Darkfall

“I’m sorry, but—”

“Please, Nya.” She grabbed my free hand. I fought the urge to yank it away. “I can help, I really can. I know people, and I know things about the League you don’t. The Elders talked around me, even about things they shouldn’t have.”

Because she’d helped them. But she did have a point.

“You’re not going to get over there and join the other side?”

She actually looked hurt. “No, swear to Saint Erlice I won’t. Baseeri lie – I know that now.”

Not all of them, but it was a step over the right bridge.

“Please, Nya?”

I sighed. Aylin was going to kill me. “OK, you can come.”

The heat from the forge wrapped around me as soon as I turned the corner. Hammer strikes of metal on metal rang out, mixed with duller thuds and some impressive swearing. I still hadn’t come up with a story as to why I needed pynvium, but since I’d stolen it in the first place, I figured some of it was mine.

Smiths banged away, no doubt trying to get the last of something made before we had to leave. Weapons maybe, or tools. Maybe just metal ingots that would be easier to carry. Onderaan worked in one corner off to the side. I cringed. I’d really hoped he wouldn’t be here.

“Onderaan?”

He turned, frustration on his face. He seemed surprised to see me. “You shouldn’t be wandering around alone.”

The forge was on the farm grounds, but it wasn’t connected to the house.

“I know but I, uh, needed some pynvium.”

“I think the weapons have already been packed, but I’ll see what’s here. There might be some pain-filled scraps left.”

“Any healing bricks?”

“Bricks? Why would you need – oh, Nya.” He sighed, rubbed his eyes. “What are you going to do?”

“Warn Geveg. I know it’s dangerous, but I—”

“You sound like your father.”

“I do?”

“Not the warning part,” he continued, “but the going-where-it’s-dangerous part. Going to Geveg where it’s dangerous, specifically.” He sighed and sat on a corner of the unfinished forge. “But you need to go, just like he needed to go.”

“He went to Geveg?” I’d always thought he’d been born there. I should have known that wasn’t true as soon as I’d learned he was Baseeri.

Onderaan nodded. “When he was nineteen. Our grandfather was governor then, and his ore finders had just discovered a huge pynvium vein in the mountains. Geveg needed enchanters to smelt it, and Peleven wanted to go help. I asked him not to leave, but he didn’t listen.”

“Why didn’t you want him to go?” Geveg was safe back then – no Baseeri soldiers on the streets, no Duke telling them what to do.

“It was a lot of pynvium. Mountains of it, and Verraad was already making a fuss out of claiming it for Baseer, trying to get his family to listen.”

Verraad. The Duke, before he was Duke. Was that when he first started thinking about killing his father and brothers?

“It made Bespaar nervous, and when he was nervous, our father was nervous. Bespaar knew too much about what his family argued over, how different their politics were. Your father should have been nervous too.”

“Who’s Bespaar?”

“The heir.”

I glanced around. The other smiths were out of earshot, the bellows and hammering drowning out anything we’d say.

“You mean Jeatar’s father?” It was a guess, a risk, but I needed to know who the man who should have been duke was.

Onderaan’s eyes widened. “Who told you?”

So it was true.

“No one. Jeatar has the Duke’s eyes and lots of money, and he keeps trying to help people without anyone knowing he’s doing it.” I’d figured that out not long after we’d left Baseer. “And I saw his burn scars when he pulled me out of the Luminary’s office. He was in Sorille when the Duke burned it, wasn’t he? Plus little things he’s said and done. It all filled the same bucket.”

Onderaan smiled at me the way Papa had when I’d done something well. “You have a way of seeing what no one else does.”

My face warmed and I looked away. It wasn’t anything special, just what you had to do to survive. “Does anyone else know?”

“Ouea. She’s been with his family since he was your age. A few others, loyal supporters of his father’s, but they’re all over the Territories now.”

“Causing rebellions?”

“Gathering support for when the time is right to move against the Duke.”

“But that’s now!”

He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. We have no army, no defensible base.”

“So we’ll tell everyone who Jeatar is and we’ll get their support. We build the army, we march back to Baseer and take over, save Tali, then free Geveg and Verlatta. It’s a good plan.”

