Knight of Wands (A Steampunk Fantasy Adventure Novel) (Devices of War Book 2) (10 page)

I put my hand on her arm. “No. You’re not. You’re not dressed to go out in this.”

“Tarot says I need to stay with you.”

I opened the door. Rain beat against me. I turned back to her and yelled over the rain. “If it’s really meant to be, you’ll find me again. But for now, you need to stay in here.”

Something was shoved at me. “You’ll want this,” Carilyn shouted.

The long coat and hat of a knight. I headed down the rungs of the ladder. “No. I don’t.” I did, however, take the rolled parchment that had been tucked into the pocket and stuck it in my belt underneath my shirt and vest. I called just enough power from my Mark to keep it dry.

The ground was soggy and I was drenched. A gun was pressed into my back. “Do you have any weapons?” one of the men shouted.

I shook my hair out of my face and looked up, opening my mouth to capture the rain. It felt good to be out in it. It was warm. We still had a while before winter. Dear Sky, how I missed this. “I have my Mark. I don’t think I need anything else. Do you?”

“What about them?”

I shook my hair out of my eyes. “They’re staying in the plane. Trust me. They’re Hands. They’re not coming with us.”

“Like we could trust you!”

I didn’t know these men, but I knew where we were and who led them. They’d figure out they could trust me soon enough. I pounded the side of the plane twice. “Don’t follow me, Carilyn! You will never make it in this storm. Leave as soon as the storm breaks.”

“I have the coordinates,” she shouted down at me. “We’ll just come back with more people.”

“You’re trying to broker peace, remember? And you have coordinates to an island. I’m not concerned.”

One of the men pushed me forward. “I’m glad
you’re
not concerned.”

It was a bluff. I was certain Carilyn knew it, but the truth of the matter was, the Hands would never find the city buried within the island. That was a truth, and if the Hands really were interested in brokering peace, they’d leave this island and me alone. This would be their first sign of good will.

The door to the plane slammed shut.

I followed the men up the side of the looming mountain. The vegetation was thick, hampering our movements. We reached a canopy of trees, which shielded us from the brutal rain.

A hole appeared in the base of the mountain. Within ten steps, we turned a corner and the effects of the storm dissipated. The walls glowed with the same steady stream of green light as the torches.

I was guided down several tunnels, which seemed like more of a maze. I was lost. There was no way I was getting out of there on my own. Which meant that even if Carilyn decided to follow me, she definitely couldn’t find us. Good. The lower we went into the bowels of the mountain, the warmer it got.

We finally stopped in a cavern. A single desk and two tables filled the space along with a handful of people.

A man walked in from another tunnel on the opposite side. He looked like he hadn’t shaved for a day or two, his beard coming in dark, specked with white. There was gray in his hair. He stopped. “You look like dung, Synn.”

He looked healthy, happy, and younger, if that was even possible. “Garrett, it’s good to see you.”

“I heard you’re a Hand now.”

Oh, great. But I’d known what my reception would be as soon as I heard about Nix’s broadcast. She’d known, too.

He stepped up to the long, stone desk. “Are you the Knight of Wands?”

“No.”

“I have a message sent out by Queen Nix herself telling me you are.”

I barely believed it myself. “It’s a bit difficult to explain.”

“The truth usually helps.”

“I am not her knight.”

“Would you endanger my city, Synn?”

“After helping you save it?” I shook my head.

He let out a short breath. “We owe you our lives, Synn.”

I’d also been the reason their original city had been destroyed in the first place. His people had died because of me. His
lethara
had been murdered. No. He didn’t owe me anything.

“If you hadn’t taken us in, if you hadn’t looked for a place for us to live, we’d still be living as unwanted refugees in Ino City.”

Was that how the survivors of Sky City were now living? As refugees? Had I accomplished anything good?

He winced and disappeared through the corridor behind him.

Since there were no guards trying to lay their hands on me, I followed. It was time to dry off. I found the center of my power and pushed outward. Not enough for my Mark to lift from my body, but just enough to heat my clothes, drying them, particularly my feet. Squishy shoes were never nice.

I checked the rolled parchment under my belt. It was a little damp, but appeared to be in one piece. I let out a long sigh amazed once again at how I managed to find myself in these situations.

Several long, windy corridors later, we entered a cavern open from above. Rain fell in a thundering waterfall. People lounged along the wide shelf, eating and talking. Everyone appeared well-fed and wore clothes that were in good condition.

“Things are going well for you then.” I grinned, relief running through me.

“Oh yes.” Garrett turned as he walked to the other side where food was laid out on rock shelves. “Much better than we’d hoped. All we need to do to prepare for winter is to gather enough food to sustain us, though, to be honest, the caves provide more than enough. I doubt we’ll have to gather much.”

“That’s great news.”

He stopped at the food table and picked up a few things.

I didn’t know what I was looking at. Were they fruits? Vegetables? Obviously, they were safe. I didn’t doubt that. A green, oblong fruit with red fuzz about the size of my thumb lay on the table. I didn’t even know how to break into it.

Garrett threw his head back and laughed. “Everything here is safe. Here. Try this.” He tossed me something with curly spikes.

I caught it and stared. “How do I eat this?”

Chuckling, he split one open with his thumbs, and popped whatever was inside into his mouth.

With a shrug, I did the same. It was blood red inside and whatever it was looked like a soft fruit. It was sweeter than anything I’d ever tasted and covered my tongue with a slight film that dissolved slowly. Warmth shot through me. “What is this?”

Garrett chuckled and turned back to the table. “We call it a prickleberry.”

My eyes widened as I nodded. “That is a very apt name.”

“Yes.”

We munched in silence, listening to the waterfall and murmurs of the gathered people.

“You want out of those clothes?” Garrett asked.

