Read Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) Online
Authors: Brenda Cooper
Reading the Wind (Silver Ship) (55 page)
The beings inside the skimmer struggled to turn it back. Or bring it down. Anything.
It responded to me. Only to me. A toy ship, reaching for the sky.
The three people inside screamed.
I threw it into the sea, with the people inside it. Screaming awake, and yet not, sitting up by my sister, clutching her, and full of all of Fremont, full of knowledge about too much, and too little. Screams sounding in a corner of my head.
Not Reading the Wind. Riding it. Burning in it.
Where was I? Who burned?
Pressure.
A hand on my back.
My sister, whispering, “Come to me. Come to yourself. Come
here.
”
My scream had torn the beauty of the single web from me, and I struggled with the threads. Chelo’s voice. “Little brother. Let go. Let it go. Bring their nets down and stop for a bit. Rest.”
She knew the plan. Did I still have the strength to bring down all of their webs? I’d never believed I could hold them all. I’d expected to take them out one by one, slowly, like pulling threads loose from a captain’s coat.
My sister! I had come to save my sister. She was our leader, had always been our leader, the one with a whole heart. I owed it to her to find her.
My strength ebbed, falling from me, so exhaustion slowed every nerve. I could break out into the webs, be gone, never, ever return to the body of the fatherless boy. But he had a sister. I had a sister.
I breathed in, a great gaping breath that pulled the threads back into me. I tested, finding the core that held the others together.
I pulled.
The web the Islans had built over Artistos fell away, suddenly silenced.
I had killed it.
Such beauty, gone.
Nothing more to do now. Akashi and crowd and the dog could walk over the nano forever.
Dawnforce
and
Creator
could still fly, safe enough behind their shields.
None of their skimmers survived the death of the data webs.
It would be up to the people, and the smaller, nearly shattered web of Artistes. The people of Fremont and a few of us against around forty or so from Islas.
The Islans didn’t stand a chance.
MY BROTHER, MY CHILD
W
hen he came up this time, all of Joseph sat beside me on the rock. Something had fouled his eyes with a second helping of the damage he’d taken after the earthquake so many years ago. Sweat bathed him, and he shook. He shifted so he sat between me and Kayleen, one hand taking one of hers, the other pulling me close. He whispered in my ear. “You saved me.”
Maybe. What did I know? I made the only reply possible. “I love you.”
He stared out, looking over Artistos, past the town and the battle, and perhaps all the way to the sea. One of the moons, Destiny, shone directly on him, painting the very edges of his dark hair with softness and illuminating tears streaking down his cheeks.
His arm over my shoulder trembled. He took deep, slow breaths, so many that I lost count, and grew cold. I pulled the blanket he had abandoned over my shoulder, settling it so it kept him warm, too.
A breather. I had seen a skimmer fall into the sea. No, thrown, like a toy into the sea. Did I want to know?
Kayleen opened her eyes, but remained still. I looked down at her. “What happened?”
She blinked and reached a hand across Joseph to touch me, as if she needed to know I was real. “The babies are safe. Joseph brought them all down. Their nets. I told our people. They’re in town now. Jenna and Bryan are running through the houses, checking for weapons or surprises.” She wiped at her brow. I struggled to make sense of her babbling as she continued. “I told Sasha to open the door for Liam and
Dianne, but she would have anyway. She knows them, and the babies. Ming killed three of the Islans. With her bare hands.”
Joseph spoke, his voice an eerie whisper. “I killed three of them, too.”
He’d never left my side.
Kayleen squeezed his hand. “Good thing, too. That’s three that can’t kill any of us.”
“I did it. Might as well have shot them myself.” He put his head in his hands. “I threw them into the sea. I heard their death screams. I can still hear them.”
I remembered my choices the day I led Lushia and Ghita up and started the war. “We all use our strengths, little brother. Yours are just a little more noticeable than mine.”
He pulled me even closer to him, and we sat that way for a long time.
Just as the first light began touching the mountains behind us, the
Dawnforce
left, arcing up into the sky.
“See,” I told him, “That’s what your strengths are for.”
He grunted. “Dianne tells me I may have started a bigger war. One that involves all of Silver’s Home.”
And again, I remembered the day of choice, and the demon dogs. “Sometimes, all you can do is protect those you love.”