Onderaan looked at me, a sad smile on his face. “Nya, that’s not a plan, it’s a wish.”

“Maybe not.”

We could do it. How hard could it be to raise an army? The Duke did it, and no one even liked him.

“Nya, one day we will stop the Duke, but not now.” Onderaan stood and looked around the room. “Let me get you what pynvium I can. No bricks, but I think there are some orbs left.”

“What about Jeatar?”

“I’ll tell him you’re leaving after you’ve gone. He won’t be happy about it, but he’ll understand. Once we get the refugees settled in Veilig, I’ll come meet you in Geveg.”

“How will I find you?”

He paused. “Be in Analov Park at sunset in six days. Right under Grandpa’s statue.”

We decided to leave at night. The man who’d attacked me still hadn’t been found, and we agreed it was safer to travel when no one was watching. Quenji found a horse and wagon – which I suspected Onderaan had something to do with by the way the wagon was stocked – and had it tucked away at the edge of the woods down the road.

“Why can’t we come with you?” Jovan asked. His twin brother, Bahari, had been the one asking all afternoon, but he’d given up. Or they were taking turns.

“Because it’s not safe,” Danello answered, same as he’d done all day. He hadn’t snapped, hadn’t yelled, hadn’t done any of the things I might have done if my little brothers had been pestering me for hours. “Stay with Ouea. She’ll take care of you until we’re done in Geveg.”

“And then you’ll come back for us?” Halima asked, twisting one blonde braid around her finger.

“Promise.” He knelt and hugged her tight. “I’ll always come back for you.”

Was being able to say goodbye harder or easier than just losing someone? I didn’t know if I’d have had the strength to let Tali go, knowing I might not ever see her again.

“Find Da,” Bahari said, hugging him when Halima was done. “Bring him back with you.”

“I will, I promise.”

We all got hugs too, and Ouea herded the little ones back inside the house. I took Danello’s hand. It trembled, and he grabbed mine tighter.

“They’ll be OK, right?” he whispered.

“Safer than we’ll be. Ouea won’t let anything happen to them. And Quenji’s pack is staying, too, so Zee and Ceun will look after them as well.” So much more than Tali ever had.

He took a shaky breath and nodded. “OK, let’s go.”

“We’re all loaded up,” Quenji said, smiling from the driver’s bench of the wagon. “How far to Geveg?”

“Two or three days.”

He made a face. “Sounds boring.”

We climbed in the wagon and took seats on the wooden benches on both sides. Not the most comfortable ride to Geveg, but we’d manage.

Quenji snapped the reins, and we rumbled down the road, everyone quiet save for the occasional cough. I watched the farm fade away in the night, unable to shake the feeling I was leaving family behind.

Chapter Five

We rolled into Dorpstaad, one of the few places in the marshes big enough to be called a town. It sat on the edge of the lake, with blue-reed marshes on one side and rich farmland on the other. Wasn’t much more than a few dozen trader posts, but it did have the ferry dock to Geveg Isles, a traveller’s house, and one coffeehouse – a welcome sight after two days on the road.

Beyond the buildings the lake sparkled, but Geveg was hazy, and thin tendrils of smoke curled above the rooftops. Fires.

“Jeatar did say they were rebelling.” Danello sounded calm, but he had to be worried about his father. “Doesn’t look too bad though. No worse than the riots a few months ago.”

It had to be worse than that if the Gov-Gen had been killed. But I knew hope when I heard it.

Quenji parked near the stables and arranged for a paddock and a place to store the wagon. It was too expensive to ferry them across, and there were few places to store them in Geveg if we did. Between what Quenji had no doubt stolen and what Danello had won from the soldiers playing cards, we could afford a few days’ keep.

I stretched my sore muscles. “Let’s find out when the next ferry is.”

The ferry dock was empty. Not even the usual beggars crouched by the pilings or resting under the mangrove trees. The ferry itself sat empty at its berth at the far end of the dock.

“Maybe it’s not running?” Aylin shielded her eyes with her hand and gazed over the water. It was flat today, barely any breeze to stir the surface.

“Or they’re not letting it dock at Geveg,” Danello said. “That’s the easiest way to keep people from leaving the city.”

“Or coming into the city,” I added.

