Spellslinger 6: Crownbreaker

by Sebastien de Castell

  Besides, it was kind of reassuring to discover that there are even more shameless con artists than me out there.

  The thing that really hurt came later as I was convalescing in my family’s home and learned that all my friends were leaving me behind.

  68

  The Pack

  It’s funny how much you want to sleep after nearly dying. You’d figure it would work the other way – that you’d be terrified to close your eyes for fear of waking up in the Grey Passage with your hideous grandmother cackling at you about another kiss. Yet for weeks I couldn’t seem to stop drifting in and out of unconsciousness. After the offers of employment stopped coming, bad news arrived in their place.

  ‘The squirrel cat made a deal,’ Ferius informed me when I asked her why Reichis wasn’t there slapping at my face with his little paws, demanding I get my lazy arse out of bed.

  ‘What do you mean, he made a deal?’

  She was sitting on a little rocking chair at the foot of my bed. I had no idea where she’d gotten it – there had never been one in my family’s home before. ‘Little bastard had to convince all them other squirrel cats to come fight to save your life against a horde of war mages. That don’t come free.’ She snorted. ‘Nothing does with those crazy varmints.’

  ‘But they didn’t fight! I duelled my father myself!’

  ‘Yeah, reckon he should’ve been more specific when he was negotiatin’ that deal.’

  I sat there in my own misery. ‘So what happens now?’ I asked finally. ‘He joins their tribe and I never see him again?’

  She took a puff from her smoking reed. The healers my sister had assigned to me had tried to explain on a number of occasions that smoke wasn’t conducive to my recovery, but Ferius refused to give them up. She was still recovering too, I guess, now that Shujan was dead and the malediction was fading from her. ‘There ain’t a lot of squirrel cats left in the world, kid,’ she explained. ‘Most of the smart ones are female, so there aren’t that many males to go around.’

  ‘So Reichis has to …’

  She nodded. ‘His part of the deal was to breed with any of the females who wanted him for as long as they needed him around. Little fella’s goin’ to be pretty exhausted for a while.’ She shook her head. ‘Poor little critter.’

  ‘Somehow I think he’ll survive,’ I said.

  Goodbye, Reichis, I thought. I hope you find even half the happiness you deserve. I’m pretty sure you’ll steal the rest.

  ‘What about Nephenia?’ I asked.

  ‘She tried to see you. Waited around as long as she could, but there’s a riverboat leavin’ these shores in a few days and if she waits for the next one she won’t make the coast in time to catch her ship. Told me to tell you the story between you ain’t done yet, that it had been a long time comin’ and could wait awhile longer.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like Nephenia at all.’

  Ferius shrugged. ‘Reckon I tell it better.’

  I guess a part of me had known all along she wouldn’t stay. Nephenia had more of the Argosi instincts about her than I did, and everyone knows each Argosi follows their own path, no two staying together forever.

  My eyes had drifted shut and sleep overtook me before I’d fully considered what that meant.

  Ferius was still there when I woke though, which surprised me. The night sky peeked in through the window of my room, stars twinkling as if calling to her.

  ‘How many hours was I out?’ I asked.

  She chuckled. ‘Hours? You’ve been out two whole days, kid.’

  ‘Two days?’

  ‘Yeah. Them healin’ spells your people are so fond of do a real number on the body and mind.’ She took a puff of her smoking reed. ‘Me, I prefer the traditional ways.’

  She moved from her rocking chair to a sofa a little ways away from my bed. I tried to get up to follow her, but despite all the healing magic I was still wrapped in so many bandages I could hardly move. She set to strumming that little guitar she carries around with her, humming a tune I didn’t recognise. ‘It’s a Tristian song,’ she said, though I hadn’t asked. ‘From across the water.’

  ‘Is that where you’re going?’

  She nodded. ‘Reckon a little vacation might do me good. See if I can learn a little about where the Argosi came from.’

  ‘The Argosi didn’t start on this continent?’

  She shook her head. ‘Nope.’

  ‘You never told me that.’

  ‘Never told you lots of things.’ She strummed a chord on her guitar that drew my attention. It wasn’t discordant, really, but haunting. Unfinished. Questioning.

