Tinker's War (The Tinkerer's Daughter Book 2) (6 page)

I knew we didn’t have time to build a raft. Even if we tried, the effort would likely attract the attention of the Vangars. The queen and the other elders could not possibly swim the strait. Their only hope was the bridge. It seemed we were trapped.

“We can’t just wait here,” I said. “The sun will be up in a few hours. We may be able to hide from the Vangars now, in the dark, but what happens after sunrise? We don’t even know what kind of weapons they have. You’ve seen the palace… what if they do that to the bridge?”

Robie scratched the back of his head, considering that. “We’re sitting ducks here.” He looked Tam up and down. “I see you have a bow. Are you a good shot?”

“I could knock the wings off a firefly at a hundred paces,” Tam said proudly.

“Right. What about the others?”

“Any Tal’mar can shoot,” Tam said. “Unfortunately, we have only half a dozen bows and a short supply of arrows. None of us had time to arm ourselves or collect belongings when we fled the city.”

“Do you have twenty arrows?” Robie said mischievously.

Tam grinned wryly. “Of course.”

“Then I hope you’re as good a shot as you claim. Do any of you have a flint?”

Tam reached into his cloak and produced a small wooden flint box. “What is it for?” he said.

“To make sure they see me,” Robie said. “Okay, here’s the plan…”

Chapter 6

I was skeptical, to say the least. Robie may have impressed me with his fighting skills, but his so-called plan sounded more like suicide. Unfortunately, none of us could come up with anything better and we didn’t have a lot of time to argue about it. The Tal’mar didn’t like the plan until they realized Robie would be the only one in danger, and then they were on board with it entirely. It seemed they didn’t mind letting a human risk his life for Tal’mar, but it was fairly clear that they considered the reverse unacceptable.

I reluctantly went along with it as well. As foolhardy as Robie’s plan was, it really was our only chance. I began to rethink that decision when he appeared in the middle of the road, carrying a torch and walking straight towards the bridge. My grip tightened on the hilt of my sword. Tam had loaned me an elven blade in case the plan failed and we had to fight our way across the bridge. It was an elegant weapon with a thin, slightly curved bronze blade and a narrow half-moon shaped guard. It fit me well and was a much finer weapon than my old cutlass, but that didn’t help the fact that I barely knew how to use the thing. Tinker had once promised to teach me swordplay, but as the years progressed he mostly taught me about physics and metallurgy. I’d been too busy flying to study much of anything else. Sadly, I realized that this was but one of many opportunities I’d missed while chasing my dreams across the sky. I suddenly felt very childish.

I watched in breathless anticipation as Robie stepped nonchalantly onto the bridge and began his trek to the other side. I clutched the wire-wrapped hilt of my sword so tightly that my fingers ached, but I hardly noticed. The archers gathered in the shadows behind Robie, creeping slowly towards the bridge, carefully avoiding the light of his torch.

I became increasingly worried as Robie passed the halfway point and the Vangars failed to appear. I had hoped they would attack him sooner rather than later, so that the archers could fire from the safety of the shadows. This was no longer possible. To my surprise, the Tal’mar fighters were prepared for this contingency.

Instead of staying back in the shadows or creeping along behind Robie at a safe distance, the archers went
under
the bridge, vanishing from sight. I didn’t remember that being part of the plan, but I don’t think anyone had expected Robie to get so far before the Vangars attacked. I caught glimpses of the archers here and there, moving along the timbers beneath the bridge. Up above them, Robie began whistling a tune, trying to gain the Vangars’ attention.

Breathlessly I watched and waited. The anticipation was unbearable. Why hadn’t the Vangars attacked? What were they waiting for? Robie was little more than a distant silhouette as he stepped off the bridge and continued along the road and into the woods along the far embankment. Because of the light of his torch, I couldn’t even see what the Vangars were doing in the darkness around him.

Just when I thought they might have decided to let him pass, the Vangars leapt out of the bushes, brandishing their weapons. Robie let out a yelp and started to run back towards the bridge. I couldn’t tell if he was acting or not at that point. Facing twenty heavily armed Vangars would have shattered the resolve of even the sturdiest warrior.

