The Stolen Child (29 page)

The girl tailed off, her eyes settling on some point in the far distance again.  Rachael settled down onto her haunches, giving in to her curiosity for a moment.
 

“
You said before that it was always just you and him, right?  No mum.”
 

“
No mum.  Or I never knew her at least,” Arsha said.
 

“
What happened?”
 

Arsha considered the question.  Rachael heard the town clock chiming in the distance as she waited for the girl to answer.
 

“She died,”
Arsha said at last.
  “
It all happened during t
his big expedition,
some place called Fallen Peak
.  They were supposed to be out there for years, working with one of the Outsider kingdoms.  
She was a researcher on the team, and I guess they got together and I was born
.  But the
n the
re was this big war or something, and a lot of people died.  He made it out with a few of the others from the expedition,
but s
he didn't."

“
So he took care of you, all on his own.”
 

“Until he
started travelling
with Abasi and Milima, yeah.  
At least, t
hat's how they told it.  I don't remember any of it though. I was just a baby,
I mean
.  I asked about her, of course.  He told me a
bit
, but I could see how much it hurt when he tried to talk about her, so after a while I
guess I
just stopped asking."

Rachael nodded, a strange feeling growing in the pit of her stomach.  As the silence deepened, Arsha slowly rocked back and forth in quiet agitation.
 

“
You know, if you're leaving, you should probably make it quick.  Those other ships will start casting off soon,” the girl said.
 

Rachael found herself turning a curious thought over in her head.  Something that she hadn't ever expected.
 

“Yeah.  
And your dad
going crazy looking for us and all
,”
she said, quietly.
 
Arsha nodded.
 

Rachael felt the strange thought beginning to crystallise.  She found herself thinking of the tiny little loft, with it's battered old couch and chairs.  Of the room they'd given her, small but cosy, with a bed that was soft and warm.  Of Milima's smile as the woman shovelled another helping of food onto her plate.  
The way that Micah laughed so easily.  The smell of the
ship, the creak of it's oak beams and the snap of the sails.
 

She got to her feet
, tightening the straps on her backpack a
gain.
 

“
Guess the sooner we face the music the better then,
”
she
said.
 

Arsha gave her a puzzled look, not quite sure what was happening.  
Rachael almost wanted to laugh as she saw the girl's confused expression.
 

“
Well, you coming or what?” she said.  “If I'm sticking around you gotta help me take some of blame, yeah?”
 

For a moment the silence between them seemed like the loudest thing in the world.  She could hear the carts rattling through the streets, the sound of voices rising up from the market squares, the squawking of birds overhead, all of it humming through the air like the first note of a
song
.  Then Arsha smiled,
and Rachael couldn't help but smile back
.
 
Together the girls slipped down from the rooftop, and made their way back towards the docks.
 

As they arrived back at the ship, they noticed a commotion ahead.  A crowd seemed to have formed around the dock where
t
he Triskelion was berthed.  
At first Arsha thought they wouldn't even be able to make it to the ship, but Rachael took her hand and lead her through the crowd, slipping through gaps and shouldering people aside with a few mumbled apologies until they were through.
 

As they cleared the last of the crowd Arsha let out a horrified gasp.  At the foot of the dock, where the Triskelion was berthed, were half a dozen men in long grey coats, rifles slung across their backs and swords hanging from their belts.
 

Up on the deck she saw
Abasi and her father speaking to a lean and dark haired man, his coat jet black, trimmed with silver filigree
.  
He was flanked by what she took be another four guards at first, until she saw their spindly bodies and blank faces, plates of creamy white porcelain set over skeletons of brass and steel.  They stood perfectly still, perfectly straight, like statues.
 

“
Who's that guy?” Rachael whispered.
 

“
He's an inquisition agent,” Arsha said, wetting her lips nervously.  “That's what the coat means.  Those guys are Guild soldiers.  Greycoats.”
 

“
You can tell all that from the coats?”
 

“
Black for inquisition, grey for anyone else who's officially working for the Guild.”
 

“
Like a police uniform?” Rachael said.
 

Arsha nodded.  T
he conversation seemed to be winding down between the three men.  They shook hands, and the man in the
black
coat gave
them a curt nod as he left
.  It was only when
the inquisitor's back was turned
that she saw
a flicker of anger in her father's expression.
 

As the man walked away the mechanical figures sprang smoothly into life, forming up around the man in perfect formation.
 

“Those things are alive?” Rachael gasped.

“
They're a
utoms,” Arsha
replied.  The inquisitor reached the foot of the ramp and the greycoats fell in line behind him as he marched towards the crowd.  As the entourage approached a space immediately formed.  Rachael pulled them back into the press of bodies as people jostled each other to move aside.  Soon they were invisible behind the onlookers as the man and his soldiers passed them by.  Even buried in the crowd, Arsha could hear the soft clicking of the autom's feet against the cobblestones, the sound seeming to cut through everything.
 

“
So, they're l
ike your bird
then
?”
Rachael said, still staring in the direction of the passing entourage.
 

Arsha grimaced.

“Sort of.  These ones are used as servants and stuff.”

“Is that bad?”

Arsha shrugged.

“Dad says people only use them as guards when they don't trust real people to follow orders.”

“They're not armed.”

“Well... They don't really have to be.  
Automs that big can break a sword in one hand
.  
Or, you know... Your arm.
”

“Oh.”

