Vessel (4 page)

“We haven’t had an execution in ever so long.” Shel said it like it was cause for celebration. I hated her then, even though she wasn’t worth the effort.

“Wonder how they’ll do it,” muttered Dine. “Seems a shame to waste the food on him.”

“He’s got to be able to at least stand when they come. I’m not carrying him,” said Tow, chuckling.

Reticent Envoys hadn’t been to our corner of the world since last summer, mainly because there was little to do and few to minister to. Occasionally we would get travelers who told of executions in other places. From the tales, everyone knew the Reticents were not kind, not to petty thieves and certainly not to heretics.

I could hardly hold myself in my corner. I knew I had to do something, but what? Kinder was in no shape for an escape attempt. Perhaps Recks? But how could I manage it?

***

That night, I waited until I heard Dine snore. I’d slipped some
hippa
in his last cup of tea to be sure he’d sleep well. The
billa
helped me blend in with the night, but it also made it hard to see. I parted the small drape in front of my eyes and ran as quietly as I could behind the houses, avoiding the rock-lined street where my shoes might click.

I crept up to the ruins, this time listening for any voices, but all I heard were some branches scraping the crumbling stone walls in the wind. I moved like a shadow down into the dungeon, pausing, listening, moving, and pausing again. Once out of the wind, I lit a stick of greasewood to light my way. I heard Kinder’s rattled breathing rise and fall but nothing from Recks. I peered in to see the outline of Kinder under the blanket just outside the range of my torchlight.

“Recks?” I whispered.

The blanket moved and someone got up. Soon, Recks’s face hovered close to mine in the firelight.

“Alana, what is it?”

“I … I brought you better food. I was going to give it to you earlier, but Tow surprised me. I’m sorry.”

I shoved the greens through the slot and the tubers seasoned with the salt I’d baked at the house. The remains of the venison were last.

“You didn’t have to do this,” said Recks. “Coming here in the middle of the night. It’s not safe.”

“I’m invisible in my cloak.” My voice sounded resigned, defeated. Recks put the food down and looked through the door.

“Why do you wear it, Alana?”

No one had ever asked me that before. This week had brought so much newness. It was as if I’d been walking around asleep all these years and suddenly awakened to find myself in strange circumstances.

“My master requires it.”

“Tow?”

“No, my master is Dine.”

“Why would he make you wear such a ridiculous contraption?”

“So others cannot see my ugliness.”

“You aren’t ugly.”

“Oh, but I am Master Recks.”

“Don’t! Don’t call me that. I’m no one’s master. I’m certainly not yours. If I were, I’d order you to remove that thing at once.”

I smiled underneath my cover.

“How could anyone be so ugly that they couldn’t let Mother Sun look upon them?”

“It was my own fault.”

“What? How could that be?”

“I angered Master’s wives, so they punished me.”

“Punished you? How?”

“They poured hot fat over my face while I slept. I was burned.” I felt my voice break off, unable to say more. I touched the right side of my face with my fingertips, feeling the taut, ruined skin there.

“Kinder’s right, these people are wretched.”

“They mean to kill you, Recks. I heard them talking about the Reticents, what they plan to do.”

“For stealing food?”

“Food is all we have. It’s our wealth. It’s a man’s most prized possession, before wives, before all else.”

“And Kinder? What will they do to him?”

“They said he’s a heretic. That he made machines. Is it true?”

“He studies the things people left behind from the Time of Darkness, their machines. He even makes some of them work again, but he’s no heretic. He’s just a broken old man.”

“The Reticents won’t stand for machine-building, Recks. It’s forbidden.”

“But why?”

Such a silly question. Everyone knew they were not to build machines. Machines had made man soft, which angered Mother Sun. She shot fire at the world, killing all of man’s machines and plunging them into darkness. In those days, men couldn’t survive without their machines. Everyone knew the tale … didn’t they?

“Mother Sun … ” I began.

“Has never stopped Kinder from learning. He’s been studying and building things since before we were born, Alana. The stories people tell, these Reticents, they’re all lies.”

I was silent. My stick burned close to my fingers now, a glowing ember cutting through the night. I didn’t feel the cold around us.

“Did I shock you?” he asked.

“I want to believe you,” I said without thinking. “What can I do?”

“How long until the Reticents get here?”

“Only a few days at the most.”

“Come back tomorrow. I’ll talk to Kinder when he wakes, and we’ll make a plan.”

“To escape? Even if you could, where would you possibly go?”

“You mean, where will
we
go? You’re coming with us.” His smile in the glowing firelight was the most brilliant thing I’d ever seen, brighter than Mother Sun herself.

In the morning, I found some eggs behind the house where a chicken carelessly left them. No one would miss them. I promised the hen she wouldn’t be next on the dinner table if I could help it. I chewed my
sumasara
bark as I walked, hoping I’d had enough breakfast to keep it from making me sick. The bark could cause discomfort if one wasn’t careful.

In the makeshift prison, Recks and Kinder were already awake. They’d hidden the blanket so well I almost forgot they had one. Without a word, I stuffed the eggs and some bread crusts through the feeding slot.

“Kinder has a plan, Alana, if you’ll help us … ” Recks searched my
billa
for some sign I was listening.

I’d lain awake half the night after I left Recks, thinking about what he’d said to me—about the Reticents being liars and about escaping. My heart sang with the idea of freedom, but my head told me it was folly to try. I’d never heard of anyone escaping.

“You’ll help us, won’t you?”

It wasn’t in my nature to resist anyone. It’d been beaten out of me years ago. I wasn’t normally given choices in anything. I knew I should say ‘no’ but I said, “Yes.”

Recks broke into a smile of relief and took a deep breath.

“We need you to find the key to this lock. Can you?” asked Kinder, pointing to the door.

