Ian practiced the main hand symbols and timing until he could do it in his sleep, which was roughly a week. Only then did he change to the off hand. Usually he did all this work in private. He didn’t want to accidentally share magic secrets. Since he was following the instructions Irene gave him, he couldn’t see any harm in doing the early work in front of her. He practiced in the evenings before they went to bed.
They were in his room. Irene’s room was always crowded with treasures. Ian couldn’t handle the disorganized state.
“Do you always train one hand at a time?” Irene asked.
“Yes, don’t you?” Ian asked.
“I haven’t,” Irene admitted. “I was wondering if it was a better method. I haven’t mastered any tier four spells. They seem to take forever.”
“What spells are you trying to learn?” Ian asked, wondering if he could get more spell secrets from her.
“I am working on chain lightning,” Irene answered.
“I don’t recognize that name,” Ian commented. “What does it do?”
“It is an electric strike to multiple targets,” Irene explained.
“Oh, electric floor,” Ian responded. “I didn’t bother to learn the tier four version.” Chain lightning wasn’t electric floor, Irene knew the tier three version of that spell as well, and it was fairly useless. It affected everything in a certain area, unfortunately the more animals in that area the less shock each animal received. At four targets and above it was mostly a stun, although environmental factors greatly affected it. For that reason, Irene always thought of that spell as electrify water.
“How many tier four spells do you know?” Irene asked.
“Eight,” Ian said, “Fireball, fear, shield, I know ice-bolt too, but I keep that quiet.”
“I can understand that,” Irene noticed he only listed four spells, but then she didn’t admit chain lightning wasn’t electric floor. The secrecy around spells was hard to drop. Irene cast around for a safer subject.
“When we first met in Chicago, you asked if we met on the ship. What group were you with?” Irene asked. Ian carefully considered his response to that one. He usually kept that even more secret than spells. It was still the early days of their relationship. Considering that she was from engineering she shouldn’t be too shocked. Confiding in her would build her trust in him.
“I was in command,” Ian said. “I keep that one quiet too.”
“Really?” Irene asked. “I thought all the commanders were flight crew. All the ones I met were.” After the ship landed there wasn’t any need for a command structure for it anymore. Or at least that was what Irene always thought. The plan called for it to be systematically dismantled and recycled into the materials needed to build the colony. That hadn’t happened, but when the settler generation took the aptitudes and were placed in departments, that was the plan they were following.
“Most people seem to think that, but that is only because most departments grew after the landing and command didn’t. Even when landed there is only one Captain of the ship.”
“Is that your destiny?” Irene asked. “Captain of the Speedwell?”
“Of course,” Ian replied with absolute belief. Irene asked the question as a kind of joke, but she caught the conviction in his voice.
“Why did you leave the Speedwell and come into the structure?” Irene asked.
“A captain is nothing without a crew,” Ian replied. “I could see the plan was falling apart. When I saw in the exploration recordings that magic was real, I knew everyone would end up in the structure.”
“Some people did take the land grants,” Irene offered.
“Those will all be abandoned when the automatic systems on the ship fail,” Ian stated with certainty. “They may already be empty.” They weren’t, Irene knew that, but his prophecy was what made her work to keep the Speedwell systems running as long as she did.
“Yeah,” Irene admitted. “I feel a bit guilty thinking about it sometimes.”
“About what?” Ian asked.
“Leaving the Speedwell and not keeping the maintenance up,” Irene explained.
“You mentioned you did a lot of maintenance,” Ian said. He was glad he remembered her saying that in Chicago. It meant that he didn’t have to admit he knew about her before they met.
“I was in engineering,” Irene replied. “It is an engineer's duty to maintain the ship, because without the ship the crew will die,” she recited. Ian stopped practicing for a moment and laughed.
“It is a commander's duty to lead from the front, see the plan to completion and protect the passengers and crew,” he said. Irene wondered who the passengers were. All during transit everyone on the Speedwell was part of the crew. Maybe the children were considered passengers until they were apprenticed? “I learned that at my father’s knee before I even took the aptitudes.”
“What did your father do?” Irene asked.
“He was Captain,” Ian said, as if that was obvious.
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“Emmet Black?” Irene asked. “He was your father? You know you do look a little like him.”
“I am his trueborn son,” Ian responded. Irene never liked that word, trueborn. It divided people and set up favorites. Ian being the son of the captain explained his belief he would have become captain one day. The Speedwell was not an hereditary organization. Placements and promotions were based on accomplishments and test results. But it was a human organization. There wasn’t one in history that didn’t get biased with favors.
“What did your mother do?” Irene asked, trying to change the subject.
“She was in food production. I didn’t see her much after landing. She spent all her time out in the fields,” Ian said as he went back to practicing.
“I might have met her,” Irene said. “I spent a lot of time in the fields wading through muddy water and clearing pump intakes.” Irene rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought. “I miss it sometimes.”
“The mud?” Ian asked with disbelief in his voice.
“The cold,” Irene said. “The sky is so blue in the crisp morning of a clear winter’s day. It is never cold here.” Irene picked up the fabric throw that was covering her body. “The inn supplies these covers but they aren’t really needed. If anything it is a little warmer here than the temperature we kept the Speedwell at.”
“I don’t like the cold,” Ian said.
“I don’t either,” Irene admitted with a laugh. “My hands would cramp and slip on the metal fittings. I’d end up bruised and bleeding. But it was different, and it gave you the feel of time passing. It is so easy here to lose track of time.”