Then Arsha felt a
movement in the crowd behind them,
and
turned to see Milima standing
over them
.  
Milima said nothing, but her eyes followed the procession as it disappeared into the streets of Westfall.  When the inquisitor and his guards had vanished from view, Milima turned her eyes back to the girls. Arsha could already tell that her furious expression wasn't solely directed at their visitor.  Milima nodded towards the ship and gestured for the girls to head in.
 

Soon they were sitting around the table in the mess hall.  Abasi and her father were at one end of the table with Rachael and Arsha sat across from them, whilst Milima stood in the doorway.  On the table in front of where her father sat there was a letter with a wax seal, now broken.

“I suppose I expected as much,”
her father
said, looking at Rachael as he drummed his fingers on the table.  With her arms folded in front of her, Rachael glared back defiantly.

“Milima must have scoured half of Westfall looking for you two,”
h
e continued.  “Ilona and Micah too... They were at the outskirts when they heard you were back.  I suppose they'll be with us soon.  
As he turned his eyes towards her Arsha could already feel his disapproval, and his disappointment.
 

“Good of you to make them do all the work,” Rachael snarled
back at him, not backing down even a little.
 

“The 'work' Abasi and I were constrained by involved keeping a representative of the
Inquisition
from dragging you off in a pair of shackles.  If you're wondering why I was so adamant that you both
stay on the ship
, that would be one of the reasons why.  I understand you have little reason to respect my instructions, but you might perhaps try to make it a little easier for me to keep you safe.  And Arsha, I'm even more disappointed in you.  I can't imagine why I spent good money on a sending stone for you if you're not going to answer it when I call.”

“Hey,
leave her out of it
,” Rachael interjected.  “
It was me that talked her into sneaking out
.”

“
And I agreed, so it's still my fault.  I'm really sorry Daddy,” Arsha said, a hollow sensation filling her stomach as she stared down at the tabletop.
 

Her father
scowled.

“
All right.  
We'll talk about this later,”
h
e said.  Arsha
gave a quiet nod
.  There was a loud 'clang' as Milima dropped a kettle onto the stove.

“So if that's settled,” the woman said, “why don't you tell us what our visitor wanted, Rishi?”

A scowl flickered across
her father
's face, but only for an instant.

“
Our 'visitor' was Sir Reuben Ben Mahir
.  
He's following up 'certain lines of inquiry' regarding the recent events in London, and wanted
to ask
a few questions,
”
he
said, bitterly.

“
So Manindra didn't pay off the right people after all
?” Milima said.

“
I don't know.  Ben Mahir is an odd character.  Something of a
renegade from what I understand.  I have a feeling he got hold of the official story and smelled a lie.  Now he's interested in our angle, and Manindra's.”
 

“
What if we just told him the truth?” Arsha said.  “That it was all Lord Bhandari's fault.  That we were just trying to stop him.”
 

“
No matter how noble our intentions may have been, Arsha, the fact is we still broke a lot of laws doing what we did.  And, more troublingly, right now we are the only witnesses to what exactly Manindra was doing in London... Just as the Bhandari boys are the only witnesses to what we did.  Reuben doesn't seem to be much interested in whose side anyone was on... In fact I rather think he believes Manindra and I were working together on this.”
 

“
Why would he think that?  You hate Manindra,” Arsha said.
 

“
Manindra and I have a history, yes.  That's rather the problem.  All Reuben sees is two men with a past connection, now both complicit in the same crime.  To anyone looking at this from the outside, it is the rather obvious assumption.”
 

“
What I'd like to know is how Sir Ben Mahir even knew to find us here,” Milima said.
 

“
Manindra told him,” her father said.  “All Reuben would say was that Lord Bhandari 'had word of our last known destination'.  Presumably his boys sent a message from the Jyoti with our heading when we left London.  It wouldn't take much to infer that Westfall was the most likely stop-off.”
 

“
Really?  Manindra told him?” Milima asked, surprised.  Her husband nodded gravely.
 

“
Yes.  Speaking to Lord Bhandari was, naturally, the young inquisitor's first step in his investigation.  Manindra was most cooperative.  Fed the man a pack of lies and then sent him our way.  He even asked young Sir Ben Mahir to pass this along.”
 

He picked up the letter from the table.
 

“He wished to inform me in person that he's heard about the 'unfortunate business' I
was recently
involved in, and wishes to invite me to visit him on his estate, to see if there's some way he can 'assist' in rectifying the situation.”

“
Seven, he's practically written your confession for you.  Reuben's read this, I suppose,” Milima said.
 

“
As any good inquisitor would.  He was nice enough to reseal it after he was done, of course.  Manindra's poisoning the well; strengthening the appearance of a connection between us so that I couldn't even try to testify against him if I wanted to.  At this point, if he goes down for this, Abasi and I go with him.”
 

“The gall of the man,” Abasi growled.  His wife just shook her head.

“
It's all part of his long play.  Mark my words.  He's keeping me from going to Reuben or anyone else in the Guild, at least until he can get whatever he's after.  That might involve Rachael, though at this point I'm not even sure if he still needs her.  It definitely involves the Seed.  That I'm certain of.”
 

“
Certain?  Rishi, you're guessing at best.  We have no idea what the old man's real plan is,” Abasi said.
 

“
True, it is mostly guesswork, though not without reason, and I certainly wouldn't mind filling a few of the details,” her
father replied.  “
Which is
exactly
why we're going to accept
Manindra's
invitation.”