Stitching Snow

by R. C. Lewis

  As we sped away, I laughed just a little, causing the men to look at me like I’d come unhinged. It kept me from crying. People thought I was kidnapped eight years ago. Now, for the second time in less than a season, I actually had been.

  I’D HOPED THE CANDARAN GUARDS would get to a ground transport of their own and quickly catch up, or have some solid way of tracking us. As over an hour passed without a hint of rescue, I gave up that idea. The vehicle Tobias had stolen was common enough. It was certainly authentic, judging by the faint smell of fertilizer and grass clippings lingering throughout the interior. The Garamites were good with tech, so they’d probably disabled any identifying tags or locating signals.

  After some initial protests about leaving the other two men behind, which Tobias vehemently shut down, the Garamites kept quiet. With the gag, I couldn’t ask questions or make demands. They kept me on the floor in the back, so I couldn’t see where we were going. The best I could do was twist around to change the position of my legs once in a while and try not to rub my wrists on their too-tight bindings.

  Despite my efforts, my legs cramped and my wrists became sore with threatening blisters. That’s when dark thoughts crept into my mind. What if the Exiles couldn’t find me? What if Tobias had a way to get me off Candara? What if I couldn’t keep them from starting a war with Thanda?

  When I closed my eyes, I saw Dane’s as he tried to reach me, knowing he’d be too late.

  That knot behind my ribs was back, and it had nothing to do with the hits I’d taken.

  He’d find me.

  Meanwhile, there was something very familiar about the homicidal feelings rising in my gut. The same feelings I’d had when Dane first abducted me.

  I was much less conflicted about directing them toward Tobias and his friends.

  Right when I thought my legs would fall off and my wrists would explode, the transport stopped moving. The men got out, opened the hatch in the back, unfastened my foot restraints, and dragged me from the vehicle.

  Tobias had stopped the transport in a cave, but we didn’t stay inside. My legs didn’t want to cooperate, feeling as gelatinous as the harri-harra sludge down in the mines. Two of the other men supported me by the arms, hauling me from the cave to a grove of trees. I took in everything as quickly as I could.

  The city had disappeared. Not a sign of it anywhere. The sun dipped toward the horizon, and I couldn’t see any other source of light.

  I had no idea which direction we’d gone from Gakoa, how close we were to any other cities, whether there might be rural settlements nearby, whether we’d left the populated province altogether. Nothing. For all I knew, we were in one of the quake-heavy regions with a sparkling name like Gaping Chasm of Death. Not an inspiring thought.

  As the men deposited me at the base of a tree and refastened the restraints, I felt something jostle against my leg.

  My wrist transmitter. Dane had given it back days ago with an apology for breaking the fastener. I’d been too busy to fix it and had just carried it in my pocket. The Garamites’ signal scan when they took me hadn’t picked it up, since it wasn’t broadcasting. Or maybe just because Thandan junk-tech was beneath their notice. If I could activate it, someone might be able to trace the signal.

  It wouldn’t happen anytime soon with my hands bound. And if I wasn’t careful, Tobias and the others might hear Dimwit’s response—I couldn’t exactly count on the drone to be discreet. And Cusser…Cusser was beyond hearing me.

  No tears, Essie. Not now.

  Step one was to get the restraints off.

  The men set up a camp with bags they brought from the transport. Blankets and meal-packs and I didn’t know what else. A well-put-together kidnapping if ever I’d seen one, and it only got worse when Tobias sat next to me.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that, Essie,” he said. “We should be friends. I suppose in the spirit of friendliness, we can take this off.” He pulled the gag away from my mouth.

  “What in blazes are you thinking?” I said, annoyed at the slight rasp in my voice. “The Candarans won’t just let you go.”

  “I’m sure you’re right. Here I thought I was just coming to collect an unpaid debt, but then I get here and find our friend Essie-the-Thandan isn’t a Thandan at all. You’re worth a lot more than some shuttle repairs, aren’t you?”

