“Hold on.” Vitio straightened up and glared at Titus. “How are we getting word to the Still Queen? And how will we arrange such a meeting?”
Titus’s eyebrows climbed his temple. “Well ... we have to go to them.”
“What?”
“We have to enter the Still Kingdom and gain an audience with her. You’d have to form a formidable party, of course—just in case. However, if I’m leading it and Olivia is with me, I can almost guarantee you no harm. Apoleia wouldn’t act irrationally with the two of us present. She’d hear us out.”
The king cursed under his breath. “I knew this was too good to be true. I won’t let you lead us into a trap.”
Olivia’s chair slid backward as she stood up. “I’ll speak with Bryson. This can work. I’ll get back to you by tomorrow.”
As she headed for the door, Vitio said, “We’re not doing this.”
She turned with a placid gaze. “Following Jilly’s death, you said you wouldn’t hold us back anymore. The Jestivan are here to do things others cannot. This is one of those things. I’m young, but even I understand war is no time to be hesitant.” She paused while Vitio stood in silence. “Besides, as much as True Light needs an extra kingdom on their side, I want my mother back. One day I want to live there. I want to call it my home.”
After a short pause, Vitio gave a dismissive nod. “You’re right. But if it goes wrong—”
“We fight back, and we either live or die.”
* * *
Bryson had never seen Toshik in such condition. They sat together in a library, and once again the swordsman had a fresh wound, this one requiring a lot of bandages around his thigh. Sweat stained his tunic and lathered his face. He reeked, and his hair was a ruffled mess.
Toshik didn’t care about his image anymore. He didn’t wear suits or bother with putting product in his hair to make it look as if it had been molded out of clay. Without Jilly attached to his hip, he seemed naked—much like Olivia when Meow Meow had been taken from her. Every ounce of his willpower went into training. Bryson began allowing him access into his backyard to use the peg course. Toshik had become galvanized.
Bryson stared at the Adrenian’s wrapped thigh. “Whoever you’re training with must be someone special.”
“I won’t find someone better,” Toshik said as he lay back on a table, staring at the ceiling. “This is him holding back, mind you. He’s had to stop himself from killing me multiple times.”
While Bryson sifted through the possibilities of who it could have been, the double doors to the library opened. Olivia walked through the entry foyer and joined them in the reading area. She sat down and said, “The person who was taken into custody today was a Stillian.”
Bryson’s back straightened. “Friend or foe?”
“I believe a friend,” she said. “He was a childhood friend of Mother, and he helped both of us the night of our grandmother’s murder.”
“If he’s close to Mom, then why is he a friend? Mom is against us,” Bryson said.
“He can convince her otherwise. He believes she’s fighting on the wrong side, and he wants to change that. He thinks if we can cure her dad of his paralysis, it would negate her ill-will toward the Intel Kingdom.”
Bryson balked. “And how do we manage that?”
“There is a way. We have someone who can heal Gennaio. We’d have to enter the Still Kingdom and access Kindoliya by way of the Diamond Sea. I’ve done this once before when there wasn’t an ongoing war, and that proved difficult enough. This won’t be easy.”
Bryson found himself smiling for a couple of reasons. One, this was an opportunity for action. Two, he wanted to see the Still Kingdom, visit its capital, and make amends with his mom.
“Let’s do it.” Bryson turned to Toshik, who hadn’t moved at all. “You in, Toshik?”
“Will there be opposition to lay waste to?”
“I’d be remiss if I pretended there wouldn’t be conflict,” Olivia admitted. “I’m sure, somewhere along the way, we’ll have to fight—possibly near the teleplatforms. Either way, it’s possible that circumstances go south and Mother doesn’t respond how we envision.” She paused before adding, “This could make the rift between us and Mom worse, Bryson. And this is a highly dangerous mission, for we’d be walking straight into enemy territory without concealment.”
Bryson stared emptily into the distance, a grin still planted on his face. “We’re doing this. This is why we’re Jestivan.”
