Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) (31 page)

“I am not a victim.”

“Of course not,” she said, setting down a wooden goblet so hard that everything on the table jumped. “You enjoyed being tied to a chair and left alone to starve and piss all over yourself for three days, all because you dared look her in the eye.”

Witch. I ground my teeth.

When she turned, there was a soft smile on her lips. “I do not know what to do with you. If you were simply compulsed as we thought you were, that would be one thing, but you are bonded, and that I can do nothing about.”

I rubbed at my head. “Great. Then what can we do?”

She shrugged. “I recommend you figure it out. Now shoo. I have things to do, and there is still a mess to be cleaned up from the last time you were here.”

Haji and I left.

He paused outside her door and stared up at me. “She is a very odd woman.”

I nodded. “I agree with you there.” I didn’t want to ask what he’d seen.

I could see it in his eyes as he refused to look at me.

“Haj, I didn’t mean to change.”

He held up a hand. “Don’t be stupid. If I’d been captured and tortured, I doubt I would have survived as you did.”

I chewed the inside of my lip.

He started down the hall. “I’m just glad that you didn’t turn out like Varik.”

I followed. Yes. That was definitely one thing to be glad about. I hadn’t turned out to be like Varik.

CHAPTER 27

I FINALLY HAVE WORTH

The next
morning after breakfast, we were ready for our duel. We headed to the practice floor and waited, going over our strategies one more time, just to be sure we had all of our bases covered.

My stomach was a wreck. I couldn’t eat. So much rested on this duel, on our passing the test. If we failed, where would we be? Would we be able to help? Could we move forward?

But what happened if we did pass?

I couldn’t tell which scared me the most.

I wasn’t the only one. Joshua’s shoulders were slumped, and his hands were shoved deep in his pockets. Keeley was doing everything she could not to look at anyone. Haji looked as though he were half asleep, the dark circles around his eyes again. Yvette was the only one who appeared ready and eager.

Yotaka walked into the room, his hands folded in the wide sleeves of his black robe of silk, and nodded to us. “Are you ready for your test?”

I looked to my teammates and met his gaze. “We are, Yotaka-
san
.”

He nodded at the door and in filed seventeen people. They weren’t all Ino, either. There were people from tribes I didn’t recognize. I was confident I’d met most of the tribes through our travels.

Seventeen.

Against five.

Not. Great. Odds.

I looked to Haji. He and I had discussed this. We knew that Yotaka was going to pull something big. He’d already warned us. And our weakest links were going to be Keeley, for sure, and probably Joshua, but only because he doubted he had any real combat ability. He had his toys, which helped his focus, but we were limited on which ones we could use. The trick was to see if we could meld as a team to use our Marks together, not to see how smart we were in using all of our toys and gadgets.

We could only be better for them. Right?

Yotaka pressed his fist to his palm and bowed low.

I pressed fist to palm and bowed as well, my stomach twisting.

He took a step back and raised his arm.

Fear and anxiety beat through me. Were we ready? Had we thought of everythi—

Chaos ensued.

There were people with all kinds of Marks. There was water, air, fire, earth, hearth, spirit, and storm. Storm. My eyes searched and found her.

Isra.

My heart ached for home, but I didn’t have time for that now. Someone was trying to drown me.

Our planned defenses and offenses held. The two people with the water element couldn’t draw water from air. They relied on their storm partners to bring the water to them.

As a storm, my main concern was to keep the rain as steam.

The fire elements were doing their best to keep me busy with other things, buying their water partners time to use the water I couldn’t vaporize.

Their earth partners were good with dirt, but didn’t have a lot of experience with living things, so when the vines crossed the line and squeezed, they were unable to do much of anything other than throw sand.

Keeley was the surprise element, it seemed.

Her shield was useful in many ways. She found, with Haji’s help, that she was able to morph the shield with many elements and Marks. She could block both physical and elemental energies, and she could use her shield to assist Joshua in the squeezing, not by suffocating, but by blocking the fire that would otherwise have demolished the plants and turned them to ash.

The only issue she had was she couldn’t shield if she was healing. We hadn’t gone very far into the duel before we decided to abandon healing to focus on shielding.

There were so many things she could do with that shield, many things that she would never think to do.

I have no idea how long we fought, but by the time Yotaka stepped in and held up his hands to halt the test, we were all sweating, breathing heavily. We weren’t standing nearly as tall as when we’d started.

He turned to our attackers. “Have they passed the test?”

One of the earth users stepped forward, his hands rubbing his throat. “They handled everything we threw at them and were able to surprise us.” His dark gaze fell on Joshua. “The vines?”

Joshua shrugged. “Sorry about tha’. Really.”

The man shrugged him off. “We pass them.”

The three with the water element stepped forward. “You drew water from air,” the oldest woman said, her long white hair cascading around her waist. “We need to talk. That was more than I’ve ever seen. We pass them.”

In groups of twos and threes, they all stepped forward and passed us.

I was relieved, but with each pass, there was a growing sense of doom in my chest. What was I going to do? There was a lot riding on my shoulders.

Yotaka turned to us, his hands still clasped within the wide sleeves of his robe. “Synn El’Asim, you performed admirably as both a Marked elemental and as a leader.” He met my gaze. “You pass.”

My team shifted in excitement, grins on their faces. I closed my eyes, a heavy weight on my chest. I opened them again, letting out a long breath.

Yotaka held up a hand. “What this means, however, is that you must now leave. You have responsibilities you need to delegate. We’ve called all the major Families and a few of the lesser ones, as there are so few of some of the surviving Families.” His attention fell on Keeley, Joshua and Haji. “You may need to find a lesser Family to delegate to.”

