by Megan Derr
He charged through the chaos to what seemed to be the source of it: the man with the mean voice. Theoren Masterow, the soldier had said. "Enough!" Jader bellowed, making all of them startle and freeze.
Theoren whipped around, anger on his face—and snapped his mouth shut. The anger in his face smoothed into a smile the halfwit probably thought was charming. "Merry day, High Commander. I'm so relieved you're here to—"
"Sort out this mess you're responsible for?" Jader cut in. "I want to know why you were driving recklessly, why you are disrupting order and destroying things, and why you have not moved this carriage. This pavilion is not the place to settle squabbles. Move your carriage now and then report to my office. Am I understood?"
"Yes, High Commander, of course," Theoren said with another of is simpering smile, but his eyes were hard and mean before he dropped his gaze.
Jader moved on to dealing with the guards, barking orders until the horse was taken away to be put down, the cart was hauled off, and gawkers were sent scattering. Once he saw the carriage being moved, he strode off into the palace.
Inside he commandeered a servant. "Tell my head secretary, Axis, that Master Theoren Masterow has been ordered to report to me. He's to be left stewing until I show up to deal with him."
"Yes, Commander!" The servant hurried off, his skirts flapping.
Jader continued on his way, veering down the hall that would take him to Sarrica and Allen's offices. When he arrived, the guards at the door pulled it open and nodded as he passed.
Inside, Jader drew up short. The Bentans were staring at him again, and even Allen and Sarrica looked unsettled. "Why do they keep looking at me like that?"
Allen rose from where he'd been sitting next to Lady Beacher, looking at Sarrica briefly. Most probably missed he was looking for reassurance and relaxed slightly when Sarrica smiled. Whatever he was about to say, Allen wasn't happy about it and didn't think Jader would be either. He rested a hand on Lady Beacher's shoulder. "This is Lady Beacher. She is close friends with another woman currently still trapped on the ship—Lady Krista von Terring, daughter and heir of the Duchess of Abernoth."
"Abernoth," Jader repeated slowly. That was one of the oldest and most powerful titles in Benta, the equivalent of Fathoms Deep in Harken. Unlike Fathoms Deep, however, they were a private, almost reclusive family, from what he understood. They hadn't been present in the recent war, or any of the meetings the past couple of years. "What has that to do with me?"
Turning to the woman, Allen said something softly in Bentan, then turned back to Jader. "The Duchess of Abernoth withdrew from society approximately twenty-two years ago, after her husband, brother, and youngest son were lost at sea. Her son had recently turned eight; it was his first voyage with his father and he'd been extremely proud to go. Watching him run up the gangplank was the last time anyone ever saw him. Until today."
Jader opened his mouth, closed it again. Blood pounded in his ears. "There must be…" He didn't bother to finish such a stupid sentence. No one knew his age, but his parents had estimated it as somewhere between eight and ten. His white skin was strange in Harken, but common in Benta. If he'd washed ashore on the Mainland, somebody might have figured out what language he'd been speaking. But twenty-odd years ago, tensions between Islanders and Mainlanders had been much, much worse than they were now. It would never have occurred to his family or community to go to the Mainland for help. Jader had never thought about that until he'd joined the army and realized just how easily he could have been taken to people who would have been able to help him. By that point, however, he'd forgotten his first language, and had been struggling to improve his limited Harken on top of having learned Islander at such a late age.
His chest felt tight and his stomach dangerously close to heaving up whatever remained of his long-ago breakfast. "I'm an Islander," he finally choked out.
"Yes, that is what we've said," Allen said softly, and turned to speak to Lady Beacher again.
Sarrica crossed the room and rested a hand on his shoulder, and Jader relaxed slightly, his military training falling over him like a familiar blanket. Sarrica and Lesto shared a storm tamer quality; he and Shemal had discussed it on several occasions. Jader wished he were half so stable, and kept hoping it would come with time.
