Kjexx laughed, and just when I thought he was done he started again, eventually falling into a coughing fit, bent almost double. Really? It was that funny? I should travel these parts telling jokes at inns like a bard. Apparently, I had the gift.
“Because you are so eager to leap to your death, Tazminera, I will not disappoint you.” Kjexx lifted his lantern, smiling as he led us away from the woman who had lost her head and towards a large building. In the dark, the glyph above his head glowed faintly. His men followed with the Saurs and he gestured to them casually. They peeled off, bringing the Saurs into a wide, burned out building.
“They need to warm up in there,” Kjexx told Rusk casually. “They don’t do well in the cold.”
“Who does?” I muttered.
He led us down a path that curved away from the husk of the city and towards a set of bluffs. Even without a wind, the cold was enough to suck the life out of me and my movements felt clumsy and difficult. Where could we get warm? How long could a person be this cold before they froze in place and were never able to move again? However long it was, I must be coming up on that.
We turned a corner around a stand of mammoth trees and there, in a valley, a large shape glowed with a light blue aura.
I gasped. It looked exactly like the Event Alura.
“The Black Talon!” An’alepp said, her voice a mixture of pleasure and pain. “They arrived on Axum!”
“You’re back!” I said. “I thought you were dead or being tortured! I couldn’t save you. I tried and tried.”
An’alepp wasn’t paying attention to my excuses. “Something is wrong with that ship…”
Chapter Six: Black Talon
A BILLOW OF SMOKE came out of one of the windows of the Black Talon.
“Did she crash and catch fire?” I asked, my finger pointing towards the smoke.
Kjexx laughed. “I thought you wanted to get warm.”
“Not enough to light an artifact on fire!”
Rusk grunted beside me and grabbed my upper arm lightly with his hand. When I looked at him he gave me a warning shake of his head. So, he didn’t want me to provoke our captor? Rusk’s advice was usually good, but there was something about Kjexx that made me want to tease him.
“It isn’t on fire. There is just a fire within to warm those who wait.” Kjexx motioned to his warriors, and they fanned out around us, feet crunching on the crisp snow. How did anyone get anything done in this snow? Even if it hadn’t been bitterly cold it was extremely inconvenient.
“Barbarians,” An’alepp said. She crossed her arms in a huff. “Lighting a fire in a state-of-the-art piece of technology like a starship!”
“You are seeing further than usual in my world, ancestor. What is going on in Ra’shara?”
“Nothing that need concern you now.”
That wasn’t the same as ‘nothing.’ I grunted in frustration, getting a confused look from Rusk as a reward. People were going to think I was crazy if I let things like that slip outside of the meditation world.
Snow drifted so thick against the walls and over the top of the ship that her exact shape was difficult to make out, but I could see her name written along the side of her hull. Imagine having such a steady hand that every letter you wrote turned out exactly like its brothers! Below it was a symbol, half-obscured by snow. My brain itched with a memory. Where had I seen that before?
Kjexx turned to us. “One step out of line. One word I don’t like. I’ll gut you and write my name in your blood.”
Well, that was just charming. If he thought he was scaring me, he should try talking to my relatives.
“I’m starting to think this ship fell apart because you and your ancestors are better known for idle threats than getting anything done.”
Kjexx laughed and motioned for us to follow as he pushed a thick curtain of animal hides aside and ducked through the hatch into the ship. Animal hides? Where was the door? I glanced at the frame. Where the hinges should have been were nothing but ragged, bubbled stubs.
“Someone gave an ape a plasma cutter.” An’alepp spat and crossed her arms over her ghostly uniform. Maybe she’d finally apologize for treating me like an idiot all this time when she saw how these ghostly ice-people did things.
I pushed at the skins, but Rusk ducked past me, whispering as his body skimmed up against mine.
“I don’t like that you agreed to do this, but I’ll die before I let them kill you, Wild Girl.”
“Is that forgiveness?” I asked.
“It’s devotion.”
I followed him through to the ship’s bridge. If it was built the same as the Event Alura had been which meant that several decks were buried beneath ground and ice. How long ago had this ship crashed here?
