The Silver Ship and the Sea (37 page)

Hopefully.

The war we were born for was separating us, even now, rending the last bit of family we had in two.

I wanted Joseph to stay! I forced myself away from that thought.

There was one more thing I needed to know. “Gianna—can you come closer?”

She came, easily, unafraid.

I felt grateful for that.

When she was close enough the others couldn’t hear, I whispered, “When will the tsunami come?”

She looked startled, but answered quickly, “After noon. Just.”

“Thank you for your help,” I said.

“Joseph helped me. I don’t know how, but he has much better access to data.” She looked at me curiously. “What can you tell me? What can he do now? Did he really turn off the nets, and how did he do it? Does he have a machine?”

The sky was clear now over the ocean, over the plains, and getting dark. Another meteor streaked through the atmosphere, burning up before it hit the ground. “I’ll tell you the story after it’s over, Gianna. You’ll have to wait until then. It won’t be long now.”

She nodded. “I can wait.” She swallowed and shifted on her feet. “I hope it’s a glorious story.”

“Me, too.”

I’d barely gotten up here in time. The engine hum was audible. It scared me still, like my memory from when I was a baby, with Chiaro. Lights flashed on the far side of town. I couldn’t see the skimmer itself, but I heard it throttle down and land.

Artistos was eerily silent. “Joseph,” I whispered.

Joseph spoke in my ear. “Are you still all right?”

“Do you have Bryan and Alicia?”

“They’re climbing in. I’m coming to get you. Go out into the park.”

I shook my head. Realizing he couldn’t hear that, I said, “I can’t. I think I can get you away. I can’t do more. Tell Jenna to leave early.”

There was a long silence. Gianna was close enough to look at me quizzically. Joseph could just be on another earset for all she knew. All she would ever know, I thought. Finally Joseph said, “Can you come tell me good-bye?”

I caught myself shaking my head again. “No,” I whispered. “No, I don’t think I can.” I started crying, deep wracking sobs. I set the ball on the ground, in reach, and wiped at my tears. “Come back if you can.”

“I’ll call you when we get to the ship.”

The skimmer’s lights rose and circled, dipping my way. For a moment I thought he was coming here after all, and my heart rose against my resolve, but the skimmer disappeared again, toward the spaceport.

I looked down. They’d heard it, too. Recognition painted their faces. Nava’s mouth hung open. Lyssa looked at the sky, as if she expected something to fly over any moment. Ruth glared at me. Hunter let out a low whistle, and he, too, looked up at me. I was too far away to read his eyes, but he had to know the game had changed, that we held more power, more of our own technology, than he’d thought.

I picked the ball up, but stayed seated, glancing back and forth
between the place the skimmer’s lights had last been and the group huddled on the dais. As soon as my tears slowed, I started down the steps, carrying the ball carefully, holding the microwave gun pointed down as if it were sharp scissors. Gianna followed me, near my back, keeping her own silence. It took a long time to make it down the steps.

It seemed a great emptiness had descended on me as the skimmer turned away, as if a meteor had plunged through me, burning me inside out. I was committed now, committed to Artistos, my future hanging on the next few minutes. I stopped a few meters from them, at the foot of the steps, but out of reach of the dais. Hunter watched me carefully.

I gazed back at him, my face still wet with the tears of Joseph’s leaving, but my voice steady. “Are you done considering? You will not see Alicia again, or Joseph, or Bryan. But the rest of us plan to help you.” I was sure Kayleen and Liam would stay.

Ruth glared at me, as if she wished I would disappear. Her hand fondled her stunner. Hunter’s face was unreadable. Nava looked conflicted, her gaze swinging from me to Hunter and back again. Her hand crept to her stunner. “Give the ball to Hunter,” she said evenly, in her best command voice.

Tom called down from above us. I didn’t dare look back as he said, “Let her be, Nava. The others are leaving.”

“How do you know?” Nava asked.

He’d heard my conversation with Bryan, but he couldn’t know about
New Making
. I did not want to reveal it to them yet. I spoke quickly. “They have a skimmer. They can take it to Islandia.”

If Tom guessed something else, he didn’t say.

“Our nets, our information?” Hunter demanded.

“They will come back on in the morning.”

“But the meteors?” Lyssa asked.

I felt sorry for her, our only clear support on the dais, but too weak to make a difference. Too scared. I spoke gently. “They will fall anyway, Lyssa. Knowing when will not stop them.”

“Give Hunter the ball,” Nava repeated, drawing her stunner.

“I…want to know you are sorry for sundering my family. For
Bryan’s beating.” I swallowed. I had nothing to apologize for, not for myself. But Alicia…“I am sorry for Alicia. Sorry I am holding this thing.”

Silence.

