“Two things.” Eric crowded his broad frame inside the tiny chamber. “One, the light. Touch here"—he pointed at another white square in the wall, this one above the bed alcove—"once and it goes away. Touch it again, and it comes back.
“Two"—he waved his hand at the stool—"when you need to say hello to a bush, do it in there. Touch here"—this time the square he pointed at was silver—"when you are finished. Understand that?”
“Bed, lamp, bush.” She nodded at the appropriate objects.
“Stones.”
She whirled around. Eric held out the lumpy black bundle she had made of her headcloth and her treasures.
“Thank you,” she said as she took them. This time, she really meant it.
“Sleep until you wake up.” Eric walked back out and the door slid shut behind him.
Maybe by then I’ll know what to make of you, she could practically hear him thinking. Maybe by then, Teacher Hand, Eric Born, I’ll know what to make of you.
Aria sat on the edge of the bed, and for a moment did nothing but hold the bundle of stones tightly against her chest.
“Where are you taking them, Mother?” asked Little Eye from memory. She had run one dirty, nail-bitten finger across the smooth surface of the stone.
“Mother is taking them to learn about the Skymen.” Aria tucked them into her pouch one at a time. “She and they will be back soon.”
Nameless Powers preserve me—Aria bowed her head over the stones—and do not let me have lied to my daughter.
The memory of Little Eye gave a fresh edge to Aria’s resolve. The Skymen sought power in the Realm. Silver on the Clouds, the Heretic King of Narroways, had linked that quest for power to her own. If Aria could learn what was truly going on behind the Skymen’s mysteries, if she could bring some skill or piece of knowledge to the Realm, at the very least it would help her family survive the strangeness sweeping the world. At most…Aria let her real hope surface. At most she could bargain with the Narroways lords to raise her family up from the mud and have them declared no longer Notouch. Such things had happened before, maybe only in the apocrypha, but maybe those stories would be enough.
After all, stories have been enough for me most of my life.
Don’t lie to yourself. Aria fingered her bundle. If stories had been enough, you wouldn’t be here now. You want to make the stories come true.
She undid the knotted cloth. The bundle fell open and the stones glimmered in the stark light of the glowing ceiling. They had taken no damage from her treatment of them. She had known they wouldn’t. Perfect and beautiful, they waited for her need.
Most Notouch hoped their children would grow to display the power gift. It was the one ability that could raise them out of the mud and all the way up to the rank of Teacher.
According to the Teachers in the Temples, at any rate. Aria brushed her palm across the stones’ smooth, cool surfaces. According to them, the Nameless created the Royals to rule, the Nobles to administer, the Bondless to trade and travel, the Bonded to make and mend, and the Notouch to serve all. That the power gift could arise in any child of the People was the sign that all were named by the Nameless and all were under the eyes of the Servant.
They had forgotten, or in their arrogance ignored the fact, that there was at least one other kind of person in the Realm.
She glanced at the door.
No. Not here. Not now. He could come back at any second. Sleep is one thing, but if I try a reading, I’ll never wake up in time if he decides I’m too much trouble to cart about. She shook her head. I’ll have to wait. I’ve managed this much, I can wait.
Despite her long, unimaginably strange day, she was still able to think clearly. That realization brought her almost as much comfort as the weight of the stones against her lap.
I have Teacher…Eric Born shaken. That’s good. That’ll help. Everything I do successfully, every time I get something right about this place, it’s a blow to what he thinks I ought to be. That’s important. Keeping him off-balance might be as good a weapon as my knives, if it turns out I need a weapon. She looked down at her bundle and stifled the fervent hope that this one Teacher was what he was supposed to be, a preserver of the lives of the People. Her stomach twisted when she remembered the uncontrolled burst of delight she’d felt when she’d heard him give the Teacher’s greeting in the middle of the Skyman’s chamber. She tightened her hold on the headcloth and cast around for something else to think about.
The easiest was the ship-place around her. It was a Skyman thing, there was no question about that. The Skymen were not part of the realm of the Nameless, so they could not have power-gifted among them. So this ship was meant for use by ordinary people. If that was true, anybody could learn the workings.
It’s going to be awhile before I know enough of the Skymen to find out what they want in the Realm. There’s nothing I can do about that now.
I can, however, find this Cam.
Aria slung the pouch of stones from her belt again and faced the door. On the right side, about shoulder height, hung a pale, palm-sized rectangle that matched the one she’d seen in the other room. Aria touched her fingertips to it and the door slid away.
Darkness filled the bigger room. A glimmer of light caught her eye and shifted her gaze to the right.
Her heart froze. The window-wall was open. The emptiness with its countless lights gaped at her. Aria’s knees collapsed. She tasted blood as she bit her tongue to block the scream constricting her throat. Her arms threw themselves up to shield her helpless head and eyes.
She screwed her eyelids shut and slammed her hand flat against the wall. She must have hit the right spot, because she felt the breeze as the door swished shut.
Blast him! Blast him headfirst into the Lif marshes and wash him into the Dead Sea! Nameless Powers preserve me! I thought I had him! I thought…Aria’s arms dropped and her eyelids fluttered. I thought he was going to make a stupid mistake and leave me free to wander, just because he’s a Noble facing a Notouch.
She began to laugh. The low, hoarse noise spilled out of her until her shoulders shook and tears trickled out of the corners of her eyes.
“Aria Born of the Black Wall, you are an idiot Notouch! Even the stones will not change that. Give yourself this. Whatever you think of the Teacher he was, Eric Born is not stupid!” She wiped the back of her hand across her eyes.
But, what is he?
Aria stood up and staggered, catching herself against the wall.
Go to sleep, Aria.
She dragged her poncho off and laid it on the bed. Not trusting her balance anymore, she sat on the bed to undo the laces around her leggings. The leggings themselves peeled off in long strips of cloth that she folded on top of her sandals.
She unbelted her overtunic and dragged it over her shoulders. The scent of herself came off with it.
I hope he has a bath in this place. I reek. She stripped off the knife sheaths and tossed them on the pile of clothing.
One hand strayed to her waist and pressed against the thick, leather belt beneath her undertunic. It chafed. It had been put on her when she first came to her cycles. As much as the hand marks, it said she was old enough to leave the clan as a woman in need of protection and reminding. For a searing instant her skin felt Nail in the Beam’s heavy touch and missed it.
Well, get used to that, she told herself roughly. He’ll surely have divorced you by the time you get back home.