The Tinkerer's Daughter (12 page)

“Turn him over!” I said.

I yanked at his shoulders. Mrs. Trader stared at me in disbelief. “Turn him over!” I shouted again. She nodded, and then helped me get him off his back. Immediately Robie started to vomit.

I closed my eyes again, and silently urged his body to rid itself of the poison by any means possible. It came out his pores, in his vomit, and through his urine. Robie was a mess. But thankfully, he was alive.

“We need to get him inside,” I said. I rose and stared into a sea of blank faces. “We need to get him out of the sun, and he needs water. Good water. Don’t drink from the well, it’s been poisoned.”

“Keenan, run down to the river,” said Mrs. Trader. “Get us some water.” Keenan was one of the younger boys, about ten years old. He gave me a strange look and then grabbed the water pail and went running across the field.

“Come on then,” Mrs. Trader said. “Everyone lift!”

I bent over, only then realizing that my hat was lying at my feet. Somehow, in the excitement, it had gotten knocked off.

Shock settled over me as I glanced at their faces. They were all staring. I saw surprise, horror, and disdain. I saw everything except understanding. It didn’t matter to these children that I had just saved Robie. All they saw was a Tal’mar.
Half-breed
. I could see it etched in their faces, written in their eyes.

The weight of what I had done settled over me as we lifted Robie and carried him inside. They had seen my ears. I had let them see me do magic…

My life was over.

We laid Robie across Mrs. Trader’s desk and then I backed away, afraid of what might happen next. “He looks better,” she said. “His breathing is steady now.” All eyes turned on me.

“What did you do, witch?” That was Shue. Naturally she would be the first to attack.

“I didn’t do anything!” I said. “I helped him. I made the poison come out of him!”

“Right,” said Jesha. “Robie just happened to be poisoned, and you just happen to be Tal’mar. Just trying to cover for yourself, more likely.”

“She’s no witch, she’s an assassin,” Shue said. “Who else were you going to kill, Breeze? Were we all supposed to drink that water?”

I started back towards the door, my hands raised in protest. “I didn’t do it!” I breathlessly protested. I was terrified.

“Girls, STOP THAT!” shouted Mrs. Trader. “Breeze just saved Robie’s life. Why would she do that if she were an assassin?”

They faltered, but I didn’t wait to hear any more. I turned and ran.

The trees spoke to me in whispers as I raced up the hillside towards home. They sensed my anguish I think, and they tried to comfort me, but I withdrew. I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t know what to do. I was angry and frightened. I was heartbroken.

My head filled with images of the horrified faces of my classmates. I imagined them racing home to tell their parents. I imagined their parents, furious as they learned of a Tal’mar half-breed in their schools. I had no idea what to expect now that my secret was out.

I was so terror-stricken that I was sick, and I actually stopped to vomit at one point. I knew very well that in a few hours they might be coming for me; that they might drive me away, imprison me, or even kill me.

I didn’t have the maturity to deal with it. As I said, I may have been physically and mentally mature, but emotionally I was only a child. I’d like to say that I calmly awaited my fate, or that I did something courageous and brilliant, but in truth I handled the situation in the only manner I could. I shut myself off. I went to my room and started to read as if nothing at all had happened. As if by ignoring it, the problem might go away.

Tinker didn’t even realize that I had returned. He fired up the steamwagon and left at the usual time, headed to school to pick me up. I heard him leaving, but by that time it was too late to catch him. I didn’t really feel like trying, either. I was so emotionally detached at that point that I wasn’t really thinking about anything at all. I was a prisoner already, in my mind. I was just waiting for the executioner to carry out the sentence.

I was still in a daze when Tinker returned a half hour later. He burst into the cottage with Cinder at his heels. “Breeze! Breeze are you in here?”

Cinder ran into my room, jumped up on the bed and started licking my face. I glanced up as Tinker appeared in the doorway. “We have to get you out of here,” he said. He started yanking open the dresser drawers. “Grab some clothes. You’ll need food…” Tinker’s desperation shook me out of my state, and I leapt to my feet. “There’s a bag in the kitchen,” he said. “Take bread, meat, whatever you can carry.”