I heard Tom’s steps as he walked down and ascended to the dais to stand next to Nava. He put an arm over her shoulder, pulling her near to him. She did not resist, but kept her eyes on me. Finally she nodded. “Yes, Chelo, I’m sorry for all of it.” Her voice told me she meant it, but she had not yet said how she would change anything.

I waited.

“I will see that Artistos treats you better,” she said. “I’m sorry for the loss of the others. But you must guarantee that…that at least Alicia will never return.”

I shifted on my feet, struggling for a true answer. “All I know is that she will not return for years. That is all I can do.”

She took a step toward me, her face more open than I’d seen it since the day we left.

I stepped up to the foot of the dais, holding up my hand, shaking, the ball heavy and unwelcome. Hunter reached down and took it from me.

It was as if a sigh filled the auditorium. Hunter’s face relaxed, Nava smiled. “You did the right thing, Chelo.”

My knees felt weak and shaky, and the emptiness of the moment threatened to overwhelm me. I did not want to fall at their feet, didn’t want to be here anymore. Not right now. “I’m going to wait for Akashi and Liam.” I turned away from them, starting up the stairs.

Hunter spoke behind me. “Give me the other gun.”

I turned to face him. “I think I’ll keep it for now.” I glanced at Ruth. “I hope I never need to use it.”

I thought Hunter was going to argue, to insist, but after a long moment he nodded at me.

“Will you stay with us?” Tom asked.

“Not tonight. If they’ll have me, I will stay with Akashi and Liam.”

I turned away from them all again, leaving Nava to control Ruth. She would do it.

I looked up to see Liam standing at the top of the stairs. By the time I finished my climb, Akashi had joined him. They reached their arms out for me, supporting me. We said nothing, just walked together away from Commons Park, leading the hebras. A meteor streaked across the sky, missing Artistos, missing the High Road, landing, perhaps, near Little Lace Lake.

I didn’t see any more meteors that night.

I made it as far as Little Lace Park before I sat, unwilling to move. Akashi tied the hebras nearby and rustled up a tent from somewhere, and they bundled me inside it just as dark enveloped the park. When I climbed under the blankets, I felt so empty, so wrung-out, and so worried that I was sure I wouldn’t sleep.

That was my last conscious thought until I woke from a dream.

In my sleep, I stood alone on the cliff’s edge, looking over the blackened Grass Plains (which still smoked in my dream), watching the
New Making
rise away from me. It moved slowly, every inch of its passage pulling at me, pain knifing up my spine as it rose, and rose, and rose, and I screamed inside the dream and fell, jerking, landing hard on the hard ground near the cliff’s edge, staring into an empty sky that faded to green tent fabric.

I crawled outside. Dawn had just begun to paint bright spots on the dewdrops clinging to the tall fall-yellow grass stems. Akashi and Liam sat outside, bundled in blankets, one on either side of the door, looking toward town. If they slept, they didn’t sleep in the tent.

I looked from Akashi to Liam, both faces grown dear to me. I swallowed hard. “Thank you for watching over me.”

Liam pulled me in close and kissed my hair, speaking softly, “You watched over me. We could have all lost, maybe even been killed, but you found a way for everyone. Even Bryan.”

I snuggled into him, grateful for his warmth in the cool air. Akashi watched me closely. “He’s right. I believe you can make a better future now.”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do this, not really. Alicia forced the issue, and Alicia freed Bryan. I just helped them leave.”

“Alicia’s choices would not have ended well. You helped everyone be themselves by taking advantage of people’s strengths.”

“Joseph.” I swallowed hard. “Joseph outgrew this place in the last few weeks. He needs something more. Perhaps now he will find it.”

Akashi smiled softly at me. “I’m glad you can think of it that way. Perhaps the world out there is ready for him. I suspect he will be challenged.” He scraped his fingers through his hair. “What about you, Chelo?”

I didn’t need a fight with Nava. Artistos might as well be empty without Joseph. “Can I go to the West Band with you?”

“Of course,” Akashi said.

Liam squeezed me harder, and I wanted to stay in the warm, soft place in his arms. Pushing myself free was hard.

I swallowed, missing Joseph already, and stood up, straightening my rumpled clothes. I walked out by myself, finding the outhouse and then going to the edge of the cliff above the Lace River. The redberries had nearly all fallen from the bushes and the few that remained were shriveled and dry. Leaves crunched under my feet. The emptiness born when the skimmer flew back to the
New Making,
carrying Bryan and Joseph, had settled into my bones, my skin, my heart. I had been here, in this park, with Therese and Steven, with Joseph, on more than thirty Trading Days.

But Joseph and I would not walk to Trading Day together again.

As if he heard my thoughts, Joseph whispered in my ear, “Chelo?”

