by Rosie Scott
I nodded, my eyes burning despite my reluctance to give into tears. “I'd give everything to have him back.”
Iri hesitated for a time, allowing me to collect my bearings. “And Anto?”
“Anto died defending us,” I replied. It was the story that had been told to the other scribes by the Sentinels who had suggested it. Protecting Anto's memory from the criticism of dying of a broken heart was all I could do.
Iri went on after a moment, asking me questions about the aftermath of the battle. Before I answered him, I held up one finger, and he hesitated. “Yes?”
“I want to say one last thing about Anto and Jakan before we move on.” I nodded toward his parchment, which now sat in two piles. “If my words here today are to be set in stone in Eteri's history, I would have you know one thing most of all.”
“Sure, Miss Sera.”
“I will take Sera,” I started, watching as the scribe wrote down my words verbatim, “and I will take all of Chairel. This war was started for change and for vengeance. But every single one of the people I love who had a hand in this war will be memorialized in Sera. Sirius Sera holds his namesake city on an unreachable pedestal of magic for most of the populace, but I will turn it into a city of change. And I think it's only right that every one of my allies gets a place in it.”
“Including Jakan and Anto,” the scribe mused, quickly catching up to my words with his quill.
“One of my first orders of business in Sera will be to establish Jakanto Harbor,” I informed him. “It will be magnificent. Mark my words.” I hesitated, feeling as Cerin reached over to pat me on the leg in support as I spoke. “But it won't just be Jakan and Anto. Theron Boa, Vallen Helaku, Ricco Mara, Ciro. And every person who is lucky enough to get through this war alive with me, whether they are a Renegade or not. They will all have a place in Sera.”
*
The sun was setting over the ocean to the west of Tal, leaving the gentle waves to shimmer in streaks of red and orange. It had been four years since Hades had destroyed most of the people here, but Tal was once more bustling with life. Many citizens had moved here from other settlements, and the beastmen had been importing goods to fuel the building of warships. Conversations buzzed throughout the town, and with the cooling of evening came the raucous laughter of drunks from the tavern where we'd met Maggie so long ago. As if she knew I thought of her, the engineer steered her new gigantic creation past the cliffs and into view, waving wildly at us as we waited for her on the coast.
It was my first time seeing the gigantic ship, and I had to admit to being impressed. Maggie had designed a magnificent vessel that rivaled the size of the dwarven battleships, but instead of transporting dwarves, they were meant to carry the giants. It was a bulky ship, more rectangular in design than anything I'd ever seen with a square front and back, and it coasted through the waters more quickly than it should have given the steam engine that Maggie had recreated from the captured battleships of Narangar. The huge ship was wooden, but it appeared to have steel masts. As Maggie pulled the giant boat up to the shore, I noticed that the crew on deck with her were mostly Alderi.
“Did she get the beastmen to help her with this?” Cerin pondered aloud beside me.
“I...don't know,” I replied. Maggie had been working by herself in Tal for nearly a year. We had come by a few times to visit her between other tasks, of course, because the small town was a relatively short distance from Mistral. Maggie had kept her designs a secret until today. She trusted us, but she claimed she'd wanted to wow me. The engineer had been extremely excited about surprising me with her big reveal.
“Wait! Don't be ruinin' this, ya dolt,” Maggie teased one of the Alderi sailors, hurrying across the deck as the ship rocked heavily next to the stone dock. “Kai! Look at this beaut!” She waved a hand toward herself, encouraging us to come forward.
Azazel, Cerin, and I walked toward the huge ship, almost immediately becoming encased in its shadow. If it had been a building, it would have been at least six stories tall. Oddly, it looked like it only had two deck levels.
“Explain this to me, Maggie!” I yelled up to the engineer. Despite all of our dealings with ships over the years, I wasn't as well-versed in them as I would have liked to be. After all, this was unlike any vessel I'd ever seen.
“This,” Maggie began, leaning against the railing and peering down at us with big blue eyes, “is proof ya hired the right gal for the job, Kai.”
I laughed at her pride. “Clearly! How do I get up there? And how do you get down?”
Maggie chuckled. “Just wait a sec, love. I got a lotta friends on this ship with me, see.”
