High Flyer (Verdant String)

by Michelle Diener

  He was halfway down the mountain when he noticed there were no leviks on the slopes.

  He stopped a moment, shading his eyes against the bright midday light of the Star to search for any sign of their golden, curly coats.

  He could find none.

  A breeze rose up, swirling about him, and he was struck by the silence.

  His hearing was exceptional, and there was no sound of life. No ring of a hammer on anvil, no murmur of voices from the street.

  Impossible.

  His home town was small, but not that small. Pan Nuk had at least a hundred inhabitants when he'd left. And it was directly below him. Hidden by the thick line of trees it would take him only ten minutes to reach, but there nonetheless.

  He started to run.

  At first he ran under his own steam, and then, as the silence seemed to deepen, become more sinister, he opened himself up to the Change and felt the curious, slow, honey-thick flow of the air around him, the inbetween, and he was suddenly at the village gates.

  He drew back to himself, stumbled a little at the feeling of disorientation such a quick Change generated.

  He stood still, looking around him carefully. Took it all in.

  The ripped doors. The shutters hanging by a single hinge. The smashed pots and baskets lying in the street.

  The emptiness.

  While the city of Garamundo had held him, forced him to help them protect themselves from the sky raiders, the sky raiders had been helping themselves elsewhere.

  Helping themselves to Taya.

  Chapter 2

  There would be blood.

  Taya moved her gaze from Jerilia, weeping in soft, keening sobs, to the big Kardanx who gripped her arm, to the way Kas and the other men and women of the Illy began to gather to one side of the open area in front of the mine where they waited to be collected for the camp.

  The Kardanx shifted his grip and Taya could see there were already dark smudges ringing Jerilia's upper arm where he held her.

  The spike of anger that ripped through her made her gasp, made her force in a breath of dusty, cold air.

  If she couldn't keep a cool head, she couldn't expect Kas and the others to do the same.

  Behind the Kardanx, some of his fellow countrymen began to gather as well, their expressions more muted, more severe.

  They didn't want trouble with the Illy. It seemed the big man who had grabbed Jerilia wasn't so worried.

  Kas had already told him to let Jerilia go. Jerilia herself had demanded it. Taya looked into his eyes and knew he would not do it.

  Perhaps if Jerilia hadn't screamed so loudly, made such a fuss. Perhaps if Kas's bellow of outrage hadn't made every head turn.

  Or perhaps not.

  Whatever the reason, to let her go now would be a loss of face the Kardanx would not be prepared to accept.

  Taya could see it in the way his eyes narrowed, the way his mouth tightened. She had always had the gift of reading people's intentions from the way they moved their bodies, and the Kardanx was screaming pent up rage and defiance with every pore.

  A small movement caught her eye. Kas, drawing something from the back of his pants, gripping it tightly in his fisted hand.

  Was that a knife?

  No.

  She wouldn't let another she loved be hurt. Not because of the lust of a stupid Kardanx. The Kardanx were supposed to worship the Mother, but either this one wasn't an adherent to the belief, or he was simply one of the majority who twisted the meanings of their oaths so they could treat women with less respect. She saw the evidence before her now, in the way the Kardanx thought he could have Jerilia, even against her will.

  Taya had heard another, even uglier whisper. That the reason there were only six women amongst all the Kardanx the sky raiders had taken was because the men had killed them, rather than have them taken by the enemy.

  Taya had heard Kardanx men swore an oath to protect the Mother, and her avatars, all women, with their lives. But if they had killed their women to protect them, they were not honoring the Mother as an equal. They had killed them like they would kill their livestock so the invading army cannot use it. As they would burn their house, to give the enemy nothing to shield himself from the weather.

  As one treats a possession, not a person, with their own will and choices.

  The Kardanx took a step toward his own group, dragging Jerilia with him, and Kas and three others took a step forward.

  The other Kardanx shouted something to their countryman, and he turned to look at them over his shoulder. He shouted back, and though Kardanx was close enough to Illian, it was said so fast Taya couldn't understand it. But the meaning was clear enough.

  The Kardanx would not back down.