  Tobias was on a roll. First he wanted to use me to start a war with Thanda, and now he knew who I was. Maybe I was going to get traded to Windsong like a case of merinium after all.

  No, because you’re going to get out of this. We’d stopped for the night because the transport wasn’t equipped to navigate without roads, so it was too dangerous to travel in the dark. That gave me some time. Hopefully enough.

  “You must be hungry,” Tobias said. “Here.”

  He held something like the nutri-bars we had on Thanda to my mouth, and I took a bite. A bit stale, but nothing wrong with it, so I took a second bite as well.

  “It’d be easier if I could hold it myself,” I said.

  “Oh, I’m afraid our friendship hasn’t reached that level of trust just yet. We’ll see how it goes.”

  I finished the nutri-bar without comment. Wait for the right moment, Essie. And that’s not when your temper’s charging up.

  Dusk turned to full night with small talk about a game called morpek that meant nothing to me. Candara had no moons, so night in the wild was very dark. The Garamites had some portable electronic lights, but they didn’t cut the blackness by much. I liked the wretched situation even less when I couldn’t keep an eye on my surroundings. One by one, the other men tucked in nearby with their blankets, but Tobias stayed on watch.

  The darkness pressed in on me, not knowing what was out there, what unknown Candaran creatures might come for me in the night. My skin crawled. Now was the time, before my panic made it impossible.

  “Tobias, I can’t feel my hands, and I have to go.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” he said.

  “Have you blazing Garamites innovated yourselves out of the need for biological functions? I mean I need to go.”

  He sighed and may have rolled his eyes. I couldn’t see. After a second, he leaned forward and fiddled with my bindings, setting my feet free. He stood and pulled me up, activating a handheld light.

  “Move, come on.”

  We walked deeper into the trees, to an area with some scrubby bushes, and he removed my wrist restraints before shoving me to my knees. “I’ll be right over by those trees, so don’t think I won’t hear if you try to sneak off.”

  I knelt there while he walked away, counting his footsteps as I rubbed my tender wrists and flexed my hands, trying to get the blood flowing. Thirteen. I could barely see his light if I peered over the shrub between us. Hopefully that was far enough.

  My arms ached from my shoulders to my throbbing fingertips. I reached into my pocket and carefully drew out the wrist transmitter.

  “Dimwit, no verbal response,” I whispered. “Tell Dane to track this signal to find me. Two beeps to confirm.”

  By the time the beeps came through, I’d covered the device with my hands, muffling the sound. Now I needed to keep the signal going as long as I could. It had an open-transmission setting, but that particular model always slipped back to receptive mode eventually. The good transmitter had gone for a swim in the sinkhole with me. I switched it to the open mode and tucked it back into my pocket, hoping it would hold long enough for Dane to locate.

  I rustled around in the undergrowth a bit, stood, and took a few steps toward Tobias. He met me halfway.

  “Feeling better?” he said as he put the restraints back on my hands—in the front this time, and not as tight.

  “Much.”

  We got back to the camp, and I watched where Tobias settled before picking a tree to sit against.

  “If you’re waiting for me to fall asleep so you can take off, you’ll be waiting a long time,” he said.

  “No, I’m not waiting for a
ny such thing.”

  He stayed quiet, and I huddled against the tree trunk. Knowing I’d possibly set things in motion let me shake off worries of the dark and doze a bit. A reserve of energy had to be a good thing.

  Dozing only worked so well. The night grew cold, and the wrist restraints still cut painfully into my skin, like a year’s worth of blisters piled up all at once. Light tremors rumbled through the ground at least twice, waking me and putting my nerves back on edge.

  Tobias did sleep eventually, but only after waking one of the others to take a shift. When I couldn’t even doze anymore, I kept myself busy imagining how I’d beat the smirk off Tobias’s face, every hit and dodge.

  Night didn’t last forever, and compared to Thandan nights, Candara’s were brief. I looked up through the trees as the stars faded, and minutes later the first bird chirps filled the air.

