Voyager of the Crown

by Melissa McShane

  “She had one more surprise in her,” Zara said. “Not that it would have mattered. Is everyone all right?” She looked around the clearing. It was empty of pirates, living ones, anyway. Ransom knelt before Arjan with his hand on the big man’s bloody shoulder, his head bowed in healing. Cantara paced the circumference of the space, alert and unwounded.

  Belinda was silent. Zara glanced at her, then took a longer look. Belinda’s eyes were wide and stunned, her jaw slack. “Are you all right?” Zara said.

  Belinda swallowed. “I saw her stab you through the heart,” she said. “The heart, Rowena. I saw it. But you’re…sweet heaven, you’re covered in blood and you’re standing there like nothing is wrong—”

  Zara’s unwounded heart lurched. “I don’t suppose I can persuade you to forget you saw that?” she said, trying for a light tone.

  Belinda shook her head. “Rowena, what kind of magic is it? It has to be magic—”

  The sound of a pistol being cocked rang out in the stillness of the clearing. A voice spoke in Karitian, then in Tremontanese added, “We will be taking the Device now.”

  Zara turned slowly, her hands wide to show she was unarmed, then remembered she still held the communicator Device and cursed herself. She might have been able to bluff if she’d kept it hidden. No choice now but to brazen it out. Beside her, Belinda made a move as if to aim her rifle at the speaker, then subsided. Even Belinda’s reflexes weren’t that quick.

  Four blue and red nakati armed with pistol Devices flanked a Karitian man dressed in the narrow robe and enveloping gauzy over-robe Zara thought of as civilian wear. It was probably not a good idea to make assumptions at this point. The Karitian party stood at the head of the path leading to the beach, fanned out to block their exit, if Zara had had any intention of leaving by that route. The Karitian’s face was broad and fleshy, fatter than any Karitians she’d seen so far, but his brown eyes were sharp and Zara felt it would be a mistake to believe him indolent just because he was large and sweating in the mid-morning heat.

  The Karitian stepped forward, not far enough to separate himself from his guards, and said, “You will to me give the Device.”

  “It’s not yours. It’s Tremontanan property,” Zara replied.

  “We have the weapons. It is our property now.”

  “It’s theft. Our government will consider it an act of war.”

  “Who is to see, out here where there is nothing and…no one?” The Karitian glanced past Zara at whichever of her friends stood there, out of her sight. As a threat, it was effective, but Zara was too old and too canny to be drawn by it.

  “If you intend to kill us all anyway, why should I make it easy on you?” she said. The Karitian twitched, but that was the only sign her shot had gone home.

  “Let’s discuss this like civilized people, shall we?” she went on. “You Karitians pride yourselves on being civilized—that should appeal to you.”

  The Karitian inclined his head slightly, indicating she should continue. Zara prayed her friends wouldn’t do anything stupid. “There are only three ways this can play out. One. We give you the Device without a fight. You let us go free. We return to the embassy and report the theft of a valuable Tremontanan Device, giving our country the pretext for going to war. I don’t have to describe what happens next, do I?

  “Two. You attempt to take the Device by force. It’s true, you’re well-armed, but I’m standing beside the Tremontanan sharpshooting champion, and I’ll bet she can drop at least a few of you before you take her down. Maybe you succeed, maybe we do, but it’s guaranteed none of us are walking out of here unscathed.”

  Zara took another wonderfully life-saturated breath. She could get used to this. Probably she shouldn’t get used to it. “And then we come to three. We both walk away. The Device is broken, so it’s not useful to you. Nobody dies. Everything returns to the way it was three days ago, except the world is rid of a vicious criminal. You’re welcome, by the way.”

  The Karitian’s brows rose. “Why am I welcome?”

  Zara pointed in Ghazarian’s direction without breaking their gaze. “Heaven only knows what kind of depredations she’s wreaked on your shipping, starting with stealing a ship and murdering its crew. You were willing to trade with her to get the Device, but she’d have been a problem for you for many years if you’d let her get away with it.”