I followed his orders, and began stuffing all that I could into the bag. Tinker had a good supply of dried fruits and meats, and I took a lot of these, knowing that they wouldn’t rot. I also took some sugar and tea, and whatever else I could find that seemed like it would last.

A few minutes later we crashed through the front door with my bags. “The plane’s in the barn,” he said.

“I’m taking the plane?”

“It’s the only way we can be sure they won’t follow. My maps are in your bag, and a few coins…”

Tinker threw open the barn door, and I caught my breath. “Tinker, what did you do?”

He shot me a cocky grin. “Do you like it?”

Tinker had been coming to me recently, asking me to bend a piece of wood, or secure a metal attachment in such a way that it wouldn’t come loose. I thought he’d been working on the plane, making minor improvements here and there. I’d been so distracted by my problems and my schoolwork that I never even realized what he’d actually been up to.

Now, I saw that he’d actually built
another
plane. He’d cleared out the barn to make room for it. All the tables were stacked up against the back wall. Our old plane was pushed up tightly against the mess. The new one took up the remaining space.

“Third time’s a charm,” he said. “This one has all the previous improvements, and a couple more that I think you’ll like. The most obvious of course, is this…” He gestured to the open cockpit, and the seat that rested within.

Tinker had cut open the top of the fuselage and installed a seat between the gearbox and the springs. “I thought it would be more comfortable,” he said. “Especially since we can’t seem to keep that mutt of yours on the ground. She’s getting too big to fit in your jacket.” He opened the storage compartment at the back of the fuselage and shoved the bags in there. “The controls are the same, but I’ve moved them back, so they’ll be easy to reach…”

“
Trouble
,” a voice murmured in the back of my mind. I reached out, and found all the trees echoing that word up and down the mountainside. I ran to the barn doors, and saw a wagon and a group of men on horseback coming up the valley. Tinker appeared beside me.

“Blast it!” he said. “Run around the back. Head up the hillside while I stall them!”

“It’s too late Tinker.” I put a hand on his arm. I could see him calculating the distance, the time it would take for me to get up the hillside and out of range. I could see that no matter what he did, it would be impossible. They had horses and weapons. If I tried to run, I’d probably just get myself killed.

I could see it tearing him apart. He knew what they might do to me, and he was willing to sacrifice anything, even his own life, to save me. “It’s okay, Tinker. It’s my fault. I wanted to go to school. I insisted on it. I knew it was a mistake even before today, but I didn’t want to tell you.”

His eyes started watering up, and I could hardly look at him. “You don’t understand,” he said. “You don’t know what they will do. You have to get out of here! RUN! I’ll stop them!”

I shook my head. “They’d never stop chasing me, Tinker.”

“For pity’s sake, child! You don’t know what you’re saying.” I stepped past him, into the yard, and he followed me out. Cinder started yapping like crazy and running in circles around my feet.

A dozen armed horsemen and a black carriage rolled into the homestead. When the dust had settled, I saw several crossbows and one rusty musket pointed at me. “Breeze Tinkerman?” one of the men said. He stepped off the horse and walked up to me. He was tall and thick; a bit too thick to chase me down if I ran, but he was well muscled for his age. He looked to be in his late forties or early fifties. He wore a broad-brimmed hat that was filthy with sweat and dust, and he had a long brown beard that reached to the middle of his chest. A bronze badge on his dirty shirt proclaimed the word:
Peacekeeper
. A cutlass dangled from his belt.

“You’re under arrest for suspicion of treason and attempted murder.” He grabbed me by the arm and hauled me back to the coach. The door swung open and I saw a younger man, a deputy, waiting within. “Get in,” the peacekeeper said.

They put heavy steel cuffs on my wrists and ankles, and then locked the door from the outside. The deputy stayed inside with me. He had short black hair, bright blue eyes, and a clean-shaven face. He couldn’t have been more than eighteen, but he did his best to look mean. If it hadn’t been for the circumstances, he might even have been cute.

It got very dark after the door closed. There were no windows, only a few stray beams of light that found their way through the cracks in the paneling. The deputy reached up and uncovered a lantern.