Robie raced onto the bridge and flew back towards Tal’mar as fast as he could run. Behind him, the Vangars broke into deep rolling laughter. I caught my breath as one of the warriors hefted up a long iron spear and hurled it at Robie. The spear thudded to the ground inches away from its target. Then a cry went up among the Vangars and three warriors fell to the ground at once with Tal’mar arrow shafts embedded in their chests.

The rest of the group fell into disarray. A handful of the warriors went after Robie, pursuing him back across the bridge. The others pulled into a tight knot, back to back, facing their unseen enemy in the surrounding woods. I couldn’t take the apprehension any longer. I raced out of the shadows towards the bridge, sword at the ready, prepared to fight the Vangars off myself if I had to.

The moment Robie saw me, he stopped in his tracks. He drew his sword and spun around, lowering his stance, ready to face half a dozen enemies on his own.

“Fool!” I cried out, racing onto the bridge. I don’t know if Robie heard me or not. He was parrying and dodging a windstorm of slicing steel blades. I reached his side and leapt into the fray.

The Vangars were surprised to see me, a diminutive female wielding a sword against them like a warrior, but I quickly taught them that I was a force to be reckoned with. The first to acknowledge me was an older, gray-bearded man with a scar over his left eye. He gave me a horrifying stare and roared like a lion. He was wielding a huge battle-axe. He lifted it overhead to finish me in one crushing blow. I was less afraid than perplexed by his strange mentality. Apparently, intimidation was an important factor in the Vangars’ fighting technique. As the warrior hefted the axe over his head and roared like a beast, I drove my blade straight into his chest.

His eyebrows narrowed in surprise. The axe slipped from his grip, dropping to the ground behind him. I stepped back, yanking the sword away, staring at him as he fell to his knees. For a moment, I pitied the savage barbarian. He looked too vulnerable; almost human. I could almost envision him like any other man, with a home and a family, with fears and dreams and hopes for the future. Then he exhaled his last breath toppled forward, landing dead at my feet. Suddenly I didn’t want to fight anymore.

“Nice job!” Robie called out next to me. He handily dispatched one of the fighters by slicing the man’s wrist. The Vangar let out a cry and stepped back, dropping his heavy sword to the deck of the bridge. Robie plunged his dagger into the man’s chest and then twisted, parrying another blow with his cutlass.

Another Vangar took a swing at me with his massive broadsword. I danced out of reach. He snarled at me and I saw pure unbridled hatred raging in his eyes. As I saw his expression, my thoughts reached back to another time, to a world where men and Tal’mar were mortal enemies, where Kanters were less than human and a half-breed like me would have been better off dead. I saw that world in the Vangar’s eyes and I wanted no part of it. I didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t allow him to have what he wanted. Looking into his face, I knew what would happen if the Vangars succeeded. I knew what their world would be like. My sympathy for them instantly turned to anger.

The barbarian came at me again, and I sidestepped his heavy blow. The sword hit a steel rail in the bridge floor and rang like a bell. I lashed out with my blade, slicking open his arm. The gash was deep, but not enough to stop him. He spun around, waving his weapon in a wide arc through the air as if to behead me. I knew I couldn’t block that blow so I lowered my stance, preparing to leap away. Then, as the Vangar swung, Robie turned at just the right moment and thrust his sword into the warrior’s gut. The sword clattered to the edge of the bridge and fell, splashing into the icy waters below.

As the warrior dropped to the ground, I realized that the three remaining fighters were wounded, and they were running in the other direction. Together, Robie and I had fought them off!

The Vangars may have expected to find safety in numbers, but their numbers were dwindling fast. The Tal’mar archers had left the shadows of the forest now and they were crossing the bridge, driving the barbarians into each other at the middle. I stood watching them for a moment, transfixed, until Robie caught me by the arm and dragged me back towards land.

A few yards from the bridge, we stopped to watch the Tal’mar finish off the Vangar warriors from a safe distance. To their credit, the Tal’mar dispatched their opponents with merciful speed. Still, I shuddered to watch it. I couldn’t help but wish that there had been some other way. The sight of all those bodies made my stomach churn. It brought back to mind all the old questions from my youth, the ones I had thought I’d forgotten about why men must hate and kill when there is so little to be gained from either and so much to be gained from compassion and cooperation.

