by C. E. Murphy
Chapter 13
There was no fleet lingering between the pirate ship and the horizon. Rasim's nails dug into the railing wood, leaving gouges in the rail and splinters in his fingers. If the fleet was not still at sea, then perhaps they'd been invited into port. Five days. The pirates were only five days behind. Surely they hadn't missed the Ilyaran fleet entirely. Rasim tasted blood and winced, discovering he'd bitten his lip.
Carley swung up to the crow's nest for a better view, her gaze bright and excited on the horizon. "I've never met Northmen. I've heard they're all ten feet tall with huge beards and clawed feet like bears."
Rasim, distracted, gawked at her. "My father was a Northman. Do I look like he was ten feet tall or had bear feet?"
She gave him a dismissive glance. "No, but you're half Ilyaran." Then she looked again, more seriously. "You don't look happy."
"I'm fine." Not even he believed that, but Carley shrugged and turned her attention back to the horizon. So did Rasim, searching for any signs of the tall ships his fleet sailed. Marks of the Northern capital were visible, smudges of smoke that blurred the air and a slight change in landscape that suggested a city buried in the depths of a long, narrow harbor. The Ilyaran ships should be obvious, but even as they came closer Rasim saw nothing of them. His heart sank, confidence seeping away. Without his fleet he had nothing to offer Donnin.
At least they were within sight of land, now. Cold as the water might be, with his witchery he could make it to safety. Nothing else mattered, though the idea of Donnin's daughter being left in the hands of her captor bothered him.
The coast became clearer. Sharp mountains capped with white rose straight out of grey water. Rasim peered at the mountaintops as Carley whistled. "Snow already. Winter comes early to the North."
"What's snow?"
Carley laughed, did a double-take, and laughed again when she saw he was serious. "I thought a water witch would know everything about snow. It's frozen water that falls from the sky."
"Like ice?" Rasim had heard that Guildmaster Isidri could make ice or boil water just by looking at it. Not many water witches could do that, and fewer still were willing to offer the service to the nobility. For a moment that, too, struck Rasim as strange: the guilds had so many talents that strangers would pay to access, and yet almost no one left the guilds to test those waters. Not that Rasim wanted to; the Guild was his life. Maybe others felt the same way.
"Sort of," Carley was saying drolly, "but softer, and prettier. I can't believe you don't know what snow is. It doesn't come until winter, but winter's not for another six weeks at home. It's cold here."
"We don't have winter at all, just floods." Rasim studied the approaching horizon again. They had to be in the right place: vast stone carvings rose at the harbor's mouth, a fish-tailed god with a sword on one side and a fierce trident-bearing goddess on the other. The warning was plain enough: a city that would protect itself lay beyond those statues. The water turned crystal blue past that gateway, shallower but still plenty deep for a harbor. Narrower and calmer, too; Rasim could see how waves lost their force as they slid through the gates. A minute or two later so did the pirate ship, and Rasim caught his breath.
The mountains truly did soar straight up from the water, no beach to break their rise. Thin trees with spiny leaves ran halfway up the mountains, then faded to bare rock before the snow-stuff blanketed the tops. The harbor was wide enough here, but continued to narrow as it bent around a sharp curve. Rasim glanced up to see thin rope bridges stretching from one side of the harbor's tall mountainous walls to the other. That was clever: Northmen could cross without the need of a boat, which was no doubt useful from time to time. He turned his attention back to the upcoming curve, where the outermost docks were visible. Buildings carved right into the mountain faces also came clear, just a few at the curve, but promising many more beyond it.
"You know," Rasim said slowly, "we probably should have taken the flag down before we passed through the gates..."
Three dozen Northmen fell from the rope bridges above, and took the ship.
#
They cascaded past Carley and Rasim, either not seeing them or not caring, and landed on the deck below with the casual confidence of people who had done this hundreds of times. Chaos broke out below, Donnin's crew panicking, racing for weapons, for ropes, even throwing themselves overboard. The Northmen, armed with short swords and clawed ropes, caught all but a few of the crew before they'd even gone a few steps. Markus threw one mighty punch that felled a Northman. The fallen man's nearest companion gave a belly laugh before clobbering Markus on the back of the head with a sword hilt.
