by Nathan Long
“But…” I spread my hands and hit a bulkhead. The captain’s cabin in the church ship was a lot smaller than Kai-La’s quarters back on her old man-o-war. “But they’re your friends too! Well, Sai is. Didn’t you fuck the living daylights out of him all the way to Doshaan?”
Burly snorted from the built-in bench under the stern windows. “And sold him when we arrived.”
Kai-La smirked. “If you went to rescue only his prick I might help you, but the fool attached to it? No. I’ll not risk my crew for a pair of spoiled brats. I’m afraid you are on your own.”
I sighed, but I couldn’t really blame her. She’d just killed an entire shipload of priests. The church would never stop hunting her. Even if she wasn’t on their shit list, I couldn’t expect her or anyone else to wanna come along. Lhan and I were basically planning to go commit suicide. Nobody in their right mind would want a piece of that action.
Kai-La stepped around the table. “All I can do is wish you well and give you your share of the spoils. It might help open some doors.”
Lhan and I exchanged a glance. Lhan raised an eyebrow.
“And what spoils are these?”
Kai-La nodded at Burly, who stood up from the bench, then opened it. He lifted out a heavy satchel and carried it to the table with both hands, then threw back the flap. It was filled to bursting with flat orange glass disks about the size of poker chips. There was a white hexagon symbol stamped on each one. I knew that symbol. It was painted on the side of the balloon we were sitting under.
Burly grinned. “As you did half the work, your share is half. We will divide the other half amongst ourselves.”
Lhan whistled. His eyes had gone all glittery. “That… that is extremely generous of you.”
I looked from him to Kai-La. “Church money?”
“Aye. Water Tokens. Anyone who possesses one can redeem it at a temple for a hundred weight of water. The priests carry them for bribes.”
I still wasn’t up to speed on my Waarian weights and measures. “How much is a hundred weight?”
“About as much as would fit in two large barrels.”
I blinked. “As dry as it is around here, that’s gotta be worth quite a lot.”
Lhan patted the satchel, nodding. “Indeed. We gaze upon a fortune here. ’Twould be enough to buy my father’s house.”
I remembered his father’s house. It was a castle—and not one of those dinky little castles, either.
Lhan crossed his wrists and bowed to Kai-La and Burly. “You are correct, friends. This will make our journey much smoother. Thank you.”
Kai-La and Burly bowed back, then Kai-La reached up and gave me a hug.
“Again you travel in the wrong direction, sister. Someday you will sail with me. I know it.”
“Maybe I will, if I survive.”
She stepped back and looked me in the eyes. “Then survive. We will be waiting.”
***
Half an hour later we waved goodbye as the pirates lifted off and headed south. Even with the stupid orange church balloon, the warship looked so beautiful flying off into the sun it made my heart hurt.
“Totally having second thoughts now.”
“Aye, mistress. As am I.”
Lhan sighed and turned toward the other ships and I followed. My eyes were tearing up from looking at the sun anyway.
We got our fare back from the ship that was sailing to Vedya and bought a ticket on another one going to Ormolu. It didn’t leave for three hours, so we went back to the inn to wait it out. Unfortunately, we were both too freaked out about Sai and Wen-Jhai being kidnapped and what we were heading into to get ourselves in the mood, so there were no hi-jinx, not even when I took off my robes and loosened my boob bindings because of the heat. Instead Lhan fidgeted and paced around while I just flopped on the bed, sweating like I was in a sauna and staring into space with a million thoughts spinning around in my head. Eventually, one of ’em popped out.
“Why are these little church fuckers so weird about me?”
Lhan turned from looking though the crack between the curtains. “As I said before, I believe you impinge on the divinity of the Wargod. You have his skin color, his strength, his leaping. Thus, by your mere existence, you make him less unique—less a god.”
