Fall of Sky City (A Steampunk Fantasy Sci-Fi Adventure Novel) (Devices of War) (34 page)

He snorted in disgust and shoved the papers at me. “Get out of here.”

The portly man waited until they were out of earshot before reaching over and cuffing Haji’s neck and dragging him into the hostel. He didn’t say anything until we were through the loud common area, lit only by the light streaming through the windows, and through the ratty curtain to a back room which was surprisingly quiet.

“Whata do you bringa into my pub?” he demanded, throwing the papers down on the table. “Whata trouble have Ia invited in?”

Haji pulled out of his grasp and picked up the envelope. “I thought you said you didn’t care.”

“I didn’t care whena you left, but maybea I care now. Nowa maybe I thinka that the people you smuggle in are the people the Handsa want. Yeah?”

Nothing flickered across Haji’s face as he went through the papers. “How did you know to provide papers for a woman?”

The man didn’t immediately answer.

Haji continued leafing through. “Or another man?” He looked up. “What aren’t you telling me, Ettore Gossa?”

Ettore raised his double chin, a serious expression on his face. “I knewa after you went away and beforea you came backa, there were posters for rewards on people’s heads. The onea I knew becausea you tolda me. But. The other two? I had a feeling, might. And I think I was righta, yes? So I’sa thinks I’sa should gets more moneys, maybe, than whata the Hands woulda offers, yes? Or’sa I could go getta the guards again, I thinks.”

I held up my hand. “How much do you need?” Mother did leave us some money, as did Isra, but we didn’t know how long we would need that.

“One hundred canto.”

My eyebrows shot up. I had enough, but just barely. I reached into my belt and pulled out my purse.

His pudgy hands eagerly went for it.

I pulled it back. “But in return we want a room for a week and as much information as you have.”

His pink tongue darted out and a greedy gleam filled his small eyes.

“I think you have a lot of information.”

He met my gaze. “I’sa thinks maybes more than what’s you have in that purse.”

“Maybe,” I said grimly, “but this is everything I have. Will you help or not?”

He shrugged and started moving about the room, moving piles of stuff off of what I now saw were chairs and stools and pulling out a smallish table. He hollered for someone to bring in ale. Someone yelled back. “I’sa thinks I will. The guardsa chase away my customers and I’sa not so happy with them.”

We sat down. A woman came in, scantily clad, and set down the drinks. She flashed a smile at me and ran her finger along my jaw before she sauntered back out.

Etorre took a mug and swigged it, setting it back down again. “Now I’sa bets you’sa is the Synn Primusa theys keeps talkings about.”

I raised my eyebrows, but said nothing.

He pulled on his ear. “They’sa says you burned down severalsa planes.”

I nodded.

“Andsa they says you damaged mucha place in Sky City.”

My lips pursed and I shook my head.

“Bad man, you are, Synn Primus.”

“I’m not Primus,” I said clearly.

“Oh, we’sa knows.” He put a finger to his nose. “We’sa keeps eyes to the sky for you. Keeps account of all the planes and airboats.”

I listened. This was exactly what we’d hoped for.

CHAPTER 30

OH CRAP! OH CRAP! OH CRAP!

The man
sure knew how to ramble, but he seemed to know just about everything that went on in Egolda City and any information that came through it. After we’d had two pints of ale, we deemed that we’d gathered as much information from him as we could and headed for our room.

But as we entered the common room, a chill swept over me. I tightened the shields around my mind that Ino Kilak and Ino Tokata had instilled and beat into me as I scanned the crowd.

There.

Virak.

I acted nonchalant, even though my heart was trying to beat right out of my chest. He didn’t appear to notice I was there. He was looking around the room idly, paying scant attention to the men around him.

I paused at the base of the stairs leading up to the room and watched a game of Weeds. The betting was getting intense and after watching the hand of the guy in front of me, I could see why.

Varik slammed his fist on the table and growled. “I know he’s close.”

A high ranking officer next to him pulled back, taking in a sigh of patience. “You’ve known he’s close for weeks now, months. The boy is good at hiding.”

Varik’s expression twisted into rage, his eyes scanning, ever moving, but even as he looked right at me, he seemed to see nothing. He pushed away from the table, disrupting the patrons around him, his black leather trench coat knocking over several people’s drinks. “I’ll find a way to bring him out,” he growled and then stormed out.

We’d see about that.

I continued to watch the game of Weeds a bit longer. The man in front of me actually lost, amazingly enough. With that done, I headed up the stairs.

But I didn’t want to sleep yet. It had been weeks since I’d seen the sky, and I needed to soak it up, not through a window. The only thing I could see in the city was the dome of the
lethara’s
medusa. If the docks were the only place to see the sky, then that’s where I was going.

Keeley was already passed out on one of the two beds. The room was small, but wasn’t cramped. There seemed to be plenty of room for all of us.

Haji was staring out the window, his eyes following someone.

I joined him, searching the crowd, and found who he was watching. Varik.

“Well, at the very least we now know where the man is.”

I nodded. “That we do.” I thumped him on the arm. “I’m going down to the docks to see what kind of information I can scare up.”

“More than what we already have?”

I sent him a frown. “You think we should stick with just the one source?”

His eyebrows jumped as he watched Varik in contempt. “You really want to chance it with him here?”

“He looked right at me and didn’t see me.”

He waved me off. “Fine. Just be safe. I doubt I will be able to save you if you get yourself into trouble this time.”

I laughed dryly and left.

