Whispers of the Skyborne (Devices of War Book 3)

by S. M. Blooding

  The Hands of Tarot weren’t all bad, she guessed. No. She knew. It was only Nix. Nix who had killed Synn’s father. Nix who had destroyed the Umira tribe, burning them alive. Alive. Nix who had bound Synn to her somehow. Nix who had made Keeley fear for her life all spring.

  Nix, who was still among the living.

  It had been months since Keeley had seen her brother, and her best friend had disappeared before the games.

  Keeley felt like a stranded stranger in this odd world where the rules no longer made sense.

  “Dear sky!” Carson slammed his fist against the table and launched himself to his feet. “Miss Bahrain, grab that flask of the purple liquid. Quickly.”

  Keeley pulled herself out of her reverie and did as Carson directed, running after him.

  He stopped at Oki’s cot and grabbed her wrist to take a pulse. He shook his head and grabbed the bottle from her. “Quickly, now, grab the intravenous tubes. We need to get this directly into her bloodstream, but be careful.”

  She ran to their shared office where all the supplies were and grabbed the tubing system. Frowning at him, she hooked the flask holder onto a rack she pulled over and prepared to inject the tube.

  He grabbed her hand. With a blink, he relaxed his grip and took the tube from her. “She won’t be able to stop bleeding. This must be done very carefully.”

  Keeley stepped back. “What is it?”

  “An anticoagulant that’s a nasty little beast. If we don’t stop it now, it’ll not only make her a bleeder for as long as she remains alive, but it’ll also damage her organs.” He shook his head, kneeling beside the cot, draping Oki’s arm over his knee. “We might already be too late.”

  She didn’t want to see Synn or Ryo if Oki didn’t pull through. Synn terrified her through the fire of his soul and the rage of his Mark. Ryo had survived more than any man should have. She’d helped save him. She’d helped bandage him and clean him.

  It hadn’t been pretty. It had taken all of her resolve. Being a doctor like Carson was much different than being a healer. As a doctor, he could disconnect himself from the people he healed. He had to approach them scientifically.

  She’d had to be there heart, mind, body, and soul. She hadn’t been able to hide behind a mask of professionalism.

  And Ryo scared her. “Do you think she’ll be all right?”

  He concentrated, poking the tube carefully into Oki’s arm. “It’s too early to tell, Miss Bahrain. She could wake up in an hour and seem fine, get a minor cut that won’t stop bleeding and die. Or she could survive for months while her liver gradually shuts down. The poison has been in her system for too long, though.”

  “If we’d acted sooner?”

  “We acted as quickly as we could.” He looked up as Kenta walked into the hospital, a horn mug in his hand. “A cool face until we know anything for sure.”

  Keeley nodded, swallowing. She didn’t know if she could do that, but she would try.

  Carson stood, his thumb pressed down on the insertion point. He grabbed a piece of gauze and handed to it her. “Keep this pressed over her wound and do not let up.” He moved so she could take his place.

  The small opening oozed blood. Keeley did as she was told, perching on the cot and looking up at him. “What do we tell Kenta?”

  Carson pasted on a smile and walked away. “Nothing. You tell him absolutely nothing.”

  Keeley closed her eyes and kept pressure on the wound without pinching the tube. “You’ve got to be all right, Oki,” she whispered. “You have to.”

  THE DOOR TO MY ROOM burst open and Ryo stormed inside.

  I sighed and pulled myself to my feet. “Brother.” I hadn’t really been sleeping. I’d slept off and on for a few hours, but I had a feeling I should be doing something. But what? I wasn’t a real leader. I didn’t know what I was doing, what I was supposed to do. The Ino needed to go through the vetting process, but…I didn’t need to be a part of that. And after that? I couldn’t dump them on Neira. It wasn’t fair to her. I’d taken them. They were my responsibility.

  Yeah. So, what was I doing?

  I had no idea.

