Chapter Thirteen

[cityofthehand]

<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>

---

Chapter Thirteen


The red orb followed, loyal as a dog and indefatigable. All Maira’s tricks for escaping failed out right. Speeding up, slowing down, ducking through alleys, zig-zagging, turning corners. Nothing put more than a stride’s length between her and the orb. She couldn’t puzzle out why Naran hadn’t used this frustrating trick before, but didn’t have the strength to waste wondering. Too much pain and desperation crowded her thinking. She forged ahead down a darkened street, avoiding the few others walking the street late at night. She skidded to a stop on cobblestones and her frustration exploded. She tilted her head up and screamed to Naran, hoping he heard it, “Leave me alone! I hate you, you lying, scheming, sorcerering asshole! I’ll kill you if I ever see you!”

In the space of the frantic breath she took, rage twisted into a hunted, desperate feeling. She slowed down and picked the first alley she found to turn down. In the red light cast by the orb, she searched for anything to use as a weapon. A long, smooth wooden pole clattered under her foot when she kicked it. She picked it up, examined it’s jagged tip where it had broken in two, and decided it would do. Light weight, easy to run with, had a sharp end. Perfect.

Taking it in hand she went back onto the street and took a moment to find south and worked her way towards the nearest gate to the Palm. By her reckoning she’d cross over into the palm just short of Njorski District, northeast of the Capitol Complex. Not bad ground. The tightly clustered buildings made for good cover, as did all the maze like pathways weaving over and around each other, for which that district was famous. If she got there. From the gate to there she’d face open ground.

She approached the haphazard, uneven walls of the gate to the tract. Some of the wall was stone, some twisted pillars of metal with wire wrapped around, some bits even just big slats of wood. It barely counted as a wall, but the break in the center, made of wrought iron with intricate designs stood open. Above, two plain clothes Tsaqa flitted in the air, distinctly bored. One smoked a pipe and landed on the wall with a sigh. They spared her a glance, shrugged and went back to looking bored.

Maira stood for a moment in the gateway, looking out across the open ground beyond. If the Asna’isi watched, they did so from a distance. The absent border market left the well trodden field of low grass and they could not hide there. The distance between her and the faint twinkles of lights that marked Njorski grew longer each second she looked.

Above her, the red glow remained steady. She shook her head hard and forced her exhausted body to run out into the field. The silence of all but her short quick breaths wrapped around her. She fixed her eyes on the distance. Get to Njorski and it’ll be all right, she promised herself.

Her shadow cast itself in front of her, haloed by red. Each stride drained strength she hadn’t really had to begin with. Then, a hard pop-flap broke the night quiet. She looked up, past the red glow she saw small figures in the sky, flying fast and closing in with alarming speed. Within a few blinks of her eye, she saw faces, feathered wings, armor.

Heart falling, she turned hard on heel and ran back towards the gate. Over her shoulder, she spied them circling down like hawks, closing in faster than she could run.

Why did you give me this, professor? I can’t do this, she thought, wanting to sob even as she raced for the gate. In the space of a stride, two Asna’isi broke off from the spiral and swooped down to block her path. She turned again and two more touched down on the ground, wings at full extension. A third pair split up and instantly completed the box around her. Maira stilled instantly, skidding so hard it brought up dust in the night air.

She held the stick tighter, trembling, turning in circles. The Asna’isi closed in slow step by slow step.

“We will not harm you. Lord Shadow has commanded you be delivered safely and alive,” said one of the Asna’isi, in a rumbling, androgynous voice.

Behind her: “I do not think she will believe you, Galehowl.”

She whipped around. Graymere. The sight of him made her grip that much tighter. He came toward her faster than the others that closed in. He raised a hand and the other Asna’isi stopped. “It is the truth.”

“No,” she said though her breathlessness turned it into little more than a wheeze. Tears came to her eyes, blurring the image of him in front of her. She sniffled and blinked them away, bending at the knees and waist, coiling to spring. Anger urged her to attack, but she held her ground. Not like this. Not yet.