“Yes, I do.” I loathed everything about this uniform. I wanted to burn it.

He gestured to someone behind me, took two more prickleberries, and headed along the wall of the cavern.

I followed suit, grabbing a few strips of dried meat. The spray of the waterfall pressed against my cheeks.

“So, tell me how you’re not a knight.” Garrett came to a circle of boulders and sank down to the floor.

I sat across from him, leaning against a boulder. The ground was sandy and comfortable. “I’m not quite sure to be honest.”

“When dealing with women in general, things are often confusing. When dealing with the queens, they always are.”

I chuckled and ripped off a piece of the dried meat.

“We all heard of your sacrifice after you saved Sky City.”

I hadn’t intended it to be a sacrifice. Replaying that moment in my mind, I felt like a complete idiot. All I’d wanted to do was to save one of my best friends from being captured by the Hands. Instead, I’d ended up offering myself. And for what? Just how gullible was I? “Do you have word on how the Families are doing?”

He nodded, but waved off my question. “What happened? You were there for weeks.”

I sighed and leaned my head back, staring at the ceiling high overhead. It glowed green and blue and purple. “Dyna drugged me so I couldn’t use my Mark, and then one day, she let me out. I talked to Nix. We had an argument and they agreed to let me go.”

His eyebrows shot up.

“Then they tried to trick me into telling them how to get into contact with the Families, which I refused to do. Then I told them all to eat dirt and flew off.”

“Not alone. I hear I have Hands on my island.”

I sucked air through my teeth. “It was the only way out of the city. I didn’t want to bring them here. What do you call this place?”

“Peacock Rock, and I do appreciate the sentiment, but what do I do with them? They’re on my island. They could stumble onto a tunnel at any time.”

“Make sure they get lost if they leave the plane?”

Garrett rolled his eyes.

I didn’t know what else to tell him. “What about the Families? How are the Ino? Shankara? How is my fleet? Asim City?”

“Is it true that you have the power to negotiate a treaty?”

I scratched the back of my neck. “I don’t know, Garrett. Those women are so . . . ” I pulled my lips in and shook my head searching for the right words. “I don’t know. They’re manipulative and conniving, slimy. I have no idea what happened up there. I thought I was handling the situation, but I’m pretty sure all I did was fall further into their trap.”

Garrett’s gaze was distant as he studied the sand between us. “They are tricky that way.”

I nodded. “Not that the Families are any better.”

Open surprise filled his expression. “I’m oddly glad to hear you say that.”

I let out a frustrated breath. “I know no one is perfect. I wish I knew the best solution.”

“What if we were all allowed to go back to a city-by-city rule?”

“Did we ever truly have that?” When I’d been a part of the El’Asim Family, just a son of the fleet, things had made a lot more sense. We were in control of our lives. No one else had any say in anything we did.

I now knew my father had had a lot less control than I’d perceived. The El’Asim and Ino Families were bonded through the marriage of my parents, but what that really meant was . . .

I didn’t know. That the El’Asim had to be careful of any actions that would adversely affect Ino? My mother was a very strong woman. Her will was felt on the fleet.

Did the citizens of Ino City feel the ramifications of siding with the El’Asim? I’d always thought not. They were stuck to the sea. We were free to fly the sky.

But if they hadn’t been bound to the El’Asim, they could have taken their
letharan
city under the ice when winter hit. It would be safer for them under there. For that matter, it would be safer for everyone to reside under the ice through the winter.

Who would decide what was best for them? For the Hands? Who had the power of mind to determine where the best common ground would be? What would happen if all power was removed? Was that a viable suggestion?

Garrett wiggled his fingers lightly to gain my attention. “There are a lot of things going through your mind right now.”

“Indeed.”

“That is good. I have a lot more confidence that this could work.”

Glad someone was. “Where do your allegiances lie?”

He frowned and took a handful of sand, letting it filter through his fingers. “As Egolda City, we were under first the protection of the Ears, then the Families, and finally the Hands. I’ve seen the pros and cons to all of it.”

I nodded. “What does that mean for Peacock Rock?”

He tipped his head. “We’re safe here. We rely on no one. Yes, it is nice to get the technology updates from Joshua—” He brushed me off when I opened my mouth to ask him about my friend. “—but we’re safer having no affiliations with anyone.”

I narrowed my gaze.

“Here, we are safe. We can hold off any attack that might come. We have our own resources, and they’re within our caverns, for the most part. There are caves like this—” He waved his hand to the waterfall. “—riddled throughout. We’ve discovered orchards, natural fields, animals.” He met my gaze. “I see no reason to side with anyone.”

I nodded slowly. “I wish all the cities could know that freedom.”

“Part of the problem is that the Hands cannot survive on their own.”

I groaned. “I know. They burn fuel. They have no fields.”

“But where do they get their metal?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, but I’d love to find out. Have you ever seen anything like it?”

“No. Have you?”

“No.”

We were quiet for a long moment.

“Garrett,” I said softly. “If you decide to remain neutral, truly neutral, I may request your assistance.”

“That would be difficult since you do have an affiliation.”

I stared into the space between us. I did.

“But you have been tasked with drawing up the treaty, and the only way for everyone to agree would be if it were fair.”

“Exactly.”

He shrugged. “I could act in this manner for you, but, Synn—”

I met his gaze when he didn’t continue.

“Be fair. To both sides.”

That was going to be a lot easier said than done.

CHAPTER 9

REUNITING WITH FAMILY

Garrett
broadcasted to Ino City, Asim City, and the El’Asim Fleet using the radio Joshua had given him when they’d first settled. Ino City was closest, even though I yearned to be back on the fleet. Isra, my second in command, had the fleet in Kiwidinok, but they were on the far north side of the large, wild continent, waiting for a hunting party to return.