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

on our vigilance, but those guards in Calcumum were also well-trained and acting properly—and still those raiders broke into the prison and freed the prisoners.”

Heaving a sigh, the captain nodded. “Rest assured, it will be done. Now go. We’ll take care of things here well enough.”

Gailert left that office frowning. Again he could feel it. He was being shoved out, humored, and pushed along as an old senile man. He marched down the stairs, tucking his map underneath his arm. His boy trotted behind him, ducking his head as he kept his eyes on the ground. If no one was going to help him, he would do it himself. The captain of Stiltson had to be warned.

*

The rebels’ trip southeast to Ladis from Kalsworth was much of the same. Key had decided to let Lanona remain angry with him. It made it easier to keep focused on the task at hand. The Bekir trio traveled together as they had done from on the journey to Kalsworth, this time stopping on purpose to perform so that soldiers would not even bother to stop them. Of course this also meant that the others has to go slower than they had planned. Lanona traveled with Luis and Soin in the lead group. When the trio of Bekir men arrived in Ladis, it was in the same way as in Kalsworth, only Pattron had them set up in an inn before he sent him word of their actual meeting place for work.

The others of their ‘caravan’ went ahead with their tasks the moment they arrived. Rainold hurried about establishing a private reading school in the human sections of the city with Soin, while Lanona Loe was taken to a hidden point in the city to start her tunnels with Luis to guard her. Only Tiler waited near the inn where the three Bekir men were staying, keeping watch on their window from an alley outside. Later the following day, a messenger came with a sealed letter, passing along the directions to their real stop. It arrived in the form of an invitation.

Key read it silently then passed it on to Loid who read it aloud to Telerd who still could not read as well as the others.

 

Minstrels of Bekir,

Thank you for coming to Ladis at my request. The venue for your performance will be at Huldred manor on Curry Street. Please arrive early tomorrow afternoon. Your best performance is expected in the evening. Food and beverages will be provided before and after your performance along with a room in guest quarters for one night. Repeat performances may be requested depending on the quality of your performance.

Looking forward to your arrival.

Pattron Huldred, Esq.

 

Key lifted his eyebrows at Loid. “Does this mean we just walk right up to the doors of the establishment?”

“What kind of place is it, do you think?” Telerd asked, glancing at the fancy script of the invitation.

“It depends on what kind of man Pattron is,” Loid replied, folding up the paper. “Ether way, we ought to make sure our ‘costumes’ are clean.

“You mean air out our extra change?” Telerd murmured.

As his friends chatted, Key took the folded paper from where Loid had set it and opened it again. He crossed over to the window. He read it in the sunlight once more, glancing out at the street across from the inn. In the small alley where he had earlier spotted Tiler, he caught sight of the shine of tin. Tiler had Rainold’s tin cart with him, though he looked more like he was just resting there. Tiler had been dressed in a grubby oilcloth hat and vest. His coat had been folded over and set aside since it was warmer in the south. Key would not have recognized him as a Herra man if he had seen him on the street. He wondered if Pattron had told him about their meeting location. During their trip, Key had noticed that Tiler had taken a strong dislike to the Ladis man, though it was not clear if Pattron shared the same feelings. However, it was not a risk Key wanted to take.

He opened the window, pretending to draw in some fresh air. Loid and Telerd only glanced at him when he did this. Key leaned on the sill as if to admire the cityscape, but the city itself really wasn’t at all beautiful. Though it was built on top of a hill like Roan, Ladis had the cultural air of Calcumum. It was an old city with winding roads that showed where ancient city walls had been built, demolished and expanded by both locals and Kitai conquerors. On top of that, the Sky Children had set up a tangled web of electrical wires and plumbing, added for the modern conveniences. But it made the city looked like it was possessed by a thousand legged demon spider. Its main body would have been lumped in the city center where a Sky Child electrical plant stood, spewing smoke into the air with all its legs digging hard into its host to control it. If the smoke didn’t blow off to the south, Key was sure the entire sky would be black.

With a careless manner, Key folded the invitation into a shape he had seen Sky Children boys make over and over again. He had watched them when he was a boy, marveling at how a series of simple folds could create such a fabulous and useful thing. Taking in the corners of the top of the paper to the center line then folding it in again from nearly the same starting place, Key continued making folds in the paper until he opened parts to make a three dimensional shape neither Telerd nor Loid recognized. He turned it in his hands to admire it. Then, with a firm hold on the bottom, Key aimed for the alley.