“I think so.” I’d seen several keys on Master Tow’s belt during supper the night before. It had to be one of them.

“Get it and bring it here.”

“Here?”

“To unlock the door, of course,” said Kinder, his voice growing angrier. “This is a stupid idea, Recks. The girl can’t do it—”

“No!” I surprised myself and everyone else. “I can get it. I clean his house sometimes. I’ll find it somehow.”

“That’s good,” said Recks.

“Then what?” I asked.

“Is there a horse in the village? I won’t be able to run,” said Kinder.

“A horse? No, no horses.”

“A donkey? Anything?” Kinder’s frown grew deeper.

“No, nothing like that.”

“Then there’s no point. They would hunt us down on foot in no time.”

I wracked my brain for the answer, a place to hide them. Nothing came to mind. Recks paced back and forth, thinking too. When had I even seen a horse?

“The Reticents … ” I said.

“What?”

“The Reticents. They have horses. Carriages even. They always travel that way.”

“I’d hoped to be gone before they arrived,” said Kinder, considering it.

“We’ll have to wait until they come. Alana can meet us after nightfall, and we’ll leave then,” said Recks.

“I suppose it’s our only choice, but it’s not a good one,” said Kinder.

I sat down on my usual rock outside their cell.

“Alana? Are you all right?”

I didn’t answer because I didn’t know the answer. I felt happiness that they would be free and sadness at the thought of them leaving.

“You’re coming with us, aren’t you?” asked Recks.

“Where will you go?”

“We were on our way to Lhasayushu when we were caught. We still have time to get there for the Entry.”

“Where’s that? How far? Could Dine find us there?”

“Oh, Alana, it’s far, far away, across mountains and the sea. No one would ever find you there.”

“What’s the sea?”

“What’s the sea?” asked Recks, incredulous.

“I told you, Recks, the people of this region are ignorant in every way,” said Kinder. He might’ve meant to hurt me with his words, but I was used to it. It didn’t faze me.

“Yes, what’s that? I want to know. I want to learn, to not be ignorant anymore.”

Recks laughed. “You see, Kinder? There’s hope for them yet.”

“Your first convert,” he replied dryly. Recks ignored him.

“A sea is like a river, Alana, like a river so big you can’t see the other side of it.”

“How do you cross such a thing?”

“In a ship. A … a carriage that floats on water and uses the power of the wind to move.”

“A machine?”

“No, just an enormous cloth that catches the wind.”

“Your stories sound like fantasy.”

“There are places in this world much richer than this one, places where they grow miles of cotton to make such things. We’ll see those places on our journey.”

A pain formed in the pit of my stomach. It was either the
sumasara
or the idea of leaving the only place I’d ever lived.

“I can’t go.”

“But … you just said you wanted to learn new things!”

“I do, but … ”

“You must come. This could be your best chance at freedom. Why won’t you take it?”

“But if we’re caught?”

“We lose our lives, yes, but they’re already lost, are they not?”

“You’re already dead, Alana. You just don’t know it yet,” said Kinder, not unkindly. “You’ll get old or hurt, unable to work, and you’ll be disposed of.”

I knew what he said was true. I’d almost been tossed out once before, when I was burned, but Dine wouldn’t allow it for some reason. It made his wives secretly furious, but they couldn’t cross him. It would be wrong to say I felt safe with Dine as my master, but I knew he would keep me as long as he could.

“You might as well try for something better. You’ve got nothing to lose. You could even go to the Entry. That’s where I’m going,” said Recks. “Kinder’s already a citizen of Lhasayushu, but I want to get in.”

“Can’t you just go there?”

“They only admit a few, some years none.”

“How do you get accepted?”

“That’s the Entry, a competition to find the most enlightened thinkers, the most talented artists, the best storytellers … ”

“They’d never accept me,” I said. “I’m none of those things.”

Recks gave up trying to convince me as I stood up. Terrible pity appeared on his face. I felt shame for disappointing him.

“I will see if I can find the key and let you know when the Reticents arrive,” I promised, as I turned to go. “That’s all I can do.”

***

I went straight to Master Tow’s house before I lost my nerve. I’d never been good at lying. I was thankful for the
billa
while I did it. I knocked softly on the door, my hand shaking.

Please be here
…

Tow answered the door still chewing his breakfast. The sight of me brought a smile to his face.

“Hello, chit.” The insult didn’t sting as much the way he said it. He stepped back from the doorway and ushered me inside. His house was a bachelor’s—spare on furniture and clutter, heavy on dirt.

“Master Dine sent me to see if you needed your house cleaned. He thought you could stay with us and let the Envoy stay here.”

Tow closed the door behind me. A jingle of keys focused my attention on his belt. I let him stand closer to me than I normally would for a better look at them. He enjoyed looking down on me, from what I saw of his expression, trying to see me through the drape.

“Did he offer any of your other services?” Tow asked, reaching a tender hand through a gap in the side of my
billa
to touch the hair I carefully brushed every day even though no one saw it. I didn’t look at him, only his keys, and ignored his caresses down my breasts. I trembled, knowing what I might have to do to get those keys. He probably thought it was excitement from his touch and not that I intended to steal from him. His eyes betrayed nothing.

The largest iron key, black with age and rust, had to be the one I was looking for. It was tied separate from the others with a thin cotton string.

“I’m not sure. You would have to talk to Master Dine,” I said, leaning closer to him, hoping he didn’t change his mind. Dine had approved Tow to be with me before.

“He probably wouldn’t mind,” said Tow, pulling me to him with a meaty arm around my waist. It was what I’d hoped for. A gentle twist on the knot, a tug on the string, and the key was mine. His musky odor would’ve knocked me down had he not held me up while he struggled with the
billa
, desperate to touch me underneath it.