Hope and Red (42 page)

“I…” She looked at him with something close to awe. “Yes. I will. I swear it on the truth of the universal God that I will serve her until my last breath.”

“Good,” said Red.

“Red, no, please don't do this.” Hope struggled to her feet, her face pinched and wan. She swayed and Red caught her. “Please don't leave your fate in their hands.”

“Listen, old pot,” he said quietly, forcing a smile as he held her in his arms. “This is all crystal. We either both die today. Or we both live apart.”

“Red…” Her face twisted up. “I wish I had—”

“Hey, just for a little while.” He didn't know what she'd been about to say, but he could barely hold on to this brave face as it was. One more thing might tip him over.

He gently handed Hope to Brigga Lin. “Her ship is called the
Lady's Gambit
. Get her to our people. And fix her up.”

Brigga Lin drew herself up to her full height and nodded curtly. “I will.”

Red turned back to the biomancer council. The biomancer in the center raised his hand, and the soldiers shifted to either side, leaving the doorway to the stairs open.

Hope drew herself up and shook off Brigga Lin's support. She gave Red one last look, then turned and walked slowly down the steps. Brigga Lin followed closely behind, her hands outstretched, ready to catch Hope if she stumbled. And it was that last sight that gave Red some tiny bit of comfort that they would be all right.

He watched until they were completely out of sight. Then he turned back to the line of hooded old men. “Alright you creepy gafs. I'm yours.”

31

I
t was a long walk back to the
Lady's Gambit
. The sun was already in the sky by the time they arrived. Hope had insisted on leaving the palace without help, but now she leaned heavily on Brigga Lin, a sheen of sweat on her forehead.

It seemed the crew had been up all night waiting, because the moment she was in view, they jumped off the ship and rushed down the dock toward her, talking over each other.

“Where's Red?” asked Sadie.

“Where's your pissing
hand
?” asked Nettles.

“I-I can fix her,” stammered Brigga Lin, looking oddly intimidated by the cluster of concerned people around them. “Red made me promise to fix her.”

“Where in piss'ell is
Red
?” Sadie said again.

“They took him, Sadie,” said Hope, her voice weak. “They took our Red.”

Sadie's face went pale, and her mouth set. “That stupid, stupid boy.”

“I didn't want…him…to come…” Another wave of dizziness swept over Hope, and the ground rushed up. But she heard a
clank
of metal, and two strong hands caught her. She looked into Filler's big, open face.

“I've got you, Captain,” he said.

“Filler…” Her voice broke. Her fingers moved lightly across his hairy cheek. “He saved us. He traded himself.”

“Then we'll just have to steal him back, won't we, Captain?” He carried her onto the ship and back to the captain's quarters. Every other step was a clank, and Hope realized he was wearing the metal brace that he and Alash had constructed. He laid her down on the bunk.

“How can you possibly fix her?” Alash asked Brigga Lin.

“I am—I
was
a biomancer.”

The group erupted in angry shouts.

“But
now
”—Hope cut in, her voice hard as she mustered enough strength to sit up on her own— “Now, she's one of us. Keen?”

They all fell silent.

Then Missing Finn said, “You heard the captain. That's how it is now.”

Hope put her hand on Finn's shoulder. “Thank you, Mr. Finn.”

“So how
are
you going to fix her?” Alash asked.

“I just need a limb to replace it,” she said. “Perhaps an animal limb…”

“No! No beast parts!” snapped Hope, thinking of Ranking, of the owl people, of those soldiers who had been transformed. She wanted nothing to do with that. She pointed at Filler's metal knee brace and turned to Alash. “You make me something.”

His eyes widened and then his face grew serious. “Right away, Captain. I should have thought of it myself.”

“Think of it now,” she said.

Over the next few days, Hope slipped in and out of consciousness. Brigga Lin came in frequently to push foul-smelling potions on her, saying it would help restore her after the blood loss. Filler and Alash would come in now and then to take measurements or discuss some element of the prosthesis design with her.

Once she was feeling well enough, she told Sadie and Nettles every detail of how Red had saved her not once, but twice in a single night.

“So you're sure they won't kill him or torture him?” asked Sadie.

Hope shook her head. “They spoke as if he was one of the most important people in the empire.”

“But you know what those biomancers are capable of,” said Nettles. “They'll do something to him, true as trouble.”

Hope did know, but it was abundantly clear she could not defeat the biomancer council.

After they left, she lay in her bunk, the yellow light of the fading sun spilling through the porthole. She'd always avoided staying in the captain's quarters before, and now she knew why. Sitting here in this small, neat room reminded her of loss. Carmichael, of course. But that in turn made her think of Hurlo, and her parents. And now Red. She could still see him in that last moment, giving her a grin as if she didn't know him well enough by now to see it was forced. A pain welled up inside that she'd never felt before. She missed him already, and it hurt more than any loss before it.

Filler's words came back to her:
We'll just have to steal him back, won't we?
And he was right. This was one person the biomancers had taken that she could still take back. She just needed to figure out how.

A short time later, Brigga Lin came in with another of her unpleasant tonics. This one made Hope drowsy, and soon she drifted to sleep. In her dreams, she and Red were back outside the palace walls. He was looking at her with that sweet, agonized expression and he said,
We have a choice. We can be whatever we like.

When she woke, she knew what she must do.

The next day, Alash and Filler gathered everyone in Hope's cabin and proudly presented the prosthesis. They had converted the leather arm sheath from the pole mechanism and installed a hinge above that where her wrist had been. Then they fixed a clamp at the end of the hinge, big enough to hold her sword.

“Now we get to the complicated bit,” said Alash. “The hinge has full rotation, as you requested.” He demonstrated by rolling the clamp around. “And it can also lock into place when necessary, also as you requested.”

