Betrayal
936 A.O.P.
One
CARIS
The Celestine Lake pooled at the southern end of the Eastern Spine, the range there smaller than the highest peaks that separated E’ridia from the rest of the continent. Under guidance of the Poison Accords, Maricol’s countries had built railroads and paved roads to pass through the mountains to reach that body of water and the people who claimed it as neutral territory, held by no country.
The waters were a brilliant blue at the height of summer, but they were deceiving. The Celestine Lake was always poisonous to some degree, carrying runoff from the mountains and drifting spore-filled fog. At the center of the lake was the Warden’s Island, an outcropping of land dotted here and there with trees and mountain scrub. Rising from the earth was a massive fort where wardens were made and trained out of tithes.
Caris peered over theCelestial Sprite’s railing, squinting through the lenses of her gas mask. Despite the clear skies, Honovi had ordered everyone to wear one as they began their descent. The Eastern Mountains were one of the last areas on the continent the wardens had not yet cleansed. Their vastness made the job exceedingly difficult, much like the Wastelands. Sometimes it was easier to simply contain an area and guard its borders rather than lose wardens by the dozens in an endeavor that may prove fruitless.
“They know to expect us?” Caris asked over her shoulder.
“Yes. Honovi received clearance to land,” Blaine said as he came to stand with her by the railing, his own gas mask firmly in place. His voice came out distorted through the filters, but she could understand him well enough. “They have a small airfield on the north side for us to anchor in. Come, you should strap in for the descent.”
She didn’t linger at the railing, following after Blaine to the crew cabin. She felt the descent in her gut and ears, pressure building in her head until it popped. No colored smoke marked their berth, but Honovi guided them down into a hangar with impressive skill.
Caris watched through the cabin’s windows as the sky and mountains gave way to the edge of an open roof and metal walls, drifting down into a space lit by fully enclosed gas lamps. The ground crew who guided the airship into its anchor berth wore the uniforms of wardens, all of them armed in some fashion. It left her wondering about the reception they were about to receive.
TheCelestial Spritesettled into its anchor berth with a judder, the shouting quieting down once the airship was secured. Caris undid the safety belt and darted out of the crew cabin, finding Blaine and Honovi on the flight deck near the gangplank. A crew member winched it out while a warden on the pier secured it on their end.
A tall man dressed in a field uniform strode up the gangplank, flinty brown eyes taking them all in. A pistol was holstered to his hip, framed by the blade of a long-poled double-headed battle axe he carried across his back. The clarion crystal embedded in the pommel glittered over one shoulder. “Air is clear today. The gas masks most likely won’t be needed for now, but keep them on you. The weather can change quickly, and we’ll warn you when it’s not safe.”
Blaine pulled his gas mask off, hooking the strap around his belt to secure it to his hip. “We know how that is. I’m Blaine of Clan Storm. This is my husband,jarlHonovi, also of Clan Storm and our captain.”
The warden nodded curtly at them. “I’m Yufei. I’m to take you to the governor. I understand you have cargo that needs to be secured?”
“We do, but it can’t be offloaded until our charge is out of sight.” Blaine nodded at Caris, who slipped her gas mask off to meet the warden’s gaze. “Therionetkawas somehow triggered to harm Caris. I’d like her in the fort before you transport the cargo.”
“He has a name,” Caris said tartly.
“Cargo is cargo. We’ll deal with it.” Yufei looked over at Honovi. “Your crew will be escorted to the guest barracks. You three will follow me.”
Honovi gestured for Caris to precede them down the gangplank, and she hurried after Yufei, clenching her hands and refusing to duck her head at the sharp-eyed curious gazes that watched them disembark the airship. She was used to attention, but the wardens were intense in a way she wasn’t comfortable with.
A few wardens on the ground nodded at them. She recognized Raziel from Veran, the older woman giving her a friendly smile. The hangar was stuffy from heat, and it was warm outside as well, making her sweat beneath the fur-lined flight jacket she’d been wearing. Caris stripped it off and tied it around her waist, all the while taking in the open area between the hangar and the fort. The graveled path they were on was patrolled by a pair of spiderlike automatons with Zip guns bolted to the top of their casings.
“Is it dangerous here?” Caris asked, eyeing one of the machines.
“Anywhere is dangerous if you’re not careful. Revenants swim, so we always have a guard on duty. Don’t worry, none have been sighted for several weeks, and our live training exercises are held off the island,” Yufei said.
“Live training exercises?”
Yufei glanced back at her, an amused smile twitching on his lips. “How else do you think we learn to handle revenants?”
She knew Maricol needed wardens, that their livelihoods rested on the wardens always monitoring the borders and poison fields and eradicating revenants. She just hadn’t ever thought about what that training might entail, about the tithes who were sent here to become what Yufei was. Ignorance was a comfort she could no longer wrap herself in, she was coming to realize.
The trek up the winding path passed a training oval where tithes ran loops in two column formations beneath the watchful eyes of older wardens standing on watchtowers. Inside the oval, on the grassy field, wardens ran through various forms of physical training with pairs of tithes. Not all the tithes were the same age, but every single one of them was focused on the task at hand and never looked over once.
The fort loomed ahead, its walls built high, with more automatons in a more humanoid form pacing the ramparts, their Zip guns larger than the ones on the spiderlike automatons. The metal doors of the gates were thrown open, with a warden on duty in the guardhouse. The grizzled man waved them on through before turning his attention back to the book he was reading. The automaton crouched beside the guardhouse would surely notify him if something was amiss, as would everyone else still out on the field.
They passed through a short tunnel, coming into an open space dotted with buildings built close together. It reminded Caris of Amari’s Aether School of Engineering, a campus built for learning, save for how this one was built to house and train wardens.
It was like a mini-city, held within the confines of the protective outer walls and surrounded by the Celestine Lake. Trees lined the pathways leading to buildings, providing much-needed shade from the sun. Caris wiped sweat from her brow as they trudged along, passing wardens on errands. She didn’t see any tithes outside, but a glimpse through some windows showed many sitting in classrooms.
“How long do classes last?” she asked, curious despite the reason for their visit. She didn’t know of anyone who had ever visited the Warden’s Island. Tithes and supplies were delivered at the designated time of the year, but she had never been involved in that process. The Clockwork Brigade had never found fault with it, not the way they’d found fault with debt bondage.
