Tinker's War (The Tinkerer's Daughter Book 2) (19 page)

Tam reached out and took my hand. “Breeze, you don’t owe these people anything. They’re safe now. You can leave them to fight their own battles. Come with me, I beg of you.”

I frowned. “And what of Tinker and Analyn, and all of the other people who are family to me?” I said. “Does that mean nothing to you?”

“Only what it means to you,” he said.

“Spoken like a politician. I think you’ve missed your calling in life, Tam.”

“Breeze, don’t be like that. I only want you to be happy.”

“Is that so?” I said, raising my eyebrows. “You want me to be happy by asking me to abandon the people I care about the most, in their time of greatest need? Does
family
mean nothing to you?”

His jaw dropped. “That’s foolishness! You’re not even related to any of these humans. The only human family you had was your father, who abandoned you and died!”

I reached out and slapped him. It happened so fast I didn’t even realize what I had done until it was over. He took a step away, rubbing his cheek. “My father did not abandon me,” I said in a low voice. “He gave his life to stop the war and save thousands of lives. But that doesn’t mean anything to you, does it? What is the problem with you Tal’mar? My grandmother let her advisor chase me away so that I wouldn’t be a threat to her throne. You accuse my father of abandoning me when, if it weren’t for him, your people would still be dying. Does all of that mean nothing to any of you?”

He stared down at me, frowning silently for a few moments. At last, he spoke: “Then I suppose I will be leaving with the others,” he said distantly.

“I think that would be best.”

I heard a sound and turned to see Analyn at the edge of the circle with a steaming teapot on a tray. “Am I interrupting something?” she said cautiously.

“No,” I said. “I’ve made my decision. Tell the others.”

Analyn set the teapot down. “All right then,” she said. “I’ll have them here in just a moment.”

Tam spun around and vanished in the darkness.

Chapter 18

Less than half of the contestants bothered to respond to the summons. Most of them hadn’t really hoped to make the team, they’d just wanted to challenge themselves and forget their problems for a few hours. The twenty who did show up genuinely wanted to be part of my team. I made sure to thank them for that.

I announced my choices: Jenna, the farm girl with a quick wit and a strong body. Kale, the general’s nephew. The boy who refused to be held back even when he was four, and who had scored higher across the board than anyone else. Brand, the middle-aged blacksmith with arms like tree trunks and a chest like a barrel. If anyone could lift a four-hundred pound anvil onto a wagon, it was Brand, and he was handy with an axe as well.

Last came Wil, a wiry young man in his late teens who was skilled not only at archery, but also with any edged weapon he came across. He could throw knives with deadly accuracy and he was dangerous with a short sword. His strength and speed would come in handy, both in battle and at work. That was my team, five of us in total. I congratulated them on their hard work and told them to sleep well: we would begin tomorrow.

Then I went to see Robie.

It was dark when I entered the tent and I stood there for a moment, letting my eyes adjust. “I heard the others talking,” he said a weak voice.

“I thought you were asleep. How are you feeling?”

“I’ve slept more lately than I care to remember.”

“Perhaps you should quit acting like a fool.”

Robie uncovered his lantern and weak, flickering light washed over us. His eyes were sunken and his face pale. He’d lost too much blood in the past few days. I suddenly found myself very worried for him.

“I heard them say that you’d chosen a team.”

I settled on the edge of his cot and felt his forehead. His skin was cool. “I have.”

“I’m not on the team, then,” he said.

I rolled my eyes. “Robie, after what you’ve done in the last two days I should have you locked up. You’re in no condition to fight Vangars. I’d be surprised if you could build a campfire right now. Even if you found the strength to keep up with us –which I find highly unlikely- you still wouldn’t be of any use.”

Robie pushed himself upright, grimacing as he did so. “How about Tam? Will he be of use to you, then?”

“Robie-”

“Don’t make excuses,” he said. “I don’t care anymore. Tell him congratulations. I hope the two of you are very happy together.”

“What?”

“I know what’s going on. I’ve seen the way he looks at you, and the way you watch him. It’s perfectly obvious that the two of you were meant for each other. After all, I can’t run through the trees, or see in the dark-”

“I sent him away.”