The moment he let the folded invitation go he watched it glide on the air like an airplane did, skimming through the breeze until it slipped into the shadows of the alley. He heard a small clang of tin then saw an oilcloth covered head perk up to look at his window. Crushing a smile, Key stepped back and drew the glass panes back together and slid the latch closed.

“What did you just do?” Telerd asked.

Barely shrugging, Key walked to his bag to take out his extra Bekir clothes. “Just passing on a message.”

Loid glanced back at the window then looked around the room. Looking back up at Key, he made a face. “That was the invitation you just threw out the window.”

“Anyone could pick it up, you know.” Telerd crossed irritably to look out the glass. Tiler had gone.

“Tiler has it,” Key said, opening up his pack.

Walking back from the window, Telerd glanced at Loid then crossed to where Key was taking out his fancier shoes.

“I have to ask. Why is it that you rely so much on that Herra man?” Telerd asked.

Pausing, Key glanced at Telerd. “Does it bother you?”

“A little,” Telerd said. He then sighed. “Not that I don’t want you to have friends outside of Bekir. I understand that the people of Herra were good to you after you escaped, but….”

Key lifted his head with an incredulous gaze. He questioned if Telerd really meant what he had just said.

Sighing Telerd finished what he meant. “It’s just that you seem to give that one man an unusual amount of regard, even over Loid and I, and we’ve known you for years.”

That made Key nod with a small chuckle. “How funny it is that you say it like that.”

“What do you mean?” Telerd asked.

“I don’t give Tiler any more regard that I do the rest of you.” Key then sighed. “It’s just that he gives me more regard than everyone else does.”

“That is so not true,” Loid retorted.

“Oh?” Key set down his extra pair of pants. “Then why is it when I suggest something everyone moans? But Tiler actually listens, even defends me. I know you all came along on this trip to keep me from acting on my impulse to seek out the Cordrils. I’m not stupid. And though Rainold and the others are starting to understand and are listening to Tiler, I can’t say the same for my childhood friends. You all think I’m crazy.”

Telerd glanced to Loid. Both of them had immediately become uncomfortable.

“And though Tiler may not agree with me about the Cordrils, at least he admits that my ideas are not insane.” Key set out the rest of his things on the dresser with a plop. “He watches my back, and I know I can trust him not to go behind it.”

“But he—”

“Is going along with you guys?” Key seemed to laugh. Then he shook his head. “I’m sure Tiler knows I figured it out. I’m also sure that he’s still watching out for me. He has faith in me.”

“But we—”

“See me as a kid who you still think is fragile.” Key took off his hat and tugged at the white tufts in his hair. “But I’m not. I’m a man. The child in me died a long time ago.”

He turned and sorted the last of his things so that he could shake out the wrinkles in his shirt and pants. Key scratched his scalp and adjusted the clips in his hair before taking up the hat again. He tucked in the tufts then glanced in the mirror to see if he had done it right.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Collaboration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key learned why Ollev Tallar had called Pattron a Sky Child collaborator. The man’s house was enormous. It wasn’t the kind of home an honest human was able to keep under Sky Child rule. The building was surrounded by a stone fence with decorative iron pikes on the top with creeping vines growing in the inner garden along the wall—though since it was fall the vines were all yellow and red covered in inedible berries. And when the porter let them inside the yard, all three Bekir men gazed in awe at the construction—all of it old style human with no Kitai influence. Only the covered piping and wires showed that the Sky Children had their hands in the place.

“If you will come this way,” the porter said.

Loid followed with Telerd on his heels, though Key had automatically flinched and averted his eyes from the porter. He made sure Telerd and Loid were between him and the house servant, fighting the uneasy sensation in his stomach. They followed the porter into the garden through the doors. Even though the porter was human, the man’s well-bred and proper manner reminded Key too much of Saimon. The sick forboding continued even as the porter took them inside the manor, guiding them off to the servants’ where they could unpack their things.

“If you would remain here or in the back garden, I will bring your tea.” The porter then ducked out of the room.

“Tea?” Loid repeated once the man had gone with a look to Telerd. “Did he say tea?”

Telerd smirked. “Maybe he doesn’t know lake culture.”

“He wouldn’t,” Key said and closed the door tight. He double-checked it to make sure the door was locked. “He’s a trained servant for the upper-class, and mostly