  ‘You’re asking what I plan to do next,’ I said.

  She smiled. ‘See? Knew you’d get the hang of arta loquit eventually.’ She added a note to the chord, strumming it again, giving it a whimsical, almost laughing air. ‘Heard you got plenty of offers. Lots of nice places to settle down.’

  I didn’t bother responding. Times like these it’s best to just be the silence between the notes.

  ‘Now, that Daroman palace the queen’s got – that’s a fine place. A body could learn to like it there, especially now that them Murmurers know you’re the one as saved them all.’ She set the guitar aside. ‘Seven Sands ain’t lacking for attractions either. That Seneira, I heard she ain’t married yet, and what with you bein’ sorta famous these days …’

  ‘Ferius?’

  ‘Yeah, kid?’

  ‘You remember that talk we had a couple of years ago about you not giving me romantic advice?’

  She put up her hands. ‘Okay, kid. Okay.’ She glanced around my room. ‘This house ain’t so bad, you know. You could live here, help your sister turn things around.’

  ‘Shalla hasn’t spoken to me once since I …’ Part of me wanted to let the words hang there, but another part figured if you’re going to cause a man’s death, the least you can do is say his name. ‘I made her kill Ke’heops. Our father.’

  Ferius took out a deck from her waistcoat and tossed me a card. The markings on it were a deep crimson, showing the six of chains. ‘A debt card?’ I asked.

  ‘Argosi don’t waste no road on guilt, kid. You reckon you did something wrong, then follow the Way of Water and balance it out. No matter what else, your sister loves you; that ain’t gonna change. Now that she knows a way to fix them counter-sigils or whatever they’re called, you might even be able to become a proper mage one day. If that’s what you want. Just don’t stay in one place too long, kid. An Argosi never lets the past catch up to them.’

  A pain in my ribs made me lean back into the bed. ‘Don’t let the past catch up to me? Ferius, I’m a wreck. I’m not even nineteen years old and I’ve got more scars than a corpse that’s been picked over by buzzards. I feel … old inside.’

  ‘Me too,’ she said, carefully putting her guitar inside its leather case and rising – a little unsteadily, I noticed. ‘Dang malediction really did a number on me. Mostly gone now, but I reckon it’ll be a while before I’m doin’ any dancing.’

  She walked over to the bed and put a hand on my head. ‘Still warm,’ she said. ‘Guess you got a few years in you yet.’

  She turned and headed for the door, and I knew then that by morning she’d be gone.

  ‘That’s it?’ I asked. ‘Not even a goodbye?’

  ‘You mean like the goodbye you gave me and Nephenia back in Gitabria when you took off in the middle of night cos you had to be so noble you figured you’d leave your friends behind and go off to face your enemies all on your lonesome?’

  She had a point there.

  ‘Will I ever see you again?’

  Even before the words escaped my lips I regretted the question. The Argosi were all about the path, walking the present moment, not worrying about the future, never being held back by the past. Ferius had allowed her path to twist and turn so that she could save my life more times than either of us could count, and teach me to survive on my own. Now that time was done.

&nb
sp; She turned back though, and gave me that grin of hers. ‘Reckon there’s no way to avoid our paths crossing again, kid. You know why?’

  Hopefulness snuck through all the pain and the bandages and cracked ribs. ‘Why?’

  She tipped her hat at me. ‘Because I’m a damned good tracker, kid.’

  69

  The Trickster

  Later that night, I was arrested.

  ‘You can’t be serious,’ I said, throwing the writ back at Torian Libri.

  ‘Don’t look at me. I’m a marshal, not a magistrate. I just go where they tell me.’ She sat down on the edge of my bed, pushing aside the tails of that long, crimson leather coat of hers.

  ‘First of all, we’re in the Jan’Tep territories. You have no jurisdiction here.’

  She smiled. ‘Haven’t you read that nice new treaty your sister signed? Great, long thing. Lots of clauses. One of them covers extradition of fugitives.’ She made a show of brushing her nails against the leather of her coat. ‘I’ve got a reputation to maintain, you know.’

