The smoke at that altitude was choking, so I pulled up, hoping to rise above it. It got thicker at first, and I pulled my scarf up over my face. Then suddenly I broke through the ceiling, and the brilliant starry sky stretched over me. The smoke was an ocean below; rolling black waves that were frozen in time as I slipped across the surface.
I located the bare sliver of moon overhead, and oriented myself accordingly. From that point on, I stayed above the clouds as much as possible.
I kept a close eye on my gauges. I had to land just after sunrise to rewind the springs, and again about two hours later. Part of this was due to the fact that I was going fast rather than conserving energy. I was about to land for a third time when, just after noon, I finally saw my destination.
The ocean had been visible to the west for some time. Now the land closed in, forming the narrow channel known as the Crimson Strait. A massive wall of fog hovered right along the edge of the coast. The land along the coast had been clear-cut, leaving miles of scarred land stretching from the sea to the mountains. It was obvious that the humans had done this in fear of the Tal’mar. The humans knew that the Tal’mar had a unique relationship with the woods, and so to protect themselves, they cut down all of the trees.
A sprawling military encampment rested at the eastern end of this strip of land, nestled in the foothills at the base of the Blackrock Mountains. Behind the camp rose a castle, its rough-hewn stone walls sprouting out of the granite cliffs.
I circled the area a few times, looking for a safe place to land, and decided on a wagon trail on the eastern end of the plain just below the castle. Had I the choice I would have preferred a more inconspicuous landing, but deep grass and rotting stumps covered the land. Even if I could have found a landing strip between the stumps, there was no telling what hazards the grass might conceal. I had no choice but to land in plain view of the entire army.
I nervously patted Cinder on the head as I came in. “Here we go, pup,” I said. She whined and buried her head behind my legs.
When I touched down, the wheels threw a cloud of dust into the air. I hit the brakes and rolled to a stop directly between the castle and encampment. When the dust cleared, I saw a group of soldiers coming my way. I glanced up the hill and saw more soldiers gathering on the castle wall. I had certainly gotten everyone’s attention.
I held my hands up in the air as they approached. I wanted to show that I wasn’t armed, and that I was there for peaceful purposes. “I have a message for the general,” I said, remembering Analyn’s instructions. General Corsan, she had said. I was to show him the royal seal, and warn him of the Kanters’ attack.
They encircled me, swords and spears at the ready. A larger group was gathering behind them. They were awestricken, having witnessed the landing of this strange machine. They had probably thought it some sort of prehistoric bird until they got closer. I also saw hostility in their faces. For some reason, I had neglected to put on my flying cap before I landed. I don’t know if it was simple exhaustion or a subconscious decision I had made. Whatever the reason, my secret was out. I could only guess as to what must have been going through their minds. They were certainly awed by this incredibly flying machine, but they were equally baffled by its pilot.
I was tempted to reach into my pocket and hold the seal up in front of them, but I waited. I didn’t want to play my only card too soon. I was hoping their leader would present himself. I didn’t have to wait long.
There was a bustling among the crowd, and the bodies partied to make way for a tall, broad shouldered man with a scar across his left eye. The eye was gone and the lid had been sewn shut. His hair and beard were long and unkempt. He had the look of a man who had been living in a tent for a long, long time.
Still, there was something about the man that reminded me of my father. Perhaps it was his broad shoulders, or the way his arms bulged under the half-sleeves of his tunic. It was unlikely that they had been related, but they were clearly of the same stock.
He stepped onto the road and made a quick circle around the plane. “What is this… machine?”
“It’s called a plane,” I said. “An airplane.”
“Plane?”
“Yes, because the wings plane across the air. Like the hull of a ship across water.”
He studied the wings for a moment, and then reached out to feel the smooth finish of the wood. “This is your plane?”
“Yes. I helped Tinker build it.”
“Tinker,” the man echoed. A weak grin played at the corners of his mouth. “Who are you?”
“My name is Breeze Tinkerman. I’ve come with a message for your general.” I purposely used Tinker’s name, not only because he had basically become a father to me, but also because I didn’t know how these men felt about my birth father. It was altogether possible that they considered him a traitor.
“Tinkerman? You’re the Tinkerman’s daughter?” He stared hard at my ears, and I felt my face going flush.
“Yes, but not by birth. He adopted me after my father died.” The crowd livened at that. I heard voices muttering all around me, until the man waved them to silence.
“And what sort of a message do you have for me?”
It was at this point that I produced the ring. I held it up, and his eyebrows narrowed. “Where did you get that?”
“The Kanters have attacked Riverfork,” I said. “They are moving north, killing everything in their path.” He snatched the ring out of my hand, and rolled it over.
“This is the King’s seal, where did you get this Tal’mar?”
“My teacher gave it to me.” There was a round of laughter at this, and the man rolled his eyes… his eye, I should say.
“What teacher?”
“Analyn Trader.” The smile vanished from his face.
“Come with me. Sergeant, get this thing off my road!”