“Lord Shadow and I only want you safe and well.”

“Liar!” Her throat and chest tightened at the worst possible moment. She bent double, not sure if she could vomit because her stomach had nothing in it. She gasped until the heaving urge passed.

“No one doubts your courage or your strength. There is no shame in a surrender now. Please, stop hurting yourself. Come with us. It will all be over soon, and you will see that it was the right decision to make.” Graymere held out his hand hopefully, even offering a slight, soft smile to her.

“So you and Lord Shadow and Naran can rip me to pieces at your leisure? Fuck you.”

“You really believe that,” he said, and he sounded truly surprised. Maira grew so enraged her vision grayed at the edges. He had the nerve to act surprised and innocent? “You believe he wishes you dead.”

Without even wanting to, Maira laughed bitterly. “I thought the Asna’isi were supposed to be smarter than everyone.”

“In general, we are.”

“He used to make bodies rain from the sky. I know what he does. He didn’t send you here to invite me for tea.”

Sadness crossed Graymere’s face for such a brief moment Maira could not be sure it was real. “We are not savages, we have never harmed innocent people. The war was a different thing. Stop this. You cannot think you will be able to fight us all. You have nothing to lose by letting us take you.”

“Yeah, I do. It’s one thing I have that he doesn’t. Probably the one thing he wants.”

Confusion crossed Graymere’s face. “What is that?”

“My life.” Maira thought of Reva. What a terrific riddle. If she’d started with that, Reva might have told her what she wanted to know.

“You are wrong. You do not have all the information.”

“Tell me why he’s doing this to me, then.”

“Soon. Come now. You are so tired, you need food and rest. Let all this pain and weariness be over,” he said, voice so low and hypnotic that he cleared three more steps before she reacted. His gentleness made traitorous thoughts come into her mind. Hadn’t the ambassador even advised as much? “Think about it. We will wait, we are in no hurry. If my lord wanted to harm you, do you think this is what he would have chosen? You are too smart not to see it.”

“Then tell me what he wants.”

“That is for my master to tell you. Trust him this once, that is all he asks.”

Maira shook her head. She’d trusted Naran, too, because he’d spoken softly and given her reasons. No. The Professor had been wise. Trust no one. She raised the broken pole and scowled, looking over both shoulders quickly to judge the others and the space around her. “If he just wants to talk, tell him he can send me a message like a civilized person. I can recommend plenty of good couriers.”

One side of Graymere’s mouth twitched upward in a grin before he sobered. “Unfortunately, we cannot. You are in very great danger.”

“From him.”

“From others. Many others. Why do you think you’ve remained safe thus far? My master’s word protects you even now. Come with us and let him explain.”

“No.”

She frowned and he frowned back in mutual regret. Maira twirled the pole between her fingers to losen her arm and ready herself.

“Fight me or let me go.”

“As you’ll have it,” he said and gave a low, courtly bow. The instant he rose, he launched forward so quickly it startled her. She jumped back and stabbed at him, then twisted to stab the one grabbing her from behind. She swung the stick to clear a space to run through, but didn’t get but a few inches. One closed in and the elbowed them hard and side kicked another, but missed both targets. She turned and ducked under the reach of a third guard then thrust the stick forward, hard.

One more turn brought her face to face with Graymere, so close they could have kissed. He wrenched the pole from her grasp and swept his great wing into her. For something made of feathers and hollow bone, it hit like a brick. She landed hard on her side and sputtered for breath. Asna’isi reached down, grabbing her by her shirt, her belt, her pants. They pulled her up as she desperately trashed.

One of them gave a frustrated grunt in her ear, then yanked so hard on her injured arm the pain cut through her like a knife. She cried high and sharp into the night.

“I said gently!” Graymere roared.

Lightning from a clear night sky struck the ground, so close the boom rippled as a wave through her entire body. The blue-white burst revealed his face as a mask of icy fury that stunned her into utter stillness and her captors with her. The world stopped in that long, long moment. No one did anything, save her panting involuntarily and Graymere continuing to glare.