  I grabbed at the writ again. ‘“Assaulting a marshal”? “Inhibiting the course of justice”?’

  She shrugged. ‘You did punch me pretty good a couple of times back in that temple in Berabesq.’ She took the writ from me. ‘Don’t worry your pretty little head about it though, card player. The queen’s busy these days, what with the new treaty between Darome, Berabesq and the Jan’Tep territories. I’m sure she’ll say some very flattering words at your trial.’

  ‘My trial?’

  ‘You’ll like the magistrate. Nice fellow. Well, I suppose he’s more one of those “hanging judges” you hear about, but he owes me a favour or two. I might be able to persuade him to sentence you to a year or two of house arrest.’

  ‘You really like your job, don’t you?’

  She patted my chest. ‘Arresting no-good card sharps and hunting down fugitives? Who wouldn’t?’

  ‘You know this “house arrest” nonsense won’t hold, right?’

  ‘Oh? Why not?’

  ‘First of all, because even if you do get some crooked magistrate to pass the verdict, until the queen delivers my resignation letter to her court, I’m still a royal tutor, so any such sentence would automatically be commuted. Even if it wasn’t, the queen will issue a pardon. Also,’ I added, holding up the two-inch knife I’d pilfered from her coat, ‘I’m an outlaw. We’re pretty good at breaking out of places.’

  She sighed. ‘I suppose that’s true. On the other hand, I have a plan for that.’

  ‘Care to share it?’

  She leaned an elbow on my chest, ignoring my grunt of pain. Oddly, I found I quite liked the sensation of her weight on me. She leaned down close to me, and I was soon staring into those twin sapphires of her eyes, tasting her breath. I felt her fingers intertwine with mine. ‘See, when I said you’d be held under house arrest, I never specified whose house.’

  ‘Marshal?’ I asked. ‘Are you trying to mesmerise me?’

  ‘Can’t say for sure. Is it working?’

  ‘A little.’

  The hand that wasn’t holding mine came up and covered my eyes. ‘There now, that’s better. Can’t mesmerise you now, can I?’

  ‘Torian—’

  Her lips found mine, and a thousand aches and pains found themselves losing the fight for my attention. There was something wild in that kiss, something that made my hands want to pull Torian closer, made the feeling of her fingers sliding through my hair awaken something in me that I’d honestly thought might be lost in all the wounds and injuries and heartache.

  ‘Stop.’

  The word took us both by surprise, so much so that it took me a second to realise I was the one who’d said it.

  Torian pulled away. ‘I’m sorry, Kellen. I didn’t realise …’ She arched an eyebrow. ‘Actually, I’m not sure what I was supposed to realise.’

  ‘It’s … I’m sorry. It’s nothing to do with—’

  ‘Card player, I swear if you finish that sentence you’re going to need a whole lot more bandages.’

  I heeded the warning. Torian sat there on the edge of the bed, staring at me awhile before she finally said, ‘Well, damn.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘It’s that charmcaster, isn’t it? Nephenia? Didn’t she leave your arse here while she’s gone off who knows where?’

  ‘It’s complicated,’ I said.

  ‘Life is complicated. We’re complicated. Why not take the complication that gives you a chance at happiness instead of waiting around for the one that may never come to pass?’ She leaned closer to me on the bed. ‘Look, Kellen, maybe you and me will never fall in love. Maybe it’ll just be a few months of wild, animal passion and the occasional duel.’

  ‘I try to avoid those when I can.’

  She smirked. ‘You’re not good at it. Anyway, so what if it’s not the great romance of your life? Darome’s a fine place and the queen adores you. Why not help me look out for her? She could be the greatest ruler since the empire began if we just—’

  ‘Because I don’t belong there!’

  I hadn’t meant to put it so bluntly, or to shout. These past couple of weeks I’d tried hard to come up with flowery, poetic ways of letting people down, but now melancholy was giving way to bitterness.

  ‘I don’t belong in Darome, Torian. I don’t belong in the Seven Sands or here or anywhere else.’

