Chapter 32
Panoso sighed inside the threads. Watch duty again. His shift had just started, and he had eight scintillatingly exciting hours ahead of him, staring out at yet another abandoned patch.
His request to bring a friend along had been denied, of course. They could spare non-navigator guards, of course, but ever since Tenlor Fisher had been made Ascendant Commander, non-navigators had been less valuable among the Ascendant Guard. Only the navigators like him were trusted anymore.
He slowly shook his head. At least this time he’d been assigned to the threads themselves. It might not be exciting but at least it was comfortable, floating in the streams of light. Still, this wasn’t quite what he’d had in mind when he’d first agreed to join the Ascendant Guard.
Suddenly he leaned forward in interest. Something was happening. Two Ascendants had stepped out of the threads adjacent to him, and more were popping out nearby. He recognized his immediate superior, Ontos. The older man couldn’t see him of course, but beckoned to him anyway. Torn between curiosity and a small amount of indignance at being summoned like a dog, Panoso obeyed and stepped out of the thread. A total of twenty-five Ascendants had arrived, including both of them. Ontos waited until they were all at attention before speaking.
“We’ve received new orders from Commander Fisher, who apparently got them straight from the Lord Ascendant himself. We’re to spread out evenly across this patch’s threads and watch for the heretic and his supporters. From what I’m told the rebels may already be here in this patch, so keep your eyes open. If you see them, keep track of where they go, and then head straight to Sevvas patch and report your findings. We are not, repeat not, to engage them until Commander Fisher gives the word. Understood?”
Panoso saluted with the rest, and then listened carefully to find out where he was being stationed. Apparently today might not end up being so boring after all.
-.-
The first thing Tenlor noticed when he arrived… was the smell. He tried to identify it at first, before realizing it wasn’t a smell so much as the lack of one. Atsekka was nowhere near the Waters, and had been abandoned for a long time. There was no scent of fish being sun-dried and salted for later. No taste of the smoke from hardwood being burned nearby. No hint of the aromatic candles his sister loved to burn day and night in the Manor. There was just… dead air here.
He waved a hand to signal his bodyguards and advanced forward. According to the initial scout reports, there could be a fair number of rebels hiding in here. There were at least six of them spotted as recently as half an hour ago.
Oranok tapped his shoulder and pointed off to the left towards the entrance to one of the abandoned stone buildings. Inside, Tenlor could make out a few Ascendants gathered together. Curious, he stepped inside and exchanged salutes with them. “Lieutenant, what’s going on here?”
Selesh was a promising addition to the Ascendants, but he was still green and it showed in his voice. “Sir. We found these three hiding near the threads.” Tenlor followed his gaze to a woman clutching two young children in her arms.
Now he could smell something. The stink of sweat and fear rolled off them, mixed in with the dirt from their torn and threadbare clothing. From her dress, she was Sustained, of moderate means. The kids looked no better off.
“They’re lurkers, sir,” Selesh said softly, apparently trying not to be overheard by them. Not that they were likely paying attention. The woman seemed too afraid to do anything but cower under the watchful gaze of her guards.
Tenlor gave him a surprised look. “Lurkers, here? What makes you say that? They could just as easily be the heretic’s followers.”
“I don’t think so, sir. For one thing, they’ve been here a long time. We found their… dwelling not far away. There’s no evidence of anyone but the three of them. Also, they haven’t even tried to fight or escape. I doubt any true rebel would be taken that easily.”
Tenlor eyed them again, and shrugged. “You’re probably right. What is her story, anyway?”
Selesh straightened up again, giving his report as formally as he could. Tenlor suppressed a smile as he listened. Apparently her name was Wereya, and she was the wife of a merchant in Veddis patch. She’d been stingy with the details, but Selesh believed she’d fled here to escape her husband. Selesh had seen bruises on her forearms and midsection, and signs of similar injuries to her children as well. He was convinced that neither she nor the children were navigators. That meant someone else had brought them here, and continued to drop by with supplies so that they wouldn’t starve while in hiding.
