode up together, and I wanted to ride ahead of her to be closer to Liam, but I pulled back on Stripes and let her go.

  Akashi said, “Chelo, take Ink, but unclip her lead line as soon as you know we’re all on the path, put her between you and Kayleen.”

  After only a hundred meters or so the path dropped suddenly downward, and Stripes leaned back, haunches into the hill, her forelegs trembling. “Shouldn’t we walk?” I called ahead.

  “Not yet,” Liam called back. “But we should make noise; sing or something. Be sure any predators know there are too many of us.”

  I encouraged Stripes gently with m
y heels. She turned her head back to glare at me, but then grunted and started gingerly down. Kayleen hummed the first bars of a traveling song, and we all sang it together, Akashi’s voice so loud and sweet it carried all the way to me. Here, with trees to absorb the sound, I was sure Artistos would not hear it. Too bad. It would be good for them to hear us singing.

  The path straightened again, still narrow, surrounded by the darkness of thick trees. I shivered, looking for paw-cat on the bigger branches. But whether it was our singing or the time of night or just luck, nothing leaped at us. Ink and Legs stayed in formation with no one leading them; the trail was too narrow for them to turn or pass. Down, and flat, and down, and only once a little up, and down, and down; walking twice, leading hebras down slopes so steep we all slid; crossing a stream twice, and down. In three hours, we didn’t quite run out of songs, and we didn’t stop, even once. My throat hurt from singing when Akashi called, “Chelo. We have Legs. Get Ink.”

  I dismounted, unsteady on my feet after so long in the saddle. I slipped up behind Ink, caught her head harness, and clipped the lead I’d carried on my own saddle back onto her. Ink tossed her head, but let me do it. I was so tired that climbing back up the mounting rope to Stripes’s back was nearly impossible, and I lay straddle across her for a moment before swinging up and urging her to follow Longface. Sure enough, the trail widened and the trees opened in front of us onto the Grass Plains.

  New Making gleamed with Destiny’s light.

  The hebras’ heads rose, their ears pricked forward, and they swung their heads back and forth, as if drawing energy from being back on the Grass Plains.

  Akashi stopped us fifty meters before the spaceport, in a wide rocky spot on the path. “Stay here. I’m going to ride out and make sure the spaceport is empty.”

  “Be careful,” Liam said.

  “It hasn’t gotten so bad that anyone will shoot me,” Akashi said. “But keep good watch, and stay mounted.” He turned and rode toward the spaceport, disappearing from sight long before we lost track of the sound of his saddle creaking and his hebras’ footsteps.