Carley swallowed a shriek, both hands clapped over her mouth. Rasim gaped upward. He had looked at the ropes up there only seconds before. There had been no Northerners visible, not even any bowing to the ropes to hint at their weight. Now there were dangling chunks of metal on the ropes, things that looked like perhaps the Northerners had slid rapidly along the ropes from the cliffs on either side of them. More were coming, in fact, doing just that. Rasim could hear the zip of metal against rope as they swung toward Donnin's ship.
Rasim seized Carley's hand, hissing, "Can you swim?"
"What? No!"
"Siliaria's fins!" Rasim scrambled onto the crow's nest railing, suddenly dizzy with a horrible familiarity. He hauled Carley up with him, trying to shake off the memory of the last time he'd done this. "Push with your legs when you jump so you clear the sails and the side of the ship."
"What? I'm not ju—"
"I'll get you to shore. Your other choice is them." He pointed toward the Northmen, two of whom were scaling the rigging already. "Carley, we've got to find my fleet, if we don't none of this is ever going to get explained, now jump!" At the last moment he released her arm, unwilling to be held back by Carley's weight if she didn't jump as well.
Diving into the cold Northern harbor was far less frightening than leaping onto a sea serpent. Rasim hit the water smoothly, hands above his head to break the surface. Cold shocked his breath away, but he laughed into the water, magic pressing it away to create a bubble of air so he could breathe.
Carley, to his astonishment, hit the water a few feet away. She landed like a stone, all splash and no finesse, then began thrashing and screaming. Rasim dove deeper, grabbed her ankle, and hauled her beneath the surface into his circle of water. She screamed again. Rasim clapped his hand over her mouth and brought his face closer to hers. "Quiet. Quiet. You're safe, but if you keep screaming you're going to use up all our air. If you don't fight me I can swim us to safety."
Carley's nostrils flared like a horse's, her breathing sharp and punctuated with panic. She nodded, though, and Rasim slowly released her mouth. She seized his shirt. "You're talking under water."
"We're talking in an air bubble I brought with us. Now relax so I can pull you with me." He flipped her around so her back was against his chest, and slid an arm over one of her shoulders, securing his fist her other armpit. "Just relax," he said again. "I'm a strong enough swimmer to get us out of here if you don't struggle."
Carley wrapped her hands around his forearm, but nodded, the motion restricted by his arm crossing nearly under her chin. Rasim took one more deep breath himself, though he knew the air wasn't going to run out, and dove deeper. A current caught them almost immediately, throwing them the wrong direction. Rasim let it sweep them along, not fighting it, until he caught the sense of a counter-current running beneath them. He kicked, encouraging the water above them to press down a little more, and within seconds they rode the second current, moving swiftly toward the sharp bend in the harbor's layout.
The sea swept by that bend at enormous speed, flinging them forward. Rocky outcrops were sharp and dangerous, not yet smoothed by endless waves. This was a relatively new harbor, then, only cut away by the sea recently. A long time in man's terms, maybe—long enough to build a great city here—but very little compared to the patience of the ocean. Within moments the cur
rent brought them into quieter waters, though Rasim could feel the water crash against the stone sea walls ahead. Ships were above them now, big bellies a reassuring shape in the water. Rasim dove deeper, finding an anchor dug into the sand, and latched onto it. If the current couldn't move it, it wouldn't move them, either. "Carley, wrap one arm around the chain. Good. Hold on tight."
His nose was an inch or two away from hers, and they crossed eyes trying to look at one another. Rasim grinned. "And don't let go of me either. Are you all right?"
"I'm at the bottom of a Northern harbor, holding onto a North ship's anchor and a crazy Ilyaran. What do you think?"
"I think you're not dead or captured."
Carley hesitated, then shrugged agreement. "Now what?"
Rasim sighed. "I see ladders built into the sea wall, but those will just bring us up on the docks, which will get us caught. I have to find Asindo, and none of these ships are ours."
Carley peered dubiously where he pointed. "You do? I can't see anything. How can you tell who built a ship from below?"
