Naomi Kritzer - Dead Rivers 2 - Freedom's Apprentice

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FREEDOM'S APPRENTICE

Dead Rivers Book 2

By

Naomi Kritzer

Contents

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

Freedom's

Apprentice

Naomi Kritzer

BANTAM BOOKS

SPECTRA

FREEDOM'S APPRENTICE

A Bantam Spectra Book / May 2005

Published by

Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

Cover design by Jamie S. Warren Youll

Bantam Books, the rooster colophon, Spectra, and the portrayal of a boxed "s" are registered

trademarks of Random House, Inc.

ISBN 0-553-58674-2

Printed in the United States of America

Published simultaneously in Canada

To my parents,

Bert and Amy Kritzer

CHAPTER ONE

There was a crumbled spot in the wall around Elpisia. Kyros sent slaves to fix it every year or two, but

for some reason—unstable ground, a vulnerability to wind—it was always crumbling there again within a

few months. When I was a child and wanted to get in or out of town without being hassled by the guards

at the gate, I scrambled over at that spot. Half a year earlier, I had examined that point in the wall while

tracking an escaped slave.

Now, I was back, on the other side. I was climbing into Elpisia under cover of night to free one of the

slaves that I had once taken back to slavery.

I found handholds easily enough, and scrambled over. Some gravel had made its way into my boot, so I

pulled it off and shook it out. Then I wound a scarf around my face and pulled up the hood of my coat. It

wasn't cold enough for snow yet, but there was a damp wind tonight. I put my mittens back on.

Nika's owner lived quite close to Kyros, not far from the city gate. I took a roundabout route, trying to

stay as far from Kyros's house as I could. The streets were dark and quiet, but a few people were still

out. I walked briskly rather than keeping to the shadows; acting like I was trying to hide would only

attract attention. The wind gave me a good excuse to keep my head down and my eyes on the hard dirt

under my feet. Being a fugitive in my home city was the strangest, most foreign experience I'd had in my

life—even more foreign than my first days with the Alashi. If someone had blindfolded me and spun me

around, I still could have found my way to anywhere in the city. It's so strange to be back. To be back

like this.

I turned a corner; there, a stone's throw ahead of me, was the household where Nika had been sold. It

was built in the Greek style, like Kyros's house, with a courtyard in the center. The front door would be

guarded at night. Well, I assumed that it was guarded; I couldn't see much evidence either way from the

street.

The first step was to get inside. The front door, obviously, was out of the question. There were a few low

windows that opened onto the street, but they were tightly shuttered and barred from within; besides, the

rooms on the other side of those windows might have people in them at odd hours. I circled the house

once, keeping to the shadows now, though I couldn't see anyone watching. The street was quiet.

Right. The first step is to get inside. You were Kyros's most resourceful servant—can't you figure

out a way to do that? Tamar had wanted to come along tonight and I refused. If I couldn't even think of

a way to get into the house, Tamar would doubtless offer a dozen different suggestions of ways I could

have done it if I'd had her with me. I'd insisted that Tamar wait with the horses because I thought that I

would have at least a faint chance of talking my way out of trouble if I were caught by myself. If I had

Tamar with me… When I looked at Tamar, I still saw a hint of the beaten-down slave girl that she'd been

when we met. I didn't think I could talk both of us out of custody.

The first-floor windows had a sill; maybe I could climb onto the roof from there, and then go over that

and into the courtyard. I took off my coat and mittens and stuffed them into my bag; the wind chose that

moment to send a gust whipping through the street that left me numb and aching. Before I could change

my mind, I climbed onto the windowsill. It was awkward, and when I shifted I knocked up against the

shutter. Anyone inside would have heard that, and I froze for a moment, ready to leap off and run if I

heard movement inside. But all stayed quiet. If anyone had heard me, they must have thought it was the

wind.

Now that I was close enough to make a try for the roof, I realized that it was a good arm's length out of

my reach. If I'd brought Tamar, I could have boosted her up onto the roof—but she didn't have the

strength or weight to pull me up after her, so I'd have needed both Tamar and a rope, anyway. With

freezing fingers, I felt for handholds in the stone and mortar of the house. And found one. Maybe I could

swing myself up and launch myself onto the roof…

I came nowhere near my goal, but managed to make a wonderful crashing sound as I kicked loose a few

tiles that shattered on the street below. I landed on the tiles and managed to bite back a stream of oaths

as the shutters banged open.

"—a bird or something."

"I just wanted to check."

"Well, you're letting in a lot of cold air, thank you very much."