“I can't see them. That's the point.” I waved my finger around at the high deck in jest.
“Nah, love! Over here!” She pointed one giant finger toward the square front of the ship. “Wait for it...!”
Crr-crr-clunk!
It was as if the ship itself had a door. The entire square front end of the vessel lowered down to the sandy coast via two thick steel chains, ending up as nothing more than a thick wooden ramp leading into the ship's underbelly. It reminded me much of a drawbridge, except for the fact that the door didn't lay flat. It couldn't, after all; Maggie had been forced to keep the opening high enough in the ship's hull to leave room for unpredictable ocean waves.
Within the belly of the ship, dozens of giants were in wait. There were windows in the hull, of course, but they were so high up from sea level that I hadn't been able to see through them. It was as if the ship itself was mostly hollow, with only a deck or two at the top for the sailors.
I watched as the giants slowly filed out of the ship, stepping over the elevated ramp to walk directly out of the vessel and onto the coast. Maggie's design was ingenious. Not only could the giants be kept relatively comfortable during sea travel, but attacking land from the sea would be convenient with such a method.
Maggie jogged down a set of steps which led from the deck to the newly opened underbelly, her face full of enthusiasm. “How ya like it, Kai?”
“I like it,” I replied quickly, grinning back at her.
“Ah, glad to hear ya say it, love.” She wiped at her brow as if in relieved jest, but I could tell she'd really been worried about my opinion. “And this ain't all. I got a few other tricks up my sleeves.”
“Oh?”
“Aye. Follow me.” Maggie turned back toward the ship, and we followed her into it. Though the inside of the vessel blocked out the orange light of the setting sun, Maggie had installed both sconces and magical lanterns on the walls, keeping the inside well-lit. I took note of the magic lanterns in particular. There would have been no reason to do such a thing unless she was anticipating that many of the sailors would know the lesser magics to light them.
“How much wood did it take to build this thing?” I questioned, following her through the massive lower deck. The giants clearly lived simplistically, for there was no furniture save for some enormous blankets for sleeping.
“A lot.” Maggie chuckled. “I don't know if ya saw it, but the masts are steel. That spell ya made works wonders, Kai. I haven't had to worry much about the weight. I've used steel as much as I can to cut down on the wood. After all, we need a couple of these things.”
“How many have you built?”
“A dozen, give or take.”
“A dozen? Where are they?” I motioned toward the coast outside.
“Hidden behind the cliffs. I wanted it to be a surprise.” Maggie glanced back at me with a smile. She stopped just before the staircase leading to the deck, one giant finger pointing at the inside hull. “This steel here, see it?” When I nodded, she continued, “This works a lot like those shielding wires on the galleons. I got it all connected to its own charger. Use alleviate on that charger, and the spell affects the ship for as long as it has energy. And it's connected to this steel, which is the skeleton of the ship. Hence,” she concluded, making a grand gesture toward the lower deck, “the whole ship can be
magically altered to weigh as much as any other Eteri galleon.”
“You enjoy doing this, don't you?” Cerin mused.
“I love my job,” Maggie grinned back at him.
“The charger that you were just talking about,” I said, pointing a finger at the deck above our heads. “Is it the same as the others?”
“Nah, love. I have those separate. The shielding systems are still on deck. I wired it so that the shielding systems can feed the weight control, but not vice versa.”
I stared back at her, mostly lost.
Maggie finally chuckled. “Basically, any excess energy harvested from mages or the environment goes into the chargers above our head, and in the case that the alleviate spell begins to fade, it is regenerated by the other chargers. Shielding is important, but it doesn't much matter if the ship sinks, does it?”
I blinked at her. “If I just say you're a genius, will you pretend I understood what you just said?”
Maggie chuckled and shrugged. “Aye. Ya can give me compliments like that whenever ya want, Kai.”
“Seriously, Maggie, this is fantastic,” I complimented her. Queen Tilda had made a huge mistake in treating Maggie as she had.
“Don't say it yet, love, ya haven't even seen the best part.” Maggie turned back to the steps, encouraging us to follow.