  “We had plans for Ghazarian,” the Karitian said. He pronounced the name with a strange emphasis, as if it tasted bad.

  “It was a mistake to assume you could control her. Be grateful she’s dead. And walk away from this.”

  The Karitian pursed his lips. “You assume my government will this find an acceptable outcome. Perhaps it is better for me to return dead.”

  “I don’t think you believe that. You don’t strike me as someone who lets political tides overwhelm him. I’m certain you know how to spin this your way.”

  One of the nakati shifted. The Karitian held up a quelling hand. “You speak well,” he said, “but I think you understand not the demands of my government. We need this Device.”

  Zara smiled. She couldn’t help herself. Never give away more than you have to. “Well, we don’t,” she said, and enjoyed the look of startled puzzlement that flitted across his face before he controlled himself. “We’ll build another. It’s not the Device that matters, it’s the Devisery. Do you really think we’re willing to give up our advantage?”

  The Karitian opened his mouth to reply, and Zara overrode him. “You’re not stupid. You know as well as I do the winner in a negotiation is the one who’s willing to walk away. Now I’m going to tell you what will happen. My friends and I are going back to our embassy. With the Device. You’re going to turn around and return to your government and tell them the Device was…destroyed.” Her lips curled in a mirthless smile. “The pirates had a falling out. I’m sure you can make it believable.”

  She took a step toward the man, then another, conscious of the guns trained on her but with her whole attention focused on the Karitian. “You’re going to do this because, sir, the alternative is death. Not only for you, but for thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands. And I’m betting my own life that matters to you.” She came to a halt some two feet from the Karitian. “This is the only deal I’m offering. Take it.”

  The Karitian swallowed. “Who are you to make such an offer?”

  So many possible responses flooded her mind Zara felt choked by them. “Jeffrey North’s voice, in this place, at this time,” she finally said. It was as true as anything.

  The same nakat brought his gun to bear on her. Quicker than a man his size ought to be able to move, the Karitian spun and snatched the weapon from the man’s hand and threw it on the ground. He spat out a few words in Karitian that made the nakati back up and lower their pistols. Zara didn’t move. The Karitian turned to face her and said, “Go now, and remember—this is not over.”

  It was over, but she could leave the man his dignity. Zara nodded and turned her back on him, her spine itching at the proximity to all those unfriendly guns, even if they weren’t currently trained on her. She didn’t wait to see if the others followed, didn’t care whether she was going the right way; all that mattered was to get out of that clearing before the spell she’d cast over the Karitians broke.

  They crashed through the undergrowth, no longer caring about not making noise. Zara slowed to let Ransom take the lead. He passed her silently, with no more than a glance that said nothing of what he was feeling or thinking. Good. Time enough to talk about all this when they were safe.

  “Rowena,” Belinda said, then fell silent before Zara could shush her. That was a relief. It wasn’t as if they needed to be quiet, it was just that Zara didn’t feel equal to having the conversation Belinda no doubt wanted while they were fleeing through the jungle. How many of the others had witnessed Ghazarian’s blow? Had anyone but Belinda seen Zara heal herself? Maybe her secret was still safe. Zara trusted Belinda to be close-mouthed, especi
ally if Zara could impress upon her the gravity of the truth. And it wasn’t as if she had to admit to being effectively immortal; only a healer would intuit that.

  She glanced at Belinda again. Her friend’s astonishment was palpable, her expression that of a woman who was holding in a million questions and bursting with the desire to ask them. Zara’s heart sank. And so it begins. Whether Belinda could keep quiet or not was irrelevant. Every person who knew was one more person who might tell. Keeping her secret had just become a hundred times harder.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  They came through the trees to the shore and found the boat halfway in the water with Theo at the helm. He stood when they appeared, his slim frame tense with worry, and took in their filthy and gory condition with horror that faded only slightly when he realized they were all mobile. “Did you get the Device?”

