As I followed Kathina, a few soldiers passed me from the other direction.
They greeted the infenti woman with polite bows, and for a frightening moment I realized that I didn’t know how, or who, or if, to salute. Like, what if I was wearing a private’s uniform and I ignored a colonel?
Fortunately, nobody seemed to care about humans. The only time one of them frowned at me, I blurted, “Did Miss Kathina come this way? I’m so screwed ...”
Then the soldier shot me a disgusted look and pointed me in the right direction.
Kathina led me to a hallway that hugged the outside wall of the building like a long balcony. A waist-high stone balustrade separated me from the three-story drop to a courtyard with a sparring dummies and a fountain. The night air smelled sweet, with a hint of roasted vegetables from a kitchen somewhere. Doorways to the right opened into the building, but Kathina walked past them to a spot where the hallway widened into a terrace with a dozen tables and flickering torches despite the bright evening.
Three infenti servants folded napkins at what looked like a buffet table with flowers and serving dishes, but all the tables were empty save one. Kathina curtsied at that one, to Commander Wren, who sat with her son Usim and the bone-white infenti twins. Jikon and Jilak or whatever the hell they were called. Clearly, on some level my brain just refused to remember.
Kathina took a seat in a whoosh of fabric, and I froze. Suddenly turning to leave might attract attention, but continuing forward also might attract attention. Yet before I made a decision, I felt this predatory instinct to maintain momentum and found myself taking another step forward, then another.
I walked onto the terrace and turned toward the buffet table like I belonged.
I only got about four steps before the kid, Lord Usim, noticed me. He looked away from Kathina, his lips thin with anger, and his gaze slid past me--then returned. His yellow eyes widened and I tensed to move--I didn’t know where--but after a terrifying moment he looked away and didn’t raise the alarm. He didn’t say a thing. So with my heart pounding I continued toward the buffet table.
“Er,” one of the servants folding napkins said to me.
“In honor of his lordship’s return,” I told her, “I’ve been asked to design the centerpieces.”
“The what?”
“Floral centerpieces?” I gave a long-suffering sigh. “Flower arranging? Does none of this ring a bell? Chrysanthemums, roses, and, um, rihannas? How about beyonces? Surely you’ve heard of beyonces? No? Ha, you infenti! Let a human take care of this.”
They grumbled but left me alone to shove flowers into vases. I glanced at Usim and caught him glancing back at me. I knew I should get the hell out of there before anyone else recognized me, but I was pretty sure that the kid could tell me where to find Erdinand. And that he would.
At the very least he wasn’t ratting me out, and that was interesting.
After a few minutes, I wandered across the terrace holding two flower vases, keeping my back to the Commander, Kathina, and the twins by fiddling with other tables every few steps. I placed a vase on one table and moved the flowers back and forth and listened.
“No I won’t wait,” Usim said, sounding like a sulky teen. “Tell me what you plan to do with Erdinand.”
“Not that again, Usim,” his mother said. “You’re as stubborn as--“
“My mother,” he said.
She suppressed a smile. “I was going to say ‘a pit-mule.’”
“This is hardly the time, your lordship,” Kathina scolded him, though her voice remained pleasant.
“Is there a wrong time to worry about a loyal servant?” he asked, looking from her to his mother.
“The crachen is almost completely healed,” Commander Wren said.
“Oh,” Usim said, his expression falling.
I didn’t understand why that was a bad thing, so I separated a few strands of foliage in the vase.
“Which means,” Kathina explained, “that the crachen was given a gold bead. Which, in turn, proves he worked with the human. Where else would he get such a thing? And the human, my lord, murdered a soldier and supported the rebellion.”
“It d-doesn’t mean that,” Usim stammered. “I gave him the bead.”
Goddamn. That scared kid had turned into a stone badass. I didn’t know if this was teenaged rebellion or what, but he was not screwing around. Lying like that to two of the scariest people I’d met since arriving here? That took serious demon-balls.
“What?” his mother snapped, and the twins exchanged a glance.
“You sent me three,” Usim told her. “And I gave him one. As a reward for his loyalty.”
“He disobeyed me,” Kathina said, then gestured to the twins. “He disobeyed the lieutenants.”
Usim said, “In favor of obeying me. Which earned him nothing but pain. Isn’t ... isn’t that exactly the sort of loyalty I want to reward?”
“We’re extracting the gem from the human tomorrow,” his mother said, changing the subject as she inclined her head to the twins. “You are overdue for the gift.”
“Why one of you refuses to be gemmed before the other,” Kathina sniffed, “is beyond understanding.”
Commander Wren ignored her and told Usim, “The human’s fate is sealed. He won’t see another noon.”