“I didn’t spend much time outside,” Ian admitted. He didn’t mention that the open spaces beyond the ship terrified him. The hardest thing he ever physically did was to force himself into the cart that took him to the ruin entrance. He managed the trip by sitting in the back of a windowless construction vehicle, while someone else drove. It was after full dark by the time they reached the entrance. Crossing that last space outside was made more tolerable by the darkness. He was able to convince himself the walls and ceilings were just out of sight.
It took him a couple years to be comfortable in the green spaces of the structure. He avoided the ruined greens, with their open skies, like the plague. All he knew of the blue sky was what he saw on Speedwell’s screens.
Irene fell silent. She was looking at the ceiling, lost in thought. Ian didn’t like it when she didn’t give him her undivided attention. He liked it better when she watched him with desire in her eyes. He stopped his practice.
“Come back to me,” Ian said, running a hand over her bare shoulder. He leaned forward and kissed her nose. She reached up to embrace him, pulling him down onto the bed. She didn’t want to think about past failures. She didn’t want to think at all.
----------------------------------------
A hunter was waiting for Ian when they got down to the common room in the morning.
“There is a messenger from Chicago,” the hunter reported.
“Duty calls,” Ian said Irene, before following the hunter out of the inn. Irene exited out of the square herself a few minutes later. She was surprised to find a hunter waiting with the gatherers. It was a different hunter than the one who brought the message.
“This is my spouse, Richard,” one of the gathering women said to Irene when she joined the group. “I told him how you scare off the animals that come near us. He wants to go out with us and see if he can hit any of them with his bow. Normally he doesn’t like to come with us because he is afraid of drawing more animals with the blood.”
“Ok,” Irene said, not really understanding why she was being told all this.
“If he doesn’t go out with the group then we aren’t guaranteed a share, but anything he does get we can sell to the inn,” the woman went on to explain. Irene smiled.
“That sounds like a good plan,” she said. When she spotted the first squirrel she pointed it out to the hunter, long before it charged. The hunter took careful aim and hit it dead center. The squirrel was fatally wounded, but still managed to run a short distance in their direction. The hunter hit it again as it ran toward them. Irene was impressed with his accuracy and speed, especially since he used no magic. After retrieving his arrows, he gutted the animal and tied its legs together to make it easier to carry.
“There’s another,” Irene said. He ended up with six animals. His spouse helped him carry them back. This was a very good bounty for a single hunter. The group of gatherers always flushed animals. That was why they were so afraid to go very far from the square. If the full team of archers went with them, they wouldn’t get much more and it would be a poor hunt for them. The key was spotting the animals early.
“Thank you for letting me come out with you,” he said, as they walked back to the square.
“I wouldn’t say I let you,” Irene responded. “I welcome your assistance. You volunteered. If you come out without me,” Irene said to the hunter, “make sure you have someone keep watch while you process the kill.”
“I will,” Richard replied.
The courtyard was a buzz of activity when they returned. A mixed group of warriors and hunters were running around. Irene couldn’t get anywhere near Ian in the crowd. She went into the inn to sell her gathered produce to Ellen.
“What’s going on?” Irene asked Ellen.
“There’s been a blue attack on the west gate of Chicago. Darien has called an emergency leadership meeting. They are deciding now who will go and who will stay. After what happened to my Kyle I don’t think very many will stay,” Ellen said with a frown. Irene frowned too. Again guilt ran through her. She didn’t warn Chicago, even though she heard her brothers talking and could have predicted an attack. When she warned Londontown, she felt like it was her fault the reds died. Now that she didn’t warn Chicago, she again felt like the guard deaths were her fault. Only Chicago must have known a counterattack was coming after they hit both Paris and Londontown. Unless the attacks didn’t come from Chicago, but one of the suburbs.
Irene’s head was starting to hurt. She was going to have to figure something else out or the entire war was going to end up her fault.
Jake came in from the courtyard and approached them at the service counter.
“Hey Ellen, Sophia and I are both going to go, can you make sure Tami knows she has the kids full time?”
“Sure thing,” Ellen replied.
“There you are,” Ian said as he stepped into the inn, soon after Jake exited. “I was afraid you weren’t going to make it back before we headed out.”
“Are you going to Chicago?” Irene asked.
“Yes,” he said, taking her hand. “Ellen must have told you. I’m taking most of the fighters so we can push through any trouble on the trip. If you see anyone in the green, try not to lead them back here, since I’m not leaving many guards.”
“I’ll miss you,” Irene said. “When do you think you’ll be back?”
“A couple weeks,” Ian replied. “Suburb leaders never agree to anything quickly.”
“Travel safe,” Irene said. Ian gave her a quick kiss and headed out.
“He won’t be back for a month or more,” Ellen said suddenly. “I’ve never seen them come back faster than that. I don’t want you to worry unnecessarily.”
“I need to go up to Moscow and check on someone,” Irene announced. “It’s at least two months of traveling there and back. If I don’t make it back before Ian, you can tell him that’s where I went.” She went up to her room and threw everything she could into virtual inventory. Before she left the square she delivered a pile of iron scrap to the woman she hired to run the smelter. She instructed her to work on turning the ingots into door wedges and forks. She was to sell them directly to the hunters and scavengers. After her return from Londontown, Irene bought an anvil from the vendor, instead of holding out to find one.
By the time she was done it was late in the afternoon. Irene knew that if she didn’t leave now she would get caught up in something in the morning. There was no way she would be able to tell all those women no. She hoped Richard was still in the square and would go with them in the morning. She loaded up her pack and with her walking staff in her hand, headed out the back door.