Tenlor only shrugged. He raised his hand to give the signal of his next very obvious order, but then paused. “Tell me, Lieutenant. How would you deal with this situation? Assuming they really aren’t rebels, I mean. What would you do?”
Selesh hesitated at first. “Well, sir, before you showed up I was about to transport them back to Veddis patch. That’s why they’re here next to the threads. Once there, I was going to have people guard her until her husband could be found and charged. Once he’s in custody, I’ll leave it to the courts to decide his punishment.”
Tenlor dismissed the other Ascendants, sending them back to the search with the others. That left only him, Selesh, and his two bodyguards, along with the lurker woman and children. He took Selesh aside, out of the building, leaving Oranok and Gazu to watch them. “That’s an understandable reaction,” he told Selesh gently, once they were outside. “No one likes an abusive husband. The man who beats his family doesn’t deserve to have one, wouldn’t you say?”
Selesh nodded, apparently unsure how to respond, but Tenlor didn’t give him the chance to speak. “You’re a soldier in the Ascendant Guard, and a soldier’s job is to protect. Naturally, you want to protect her and the children. Even so, a leader has to look at the bigger picture. Tell me, as a leader, what do lurkers represent to our society?”
“Um, lurkers are outcasts, sir. They don’t… represent anything at all.”
“Wrong. Lurkers are a drain on our society. They’re leeches, feeding off the livelihood of others and contributing nothing in return. As a leader, it’s not just my job to protect people but also the city as a whole. Both the Sustained and the stra’tchi each have their own part to play in Patchwork’s destiny. Even the dwarves have their own part, even if it’s just to serve as a deterrent to others. Lurkers have no such role, do they? All they do is clog up the court system with their petty crimes and waste valuable time and money with their criminal behavior. Which reminds me: in this matter there are also the woman’s crimes to consider as well.”
“Sir?” A certain dread had wormed its way into Selesh’s voice.
“She left her husband, lieutenant! She took his children away from him! That may be exactly what he deserved—I don’t know for sure—but it wasn’t her decision to make, was it? No, she’s guilty as well, just for a different crime.”
He glanced back inside. “No, when I said that such a man doesn’t deserve to have a family, I meant it literally.” He gestured to Oranok, who acted immediately. Drawing his sword, he stabbed her in the back of the neck, severing her spine and killing her instantly. The children barely had time to realize what had happened before he did the same to them.
Selesh gasped and moved instinctively towards the door, but Tenlor kept a grip on his arm. “Hold, lieutenant. There’s nothing you can do for them. It’s done.”
Placidly, as if wiping mud off his boots, Oranok cleaned his sword on the woman’s clothing and then resheathed it. Taking her by the arms, he dragged her out of the building and tossed her body into the threads. Gazu did the same with the children.
Tenlor kept a close eye on Selesh’s face as they did so. Though pale, he clenched his jaw and held back any comments he might feel like making. “Now that’s a good soldier,” Tenlor went on casually, indicating Oranok. “He knew exactly what needed to be done, and didn’t hesitate in doing it. He saved the expense of a trial, and meted out justice where it was needed. The abusive husband is next, when we get back to Sustained territory.”
Selesh’s jaw twitched beneath the skin. Tenlor gave him a moment, and then gestured. “Speak your mind, lieutenant.”
He took a few deep breaths, his face still pale, before looking back at Tenlor. “What of the children, sir? Even if Wereya deserved… that. Did they deserve to die, too? Just for going with her?”
“No, of course not,” Tenlor assured him. “Children are innocent. But let’s face facts here. What kind of life would they have had, bereft of both parents like that? How much suffering would they have experienced? And how likely would it be that they would just end up being lurkers themselves because of what their parents did? No, that was mercy on Oranok’s part. It’s far better to die quickly at the end of a blade than to suffer like that for the rest of their short, miserable lives.”
He beckoned, and his bodyguards returned to him. “Orders, lieutenant. I want you to set up a shift watching the threads here, ‘round the clock. Find the navigator who brought them here. Find out why he did this, and then kill him and thread his body. Understood?”