  She frowned. ‘That doesn’t make sense. Everybody and their uncle has been trying to hire you. Practically the whole continent’s offering you a job right now.’

  I shook my head. ‘I’m …’

  How could I even begin to explain my grandmother’s dire appraisal of my place in the world? Torian wouldn’t understand. She’d just laugh, drown me in those sapphire eyes of hers and pretty soon I’d forget all about my troubles. A marshal’s magic; not a bad place to lose oneself for a few months or years. But I’d paid a high price to become my own man – the kind of man who didn’t flinch when Nephenia ran a fingertip along the shadowblack marks circling my left eye. The kind who could answer the unspoken but always present question in Ferius Parfax’s smirk with a grin that said, Yeah, you were right to bet on me. I wasn’t ready to give that up.

  ‘People like me … we’re meant to break things,’ I said at last. ‘To pull back the curtain when a society has gotten wrapped up in too many of its own deceptions.’ I reached up and touched the shadowblack markings around my left eye. ‘But when the dawn comes, when something new and good is being built, I just don’t belong, Torian.’

  I expected that to earn me a snide remark, but she just nodded as though my rambling explanation had made some kind of sense. ‘So where will you go?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I replied. ‘Pretty much every waking minute I’ve been asking myself that question.’

  She leaned over and kissed me again, this time on the cheek. ‘I hope you find out, Kellen.’ She stood up and grinned. ‘Because you know what? Even though you’re a no-good, spellslinging shadowblack Argosi card sharp, there’s one thing about you I’m really going to miss.’

  She walked over to the door and I thought she was going to leave without another word.

  ‘Mind telling me what that is?’ I asked.

  She turned back and gave me maybe the most salacious grin I’ve ever seen. ‘Just close your eyes. You’ll figure it out.’

  She left me there, utterly confused. Having nothing better to do, I did as she suggested and closed my eyes. I’d nearly fallen back asleep when I heard a strange sound, like someone grinding their teeth. I opened my eyes again but the glow-glass lantern was barely flickering under the weak effect of my meagre magic. I gave up and decided to figure out Torian’s mysterious message in the morning, only to hear the noise again.

  ‘Who’s there?’ I said, grabbing for my powder holsters. ‘If you’re one of my father’s friends or my sister’s enemies or just about anybody else, you should know I haven’t blasted a mage in weeks and my fingers are getting
twitchy.’

  Nothing.

  I pushed my will into the lantern and got a little more light into the room. It still took me a moment to follow the slow, methodical sounds of mastication to the windowsill. There, in the shadows, a tubby, two-foot-tall squirrel cat sat on his haunches, staring back at me while chewing on what looked to be a butter biscuit.

  ‘Reichis?’

  ‘Yeah?’

  ‘What the hells are you doing, skulking in the shadows?’

  He took another nibble of butter biscuit. ‘It looked as if you and that marshal were about to mate, and, well, you know, I figured I’d better not distract you in case me being here made you go all—’

  ‘So you decided to just sit there and watch while chewing on butter biscuits?’

  ‘I was hungry.’

  ‘That doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. Ferius said you made a deal with that tribe of squirrel cats to—’

  ‘Yeah … Could we maybe never talk about that? Leastways not until we’re a good thousand miles from these territories?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I mean, get out of that stinkin’ bed – you people have to come up with some spells for cleanin’ yourselves by the way – and let’s get the hells out of this lousy country.’

  Despite the bandages, it took me less time than I’d’ve expected to get myself up and dressed. Packing was even quicker. There’s something to be said for being a mostly broke outlaw spellslinger with only two decent shirts to his name. Just before we walked out the door, I turned back and left the thirteen cards my mother had made on the bed where I knew Shalla would find them.

  It wasn’t long before the two of us had saddled up my old horse – Reichis claimed he’d found him wandering the hills outside the city and convinced him to come back with him – and soon we were back on the road that led due east out of the Jan’Tep territories.

  ‘Where are we going?’ I asked.

  Lying on his back on his usual spot above the saddle, he gave a lazy shrug. ‘Don’t know. Don’t care.’

  I considered our options, but a different question kept getting in the way. ‘Reichis?’