Rising Tides by Katy Haye

Author:Katy Haye [Haye, Katy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-23T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

I fetched the lamp and a small pair of sharp scissors as Cosimo sank into a seat. I drew my chair up close. The front door closed behind the others. He tilted his chin up and I inspected the wound, checking the integrity of his skin before I started. “I’ve never seen anyone heal so quickly,” I mused. “I wonder if the salt water helps. Perhaps we should have been recommending an early dive instead of discouraging one.” I wished my father were there to discuss the matter with, and closed my eyes until the longing passed.

Cosimo made a non-committal noise.

I slit the first stitch and carefully eased the thread from his warm skin. “You said the magistrate attacked your settlement for your machine. Why?”

Cosimo’s breath hitched as the thread pulled free. His hands were splayed on the table in front of him, as though to brace against my actions. I left a pause so he could answer. “He knows his world might end soon.”

“Because the seas are rising?” No answer to that; an answer wasn’t needed. “So he also wants to find the land of sun and roses?” My tone gave my view on that impossible ambition. I returned to my work. The second stitch split and I pulled the end. “And he has the reamers’ machine now?”

Cosimo waited until I’d removed the third and final stitch beneath the gill before nodding. I dropped the thread to the table and pushed the fibres together neatly.

“And he killed mah mother so she couldn’t make another.”

I closed my eyes while the jolt of that information faded. “Other side.” I pushed his chin up and round so I could reach the stitches on the other side. His pulse beat rapidly beneath his skin. I took a breath and spoke calmly. “I’m sorry. Can’t someone else make it?”

“Yeah, me. If Ah can find enough metal.”

I paused a moment until my fingers steadied. “All’s not quite lost, then.” I focused on my work.

I got a grunt for that.

I pulled another stitch free. “Why is he bullying New Eden? Do they have a machine he wants, too?”

“Much more basic than that. They’ve got food. That’s all he wants from here.”

I still found it hard to think of the Magistrate as a petty thief. The second stitch gave. “We’ve got food.”

“Not for long,” he managed, bitterly. “The tins will be too far to reach again when the seas rise.”

I nodded, as a picture of the future bloomed in my mind. Our food supply would slip out of reach, men dying to get to it while others died on the surface without it. Another twist of nature and City would be on the brink of starvation once more, as we’d been before my father designed nautilus technology.

I pulled the final stitch free and ran my thumb over his skin. It was smooth and healthy, warm to the touch, with the faintest pucker of holes where the needle had punctured the skin. Cosimo shivered. I dropped my hand.

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