I panicked and began to hyperventilate. Locked. Alone. I couldn’t understand a world like that. I couldn’t reach out, couldn’t touch or sense anything. Was this what it was like to be human? Was this what it meant to have no bond with the world, other than one’s outward senses? To touch, smell, and hear, but to never truly feel anything? It was awful. Sickeningly awful.
I was so distraught that at first I didn’t even notice my wound had been healed. All I could think about was that pressure, that force pressing in against me. The more I thought about it, the worse it became, until I felt like I could hardly breathe.
I never realized until that moment how much I had been using my Tal’mar senses all along. It was second nature to me, reaching out to touch things with my mind even as I laid hands on them. I had never even thought about what I was doing. Now I had to think about everything. I had to control that instinct, to force it back.
There was a cot in the cell, and I had to lie down and force myself to take deep, steady breaths. This went on for some time, until I eventually calmed down enough to reassess my situation. I had to force myself not to use my powers, lest I invoke the same response as before. Instead, I used my eyes, and my sense of feeling. I reached out with my hands and touched the smooth stone walls and the heavy wooden door. I studied them in the dim light, looking for some weakness or flaw that I might exploit.
I found no means of escape, and I was too exhausted to persist for long. Eventually, I lay back down on the cot and drifted into a restless sleep. I knew in the back of my mind that I shouldn’t, that I needed to stay awake and find a way out of there, but I didn’t have the strength. All I could do was pray that something would happen before it was too late.
As luck would have it, something did happen. But it was the last thing I ever would have expected.
I woke to the sound of voices outside my door. I couldn’t understand the low murmuring, but I recognized the fact that one of the voices was female. A few moments passed, and then I heard shuffling noises and the door opened. A shadowy figure in a long robe appeared in the doorway.
“Who are you?” I said.
“I am Malina. I healed your wound.” The door closed behind her, and she pulled back her hood. She had the delicate features of all Tal’mar, with high cheekbones and a sharp, proud chin. Her face was framed by dark curls, and her eyes were hidden in the shadows. As she approached I saw that the woman’s face was stern but kind, and I couldn’t detect any animosity in her. She settled onto the cot next to me and began to examine my shoulder. I decided to pry for some information.
“What’s wrong with this place?” I said.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean it’s… it’s all closed off. There’s something wrong.”
“You can sense that?”
I looked into her face and saw that her eyes were a deep violet color. My vision was slowly adjusting to the changing light, and my night vision was trying to work with my normal vision. Her hair seemed to be violet as well, with a reddish hue to it.
“Of course I can sense it,” I said. “It’s like someone poking their finger in my eye. It’s driving me crazy.”
“Ignore it,” she said. “Do not dwell on what you cannot change. What is your name?”
“Breeze,” I said. “Breeze Tinkerman. I had papers, but the guards took them.”
“I see.” She looked at me for a while… No, she stared at me. It was like her eyes were boring holes into my skull. I couldn’t even guess as to what the woman might be thinking. Finally, she spoke: “Are you hungry?”
“A little, I guess.” I hadn’t really thought about food. How long had it been since I’d eaten? A day? Two days? I should have been hungry, but so much had been happening that it was the furthest thought from my mind. She rose from the cot and went to the door.
“I’ll see that some food is brought to you. In the meanwhile, try to rest.”
“What happened to Cinder?” I said, but she turned away and the guard pulled the door closed behind her. I ran over and started pounding on it. “What happened to my dog?” I shouted. “What did you do to her?”
They didn’t respond. They knew that eventually I would tire and go back to my cot, and they were right.
I was lying there in the darkness, still trying to plot an escape when my food came. The guard opened a narrow slit in the door and pushed through a tray of fruit, meat, and cheese. I wanted to refuse it, or at least throw the tray at the wall and make some sort of racket, but as soon as I smelled it my willpower melted. My stomach groaned, and I realized just how hungry I was.
I snatched the tray and started shoveling food into my mouth as fast as I could eat. I didn’t stop until it was gone, and then I wished I had more even though my belly was already starting to ache.
A short while later the door opened and one of the guards came in. He appeared to be middle-aged, though for a Tal’mar that may well have meant he was a hundred and fifty. Their average lifespan is three hundred years, and some have been known to live for a thousand.
“Follow me,” he said.
Chapter 33
The Tal’mar dungeon was a circular room with cells shooting off from the center. I stepped into this room and blinked against the light of the torches. There were no desks, chairs, or tables. It was simply an empty space with doors lining the outside wall. The guard closed my cell and led me to another door across the room. He waved his hand in front of it and I heard a click on the outside. The door swung open, revealing a steep stone stairway. He gestured me forward.
It was morning, and the sunlight came cascading down the stairwell as I climbed out of the dungeon. It hurt my eyes at first, especially when we reached the top and stepped out into the palace courtyard. I stood there for a moment, blinking against the light.