  Ryo stopped in the middle of the room and glared at me. Half of his face was covered in burn scars. The other half looked perfectly fine. His hair grew in clumps along his skull, but was pulled back in a short pony tail. “Our sister is in danger and you lie in bed?”

  That didn’t help my frustration at all. “There’s nothing I can do for her except to allow Keeley her space to work.”

  Ryo paced three fury-filled steps away, spun and came back. “We need to do something.”

  I agreed. “Like what?”

  So much anger. As much as I wanted to help him, there was nothing I could do for him, either. He had to work it out on his own. The only thing I could do was guide him on a path of the least damage.

  Yes. Because that was something I was so adept at. I should probably enlist some help.

  He spun on me. “We had Tokarz right where we wanted him. We let him go.”

  “Yes, brother. You’re right. We are men of war. Our sister needed our help, was poisoned and likely dying, but our main focus should have been the destruction of Tokarz.”

  “He killed Zara.”

  “I’m aware of that, Ryo.”

  “And you let him live.”

  I couldn’t talk to him while he had these blinders on.

  He shook his head and turned away. “You’ve changed. You’re soft,” he said with a sneer. “That priestess has made you soft.”

  I ground my teeth. “You leave her out of this.”

  “I don’t trust her. She’s a priestess of the Hands of Tarot. They destroyed how many of the Great Families?”

  “You should check your facts, brother. Nix—Nix—destroyed two. Umira and Bahrain. Haji’s and Keeley’s people. Do you see them throwing tantrums that I didn’t kill Nix?”

  Ryo pulled his teeth back in a feral grin that lacked all mirth.

  “Furst? The Hands were blamed, but who do you think really killed them? You really think Nix did that, too? She wasn’t even queen yet.”

  “All the more reason to not trust—”

  “It was that fucking whore of a woman you call mother,” I shouted. I clamped my mouth shut. I shouldn’t have said it, especially that way.

  Ryo stilled. “How could you say that?”

  I walked slowly to the window and pulled aside the gauzy curtain, buying myself time. Curtains. They certainly hadn’t been my idea, but I didn’t control every aspect of my life. There were certain things I had no wish to. I could see nothing outside the glass. Not that it mattered. I was stalling. Ino Nami had raised him. How would he react to the knowledge that she’d—Well, that he was related to that?

  “Tokarz destroyed our home, murdered our sister. On her wedding day.”

  I nodded. “So, he says. Do you believe him?”

  “He confessed.”

  “Do I kill him, then? When I do, who will take his place? How many will do so?”

  “You are a powerful man.” His tone soured towards the end of that sentence. He shook his hands, loosening his fists. “You will draw many enemies.”

  “I would rather cut the true head from the snake.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it. He stepped closer to me, the blind anger slipping from his expression. “You know something.”

  “I had thought, as you did, that Nix was the mastermind behind the attack. After all, look at the lengths she was willing to go to in order to get me back under her control. She has destroyed cities before.”

  A frown flickered between his brows.

  “Egolda City. A letharan trade city, and after that, there were others. She left a trail, showing us the extraordinary lengths she would go to get me back.”

  He jerked his head back with a shake.

  “And, let’s not forget how she destroyed the Bahrains, the Furst, the Umira. We thought she’d destroyed the Shankara and the LeBla
ncs.”

  “Then it is easy to see she would have no compunction whatsoever to destroy your fleet.”

  “You’re right. And had I followed my intuition, my gut, my hatred, I would have killed her.”

  “And good riddance. The world would be better without her in it!”

  “Except, that in this case, she is the wrong woman.”

  Ryo curled his lip in consternation. “Dyna, then. Tarot’s Queen of Swords.”

  I shook my head.

  “The high priestess.”

  I shook my head again. “This person has nothing to do with the Hands of Tarot, Ryo.”

  His frown deepened. “Then it is the Han and his tribe. He has raised his attention to the air. His greed knows no limits. Simply ask Haji.”

  “Ryo.” I held up a hand to stop him. “It is our mother.”

  “Our—” He interrupted himself, blinked several times, then turned away in a slow, aimless step. “She would not.”

