Chapter 13: Charting the Way Forward
"Research Log, Year 4, Month 6, Day 4 (Day 1624) Cont.
“I have to tell him that his older siblings were killed the day I lost my job so that he understands the real danger of leaving the house. He too could be destroyed or taken from me.”
Shouts jolted Nevets awake and he groaned. He hadn’t been that deeply asleep because of the wounds covering one side of his body, but even a shallow sleep gave him some respite from the burning, itching pain. He lay still for a short time, listening to the shouts in the hall, dreading the shock of pain that sitting up would cause him.
“Mada,” He said, voice sluggish. “Are you awake?”
There was no answer. He must be more soundly asleep than Nevets was to not be awoken by the shouting outside, though he supposed this high up the shouts weren’t that loud. It sounded like something was happening in the street below.
Slowly, carefully, Nevets rolled onto his back, trying not to bump Mada or put too much pressure on his wounded side as he did so. He breathed in sharply as he settled onto his back, pain shooting up from his arm as the movement made the muscles contract. Then he turned his head toward Mada.
The na wasn’t there.
Nevets sat bolt upright without thinking, shouting in pain as every wound along his side burned with the motion. The room was empty save for him, and Nagemai was no longer at the table through the door. Gritting his teeth he pushed himself to his feet, then limped out the bedroom door.
Two guards remained in the room, one at the door, the other looking down on the street from the balcony.
“Excuse me,” Nevets said to the officer on the balcony. “Do you know where Mada went?”
The officer nodded. “The general took it with her downstairs a short while back.”
“Did they say why?” Nevets asked, worried by the shouting down below. “Or when they’d return?”
“No,” the soldier said. “But considering the commotion downstairs I expect she’ll return soon.”
Almost as if on cue Nagemai came through the door, followed by Mada…
And Ekivia.
She looked haggard like she hadn’t slept since he last saw her. The paint on her head that had been meticulously patterned before was now covered over by smeared green that left trails down her face, and it was flaking showing what was left of the pattern beneath. Nevets own head paint was flaking as well; neither of them had had the chance to touch up their patterns in the last couple days, let alone see a head dresser. Another day without any paintwork and they’d both be bald.
Ekivia’s arm was bandaged, and she cradled it against her body, but despite the oil darkening the bandage it seemed she was more concerned with her wrist than the more obvious wound. Her wrists were stiff and slightly cracked from hardened bruises. Nevets knew what that meant; she’d been bound with a constrictor.
Despite her condition, Nevets eyes turned blue with pleasure. Relief washed over him as the three entered, and his legs felt weak.
Nevets limped toward Ekivia, and embraced her gingerly. She was gentle, avoiding putting pressure on his right side while still giving him a hug with both arms. She also held her hand awkwardly to avoid smearing oil on him as she did so.
"I can't believe you're alive," Ekivia said as they parted.
Her eyes were blue, the color deepened by the pleasure in Nevets own eyes.
"I shouldn't be," Nevets said, trying to chuckle. "What're you doing here?"
"We got caught in the attack," She said as a soldier brought in a cloth and two clay pots , one with water and the other with ash for cleaning the oil from their hands and arms, and Mada, Ekivia, and Nagemai all began scrubbing the oil away. "Your new friends helped me escape, though I still don’t know how you two are still alive."
“I don’t exactly know myself,” Nevets chuckled. “When the army arrived I thought we were dead, but Nagemai… well she was a surprise.”
Ekivia turned toward the general as they washed. “Thank you. I don’t know why you would help us, but thank you.”
“I keep my promises,” Nagemai said, voice cold for some reason. Her expression seemed intense to Nevets, but he couldn’t figure out why.
“To who?” Ekivia asked. “I can’t imagine who you might promise to do something like this.”
Nagemai met Ekivia’s eyes, and gestured to the guards without looking.
“Out. Treblig, watch the door, and don’t let anyone in yet. I want privacy.”
“The captains will want orders,” Treblig said. “Fighting has already begun in the streets.”
“They’re trained well enough to manage on their own for a little,” Nagemai said, standing and drying her hands. “Tell their messengers that I trust their judgement.”
“Yes sir,” Treblig said, and he took his position at the door while the other guards left.
Nagemai approached Ekivia as she and Mada dried their hands, and finally Nevets realized what was off about her expression. Her eyes had the slightest tint of red, so slight that he almost hadn’t noticed. When emotion sight manifested that way it usually meant that the diordna was trying to control it. Nevets mind raced to try and figure out what might have angered the intense general, but he came up blank.
“I’m the Egeil,” Nagemai said, meeting Ekivia’s eyes with her intense gaze. “But when others are around please call me Nagemai.”
Ekivia’s eyes widened and paled with surprise. “You… but you’re… How could you know that name?”
She looked to Mada for confirmation, but he was distracted again.