I held my breath, making myself as small as possible. I was right in the open. If they poked their heads

out to look for what had made the noise, they'd see me.

"It didn't sound like a bird."

"Send one of the men if you're that worried, but close the window before I freeze to the floor."

The shutter closed, but I didn't hear the bar put back into place. The guards would be coming, but it

would take a little time—who was in the room?

With the tip of my finger, I eased the window open a crack and peered in. It was the kitchen, and there

were two women still there, both Danibeki, and thus presumably slaves. If I offered to free them in

exchange for their help, would they leap at the opportunity, or scream to alarm the whole house? Tamar

would love to shepherd an entire household's worth of slaves up to the reluctant Alashi, but the

practicalities of that were more than a little daunting to me. Besides, even if Tamar were right that there

were no slaves who liked being slaves, that didn't mean they'd all be willing to flee to the Alashi. Many

believed that the Alashi practiced human sacrifice and other such atrocities.

I hesitated too long; if I'd wanted to speak with them, I'd lost my chance. I sprinted around a corner and

hid just a few moments before I heard the crunch of the guard's boots on the street. "—bunch of jumpy

girls," a male voice said. "Wanting to hide under the bed from the winter wind."

"Something did knock down a few tiles," another voice said. They had a lantern; I could see the light

flickering. "It's not blowing that hard."

"Nika's probably right, it was a bird or something."

Nika! Had I looked right at her and not recognized her? Or had she been the one who went for the

guards? Probably the latter. So she was probably there, in the kitchen, right now.

Muttering about girls and the cold wind, the guards did a quick search, found a feather that had doubtless

been dropped by a bird sometime in the last week, and went back inside. I went back over to the

window just in time to hear the bar drop again.

Well, at least now I knew where Nika was. I pressed my ear against the shutter and listened to the

conversation. They were up early, not late, baking bread for the morning; the conversation was

household gossip, nothing useful or interesting. There were three women working, all slaves. Listening to

the chatter and knowing that one of them was Nika, I was able to pick her out of the conversation, and

figure out which voice was hers.

I could just knock on the window…

Instead, I put my coat and mittens back on, rewrapped the scarf that shielded my face, and waited.

There's no hurry, I told myself. I can go back to Tamar, talk about what to do, and try again

tomorrow. That's probably the best plan right now, take this slowly.

Still, it seemed like it would be worth waiting. Maybe the other two women would step out for a few

minutes and I'd have the opportunity to talk to Nika. So I waited, and just as I was thinking that I'd have

to leave to be well away by dawn, one of the women said she was going to use the privy, and another

had to go get something out of the pantry; Nika was alone.

I knocked urgently on the shutter. "Nika. Nika!" I hissed.

The shutter opened so abruptly that it almost knocked me off the windowsill. Nika stared at me,

white-faced and startled. "Who are you? What do you want?" Her wide eyes searched mine, peering

over the scarf. Did she recognize me? Just from my eyes? I saw no anger, so probably not.

"Do you still want your freedom enough to take it? I have a horse and I'll take you to the Alashi."

"Who are you?"

"I'm here to free you. What does it matter who I am?"

There was a long moment of struggle on Nika's face, and then she said, "I can't. Not without Melaina."

"Who?"

"My daughter. I can't leave her here. She doesn't have anyone but me."

The other women could return at any moment. I spoke rapidly. "Fine. I'll be back tomorrow night. Figure

out a way to get yourself and Melaina out this window, and I'll take both of you." I jumped down to let

her swing the shutter closed, and ran back for the city wall.

The sun was rising when I reached our hiding place in the track of the old river. Tamar was letting the

horses drink water from a muddy puddle. She saw me approaching and shaded her eyes, looking to see

if I'd brought Nika. "Lauria. What happened?" she asked when I reached her.

"She wants to bring her kid. We'll try again tonight. This time I think I want you to wait by the wall with

the horses; it'll be slow going with a young child otherwise."

"You're going to leave me behind again?"

"Like I said before, if I get caught, I think I can talk my way out. As long as I'm alone."

"Oh yeah? What are you going to say: 'Look at me, I'm Kyros's servant, and this is all part of his plan,

just ask him'? What are you going to say when they take you to Kyros?"

"I'll tell him what happened with Alibek, and say that freeing slaves is a ruse to win back the trust of the

Alashi. Because I know how important this mission is, Nika's freedom is a pretty trivial cost."

"And when he asks why you didn't come straight to him?"

"The Alashi shamans have strange powers and are friendly with the rogue aerika. I was afraid they might

be watching me."

"I guess that might work."

