by C. M. Hayden
“But we’ve got magisters and weaponry that the Helians couldn’t get in their wildest dreams,” Kyra said assuredly.
“The Arclight incident hurt us more than you could know. The kingdom is in massive debt, as is the Magisterium. Our infrastructure is crumbling, and there are fewer magisters now than ever before. The Shahl could muster a force of forty thousand men tomorrow. Many of the outer Endran cities have been silent, and your uncles in the Foothills don’t even respond to my couriers. Your grandfather, Aegyn, is also conspicuously silent. We’re vulnerable and not in a position to demand anything from the Shahl.”
“He doesn’t know that though.”
The Sun King breathed a shallow, sullen breath. “The Shahl’s tendrils creep into everything. And whether it’s a war with him, or with Sivion, we’re just as dead.”
“Then there’s only one way. We’ve got to get Vexis back, even if it means going into Helia and doing it ourselves,” Kyra said.
The Sun King hesitated before speaking. “There’s one thing that I’ve kept from the dragons. It’s going to get around eventually, but try to keep it between us for now.”
Kyra waited expectantly.
“You see,” the Sun King said. “Vexis is the Shahl’s bastard.”
Kyra’s eyes widened. “His daughter? But how could the Magisterium not know?”
“I can’t say.” The Sun King’s face was pale. “This is a complicated situation, and we need to exercise great care. I’ll speak with the Shahl myself and see if I can get him to see reason.”
“You don’t think he’ll give up his own daughter willingly, do you? Bastard or not,” Kyra said. “What if someone asked you to give me up, what would you do?”
The Sun King smiled weakly, but didn’t answer the question. “I could be gone for a very long time. In my absence, I name you acting regent.”
Kyra gave a bewildered look, and shook her head. “Wait, but…”
The Sun King pushed on through her protests. “As you’ve said, you’re not a child anymore.” He took a metal pin from his cuff and slipped it onto Kyra’s uniform sleeve. “Magister Sullen will accompany me, so you needn’t worry about my safety. In the meantime, the day-to-day rule of the kingdom is yours.”
Kyra stammered and shook her head. “But…I…what about General Gavin or Magister Briego.”
“I expect you to heed their advice, but after what happened with Magister Ross, I’ve come to see just how important blood really is. You’re the only one I can truly trust without exception. You’re my pride and joy, Kyra, and one day you’ll make a fine ruler. This is your chance to show it. Keep the city together until I return.”
The magnitude of what he was asking struck her, and she found herself visably trembling. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. We’ll get through this.” Despite his confident words, he looked more worried than Kyra had ever known him to be. There was something that he wasn’t telling her.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A Friendly Game
TUCKED AWAY BEHIND SOME strapped down crates, and with his back to the crew, Taro counted out what money they had left. Vexis sat with one arm on her left knee and the other idly picking at a splinter in the deck.
“After expenses, we’ve got nine crowns and twelve nobles,” Taro said, more to himself than anyone. He thumbed at four octagonal-shaped brass coins with holes in the center. “And four shekels that we can’t spend until we get to Helia. Should keep us fed, at least.”
Vexis pulled her hood down and yanked her cloak off, one sleeve at a time. Taro scrambled toward her, trying to cover her up. “What are you doing?” he whispered.
“It’s hot,” Vexis said flatly.
“If they see you—”
“A bunch of river-traveling merchants? They couldn’t even get to Endra until recently, how the hell would they know who I am?” Vexis smoothed out her frayed blonde hair, tore a piece of cloth from her cloak, and with a bit of water from a tin jug started to wash the dirt from her arms, neck, and face. “I need a bath. I smell like a yak.”
Captain Rodrick was on the other side of the ship, playing poker with a few of his men. Over the past hour, Sikes had ever-so-slowly crept closer as they played, clearly wanting to join in; but, without money, all he could do was watch. It was probably for the best. These weren’t children; if Sikes was caught cheating, he’d get worse than a beating.