“-And since you both have so much in common… you did what?”

“I sent Tam away.”

I saw so many things in Robie’s face at that moment that I almost giggled. A look of shock swept his anger away in an instant, his gaze dancing back and forth as he searched his mind for understanding of this new revelation. I saw confusion in his eyes, elation, even a flicker of hope.

“I don’t understand,” he said finally. “Tam was the best archer… he was the best man at the competition.”

“You think so?” I said, smiling slyly. “Perhaps you should go after him and bring him back. I must admit, I didn’t realize he was your type.”

Robie stared at me, mystified. “But you needed him. Why would you send him away?”

I leaned over, staring into his eyes. “Because if I didn’t, I knew you wouldn’t stop. You’d keep on acting like a dumb love-struck fool until you got yourself killed.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Then quit trying to,” I said, kissing him on the lips.

I joined my team at dawn the next morning. Analyn met us at the south end of the camp. “I asked around,” she said, handing me a map. “I did my best to mark out the nearby farms and villages where you might find supplies.”

“Thank you,” I said, looking it over. “We’ll start with the closest first. That way we’ll be less likely to run into any patrols.”

“My thoughts precisely,” Analyn said. “You’ll need weapons also. Follow me.”

She led us to a covered wagon at the edge of the camp. She pulled the rear door open and handed me her lantern. “Take everything you need,” she said.

I stepped inside, my eyes boggling as I saw rows of firearms, boxes of powder charges and lead balls, and stacks of swords and axes “Where did you find all of this?” I said.

“We loaded up before we left Riverfork. We took everything we could with us to Anora, hoping to hold off the Vangars there. As it turned out, we didn’t get a chance to do much fighting. The Vangars took the city so fast it was all we could do to mount up and head for the hills.”

I had left my cutlass behind when we attacked the dragon ship, so I looked around for a good sturdy replacement. I lifted one, examining the steel and the hilt, smiling. “This is Tinker’s work,” I said.

“Not surprising. I think he made half the swords in Riverfork. In the old days, nobody could make a blade like Tinker.”

“Blackrock steel,” I said absently. “I’m surprised they haven’t all been reforged into engine springs.”

“It’s a good thing for us that they weren’t,” Analyn said. “Before Tinker invented spring engines, no one knew about the special properties of Blackrock steel. Everyone just thought Tinker was a master smith.”

I smiled, thinking back to my childhood. “Times were simpler then,” I said. “Not better, but simpler.”

“Things always change.”

“Do you remember the fleet of planes King Ryshan made with regular steel?” I said.

Analyn laughed. “Yes, I saw the ceremony. They used a steamwagon to wind up the engines on all thirty planes. They flew them into the air all at once. A few minutes later they were all back on the ground, with the pilots scratching their heads.”

“We’re lucky no one got killed,” I said. “I’ve never seen a spring engine fly more than an hour, unless it was made with Blackrock steel.”

Analyn stepped back from the wagon, motioning for the rest of the team to choose their weapons. “Well, move along,” she said. “The sooner you’re off, the sooner you’ll be back.”

They piled into the wagon grinning like children in a candy shop. Brand helped himself to a rifle and a massive two-handed axe. Jenna took a cutlass like mine, a dagger for her belt, and a crossbow. Kale took a two-edge short sword and a one-handed axe. Wil helped himself to a bow and as many daggers as he could carry. He had several on his belt, two hidden in the small of his back, two more in the front of his tunic, and one for each boot. We also took a revolver, but only one because good firearms are rare and we didn’t want to leave the camp without adequate defenses.

“You look like a band of mercenaries,” Analyn said as we piled into the steamwagon. “Let’s hope you don’t have to use those weapons.”

“I’ll second that,” Brand said. He climbed into the driver’s seat and released the brake. I sat on the bench next to him and the younger team members sat on the floor in the back. A small group gathered to watch us leave, cheering us on as Brand guided the wagon down the rocky path.

“They’ll probably never see us again,” Wil said cynically. “Maybe that’s why they’re cheering,”

“If that’s the case, then they’re all cheering for you,” Jenna said with a giggle.