The courtyard was huge, easily the size of the entire town of Riverfork. It was encircled by a tall stone wall, the surface of which had been carved in fantastical relief. Great trees climbed the smooth stone, their likeness so realistic that I would have believed them real if it weren’t for their smooth gray texture. Vines dangled from the branches, bursting with glorious life in the form of leaves and flowers and enticing bulbous fruits. The faces of Tal’mar children peered out from behind the foliage, their likenesses frozen forever in that living stone. Unicorns grazed on the lush ground below the branches.
The guard nudged me, and I realized that I’d been standing there with my jaw hanging open. I swung my gaze upwards and saw the palace towers rising to dizzying heights in front of me. I stood like a fool staring up at them, until the guard bumped me again and I started stumbling forward.
I threw my head around, trying to take in everything at once. A stream emerged from the woods on the eastern side of the palace, where it flowed under a small bridge and through the courtyard, ending in a small pond at the center of the lawn. A path beyond the bridge led into the woods. On the far side of the lawn, to my left, I saw Tal’mar children training. Most of them seemed to be my age, or a few years older at most, and they were both male and female. They were organized into small groups, some practicing archery and other fighting with sticks and wooden swords. Two more groups were engaged in some sort of meditation, and I could tell that they were using magic.
I suddenly realized that my powers had returned. I had been so overwhelmed by everything around me, that I hadn’t even realized it until that moment. Immediately I started to reach out with my mind, searching for Cinder. The guard swung around and put a hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Don’t do that,” he said.
I reigned myself in. I had forgotten that they could sense it when I used my powers. The peacekeeper had hit me for it. “Why?” I said.
“It is forbidden. Your kind is forbidden. Do not make pretenses that you are greater than you are.”
“Pretenses?” It dawned on me then why they didn’t want me to use my abilities. It wasn’t because they thought I might escape, it was because I was human
to them, and I wasn’t worthy of the magic I possessed. “I don’t pretend to be anything but what I am!” I snapped. “And I will use all that I was born with!”
“No doubt you will.” I spun around as I heard a familiar female voice. It was Malina, the woman who had healed me. Only now she wasn’t wearing a simple robe. She was dressed in a long elegant gown. It was made from some sort of green, shimmering fabric, and the cuffs and front were decorated with silver vines.
“Your highness,” the guard bowed low, and she nodded in his direction. I stood there with my mouth hanging open as I witnessed this. It appeared that Malina was more than the simple, kind healer she had pretended to be.
“Leave us alone, Chauce.” I saw a glimmer of protest in his eyes, but he clamped his mouth shut and scurried off towards the gate. Malina turned aside. “Let us walk, Breeze.” She started to drift across the lawn, and I fell in at her side.
“Are you the queen?” I asked.
She smiled and shook her head gracefully… everything about her was graceful. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. “I am not the queen, I am her daughter. You’ll forgive my deceit. I needed to find answers, and it seemed the most prudent way. I hope you understand. Sometimes nothing else is adequate.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I didn’t argue. I was trying to figure out what she wanted with me, and why she had come to see me at all. Had the guards told her about me?
“Your name isn’t Malina,” I said. “It’s Brisha, right?” I knew that much from my reading.
“That is correct.”
“I have a message for the queen, your highness.” I just barely remembered to tack that last part on. If it hadn’t been for the guard, I probably wouldn’t have. I didn’t make a very good ambassador. “The peacekeeper took it…”
The princess produced the treaty, seemingly out of nowhere. “I believe this was what you were delivering?” She handed it to me, and I glanced it over.
“Yes, your highness.”
“Hold your thoughts for the moment. We will discuss this in a more private setting.”
I followed her across the lawn and into the palace. I was again awestricken as we climbed the stairs and I got to see the structure up close. The stairs, the columns, and the walls all appeared to be some sort of marble, but the surfaces were highly polished and treated with that silvery glass. When glancing across the surface I could see the texture of the stone, yet when the light hit it just right, it looked like polished metal.
We passed through the entrance and into the main hall. There was no ceiling in this room, but rather an open view of the staircase spiraling ever higher into one of the spires. The walls were white, carved in the same brilliant relief as the outer palace wall, and accentuated with dark wooden trim. I saw a few Tal’mar servants hustling around inside the palace, but none of them took any note of me. They were busy with their duties.
Brisha led me across the main hall and through a doorway at the far end. The brilliance faded, and I found myself walking down a long, dark hallway that was barely lit by flickering candles. The floor here was wood, and covered by long rugs. The walls were smooth polished wood, decorated with trim that bore carvings of flowers and vines. Doors sprouted out in both directions the entire length of the hallway, until it turned off in some other direction in the distance.
She paused at one of the doors, and opened it with a simple gesture. I felt the spark of magic as it happened, and realized for the first time how powerful she was. The tiny, thoughtless action on her part sent a shockwave through me. It was nothing to her, but to me it was like feeling a slight burn and looking up to see the sun falling down. Her power was like that; like a huge ball of fire, the size and strength of which I couldn’t begin to imagine.
