Without Rhythm (The Lament) (20 page)

Clark asked if she understood her patrol area.

"I do. At least in daylight. I don't know how well I'll do in the dark. If I hear anything I'm supposed to light a flare?" It hadn't been said straight out, but it seemed to make sense. She got a positive sounding grunt from the larger form next to her, who was starting to lose distinctness in the near dark.

"Right. Then get away from it fast. Also, don't look directly at it, since it will take your night vision for a time. Set it off and run, if you hear or see anything you can't explain. Then we'll come, if we can. If you have to fight, do so carefully. We don't have ammunition to waste."

It was all good advice, but she wanted to roll her eyes at them and go into grand dramatics. The fact was that she probably couldn't do anything in the dark
except
waste ammo. She didn't know how to aim her rifle even. Just point it and pull the trigger. She hadn't had any training with it at all. Unless someone jumped directly on her she doubted that they were in any danger, which wasn't exactly mighty Guardian skills being shown. She might be able to bluff them with it, if they didn't just kill her first, but her real job that night was to listen and set off flares if she had to.

They didn't have cloaks, so Mara told her to keep moving as much as she could, since it would be chilly. Then she vanished into the dark. Clark stayed for a minute, looking at her, hardly moving.

"You're doing really well you know. I never knew that Bards could be anything than slightly fussy whiners." He chuckled gently and put a large hand on her shoulder. "How do you feel?"

She shrugged, knowing he'd feel it if nothing else.

"Like I should be fussy and whine, of course. I'll be fine." At least she had some food with her and should be able to get more in the morning. It was going to be a very long night.

Clark was gone so fast she couldn't tell which direction he'd left in. For her part she started walking, her route being on the far side of town, away from where they'd fought the night before. Not having anything else to do at all, except wonder how she'd gotten herself into the fix she was in, Pran tried to focus on everything as hard as she could, her eyes wide open. It wasn't easy in the dark, so she added in an attempt at randomly starting and stopping, moving suddenly in a new direction and then changing to another new one, if at a walking speed. It hurt, aching in places she wasn't used to muscles hurting in, but it did help keep her warm.

Hours passed that way, with very little sound coming at all. No roaring vehicles at least. There were animals in the woods and those could have been people, but she really doubted it. Pran cradled her rifle, ready to fight if needed. For all the good it would do her. Honestly, if it came to it, she doubted that doing anything but running would help her at all. Even that would be a problem, as slow as she was moving at the moment.

It went from boring to mind numbing and into sharply and bitterly obnoxious before the morning's first light came. No one found her, so she kept to her post, trying not to be too prissy or anything. It meant having to use a bush to relieve herself, but that was what she had. Of course, the second she came out from behind it, Mara was standing there, smiling at her in the dim light. She didn't speak, just pointing up into the sky. There were two airships, both similar in size and color. The names were on the side, but she couldn't make out which was which.

"We have to hold the town still, but we have others incoming. Have you eaten anything?"

Pran shook her head, feeling a bit stupid, but she hadn't had any water and the idea of eating dried fruit without it was foolish. Hunger gnawed at her, but Mara just left, not suggesting she fix the situation at all. It was hours later when people came for them, a half dozen people in black, all on foot with Kinetic pistols in hand. Luckily two of them were Clark and Mara or she might well have freaked. One of them was a boy that looked to be her own age and another, the one that seemed to be in charge was a woman that must have been near sixty. They all scanned the world carefully the whole time.

The woman with silver hair looked at Pran, her face stern and more than a little disapproving.

"This her?" The tone was just as dark. For some reason Mara smiled about it.

"Yes. Apprentice Guardian Pran. Don't put her down based on looks though, she's done a lot with very little. Just stood a thirteen hour long watch and managed to stay alert the whole time. No complaints either. Really... none at all, even though there have been some things..."

The older woman sniffed, a derisive thing that would have made Pran stiffen if she had the energy left for it. She was used to being judged unfairly. Orphans always were. It turned out her first impulse would have been wrong, since the lady wasn't judging
her
at all.

"Don't worry girl. We'll get with the High Council member for your craft and get you reinstated. That kind of waste... seven years of education, is too important to let go over things as petty as nepotism. In the meantime, Clark, Mara and Apprentice Pran need to get some rest. The rest of us can handle this for now. Eight hours only. The Silence is due in, but until we have everyone on the ground we need to stay as alert as possible."

Sleep was to be accomplished in a rough fashion, curled up on a pile of branches and straw in a hay barn. The Lament hadn't landed yet and The Conscript, the airship the others had been on, was back in the sky as well. The people from the town were wandering around, trying to get some chores done, but they were all pretty quiet. At one point a girl that looked to be about ten came in to the barn, bringing them a bucket of water, some cups and a loaf of bread, but other than that they were all left alone.

For the second time in a little over a day she slept when realistically she didn't expect to. There was a little screaming, from the bad dreams, but no one said much about it when she got up, drank her fill of water and then tore off a chunk of bread from the half stale loaf. Mara and Clark chewed some of it slowly as well, but didn't have any other food with them. Either they'd eaten theirs or, more likely, their pouches hadn't had room for it. She divvied up the fruit she had and passed it out without comment. It got them both to smile and perk up a little.

"I'm going to be sad when you go back to being Bard Pran you know." Mara took a bite of dried pear and sighed.

"For one thing I'm going to have to do my own laundry. I doubt it will take much longer either, once Saran uses her contacts to see to your disposition. She's been around so long she could have a dog named High Councilor of Bards and no one would question it. I'm not really sure that's a joke either. They didn't even tell us that she was on The Conscript..."

