Steal the Sky

Chapter 34

The black sands rose up to meet her faster than she expected. It took a great strength of will not to cry out as she landed, palms first, and rolled through the glittering dust. The sands of the Brown Wash had been soft, worn smooth and round by wind and time, but the Black Wash resisted all such ministrations. The glass-like sand was forever abrasive, and she held her breath to keep from breathing much in until the cloud around her settled.

When she stood, her knees were shaky and her hands abraded.

“You all right?”

She glanced over at the doppel, its miner’s attire covered in black dust and its face skewed from the fall. The Detan-mask was twisted, one cheek drooping so much that the selium had lost its color and returned to its usual prismatic shimmer. It looked as if the heat of the desert was melting the creature away, and the fact that it looked like Detan unsettled her greatly.

Where was that dustswallower, anyway? Probably halfway across the Scorched by now. Served her right, putting her faith in a conman. No, that was unfair. Maybe he’d just run out of time.

“Leave me be, creature,” she snapped as she took her first few steps across the Black.

With each step, she grew to realize that her blues were dangerous to more than her pride. As the heat rose, her ruined coat trapped it against her skin. She unbuttoned it, let it hang open to catch the breeze on the thin off-white shirt she wore beneath, but she would not drop it. Not this close to the city.

Never mind that one of her own watchers had betrayed her – and for what? Thratia wouldn’t give Taellen any favors. Not after this. Not after he’d proven how thin his allegiance really was. She pumped her legs harder, forcing herself away from Aransa as quickly as she could without breaking into a full run. Heat began to well out of the neckline of her coat, making her breaths short. To be accused of arson and theft was one thing. To have her own people point at her and say she betrayed her service to them was just too much.

Precious water rimmed her eyes, and she wiped it furiously away.

“Easy now, Ripka,” the doppel said, its voice rough with imitation of the real man.

“Captain,” she said on reflex, and regretted it. Could she still call herself the watch captain? Maybe. She supposed it didn’t matter, anyway. It was a little something to hold onto until she died.

Ripka stopped her march and looked around. The city wall loomed behind her, but any sheltering shadow it may have offered was blasted clear by the sun’s unforgiving angle. What was the sun to forgive? It was insensate, inexorable. It didn’t notice, and it wouldn’t have cared, that Ripka was about to die under its glare.

Faint white glints winked at her between the matrix of the black sands, and with a sinking stomach she recognized them for what they were. Bones, broken and scattered. Most were unrecognizable now, their shape worn down by the bite of obsidian, their placement skewed by the winds. She looked upon them all, swallowing a lump of self-loathing. She’d done this, she’d created this grisly graveyard, in sending the condemned to walk. And now she was about to lay down and join them. Ripka pushed aside all feeling and trained her gaze on the path she must walk to survive.

In the direction of the sun the Fireline Ridge rose, its pocked back looking like the whipped hide of a great beast, the Smokestack jutting like a broken spine from the middle. It cast a shadow across the sand, reaching toward her. A false promise. There was no way she would make it there before the heat took her. Maybe she could find something in the wreckage of the Larkspur to shade herself with.

It seemed so close, that humped shelter of stone. But she knew all too well that the distance was distorted by the wavering horizon, that whatever she found in the Larkspur would offer little relief.

Under the full light of day, the black grains absorbed the heat and threw it back at you until you collapsed from heat sickness. She knew the signs, the symptoms. Dizziness, delirium. Clotted tongue and a cessation of sweat. The backs of her hands already felt dry, her tongue too big for her mouth. Soon her skin would begin to blister, to peel, to slough off to the sand below. If she were lucky she might faint from the pain before organ failure began. Before her eyes began to burst their fluids from their sockets.

Even if she did make it to the ridge, her life was forfeit. The climbing there was rough, the heat made it scorching, and if she made it up to one of the facilities on the ridge she would be recognized.

Your life, once condemned, was free for the taking. And with accusations of hiding sel-sense riding the winds, there wasn’t a soul alive that’d ever offer her shelter. She urged herself toward the ridge with long, ground-eating strides, and the doppel rushed along to catch up.

“Angle south towards the baths,” it said.

