The Tenets in the Tattoos (The King's Swordsman Book 1)

by Becky James

  Tuniel lifted an eyebrow. “Earthian blood, I assume.”

  Facing her, I put my hand on the pommel of my father’s sword.

  Tuniel scowled at me. “Not all mages and mancers would cause all-out war for Earthian blood!”

  “Indeed. So why would the MasterMage?” I asked, still watching her.

  The mage pulled her silvrine hair over one shoulder, twisting it.

  “I caught snatches of her mind while I was lucid in the dreamlands,” Ellesmere said. “She has Rose, yes, but there was something else, something I found hard to grasp. It involved the alt-histories, different worlds with different trajectories than ours.”

  “We met some alts. Aubin and I, I mean,” I said, running my hand through my hair. “It was… interesting, to say the least. But I am not sure that they weren’t merely dream figures.” It certainly sounded outlandish, spoken in the cold cavern day. Or night. “What turn of the glass is it?” I asked.

  “It is mid-sun,” Tuniel said, closing her eyes briefly. “Rhona grows closer. I suggest we make haste with whatever our plan is. From what I can surmise from Aubin’s actions, there will be a technical detail in the contract that voids it. We just need to anticipate what that detail is.”

  I folded my arms. “All he said to me was to get Evyn to hate him.” I glanced at my soul. She sat next to Aubin, arms around her knees. “I thought that was so you wouldn’t try to rescue him, Evyn.” She did not look up at her name. I tried not to mind. “I do think we should keep Evyn away from Waker. She really managed to annoy her in the dreamlands; Waker has Aubin so she can get her within knifing distance.”

  Evyn scowled. “She has my mum and someone who’s asked me to the library to make me peche. I’m coming after her,” she said, standing up and balling her little hands into fists.

  I paced the cavern. “This is what I propose: that Tuniel and I deliver Aubin’s body to Waker so we can get his spirit back. You could offer me up in chains or something to show Waker that you made a good-faith effort to bring us both, but could only manage the one. Waker will be put out but happy because I’m Evyn’s soul companion.”

  “And then?” Tuniel prompted.

  I waved a hand. “And then I was going to improvise. Aubin’s contract will void somehow. I’m relying on that to distract Waker enough for me to take off her head and save Gough, Rose and Aubin.”

  “That is a really, really bad plan,” Evyn said.

  At least my soul was talking to me, but the way she spoke put me straight back onto earth, grovelling on my knees for forgiveness. But this time, it wasn’t my fault, and the injustice riled me. “Let’s see you come up with better.”

  “Sure. How about I ping through into the MasterMage’s Palais, grab that golden orb she has that represents Aubin’s spirit, and bring it back to reunite them?”

  I halted my steps. “That is a better plan.”

  Tuniel shook her head. “A person, whether magic user or mundane, can only enter the MasterMage’s Palais if she wants you to.”

  Evyn set her stance the way I taught her. “She does want me to enter. She’s waving a big ‘Come see me in my office’ sign by stealing Aubin away.”

  “I want to accompany you on the pinging,” I said.

  “Sure.” Evyn’s voice sounded tight and controlled.

  I sighed. “I might be useful.”

  “Miracles do happen.”

  I balled my fists, gratified at least to feel no physical pain. Ellesmere touched my wrist gently, and I heard the queen’s soothing voice in my mind. “She’s angry. She will calm down and come back to herself. You are not at fault here. You did what you could in the situation.”

  “I did not,” I said in my mind. “I failed. I failed her and I failed Aubin and I failed Gough. It won’t happen again.”

  Ellesmere sighed, patting my hand.

  Out loud, I added, “I also need to rescue Prince Rogan and the swordsman Aleric from the castle, and find clues as to where my family went. Gavain said he had Aleric pending execution. For all I know, that has been set.” Or had already taken place. My stomach twisted.

  “Aubin first, then storming castles,” Tuniel said.

  “Well.” Evyn rolled out her mother’s map. “It’s actually on the way. I can set you all off on Gran’s barge, then Thorrn and I can go back to where the ping-through place is on Earth. We can meet up with you within a day, easy.”

