killer waiting a day in between strikes, not when he’d taken Yali just a day after the previous victim.
She had to do something. Her breezes were all she had.
Tris looked around. Glaki and Little Bear had curled up together on the bed, the child watching the dog as he slept. Chime sat on the window sill beside Tris, cocking her head, her eyes curious.
“Will you stay there a little while and be quiet?” Tris asked Glaki. “There’s something I need to do. It’s going to be windy in here, but don’t worry. It’s just me. I’m a mage. There are things I do with winds and breezes.” She wasn’t sure that the child understood, but she thought it did no harm to talk to her as if she could. Tris had never understood the need for adults to address children in baby-talk.
She walked over to the door and flung it wide, summoning her breezes from the courtyard. She also called any of the Khapik air currents that would respond, drawing them to her through door and window. In they sped, making blankets, curtains, skirts, hair and fur dance, spinning around Glaki, Little Bear and Chime in curious exploration before they circled Tris.
She let her power spill out around her, doing her best to magically convey the sounds she wanted to hear, frustrated because it would be so much easier if she could just see what they passed over. Only when she was sure that she could explain no more did she let them go. “All of Khapik, mind,” she told them. “Every street, every alley, every courtyard.”
The breezes sped away to do as she asked. With a sigh, Tris lit the cheap tallow lamp, then sat on the bed, resting her back against the wall. Glaki inched over and tucked herself under Tris’s left arm. Little Bear belly-crawled until he was sandwiched between Glaki and the wall, then resumed his slumbers.
“You know, I lost my mother when I was small, and some of my aunts,” Tris confided. She chose not to mention that her mother and aunts had not been lost to her through death. “It was scary, going from house to house. Everyone has different ways of doing things, and they yell at you if you don’t do them properly, have you noticed that?”
Glaki nodded, her thumb firmly in her mouth.
“But animals are always friendly, if you don’t hurt them,” Tris said. “And you can tell yourself stories just like your mother and your aunts tell you stories. You could tell yourself stories about the family you will have one day. I have a wonderful family now. And you know, Glaki, that your mother and your aunt still love you, wherever they are.”
Glaki took her thumb from her mouth. “Did you cry?” she asked.
“I cried like you did, where nobody would hear and yell at me, or slap me,” replied Tris softly.
“Tell me about your family?” asked the girl.
Tris was telling Glaki about the day Briar stole a miniature tree when she realized that Keth stood in the doorway. She glanced at the little girl, who was fast asleep. “How is everyone?” Tris asked Keth in a whisper.
“Frantic,” Keth replied abruptly. “Angry. They’re talking about a march to Balance Hill in the morning, to tell the Keepers that they’ll stop working if something isn’t done. Khapik brings a lot of money into the city, it’s the place foreigners usually visit first. Maybe the Keepers will listen.”
Tris frowned. If that was true, that the district brought income to the city, what chance did Dema have of making the Keepers shut Khapik down?
Keth rubbed the white spot in his hair. “Look, I’ll get a chair to take you home. You — ”
Tris cut him off. “You’re out of your mind,” she said flatly. “This child just lost the two most important people in her life. I’m not taking her from the only home she knows, and I’m not leaving her with this lot. That Poppy slapped her, for Mila’s sake! I’ve sent word to Niko. In the meantime, I’m staying here.”
“But she’s not your problem,” Keth protested. “You don’t have to do this.”
“I know how she feels,” replied Tris. “I’ve been in her shoes, or a pair that looked a lot like them. If Little Bear and Chime give her some comfort, I’m not taking it away. Have you heard word from Dema?”
“Tris, this isn’t necessary,” argued Keth stubbornly.
Tris glared at him, refusing to share any more of her private miseries