This would be a problem. Without a boat, we weren’t getting into Geveg. A few fishing boats were docked at other berths, plus one skiff that looked fancy enough to belong to an aristocrat.

“If you know how to sail it, I can steal it,” Quenji said, following my stare.

I’d had enough of jails and cages for a while. Besides, we needed to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. “Let’s see if someone is willing to take us across first.”

Lanelle snorted. “No one is going to risk their neck to help us.”

“Us, maybe,” said Aylin, “You, no.”

“Let’s look around.” I sighed. You’d think after two days of baiting each other they’d be tired of it.

We left the dock and headed for the main street. People were out and about, but the town lacked the usual bustle. No one was looking for work, and no day vendors had set up carts on the streets. It made sense if no one could get out of Geveg, but it was still eerie.

The scent of coffee lured us to the coffeehouse on the opposite side of the block, down near the traveller’s house.

“Anyone hungry?” Danello said.

My stomach rumbled. Breakfast had been a long time ago – and not much of it at that. “Sounds good. We might be able to find a fisherman there too and ask about paying him for passage.”

Aylin linked her arm through Quenji’s. “I haven’t had good Gevegian coffee in months, so let’s—”

A soldier in pynvium armour walked out of the coffeehouse.

Lanelle gasped. “Undying!”

“Be still.” I looked away fast, keeping my face down. My heart raced, and my feet wanted to follow, but running would get me noticed.

A regular soldier in Baseeri blue walked out next, and a boy in Healers’ League green followed.

Soek? He was one of the apprentices Vinnot had been experimenting on in the spire room along with Tali. He’d helped me escape, even tried to help free me when the tracker captured me, but we hadn’t seen him since that day.

The same day I’d lost Tali.

Soek stared at me, his eyes full of fear; then he looked away and shot a nervous glance at the soldiers escorting him.

What were they doing to him? He had to be a prisoner; he’d never help the Undying or the Duke. But why here and not the League?

Folks stepped aside, their heads down, and let them pass. The Undying walked with the same arrogance I’d seen in Baseer, as if he knew nothing could hurt him.

For a moment I wondered if there was any pain in that armour of his. If so, I could hurt him plenty.

“Eyes down,” Danello whispered into my ear. “You’re glaring at him.”

Was I? I looked away, face flushed, but I couldn’t help peeking again.

Soek and the soldiers walked to the traveller’s house. Soek glanced helplessly at me once more before following them inside. A plea.

People started moving again, and I caught a few loud sighs of relief. We darted into the coffeehouse and grabbed a table in the back where we could watch both the door and the dining room.

“Was that Soek?” Aylin asked, keeping her voice low.

I nodded. “We have to save him.”

“No, we don’t,” Lanelle said, face pale. “We have to get out of here right now. There are Undying here.”

I leaned closer. “We knew there was a chance we’d see Undying,” I half lied. I’d figured we’d see them once the Duke got there, but not this soon. Had he sent some in advance? “It’s just one, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything but guard duty.”

“Who’s Soek?” Quenji asked.

“A friend of ours. He was an apprentice at the League. Nya, he looked really scared,” Aylin said to me.

“He did.”

“You think he’s the only one here?” asked Lanelle.

“I don’t know. The League comes out to the marsh farms once a month for heals. They could be here for that.” I used to join Mama on those trips. Folks would ride in from all over Geveg proper for a chance at real healing.

The server headed over and we fell silent.

“Excuse me,” I said after he set our plates down. “Did I see a Healer leave here a few minutes ago?”

The server hesitated but nodded. “There’s a League group at the traveller’s house. Been here a few weeks, ever since things got bad over there.” He tipped his head towards the Isles.

“What is going on over there? I noticed the ferry wasn’t running.”

He glanced around and leaned a little closer. “I hear the whole city revolted, Baseeri and Gevegians. Each of the Geveg islands belongs to a different group now. The commander, the dockworkers, the aristocrats. Anyone willing to grab a sword and guard a bridge could take an island.”

“What about the Governor-General?” I asked, fishing for more information. “Isn’t he doing anything to stop it?”

“They say he died the first day. That’s what set off the riots.”

But why would Baseeri revolt against the Gov-Gen or the Duke?

