Rami

Chapter 32

Preparations take all day.  I spend the morning oiling my glider motor, filling my pack with provisions and charting the strength of the wind.  A gale swirls in from the East, bending trees and howling through the streets.  The air is charged with the promise of a thunderstorm.  Midday comes.  Clouds cover the sun.  The wind grows stronger, so strong I can barely walk through the streets without being bowled over.  I eat lunch in the fortress with Sal and his underlings.  Raindrops hiss against the windows.  Sal barely notices us; his eyes are shadowed, his shoulders hunched.  As soon as a few people finish, he comes over to me.  I tense.

"Rami, can I talk to you?"

"Um, alright."

We step out into an empty hallway.  The silence is frigid.  I stuff my hands in my pockets.

"You're still leaving tomorrow?" Sal says.

I nod.  "Will you stop me?"

"I couldn't.  Your powers are too strong.  After all, you could kill me if you liked."

"Then why-"

His expression darkens.  "Can't you wait until the storm ends?"

Urgency hitches my breath.  "No.  I can't."  

I'm too scared of missing my chance.  Scared that all my pain and grief might be for nothing.  I pull my cloak tighter around me and stare out at the ice-ravaged world.  And I almost hesitate, but no.  I can't.  I can't delay, I'm certain of it.

Because above all, I'm scared that if I wait, the storm will never end.

His eyes narrow.  "Just a few days.  Please.  A few more days and we can arrange a ship to take you there."

I shake my head.  

And there's the madness again, all over Sal's face.  "Please, Rami!  Flying's a death sentence.  You'll drown and we'll lose you.  And it'll be my fault!"

I stare at my feet.  "No.  I'm sorry.  I can't wait anymore."

"Fine, then.  Let's make a deal instead."

I tense despite myself.  I've been ensnared in too many deals already.  "What conditions?"

He passes me something smooth and heavy.  It's a device like Alban's, encased in black metal.

"Take it with you, Rami."

"Why?  So I can spy for you?"

He laughs at the harshness in my voice.  I still don't want to lift my gaze, don't want to see his face.  Coward, I chide myself.

"Partly.  We don't have any intel from Birra.  We can't even prove the letter was genuine-"

I cut him off, convinced that he's lying about something.  "It was Meg's handwriting."

Sal ignores me.  "We should be in contact with Myrag, but we're not.  Something's cutting off our signal.  It doesn't make sense."

I hesitate.  Rain hammers down on the iron roof.  I could easily say no, but what harm is there?  I can change my mind whenever I like.

"Alright.  I'll take it."   

 I slip it into one of my cloak's waterproof pockets. My mind is numbing over with fear.  Sal's too close to breaking, too close to insanity.  I can't push him any nearer the edge, or Hyara's doomed.

Impulse grabs me again.  I look up, smile weakly and walk away.  He tries to call me back, but soon I'm sprinting through the wild chaos of the streets.  The wind snags my hood over and over until I give up and let it flap behind me.  My eyes sting.  Hailstones burn against my face and rain drenches my hair.  I run harder.