“I’ll go where I please.”

“Pits below, do you still not see it?”

She stopped dead and turned to regard the doppel. Its face was still melting, pearlescent selium mixed with the diamond glitter of sweat. Ripka brought her hand up to shade her eyes and still had to squint, the reflection from the sand was so bright. The doppel grinned at her in a stupid, familiar way. The voice it affected was damned near perfect. Her back stiffened.

“You dustswallowing idiot–”

“Easy now. Save it until we’re at the ridge. Thratia has got me figured out but the rest don’t and I’d rather not give them any ideas.”

“Why?”

“She can’t search the city in earnest for a doppel the people think is out here dying in the Black, understand? Gives us a chance to find her still.”

“What do you care?”

“Keep pushing me and I’ll find reasons not to.”

His voice was strained, snappish. Even beneath the selium his cheeks were slapped red by the sun, rosy despite his deep tan. Sweat poured off him, and he swayed a bit where he stood.

“You injured?”

“Hah.” His laugh was coarse and wild. “Not yet.”

“Who’s keeping that selium on you, anyway?” Her eyes narrowed, cold suspicion creeping through her. “You got the doppel hiding out here somewhere?”

He tilted his head and licked his lips. “I told you I don’t know where she is.”

She sucked air through her teeth in a sharp whistle. “Then you’re still–”

“Just walk, all right? I got enough on my mind. This isn’t easy.”

He trudged off, cutting a tight line toward the baths, and she followed at his side. To take her mind off the heat, she stole glances at him as he struggled along beside her. While the sun’s blaze was tough on her, it seemed to be taking an extreme toll on him.

Each step was slightly off center from the last, causing him to sway and veer at random. By midway across the Wash his clothes were soaked through and his breath came in gasps. Watching his struggle made her own pain feel small.

“You have to rest,” she said.

He came to a sharp halt, as if all this time he’d been dragged forward by an unseen pulley that had just been cut, his limbs going straight and still. “Can’t stop too long,” he rasped. “The sun doesn’t stop just because you have.”

Ripka tore a strip from her shirt and tied it around her forehead to keep the sweat from her eyes. He stared at it, mouth open. “Want me to make you one?”

“I can’t…” He staggered, startling her into motion. She grabbed his arm, holding him upright.

“Look, whatever you’re doing with that selium is going to kill you before the sun does. You’ve got to stop it. We’re far enough away from the wall no one will notice. Just drop it.”

“Hah.”

“Don’t ‘hah’ at me. Let it go, Detan. Now.”

He rolled his eyes to look at her, wide and white and wild. “First time you ever called me Detan.”

“Then you’d better listen.”

He grunted and closed his eyes, and she knew in that moment he was going down. She dug her fingers into his arm, desperate that the small dose of pain would snap him back to himself. Instead he snorted and shook her off. “Let me concentrate, woman.”

Selium poured off his face, neck, and upper chest like thick syrup. Most of her experience with the stuff had been with it contained, hidden away in the buoyancy sacks of ferries or cargo-transports. To be so close to the raw material… It made her small hairs stand up, despite the heat. Detan opened his eyes, and the sheets of it entwined to form a ball about the size of her two fists pushed together. Worth enough to pay her sergeant for half a year.

“Need to weigh it down.” His words were tight and clipped, urgent.

She dragged off her coat and threw it over the ball, letting the heavy material do some good work for once. Detan sighed and his shoulders slumped. He brought one hand up to rub at his eyes while the other fumbled in his pocket.

“Damn stuff wants to go up-up-up no matter what.” He pulled out a bit of twine and tied her coat around the hovering ball, making it look like the balloons used for short-range transport vessels. Taking firm hold of the dangling twine, he wrapped it around his fingers a few times and gave it a tug to secure it. “Can’t tie it to your wrist unless you want to lose that hand, and you definitely don’t want this much sel tied to your belt.”

Ripka laughed so hard and sudden that she spit. With a grimace she wiped her mouth and immediately regretted it as the back of her hand tore the thin, dried skin of her lips. Blood smeared her hand, her cheek. She resisted the urge to spit out what had gotten in her mouth – she needed all the moisture she could get. Detan looked hale already, or at least better than the stumbling, sweating shade of a man he had been. He was even smiling, which she thought was pretty stupid considering the circumstances.

