The Tinkerer's Daughter (18 page)

I threw my head around, trying to take in everything at once. A stream emerged from the woods on the eastern side of the palace, where it flowed under a small bridge and through the courtyard, ending in a small pond at the center of the lawn. A path beyond the bridge led into the woods. On the far side of the lawn, to my left, I saw Tal’mar children training. Most of them seemed to be my age, or a few years older at most, and they were both male and female. They were organized into small groups, some practicing archery and other fighting with sticks and wooden swords. Two more groups were engaged in some sort of meditation, and I could tell that they were using magic.

I suddenly realized that my powers had returned. I had been so overwhelmed by everything around me, that I hadn’t even realized it until that moment. Immediately I started to reach out with my mind, searching for Cinder. The guard swung around and put a hand on the hilt of his sword.

“Don’t do that,” he said.

I reigned myself in. I had forgotten that they could sense it when I used my powers. The peacekeeper had hit me for it. “Why?” I said.

“It is forbidden. Your kind is forbidden. Do not make pretenses that you are greater than you are.”

“Pretenses?” It dawned on me then why they didn’t want me to use my abilities. It wasn’t because they thought I might escape, it was because I was human to them, and I wasn’t worthy of the magic I possessed. “I don’t pretend to be anything but what I am!” I snapped. “And I will use all that I was born with!”

“No doubt you will.” I spun around as I heard a familiar female voice. It was Malina, the woman who had healed me. Only now she wasn’t wearing a simple robe. She was dressed in a long elegant gown. It was made from some sort of green, shimmering fabric, and the cuffs and front were decorated with silver vines.

“Your highness,” the guard bowed low, and she nodded in his direction. I stood there with my mouth hanging open as I witnessed this. It appeared that Malina was more than the simple, kind healer she had pretended to be.

“Leave us alone, Chauce.” I saw a glimmer of protest in his eyes, but he clamped his mouth shut and scurried off towards the gate. Malina turned aside. “Let us walk, Breeze.” She started to drift across the lawn, and I fell in at her side.

“Are you the queen?” I asked.

She smiled and shook her head gracefully… everything about her was graceful. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. “I am not the queen, I am her daughter. You’ll forgive my deceit. I needed to find answers, and it seemed the most prudent way. I hope you understand. Sometimes nothing else is adequate.”

I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I didn’t argue. I was trying to figure out what she wanted with me, and why she had come to see me at all. Had the guards told her about me?

“Your name isn’t Malina,” I said. “It’s Brisha, right?” I knew that much from my reading.

“That is correct.”

“I have a message for the queen, your highness.” I just barely remembered to tack that last part on. If it hadn’t been for the guard, I probably wouldn’t have. I didn’t make a very good ambassador. “The peacekeeper took it…”

The princess produced the treaty, seemingly out of nowhere. “I believe this was what you were delivering?” She handed it to me, and I glanced it over.

“Yes, your highness.”

“Hold your thoughts for the moment. We will discuss this in a more private setting.”

I followed her across the lawn and into the palace. I was again awestricken as we climbed the stairs and I got to see the structure up close. The stairs, the columns, and the walls all appeared to be some sort of marble, but the surfaces were highly polished and treated with that silvery glass. When glancing across the surface I could see the texture of the stone, yet when the light hit it just right, it looked like polished metal.

We passed through the entrance and into the main hall. There was no ceiling in this room, but rather an open view of the staircase spiraling ever higher into one of the spires. The walls were white, carved in the same brilliant relief as the outer palace wall, and accentuated with dark wooden trim. I saw a few Tal’mar servants hustling around inside the palace, but none of them took any note of me. They were busy with their duties.

Brisha led me across the main hall and through a doorway at the far end. The brilliance faded, and I found myself walking down a long, dark hallway that was barely lit by flickering candles. The floor here was wood, and covered by long rugs. The walls were smooth polished wood, decorated with trim that bore carvings of flowers and vines. Doors sprouted out in both directions the entire length of the hallway, until it turned off in some other direction in the distance.