“It’s really her,” Nevets said. “At least as far as we can tell. She knew about the note. She told me about it. It cleared up a lot about Mada actually.”
Ekivia looked back at Nagemai, obviously unable to wrap her head around what she was learning just yet. “Why did you help us, then and now?”
“As I said, I keep my promises,” Nagemai repeated with a tone of finality as though she wouldn’t elaborate further.
Nevets looked at her, questioning. She’d promised Mada and Nevets that she’d protect them and Ekivia, but the implication was that she’d been keeping a promise to someone from much further back.
“Now,” Nagemai said eyes turning more red, expression intensifying as she said it. “You three have some explaining to do.”
Nevets eyes paled as her intensity increased. Last time he felt this kind of intensity from her she’d thrown a spear through his leg. He looked to the others nervously and found that Mada was staring absently into the night through the balcony door. It made Nevets wonder what had happened. He wanted to check on him, but Nagemai’s question took precedence.
“What…” Nevets began, swallowing nervously. “What did you need explained?”
Nagemai stalked across the room and grabbed Mada by the arm. This drew him from his stupor and he looked at her confused and afraid. He tried to pull away instinctively but Nagemai’s grip was firm. Ekivia stepped forward as if to intervene, but Nagemai glared claws at her and Ekivia stopped immediately despite her height advantage.
Nagemai pushed Mada’s cloak sleeve up, revealing a series of black marks running up his arm.
“This,” Nagemai said. “You didn’t have these markings earlier. Where did they come from?”
Ekivia gasped, and the three of them looked at her. “I’ve seen those before. But where did you get them?”
"I don’t know," Mada said quietly.
As he spoke the red in Nagemai’s eyes deepened. "Do not lie to me. I may not be an academic, but I'm no fool. These marks follow a specific numeric pattern that I use with my scouts to indicate locations, though I don’t use this writing system for it. No one uses this system as far as I know. So how do you have markings that are both written in a language and a code you shouldn’t even know about?"
“You can read that?” Ekivia asked, shock obvious in her voice and slightly pale blue eyes.
“Obviously,” Nagemai said, rolling her eyes. “Where do they lead?”
“I don’t know,” Mada said, still distractedly staring at the marks. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“I find that hard to believe,” Nagemai said, her voice a dangerous kind of quiet.
“He’s telling the truth,” Ekivia said, and they all turned to look at her again. Her eyes started to turn a pale yellow as disgust crept into them. “I know where they came from, but I don’t know what they mean. Neither of them would have seen them before.”
“Well then,” Nagemai said. “Enlighten us.”
Ekivia looked to Mada and Nevets as if to ask if she should say anything.
“You can trust her,” Nevets said, a little grudgingly. She had kept her promises, she had treated them well. As much as he didn’t like admitting it, he did trust her.
“I saw them on Iakedrom’s prosthetic,” Ekivia said. “There was another prisoner with me, she claimed to be Esile. She was the one that tried to help me escape just before you all arrived. She… cut a part of her skin off and when Iakedrom touched it the skin marked his arm.”
“Impossible,” Nagemai said. “Mada was helping remove shrapnel from my soldiers earlier, and though the pieces gripped his skin they never marked him.”
Ekivia’s eyes suddenly paled and she looked as though she’d just realized something important, but she didn’t look away from from Nagemai. “It’s true. I saw it myself. I can prove it.”
“Really,” Nagemai said, giving Ekivia a flat stare.
Nevets didn’t know what to believe. He trusted Ekivia, but maybe she was trying to hide something.
“It wasn’t just Esile’s skin that could do it,” Ekivia continued. “Mine did too.”
“Again,” Nagemai said. “Why two diordna’s skin do it and not a single one of my soldiers.”
“Because none of them are descended from Esile,” Ekivia said. “Because this other prisoner was really the Esile who mothered isolated organics. She also posited, and apparently proved, isolated mechanics. She must have put that message in her own body, and then passed it down to her children, and their children.”
“Shall we test that then?” Nagemai said, drawing her knife and approaching Ekivia.
Nevets stepped between the two of them, nearly collapsing on his wounded leg. “She’s been through enough already without you cutting into her.”
“It’s alright Nev,” Ekivia said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. He grudgingly stepped aside.
Ekivia held her bandaged arm forward. “I already have a cut on this arm. Take some skin from there.”
Nagemai nodded, then unwound the bandage from Ekivia’s arm, exposing a nasty tear that appeared to go all the way through her arm, leaving two ragged wounds on either side of the forearm. It was crusted with drying oil. It was worse than any one of Nevets’s wounds except for the spear wound in his leg, though since she only had one it would probably heal faster than any of Nevets’s because her body could concentrate its resources on a single wound instead of having to spread resources to other places.
“How much do we need?” Nagemai asked.