“I don’t care about him,” Usim said, raising his voice slightly so I’d hear. “But Erdinand’s only sin was doing what I told him. You claim you want me to learn command, mother, yet you punish the first person who obeys me?”
“Very well,” she said. “I still stay the crachen’s execution--“
“Commander!” one of the twins objected.
“As is within my authority, lieutenant,” she snapped. “But he is your responsibility, Usim. And you must replace the gold bead you wasted.”
“That I spent, mother.”
She glared at him. “Don’t push your luck, Usim.”
“No, mother,” he said, lowering his head. “Thank you.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Letting the crachen live unpunished is unwise, commander,” one of the twins said. “It makes you appear soft.”
“Where is he?” Usim asked, raising his voice again. “Still in the tower room I got him transferred to?”
“Soft?” the commander interrupted, her gaze on the twin, her voice dangerously calm.
“Makes you appear soft,” the infenti repeated.
“I am more concerned with reality than opinions.”
“One shapes the other, m’lady,” Kathina said, her faceted face placid. “Six Coves Command would rather turn Ryetown into a mass grave than leave a problem in our wake.”
“I’m aware of that, Miss Kathina. I took the town and I shall deliver the spire.”
“In my uncle’s recent letter, he warned of sentimentality,” Kathina told her.
Commander Wren’s face darkened. “I’ve stayed the crachen’s execution. That’s final.”
“Yes, ma’am!” the infenti said.
“Yes, m’lady,” Kathina said.
“Now let’s talk on pleasanter things.” Wren sipped her wine then asked Kathina, “How is the Viceroy?”
“Oh, uncle is in high spirits,” Kathina told her, and started babbling about the Port.
Huh. So Miss Kathina’s uncle was the viceroy? She wasn’t just a governess, she was connected to some kind of political power? That struck me as interesting but I didn’t pay much attention because Usim was gesturing at me with the hand beside his knee. That kid might not know how to hold a sword, but he was still a killer. Passing secret messages while sitting beside his mother.
He curled one finger upward and jabbed and jabbed. Telling me that Erdinand was above us. In one of the towers on this side of the building. Sure, I’d heard that, but which one? There were six towers within eyeshot.
I needed to triangulate Usim’s directions. Well, I’d spent long with that one vase, anyway, though apparently humans got plenty of leeway for our design ability. So I moved to a neighboring table and fiddled with the next vase, and Usim pointed sideways emphatically.
Narrowing down the possible towers to one. Keeping my head bowed over the vase, I nodded slightly. I didn’t know why he cared, but I didn’t care why he cared. Kid was a goddamn hero.
I strode to the infenti servants and said, “There’s no Billie Eilish! I’m going to check inside.”
They blinked as I stroke through the doorways leading to the kitchen--then I immediately ducked through another door and headed along two corridors before I reached the tower.
Usim must’ve pitched an impressive fit to get Erdinand transferred there. The cells I passed, as I climbed a spiraling staircase toward the top of the tower, looked pretty nice. Way nicer than mine had been, with bathing areas and barred windows that looked over the city. Though also with heavy, metal banded doors that locked from the outside. Cells for high-ranking prisoners.
she murmured sleepily.
She sent a blurt of pleasure at the thought of me trying, then fell back asleep.
I paused, then caught the sound of voices murmuring one flight up. I crept silently higher, and heard a few guards talking inside a doorless cell. I considered for a moment. My mana was still pretty low from turning my arm to smoke. I only had four or five seconds of full-body smokiness in me, and I didn’t want to waste them looking around the corner.
So I just crouched low and peeked.
I caught a glimpse of three guards sitting around table. Levels five and six. Hm. Could I beat them? Probably. Maybe not. But probably. However, could I beat them before they raised the alarm? Absolutely not. And I still needed to find Erdinand, open his cell, and drag his clamshell ass back down the entire the tower and then outside into the streets of the ruined city.
So instead of fighting, I bamfed my boots into my domain without removing them, waited until none of the guard were looking, and dashed barefoot past the doorway.
They didn’t see me. Whew. Maybe I shouldn’t just turned to smoke, but ... well. It had worked, and I’d preserved my mana.
I climbed the stairs to the next floor, and I found a locked cell door. Ha! I’d done it! I figured that I’d seep into the cell and rouse Erdinand. Plan our escape. Heck, maybe even take a nap to replenish my mana before using my hatchets to pry the bars from his window or something.
Except when I looked again, I’d found three locked cell doors. And there was no telling which was his.
“C’mon,” I grumbled. “Can’t anything be easy?
I didn’t know what else to do, so I blipped my stolen boots back onto my feet then knocked softly on the nearest door.