She paused at one of the doors, and opened it with a simple gesture. I felt the spark of magic as it happened, and realized for the first time how powerful she was. The tiny, thoughtless action on her part sent a shockwave through me. It was nothing to her, but to me it was like feeling a slight burn and looking up to see the sun falling down. Her power was like that; like a huge ball of fire, the size and strength of which I couldn’t begin to imagine.

I entered the room with a bit more apprehension now that I understood just how powerful the princess was. It didn’t matter if I was younger or faster. I couldn’t outrun that kind of power. The instant the door closed, she threw her arms around me. “Oh Breeze, is it really you?”

I was speechless. She held me for a few seconds and then pulled back, putting her hands on my cheeks and staring into my eyes. “I can hardly believe it,” she said. “I didn’t dare hope!”

“What… do you mean?” I stammered. My mind flashed over everything we’d discussed, but none of it made sense of this. Then I remembered… my father had been a diplomat. He must have known the princess. In fact, he may have discussed treaties with her. “Did you know my father?”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Yes, of course! Of course I knew your father!” Then the smile faded. “Oh Breeze, I’m so sorry about your father. It was not my wish to have him recalled into duty. General Corsan did that. He wanted your father back because of his past diplomatic relations with the Tal’mar. I believe your father may have been the only human with the courage still to come here.”

I saw a great sadness in her face, and I didn’t know if it was for my father or for the lives he couldn’t save when the treaty had failed. It was obvious that she had been a friend to him, so I suspected she was truly saddened by his death. That was reason for me to care about what she thought. She became something more in my mind -more than a Tal’mar, more than a princess. She had been a friend to my father, and so I considered her to be my friend as well.

“It wasn’t bandits,” I said. “The Kanters did it. They have been sabotaging your treaties all along.”

“I know that now,” the princess said. “I should have known it before. It seems so obvious now, doesn’t it? There have been far too many coincidences…” she glanced down at the treaty.

“Then you believe me?” I said. “Will the queen sign the treaty?”

She nodded. “Yes, it’s already done, but I don’t know what good it will do. We will send a regiment of three hundred to supplement your forces, but I fear it will take days for them to catch up. By then, the damage will be done.”

I was flabbergasted. “You’re going to send troops?”

“The order has already been given. Don’t be so surprised. It was hard enough to convince my commanders that it was safe to pull away from the Borderlands. At least this way they have some guarantee that the threat is real, and that we are not simply lowering our defenses. They will march south, and fight alongside men. This hasn’t happened in a thousand years.”

“Thank you,” I said. I forgot myself for a moment, and threw my arms around her. A great weight seemed to have fallen from my shoulders. Somehow, incredibly, I was actually succeeding. All I had to do was get that treaty back to the general.

I thought of my plane, and immediately thought of Cinder. “I had a dog with me,” I said. “Your guards shot her.”

“Ah, yes,” the princess said. Her eyes went distant, and I felt her reaching out. I felt that tingle of magic again, that tiny spark of untapped power

Somewhere across the building, I heard a yelp. A few seconds later, Cinder came tearing into the room. She leapt into my arms and started licking my face, almost knocking me over in the process. I heard the princess laughing, and I shot her a smile.

Eventually I got Cinder settled down and I gave her the command to lie still. “So you’ll let me go, then?” I said. “The guards won’t do anything?”

“The guards won’t harm you,” she said. “I must apologize for the way they behaved. The Tal’mar think rather highly of themselves and one such as you…” Her voice trailed off, and I finished the sentence for her.

“A half-breed?” The princess gave me a pained look, but I shrugged it off. “I’ve heard it before,” I said. “I’m not Tal’mar and I’m not human. But that’s okay, because I’m better.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Is that so?”

“Yes. I can use magic and touch iron at the same time!”

Her face fell in disbelief. “This is not possible. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“It’s true,” I said. “Have you seen my plane? I helped Tinker make it.”

The princess bent over and took my chin in her hands, pulling my gaze upwards. “Breeze, you are as remarkable as your father.”

I had another thought as I looked into her eyes, though I hardly dared voice it. Somehow, I found the courage. “You knew my father,” I said apprehensively, “did you know my mother as well?”