“Are you ready yet?”

“Soon.”

“Paloma and Kayleen are coming back here?”

“They’re almost ready to leave. Paloma is brushing Jenna’s hair.”

“Really?” I pictured the tangled mess of Jenna’s rough one-handed twisted braid. “That’ll take all day.”

Joseph laughed. “Nope. She cut it off. Jenna’s giggling. You should see her. She can’t wait to leave.”

I could picture it in my head: Jenna shorn and happy, Jenna one step closer to becoming herself again. “Tell Jenna—tell Jenna thanks. And to take care of you.”

He didn’t reply.

“Tell Paloma and Kayleen to bring the hebras with them, all of them. I’ll meet them at the top of the trail. If the wave comes like you think, and it’s dangerous, if you have to go, then go. I’ll try to get there to watch you leave.”

“I want to see you again,” he said.

“It’s too risky to bring the skimmer in here.”

“We put the skimmer away.” He was silent a moment, as if distracted by something on his end. “Sis? We hid the skimmer in a clearing partway up—on the same side as the First Road.”

Good. “Thanks. We might need it.”

“Kayleen knows where it is.” A note of pride crept into his voice. “I went with them, as backup, but she flew it. She did okay.”

I remembered her stumbling walk from yesterday. “Is she doing better? She was getting confused yesterday.”

“She’s still a little unstable, but better. Do you still have the projector?”

I felt in my pocket. I’d forgotten about it, between guns and bombs and Alicia and…and everything. “Yes. Tell Jenna I’ll keep it safe. I have the frizzers, too, the ones she sent for Alicia and Bryan. And a microwave gun.”

His voice made me imagine his face earnest and concerned. “Be careful with that stuff—don’t get caught with it. I don’t want to find you living in the woods like Jenna when I come back.”

“I’m going with Akashi and Liam, with the West Band.”

“Good.” His voice shook. “I wish you could ride down.” He hesitated. “I’ll come back.”

“I know you will.” A lump filled the back of my throat.

“Jenna says it takes years to go and return,” he said.

My voice choked, and my eyes stung. “I’ll be here.” The river and the redberry bushes and the tent trees blurred as water filled
my eyes. I struggled to keep the tears from my voice. “Someone needs to wait for our parents, anyway. Now, go on, get ready. Oh…and turn the data back on. I promised they could have it this morning.”

He laughed. “I’ve set it so the net restrictions all release when I leave the area. I think that’s safer.”

“All right. I’ll call you as soon as I’m close.”

His voice went silent in my ear and I cried then, hard, sobs wracking my body. I sat, my head on my arms, wishing for more time. He’d outgrown Artistos. And Artistos had rejected him for it. Perhaps he was born to leave, although I was sure our
altered
parents had imagined different circumstances.

We were what they made us, but our lives made us what we were. Our actions, our choices. My
altered
parents did not make me to stay and help Artistos, nor Joseph to flee in a nearly empty ship.

Akashi and Liam and I took Stripes and Lightning through town, heading for the cliff overlooking the Grass Plains, Akashi on Lightning and Liam and I doubled up on Stripes. We passed small groups of people on the road, walking toward the cliff. I spotted Gianna, and stopped Stripes, leaning down. “Gianna? What’s happening?”

“People want to watch the wave.” She grinned at me, her eyes flashing friendly conspiracy. “I told them all about the wave yesterday—I figured it would keep people from thinking too hard about you. Now, I’m sure it will happen, and that we’ll be well above it, but able to see. Everyone wants to see.”

“Thanks.” Regardless of the dream, it seemed fitting that the
New Making
’s flight would have an audience.

“The meteor came down this morning, almost exactly on the other side of Fremont. Joseph beamed me a sat-shot of it better than any of ours. I’ll show you when we get back.”

“When will the wave come?” I queried her.

She shrugged. “Waves. An hour. Maybe a little more.” She gazed up at me. “It’s funny—they don’t look like much now. But they will when they get here. They’ll hop the lower cliffs as if they were
a stair.” She reached a hand up to take my hand. “I didn’t hear the skimmer last night. Is Joseph safe yet?”

“Soon. Ride with us?” I glanced at Akashi.

He nodded and loosed his mounting rope for her. She climbed up, sitting behind him, her arms hanging loosely at her sides.

I felt glad she rode with us.

Nearer the cliff, the crowds were heavier. Some people looked at me strangely, others waved. They all moved out of our way and made room. As we neared the big winch, I spotted Lyssa and Tom and Nava and Hunter, a few feet back from the edge of the cliff, easily in sight of the trailhead. I didn’t see Ruth. Hopefully she’d gone back to her band.

