The Emerald Sea

by Richelle Mead

  Jago and I released each other, and after a deep breath to calm my racing heart, I walked sedately to the door and opened it. Shirsha, a young Icori woman who’d helped me a number of times, stood there.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you’re here. Dan Jago wasn’t in his— Oh, hello.” She peered past me in pleasant surprise. “Anyway, Danna Orla sent me. There are Osfridians here.”

  Jago strode to my side. “Osfridians? What Osfridians? Where are they from?”

  “Grashond Colony. From a town called Cons-Constancy.” She tripped over the unfamiliar name as she glanced between us. “And they’re insisting on seeing you.”

  CHAPTER 25

  IMMEDIATELY, AN IMAGE OF GRAY-AND-BLACK-CLAD HEIRS raising pitchforks at the gates of Kerniall popped into my head. I clutched at Jago’s sleeve. “We have to get out of here. There must be some way to escape, right? Passages, a back door—”

  “Orla wouldn’t be calling for us if there was a threat,” Jago assured me, though he didn’t look all that easy about this news. “How many are there?”

  “Three. One is a soldier.”

  Neither Jago nor I knew of any soldiers in Constancy. “What about the other visitors?” I asked.

  Shirsha frowned, eyes thoughtful. “One is older . . . maybe forty? He doesn’t have much hair, and what’s there is black. The other is our age. Golden hair.” A small smile played at her lips. “Very handsome.”

  “Gideon,” Jago and I said together.

  “Gideon wouldn’t harm us,” I said. “And that doesn’t sound like Samuel. But what about the soldier? There isn’t an army lurking somewhere, is there? Surely we haven’t warranted that?”

  Jago shook his head. “Orla wouldn’t allow a soldier in if she suspected there were others lying in wait. If we’re being summoned, the area’s been scouted.”

  He started to follow Shirsha, but I stayed rooted to the spot. “I’m not going back there,” I said when he noticed I wasn’t with him. “I’m not going back in that bloody room—”

  “You won’t. I promise. There’s nothing they can do to you.”

  “But what about to you? You said you weren’t worried about going back for your cargo because there was no proof we’d taken off together. Well, if they see us now, there kind of is.”

  “Did they ask for us by name?” Jago inquired of Shirsha. When she nodded, he turned back to me. “They probably already know.”

  I followed with trepidation, more uneasy now about what would happen to him than to me. Shirsha took us back to the grand sitting room with the giant hearth. Orla was already there, fully decked out in princess attire, chatting with two men in dark clothing. Gideon turned when we entered, his face lighting up like a sunburst.

  “Tamsin,” he exclaimed. He rushed over to me and clasped my hands. “Thank Uros! I’ve been so worried about you! I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve missed you—we all have. No one knew what to think when you disappeared.”

  The other visitor’s back was to me, and when he finally turned, I was relieved to see Roger Sackett, one of Constancy’s magistrates. I wasn’t really chummy with him, but I also had no grudge against him. What he thought of me was a different matter.

  “Running out on a punishment is a serious matter,” Roger said sternly. His eyes flicked to Jago. “As is helping a person do so. Or did you take her against her will?”

  I found my voice again and came to life. “Of course he didn’t! And I don’t regret ‘running out’ for an instant. Especially since I didn’t break any law.”

  “You didn’t,” a new voice said. Jago and I peered around, spying the soldier in a dim corner of the room. He’d been studying a sculpture so quietly, we hadn’t even seen him at first. The black-haired man stepped forward, wearing the green uniform of the Osfridian army. “And I really hope I don’t have to send word back to Osfrid of abuse of the charter. Everyone turns a blind eye to Grashond, but there may come a— Jago? Is that you?”

  “Lieutenant Harper.” Jago met the soldier in the middle of the room, shaking hands. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Oh, the usual. Following up on kidnapping, treason, and attack by an outside force.”

  Jago’s bewilderment left him short on words: “Wait . . . me? All that?”

  Harper gave a small shrug of his shoulder. “That’s what they say. When that’s dealt with, I need to talk to you about some provisions. The fort’s almost out of tobacco and flour. But we’d take cornmeal in a pinch.”

  “Oh, well, I can help you out there. But first . . .” Jago glanced back at the two Constancy townsmen. “Why are they here? You don’t need them to arrest me. Are they going to try and cart Tamsin back?”

  Gideon and Roger gave each other uncertain looks. “She certainly can’t stay here with a bunch of—” Roger shut his mouth, remembering Orla was nearby. I could tell from his body language that she made him doubly uncomfortable: an Icori and a woman in charge of governance. “Well, there’s no need for Tamsin to be an inconvenience here anymore.”

