She didn't know what to say to that, so Kira just walked, keeping her pace slow enough that Jason could gradually recover as he stayed beside her. Kira kept watching for any sign of pursuit, wondering if that trace of foresight her father said she had experienced would show up again to warn her of danger. But both her mother and father had always talked about how unreliable foresight was, and it certainly hadn't shown up on the train to warn of that former assassin. And she had to admit to herself that the idea of having foresight worried her. If her mother and father and their friends were all concerned about the impact of having both Mechanic skills and Mage skills might have on her, Kira had to respect that, even if she also shied away from the idea that it might cause serious problems.
The warmth of the sun was welcome as her clothes dried, but grew a bit hot as the afternoon waned. A light breeze rustled the tall grasses they were walking through, and birds swung by in dizzying acrobatics as they chased insects or each other.
Kira noticed Jason also looking around, his expression not concerned but pleased.
He spotted her watching and looked embarrassed. "What?"
"Nothing. You just seemed to be enjoying yourself."
He appeared startled by the idea, then shrugged. "It's kind of nice. I've never been any place so quiet."
There it was again, something that just sounded strange. "We're in the country. It's usually quiet here."
"I've always had music with me. Or chats or vids." Jason gazed around. "Always. This is…different. I recognize some of those bird species. Are there any native life forms here, or are all the plants and animals and fish and stuff from what the colony ship brought?"
Kira shrugged. "The librarians on Altis say the early descriptions they still have talk about the world being 'mostly barren,' but they don't know exactly what that meant. The founders of the Mechanics Guild destroyed any records that might have told us if any living things were here before the ship came."
"I'm sorry," Jason said.
"You didn't do it. Although," Kira couldn't help adding, "if the people on your ship helped us, we could identify anything that might not have come from Urth."
"They're looking for that sort of thing in their surveys," Jason said. "But they won't tell you whatever they find out. I know they're frustrated that they haven't seen any dragons here yet. I know your dragons are just sort of dinosaur knock-offs like some of the ones on Earth, but all anyone on Earth has seen so far of yours are low-res faxes of drawings."
Kira blinked, surprised. "You have dragons on Urth? I thought you didn't have any Mages."
"We don't," Jason said. "Some dragons we make with genetic manipulations. They're pretty limited though, because there's only so much you can do with living tissue even with some tech augments. I mean, powerful muscles and armored scales and strong forearms and flying ability and breathing fire and all the other stuff? Can't be done. But they've also made mech dragons with living cultures for skin. Those can do just about everything, but they work best on Mars because of the lower gravity."
She stared at him. "Then you make dragons for weapons, too."
"Weapons?" Jason laughed. "They're not weapons. They're just for fun. Toys."
"Toys?" Kira wondered if her voice sounded as bewildered as she actually was.
"Yeah. Just fun. Throw in some humanoid mechs to fight them and it's quite a pageant. Or dragon on dragon. They have tournaments to see whose dragon can win. The death matches can be pretty gory because of the living cultures." Jason noticed Kira's expression. "What's the matter?"
"Toys?" she repeated.
"Yeah. What about it?"
"You create living creatures for toys?"
"Uh . . ." Jason seemed taken aback by the question. "They're not really living."
"That what Mages say about dragons, and trolls. You said living cultures."
"Well, yeah, on the outside, but they don't even have a pain mechanism. They just have a damage feedback cycle so when they get hurt they react defensively or with anger or whatever."
"When they get hurt? That sounds like pain."
"No!" Jason appeared bothered by her questions. "They're just toys. I… That does sound sick, doesn't it?" He looked ahead. "Is that a road?"
Kira looked as well, recognizing that Jason was trying to change the subject and granting him that. "Yes. Not a heavily traveled one, from the looks of it. The sun's near setting. We can't keep walking in the dark, and I don't want to bed down on that road." She pointed. "Let's go up that small hill and make camp on the top. When we lie down we'll be hidden by the grass, but if we look around we'll be able to spot anyone coming our way."