18
The Key to the Dive
Toono stared at the trailing sea, standing in the grand cabin of the Adrenian naval vessel he had seized a couple weeks ago. He had served as the ship’s captain during that time, but his role was now coming to an end as the ship approached the Gulf of Sodai. The gulf would be heavily patrolled. Perhaps he could make it past the lighter forces since this was an Adrenian ship, but that would have been a great risk.
Even if he managed to penetrate the gulf without being intercepted, Sodai’s port would certainly be unapproachable, for he’d have to pass the Spirit Navy’s headquarters to reach it. They’d grow suspicious after realizing the captain was nowhere to be seen. Besides, he wasn’t fond of the idea of sailing into a hundred warships.
It was time to disembark. He had said his goodbye to Illipsia already, for she had her own mission and set of objectives from this point forward. Her role was the long game, and he could only hope that the information they had received from Tazama was correct.
“Let’s go,” Toono said. “Use Baldum.”
Yama and Kadlest had been standing elsewhere in the cabin, waiting for their cue. “It’s a window. I could break it with my sword,” Yama said.
“We don’t need all of that noise,” he replied. “We want to slip out of here unnoticed. The longer they don’t know we’re gone, the longer it takes for them to take control of the ship and steer it toward Sodai Port, which grants us more time to travel throughout the kingdom without wary eyes on the lookout.”
Kadlest stepped forward and raised her sleeve, pointing the onyx gem of her arm ring toward the window. Black acid spewed onto the glass, sizzling and popping—but that was still better than the sound of breaking glass. Once most of the window was gone, Toono grabbed Orbaculum from the desk and blew into the second hole from the top three times, creating equally as many bubbles that swallowed each of them.
Yama’s eyes dulled as she pressed her hand against the elastic material. She then drew her sword and tried poking it.
“Stop playing around,” Toono said.
Kadlest turned toward the violet-haired swordswoman. “I think it’s a welcome change. Something needs to loosen her up a bit.”
Toono strapped Orbaculum to his back. “This will be a long swim. Let’s go.”
* * *
As soon as Toono and Kadlest reached shallow waters, they stopped and waited for Yama to catch up; she was a considerable distance behind. She met them several minutes later, and they each climbed the rising seafloor. Just as they were about to break the surface, Toono dropped to all fours. He crawled a bit farther and poked his head above the water with caution, scanning his surroundings. A shipyard sat to his right, between their section of beach and the pirate town of DaiSo—the perfect structure to obstruct sight lines. A stretch of forest was directly in front of them and continued to the left for many miles.
He stood up and slapped his hand against the surface a few times, signaling to Kadlest and Yama. Their bubbles burst as the two women surfaced, and the three of them sprinted onto the shore and into the trees.
Gasping for air, Yama arched her back and threw both hands on top of her head. Kadlest, having had time to regain her breath while waiting for Yama, wasn’t as exhausted.
Toono looked them over and said, “You can’t approach swimming with the same mindset as running. One requires more physical strain than the other.”
Kadlest leaned her head to the side, twisting her hair to wring it free of water. “You
couldn’t have waited until we were out of the water to sever the chains of your bubbles?”
“I didn’t think about it,” he said, refocusing his attention on the shipyard.
“What’s the likelihood that we’re stopped and questioned in a town such as DaiSo?” Yama asked.
“Slim to none,” Toono said. “They’re pirates. Even if we have our hoods on, nobody is going to confront us. The town is already full of shady individuals.”
“Honestly, we don’t even need our hoods,” Kadlest said.
He nodded. “Probably not, but I’m doing it as a precaution. They wouldn’t recognize you, Kadlest, but the bandage around my temple has become synonymous with my identity. They’d probably mistake Yama as Olivia because of the violet hair. The differences in your facial features and other characteristics would be too specific for them to notice since they’ve never met either of you. We must make this visit short, however. Then I’m on my way to Spirit Road to intercept the Adren King. I believe we have three days.”