  “She did.”

  “She could not.”

  I didn’t know what he was feeling, what he was going through. “I heard her admission.”

  He pressed the butt of his hand to his forehead. “She told you?”

  “She bragged to someone else. I was merely there to hear the conversation.” I didn’t know how to help him. “I could have killed her, then and there, our mother. After she confessed, I had every right to. But look at this woman. Look at what she’s done. She set Tokarz as bait to get us out in the open.”

  Ryo held out his hand, his face overrun with a wild mix of emotion.

  “And to what end? What does she want?”

  “To see your ships.” His voice sounded dazed and lost.

  “Then why imprison Oki, set her execution, and then poison her?”

  Ryo met my gaze with a startled light.

  “Think about it. Why two baits?”

  “You’d been hiding for so long? She’d become desperate.”

  “For what?”

  “To…” He shook his head. “To get you back?”

  “After what she said to me?” I drew the corners of my lips down and raised my hands. “I don’t think so.”

  “Then…what did she say?”

  I shrugged. “Something about blood.”

  “And how we’re blood bastards.” He rolled his head on his neck and took a step away. “I’d heard her say something similar another time, but—she’s the one who agreed to unite the Ino and El’Asim.”

  “Or so they’ve always told us.”

  “This doesn’t make sense.”

  I let my head fall forward, then brought it up, meeting his gaze. “I don’t have the luxury to be rash, brother.”

  “We need revenge.” His tone said even he realized the weakness of his argument.

  “Ino Nami is a ruthless tactician, better, I think, than even Nix. She has aligned herself with Shankara, the Han, and LeBlanc. Those are the four most powerful tribes our world knows. They far surpass the might of the Hands of Tarot, which I defeated.”

  His gaze met mine. “The League of Cities.”

  “Was built on their retirement. Ino Nami, Balbir. Their refusal, their withdrawal from the treaty could very well break it.”

  Ryo’s face turned ashen as he looked away. “Then we stand, but we’re powerless?”

  “We don’t have the numbers they do, or at the very least, our numbers are nomadic. The Ino is a tribe. They’ve grown together. They work together. They fit. They have their traditions. The Shankara, the same. The Han, the same. The LeBlancs, the same.”

  Ryo’s brows knitted together.

  “But we’re still learning to be in the same room together. We’re collecting more and more people, but we’re all strangers to one another. And they’re my responsibility.”

  He took in a deep breath.

  “I allowed my tribe to be killed once, before my eyes and under my nose. I won’t allow that to happen again. Tokarz was a trap. Ino Nami will use him again and again, but understand, he is nothing more than bait. If we kill him, it will not alter her plans, it will not shake her power.”

  “We would be playing directly into her hand.”

  I nodded. “She could destroy us. Again.”

  Ryo’s dark gaze raked the room, his hands fisting and relaxing.

  “I won’t let that happen again.”

  “Then what do we do, Synn? I can’t run every time she advances.”

  “I don’t know,” I said quietly. “I’m not as smart as Ino Nami. I’m nowhere near as cunning.”

  “Ah.” Dawning lit his face. “The reason you keep Nix around.”

  “One of them.” I lifted one shoulder in a shrug. “Though to be honest, it was Neira’s idea.”

  “Why is it, brother, that all the women in your life are smarter than you are?”

  I shook my head, my eyebrows raised. “I wish I knew.” I rubbed my bottom lip. “Whatever we decide to do, Ryo, we must be together on this. Ino Nami is too strong to pit alone. We need the full backing of the League, but we need to bring the League back together.”

  “Neira is the leader of the League, not you.”

  “And she hides in the wilderness that has kept her people safe for centurns.” I licked my lips. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

  Ryo’s eyebrows jumped, his expression grim.

  “Pray, Ryo.”

  He looked at me, startled.

  “Pray to the great Librarian, pray to a god, pray to whatever might be out there. But pray that Oki wakes from whatever Ino Nami did to her.”

  Ryo raised his chin, a puzzled expression on his face.