As she climbed the slope, she felt the weariness of the day's labor settling on her like a heavy cloak. Jason had to pause before finally joining her at the top, where both of them sank down gratefully.
Kira eventually sat up, bringing out her water bottle and drinking half before digging out a bag of the trail mix she had bought at Sima's Crossing.
Groaning, Jason sat up, too. "Kira, I need to, uh, do some business."
She frowned at him, then understood. "Oh. Use the south slope. We won't walk back down that way. There should be some paper sealed into a bag in your pack. Don't use too much."
"I'm too tired to be mad about you saying that," Jason said, stumbling down the slope in the gathering twilight.
She took advantage of his absence to pull off her clothes and spread them out to finish drying overnight, putting on the spare clothes from her pack. When Jason got back she sat looking away while he took what felt like forever to do the same.
By the time total darkness fell, Kira had scraped together some nests from the grass around them. They lay looking up at the stars. "Which one is Urth?"
Jason laughed. "You can't see Earth from here. Earth's sun is, uh, I think that star. It feels weird to be lying here looking at that little dot, knowing it's Sol."
"I've looked through a really big far-seer," Kira said. "One made since the war. I could see the twins chasing the moon, how they really are part of the great ship that brought people to this world."
"Yeah," Jason said. "You know, they're going to overtake your moon someday."
"How could that happen?"
"They're in a slightly closer orbit. They're traveling a little faster than your moon so they're gradually closing on it. Someday, if you guys don't go up there and do something, they'll pass your moon and it will be chasing the, uh, twins."
"Oh." Kira looked up, daunted by the immensity of the star-strewn sky. "The Mechanics Guild didn't let anyone look at the stars, so we don't have many records of things like that."
"They really messed with you guys, didn't they? Uh, Kira? Are you scared? About what we're doing?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I just wanted to be sure it wasn't only me." Almost invisible in the dark, he sighed. "Why am I doing this?"
"Because you're a better person than you think you are." Kira, uncomfortable with both the topic and the grass under her, shifted her back. "It's a good thing I'm worn out. Otherwise I'd never get to sleep. Mother never talked about this kind of thing," Kira complained. "Of course, she hardly ever talks about anything important."
Jason shook his head. "You don't know how lucky you are. My parents talk about everything in front of me."
"How can that be bad?"
"They talk about their sex lives."
Kira stared toward him, horrified. "Their sex lives?" she whispered.
"Yeah," Jason said. "My mom and dad are always going on about what they did with who and what they claim the other one is doing with other people."
"Oh, that's…disgusting."
"So are we in agreement that you're lucky?"
"Yeah. In that respect, absolutely. You won that one, Jason."
Silence fell for a moment, only the sounds of insects disturbing the night. "You know what's weird?" Jason asked.
"I can think of a lot of things," Kira replied.
"I've spent m
y life dreaming about being on my own, away from my parents and having adventures and everything, and here I am on my own and with a…person like you…and having an adventure on a different planet. And what were we talking about? My parents."
Kira smiled even though she felt saddened. "We were talking about my parents, too. Even out here I can't get out from under their shadow, especially Mother's."
"Do they…hurt you?"
"Why would you ask me that?" Kira demanded, shocked at the question.
"When they come up, you sometimes sound like they're…I don't know."
Kira frowned up at the stars. "Jason, my parents are dragons. I realized that a long time ago. Not bad dragons. They're wonderful dragons. But when a dragon is there, that's all anyone sees. A dragon is big and impressive and dangerous, though my parents are only dangerous to people who want to hurt other people. And I'm this girl, in the shadows, in my mother's shadow, and all anyone sees is the dragon. It's an amazing dragon. I love that dragon. But because of her, no one ever sees me. No one ever will. They see her. And I'm not her and I never will be. No one can ever be like her." She stopped, appalled to realize how much she had just said of her inner feelings to this boy from Urth.
