Reading the Wind (Silver Ship)

by Brenda Cooper

  “I…I can’t.”

  “You can.” I wanted to stroke her face, to hold her. We three had to live, had to be strong.

  Akashi whispered in my ear. “We’re laying the first of the traps now. We’ll be making noise soon.”

  Hearing his voice sent a relief washing through me.

  Tom and Paloma hadn’t been able to hear my earset conversations. I tore it from my head, looked full into Paloma’s eyes, fixing her in place. “Remember when Mom and Dad died? Remember Joseph?”

  She nodded. Tom grimaced. “Yes.”

  “Something happened to Stile. Maybe to everyone that was with him. I don’t know what. Kayleen said he’s dead. Akashi is okay. Liam is silent, but he should be. I haven’t heard from Ruth for a few moments.” Kayleen was in trouble. Tom should be leading this whole damned colony, and he was letting me do it from here. Anger peeled up my spine, forcing clarity. I thrust the earset at him. “Go on. You take it. I’m going to Kayleen.”

  Tom stood blinking at me, the earset lying in his palm like a small dark bug with a single long tail curled around it.

  Other people could help Liam. “I’m going to Kayleen. She needs me.”

  Tom closed his fist around the earset and glanced down at Artistos. Smoke rose from at least one place, now. Probably us—we’d agreed that burning might send them out of town. A high squawk came from the earset. Ruth’s voice, unintelligible.

  She was War Council, like us. I peeled the bud from Tom’s inert hand and stuffed it into my ear. “I didn’t hear that. Are you okay?”

  Labored breath punctuated her words. “Some wounded. Three dead. Can’t see anyone.”

  She would have heard everything I had said on the earset. “Look,” I said. “I’m going to Kayleen.”

  “Everything will be done by the time you get there.”

  “Then she’ll need me.”

  Akashi’s voice. “Travel safe.”

  “Thank you.” I tore the earset free again and thrust it at Tom, not even waiting to be sure he put it on. They’d figure it out. I grabbed Paloma by her shoulders. “I’ll keep her safe if I can.”

  47

  THE RESCUE

  I only waited long enough to see Paloma’s nod before I raced for Stripes. As soon as I mounted, Stripes turned her head completely around and stared at me, a thing only hebras can do, her ears forward, her head a little cocked. “Go,” I urged. “Go, now.” I flicked the reins on her slender neck and whether it was the reins, my command, or my feelings that drove her, she raced to the top of the steep path, and started down it with no protest. We hit the Old Road and turned up. Full light illuminated the path. Stripes took it at a pull, rocking as she almost hopped up, then continued to pull, to leap, to clamber. She knew how badly I needed us to move. My knuckles turned white on the saddle-pommel and my free hand, holding the reins, clutched Stripes’s neck.

  It took forever, and all the time I wanted to scream.

  People were dying below me in town. Stripes splashed across a stream, almost lost balance on a slippery rock.

  The slender branches of a lace tree tangled in my hair, and I let them pull a chunk loose. How could I have forgotten what Joseph went through?

  Liam was down there sneaking toward a dangerous target. Stripes and I were halfway up the Old Road, now. Through the worst part.

  Akashi, hopefully, was being chased out of town by mercenaries, drawing them to traps he’d set.

  Stripes stepped carefully around a waving trip-vine.

  Something flew out of the redberry bushes beside the path and Stripes—thankfully—just snorted and ignored it, pushing ahead, nearly jumping up the last bit. I patted her neck, and whispered sweet thanks into her back-turned ear. And then the Old Road was behind us and the wide, flatter High Road flashed by beneath Stripes’s feet.

  Each breath, each moment—they all took forever.

  It would be okay. Really, it would. Once I got to Kayleen, I could help her.

  I dropped Stripes into the corral near the fork in the High Road, stopping just long enough to strip her tack. She had a stream for water, and enough natural grass to make a meal or ten. Still, for all of Stripes’s efforts, and mine, by the time I dropped into the cave, I’d missed at least an hour of the fight.

