I hesitated. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but if he had sweetcakes in that basket, I could manage a little forgiveness.
“Where?”
“Just to the gardens. Sunshine, fresh air.” He grinned, wide and silly. “It’ll be fun, and we could use a little fun.”
Aylin had been telling me the same thing. I grinned back. It had been a dumb fight anyway. “Let me get dressed.”
I shut the door and threw on some clothes, then ran a comb through my still-black curls. The dye Aylin had used to colour our hair and disguise us was starting to grow out, but unless I cut it as short as Danello’s, it would be months before I looked normal again.
Have you ever been normal?
I pushed the thought away as I opened the door. Danello beamed, his short blonde hair ruffled just like I pictured, his smile just as sweet. He offered me his arm and I took it.
“Did you pack sweetcakes?” I asked.
“You’ll have to come with me to find out.”
I followed, actually looking forward to something for a change.
Voices drifted up the stairs, folks laughing, talking, even arguing. So different from the first week we were at the farm, when half the people had huddled in corners and the other half run around setting up defences. We were safe for now, but how long would that last? Faces turned when we walked past the reception room, and the laughing ceased.
Those in the back leaned their heads together, awed gazes darting to me. Some I recognised – those who’d been in the underground resistance Jeatar had been secretly running in Baseer, soldiers on the farm, friends and friends of friends who’d escaped before the Duke sealed the city and began recalling his troops. The others I didn’t know, but new folks arrived every day.
“Any news yet, Nya?” someone called.
“Not yet.” Seemed like everyone knew about Tali. I guess that was a good thing, since the more people who knew I was looking for her, the better the chance that someone would hear something that could help me find her. Still, it bothered me that everyone knew my problems. And knew that she was my sister. As much danger as she had to be in right now, she’d be in a lot more if the Duke knew who she was. He’d sure as spit use her to get to me.
“When’s the next trip out?”
Danello’s hand tensed in mine, but he stayed quiet.
“Hopefully the end of the week,” I said. No commitment there.
“You’ll find her, don’t worry.”
“Thanks.”
Danello hurried me out the side door and we headed across the sun-baked courtyard. I drank in the humid air, the heat chasing the tenseness from my limbs. Fields spread out past the farmhouse grounds: tall, bright-green cornstalks with yellow tops waving in the wind; smaller, darker-green sweet potato vines in bushy rows. One pasture held grazing cattle with long, twisting horns.
Not at all like the islands and canals of Geveg. Even though we were miles from the river, and a two-day sail from Baseer, I still felt exposed with so much open space around me. There were no corners to hide behind, no side streets, no bridges. Just miles of fields. Geveg’s mountains were hazy in the distance, looking more like storm clouds on the horizon than rock.
To the north of the farmhouse was a grid of dirt roads and buildings, the houses of those who worked Jeatar’s farm. He had thousands of acres and hundreds of farmhands, and some merchants and traders had established shops there like a small village. I didn’t know if it had a name, but Aylin called it Jeatown.
The fields closest to Jeatown were dotted with dozens of tents, makeshift homes for those who’d also fled Baseer. Horses grazed in roped-off corrals, with wagons nearby. I even spotted a few carriages mixed in, proof that wealth didn’t protect you from the Duke’s soldiers.
“It’s getting crowded out there,” I said. “We might have to start making food runs twice a day.” We’d been helping Jeatar’s people hand out food and supplies to the refugees, and the bags were going faster every day.
“I heard the guards say there are even folks from Verlatta now.”
“Verlatta? What are they running from?” Verlatta had been under siege by the Duke’s army the last six months, but when I’d shattered his palace and started a city-wide riot, he’d recalled the army to subdue his people. Verlattians should have been rejoicing.
Danello shrugged. “I don’t know, but rumours say there’s fighting in all the cities.”
Even Geveg?
I tried not to picture my city in flames, people I knew fighting in the streets, their bodies in the canals, but I’d seen far too much for those memories to stay silent. War was coming.
Saints, war was here, and I’d probably started it.
I still had nightmares about being trapped in the Duke’s weapon, locked to the misshapen pynvium by cuffs of silvery metal that made you do what you didn’t want to do. The pain cycling through me and the other five Takers chained to it with me. Being forced to trigger it, to flash its pain and kill.
Of losing control of it and turning it into something that drained life.
I prayed the weapon had been destroyed when the Duke’s palace was, shattered by its own pain when the walls came down around it, but I knew better. It was still there, and the Duke was still trying to make it work.
If he figured it out, none of us would ever be safe again.
A soldier by the perimeter fence waved at Danello and called hello. He elbowed another soldier and pointed at me, but they were done gossiping by the time we reached them.
It was the same everywhere we walked. Knots of people watching me, whispering about me. You’d think they’d be bored with me by now, but there was always someone new on the guard who hadn’t heard what I’d done. Their words reached me, some from people who didn’t even try to stay quiet.
“That’s the girl who destroyed the palace and almost killed the Duke.”
“It’s the Shifter, the one who rescued all those Healers in Geveg.”
“There’s Nya. She saved our lives in Baseer. Took on the Undying to do it, too.”
My skin twitched with so many eyes on me. I’d spent my whole life hiding who I was – what I was – but my secret was gossip now. And gossip travelled faster than a four-footed hen.
Maybe even fast enough to reach the Duke’s ears.
“Here we are.” Danello pushed open a gate to a low-walled garden. Cool green shade greeted us, smelling of honeysuckle and white ginger. It was beautiful, but my uneasiness was rising like the tide.
“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I said. With all the new folks on the farm, one or two could be spies – or worse, trackers – for the Duke. He finally had control of Baseer again, and that was making everyone nervous. We should be preparing to fight back, defend ourselves if needed, not enjoying the sunshine.
“Nya, it’s OK. It’s quiet here, no one will bother us.” Danello squeezed my hand and rubbed his thumb across my knuckles. I took a deep breath and nodded. He was right. Until we knew what the Duke was doing, there wasn’t anything to prepare for.
We followed a stone path that curved among bright yellow flowers and trees with white bark and circled around a small pond. Danello stopped and pulled a blanket out of the basket. He shook it open and spread it out by the water.
“Breakfast is served,” he said with a flourish.