Jason took a little while to reply. "That's weird, too, because I'd call my mom a dragon. And not a wonderful, great dragon. The sort of dragon that chews up people and spits out the bones. My dad, too. I've been stuck in their shadows because they won't let me out. They want to keep me small, because they think that hurts the other. And I don't want to be like either one of them. But I'm afraid I might be like them. And there might not be anything I can do about it. I'll grow up and be awful and that's that, because that's who my parents made me."
"You don't have to be," Kira said. "Every once in a while, Jason, you slip up and let me see under that protective shell you've built around yourself. I think the Jason you're protecting in there is a lot better than your parents. I mean, look what you're doing. You're risking yourself to keep your mother's company from maybe causing the deaths of many, many people."
Jason's answer came after another pause. "My mom would say I'm doing this for another reason."
"Why?"
"It doesn't matter. Never mind."
"Why?" She might not be her mother, but Kira had learned from her how to demand an answer in a way that made people listen.
"She'd say it was because," Jason said reluctantly, "I just wanted adventure with…someone like you."
"Well…that's stupid," Kira said. "Why would you want to jump off a train into a river?"
"I didn't jump. You pushed me."
"You keep saying that like it's a bad thing, but it kept us from being caught, remember? Anyway, it's not like I'm always nice to you. I mean, I've got my mother's temper, and I know I've yelled at you."
"I deserved it when you did."
"It doesn't matter whether you deserved it or not! I shouldn't be doing it!"
"Why not?" Jason asked, sounding like he was mocking her. "If I deserve it, why shouldn't you yell at me?"
Her father's words came back to her. "Because it's not for me to decide what someone else deserves. I want to be better than that! It's not about you. It's about me, wanting to be…"
"Like your mother," Jason finished for her. "Because you're going to be a dragon, too. Just like them."
"No. When did you become this big expert on my mother and who I am and what I'm going to be?"
"I'm not," Jason said, sounding surly again.
"Good night," Kira said, giving the words finality.
"Yeah."
Kira lay there as the stars looked down on her, mocking her insignificance.
* * *
Queen Sien of Tiae had been through a lot in her life, surviving the anarchy of the once-broken kingdom to help reforge her country as the last remaining member of the former royal family. She was still in Pacta Servanda, trying to deal with the people from Urth, when Mari and Alain sought her out.
Mari couldn't help but feel reassured when she embraced Sien. "Things have gone seriously off the rails."
"I've heard the latest warning you sent out by far-talker," Sien said. "Do not cooperate. Do not trust. Most of what you said after that could not be heard."
"I think the ship from Urth was sending some kind of signal over the same frequencies I tried to use," Mari said. "I checked the tech manuals and there's something called 'jamming' that sounds like that. Deliberate interference, rather than signals accidentally interfering with each other."
Sien's residence in Pacta was the old town hall, where she had lived during the desperate years when the walled town was the last place in Tiae where the flag of the kingdom still flew and any measure of law existed. Mari looked around the room they were in, remembering her first meeting with Sien. The once-blank walls now boasted tapestries, joined by displays of artifacts and weapons from the time when Pacta was under siege. A large map of Dematr hung on one wall. Mari went to it, pointing. "Kira didn't tell us where she was trying to go, but I think we can make some good guesses."
Sien came up beside her. "Kira is surely wise enough not to have headed south or east from your home. There is much open country there, but fewer people and longer stretches of still-deserted land. She and that boy would too easily stand out."
Alain nodded. "She also knows that the area around Awanat is where the remnants of the warlord gangs still lurk."
"And Tiaesun," Mari said, pointing to the capital, "is both too obvious and would be far too hard to hide in. Alain and I have family and friends to the north and west, though."
"There are many places in the Confederation she could hide," Sien said. "But if Kira takes after her mother, as she does, she will not go for half-measures."
"Somewhere beyond the Confederation," Mari agreed. "We still might be able to find her before she gets that far, but I think right now we need to keep that ship from Urth looking for her here."
