The Girl of Ink & Stars by Kiran Millwood Hargrave Page A

to see that Pablo had left him with an ugly yellow bruise on his cheek.
    â€˜What option do we have?’ snapped Adori. ‘Would you have us wandering the Forgotten Territories lost?’
    â€˜Me,’ I said, loudly.
    â€˜What?’ said Adori.
    â€˜I can navigate, sir,’ I said, emboldened by the silence that fell across the room. ‘I’d be more use to you, sir. Thanmy da, I mean, with his leg being bad. And I have a map, an old one of the Forgotten Territories, from before . . .’ I swallowed, ‘before they were forgotten,’ I finished lamely.
    The Governor raised a finger and the room fell silent. His beetle-black eyes were still locked on mine.
    â€˜Can you read maps, boy? Can you draw them?’
    â€˜Yes, sir. My father has trained me.’
    â€˜Prove it.’ He clicked his fingers and there was movement behind him. A small desk and chair were brought forward. The chair was shoved into the backs of my knees, and a piece of paper and ink placed before me. ‘You came through the fields, yes?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Being a cartographer, you will know the current positions of the stars.’
    It was one of the first things Da taught me. Stars are the earliest maps, the most precise. They can tell you where you are better than a compass – after all, they have a bird’s-eye view. If you can learn to read the stars, you’ll never be lost .
    â€˜Then map the route from here to the square. I want buildings – accurately scaled – field boundaries, the location of north, a wind indication, an estimation of time, walking and on horseback. Do it. Quickly.’
    He strode back to the table and the men closed ranks around me, watching. Some of what he was asking was a task for a navigator, not a cartographer. But I knew Da would be able to do it easily, even in the darkness of theDédalo. I picked up the reed quill and, closing my eyes, retraced the journey behind my eyelids. The night sky danced on them, the stars fixing their positions. I opened my eyes and began to draw.
    The Governor was talking again. ‘Vasquez, you are to take up the governorship while I am away.’
    â€˜I’m greatly honoured,’ Vasquez simpered.
    â€˜Sir, wouldn’t it be better if you stayed?’ said Marquez. ‘I hardly think Vasquez capable of controlling Gromera in such an uncertain state—’
    â€˜An uncertain state?’ said the Governor icily. ‘We have locked up the usual troublemakers. Any more, and Vasquez simply has to lock them up too. Do you doubt my judgement, Marquez?’
    â€˜Of course not,’ he blustered.
    â€˜You expect me to stay behind?’ Adori’s voice was rising.
    â€˜I was merely expressing—’
    â€˜Then don’t. Stop expressing. Just do as I say. Understood?’
    I assumed Marquez nodded, because no one else spoke, or raised further objections. The route was blossoming like a tabaiba bush beneath my hands; small black buds of buildings, and branches of boundaries. I added the ant-lines of wind as I remembered it, snaking off the sea, south-easterly and warm.
    I was just starting the criss-cross of star lines when the Governor’s attention returned to me. ‘Are you done yet, boy?’
    I hastily scrawled an estimate of time in the corner before the paper was snatched from me. The Governor regarded it coolly, then said, ‘Marquez, fetch Ferdinand.’
    The man left the room as the Governor looked down at me.
    â€˜Can you ride a horse?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Can you follow orders? Do you know when to speak and when to be silent?’
    I nodded vigorously, to show I did.
    Governor Adori rocked backwards slightly on his heels, his eyebrows knitting.
    â€˜How old are you?’
    It was not a question I had been expecting. I was about to say thirteen, but something stopped me. Lupe was thirteen, too. Adori might think of her if I said my real age,