by Unknown
Keeping an eye on Aletha (just in case), I tried to explain in terms she could understand. “For new magicians, like you, they can be dangerous and scary. But they rely on their magic too much, and they don’t train as much with weapons. Not enough to really pose much threat to us, at least. That’s why Aletha and I can fight them and subdue them so quickly, because they don’t have enough combat training to be a match for us. Well, that and the fact that most of the priests down here were little better than novices when the whole Order disbanded. They’re not fully trained, anyway.”
Becca blinked at me. “What?”
“What, what?” I stared back at her, puzzled about which part had confused her.
“The Order disbanded? What’s that mean?”
“The Star Order no longer exists. Vonlorisen shut it down.”
“Whhhhaaat?!” she shrieked, eyes going as wide as saucers. “When?!”
“Oh, at least a year ago.” Maybe more, I’d lost track of time. “Is it just me, or does Gorgeous look particularly cute when she’s mad?”
Becca had to take a second to switch mental tracks, then she gave me the most befuddled look I’d seen from her yet. “Aletha? Cute?”
“Well, not when she’s mad at me,” I amended. “When she’s mad at me, she’s terrifying, but I think she’s cute when she’s mad and beating up bad priests. You don’t think so? No? Fine, it’s just me, then.”
Becca gave me that patented ‘Adults are strange’ look and ignored me, which for her healthy development as a child, was probably for the best.
With the priests soundly defeated and lying comatose on the ground, Aletha blew out a satisfied breath. I dared to think it safe to talk to her and ventured, “Triangle?”
“They probably have one,” she agreed, as she knelt down and started rummaging through pockets. “Oooh, look! Money pouches.”
“Take ‘em,” I ordered. We were desperately short on funds. “They owe us for the lost equipment anyway.”
“A very good point.” Aletha, as a mercenary, was not bothered by the idea of pilfering from enemies. It took her two bodies to find the triangle, and she beat it to death with the heel of her boot before being satisfied. “Well, that settles it: they are tracking her magic.”
Becca gave me a worried look. “Does that mean you have to knock me out again?”
“Only as a truly last resort, kiddo. But no, I don’t think that it would do much good in this situation. Your magic isn’t flaring up, or anything. The triangles can find even a sleeping magician.” Or at least Garth’s explanation of how these things worked made me think so. It’d been a while since he’d explained it to me and I’d slept since then, so I might’ve been remembering a few things wrong.
Whether I was right or wrong, one thing was clear: we absolutely could not stay on land.
I caught Aletha’s eye. “Let’s get a boat.”
“And quickly,” she agreed grimly, already striding for her horse. “Oh, and Shad?”
“Yes, Gorgeous?”
“It’s still my turn. You’ve gotten to fight with the priests twice, after all.”
I shook my head forlornly. “Such a stingy, greedy woman you are.”
We reached the coastline around noon, but it took another hour of travel before we got to a sizeable fishing village. I left the girls, Tail, and Cloud in a little grove off the road and went into the village myself on Aletha’s horse. I didn’t know what kind of rumors might be flying about, but I didn’t want to mark myself as an obvious target by riding Cloud in. A white-haired man on a white horse was a pretty remarkable thing after all. A white-haired man on a dark bay horse was not.
I went about buying food and supplies with our newly acquired funds, asking around for a boat that would take on passengers as I went. All to no avail, sadly. No one here ventured out that far, only to the nearest villages, and that was strictly for trading purposes. One person allowed that a passenger ship came by once in a while, but that usually only happened once a month and wasn’t on any sort of set schedule.
We could hardly sit around waiting for a ship that might or might not show.
Which meant I had to come up with Plan B.
Now, someone in my Jaunten ancestry had been sailing before. They knew their way around boats to some degree, at least. I knew by looking at the boats at the dock what types they were, and whether or not a small crew could manage to sail them. Most of them were easily handled by a crew of two or so, which wasn’t unusual for fishermen. I counted several schooners that had the right size to hold three humans, two horses, and one cat.
