Rindu set about circling the area where Ix was hanging. He didn’t appear to be doing anything other than walking in an ever-smaller circle around her, but Sam knew he was using his rohw sensitivity to see if danger lingered there. About twenty feet from her, near the edge of the trees, he stopped. The monk appeared to be inspecting something on the ground. Sam rushed over to him.
“Fascinating,” Rindu said, peering carefully at a box of some kind resting on the decaying leaves and needles. Upon closer inspection, Sam realized it was actually two boxes, one inside the other.
“What is it?” Nalia had joined them.
“It looks like some kind of bomb,” Emerius said over her shoulder.
“It is a device, true,” Rindu answered, “but it uses the rohw. It reminds me of some of the traps we encountered when searching for the Gray Man.”
“What does it do, Father?”
“I believe it sensed Ix’s use of the rohw, or maybe teleportation specifically. It activated and trapped her, flooding her body’s rohw pathways with energy meant to immobilize her.”
“I’d say it worked,” Emerius said, looking to Ix. “Do you know how to get her out?”
Rindu looked from Ix to the box and back again. With a grunt, he stood and walked over to the assassin. Energy glowed around him as he borrowed rohw from the surroundings. He manipulated it first, swirling it this way and that, and then he finally thrust his hands toward the assassin, projecting his energy precisely at specific points on her body.
She dropped toward the ground as if Rindu had cut invisible strings holding her up, awkwardly twisting backward as she regained some control over her limbs and overcompensated for the fall. Rindu caught her in his arms as easily as if she had dropped from a few inches. She chuckled weakly as he let her down to her feet.
“Thank you. Even with the grass, that probably would have hurt.”
“You are welcome,” Rindu said.
The others rushed toward her, Nalia last.
“Are you okay, Ix?” Sam asked.
“I’m fine. A little thirsty, though. I have been hanging there for almost a day.”
Sam handed her his waterskin. “We’re sorry. We traveled as quickly as we could. You covered a lot of miles. We had hoped that you kept to going due east.”
Ix took three long draws from the water skin, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and smiled. “You did great, Sam. All of you. Thank you. I would have died if you didn’t find me.”
“I do not think that would have occurred,” Rindu said, causing everyone to turn to him.
“Why do you say that, monk?” Emerius asked.
“The smaller part of the box, now worthless, was a trigger for the rohw construct within the main part of the box. It was set here intentionally, and I doubt it was the only one. Someone anticipated Ix or Sam teleporting through this area. I believe the trappers will return to check their traps periodically. They would have found Ix. Perhaps they have other devices to nullify the trap so they may take her away, or simply kill her. Perhaps they are rohw users themselves.
“One thing is sure: we cannot teleport into areas we do not know. We are being hunted, as surely as we are hunting the third artifact.”
Ix had taken another swallow of water. She lowered the waterskin and spoke. “Are you saying I can’t jump so that we can cover more ground anymore? That’s ridiculous. We’ll never make it in time if we do that.”
Rindu only looked at her with that emotionless face of his. “And should you run into another of these traps a day away from where we can find you, and the hunters return to check their traps? They will know this one was activated. They will begin to narrow in on our position. What then?”
The assassin couldn’t answer.
“Ix,” Sam said. “He’s right. We can’t risk it. We can check the areas where we teleport from each day to make sure there are no traps so I can teleport us out, but we can’t blindly jump when there may be more ahead. It’s too risky.”
Ix lowered her head and mumbled something Sam couldn’t hear.
“Let us move farther away from this location and then return to Whitehall,” Rindu said. “We will discuss our options and begin anew tomorrow. By the time we have sufficient distance from here, it will be late in the day.”
The party mounted up, Ix patting her manu the party had brought, and they traveled another ten miles before stopping to let Sam learn the area and then teleport them back home. Before he used his power, they checked the area thoroughly for more of the box traps.
“I still think I can do it,” Ix said the next morning. “What are the chances that they placed another one of those traps in the path we will be taking?”
She had been arguing about it all through breakfast. Sam sighed. “Ix, we understand that you want to do your best, that you want to help, but no. It’s too dangerous for you to skim like you’ve been doing. The chances are very good they have placed another in our path. They know we’re heading to the third artifact, and now they know exactly what route we’re taking. It’s too risky.”
“Sam, please,” the assassin said. “If we don’t teleport, we will never make it to the artifact before them. Doesn’t the fact that the trap was ahead of us mean that we’re already behind? If we can get ahead of them, we won’t have to worry about traps any longer and we’ll get there first. It’s worth the risk.”
“We are not risking you, Ix. It’s not just that your skills are valuable to us. You are one of us, and we don’t want to see you hurt or captured. It’s not going to happen. I want your word on it. Tell me you will not go haring off and teleporting to try to gain us some time.”
The assassin’s face transformed from the stern and defiant look to that of a child that had been caught with a stolen cookie in her hand. Sam knew he had caught her out in what she had planned. She would have argued and then acted disappointed to give in, but in the end, she had planned to jump forward anyway to try to make them some time.
“Ix,” he said firmly.
