The Silver Ship and the Sea (33 page)

Paloma, Akashi, and I sat, mounted, looking across the flat plains to Artistos perched on the cliff above us. Joseph, Jenna, and Kayleen stood with us, Joseph next to Kayleen, watching Artistos thoughtfully, his face lined with worry and exhaustion. He had slept the least of all of us, except for Jenna.

Jenna had been the first to spot movement down the cliff road ten minutes ago. A line of hebras snaked slowly down the switchbacked path.

Joseph squinted into the morning sun and said, “I count five.”

Five? Who? Nava, for sure. I’d be willing to bet on Tom and Hunter. There was only one way to find out.

Joseph and Gianna had been talking, but they didn’t yet know what kind of damage the big asteroid would do. A day remained.

There had been no word from Liam. But he wouldn’t call and risk alerting Artistos to Alicia’s intent before he knew anything.

The headband shimmered in the sun against Kayleen’s dark unruly hair. I had passed it to her for safekeeping. She, after all, could use it.

Jenna patted Stripes with her one hand and looked up at me, her slate-gray eye approving. “You are good, Chelo. Strong. You can do this. Buy us time, time to get the ship ready. Buy me a day. Your brother needs to rest, and there are still things I must teach him.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“Don’t trust them,” she said.

I led off, Paloma and Akashi following me, close in. The charred day-after-fire scent filled my nostrils, and made the hebras nervous. They picked their feet up high, and kept their ears forward.

I had planned to bring Liam. I felt his absence, felt how I alone represented us all.

Paloma spoke so softly I could barely make out her words. “It took so little time to come to such a pass. Before the earthquake, everything was fine, even getting better. For you, for Kayleen, for the whole colony. As if we were finally recovering from the damned war.”

I leaned forward to pat Stripes’s long neck. “Maybe it will be all right.”

“I hope so,” she said. “What will you do if it isn’t?” Her words seemed caught in her throat, as if they didn’t want to emerge and be heard. “Will you all fly away in the
New Making
if you can’t go back to Artistos? Will you take my daughter?”

I turned in my saddle. Paloma rode straight and comfortably, as if she and Sand belonged together, as if she belonged exploring. She had chosen simple hemp pants and a hemp shirt, flowing and loose, and a thick hemp coat with small hand-carved djuri-horn buttons. Her clothes were rumpled from the saddlebags, but she looked clean and alert. She straightened her reins, over and over, but her face gave away no emotion. Akashi, next to her, wore leather, and he looked very much like Paloma; contained and calm. He, too, dressed simply, his only ornamentation the fringe of his leather coat, decorated with the tiny horn beads Mayah made for trade each year. He had chosen to ride with his stunner visible, the hand grip showing in the waistband of his pants. He could have covered it easily by closing the coat, so it was a conscious decision. He and Paloma both carried the little microwave guns, like me. Neither of them was visible. I took mine out of my pocket and pushed it into a hole in the saddle where I could reach it easily. Then I thought better of it, and pushed it back into my pocket.

I couldn’t answer Paloma’s question. I asked her a different one. “Would you go with us if we went?”

She looked startled, and then she smiled. She spoke slowly, her voice catching in her throat. “Only if Kayleen must. Artistos needs you, all of you.”

“Thank you.” I turned back around, facing the coming conversation.

When we were about halfway between the spaceport and the cliff, I pulled Stripes to a stop. A little patch of grass the fire had missed hung on, barely wilted, behind a large pile of stones. Paloma and Akashi stopped next to me, silent. The string of five hebras approached us from the Artistos side, close enough now for me to see the deep red of Nava’s hair. I squinted, looking for Tom. Hunter followed Nava, then three more behind her. Stile, Ken, and Ruth. No Tom. Ruth’s presence added to my unease.

As they came closer, Stile and Ken stopped, holding back. Bodyguards.

The other three continued. Paloma looked at me questioningly, and I shook my head. Let them come to us.

When Nava was about five meters away, I called out, “Good morning.”

She stopped. Looking at Akashi, she said, “Where are the others?”

I spoke. “Which others? I came to talk, and that is what I promised.”

Hunter rode up next to Nava, sitting straight in his saddle, his gnarled hands holding the reins loosely. He gazed at me evenly. “I came for Joseph.”

I bet he did. “I’m the only one of us here.”