  “Thank you,” I said to my soul.

  “I’m not doing it for you,” she muttered.

  I slapped my hands on my thighs. Nerves and heartbreak and anger swirled inside me, and I wasn’t sure whose emotion it was. Perhaps both of ours, intermingled and trapped within me, and Evyn’s tight shoulders and red eyes told me she felt it too. I swung my arms to loosen my shoulders. “I’m going to train as soon as we get somewhere safe,” I said.

  “Last time you did that we had to rescue you,” Evyn groused.

  “Indeed, but only because Gavain was out there waiting to meet me.”

  Evyn froze, and I groaned inwardly. “It was him you contacted on Aubin’s lodestone, wasn’t it?” Her face took on a new colour, this one nearly carmine with rage. Tuniel’s face darkened, and even Ellesmere and Gadamere’s eyes widened at me.

  Evyn barrelled up to me. “Aubin specifically warned you about him and you still went and contacted him. You told him we were here and where the royal family was! That’s why he was here! I hadn’t even thought why he was here in the first place, but it was you! You sold us out!”

  I held up my hands. “I didn’t sell anything, Gavain tricked me. He said he wanted to join us, and I asked him to bring Aleric—”

  “That’s why Torgund’s got him on death row!” Evyn’s shoulders shook. “Thorrn, you’re flailing around doing more harm than good. You’re going to get yourself killed, or someone else. Probably someone else, because you don’t seem to care about throwing other people in front of the bus.”

  I took a step back. I could gather the blow she meant to land with that. “That would kill someone. I wouldn’t do that. And that is unfair,” I said quietly. “I tried to stop him. I did try.”

  “Not hard enough,” Evyn snapped, her accusing finger fixing me to the spot. “You were the one who showed me how the dreamlands work. You’re getting immune to magic.”

  I folded my arms tight around myself, holding the ache in my chest in. “Not if our bond continues like this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Ellesmere went up to take Evyn’s arm. “The immunity will happen over time, Evyn,” Ellesmere said gently. “It took turns for Gough to develop something substantial, and even that is overcome when Rose is nearby. That’s how it works; when Rose is touching Gough, he is no longer immune, and healing and other magics work on him.”

  “That’s useful to know, but Thorrn made reference to our bond. What’s wrong with it?” Evyn frowned at me, as if it were solely my fault.

  “We’re fighting. You blame me, rightly, for failing Aubin.” Perhaps it was my fault. I scuffed my boots on the rocks. “I don’t know what else to do apart from helping him by moving forward rather than looking backwards and focusing on what I did wrong.”

  “But that way you don’t learn, Thorrn. You just keep creating problems to solve the problems you created!” Evyn threw up her hands.

  My chest ached as fiercely as my shoulders had. “Or you get stuck in your head and whirl around thinking of how useless you are instead of moving forward and doing something to try to make it better.”

  We stared at each other. Evyn blinked slowly. My chest rose and fell.

  “You need a bit of both,” Ellesmere interjected carefully. “You need… some balance.”

  “What we need is to leave. Rhona’s not far away,” Tuniel said.

  That mobilised us. As I scooped up my belongings, I felt another strange sensation in my chest; something heavy and hard. I glanced over at Evyn busying herself gathering our few things. I opened my mouth a few times, the
n decided to follow my own advice and get moving.

  Chapter 24

  By carefully jumping back and forth, we chose our moment to decamp into Evyn’s grandmother’s boat. Evyn reconnected the engine, the magical spirit trapped within the bowels of the barge and did other manner of handy boat-related things that made it operational. None of the rest of us even knew how to tie a knot.

  We transferred Gough and Aubin across and laid them in bunks that Evyn pulled from the walls in the main mess area. We had nothing but them to stare at as we sipped the tea that Evyn insisted we all needed once we were done.

  “You know,” I said to Evyn, “once we rescue Gough and Rose, they are going to have me executed for bringing so many mages and mancers across.”