“Don’t try anything,” he said. “I’ve heard about the witchcraft your kind uses, but you’re not faster than steel.” He drew a long, thin-bladed dagger and held it tightly in his fist. I turned away from him, unable to face that cruel, senseless hatred.

I half expected him to reach across the coach and stab me in the chest, but he didn’t. He just sat there staring at me with that cold, unblinking stare. I almost wished he would do it. It would be easier than going through the next few hours, waiting to learn my fate.

I heard Tinker arguing with the men outside. He started to shout, and then I heard a loud cracking sound. Tinker went silent, and I knew that he’d been knocked out. I reached out with my mind and commanded Cinder to stay with him, to make sure that he was safe. She obeyed, but she barked wildly as the carriage rolled away.

We drove to the jail in town. An angry mob surrounded the carriage as I arrived, and the peacekeeper had to warn them back as he took me inside. “Judge Brooks will be here tomorrow afternoon. Until then you all need to go home and wait for justice to take its course!”

I heard people shouting for my head, shouting that they wanted to hang me, but the peacekeeper silenced them. “If anyone touches this jail, my men have been ordered to shoot to kill!” The crowd settled down after that.

The jail was a small building with a desk, two chairs, and a stove in the corner. There were two cells against the back wall, both empty except for the cots. The peacekeeper guided me into one. He paused to give me a hard stare as he turned the key in the lock. His eyes were cold and his face was hidden behind that scraggly beard. I couldn’t imagine what he might be thinking, but I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel guilty, regardless of how shameful he looked at me.

“I didn’t do it,” I said. “I didn’t hurt anyone.”

I saw a flash of something in his eyes, and he turned away. Was it surprise? Disbelief? I honestly couldn’t tell. I slumped down on the cot and felt a wave of hopelessness wash over me. All I could do now was await my inevitable fate.

I’d been there for about an hour when someone started pounding on the door. “Go away!” the peacekeeper shouted. “The judge will be here tomorrow!”

I heard a woman’s voice shouting but I couldn’t understand the words, and then the pounding resumed. The peacekeeper pulled a blunderbuss out of his desk and walked up to the door. When he opened it, Analyn Trader came storming in, followed by a man I didn’t recognize. He was tall and dark-haired, with broad shoulders and a strong jaw. He wore the fancy clothes of a merchant, and the purple cloak of royalty. A broadsword hung at his side.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing, Shem?” Analyn demanded.

“You know the charges,” he said. “She poisoned the well.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! I was there, I saw it all. If it hadn’t been for that girl, Robie would be dead.”

“Tell it to the judge.”

“Judge Brooks?” Analyn hissed. “You know exactly what he’ll say. That man is dumb as a rock and he has nothing but hate for Tal’mar. He only got to be a judge because he bribed his way into the position, and everyone knows he’s crooked as snakewood!”

The stranger stepped forward. “If I may?”

Shem settled onto the edge of his desk, and laid the gun down. “I know what you’re going to say, Devan. There’s nothing I can do. It’s not like I want to see the girl hanged, but the law is the law.”

“I’m not asking you to do anything,” said Devan. “Just hear me out. My boy almost died today, and other children would have, too. That girl saved their lives. She may be a half-breed but she’s no more murderer than you or I.”

“Maybe she is, maybe she’s not…”

“Stop it!” Devan interrupted him. “I’m not asking you to do anything. Just listen. Think about this: I have an audience with my cousin, King Ryshan next week. I understand your daughter is coming of age this year…”

“Are you bribing me?”

“It’s not a bribe. If you happened to be asleep at midnight tonight, well there wouldn’t be much anyone could say about that. And if the girl escaped, really what’s the harm? You need to proceed with the investigation anyway. You need to find out who’s really behind this. And if the king should happen to find room in his court next spring for your daughter, who could possibly suspect anything there? I hear she is highly talented, and beautiful as well.”

The peacekeeper took a deep breath. “That’s a tempting offer, but I take pride in my honesty. If word of something like this ever got out…”

“There will be none of that,” said Devan. “I will personally see to it. And a man of your honor is certainly due some recognition. How would you like to be a baron?”