The Stolen Child (10 page)

 
As she stepped out onto the docks the wind began to pick up,
turning the warm air chill, and she suddenly wished she had worn more than just a thin blouse.  She rubbed her arms and considered slipping back inside when she saw a lone figure standing out on an empty dock, leaning across the railing.  Even in the glare of the sunlight she recognised her father's thin frame.  He wore his old greatcoat which whipped around him, snapping in the breeze.  As she watched, he leaned forward to rest his forehead against clenched knuckles.  He seemed tired, worn thin, like a shirt so
badly frayed that it was holding together by its last few stitches.
 

Forgetting the cold, she began to walk towards him.  He didn't even seem to notice her approach until she leaned against the railing beside him.  His head turned slightly, and he blinked in surprise.

“Arsha,”
h
e said, surprised.

“Hey Daddy,”
s
he said as she leaned out over the railing.  
Seeing the goosebumps on her arms, he pulled his coat around her shoulders, covering them both.
  Neither of them seemed to know what else to say.  They stood together, staring out at the endless ocean, the wind whipping at their hair.  Eventually the breeze died down and the sun began to warm the air again.

Tucked away in the pocket of her blouse, Penny stirred.  The little bird wriggled out of her hidey hole and hopped down onto Arsha's arm, chirping lightly.  With her typical curiosity, Penny began hop from spot to spot, moving down Arsha's sleeve before
jumping
across onto her father's arm.

“Hello,”
h
e said, a little surprised.  “Shouldn't you be inside?”

“She likes the breeze,” Arsha said, stroking Penny's head lightly.

“Does she now?”

He shook his head, with a distant look.

“
You've had her a while now... Back in Avanen, that was where you bought her, right?
  That ridiculous vendor with all his automs.  I swear you fell in love with that bird the moment he put her in your hands.”

Arsha smiled at the memory.
 

“
Yeah.  
I couldn't bear to give her back.  She's too beautiful.”

“
Yes,
I remember you handed over every coin you had.  I had to argue the salesman down just so you could afford her.”

“Liar.  I saw you slip him the rest of the money after I was walking away.”

“You really saw that?  
Arsha
, you're too sharp for me, I swear.”

She saw him smile.  It was only a moment, something fleeting that seemed to pass through him, vanishing as quickly as it came.  Already she could see that he was looking past her, past the ocean and the horizon, to something only he could see.  She could almost feel the weight that seemed to be pressing down on him.
 

“
Daddy... Are you OK?”
 

It took so long for him to say anything that she wondered if he simply hadn't heard her.

“No.  I'm not OK,
love
,”
h
e said, at last.  He moved his hand to cover hers, and squeezed it tight.  “
There are some things I have to put right, some things that I've been running from for a very long time.
”

“
Is that... Is that why you have to
find
her?  The girl, in London?”
 

For a moment he was taken aback, his eyes widening as he turned to look at her.  Then his shoulders fell.

“You heard us arguing, up on the bridge.”

She nodded.

“Arsha, love, I'm sorry.  I didn't mean for...”  

For a moment he seemed to be looking past her again, his thoughts turning inward.  Then he shook his head sadly
as
his eyes fixed on hers, his expression earnest.

“Arsha, I didn't mean for you to be caught up in any of this.  Believe me, I wouldn't even have brought you along if not for... I'd just rather keep you close right now.  For your safety.  I know you must have a lot of questions, and I'll try to answer them all eventually, but now isn't the time.  I can't keep you away from this, but I don't want you to be a part of it.  I'm sorry.”

She couldn't hold his gaze.  Turning away, nervousness twisting in her stomach, she bit her lip and held her breath.  Her body felt tight, like a wire stretched to breaking point.

“But I am a part of it...
A
ren't I?”

“Arsha, what do you mean?”

Hardly able to breath
e
, she reached into her pocket with one trembling hand, and produced his sending stone.  She could barely look at him.  Still, she caught the way his expression
shifted
from surprise to a cold, dark fury.

“Arsha, what have you done?”

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, holding out the stone.  He made no move to take it.

“Arsha, I have to know... Just how much did you see?  Just what exactly did you...”  

He seemed scarcely able to draw a breath, he was so angry.  She could see the way his shoulders trembled.  

“
Arsha, what did you see?
”

She tightened her grip on the railing, sure that it was the only thing keeping her standing.  For a moment her mouth moved silently, as she tried to find the words, any words at all.

“That woman... The dream that she told
you
about.  About the seed, and me, and that girl.”

He squeezed his eyes shut, his head tilting back a little.

“Fates, Arsha... Of all the stupid things you could have done...”

“I'm so sorry, Daddy.  I didn't mean to make you mad...”

He opened his eyes again, looking at her with a horrified expression.

“Arsha... Fates, Arsha... I'm not angry, I'm terrified.  What you've done... Knowing this... Do you have any idea how much danger you've put yourself in?  Why do you think I didn't even want to tell Abasi and Milima about this?  Why do you think they still don't know just how I got access to that prediction?  
Do you have any idea how dangerous that information could be?
”

He
took her by the shoulders, leaning in close.
 

“Arsha you must never tell anyone about what you saw.  Not a single soul.  
N
ot our friends, not the others on the ship... Do you understand me?  Forget about this, forget you ever saw it.”

For a moment she felt as if she couldn't breath
e
.  Her throat seemed to have closed up.

“Daddy, stop it,” she whispered.  “You're scaring me.”

“I know,
sweetheart
, I know, but this is for your own safety,” he said,
still holding her by the shoulders, not letting her move
or turn away.
 

