Coldmaker(58)

‘I’ll bring everyone food,’ I said. ‘I’ll bring figs. And dates. Orangefruit, if they have them to spare.’

Nothing.

The sweat had returned to my forehead. ‘I know you want me to stay here and figure out how to fight back with you and the rest, and I know I said I would, but I think I could do some good at the Manor. A little while back I had this idea—’

Abb finally shifted, sitting up straight and staring directly into my eyes. ‘Did you say, in their tinkershop?’

I nodded, ready for him to shout at me that I was a fool. That Nobles didn’t just buy you and give you your dream. That Cam was just toying with me, playing some elaborate new game the Nobles had created since traditional torture had got so old.

‘That sort of tinkering?’ Abb pointed to my wall. ‘Like what you did with his music box?’

I nodded with a gulp.

Then Abb got up and his body started tensing up. I thought at first maybe he was going to hit something, or that he was having some sort of spasm, his body rejecting the idea of us parting ways, but then I realized the truth of what was happening.

‘Are you kidding me?’ I asked, smile breaking. ‘That’s your reaction?’

Abb clapped his hands and started swaying awkwardly in the worst display of dancing I’d ever seen. ‘Don’t be mad that your old man moves like the wind!’

I slapped my forehead, the smack wet and loud. ‘You’re the most embarrassing father in the entire World Cried.’

‘Lucky you, Little Builder!’ Abb threw his hands up and hopped over his blanket, nearly tripping over his healing box.

‘Stop!’ I said. ‘By the Crier’s name, I take it back. I won’t go. Just make it stop!’

Then it got worse.

Abb started singing, clapping his hands to a jagged rhythm.

‘The Jadan’s work upon the sands

Those who need the Cold

Family forever

Older than the old’

‘How do you even know the “Jadan’s Anthem”?’ I asked, trying to slow him down.

Abb stopped his horrifying movements long enough to shake a finger at me. ‘You forget; I was there when it was written! Now where was I …?’

His voice got louder and I was desperately glad no one was around to witness my shame.

—‘Blessed be the forgotten

Who still bleed for the lands

So maybe the World Crier

Might release their hands.

They never fall to Sun

Dooby dee and dooby dun’

Catching the look on my face after the last verse, Abb clenched me in a hug and ruffled my hair. ‘Maybe I forgot a few words,’ he shrugged, pulling back and giving my cheek a light smack. ‘Micah, this is it. This is the greatest day in both of our lives! This is the Crier proving everything we hoped. Apparently we should all be touching Frosts in the Patches.’

‘Don’t even joke about that.’

‘Who’s joking? I break a holy rule, and now years later you’re getting the best fate a Jadan can receive. House Jadans have all the shade they want, and you’ll only have one family to worry about instead of serving every nasty Noble on the Street. And, oh wait, that’s right, you’re going to be working in a tinkershop!’ Abb’s smile was so bright it seemed to be sucking up the starlight around us. ‘I’ll tell you what, if I were as strong as Slab Hagan, I’d burst into the Pyramid and rub my dirty Jadan hands over every single Frost if it meant you’d get to stay in that Manor.’

I shook my head. ‘Please don’t.’

Abb flexed, kissing the muscle on his arm. ‘Good thinking. All the women in here would be so disappointed if my body looked like Hagan’s.’

‘It’s not fair though,’ I said, ignoring a strong desire to roll my eyes. It was a tad upsetting that the finest mood I’d ever seen my father in was because I was leaving. ‘You all need me here.’

‘Micah,’ Abb put a hand on my shoulder. ‘What in the Crier’s name made you think that anything about this world is fair? You don’t like the way things are, then use your new life to change them. Drop that bucket.’

‘There you are with that nonsense again,’ I said, a bit of heat rising from my chest to my face. ‘I don’t know what you expect of me. It’s not like I can Sun-damn tinker us to freedom.’

‘Maybe not.’ Abb looked up at the holes in the roof, kissed his finger, and then held it to the sky. ‘But I’ve seen it.’

‘Seen what?’

Abb gave me a devious look. ‘There’s something back there. An idea. You haven’t been able to stop staring at the stars all week; it’s written all over your face.’

It never failed to unnerve me, how well he could read me. Telling him about the Manor was one thing, but telling him about my new Idea would make me feel truly foolish. ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

He started the song and dance again, and I got up to head for the boilweed door.

‘Tell me, and I’ll stop!’ Abb laughed between verses. ‘It’s the only way!’

I grunted. ‘Fine! But it’s so insane that you’ll want to break out your healing box and try to spread some salve on my brain.’

Abb bowed, dipping back down to his blanket, a huge smile across his face. ‘Good thing Gramble just gave me a new vial. Now spill, kiddo.’