Crown of Earth

by Hilari Bell

  “Of course. She wouldn’t let me see him, but she knows Holis loves him. Any hostage is better than a… than none. I think she’s got him hidden on another of the islands.”

  Another of the islands. “So her base is on an island? I had a feeling it might be.”

  “You and your feelings.” Her shoulders slumped. “You’re right, of course. She took me there when she realized that she had to make new plans.”

  “Was she angry with you?” Edoran asked. “I mean, you were the one who kept her from kidnapping me.”

  The girl’s gaze fell. “I didn’t tell her. She assumed that it was Weasel who figured it out. I’d just turned up, lugging the shield and sword along. She assumed…” Her voice was so soft now that Edoran could barely hear her. “She just assumed I was on her side. Like always.”

  The tears were falling again.

  “She doesn’t intend to kill you,” Arisa went on fiercely. “Not you, or Weasel, or even Holis, unless she has to. She’s going to claim that you gave her the shield and sword and asked her to be your regent. That you said you think Holis is incompetent. That he can’t even keep the realm safe… safe from the pirates.”

  “Well, how could he?” Edoran asked. “They’ve got some spy in the navy who’s telling them where the naval ships are looking for them.”

  He’d hoped to surprise, maybe even impress her with this, but she just nodded.

  “She’s not evil,” Arisa said. “She isn’t!”

  “I never said she was.” Thinking it was another matter.

  “She plans to bring Holis down by creating dissent over the way he’s handling the raids,” Arisa went on. “She’s already started rumors about how badly he’s managing it. Then, when she’s in control of the government and the raids stop, that will give her the support she needs to keep anyone from challenging her claim to the regency. When you turn twenty-two, she’ll just let you be king in name while she goes on running things.”

  It was more likely she would kill him, whatever she’d told Arisa, but Edoran didn’t care about that anymore. “How could she possibly stop—”

  “She won’t kill you!” Arisa insisted. “She says she’d never need to, that Pettibone ruined you, and you’d be perfectly happy to let someone else take over all the difficult ruling things while you live in luxury.”

  “I probably would,” said Edoran. “But how can she stop the pirate raids when Holis couldn’t? Even if she gets rid of their spies in the navy, they…”

  Then it hit him. Why Arisa looked so miserable. Why the Falcon’s main bases were all on islands. Even why the pirates had started raiding ashore, for the first time in anyone’s memory.

  “She’s behind them?” His voice scaled up incredulously, but it wasn’t really a question. “She’s been behind them from the start! Of course she has. Her allies were always in the navy, and those are the ships that vanished! No wonder the pirates always knew who was hunting for them, and where and when, even on land—the Falcon was in charge of the hunt! How can you claim she’s not evil? They’ve killed dozens of people! Maybe hundreds! And destroyed I don’t know how much property, and wounded others who didn’t die, and—”

  “I know!” Arisa interrupted bitterly. “I know all of that… now. It took me a while to figure it out. To realize that all those rough men around the camp weren’t just common sailors she’d recruited to the cause. They didn’t talk much in front of me, but after a while little things started adding up. And I had to be sure, so I started spying on them deliberately.”

  She would have to be sure. The Falcon’s daughter had inherited all her mother’s courage, and then some. If it had been his mother, and he’d been trapped on an island surrounded by pirates, Edoran thought he’d have taken great pains not to learn the truth.

  “I might have been able to live with that,” Arisa said. “This is a war, even if there aren’t armies marching around the countryside, and people die in wars. Even innocent people, sometimes. And she wasn’t responsible for those deaths! She told the raiders to avoid killing anyone if they could. But… they’re pirates. It got out of hand. That’s why she started sending the navy ships with them, to keep the deaths to a minimum. So I think—I think I could have lived with that. Except… I heard… I was spying on all their meetings by then.”

  If she’d gotten through this much without faltering, what was the trouble now? Edoran suppressed a chill of dread. “Go on.”

  She took a deep breath and turned to face him. “There’s a village of fishermen who’ve been reporting on pirate-ship movements to the navy. Holis’ navy. The honest one.”

