Spiritwalker 3: Cold Steel (2 page)

Bee tapped my cheek affectionately. “You were talking in your sleep. You’ve become
quite the revolutionary, Cat. You kept mumbling, ‘All of us will be free.’ ”

With a sigh, I leaned against her shoulder. Bee was significantly shorter than I was,
but she was sturdy and determined, easily strong enough to hold me up when I needed
support. “It’s no wonder I mumble such words in my sleep. When I wake up, I remember
that my sire threw Vai into his magical coach and drove off with him into the spirit
world.”

Bee pressed her fingers to my knee, staring at me with brows drawn down as if she
could bend the world to her will through her glower, and sometimes I was sure she
could. “I know you’re worried because your sire is the Master of the Wild Hunt, because
he is a powerful magical denizen of the spirit world, and because not even the most
powerful cold mage can stand against him. But even though all that is true, it doesn’t
mean you and I can’t defeat him and rescue Andevai.”

“I always feel so heartened when you explain things in exactly that cheering way,
Bee.”

“Do you doubt that we can?” she demanded in the belligerent manner I loved.

“I don’t doubt that we must, for certainly no one else can! Anyhow, I’m not going
to lie here and cry about it. We will figure out what to do because we have to.”

I rose. In the dim and rather stuffy little room, a cloth-covered screen folded out
to divide the space into two halves. Vai’s younger sister had slept on the other side
of the screen, but she had recently married a local man and moved into his family’s
compound. Two wooden chests held Vai’s clothes and other necessaries. His carpentry
tools resided in a smaller chest he had built specially to house them. A covered basket
held my few possessions, for I had arrived in Expedition with nothing except the clothes
on my back, my sword, and my locket. Through the open window floated the sounds of
the household waking from their afternoon naps.

A length of brightly printed fabric that depicted green fans was
draped over the screen. Tied around my hips, it made a skirt. I pulled a short gauzy
blouse over my bodice.

Bee surveyed me critically. “That looks very well on you, Cat. The style would not
flatter my figure.” She fluffed out her curly hair to get the worst snarls out. “Wouldn’t
the fastest way to pursue Vai be to enter the spirit world here and follow your sire
to Europa through the spirit world?”

“I’ve been warned off trying to enter the spirit world here in the Antilles. The Taino
spirits don’t like me. They will do everything they can to stop me entering their
territory. Anyway, getting Vai back does not solve our greater problem, does it? The
Hunt will still ride every year on Hallows’ Night. It will still hunt down powerful
cold mages and innocent dream walkers. Nor will rescuing Vai stop my sire from binding
me whenever he wishes.”

With a frown like the cut of a blade, Bee crossed to the window and set her hands
on the sill. “It’s true. I can hide from the Wild Hunt in a troll maze, but you can’t.
And it isn’t just about you and me and Andevai. What about other women who walk the
dreams of dragons, the ones who don’t know that the mirrors of a troll maze will conceal
them from the Hunt? I hate to think of what will happen to them when next the Wild
Hunt rides. They should be safe, too. Everyone should be safe.”

“Yes. I don’t see why anyone should have to fear the Wild Hunt just because the spirit
courts of Europa demand a sacrifice of mortal blood every year. It’s wrong for any
person to be torn to pieces and have their head ripped off and thrown down a well.”
I looked away so Bee would not see my expression, for that was exactly what had happened
to Queen Anacaona on Hallows’ Night. To speak of how Bee’s new husband, Prince Caonabo,
had walked in my dream with his threats seemed cruel because it would upset her dreadfully,
so I said nothing of it. Bee hadn’t been on the ballcourt when the Wild Hunt had descended
on the wings of a hurricane, but the prince had seen it all.

Bee did not notice my guarded expression or my pause. She was gazing down on the courtyard,
watching the family making ready for the customers who would arrive at dusk to eat
Aunty Djeneba’s justly famous cooking and to drink the beer and spirits served by
Aunty’s brother-in-law, Uncle Joe.

“No one should have to live at the mercy of another’s cruel whim,” she said. “That
is the same whether it is the Wild Hunt, or the unjust laws and arbitrary power wielded
by princes and mages. It is the toil and sweat and blood of humble folk that feed
those who rule us, is it not?”