  She sighed. “You could tell them you put in a token effort to stop me. That’s what you usually do.”

  I felt a great urge to undergo about three of Shard’s harder workouts but as I am an adult and can deal with my emotions appropriately, I merely excused myself and screamed into a pillow.

  Evyn taught Tuniel and Gadamere the basics of engine appeasement to enable them to continue to have magic on the barge while we were away. While Evyn explained something to Gadamere, Ellesmere touched my arm. “Yes, Your Majesty?” I asked her.

  “I have been in touch with Rogan. My son says he wants to stay in the castle.” Her blue eyes were unfathomable. “He said rescuing him and his soul companion would be too risky for you. They are under Captain Barlay’s guard in the royal apartments.”

  My stomach tightened. “Under guard, imprisonment. Little difference. Your Majesty, I rescued Evyn from the Last Tower. I can do this.” My eyes strayed to Aubin’s slack body in the bunk. I’d had help, and Evyn had rescued herself.

  “Rogan can be my eyes and ears at the castle,” Ellesmere replied. Even as tears spilled over onto her cheeks, her face was resolute. “He is safe while Torgund is occupied with consolidating his rule with the lords. They are listening to him because he speaks in Rogan’s stead.”

  “Perhaps by taking the prince, we can destabilise him further,” I suggested.

  Ellesmere shook her head. “As much as I want to see my son, I do agree he is safe for now, and he can be useful there. He is very brave, and Gough would be so proud of him.” She took my arm. “Thorrn, Rogan says he’s worried for your family, and I’m not sure what he means. You should make haste.”

  My heart drummed. “At once, Your Majesty.” She squeezed my hand, but I took it back to salute, deliberately not thinking of what the other version of Evyn had said about my heritage. It was not appropriate to bring up now to the queen, but perhaps my family would have answers.

  We left the barge with its royal passengers, along with Tuniel and the ever-silent Aubin, while Evyn and I began the reverse journey on train beasts to get back to her abode. Rocking and bumping inside the carriage, we sat apart but in the same vicinity. I carried the bag with my sword in it, and my shoulders merely twinged at times when I lifted it.

  At the next to last change of beast, I asked, “Are we going to sit in silence for the entire journey?”

  “Apparently not.” She had chosen to sit directly in front of me rather than beside me, so all I could see was the back of the seat.

  Tipping my head to the cold window, I said, “I have apologised.”

  “No, you haven’t. You said you were sorry you failed. That’s like saying ‘I’m sorry you took offence’. You’re only sorry that you didn’t kick ass and win, and you aren’t sorry for Aubin at all.”

  If I could have seen through the seat, I would have looked at her rigid back and her tight shoulders as she crossed her arms sternly. This seat might as well have been the closed door of her bedroom.

  “If it pleases you, I am,” I said quietly, shifting in my chair. “But there is nothing I can do to change what happened. He made his choice.”

  “So you say.”

  Resisting the urge to fold my arms to protect my chest, I said gruffly, “I won’t be accused of betraying my companions.”

  “Thorrn, you nearly sodding killed him on the way up here.”

  I took a breath. “I did. But somewhere in between Gavain disabling me, Aubin not taking advantage of that and what we saw in the dreamlands, that relationship changed.”

  “So, what, you owe him now?”

  I repeated what I said to Ellesmere. “Love is not about who owes whom.”

  Evyn was silent for a time.

  I exhaled slowly. “If you want, I will separate from you as soon as we are able.”

  Her head popped up over the seat. “Are you threatening to take me to Torgund?”

  “No! No, I would never do that.”

  Something in my face convinced her. “Sorry. Of course.” She sat back down.

  I resumed staring at the seat in front of me. “If this has called into question my character, my sincerity, my loyalty, then perhaps you would prefer that we were separate. Then I would fulfil my promise to you.”

  “What promise was that?”

  “To kill Waker for showing you those phantoms. It would not ordinarily break the Thralldom on Aubin because she has to give that up. If I took my time doing it, however, I’m sure that could be arranged.”