“Sounds good so far.” Hope watched Filler carefully slide the sheath over her stump and strap it in place.

“Here's the part you won't like,” said Alash. “We can use the same catch-and-release system that Filler and I designed for his knee, but you'll have to operate it with your other hand.”

Hope shook her head. “I'll need the other hand. Find a different way.”

“There
is
no other way.” Alash's face flushed with frustration.

“Perhaps I can help?” asked Brigga Lin.

“No beast parts,” said Hope.

“No,” agreed Brigga Lin. She held out her hand to Filler, who wordlessly handed Hope's sheathed arm to her. She pointed to the metal wires. “Let me make sure I understand this mechanism correctly. It appears that if there was adjustable flex tension along this line, that would lock the hinge when and where necessary, at any point in the rotation?”

“Yeah,” said Filler. “But how would you set that tension without using the other hand?”

“By fusing it to her tendons. Then she would control it with the same reflex she would normally use to rotate her wrist. A comparable motion.”

“Combining man and machine?” whispered Alash, looking at once shocked and fascinated.

“Do it,” said Hope.

“The procedure will be intensely painful,” said Brigga Lin. “Perhaps we should wait until you've had more time to regain your health.”

“Do it now.”

She looked at Filler. He looked back at her helplessly. “You heard the captain.”

“Fine,” said Brigga Lin, crisp and businesslike. “Give her a strip of leather to bite so she doesn't break her teeth or chew out her tongue.”

Filler pulled off his belt, folded it in half, and held it out to Hope. She bit down on it, then nodded to Brigga Lin.

The pain was twice that of cutting off her own hand. It burrowed in deep beneath her flesh and coiled up until it felt like metal wires were being inserted into every muscle in her arm. She screamed through the belt until her voice was hoarse. But she didn't pass out. She refused to pass out. She would see this through as she had seen every terrible thing. The fact that she was the one suffering made no difference. She would never look away.

Finally, Brigga Lin stepped back, dabbing at her nose, which had started to bleed again. They let Hope catch her breath. Nettles forced her to drink some water. Then Alash and Filler completed the mechanical portion. And it was done.

Hope rose slowly from the bunk, steadying herself on the edge with her regular hand. She lifted up her new hand and gazed at it with satisfaction. “I need room.”

She walked slowly toward the doorway. Filler offered to help, but she shook her head and continued on her own. Once she was out on the quarter deck, she said quietly, “My sword.”

They had all followed cautiously behind her. Nettles handed her the sword, then stepped back with the others.

Hope fastened the hilt to her clamp. She twisted her arm, and the Song of Sorrows cut through the night sky. It still sang, but the tone was different now. Darker, yes, but smoother as well. She snapped it one way, then the other, in a smooth figure eight movement that made one long, mournful hum. Then she twisted her wrist, and the sword locked into place, pointing upward. It felt more a part of her than ever before. She smiled and held the blade up close to her face. In its reflection, she saw her crew standing behind her.

She lowered her blade and turned to them.

“I dedicated my life to avenging those who were already dead.” She shook her head. “It makes so little sense to me now.”

They looked at each other, not grasping where she was headed with this. She didn't blame them.

“I will get Red back,” she continued. “I cannot beat the Council of Biomancery head-on. Not yet. So I will attack their extremities. I will hack them apart, bit by bit, one biomancer or imperial ship at a time. If I must, I will tear this empire down until there is nothing left standing except Red, free. I will be a dark wind of chaos that wipes it all away so that something better can take its place.”

“Hope…,” said Sadie.

“There is no Hope. Not anymore. From now on, they will know me as Dire Bane.”

She looked at each of them in turn. Sadie, Missing Finn, Filler, Nettles, Alash, and Brigga Lin. “Are you with me?”

It was Nettles who dropped to one knee first. “Dire Bane, champion of the people and scourge of the empire, I'm with you.”

Filler quickly followed, his metal knee squeaking as he knelt. “I'm with you.”

“I abhor violence,” said Alash as he knelt, “but if it saves my cousin, I'm with you.”

“I was hoping for a quiet retirement,” said Sadie. “But I reckon I'd get bored of that fast anyway. I'm with you. I ain't going to kneel, though. I wouldn't be able to get back up.”

“If Sadie's with you, then so am I,” said Missing Finn. “Besides, I've gotten a little sotted with this ship. And if it's pirating we're to be doing, she'll need to be refitted with cannons.”

Hope turned to Brigga Lin, the newest member of the crew.

“Red made you swear to help me. And you have. This course we plan to follow will be hard. If you want to leave now, I will consider your oath fulfilled.”

Brigga Lin's dark eyes were unreadable. “Red's generosity in bargaining for my life when he hardly knew me—indeed when he had cause to hate me—is more kindness than I have known in my life. I will not consider my oath fulfilled until Red is free or I am dead.” She curtseyed low.

Hope swiveled her sword to point down and set the tip on the wooden deck. “We'll be pirates, then. And woe to any who cross our path.”

Red stood at the window, gazing out over the building tops of Stonepeak. He had not realized until now just how far he could see. He watched as the
Lady's Gambit
glided out to sea, no imperial ships in pursuit.

“Alright, I reckon you made good on your promise,” he said.

“Do you think that you will remember her when we are done with you?” asked the dusty voice. “Do you think you will even be
you
?”

Red turned to look at the hooded figure who hadn't left his side and didn't seem to need food or sleep. “What else would I be?”

The biomancer pulled back his hood to reveal a face as hard and jagged as the rock on which the palace stood. With stone lips that barely moved, he said, “When we are finished with you, you will not even be a man. You will be a shadow of death.”