“I don’t actually know,” Ekivia said. “Last time it was a section about as wide as my thumb.”
Nagemai nodded, then gripped Ekivia’s arm tightly with one hand. She placed the sharp obsidian knife against Ekivia’s arm and with a quick flick she removed a small piece of skin. Oil oozed form the new cut. Nagemai sheathed her knife quickly and rewrapped Ekivia’s arm.
“I’ll have a Machinologist come take a look at that and your wrist once we’re done here,” Nagemai said.
“Thank you,” Ekivia said, cradling her arm against her body once more.
Nagemai nodded, then held up the small piece of skin. “What now?”
“Give it to Mada,” Ekivia said.
Nagemai approached the na and held the piece of skin out on her palm. Hesitantly Mada reached forward and took the skin between two fingers.
“It’s gripping them like the shrapnel,” Mada said, then he demonstrated what he meant by separating his fingers so it was hanging from the tip of his pointer finger.
And that’s when it began to move.
Mada flinched and shook his hand and Nevets eyes filled with disgust.
“Don’t shake it off,” Nagemai said, and Mada stopped shaking his hand.
The climbed up his palm, and once it reached his wrist it began following the black patterns exactly, darkening them and leaving the occasional pinprick of blood.
“Remarkable,” Nagemai said quietly, then she looked at Ekivia, the anger fading from her eyes. “Did you include something like this in his code?”
“No,” Ekivia said simply. “I had no idea this would happen. Iakedrom thinks it was part of the skin, isolated mechanics put there by Esile, though I don’t know how Mada would have come into contact with it.”
“I ran into her,” Mada said. “The other prisoner. She cut herself before helping me to my feet. I was so caught up with trying to reach Ekivia that I barely felt the marks being made.”
“Maybe it isn’t the diordna skin at all,” Nevets said, trying to find an explanation that made more sense. “It could have something to do with how prosthetics work. The diordna body grips the prosthetic, bonding to it so that the nerve signals transfer. Maybe Kiv used prosthetic code as part of Mada. Esile may have hidden this code in all prosthetics.”
“I did use some prosthetic code,” Ekivia said. “But if that was the case then the shrapnel would have marked him as well.”
“Why would Esile want someone with a prosthetic to see these coordinates?” Nagemai asked. She’d calmed somewhat and was more thoughtful than angry now. It seemed that being wrong about Ekivia’s story had humbled her.
“What if she didn’t?” Mada asked, and he removed his cloak and shirt, exposing his back and other arm.
The marks ran in a spiral up one arm, across his shoulders, then down the opposite side.
“No prosthetic covers so much of a diordna body,” Mada said. Nevets made a mental note to include this conversation in his notes on Mada. The boy was showing remarkable insight, contributing on the same level as each of them. It would help bolster their argument that he was their equal. “So unless it repeats the message would only be meant for someone like me.”
Nagemai stared for a moment, then shook her head, looking disturbed as she did so. “It doesn’t repeat. And I don’t think Esile did this.”
“Why would you say that?” Nevets asked, confused.
“Because I recognize one of the coordinates,” Nagemai said. “And it isn’t somewhere she would know.”
“How can you be sure?” Nevets said.
“I’m sure,” Nagemai said, shutting down further questions.
“But if she didn’t do it, and I didn’t do it, then who did?” Ekvia asked. “No one has had access to Mada since he was born, and I only just encountered Esile.”
“What about the priests?” Nevets asked. “They’re the ones that supply the coded bees.”
“No,” Ekivia said. “They were the ones that shut the project down. They wouldn’t do that if they were also trying to send this message.”
"There is another possibility,” Treblig said from the doorway. The three of them turned to look at him. Apparently, he’d been listening to the conversation, though Nagemai didn’t seem surprised by this. “There are cases, like with the Chosen, where diordna are marked by Dytie himself. This may be a message from Dytie, buried in you and Esile because the two of you would create… him. A creation equal to diordna.”
Nevets glanced at Mada, uncomfortable. “The question then becomes is it a warning against playing dytie?”
The silence that followed the statement was broken only by the flutter of messenger bird wings as they entered through the window. All eyes in the room centered on Mada and the messages written in his skin.
“We can’t know unless we find the places indicated,” Mada said. “Nagemai knows one already. Could you take us there?”
“No,” Nagemai said immediately, some of her earlier intensity returning.
“If Dytie saw fit to send a message regarding Mada, then it is our duty to try and understand that message,” Ekivia said.
Nagemai nodded slowly, then pointed to Mada shoulder. “I think this section here is somewhere north of us. I’ll need a map to pinpoint exactly where though, and then when we leave the city we can go there.”
“Whether or not Dytie sent this message,” Nevets began. "If he himself sent it himself and this place proves that, then these marks might be the best proof that Mada is more than just an animal."