  “Yes. Back to the embassy, and hurry,” Zara said. It had occurred to her on their walk that the Karitians might still come after them, and they were mostly helpless on the open sea. They needed to get away from this island before that Karitian came to his senses. He would eventually realize those four nakati were witnesses who might tell his superiors what had happened, and then there would be bloodshed. She couldn’t count on the blood shed being his, securing their escape.

  They shoved off, and Ransom took his place at the tiller, steering them wide of the island. Ghazarian’s stolen ship was gone, either taken by the Karitians or used by the remaining pirates to make their escape. A different ship lay off the coast of the island, similar to Ghazarian’s but with random blue lines adorning its prow rather than orange eyes. It was otherwise unmarked, bore no national flag, and Zara shivered when she looked at it.

  “It’s not moving,” Ransom said. “I don’t think they’re going to follow us.”

  “Still, let’s not take any chances.”

  “Don’t worry, Rowena, I have no desire to see the inside of a Karitian prison again.”

  “They would likely kill us instead,” Arjan said.

  Ransom regarded him sardonically. “That’s cheering.”

  “But I think they could not kill Rowena,” Arjan added. “Not if Ghazarian could not.”

  Silence descended, broken only by the hum of the boat’s Device and the slap of waves against the boat’s sides. “Ah,” Zara said, struck suddenly mute. So Belinda had not been the only one to see.

  “You have inherent magic, don’t you,” Belinda said. “That’s why…Rowena, she stabbed you through the heart, and you survived! How is that even possible?”

  So much for her secret. “I…heal myself,” Zara said. “Like Ransom, only without thinking about it, and I can’t heal others. I wish you hadn’t found out.”

  “Why not?” Belinda exclaimed. “That—even in Tremontane, that’s not something to be ashamed of. Healers are accepted everywhere.”

  “Some people are suspicious even of healers,” Ransom said. “I could tell you stories…but we’re not talking about me now.”

  “It unsettling is,” Arjan said. “If you my friend were not, I would fear you.”

  “Don’t say that, Arjan,” Belinda protested. “It’s not true. I wouldn’t fear you, Rowena.”

  “Thank you, Belinda, but Arjan’s reaction is more usual,” Zara said. “It’s a secret because I don’t want people looking at me like I’m a monster. I’m just an ordinary woman who happens to have inherent magic.”

  Cantara laughed. “You have just talked us out of death. You hardly ordinary are.”

  “Well, you understand what I mean.” Zara leaned into the wind of their passage, willing it to cool her cheeks. Cantara’s comment made her unexpectedly flustered. “I hope I don’t have to ask you all to keep my secret.”

  “We wouldn’t tell,” Theo said. “It’s nobody’s business, anyway.”

  Zara handed him the Device and his eyes lit with excitement. “They won’t let you keep it,” she said.

  “I know. But I’d like to be the one who returns it, if that’s all right. That Deviser was really snooty with me. I want to see her face when she realizes it was my tracking Device that found it.”

  Belinda let out a deep breath. “I feel so let down,” she said, “as if nothing exciting could possibly happen again.”

  “I do not think I wish for excitement,” Cantara said. “I wish for a peaceful life now.”

  “We’re not safe yet,” Zara said, which quelled the conversation.

  She watched their wake the whole way back to Goudge’s Folly, but the unmarked Karitian ship didn’t follow them. No one paid them any attention as Ransom zipped between the rest of the crafts plying the bay, but Zara wasn’t completely comfortable until they docked and returned custody of their boat to the harbormaster. It was nearly noon, and they trudged up the hill to the embassy in weary silence. The effects of the island’s powerful source had worn off, though Zara thought the tiredness she felt was a result of the battle of wits she’d had and not the aftereffects of nearly dying again. She hoped their success would incline Blackwood to letting her have another bath.

  Young Dyer was on duty at the gate again, and opened it for them before Zara could ask him to. He eyed her bloody shirt as if he wanted to ask about it, but a glance from her cowed him. Probably she shouldn’t feel so smug about intimidating someone as insignificant as Dyer, but she disliked bullies, even small and ineffectual ones. Maybe encountering her would change his attitude.

