The Girl of Ink & Stars

by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

  I reached up. The locket was sitting over the tunic in plain sight. I scrabbled about for an answer, heartbeat loud in my ears.

  ‘Don’t bother lying,’ said the Governor. His eyes were dull and dark as coals.

  ‘She gave it to my sister,’ I said finally.

  The Governor nodded for me to continue. It took a few seconds to find where to start, and eventually I settled on Lupe sending Cata to look for dragon fruit, and ending with the letter. I missed out disguising myself as Gabo.

  The Governor listened silently. Finally, he spoke. ‘Do you believe in fate?’

  ‘Yes. No. Maybe,’ I said.

  ‘Give me an answer, boy.’

  ‘My da says it’s a word used by people who don’t want to take responsibility for their own lives.’

  Governor Adori chuckled, a low rumble that held about as much warmth as Marquez’s eyes. ‘Does your da talk to you about his childhood? About growing up, and why he became a cartographer?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I don’t understand why men tell their children such things,’ he sneered. ‘It’s weak. It’s deathbed talk.’

  I didn’t know what to say to this. I couldn’t tell him I thought Da was the strongest person I knew.

  ‘Do you want it back?’ I said. ‘The locket?’

  He blinked at the fire. ‘It was Lupe’s. It was hers to give, and I doubt she has a use for it now.’

  There it was. He thought she was gone. You’re wrong.

  I wanted to shout, to scream at him for giving up on her, but I only bit my lip and hated myself for it.

  ‘Still, I’ll have revenge.’ His eyes glinted. ‘It’s what governors do.’ He laughed so suddenly I jumped, knocking his arm. He looked down at the dark material of his cloak, at the darker stain spreading from the spilt hip flask. I held my breath.

  ‘Governor?’ Marquez emerged from the house. The Governor turned to look at him and waved him forward.

  ‘Take this,’ Governor Adori said, throwing his cloak at me. ‘That stain needs to be out by tomorrow.’

  I took it and stumbled away. As I passed Marquez he gripped my arm.

  ‘I’m watching you, boy.’

  I reached the house and stood pressed against the inside wall. I felt as though I’d escaped a forest fire with only singes. Pablo gave me a worried look but I closed my eyes so tightly they buzzed.

  Do you believe in fate?

  He’d killed his father. If I had not been sure of his cruelty before, I could be sure of it now. I could not let down my guard around him. And Lupe – he thought she was dead. I let that settle heavily on me. I had to believe twice as hard that she wasn’t.

  ‘Why do you have his cloak?’ My eyes snapped open. Pablo was standing very close. I peered past him into a large one-roomed building with high windows. The others were playing cards around the glowing shard of Da’s walking stick. No one had looked up.

  ‘Isa, are you all right?’

  ‘Don’t call me that,’ I snapped, pushing past him. ‘I have to work.’

  He frowned but I ignored him. The conversation with the Governor had knotted my insides. I flung the cloak to one side. I would not do anything for that man. Lupe deserved so much better than a murderer for a father.

  I wanted home, and maps were as close as I could get to it now Miss La was gone. I spread the materials out in a corner, turning my back on Pablo. The star charts had dried, but were torn and smudged. They were useless. Sorry, Da. I looked out at the slice of sky through the window high above me. The North Star glinted back. If I could anchor its position …

  I began to draw, imagining our journey backwards from where I sat. I traced the route along the beach, the ground sloping down. I drew the spidery estuary of the river, then the long, slow curve of the beach to Gris, with its X of blood and teeth, marking the treeline and our route all the way to Arintan. Finally my lines met those I had drawn on our first day in the Forgotten Territories, when this all felt exciting as well as scary. When I felt as adventurous as Arinta, sitting beside her waterfall, heart still full of hope that we would find Lupe, and seeing Ma’s map reveal its secret paths to me.

  I pulled out the ancient map and ran a finger over its surface.

  ‘Please,’ I whispered. ‘Change.’

  But the map only rustled mockingly, ordinary as ever. I rolled it back up and put my mess of a new map away too. It was not like Da’s. I was stupid for thinking it would be. I looked at it and saw scale, landscape, landmarks, but no sense of the island I had longed to see. It sat dead on the ground, simply ink on paper. Da’s maps always felt alive. Like they were made of more. Ink, paper, and something else, something living.

