Chapter 30
Velya took in the scene, in stunned silence. The chair was in pieces on the ground, and the Harbinger’s guard was sitting down in a corner, nursing his bleeding legs. Helleco’s gun was safely back in his hands, but he was a little pale all the same. Some of this she’d expected, but it seemed the Harbinger had surprised her once again. From her expression, Jaas felt the same.
Helleco waited for her nod, and then left the room. They’d agreed, after what he’d done to Jaas, it would be better if he wasn’t around for this. He took the other guards with him, leaving just Sabra and Velya with the Harbinger.
“It’s all right, Harbinger,” she said reassuringly, holding up a hand to Sabra. He released Jaas, and she gave him a betrayed look of hatred. “You’re safe. No one will hurt you here. I’m Velya Cooper, originally from the Deathwatch patch. You might remember me from the Earth Match you saw there.” She stepped forward into the torchlight to give their ‘prisoner’ a better look at her face.
Jaas stepped away from both of them, obviously suspicious. “What is going on here?” She demanded harshly. “Am I supposed to believe you’re suddenly my friends now? That you’re not really Sustained?”
“Oh, we are Sustained,” Velya admitted, “and more than that, too.” Carefully parting her hair, she bowed her head so Jaas could get a look at her scalp. Velya felt exposed, almost naked in a sense, given that she worked hard to conceal the tattoo there from just about everybody.
Clearly, Jaas recognized it. “You’re… a Thorne? Like Sabra?”
Her curiosity and excitement had apparently overridden her fear, at least temporarily. Tilting her head back and rearranging her hair, Velya nodded. “We all are. Everyone you’ve met since we picked you up in that sewer tunnel.”
At Velya’s nod, Sabra removed his left sandal and lifted his foot up. Inked into the arch of his foot was a similar tattoo. It was always in an easy-to-reach place, but never somewhere obvious. Velya’s scalp still itched from time to time, even though she’d worn this mark since childhood. It was almost as familiar to her as a patch designation.
Jaas’ face was a mask of realization and amazement. Followed by suspicion again. “That dart you got stuck with…” she trailed off, turning to Sabra. “You faked that?”
Sabra nodded and showed her his neck, clear of any puncture marks. “Sabra can handle most poisons, so they didn’t try any,” he said confidently. Velya almost shook her head. This was hardly the time to brag, but Sabra had never been what she would call diplomatic.
“But you were stabbed, several times! I saw them do it!” Jaas pointed down at the bloodstains on the floor, as if they had somehow betrayed her as well.
Sabra reached down and scooped up the knife, handing it to her handle first. “Eyes lie, sometimes,” he said gently.
As they watched, Jaas ran her fingers along the knife’s edge, and then slowly tested it on the wall. The spring-loaded blade retracted into the hilt, and the blood substitute inside oozed out from the edges, coating the wall. She reached out and ran her hand along Sabra’s side. Black fluid coated his ribs, but his skin was unbroken.
“Even the fake blood was black,” Jaas said in an undertone, before looking back up at Velya. “You sure went to a lot of trouble getting the details right.”
“If you were from Patchwork,” Velya explained gently, “you might have seen through the trick, but you’re from the Outside. Sabra told me how people out there use magic instead of machinery. Chances are you’ve never even considered something like a spring-loaded knife.”
“You’re right. I haven’t,” Jaas admitted slowly. Without warning, she reached down to one of the guns on the ground and checked for its ammunition. “Are these fake, too?”
“The guns are real,” Velya put in hastily, trying at a gentle tone. “But there’s only wadded paper inside. We call them blanks. Just the same,” she added, attempting a smile, “if you’d shot Helleco in the head at that range… it still might have caused serious injury. We didn’t expect you to go for the gun. Just to break the chair and then try to run away.”
“I didn’t think I could get away alone,” she said faintly. Her knuckles tightened on the gun, and she closed it up again. “How about you tell me why shouldn’t I just shoot you now, for all you’ve done? Kidnapping me? Bringing me to Sustained territory? Torturing me??” Sabra didn’t move, but Velya could see his muscles tense. He was ready to stop her, and quick enough to do it too. Thankfully she didn’t try anything.
