Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

train yards. Unfortunately all the incriminating evidence was destroyed in the fire. Doubly unfortunate was how difficult it was to get new workers to fill those factories after they had been gutted by fire. None but a few brown-eyed Sky Children were willing to take up the posts again.

There had to be a distinct motive for targeting those certain outposts and rail lines, he was certain of it. The Herra raiders always had one, mostly to end Sky Children commerce and cut off supplies. That was how he had found them. Humans acted in a pattern, just like other animals. As a strategist he could plot out where they would be hiding and what they would do next.

*

The rebel party heading south had gathered all their things together the following morning, immediately starting their journey to Yarrding. They were not really traveling in an obvious group, but rather as people all heading in the same direction. And when they camped at night, it was the same.

 “What is with her?” Key muttered half asleep as he lay almost back-to-back with Tiler. He not seen Tiler all day since he had been walking with Lanona on the far end of the group while Luis was set to guard him.

Tiler held his dagger clenched in his fist as he rested.

Luis chuckled to himself, drawing the whetstone up his sword edge. The firelight reflected on the blade as sparks flew upward. “If I have to tell you, then you don’t deserve to know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Key asked, lifting his head.

Chuckling again, Luis said, “Come on, Key. How old are you now? Haven’t you ever noticed the women who look at you? You’re not a boy anymore.”

“I haven’t been just a boy for years,” Key muttered. “But so what? That doesn’t change anything. I have to fight to get people to listen to me.”

“Not so much anymore, I’m sure,” Luis said.

Key snorted. “I wish. I saw you at the meeting. You’re just like Sadena and Callen. You all treated my suggestion that we make a deal with the Cordrils as if it was insane.”

“It is insane.” Luis turned around. “And that conversation has nothing to do with your little spat with Lanona Loe in Calcumum. Callen told me all about it.”

“A wizard is just as dangerous as a Cordril,” Key said, looking up at him. “Both can kill with a touch.”

Groaning, Luis looked like he wanted to shake Key. “I’m not talking about her as a wizard. I’m talking about her as a woman.”

Key froze then pulled back. “What are you talking about? Of course she is a woman. What about it?”

Turning around again with a groan, Luis went back to sharpening his sword. “You’re hopeless.”

The man said nothing more so Key gave up and went back into his sleeping position, muttering under his breath. “It’s not like she’s the only person being used.”

 

They reached Yarrding after five days. There, Loid went to visit his wife with Key who was anxious to see how his cousin was faring with her pregnancy. They also gathered supplies, ammunition for their guns, and traded clothing so they could blend in with the people of the Westerlund area. Most in the west beyond the Duglis Mountains wore sturdier shoes with wooden soles. And unlike the breezy cotton of the lakes, those of the west also wore layers of heavy wool and linen—though since it was leaning towards winter, they all started to wear coats. Key also had to exchange his Bekir hat for a leather and fur cap. When they departed Yarrding, their group had more of a western merchant look to them. No one would have suspected they were insurgents, though two of the men still had their southern air about them.

Traveling back south into the Westerlund Hills, Tiler, Key, and Loid led the group to their smithing camp. It took less time to go from Dalis’s camp to there, that route well established. And when they arrived, Key went straight to work handing the other smiths their newest weapon orders, gesturing a great deal to Lowman who had made the largest demand. Of the list on the back of his wanted poster, Key had discovered only a few orders for fine swords. The rest the smiths were entirely capable of completing the order without him.

They stayed the night and then started off toward Westerlund Town to find Rainold and Polan who were working in the town proper. Luis and Tiler went ahead to search for them, and left Key in Loid’s charge—something Key understood clear enough. All the while, Loid discussed the minstrel routine he, Key, and Telered had to do since they were planning on traveling as a group of Bekir men once more. The fact that Tiler had strangely given up his place at Key’s side made Key nervous. It was so unlike him. And when Tiler and Luis returned from Westerlund with Rainold, leaving Polan back in town with Berd, they prepared for the next leg of their journey by practicing the routine. By this time Key had already figured something was up. There were too many of his friends with him on this trip. Despite the amused smirks from Tiler, Key could tell most were uneasy about him.

Their journey to Kalsworth took several days. Going south on the road from Westerlund to Kalsworth along the main highway near the train route, they noticed several Sky Child military squads traveling north. The soldiers stopped the merchant cart twice and searched it both times. Finding only hayforks, hoes, and rakes along with other merchandise for the market, they were allowed to continue on. The two southerners were traveling together in a bitter silence on their own cart. They had been stopped five times, each time watching as the soldiers read their legal permits to show they were in trade returning to Ladis. Their cart carried wool from Westerlund in bales, strapped tight, for spinning. Had the Sky Children searched further they would have also found cases of bullets in the center of the bales along with knives and other small weapons

But only once did the any of the Sky Children make the trio from Bekir halt. Most passed them by because their minstrel team reeked of utter authenticity. Led by Loid in his perfectly beaded and breezy attire covered by a sheepskin coat, he carried his lyre in his velvet bag under his arm. Similarly dressed, Key and Telerd’s matching sunburned cheeks and shining brownish eyes with the hats of white over their brown hair, Key’s white tufts strategically pinned back underneath and his eye brows colored with brown shoe polish to make them even, completed the group perfectly. However, one patrol had stopped them anyway. He searched them for weapons. And, as any lake man was, they were found armed.