Chapter 27
I hopped down and followed the man up the hill towards the castle. Cinder was right at my heels. I kept a wary eye on the soldiers moving my plane, until I was satisfied that they had just moved it off the road and no further. My plane was my life. The only certain safety I had was in the skies. On the ground, everyone was a potential enemy.
The only point of entry through the castle wall was a guarded portcullis. It was just large enough for a wagon to pass through. Now it was open, and the guards nodded as I followed the man inside. The courtyard was a pandemonium. To my right I saw a group of young men exercising horses near the stables. To my left, a dozen blacksmiths were working steadily, adding to piles of horseshoes, swords, and shields that were stacked up on tables along the wall. No one paid any heed to us as the man led me inside the keep.
As we entered, I immediately became aware of the sparse décor. The floors and walls were cold chiseled stone, and the only light streamed in through un-shuttered windows high on the wall. A few threadbare rugs and tapestries lent minimal warmth to the interior, and I saw only the barest of furnishings.
The man led me into a small chamber off the main hall, and motioned for me to close the door as he settled down at his desk. He nodded towards a chair, and I sat down opposite him. He tossed Analyn’s ring out in front of me.
“Tell me the truth now, girl, and be quick about it. Where did you get that ring?”
“Are you the general?” At that point it was a stupid question, but I still waited for his nod. “I told you, it was given to me by Analyn Trader, my schoolteacher. She said I should give it to General Corsan, and he would know my words were true.”
“This is your proof then? This is proof that Kanters have invaded our territories? The same mindless barbarians who’ve spent their entire history living like dogs and consuming the flesh of their own dead?”
“They aren’t mindless! They’ve been manipulating the humans and the Tal’mar all along. They have been draining our resources on purpose!”
He settled back into his chair. His face was a mask of serenity; not even his eyes betrayed his though
ts. I had no idea what was going on in that calculating military mind. “How do I know that you’re not a Tal’mar spy? Or an assassin? You could have easily stolen that ring from one of your victims.”
I smiled ever so slightly. His argument was clearly flawed. “If I were an assassin, I wouldn’t go to so much trouble. I’d simply climb the wall in the night and find you. And then I would slit your throat while you slept.”
Still nothing. His eyes were so emotionless that he might as well have been dead. “And let’s suppose that this message you bring is true, that the Kanters have invaded Astatia. What then would you expect me to do?”
“You have to move your forces to the south,” I said. “You’ve got to meet them head on.”
“Ah, there’s the rub. You see, what you propose would leave the Borderlands unguarded and ripe for the plucking. The Tal’mar would stream across the strait and wipe us out. With our flank exposed, they would roll right over us.”
This was a defining moment for me. I could have accepted the general’s argument and left. It was, after all, a sound argument. He had every reason to believe what he said. And how could I convince him that the Tal’mar wouldn’t attack? The truth was, they probably would.
That was when a plan came to me… a plan so ridiculous and unlikely that it just might work. I found myself speaking words that I hardly believed were coming out of my mouth.
“Give me a treaty. I’ll take it to the Tal’mar and have it back, signed, in twenty-four hours.”
Even as I said it, I knew how mad it must sound. I almost wanted him to laugh at me and chase me off, because I knew I was promising more than I could give. But I had to do something. I had to give some show of confidence, something that would convince him to move his troops. It was the only card I had to play.
For the first time, his eyes actually lit up. “You are an ambitious girl, aren’t you? Don’t you know that I’ve signed a dozen pacts and treaties with the Tal’mar over the years? Their treaties mean nothing. Their word isn’t worth spit.”
“But they were tricked!” I argued. I could hear my voice rising, and I knew that I was losing control of myself, but I couldn’t help it. “They were fooled by the Kanters, just like you were. The Kanters raided villages and poisoned wells… they poisoned the well at my school just a few days ago. The people of Riverfork were going to hang me for it, until the Kanters attacked, and I was freed.” That last part was a stretch, but I didn’t figure the whole truth would have set very well with him.
“You’re a lot like your father,” he said. My jaw dropped open.
Chapter 28
I was speechless for a moment, staring at him, wondering. He stared back at me with his good eye.
“You knew my father?” I said, my voice barely a whisper.
He smiled grimly and rose from his chair. He went to the window, and gazed out across the courtyard as he spoke to me. “Your father was as much diplomat as soldier, did you know that?”
I shook my head. “I barely knew my father. I hardly remember him.”
“That’s a shame. He was a great man. I suppose you can blame me for that.”
“You? Then you’re the reason he went back to war?”
“Who else? I am the general, you know. I’m the one who makes the hard decisions. I send men out to battle, knowing that they might come back in pieces or, like your father, they might not come back at all.”
A heavy uncomfortable silence descended over the room, and suddenly I could hear every sound in the castle around us. I glanced over the general’s shoulder, and saw the young men training in the courtyard. What was he thinking? That he might send them out to die, too?
He spoke, interrupting my thoughts. “I believed this last treaty was going to be the one. I wanted your father to deliver it personally, because he had a history with the Tal’mar.”
That was a loaded statement. Questions flooded my mind, and I could hardly think straight enough to sort them out. I asked the obvious one: “What kind of history?”