"Treblig," Nagemai continued. "Have my captains called to this room and the maps I tried to sleep on earlier brought. And send for a machinologist."
“Yes sir,” Treblig said, and he stepped back out to do as he was told.
The room fell silent, and Ekivia helped Nevets to a chair near the table and then brought one over for herself. Nagemai stood near the door, turning thoughtful.
“Thanks,” Nevets said.
“Of course,” Ekivia said. “Mada told me a little about what you two have been through while we were on our way up. How’re you holding up?”
“All things considered I’m doing alright,” Nevets said. “I should be dead, so I can’t complain too much.” He looked at her arm. “What happened to you?”
“Iakedrom got desperate,” Ekivia said, eyes reddening and darkening. “A priestess pushed him to get more out of me than I wanted to tell them, and this was the method they chose. She was in a hurry. I think she knew the army was on its way.”
“If she knew why didn’t they warn anyone?” Nevets asked.
“I’ve been wondering the same thing,” Ekivia said. “It feels like when I lost my research to the priests. Almost no explanations, just secrets and pain.”
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Nevets nodded thoughtfully. It was disturbing to be sure. He put it out of his mind, not wanting to deal with one more thing at the moment.
“I’m really sorry I got you into this,” Ekivia said, looking down.
“Don’t be,” Nevets said, putting a hand on her shoulder so she’d look at him. Her eyes were dark with sorrow. “I got myself into it. Besides, if it weren’t for you and Mada I’d probably be a pile of ash and shrapnel somewhere in the city. So really you saved my life.”
"I guess you’re right," Ekivia said with a smile, though it didn’t touch her eyes. "I imagine you haven't had much time to study him under the circumstances."
“Not in the way I expected to,” Nevets said. “But, the circumstances have given me a lot of data on how he reacts to stress, social situations, and the need to think quickly on his feet. I’ve seen him in a variety of emotional states and watched him keep up with all kinds of conversations that go beyond what a child would be able to do. I will want to do more of the mundane kind of assessments, but what I’ve seen tells me that he thinks quickly, and is a creative problem solver. I have enough material for at least one or two convincing articles I think.”
Pleasure flooded into Ekivia’s eyes as he spoke, and by the time he finished she had a wide grin spread across her face. “He’s the real thing. I’m certain of it.”
“I believe he is,” Nevets said. He’d had some doubts when this all started, but they were all but gone now. “Though he is acting strange. What happened?”
Ekivia looked toward Mada, and the pleasure drained a little from her face and eyes. He was still staring out the balcony door into the night blanketed city. “He killed a diordna. Once things settled down he became… distant like that. Even as he told me about what you two have experienced he seemed distracted.”
Nevets nodded. “This could be good. It shows compassion.”
Ekivia’s smile broadened, and he allowed himself to smile with her. It felt strange to feel genuine pleasure in the midst of the chaos, but he was grateful to have a reason to smile.
However, it wasn’t as simple as Mada showing compassion. Nevets’s mind turning the situation over and over. This did possibly show that Mada felt compassion for diordna, which would go a long way toward building sympathy among the population, and Nevets believed that was the likely truth. Still, he would need to watch how Mada processed the death to be sure, not for himself but for others who might question; he just needed to be sure he had enough to show the doubters.
Ekivia leaned in and carefully put her around Nevets so she wouldn’t hurt him. “Thank you,” She said quietly.
Nevets leaned into the hug gently, and he felt as though the plain in his body subsided a little at her touch.
**********
Nagemai watched Ekivia and Nevets as they spoke, noting the comfort they shared between them, the ease and openness that she hadn’t felt with another diordna in… several generations. It was a good reminder that the world wasn’t entirely broken. More than just that, she thought that if Ekivia could face this world with her secret with Nevets help, then maybe Nagemai could share hers with a close friend too.
As if on cue with her thoughts, Treblig returned bearing the maps she’d requested. His return interrupted the gentle scene of the two friends leaning on each other. They looked like they really needed to rest, but Nagemai needed them to be a part of the coming conversation, not least because she felt they could contribute greatly. But that wasn’t the real reason she wanted them to stay.
She needed to know if she could trust them enough to tell them the whole truth.
Treblig arraigned the maps on the table where Ekivia and Nevets sat. They stirred as she approached, moving as if to stand.
“Let me help you move your chairs,” Nagemai said, and together with Ekivia they helped Nevets stand.
“We’ll just get out of your way,” Ekivia said.
“No,” Nagemai said. “I want you to hear some of what I have to tell my captains. You need to know the situation we’re in and I need my captains to see you.”
Ekivia nodded uncomfortably, and they moved to the side of the room, settling back into their chairs as the captains began to arrive.
Nagemai returned to the table and hunched over the maps. They were stacked in order of importance, with the continent map at the bottom, neighboring regions in the middle, and the local map on top. She’d studied them so often that she didn’t actually need to look at them, but she wanted to double check one.
