His heart lurched in his chest. He was closer to his goal than ever. If they weren't discovered.
His gaze went to the fallen vehicle beside him.
He and Aidan had tried to lift it, but neither had enough control over the vehicles to do it, and they'd eventually decided it was better to leave it than risk one of theirs falling, too.
There was another clatter as the sky raiders walking up the ramp dropped their cargo and stared at the fallen machine in surprise.
Someone, a supervisor, walked up behind them, shouting and gesticulating, and they picked up their burdens again and disappeared beyond Garek's view, deeper into the back of the cargo hold, their smoking boxes leaving a trail of white cloud behind them.
The supervisor stared at the fallen machine and then waved someone over. Garek slipped into the chair of his vehicle. He didn't know what he'd do if they decided to check his and Aidan's, but he couldn't fail now. He wouldn't.
The sky raider who'd been summoned opened the bubble, got inside, then skillfully maneuvered the vehicle back in place.
Garek was very glad he'd remembered to put the air back to sky raider air. A machine could fall by accident, but he didn't think the same would be believed of the settings on the air filter.
When the sky raider swung back down, she looked over at Garek's machine, staring right at him, although he knew she couldn't see inside.
She stood for a long moment, and Garek lifted his hand toward the controls, his gaze never leaving her face.
She turned suddenly, and Garek saw the supervisor was calling again. With a last, suspicious, look over her shoulder, she strode away down the ramp, weaving through the steady stream of loading crew with their smoky boxes. It was frost, Garek realized, at last noticing the glitter of tiny ice crystals on the rims. Cold storage, so possibly they contained perishable food.
He'd heard the produce trains into the cities were being attacked. Now he knew where it was going.
And Gara and Juli could suck up the loss, as far as he was concerned, if Taya didn't go hungry because of it.
The last of the crew left the cargo hold and disappeared off beyond the ramp.
As soon as they were gone, the ramp rose, smooth and quick, shutting them in total darkness. The floor began to vibrate, Garek could feel it coming up through his seat.
The people-stealer was fully loaded and on its way.
He should have felt fear, trepidation, and those feelings did register, but very low down the ladder.
Mostly, he just felt elated.
Taya was out there somewhere, and he was coming for her.
For a long time, it seemed to Taya, the lights of the mine never got any closer.
She and Min walked through the afternoon, into the dusk, and when the big lights at the mine entrance were switched on, at first they were a welcome beacon, an easy way to find the right path.
That slowly turned into an interminable slog where it seemed they were walking in place rather than moving forward.
“Do you hear that?” Min's voice rose a little, with more energy than Taya had heard for a while.
“No.” She forced herself out of her head, and paid attention again, and at last, she heard it, too. The rumble of a transporter coming to fetch the day shift.
“We're close,” Min said, and Taya decided maybe they were.
The lights did seem closer, now. And she could hear the transporter getting louder.
Without saying any more, they both sped up, half-jogging across the hard-packed earth.
Taya remembered the shadow rocks just as the scream of the engine announced the transporter had landed.
“Min. The rocks.” She'd carried them for so long, she'd forgotten about them. At the start of the day she'd played with them, calling her Change to lift them one at a time, then all at once, both her and Min's loads. But thirst, hunger, and exhaustion had put a stop to that, and she'd simply gotten used to the weight of them.
Now she crouched down and released her tunic, tumbling the shadow ore onto the ground. She flexed her hands, wincing as they cramped up. She rubbed at her shoulders as Min turned back and dumped her rocks on top of Taya's.
“We're just going to leave them here?” Min looked around and Taya did the same. There were no landmarks they could use to find them again.
“We'll have to.” Taya rose up and lifted her arm out straight toward the camp, found she was pointing directly between the two light arrays. She noticed her skin was still glowing from the moss, something she'd forgotten about in the bright light of the day. “I'll count how many steps we take from here to the camp.” She shrugged. “It's the best we can do.”
“Okay, but we have to hurry.” Min started her loping stride again, and Taya ran after her, counting her steps in her head with an internal voice that got louder and louder the closer they got to the camp.
She was up to eighty-six and mentally shouting when they reached the edge of the cleared area and stumbled into the light.
The transporter's ramp was lifting, and she waved her arms to attract the attention of the guard standing beside it.
He turned and went still, then strode toward them, and she and Min slowed their pace.
Taya had to close her eyes and lift her arm to shield herself from the dust as the transporter settled down again.
When she dropped her arm, the guard was right in front of her.
The night shift stood to the side, and Taya caught a glimpse of the surprise and shock on their faces.
“You all right, Taya?”
She focused on the crowd at the call, and saw it was Eli, one of the farmers from Pan Nuk. One of many friends who'd been dragged to Shadow with her. “I'm fine, thank you.”
“You need help?”
A slam drowned out whatever he had to say next, as the ramp hit the ground, and then someone began shouting. Not words, but a long, drawn out battle cry.
Taya looked past the guard, saw Kas running toward her, his face battered and bruised, the hands he stretched out to her raw and bloody.