  But there was no point trying to make it better now. Not with my head so heavy, my eyes so tired. I rested my head on the satchel and pulled the cloak up around my chin to stop the draught. As the men played cards and swapped jokes, I dreamt of long-ago murdered fathers and living maps that shifted like sand beneath my fingers.

  ‘Isabella.’ Pablo’s voice, close to my ear. ‘Can you hear that?’

  I sat up, listening. I could. A low whistle, just audible above the wind. I peered into the shadows.

  ‘Where’s the Governor?’ said Jorge blearily.

  ‘Let’s go find him,’ hissed one of the others.

  ‘Not you two, you’ll get in the way,’ said Marquez as Pablo and I stood.

  ‘I can help,’ said Pablo, drawing out his small knife.

  Marquez snorted. ‘Not with that you can’t. Take this.’ He drew a second sword from his belt.

  Pablo took it, and shook his head at me. ‘Stay here. I’ll come back as soon as I know what’s happening.’

  I nodded as the men drew their swords and left silently, lifting their feet. The door closed. I was suddenly alone.

  The wood-light was still on the table, and I tucked it into my belt as I strained my ears, listening for another whistle, but none came. I did not know whether to relax or worry. A few minutes dragged by, and still all I could hear was the wind.

  Then came the unmistakable sound of a man shouting out in pain: one guttural note that died almost instantly. My skin prickled.

  I drew Da’s blade. I did not want to sit and wait to find out what was happening. I put on the Governor’s dark cloak to conceal the wood-light’s glow, and pushed the door ajar.

  It creaked loudly. The curved expanse was empty, the black sea swirling beyond. The fire where Adori and I had sat was out.

  A sudden scuffling came from behind the house. Trying to breathe as quietly as possible, I crept towards it, rounding a corner. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle a cry.

  Marquez was lying there, eyes glassy and sightless. His hands were tied in front of him, but his chest was still rising and falling. He was alive – but where was his attacker?

  I had to find Pablo. I shrank back into the shadows, running on as silently as I could. My foot caught on something and I almost fell.

  Panic chased up my insides. It was another one of the Governor’s men, unconscious and tied.

  A rustling noise came from behind me and I ducked, thoughts racing. I had the blade and the wood-light, my satchel. I could get on a horse and go, follow the coast until I hit the ridge and had to take to the forest. I could make it home.

  No, said another, more insistent voice. I should try to find Pablo. I could not leave like this. Arinta would not. I straightened and turned back to the square.

  A smell like burning ships filled my head, then my hands were being wrenched behind me.

  I kicked out and opened my mouth to scream but a bitter substance was forced in, dissolving on my tongue. My gums went numb, blood running cold.

  The world slipped away as thick smog clouded my limbs. Dust filled my mouth as I fell forward into blackness.

  CHAPTER

  FOURTEEN

  Everything hurt. Everything felt weighted, pinned down. The wood-light was digging into the base of my spine, satchel squashed beneath me
. I pulled it out and cracked my lids open.

  I gripped the wood-light until I felt solid again, tried to sit up, head throbbing viciously.

  A dark, worried face swam into sight. I squinted until it came into focus, then clamped my eyes shut. Shock ratcheted through me in cold waves. I was dead, I must be.

  But I didn’t feel dead. I could feel the ground, feel the pulse in my neck.

  I peered up again. The thick halo of black curls was clumped and matted, the face dirtier than Señora Adori would ever allow, but there she was.

  ‘Lupe?’

  ‘I knew it was you! Even with your hair all gone.’

  I threw my aching arms around her, pressing my face into her musty curls. Lupe squeezed back, so hard I felt my shoulders pop. She was shaking, and I could feel the nubs of her spine against my forearms.

  ‘Are you all right?’ I whispered.

  She sat back on her heels and rubbed her face.

  ‘Better now you’re here. Why are you wearing Papa’s cloak?’

  ‘It’s a long story.’

  Lupe let out a hiccuping laugh and drew her legs up to her chin. ‘I bet.’