"It's all right," Sarrica said gruffly, voice pitched low. "You're one of us, not some Bentan halfwit. I don't care what they say or do or insist—and they're going to insist on a lot, make no mistake—I need my High Commander more than they need somebody who's been dead to them for more than twenty years."
Jader managed a nod. "Thank you, Majesty." He shook himself. "I've sent Admiral Chief Mazen out on one of the galleons. The stranded ship is roughly three days out, so it will likely take anywhere from five to eight to bring them home, more if they run afoul of bad weather, but Mazen said they'd move as quickly as possible."
Sarrica nodded and looked to Allen, who immediately started translating. Looking back at Jader, he said, "You can leave if you want. We can handle them, and if they fuss, well, I'm the High King and I dismissed you to attend other matters. Unless you want to stay and talk to them?"
"No," Jader said, still feeling on the verge of throwing up. He was Jader shey Belarigo, and had the adoption papers to prove it. In the Harken Empire, he was also legally Jader Star. He knew maybe five words of Bentan, and while he didn't completely despise the country, he did not particularly like them either. He wasn't Bentan, he didn't want to be Bentan. He wished this whole moment had never happened. "Thank you."
Sarrica clasped his shoulder reassuringly one last time and nudged him toward the door. Jader made his escape, drawing a shuddery breath once he'd reached the hallway.
He'd have to deal with the woman on the ship when she arrived, but once they went home, that would be that. If they tried to take him to Benta or something equally mad, Sarrica and Allen would find themselves with an international incident to work out.
He slowed his steps as he reached his office, giving himself a few more seconds to regain his composure. By the time he stepped through the door, he was able to pointedly ignore Theoren as he crossed the antechamber and vanished into his office, grabbing the papers Axis held out for him.
Settling behind his desk after removing his sword belt, he quickly looked the papers over: a confirmation of appointments with the captains regarding questionable requisitions, the revised report, and a preliminary report on the incident from last night regarding the fire in the east barracks.
He went over the revised report and placed it in Axis's bin, finished up a couple of letters he was drafting, and reviewed the bulletin about the matters going before the council at the end of the month. One of them was the practice of impressment. It had come up numerous times before, crowded in with several other matters regarding the Outlands and Farlands.
For years, Sarrica had been urging for the Islands to either become a proper part of the Outlands or to become their own kingdom under the empire. As they stood now, they were only a territory of Outland, which meant they were left alone except when someone found it convenient to abuse them—like the old practice of impressment.
But the trouble with becoming a full part of Outland or a kingdom in their own right was that the Harken Empire had been built around unifying various kingdoms. For all that Harken was an empire, the kingdoms were largely autonomous. There were laws the empire enforced across all of them, but mostly they were left to manage themselves. But many of those laws, and other imperial requirements, went directly against Island practices and traditions. The loose, casual cooperative of the Islands was directly at odds with many aspects of Harken, as Harken had never thought to account for such a thing back when it was forming, and had no need to as one kingdom after another joined.
Which meant that if the Islands were to join the empire, first they needed to work out how to accommodate both the Islands and the Empire's needs and laws without negatively affecting the Islands. The council, of course, th
ought the Islands should be made to fit, but with the High Throne, Fathoms Deep, and a handful of others protesting, that idea wasn't going anywhere. Which meant the whole matter was constantly at a standstill. It would help if the Islands would send their own emissaries, instead of everything resting on Shemal's shoulders, but so far the Islands wouldn't even do that much—though Shemal said he thought that would change soon.
It gave Jader a headache thinking of the upheaval that would ensue, whatever the Islands eventually decided and whatever agreements were made. They would be safer as a full, independent part of Harken instead of a fragile territory that would be easily overtaken and used as a launch point should Treya Mencee or anyone else decide to attack Harken, but Sarrica wasn't going to force the issue—the decision belonged to the Islands.
Jader was simply grateful his position precluded him becoming the spokesperson for the matter. That frustrating role was falling to Shemal, who had swiftly joined Allen and Tara to become the terrifying triad that ruled the High Court.