"Maybe. But not if you're a prisoner, too."

Tamar thought this over and reluctantly said, "I want to come along next time."

"Once we're not trying to get someone out of Elpisia," I agreed.

"I didn't join you just to sit around outside and watch horses. I feel so useless."

"Tamar, there's no way I could do this without you."

"You're just saying that to make me feel better."

"No, I'm just saying that because I'm afraid you'll leave me and go back to the Alashi. You could go

back…"

Tamar took my hand and squeezed it. "You're my blood-sister. We belong together. I'm not going back.

Not without you."

Six months earlier, Kyros's slave Alibek had climbed that same bit of wall; I had tracked him down and

brought him back. Kyros had praised my efficient work, and then had sent me out on a new mission: to

infiltrate the bandit tribes that called themselves the Alashi and lived on the steppes to the north. He

thought I would be uniquely suited to this task because I was part Danibeki myself and could pose as an

escaped slave. First, though, he suggested that I be a slave, so that I truly could escape—even if it would

be arranged in advance—and make my way to the Alashi just as a real slave would.

I agreed, and was "sold" to Kyros's friend Sophos, supposedly as a concubine for his harem. Sophos

swore that he wouldn't forget that I was a free woman; no one would lay a hand on me. He lied. The

memory of what happened still made my gorge rise.

The night that I escaped, Tamar followed me; she threatened to spoil my escape if I didn't bring her

along. I told myself that I couldn't risk the delay of my plans, but in all honesty, I already liked Tamar and

knew that helping her to escape would be a slap in the face to Sophos. We struggled together across the

desert. Although the younger girl had initially forced me to bring her along, by the time we reached the

Alashi, we were blood-sisters and friends for life.

We spent the summer with one of the Alashi sword sisterhoods, trying to prove our worth so that we

could be fully accepted. I secretly reported back to Kyros through the aeriko he sent as a messenger, but

as the summer wore on, my loyalties began to shift. I was angry at Kyros for taking no action to retaliate

against Sophos. And I became close friends with some of the Alashi: Zhanna, the shaman, who tried to

train Tamar and me to speak with the djinni as she did; Janiya, the leader, who told me I reminded her of

her own lost daughter; Saken, who had been kind from our first day with the Alashi. Thinking of Saken,

beneath her cairn of stones, still hurt.

At the end of the summer, I decided to defect to the Alashi and never return to Kyros. But I hadn't

confessed my true identity to Janiya—I had meant to, but I hadn't done it soon enough. When we

rejoined the rest of the Alashi for the fall gathering, I had come face-to-face with Alibek. He had escaped

again, and this time reached the Alashi. He unmasked me, and after that, it was too late to confess what I

had been. I was cast out. I could have been killed, and if I ever returned, I was under sentence of death.

It still amazed me that Tamar had come with me. She truly had been a slave. Among the Alashi, she had

passed the tests with far more grace than I had, and had discovered a natural talent for the bow. Yet she

had thrown her vest down with mine, and followed me. I didn't understand, but I wasn't inclined to

question her too closely. The last thing I wanted to do was convince her to leave me. I had already lost

both my home with Kyros and my home with the Alashi; losing Tamar would be even worse.

"Tell me about Nika," Tamar said now as we sat in the shade, waiting for the day to pass. The day grew

warm, once the sun was up. Deceptively warm. In a month or two, we'd be in danger of freezing to

death.

"She was about fourteen when I brought her back—your age. That was over three years ago. When I

caught up with her, I expected her to cry, but she held herself as rigid as carved stone. She didn't say a

word the whole way back to Elpisia."

"What did Kyros do to her?"

"He sold her to a friend in town. I don't know if he beat her or just sold her. She was young and pretty.

He's kinder to his female slaves."

"What's going to happen to Nika and her daughter if you're caught after you get them out?" Tamar asked.

"I'll try to convince Kyros to let me leave with them."

"And if he doesn't?"

"I…" I fell silent, brooding over that. What if their owner punishes Nika by separating her from her

daughter?

"I think I should come with you. If anyone tries to stop us, we can split up and run in different directions.

I can take Nika and Melaina, and try to get them away."

"Tamar. If we tried that, they would catch all of us. And then you'd be a prisoner, too, and in far worse

danger than either me or Nika."

Tamar fell silent for a while, then asked, "What are you going to tell Kyros when he asks what happened

to his djinn? His aeriko, I mean—I guess he'd call them aerika."

"I'll say I have no idea what he's talking about."