  As expected, Kayleen nested near the opening of the cave. She lay on a pile of blankets, Hunter sitting next to her, rubbing her temples. My heart sank at the sight of the earset in his ear; clearly, Kayleen couldn’t manage it right now. He looked up at me, frowning and worried. “She’s going in and out. Sometimes she’s coherent, sometimes she’s yelling and screaming.” Her open eyes looked vacant, but she breathed and her skin had some color.

  She was safe. Was Liam? “What’s happening in Artistos?” I asked Hunter.

  “Still no word from Stile or anyone in his crew. Ruth sent part of her band over to look, and hasn’t heard back. In the meantime, she’s being shot at, but she’s trying to see for herself.”

  “She’ll get herself killed. What about Liam?”

  He tapped the earset. “I don’t know. But Kayleen called his name twice. Likely calling for him. He’s stayed silent.”

  He was supposed to stay silent. He had four people with him, including Sky, a second member of Ruth’s band, Londi, and Alyksa, the scout from Akashi’s band. Sasha was with Akashi. So maybe they were alive.

  I knelt by Kayleen, taking her limp hand in mine, massaging her palm. She blinked, then stiffened, calling out, “Liam!” A tear ran down her cheek, then another. She pulled her hand free and fisted both of her hands, drumming them on the blankets.

  “Kayleen!” I called. “Kayleen. Where are you?”

  “By the water. It’s a trap.” She didn’t look at me, or acknowledge my presence, but her words were clear and intelligible. “They put traps in all of the infrastructure.”

  “Liam’s okay so far?”

  “They don’t want him. But that might not keep him safe.” She stopped drumming her fingers and sat up straight, suddenly completely alert.

  “Why won’t that keep him safe?” I asked. “Why don’t they want him?” Focusing her on questions might help.

  She shook her head. “They don’t want any of us.” Her voice rose, almost shrill. “I keep telling you. They don’t care about the colonists except to kill them.”

  Hunter grunted. He stepped back and watched us, frowning.

  I slid behind Kayleen, kneeling, my oversized belly a hindrance. I held both of her shoulders and dug my thumbs in under her shoulder blades, a firm massage. Joseph and I used to feel like one being in times like this, but Kayleen always seemed separate and herself. Still, I quested for that oneness, tried to get as close to her as I could, to match my breathing to hers. It wasn’t working—her neck and back muscles were stiff cords, her energy pulled inside. I asked her, “Why are they watching us?”

  She laughed. “They’re curious. And they’re waiting for something else, too, but I can’t tell what.”

  Hunter interrupted. “Akashi’s band is away. But no one’s following them.”

  Damn. All those traps, wasted.

  Hunter continued. “Most of Ruth’s people who are still alive left, too. All withdrawn. No word from Liam, yet. Paloma is asking for an update on Kayleen.”

  I glanced at my friend, my lover. Tear-tracks stained her cheeks. Her eyes were slits, focused completely on some spot on a horizon that didn’t exist inside the cave. She apparently hadn’t heard Hunter’s question. “Tell Paloma it will probably be okay.” After all, what else could I tell her?

  Kayleen looked at Hunter, her lips pulled back in a snarl and her gaze unfocused. I shivered as she said, “Move.” She shifted to me. “You too.”

  Hunter and I shared a confused glance.

  Kayleen leapt up. She was past me before I was on my own feet, pelting after her. She headed toward the Burning Void, holding her belly tight with one hand and keeping the straggly hair from her face with her other.

  The ramp
was just touching down as we entered the room that housed the silver skimmer. She took it at a run, with me right behind her, calling her name.

  At the top of the ramp, she turned. “Stay, Chelo. Keep at least one of us safe.”

  I shook my head. “We stay together.”

  She looked shocked for a moment, gazing at me intently, effectively blocking me from entering by standing in the door. “Then you might die.”

  I might die anyway. “Let me in. We stay together.”

  She gestured back toward the cave. “Then who saves these people?”

  “We do. Later. You said Lushia and Ghita don’t want Liam. You said they want to watch us all. It follows they won’t shoot down the skimmer.”

  The ramp started folding inward, forcing my decision. The baby! I leapt forward anyway, adrenaline and guilt flooding my system. Kayleen was already in her usual pilot position, leaning back in one of the last-row seats. The screen in front of us glowed. The floor thrummed with the warming engines.