  “Because she taught Oki, unlike the rest of us. If we have any hope of defeating her—” I walked toward the door, thumping my brother on the arm on my way by. “—Oki is our best hope of doing so.”

  Lake Chatan: Neira

  “MILA HANSKA.” A BLONDE WOMAN with her bow slung over her back walked up to Neira, a welcoming smile on her face.

  Neira offered a smile in return, but sighed at the name. Long knives. She’d more than earned that name, but it wasn’t the one she enjoyed wearing. “Skah, what brings you?”

  “Always business.” She trailed her fingertips across Neira’s leather covered shoulders, skirting the long pine beside them.

  Leaning into the gesture, Neira looked over her shoulder to meet the other woman’s gaze squarely. “I lack the leisure for play.”

  Skah stepped back, folding the branch of a violet burble bush out of her way. “You should not have taken the mantle of leader of that cursed league. We have more pressing matters here at home.”

  “Agreed.” To be honest, Neira wasn’t entirely sure what she’d been thinking. She should never have entered the games in the first place. But she had wanted her tribe’s name known. She’d wanted to be seen, to be counted.

  She’d wanted to enlist the help of others should the Han get too close. And he had been. Every week, another advancement. Every month, they’d nearly lost. Nearly.

  If her father were still alive to see her, she feared he would be disappointed

  Thinking such thoughts only did well if they invoked action. Currently, action was not needed. “Do you bring me news, cola?”

  “Of course.” Skah walked to a clump of tall, bushy yellow zion flowers and plucked one. She popped the head off and stuck the stem in her mouth to capture the milky juice. “Synn is on his way back. And, apparently, he’s in trouble. Again.”

  Neira grunted as she continued to work on freeing the bulb cluster of the echacea bush.

  “Does that boy do anything besides find trouble?”

  The cluster was bigger than she’d anticipated, so Neira took up her spade again and worked to free more soil away from it. “In his world, he is a great leader.”

  Skah snorted. “Then they are a weak people.”

  Neira couldn’t disagree with that.

  “Akicit!” a child’s voice cried. “Akicit!”

 
Neira scrambled to her feet, freeing her long knives from her sheaths. She scanned the immediate area for Mika.

  He stampeded through the forest loud enough to herald his arrival, but the sounds ricocheted across the small valley. She heard a splash and spun, scaling down the hillside as quietly as possible.

  Mika ran from the creek and scrambled up the hill on the other side on hands and knees. “Akicit!”

  “I’m here, you twit!” she called in a hushed tone. She stepped out from behind a lilan bush, the bright pink, fragrant flowers long gone.

  He ran to her, his pants patched together from several hides, his chest bare, his long hair tied in two unruly brown braids. “Akicit, the Han. He is attacking.”

  Skah skittered to a halt beside him. “Where?”

  “Tunnel Mountain.”

  Neira glanced at Skah for a brief moment, sheathing her blades. “Gather our warriors to Enhnapi. As soon as Synn docks, we leave for Tunnel Mountain.”

  “But this storm,” Mika said, his voice rising in pitch.

  “I know a way. Bring Enhnapi to Lake Chatan. Go, Skah, now.”

  Skah nodded curtly and ran lithely through the forest, disappearing before she’d made a few feet.

  “What about me?” Mika asked, craning his neck to look up at Neira.

  She cuffed his head and brought him in for a one-armed hug, then released him. “You, little brother, go back to camp. They will be preparing to retreat to the caves to wait out this storm. Go with them. Be safe. Do as your grandfather tells you.”

  His shoulders sagged and he rolled his head on his neck. “But I can do so much more!”

  “For now, little brother,” she said, setting her hands on his shoulders and turning him back the way he came, “I need you to prepare for the storm.”

  He rolled his eyes and stomped off several feet, then broke into a run.

  The Han had discovered Tunnel Mountain. How had he managed that?

  Releasing a string of curses, Neira ran toward Lake Chatan. The “how” could be discovered later, but not much later. He was getting dangerously close.