“I’m sorry we had to do that,” Velya said, and meant it. “Please try to understand our situation here. The Thornes have been around since before the Threading itself, and we’ve survived by staying hidden all that time. Unfortunately, your arrival changed all that. When Sabra drew that symbol in the ground, it was a test. You recognized it immediately, and knew what it meant. If the Council gets their hands on you, and forces you to tell them about us, we won’t stand a chance. They would hunt us down without mercy, just like they do to any other threat to their power. You may be the single greatest threat the Thornes have ever faced!”
“And that justifies abducting me?” Jaas bit out harshly.
“We had to be sure you wouldn’t give us up if you were captured and questioned.” Velya shrugged helplessly, “so we captured and questioned you about Alzhi to make sure.”
“Helleco did say he was here to evaluate me,” Jaas said softly. She shook her head. “So did I pass your little test?”
“With flying colors. But you weren’t the only one we were testing,” Velya added. “Arico has been clear about his goals so far. He hasn’t changed his message yet, but his methods are just as important to us. We had to know how he’d react to your disappearance. Some of us feared he would tear that patch apart looking for you, just like the Council would. Thankfully, he did no such thing.”
“I have to let him know I’m all right,” Jaas insisted. “That is, if I really am all right,” she added in a darker tone.
“You are,” Velya assured her. “Even if you’d failed our test, we wouldn’t have harmed you. That’s not our way. You would have been kept in confinement, though. Somewhere safe and out of harm’s way until this conflict comes to an end, and we can find a way to send you back Outside.”
“I do remember you from the Deathwatch patch,” Jaas suddenly changed topics. “Arico said you were one of Drakos Bloodeye’s advisors. Is Bloodeye a Thorne too? Are you the one who recruited Sabra for the Thornes?”
Velya smiled. Sabra was right; she really did have a mind for details. Sabra kept his distance, apparently still sensing Jaas’ anger towards him, but Velya moved over to him and reached a hand up to his shoulder. “Drakos isn’t one of us, no. He is one of the more important people in the city, though. That’s why I was assigned to keep an eye on him in the first place. And yes, I did bring Sabra into the fold, but it’s a bit more than that. Sabra is actually my little brother.”
She pulled up another chair, looking again with amusement at the shattered remains of the Harbinger’s previous seat. “Sit, please. This will take some time to explain.”
-.-
Field notes, the 25th of Arasil, 1571.
For once, Jaas didn’t know where to start. She balanced the quill on the edge of the inkwell, thinking. Her return to the Enclave had been a turbulent one. The Thornes had brought her and Sabra back without incident, sure, but the dwarves had been less than trusting. She couldn’t blame them. Not with what they’d had to endure so far. Somehow, Velya had known about the secret dwarven passages into the threads. Most likely, there were Thorne spies in the Enclave too.
Arico had been overjoyed to see Jaas at first. He’d swept her up in a roundabout hug, saying how glad he was to see her safe. Unfortunately, that hadn’t lasted long. Like the dwarves, he was full of questions… which Jaas couldn’t immediately answer. Velya had requested that she keep the existence of the Thornes a secret. An understandable request, but one that put Jaas in a difficult position.
When Arico asked, she said she and Sabra had been with some ‘friends’, which was true enough. She apologized for going without warning and promised it wouldn’t happen again, but that hadn’t meant much to the dwarves. Jaas suspected that she’d be in a cell right now if not for Arico reluctantly vouching for her.
Jaas sighed as she looked down at the parchment.
I never thought that my role here would become so complicated. In a way, teaching dozens of patches how to read would be easier than dealing with this kind of diplomatic impasse. It’s clear Arico no longer trusts me completely. I can’t tell him where I’d been, or with whom. An ordinary man might be able to let me get away with that, but a revolutionary leader like Arico can’t afford to be lax with a possible spy.
At least he’s still the same kind person I first met in that gaol cell. I’m grateful for that. I think he knows I wasn’t with the Sustained (the real ones, anyway). He has to be feeling pressure from the Hauld though, to find out the truth. The dwarves can’t afford any allies they aren’t absolutely sure of.