Just before I'd been cast out from the Alashi, Kyros had sent one of his djinni to try to threaten me into

continuing to serve him. At a loss for what message to send back, I had touched the djinn and spoken the

words of banishment that a shaman would use on a troublesome rogue djinn. Though this djinn should

have been bound to its spell-chain, it had returned somehow to its own world—free. Gate, it had hissed.

I wished that I could have talked to Zhanna about that. She could have told me what it meant…

"So that story you're going to tell Kyros if you're caught," Tamar said, "about winning the trust of the

Alashi by freeing slaves. Do you think it'll work?"

"I think Kyros will believe me."

"No, I mean, do you think you'll actually be able to earn back the trust of the Alashi again?"

"No," I said, and swallowed hard, trying to clear the lump in my throat. "They don't free slaves

themselves, and I doubt they'll be grateful to us for doing so. I don't think there is a way to make them

trust me again." I paused, and managed, I thought, a casual tone. "Do you think it will work?"

"No," Tamar said. "I think you're right. But I think it's a good story to tell Kyros, if you're caught."

There might be no way to earn the trust of the Alashi again, but I was still determined to try to free the

people I took back to Kyros when I worked for him. Nika, Thais, Prax, Burkut, and Uljas. Alibek had

freed himself, but there were five others. And at least this way I could make amends to the people I hurt.

Assuming I didn't fail as completely at this task as I failed at my last.

Prometheus and Arachne… Djinni of the Silent Lands… Let me succeed at this.

Tonight, Tamar came with me as far as the wall; I wanted the horses close by. We waited until sundown

and then walked to Elpisia, leading the horses as it was too dark to ride. "This is where we'll come over,"

I said.

"I'll wait somewhere nearby," Tamar said.

I looked at her closely, trying to decide if she was still bitter about being left behind. "Thank you so much

for helping with this."

"I'm not going back to the Alashi, Lauria, so quit worrying. Now go, already. You don't want to miss

your best chance."

Again, the streets were dark and mostly empty. I took a different route, to avoid attracting attention;

tonight, my path took me perilously close to my mother's apartment. I wondered if she was still awake. If

she was awake, was Kyros with her? When Kyros sent his messenger to persuade me to remain in his

service, the djinn had implied that Kyros might threaten my mother to coerce me. I could warn her. But

then what? I had nowhere to take care of her. She certainly wouldn't be any safer with me and

Tamar—far from it. And for her to be caught between her daughter and her lover… She would try to

keep what she knew a secret. But Kyros is good at spotting that sort of thing. He would know she

was keeping something from him. And then he might conclude she was in league with me. If he

doesn't know where I am, he can't blackmail me by threatening her, and if she knows nothing,

there's no point in trying to get it out of her. Her best protection is to know absolutely nothing.

So I couldn't visit my mother.

Just as well, really. If I did visit her, we'd just end up fighting again.

I found a hidden spot to wait near the kitchen window and sat down. I couldn't hear the voices of the

people in the kitchen here, and I was tempted to move closer, but I stayed where I was. I'd told Nika

what to do; I had to trust her to take care of her part.

Then again, if she didn't, how obligated should I feel to free her? If I made a good-faith effort and failed,

how many times did I have to try again? For Nika, I'll have to try at least once more. She'd be free

already if it weren't for me. If she doesn't manage tonight, it's because something kept her. But

what about the others? Burkut had almost died in the desert; what if he now balked at the risk? How

many times did honor demand that I return if someone was indecisive?

I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

The window was opening. I moved over to it just in time to see a pair of soldiers rounding the corner of

the street. Damn it to hell. I pushed the window shut again, hoping that Nika would get the message,

and shrank back into the shadows; the soldiers continued past without stopping. My heart beat in my

chest like a smith's hammer. I waited for a few moments to be sure that they weren't coming back. Then I

started to knock on the window, but realized that I could hear the murmur of voices again. Well, at least

the soldiers hadn't walked past as I was helping Nika and her daughter climb out the window. I waited,

clenching my teeth and knotting my hands into fists.

The window opened a crack, then swung wide. "Here," Nika said, and swung a small body out the

window. I took the little girl in my arms. She was surprisingly heavy. Nika climbed out after her. With a

day's warning, she'd also found a way to have coats for both her and the child. "We'd better run, they'll

be back in minutes," she said. She took Melaina back and swung her up against her shoulder.

We ran. Prometheus and Arachne, keep us from meeting those soldiers again! Melaina clung to her

mother, not complaining, and we made it to the wall without incident. I scrambled up first, took Melaina,

and gave Nika a hand up. Then I jumped down, she lowered Melaina to my arms, and dropped down

after me. "Follow me. We have horses," I said, and we found our way to Tamar.