  Her skirts rustled – she was still dressed in pink taffeta, though now it was muddy and torn around the hem. Trust Lupe not to have changed out of her birthday dress before leaving for the Forgotten Territories.

  ‘We thought you were dead.’ I could not keep the wonder out of my voice.

  ‘I thought I might be too.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘It’s a long story.’ She had dark hollows under her eyes. ‘Doce found me.’

  ‘Doce?’

  ‘She’s a governor’s daughter too, sort of. Her mother, Ana, is leader of the Banished—’

  ‘The Banished?’ My skin crawled.

  ‘They found me, in one of the villages. Grit, or something.’

  ‘Gris.’ This did not make sense, that she was here and alive and dressed in her best clothes, talking about the Banished.

  ‘Lupe, we need to get away from here. The Banished killed Cata.’

  ‘No,’ said Lupe. ‘It was something else that killed her.’

  My heart hammered in my ears. ‘What?’

  ‘Can we wait until Doce gets here? She explains much better than me. Anyway, I was in Grit—’

  ‘Gris.’

  ‘—because my horse bolted and I couldn’t stop it, and it was running towards the sea but Doce stopped it. I fell off and landed right on some bones. Did you see them?’

  ‘Yes, I saw. What happened there?’

  Lupe’s eyes went wide as plates. ‘The air killed them. That’s what Doce said. Something floated from the ground and made it hard to breathe. Like poison.’

  ‘Poisoned air?’ I couldn’t stop staring at her. ‘But I found your bracelet…’

  ‘Where?’

  I took it out of my pocket. ‘I pulled it off someone. Someone who attacked me.’

  Realization dawned on Lupe’s muddy face as she took it. ‘Oh, it was you! They were just trying to get the chickens. The animals are all gone you see.’ Lupe shuddered. ‘It sounds awful. They all ran into the sea.’

  The chickens. That’s why the attackers had left as soon as they had seized the horses with the chicken cages.

  ‘Doce made stew. Except for this one chicken, it was all mangy and grumpy so they let me keep it. Like a pet, you know.’

  She pointed to a pen in the shadows and I scuttled over. It couldn’t be – and yet it was: Miss La, pecking irritably at some seeds. I made to pick her up but she squawked and snapped her beak. She was obviously not as happy to see me as I was her.

  ‘Do you know each other?’ Lupe frowned.

  I nodded but did not explain. It felt too long a story. I looked about, noticing for the first time the stakes beaten into the ground in a circle around us, stretching high into the branches above. A cage, surrounded by black forest. The ground was soft, not packed hard and dusty like in Gromera, and the air smelt of stale water, though I could not see any.

  I checked the satchel, pulling out Ma’s map. This must be the Marisma, the swamp at the centre of the island. I traced the route to Gromera. If we could escape the cage, we could get home. I placed it carefully back in the bag, along with the wood-light.

  ‘You don’t mind about the bracelet, do you? I gave it to Doce to say thank you for saving me from the Tibicenas.’

  I frowned. ‘Tibi-what?’

  Lupe shivered. ‘I… I’d rather not talk about them right now.’

  I could not decide if I was dead after all, or dreaming. Nothing Lupe was saying made sense. Lupe being here, saying anything at all, did not make sense. She was frowning at me.

  ‘Isabella, are we still friends?’

  I took her hand. ‘Of course we are.’

  ‘You don’t think I’m rotten?’ She looked on the verge of tears.

  My stomach twisted with guilt. ‘No. I’m sorry I said those things.’

  She nodded. ‘That’s all right.’

  I picked up the bracelet, and tied it back around her wrist. ‘Have you seen your father yet?’

  ‘My father?’ Lupe frowned. ‘Why is he here?’

  ‘We came to rescue you. You didn’t think I got here on my own, did you?’

  ‘He came to rescue me?’ Lupe tilted her head, bird-like with her nest of knotted curls. ‘My father?’

  ‘Yes. And me and Pablo and some of his men.’

  Lupe’s lip wobbled. ‘He brought all those people in order to find me?’

  ‘Yes,’ I said, impatience growing. ‘We need to get out of here. We need to find them.’

