Lev watched in horror as the true nature of the monstrosity was revealed. Against all odds, the thing could float. The gears that had borne it overland acted as propellers powered, he knew, by thousands of undead sailors working within the bowels of the machine.
Katriel was slack-jawed. Such an expression of fear would have gotten her a beating from any traditional Slaugh ruler, but under the circumstances Lev thought her reaction was more than appropriate.
“A ship,” she said, her near-masculine voice creaking upwards of soprano. “Th-they’ve made a bloody ship!”
Lev took to the air. “Let’s go.”
They wasted no time getting back to their own modest little ship. Lev was relieved to see that the Gremlins already had the sails unfurled.
The moment Lev’s boots hit the deck, A blindfolded Hobgoblin in a feathered hat pointed her cane at him.
“There you are! Mind telling me what the blazes is going on?”
“I’ll explain later, Sandrine,” he said, rushing past her to get to the helmsman.
“That’s Captain Sandrine and you’d do well to remember it, king or not!” She kept up with him, navigating the ropes and bulwarks that littered the deck easily despite her blindness.
The helmsman, a leathery brown Fay with shorn golden hair, turned and gave Lev a questioning look.
“Hard to starboard and point her due east,” Lev said.
“Delay that order, Bayard!” Sandrine barked. “I plot the course on this ship!”
Bayard gulped and gave Lev a helpless shrug.
Lev huffed in exasperation. “With all due respect, Captain,” I strongly recommend that you turn us hard to starboard and head due east.”
Sandrine nodded and gave Bayard a tap on the arm with her cane. “Do it.”
Bayard jerked the wheel hard and the ship lurched, causing the Slaugh and crew on deck to cry out in surprise. One of the Gremlin crewmen fell from the crossbeam of the mainmast. He caught a length of rigging and slid down it to safety, though not without sacrificing the skin on the palms of his hands.
“Watch it, you oaf!” the Gremlin shouted. He took a hammer from his tool belt and hurled it at Bayard.
Bayard ducked in the nick of time and the hammer missed him. Lev suspected he’d gotten good at that sort of thing through repetition.
“Sorry, Joyboy,” Bayard said.
“What’s the damn rush about all of a sudden, anyways?” Joyboy asked.
“That,” Lev said, pointing towards the harbor.
The hulking dark shape of the mechaman ship loomed on the horizon, growing ever closer. Its appearance had turned the angry shouts of those on deck to gasps of shock.
“What? What is it?” Sandrine asked. Her long ears swiveled beneath the brim of her hat.
“Our worst nightmare,” Lev said grimly. “Robyn’s army has mobilized. They’ve built a battleship.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Sandrine said.
“He’s telling the truth,” Wilhelmina said.
Lev turned. He had not noticed her standing behind him. Her daughter, Noemi, clung to her skirt. Wilhelmina crossed her arms protectively around the girl.
“Great gramplewarts!” Sandrine exclaimed. “Is it coming this way?”
“No,” Wilhelmina said.
Lev raised his eyebrows. From where he was standing, the thing looked like it was coming closer.
“Apologies, Your Highness,” Wilhelmina said, giving Lev a bow. “I took Noemi up to the crow’s nest. Her nose tells her they’re heading east, same as us, but on a more southerly route.”
Noemi glanced up at Lev. He knelt down and gave the tip of her nose a gentle tweak. “Our little sharklet hasn’t been wrong yet.”
“Er…not too be the spider in the bubblygrub stew, but that don’t make me feel any better,” Joyboy said. “They didn’t build something like that to go on a peace tour, if you know what I mean.”
“Aye,” Sandrine said. “What are they up to?”
“It’s too big,” Katriel said. She shoved past Joyboy to take her place at Lev’s side.
“What do you mean?” Sandrine asked.
“Look at the thing!” Katriel said. “Seraph’s Tear Harbor can handle it because it was made with enough room for the big Slaugh ships of old to turn around in, but there’s not another port in the world it could even get close to. It would drag bottom miles before Ivywild.”