The captains around her conversed quietly, and she listened with half an ear as they questioned each other about their guests. Many of them had heard of Mada and the others, but not actually had a chance to see them.
Nagemai flipped through the corners of the maps to find one in particular, then pulled it out, placing it on top. Using the marks along the edges marking longitude and latitude she traced her fingers to the place indicated by the marks on Mada’s arm.
It was almost exactly where she thought it would be.
In the Mahkram region, possibly the most fertile region on the entire continent when it came to growing metal pods, there was a large field of boulders that stuck out of the ground like bubbles on water. It always reminded her of a forest, only instead of trees there were rocks. Nagemai had spent a surprising amount of time in that region back before she became the Egeil. Priests would bring the corpses of dead diordna from all three nations to a pit on the far side of the field of boulders. That pit was always full nearly to the top, but somehow never spilled over.
She’d never learned what really went on there or why that was where they brought the corpses, but maybe, with Mada’s help, they would finally get some answers.
Once she confirmed that, she began looking over the other maps, and as she did so she became discouraged. Not because she didn’t think they’d make it out, but because she didn’t think she could afford to stop at the field of boulders to investigate. It was too far north and would force them to cut across more dangerous areas on their retreat. She didn’t like it, but she was going to have to send the others without her. She’d leave a messenger bird with them so they could tell her what they found. And besides, they might need her to translate more of the old language if they came across it.
When she looked up from her maps most of the captains had arrived, and their presence seemed to be making Mada uncomfortable, which was better than the distracted state he’d been in earlier. She’d need to talk to him again when they got a chance, try and help him if she could. She knew all too well what he was going through, though despite her efforts to continue to feel, at some point anything can become normal, commonplace, unimpactful.
The last of her captains arrived, and Treblig took his place by the door.
Nagemai clapped her hands once to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s get started.”
The room fell silent as everyone turned toward her and formed a circle around the table. There were ten captains total, one for roughly every thousand of her soldiers. That balance would no longer be exact after their losses here today, but it was still close. The city police force hadn’t had a chance to put up much defense until shortly before they stopped their push into the city, so most of their casualties came just before dusk, with a few others here and there throughout the day.
“You’ve all done very well up to this point,” Nagemai said. “We have done something that I’ve never seen done before.”
The captains thumped their fists against their chests, celebrating the praise.
“However,” Nagemai continued. “The hardest part is ahead of us, not behind us.”
“Fighting on both sides,” Captain Nivek said.
As far as most of the captains knew, he was just the captain of a group of reinforcements they’d picked up on the way here. That was true, but he was also not Redaeli. He was Egeilen, though his skin wasn’t aluminum. He had a paler copper skin. Most modern Egeilen had copper or iron skin now, though there were a few that had aluminum skin. When the Egeilen nation fell those who survived were incorporated into the other nations. Between breeding and eating a copper or iron rich diet their skin had changed to match that of the other nations. Only a few families remained with pure aluminum skin, hidden in the final Egeilen city.
“We can handle it,” Nivek continued.
“I’m sure you can,” Nagemai said. “But that’s not what we’re going to do. The next part, the hard part, is going to be escaping without losing half our army.”
More than one captain looked confused, and several of them put their hands forward, palm down in a request to speak.
“But…” Nivek said, confused. Nagemai smiled. He was playing a role for her, a role they’d discussed a week ago when Nivek arrived with his reinforcements. “Our orders…”
“Were to die here,” Nagemai said coldly. “And even though the orders didn’t say that directly you are all smart enough to know that that was the most likely end to this mission.”
“Still,” Keminna said, red showing in her eyes. “Running now isn’t the Redael’s order. We can’t just go home before we finish what we were sent here to do.”
“You want to die here?” Nagemai asked, matching Keminna’s angry tone. “I have done all that I needed to do here. And I will not subject myself or the rest of this army to death no matter what the Redael says.”
“If we were just going to run as soon as we got here and disobey our orders why didn’t you just refuse from the beginning?” Keminna asked.
Nagemai met Keminna’s gaze in an intense look. “Do you really want the answer to that question?”
The intensity in Nagemia’s voice made Kimenna pause momentarily, but then she nodded.
“Then listen well,” Nagemai said. “The Redael has betrayed me more often than she hasn’t, and today she has betrayed all of you and our entire army. I have not fallen to her past betrayals and I will not fall to this one, nor will I drag anyone else into it with me.”
The captains looked shocked that she would speak so frankly about the treachery of their ruler. Kimenna looked especially afraid of what Nagemai had just said. Nagemai knew that feeling. When she first learned the truth of their rulers she’d felt similarly. Everything she thought she knew crumbled beneath her and she wanted to scramble to hold it all together. She didn’t want to believe, but she wasn’t given a choice. The difference here was that these captains had a choice. Believing her would mean the collapse of a different part of themselves, but disbelieving would mean the collapse of another. She’d worked hard to build their trust in her, and that could all crumble here.