"The water feels different where it hits metal instead of stone," Rasim said absently. "Maybe 'see' isn't quite the right word, but I know it's there. And it's easy to tell, if you've ever built a ship. They all have keels, but the Northern ships have really heavy keels and a narrow hull. Ours are lighter and broader. And that one over there is Donnin's ship, the one coming into the harbor now."
"If you say so."
"It is," Rasim said with confidence. "See the joinings at the kee—" Carley gave him a look and he broke off with a shrug. "Well, it is. Anyway, we need to find a way in that isn't right off the docks, and the only thing I can think of is the sewers."
Carley reared back, disgusted. Rasim barely snagged her before she broke out of their air bubble. "Be careful! I know it's nasty, but we'll freeze if we stay in the water until nightfall. Well, we'd drown first, I don't have nearly that much air for us, but if we didn't drown we'd freeze, because I can't keep us warm."
"You're so calm." Carley sounded bemused. "Sitting underwater talking about swimming through sewers and maybe drowning or freezing and you just sound like it's an ordinary day."
Rasim gave a low laugh. "I've had a rough couple of weeks."
"Does it have to be the sewers?"
"I think so. Just try to remember the air we're breathing is clean, and hold on."
Carley muttered something Rasim was just as glad not to understand, and wrapped her arms around Rasim's neck. He swung her around again into the carrying position, then pushed off the anchor, swimming against the current to where he felt water pouring into the harbor from underwater pipes.
Surprisingly clean water, when he reached the outpour. Ilyaran sewerage was fresh, the offal separated out and buried, and the rest purified by water witches. This Northern sewer pipe poured water nearly that clean out, too. Rasim hung in the sea a moment, feeling fresh water crash against salt, and wondered if the Northerners had magic, too. If they did, someone should have told the Ilyaran people thirteen years ago. They might have embraced their Northern queen more willingly, then.
It didn't matter now. Rasim went against the tide of sewer water. Darkness enveloped them within a few feet, daylight unable to penetrate the upward angle of the sewer tunnel. The water wouldn't respond to his urging, continuing to rush downward while he kicked hard to swim upstream. He was not yet out of air, but the memory of fighting the serpent, of air fading, began to build worry in his gut. He would have to decide soon whether to keep struggling upward or whether to let the water take them back to the harbor, where at least he could get them to the surface before they drowned.
All at once he went above sea level and his head broke through tumbling water. It smelled like a sewer, anyway. Rasim coughed and Carley gagged, both of them fumbling to get a grip on the tunnel's sides, which were aggravatingly smooth. Water had no doubt polished them, but they had never been natural: man or magic had almost certainly made these smooth round slides leading to the harbor. Rasim gasped with the effort of trying to drag himself up against the downward spill of water.
Carley, considerably taller than Rasim, flung herself an extra few inches forward and gave a yelp of triumph. "Here, I found a crack, there's a—" She offered him one hand and hauled him up, past the crack she'd found. Rasim dug his fingertips against the stone, finding another crack, like the stone had seams. He took a breath, then, grunting, pulled Carley up and past him, the way she'd done for him. She seized another crack, and they slowly launched each other upward against the rushing water, a very long distance indeed. Rasim's arms trembled with effort until every time he dragged Carley up he thought he couldn't do it again. He kept the thought quiet, though, telling himself he could do it just one more time, until Carley landed with a splat that sounded unlike their previous efforts.
She crowed, "It's flat!", before the sound of her own hand slapping over her mouth echoed down the tunnel. "Sorry," she whispered. "I didn't think that would be so loud. Hang on." She pulled him up onto a much flatter surface beside her.
Water still ran around them at high speed, but they'd clearly reached a gathering place. Rasim could hear it falling from pipes all around, then splashing down into the area they'd discovered. A dim glow became obvious well above their heads, and after a minute of heaving for breath, Rasim got to his feet. The water came to his knees. "Do you see that?"
"I'm trying not to because I don't think we can reach it." Despite her dour comment, Carley stood up as well. "Maybe if you stood on my shoulders?"
"I should have gotten rope from the ship before we jumped."