She was also grateful that she’d gotten in the habit of writing in Uatoni script. She couldn’t afford anyone in the Enclave reading her notes, either.
On the upside, Sabra did tell me a bit more about himself now that he’s… well, out. Apparently the story about the Deathwatch Monster is mostly true. As a baby he was left on the edges of the Deathwatch patch, where Velya found him. She was only a few years older than him at the time, so she’s more of a sister to him than a mother.
When Arico and I showed up at the Deathwatch patch, he was curious. He didn’t say exactly why he joined us—whether it was because he wanted to, or because his sister wanted him to gather information about us—but he seems content enough. He’s even been pretty useful, when he’s not getting me kidnapped or faking being stabbed.
It seems the Thornes are everywhere, spread across the city, even if there are only a few dozen of them. Velya wasn’t exactly forthcoming when I asked, but I saw stra’tchi marks on some of the guards’ shoulders. They seem to have influence in every major patch, and across the minor ones, too. The fact that they were confident enough to hold me in Sustained territory is very telling. Perhaps Helleco wasn’t even lying when he said he worked directly for the Lord Ascendant. It’s looking increasingly likely that they have people here in the Enclave, too. That’s probably why they wanted to stay a secret from the Hauld. The older secret society doesn’t want to be compromised by the younger one, I guess.
Jaas shook her head angrily. They kept me for days. Tortured me. Threatened me with rape! And then made me think they’d stabbed Sabra. I want to be furious at them. I still feel the aftereffects of that… ‘touch’ method Helleco used on me. She sighed. But they were right. There was no other way they could be sure I was trustworthy. Not until they’d tested me for themselves. I just wish there had been another way.
The dwarves were right to train me, too. I’ll have to thank Otrul, if I can find him. Wow, that felt strange to write.
Across the walled courtyard, she saw Arico and the Hauld emerge from his subterranean audience chamber. Arico stopped when he saw her, briefly, and the Hauld looked in her direction too.
The Hauld’s gaze was cold and calculating, as usual. There was nothing in his glance that surprised her. Arico’s look cut right through her, though. His eyes were suspicious and hurt.Part of her wanted to rush over there and tell him everything, right now. She didn’t know if she could take keeping it from him for long, but she knew she had to. She was now, like it or not, the unofficial liaison between the Thornes and the movement, and she couldn’t risk betraying the trust of either side. Only time would tell if the Thornes would be willing to support the dwarves and Arico.
It seems the Hauld still trusts me a little, she continued after they’d gone. He set guards to keep an eye on me while I’m in the Fishbowl, and I bet Arico won’t let me or Sabra out of sight when we’re out and about, but they did tell me about an upcoming… summit, of sorts.
Apparently the various Mayors and Bosses of the patches we’ve been visiting have been very interested in what we’ve been telling their people. The leaders from more than a dozen different patches have agreed to meet in an abandoned patch tomorrow evening. The Hauld won’t let me go, though. He claims it’s to keep me safe, but I know better. I’m sure I’ll have to earn back the rest of his trust.
Jaas dipped the quill in the inkwell, careful not to let it drip on the parchment, before she started a new line. With a start, she realized just how accustomed she’d become to this kind of ink.
Ink was easy enough to get on the Outside. If people didn’t just magic it up, they were usually able to acquire some by combining soot and animal glue. The people here had taken that simplistic method and expanded on it in a big way. Here, the process now involved tree bark cut in the spring, soaked for days, boiled until the pigment itself separated from the plant, combined with a kind of crude wine, and then finally mixed with iron salt over a flame to get the final product. Even visualizing the sheer effort they went to made her head spin a little.
Strangely enough, Endu will be coming along to the meeting. Probably because I’m not. She taught me the basics of their chemistry and medical techniques, and I returned the favor with a primer on different languages. Of course the dwarves taught her how to read and write ages ago. Her sons, too. At least the three of them seem to be fitting in to the Fishbowl community. She smiled slightly. Balter is as… persistent as ever with his affections. It’s actually kind of endearing, but I’ll have to find a gentle way to let him down easy. If that’s even possible when it comes to young love.