The selium pushed against its containment, flattening the top curve of the balloon just enough to cast a small shadow over them both. Ripka sighed with relief, that sliver of shade the most luxurious thing she’d ever experienced.

In silence they trudged forward, heads bent and necks extended as if they could reach the wreckage of the Larkspur faster if only they could stretch out their bodies.

“Almost there,” he said as they drew near, lips cracking with each syllable. She wanted to do something for that, to ease his pain a little. Wished she had something for her own lips, too. There were salves back in the city, tinctures to smooth the burn of the sun. Some plants she knew to be good for sun exposure, their dewy leaves capable of producing a cool balm. She scanned the area, taking in the vast emptiness all around them. Not so much as a scrub broke through the rough soil.

Ripka frowned, eyeing the wreckage with care. She’d seen the Larkspur only once before, but she was certain there wasn’t nearly enough wood to cover the whole ship smashed on the sands before them. “What is–?”

Detan laughed and threw his arms wide. “Welcome to Tibs’s cabin. We were saving it to cover the disappearance of the Larkspur, but this seemed a more pressing matter.”

It did look like the cabin of a ship, one that had been dropped on its side and cracked open like an egg. The walls leaned outward at crazy angles, the fresh-milled timber filling the air with the warm scent of some sort of resinous hardwood. Stunned, she followed Detan into what was left of the shelter, and nearly wept with joy when she saw Tibs had stashed a full amphora of water amongst the rubble.

Without a word they sat in the makeshift shade and shared out the sand-warmed water in slow, careful draws. After some rummaging, Detan found a cloth-wrapped package of dried meat and a small jar of pulpleaf salve. Beneath a broken beam he discovered a wide-brimmed hat, the edges singed, and Ripka was shocked to see his eyes glisten and his face screw up with the threat of tears.

“You all right?” she asked.

“Fine, fine.” He cleared his throat and pulled the hat on his head, then offered her a scarf to cover her own head with and the packet of meat. Despite being hard and stringy, it was the most delicious thing she’d ever tasted.

“Ready for the final press?” Detan asked when the water and food was gone.

“You think we’ll make it?” She handed the now half-empty jar of pulpleaf salve to him, already feeling her skin soften and cool from its application.

“Oh, captain, it’s not the heat that kills you. It’s Thratia’s assassins waiting on the ridge.”

Ripka glanced sideways at him, and saw him grinning like an idiot. As usual. “Wonderful.”

He began to apply the remaining salve with extreme care, his bandaged hand trembling with the effort as he held the jar in his good hand. After a moment, Ripka knelt before him. Without a word, she took the jar and pushed his wounded hand aside, knowing just where he’d gotten that particular injury, and took over smearing the salve against his already blistering arms. He cleared his throat and shifted, uncomfortable. Keeping her gaze locked on her work, she said, “Thank you.”

“Said I wouldn’t let you walk.”

She glanced up at him, unable to help a wry smile. “That worked out well.”

He barked a laugh. “Best I could do under the circumstances.”

She finished applying the salve and stood, tossing the empty jar to the sand. He sat there a moment, eyes drooping, sweat turning the fringe of his hair into spikes against his brow, the selium balloon tugging at his good fingers. The phantom of Tibal’s words came back to her, his warning of Detan’s temper, and she shunted them aside, guilt beginning to gnaw at her. No matter that he was in some way responsible for the fire that’d seen her shoved out here. He’d come back. Though it killed her pride to admit it, he’d saved her, when he didn’t have to. They locked gazes, and she looked away, proffering her hand.

“Time to go and see what Thratia has waiting for us,” she said.

“Well, this will be interesting,” he said as he took her hand and stood, his little balloon bobbing crazily. She forced herself along beside him, huddling close to keep under the shade of the balloon. Somehow, she managed to keep her tone light despite their coalescing disaster.

“You could always throw selium in their eyes.”

He frowned, rubbing the line of his jaw with one grubby finger. “Yeah. Something like that.”