Her fierce expression made me smile. “A radical sentiment, Bee! And so cogently expressed!”

She tried to smile but sighed instead. “I can’t laugh about it. We are caught in an
ancient struggle.”

I recalled words spoken to me weeks ago. “ ‘At the heart of all lie the vast energies
which are the animating spirit of the worlds. The worlds incline toward disorder.
Cold battles with heat.’ Is that what you mean?”

“You are poetic today, Cat. I mean the struggle between those who rule unjustly merely
because they have claimed the privilege to do so, and those who seek freedom to rule
themselves.”

I studied her from across the room. With only one window for light, the details of
her face were obscured, as the future is obscured to every person except the women
who walk the dreams of dragons and thus may glimpse snatches of what will come. Over
the last two years, since long before she admitted the truth to me, Bee had been having
dreams of such clarity and intensity that she felt obliged, upon waking, to sketch
the most vivid moments from those dreams. As the months passed, she had discovered
that the scenes in these sketches were visions of future meetings.

Naturally, all manner of powerful people wanted to control her gift of dreaming. The
mansa of Four Moons House had sent Andevai to claim her for the mage House, but Vai
had mistakenly married me instead. General Camjiata had tried to seduce Bee to his
cause so he could use her visions to give him an advantage in war, and in a way he
had succeeded, for he was the one who had brokered the marriage between Bee and Prince
Caonabo; the alliance gave him Taino support for the war he wanted to fight in Europa.
Queen Anacaona had wanted her son to become cacique when her brother died, and an
alliance with a dragon dreamer like Bee gave Caonabo a prestige other claimants did
not possess. But now, the tilt of Bee’s head and the tone of her voice worried me.
I did not like to think she had sacrificed her happiness believing she had to do it
to make us both safe.

“Bee, you told me all about your wedding adventure, but you never really said if you
are truly happy, married to Prince Caonabo.”

By the way her chin tucked down, I guessed she was blushing. “I do like him. He is
levelheaded and thoughtful. I find him interesting to talk to, and he is not at all
taken aback that I am knowledgeable about such topics as astronomy or the mechanics
of airship design, not as some men are. I must admit, I rather enjoy being a Taino
noblewoman, even if my consequence is borrowed. From what I have seen, the Taino court
governs in a just manner. But everything that has happened to us, even my marriage,
has made me think so much more about what we used to take for granted, the things
we thought were inevitable and proper.” She leaned out the window and glanced at the
sky, then withdrew, looking alarmed. “I must go! I didn’t realize we had slept for
so long. Usually I dream. How strange that I didn’t dream at all.”

“Why are you in such a hurry?”

She laced up her sandals and straightened her spotlessly white linen draperies. “Caonabo
has diplomatic meetings today with the provisional Assembly here in Expedition. He
means to hammer out a new treaty with the new government before we journey to the
Taino court in Sharagua. He wants matters with Expedition Territory settled before
he presents himself to the Taino court as the rightful cacique.” She slipped on enough
gold jewelry to purchase a grand house and compound. “I am obliged to be at the palace
on the border of Expedition Territory when he returns, to greet him with the proper
ceremony.”

“Are you?” I asked, then thought better of teasing her about this unexpected display
of wifely compliance because she grabbed my hands and squeezed them so tightly I feared
my fingers would be crushed.

“Promise me you’ll stay out of trouble until tomorrow, Cat. When I come back, we will
figure out how to get you to Europa.”

“Of course I’ll stay out of trouble! When do I ever deliberately court trouble, I
should like to ask?”

“When do you
not
court trouble, you should be asking!” Bee snatched her sketchbook from the side table
and stuffed it into the knit bag she carried so she could keep it and her pencils
next to her at all times. “I am not the one who goes about punching sharks or speaking
my mind so caustically to arrogant cold mages that they fall in love with me. Come
along.”

When Bee set her mind to drag a person along with her to wherever she was set to go,
it was impossible to resist, nor did I try. Hand in hand, we descended the stairs
to the courtyard. The boardinghouse had a wall and gate that separated it from the
street, while the living quarters were laid out in a square whose center was a courtyard.
Because it was hot year-round in the Antilles, most of the daily life went on in the
spacious courtyard. A wide trellis and a canvas awning covered the benches and tables
where customers drank and ate and gossiped, but right now, with the heat of the afternoon
ebbing, the courtyard was empty except for Uncle Joe and the lads setting up benches
and trays while Aunty Djeneba and her granddaughters cooked in the outdoor kitchen.