Regardless of how age had curled his hands and bent his back, Hunter’s eyes peered out of his wrinkled face with a deep distrust. He spoke slowly and clearly, as if I were a recalcitrant subordinate. “Do you remember, on your way out, you promised me that you would take care of your people?”

I nodded.

“Here is what I believe. I believe your brother regained his skills, and more, and that he has made our networks unstable for
the past two days. I believe he and Alicia are not even with you anymore. I believe you failed to keep your promise.”

The combined gazes of Hunter and Nava made me want to squirm. I drew in a trembling breath and let my own anger at them help me steady my voice. “I took care of them all, and we never disobeyed Paloma or Tom.” That was all I had promised him. I had never promised him we would not learn.

Ruth rode up on Nava’s other side, gazing at Akashi. Her eyes were dark and flinty, her hair pulled back tightly behind her head. Like Akashi, she wore a stunner in plain view. “Akashi, what are you doing? Why aren’t you with
us
?”

Akashi’s eyes looked concerned, compassionate, but his voice was cool and distant. “Because you are wrong.”

“Where is Joseph?” Hunter asked.

Paloma and Akashi were silent, waiting for me to respond.

Was the power here Hunter or Nava? Nava still led Artistos. I nodded to Hunter, acknowledging that I had heard him, but I spoke to Nava. “We have done nothing wrong. You asked us to fix the networks. We did. We were not with Bryan, and I can’t say why he chose as he did, but I know we have all been taunted by Garmin and his friends more than once, and I know they beat Bryan afterward, that you did not keep Bryan safe.”

I let a beat of silence fall, and then followed up. “We have often stayed together to keep each other safe.” I made sure Nava watched me. “You sundered us, and then you failed to protect Bryan.”

A flash of guilt touched Nava’s eyes. She shivered a little, but didn’t reply.

I didn’t give her a break. “We have simply been ourselves. You and I, Nava, we talked once about how we might grow into ourselves.”

A light wind blew Nava’s hair from her face, blew up fine ash so it swirled around the hebra’s feet. Nava’s eyes roamed across us three, drinking in details silently. No one spoke.

I wasn’t sure what to say next. I knew what we wanted, and that it started with acknowledgment that we had done nothing wrong. Had I made my point? Not if I looked at Hunter, who regarded me
calmly, with the same exact condescending look on his face. Ruth simply watched us, her eyes narrow, her mouth a hard line in her thin face.

Nava’s voice grew more formal, her eyes harder. “You must all come back. Chelo, Joseph, Kayleen, and Alicia.” She looked at Paloma, a brief smile crossing her face. “Kayleen may continue to stay with Paloma, Joseph and Chelo with me.” She addressed me next. “But you must stay in town, and you must not gather together. You must not protest any decisions that we make. We expect you to continue your work in the science guild, Chelo, and Joseph to continue strengthening the nets, but only at our command. He is to stop taking unilateral actions.”

“And Alicia, and Liam, and Bryan?” I asked.

Nava hesitated a moment, then continued. “Alicia may choose between living with me in Artistos, or returning to her band.” Nava glanced at Ruth. “She has not earned more freedom than that.”

Alicia and Nava would be oil and water, and she would not go meekly back to the East Band. Besides, she was off making her own consequences at the moment. “And Bryan?” I asked.

Nava wiped a stray hair out of her face, and looked at Akashi warily. I remembered them standing at the fork, each holding a stunner drawn and ready to fire. She swallowed. “Liam can stay with Akashi.”

Akashi eyed her back, the same wariness on his face that hers held. “And Bryan?”

Nava swallowed. “We will decide what to do with Bryan when he recovers. We may base our decision on the behavior of the others.”

So she liked having a hostage.

Ruth had worked her way to the side. I glanced at Stile and Ken. They, too, had fanned out. So it wasn’t just a game of talk, even if I was the only prey here. “Call Ruth and Ken and Stile back, keep them where I can see them.”

Nava looked startled, but made no move. I glanced at Hunter. “We are three to your five, and at least three of you are armed.
Smart that none of you has drawn your weapons. I suggest that you don’t.” I regretted placing the microwave gun in my pocket, where I couldn’t reach it easily. Except that sight of it could drive them to violence I still hoped to avoid. I opened my hands. It was hard to keep my voice from shaking. “I am not carrying a stunner. There is no reason for you not to hear me out.”