I went down to the docks, but instead of heading towards our
lethara
, I headed more towards Varik’s airboat. Those docks were the longest, probably due to the fact that airboats needed so much room. It was no longer moored at the dock, anyway. It was about five decametres out, and had gained some altitude.

But there were airships lined along the three longest docks. I chose one at random, walked all the way to the end, listening to the conversations, and found a place to perch out of the way where no one would notice me. Fishing lines sat unattended along with bits of rope that probably needed to be discarded. There was no saving them, no matter the skill of the person repairing them.

I inhaled the sight of the sky, keeping my eyes on giant Kel’mar taking over nearly the entire horizon. There were no stars. The sky was much too bright, but I still stared, watching as the occasional cloud flitted by.

The conversation was equally interesting. There were people all the way from Koko Nadie, a group of islands just south of the wilds of Kiwidinok and they talked about how the Hands had destroyed three villages, even though the people in question had sworn fealty to the Hands and were already paying a hefty tithe.

There was another crew from Mona that was complaining of the Hands taking their children.

Letharan
cities, air cities, land cities, it didn’t matter. The Hands were everywhere and they were wreaking havoc wherever they went in the name of finding Synn Primus.

Really.

According to the crews on this dock, it wasn’t all Varik.

That didn’t bode well at all.

More than once, I heard someone mutter about wishing this “Primus” would just come out of hiding and die already so the rest of the world could get back to living in peace.

I let out a long sigh. If I couldn’t find another solution, I might have to. I had known things were getting tough out there for the Families. I hadn’t realized that the Hands were being this destructive.

Sang had slipped below the horizon hours ago, and Kala was following suit. I eagerly waited for the brief moment when there would be stars, a handful of minutes, but the nights would start to get longer now. I shook my head. I’d been in captivity of one form or another for nearly an entire season. So much time had gone by. It was incredible and unbelievable all at the same time.

As Kala sank and the stars came out, the men and women around the airships paused, their eyes to the skies. The people who had been below decks came out to watch, their lips curved in smiles.

The stars were a welcome sight to the sky travelers.

The milky trail of the asteroid belt loomed before us, pushing Kel’mar from the sky in reds, pinks, purples, greens and gold. Festos, which was a very large asteroid, I now knew thanks to my astronomy lessons in Sky City, was ragged and orange. There was the lovely, green Melbon, which was believed to be a habitable planet of the solar system circling Sang. I’d been in captivity when it had been closest to our planet, so close you could see patches of green land and individual storms. They had easily more land than they did water, which seemed strange and exotic to me. But they had a lot of sky still. Tonight, it was just a small green dot.

And then the stars and the asteroid belt blinked out as Sang rose.

The docks arose in chatter.

It was time for me to find my bed.

I made it to our inn with little trouble, walked undisturbed through the common room, which was busier now than it had been earlier, and slipped quietly into our room.

Haji picked his head up off his pillow to glare at me. “You took your own sweet time getting back.”

I shrugged, unlaced my boots and slipped into the bed with him, pushing him out of the center so I could have a little room. He threw a patched blanket at me and rolled over. His snores quickly followed.

Sleep found me with little resistance. Blissful, wonderful, beautiful sleep.

Scratching, knocking, whispering.

I pulled myself out of sleep just enough to assess what was going on, but my ears heard nothing.

So I let myself slip back into blissful darkness.

I was back in Sky City, back where I belonged. Happy. I was happy. And loved. Yes. I was loved. And needed. So needed. Yes. I was content.

Are you there?

I reached out in question with my mind.
Who?

Who else?
Came the reply.

Something lurched inside of me. I knew who that was.

Something slimy latched onto me. Varik.

I pulled myself out of sleep and shot straight up in the bed, slamming the shields of my mind into place. I had no idea how much he’d been able to glean or if he would be able to track me through that sky-felled connection. I slipped out of bed, grabbed my boots and sword and headed to the window, all the while trying to calm myself. After all that training, I would slip while sleeping? Would I ever be free of Nix if I couldn’t even relax enough to sleep?

However, the next morning, it seemed as though I’d stayed up all night for no reason.

Keeley decided that she would go to the market and gather supplies. Since she was supposed to be deaf, Haji thought it would be best if we both went with her.

If Varik was sniffing our trail, I needed to stay close to them. We might have to escape rather quickly.

The market was two stories up, and the air was cleaner. Keeley ordered several things, food mostly, and some other things. We grabbed some meat rolls. The bread around the outside was crisp and gooey at the same time. I had no idea how they’d managed that feat, but it was amazing.

We finished and were about to head back to our
lethara
to check the loading of our supplies when a chill went through me. Varik was here, and he was close.

I scanned the crowd as I shuffled Keeley through the market, pulling her away from vendors she’d meant to visit after the “work” was done.

She twisted around and frowned, signing something.

I bent down, put my lips to her ear and murmured, “Varik.”

She straightened, on high alert.

Haji looked at me in askance, not hearing what I’d told Keeley, but after reading something in my eyes, he said nothing and turned his gaze outward, cutting a path through the thick press of people with ease.

We’d managed to make it to one of the rope bridges that led down to the next level. There was a group of guards crossing it, their expressions intense, their walk brisk. They were on a mission.

I tugged on Haji’s shirt and pointed to the other rope bridge that led to the platform on the same level, just another trunk away.

He nodded and cut a swath through the crowd.

The guards were stopping everyone in the market, demanding to see their papers, but they were also pulling the shirts off of some of the men to bare their chests. They were searching for my Mark.

We were so screwed.