Setting the bulletin aside, he finally called for Axis to send in Theoren.
When Theoren was standing in front of his desk, Jader sat back, settled his arms on the rests, and said, "Explain to me why you were driving a carriage at reckless speeds through the pavilion. As to that, why did you not have a driver?"
"My driver was dismissed part way through my journey here, and it was not worth the time it would take to find a replacement. I've driven more than one carriage in my time." Theoren once again offered that cringeworthy smile. Jader had seen men like him before: simpering, occasionally actually charming purely by accident, all smiles and affability to people of power, manipulative and dangerous to those he considered weaker. "I think my speeds have been overstated. You know how it is—"
"The results speak for themselves, I think, and I trust my people far more than I trust you," Jader said. "Why were you speeding through the pavilion when palace law explicitly states only walking is permitted. For precisely this reason."
Theoren's smile faltered briefly, then returned. "I meant no harm, Commander. I was tired, eager to be here, and did not realize quite how fast I was going."
"So you admit you were going fast, that you most definitely had not brought your horses to a walk?"
Giving a laugh as awful as his smile, Theoren said, "It was not done maliciously. My mind was elsewhere. As I said, Commander, I was eager to be here and overtired. It was a mistake, but no harm was intended. Surely you of all people know what it's like to be exhausted and eager to be home."
"What I of all people know has nothing to do with the matter. You were in the wrong. People and a valuable horse were hurt, not to mention all the wasted food, and you've admitted to your lax behavior." Jader called for Axis. "Master Theoren, you are fined one crown for reckless behavior, endangering others, and the needless slaughter of an animal. You will purchase Lady Vyna a new horse. You will submit proof of purchase to Captain Dennar before the end of the month. You are further fined another crown for damaging one of my carts and at least two months' worth of food. And you will be grateful it was I who dealt with this matter."
Theoren showed some sense in clearly agreeing with that. People who caused that kind of trouble in front of the High King often found themselves fined hundreds, if not thousands, of crowns, instead of the usual range of one to two hundred, depending on the crime and the parties involved. "Yes, Commander."
"You're dismissed."
Theoren and Axis left. Jader could just hear the soft murmur of their voices as Axis took down necessary information to issue the fine and send a copy to the courts so Theoren could pay it in the next few days.
Jader shuffled his papers about, looking for work he could focus on that would not take him hours or require running around the palace, but try as he might, the unwelcome revelation of his lost past insisted on intruding.
Mother Ocean swallow them all. Jader closed his eyes. Maybe not the best expression to use under the circumstances, even if it was only in his thoughts.
Abandoning his desk, he buckled his sword belt back in place and left, locking the office door behind him. "Axis, have anything urgent sent to me at the pool for the next hour or so, and then to my private chambers. Otherwise, I'm not to be disturbed the rest of the day."
"Yes, Commander."
"Thank you." Jader strode off, sticking to smaller hallways in the hopes it would cut down on the number of people who would waylay him. A good hour of swimming should clear his head, and then maybe he'd finally get around to eating something. Hopefully at the end of all of that, he could stop worrying about Bentan visitors and a past he'd been perfectly happy without.
Chapter Three
Kamir looked up from his book as he heard Chiri rushing over to him, and sighed at the bundle in her hands. "Chiri, you can't pick flowers."
"I didn't. They were on the ground," she said, and thrust them at him, forcing him to drop his book lest he drop the flowers. "For you, Papa."
He smiled and dutifully lifted the flowers to his nose to smell them. "Thank you, Chiri. They're beautiful." He hugged her tight and watched as she ran back across the courtyard to where Chara was playing with a skipping rope.
In a few more months they'd turn eight. He'd given birth to them just two months before he'd filed for divorce. Married at sixteen, a father, divorced at nineteen… and eight years later, nearly nine, he was on the verge of being disowned, with nothing of significance accomplished.