I sat up, pulling the sweaty sheets off my shoulders. “Yeah, yeah, I remember. But that doesn’t explain ’em sending me back to Earth. Why didn’t they just kill me in my sleep? Wouldn’t that have been easier?” I looked at the crumpled wanted poster where I’d laid it on the bedside table. “And why are they gunning for you so hard? Whadda they got against your ‘mere existence?’”
“As to the first, I know not, though I am glad beyond all measure they did not. For the second, I cannot be certain, but perhaps it is because I was witness to your capture.” He smirked and leaned against the wall. “A bit awkward for the church to be caught kidnapping the savior of the Empire, eh? She who had been given honors and rewards by the Aldhanan himself?”
I shook my head. “Awkward, yeah, but to chase you halfway across the continent? To slaughter all those pirates? Would they really go to all that trouble?”
Lhan’s smirk faded. “You do not know the church. Secrets mean more to them than life itself, and they fear anything that might reveal them or threaten their power. And you—” He stopped, staring at nothing, then refocused and sat down beside me, taking my hand. “It occurs to me that the priests fear you for more than just your possible diminution of the Wargod’s divinity. They fear you yourself, as they did the Wargod when first he arrived.”
“I thought they worshipped him.”
“Not at first. At first he fought against them, calling them corrupt and raising the Dhanans against them, but later, when he might have destroyed them, he joined them instead, claiming that he would change the church from within.” He smirked again. “Heretics such as I believe it was the church that changed him, that it was they who turned him into the haunted, secret-hoarding hypocrite who ruled Ora for nigh on a hundred years. Or rather, we believe that the corruption had always been in his heart, and only revealed itself when he was given absolute control over the church and the state.”
“But what has all that got to do with me? I don’t want absolute control over anything—well, ’cept myself, I guess. I just want ’em to leave my friends alone and stay out of my life!”
“And that, I believe, is precisely what they are afraid of—that you are not corruptible. That if you were to rise against them—for their treatment of your friends, for example—you would not give up your ideals if offered the reins of power. That you would instead spurn their offers and tumble their ancient towers to the ground.”
I snorted. “Are they kidding? I ain’t got enough energy to do all that. All I wanna do is bum around with you and—”
There were running footsteps in the hall, then somebody was pounding on the door. “Surgeon! Surgeon, come quick! There’s been a fight!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
DISCOVERED!
Lhan stood up and flapped a hand at me. “Don your robes, quickly!” Then shouted at the door. “Don’t come in!”
I yeeped and looked around for my stuff, my boob bindings all loose around my waist. There was no time to rewrap. It had taken more than five minutes to get myself all squished down, so I just grabbed my robe and hoped for the best.
“Surgeon, please! A man is bleeding to death! He’s lost a hand!”
Lhan looked back, wild-eyed, as I danced around in the middle of the room, trying to cover myself. The robe was twisted and sticking to my sweaty skin like a rubber sheet. Fighting into it was like trying climb into a bear skin with the bear still in it.
Lhan stepped to the door. “I am not at liberty! I am performing a delicate surgery!”
Whoever it was pounded harder on the door. “The barman said the only other surgeon is at the salt plant, and that’s an iln away. You’ve got to come!”
“I cannot!” He rolled his eyes a
nd muttered back at me. “And what would I do when I arrived? I’ve no skill with knife and brand.”
Finally I got the robe on and buttoned up, pulled the pointy hood and ninja mask down over my head, grabbed the gloves, and gave Lhan a thumbs-up.
“Okay.”
He groaned, then turned the latch. And that’s when I realized that I was all dressed up but he wasn’t.
“Lhan! Your hood! Your mask!”
He squeaked and looked back at the table, where the stork-face mask lay with his hood. He’d been so worried about covering up all my giant pinkness that he’d totally forgot himself.
It was too late. The door flew open and three purple guys pushed in, sweaty and out of breath. They looked like sailors, and smelled like a St. Patty’s Day morning after.
“Surgeon! Thank you!” The first one was a thin guy with an adams apple like a golf ball. “Our mate, Zha, got in a fight at the Red Sails and took the worst of it. You’ve got to—” He stopped and squinted at Lhan’s face. “Do I know you?”