Slipping on their hoods, the trio flanked the back of the shipyard, where they were forced to maneuver their way across a small channel of water. Once on the other side, they were in DaiSo’s most distant quarters.
They ran to the backend of a grassy alleyway before inching their way to the dirt road. Save a few people mingling outside of a bar, the road was mostly deserted. They walked into the open and pretended to carry on with their day as any normal pirate in DaiSo would.
“What was the name of the crew again?” Yama asked after walking for some time.
“The Whale Lords or something along those lines,” Toono said.
Kadlest pivoted and approached a woman wearing a tan coat that looked in desperate need of a wash. “Excuse me, do you know where the Whale Lords are?”
The lady lifted her tricorne from in front of her eyes and laughed. “You must be new here. There’s no way you can miss the crowds in the street that their crew house sits on.”
“Crowds for what?”
“To join the new crew serving as an extension of Gray Whale’s, led by a young man named Agnos.” She scanned the hooded figures and said, “Actually, you’re headed in the opposite direction. Turn around and travel northwest.” As Kadlest was about to walk away, the stranger said, “The lot of you seem suspicious enough. Do me a favor while you’re over there and stab as many of the applicants as possible in the back.” She cackled and went on her way. “Serves them right, those traitors.”
Kadlest turned to look at Toono, whose eyes were wide. He knew that Agnos had been on the Whale Lord when it attacked the Brench Hilt, but perhaps he’d had a larger role than Toono had thought.
They lost their way, having to be redirected three times before finally reaching the crowded street. They stood a comfortable distance behind the chaos, staring at the building looming in the background. Save the shipyard, it was the biggest structure they had seen up to this point.
Toono wondered if Agnos was in there right now. That probably wasn’t the case. If he knew anything about his pupil, it was that he loved the peace of solitude. Agnos was probably in an establishment of silence, which would have been a treasure to hold onto in a town such as this. So Toono came up with another idea that didn’t involve hunting his friend down. He’d rather avoid a face-to-face meeting anyway.
Spotting a relatively empty pathway on the side of the street, Toono approached it and the woman standing at its entrance.
“I need to get to the front,” he said.
“That’s not happening.” Her right eyebrow arched as she took in his cloaked appearance. “Especially not like that.” She reached out to pull back his hem, but he snatched her wrist and threw it back to her side.
“I have a gift for Agnos. I’m a good friend of his; I have no desire to join his crew.”
After a pause, during which she massaged her wrist, she said, “Well, give it to me and I’ll make sure he gets it.”
“I prefer someone who holds higher authority than manning an entryway—someone I can trust to complete the second half of that offer.”
“Well, that’s not happening.”
“What if this gift was the key for him to achieve his greatest aspiration in life? I assure you he’d want this.”
She stared at him for a long moment before saying, “I must know who you are first.”
Growing tired of the hoops she was making him jump through, Toono decided to peel back his hood. He also pointed to the awkward hump in his back, which was Orbaculum hidden within his cloak.
Her bottom lip fell open, but she recovered slightly, tripping over her words. “Sudden gale ... I’ll be right back.”
She bolted down the pathway, disappearing near the front of the crowd, but she quickly reappeared, followed by a man with a head full of dreads and a body as strong as an ox. Heads in the crowd turned, realizing something was amiss.
The man stopped several paces away from Toono and said, “I’m Barloe, the quartermaster of the Whale Lord. I worked alongside both Agnos and Tashami extensively over the past year.”
“I’ll refrain from using my name,” Toono said. “But I assume she’s told you what she saw when I gave her a peek behind my veil. You’ll keep that bit of info quiet until I at least get out of this town. Otherwise, consequences that I don’t want to enforce will be in order.”
Barloe nodded. “What is it that you have for Agnos?”
Toono scanned the crowd to their left, every single face pointed in their direction. “We must do this in private.”
“Very well,” the quartermaster said. He gazed at the woman who guarded the entrance. “Stay here. And don’t say anything to anyone.”