  Lupe’s eyes caught on something behind me.

  I turned slowly. For a moment there was nothing. Then a girl stepped forward into the clearing through an entrance concealed in the circle of stakes, emerging as if the air itself had parted and formed her.

  The Banished girl came closer. Her movements were fluid, her body and dark clothes smeared with mud except for a relatively clean stretch of cloth bound around her arm.

  My mouth went dry as I remembered bringing my blade up in Gris, the feeling of resistance… had I done that?

  I could not bring myself to meet her eye, flinching as she held something towards me.

  ‘You need to drink,’ said the girl, thrusting out a clay pot. ‘It’s boiled. It’s safe.’

  My mouth was parched. The pot was heavier than she had made it seem. I gulped the water down, barely pausing for breath. It tasted strange, like earth.

  ‘She says my father was with her, Doce. Is he here?’ asked Lupe.

  Doce nodded. ‘You ask too many questions.’

  ‘And Pablo?’ I said, stomach full of water. ‘Is he here?’

  ‘I don’t know their names.’

  ‘A boy. He’s tall, like a man, but he’s wearing a white tunic.’

  ‘They were all in uniform. Blue, with gold stitching. We’re keeping them over there.’ She gestured vaguely into the darkness. I noticed her accent was not smooth like Lupe’s or mine. Her words were full of flicks and clicks, her tongue clacking.

  ‘What’s going to happen to them?’ asked Lupe.

  Doce didn’t answer.

  I could guess it was nothing good.

  ‘So no boy in a white tunic?’

  ‘No.’

  One of the small knots in my chest slipped open. Pablo had escaped.

  Doce must have mistaken my expression for something else, because she said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sure your friend will be all right.’

  She did not sound convincing.

  ‘All right? Why wouldn’t he be?’ All the dangers seemed accounted for. The Banished were obviously the ones who had attacked us in Gris.

  Doce looked towards Lupe. ‘You haven’t told her? About…’

  ‘I have. I just couldn’t tell her what.’

  I waited for someone to explain. ‘Tell me what?’

  ‘About the Tibicenas.’ Lupe’s voice was lowered. I remembere
d all over again: Cata.

  ‘What are the Tibicenas?’

  Doce sucked in a long breath, and the staccato in her tone grew more pronounced. ‘They came from below, ten days ago. They killed that girl in your village, nearly killed Lupe, too. One had her cornered in Gris when we found her. We killed it, made the cross out of its teeth to warn others off. But creatures like that, they don’t have souls. They don’t get scared.’

  ‘It was awful.’ Lupe’s voice was tiny. ‘It was the biggest thing I’ve ever seen. All drooly and so black it was like…’

  ‘Like it sucked all the light out of the world,’ finished Doce.

  ‘But what are they?’ I said, impatient.

  ‘They’re demon dogs.’

  Demon dogs. My mind whirred. ‘Like in the myth of Arinta?’

  ‘They’re like huge wolves. We thought that’s what they were, at first,’ said Doce.

  ‘Well, there were wolves on the island.’ I hoped I sounded like Da would if he were told this – calm, reasonable. ‘They used to live in the forests. Then they moved to the caves—’

  ‘They’re not like those sorts of wolves. They’re… they’re bigger than wolves,’ Lupe insisted. ‘And black as soot, with eyes red as fire.’

  I looked to Doce for guidance, but she only nodded solemnly and said, ‘My mother says they’re Yote’s. They’re his fire dogs, his Tibicenas. They’ve been sent to clear the island.’

  I felt stupid but all I could do was repeat her words and hope they made more sense in my mouth. ‘Clear the island?’

  ‘Before Yote takes it. That’s why the animals left. They feel Yote first. Well, first after the island. You must have noticed the trees?’

  ‘Yes, but—’

  ‘But you can offer a better explanation? For trees that look like they live off ash, for the water drying up, for the animals fleeing?’ Doce’s voice was tight as a tripwire.

  I shook my head. ‘If this is true—’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘—what are you going to do?’

  ‘Escape to the sea, like the animals.’ Doce’s eyes were wide in the gloom. ‘We’re leaving today.’

  ‘Where are we going?’ Lupe piped up.