I meandered down to the docks and looked them over with a close eye, but all of them looked seaworthy to me. All I had to do was pick one. I hummed under my breath as I looked them over, but I didn’t see anything that made me like one over the other. Finally, I went with the one that had a blue paint job.
I liked blue. Favorite color.
That decided, I turned and went back toward the village. It was difficult to kill a few hours there without raising suspicions—there wasn’t much a stranger could do, after all—but I managed it somehow until the sun started setting and everyone got off their boats and went home, where dinner was likely waiting. Sitting on my haunches, well out of sight of everyone’s eyes, I waited until everyone was off the docks. Then I took my packages and sauntered down the dock, up the gangplank onto my chosen ship, and set about getting her underway.
This proved to be a tad more difficult than I had planned on. Garth had warned me once that there was a wide difference between Jaunten knowledge and experience. He was not wrong. I almost crashed the schooner before even getting it out of the harbor.
Great guardians. I’d thought this would be fairly easy because I technically knew what to do, but I didn’t have that gut feeling for the right timing on when to shift the sails, or turn the rudder, and that was the most essential part!
By some minor miracle, I managed to get around the harbor’s walls and to a sheltered cove that was more or less near where I’d left the girls. Anchoring it in place, I lowered the gangplank to a rocky shore, grateful that it reached the ground. I hadn’t known how we’d get Cloud aboard otherwise. Then I quickly descended and climbed back up the sloping hillside until I reached their camp.
Aletha and Becca looked up at me with absolute relief.
“Did you find a ship?” Aletha asked.
“Yes and no.” Seeing her frown of confusion, I explained, “I acquisitioned a boat.”
Her lips pursed in a suspicious manner. “Acquisitioned or stole?”
“Isn’t that what acquisitioned means?”
My acquisitioned boat was not well-received.
Becca didn’t like that I had stolen it, despite the fact we’d had little other choice in the matter. My promise to make sure it was returned (somehow) only mollified her some. What I’d actually have to do was send word to Vonlorisen—or Saroya, or someone—and explain that a reimbursement for an acquired schooner was in order. I was sure they’d take care of it. They’d covered for us in similar situations before.
The main point that neither girl seemed to be keen on was the fact we had a boat. Aletha had no experience with them aside from being a passenger for short jaunts. Becca knew more, being a fisherman’s daughter, but she had never handled one on her own before. In fact, her experience was limited to sitting in her father’s lap as he helped her steer. I was by far the most knowledgeable person on board, but I had no experience to back it up with.
When they’d learned that, they’d been less than thrilled.
Deeming it unwise to stay in the area in an acquisitioned craft, we’d drawn up the anchor and set sail, but stayed close to the coastline. I had no charts to navigate by and wouldn’t know what to do with them even if I did. Somewhere around midnight, it got to be completely impossible to see anything, so we laid anchor again.
The next morning, Becca and I gave Aletha a crash course in rigging, steering, and sailing a schooner. Thankfully,
Aletha was one of those show-once people that were a joy to work with, and she got the hang of things quickly. We set off again, making our way around the coastline.
Really, it was perfect weather to be sailing. We had clear skies, a good wind, and the temperature wasn’t scorchingly hot. I sat near the aft of the ship, the wheel in my hands, idly keeping us on course. Both horses were in the lower section of the decking, neither of them particularly steady on their feet. In fact, Cloud looked rather seasick to me.
This particular schooner was only about 150 feet in length, which didn’t give us a lot of room. The horses were basically crammed together in the one area big enough for them to turn around in. We humans were bunking either on the fore or aft deck, in between the rigging, as that was the only spare space to be had. As this schooner had been built for local fishing, it didn’t precisely have a kitchen to it, just a potbellied stove and a bucket below decks that functioned as a sink. In fact, most of the area below decks was used as cargo hold and nothing more. It stank to high heaven, too. I didn’t even want to know what had been down there last.
