The Bone Shard Daughter

Chapter 30. Jovis Nephilanu Island

Ifound Gio in the main hall with the others the next morning, pacing in front of the fire. It seemed he’d had an even more restless night than I had. I’d searched through the book into the late hours, finding other words I recognized. Whoever had written in it had taken some time to practice Empirean. They were crude replications, but the author had been learning. I’d realized I could work backward from these writings, figure out some of the words of this language.

Alanga. I’d seen their monuments, some of their artifacts, but I’d never seen one of their books. I should try to sell it. I could use the money to pay down more debts, to buy more supplies. What did I care for these mysteries? Yet I couldn’t deny its discovery had awoken something within me – reminding me of my nights of study at the Academy, the satisfaction of solving a problem.

I was a smuggler. Not a navigator.

Did Gio know about the secret room?

He stopped abruptly in front of the fire, his back to me. Mephi bounded ahead to beg for fish scraps from the cook. He’d already had an enormous breakfast, but I let him go. Gio turned when he saw Mephi, and our gazes met. “You’re awake. Good.”

I spread my arms. “So it seems. Although this could be a dream.”

“Not a dream. A nightmare.”

“Yours or mine?”

Gio rubbed his brow, squinting into the fire with his one good eye. “I sent one of my scouts out last night to gather some information on the palace and the best routes to the governor’s rooms. She hasn’t returned. We need this information if we’re to accomplish our aims without being caught.”

Before I could form another thought, Mephi was at my feet, crunching on a fish head. He watched me with bright black eyes.

“Send someone else after her,” I suggested.

“You saw the shard-sick. We don’t have an unlimited supply of spies.”

Mephi turned the fish head over in his paws. “Help.”

I shot him a dagger-filled look. Of all the times—

“What?” Gio turned, his eye narrowed. He looked to me, and then Mephi, and then back to me.

The last thing I needed was anyone finding out Mephi could speak. They’d run me off the island. The only creatures that spoke in stories were the bad kind. “I said I’ll help.”

Gio looked me up and down. “You’ll help?”

Inwardly, I sighed. This was how it began – agree to help fix someone’s roof; the next thing you knew you were building them a new house. “Tell me where you sent her and the information you wanted her to uncover. I’ll look for her and gather the information. This doesn’t mean I want to join the Shardless. I just want to be on my way as soon as possible.”

He considered for a moment and then sighed. “I don’t have much choice. She had a contact in the city. A soldier who’s on our side. He gets off his shift late afternoon. You should be able to find him at the drinking hall near the docks. Tell him that the fish were jumpy today, use those exact words. They serve fried squid at this hall – you can smell it before you see it.”

“And how do I know who this man is?”

“He sits at the corner table. Middle-aged fellow.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Does he have a name?”

“None that he’s felt safe to give us.”

Stealing things was more straightforward. Go in without a thing, leave with a thing. I nodded. “I’ll leave now.”

I turned to go, but Gio’s voice stopped me. “You can’t take him with you.”

It took me a moment to understand what he meant. Mephi. I’d grown so used to having him at my side that it had never occurred to me that he wouldn’t always just be there. That he couldn’t always be there.

“People will notice,” Gio said when I pivoted back to him. “You’ve garnered a reputation. And your pet is unusual. They don’t mention your pet in the songs perhaps, but the gossip is a different matter. I’ll meet you by the entrance. Cutting your hair after the Empire painted your portraits was a good move, but we can disguise you a little more in case anyone’s seen the posters. There are fewer here.”

He was right, though I didn’t much like it.

The rebels had set me up in a room near the main cavern. It was carved so neatly it could have been formed from a mold. A relief was carved into the ceiling of a woman in flowing robes, a swirling ball hovering over her left hand and water dripping from her right in a flow heavy as a waterfall. A mountain stood behind her. The artist had carved the mountain to be almost as imposing as the woman – a tall and jagged thing, capped at the top with what looked to be a cloud juniper. The tiny lamp in the corner cast angry shadows across the woman’s face.

It was a fearsome thing to be stared down by when one was trying to sleep.