After a bite of food and some careful chewing Clark nodded, his face covered in nearly two days of beard growth, which gave him a slightly scruffy and ill kempt appearance. Like a thief or vagabond. A huge and dangerous one.

"I doubt it's a coincidence. If we stumbled onto this much tech activity, it has to have been a major problem for some time. Normally all we see is someone getting a little too ambitious and making more lights than we like to see in too short a time. This seems to be indicative of manufacturing." Before Pran could ask he explained that meant making a lot of one kind of thing.

"The cloth that Roy bought? That was machine loomed. Fine quality too."

After that they moved out to the small stream on the side of town near the grain mill and stripped to the waist to wash up. Pran felt kind of self-conscious about it, but the cold stole that idea from her, even as two of the other Guardians walked up, having been patrolling.

Following along with the others she scraped the water off of her body with her hands several times and stood, shivering a little as she finished air drying. The older woman, Saran, just nodded to them, but the younger boy, who had to be an apprentice too, watched her and Mara a little too closely. Staring at their breasts.

Pran growled at him, waving at the tree line.

"Hey! Attention to the surroundings! Don't get distracted by the pretty girls." She meant it as a joke, since what man his age wasn't going to look at the half naked girls if he could, but Clark nodded and Saran nudged the boy a bit with an understanding smile.

"Real point Tuvin. This isn't a game or exercise."

There was no rebuke, but apparently that wasn't needed, since the attention coming from that direction suddenly shut off altogether. Mara didn't move to put her shirt on, even though it was clear she was as chilled as Pran was. Clark seemed fine and suggested that he could take over the watch sector that the other two were on.

"Good and welcome. I'm not used to field work anymore. Tuvin and Guardian Mara here can take the next section over?"

Mara nodded.

"Certainly. Tuvin, are you up to it?"

The boy tilted his head and turned to glance at her, but didn't let his eyes wander for too long.

"I'm a little tired and bored, but I think I can handle it. Just hit me in the back of the head if I stray too much." He glanced at her breasts then, which got a laugh.

The idea of these people making sex jokes was funny all on its own, being unexpected as it was.

The older woman looked at them all and then focused on Pran.

"You're with me then, Pran. We're going to get the airships down and contact some people using the radio... Do you know what that is?" She said it sharply, looking at Clark, who nodded.

"The talking device on the bridge?"

"Oh, sure, I saw that the other day." Pran didn't want to seem like a waste of space, but it wasn't as if she knew how the thing worked. Radio. It wasn't something she'd learned to make in school either.

Old or not the woman had her run out to the landing field, moving in the same atypical fashion that all the Guardians did. Pran tried to keep up and do it herself, knowing it wasn't the same thing at all. Saran didn't mock her over it. In fact she looked... intrigued.

"Not bad at all. The brain has to rewire before a person can really understand how to do it, and that takes years, but you seem to be making a real effort. Both Clark and Mara put in a word for you already. Clark actually suggested that we put you in schooling, if the Bards won't have you back. Mara assures me that they will. It seems that you were at the head of your year?"

Pran nodded, out of breath and not able to talk and run very well at the same time, much less stay properly alert.

"Yes ma'am. I mean, there were other good people too, but I was told I was in the running." It was a gasp, but the older woman kept talking as they got to the center of the field and raised both her hands straight up over her head.

"Do this please, it signals the ships to come in for landing. Technically it's a call for help, but it will work well enough. It's supposed to look like an 'H" from the air."

She did it, trying to rest while she did, her hands going slightly cool from the lack of blood before the other woman spoke again, looking around them hard. Like Pran was supposed to be doing.

"We can call your issue in today, if anyone will land." Then they took turns standing like that, alternating so that one could stand guard while the other posed for the ships. A scant hour and a half latter one of the white cylindrical things started to come at them, slowly. Pran couldn't tell them apart, but Saran had more experience and pointed out the smudge on the front of the nose as the thing slowly dove toward them.

"The Conscript. We can put our hands down now. They're coming. Let's move to the trees, so they don't accidentally hit us. The Captain is great, but he has a new Shipman's Apprentice and likes to let him practice landings. Last month he ran into a tree. He has gotten better, I just don't want to risk it."

They ran to the side anyway, moving with a normal running pattern, since it was faster by far. They didn't have to worry, since the landing was just about perfect. If it wasn't the Captain or First Mate doing it, then that new apprentice had really improved a lot.

The tie lines got put out this time, the men and women from the ship charging out fast and hard, which meant they could enter through the open hatch while they worked. It was interesting to see what they did, just running ropes through the heavy posts buried in the ground, but they didn't have a lot of time to watch, since Saran tugged her arm a little to get her moving.

The Captain was on his bridge, with two other people at the controls, but he didn't stand when they entered, his back to them, working something carefully. It was just a lever, but he moved it with total focus and no one spoke while he did it. After about ten minutes of this he hit a second lever and twisted a knob. It seemed to lock the first lever in place. They were metal, brass it looked like, but had well worn patterns on them where someone regularly touched them.

Then Saran was at the controls of the talking box, the radio, without even asking permission.

"This is High Councilor Saran. Calling main. Repeat, High Councilor Saran. Come in..." She had to say it several times, but finally a voice came on, a young sounding woman.

"Saran? What's the situation there?"

"About as bad as we feared. Someone seems to be starting a military force using old technology. We have the local situation under control for the moment, but we need an increased presence."

That, it seemed, was code for sending in an army of Guardians, pulling them from almost everywhere they could manage. The woman on the device went silent for a moment, then after a small clicking sound spoke firmly.