Slowly, the other Asna’isi loosened their hold and let her down onto her feet. Only their grip kept her standing up right as she trembled, stricken into cold numbness. He stood like a statue in the night wind that played in the loose strands of his black and blue hair and rustled the feathers of his wings.

“Will you go with us now?”

Breathless, exhausted, and confused that he’d even asked, she nodded.

“Let her come to me,” he ordered. Instantly, all hands let go and the Asna’isi stepped back as one single unit. She wobbled on her feet, holding her shoulder tightly. She approached slowly with a mind blanked of all thought but fear. He reached for the clasp of his coat along his collar bone and unbuttoned it. It fell aside and showed his shirt and the leather flying harness strapped ot him.

“Stand with your back to me,” he said.

Maira slowly turned and faced the other Asna’isi and their singularly cold, contempuous faces. Graymere stepped up until his chest and stomach pressed against her back. He lifted his enormous wings and reached forward with them like encircling arms. They formed a feathery canopy that enveloped the both of them. Through the spaces between the feathers, Maira watched the other Asna’isi trade shocked, confused glances. Shrugs and headshakes to say, ‘I don’t know, either’.

“Do not be alarmed,” he whispered, breath tickling her ear and neck. “I will not hurt you.” She strained to hear his once thunderous voice as he reached around her waist and put hands on her hips to pull her back until they were pressed flush to one another. He buckled a strap around her belly, then another at the bottom of her ribcage. His hands were so careful he did not even brush against her breasts. She wondered if this was deliberate or not.

He reached next for her arm, lightly encircling her wrist with long, surprisingly delicate fingers. “Through the strap, please,” he said and guided her hand and arm through a loop of leather until it was under her armpit. When he tightened it, pain flared in her shoulder. She hissed. “My apologies. I am sorry my agents were careless with you. It will never happen again.” His hand wandered to her back, just below her neck. Fingertips brushed the skin and she jumped again at the contact with the bruise there. “You have been hurt.”

“It happens.”

He softly squeezed the muscle between her neck and shoulder. An involuntary shiver and jolt of pleasant sensation entered her body. He reached for her other arm with the same light touch. She tingled where their skin met. He secured the final straps and checked his own, then pulled his wings back. A wave of cold night air hit her, in contrast to the warm cocoon his wings had become.

The other Asna’isi straightened up, resumed looking indifferent though they’d watched with great curiosity.

Graymere issued stern comments in Asna. They took to the air easily. He raised and extended his own wings at full and flapped furiously hard, then jumped against the wind. They lifted up. Each flap stirred the dust below and took them higher until the wind lifted them like an invisible hand. The upswing dropped Maira’s stomach to the bottom of her guts. She gasped and watched with wide eyes as everything beneath them shrank and fell away.

Her heart pounded so fast it edged towards pain. She breathed in gulps, but neither screamed nor looked away from the dizzying, beautiful scene. Wind lashed her face so hard her eyes teared up but she dared not blink.

Graymere wrapped his arms around her, looping them under her shoulders the way the straps did and pulled her body in. He leveled his body face down and her legs dangled awkwardly. She squirmed for leverage and pulled her legs up, hooking her feet over his calves to stay in place.

“Yes, this is the proper way to fly,” he said, voice nearly lost in the whooshing of air though he spoke directly into her ear. He sounded pleased. Around them, the other Asna’isi fell into a formation with Graymere taking the lead. The wind burned and Maira put her head down so it would strike the stop of her head, not her face. He chuckled. She didn’t hear it, but felt the sensation against her back as she felt the muscles that worked to cut through the gale. He pumped harder, they raced ahead. She clung tightly to the harness straps and Graymere covered her hands with his.

He banked hard to the right and she gave a squeak of panic. He chuckled and she giggled involuntarily, drinking in the scenery below. If these were her last moments, she would revel in what was left to her. Flight was so glorious and terrifying that death would probably seem boring in comparison. She had always wanted to fly, at least once.