  She wished, not for the first time, for Garek. Felt a need for him as strong as for her next breath. Then she shrugged off the paralysis of wanting something she could not have, and her gaze came to rest on their guard. When they'd first been brought here the metal skin of the two-legged, squat vehicle that enclosed him had been gleaming and new. Now she could see flakes of it falling off, and it was dull, corroded.

  He was the only one on watch and his guns hung at his sides, mounted sleek and black on the stiff arms of his protective cover, above the pincers he could use as hands.

  Kas took the first step out from the shouting group of the Illy, and without another moment's hesitation, Taya ran toward the sky raider.

  He noticed her before she got to him, the head of the machine tipping down to look at her.

  “Stop them.” She looked straight up into the glass, and the dark tint faded to clear. For the first time, she found herself face to face with one of her captors.

  Pale yellow eyes watched her with an interest that made her want to stumble back a step or two, turn tail and run.

  She forced some saliva down her throat, worked her tongue off the roof of her mouth. “You need to stop it.”

  The robotic suit stayed still, but inside it, the sky raider tipped his head. “Why?”

  The sibilant tones which made everything they said more frightening hissed over her. But now she'd been given a window into the helmet, she saw there was a disconnect between when the sky raider had spoken and when she'd heard the question.

  It came to her in a flash that that wasn't how they sounded. They were using some device, some method of translating their language into Illian. It made her less afraid to know she wasn't dealing with something that sounded like she would expect a slither to sound like, if slithers could speak instead of hiss.

  “We are different groups, we come from different parts of Barit. We are the Illy, they are the Kardanx. The Kardanx have different beliefs, different ways to us.”

  “We do not care.” Again, his mouth moved and only after a beat did the hiss of his answer wash over her.

  She shivered.

  “Then you are stupid.” She banged his leg with her fist in frustration, felt the gritty crunch of rusting metal. “If you want less work done in the mines, then you'll let that Kardanx take Jerilia. Because we're all mixed up in there. Kardanx and Illy together. And if he takes her, it will be against her will, and that will make us all feel like we have even less control than we already do. The Illy will fight the Kardanx. Fight them down in the shafts. Where you do not go.”

  She saw the pale yellow eyes blink in their narrow, sharp face that was otherwise not that different from her own, if you discounted the long, sharp incisors she caught the briefest glimpse of and the pale yellow fur that covered his face. He spoke again, although this time there was no hiss of reply to her.

  She had the feeling he was talking to someone else. Getting advice. How he could do that, she didn't know. But then, most of what the sky raiders could do was new and magical to her.

  He gave a sharp nod within his metallic cocoon, as if receiving an order, and then lifted both arms.

  She heard something in the metallic suit whine. And the sky raider shifted, lifting up his arms. The barrel of
one of his guns came level with her face.

  But before she could think anything, feel any terror, the guard swung away from her and in two long steps was beside the Kardanx, gun leveled at his head.

  “Let the woman go back to her kind.” The hiss of the order fell into the silence that had descended, licking the air like a hungry tongue.

  Without a word, the Kardanx released Jerilia, and she ran toward Kas and the others, stumbling in her haste.

  They opened ranks for her, and then stepped back in to fill the gap, closing the line again.

  “All who are the Illy, go this side. All who are Kardanx, go this side.” He pointed with the guns, and Taya moved over to her group.

  Some had been standing a little way away, watching without getting involved, and they began to move, pushing and weaving through each other to reach their people.

  In the confusion, Taya saw one of the few Kardanx women in the camp slip amongst the Illy. The woman caught her eye and stumbled, and Taya realized her horror, and her anger, must have shown on her face.

  If they sheltered one of the only Kardanx women left, if they took her to their side, that would be reason enough for another scene like the one today.

  But hadn't she just seen how some of the Kardanx treated women? And hadn't she in these last few minutes come to the realization that the ugly whispers about men killing wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters was true?

  Could she send a woman back to that against her will?

  “Please.” The woman was at her side faster than it seemed possible. Her hands came out to touch Taya's arm, and then drew back, fists clenched. “They don't want me anyway. They think me a witch. It's why I'm one of the few women in the group. I was living outside the village, and there was no man to kill me when the sky raiders came.