“Roddy,” Vexis shouted across to the captain. It seemed to take him a moment to realize she was talking to him. “It’s been eight hours, when do we eat?”
Rodrick glanced up from his cards. His curly beard masked much of his expression, but he certainly didn’t look pleased. He set his cards facedown.
“Y’can eat shit,” he shouted back.
Vexis glanced sideways at Taro and whispered, “I like him.”
When she stood up, Taro seized her momentarily by the forearm. “Please don’t do anything stupid.”
Vexis yanked her arm free and walked—or rather, skipped—to the other side of the ship with a wide, bright smile on her face. She wrapped one arm around Rodrick and rubbed his hairy forearm.
“It’s just that I haven’t eaten since yesterday,” she said in an overly polite tone. It was clear to Taro that she was mocking Rodrick, but the old captain didn’t seem to realize it. “I’m a noblewoman, you see? A lady. I’m not used to these rough conditions like you handsome, strapping men are.”
Rodrick licked his dry lips, lifted her hand from his arm, and set it aside. “You’ll eat, milady, when the men eat.”
Vexis eyes narrowed and she scooted away from him. “And when is that?”
“When we reach Godricport, I reckon,” one of the crewman said.
“Sorry, not from around here. Come again?”
The crewman stared up at the darkening sky, toward the moon on the east side, and the setting sun in the distance. “Another four hours along the River Lorne ’til we arrive. We got three tons of linen to unload to a buyer there. Good place to dock, good food, cheap whores.”
“Sounds positively lovely,” Vexis said.
Rodrick scratched his nose, sniffled, and picked his cards back up. “Once we get to Godricport and unload, we’ll continue the rest of the way by horse and cart. Can’t follow the river through the castle pass, and there ain’t no good rivers running east through Helia.”
The crewman who’d spoken before unlaced a satchel he had tucked beside him and removed a hunk of fine cheese wrapped in vellum. He then took out a hard-crusted round biscuit and motioned to Vexis.
“For me?” Vexis said brightly. “Aren’t you just a sweetheart.” When she went to take some of the food, the man stopped her.
“Nothing’s for free, lass,” he said, then pointed to her magistry cuffs. “Summa that jewlrey’ll fetch a good price upriver, fake or not.”
Vexis smiled and rubbed her fingers across the runes etched into the brass. “I’d love to give these to you, but I’m afraid they’re family heirlooms.” She glanced at Taro. “My cousin would be just devastated if I gave them away. Belonged to my grandmother, you see.”
“Then stay hungry,” the man said, stuffing the food back into his satchel.
Vexis raised her hands in a calming motion. “Slow down, slow down, negotiations have just begun.”
The man eyed her in an uncomfortable, greasy way. “You got something else to pay with, milady?”
To Taro’s utter shock, Vexis dug into her pocket and placed a gleaming silver crown on the floor between the men. Taro checked his own pockets and found she’d somehow swiped it from him when he wasn’t paying attention.
“A crown for some food? It’s a deal.” The crewman went to snatch up the coin.
“Oh, no, I don’t want to buy it. I want to win it. Deal me in,” Vexis said.
The men laughed as if they’d just heard the most painfully funny thing in their lives. A few of them spilled their drinks, and one tried to slap Vexis on the behind, just
missing. The man had no idea that under normal circumstances such an act would probably leave him with a severed arm. Despite her obvious annoyance and disgust for the men, she laughed along and sat cross-legged beside them.
“Come on, boys, you’re not afraid of little ol’ me, are you?” she said, swaying sideways as she sat.
“I’ve been playin’ this game longer than you’ve been alive, little princess,” Rodrick said.
“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about.” She laced her fingers together.
With only a few minutes before the ship arrived in Godricport, Vexis had not only won the food, she’d also won a fairly expensive sword, a wide-brimmed hat, four crowns, a new pair of boots, and a deck of playing cards which she gave to Sikes to “keep him out of trouble.” Suffice it to say she was no longer welcome in their card game.
“It’s just a bit of fun, boys, no hard feelings,” Vexis said as she returned to Taro’s side and sat. She plucked at the purple feather in the hat she’d won and tossed the crown she’d stolen back to Taro.