He twisted his head and shot me a sly look. “Diplomatic,” he said. “Though I see now that his interests were more than professional.” My ears reddened as he said this, but he ignored me. “How can I describe what your father did? You see, he was a large man. He was the kind of man that inspired loyalty and fear all at once -the kind of man that troops would follow into any battle, regardless of the odds. But at the same time he had a way with words like I’ve never seen before. He could speak the Tal’mar language. He could use their own tongue to charm them as if they were schoolgirls at a barn dance.”
It warmed my heart to hear my father described like that. I could remember looking into his eyes, and the feeling of being in his arms. I knew that every woman would fall in love with him, human or Tal’mar. I knew the kind of charm he’d had, even though I’d never seen him use it. “What happened to the treaty?”
“Your father left with our offer, and then he disappeared. We didn’t hear from him for almost two weeks. Then the Tal’mar delivered his body to us with the message that he had been waylaid by bandits. Needless to say, we didn’t believe a word of it.”
“It was the Kanters,” I interrupted. I knew it just as surely as I knew they’d poisoned the well at school. They had killed my father to keep the treaty from reaching the Tal’mar. But how could they have known? Did they have spies? They must have. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. I dropped into a chair and put my head in my hands.
I hardly heard the general move before I saw him in front of me. He knelt down and pulled my hands away from my face. He wiped the tears from my cheeks. “This is not the time for that,” he said. “If you truly are your father’s daughter, prove it to me now.”
“How?”
He rose up, and I looked up into that grim, leathery face. “I’m inclined to believe you girl. I’m sure my men suspect you’re a spy, but they don’t understand people the way I do. You’re no spy, I’d wager my good eye on that. I have another draft of that treaty in my desk. If you can have it back here tomorrow, as you say you can, then I will move my men.”
He moved over to his desk and shoved all the papers aside, revealing a map of the Borderlands. “You are here, at Relian Keep,” he said, pointing to a small castle. It was sitting on the side of the mountain. He drew his finger directly to the west, and settled at a large circle with two towers rising up from the center. “Silverspire is approximately three hundred miles to the west. It takes nearly a week to make that trip on horseback. How fast can you get there?”
“I left Riverfork at dawn,” I said.
“Then you can be there by nightfall. Deliver your message and come back here as fast as you can. I will not move the troops until I have the treaty. Even then, it won’t be easy.”
“The Kanters will have a full day to march,” I argued. “Do you know how many people could die?”
“It’s not all my decision, girl. I have to convince Prince Sheldon that this must be done. After what’s happened in the last few years, that will be no easy task. One day is the best I can offer.”
I accepted that without further argument, instead determining to make the flight even faster, if such a thing were possible. The general threw open a desk drawer and produced the treaty. He signed it, and gave it an official seal. When it was finished, he handed it over. “Keep that safe, and don’t let anyone see it,” he warned. “There are those among us who no longer desire a peaceful accord.”
I nodded, and tucked the letter into my jacket. Then he escorted me out of the castle and back to my plane. As we exited, I saw some sort of commotion at the bottom of the hill. Several soldiers were standing around the plane, and one of them was arguing with a man on horseback. As we got closer, I saw that his cloak was the deep purple of royalty.
“Is that Prince Sheldon?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Really? So he’s going to be king some day?”
“No, thank God. His older brother will. Sergeant! What’s go
ing on here?”
The two men dropped their argument, and turned to face us. The prince’s eyebrows shot up as he saw me. “Tal’mar!” he hissed. “Arrest this woman!”
“Belay that,” said the general. “This woman is a messenger, an ambassador. She’s was just leaving.”
“Not with this machine!” said the prince. “I’m commandeering it.”
“That’s insane. What could you possibly need with this machine?”
“Watch your tongue, General Corsan. Don’t forget your place. I plan to use this machine to spy on the Tal’mar. Once we know the locations of their bases, we can finally end this war.”
“Your highness, with all due respect…” Corsan’s words were cold and calculated. He didn’t use the title with respect, but rather with a vague threat. “Your regrettable decision in this matter belies an unacceptable inefficiency in the chain of communications. I’ll see to this matter as soon as I debrief you personally, on certain events which have recently unfolded.”
“Nonsense! Nothing could be as important as this. With this machine, we will win the war!” There were a few cheers from the guards standing around him.
I was starting to understand the general’s distaste for the prince. The man was more stubborn than I could have imagined. His mind seemed to be completely distracted with the thought of his coming victory over the Tal’mar, so much so that he was unwilling to listen to information that would later paint him as an ignorant fool.
“You highness, I really think it would be best if you came up to the keep. I have some very important information to relay. Sergeant, get this plane back on the road!”
“Halt!” The prince shouted. “Guards, commandeer this vehicle.”
I held my breath as the prince’s guards came forward, their hands on their sword hilts. The sergeant shot the general a look. General Corsan nodded, and the sergeant shouted, “Men, at arms!”
Chapter 29
The Tinkerer's Daughter Page 12