  Horror stopped Edoran’s heart.

  “Evidently, word of that’s spreading up and down the coast,” Arisa went on. “Some other villages are thinking about reporting them too. The pirates told my mother that if that happens, soon the navy will know exactly where they are. They said the fishermen are everywhere and see everything. So the pirates wanted to burn that village to the ground and kill everyone in it. As a warning to the others. Stop the rot before it has a chance to grow, they said. And…” She took another breath and went on, in a firm, clear voice that was the bravest thing Edoran had ever heard. “And my mother agreed.”

  “When? When is this raid going to take place?”

  “I don’t know, exactly. This attack is just a diversion. They’re staging another, up the coast, so troops will be drawn away from the village from both directions. So there’s no chance for anyone to reach it in time.” Her voice was still clear, but the tears were falling once more. “They’ll sail up the coast, meet up with the other half of the fleet, and then go in. I don’t know exactly when, but it’ll be soon, and if we’re going to warn this Caerfalas in time…”

  “We will.” Edoran drew a shuddering breath, trying to calm his own galloping panic. “If the pirates just left here… They’ll have to sail around the islands, and that will cost them some time. Then they’ll have to rendezvous with the other ships and make their plans. We can beat them there. Evacuate. We’ll save Caerfalas. You don’t have to cry.”

  “It’s not the cursed village,” Arisa snapped. “Though I’m glad to see those ships. Don’t you understand? My mother agreed to this! She agreed to let them kill all those people, just for trying to stop the pirates, who she turned loose in the first place. She—she’s gone.”

  She was sobbing now, bitter, wrenching sobs that Edoran had no idea how to deal with. What would Ron the fisherboy do? Try.

  He moved closer and put his arm around her shaking shoulders, just holding on, and eventually her weeping quieted.

  “When I heard them talking about killing all those people, I knew I had to escape,” said Arisa wearily. “To warn them. To… to do something. If Mother’s men succeed in this, there won’t be enough left of her to save. So I stowed away on the first ship to leave for the raid—”

  “You stowed away on a pirate ship?” Edoran asked. She was the craziest girl.

  “How else could I get there to warn anyone? Besides, I’m their leader’s daughter. Even if they caught me, they couldn’t do much. But they wouldn’t have let me go ashore, so I had to be careful. I planned to go over the side first chance I got, find the nearest guard troop, and tell them… well, everything. But the first chance I had to go ashore was here, and it took awhile to tie the sword and shield to an empty keg, so they wouldn’t sink, and I had to swim—”

  “You’ve still got the sword and shield?” asked Edoran incredulously. “Here? With you?”

  “They’re hidden in a bush where I came ashore,” said Arisa. “The current pulled me down the coast a ways. I couldn’t leave them in my mother’s hands. They’re the only things that might make her listen to me now.”

  Her eyes were dry, but her voice was full of despair. And she wasn’t the despairing type. Edoran regarded her with concern.

  “I’ll listen to you,” he told her, relinquishing his pride. “And so will the men of Caerfalas—whether you’ve got the sword and s
hield or not. But I’m going to need your help, so don’t you go and crumple up on me!”

  She snorted at that. “All right, Your Highness. What do you intend to do now?”

  CHAPTER 10

  The One of Waters: the fish. An opportunity, which may or may not be taken.

  “I have… I think I have a plan.” And in that plan Edoran saw an opportunity that took his breath away. “I have to think it through,” he went on, “and check some things. Time is the most important. And the men of Caerfalas might not go along with it. The most important thing of all is to keep the village safe.”

  “Of course.” There was only defeat in her voice. Even if his plans came off, the best her mother could expect was to be banished in disgrace.

  But a part of his heart quivered with hope. In all the chaos that would ensue—or could be made to seem like it had ensued—surely there would be a chance for Prince Edoran to die. And if he died, then Ron the fisherboy would be free to live.

  “Come on, then.” Edoran pulled Arisa to her feet. “First we have to talk to Togger.”