* * *
Agnos spent the entirety of his morning bundled up in bed. Winter’s chill had come early this year, and with their proximity to the gulf, the wind had more of a bite. Eyes heavy from sleep deprivation, he stared at the wall across the room, as he had for hours now. His racing mind didn’t allow rest. Agnos was twenty-one years old, and he had spent fifteen of those years obsessing over this cave. He always said that he’d make it there one day, but now that he was positioned to actually pursue it, doubt plagued his thoughts. One did not simply swim to such depths.
Agnos stared at the book on his nightstand—the foreign language engraved into its cover and spine. He no longer needed his relic to read it; he had grown fluent in the language. When he had first read the book as a child, it was nothing more than a magical tale. But as he discussed its story with Neeko, it transformed into something more believable. And after Neeko taught Toono about it, the two boys became fixated on discovering the truth.
Their excitement and determination didn’t go unnoticed. Neeko gave them each a gift, explaining to them that the gifts would prove useful should they ever reach the Thunder Queen’s chronicle. Agnos received the book—its title roughly translating to A Tale Before Ours—and Toono was given a relic, a pair of glasses that could decipher any language. Toono eventually gave those glasses to Agnos before he left the orphanage with the mysterious woman.
“This is your dream now,” Toono had said before his final goodbye.
The door opened, snapping Agnos out of his trance. Tashami walked in with a toasted egg sandwich and handed it to Agnos, then sat down on a mass of blankets on the floor that served as his makeshift bed.
The two Jestivan had been spending their summer and autumn in Flailing Fin, a bar owned by a middle-aged woman named Zorra and her mother. It wasn’t an inn, but the two women had an extra room, and because Tashami and Agnos were friends of Barloe, they were allowed to stay there. It wasn’t as if the two Jestivan didn’t have a home; they had the Whale House. Still, they preferred keeping distance between them and that ruckus—at least while on land. There was no avoiding it at sea.
Tashami began tying bands around clumps of his ivory hair, making him look like a poorly groomed hedge. “Stopped by the Whale House during my walk,” he said. “Barloe requests an appearance from us
.”
Agnos’s eyes dulled. “Is this what it feels like for Lilu or her sister—to be paraded around like a show animal?”
Tashami grabbed another band and said, “I don’t know. Barloe sounded different today ...” He paused and seemed to give it some thought. “He was shaken.”
“Barloe ... shaken? The quartermaster, Barloe?”
“I know, right?”
A trail of yolk dripped onto his white robes as Agnos bit into his sandwich. He stared at the stain and groaned while Tashami laughed at his expense.
“We’ll head out after I find something else to wear,” Agnos said.
Hopping to his feet, Tashami threw open the doors of the wardrobe and then extended an arm as if presenting a prize to a crowd of eager onlookers. Inside was a wall of white, as every single article of clothing was the same simple robe.
“Not much to find,” Tashami said, now laughing at his own joke.
* * *
The journey from Flailing Fin to the Whale House was longer than necessary, but the two Jestivan were willing to sacrifice time if it meant avoiding the insanity that plagued the front of the house. They elected to take an arching path that passed south of the deserted castle, essentially flanking most of the town, and took them to the back of the Whale House.
While most of the building was pristine when compared to the rest of the town, its backyard was disgusting. Agnos and Tashami skipped between muddy spots amongst the puddles. By the time they reached the backdoor, brown sludge covered Agnos’s feet.
“You need to stop being stubborn and invest in boots,” Tashami said as he pushed open the door.
Agnos removed his clogs and slapped their soles against each other. “I don’t like boots.”
They greeted fellow crewmates while searching the first floor. The barroom was busy, but that was nothing out of the ordinary. Nobody seemed to know where Barloe was.
“Maybe he only wanted you to stand out front to rile up your applicants,” Tashami said.
“That better not be the case,” Agnos said, peering toward the second floor. “Maybe he’s in his room.”
The Chronicle Page 21