-.-
Arico tried to get that image of Jaas out of his head as he descended into the audience chamber with the Hauld. She’d looked haunted at the sight of him. Ever since she and Sabra had gone missing, he’d been torturing himself thinking about what might have happened to them. He’d spent almost two days straight searching the threads, scanning the edges of every Sustained patch again and again, just hoping for a glimpse of her. He’d nearly been spotted twice when he’d left the threads to get a closer look.
But then, perhaps this wasn’t what he thought. Sabra and Jaas had been alone and out of contact for days. Perhaps they’d actually just wanted privacy. My mistress with a monster is in love, Arico thought to himself, not entirely convinced it was a ridiculous notion. No, that couldn’t be it. Neither of them was a navigator, so they couldn’t have just disappeared without help.
It was infuriating to be this… compromised! Arico had completely ignored the Hauld’s advice, and Alzhi’s too, when he’d finally showed up later to give it. He’d lost all objectivity in his fruitless search to find her. So much for learning from his mistakes with Nouma. But then, this wasn’t the same. He wasn’t in love with Jaas. It was hard for him to say what he felt.
None of that excused his behavior, though. If anyone under his command had acted that way, he would have disciplined them for disobeying orders. Arico still didn’t know why the Hauld hadn’t punished him yet. It was possible, if unlikely, that the Hauld had gone through something similar of his own. As they walked down the stairs together, Arico gave him a sideways glance. There was still a lot Arico didn’t know about the old dwarf’s past.
Still, since Jaas and Sabra had returned things had only gotten a little better. She’d refused to tell him where they’d been, or who had taken them (and which navigator had returned them). Sabra had been just as tight-lipped about it. Jaas only asked him to trust her, and just left it at that. Arico shook his head. He did trust her, to a point. But not knowing… it was like some kind of tiny animal was chewing away at the back of his mind. Perhaps that was why they were called gnawing doubts.
Alzhi and Endu were waiting for them as they got to the audience chamber. Grateful for the distraction, Arico noticed a stack of parchments in the older man’s arms, and a grim expression on both faces.
“I was instructed to deliver these to a bunch of patches on the west side of the city,” Alzhi said darkly, handing one to each of them. “They were to be given directly to the magistrate of each patch.” Feeling a sense of foreboding, Arico skimmed the document. At first it looked like any other public announcement, to be read to each patch by their magistrates. Except for the contents.
In it, the Sustained Council claimed to have tracked down the ‘heretic’ (that was him, Arico had heard), to his home patch of Tellek. While the heretic hadn’t been apprehended, the searchers had found the patch devastated by an outbreak of the Blood Fever. There had been no survivors.
A cold chill seeped through Arico as he read it again. “By the Many…” He looked back up at Alzhi. “Has this been confirmed?”
The part of him that wasn’t in shock was still hoping this was just one of the Council’s mindgames. There were a hundred and twenty-two people in his home patch. Somehow he knew it was true, though. The Council wouldn’t make such a claim unless they were sure no one could contradict them. They were all dead: parents, children, siblings, spouses. Probably the Sustained’s own magistrate as well.
Or perhaps not everyone. “Dwarves are immune to the Blood Fever, right? D’tor lives on the very edge of the patch!” Arico said with a brief surge of hope. “She might still be there, hiding!”
“D’tor’s not a true dwarf, though. She’s just a short human.” Alzhi responded sadly. After a moment, he looked up again, “Still, if it’s not the Fever, it’s possible she’s avoided notice. I went to Tellek patch but I didn’t look at her house. I did see a bunch of Ascendants from the edge of the threads, though. They were carrying bodies towards the threads, but I couldn’t tell how they’d died. It might be false, but why would they order me to deliver these announcements if there was anyone left who could deny it?”
The Hauld spoke up before Arico could say anything else. “Could it be true, lass? Could tha Sustained have brough’ back tha Blood Fever?” He gave Endu a questioning look.
