Reclamation

"Skyman," she hissed. "I have listened to you and listened to you and what has happened? My city has been torn out from under me. I cannot count the dead I have laid on the pyres. Tell me quickly why I should not lay this new disaster in your hands?" She stood up, and the controlled fury on her face reminded Jay sharply that this slender girl was a strong, fast soldier of war.

"Majesty." He bowed his head humbly and spoke to the mud puddles. "Unless you want the People, all the People, to be reduced together to the level of the Notouch, you must find a way to wake the power that the Nameless, the true Nameless, left in the Realm. That is what brings the Skymen here. They seek to steal it for themselves." He raised his eyes.

"And do you now suggest you know how to do this?" Behind her thunderous expression, Jay saw yearning. She wanted to believe him. No, she needed to believe him, because otherwise everything she had done, from her grandfather's death to the retreat from the High House, was wrong.

"I do." Inside, Jay rebelled against the game he was forced to play, but he had no choice. No matter what she was, King Silver could still kill him here and now. He needed her. Later she'd be beneath notice, but for now she was his only hope. "Majesty, you must buy me time!"

"Why?"

"So that I can find the power the true Nameless left behind. For all their tricks, we still have a march stolen on the Skymen. The keys to the world are just outside your city walls. I need just a few days more and then the Skymen are dust at Your Majesty's feet!"

Bit by bit the rage drained out of her face and Jay saw a little girl standing in front of him, tired and frightened.

"All right, Skyman," she said. "Take whom you need. Take a troop with you, if you need to, and go search for this power. I would have you gone from my sight and out of my hearing." She looked toward the glowing sphere. "I warn you, though, if you do not bring me back victory in those pale hands of yours, then hide yourself where you think best, because I will have your life otherwise." She leaned against the wall and covered her eyes with her hands. Holding the Keys laid his hand on her shoulder. Jay stood, feeling oddly abashed, and hurried away.

Jay ducked through the maze of houses and barricades, trying to plan, but his head was full of the screams still sounding around him and the crying of someone who had believed she was a King.

Lu drew the blanket back over Broken Trail's trembling body. She plucked at the thick, brown felt as if she were trying to pick it to pieces. Her eyes stared at the ceiling, but whatever she saw there, it wasn't the polymer dome. The white fabric and struts couldn't have caused three days of nonstop murmuring and tossing back and forth. Once, Lu had put his ear close enough to her mouth to hear what she was saying, but his translator disk provided him with nothing but a stream of random syllables.

Lu plopped himself into his chair, one hand dangling between his knees, the other automatically laying itself across the communications keypad. He pushed the pad away with a grimace.

Too soon, he told himself. It's just too soon to try again.

Not one of his transmissions to Jay or Cor had raised an answer since they'd walked out the door together, and a traitorous, ghost thought was starting to believe none of them ever would.

The wind outside was kicking up again. It whistled around the dome like it was calling the rain to come and play. Trail gurgled as if in answer. Lu knew that soon he'd have to check the cloth swaddling her waist again. The thought sent a sudden hard wave of nausea through him and he had to turn away and looked at the wall instead.

This is all wrong. He rubbed his forehead. I'm the hardware man. I keep the base systems up and running. I don't take care of flipped-over natives or…His gaze strayed to the hatch…organic monstrosities.

Whatever process Trail had woken up down there had not gone back to sleep yet. It was getting increasingly difficult for Lu to force himself to go down the ladders to see what had changed since the last check. He'd dutifully set up a trio of cameras and they were storing images in his data boxes, but protocol and his job dictated that he go down there himself.

Lu wished suddenly that he was Cor. She was the one trained to deal with living systems. She was the one who knew how to make friends and think on her feet. He just knew wires and gears and the laws of inorganic behavior.

I wish you'd come back. He directed the thought through the dome and toward the building storm. I wish you'd come back and get us all out of here and back to someplace that makes sense.