“Are there a lot of those soldiers in that blue armour?” I said. “I’ve never seen them before.”

The server gulped. “Just the one. He came over with the Healers. That was the last ferry out of the Isles. Lots of smaller boats docked after that, but nothing since last week.”

Danello looked puzzled. “The Healers are just staying here?”

“Seems like it.” He shrugged. “They’re making good money, and it’s not safe to go back to the Isles.”

I’d met plenty of folks who’d take advantage of such a situation and see it as a way to earn some fast money, but not Soek. Maybe the soldiers were forcing him to do it.

“Is there any way into Geveg?” I asked.

“Not unless you wanna swim.” Another customer called, and the server hurried off.

“Did you see his face when you asked about the Undying?” Aylin shuddered. “I think finding someone willing to take us over there just got harder.”

We’d be fools to wander in blindly. We had no idea which isle belonged to who, or who we needed to speak to and warn about the Duke.

“We need more information about what’s going on over there,” I said.

Danello nodded. “How do we find out?”

“Soek? We need to rescue him anyway.”

Everyone looked at each other as if they hoped someone else had a better idea.

Danello sighed. “Yeah, we can’t leave him there. And he’ll probably know what’s going on better than anyone else here.”

“We’ll need a boat too,” I said. “Quenji, see if you can trade the horse or wagon or both for one, even for a day or two.”

“Can’t we steal one?”

“As long as it’s not a fisherman’s boat. He can’t support his family without one.”

Quenji rolled his eyes but nodded.

“How do we talk to Soek?” Danello asked. “They’ve got him guarded pretty well.”

Aylin huffed and added more sugar to her coffee. “He’s a Healer. We hurt somebody.”

“Help, I need help!” Danello carried me into the common room at the traveller’s house, blood running down my face. I groaned and feigned delirium. My scalp stung from the cut Aylin had made, but heads bleed easily, and we needed to put on a good show.

People gasped and pointed. A woman behind the bar called out to a boy who was washing mugs.

“Go get the Healer, hurry.”

Patrons cleared an old couch near a window and Danello set me down. He paced, wiping his upper lip and brow like he was afraid I was about to die right in front of him.

“I can’t help if you won’t let me through,” Soek grumbled.

He shoved through the gathering crowd, shooing them back with a sharp twist of his hand. He looked at me and his eyes widened, but he covered his surprise quickly. “What happened?”

“She fell,” Danello said, waving his hands about as he spoke. “I told her not to walk on the fence, but she did it anyway and she slipped and fell and hit her head on, oh, I don’t know what but it was hard. Her head made this awful cracking noise.”

“That’s bad.” Soek turned to the crowd. “Stop gawking at her. Go back to doing what you were doing before she got here.”

The Undying was also in the room but standing back watching the crowd. I didn’t see the other soldier or anyone else.

“Now, let’s take a look.” Soek pulled over a chair and sat down beside me. He put one hand on my wound and the other on my forehead. My scalp tingled and the cut hidden in my hair closed, but he frowned.

“She cracked her skull,” he said. “Some brain bruising there as well. You’re lucky you got her here in time.” He turned to the Undying. “I’m going to need the brick for this. The orb won’t be enough.”

The Undying hesitated, glancing at his pynvium armour as if debating whether or not to use it rather than go back upstairs. It was either full or he wasn’t allowed, because he sighed and headed for the stairs. “I’ll be right back.”

Soek nodded, then turned back to me, dragging one hand through his red hair. “Saints, Nya, you gotta get me out of here,” he whispered.

“We will. What’s going on?”

He took a deep breath. “I was over here on a farm run when the fighting started. The soldiers wanted to go back, but Keeper Betaal wouldn’t let us. She’s selling heals at twice the cost and pocketing the money. She’s paying off the soldiers, so I don’t think she plans on going back.” He swallowed. “Or letting me go.”

“Who’s Keeper Betaal?”

“One of the Luminary’s new ‘administrators’. Glorified thug is more like it.”

“Is anyone else with you?”

“No. Just soldiers and Betaal. When I questioned her, she said she had an Undying and wondered if she really needed two Healers.” He gulped. “I stopped asking questions.”