“Now you’re knocking?” a woman’s voice snarled. “You think politeness will win me over? I will hunt you to the ends of the island.”
Oopsie. I crept away and knocked softly on the next door.
“Yes? Hello?” Erdinand called. “Is that my door? Are you coming in? I’m sorry, the place is a bit of a mess. I don’t know why I said that. It’s not a mess, and you’ll come in if you choose.”
I turned to smoke and wafted under the door.
“I’ll hush now, shall I?” Erdinand said, standing just inside the door with his eyestalks extended. “I mean ... pardon me, I’m a little nervous.”
With a swirl of smoke, I took shape behind him. “Stay quiet.”
“Holy headland!” he yelped.
“Are you still out there?” the woman in the other cell demanded.
“Alex!” Erdinand took me in a carapace-y hug. “You’re okay! Oh, thank the tides. Look at you.” He pushed me back a little and examined me. “You really are gemmed! I knew you were, but I couldn’t believe it. Did you have any idea you were gemmed? I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years.”
“I suspected,” I told him
His lopsided shell seemed to smile. “You got free? Oooh, you’re here to free me!”
“Yeah, but I’m not sure how. The kid, Usim, he got you sent to this cell?”
“No idea. They transferred me a few hours ago. You think his lordship arranged it?”
“Yeah, he’s ... I don’t know what he is, but after sticking up for those ollie kids, he’s grown a set of brass balls.”
“Balls?” Erdinand asked. “Make of brass?”
“Uh, not important. Anyway, his mother is the commander. Named Wren. She won’t execute you, at least not right now, so--“
The woman in the other cell yelled, “Six Cove bastards! You’d better pray that you fail to chain Waldhill. If we’re joined together, there’s no escape.”
“She’s a little angry,” Erdinand told me. “Cause they killed her wife and stuff.”
“That would piss you off,” I agreed. “Okay, I don’t think they’ll realize I’m missing until tomorrow morning. Which means we have the whole night to think of a way to--“
He hugged me again. “You came back for me!”
“You found me in the bushes, Erdinand. You thought I was a runaway and gave me food and clothes and a job. You didn’t think twice about helping me. Of course I came back for you.”
“That was different,” he told me.
“How?”
“All kinds of ways! So we need to open the cell, sneak down the tower, and out the door? That’s simple. No problem. Except, um, I’m not too great at sneaking. Look.”
He clomped across the room in an exaggerated tip-toe fashion. And if you’ve never heard a five-foot-tall crab-person trying to tip-toe across a stone floor, imagine a calvary charge across a tin bridge.
“Yeah, not too great,” I said.
“You pisslicking Six Cove dogs!” the woman slammed on her cell door. “One of you come in here alone and see what happens!”
“How about the window?” I asked Erdinand. “Can you survive a fall from ... what’re we, six flights up?”
“Easily! Maybe. Probably. Crachen can fall from pretty high and not crack, but if we crack we might die.” He gestured to the narrow window. “Except I couldn’t fit through that anyway, even if there weren’t bars.”
I rubbed the back of my neck. “So we need the key, and we need to get rid of the guards. Hm. What if we lock the guards in a cell?”
“How?” he asked.
“I’m not sure yet. But it’ll have to be tonight.”
One of his eyestalks swiveled toward me, and I swear looked dubious. “So you don’t how how, but you know when, and that’s your plan?”
“I don’t have any levels in planning,” I said. “Maybe if--“
Boots sounded on the stairs outside the cell as the guards climbed upward toward this floor. One of them jeered at the woman, then another told him, “Don’t even talk to her. Just go bloody her mouth while I check the crachen.”
“Shit,” I said.
“You--you can hide!” Erdinand said.
Except his bed was a mattress on the floor and there was nothing else in the room.
“Where?” I asked.
“Turn to a cloud again and drift on the ceiling!”
“That only lasts a few seconds.”
“Use your brass balls!”
“What?”
A keyring jingled in the hallway.
“Okay, Erd. I’ve got to go.”
“You--“ His pincer clacked nervously. “You’re leaving me?”
“You’ll be okay for a few days.” I clasped his shoulder. “Trust the kid. I’ll come back for you.”
He gulped. “I know you will.”
“When the guards open that door,” I told him, crossing to the window, “ask five questions about what’s going on so they’ll think you’re acting normally.”
“Why? I don’t ask that many questions! I’m usually pretty quiet. Stolid, if that’s the word. Is that the word? Do I mean solid? I’m solid, too.”
“I’m not,” I said, and turned to smoke.
I wafted through the window. A strong breeze caught me and lofted me upward for about three heartbeats. High enough that my hardened skin might shatter at the fall.
Then I ran out of mana, turned solid, and plummeted.