  Arisa was startled to learn that men on the boats on the beach, those who’d come to the town’s assistance, were from Caerfalas themselves. But the pirate raids were staged to draw troops away from Caerfalas, and because fishing fleets tried not to stray too far from their base, it made sense that they’d be somewhere in the vicinity. If they’d sailed down the coast in the other direction, they might have seen the smoke from the other diversionary raid and gone to investigate it.

  But she was astonished when Edoran asked her not to reveal his true identity. “Aren’t they more likely to listen to their prince than a common… whatever you’re pretending to be?”

  “If you knew nothing about me except the reputation Pettibone spread, would you listen to anything Prince Edoran suggested?”

  Arisa eyed him. “I know you much better than that. That’s why I wouldn’t listen. What is this plan of yours, anyway?”

  There was a time when Edoran would have been hurt by her teasing, but Mouse had cured him. He grinned. “Just for that, I’m not saying. No, seriously, I’ll have to tell all of them, so I might as well do it once.”

  They found Togger helping the Boralee townsfolk dig a trench grave for the pirates who’d been killed during the raid. The dead townsfolk, of whom there were far more, were being washed and shrouded by their families.

  Arisa watched bodies tumble into the trench, dumped willynilly. Her face was expressionless, but so pale that her freckles stood out like stars. Was she thinking of her mother being buried in a criminal’s grave like this? Thinking that she deserved to be?

  Edoran realized that he would have to try to save the Falcon, too, and grimaced.

  He pulled Togger away from the others when they took up their shovels, and swiftly told him who Arisa was and how she’d come to Boralee. Togger was frankly incredulous of Arisa’s claim to be the Falcon’s daughter, but news of the threat to Caerfalas wiped all the doubt and humor from his expression.

  “Can we beat them back to the village?” Edoran asked. “And if we can, by how much?”

  “I was thinking about that.” Togger fell silent, then went on, “Yes. The wind’s against us, but it’ll be against them as well, and blowing stronger on the open strait than in the islands. Their ships are faster than ours, but… Lass, before they had to hurry off to Boralee, did they anchor down at night?”

  “Yes,” Arisa confirmed. “Or sailed a lot slower after nightfall. I don’t think they’re in a huge hurry now. I know that each part of the fleet plans to wait for the other before they try to raid you.”

  “We can’t count on that delaying them, but it’s four days’ sailing to Caerfalas from here, so two days and nights. The tide’ll turn in just a few hours, so we won’t be far behind them. If we sail close in… We should beat them home by at least twelve hours, and maybe more. Maybe a lot more, if they have to wait for their comrades, but twelve hours is as certain as anything gets at sea.” Relief eased the strain on his weathered face. “That will be long enough for us to get so far inland they won’t be able to track us down. We’ll lose our boats, but boats might be replaced someday, and lives can’t. We’ll go to sea in other men’s ships for a while.”

  “Why not escape in the ships?” Arisa asked. “Then you’d have both.”

  “Too risky,” said Togger. “If our boats are gone, they’ll come looking for them. Their ships are faster, and armed with cannons, too! No, we have to run inland, no matter the cost. Poor’s better than dead.”

  “You might be able to save the ships,” said Edoran, trying to remember the width of the old fortress gate as he swiftly revised his plan. “We might even be able to save some of the houses. I’ve got an idea, but there’s a lot of risk involved. I’m not sure it’s worth it. You’d have to make that decision.”

  Togger sighed. “I’ll have to gather the others anyway, to tell them we’re sailing the moment the tide turns enough for us to launch. And why, bright Lady help us! After you’ve told your part of the tale, you can tack your plan onto the end of it. We’ll see what the others might come up with as well.”

  He hurried off, and Edoran grimaced. “He didn’t take me seriously.”

  “He didn’t laugh in your face, either,” said Arisa. Edoran’s heart lifted at the familiar tart tone. He should have known that the prospect of action would raise her spirits. “They’ll listen,” she went on. “If your plan makes sense, they’ll think about it. If it doesn’t, they’ll tell you so. What more do you expect?”