Mephi nudged my hand with his head. His head was now nearly to my waist, which made sense when I saw how much he ate every day. He’d be the size of a small pony a few months into the wet season if he kept this up. The fur on his horn numbs had rubbed completely clean, leaving dark, shiny patches of skin. “I should go with you,” he said.

I stared down at him, astonished. “Are you speaking in complete sentences now?”

“Sometimes?” He leaned against my leg and peered up at me, his black eyes like river-polished stones. “I should be with you.”

“Just nine more days and we’ll be gone again.” I scratched at his cheeks. “We’ll be out on the Endless Sea and you can go fishing off the side of the boat.”

He let out a heavy sigh – the sort a husband might when his wife said she was well and truly done sailing in storms, after she just sailed into this next one. He shook his head and began to dig at the blankets. “You are doing a good, but you are alone. Alone is bad. Alone is not good.” He made a hollow in the blankets and settled into it, his tail curling about his nose. We’d just woken up. Was he tired again already? “I am alone.”

The creature sounded so dejected, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. I knelt and cupped his head in my hands. His head was now as heavy as a dog’s, his jaw wider and heavy with muscle. The bite he’d left on that Imperial soldier must have hurt. Pride filled my chest. He’d come a long way since the ragged little kitten-thing I’d plucked from the ocean. “Don’t bother the cook, and I’ll be back tonight.”

I gave him a last pat on the head and left before he could entreat me again to stay. Ranami hovered outside the door, a sheet of parchment in her hands. Had she heard me talking to Mephi? The doors here were all stone – she certainly didn’t look at me as though she’d heard Mephi talk.

“Here,” she said, shoving the piece of parchment at me. “It’s a map. You’ll need to know how to get to the city from here. Take the long way – don’t lead anyone back to us. Gio is waiting for you.” She seemed agitated, her hands smoothing the front of her dress as soon as I’d taken the map.

I hesitated. “Is something wrong?” I shouldn’t have asked. Asking meant I might feel sorry for her, and then I might offer to help. I’d done enough helping. Emahla was out there, and it had been seven years.

She closed her eyes for a moment and shook her head. “It’s fine. It will be fine, as long as you do what you’ve promised to. Better men and women than you have fallen to spies or constructs. Watch your back.”

“Wait,” I said before she could leave. “My pet, Mephi. Can you watch him while I’m gone? Make sure he eats enough? He’s been more hungry than usual lately.”

Her expression softened. She might not have liked me, but there were few who didn’t like Mephi. “He seems very attached to you. I’ll do my best.”

Gio waited for me near the entrance, his cloak wrapped around his shoulders, his beard nearly hidden in it, a leather bag at his side. He looked like only one dark eye and a scar. “Good luck,” he told me.

“I don’t need luck,” I said with a dismissive wave. “I need skill.”

“Good skill doesn’t have quite the same ring,” Gio said. “And it’s not something I can wish upon you.”

I stopped and waited as he applied putty to my face to hide the shape of my nose. “This rebellion. You’re playing a game with long odds,” I said. “Are you planning on winning, or are you only planning on making your opponent miserable before you reach the end?”

“I only play to win.” Gio’s gaze focused on the bridge of my nose, his thumb pressing near my eye. “And we will win. The Emperor isolates himself. He is dying and no one really knows his daughter. What do you think will happen when he dies? What will happen to all the constructs spread across the islands? They will no longer have any direction. And the rebellion will be there to pick up the pieces.”

“But will you remake what’s broken?”

“We will build something new. No more Tithing Festivals, no more Emperor. Free trade and movement between the islands,” Gio said. “No governors, but a Council made up of representatives from all the known islands.” He pulled out a couple of jars, looked at my face, mixed some colors from them and then dabbed them on my nose.

“And what happens to you when all this is done?”

“I build a farm somewhere, live out the rest of my days. I don’t want to be Emperor if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m just the midwife for something new.”

His words sounded practiced, like he’d said them a thousand times. I knew a liar when I met one. I recognized one each time I saw my own reflection. And now, looking into Gio’s remaining eye, I felt as though I looked upon the glassy surface of a lake on a windless day.

