Skykeep (20 page)

Nita turned to find that two of the other
inmates had been sidling closer, and Lil had finally decided they
were getting too close for comfort in light of the current
conversation. They were dressed in the same outfit as the rest of
the prisoners, but pinned to the front of each of their shirts was
a black rose. Something about the pair made Nita’s skin crawl, and
she quickly realized what it was. They were the Ebonwhite brothers,
and they were the spitting image of their uncle, the man whose
refusal to help treat Nita’s mother had resulted in her place among
the crew.

“What were you discussing?” asked the first
of the brothers. He was a hair taller than the other, and the
grunts had identified him as Lars. “Because you seemed to be
speaking
awfully
quietly for a simple conversation.”

“We were discussing how those clouds look a
lot like your faces,” Lil said.

“Those clouds don’t look anything like our
faces,” said the second brother, Nils.

“They will after I’m done pounding you for
not minding your own business,” Lil growled.

Lars glanced aside briefly, then took a step
forward, an infuriating smirk of superiority on his face. “I don’t
believe you have the intestinal fortitude to act upon such a
threat. You are a weak, posturing little imbecile.”

“Oh, you wanna bet? You lousy
purple-breathing—” Lil snapped, stalking forward with fire in her
eyes.

“Lil, no,” Nita said, hauling her back.

“You heard what he said!” Lil growled.

“Lil, there’s a guard right there, and three
snipers have got you in their sights. Ebonwhite is trying to coax
you into another trip to isolation at best, if not getting you
gunned down.”

Her angry crewmate glanced aside to find one
of the guards approaching.

“
Oooh
,” Lil said. “So you’re
that
scared of me, you want the guard to do your dirty work.
I knew I was intimidating. I didn’t know I was
that
intimidating.” She flashed a cocky smile. “Good to know.”

“Is there a problem here?” barked the guard
as he reached them.

“I am
quite
certain these two surface
dwellers were attempting to plot something,” Lars said. “I suggest
you keep them under tighter surveillance.”

“Yes.” Nils nodded. “They were talking about
having a gun hidden in their quarters. You should search it!”

“Oh, so you’re a couple of
snitches
,
too? And not even good ones. That isn’t
close
to what we
were talking about,” Lil said. She turned to the guard. “Search
away. And when you’re done not finding anything, remember who it
was who told you to waste your time.”

“If the four of you are going to be trouble
together, separate now or we’ll have to separate you
ourselves.”

“Gladly,” remarked Lars. “I would not dream
of consorting with such a boorish ruffian for any longer than I
deemed necessary to aid you fine jailers in administering proper
justice.”

“A brownnose shows up
extra
good on a
pale face like that,” Lil jabbed.

“Just disperse or I’ll inform Assistant
Warden Blanc that you’ve all been making trouble,” the guard
threatened, pointing at the man in question.

The appearance of the assistant warden was
enough to convince the Ebonwhites to withdraw. After lingering long
enough to be sure they had moved to a reasonable distance, the
guard gave Nita and Lil a firm look and returned to the shelter of
the shade.

Lil eyed Asst. Warden Blanc, the wheels in
her head visibly turning.

“I’ve got an idea. Stick close but not too
close, be ready to catch something, and I might not be home for
dinner tonight.”

“What are you, wait!” Nita said, but it was
clear Lil had ceased taking input on the issue.

Lil marched toward Blanc. “Hey! Can I talk to
you for a second?”

“Back off,” he growled.

“I just have a question,” Lil said. She
subtly waved her hand behind her, gesturing Nita into position.

“I don’t care what you have! Back away,” he
repeated, threat in his voice.

Nita glanced to the towers. Every
sharpshooter in position was taking aim, and two guards were
approaching her. Lil either didn’t know or didn’t care. When she
was near enough to touch him, he drew and raised his baton, placing
the other hand on the grip of his pistol. She took the opportunity
to reach forward and hook a small brass chain dangling from Blanc’s
pocket. With a quick jerk of the chain, she caused his watch to
flip out into the air. As it was twirling above her, she pivoted on
one foot, twisting out of the way of his swinging baton and facing
Nita. In a masterpiece of sleight of hand, she retrieved the stale
bread from her waistband, caught the watch, and dropped the bread
in its place. She flipped the watch in Nita’s direction at the same
time that she reared back and kicked the bread. From just about any
angle but Nita’s, it would have taken a sharp eye to realize that
it wasn’t the watch that had been sent hurtling off the edge of the
courtyard and into the fug below. And it was unlikely anyone had
spared a glance to notice the switch, or to see Nita catch and hide
the pocket watch, because they were too distracted by what was
about to occur.