We all unanimously stayed up top to preserve our noses.
I sat at the helm, one hand idly steering, as Aletha puttered about at the very front of the boat, doing odd jobs. Becca clambered up to where I sat and without a by-your-leave, climbed into my lap as well.
Without any preamble, she asked, “Shad, when we get to the magic island, are we going to live in a house?”
As much as Aletha and I had explained magic to her, and where we were going, I supposed I hadn’t thought to give her any details on living arrangements. Shame on me.
“Ah, no, probably not. See, the academy is one big building, bigger than a castle, and everyone lives inside of it.”
“Oh.” Judging by the expression on her face, she was trying to picture this in her mind but it wasn’t quite making sense.
“See, a part of the academy has lots of classrooms, but there’s other parts that are just apartments for the students and the teachers. I’m a teacher, but because you’re my sister, you’ll probably live with me.”
“And Aletha,” she corrected me. “And Tail.”
“Tail, yes.” I was confused. Why would she think Aletha…oh. Whoops. “Um, sweetums, Aletha won’t be going back to Strae with us.”
My little magess froze and gave me one of the best impressions of a startled deer I’d ever seen. “What?”
“Aletha came with me to help rescue you because she was worried about me going all by my lonesome, but she’s a soldier from Ascalon. She’ll return home after I get you to safety,” I sought to explain. I mentally kicked myself for not explaining this earlier.
Becca looked at me in confusion. “But…you call her Wifey.”
“I know, sweetie, I do.” I scratched at the back of my head, wondering how to explain all of this to someone that had no experience with covert operations. “But we’re not married.”
“But you smile at her like Papa smiles at Mama,” she continued, brows drawing together into a deeper frown as she spoke, “and you tease her a lot. Mama said that’s a sign that a boy like a girl, and you steal hugs, and you do nice things for her without her asking, and you call her Gorgeous or Wifey or Darling, so doesn’t that mean you like her?”
I had my mouth open, all ready for a rebuttal or an explanation, but that list of things rather took the wind right out of my sails. I could rationalize about half of what she’d rattled off, as some of it I was doing out of necessity for the mission in keeping our covers intact, and some of it was simply my relationship with Aletha, as we more or less used flirting as a way of communicating. But the rest of it…. I had no rationalization for the rest of it. The stealing hugs, and the smiling, and the being attentive…I didn’t have to do any of that. But it felt perfectly natural to do all of it.
Those clear blue eyes were staring at me expectantly. I stared back in dawning realization that her direct view of the world had seen the heart of the matter more precisely than I had.
Had I really fallen in love with one of my dearest friends without noticing it?
“Shad?” she prompted, growing impatient.
Yes. Yes, I had. In fact, thinking about it, the only reason I’d been reluctant to leave Ascalon was that I didn’t want to leave her behind. My whole mental debate about what I actually wanted was just me, afraid to own up to things. And Xiaolang, that ratfink, had been aware of it when he sent Aletha and me off on the mission. That was the reason for his little enigmatic smile and the Between the two of you, you’ll figure it out line. I blew out a slow, controlled breath.
“Sweetums, do me a favor? Smack me in the back of the head as hard as you can.”
Becca blinked at me. “Why?”
“It’s my punishment for being an idiot.”
Obligingly, she rose up a little, reeled back her hand, and slapped me in the back of the head with surprising force.
I winced at the impact but had to admit, it got my brain back in gear.
“Was that hard enough?” she inquired, a glint in her eye suggesting she wouldn’t mind doing it again.
“Thanks, dearling, that was plenty hard.” I gave her a repressive look, hopefully quelling any ideas she had about trying another smack without permission.
Now the question was, what to do about this? I didn’t have a lot of time left with Aletha before we naturally split ways, me for Strae and her for home. Trying to court a woman while on a semi-dangerous mission with a child in tow would surely be an interesting venture, but I’d never been one to be scared off by a challenge. Besides, in a way, we’d spent the past two years courting. I just hadn’t realized it for what it was.