  Evyn slipped into silence again. A slow curl of dread unfurled in my stomach.

  “Do you really want to be separated?” A small but calm question that fanned my fears. My chest hurt.

  I shoved the pain down. “I would not expect to entirely succeed at both. When she captures me, I refuse to lead her to you.”

  “The Finder-Caller thing? Like this?” A faint sensation brushed my shoulder. Evyn pointed her finger at me over the back of the seat.

  “What? Wait, was that…” I concentrated on Finding Evyn. Instead, my heart squeezed, and Evyn put her head between the seats.

  “You rang?”

  “I’m the Caller?” I thumped backwards into my seat. “Damn and blast.”

  A smile tickled the edges of her lips. It highlighted the dark shadows under her eyes. “You did it when Gavain… Anyway, how are your shoulders?”

  “Fine.” I watched her for a trace of reaction, but she was as closed to me as I was to her.

  “I’m glad you’re feeling better, I know you were really upset and worried.”

  Remembering my raw emotion pouring forth like blood from a wound, I recoiled. “It was a moment of weakness only.”

  “A moment of actually not trying to be perfect all the time, you mean.” Evyn’s eyes peered at me from between the seats.

  Looking away from that searching gaze, I cleared my throat.

  She sighed. “So yeah. You don’t need to worry about leading anyone to me.” She sank down, her back to me again. “No one’s going on any more suicide missions. We’re going to think things through and get it done properly. No more thinking on our feet or on the fly.”

  I held that, wondering what to do with it, and decided that I would think about it when I was less tired. Emotionally and physically.

  When we got to Evyn’s house, it was late, the darkness lit with orange poles which served to deepen the night beyond their reach. Evyn made a perfunctory search for her mother, and she looked so worn that I said, “Perhaps we will sortie for Aleric and word of my family at first light.”

  “No, if he’s held somewhere, he’ll be uncomfortable. Let’s just get it over with.”

  We went to the canalside, Evyn lighting the way with tamed glowstones she called torches, leaving them in the forest as we prepared to ping through. “Ready?” she asked me, not looking up at me.

  “Always,” I said, saluting her. She took us through and my stomach relaxed instantly, the ease of home laid upon me. I had to remind myself that I was no longer welcome here and to keep my guard up.

  The castle corridors should be quiet but still functioning at this late hour, but as we moved around and as we made our way up and across to the dungeons and prison cells without seeing anyone, my disquiet deepened.
There were a lot fewer guards than I would expect. I tried signalling to Evyn using soldier hand signals, but she was clueless, and I had to resort to whispering and gesturing, which ratcheted my nerves tighter. My heartbeat accelerated every time we rounded a corner and the risk of detection grew and grew.

  Finally, we made it to the cells. The gaoler and the man with the black mask were mercifully absent, but this wasn’t normal. I had to take advantage of it. Spying through each viewing panel, I came to one where a big bulk slumped on a cot.

  Motioning Evyn to ping us through, I started forward when she opened a way. She grabbed my arm, hissing, “Wait!” She pointed down at the drop below our feet. “I have to open the other one!”

  “Don’t you open them one after the other – well, go ahead, don’t delay!” I shivered as a draught of cold air blew fiercely into this world.

  “I was going to when you – argh, never mind.” Evyn opened another door, and we took a big step through into Aleric’s cell.

  Once she closed them, I said, “Those can be put closer together, and should, over a drop like that.”

  “I didn’t know how thick the door was!” She kept her voice low, but it still bounced in the small stone space.

  “Was that the cause of the delay?”

  “No, that was me being careful and thinking things through. I don’t want to fall through the sky like last time.” She folded her arms.

  “Yes, but this is just a couple of lengths.”

  She let out a sharp breath. “You want to fall that, be my guest, but don’t rush me when I’m making portals.”

  “But we might need to ping quickly and—” I straightened up. Aleric stared at us from his bunk. “Aleric. Hello. Good evening.” He blinked at me slowly. “I really am here, and I’m very sorry I accidentally dragged you into this—”