She was silent for a moment, before finally shaking her head. “I doubt it, Hauld. I’ve read everything your ancestors recorded about the Fever. Even if the Council had isolated some of the original carriers of the disease, there would be no way for them to be sure it was being passed from generation to generation safely. As soon as one infected person dies, the disease dies with them. That’s why the Ascendants are having no problem handling the bodies now. Either they killed everyone themselves and are making it all up, or they faked the disease somehow.”
“Because of me,” Arico said softly. He ran his finger down the edge of the announcement. Sure enough at the bottom there was a warning to all patches. It claimed the heretic was most certainly a carrier of the Fever, and any contact with him would prove deadly.
“Think about it,” he continued slowly. “I stood in front of the entire city and claimed the Blood Fever was long gone! That it was just an excuse the Council was using! They had to make a liar out of me. How better to discredit me than to have the Fever destroy my home, and claim I was responsible for it??”
Arico wanted to go there himself. He had to see the bodies of his friends, of the people he’d grown up with, but he knew it had to be a trap. If Endu was right, the Council had done this not just to discredit him but also to draw him out of hiding.
The Hauld put a hand up to his shoulder. “This innae yer fault, lad. An’ we dinnae know if it really was tha Council.”
“Of course it’s my fault! They’re all dead because I was stupid enough to give the people my real name! I did this!”
He turned away, but Alzhi caught him by the shoulders before he could leave. “You know better than that, sir,” he intoned forcefully. “None of us could have predicted this. You took steps to protect them when you left. That’s all you could have done.”
His eyes flicked over to Endu, and Arico could see the relief in her glance. If Arico hadn’t warned her; hadn’t arranged her removal to the Fishbowl, she and the boys would be just as dead as the rest of Tellek patch. “The fact is, you still have people depending on you. We have no time for self-pity, not right now.”
“Ye know ‘e’s right, Arico.” The Hauld’s voice was the same mixture of gentleness and implacable honesty. “We need ta be sure o’ this. Alzhi, can ye get one o’ tha bodies fer us ta test here?”
Alzhi thought about it, and slowly shook his head. “I doubt I could get a body away from Tellek patch, but I might be able to sneak Endu in to take a look.” He turned to her. “You wouldn’t need long, would you?”
“Half an hour at most,” she said confidently.
“I’ll go with you,” Arico said automatically. He had to see it for himself.
“Ye will not!” The Hauld answered sharply. “Yer face is plastered all o’er tha city, lad. One good look by any o’ tha Ascendants, an’ all three o’ ye are done fer.” Not waiting for any response, and clearly not willing to entertain any objections, he turned back to Alzhi and Endu. “Go upstairs an’ grab a disguise, both o’ ye. We need ta do this quick. If’n ye find Arico’s frien’ alive, bring ‘er back here safe, would ya?”
Alzhi glanced over at Arico and nodded. “Yes sir.”
Arico could tell the Hauld was throwing him a bone, and he appreciated that. It was a risk, bringing D’tor here. Even if she was similar in appearance to the natural-born dwarves, she’d been raised a stra’tchi, with their ideals. Come to think of it, she might not actually want to stay here, or in the Fishbowl.
Arico knew he was just trying to distract himself by pondering all this. A hundred and twenty-two people had just died, but more lives were still in the balance. He felt a stab of shame at his earlier outburst. The Hauld was right. He could do no good there, and potentially a lot of harm. This was war, and people died in war. He couldn’t take that all on himself.
Endu hurried out to get her disguise but Alzhi hesitated, looking back at Arico. “The Ascendants are handing these out all over the city,” he lifted the parchment stack. “I’ve got my own corner to take care of, though, including most of your would-be friends. The Mayors in Yassa patch and Hokketh patch have already pulled out of the meeting tomorrow. Should I deliver any of these to the rest of them?”
“No,” he responded automatically. “Not until after the meeting, anyway. It will be better if I tell them myself. That way I can soften the blow.” As an afterthought, he added, “I should probably tell Jaas about this as well. If I really am a monster, it’s better that she hears it from me.”