“Now, let me illustrate more clearly what I mean,” Nagemai said. “If you want to live then we need to discuss our escape. The groundwork for this has already been laid. The corridors we’ve been preparing at each stage of the attack were all set up to give us an efficient and quick escape route.”
With that Nagemai hunched over the table and prepared to begin outlining her plan.
Kimenna cleared her throat and put her hand forward, drawing Nagemai’s attention. She didn’t like that the captain was taking so much time in the conversation, but she also put her in that position because Nagemai knew she would voice the things others might be too afraid to voice, and that gave Nagemai more opportunities to build trust with them, either by admitting when she was wrong or by revealing the truth when other generals wouldn’t.
Nagemai nodded for Kimenna to speak.
“Do you think we should be discussing this with the iron skins here?” Kimenna asked.
Nagemai smiled slightly. She’d been hoping someone would bring that up. She turned toward the scientists and Mada. “That’s a wonderful question. Why should we trust you?”
They all three looked at her with their mouths open in confusion. Nagemai could see the question in their expression. Only a few minutes ago she had asked them to stay, and now she was doubting them? But they were smart. They’d say the right thing.
“Mada?” Nagemai finally said, as it appeared the other two weren’t going to speak. “Care to give us an answer?”
The na looked at her briefly, then he took a deep breath before speaking, voice trembling slightly.
“If I stay and am taken by drolite authorities I will likely be killed,” He began. “Ekivia considers herself to be my mother, and I agree with her. She will not sacrifice me to them by returning. Nevets has joined us in this endeavor and has made himself a criminal.” Mada’s voice grew more confident as he continued speaking, and Nagemai smiled a little as she watched it happen. “They would at least be imprisoned if they returned, if not dressed in white and sent to be killed. Nagemai and this army are our best option for survival. As long as that remains true you have nothing to fear from us.”
"That's good enough for me," Nagemai said.
“You believe what it said?” Kimenna said. “It could be a spy, designed to infiltrate us and manipulate your curiosity. It…”
Ekivia stepped forward suddenly. “He is a diordna!” She shouted at the captain.
Instantly Kimenna had her knife out.
“Hold!” Nagemai shouted. Kimenna looked to her, then put the knife away though her eyes remained angry. “He is not an it, and I expect you to respect that. Understood?”
She didn’t just look at Kimenna, she glanced around at the other captains to be certain they all knew she wasn’t just speaking to Kimenna. Most of them had been too busy with their own commands to spend much time with Mada, but they should have at least heard her command that he be treated as an equal.
Slowly they all nodded, and Kimenna didn't argue further, although she kept a close eye on the three of outsiders as Ekivia returned to her seat. That was probably a good thing, again demonstrating to Nagemai why she chose the nawo in the first place. She accepted Nagemai’s authority while remaining curious and cautious when necessary.
“Now,” Nagemai began again. “With that all taken care of, let’s talk maps. You’ve all seen the battle map before, but I want to point a few things out for you.”
She pointed to the estimated number of soldiers behind them, and the estimated number of officers ahead of them. Then she indicated the estimated number of enemy combatants encountered in the first half of the city. As she did this she watched her captains. Slowly, realization dawned on them.
“They knew we were coming,” Kimenna whispered. “How did they know we were coming?”
Nagemai met her eyes and spoke almost as quietly as Kimenna. “They knew because we were sent here to die.”
“But…” Kimenna said, expression increasingly disturbed. “The Redael… We… This attack was all about surprise. How could they…?” Her eyes drifted to the map, then widened. “You knew they would be ready for us.”
Nagemai nodded solemnly.
“How?” Kimenna asked.
One of Nagemai’s older captains chuckled a little, and Nagemai allowed herself a smile.
“Does one of you want to answer that question for Kimenna?” Nagemai said.
Immediately one of the other captains put their hand forward, and Nagemai nodded to her.
“It doesn’t matter how,” She said, doing a comically gruff imitation of Nagemai’s voice. “It just matters that we’re prepared.”
"Except for the problem in your throat I couldn't have said it better myself. See a machinologist after this.” Kimenna shook her head in disbelief as the other captains laughed.
“Let’s just say I know the Redael better than I should,” Nagemai said. “Now, I haven’t explicitly discussed my plans for escape, but as I said earlier, the corridor’s we’ve prepared through the city make more sense I’m sure. But that’s just a base line. We have the layout, now I need your help to be sure we use it to its full potential. We will be retreating north, across this river, then work our way eastward through this region. We’ll stop once we cross the river to reassess and make adjustments. What will it take to get us that far? Mada?”