“You’re right,” Lev said. Then something else dawned on him. “And they can’t spare much of a fighting force if all the mechamen are working to keep it afloat.”
“So what’s it for?” Wilhelmina asked.
“And where is it going?” Katriel added.
Lev placed a hand on Sandrine’s shoulder. She jumped at the sudden contact and turned her face towards him.
“Captain, I want to follow that ship…with your permission, of course.”
She didn’t respond right away. Even though her eyes were hidden behind the blindfold, he could feel her peering into him and weighing his request against the needs of her crew. It didn’t matter that Othella had paid them a mint in gold and jewels to take the Slaugh to Seraph’s Tear. They were ready to cash in and go home.
Sandrine sighed and gave his hand a motherly pat. “Boy, you would have me endanger my whole crew and set off to who-knows-where on a wild chase? We’re running low on supplies. Morale is nonexistent, and frankly I’m sick of being at sea with a boatload of moody Slaugh. You’re forcing me to ask myself the question I only use when the stakes are this high.”
Lev withdrew his hand. “What question is that?”
Sandrine grinned. “What would Emma Wren do?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I awoke to the chill of an early spring night. I’d been having a nice dream for once and was disappointed to wake up to moss-covered rocks with the moon casting its feeble glow through a skylight in the cave.
It was not so much as cave as a long, deep ravine that cut through the forest. Sometimes the walls closed overhead to form a tunnel, while in other places the sky peeked through the crack in the earth. By the smoothness of the rocks on the bottom Valory speculated that the ravine was an ancient river channel.
Once, Valory thought she caught a whiff of the scent from the bracelet. With this promising sign we traveled at a quicker pace. By sundown, however, Valory had lost the scent and the ravine still had not come to an end. Weary, we’d resigned ourselves to a night of sleeping on the rocky ground.
Now Valory was snoring loudly as she lay on her stomach a few feet away. I tuned out the noise and tried to slip back into my dream. I didn’t recall the details, but I remembered the sensation of sunlight and of warmth and of a faceless man rubbing my sore feet. Try as I might I couldn’t get the dream back and the more I tried, the more aware I became of the cold, hard rocks on my back.
With a grunt I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I could tell that daylight was still hours away. Restless, I got up and paced. Valory snorted and stirred but then quickly fell back into snoring.
A bat squeaked somewhere. I looked up and caught sight of the small, brown creature. For a moment it fluttered just overhead and I saw the moonlight shine through the thin skin of its wings.
Even rodents had wings. I had never thought of not having them as a huge handicap, but I was starting to feel that way. We could have flown halfway across the continent by now.
I walked a short distance from our sleeping spot. Up ahead the ravine grew brighter. Moths and other night insects swooped about in the hollow. The occasional bat dove in after them. I walked among the nighttime feeding frenzy and felt terribly out of place.
The sound of Valory’s snores stopped. I paused. Suddenly the ravine felt much too quiet. The hairs on my arms stood up as my intuition tried to warn me of something. It could just be Valory playing tricks. She liked to test my reflexes by hiding and then jumping out to surprise me.
There came the sound of soft footfalls on the gravel. I listened closely to gauge the d
irection.
A lean figure sprang from the shadows on the side of the ravine. I met it head on, jamming my shoulder into the person’s chest.
“Thought you had me that time, didn’t you!” I said.
My assailant jumped at me again and I realized it wasn’t Valory. This person was thinner, but not as fast. We grappled in the shadows. I defended myself against the person’s fists while I tried move into the lighted hollow. I kept backing up, forcing the attacker to move closer.
Once we were out of the shadows I finally saw other person’s face. He was Fay.
“Hold it,” I said. “I’m one of you!”
The young man didn’t listen. He kept hitting me with his fists and elbows. As a last resort I flung up an energy barrier. The startled young man fell back and gasped.
I heard a muffled shout from the direction of our sleeping spot. It sounded like Valory. I ran back through the ravine to get to her.
