The Children of the Sky

where Nevil’s gonna bring us all peace.” Benky was a fluent Samnorsk speaker. He did sarcasm very well.

“But if we can get you up there, maybe we’ll have a chance against his lies.” That was Wretchly, crouched around the Larsndots on Johanna’s left.

Jo looked back and forth at the two. “Woodcarver and Flenser are allies now?”

Benky nodded, but the gesture was also a ripple of suspicion. “That’s the theory.”

Wretchly was more emphatic: “Of course we’re allies! Always have been, even if your Queen Woodcarver never trusted us.”

Benky emitted a sniffing noise. “You’re also allied with Tycoon and Vendacious.”

“Falsely so, but yes. And where would you be now, Benky, without all the inside information we’ve supplied?”

It was Flenser’s justly famous slippery nature. Johanna gave Benky a look: “Has Woodcarver decided to trust Flenser?”

Benky rolled his heads in a kind of embarrassed shrug. “Yeah. Woodcarver has always been too soft with her misbegotten offspring; it may be her fatal flaw. I’d oppose this alliance, except that”—he sent a glance in Wretchly’s direction—“we’re really desperate.” He gave Johanna all of his gaze. “In any case, there’s no way I can get you safely across the Straits.”

“Ah.” If Johanna couldn’t get across to the mainland and up the cliffs to Starship Hill, her great confrontation would have to wait for some other day. Like after the bad guys had won. She looked back at the Ferryside docks. There were utility twinhulls tied up there. She could use one of those to get to the mainland—all out of sight of the beam gun. The ferry crossing was one of the few blind spots in its coverage; that had always bothered Ravna Bergsndot.

Wretchly followed her gaze. “Don’t think for a minute that makes you safe, Johanna.”

“What?” but she guessed what he meant.

Wretchly elaborated anyway: “There are other ways of killing folks besides beam guns. And they don’t need Oobii’s super telescopes to spot you. If Nevil knows you’re here on Hidden Island, he’ll expect you to try to get across. That’s more than a kilometer of open water. Even if we take you across in a box, he’ll see the boat and we’ll be stopped the moment we land.”

Johanna glared at the pack. Even Flenser’s flunkies had their boss’s talent for causing irritation. There were lots of little moorages along the eastern side of Hidden Island, but none were any less exposed than this. The alternative was to hike across town to the west side, then island hop around the north—maybe thirty kilometers of skulking. A two-day trip. “Okay then, do you have a better way?” She saw the gloating smile hiding in Wretchly’s aspect. “Oh, of course you do.”

The smile bloomed. “Oh yes. My lord Flenser has not been idle these ten years. Woodcarver penned him in with her various unjustified attempts at house arrest. What was he to do with such restrictions? Well, in fact, he dug some tunnels.” Wretchly pointed a snout in the direction of the ferry crossing. “I can get you right across, under the Straits.”

Wenda Larsndot gave a little squeak of surprise. “So that’s where all the cheap fill dirt came from,” she said.

Johanna looked at Benky. “Woodcarver knew about this?”

“Not … until very recently. Flenser fessed up after Ravna was kidnapped and you and Pilgrim disappeared.”

Wretchly nodded. “He did it to finally win Woodcarver’s trust.”

“That and save his own necks,” said Benky. He pointed across the Straits, zigzagging a path upwards. “See, it’s not just the understraits tunnel, though I’ll bet that was the hardest piece of work. Flenser also dug a stairway inside the cliffs, up to a warehouse in Newcastle.… We should have guessed. Flenser was out of sight much too often.”

“Yeah.” So those mainland tunnels had been just part of Flenser’s construction. The guy was as sneaky as Woodcarver always claimed.

“But now we’re all trusting buddies,” said Wretchly. “I can get you up to Newcastle. In fact, if you want, I can probably sneak you right on stage with Nevil himself.”

“You have Flenser’s okay to do all that?”

“Um, well, this morning he’d only heard a rumor you were down here. I’m … interpolating a bit, but we’ll know more once we’re up there, won’t we?”

Benky looked mostly glowerful, but he didn’t speak. Johanna glanced at Wenda. The woman shrugged. “This is Hidden Island, Jo. Flenser has been a decent landlord. The last of his monsters died several years ago.”

Jo had never been sure of Flenser, but: “Okay, take me up to Newcastle town.” There, at least, she might be able to figure out the right thing to do.

•  •  •

Jo left the Larsndots at Ferryside. Junior had been outraged, but fortunately Wenda Senior was around to rein her in. It was Benky who was the biggest problem. “I’m coming too.”

But what could Benky do if things went bad, in particular if Wretchly went bad? “Stay here, and be around to tell the truth,” said Johanna.

“I’m coming. If—once we get atop Starship Hill, I’ll get Woodcarver.” He glared at Wretchly.

The neo-Flenserist just smiled. “That’s okay with me.”

Wenda, Sr., took her two youngsters back along the alley. When they were out of sight, Wretchly led Johanna and Benky along a winding path behind garbage bins and down passages that were barely more than cracks between buildings. They passed through a well-concealed door and down steep stairs. The darkness was total.

“Keep bent down, Johanna. This isn’t made for two-legs.”

“I guessed that,” said Johanna. Her fingers traced along the stone just ahead. In Tinish structures, you never trusted for headroom. “How come no lights?”

Wretchly said, “Oh, you want a light? I brought one.” A glow appeared ahead, silhouetting a couple of members. Wretchly didn’t try to turn around. He just set the lamp on the ground and continued on.

“Thanks.” Johanna picked it up. The glow made it a little easier to avoid the irregular ceiling, though now her main view was the hindmost of Wretchly’s rear member.

They walked for some minutes, long enough that the inconvenience of being bent over grew toward intolerable soreness. Wretchly merrily chatted away, claiming that he could hear the water shushing by overhead. He seemed totally confident that no intruders were lurking ahead. “Hei, I can hear all the way to the other side.” By the time they reached the mainland stairway, Benky was talking too, curious as to how Flenser and company managed to keep the tunnel from getting flooded. Johanna ached too much to pay much attention.

“Ta da!” Wretchly’s voice came back to her. “The front of me has reached the mainland. Another few steps and: “See? You can stand up straight now.”

Glory! Johanna stretched tall, reaching as far as she could into the empty air.

“Now we just have a little climb up the nice stairs.” That would be more than five hundred meters.

The stairs zigzagged irregularly, following natural drainage faults. Some flights were thirty or forty meters, with the spring runoff almost a waterfall down the side gutters. She did better on the stairs than either of the packs. Both Benky and Wretchly had to accommodate ageing members. Very soon, those were huffing and puffing.

It took almost an hour to reach the top. In that time, Johanna got a rather complete summary of all the crap that had happened in her absence. And she had the information from what were probably the top lieutenants of Woodcarver and Flenser.

“Woodcarver and Nevil have been teetering on the edge of a civil war for more than a tenday,” said Benky, speaking over the wheezing of his members. “There have been rumors of your fleet, sightings when you passed the old capital.”

“The Tropicals are just bringing trade goods.”

“That’s what Nevil claims … officially. Unofficially, the Deniers are saying, ‘what if it’s all guns?’ They’re claiming that Tycoon has boosted our world into the bottom end of technology, that if we don’t make peace with him, we’ll be swept away.”