Ix sighed and her shoulders slumped. “Okay, I give you my word. I will do as you say and travel in the slowest possible manner, along with the rest of you.” Sam chuckled. The assassin looked like she was pouting.
“Thank you. We will do what we must. Hopefully it will be enough.”
“It is said,” Rindu said, “‘Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped.’” Sam stared at Rindu, waiting for him to say something else, but the monk nodded and began shoveling food into his mouth. Sam looked to Nalia, who shrugged, and then to Ix, who rolled her eyes.
After their meal, the party readied themselves for a long day of travel. On the way down to the traveling point, Sam saw Danaba Kemp. The man was rushing through the hall, as he always was when Sam caught sight of him lately.
“Good morning, Danaba,” Sam said.
“Oh, good morning, Sam. Off to find the artifact again?” The man’s piercing brown eyes flashed in the torchlight.
“Yes. How is the army-building going?”
“Slow. I’ll train this bunch of little girls yet—” He winced, looking at Nalia, and shrugged. “Figure of speech. I’ll get them trained, but will it be in time? And will I have enough? Those are the questions.” Nalia sniffed but didn’t say anything.
“I understand,” Sam said. “What about fortifications? Are we relying only on the walls, or do you have other things up your sleeve?”
The man finally smiled. “I have things up both sleeves, Sam. You ought to know that. If it comes to a siege and they attack us, no matter their number, they will find some surprises. I guarantee you that.”
“Well, if anyone can pull it all together, it’s you, Danaba.” Sam slapped him on the shoulder. “Keep up the good work.”
“You too, Sam. You too.”
As soon as Sam got to the traveling point, he sat in his cross-legged position, ready to attain the khulim.
“Sam,” Ix said, “can I teleport us to where we ended yesterday? I’d like to feel useful.
”
It was a bit of vulnerability he’d never seen in the woman. His heart warmed to see the proof that she was becoming more comfortable with them, letting down some of the shields protecting her emotions. He smiled at her. “Sure, but it’ll make you tired with all of us and the mounts, too. Are you sure?”
“Yes. It won’t tire me out much with just one time. Thank you.”
The others gathered around and, after a few minutes of figuring out how everyone and the mounts could be touching Ix so they would teleport with her, within seconds they were where they had ended the night before. With a sad look toward the northeast, the direction they would now be traveling, Ix mounted her manu and got into line behind Sam, Nalia, and Rindu, side by side with Emerius.
It seemed like it had been a long time since they had traveled this way, and Sam felt constantly anxious that the artifact would slip through their fingers. It was not a new sensation, but it was a worrying one. Traveling by mount seemed so slow after getting used to teleporting everywhere.
The day’s travel was uneventful. Ride, take a break to eat and allow the mounts to rest, ride some more, and continue until either the mounts showed fatigue or the light began to dim as the sun sank past the horizon. They continued like this for three days.
On the fourth day of traveling in the more conventional manner, they found another trap.
Rindu stopped the party as they passed through a sparsely forested area. Most of their travels the day before had been through areas with more tree cover and the mounts were taking advantage of the sparser vegetation, speeding through, enjoying the chance to go faster than the plodding pace they had been keeping. A loud “Stop!” from Rindu halted everyone abruptly. Sam’s thoughts had been drifting, so the sudden command made him jerk erect and almost fall from Shonyb.
“Wait here,” the Zouy said to the others.
Sam watched as the monk walked toward a rock protruding from the grasses surrounding it, snow only half covering the pale green. He made out something on top of the stone, but couldn’t tell what it was at that distance.
After several minutes, Rindu begin to glow, drawing in energy from his surroundings. Sam squinted to try to see what was happening. The monk moved his hands in some sort of circular pattern, and a flash obscured Sam’s vision for a moment. When he could see clearly again, Rindu was coming back toward them.
He was carrying an object in his hand. It looked the same as the trap they had seen just a few days before.
“Is that—?” Sam started.
“Yes,” Rindu said. “Another trap. I have drained it of its energy, so it is now harmless.”
Nalia scowled at her father. “That was reckless. What if you had triggered it by using your rohw near it? What then?”
Rindu’s eyes held no anger, no embarrassment. In fact, he looked as if he and his daughter were talking about the weather, not something that could have ended their quest for good. “I was relatively certain it would not be triggered. I was careful. Besides, I do not think it has a range capable of sweeping all of you up in it should I have triggered it from over there.” He jerked his head toward where he had found the item.
Nalia exhaled forcefully but did not say anything further.
“I guess that answers the question of whether or not other traps are out there,” Sam said, eyeing Ix as he did so. “We have to be careful. I’m sure they’ll figure out soon enough that we’re no longer teleporting around, and then they’ll set other kinds of traps. They may have done so already.”
“Sam,” Rindu said, holding up the box. “Do you feel anything from this?”
Sam closed his eyes to concentrate and projected his senses out from him, trying to feel anything out of the ordinary. He felt the others around him, the familiar auras of Rindu and Nalia, the peculiar energy signature of Ix, and the sensation of normal life from Emerius and the mounts.