  The frigid air of the embassy once again made Zara break out in a sweat upon entering the foyer. Blackwood’s secretary James came trotting toward them and stopped a few feet away, his mouth falling open in dismay. “Miss Farrell—Mister Zakhari—what happened? You’re—”

  “I want to speak with Miss Blackwood,” Zara said. “We have something that belongs to her.”

  James nodded and gestured to them to follow him. Now they were safely on Tremontanan soil, weariness struck Zara as if she’d run all the way from the docks to the embassy. She straightened her shoulders and ignored it. This wasn’t over yet.

  James opened Blackwood’s door without knocking. They must really have rattled him. “Miss Blackwood,” he said, “they…Miss Farrell…”

  Blackwood looked up from her desk. Her irritation turned to surprise. “What in the hell—”

  Zara gestured to Theo, who came forward and laid the Device on Blackwood’s desk. “We got it back,” he said.

  Blackwood shoved back from her desk and stood in one swift motion. “You did what?” She prodded the Device with a finger as if it were an unexploded bomb. “Miss Farrell, I specifically told you to leave this alone!”

  “That’s not true,” Zara said. “You did imply it strongly, though. Would you like us to take it back where we found it?”

  Blackwood glared at her. “Don’t be flippant with me, Miss Farrell. And don’t expect my gratitude to change my mind about you. You’re still a civilian and you had no business interfering in government affairs.”

  Zara slapped both hands palm down on the desk and leaned forward, putting her face inches from Blackwood’s. “A civilian who got results, Miss Blackwood, results you were incapable of. Let me remind you that I have his Majesty’s full faith and approval. Just because I’m not free to tell you the details of my role in his Majesty’s government does not mean I don’t have one. Don’t cross me, Miss Blackwood, or we’ll find out what other results I might be capable of.”

  Blackwood’s gaze didn’t falter, but Zara had faced down opponents far more deadly. It was Blackwood who turned away first. “My…thanks, Miss Farrell,” she ground out. “I hope you won’t imagine this embassy is not grateful for your efforts, particularly since some of you appear to have been wounded in the retrieval of the Device. Do you need medical attention?”

  “Ransom De Witt has taken care of that,” Zara said. “But thank you.”

  “Then, if that’s all…” Blackwood wasn’t bothering to conceal her eagerness to get them out of there.

  “I’ll take
the Device to your Deviser,” Theo said. “I have to disassemble the tracking Device to give her the stem so she can fix it.”

  Blackwood looked confused at the words “tracking Device,” but didn’t pursue it. “If there’s anything the embassy can do for you, just ask,” she said, with an air that told Zara she really didn’t want them to ask. Zara nodded.

  Out in the hall, Belinda said, “She might have been more grateful.”

  “She embarrassed was,” Cantara said. “I do not think she had more gratitude to give.”

  “So…now what?” Theo asked.

  “It’s over,” Zara said. “And life goes on.”

  ***

  “I’m sorry to have put you to so much trouble,” Zara said. “I just don’t think life in Dineh-Karit is for me.”

  Mistress Falken Senior pursed her lips. She was a lean woman in her middle sixties, with a cap of short silver hair and a tendency to tilt her head to one side like an inquisitive bird. With her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed, it was a bird of prey. “We went to some trouble to get you here,” she said. “Now we’re out the price of your passage and we still don’t have an employee.”

  “Well, I had an idea about that.” Zara leaned back in her chair, hoping her relaxed pose would put Mistress Falken at ease. “I know a woman who’s looking for work. Her name is Belinda Stouffer. She’s an experienced businesswoman who’s interested in making a change. She used to be a merchant herself and understands the business. I have no doubt she’d be willing to take the job.”

  “You expect me to hire someone I’ve never met?”

  “You hired me, didn’t you?” Zara smiled. “I’ll even repay my fare, so you won’t be out any money.” Technically, she could have made a case for them paying the fare for Belinda, but she was in a good mood and she wanted Mistress Falken to think positively of Belinda.