Hunter gave a hand signal and Ruth rode back toward him and Nava.

“The others,” Akashi said.

I glanced at Paloma. Sand pranced lightly under her. Paloma’s face had gone white and her knuckles, where she clenched her reins, were white also, but her eyes flashed determination and anger. She said nothing.

Hunter called, “Stop where you are for a moment,” loud enough for Stile and Ken to hear. They stopped, still too far apart for me to watch.

“Where I can see them both at once.” I smiled at Hunter, hoping my smile made up for my trembling hands. “You remember the war better than I do, but I don’t want to repeat it, either.”

He sighed and nodded at me, his look no longer condescending. “Come closer, you two—stand behind us.”

Stile and Ken brought their hebras in closer to the path, not quite as close as I wanted, but it would do. I cleared my throat. “Here is
our
proposal. Joseph and I and Kayleen will come back, and Joseph and I will live by ourselves, in town. We will do you no harm; we will help you, like we always have. We are part of you now, we have fought Fremont like you have, helped rebuild it after the earthquake like you did. Joseph will continue to work on the nets, and to do more. He can build them better and stronger, weave in a better warning system. He will show Gianna everything he does. Bryan will stay with us when he recovers, or by himself if he prefers. Liam and Alicia will go with the West Band for the rest of this season, and be under Akashi’s care.”

I glanced at Akashi. I had only just thought of this solution for
Alicia. He didn’t react, and I took it as a sign that he would support it. I turned back to Nava. “Akashi is Town Council. There are four of you here this moment. You can decide. We will promise to work for the good of Artistos, and not to harm anyone unless they harm us first. That is the best promise I can make.”

Ruth snapped out, “Alicia cannot simply run free.”

Hunter put a hand up, asking Ruth for silence. He spoke slowly. “You are not adults to dictate terms to us. Our terms stand.”

“I will be an adult in a year,” I said. “Artistos’s children have married at my age, and younger, and they are treated as adults when they marry.” I watched Nava’s face closely. She gave nothing away, just watched me as closely as I watched her. “Akashi will agree, and Tom will.” I took a risk. “Lyssa, too.” I looked from Nava to Hunter. “You need us. We have skills the colony can use.”

Nava looked uncertain. I could see it in her eyes. But it was Hunter who spoke, and his eyes were flint and determination. “We do not negotiate with children. I expect you to come back with us now, and then you can explain your
demands
to the whole Council.”

And become another hostage? If I went back, I could be there, where Alicia and Liam were. Maybe. If Liam didn’t stop Alicia. If he had to follow her all the way into Artistos. If she didn’t do anything stupid. But I’d be out of touch with everyone else. Jenna had told me not to trust them. “I can’t go with you. Please talk to me now.”

Hunter shook his head. “You’re making a mistake, Chelo. If you speak to the Council they are more likely to believe you.”

Nava looked past me, at Akashi and Paloma. “Tell her. Tell her to come back with us.”

Paloma said, “It is her choice.”

Nava pursed her lips, her eyes flashing anger. “Akashi?” she said.

Akashi gathered himself, as if he were on stage. He sat very straight in his saddle, gazing evenly at them, his stunner clearly visible. “I believe these young people have demonstrated they are adults. No matter what we call them. I will abide by Chelo’s
wishes, as long as she and the others don’t harm the colony. Tell Town Council I support her suggestion, and that we’ll take Alicia in the West Band for now.”

The three of us held our ground, watching the five of them. A standstill.

Ruth addressed Akashi. “You will regret taking Alicia in if it comes to that.”

Akashi ignored her. Time stretched, long moments of quiet, filled by the scent of burned grass carried on a freshening breeze. Hunter nodded at me, his face impassive, his eyes cold and untrusting. “You will be welcome in town if you change your mind.”

I returned his nod, hopefully returning to him the same look he gave me. “Thank you.”

Ruth and Hunter and Nava turned and rode through Stile and Ken, who let them get a few meters down the path while they watched us.

I glanced at Paloma. “Come on, let’s go.”

She turned Sand around and she and I started back, Akashi continuing to watch the others, guarding us. After Paloma and I had been riding back for about ten minutes, Akashi rejoined us. “They are all going back,” he said.