“It’s fairly simple,” Ilsit huffed around her pipe. “We get in. We get Adelaide. We get out. In. Adelaide. Out.”
“It’s not called the City of the Tower for nothing, my dear,” Tessa scolded. “It’s a veritable fortress. It’s walled off from the rest of the damned world. The wall runs along the lower half of Perpatane for days and days, with great turrets along the length of it, even past the city limits of Skow. The Tower of Skow sits right near the entrance they call the Gates of Sound. Once you pass through the Gates of Sound, they say you can walk right up to the Tower of Skow. And you can see the watchtower before you ever even see the wall in the distance. It is that tall. It has been the prideof every king of Perpatane. Even though it is not in the capital, in Apollon.”
“Why do they call it the Gates of Sound?” asked Ilsit.
“Thousands and thousands of winters past, before they had written language, as they tell it,” Tessa began, “there was an ocean in the south and an ocean in the north.”
“Not possible,” I scoffed. “The only known sea is the Tintarian sea. No one knows what is above the Hintercliff mountains or what is below the marshlands of Tintar on one side of the world. And on the other, no one knows what is above or below or to the west of Perpatane. It’s all wasteland, unclaimed and unexplored. There are no oceans above or below any country.”
“You interrupt a lot tonight,” Jade said to me, but her manner was kind again.
“Anyway,” Tessa went on, “there are depressions that do suggest it. But the deepest of these leftover dried-up ocean beds is the sound that connected the two oceans. It’s like a long grave for a giant. Skow sits lower in the earth, almost as if on the drop-off of the dip of the sound. The entrance at the Gates of Sound is the lowest in the wall. And also,” she said, almost as an afterthought, “there is that whole ‘tongue of soundness’ in the scriptures of Rodwin. Sometimes they call the tower the Tower of Soundness too.”
I could not help but say, “When a tyrant builds a tower that tall, it seems as if they’re asking for it to be toppled.”
“So—o.” Ilsit dragged the word out. She removed her pipe from her mouth and said, “Entirely walled-off city. Run by religious madmen who hate women like us. Sits lower in the earth than anywhere bloody else in the world, which will make our escape an actual uphill battle. Oh and we’ve no idea where in the city Adelaide even is. Delightful!”
“What if once we get in, we can’t get out?” Jade asked.
“That’s what I just said!” Ilsit cried.
66
NOW: SON
Two nights later, Reed broke our usual silence at night in his tent by saying aloud into the dark, “Keir tells me we join you and your people on a rescue mission once we reach Skow. Your journey there? Death dogs your steps. Your arrival? A kidnapping and an escape are plotted. Such exciting lives you all lead. Particularly you.”
I lay there unsure of what to say. We had both fallen into perfunctory exchanges at night. He would collect me from our wagon’s camp, walk me back to the army tents at the end of the caravan, and we would pass the night speaking very little. Despite my body’s excitement around his, I found myself able to sleep thoroughly next to him. In the early mornings, he would rouse me, step outside to let me dress, and then roll up his tent. He would collect his roan from where it was grazing tied at the side of the road, and then he would deliver me back to my still-sleeping family. I would usually unroll my quilt next to one of theirs and sleep for another hour as he had to rise so early. All discussion of coupling had ceased. He was more detached with me now than he had ever been, and I foundmyself wistful for the inebriated, hungry version of him that had pledged the use of his prick to me if it would give me pleasure.
“You are correct,” I decided to answer him. “I appreciate your aid.”
“This is your niece?” he asked.
“It is. Thane’s daughter.”
“And does he know of this?”
“Tessa tried to explain it. He doesn’t understand our old flower code. And we’re loath to fully map that out for him. It’s not his fault, because we cannot give him all of the information. But he of course loves his child. We can learn where she lives from him and then use that to rescue her. Whether or not he is involved will be up to Adelaide.”
“You defend him readily.”
“I have known him a long time. And he was always a devoted father.”
“And you were lovers. More than childhood sweethearts as you once claimed.”
In the dark, I turned my head towards him. “How do you know that?”
“That is the way your hair was when I first courted you.”
It took me a moment to understand he was quoting Thane from that first morning on the road. I had surmised he had seen Thane hold my hands and that was why he had once teased me about Thane, but not that he had heard us. “You truly have strong air magic. To hear that much.”
“And see,” Reed replied. “I can see far. That’s what I do in the mornings. I ride far ahead and then I see even farther and report back.”
“How—How far can you hear?”
“A quarter hour’s walk away.”
“How far can you see?”