M
idday light streamed shadowless onto Commons Park. Liam and I sat beside Akashi under the twintrees closest to the ashes of the old Science Guild Hall. The remains lay crumbled and heaped, touched here and there with new green grass.
Caro and Jherrel lay on the grass next to us. Caro babbled at her toes and Jherrel clutched a stick between his chubby hands, turning it back and forth like a metronome.
I looked over at Akashi, who shucked a twintree fruit deftly, easily avoiding the dangerous spines. He held one half out for each of us.
“Don’t you want some?” I asked.
He pointed to a small pile of ripe fruit beside him. “I have more.”
Liam took the fruit, holding it in his hand. “I thought I would lead the band,” he said, his voice choking up a little bit. “And raise Jherrel to follow after me.”
Akashi smiled, the first smile I’d seen on his face this morning. In fact, the first smile I’d seen in the three days since the
Dawnforce
left Fremont. “I thought you would do that, too. But the Town Council is right. That’s why I voted with them. You all saved some of us, but you saved us from something that might not have happened if you weren’t here in the first place.”
I looked across the park, my eyes stinging. “Joseph told me the Star Mercenaries would have simply killed you all and left if we weren’t here.”
Akashi started peeling another fruit. “I believe him. But many don’t. All you have ever done here is fight perceptions.” He shrugged.
“Most of them have been wrong, but when you two leave tomorrow, when you all leave, you’ll have a fresh start. You’ll be somewhere that has no preconceptions about you.”
I couldn’t let Joseph go without me anyway. Not ever again.
That didn’t erase the sharp pain of leaving. I lay down and set my head on Akashi’s lap. He stroked my hair. His voice was gravelly, but strong enough. “I’ll miss you, Chelo. I’ll probably make up all kinds of silly stories to tell the children about you. And in a generation, they won’t believe me anymore.”
“I’ll miss you terribly. You taught me a lot.”
“Lessons stay with you,” he said. “You take care of Liam, now. Right?”
Liam spluttered. “I’ll take care of her, too! Of them both. Of them all.”
I laughed.
A light breeze blew the smell of roasting meat and vegetables to us, and Akashi smiled. “Come on. There’s a celebration to attend before you get all maudlin on me.”
As soon as we got near the amphitheater, I started looking for a white streak in dark hair. I found her behind a serving table, carefully dipping from a pot of soup and filling bowls. Where else?
As soon as she saw me, she smiled broadly and came to my side. We walked arm in arm up the steps, oblivious to anyone else. “Sasha,” I said. “Do you want to go with us? There’s room for a few. Paloma’s going. Says she can’t bear to leave her grandbabies.”
Sasha shook her head. “There’s too much to do here. We need to rebuild a whole town, and start up at least one roamer band. Best to be strong before your kind comes back.”
Dianne had insisted we didn’t have the authority to give up our claim to Fremont. Nor, really, had we wanted to. Although Jenna swore she was never coming back. But we had promised to argue to split the planet, leave Jini to the original humans and send the Family to Islandia. Easy enough, at least at this stage. Our descendents could argue about it further, and they would. With luck, they wouldn’t fight.
“I may never come back,” I said.
“I know. But take the belt I made for you. You never know when you can use some extra protection.”
I swallowed. She was so good, so decent. “You’ll take my wagon? And Stripes? Take care of Stripes.”
She nodded. “Of course I will.” Something caught her attention. She pointed up near the top of the rock bowl. “What’s Joseph got up there?”
I laughed. “Some dog that’s been following him around for two days. He feeds her, and she’s stuck at his heels. He says he’s taking her to Silver’s Home with him.” I didn’t tell her he’d told me that if Sasha didn’t go with us, he was going to name the dog Sasha. He’d cocked his head and said, “Why not? She’s beautiful, and she supports me. Besides, she’s black with a white stripe down one side of her face.”
I didn’t point out that she had more white than that. After all, it was a good name.
I looked up. The moon Destiny was barely visible, a white disk in a pale blue sky.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go to Joseph. I’ll introduce you to the dog.”
She laughed. For all of our bitter losses, the warm sun, the scent of fresh food, and the pleasure of good company conspired to lift smiles from some of the faces we passed.