“And what are these?” the Sky Child asked, his shining blue eyes peering down at the both of them. His fingers twitched to stroke their skin to steal their thoughts.

“If you please,” Loid said, nodding to Key and Telerd. “No man travels without being armed. There are demons afoot in the hills and trees.”

The soldier snorted, glancing to his companions. Key was glad he was not wearing his pistol this time. If the Sky Children had found that, then surely they would have been killed straight off. But then Tiler was waiting, watching from his group. They had camped on the roadside with a collection of Westerlund tin in a small handcart. Rainold had been acting as a tin merchant in Westerlund for some time, his business skills mild at best. Inside the tin were the extra pistols. Yet Tiler had already cocked his gun, hiding it under his coat with a clear aim for the soldier’s back.

“We also use them to perform,” Telerd said, nodding to Loid.

The soldier snorted, gesturing with a flick of his hand. “Show me.”

Giving a nod, Loid, pulled his lyre out of its velvet bag and started to tune it. Key and Telerd walked to an open spot on the roadside and got into position; ready to perform their ‘dance’. Had the soldiers been stationed near the lakes they would have known that the ‘dance’ the lake men did was the same as their sword fighting. Then the trio would not have passed by without a fight. However, as Key suspected, these Sky Children had been in the west almost their entire service in the Sky Lord’s army. So when Key and Telered ‘danced’ to Loid’s song the soldiers applauded.

“That’s some talent you have there,” the soldier said, grinning. He then waved to Key. “Just keep those swords shining with dance and not with battle. You’d lose against the army of the Sky Lord.”

“Of course,” Telerd replied and sheathed his sword.

Key sheathed his also, averting his eyes though he gave a bow before he joined Loid who was putting away his lyre.

The soldier pause, though and looked hard at Key. “You. You don’t talk much. Are you just stupid?”

Key halted, but kept his eyes down. “No, sir. I merely dance.”

Snorting, the soldier let him go, returned to his vehicle.

When their auto procession had gone on, Telerd breathed easier. He set a hand on Key’s back and sighed heavily. “Kemdin, for a moment there I thought he recognized you.”

“I don’t see why he would,” Key said, heaving his pack back onto his shoulders. “I never met him before.”

Telerd peered at him, pulling on his own pack from off the ground.

“Do you remember every person you meet?” Loid asked as he slung up his lute and took up his pack.

Nodding with a slight shrug, Key said, “Basically.”

“But what about those men from the Wede Mountains?” said Telerd. “You didn’t know them.”

With a sigh, Key started back onto the road. “I didn’t really meet them. More than likely they watched the general and saw me with him. They were probably hiding in the city.”

“Oh.” Telerd nodded. “I see. So you really wouldn’t know them.”

Key shook his head.

“No. Not at all. Those men from the Wede Mountains were probably entrenched in the human areas, hiding like those in Herra. I think what bothers me about them is that they only remember me when I was a slave in Roan.” He sighed, trudging further. The group with Tiler rose and started to go also, following them. “A lot has changed since then.”

They eventually reached Kalsworth, edging along the skirts of town to Lowman’s camp taking different routes to get there. The Bekir trio stayed in town for the night at a small, unimportant inn, performing the next morning in the town square to establish themselves in case those Sky Child soldiers came back and inquired after them. Once they were done with their performance, and they had collected some silver on the side, the three men entered the camp around the time Lowman had recruited Soin to go with the group.

When Key had finished setting up his camp area and searched for the cook fires, he noticed Soin chatting with Lanona. They were together on a log, having lunch. Seeing her, Key almost turned away to find another cook fire. But he shook off the uncomfortable feeling and went over to join his friend. As always, Lanona averted her eyes when she saw Key, though Soin lifted his head and smiled.

“K-kemdin! It t-took you long enough. W-where are Telerd and L-loid?”

Key smiled. He walked to Soin’s other side since Lanona was obviously still mad at him. He sat on the split log. “They’re talking with Luis, that swordsman I told you about. To be quite frank, it feels like they’re gathered together for some kind of conspiracy to control me. Even Tiler’s been watching me as if he expects me to run for it.”

Soin broke into a laugh, his eyes flickering with honest mirth. “Th-they probably are. I-I heard a rumor that you’ve been acting f-funny l-lately.”

“Funny? Like how?” Key asked, making a face.

But Lanona glanced back through the trees at the