“They must have landed only a century or so after we did. We thought it would take them longer than that,” An’alepp said. Her critical eye ran over the details of the interior and I followed suit.
Unlike the Event Alura, the deck showed none of the pristine cleanliness and order I’d come to expect. The autodoc was torn out and a wooden crate stacked with swords and bows was in its place. The desks had been removed or converted to tables complete with animal skin covers and high backed wooden chairs. Dishes and a variety of meat and drink were laid out. The fire burned in a stone enclosure off to one side, wide and decorated around the rim with striped animal horns and carved bones. The room reeked of wood smoke and burnt meat.
At first, I thought the denizens of the place were decoration, but when one moved I saw they were people — pale like Kjexx, dressed in so many layers of fur that it was hard to tell what their forms might look like. The men wore their hair cropped and were tattooed across the face. The women wore their hair completely shorn on one side and then cut blunt at the chin on the other. Matching tattoos decorated their faces. Stars and swirls dominated the patterns, but interlinked in a way that made the eye hurt to follow them. Some of them had feathers on their backs like Kjexx did, and all of them had a ghostly sigil hovering over their heads. Did those signs mean something?
One of the bulky figures made a sound midway between a bellow and grunt. Sweet Penspray, they really were barbarians! Images of them boiling me over that huge fire and then carving my bones to decorate it filled my mind. Could these people also have been spawned from the world that my ancestors left? Perhaps that was why they left. If I had been faced with the prospect of living with these people long, I would want to learn how to ride a metal bucket into the sky.
“Do they look familiar, An’alepp?”
“Not in the slightest.” She sounded cavalier, but there was an odd ring to her voice.
I scanned Ra’shara quickly. A string of white mineral pillars faced her. An’alepp walked down the line of them, peering at the minerals close to her face as if she could tell what they were made of by squinting. Maybe Amandera was right and her mind really was going. Did she have anyone who could help her if it flew away?
Kjexx clapped his fist into his hand in a formal salute.
“Can you contact ancestors from our world in this one, An’alepp?”
“No. We are completely bereft of their help.”
A snarky answer was on the tip of my tongue, but then Kjexx began to speak.
“Sons of the Black Talon. I have brought to you kin of Catane the Hated for your judgment.”
Really? Call me cynical, but can anyone be open minded when you are labelled as kin of their great enemy?
“We’re not kin.” I crossed my arms over my chest.
“You look like you could be his sister,” one of the women said. She was hawk-nosed and gnarled. “Why did you bring her to the Black Talon, Kjexx? Were you not sent to be a thorn in Catane’s side while we worked here?”
Kjexx scratched his chin, with a look of obviously feigned innocence. “I thought wiser minds could solve this puzzle better than I.”
“Puzzle?” the woman took a step forward. Her mouth looked like she had been sucking a lemon.
<
br /> Kjexx reached between Rusk and I, snatched our silver tether and held it up.
“She’s tied to him. They claim that severing the tie will kill them both.”
“Easy,” the woman said. “Kill them both and hang them up by it. Next time bring us something difficult to judge.”
“Wait!” I yelled. “You’re being too hasty!”
Who were these people? I’d heard the expression ‘kill you as soon as see your face,’ but I’d always assumed it was an exaggeration. She’d kill me just for how I looked? How bad could this Catane be? Sure, his men had attacked us…but so had Kjexx!
Kjexx bowed. “I trust you’ll accept the stain of the murder on your record Astrex?”
“Stain?” She raised her eyebrows and her chin as if she were two cuts above him. “For killing our sworn enemy’s blood? Look at her. She shares ancestry, as you said.”
“I’m not related to him, and Rusk has nothing to do with this!” I dove forward, but Rusk grabbed my shoulders, pulling me back.
“Tylira!” he whispered. “What are you going to do? Scratch them to death?”
Oh. Yeah. I’d lost my connection to the Common. But was that still true?
“An’alepp? Can I access the Common again?”