Sien made a most unroyal face of displeasure. "They have acted with total disregard for our authority, using their flying craft to block ships trying to leave the harbor while sending their smaller flying devices and some of their people to search every ship and boat in the harbor. I have given orders not to confront the Urth people directly, but their arrogance implies they do not fear us acting against them."
"Kira said Jason told her the Urth people have some kind of personal protection," Mari said. "Some sort of armor we can't see. He also said they can find him using something that can identify one person from a distance, even if he's hidden, if it gets close enough."
"How do we defeat such devices?" Sien asked. "Especially when the ship from Urth is blocking your use of far-talkers?"
Alain spoke, his eyes not on the map but gazing inward. "When Mari and I first met, we began to learn not only what the skills of the Mages and the devices of the Mechanics could do, but also what each could not do. What are the weaknesses of the Urth devices?"
Mari nodded at him. "That's my Mage. Let's see, they are trying to block my use of the far-talkers, but they have to leave far-talkers able to work otherwise so that if anyone finds Kira and Jason they can call the Urth ship."
"And call they will," Sien observed. "In the days of the broken kingdom, when what remained of the royal family were being hunted everywhere, there were a thousand false or mistaken reports of where such a person might be for every one that was true. For years after her death, my older sister was being 'seen' in many places."
Mari looked away, still unsure what to say even after all the years she had known Sien. "I'm sorry we brought up such memories."
"You know as well as I that the memories live inside even if we do not speak them," Sien said, her eyes dark. "False reports will mislead the search of the Urth ship." She gave Mari and Alain a grim smile. "Sometimes, in those days, I would make cause for such false reports to place me elsewhere, not trusting to chance. We can do that. Tiae's army has many young men and women. If those closest in appearance to Kira and
the boy are chosen, the women dressed in the manner of Kira and the men looking somehow different from most people, and we send them out in pairs to travel through many places, calling attention to themselves…"
"The Urth ship will get a lot of false reports from people who wanted the promised reward," Mari agreed. "But there would be risks to those young men and women, Sien. My enemies might try to kill the women, while someone seeking foolish leverage against the Urth people might try to kidnap the men."
"Ah, yes, the reward." Sien gave a royal snort of derision. "You told me earlier that the boy said the Urth ship would give us only toys. The reward will be such a toy, I am sure."
"Something flashy and useless," Mari agreed. "And probably designed to stop working after the ship from Urth leaves here."
"As expected. Mari, I will ask for volunteers. No one will be ordered to serve as a decoy to mislead the people of Urth."
Alain shook his head. "Queen Sien, Mari is loved in your kingdom second only to yourself. If you ask a deed on her behalf, no one will turn away."
Sien gave him a severe look. "Would you have me do nothing, Sir Mage? These people from Urth have openly mocked me, treating me as if I were a powerless figurehead such as apparently still exist in some places on their world. They have disregarded the laws of this land and disrespected the officers who represent and protect the people. I have no desire for war, but I would have those of Urth know that the people of Tiae are not sheep, passively waiting to be sheered."
"The queen of Tiae is wise," Alain said.
"Not so wise that she does not need her decisions questioned. My thanks for doing so. What else can be done?"
"Alain has already sent messages that should reach every Mage, warning them that the ship from Urth seeks to steal their powers by asking them to demonstrate those powers. Sien, odds are that by now Kira is out of Tiae, but if you send out cavalry patrols it will help mislead the Urth people."
"And what is my cavalry to do if it finds Kira?" Sien asked.
"If Kira and the Urth boy are still inside Tiae, then something has gone wrong. Can your cavalry hide them?"
"Not for long," Sien said. "Too many people would talk. I can order that they immediately notify me and not inform anyone else, because of the importance of the matter. That will allow me to decide based on the exact circumstances. As you say, if Kira has not managed to leave Tiae by the time the orders go out for my cavalry to search, something must be wrong."