"You could always go back and get some."
Rasim laughed. "Can you boost me? I'll try to get into one of those runoff tunnels and see if I can reach from there. I should be able to keep the water from pushing me out of the tunnel, anyway."
"You want me to stand under one of those runoffs?"
Even in the dark, her expression was obvious. Rasim smiled apologetically and reached for her hand. They edged across the pool floor cautiously, Rasim glancing up and trying to judge if any particular runoff tunnel was closer to the dim light above. They didn't seem to be, so when water from the first one hit him, he shuddered and said, "Here. We'll try here."
Carley made a stirrup of her hands. Rasim stepped into it, cold wet feet in cold wet fingers. They both made sounds of disgust, and Carley gave a short hard laugh before flinging Rasim upward with all her strength.
He went higher than he expected, nearly touching the ceiling before they both overbalanced and crashed back to the floor in a series of shouts, groans and splashes. Rasim sat up shaking his head like a wet dog, and Carley moaned as she dragged herself back out of the water. "That didn't work."
"No," Rasim said eagerly, "But I got really close to whatever's up there. Try again. Just don't throw me so hard. Let me get a foot into the runoff tunnel, and then try to step back onto your shoulders. I might be able to reach the ceiling. You just have to hold me there long enough to see if I can move the door."
"It's a door now?"
"It's round and light's seeping through," Rasim said almost grimly. "It has to be a door. Ready?"
Carley grunted assent. She didn't lift so violently this time, and Rasim scrambled into the runoff tunnel, fingers pinched against its top to keep himself from falling. "I'm in! I'm looking for your shoulder with my foot now!" He waved his foot in the air until Carley grabbed it and guided it to her shoulder. "Are you ready?" Rasim asked.
"No. How much do you weigh?"
"Less than a water barrel?"
"I can't hold a water barrel!"
"Good thing I weigh less than one, then!"
"Fine, just...be careful!"
"Believe me, I will be." Rasim inched his toes forward until he had his arch centered on Carley's shoulder muscle, then swallowed hard. "Can you reach my other ankle? All right, when I put weight on you, try to get my foot to your shoulder right away. One, two, thrEEEEEEE!"
Rasim clenched his stomach, trying to maintain balance as Carley staggered beneath him. She staggered the right direction, though: toward the center of the room, as he flailed and tried to stay upright. Carley bellowed, "Push, push, open it!" and he scraped his fingernails along the door's underside.
"I'm not tall enough!"
"Curse it!" Carley roared and somehow surged up, shoving Rasim higher. He flattened his palms against the door and pushed with all his strength.
It lifted aside with surprising ease. Carley howled a warning and collapsed beneath him.
A strong pair of hands seized Rasim's wrists and hauled him upward.
Chapter 14
For one wild instant Rasim thought somehow Desimi had found him. No one else had ever dragged him out of tight spaces before, though normally Desimi did it to cause trouble, and this time Rasim was the one making trouble. But the man holding him bore no resemblance to Desimi at all, save for his general largeness. His hair was yellow, his eyes blue, and the pale skin of his face was faintly pink from the effort of dangling a boy in mid-air.
Rasim couldn't tell which of them, himself or the giant man, was more astonished. The big man said something incomprehensible. His tone was amused, a lilt at the end of his phrase, but Rasim shook his head. "I don't understand. Do you speak the common tongue?"
The man had eyebrows like sea urchins, the hairs thick, long, and prickly. They rose up, causing trench-deep lines to appear in the man's forehead. He said "Nei," which was clearly enough no that Rasim nodded in understanding. The man, without changing expression, threw Rasim over his shoulder and left the open sewerage hole behind.
"Wait!" Rasim thumped on the giant's back, then kicked his feet, trying to squirm around to get the man's attention. "Wait, my friend is back there! Someone else is in the hole! Carley! Carley! Say something!"
"Something like 'GET ME OUT OF HERE!'?" Carley called back.
The giant stopped, held Rasim out again in even greater astonishment, and spoke a second time. Rasim, guessing what he said, slumped in his grip. "Yes, there are two of us. And she'll get sick of cold if she's down there much longer, so please get her out."