She moved around the guard toward him, but before she'd taken a few steps he reached her, drawing her up in a hug that somehow also included Min, so they were both enveloped in such a tight embrace, Taya found it hard to breathe.
“You're alive,” he was saying, over and over. “You're alive.”
“We're alive,” she whispered into Kas's ear. “We're fine.”
At last he loosened his hold, although his arms were firmly around her and Min's shoulders.
“Where were you?” The hiss of the guard's speech still frightened her, even though she knew what it was now, and she took comfort in Kas's tight hold.
“We were out there.” She gestured back into what was now a solid wall of night.
“How did you get there?”
“Ask Ketl and his friends.” Min spoke for the first time, and her words put a hush on the murmurs of the night crew.
“I knew it.” Kas lifted his face to the guard, his eyes accusing. “I told you.”
“What did Ketl do?” The guard's hiss was the only sound now that the transporter had landed and was silent. No one spoke.
“He threw us down a shaft and then collapsed the supports. We found a way out through a narrow crack at the back and walked for a long time through a dark tunnel.”
“A narrow crack in the rock behind the mine?”
She nodded. “Well, there was no light, but it felt like a crack. There was just room enough for us to make our way through.”
“And why do you glow?”
Taya looked down, saw the guard was blocking the light and she and Min stood in his shadow, and they were still shining a little.
“We slept on some moss last night that had a luminescence. It rubbed off on us.” Taya shrugged. “It'll come off when we wash.”
“Where were you all of today?”
Taya dropped her head onto Kas's shoulder. “We were walking back here. We didn't know the way, so we've been wandering
around, lost.”
“How did you find us?” There was suspicion in the guard's voice, and Taya decided not to mention the hill with its strange beacon.
“We saw the dust rising up, and then we saw the lights.”
A beam shot out from the guard's mechanical arm, enveloping all three of them, and Taya had to close her eyes against the brightness of it.
The guard did not explain what he was doing and she felt a sense of violation, forced to submit to something against her will.
Kas's hold tightened. She knew he understood, felt the same, and the anger inside her that had been eroded away by hunger and exhaustion came roaring back. They would get out of here.
“Drink, then get in the transporter. You are malnourished and dehydrated.” The guard turned and walked to the food table, scooping up two cups filled with water. Then he waited for them beside the ramp, cups outstretched.
Everything about the way he spoke and moved was imperious, assuming complete obedience. But aside from that water, all Taya wanted was the tiny shack she shared with Kas and the sweet, soft relief of her bed. She didn't mind dancing to the sky raiders' tune tonight.
As they walked, she let herself lean on Kas, lifting a hand to touch his swollen cheek.
“Ketl?” she asked.
Min made a sound, and Taya looked over at her, saw that she was staring at Kas's injuries, too.
He shook his head. “I'll tell you later.”
They reached the ramp, took the water, and Taya saw everyone from Pan Nuk on the day shift had lined up at the top.
She felt the warmth of their concern, the strength of their support.
The Kardanx, though . . . they studied her and Min with worried eyes, keeping well back.
Everyone was injured, Taya suddenly noticed.
Everyone had bruises. Illy and Kardanx both.
“What happened?” she whispered.
Kas rubbed her upper arm. “Open revolt.”
Chapter 23
The trip from mine to camp in the transporter took less than fifteen minutes.
Taya passed the time leaning against Kas, into his warmth and strength, and sipped her water. She said nothing, carefully taking in everyone's appearance.
They watched her just as carefully back.
The rule they'd established when they first got to Shadow was that there was no talking on the transporter. Even though there were almost never guards with them, and even when there was, they had to stay inside their machines to breathe.
Some things had been said in defiance, right at the start, that had led to unpleasant consequences. Kas thought it likely the sky raiders had some way of listening to them in here. Watching them, too, perhaps, although how they would do that, no one could guess.
But they could fly machines, not just in the skies of Barit, but between Barit and Shadow, between Barit and whichever place they came from, so listening and watching without being there hardly seemed a stretch.
The scream of the engines and the shudder of the ramp lowering should have had her leaping to her feet but Taya found it difficult to stand, every muscle stiff and sore.
Noor had sat on her other side for the journey, and now she slipped an arm around Taya and helped her up, while Kas helped Min. They hobbled down the ramp like two old ladies.
The Star had disappeared over the horizon, but there were the lights of the landing area, and the lights and fires of the camp. Barit shone too, as well as Lanora, Barit's moon. More than enough light to see that the jousting tent was half-collapsed and that some of the shacks were damaged.
“Most of it's been put back together again,” Noor murmured, following her gaze. “I guess the night shift put in some work before they slept. They wouldn't have had a place to rest otherwise.”
“It was worse than this?” Taya looked around, saw debris on the ground, doors propped up against walls.
“Much worse.” Kas's voice was deep, rough; as if he'd been shouting a lot.
“Come, you look like you need to eat,” Noor said, “and I know someone who will be very happy you're safe.” She lifted Taya's hand, and rubbed a finger over her skin and then studied the transferred light on her own fingertip. “You look like a fairy.” She flashed a quick grin. “I always thought you did, anyway, but now you've got the glow to go with it.”