  There was truth and desperation in her words. Her accent was thick, the vowels round and plump as a ripe plum, but she spoke Illian fluently.

  Taya studied her, looking for some trick, some hidden motive. She was a few years older than Taya and her eyes were a pale, almost glacial green. Her skin was honey-gold, close to Taya's own skin tone. Her dark hair hung down her back with a glint of auburn in it.

  With a grimace, knowing only trouble could come of it, Taya gave a quick nod and pushed the woman deeper into the crowd. She felt a brief, light touch of thanks on her shoulder, and the woman was gone, burrowing deep into the mass.

  Silence fell as the last of the prisoners sorted themselves into Illy and Kardanx.

  The Illy, with their equal mix of men and women, were the bigger group, because most of the Kardanx volunteered for night shift.

  If it were true that for nearly every man standing here, at least one woman had died, the sky raiders must have had to attack many towns and villages in Kardai to get this many of them. And the blood must stain the ground in Kardai dark red.

  Looking at the Kardanx, thinking of that many bodies, Taya felt the burn of nausea in her throat.

  She should be thankful to Garamundo. Thankful for the protection they offered. Keeping the sky raiders away so that only a few places in West Lathor were hit.

  But giving even a drop of thanks to Garamundo was beyond her because of Garek.

  She felt something on her cheek, and lifted a hand to brush it away. Her finger came away with a single tear, and she rubbed it into the filthy tunic she wore.

  The guard swiveled the head of his suit to her, one gun held steady on each group, then walked slowly back, so that he could see them all without having to turn. The glass of the dome that covered his head was opaque again. “We understand now. Your ways are different. It is decided. You do not mix. You do not fight. You work together peacefully. There must be no break in production.” The sinister voice that came from the sky raider's suit drifted on the fading light of the evening as the Star sank down in the west. The threat in the words, the very sound of them, made her shiver.

  In the distance, the transporter skimmed over the open ground toward them, bringing the night shift.

  There must be no break in production.

  She shivered again.

  There had been a few demonstrations of what would happen if production should slow or even stop, right at the start.

  She watched the Star as it lit the sky a deep violet, low on the horizon. She liked to think of it slipping away from them here on Shadow to rise in the east on Barit. Taking a part of her with it.

  Kas came up next to her and put a hand on her arm, and when she looked across at him, she couldn't tell what he was thinking. He looked tired. Tired and worn.

  She'd run to the enemy. Made a decision without consulting him first.

  “I don't regret it.”

  Kas gave a slow nod. “This was the culmination of two weeks of antagonism.” He blew out a breath, looked across at the Kardanx. “It was only a matter of time.”

  “Tell me.” Taya's voice came out on a croak. “Are the rumors true? What they did to their women, that there are so few here?”

  Kas looked away. “So I hear.”

  “Then I'm doubly glad I did it. That some man who has no woman in his bed because he slit her throat like a goat tried to take a woman from the Illy, rape her . . .” She couldn't finish the sentence, her throat too tight. She took a breath. “I'll deal with the sky raiders before I deal with them.”

  Her gaze was drawn to the big Kardanx, to his hands. She imagined him holding a woman against his chest, running a knife across her throat.

  She could hear a singing in her ears, like the sound the massive sky raider ship had made when it hovered over Pan Nuk, and taken them all. A singing, soaring sound of rage.

  “Taya.”

  She turned to Kas, and he took a half-step back.

  “What?” The word came out slowly, and she frowned at him. “What?”

  “You were . . .” Kas wet his lips, set his feet apart. “Taya, you were starting to call the Change.”

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  About the Author

  Michelle Diener is an award winning author of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

  Michelle was born in London and currently lives in Australia with her husband and children.

  You can contact Michelle through her website or sign up to receive notification when she has a new book out on her New Release Notification page.

  Connect with Michelle

  www.michellediener.com

  Acknowledgments

  Thank you so much to Edie and Jo for your eagle eyes and great suggestions as always, as well as to my awesome reader team of J. Lee Conway, Diane, Christine and Sandra! Thanks as always to EJR Digital Art for the truly beautiful cover!