Chapter 10 Hakara
Hakara
Langzu – in the wilds, on the road to Bian
Velenor, the Glittering One, took a particular interest in the Aqqilan Empire.
She forged beautiful weapons for them with blades that never needed to be sharpened.
While Barexi focused on scholars, Velenor appeared to the warriors she saw as worthy in both body and soul, and taught them how to fight.
These warriors passed these skills to their children, and theirs to their children.
It was the stupidest plan I’d ever heard.
Infiltrate one of Kluehnn’s dens, all to get a look at the tomb of some dead family?
Seemed like the sort of idea a noble would have – someone obsessed with lineage and bloodlines.
I kept one eye on the shape of Thassir, high above, as we marched away from the mining camp.
He’d been able to sense Lithuas’s presence, and by the looks of things, she was heading eastward.
I wasn’t sure where to. I kept my other eye on Mullayne, in case our wayward noble decided to make a run for it.
Taking him with us was a risk, but so was leaving him at the mines.
And I’d convinced Thassir to help me; maybe I could convince someone else.
“I understand that clan members have a way of thinking things will just magically work out for them – because, let’s be honest, they usually do – but how did you think you were going to infiltrate a den?
The dens are tightly controlled. The only people who move freely in and out are godkillers.
Were you going to pretend to be a godkiller? ”
Mull just walked stiffly at my side, as if my words were merely the nonsense twittering of songbirds.
Every so often, he touched the wound on his head.
We’d marched out of camp with Thassir dragging him along in a sling.
It had taken several days before he’d been able to walk on his own without wobbling, but I knew from my prior experiences with aether sickness that he’d still have a right headache. Took a long time for that to fade.
“And how useful would what you learned actually be?” I dashed sweat from my brow and then lifted my pack to let some air flow beneath my shirt.
Our boots crunched against dried, trampled grass.
“So there were three aeroclines, not two. So what? What does that change?” I had to do a little hop to catch up to him; the man had very long legs.
I sidled up next to him, until my shoulder nearly touched his. “So? You’re so smart, right? Tell me.”
He sighed, squinting against the sun, realizing he couldn’t keep ignoring me.
“Sometimes it’s less about what has been done and what has happened, and more about why.
It’s not just about the aeroclines, it’s about what happened to Tolemne, what he did when he returned to the surface, what he and Kluehnn said to one another.
Why would someone want to lie about all of this?
My friends…” His voice broke. He took a sharp breath.
“My friends died because someone hid this information. Of course I want to know why.”
“And then what? You can’t save them.”
He regarded me with wary eyes, leaning away to put some distance between us.
For a while, he said nothing. I held my tongue.
Finally, he scratched at the stubble on his neck.
“You’re Unanointed. From the sorry looks of you all, you’ve suffered some staggering losses, though I don’t know from what.
Everyone can feel that we’re close to restoration, so maybe it’s that.
Maybe you were trying to stop it. Maybe you did.
It didn’t come without a cost. Kluehnn says he is restoring the world.
I can no longer believe that. Don’t you ever just want to know? ”
I leaned on my spear as I walked. “Just for the sake of knowing? Who has the luxury of that?” I gave him a sideways look. “Ah. Well, consider the question answered.”
His jaw tightened.
“Why go to all the trouble of finding the truth if it can’t help someone? We all know you’re smart. Yes, I need you to make us some more of those filters, but we could also use your help beyond that. We have a loosely connected network – you’d be joining that.”
He put his hands out in front of him, holding them slightly apart. “The Unanointed want to change the world. I’m content to live in it.”
“Even if so much of what you’ve known about it is a lie? Look at you, building machines to mine more gems from the earth, creating filters for your pet projects. What if you put all those grand thoughts of yours toward figuring out how to fix our world without killing half the people in it?”
His jaw tightened. “I’m not one of your foot soldiers. I’m not interested in meddling in the affairs of gods.”
Oh, was that so? “Walking Tolemne’s Path? That had nothing to do with meddling with gods? Please, I may not have your brain, but I’m not stupid.”