Keeley nodded.

Joshua leaned over to me and said out of the corner of his mouth, “Not sure what there is to delegate. Make sure the dishes are washed? If we had any.”

I smirked, but said nothing.

“What you do once you leave our protection is entirely up to you, but know this. The Hands search for you. Not just Synn, but all of you. They have declared war on any who protect you. It is your responsibility as heads of your Families to find a solution and to protect as many peoples and Families as you can.” He met my gaze. “No matter what that solution might be.”

I nodded.

He turned to those behind him and dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

I immediately went to Isra.

She snatched me up in a hug so tight I thought I was being strangled by Joshua’s vines. She pulled away and held me at arm’s length, studying me with a vengeful ferocity. “Are you all right?”

I nodded, my hands on her arms. “I am. Our Family? Are they safe?”

She pulled me aside as the rest of the “elders” swarmed around my friends to congratulate them. “There is much to discuss.”

This didn’t sound good.

“Varik has put a hefty price on your head and has stopped trade to any El’Asim. No one will even take our lightning, and we’re the only ones that harvest it.”

“What?” I asked incredulously. It didn’t make sense that the Hands would cut off their nose just to spite us.

“Varik knows that you’re hiding, but he also knows that you’ll appear eventually. He knows that you must. But he’s also fairly certain that when you do, you’ll be aboard the
Yusrra Samma
.”

I nodded. “I had hoped to continue my journey aboard my home.”

She clasped my upper arm. “If that is your wish, I will not say no, but I would strongly advise against it.”

I let out a long sigh. That was not the news I wanted to hear. I wanted to go home. There was nothing more I wanted.

“He has put out a reward for our ship. He is looking for information on any ships of our fleet, but specifically the
Yusrra Samma
. It is getting harder to find safe harbors.”

I nodded and stared at my friends. “Then we will find other transportation. If we let them know what type of vessel we travel in, maybe we can draw some heat off of you.”

She closed her eyes and then opened them again. “Thank you,
sayyd
. That will help me protect our people.”

I rubbed the top of my head. “How are you doing on that front? Are they following you?”

“They are eager for your return, but they follow me because I was your father’s second. So far, I have been able to keep them safe, but it has been close once or twice. The Hands have winged vehicles that are faster than our airships, and their weapons blow holes in our hulls.”

I nodded. “I want you to get with Joshua. He has a thing he calls a radar. With this, you can see them and you should be able to get far enough away from them that you won’t have to worry about their weapons. Though, should you come into contact with them again, do not bother using the cannons. Use the lightning guns and if you can, fashion lightning cannons. If no one’s willing to trade you for your lightning, use it. It’s the only thing you have that will take them down.”

“We hear you have a pistol.”

Oh, that sky loving pistol. “I do. It works with my Mark. Joshua is working to redefine the pistol for other Marks. So far we have devised it for the fire Marks. It’s quite successful.”

“If you don’t mind, since he is your friend, could you request that we be next to be fitted for one?”

I grimaced. “It will likely be whoever is first in line, depending on where we go and how far we get. But I will mention it.”

“Thank you.”

“What else do I need to know? What can you tell me of Varik’s movements?”

“Most of the cities have gone below waters. The Hands have underwater boats.”

I nodded. “Submersibles. Yes. We know of them.”

“These submersibles have been tracking the underwater
letharan
cities and have been destroying them.”

A chill swept over me.

“So far as we know, two cities have been destroyed. Varik knows that you’re under here. He’s getting close to finding you.”

“I will let Mother know.”

Isra nodded, the false light gleaming across the scars on her cheek. “He is cunning, this Varik, and he does not care what price is paid. If he finds out that someone has given aid to any of us, he kills them and strings their bodies up at the docks or harbors. The people are scared.”

“Are they aware of the treachery of the Hands?”

She nodded. “Yes, but you will have a hard time finding anyone willing to stand up to them. The Hands are very powerful, Synn.” She looked scared. “And they grow more powerful with each passing season.”

I let out a long sigh. “Do you have any idea where we should head first?”

“Varik has done the most damage in the Indellas. I don’t know why he went there.”

“I do.” I clamped my mouth shut on the curse words ready to spew from my mouth. “Nix. She knows we go there to trade on a regular basis. She’s trying to cut us off.”

“She doesn’t realize that we trade everywhere? That no harbor is closed to us?”

“If what you’re saying is true, then she had Varik start with those most loyal so that the rumors would spread and all harbors would be cut off from us.”

She winced and rolled her head on her neck. “What do I do? We’re short on supplies.”

I thought about that for a long moment. “Stay out of the harbors. Do the one thing they wouldn’t expect.”

She narrowed her gaze.

“Seek supplies in Kiwidinok.”

She pulled back. “
Sayyd
, do you jest?”

I shook my head and drew closer. “Think about it. It’s wild. It’s probably the last truly free frontier and mostly because it’s so undeveloped.”

“With great reason.”

I took her gaze and held it. “I know that it’s dangerous. I know that it’s wild, but there are no harbors, news does not travel fast there, and the Hands do not yet control it.”

She lowered her gaze to the floor. “I do not like this idea.”

“You don’t have to, but if you find there are no other options, go there. Get the supplies you need and keep our people in the air. We’re no good if we can’t stay afloat.”

She nodded. “How will we stay in contact?”

“Get with Joshua. When he gives you the radar, he’ll set you up with something that he and Haji have been working on. I think you’ll approve. You’ll be able to listen in on the Hands.”