“I do feel something. There’s something else in there. It’s a strange sort of twisting of the rohw flowing around us.”
“Very good. Take a moment to explore that feeling, to recognize it. It is weak because it is merely residual energy within the box. An active trap will feel much more powerful. You must be mindful of this feeling, and any other sensation that is not normal. We have not been practicing enough with maintaining an awareness of energy around us. We must remedy that. If we encounter more traps, and I believe we will, you must help me detect them. I am only human and may miss a crucial clue. You must also be ever mindful to aid me in this.”
Sam had been examining, in his mind, the box and the energy around and within it. He had it fixed in his consciousness now. “I will try to keep it in my mind, Master Rindu.”
“Good. That is all I ask.”
Chapter 9
Nicole Sharp looked at herself in the mirror on the wall in her room. How had she gotten to this point in her life? Her reflection didn’t seem any different than it had been in Telani. Maybe a bit more vibrant, more alive. And a bit more tired.
She felt different. Since she came to Gythe, she had been exposed to dangers, had adventures, learned about her limits—much greater than she had ever believed—and found things that were so very important to her. She had always had Sam, the most important thing in two worlds, but now she had other things: a cause and a job to do. It really was something.
One last look into her own blue eyes and she left her room. There was a Council meeting, and it wouldn’t do for her to be late.
Outside the meeting chambers, she caught a snippet of conversation. Not in the corridor or the room, but in her mind.
Max, Skitter, Sammy, she sent.
Good morning, Nicole, Max sent back. Have you gone into the room yet?
No. I’m in the hall outside.
We will be there in just a moment, Skitter sent.
No sooner was the sending completed than the familiar red-brown fur of Skitter, Max’s darker brown fur, and the skunk-like pattern on Sammy came into view around the corner of the hall.
The three hapaki seemed excited. It was the first large meeting they would attend together. Nicole felt their anticipation, pleasure, and pride at being the representatives of their hapaki communities.
Sammy and Skitter were official delegates in the group creating the new government—they had started referring to it as the Guiding Council—but Max was allowed to take part as an honorary member because there had to be other hapaki communities that required representatives.
The three hapaki and Nicole went into the chamber and sat at their assigned seats. Carpenters at the fortress had made raised chairs for the hapaki, ones that allowed them to see over the table. They climbed up and waited patiently, chatting mind-to-mind about what the Council would be discussing.
Dr. Walt stepped up to the head of the table, where a small podium rested on a low dais.
“Welcome, everyone, welcome. I’d like to get started if we may. We have many things to discuss and never enough time to do so adequately.”
The other Council members, twelve of them in attendance, took their seats and lowered their conversations to whispers.
Raire Gonsh caught Nicole’s eye and waved enthusiastically. He all but idolized Sam, and it seemed he had transferred some of that to her. She liked him. He seemed informal and almost comically enthusiastic, but she found him to be bright and conscientious in his role as co-leader of Patchel’s Folly. His wife Akila was a good complement to him, the pair being formidable, fair leaders.
Shiran Slayth also waved and smiled at Nicole. The woman was gorgeous, at least by Telani standards. With her thick red hair, green eyes, and a body so fit and perfectly formed it was impossible to believe real, she would have had the world at her feet in Telani. Here, she was considered horribly ugly, though. Not for the first time, Nicole’s mind spun with how different the views of beauty on Gythe were compared to Telani.
Still, the woman was very charismatic. Nicole often watched how she interacted with others, and people reacted well to Miray Slay
th—a miray was kind of like a mayor but with more power—and she often convinced opponents of her viewpoints. Nicole smiled and waved back. They had many fantastic conversations since the Miray Slayth had been staying at the fortress for the activities involved with the new government.
“We have had a series of meetings,” Dr. Walt continued, “about what exact form the charter will take. Georg Santas and Fulusin Telanyahu have kindly been acting as secretaries—no, as framers—of the document that will institute the new united government. I have provided copies of the draft, and the primary goal of today’s meeting is to address any deficiencies, note any additions, and to bring us one step closer to final ratification of the charter of the Republic of Gythe. Let us start, shall we?”
Most of the meeting was going through what had been written already, line-by-line and word-by-word. It was exhausting for Nicole. It wasn’t just reading a long document that sounded like a lawyer had written it, but it was translating the hapaki’s sendings and then expressing them adequately in Kasmali, a language of which she still had a somewhat tenuous grasp.
“A standing army,” Stumin Kile said, “will cost a lot of money to maintain. How will this be paid for?”
Fulusin Telanyahu’s mouth tightened into a thin line. Stumin Kile was the mayor of Somas, a trading town, and he often thought in terms of money: cost and profit. “We have discussed this,” she said. “And I believe it is adequately covered in Article Seventeen. All member communities of the Republic will pay taxes, each according to their population and ability. These taxes will be collected and disbursed to provide the necessary items and services for the members.”
“Yes, yes, but it is unclear how exactly that ‘ability’ will be determined. Will my town be taxed more heavily because we trade in goods and more iron crosses our palms as compared, say, to a town that barters for everything?” Nicole reminded herself that in Gythe, iron was used as currency.
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