We dismounted and tied the hebras, and I went to stand near the Council, joined by Liam and Akashi and Gianna. Nava’s gaze met mine for a long moment, and even though she didn’t smile, she nodded and warmth touched her eyes. After she turned back to watch the sea, Tom grinned as if I were his own child come to stand near him.

In my dream, I had stood entirely alone as
New Making
flew away. Standing here, with everyone, felt like a symbol of hope.

I looked down the trail. A line of hebras snaked along the plains, already near the bottom of the cliff. I breathed out a sigh of relief, realizing only now that I had been afraid they would go, too. The town needed Kayleen now, needed her skills. I needed her.

Past the spaceport, the
New Making
gleamed in the late-fall sun. It had to work, to fly them safely away. It had to.

Should I wait, let Kayleen and Paloma get up here? The ocean looked calm, but the sea was surely coming. I stepped a few feet back from the edge. “Joseph? I’m here.”

His voice came through high and excited. “We’re ready.”

I glanced at my chrono. A half hour had passed since we picked up Gianna. “Is Bryan okay?”

“He’s already in cold sleep. Jenna thought that was better.”

So many mysteries Joseph was seeing and I was missing. “When he wakes, tell him I miss him.”

“I will.”

Bryan might not hear those words for years. He might sleep in transit until they arrived at Silver’s Home. I stepped back to the edge, and glanced down in time to see Kayleen’s dark hair frame her face, to see her look up and wave at us. Surely she was too far away to pick me out, but they’d be able to see the crowd.

I whispered to Joseph, barely choking out the words, “Go safely.”

“Blood, bone, and brain.”

I laughed then, appreciating the depth of his simple childhood explanation. “Go now, before I make you stay. I love you, little brother.”

“I love you, too, sis. Don’t let them push you around.”

“I won’t.”

I stood still, watching. Seconds took a long time to pass. The ship looked as silent as before, the sea as calm.

Gianna came up next to me, and took my hand. I looked past her, to Nava on the other side of Gianna. Nava whispered, “The
New Making,
” understanding dawning on her face. Somehow she knew. Perhaps simply by the way I watched the ship.

It didn’t matter anymore. I stood, my eyes glued to the ship, my heart beating fast.

A deep rumble began to fill the plains, growing louder quickly. White steam began to rise up below the
New Making
.

The crowd gasped.

On the horizon, the sea swelled, a smooth elongated hump, a moving hill of water.

The ship rose, gracefully, in slow motion, rising up until it was even with us, a silver arrow. I wanted the moment to take a long time, wanted
New Making
to hover gracefully in the air.

It accelerated away, leaving a white line behind it in the blue sky.

Then it was gone.

The white steamy line of its passage thinned and lost form, and then disappeared altogether. I watched the empty place in the sky where the ship had flown, not wanting to look down to the empty place on the Grass Plains where it had rested. The blue sky mes
merized me until people around me screamed, and I looked down to see the sea rise up over the low cliffs where the Grass Plains met the sea, and rumble toward the spaceport, like frothy fingers reaching for us.

“The shuttles!” Nava exclaimed.

Tom reached for her and folded her in his arms. The water rose around the hangar, the only building big enough to see well from the cliff’s edge. The wave washed over the big building’s roof. The building stood, just slightly askew.

Kayleen! I leaned out over the edge as the water slammed into the cliff so hard that the ground beneath my feet shuddered. Kayleen’s dark hair and Paloma’s golden hair shone against the gray and brown cliff, their faces bright and intent. I heard them yell, but the wave made too much noise to make out their words. They hadn’t fallen.

Gianna’s hand pulled me away from the edge of the cliff. I stood, shaking, images of the powerful ship, of my powerful and beautiful little brother, and the powerful wave all mixed up in my head. I looked around.

Nava looked stunned. Tom had released her from his embrace, but he still held her hand. “The shuttles might be okay. I’ll check on them tomorrow.”

Akashi and Liam were nearby, and as I caught Liam’s eyes he smiled at me. Akashi smiled, too, then leaned up to say something to Liam.

My gaze returned to the water churning at the foot of the cliff, beginning to withdraw. Glancing out, the splashy whitecaps of the second wave climbing the low cliffs began to jump up and shine in the sun. I watched until Kayleen’s head bobbed up the last bit of trail. She was leaning forward whispering to Long-face, praising him for something. She looked up and saw me. Her face transformed into a wide smile and she dismounted, handing Longface’s reins to the nearest bystander, and ran toward me, toward Liam and Akashi and Gianna and Nava and Hunter and us all.

Gianna whispered, “A glorious story, indeed.”

I pulled my attention away from the empty sky, the receding wave. “At least it’s over.”

“I suspect,” she said, “I suspect it’s just beginning.”