“I was trying to help someone,” he snapped at me. “It wasn’t out of selfishness; I walked the Path to ask a boon of the gods.”
“Okay, well now you could help a lot of someones.”
His hands tightened around the strap of his satchel. “Do you ever just quit?”
“So you’re saying you can’t do it?”
I’d touched a nerve; I could hear it in the edge to his voice.
A memory surfaced – a boy, his arms crossed, the fur at the neck of his jacket lifting with the wind.
I wasn’t sure if the line between his brows was a furrow or a smudge of dirt.
“Are you saying you can’t do it?” he’d said to me.
“Scared of a little bit of water? A little bit of cold?”
“I could if I wanted to.” It was the midst of winter – far too frigid for a swim – but someone had managed to drop a god gem into the crystal-clear waters of the lake, and it lay at the bottom, winking like a distant star.
I couldn’t remember, even then, how I’d gotten into this argument in the first place.
Rasha tugged on my hand. I didn’t acknowledge her, but I didn’t let go, either.
Maman and Mimi were both busy, leaving us to run about with the local children.
“Then why don’t you want to?”
We stared into one another’s eyes. He was only a little taller than me. I could take him in a fight.
If I wanted to.
Rasha stepped between me and the boy, her face screwed up in frustration. “She doesn’t want to! That’s enough!”
He’d been so startled by this tiny girl talking back to him that he’d opened his mouth, closed it, then turned to go. “Fine,” was all he’d said over his shoulder.
How had I forgotten that moment? When had things changed so that Rasha stopped using her voice?
Was it because Mimi and Maman were gone, or had I pushed us into the only roles I saw as making sense?
I’d dived after the gem anyways once the boy had left, and Rasha had been forced to find Maman to dry me out and warm me, the ends of my toes gone white, my teeth chattering.
Hadn’t gotten the gem. Hadn’t gotten anything but a tongue-lashing from Maman and a heavy sigh from Mimi.
But Rasha had held my hand until I was warm again.
A hot breeze grazed my cheek, bringing with it the tickling sensation of a stray tear. I swallowed past the lump in my throat, blinking. I’d been someone else then, hadn’t I? Couldn’t seem to draw a straight line between then and now, and didn’t really want to.
Mull was talking, unaware of my sudden changed demeanor.
I flicked at the tear as though brushing away an itch.
“Sure,” he was saying, “it’s possible. Magic is just that – possibility made real – isn’t it?
And the changes brought on by restoration are drastic.
What if we went a less drastic route, changing the environment only slightly?
What if we didn’t change the people at all?
That’s assuming there’s some level of adjustments that can be made and restoration isn’t an all-or-nothing process.
That’s assuming I had the chance to look into it.
It’s not exactly my priority, especially when—”
“Wait.” I felt a tug in my mind. Mercifully, the man stopped talking.
I shaded my eyes and looked to the sky. Thassir was so high and away that if I hadn’t known better, I might have mistaken him for a bird.
He was circling, not going in any one direction or another.
Alifra and Dashu stopped next to me, following my gaze.
Alifra pulled her crossbow free. “Either he’s found our quarry, or we’re about to hit a spot of trouble.”
He started to fly in one direction, I lifted my foot to move, but then he pivoted back.
“I’m going to assume trouble. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were godkillers on our tail.” I drew my sword and heard Dashu do the same. And then Thassir seemed to unstick, flying further down the road. I relaxed, tucking my sword back into its sheath, and climbed a small rise.
No godkillers ahead. No hulking aspect of Kluehnn, arms and legs eating up the ground.
But we’d only gone ten steps before I saw someone headed in our direction, on a path to intercept. A whole group of someones in blue jackets, silver trim glinting in the sunlight.
The Sovereign’s enforcers. Five of them.
I supposed that was better than godkillers, and if Thassir had led us here, that either meant Lithuas was among the enforcers, or godkillers were closing in from other directions. The enforcers had been too close for him to land without rousing suspicion.