  I sat beside her, taking her hand.

  The skimmer rose and I remembered Hunter, hoping he had understood what Kayleen meant when she said, “Move.”

  He wasn’t visible in the viewscreen as the skimmer took the wide corridor carefully and catapulted out of the cave, accelerating so fast it thrust me back against my seat next to Kayleen.

  Outside, we raced through midmorning. Such a short time for so many changes. We had not been the owl. Not so far. And Burning Void had no talons except us. I clutched the arm of my seat, fighting nausea.

  Kayleen’s eyes were closed, her whole self lost in the ship, and perhaps in whatever remained of our data nets. We had no way to communicate with anyone, except perhaps by what we did.

  Which was to fly right down into Artistos, forty meters over the town. Commons Park and then the main street flashed beneath us, a whirl of treetops and green, then the straight gray roads and neat houses.

  The water treatment plant was near the Dawnforce, between the edge of town and the hebra barns, not far from where the Lace River fell down the cliff to the Grass Plains.

  Smoke filled the viewscreen as we plunged over something burning. A confused mèlée of ship’s uniforms and our wilder clothes, people fighting in close clutches. Some of the faces stopped and looked up.

  The Burning Void slowed suddenly, engines screeching. I braced, gasping. Kayleen took us down, fast, almost too fast, but she held it, curling around the strangers’ camp and down behind the clutch of industrial buildings that included the water treatment plant. The skimmer bounced once as we landed, the ramp already opening. I leapt up, beating Kayleen to the door, looking for Liam. She started to push past me, but I blocked her, yelling, “Where is he?”

  She gestured to the right.

  “You stay and keep the skimmer ready to go.”

  Her face closed in for a second, her eyes snapping, but she stepped back, nodding. “Hurry!”

  I raced down the ramp, stumbling the last few steps. There was no one visible, then suddenly Alyksa stepped around a corner, staring.

  She might not know we had a skimmer.

  “It’s me,” I called.

  Her eyes widened as Liam sprinted past her, followed by Sky and Londi. Liam grabbed Alyksa’s hand, jerked, and she ran beside him. Three uniformed men followed behind, pelting after the four of them. I turned, racing back to the skimmer. Surely they would follow me.

  Londi passed me, his face a mask of determination, his breath loud and fast. Sky followed close behind. Liam swept me up with his other hand, and the three of us followed Sky up the ramp, which started to close as soon as we hit the bottom of it. We tumbled as much as raced into the skimmer. Kayleen’s eyes were screwed tight shut, one hand on her belly. Engines whined. Something smacked against the outside of the hull.

  We rose.

  Something else hit us, a loud crack ripping through the hull, pinging in the empty hold. Alyksa lay on the floor, eyes still wide, her fist in her mouth. Londi took a seat in the front, putting his head between his knees, gripping the chair arms. Sky sat beside him, looking excited. As the thrust of our sudden acceleration grew, Liam and I stumbled against it, pulling back into seats beside Kayleen.

  The Burning Void yawed right, then left. Kayleen’s eyes stayed tightly closed, her face clutched up small.

  We raced away from Artistos, the double-horizon lines splitting sky and water, and below, water and the grass plains, dancing drunkenly in the viewscreen. Then just water and sky, blue-green below blue.

  The skimmer slowed, and Kayleen opened her eyes. “Is everyone all right?”

  Liam clutched her hand. “I didn’t get it done.” He held up his hand. “I still have the poison.”

  Sky looked back at us, snapping, “Right. But we were being chased away. You weren’t getting close anyway.”

  “They were pushing you away because they didn’t want you to die either,” Kayleen said. “The mercenaries saved you before we did.”

  Sky blinked. Londi stared at Kayleen for a moment, and then Liam, and then me. “Why?”

  Kayleen swallowed. Londi and Alyksa were our bandmates, and Sky had helped us with Alicia years ago. These were our friends. How could she help them understand what we didn’t? “It’s not you. It’s us. They came here to kill you—the people who our parents fought. I don’t know who sent them …but maybe the same people that sent our parents.”