The path out of the mountains would have been rough on horseback; it was absolutely jarring on the wagon. At several points, we had to crawl out and lift the axle to clear a large rock, or twist the rear-end sideways to get around a tree in the path. I didn’t even want to think about what it would be like going back up that trail with a full load. I was suddenly grateful that Brand had an axe, because I suspected we might have to chop down a few trees on the way back.

It was ten o’clock in the morning when we finally left the shelter of the woods and headed out onto the prairie. The ride smoothed out a little then, but only a little. I took over driving so that Brand could keep a lookout with his rifle. I knew our best defense against the Vangars would be a good offense, and since Brand claimed to be an expert marksman, I gave him the honor. He had explicit instructions not to shoot unless the Vangars saw us. If they came in our direction, he was to kill as many as possible before they caught up with us.

Less than an hour later, we located an abandoned homestead southeast of Anora. A small farmhouse sat under a patch of trees next to a creek. A large red barn stood off to the side, with a corral next to it. A few chickens were scattered about the yard, but we didn’t see any other signs of life. We stopped a good distance away and watched the place, wary of Vangars.

“It could be a trap,” Wil said after a few minutes. “Maybe they’re just waiting for us to get close.”

“I doubt it,” said Brand. “The Vangars wouldn’t lay in wait for days at some random farm, just on the off-chance that somebody might show up.”

“Then you go in first,” Wil said, grinning. Brand laughed. I released the brake and headed for the farm. There was only one way to find out if it was a trap, and it wasn’t by sitting there all day.

The place appeared abandoned as we entered the property. I parked halfway between the house and the barn. It seemed like a good place to leave the steamwagon, in case we needed to leave in a hurry. I crawled off the wagon and stood there a moment, surveying the place. It was eerie. It almost seemed as if the people had suddenly vanished, leaving everything else perfectly intact. I felt a stirring, as if I could sense their ghosts, and a chill crawled down my spine.

I glanced around warily, uncertain. I could almost hear the sound of children playing in the yard, the voice of a woman drifting through the kitchen window. I
expected
those sounds, but I heard none of them. All I heard was the rustling of grass as a breeze blew over the farm, and the lilting melody of a wind chime on the front porch. The signs of life were all around me, and yet there was none.

“All right,” I said at last. “Brand and I will check the barn, the rest of you check the house. Stay in a group and call out if you’re in trouble. Keep your eyes open for lanterns, blankets, and medical supplies.”

“And weapons,” Brand said, setting the rifle on the seat. “And powder charges!”

“Right,” I said. “Use common sense.”

We split up. Brand crossed the farmyard with me. I was focused on the big red barn. I hoped we’d find some good tools inside because we needed them desperately. Brand helped me open the giant barn doors and a breeze blew over us, swirling dust into the air. We stood in the doorway for a few seconds, staring at the darkened interior. My eyes quickly adjusted and I made out the shape of a large anvil sitting on a stump near the back of the barn.

“Anvil,” I said, pointing. Brand stalked fearlessly inside, and I followed him more cautiously, with my sword drawn.

I noted a tool bench on the right side of the barn, but for the moment, I ignored it. I peered into the stalls one by one as we walked to the back. Brand made no pretense at caution whatsoever as he stomped up to the anvil and knelt down next to it. “This one’s a beauty,” he said. “Five hundred pounds of pure Blackrock steel.”

“Five hundred?” I said, staring at the massive thing. “Can we even carry that?”

He stood back, eyeing it. “I think so. We’ll need to back the wagon in here.”

“I can do that,” I said. “Let’s see what else there is first.” I walked over to the tool bench and started opening drawers. I found a few decent hammers and other hand tools, but nothing fantastic. It was the last drawer I opened that made my eyes bulge. “Look at this!” I said, waving Brand over.

He bent over me and let out a low whistle. “Is that what I think it is?”

I nodded. The large bottom drawer was packed tight with explosive charges. These were the big ones, the size of a large man’s fist. “What does a farmer do with cannon charges?” I said.

“They’re good for removing stumps, digging holes. Some farmers do a little mining. You never know.”

I smiled. “Whoever this farmer was, I think I like him.”