“Are you well?” Robie asked, wiping the blade of his sword on an oily rag.

“Well enough,” I said. “I’m alive.”

“You looked worried for a moment there,” he said, smiling. “Were you afraid you might have lost me?”

I rolled my eyes and turned away. “I’ll let the others know we can leave now,” I said. “We’d better move fast.”

There was little time for conversation as we took my grandmother and the other elders across the bridge. We pressed into the foothills northeast of the strait and made it to the Borderlands before sunrise. It was there, among the rolling hills of the Borderlands, under the red light of dawn, that the queen decided the fate of her people. There was a cold wind blowing and the wild grain waved back and forth in the distance, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was a daunting place without shelter or resources, a desert without sand. It was not safe to stay there in the open for long, but the Tal’mar had to choose their fate.

Robie had been trying to convince my grandmother to move south. “There will be others like us,” he said. “Others who escaped. The armies at Anora and Riverfork had time to prepare. They may very well have driven the Vangars back.”

“That is unlikely,” said Lydian. “You have not seen what their weapons can do.”

Actually, we had. Robie and I had both seen the ruins of the palace. If all of the dragon ships were armed with similar weapons, Riverfork and Anora didn’t stand a chance. Robie and I shared a glance, both of us thinking the same thing, but neither daring to speak the words.

“It would be foolhardy to move south now,” Tam said. “The elders travel slowly and they can’t cover great distances. If we plan to go south, a few of us should scout ahead-”

“No,” Lydian said, cutting him short. “We will need every able bodied fighter to survive. This is not some old woman off the street. This is your queen.”

Tam nodded respectfully. Tal’mar youth rarely argue with their elders and never in public. Robie was not bound by the same traditions. “So you’re going to take your queen into the wilderness and live like a bunch of animals?” he said.

“It is not us who live like cattle, human,” Lydian said. “Our kind have always lived in the forests, since our ancestors walked out of the great cold north many thousands of years ago. Do you think we need
you
to show us how to survive?”

I nudged Robie and he bit his tongue.

“Where will you go?” I said. “The forests to the west will be patrolled by Vangars. The ice to the north will provide neither food nor shelter.”

“We will go east,” the queen said, speaking up for the first time. “We will go deep into the mountains.”

I considered that. “What about the war?” I said. “What about the rest of your people?”

She sighed. “Breeze, our people are gone. Look around you. We are all that is left. We cannot fight. We will be lucky to survive as a race. It is over.”

Her face was tired, defeated. I understood the way she felt. This small group of Tal’mar was no fighting force. The queen was right. Trying to stage some sort of insurgency with a small band like this was suicide.

I turned to Robie. “We have to talk,” I said.

He followed me up the hill, where we could speak without the Tal’mar overhearing us. Or Robie thought so, anyway. I knew better. “They won’t go south,” I said. “The queen’s decision is final.”

“So they’ll run into the mountains like cowards,” he said. “They’ll hide in the wilderness while their people are killed and enslaved.”

“What would you have them do?” I said. “Look at them. Half a dozen fighters… how many Vangars do you think they can kill?”

“It won’t just be them,” he said. “We’ll join up with the others. There will be others like us.”

“Maybe,” I said thoughtfully. “I’m not as convinced as you are. Do you remember what Silverspire looked like? I’m sure you can imagine what happened at Avenston, and then Riverfork-”

“I know,” he said, waving his hand. “I understand that. But I think we have to fight now. The longer we wait, the stronger the enemy will become.”

“What about my grandmother?” I said. “Shouldn’t we at least see that they get safely into the mountains?”

Robie narrowed his eyebrows. “Breeze, I know these are your people, but what about
my family?
What about Jesha and Becca?
What about Tinker?”

“That’s not fair!” I said angrily. I glanced at the group of Tal’mar and realized several of them were staring at us. They had probably overheard the entire argument. “Do you think Tinker is any less important to me than my grandmother?”