Just getting to the deck was a climb that left my heart racing against my chest in a rush of heat. The darkening sky greeted us from overhead, the periwinkle color seeking to mimic the skin of many of the men who faced me.
There were dozens of sailors here. Most of them were Alderi, but some of them were Vhiri. A few of them even looked human. Most of the Alderi were men, but there were women sprinkled through the crowd as well. All of their gazes were on me.
Maggie threw an arm toward the group of them. “Your soldiers, Kai.”
I flicked my gaze to her. “My soldiers?”
Maggie nodded toward the group. “Tell her why you're here, guys.”
One of the Alderi men spoke up. “You probably don't remember me.” Two black eyes looked at me with admiration. “You freed me in Thanati five years ago. Offered me a place in your army to go with you to Hazarmaveth.” He hesitated. “I was a coward, then. I didn't think you could actually take the underground.” He chuckled. “But then you did.”
My heart warmed with his honesty. “You are willing to fight for me?”
He nodded. “If you would have me.” He lifted up a hand, and swirling black magic appeared above his palm. “I am a necromancer, thanks to you.”
A Vhiri woman stepped forward. “You have said before that the beastmen will be welcome in Chairel if you take it.” Her eyes moved over what she could see of Tal from here, where other beastmen were. “You've already proven that you keep your promises. The wildlands are beginning to thrive. Trading with Eteri and the underground has helped us immensely.” Her eyes came back to mine. “Trade with Chairel would be even better.”
One of the humans walked forward, a small smile on his face. “I have to be honest, I'm only here because I want to take the fight to Chairel. I'm originally from Kilgor. Lost my wife and child to disease because I could not afford a healer from Sera.” He swallowed hard with the memory. “I moved to Nahara once I heard magic was spreading there. You'd already left. I decided I wanted to follow you, but it was hard finding where you were.” He chuckled softly.
“I am sorry for your losses,” I offered, holding out a hand to shake his.
Even as the evening sky darkened, I listened to the stories of the men and women who were offering me their aid. The past few years of the war had been so heartbreaking that it was easy to forget that my actions had positive effects on the world. It meant so much to me that many of the people here had traveled such a distance just to offer their support. There would always be people who would fight against me in this war and beyond, but I had also clearly planted the seeds necessary to bring people under my wing.
“Maggie,” I finally said, once the men and women had begun to disperse, “how did you do this?”
“Tal's been tradin' with the beastmen ever since I've been here workin', Kai,” the engineer replied. “All I needed to do was say something, and the rest of 'em spread the word. The wildlands have been collecting supporters for ya in Silvi. Mostly Alderi, of course, but ya said you'd been to Silvi and that it was full of mercenaries.” She motioned toward the humans who were leaving the ship. “They found their way here. Apparently, there was an Alderi captain who was offering to bring the poor here for free if they wanted to fight for ya.”
I frowned and glanced over, thinking of Calder. “What was his name?”
Maggie wrinkled her nose in thought, before calling out to the leaving sailors, “Which Alderi captain was it that brought ya here?”
One of the humans turned. “He said his name was Jaecar Rapp.”
Jaecar. I immediately remembered the captain from my time in Silvi. He'd been in charge of delivering my letter to Hasani in Nahara before we'd even breached the underground. I'd barely known the man for more than a day, and yet he was doing all of this for me.
“Did he say anything about the underground?” I asked the human.
The man shook his head. “Only that you took it.”
I glanced back at Maggie. “Have any of these men or women said anything about the underground's support in Hammerton?”
“Nah, love. Haven't heard a thing. Ya worried Calder might not show?”
“Calder himself isn't supposed to show,” I replied. “He's needed as the underground's king. If the Alderi show, it will just be his armies. But I would have thought he'd reply to my letter by now. The time to depart for Hammerton is rapidly approaching.”
“Calder is unpredictable, Kai,” Azazel spoke up beside me. “Even if his armies show, they might be late. You remember how irresponsible he can be.”
I stared at my best friend a moment. “Is your distaste for Calder affecting your judgment?”
Azazel's black eyes were open and honest in mine. “My distaste for him won't affect my judgment for as long as he's out of my life. I don't mean to be negative, Kai, only realistic. Even if Calder only means the best, he might still fail just because he is inept.”