Selesh’s eyes strayed back inside the building, to the trio of bloodstains on the ground. “… understood, sir.”
Tenlor placed a hand on his shoulder briefly. “You’re a promising soldier, Selesh, but you have a lot to learn about leadership, and about seeing the greater need of the city instead of the small need in front of you.”
As they continued their search for the rebels, Tenlor glanced back to see Selesh just standing there. With luck, he would overcome his frailty and gain some real strength. Only time would tell.
-.-
Once Arico and his passengers had returned to the relative safety of Atsekka patch’s banking district, the discussions began in earnest. While he and the leaders were talking, Velya and the other apothecaries examined Tula’s body in one of the corners. Endu kept her distance from them, as he’d instructed.
He studiously avoided mentioning the dwarves, naturally. Even though their involvement was necessary, there had just been too much propaganda against them, for far too long. Most of the people in these patches had bought into the lies wholeheartedly, hating dwarves with a degree of viciousness and spite that was hard to understand. Especially since none of them had ever even seen a dwarf for themselves.
Arico had once asked Jaas if people from the Outside were just as gullible. She’d shaken her head and said that most people will always believe what they’re told because most people are unwilling to think for themselves.
It wasn’t the only disparaging thing she’d said about her own people. Sometimes Arico wondered if that was the real reason Jaas had decided to risk everything and come here in the first place—just to get away from them. Trying not to think about that, Arico laid out the dwarven map of the city before them. Only the Enclave was marked on it, along with Sustained and Sustained-controlled patches, and the Waters themselves. One by one, Arico pointed out each of the twelve patches represented in this room.
“As you can see, each of your patches borders eight other stra’tchi patches. I don’t have the time or manpower to teach them all one by one, but you can reach out to them on your own, using the Waters as I showed each of you. If even a few of them do the same, we’ll have the opportunity to build up a massive following. If we can convince enough stra’tchi patches to stand up to the Sustained at the same time, we can force the Council to give up control over the rest.”
“And what makes you think you’ve convinced us?” Kandiu, the Mayor of Bylloth patch, spoke up harshly. “For over two hundred years, any patch that has shown any resistance to them has been severely punished. Why should any of us put our own people at risk when we can just keep our heads down and wait for them to swat you like a bug?”
Arico grimaced. So much for the easy sell. “Because that way nothing will change!” He spread an earnest look around the room, at the faces of his would-be allies and friends. “Deep down, we all know the truth. We’re all slaves right now! Sure, we’re safe enough, but only because they need the supplies we provide them through the Ritual of Waters. Or the Bonded warriors, in your case,” he nodded at Boss Bloodeye. “They can do whatever they want with us, whenever they want, just as they did to Tellek patch. And they will always have that power, until we take it from them!”
Bloodeye smacked a scarred fist on the table. “The boy’s right. Even now, Deathwatchers are dying for people who don’t care a whit about us. We aren’t strong enough yet to put the Shemra’s fear into the Sustained, but if we work together we soon will be.”
“So we can have Deathwatchers calling the shots instead of Sustained?” Pratun, the Boss of Tsobba patch snorted loudly. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
There was a moment of silence. Arico got the impression that Pratun wasn’t just concerned about the Deathwatchers; he was just as worried about Arico himself. It made sense, really. Arico was the only navigator they’d seen so far. He did object a bit to being called ‘boy’ by Bloodeye, but not much. Deathwatchers tended to see all others as being childish, even if he wasn’t much older than Arico himself.
“That won’t happen,” Arico started off slowly, looking from one to another. “No stra’tchi patch has navigators yet, and without them no patch can have any advantage over the others. Everything we’ve taught your people has been for that one goal! Digging wells so that you can get your own access to the Waters, learning to read, using pools to send messages between the patches. Everything you’ve learned has been to help your patches, each of them, become more independent. That way each patch will be able to decide what’s best for themselves!
“When we’re done here, every stra’tchi patch will be its own village. We’ll trade with each other, but each patch will be able to decide its own fate, and no patch will have power over any other. There won’t be any more tithes for the Ritual of Waters, no more Ascendants punishing individual patches, and no more Ritual of Rejoining taking our kids away from us. I think that’s something we all want.”