Taya scoffed out a laugh. “That's not true--”
“Taya!”
Pilar was pushing Quardi toward them, but he struggled in his wheelchair as if to get out and walk, and somehow Taya found the energy to run to him, crouching down and throwing her arms around his shoulders.
“We're both safe and well.” She struggled to hold back her tears as she felt hot tears on Quardi's cheeks. “You can't get rid of me that easily.”
He didn't chuckle at her joke. He hugged her as fiercely as Kas had done.
“Taya and Min need to eat, Quardi, and drink more water. They've had nothing since they disappeared.” Kas put a hand on her shoulder, although Taya noticed he still had his other arm around Min.
“We had more water than we wanted sometime in the middle of it,” Min said quietly, “but not since we started walking back this morning.”
Quardi gave Taya a last squeeze and let her up. “You've had some adventures, then?” Like Noor he touched her hand and then stared at the transfer of luminescence to his own fingertips.
“So have you, by the looks of things,” Taya said. “We hoped the only trouble would be to Ketl. But it looks like everyone suffered.”
“Oh, some of it fell on Ketl's side.” Kas said, and there was grim satisfaction in his voice. “Ketl's been tied up.”
Everyone insisted she and Min tell their story first, so they took turns describing the cave, the underground river, and the thick seam of shadow ore.
Almost everyone from Pan Nuk who worked the day shift sat around them by the fire as they ate bread and plump roasted bobber.
“You think the pole and dish on the hill is a beacon?” Pilar asked.
“It seemed to be facing upward, and moving slowly, as if keeping track of something in the sky. The only thing I can think it could be for is keeping in touch with the big ship where the sky raiders go at night.” Taya shrugged. “It's just a guess, but it reminded me of the West Lathor towers in the mountains and through the foothills, to communicate with Juli and Gara.”
“And you left a pile of shadow ore near the mine site?” Quardi still kept reaching out to touch her, but he was calmer now.
“As much as we could easily carry. But it'll be hard to get, because they know where everyone is supposed to be when we're at the mine.”
“We'll think of something. It's more than we had before.” Kas offered her a plate of sliced apples, and she took a few to nibble on, even though she was full.
“What about you, now?” Min asked softly. “What happened here?”
“When Kas realized you were gone, which was when we were gathered after the shift, waiting for the transporter, he went straight to the guard.” Noor was sitting between Pilar's legs, and she leaned back against him. “They hadn't realized anyone was missing, and I think that was because they weren't paying attention. They couldn't find you, and Kas started pointing at Ketl, blaming him.”
“I saw the side tunnel had collapsed,” Kas said, and Taya could hear the residual fear in his voice, “and I suddenly wondered if that's where you were. I tried to go back into the mine to look, but they wouldn't let me. They couldn't go with me, and they didn't want me going off on my own, looking for you.”
“What happened?”
“They forced us onto the transporter, holding their weapons on us. And all that time, Ketl was smirking.” Noor's voice shook a little, as if still angry at the thought.
“As soon as the door closed, and we took off, I asked the Kardanx if they were going to stand by him and protect him, or not.” Kas sounded calm enough now, but Taya guessed it hadn't been like that at all.
“They didn't want to,” Harvi mur
mured. He was one of the many levik farmers from Pan Nuk. “I could see they were tired of him and the trouble he keeps causing. But they also felt they had to support their fellow Kardanx.”
“So what happened?” Min asked.
“We fought.” Both Harvi's adult sons spoke together. One had a swollen lip, the other a swollen cheek. They grinned at each other.
“They fought,” Noor confirmed, raised an arm and rubbed it with a wince. “We fought. Although at first, I tried to keep out of the way, but when we saw our chance, a few of the women and I banded together and dragged one of the men off Kas. They were just piled on top of him.” She said it with contempt.
“When we landed, the guards were waiting, expecting trouble, so I think I'm right about them being able to see what's happening inside the transporter.” Kas put a piece of apple absentmindedly in his mouth. “But we didn't even acknowledge them, let alone listen to them. The fight just rolled down the ramp. It was mayhem.”
He looked grim, but there was something in his expression that Taya caught.
“You enjoyed it, didn't you?” she accused.
“Can't blame a man for having a bit of fun while swinging his fists,” Quardi said, with a low chuckle. “We've had to play nice under very hard circumstances for a long time. This was the pressure valve release.”
Taya realized Quardi had some bumps and bruises, too. She shook her head.
“Then what happened?”
“They didn't let it go on too long. That's why most of the camp's still standing.” Noor shuffled until she was more comfortable against Pilar. “They shot Ketl.”
“What?” Min leaned forward, mouth open in shock.
“They knew we were right. He's the only one who had anything against the two of you. When he went down, the fight went out of all of us.”
“He's not dead, though? You said he was locked up?”
“No, they didn't kill him. They need him to work, don't they?” Harvi's laugh was bitter.
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