They were not one bit overawed by Bee’s borrowed consequence as she made respectful
goodbyes to the women and charming farewells to the menfolk. Outside the gate, Taino
attendants handed her into the carriage that had waited there half the day while she
visited me. We embraced and kissed, after which she promised ten times to return in
the morning.

“Bee, don’t fret. How much trouble can I get into overnight?”

“That’s what worries me.” She squeezed my hands so tightly that I gritted my teeth
rather than wince. “Dearest, promise me you’ll do nothing rash.”

“Ouch! I’ll promise whatever you wish, only you’re crushing my fingers again!”

She released me at last. I waved as she drove off down the cobblestone street through
the quiet neighborhood where lived people whose labor built and sustained the city
of Expedition.

The moment I went back inside, one of the lads handed me a broom. I swept between
the benches and tables as had been my habit in the weeks I had lived and worked here,
for I had come to enjoy the household’s routine. When I finished, I went to the shaded
outdoor kitchen.

“Aunty,” I said to Djeneba as she prepared a big pot of rice and peas, “I don’t see
Rory and Luce. Did they go to the batey game?”

A wry smile creased her lined face. “So they did, Cat. By that frown, I reckon yee’s
not so glad to see Luce walking out with yee brother.”

My frown deepened. “I am not! He’s no better than a tomcat. A pleasant, kind, charming,
and well-mannered tomcat, but no better regardless.”

“Luce is sixteen now. Old enough to choose for she own self.” She handed me a wooden
spoon and directed me to stir the pot as she added more salt and pepper. “Is yee determined
to wait tables tonight? Yee don’ have to work if yee’ve no mind to do it.”

The pot simmered, a luscious flavor wafting up. I licked my lips as I wielded the
spoon. “Aunty, you know I can’t sit quietly. Waiting tables will keep my mind off
Vai.”

“It surely did before.” Aunty’s laugh coaxed a reluctant smile to my lips as I remembered
the clever way he had won me over by bringing me delicious fruit to eat and confiding
in me about his embrace of radical principles. “Yee never could seem to make up yee
mind about Vai. Yee pushed him back with one hand and pulled him close with the other.
What settled yee?”

“Really, Aunty, did you think he would give up before he got what he wanted?”

“Yee’s a stubborn gal, Cat. I had me doubts.”

“You shouldn’t have had. I think I was always a little infatuated with him, even back
when I disliked him for his high-handed ways. The Blessed Tanit knows he’s handsome
enough to overwhelm the most heartless gal.”

“Good manners and a steady heart matter more than looks, although he have all three
in plenty. Still, I reckon yee have the right of it. ’Tis no easy task for a gal to
say no to a lad as fine as he. Especially after the patient way he courted yee.” She
took the spoon. “Yee get that man back.”

“I will get him back, I promise you, Aunty.” I did not add that I had no idea how
I was going to manage it. “Bee will help me. We’re going to make our plans tomorrow.”

The thought of him trapped in my sire’s claws made me burn. Yet not even worrying
could dampen my appetite. I ate two bowls of Aunty’s excellent rice and peas, by which
time the first customers had begun to arrive. They greeted me with genuine pleasure,
for even though I was a
maku
—a foreigner—in Expedition, folk here did appreciate my willingness to speak my mind.
Better yet, they laughed
at my jokes. The easy way people conversed pleased me, and no one thought it at all
remarkable that a young woman had opinions about the great matters of the day.

“I certainly hope the new Assembly will not allow the Taino representatives to bully
them on this matter of a new treaty,” I said to a table of elderly regulars.

“Hard not to feel bullied when a fleet of Taino airships sit on the border chaperoned
by an army of soldiers who have already marched once through Expedition’s streets,”
said Uncle Joe from the bar. “Peradventure without yee intervention on Hallows’ Night,
Cat, we in Expedition would have had to bow before a Taino governor instead of setting
up this new Assembly. If yee had not done what report say yee did do.”