Another silence fell over the chamber, and Arico knew he’d finally started to make some progress. “I can’t say this will be easy; it won’t be. We’ll all have to be careful, especially when we start teaching what we know to our neighbors. Tellek patch could happen all over again, to any of us at any time. Until we have the majority of stra’tchi on our side, we’ll have to be careful, even paranoid about how we conduct ourselves.”
Arico paused for a moment, glancing over at the apothecaries examining Tula’s body. “When the Council destroyed Tellek patch, they wanted to send a message. For the gullible, it was to fear the Blood Fever. For the smart, it was to fear them. I’ve had time to come to grips with what they’ve done, and the message I heard was very different. With that one casual act of brutality, they told me that they have to be taken from power. I hope that doesn’t mean killing them, but one way or another, they can’t rule this city anymore. Before, this movement was about freedom and the right to choose our own fate in our own patches. Both noble and laudable goals to be sure, but now… it’s about survival.
“I know you’re worried. If they cut off the Waters, all of us could die in a matter of days. I can help you defend against that, though. I can provide you with the Waters secretly, if they try it. But unless we stand together against them, we’ll never end their threat once and for all. We’ll be at their mercy forever!”
Bloodeye nodded vigorously at that, and a few of the others looked like they were thinking it over. Arico was grateful the Hauld had reminded him to include that bit about the Waters. According to the Book of Aquun, the Waters were a gift from the goddess to every one of her children, stra’tchi and Sustained alike. While stra’tchi couldn’t read—yet, anyway—that passage had been widely distributed long ago, and was known by everyone. Reminding these twelve leaders that they didn’t actually have access to the Waters was another way to remind them of the Council’s hypocrisy and obsession with control.
“Say you’re right,” Kandiu said slowly. “Say you can keep providing us with enough of the Waters to survive. Say we even convince every stra’tchi patch to stand together. Sure, we’ll have the numbers, but they’ll still have the mobility! With their navigators, they can invade each of our patches one by one and wipe us out! How can we hope to defend ourselves, or our neighbors, if you’re our only navigator?”
“I’m not,” Arico assured him, putting as much confidence into his voice as possible. “We have people in the Ascendant ranks, people who can give us warning if they’re about to strike. And I have more than a hundred navigators on the side, willing and able to help us fight for each other. Some of them are waiting in the threads right now, to take each of you back home.” They were dwarven navigators, true, but Arico wasn’t about to mention that just yet. Not until they’d come to at least a tentative agreement.
The conversation continued, though with less hostility than before, as the leaders talked it over amongst themselves. Arico stayed at the table, but only to answer questions. He’d said his piece already; he didn’t want to overdo it.
He was grateful to find that most of their questions and concerns were predictable enough. For the most part they were worried about what would be expected of them when the fighting finally broke out, and how they would trade with each other should they succeed. Pratun and Kandiu still had some reservations, mostly about the Deathwatcher involvement. It was hardly surprising, given the Deathwatchers’ highly violent history. Thankfully when Endu and the others came back and reported that Tula had indeed been poisoned, it seemed to convince even those two that all of this was worth the risk.
Arico shook his head at another question. “No, it’s too risky for me to send the Harbinger to each of your patches one after another. Every time we navigate, there’s a chance the Council will find out.”
He hesitated, trying to find the best way to phrase his next suggestion. “If you really want to teach your people how to read and write, I have an alternative for you to consider. I suggest that you take one or two dedicated people from each of your patches, and send them to Endu and Jaas for a few weeks or months where they can all learn together. We have a safe place they can learn. Numbers will be easy—most everyone already knows that from the Ona tournaments—and it won’t take long for your people to learn the rest. Then when they’re ready, we’ll send those people back to you and they can start teaching the rest of your people.”
Before he could tell them more, Arico heard a muffled booming noise from outside. It took him a moment to remember what it was, and then a cold hand seemed to grip at his heart when he realized what was about to happen.