Cerin chuckled dryly. “Tell us how you really feel.”
“That's what I'm doing,” the archer replied matter-of-factly.
“It sounds like you're expecting failure no matter what,” I commented.
Azazel shook his head, his long black bangs falling over one eye. “I think it's best that you consider these possibilities now, Kai, lest you be heartbroken when we reach Hammerton and are not reinforced.”
I remembered Calder's words to me from five years ago, when he'd been so reluctant to part with me and had promised me his aid. I didn't want to think that he wouldn't follow through. Then again, just as Azazel said, it was possible that his leadership of the underground left a lot to be desired. Perhaps my letter had never arrived. Perhaps there were rebellions in the underground that took precedence over aiding me. Maybe one of the assassins who hadn't agreed with his rule had removed him from power. Part of me wondered if it was even possible that Calder had repeated the events of his past and had just decided to abandon me when I needed him most, much like he'd done with Azazel.
I forced such thoughts from my mind. Even if any of them were true, I didn't want to entertain the negative.
“Can you come with us back to Mistral, Maggie?” I asked the engineer.
“Aye.” Maggie pointed off to the southern coast, where I could barely make out the shadow of a large vessel over the waters. “I set the giants to build as many of these ships as they can before we leave. They're master builders, Kai. We'll have a fleet of these beauts by the time we leave next year.”
“And you have told my supporters to stay here?” I asked her.
“Aye. Don't want Tilda finding out that she's got transients in her streets,” Maggie replied dryly, mimicking the queen's cold words
from the year before.
I nodded. “Thank you.”
“Sure, love.” Maggie patted me on the back, laughing as I stumbled off balance with her strength.
“Let's leave your plans with the giants,” I added after a moment.
“Ah, don't worry, I've already thought of that.” Maggie wiggled her thick blonde eyebrows at me. “Tilda's not gettin' another damn thing from me.”
Three
47th of Red Moon, 425
“Sounds like a party's going on in here.” Altan grinned widely at me as soon as I cracked open the door of the room Cerin and I had been staying in at the castle during our time in Mistral. Behind me, Cerin was rushing to get dressed, and I was only in my underclothes.
“Yes, well, perhaps that was a sign to stop knocking,” I retorted, only somewhat in jest.
“It's not even dinner time, Kai, and you two are already going at it.” Altan chuckled. “How did you manage it on the road?”
“Very quietly,” Cerin retorted from behind me, to which the Sentinel laughed.
“Ah. Well.” Altan shrugged, as if impressed.
“Is this why you're here?” I asked him, crossing my arms over my chest. “To interrupt and then tease us?”
Altan chuckled. “No. I wouldn't interrupt you if it weren't important. I have a surprise for you.”
“Oh?”
“Yes. Get dressed.” Altan glanced down the stone hallway of the castle. “Azazel and Maggie are already waiting. We're going drinking.”
“Ale is the surprise?” I asked.
Altan scoffed playfully. “Ale's never the surprise, friend. Not even sure why you'd ask that. I keep a steady stream of ale flowing to that gut of yours.”
Cerin and I quickly finished dressing and joined the others out in the hallway. Azazel, Maggie, Cyrus, Uriel, Leura, and Dax were all waiting for us. I was happy to see that Dax would be coming with us. I wanted to get to know the new Sentinel better, but he'd been so attached to Kirek's hip since his promotion that I hadn't been able to.
Azazel seemed oddly reserved as our group filed out of the castle and into the late afternoon breeze. The long green grasses waved over the Orna Cliffs, each blade holding the slightest tint of copper in the cooler weather. On top of the highlands, new recruits for Eteri's army were training, shooting bows at targets and sparring over open grasses. As we approached the entrance to the second tier of Mistral within the cliffs, I could see just the edges of the giant training ground in the plains at the lowest level of the city. Since our victory against Glacia, giants had been recruited from Reva and Mistral alike and were in the midst of preparing to go overseas. There weren't nearly as many giants as there were Vhiri in Eteri, but their massive brute strength would be helpful both in battle and in forming the land of Hammerton as we took it.