Brisha’s face grew distant and sad. “Yes, Breeze, I knew your mother. She would have been so proud. She cared very much about you. She and your father… they did everything they could for you. Don’t be angry with them.”

“I understand,” I said. “I know why they were together.”

“You do?”

“Yes. They were in love. And it didn’t matter to them what anyone else thought, because love is more important.”

“You are right,” she said. She smiled, but her voice was sad. “Stay here, Breeze. Stay and see our city with me, and I will tell you everything about your parents.”

“I can’t,” I whispered. I didn’t want to say it, for fear of offending her, but it was necessary. “I have to get this treaty back. I have to go.”

“Let my couriers deliver it,” she said. “They can have it there before the sun sets tomorrow.”

“That’s not fast enough. The general won’t move his troops until he sees the queen’s signature on this treaty. Even now, people are dying.”

“The same people who call you ‘half-breed’?”

“Some of them. Would I be any better if I turned my back on them?”

“You truly are your father’s daughter, Breeze. When we have time, I must tell you about him.”

“I’d like that,” I said.

“At least promise you will return to me. Deliver the treaty and come straight back here.”

My heart was jumping at the invitation, but thoughts of Tinker tempered my answer. I was worried about him. I needed to get back to the valley and make sure he and the Traders were safe. “I’ll come back as soon as I can,” I promised.

“Then we’d best not tarry,” she said.

When Brisha and I left the palace, we found my plane in the center of the courtyard surrounded by a dozen guards. At least a hundred citizens stood nearby, gawking and whispering. I caught bits of words in the common language, “Strange… abomination… machine.” It seems my plane was as much an abomination as me.

Two of the younger Tal’mar, a girl and two boys, approached me. “This is your machine?” one of the boys said.

“Yes.”

“It’s true then, that it flies? Like a bird?” I glanced at them, surprised. They were wholly fascinated. I’d expected them to start mocking and ridiculing me.

“Yes, it flies. The fan on the front slices through the air, pulling the plane forward. The wings plane across the air, giving it lift.” I made gestures with my hands as I spoke, trying to visually show them how it was capable of flight.

“Incredible,” the boy said.

One of the girls spoke up. “How do you fly it?”

I looked them over suspiciously. Were they trying to learn the secrets of my plane so they could steal it? No, the Tal’mar didn’t want anything to do with my plane. I decided it was safe to tell them.

“It’s quite easy to control. You sit in the seat, and control the speed with this throttle like so…” I demonstrated as I spoke. I revved up the fan just a little, to their delight. “Pull it back to release the full power of the springs, or push it forward to slow down.” I reached over and moved the controls for the ailerons. “You can turn right or left by twisting these in the opposite directions, creating drag in the air current. Or pull both controls back to climb and push forward to descend.”

Several more Tal’mar youths came forward as we spoke. They were enrapt, and they all started questioning me at once. The elders had fallen silent. They were listening intently and watching us, but made no move to interfere.

I now realized that I had an audience. I did my best to answer their questions as simply and directly as possible. There didn’t seem to be any point in trying to deceive them. They asked about the springs, and I confirmed that they were metal.

“I’m half human,” I said proudly. “The metal doesn’t affect me.” I pulled open the stow at the back of the plane, so that they could see the internal workings. To my surprise, the boy stepped forward and touched it.

“This is amazing! Can I fly it?” My eyebrows arched and I scanned the rest of their faces. I saw two or three disapproving stares, and a lot of expectant looks.

“It doesn’t bother you?” I said. “The metal, I mean?” The boy shrugged.

“I don’t have to touch it, do I?” he said. “Besides, I’d give up all my powers to be able to fly like you do.”

I heard a few gasps among the crowd, and the elders raised their eyebrows and set to whispering amongst themselves. I saw the same look in their eyes that I had seen in Prince Sheldon’s. They wanted my plane. Despite the fact that it disgusted them, despite the fact that it contained metal, they wanted it. They saw as clearly as anyone that my machine had important military applications.