Blanc swung the baton a second time, and this
time it connected. Though the blow undeniably had some force behind
it, Lil clearly put a bit more into her performance than the attack
deserved, practically leaping to the side and throwing herself to
the ground. The two guards converged on her and yanked her from the
ground, forcing her arms behind her back.

“That’s it! Isolation! Take her away!” Blanc
ordered.

Lil put up a cursory struggle but couldn’t
quite keep the smile from her face as she was dragged backward
through the parting crowd.

“That woman is insane. I’ve said it a dozen
times,” muttered Blanc. “What possible reason could she have for
destroying a perfectly good watch?”

Donald and Kent paced over, watching as Lil
was brought through the gates to the isolation cell and loaded
inside.

“What was that for? What did you talk about
that made her do that?” Kent asked.

“Honestly,” Nita said, her heart still
drumming in her chest from how quickly that had happened. “I… just
don’t know what gets into her sometimes. She’s fearless, which
isn’t always a good thing.” She carefully tightened the cord
supporting her trousers to ensure the watch in her waistband didn’t
slip. “Though it has paid off in the past.”

“Listen!” called out Blanc. “Because Inmate
Cooper chose to destroy the watch that I use to keep track of your
mandatory yard time, I suppose you’ll just have to stay out here
until a new shift supervisor takes my place. And that won’t be for
another three hours. You have Cooper to thank.”

There was a murmur of anger at the further
consequences of the stunt, but Donald and Kent seemed to remain in
high spirits.

“You aren’t angry about that?” Nita said.

“If we have to stay up here that long, it
means so do the guards. If they’re miserable, I’m happy,” Kent
said.

“Likewise,” Donald agreed.

The three of them chatted for a while longer,
but in time Donald’s mind wandered and he paced over to talk to
some of the other inmates. Kent followed, leaving Nita alone once
again. Part of her wanted to keep a low profile in order to make
certain, or at least do her best to make certain, that she didn’t
attract any attention and thus the watch was not discovered. But
after seeing what Lil was willing to do in order to get them one
step closer to escape, she felt she would be remiss if she didn’t
put forth a similar effort.

She scanned the courtyard and swiftly spotted
Blanche. As one of the only females, Nita had expected her to be
perpetually surrounded by suitors, and in a prison that wasn’t a
pleasant thought. Instead, she was almost always alone, or at best
on the outskirts of one of the other groups. Perhaps her surly
attitude wasn’t reserved for surface dwellers like Nita… Then
again, Nita and Lil had been left alone thus far as well. It was
only the second day, and their imposing reputations could have had
quite a bit to do with that, but it was still curious. Perhaps fug
folks tended not to have tastes outside their own kind. Or perhaps
they simply didn’t place as high a focus on romance and its less
genteel counterparts. It would certainly explain why, if the
grunts’ estimate was correct, there were fewer fug folk overall
than there were people in Keystone alone.

Nita set the puzzle aside and returned to the
task at hand. She needed to know if Blanche knew about the
aye-ayes, and if the rest of the staff and prison population
didn’t.
There was a fairly direct way to go about it, but it
was a tremendous gamble. The fact that the fug folk still clearly
assumed no one on the surface knew about the true role of the
inspectors was key to not only the
Wind Breaker
’s continued
success, but its continued survival. If she showed those cards now,
the consequences would be dire… but if she didn’t get out of here
soon, the next even minor clash the
Wind Breaker
had could
damage her beyond functionality, and the crew’s journey would end,
probably messily. She had to take the chance.

She paced over to the base of one of the
towers, the one nearest to Blanche, and pulled the tap code to
mind.

The fug folk thought we didn’t know about
this. The fug folk were fools to think that, she tapped on the
support.

