He probably weighed less than an apple, and he was straining to open a window that was maybe four or five feet by three feet across, no doubt latched shut.
Well, he had weeks of experience in this body. I’d trust him.
He gave up. “If it wasn’t so big, I could do it. Or if it wasn’t latched on the inside.”
“Alright,” I said. “Good try. Smaller window?”
“Smaller window,” he said.
“That way first,” I told him, pointing.
I arrived before he did.
The window was small, high, and square. Occupying the space was difficult, as I stood on the ledge, my shoulder braced against the frame, my foot against the rest. If I’d needed to move, I might have risked falling. As it stood, the only risk I faced was slipping to the point I was moved over to the next patch of light.
Had I been properly alive, the book I’d tucked into my pants would have been ten times more uncomfortable.
“Don’t sprain anything,” I told Evan.
“I’m good,” he said.
The method was the same, but this time, legs flexing, wings flapping to help keep him in place, he tried to screw his beak into the gap.
Sure enough, it popped open.
“Yes,” Evan hissed.
“Don’t make too much noise,” I murmured. “They’ll hear.”
I still couldn’t enter or see within, but I could hear the noise that came from inside, through the open window.
I had to ignore the faint echoing knell.
It reminded me a bit of the Drains, and I didn’t like being reminded of the Drains.
There were voices coming from within. Not in the room the window looked into, given the distance and the vague muffled tone of it. An adjacent room.
“…ster’s getting results,” a male voice. Man one.
“As I’ve said a few times, he’s been saying he’s getting results. With very careful wording. How big are the results? At what cost? In what timeframe?”
“You’re being paranoid, Ben,” man one said.
Ben didn’t rise to the insult, “I’m being pragmatic. Tell me that, in his shoes, you wouldn’t equivocate some, and mislead the adults as to exactly what you were doing? Lead them to think that you spent all they gave you, that the threat is dire, while you’re busy pocketing excess.”
“We’re in a unique situation here,” a woman said. “Most of us are sworn to very particular oaths, swearing we won’t use what we’ve gathered over the generations. The idea was always that we’d be very careful about what fights we picked, use our future sight and the bloodline’s power to prepare well in advance, and prepare the next generation without using those same oaths if the situation called for it.”
“I’m not arguing that-“
“Stop, Ben. Let me finish. Aimon was lax about following the rules, and let several individuals slip through the cracks. Maybe on purpose, maybe not. But Laird was one individual who had as much free reign as the family could get him. Alister is another. Whether Aimon saw all of this coming or not, he made those two critical pieces in this war.”
“Laird got himself killed attempting to repay a favor he shouldn’t have asked,” Ben said.
A woman spoke. “One mistake, but Laird did a number of things right. The tools he gave Duncan are tools that are keeping us relevant now. Tools we can use without breaking the oaths.”
“You don’t like Alister,” man one said. “But he’s one of the only assets we have that have come of age. He’s exceptionally talented, he’s smart.”
“He’s already lying to you in small ways. If he’s lying to you in this? We can’t afford to make a bad decision for the head of our family, not for the third time in a row.”
“If he tells the truth, then by the oaths the family keyholders have sworn, we’re obliged to keep him from squandering our resources. If he misleads us, he can keep using those resources to our collective benefit.”
“You know me,” Ben said. “I don’t drink, I don’t even like medication that might muddle my thoughts, and believe me, Gloria thought I was the stupidest man in the world, when I refused pills after my hip broke.”
“I did,” a woman said. Gloria.
Ben continued, “I live my life simply. Up until I retired, I worked hard. I was responsible to my family. I’ve always been faithful. If that means anything, if it has any currency at all, then let me say this. I believe in balance. I believe in living in accordance to God, the spirits, the elements, and the natural order of the universe. Living that way makes us strong. You know this.”
“Ben-“
“Let me finish. I think we’re getting away from that. Not just us here, not us as a family, but everyone. We deceive our enemies with misdirection and omission, while paying only lip service to truth. We lie to ourselves, damn it, because if we believe the wrong thing, then the spirits cut us an awful lot of slack. We’re all just being… fundamentally dishonest. I think the universe makes us pay for it more than we think, and I don’t want that to be the foundation for our Lordship of Jacob’s Bell. Not for us, and the tone it sets, and not for the way I think it’s going to be seen by other eyes, from above or around us.”
A long pause.
“Ben, I realize you’re passionate about this, but you’re not a family elder. It’s ultimately up to us.”
“You’re representatives, you speak for us. For me. And I’m saying we should back Timothy.”
“I’m seconding the motion,” Gloria said.
There was a low murmur of multiple voices, some agreeing, more sounding negative.
“We’ve heard you, Ben. Your arguments will be taken into account.” Man one.
“Pass the wine.”
“Red?”
“Yeah.”
“Does anyone else have anything to add before we move forward?”
“We’re outclassed, and we’re hurting badly with Laird gone. We’re not going to win this without pulling out all the stops and being damn clever.”
“The Duchamps and Johannes are pulling out the stops and being clever too,” someone said. “They’ve got more they can do, and I’d even say they’re cleverer. Why play their game? Maybe Ben is right. We play this right, not devious.”