I entered the room with a bit more apprehension now that I understood just how powerful the princess was. It didn’t matter if I was younger or faster. I couldn’t outrun that kind of power. The instant the door closed, she threw her arms around me. “Oh Breeze, is it really you?”
Chapter 34
I was speechless. She held me for a few seconds and then pulled back, putting her hands on my cheeks and staring into my eyes. “I can hardly believe it,” she said. “I didn’t dare hope!”
“What… do you mean?” I stammered. My mind flashed over everything we’d discussed, but none of it made sense of this. Then I remembered… my father had been a diplomat. He must have known the princess. In fact, he may have discussed treaties with her. “Did you know my father?”
She threw her head back and laughed. “Yes, of course! Of course I knew your father!” Then the smile faded. “Oh Breeze, I’m so sorry about your father. It was not my wish to have him recalled into duty. General Corsan did that. He wanted your father back because of his past diplomatic relations with the Tal’mar. I believe your father may have been the only human with the courage still to come here.”
I saw a great sadness in her face, and I didn’t know if it was for my father or for the lives he couldn’t save when the treaty had failed. It was obvious that she had been a friend to him, so I suspected she was truly saddened by his death. That was reason for me to care about what she thought. She became something more in my mind -more than a Tal’mar, more than a princess. She had been a friend to my father, and so I considered her to be my friend as well.
“It wasn’t bandits,” I said. “The Kanters did it. They have been sabotaging your treaties all along.”
“I know that now,” the princess said. “I should have known it before. It seems so obvious now, doesn’t it? There have been far too many coincidences…” she glanced down at the treaty.
“Then you believe me?” I said. “Will the queen sign the treaty?”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s already done, but I don’t know what good it will do. We will send a regiment of three hundred to supplement your forces, but I fear it will take days for them to catch up. By then, the damage will be done.”
I was flabbergasted. “You’re going to send troops?”
“The order has already been given. Don’t be so surprised. It was hard enough to convince my commanders that it was safe to pull away from the Borderlands. At least this way they have some guarantee that the threat is real, and that we are not simply lowering our defenses. They will march south, and fight alongside men. This hasn’t happened in a thousand years.”
“Thank you,” I said. I forgot myself for a moment, and threw my arms around her. A great weight seemed to have fallen from my shoulders. Somehow, incredibly, I was actually succeeding. All I had to do was get that treaty back to the general.
I thought of my plane, and immediately thought of Cinder. “I had a dog with me,” I said. “Your guards shot her.”
“Ah, yes,” the princess said. Her eyes went distant, and I felt her reaching out. I felt that tingle of magic again, that tiny spark of untapped power
Somewhere across the building, I heard a yelp. A few seconds later, Cinder came tearing into the room. She leapt into my arms and started licking my face, almost knocking me over in the process. I heard the princess laughing, and I shot her a smile.
Eventually I got Cinder settled down and I gave her the command to lie still. “So you’ll let me go, then?” I said. “The guards won’t do anything?”
“The guards won’t harm you,” she said. “I must apologize for the way they behaved. The Tal’mar think rather highly of themselves and one such as you…” Her voice trailed off, and I finished the sentence for her.
“A half-breed?” The princess gave me a pained look, but I shrugged it off. “I’ve heard it before,” I said. “I’m not Tal’mar and I’m not human. But that’s okay, because I’m better.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Is that so?”
“Yes. I can use magic and touch iron at the same time!”
Her face fell in disbelief. “This is not possible. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“It’s true,” I said. “Have you seen my plane?
I helped Tinker make it.”
The princess bent over and took my chin in her hands, pulling my gaze upwards. “Breeze, you are as remarkable as your father.”
I had another thought as I looked into her eyes, though I hardly dared voice it. Somehow, I found the courage. “You knew my father,” I said apprehensively, “did you know my mother as well?”
Brisha’s face grew distant and sad. “Yes, Breeze, I knew your mother. She would have been so proud. She cared very much about you. She and your father… they did everything they could for you. Don’t be angry with them.”
“I understand,” I said. “I know why they were together.”
“You do?”
“Yes. They were in love. And it didn’t matter to them what anyone else thought, because love is more important.”
“You are right,” she said. She smiled, but her voice was sad. “Stay here, Breeze. Stay and see our city with me, and I will tell you everything about your parents.”
“I can’t,” I whispered. I didn’t want to say it, for fear of offending her, but it was necessary. “I have to get this treaty back. I have to go.”
“Let my couriers deliver it,” she said. “They can have it there before the sun sets tomorrow.”
“That’s not fast enough. The general won’t move his troops until he sees the queen’s signature on this treaty. Even now, people are dying.”
“The same people who call you ‘half-breed’?”
“Some of them. Would I be any better if I turned my back on them?”
“You truly are your father’s daughter, Breeze. When we have time, I must tell you about him.”
“I’d like that,” I said.
“At least promise you will return to me. Deliver the treaty and come straight back here.”
The Tinkerer's Daughter Page 14