Taro caught it in the air and frowned. “You really should be keeping a low profile.”
“To be honest, I hadn’t planned on leaving any of them alive,” Vexis said with a shrug. “Didn’t think it mattered.”
Taro stared at her until he realized she wasn’t joking. “You can’t just…that’s…why?”
“They know where we’re going, and they frequent Endra Edûn. They may not know who I am now, but what happens when they travel back there in a few months and see a wanted poster?”
“We just have to take that risk,” Taro said. “They’re not to be harmed.”
Vexis rubbed her temple like she had a headache. “You know the goody-two-shoes act was endearing at first, but it’s starting to grate on me.” Vexis leaned over the side of the boat and watched the water. Her gaze became distant, as if she was lost in thought; when she finally came to, her expression made it seem as if she were surprised to be where she was. She looked back. “I expect you’ll return me to the Magisterium when we’re done?”
“That’s the plan.”
“That’s fair. Better than being back home at any rate. My brothers and sisters are just peaches.”
Taro got the sense that she was vastly understating her point. “So,” he began, “I know Sikes’ grandmother lives in Helia. We’ll drop him off there, far from the reach of the Magisterium. He’s suffered enough. But tracking down Nima is our main focus.”
“And Kadia?” Vexis said.
“Help me find Nima first, then we’ll talk. I want you entirely focused on my success first.”
“Then let’s get to work, hun. You have the compass?”
Taro glanced at the crewmen across the deck and flashed the dowsing compass to her. “Not here. We’ll find a place in Godricport first.”
Godricport was a sprawling fishing town along the River Lorne. It had been hit hard by the river freezing, but now the waters were teaming with fish and the town was slowly returning to life. As they neared the port, they passed boats hauling up nets packed with wriggling salmon. Even at the late hour with the sun setting over the mountains, the streets were bustling.
The whole town reeked of sweat and fish bile. It was unlike any place Taro had visited before. In Ashwick, there were certainly parts that wise people steered clear from, but those were few and far between. If one of those small shady areas had been expanded to town-size, Godricport would’ve been the result.
When the boat docked, Rodrick reminded them that they would continue by wagon to the Helian border at sunrise, and that they were to find their own accommodations until then.
As Taro, Sikes, and Vexis walked as inconspicuously as possible, Taro took a mental tally of the area. He noted easy ways to slip away unseen, alleyways, and guards on duty. He counted no less than four taverns just in his immediate view, all of which seemed unsavory. They chose the least greasy one, an old two-story tavern called the Broken Bow. The sign outside said that rooms were two pennies a night, a reasonable price even if the place was a dump.
The three couldn’t have stuck out more if they tried. They were each the youngest ones there by a dozen years, and their clothes, though nothing special, were clean and laundered.
Taro could feel a dozen sets of eyes tracing over them, like wolves looking for their next meal. None of the patrons said anything though, and Vexis (thankfully) kept her hood up and a bit of cloth wrapped around her mouth and past her nose.
The barkeep was a fat, hook-nosed man with a short beard and a wooden eye that stared off in random directions. Taro decided that keeping their dialogue to a minimum would be the safest option.
“We need a room. One bed is fine,” Taro said, sliding two copper pennies across the rough countertop.
“One bed, eh?” the barkeep said, pursing his lips and eyeing Vexis and Sikes. The man took the coins, put them in a lockbox, and fished out a key from beneath the counter. He dangled it from his finger, just above Taro’s open palm but didn’t let go. “What—eh—what’s your business, young sir?”
“Visiting family,” Taro said. Not the best of lies; but the simpler, the better. The more complex the lie, the more tact is required to keep it going.
The man dropped the keys into Taro’s hand. “You ought to be careful. That mess in the capital has the whole countryside on edge.”
Had word of Vexis’ escape reached this far already? When the three of them headed toward the stairs leading to the second floor, some of the slightly slurred stories caught Taro’s ear.