Well, that wasn't true. His children were happy and healthy and showed every sign of being smarter than him in making important decisions. If that was all he managed in life, he would—and did—count it a victory.
Assured they were still enjoying their play and behaving, Kamir bent to retrieve his book. He laid it in his lap and smoothed the creased pages. It was a cheap book, the kind sold from stalls at markets on paper that would begin to warp in mere months, and rarely sold for more than three pins, the most expensive being a mark, the equivalent of five pins.
Good books usually cost at least three marks, and the best books started at one sterling. He'd taken those books for granted growing up—he'd taken a lot of things for granted growing up, and probably still did.
He reached up to touch his hair, which he'd divided into six separate braids that he'd then woven together at the back of his head, decorating them with enamel flower hairpins.
Glancing up to watch his children play for a moment, he then went back to his book, smiling softly as he read. It was a silly tale, one of the adventure novels so many derided, but he enjoyed them immensely. They were positive and encouraging when so many things in his life were the precise opposite.
He was just getting to the best part when he registered the familiar jangle of a soldier and his children going silent. Looking up sharply, ready to tear apart whoever was bothering Chiri and Chara, Kamir froze in shock, then became tongue-tied from elation and mortification.
Snapping his book shut and shoving it into the satchel lying beside him on the stone bench, Kamir surged to his feet.
Jader hadn't noticed him yet, his eyes on Chiri and Chara. "What are you two doing here, then? I haven't seen a skipping rope in years. Didn't know what they were until I joined the army."
Chara froze, but Chiri immediately moved closer. "Are you a soldier? Why do you have two swords?"
"I am a soldier, and I wear two swords because that's how I learned to fight. It's a traditional way of fighting in Outland, where I trained," Jader said. "My name is Jader Star." He crouched down, resting his arms on his thighs. "Who are you then, little shimi?"
Chiri giggled. "What's a shee-mee?"
"I think the Harken word is guppy, but it's a version of that word used specifically for children. Kind of like saying 'darling baby fish'," Jader replied. "It's an Islander word."
"Oh! You're like Velina!" Chara said, shyness overcome by how much he loved their caretaker. "She's from Tashira!"
Jader broke into an absolutely b
eautiful smile. "Fire Island, that's the biggest one. I'm from one of the islands north of it, the one slightly bigger than the other if you look on a map. It's called Shahira, or Pearl Island."
"That's where they dive!" Chara said. "Velina told us about it. She said her brother's spouse dove all the way down to get him a pearl when she wanted to propose marriage."
Chuckling, Jader replied, "That is more or less the tradition. I was not a pearl diver, but I have four brothers and three sisters who are, and many more relatives besides."
"I've only got one sister," Chara said. "Papa says maybe we can have more siblings one day, but not yet."
Jader's smile softened. "Siblings are a joy, it's true. I have a lot of siblings back home. We drove our mother crazy when we were little."
"Do you miss them?" Chara asked.
"Very much, but I like being in the army."
"How come you don't look like Velina?" Chiri asked, reaching out to gently touch Jader's hand.
Mortification filled Kamir, but before he could reprimand her for asking such a rude question, Jader chuckled and said, "I am very pale, aren't I? It's because when I was little, about your age in fact, I was lost at sea. I washed up on the Islands, but couldn't remember anything. So they took me in and I grew up an Islander."
The twins stared at him wide-eyed. "Are you sad?" Chara finally asked.
"About forgetting?" Emotions flickered across Jader's face, anger and sadness among them, but were quickly replaced by another indulgent laugh. "No. It was a long time ago. I have new memories. I like being an Islander."
"I want to see the Islands," Chiri said. "Velina said she'd take us one day if Papa agrees. Can we dive for pearls?"
"Little shimi don't dive for pearls, but I can certainly teach you to dive like an Islander and one day, when you're big enough, you could dive for pearls if you wanted. I would vouch for you."
The twins cheered, and Kamir couldn't decide if he wanted to kiss Jader or strangle him.