At least there was that.

They whooshed through actual, low lying night clouds, the moisture ghosting over her skin for a half second. Though Graymere carried her weight, it seemed to her that the other agents strained to keep up with him, not the other way around. They flew so fast that things below them became a mere blur, darkness and blips of tiny light with something brighter in the distance.

“You are not afraid to fly.”

“I don’t think you’ll drop me,” she said, turning her head to shout above the wind.

“Do you recognize anything beneath us?”

She looked down. White, silver, and pale blue lights dotted the blackness beneath them. The Asna’isi Tract. Maira had been there only twice, during day time, but her mind instantly supplied the answer.

“This is your home!” she yelled to him.

She stared down, building a map in her mind of the lamp-lined streets in their impeccable geometric order. The Asna’isi were famed for the mathematical order they engineered into everything. Their tract boasted wonders found nowhere else. The tallest building known, near perfect sanitation and water system, machines powered by steam or flame or other things. She’d heard of their wagons and carriages that moved along, no animal needed, along metal tracks in the road. Even with ordinary human vision, amazing details made themselves clear to her. In the brightest places, she easily spotted individual people and objects on the street.

Suddenly, Maira’s heart ached with the desire to see it in the light where glass and metal wonders could gleam in full. It must have been like a polished crystal. It must have been a heaven of unending wonders.

“Look, there.” Graymere let go and pointed to a magnificently lit sharp spire that pierced the belly of the sky like a jeweled thorn. “There is where my lord lives and reigns.”

Shadow. Maira’s heart and breathed ceased a moment. There. Shadow. Wherever everything would end. She breathed harder and harder as Graymere descended to the platform at the tower’s top. She braced hard for landing and clenched tight, willing herself to be strong and face her fate with bravery. Don’t cry, don’t scream, don’t be pathetic. Be brave. Keep your wits. Professor, if your soul can still hear me, heed me. I need help. I’ve done all I can.

Graymere backwinged rapidly and hard. Muscles worked hard against her back until they landed with a gentle thud and she felt solidness under her feet. When she opened her eyes, creamy colored owlish wings encapsulated her. She heard others touching down around them quietly.

“The most terrible part is over now.”

Though he was her captor and to do so was odd to her, Maira admitted, “I wish I’d made it until dawn.”

Graymere reached for the waist buckle with a soft touch. “You have no cause for shame. You eluded us longer than we expected. It was quite an accomplishment.”

“No, I don’t care about that. I mean, if it was day, I could see everything. In the light. I always wanted to. I always thought that if I had enough money, I’d save some up and try to get a day pass. You know, see if it was true about the things they say,” she admitted.

He stopped suddenly and his fingers tightened on her shoulders. He rested his face against her hair and breathed in so sharply it sounded like he was hurt. He squeezed a final time and let her go. “I would fly with you again. If you asked me.”

“I don’t think I’ll be around for that.”

He finished unharnessing her and pulled his wings back. He indicated a door with his hand and gently pushed her good shoulder to urge her on. She looked back one last time to glimpse the sparkling panorama behind her and went with a heavy sigh. The door opened into a spiraling stair case with brass rails and thick glass steps. She looked down into the downward spiral and dizzied instantly.

Graymere grabbed her arm gently to pull her back as she tipped forward. He held on to her as they went down four levels and reached a corridor that ended in three doors. The way was dim and all the lamps glowed at a fraction of their potential save the ones at the grand, arched double doors at the end.

Lord Shadow is there.

Her breath came faster and louder, her body quaked in anticipatory dread. She hestitated and pulled against Graymere’s hold and turned, pleading, “You don’t have to do this. Please, listen to me Prime Graymere. I can’t -“

He gave a gentle squeeze and a soft, barely discernible smile. “Do not be afraid. All will be well.”

“Please.”

“No,” he said and turned her bodily around and pressed her towards the doors that opened on their own.