“But I'm not safe, am I?  Even if I hadn't found out about any of this, I'd still be connected to this girl, to this thing with the seed, and I don't understand why you won't tell me why.  How can I be safe, when I don't even know what to be safe from?”

“It's better that you don't know.  Fates, Arsha, what even possessed you to go prying into all of this?”

Feeling a sudden rush of anger, she pushed his hands away and took a step back.

“Because no one will tell me anything.  Because everyone has all these secrets and I can't stand it.  You're supposed to be my dad.  You're supposed to dig up rocks and get excited about flood plains and erosion.  You're not supposed to do stuff like this, and I can't understand why everyone is just OK with it.”
 

He raised his arms in a gesture of helplessness.

“I don't know,” he said.

“That's it.  You don't know?”

He turned to look out over the endless grey ocean, leaning his weight against the railing.

“I suppose it
'
s because they trust me.  Honestly, I don't know if I deserve that trust.  I believe I have been a very poor friend to Abasi and Milima lately.  And not much of a father to you.  I have to try to make up for that.”

He turned to look at her again, with a solemn expression.

“Do you trust me, Arsha?”

For a moment the wind picked up, flicking a few loose strands of her hair into her eyes.  She angrily pulled them aside.

“Of course I trust you,”
she said, feeling the words catching at her throat.
  “You're my dad.”

She saw the way his hands tightened around the railing.  Saw the sadness in his eyes.

“That's all I can ask,”
he said.
  “And when the time is right, I will explain everything.  I promise.”

Her throat felt dry.  She nodded.

“OK.  But…”
she paused, her stomach twisting.
 “I want to talk to her.”
 

“Who?”

He looked puzzled.

“Rachael.  That was her name.  That's what that lady said.  I want to talk to her.”

He pushed a hand through his hair.
 

“Arsha, love, she's a world away from us, and the other side of the Veil.  You can't.”

Fixing him with her stare, Arsha kept her mouth pressed into a hard, thin line.
 

“You'll know a way.  You always do.”

For a moment, he was silent.  She could feel him turning something over in his mind.  
H
is eyes closed and he let out a breath.

“OK,” he said.

They
chose
the cargo hold for the task.  
Arsha
sat on the floor, surrounded by as wide an empty space as they had been able to clear.  Above her the ship's launch rested in its cradle, waiting to emerge onto the deck when it was required.  
C
rates and barrels had been pulled aside, stacked against the walls with ropes and netting.  Micah and Abasi were securing the last few loads as the preparations for the ritual began.  
Both men were quiet, their expressions uneasy.  Her father had told them all a little of what they were doing.  Just enough to fend off any further questions.
 

Milima walked around her in a slow circle, pouring out
finely crushed salt from her hand
.  
It
formed a series of broken rings, each contained inside the next,
joined by strange symbols
.  Arsha could hear the woman whispering under her breath, but
could not make out the words
.

Her father stood at a distance, watching with an uneasy
expression
.  Beside him Ilona stood with her hands folded in front of her, her stiff formality giving away just how nervous
the woman
was.

In the dim light of the hold she found herself studying the details of Milima's tattoos as if seeing them anew, though she knew them all by heart.  She wondered if there was some connection between the swirling pattern
s
of the tattoos and the sigil on which she was sat, painted on the floor of the hold in some kind of dye.  It was still
slightly
damp.

Finished with the crates he had been securing, Abasi walked to where her father was standing and laid a gentle hand on the man's shoulder.
 

“
Rishi, you are sure about this?” he said.
 

Her father nodded.
 

“
I know, Abasi, I know.  But it's what Arsha wanted... And
there's no danger.  If we're going to find this girl, talking to her really is the best place to start.  I imagine all of this will be very shocking to her, and we have to gain her trust somehow.  I wouldn't have suggested it if Arsha hadn't, but...”
 

Abasi said nothing, but in his eyes Arsha could see that he was holding back a good many questions.  Questions he didn't want to ask in front of her.
 

Milima finished pouring and nodded at Ilona, who stepped forward and set herself
down,
across the circle from Arsha.  The woman was wearing a
black
dress, trimmed in silver lace, and Arsha found herself suddenly worried that it would
be damaged by all the salt
.

Ilona looked into her eyes, her gaze calm and steady, but the woman didn't say a word.  
Then
Milima knelt beside them.

“OK, Arsha, are you ready?”
Milima said.
 

She nodded.

“Good.  I'm going to lead you both.  Ilona will create the link for you.  What you have to do is enter into a place of sharing.  You're going to share your mind with Rachael's, and it's going to be difficult, because she isn't prepared for this.  Normally, you would be sharing with someone who was
ready
to receive your thoughts.  This is different.  
And i
t won't be
anything
like a normal sending.”

“How do you know all this?”
s
he asked.  She couldn't help it.  Milima smiled, and
ran her fingers across
the lines of
her
tattoo.

“I'm a Herdlander,
remember?
 
There are many things we know that the Guild would rather we didn't.  I first learned the
linking ritual when I was a little younger than you are.  Of course, it was a lot longer before I lead one.
”

“W
hy don't people talk about Herdlanders knowing magic?”

“Mostly because we don't call it that.  These were the ways taught to us by the
Man of Many Faces
.  The Guild wants to call it magic, because the Guild is afraid of anything it can't understand.  For our part, we keep our practices to ourselves, and try to avoid antagonising them.  We have enough trouble in our lands, without
giving the Guild any more reasons to distrust us.
”

Arsha turned to look at Ilona.
 

“
Then, where did you learn?”
 

Ilona gave her a quiet smile.
 

“
I'm just as new to this as you are, Arsha,” she said, “but the ritual needs three parts; the leader, the speaker, and the power.  That's me.”