He met my gaze. “What does it matter to you? You’re a smuggler. You’re not invested in this society. You live outside it.”

He was redirecting my question, trying to put me on the defensive. I knew these tricks. “And how will we choose this Council, Gio? All these people who hate the Empire, who hate everyone who has been involved in it – how do we get everyone to join into a common purpose? Will you be the one to heal these wounds? How will you do that from your quiet farm? The Sukais once thought they would heal the wounds left by the Alanga.”

He straightened my leather jerkin and checked his work. He nodded, evidently satisfied. “Here.” He drew a straw hat from the bag at his side and handed it to me. He apparently thought a little farther ahead than I did. “You do what you said you would. I can tell you what I will do, I can make pretty speeches, but it’s the doing that counts. Go.”

The best of intentions could be subverted by greed. And beneath the practiced speeches, Gio was the same as most men I’d ever known. He had a wanting heart. They all did. I just didn’t know what he wanted. But I went. This wasn’t my fight. I wasn’t one of them, swallowing their lies the way a drowning sailor swallowed seawater.

Emahla, for you. I would drink a thousand lies just to see your face again.

I used the map to trace my way through the trees and toward the road, looking for the landmarks I’d seen on my way in. Even so, everything appeared different than it had a few days before. A jaguar yowled somewhere in the forest, making me jump. When I scratched an itch at my forehead, my hand came away damp with sweat. Much as I hated to admit it, Mephi was right.

Alone was bad.

But I made it to the road and to the city before noon. Children scampered across the streets, searching for food in the kitchen scraps thrown from windows the night before. They were ragged and desperate as hungry rats. A few of them eyed me, as though they might find something worth taking on my person if only they all attacked me at once. Back home on our small island, we hadn’t had cities large enough for gutter children. Any unwanted babes were quickly fostered by families who desired children.

I’d seen them huddled in alleys before, but I didn’t think it was a sight I could ever become accustomed to. Gio helped the shard-sick. Would Gio do something for the orphans, too? I dropped a few coins onto the street for them and increased my pace. I was more afraid of hurting them than the other way around.

I heard a scrape behind me – an orphan stooping to gather coins? – and remembered Ranami’s words. When I glanced over my shoulder, I saw only the cobblestones of the street. If someone had been there, they’d moved quickly. I tightened my grip around my staff and felt the thrum in my bones. I did not need to fear, even if Mephi was not with me. The woman Gio had sent had walked this same path, but she hadn’t had the strength I did.

Still, I’d not lived so long as a smuggler by denying my instincts. I ducked onto a side street, found a crowd of fishermen heading to the market from the docks and slipped into their midst.

“At least we have boats,” a woman said to the man next to her. “If it happens here, we’ll have the chance to escape.”

It took me a moment to realize they were talking about Deerhead.

“Do you think that matters?” the man replied. “You could be crushed in your bed, or not get your boat unmoored in time. I wish we knew why it happened. How could a mining accident sink an entire island?”

The smell of them reminded me of my father, and the one next to me even looked to have some Poyer blood. He was shorter and ruddier than his fellows, and just the feel of him at my side reminded me of my father. I almost expected him to start muttering random facts about fish or sails or seawater. My father had been born outside the reach of the Empire, up in the mountains of the Poyer isles. He’d not had a shard taken from him. But the Endless Sea called to him when the Poyer isles had ventured close to the Empire, and he liked to say that when he met my mother, he knew he’d never go back to the mountains. The man shifted away from me, breaking the illusion.

I’d have to double back to the drinking hall.

I should have hurried but I took my time, relishing being out in the open again, away from the dark corridors of the Shardless hideout. An ocean breeze tickled my scalp; the calls of seabirds sounded in the distance. Mephi, had he been here, would have been weaving between my feet, begging me to buy him some treat he could smell on the wind. I stopped in a couple of places to take a look behind me. If someone had followed me, they were gone.