Again, Mada looked surprised to be called upon for his opinion, but his response came faster this time. “The main obstacles to escape are obviously enemy soldiers and debris. If we can deal with both simultaneously then that should make our retreat easier.”
“Very true,” Nagemai said. “We already have soldiers working on that, clearing debris and using it as barricades in front and behind our current position. How much can your soldiers get done in the next hour?”
The captains all reported on the progress of their crews, giving percentage estimates on how clear the corridor would be in an hour. Overall it didn’t seem too bad with most of the captains reporting that it would be between fifty and seventy-five percent cleared.
“Very well,” Nagemai said once they were done. “If your crews reach sixty percent cleared have them help the ones around them. I know I said an hour before, but if we can be ready in half that we should try. Keep me updated, but only with runners. I only want birds traveling from me and Treblig. Any questions?”
The captains all shook their heads.
“Get to it then.”
**********
Iakedrom entered the Officer's House at the far west of the city almost an hour after they lost Ekivia. His eyes were deep red, covering the entire room in a bloody haze. He tried to walk normally, but he stepped harder and faster than normal, drawing the attention of officers around the room. Everyone was busy either speaking with another officer, relaying messages from commanders, or speaking on a calling bird.
Reinforcements were already arriving to drive the Verd invasion out. How they had come so quickly Iakedrom didn’t know, but their late arrival only added to his anger. If they’d just been here before he might not have lost his prisoner. He glared at the room, angry at everyone he saw.
He needed to be alone. He needed to calm down.
He turned toward the side of the room with interrogation rooms, glaring at Fosia as she began to follow him. He ripped the door open with enough force that he nearly ripped the trigger branch and handle off, then he slammed it with a loud thump. It nearly bounced open, but the seal vines just caught the doorframe and pulled the door back into place, though he was sure he’d damaged the hinge vines with his violence.
“Damn it,” He growled as he began pacing the room.
He couldn’t believe he’d let himself be so thoroughly tricked by Ekivia. The whole trip here he’d been stewing it over and over in his mind, sifting through every conversation, every lie, every moment he should have caught her. It wasn’t just that he’d wanted to believe her, that he wanted to trust her. That was true, but even with those he trusted he usually had an instinct for when they ere hiding or twisting the truth.
Not this time.
He knew she’d been hiding things, that was obvious. In a way she’d been honest about hiding things actually. But the things she confirmed and denied, he should have seen the holes in them. Even now he struggled to believe it. No one had ever so thoroughly misled him. He prided himself on that.
“Damn it,” He repeated. “Damn it!
He punched the interrogation table, cracking the corner and drawing oil from his knuckles. The pain only made him angrier, and he started punching the table over and over in his frustration. The corner snapped off and clattered to the floor and Iakedrom fell still, breathing heavily, the red in his eyes slowly dissipating. He didn’t know why but5 sometimes the only thing that could get the anger out was its physical expression.
"Sir," Fosia said from the door. “Feeling better?”
Iakedrom looked up at her and shrugged. “A little. How long were you standing there?”
“I came in while you were killing the table,” Fosia said. “Good job with that by the way. I don’t think it will ever cross you again.”
“No I don’t suppose it will,” Iakedrom said, smiling a little as he calmed and began picking up her humor. It always amazed him that she could find humor at times like this.
“Well that’s good,” Fosia continued. She reached up and took the calling bird from her shoulder and held it toward Iakedrom. “You can report it to the Drol. Some good news will help soften the bad news.”
Iakedrom finally laughed as she held the bird out toward her. The commitment to the joke was fantastic. Just enough to break him out of the angry fog he’d been in.
She smiled with him, but she didn’t put the bird back on her shoulder. Instead she lifted it slightly as though to say “take it.”
“Wait,” Iakedrom said. “Seriously?”
Fosia nodded. “Yup. One of the officers mentioned Nailil. Apparently the Drol got impatient waiting for her report. I told them that Nailil died in the attack and he asked to speak to you.”
“I guess that’s a good thing,” Iakedrom said. “I do need to report. Has the Drol been listening to this whole conversation?”
Fosia laughed. “Ha, I wish. Don’t worry, I crossed the birds toes before I came in. He didn’t even get to hear you cursing, which is a real shame.”
Iakedrom took the bird and held it perched on his finger.
“I’ll go get you a wrap for your hand,” Fosia said. “Your knuckles are going to be really stiff with the pummeling you just gave them. But maybe the hard bruising will help you if you need to punch any more tables.”
Iakedrom sighed and shooed her as she left, then he brought the bird up so he could meet its eyes and uncrossed the birds feet.
“Drol Maharba,” Iakedrom said. “I’m sorry to make you wait.”
“I’m glad you could finally make time for me,” Maharba said, and even through the bird his scorn was obvious. “Are you alone?”
“Yes my Drol,” Iakedrom said. “I should not have made you wait.”