Two more Fay men leaped out of hiding and grabbed my arms. They were stronger than the first one. They wrapped my wrists with enchanted sylph rope before I could get off a barrier.
My captors forced me to my knees. I saw Valory lying on the ground. They’d bound not only her wrists, but her legs and wings as well. A handkerchief was tied around her mouth. She looked at me helplessly as yet another Fay stood over her with a bow and arrow.
One of the men grabbed my chin and looked me in the eye. He was gaunt, but well shaven with the sort of close-cropped haircut that soldiers wore.
“Who sent you?” he asked.
“Nobody,” I said. “We came here ourselves.”
The man glanced around at his companions. They all gave me varying looks of suspicion and curiosity.
“Did the duke send you?” the man asked.
I grew angry. “I have no dealings whatsoever with the duke.”
“What are you doing this far out in the wilderness?” asked one of the other men.
“We’re looking for Lord Finbarr. I have an urgent message for him from the late Commander Frayne Larue!”
Behind me I heard one of the men gasp. The leader slackened his grip on me as his face fell.
“You mean to tell me that Commander Larue is…?”
“Dead,” I said.
“I don’t believe it!” said the one who’d tried to ambush me. “Nobody could kill Commander Larue!”
Valory struggled against her ropes and tried to nod her head. The man standing over her with the bow took it as a threat. His hand drew back on the string.
“Don’t!” I shouted. “She’s a friend. We both are!”
“What’s your name, friend?” asked my interrogator.
I debated over what to tell him for several panic-filled seconds. If these were indeed allies, then there was no need to hide my identity. They could just as easily be playing a trick, though. Who was to say they weren’t with the duke? The only thing that made me think otherwise was their reaction to my news about Commander Larue. I decided that if I was going to guess wrong, I was going to do it with style.
“I am Emma Wren, Flute Keeper of Ivywild, Guardian of Faylinn and eternally loyal to the true queen, Her Majesty Chloe de Lolanthe. So what’s it going to be, boys? Are we all on the same page here?”
The men stared at me in confusion. The leader looked as though he was having a lot of difficulty digesting my answer.
“Emma Wren is dead,” he said. “Jules Larue saw her crash into a mountain. Either you’re an imposter, or you’re calling him a liar.”
A swell of relief rushed over me. Jules and his family must have made it to safety. “He isn’t a liar. He did see me crash into a mountain, but I didn’t die. Valory over there found me and nursed me back to health.”
They removed Valory’s gag. She stared at them like a wide-eyed animal cornered in the back of a cage.
“Is it true?” asked the archer who stood over her. “Did you rescue this girl?”
Valory blinked a few times then scowled. “Of course! What would you a’ done if you saw somebody all broken up on the side of a mountain? I suppose you’d tie em’ up and gag’ em’ seeing as you go around doing that to folks that are just sleeping not bothering nobody or a thing! It ain’t right! It’s just like snatching baby rabbits out of the den while the mother is out!”
The men gaped in bemusement. I was willing to bet that they had ever heard a Slaugh talk so much, let alone in a country drawl. The leader scratched his head.
“I don’t know, fellows,” he said, looking around at the other men. “A commander who’s supposed to be alive is dead, and girl who’s supposed to be dead is alive. What do you make of it?”
“The commander can’t be dead.”
“She’s lying.”
“But she does look like Emma Wren. I saw her once a few years ago. She’s got those funny ears.”
“What about the Slaugh girl?”
All eyes turned to Valory. From their blank stares it was clear that none knew what to make of her.
“I think we only have one choice,” said their leader. He unhanded me and grabbed a blindfold from one of his mates. “We have to take them in.”
I jerked my head as he came towards me with the blindfold. “Hey, what’s that for? Stop it!”
“For safety,” said the man. He blindfolded Valory, too. She protested so much that they re-tied her gag as well. I heard her mumbling through the cloth.
Next thing I knew they were standing me up and forcing me to march. With the blindfold on I stumbled clumsily over the rocky ground. Two men walked at my sides. Whenever I tripped they pulled me up. They walked quickly. My breathing grew fast just from the effort of matching their pace.