Finally, I wound my way back to the drinking hall. It was nestled into the cobblestones, a set of steps leading to a narrow door. Water dripped onto the stoop from the floor above. As Gio had promised, the air wafting from the door smelled strongly of salt, oil, and the sharp scent of cooked squid. I placed my hand on the door and then something prompted me to look to my left.

A construct sat on the street, watching me.

I’d seen spy constructs before – small things with watchful eyes and an ability to climb. This one looked to be made of mouse and bird pieces with little claws that scratched the stone as it scampered away.

The putty disguising my nose was still in place, though that didn’t stop me from checking again. I ducked into the drinking hall before I could second-guess myself. The man at the counter barely glanced at me as I ordered a plate of the fried squid. I surveyed the tables. There were three corners with tables in them. Two of them had single occupants. Both were middle-aged men in uniforms.

I couldn’t think of enough curses to attach to Gio’s name.

As I waited, I studied each of the men. Both were full-blooded Empirean men, their straight black hair streaked with gray. As I watched, they both lifted their mugs to their lips, nearly at the same time. Not helpful. I searched for other details. The uniform of the one on the left was slightly rumpled, his boots scuffed. The one on the right looked like he’d gotten a little more sun.

“Here you are.” The man at the counter handed me a plate piled high with battered and fried squid. I checked the price and handed over some coins.

I had to choose a seat unless I wanted to stand out.

I adjusted the hat Gio had given me, the brim scratching my forehead. It bought me only a little time. What did I know? Our informant knew the best way to the governor’s rooms. He was sympathetic to the cause. If the man on the right had gotten more sun, he probably spent more time outdoors. A wall guard then? Or the doors? The rumpled uniform and the scuffed boots of the man on the left spoke of less wealth, more struggling.

If I were wrong, I might be making a fatal mistake. Not for me – I could fight my way out of this – but for all the Shardless back in their cavern. I took a deep breath, walked to the corner and sat at the table of the man on the left. He glanced at me over his mug and frowned. “The fish were jumpy today,” I said, as though that explained anything.

His brow furrowed along familiar lines; he didn’t seem the friendly type. The plate of squid no longer smelled appetizing.

And then he reached over and took a piece of squid. “I told you before, you’re using garbage for bait. How’s your sister?”

I know what you’re here for, his feigned familiarity said.

Relief weakened my spine and I slumped a little in my chair. I knew this sort of dance. So I played along. “She barely speaks to me,” I said. “How would I know? Have you seen her lately?”

“Fickle woman,” the guard said. “You know how I feel about her. Asked her to have a drink with me in this very spot. She said she would, but never showed.”

My chest tightened, but I grabbed a few pieces of squid to hide anything that might be plain on my face. The spy Gio had sent had never even arrived. I didn’t dare look across the room to see if the other guard was watching us, though I did check the ceiling beams for spy constructs as I tipped the squid into my mouth. Nothing.

We made small talk for longer than I would have liked, but I supposed we had to keep up the proper appearances. Finally, he pulled a piece of folded parchment from his pocket. “I thought you’d be needing this from last time we talked. As promised – my mother’s bait recipe. It never fails. You’ll have fish jumping into your ship tomorrow morning.”

“My thanks,” I said, taking it and sliding it into my purse. I wasn’t fool enough to look at it now.

“Just tell your sister I’d still like to have that drink with her if you see her again.”

I rose. “I will.” And I made for the door. The air outside felt fresher and I filled my lungs with it. I could manage as a smuggler when it was only my life on the line. Always cared more than I should have.

I’d taken two steps when something seized me by the arm. Before I could react, it dragged me out of the stairwell and into the alley next to the hall. My knees cracked against the stone; my head whipped to the side. It took me a moment to register – it was not a human hand.

Claws dug into my arm, and the pain told me they’d pierced skin.

Glimpses filtered through my rattled mind: yellowed teeth, yellowed eyes, patchy dark fur. A whiff of musky animal scent. A low, guttural growl. A construct.

I reached for the thrum in my bones, the strength to throw the creature off of me. The will to make the ground shake. My heartbeat roared in my ears, but my bones stayed silent.

Nothing.

I was alone.