An’alepp was silent, rubbing at one of the salt pillars in a preoccupied way.
Kjexx waved an arm at Rusk. “Stain and murder, because he is a great war leader. We watched him fight the Empire’s Black Brigade. He fought honorably.”
Astrex cursed, and her curse was echoed by the others arrayed behind her. Some of them muttered in the language I didn’t know.
“An’alepp?” I asked. This was bad. If she lost her mind, would I lose my ability to unweave forever? Carefully, I reached out to the Common. There it was! I reached towards a thread and her head snapped around.
“No! Stop!”
At the same time, Astrex strode forward, grabbed my hand where the bracelet joined me to Rusk, and pulled out a blade.
“Stop!” Rusk cried, lunging forward.
Astrex clucked her tongue and nodded to Kjexx. He and his men grabbed Rusk, dragging him back a pace. So, I would find out what it felt like to be gutted like a fish, or I’d unweave and kill them all with my lightning.
“Tylira, you must listen.” An’alepp was nose to nose with me in Ra’shara. “Those white pillars — they’re people. Ancestors like me, I think, but from here. Touching the Common could destroy everything. I need time to discover what happened here. Find some other way to defend yourself.”
I shot a frantic glance at Rusk. Fine. No weapon. No choice. If Rusk could do it, I could do it.
I stared Astrex in the eye. “Come at me old woman. I’d love to show you how I can take you apart with just one hand.”
Kjexx laughed, and a hint of a smile touched Astrex’s lips before she slid the knife into my sleeve, tugged and cut the sleeve open. She sheathed the knife, and then ripped my sleeve up to the shoulder. Well, at least it wasn’t my flesh, but did she really have to ruin my only clothes in the universe’s coldest world? That was just plain spite.
She studied the whirls tattooed on my arms with the nine stars proclaiming that I was the ninth daughter of the High Tazmin. They were not all that different from the ones bridging her nose and splaying across her cheeks — but hers contained only four stars. Her gaze wandered upwards to my bicep.
“What’s under the bandage?” she asked. “Is it a mark, by any chance?”
Oh, yes. The brand. I remembered the searing pain when I’d been branded in the ceremony that bound me to Rusk. It barely hurt anymore, but I swallowed as she stared at the bandage. How did she know that I was marked as a Son of the Stars?
“What’s it to you?”
She ripped the bandage off my arm with rough hands. Around us, gasps filled the Black Talon. One of the men holding Rusk dropped to his knees. The other let go of Rusk as if he’d completely forgotten to hold him at all. Astrex dropped the bandage like it had come alive.
Had none of them seen branded flesh before?
Chapter Seven: The Mark
“BY OUR ANCESTORS AND the holy Black Talon,” Astrex said and I heard the rest reciting the same thing like a catechism. “We do not forget your sacrifice. We do not forget our promise. Courage over all else. Faithfulness always.”
I made eye contact with Rusk. His eyes were wide as melon halves. Were they all crazy? Obviously. But completely, incoherently insane? It was going to be harder to get out of this than I had feared.
“We also honor your ancestors,” I said into the silence that followed. “And we will honor them best by returning to our search.”
“These pillars are definitely their ancestors. Ask them what all that faithfulness nonsense is about when their spirit world has been ransacked!” I’d never heard An’alepp so furious. She’d rubbed thick scale off one of the pillars and beneath it I saw a face frozen in a death rictus. If I lived for much longer I’d have enough images to fuel nightmares for centuries.
Astrex smiled. No, not that smile! Anything but that smile. The last time I’d seen it was on Amandera. I lunged for Kjexx’s sword, but Astrex’s blow sent me to the floor. Behind me I heard a scuffle as Rusk was similarly subdued.
“We won’t kill you, Windbearer, but we will do what it takes to be sure you do not fail in your duty.”
I rubbed my lip. Blood smeared across my hand.
“I know my duty, Astrex. You are keeping me from it.”
“You cannot know she is the Windbearer,” the largest one of the men said. He wore his heavy furs as if they were no heavier than a sarette and his forked beard was pale as yellow honey. “We thought we found him already.”