  Then another chirp.

  “Dane Essie find Essie.”

  That blazing heap of—

  I didn’t get to finish the thought. Tobias knocked me over, pawing at me until he found the transmitter. He threw it down, crushed it under his boot, and hauled me roughly to my feet.

  “Get to the transport,” he barked at the others. “Go! We’re getting out of here.”

  We got through one clump of trees before light flooded the area, blinding me. The other men shouted in surprise, but Tobias pulled me close with one arm around my waist. My feet were free—I could kick him or break his toes—but I froze when something cold touched my temple with a high-pitched whine of energy charging. His gun. I blinked through the light, which came from distinct points around us. I could make out just enough to determine they were mounted to guns.

  Way too many guns.

  “Let her go, Tobias!” Dane’s voice, coming from the second light left of center.

  “No, I think I’ll hold on to her for a bit longer. I wasn’t far off the mark on why you brought her from Thanda, was I?”

  The cockiness of Tobias’s words couldn’t hide the panic lacing his voice. His plans had just come unraveled and he was taking it hard. That didn’t bode well for the girl with a gun to her head.

  He’d made a mistake, holding me at the waist. I had some range of movement, but the timing had to be right. I couldn’t see beyond the lights, but I knew Dane would be watching me, leaving the other men to the rest of the guards. I looked directly at the second light left of center and mouthed the word three.

  “I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” Tobias said.

  One.

  “You’re going to back away and let us pass.”

  Two.

  “Or I’m going to put a hole in this pretty royal head of hers.”

  Three.

  I ducked.

  Tobias’s arm tightened on my waist, so I kicked with one foot as I twisted to break his grip. Charges sizzled through the air above me and to either side. My maneuver left me off-balance, and I fell to my knees.

  The lights changed to a more diffuse setting, and I blinked away the afterimages. By the time I could see clearly, Dane was kneeling with me.

  “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

  “My wrists are blazing killing me.”

  He looked down at the rough polymer restraints and pulled a knife from his boot, cutting me free. My wrists throbbed, then tingled as he held them, his thumb brushing across my old scar. I couldn’t drag my eyes away from his hands, trying to figure why they were different from any other hands I’d known.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  I finally raised my eyes to his. “They found out who I am.”

  Dane nodded, relinquishing my hands. “I noticed. We’ll make sure they haven’t told anyone else. Come on, our transports are this way.”

  “Wait, I need to get something.”

  I stood and turned around. Tobias lay crumpled on the ground, groaning as the guards trussed up him and his friends.

  At least the smirk was gone.

  Resisting the urge to kick him in the teeth anyway, I walked back through the trees and found the transmitter where Tobias had left it. His boot had smashed it into the dirt more than crushed it. I could stitch it up. When I turned, Dane was right there.

  “Ready to go?”

  “Definitely.”

  Dane had brought much speedier transports than the utility vehicle. They would get us back to Gakoa before the sun cleared the mountains. I finally got a clearer look at Dane’s condition. Particularly the purpling bruise around his left eye, which made my gut twist.

  “What’s that?”

  “What? Oh, in the park,” he explained, “one of Tobias’s friends got a lucky shot in.”

  “And you didn’t bother treating it because…?”

  “We’ve been busy. They landed in another city a few days ago, and I didn’t find out until an assistant told Lunak about a stolen utility vehicle. I’m sorry, Essie, I should’ve told Kip what happened on Garam.”

  I gestured to one of the guards to hand me a medical kit. The supplies were unfamiliar to me, but Dane pointed out the transdermal rejuvenator. I activated the device and worked it over the bruise, watching it slowly fade, trying to tell myself it was no different from treating the gash on his head when the shuttle crashed.

  But it was completely different.

  Avoiding his eyes was impossible, especially when they stayed locked on me. They set something jittering under my skin. I felt other eyes, too. Some of the guards, but they turned away when Dane glared. I needed a distraction, and the medical kit in my lap reminded me of a question plaguing my mind.