I wonder if Aletha would think of it the same way.
“Shad,” Becca prompted, a little impatiently.
Snorting, I patted her on the head. “Well, kiddo, turns out you’re not far wrong. You’re not completely right, either, though.”
She turned that over in her head for a moment. “What does that mean?”
“It means…we’re both going to have to wait a little longer to see what the answer to that question is going to be.”
I spent the next two hours trying to come up with a line of attack, but when on board a boat like this, courting resources were hard to come by. I hadn’t thought up much before Aletha climbed up to where I sat and maneuvered behind me to put her chin on my shoulder, hand lingering on my shoulder blades. “How long do think it’ll take to reach Movac, at this rate?”
“Three weeks,” I sighed, grimacing. Strange, I only noticed now how right Becca was. We really did touch each other on a constant basis, didn’t we? Daring to reach out, I caught up her free hand in a loose grip as I added, “And I can’t imagine us managing to stay sane on board this boat for three solid weeks.”
“Not to mention we don’t have the food supplies for it,” Aletha pointed out pragmatically. “Are you sure we can’t land somewhere closer?”
“Where?” I asked helplessly. “I’m open to other options, Gorgeous. I just don’t see them. There are no major ports before we reach Movac. It’s all small fishing villages and coastal towns until we reach Echols. And Garth told me point-blank that anything farther south than Darlington was actively pro-Star Order. We saw for ourselves how right he was.”
“So…Aboulmana Province…?”
“Probably as neutral as Darlington, and that’s not anything to brag about. If push comes to shove, we could probably land there, but I’d rather not push our luck. We’ve had bad luck altogether on this trip anyway.”
She groaned in agreement. “Stealing the schooner was the first thing that went right, and even that’s a stretch. Alright, Movac. But three weeks is seriously pushing it, Shad.”
“I know, I know.” A long-ago event came to me, and I rubbed at my chin as I thought about it. “Gorgeous, you remember when we found Haikrysen?”
Aletha turned so that she had one hand braced against the railing with her back against it. Sh
e kept her hand in mine, though, fingers half-laced. “Yes?”
“You remember what Garth said? That it was because Krys was actively using his magic, a bit at a time, that prevented any magical accidents from occurring.”
She considered this a moment, eyes studying my face. “Are you seriously suggesting letting Becca use her magic to speed us along?”
“You’re quick,” I approved.
“Shad. Be serious. She’s eight years old.”
“Nolan was fixing pregnancy issues at five,” I pointed out innocently.
“That…that’s really not a good example to use to support your argument.” Even though she said that, she was biting her bottom lip, trying not to laugh.
“We might need to do this anyway, just to prevent a magical accident from occurring.” Unease weighed like lead in my stomach. “I know she just called up that mother storm the other night, which used a lot of magic, but Chatta said there’s no rhyme or reason to when magical accidents happen. They just do, whenever the mage’s capacity to hold their magic hits its limit.”
“And Becca’s young,” Aletha rubbed at the bridge of her nose, like a headache was coming on, “so her capacity to hold magic likely isn’t that big. Great. I hadn’t thought of that.”
I sympathized. “It was a disturbing thought that woke me up this morning.”
Aletha pinched her nose harder, eyes closing. “Remind me again why we didn’t bring a magician with us?”
“We were in a tearing hurry to get down here?” I offered. Honestly, if we had left any later than we had, we might not have reached Becca before the Star Order Priests did. We’d only had her a few hours before being discovered, after all. I could not regret our haste.
“So, which dangerous situation would you rather face?” Aletha asked me with false enthusiasm. “Would you rather a child mage experiment while we’re on a schooner, at sea, with a power strong enough to destroy the world? Or would you rather wait until she loses control of it completely and brings in another mother storm?”