Lhan shook his head and took a step back. “I know no one here. I have only stopped until my ship—”
Adams-Apple pointed a finger at Lhan. “I do know you.” He looked around at his two pals. “Where do I know him from?”
The one on the left frowned. “He do look familiar, don’t he?”
My sword was across the room, wrapped up with our gear to hide what it was. I started edging toward it, trying to look casual, while Lhan backed to the table and picked up his mask and hood, playing all high and mighty.
“Have you forgotten your friend so quickly? Did you not say he was bleeding to death? Come. Let us put aside these guessing games until I have saved his life, shall we?”
Adams-Apple nodded. “Aye, aye. Only, I know I’ve seen your face before. I just…”
At that second, my bindings decided to let go entirely, and flumped down to the floor around my feet. The noise turned Adams-Apple’s head and he really looked at me for the first time—including the boob bulge the bindings shoulda been hiding.
“You—you’re a woman?”
His pal on the left went all bug-eyed and started jumping up and down. “I have it! I have it! It’s the ones from the poster! The ones who kidnapped the Aldhanan’s daughter!”
Adams-Apple stared, gape-mouthed. “So it is! The ones with the ten thousand tolna price on their heads! I knew I knew ’im!”
Lhan jumped back to our gear, pulling on his mask. “Take your pack and sword, beloved. We must flee.”
“Right there with ya.”
I started throwing on all my stuff—pack and sword over one shoulder, satchel with the water tokens over the other, but the sailors didn’t like this idea at all. They drew their swords and blocked the door.
Adams-Apple gave us a nasty smile. “And where do you think you’re going, tolnas?”
I sneered at him—which was pointless behind my ninja mask, but oh well. “I thought you had a dying friend.”
“Aye, and ten thousand will buy him a lot of doctoring. Now come quiet and we won’t hurt you.”
I threw the table at him, then kicked open the window. “Come on, Lhan!”
We jumped out together and landed side by side one floor down outside the front door of the inn, and right in the middle of seven more sailors, who were all standing beside a bench with another sailor on it, this one with a dirty cloth wrapped around the stump of his left wrist. Fuck! It was Adams-Apple’s pals.
Adams-Apple leaned out the window and shouted down to them. “Get them, mess mates! There’s a ten thousand tolna bounty on their heads!”
The sailors all turned and looked at us like we were the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And they weren’t the only ones. Everybody on the goddamn street had heard Adams-Apple yell, and they all started toward us like a horde of greed zombies.
Lhan took my hand. “Make for the ship.”
“But it doesn’t leave for an hour.”
“I can think of no other alternative.”
Neither could I, but I didn’t see how we were gonna do it. The crowd was starting to block the street between us and the docks, and more people were spilling outta every door along it as the word spread. We’d need to be able to fly to get beyond ’em all.
Duh. And I could fly, couldn’t I? Well, sorta.
Lhan was drawing his sword. I stepped ahead of him and elbowed him back.
“Hang on, Lhan. I got a plan.”
“Mistress, you mustn’t—”
I peeled my hood and mask back to show my pink, alien face, then tore my wrapped-up sword outta my pack and jumped at the crowd, whooping and waving it around like a crazy person. They shrank back, gasping, and I grinned. The freak factor never failed—at least not the first time—and I wasn’t gonna give ’em a second.
Before they could pull themselves together, I jumped back to Lhan and pulled him toward the inn, which was a two-story adobe with a flat roof—like every other building in town.
“Just like we did in Doshaan, remember? After the arena?”
Lhan swallowed. “Oh, gods.”
But when I laced my fingers together and made a step with my hands he put his foot on ’em without flinching, and I lofted him like I was at a caber toss.
Seeing me heave a man two stories in the air stopped the crowd again, and I spidered up the front of the building while they just stood there with their faces hanging out. When I reached the top, Lhan was sitting up and holding his ribs where I’d sewn him up, but because of the red robes I couldn’t tell if he was bleeding.