“He must have fooled us. We never saw his mark this closely.” Astrex rubbed at the scar on my arm and I bit my lip. Why couldn’t we have stumbled on a group dedicated to compassion and harmony? “Look. She has the very mark of the Black Talon, as was foreseen, with the three winds blowing through it. She is the one we’ve waited for.”
Should I tell her that dozens of people on my world had a similar mark? Every son of the High Tazmin? Of course, Jakinda hadn’t told me if they varied at all. Maybe mine really was unique.
I glanced at Rusk. He shook his head almost imperceptibly. He was right. The only reason I was still alive was because of the brand. It would be wise not to mention that it wasn’t unique. I swallowed.
“What exactly would you require of me to fulfill this duty?”
“We’d need to be sure, first. You’d need to pass the tests.” The yellow bearded man looked at Kjexx. “You knew we would want to test her. That is why you brought her here.”
Kjexx saluted in that strange fist-into-hand way he had.
“Your share is increased by one half-season, Kjexx son of Axrun the Bold.”
“Thank you Axrun, my ancestor.”
Oh great. Like father, like son.
“If we test her it could happen again,” Astrex said. “Let’s test him and if he comes through alive, then we’ll stick her in.”
“No!” I said.
Rusk’s voice plowed right over mine, “Agreed.”
“If he dies, I die too, so if you want to test me you should just get right to it.”
Rusk’s lips compressed. He could be as angry as he wanted. Maybe I could find a way to save him even if I died. He was only here because of me.
“Agreed,” Astrex said. Was that respect in her eyes? “Bring them below.”
Astrex marched towards a hatch at the far end of the room. The door here was also cut out of the hinges and furs had been substituted for it. Axrun followed on her heels, while the others stood back, arms crossed, eyeing us like they were going to start placing bets on our survival once we’d left the room.
“After you, Windbearer,” Kjexx said, with a sweeping gesture. He still had that devilish twinkle in his eye. Was it humor or evil? It was so hard to tell.
I grabbed Rusk’s hand before following. His hand felt
so familiar that my resolve strengthened. None of this was his fault. He needed to make it out of this alive.
“Stop trying to save me,” he whispered. “I can take care of myself.”
“I can take care of both of us,” I whispered back.
He shot me a frown. “An attitude like that can get you killed.”
I stopped short, grabbed his face in both my hands and kissed him hard and fast. Kjexx bumped into me from behind.
“You know that you’re about to be tested to see if you will live. This is not a time for kissing games,” he said.
I finished kissing Rusk and turned on Kjexx. “Is there a better time for kissing than in your last moments?”
He stood a little straighter, a tiny smile playing on his face. “Well…if you’re offering…”
Why was Kjexx so confusing? It was almost as if he knew me without having met me before. I shook my head as I walked, trying to remember. Did he remind me of someone? Had I dreamt of him? He just seemed so familiar.
The stairways to the decks below were identical to the Event Alura and even the markings that identified the decks and uses were alike, but no otherworldly voice spoke in a soothing tone to tell me where I was headed. Something made this ship feel more — earthy. What was it? Ah! The décor. Carved antlers and jewel-set swords were hung in brackets on the walls of the ship and skins were spread out like rugs along the passageways. Were people living here below the ground? It was markedly cooler in the decks below, but still warm enough that my skin no longer felt like it might crack and shatter.
“Do you live in this ship, Kjexx? It looks terrible, like barbarians have taken over.”
He grinned. “We’re just here for our yearly ceremony. Not that it’s any of your business.”
“So, you don’t usually live in such squalor?”
“The greatness of the Black Talon and the wonder of our halls would leave your pale with envy, Tazminera. Come on, let’s go below so you can see our backwards ways for yourself.”
After descending a few more decks into the bowels of the ship, we found ourselves in a large room that seemed almost untouched by the relentless redecoration efforts. The smooth surfaces of the ship remained intact and Astrex stood at one of the desks, her hands swirling deftly in the projected image above the surface.
Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2) Page 4