  Kayleen let a few moments of silence pass, watched as Sky and Londi glanced at each other and then refocused on her, waiting. They had a roamer’s sense of curiosity; they’d see the puzzle even if they didn’t appreciate it.

  “But they found us first. We’re like them. Altered. They’re trying to protect us.”

  Alyksa asked, “Why?”

  Kayleen shook her head. “I wish I knew. It scares me.” She paused and put a hand to Liam’s cheek. “If you’d gotten inside the plant, you would have died, just like Stile and the people with him.”

  Liam jerked. “What happened to Stile?”

  “He died.” Kayleen closed her eyes for a moment, and the skimmer slowed even more, banking gently back toward town. “I was connected to him,” she whispered. “Not just the earset, but I could see him and the people with him in the nets. They were stealthing down past Little Lace Park, by the meadow where the wagons go when you’re in town. I didn’t see any of the mercenaries—I thought everyone was safe. Something came up from the ground, got all over them. At first, Stile and the others with him in front slapped at their legs, as if they were after ankle-eaters.”

  Ankle-eaters were little bugs that swarmed in summer, leaving painful bites. Enough bites made you sick—Joseph and I had been caught by a swarm of them once.

  Alyksa sat up, leaning against the wall by the door, watching us, looking ill.

  Kayleen shivered. “But they were worse. Whatever they were seemed to drill inside the skin. Clothes didn’t stop them. People started screaming. Stile tried to get them all to turn around, but everyone was stopped dead in place, screaming and looking at each other, like the pain was too much to move with.” Her voice shook and she stopped to brush a strand of wild black hair from her eyes. “They just—they started falling down. And they died. I saw them, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Stile stayed up the longest even though he was one of the first people hit, and finally his heart stopped and he just dropped down, dead.”

  “Did anyone get away?” Liam asked.

  “Maybe some of the people at the end of line.” She paused, rolling her eyes up into her head for a moment. “I didn’t see anyone get away.”

  “What about my dad?” Liam asked.

  She nodded. “I think he’s okay. He was when we left, but he was fleeing. Everyone fled. We lost.”

  Liam curled back away for a moment, as if slapped. “There are so many more of us than of them.”

  “Why did you come for us?” Alyksa asked.

  “They put those same things—whatever they were—in some places they
thought we might go. The water plant was one of them. They don’t seem to use our food, but they use our water.” Kayleen clutched Liam’s hand. “I didn’t want you to die like that.”

  I shivered at the image, like Kayleen just had, and seeing them all dead—all dead with no real fight—filled my bones with heat and hatred. I didn’t like the hatred. It was wrong.

  I shook, breathing hard, putting my head down like Londi had. Liam put a hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m alive.” How could I ever be okay again? “So what do we do now? They aren’t shooting at us, or following us. Can we help, somehow?” I glanced up. The Burning Void had no windows, just the view-screen, and it showed only the summer sea, laced with wind-born froth.

  Liam had an earset. He spoke, the slender tail of the bud picking up his voice. “Dad? Ruth? Tom? How are things?”

  He fell silent. Waiting, I went around to stand behind Kayleen, brushing her sweaty hair from her face, gently kneading her shoulders. Alyksa sat near Londi and Sky. Three of us in the back, three of them in the front. Separation.

  Liam murmured softly next to me, and Kayleen gasped and held her belly.

  “Is the baby coming?” I asked.

  Liam lifted his head. “Hunter wants us home. I think we’d better listen. Now.”

  Damn them. I wanted to help. The strangers probably wouldn’t kill us. I mean, they could, any time. But so far, all of our real-world tests suggested safety for us. “Okay—but let’s at least fly over Artistos and see what we can report back on.”

  “No. I need you two out of the battle.”

  As if on cue, Kayleen groaned and closed her eyes, holding her stomach again. It passed quickly, and when she opened her eyes she grabbed Liam by the shoulder, and used her other hand to pull his face close to hers. “Then you’ll stay out, too? You’ll stay with me?”

  He stared at her for a moment, looking like something trapped, then he relaxed, putting a hand on her belly. “Yes. Of course.”