Crossroads of Canopy (Titan's Forest #1)(77)

“The Master wants to destroy Canopy. You care about Canopy.”

“I care about you.”

Frog scowled. “Well, stop it. I told you not to.”

“There’s something odd about the wood for the oven.” Unar picked up a piece from the stack beside the fire. “Have you noticed? All these pieces are identical. Down to the wavy splinters where there was a knot in the branch. I used to watch our father cut wood sometimes. It never looked like this.”

Frog looked uncomfortable. She took the piece from Unar’s hands and threw it onto the banked coals.

“They are from Eshland. The wood god takes payment of human blood, and ’e multiplies piles of firewood in return. Just as givin’ blood weakens people, givin’ wood weakens the great trees. Fair exchange.”

“How have you traded with people of Eshland? How is it that your Master breaks through the barrier, Frog?”

Unar took up the poker and prodded the fuel into position.

“Always the same questions from you! There is no breakin’ through! I toss pebbles up to a boy I know in Eshland. Pebbles from Floor, you understand? These messed-up birds you made are wild flowerfowl, kin to the eatin’ kind in Eshland. Flowerfowl need stones in their stomachs. I toss up the stones, the boy tosses down the wood. No livin’ thing passes through the barrier.”

“But how did you meet him?”

“I heard ’im cryin’ one night. ’E was cold. I told ’im if ’e came down, I would give ’im a blanket.”

“Why were you there, beneath Eshland?”

“Watchin’ our father.” Frog gripped both sides of her face as if her skull ached. “Do you not know anythin’, Unar? Our father crawls between Airakland and Eshland now. ’E lost the strength to cut wood with ’is arms. ’E drains himself of blood to get enough wood to sell to stay alive. ’E should throw ’imself off the edge. It would be kinder. I should roll ’im off while ’e is sleepin’.”

Unar’s face grew hot. Frog had admitted their mother was dead, back at the home of the three brothers. Unar hadn’t asked about the fate of their father.

We’ll get another, Father had said when they discovered Isin was gone. Frog had done the same, finding another father for herself, before trying to kill that father and running away to find Core Kirrik and her Master.

But Frog had slipped. Admitted there was a way through.

“Roll him off while he is sleeping? When will you do that, Frog? When you go to Canopy?”

“When it is time,” Frog grumbled, giving her customary grimace.

“Time for what?”

“Why are you using your voice for talkin’ rubbish while the Master is waitin’ for ’is supper? Show me you can manage a loaf of bread without burnin’ yourself before you ask for the way to unravel the greatest magical structure the world has ever seen!”

Choking on her impatience, Unar picked up the single grain from the table.

“The Master’s supper,” she said. “Will I be permitted to meet him at last, then? Will I carry the serving tray up that spiral staircase?”

“No,” Frog said.

Unar let the grain fall to the floor. She sighed and started to sing.

*

IN THE night, Unar served another watch with Core Kirrik.

“Have you given thought to what you have learned so far, Nameless?” Kirrik asked, staring into the downpour yet again, her wide stance undaunted and her umbrella unmoving.

“I have, actually. You asked me if there was anything for the goddess of rain to fear.”

“And?”

“I suppose, if there was an emergency that fell under another god’s jurisdiction, the people of Ehkis’s niche could be convinced to pray to someone else. To take their offerings from Ehkisland to other niches, other kingdoms. She might fear that. The loss of their faith and their tribute. Such an emergency might even be contrived. To turn her people against her.”

“Yes. How? Think!”

“Maybe … maybe if there was too much rain. Or maybe if the monsoon storms brought a lot of wind, or lightning. If it was wrecking people’s houses, they might pay tribute to the lightning god, instead. Or the wind goddess. To make it stop. Then Ehkis would be weak. Her section of the barrier might become weak. Or the monsoon might end early.”

Unar waited for some indication that she was right before it struck her that she didn’t have to wait for confirmation; what she’d described was the same situation that had seen Aoun’s parents executed for disobeying the king of Ehkisland. No wonder Frog was always calling her slow.

Core Kirrik glanced over her shoulder, and her laughter, this time, was low and delighted.

“You see, Nameless? It does not take much to make a traitor of a Canopian. Oh, do not make that offended face at me. You are a traitor. To mortals, you are. To others like you, with only the … what word did you use?… misfortune … to be born below the barrier, you are a traitor. You consider your current disadvantage to be temporary. Your sister’s disadvantage too. You show loyalty to Canopy when it shows no loyalty to you.”

Unar tried to make her flared nostrils relax, to make her jaw unclench.

“That is better,” Core Kirrik remarked. “You can learn to hold your tongue, after all. I will reward you. Speak.”