Blanche’s head snapped in Nita’s direction
and their eyes met. She had a look of barely contained shock and
confusion on her face. No one else in the cluster of people near
her turned, and a quick glance around revealed that not a single
other member of the staff, and none of the prisoners, seemed to
assign any sort of meaning to the rattles and taps. Nita stepped
toward her.

“I think you and I have something to
discuss,” Nita said, her voice low enough to not be heard by any of
the others.

Blanche nodded and paced after Nita as they
moved to an unoccupied bit of shade a short distance away. Nita
intended to start the conversation, but the first question was
Blanche’s.

“How long have you known?” she asked.

“I worked it out shortly after I joined the
crew. It took a few months to figure out the tap code well enough
to communicate.”

“It was bound to happen eventually. Even with
all the secrecy. It’s… we’ve always done all we could to encourage
the simple assumption that the aye-ayes aren’t any more intelligent
than any other trained animal, and they were such a constant on
airships people seldom had any cause to even notice their presence.
They were tools, furniture…”

“I can’t help but notice you’re the only one
who turned your head,” Nita said.

“Do you think it would have remained a secret
for long if it was general knowledge? Most of our people are as
ignorant of the deeper value of the aye-ayes as your people. I’m
sure there are theories and suspicions among the others, but only
communications supervisors, trainers, and regional overseers know
the whole truth. Less than three people in every city, generally.
Maybe two dozen people overall. I’d wager the only other person in
the Phylactery who knows is one of the messengers up in the central
tower. Though I assume that’s changing by the day, now that you’ve
figured it out.”

“No. We’re keeping the secret.”

“… Why? Without the inspectors—”

“I know, but the captain has his reasons, and
I’m not sure I entirely disagree with them.”

“Then why reveal it to me?”

“Because it never hurts to know a little more
about something.”

Blanche gave Nita a measuring gaze. “I didn’t
think the surface dwellers were terribly interested in
education.”

“And I didn’t think that there were any fug
folk with empathy and respect for anyone but themselves, so it
seems we’re both learning things today.”

“What makes you think I would willingly help
you? I have no interest in helping you destroy my people.”

“As you began to point out, if we wanted to
destroy your people, we already know everything we need to do it.
Right now all I want to do is get out of here.”

“And you think a few details about aye-ayes
will do the job?”

“I don’t know, but I know it will do me more
good than
not
knowing. Tell me again how many years have you
been locked up?”

“Seven.”

“Do you imagine they’ll ever let you
out?”

“I don’t imagine they’ll ever let anyone
out.”

“Then what have you got to gain by keeping
their secrets? And what have you got to lose by sharing them?”

“… If I tell you what you need to know, even
if it doesn’t make one
ounce
of difference in your escape
plans, I want you to take me with you.”

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to convince
the captain.”

“Then I don’t know that I’ll be able to tell
you anything.”

Nita eyed her would-be informant, who looked
back with defiance and the gleam in her eye that betrayed a
fondness for being in a position of power over someone else. It
seemed she wasn’t
entirely
devoid of the negative qualities
so often associated with the fug folk.

“Fine. But that means no limits. It is in
your best interest to offer any help you can, or else
none
of us are getting out.”

“Agreed. So, where would you have me
begin?”

“Let us begin with what exactly your
involvement is with the inspectors, and why you got locked up.”

“I am a trainer…
was
a trainer. I was
responsible for selecting the most intelligent of the infant
aye-ayes and teaching them the language and the communication
protocols. I was locked up because they were introducing a new
shorthand to help speed up and condense communication, and I just
couldn’t remember it. I wrote down a few of the key phrases to help
me memorize them, but the standing order was that we were under no
circumstances permitted to record them in any way. I’d… not been
overly cooperative with some of my supervisor’s policies in the
past, so he parlayed my minor offense into some absurd plot about
me creating a
handbook
of terms that I was intending to sell
to the highest bidder.” She shook her head and muttered something
not quite audible that sounded rather rude, then curled her lips
into a wry smile. “The worst slap to the face was that they didn’t
even end up
using
the shorthand. The inspectors just didn’t
take to it.”