  “Laisa…Is she all right?”

  “I don’t know. I had her taken to a hospital and made sure the best doctors would see to her. But then we left, and I’ve been looking for you since.”

  He didn’t say so, but if they had to send Laisa to the hospital, she hadn’t just been knocked out. I pushed the possibilities out of my head, but that left a question I likewise didn’t want to ask.

  “And Cusser?”

  He shifted, taking the kit from me. “You saw him. I think he can be repaired—I’m sure he can—but it’ll take some time.”

  Silence fell as he healed my wrists, and I made no attempt to break it. I had no words left.

  We arrived at the governing complex. Dane insisted I get some rest while he filled in the council and got a report from the hospital. Regardless of his insistence, I had better things to do than sleep or deal with the bickering old leaders.

  I went to the spare lab where Cusser had been stowed.

  My drone with the dirty vocabulary, downgraded to a pile of scrap metal. The blast had decimated several core components. There wasn’t enough left to even run diagnostics. And it would need major body reconstruction. Maybe Cusser could be repaired, but I couldn’t do it alone—I needed the rest of the drones. Clank could do the welding, and Clunk could fabricate components with absolute precision. Replacement parts, recoding…Whirligig had backups of all the drones’ programs. Ticktock knew better than I did how all the processors, power supplies, and relays fit together. Zippy would salvage every possible bit from the damaged originals.…

  But they were behind me, planets away. The wrong direction. Even if it worked, there was no guarantee Cusser would be the same again.

  I should’ve made it stay at the complex. I should’ve designed the defense program better, knowing the kinds of weapons people like Tobias used. I should’ve paid more attention.

  I shouldn’t have gone to see Laisa at all.

  The door opened behind me less than an hour later.

  “Laisa?” I knew the answer just by looking at Dane’s face, but I had to hear it anyway.

  “She died. At such close range, the damage…”

  Everything spun, but I kept my feet. I remembered being in her head, being her. “She had family. A husband, children.”

  “Yes.”

  Dead. My mother’s friend, a mother herself, was dead because she ta
lked to me. Because she dared to get in the way. Because death had failed to claim me eight years ago and now mocked my survival.

  Dead because I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

  Do what needs doing.

  I traced my fingers along the edge of the blast hole in Cusser. There would be no repairing it. It wasn’t what needed doing.

  “Get everything ready,” I told Dane. “We’re leaving for Windsong.”

  LESS THAN A DAY LATER, the shuttle launched. And not Dane’s shuttle. We took Tobias’s—now that he was in lockup, he wouldn’t need it. The shuttle had a similar design but was larger, with four side compartments—two to each side—and a heftier engine. Besides, Tobias had already done the hard work of giving it a generic, untraceable registry.

  We even had permission to do it. Since Garam had no centralized government, the council talked to Brand as a senior member of Tobias’s colony. The Garamites weren’t thrilled with the way Dane and I had left, but Brand said Tobias had acted without forethought. Killing a bystander disgusted him, so we should take whatever advantage we could from the tragedy. What Brand called “lack of forethought” I called being outright unhinged, but the result was the same. On the positive side, some subtle questions confirmed that no one in Brand’s colony thought I was anything other than Thandan.

  Kip didn’t want us to leave so soon, or at least not without him. He knew coming along was impossible, though. Olivia knew his face. Besides, he’d be needed with the fleet waiting for us.

  So it was just Dane and me, pointing a shuttle back toward Garam. We’d give the planet a wide berth, but going that way meant that from Windsong’s perspective, we could be coming from either Garam or Thanda. Not from Candara.

  Just the pair of us—I should’ve been used to it, but I wasn’t. Not anymore. The journey to Windsong would take twenty-seven days. Alone with a boy who’d kissed me, plus Dimwit…but as usual, I didn’t count the drone. Its presence only reminded me that I’d wanted Cusser to come along, and why it couldn’t.

  “All right, come on,” Dane said after locking in the course. He stood from his chair and looked at me expectantly.