Thumps sounded on the stairs. “He’s coming back,” Danello said. The Undying appeared. A woman followed him, also in Healer’s green, but not a uniform I’d seen before. Two additional soldiers walked behind her.

Soek’s expression changed to grave concern like any good Healer’s. He took the battlefield brick of pynvium and placed his hands back on my head. No tingle this time with nothing to heal, but he made a show of it anyway. He pretended to push the pain into the pynvium and handed the brick back to the Undying.

I fluttered open my eyes and sat up, swaying a bit.

“There you go – all better now.” Soek stood and stepped away from me.

“Wait,” the woman in green said. I held my breath. “She didn’t pay.”

I looked at Danello. I didn’t know how much he had, but if heals were double now, it couldn’t possibly be enough to cover what Soek had pretended to heal. It probably wouldn’t even have covered healing the actual cut.

“It was an emergency,” Soek said. “She would have died otherwise.”

“Then you should have let her die.”

“Keeper Betaal—”

“You know the law, Soek, and I’m tired of you bending it. This stops right now.” She folded her arms and scowled at me. “Taking a heal you can’t pay for is stealing – and punishable same as any other theft.”

Chapter Six

Danello fumbled through his pockets. “I have some money, not a lot, but you can have it all.” The gratitude in his voice was utterly faked.

Keeper Betaal glared at him. “A pittance won’t buy your way out of this. Arrest them,” she told the two soldiers.

The Undying was still holding the battlefield brick, and odds were it held lots of pain. Could I reach it before the Undying stopped me?

Flashing that pynvium would alert the Duke I was here. So would shifting. He was on his way anyway, so it might not matter, but if more assassins were looking for me, they’d find out exactly where I was. I had no idea if Quenji had a boat yet, so we might not be able to escape even if I did flash it.

“Keeper Betaal, please,” Soek said. “She was dying.”

“So? She would have died if we weren’t here. And now you’ve wasted pynvium on a freeloader, so someone who could afford it won’t be able to get the help they deserve.” She sneered. “You probably just cost someone else their life.”

The soldiers grabbed Danello and me. They checked us both for weapons, took our knives, then hauled us out of the traveller’s house and towards a small brick building sitting by itself not far from the docks. Bars lined the windows. It was probably the only jail in the marsh farms. The farmers tended to take care of criminals in their own way.

Lanelle was sitting outside the coffeehouse. She rose when we approached, but I shook my head. She stopped, watching us with worried eyes.

The soldiers took us into the guardhouse. One guard sat at a worn table, eating lunch. Shaggy hair a bit too long, worn uniform. Perhaps a local, one of the farmers’ sons. He glanced up, then looked again and jumped to his feet.

“Afternoon, sir.”

The soldier holding Danello’s arm frowned. “Prisoners.”

“Yes, sir.” The guard hurried over to a rack by the door and pulled a key ring off a peg. A reward poster hung on the wall next to it. My reward poster, the same one Vyand had nailed up in Geveg to flush me out. It wasn’t the best drawing, but it was accurate enough. Heart pounding, I angled my face away and let my much shorter and blacker hair fall across my cheek.

What if they recognised me? What if they’d been told to look for me?

The soldier glanced around the room, his lip curling in distaste. “Where’s the other guard? Betaal told you to maintain two at all times.”

“And I keep telling her we only have two.” He unlocked the cell and stood to one side. “She wants to send some of you soldiers over to help us out, I’ll be happy to take a day off.”

The soldier grunted and pushed Danello forward. He stumbled into the cell, a typical ten-foot-square box with two cots. The soldier on my arm let me go, and I walked inside. If they saw that poster and looked at me closely…

“What did they do?” the guard asked, his gaze on my bloodstained shirt.

“Theft.”

A puzzled frown. “What’d they steal?”

“Healing.”

“You arrested them for—”

The soldier stepped close to the guard. “That’s the same as stealing pynvium.”

The guard gulped. “Yes, it is.”

“Stay with him,” the soldier told the other.

“Yes, sir.”

I sat on one of the cots, my back to the soldier and guard. Danello sat next to me. The guards had no reason to look at that reward poster. It was at least four months old. As long as I didn’t do anything foolish, we could bide our time and wait for a rescue.