  She wasn’t taking his plan seriously either, Edoran realized. And like Togger, she knew him, not the reputation Pettibone had created. Doubt seized him. If they agreed to his plan, and people died…

  “I need your help,” he told Arisa.

  “Good. Are you ready to tell me about this plan of yours?”

  “No,” said Edoran. “I want you to lay out the cards.”

  They found a quiet place, down by the beach where the fishing boats awaited the tide. Edoran located another blanket, spread it between them, took the deck Arisa offered him, and shuffled it several times.

  “That’s enough,” said Arisa. “Draw the first card.”

  “You’re the one with all the withe.” Edoran handed the deck to her.

  She eyed him, considering. “I’m not so sure about that.” But she turned the first card anyway.

  The fool grinned up at them, and Edoran’s shoulders slumped in relief. “That’s me. It’s working.”

  Arisa nodded. “Wisdom of the heart,” she said. “This supports you.”

  Edoran braced himself for the swirling vortex of chaos, but the wheel of fortune appeared below the fool. “It’s… it’s different!”

  “Different from what?” Arisa asked. “I wouldn’t want my plan to rest on fortunes that change.”

  “No, I think it means that my fortune… Never mind. Go on.”

  Arisa laid a card above the fool. “The trial. Judgment of a person or situation; make it wisely.”

  Edoran sobered. His judgments had often been wrong.

  “This misleads you,” said Arisa, laying a card at the fool’s far right.

  “Vacillation.” Edoran gazed at the pictured man, torn between two market stalls, with the sun setting behind him. “It always has.”

  Did this mean he should commit to his plan? Or abandon it? Or simply make up his mind?

  “What guides me?” he asked.

  Arisa set the hanged man between the vacillation and the fool.

  “Weasel?” Edoran asked. “That’s his card, isn’t it?” How could Weasel guide him? He wasn’t even there.

  “It is Weasel’s card,” said Arisa slowly. “But it really indicates voluntary sacrifice, for the greater good. Maybe that’s what it means now.”

  So was he supposed to sacrifice the wealth and comforts of the palace? Or his aching desire to leave them behind, to become nothing but Ron of Caerfalas? Edoran was beginning to understan
d why Weasel was skeptical of the cards. They were easier to interpret when laid by a Hidden priest, with visions pouring off him like sparks from a fire. He rubbed his forehead, which was beginning to ache. “Go on.”

  Since chaos had changed, he’d hoped not to see the flaming tower in the threat position, but there it lay. The horror that card had always evoked swept over Edoran. When you were going to rule a kingdom, being threatened with the destruction of everything was terrifying.

  Even Arisa had paled. “Are you sure about this plan of yours? If it goes wrong… well, it might be important.”

  “It would be important if it went right, too,” said Edoran wearily. “It would be important if it could have worked, but I gave up on it.”

  Disaster had always threatened him, in one form or another. At least now fortune’s wheel offered a chance at escape.

  “This protects you,” Arisa said, laying the final card between the tower and the fool. Then she gasped.

  Edoran gazed down at the goddess walking on storm clouds. “That’s you, isn’t it? The storm?”

  “Yes, and I don’t like being between you and the tower.” She wrapped her arms around herself, as if warding off a sudden chill. “I don’t like it at all.”

  “But it’s also… well, a storm,” Edoran said. “Creation and destruction in the same package. Like winning a war.”

  “Every war that someone wins, someone else loses,” said Arisa. “That’s the point. All waters cards are about things having two sides.”

  It could also indicate creation from destruction. Like a prince vanishing, and a fisherboy being born. Edoran stared at the wheel, the card that had taken the place of chaos, which only spun to nothing. His fortunes were changing.

  “I’m going to tell them my plan,” he said. “They can make up their own minds.”

  Arisa gathered up the cards and said nothing.

  The fishermen who gathered on the beach near their boats were quiet, oppressed by Boralee’s grief. Then Togger told them Arisa’s story, which frightened them to near panic. In fact, they refused to believe her till she hiked down the beach and brought the sword and shield back with her.