"You got them," Tamar whispered as we approached, her eyes alight. We helped Nika up onto Tamar's

horse and handed Melaina up to her; we could lead the horses until dawn.

"I got them out of Elpisia," I said. "We still need to get away."

"They sent only one person after me when I ran before," Nika said.

"If she comes after us again, we'll make her sorry," I said.

Nika sucked in her breath and looked down at my face, still half covered with the scarf. Despite the

scarf, and the darkness, now she recognized me. I saw fear in her eyes.

"I was wrong before," I said. "I'm trying to make amends." I glanced back toward Elpisia. We didn't

have much time.

Tamar reached up and clasped her hand. "Trust us," she said. Nika shifted to meet Tamar's eyes, and

Tamar's hand tightened on hers. "I was a slave, like you. She helped me escape to the Alashi, and now

we're going to help you and your daughter."

Nika tightened her arms around Melaina and nodded once.

Once the sky lightened to gray, Tamar and I mounted as well; Nika was small enough to ride double with

Tamar, and Melaina rode with me. In the daylight I could see that she had dark curls and gray eyes; she

was about three, I thought, old enough that Nika had probably been pregnant when she ran. I thought I

could see Kyros in Melaina's face. My half-sister? I always thought myself an only child. It occurred

to me with a jolt that Kyros's wife, the former sorceress, had eight children.

We pushed the horses hard; the closest well Tamar knew how to get to was on the Helladia side of the

hills. Our horses left an easy trail to follow, though if Myron or someone like him were trying to find Nika,

he would completely disregard the possibility that the slave could be escaping on horseback. "What did

you tell the other slaves?" I asked Nika.

"Nothing. Well, I told them that Melaina had hit her head and needed to be close to me tonight; that's

how I brought her with me to the kitchen. I made her a little bed with the coats, so that's how I made

sure we had them. And I made sure to forget something so someone would have to go to the pantry."

"Twice," I said, thinking of the soldiers' untimely arrival.

"I forgot a couple of things, just in case."

"If it was that easy, why didn't you ever climb out that window before?" Tamar asked.

"I knew I'd never get away with a child. And the punishment for running away is severe. I couldn't risk

Melaina's safety that way, not with so little chance of success."

We reached Tamar's well at dusk. Like the other Alashi wells I'd seen, it was marked with a cairn of

rocks. We took turns hauling up water for our horses, then for ourselves; we drank deeply from the

bucket and filled our waterskins. The night was cold. Even knowing that Tamar was on watch, I kept

rousing, certain that someone was about to catch up with us. I woke everyone at the first hint of dawn so

that we could start again as quickly as possible.

"Even if they follow our trail, we're far enough out that it would be risky for them to come after us,"

Tamar said. "They're afraid of the bandits and afraid of the Alashi. It's not worth it, not for two slaves.

How stubborn was…" She glanced at Nika, and paused. Since the flash of recognition the night we

escaped, Nika had pretended that I was truly a stranger. Tamar was clearly wary of forcing either of us

to acknowledge that we'd met before. "How stubborn was your old master?" she asked, finally. "How

hard would he search for a woman and a child?"

Kyros was stubborn but not reckless. "You're right," I said. "A slave who escaped on horseback

would've gotten too far too fast to be worth the effort."

"Did he ever use the djinni to search?"

"No. Bound djinni aren't very good at finding people. There are so many ways to be unhelpful: you can

look just in the open and skip over even the most obvious hiding places. If you're told to look

everywhere, you can waste time checking every mouse-sized crevice. If you don't know exactly what a

person looks like, you'll never find them; if they've changed their appearance even slightly, you can

pretend not to recognize them."

"Don't they carry messages?"

"This is why you'll send a djinn to 'the commander of such-and-such post' and give a location. Though

there are downsides to that approach, too."

"Kyr—Someone did find you with a djinn, once, though."

"He knew more or less where I was, and the djinn knew me. Now… it won't be as easy."

"What will he do?"

I bit my lip. I hadn't really wanted to think about this. "It's a big world," I said. "He'll have to tell the djinn

to look everywhere. It could take a really long time."

Tamar mulled that over for a few minutes, then asked, "Do you think he'll send a djinn to search, though?

Because it probably would find you eventually."

I sighed and glanced at Nika, as reluctant to shatter the pretense as Tamar was. "Alibek told me

something once," I said, knowing that Tamar would know this meant while I was bringing him back to

Naomi Kritzer - Dead Rivers 2 - Freedom's Apprentice

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