“Are the blindfolds really necessary?” I asked after we’d trekked for what felt like many miles. The early morning light crept in around the sides of my blindfold.
“Yes,” was the only reply I got.
“Mmmph hmmm mmmph phlmp!”
“Shut up!” one of the men said to Valory.
I heard the twitching of wings battling against the tough ropes. I felt bad for Valory. She hadn’t signed up for this.
We took a break near the sound of rushing water. My hopes rose. Maybe it was the river we’d seen on the map.
“Drink,” instructed one of the men as he lifted a canteen to my lips.
I obeyed, taking a long sip of the water. There was some debate among the men about removing Valory’s gag so that she could have a drink, too. In the end, they decided to chance it. Valory was so grateful that she hardly said a word. I heard her chugging heartily from the canteen.
My hopes fell to pieces as we marched further on. We slogged across streams and stumbled over more rocks than I cared to count. My feet felt like they were on fire. Every step jarred my bones from my heels to the top of my head. I would never admit it to the Valory or the men, but all I wanted was to do was lie down and not get up for a long, long time.
The evening breeze blew cool on my arms by the time we stopped to rest again. Numb from the knees down, I sat on the ground. It was covered in springy pine needles. As the men huddled in a quiet discussion, I noticed something different about our surroundings. Something was missing. At first I couldn’t put my finger on it. Then I leaned back against a tree trunk and realized what it was.
There were no Dryads whispering in the trees. We’d come to the forest of the giant evergreens. Though my eyes were covered, I lifted my head. I sensed the great branches towering high above.
Valory scuffled around near me. They’d removed her gag on the threat that if she spoke out of turn they’d enchant her voice right out of her throat. Valory must have believed them because she hadn’t uttered a peep.
“I smell the bracelet again,” she whispered. “I smell lots of new things. We must be close!”
“On your feet!” barked the leader.
Somebody pulled me up. The Fay men surrounded me and Valory. I heard the leader clear his throat in front of me.
“Here’s wha
t’s going to happen,” he said. “We are about to let the people in charge determine if you are spies or allies. If it turns out that you’re on the wrong side, you will be taken prisoner or neutralized immediately.”
Valory started to say something but then caught herself.
“What was that?” the leader asked.
“What does ‘neutralized’ mean?” Valory asked nervously.
“It means they’ll kill us,” I said. It wasn’t like the Fay I knew to make death threats, but drastic times did call for drastic measures. Even so, I couldn’t shake a growing feeling of unease. Suppose I’d been wrong? What if this was just a merciless rebel crew?
Grisly scenarios played out in my mind as we marched close to rushing water. I heard the groaning noise of wood and pulleys. Some kind of bridge dropped at our feet. The men urged me and Valory across. On the other side I heard muffled sounds of activity and felt the shade of some kind of structure.
We passed through a wide door. I felt the side of it brushing my elbow. Everything smelled of evergreens. Our footsteps echoed on massive wood planks. The sound of voices grew louder. It was like walking into the training wing of the cathedral for the first time. I felt people and activity all around me, behind closed doors and above my head, but I couldn’t see anyone.
We stopped. The men shoved Valory and me into a knee-high pool of water.
“Hey!” Valory protested before she could stop herself.
I heard things being tossed into the water. Clouds of mist rose up and tickled my nose. Somebody strapped a bowl to my head. I felt the heavy thud of a crystal being dropped into the bowl. Then somebody pricked my arm with a porcupuff needle.
I knew then what was going on. It was a Truth Test. Commander Larue had given me one when I first arrived in Faylinn. The combined materials of the water, the bowl and the needle were meant to put test subjects into a kind of trance where they could not tell lies. This was how Commander Larue and Lord Finbarr had determined that I really was a long lost Flute Keeper. That time, though, I had fallen into a trance so deep that I saw visions and spoke in the voice of my ancestors. This time I kept a degree of control.
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 28