“You’ve been doing a lot of that,” Maharba said. “Nailil told me you kept delaying the investigation.”
“I didn’t intend to do so,” Iakedrom said. “I was simply doing what I felt was the most effective in this particular case.”
“And did it work?” Maharba asked. “Did you get the information we needed?”
“Yes,” Iakedrom said. “Though I’m not sure my methods were the reason.”
“Either way,” Maharba said. “I suppose the fact that you got it at all under these… stressful circumstances validates the trust I put in you all those years ago when I asked my priests to assign you to keep an eye on Ekivia.”
“I… didn’t realize you’d done that,” Iakedrom said.
“Yes, well I don’t really advertise when I do those kinds of things,” Maharba said. “Now tell me, was the wait worth it? What did you learn?”
Iakedrom took another deep breath before speaking. This wasn’t going to just be a report, there were things Iakedrom needed to learn from Maharba as well. Like weather or not he really knew the attack was coming as Iakedrom had discussed with Fosia, and how Nailil could have known about it.
”First off I believe Ekivia was working with the Verds,” Iakedrom said. “And that she may have fed them some information to help them with this recent attack. She may have passed some information to them, though I’m not sure the method she would have used. However I believe there are others with more than just information that helped them as well.” Iakedrom paused to see if Maharba would take the bait.
“What do you mean?” Maharba asked, and Iakedrom thought he heard a note of scorn in the question.
“It seems to me that someone with great influence would have needed to help as well,” Iaekdrom said. “Otherwise the army would never have gotten this deep into our territory undetected. I plan to continue to investigate…”
“No,” Maharba said, interrupting Iakedrom. “I will do my own investigating.”
Iakedrom let out a nervous breath. It couldn’t be Maharba himself, right? Iakedrom’s gutt suggested that was possible when it shouldn’t be.
No. Iakedrom forced himself to dismiss the thought, at least for now. “Yes my Dorl. I did identify some of her collaborators, however. A scientist named Nevets Sirrah, and someone named Mada though I don’t know much more about him than that one name. Ekivia expressed some… motherly feelings toward the na, though I can’t be sure those were genuine given the number of lies she told.”
“And how did we not catch these communications?” Maharba asked.
“I have a theory, though I haven’t figured out the entirety of how it worked,” Iakedrom said. “We were interrogating the Craftsman at the same time, and it appears that she is Esile.”
“The scientist?” Maharba asked.
“Yes,” Iakedrom said.
“Not possible.”
“I thought the same,” Iakedrom said. “But for now it’s the best explanation we have for who she is.”
The bird squawked a sigh. “And what does this have to do with Ekivia?”
“She’s a descendant of Esile,” Iakedrom said. “And in the course of both interrogations my prosthetic came in contact with portions of their skin. When that happened the skin animated and wrote a coded message on my arm, though we haven’t been able to discover it’s meaning. We think that this might have something to do with their method of keeping the messages secret, by encoding them into the body of diordna then passing them on to someone with a prosthetic. This theory is further supported by the fact that I saw what I believe to be Mada’s arms, and they were marked in a similar way to my prosthetic. I think he may be a kind of mule, possibly a half skin who could allow himself to be imprisoned and then released by the traitors in power here, and the recipient of information in Verd territory.”
“That’s quite the elaborate scheme,” Maharba said. “There have to be easier ways around detection.”
“I agree, but it’s the only explanation we have that fits all the pieces together.”
“Alright,” Maharba said. “I’ll want a copy of that message on your prosthetic. Is there anything more?”
Iakedrom hesitated a moment before deciding to ask a risky question. “My Drol, I have to ask. Did you know this attack was coming?”
“Absolutely not,” Maharba said. Too quickly.
Iakedrom’s chest tightened and his eyes paled.
“You’ve done good work.” Maharba said. “As always. I’m glad you made it out alive.”
“Thank you my D-drol.” Iakedorm choked slightly on the title. Maharba had known.
Iakedrom closed his eyes and took a calming breath.
"Go get some rest," Maharba said. "And if you learn anything more about her experiments or the marks I want to know immediately."
“Of course my Drol,” Iakedrom said.
“And Iakedrom,” Maharba continued. “If you manage to catch Ekivia or anyone working with her be sure they’re sent to the front. I like the poetry of dressing her in white and having the Verds kill her after she betrayed us to them.”
"Yes, my Drol."
The bird relaxed on Iakedrom’s finger as Maharba ended the call.
The conversation had left Iakedrom disturbed and confused. He had more questions now than he’d had before, but he had no way of getting answers from the Drol. That left Ekivia as his only source of information. Glancing down at his bandaged prosthetic he knew what he had to do. He already knew what Ekivia had done, and he suspected that the Drol’s interest in her might have been more to hide the truth than to reveal it. Now that he knew all that there was one other important thing he needed to know.
Why had they betrayed their own?