“All right, Lhan?”
“I will survive, but I fear we have only delayed the inevitable.”
I looked over the edge. It didn’t look good. The sailors were kicking their way into the building, while the crowd was starting to swarm around it, practically drooling with greed. Even from this distance I could see it in their eyes. Ten thousand tolnas? They weren’t about to let us slip through their fingers. Imagine if they knew about the water tokens!
I stepped back, then looked toward ships, all floating at the ends of the docks. “Which one was ours again?”
Lhan nodded. “That with the blue canopy.”
“Will they take wanted criminals?”
Lhan gave me a slanted smile. “The fortune you carry in that box would allow every man aboard to become a Dhanan. They would certainly take us—if we were able to reach them.”
“Oh, we’ll reach them.”
I looked along the street. All we had to do was hop from roof to roof down the buildings that flanked the main drag and we were golden. It wasn’t going to be a slam dunk, though. The gap between the inn we were on and the next building was about fifteen feet. Easy on my own. Not so easy weighed down with my sword and the satchel full of glass coins and Lhan, but I’d make it. I’d have to. By now every door along the main drag was spilling greedy yokels. As far as they were concerned it was free money day in Galok.
Under my feet, the inn was shaking with the footsteps of the sailors running up the inside stairs. Time to go.
I turned my back to Lhan. “Climb on. Let’s get moving.”
He stood straight and stuck his chin out. “Mistress, I cannot.”
I scowled at him, confused. “What? Why not? Are you too hurt? Did I screw something up throwing you up here?”
“’Tis not that. But I can no longer—”
The roof door slammed open and the sailors bulled out, followed by a swarm of tag-alongs, all waving spears, swords and clubs. Some of ’em had crossbows.
There was no more time to talk. I grabbed Lhan, slung him over my shoulder, then bolted for the edge and leapt. A spear shot past me and banged into the side of the next building as I landed on the roof.
Lhan grunted at the impact. I kept running, and sprang for the next roof at full gallop. Crossbow bolts whizzed by on all sides. Down on the street, the crowd was running with us, cat-calling and shaking their sticks and swords. I risked a look back and saw the sail
ors all filing back into the stairs.
By the third building I was pulling ahead of the crowd. By the fifth, they were far behind.
I called over my shoulder. “Hang on, Lhan! We’re gonna make it!”
Lhan only croaked. I ran on, aiming for the ship with the blue balloon. There were five docks sticking out from the quayside like fat stone fingers, and our ride was hanging off the ring finger, but like I’d said, they were nowhere near ready to leave. Guys were still humping loads up the gangplank while the rest of the crew was cleaning and making repairs. All we were gonna do was tree ourselves, but what else was there to do?
I reached the last roof and slowed down at the dockside edge. By myself, I coulda jumped, but a two-story drop woulda had Lhan puking blood from slamming into my shoulder. Instead, I looked over the edge. Below me was an outside stair leading up to a door into the second floor. Perfect. I lifted Lhan off my shoulder then lowered him over the side. At full stretch, it was only a two-foot drop to the top stair. He let go and stuck the landing, and I vaulted over to join him.
“Beloved, I must protest—”
The sound of the crowd stampeding down the street was getting louder. I threw him on my shoulder again and ran down the stairs, then raced across the quay for the ring-finger dock, just in time for another dozen sailors to run out from a ship and block our way, some of ’em with crossbows.
I skipped to the high hills as they fired, and the bolts zipped under my heels, then I came down right in front of them and jumped again, higher. Their leader screamed bloody murder as I bounced over their heads and kept sprinting for the ship.
“Turn about! After her! That bounty’s ours!”
But before they could, the crowd flowed around them from the street like a river, and poured after me down the dock. I looked ahead and saw the sailors on our ship staring at all the chaos coming their way with with their jaws unhinged.
I ran straight at ’em, waving and shouting. “Go! Go! All aboard! Cast off!”
They just kept staring.
