Cinn's Arc

Chapter 3 of 12

The bone token sat on Cinn's cloth all night. Cyf slept on her porch. In the morning he stood at the rail, still talking about the confrontation. "When we reach the fire, I face him," Cyf said. "I ask what the signal is. In front of all of them." Cinn watched him and felt the danger, the way she always felt things others missed. Storm the shamans' fire with demands, and they would brand her a threat before she ever earned her seat. "You'll get us both thrown out," Cinn said. "I need you calm." She climbed down and crossed to the flashy ship parked below her tree. Cyf followed. Inside, panels glowed and lights ran along the curved wall. A tall girl with curly pink hair sat at six scanners, sorting bright charts. This was Dolly, the sharpest signal tracker Cinn knew. She had been chasing the same strange signal for weeks. "Okay so," Dolly said, not turning. "Your friend's noise? I found it. It breaks its own pattern every time. Honestly, that's not a machine. That's a person hiding." She spun her chair and looked at Cyf. "You want to yell at the man carrying it. Bad idea. He'll shield harder and you'll learn nothing." Cyf stopped. He rubbed his forehead. "Then how do I—" He paused inside the thought. "How do I get near it. Without spooking him." Cinn pulled out her bones and an old book, the tome the market elder had given her. Celestial marks covered its cover. "You don't ask him," she said. "You let me read at the fire. Loud. A real reading, in front of the shamans. That earns my seat and pulls every eye to me." She tapped the book. "While they watch me, Dolly's scanners map the shield from the outside. You feel where it's thin. Nobody accuses anybody." Cyf looked at the bones, then at Cinn. "You'd risk your reading. For my signal." "I'd risk one reading," Cinn said. "Not my seat." Dolly grinned and grabbed a small handheld scanner. "I'm coming. Somebody has to make you two look normal." Cyf was quiet a long moment. He pulled his hands from his pockets. "Fine," he said. "No confrontation. Your way." He almost smiled. "You're the first one who didn't call me broken. I can wait a little longer." Cinn let out the breath she'd been holding. The demand was dead. Cyf would not storm the fire. She wrapped the bones and the book together in her cloth and tied it tight. Then Dolly's scanner chirped. A new chart bloomed red across the wall. "Uh," Dolly said, smile fading. "The signal just answered us. It knows we're listening." Cinn stared at the red lines. She had cooled Cyf down. But now the thing behind the shield was awake, and it was waiting at the same fire she had to walk into to earn her seat.