A thin, middle-aged man was kneeling on a bench and holding his hands up in a sweeping motion. As he did this, some of the beer spilled onto his balding head. The men around him were listening intently. “And then whoosh!” he shouted. “The sky went black and a shadow like a mountain swept across the road. I looked up and saw it. A northern drake like out of a faerie story. I could feel the hurricane from its wings, and I thought it would burn Godricport to the ground.” He snapped his fingers. “But at the last minute, it flew off into the mountains.”
“I saw it, too,” one of his audience members said. “Why would the dragonkin be down this far from Caelis Enor?”
“That Helian girl killed one of them. I reckon they’re looking to hold someone’s feet to the fire, if you catch my meaning,” the storyteller said. “Dragons are a vengeful lot, they’ll raze the whole countryside if they have to.”
Taro climbed the creaking stairs and found their room two doors down. His old room in the Lower City was a palace compared to this dump. It looked frightfully close to a scenein some penny-bin murder novel; the window had a hole punched through it and was covered with some glue and cloth. The bed was blotched with god-knew-what and several of the floorboards were missing. The door was sturdy, at least.
They unpacked their few belongings and Taro ushered for Vexis to take the only bed. “We’ll sleep on the floor,” he said to Sikes.
Vexis threw her cloak onto a rickety chair and leapt onto the bed like a child jumping into a pile of autumn leaves. “Oh, come on Taro, there’s plenty of room for you boys,” she said suggestively, patting the area beside her.
Taro did his best to ignore her, though he did sit on the side of the bed and remove the two-way parchment, the dowsing compass, and the map that Magister Veldheim had provided.
“What’s all that?” Sikes asked.
“Nima is somewhere in Helia, but I’m not sure where.” He fanned the two-way parchment in the air. “She’s got the other half of this, and Vexis can track her.”
Vexis spread the map out onto the bed. In the corner of the map was a small bar showing relative distance and scale. One inch was the equivalent of fifty miles. Vexis retrieved a long splinter of wood from the windowsill and broke it to be approximately the same size as the bar. She placed the splinter between the mark on the map indicating Endra Edûn and the other on Godricport.
“Looks like we’ve gone about forty miles,” Vexis said.
&nbs
p; She placed the dowsing compass in front of her and opened the case. As Taro had noticed before, there were in fact two needles inside. Vexis took note of where each of them faced, then took her measuring splinter and moved it slowly across the map, finally stopping in Helia Edûn.
“Right where she should be,” Vexis said almost breathlessly. For a moment she seemed lost in her own thoughts.
“Nima?” Taro asked.
Vexis looked up, somewhat startled. “Kadia. The compass is still tuned to her. I used to use it to keep track of her. Stole it from my father’s private collection.”
Taro nudged the two-way parchment toward her. “You said you could find the other one.”
Vexis pulled her sleeves back exposing the cuffs on her wrists. “I’ll need access to my templar to retune the compass.”
Taro laughed aloud. “You don’t think I’m that gullible, do you?”
“As a matter of fact….” Vexis relented and huffed. “Fine. Give me a few minutes though. This is delicate work.”
Sikes found a spot in the corner of the room and was playing cards with himself. It seemed like he was slowly returning to his old self, but there was something about him that was distant. He wasn’t the brash, overly talkative boy Taro remembered. While Vexis worked, Taro slipped off the bed and sat cross-legged opposite Sikes.
“Care to deal me in?” Taro asked conversationally.
Sikes picked up the King of Clubs and placed it into one of the piles. “It’s a one player game.”
Taro watched Sikes sort the cards for a moment. “You must be hungry. I could bring something back from downstairs.” Sikes nodded but did not speak. After a long pause, Taro asked the question that had been on his mind since they left Endra Edûn. “What did they do to you in there?”
Sikes sat the cards down. “I killed him, Taro.”
“Mr. Mathan,” Taro said somberly. “I know, I was there.”
Sikes looked up with wet eyes. “You were?”
“I can’t say I blame you for it. If things had been different, I might’ve done it myself.”