  “She’s not.” Orla had been observing everything with that mild, amused expression of hers, but her eyes were as shrewd as ever. “She may stay as long as she likes.”

  “And I actually won’t need to,” I added. “I’m going south with the Icori—to Denham and then Cape Triumph.”

  Gideon blanched. “Wait . . . what?”

  I explained my travel plans. Gideon fell silent while Roger grew increasingly angry. “Are you out of your mind, girl? Going off alone with these people?”

  “These people didn’t subject me to starvation or exposure. They don’t lower themselves to that sort of torture.”

  Orla shrugged. “Eh, don’t sanctify us too much, Tamsin. There are plenty of things we don’t take lightly. But no—I wouldn’t starve someone over mittens or punish them for selling medicine.”

  Roger made a dismissive gesture. “That’s the past. The present is this girl—who is not an adult—being kidnapped by a traitor sympathetic to a hostile nation and taken to that hostile nation.”

  “Okay, let’s work through this,” said Harper. He crossed his arms and came to stand next to me. “First off, she’s not in Grashond, and she’s—what was it, twenty? She’s an adult in every other colony, as well as Osfrid. If she wants to stay—which she clearly does—she can. As for you, Jago, I didn’t buy much into the claims of kidnapping, but it’s no secret you’re friendly with the Icori. That doesn’t mean you’re betraying secrets to them or conspiring with them, but enough is going on right now that I need to treat everything seriously.”

  Orla regarded him with a cool smile. “Is this where you get to the part about attack by an outside force?”

  Harper’s answering expression managed to be both apologetic and stern. “Constancy’s council wrote to the commander of my fort in north Grashond asking for protection from the Icori. They aren’t the first town to do so. Now, Mistress Micnimara, if things progress, I’m sure someone will suggest a formal sit-down between my people and yours, with a lot of people and a lot of opinions, that’ll probably quickly go to arguing and grandstanding. You seem very reasonable and levelheaded, and so if you and I could reach a quiet understanding about the nature of your attacks—before someone’s actually killed—I think it’d be helpful to all of us.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” she said, getting comfortable in one of the chairs. “But the first piece of this ‘quiet understanding’ has to be that they aren’t our attacks. Shirsha? Will you send for my sisters? And get us some tea and coffee while you’re out. This may take a while.”

  It did, which surprised me. In my mind, I’d imagined a dramatic reveal of Alan’s jacket, immediately clearing up all suspicions toward the Icori. Instead, Roger’s first assessment was “How do I know you got that from the Lorandians? Seems more likely you got it here when those Icori thieves delivered the loot to their masters.”<
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  But he did keep listening. And more important, so did Lieutenant Harper. I soon realized it was a lucky break that he was the one the fort had sent to address Constancy’s grievances. There were probably many other officers at the fort who would have come in with their opinions already settled on the Icori. Harper hadn’t made his mind up either way. He was neither a pushover nor a warmonger. He asked a lot of questions and took note of everyone’s views—me, Jago, the Constancy men, and the Micnamara sisters.

  “Mister Sackett,” he said at last. “I don’t take what happened to those children lightly. I don’t take any of the recent attacks lightly. That being said, I would strongly urge you not to instigate any aggressive actions toward the Icori in Grashond. Keep your sentries, but that’s it. No outlawing of Icori or preemptive strikes. I know I don’t have any say in municipal actions, but I’ll be making the same report to my commander. He doesn’t have civil authority either, but he does have the ear of the governor.”

  Roger scowled. “The governor’s in Watchful! That place has nearly lost its way. What do they know about what goes on here in the west?”

  “He’ll know what we tell him. And if things change, and the evidence shifts, the military will act accordingly. But as it stands, the evidence isn’t strong enough to implicate the Icori or vindicate the Lorandians.”

  Despite Roger’s grumbling, I could tell that the evidence had affected him too. He was a magistrate, after all. It was his job to weigh the facts in legal matters. But he was also human, and his pride smarted at having to back down and give the benefit of the doubt to those he was so deeply prejudiced against.

  “I can’t believe this all stands on you believing Jacob Robinson about where they found the coat,” muttered Roger, needing to place his frustration somewhere.

  Harper smiled. “I’ve known Jago—or is it Jacob?—for two years, and he’s always dealt fairly with us. More or less. I trust him.”

  “We trusted him too. He promised to keep that bitterroot safe and then sold it out right from under us!”

  Faiva jumped up from her chair, fists clenched. “He saved countless lives! Probably yours too, if the fever had spread out of Kerniall. Jago is a hero, far more selfless than you’ll ever be!”

  Roger’s eyes went wide. “Young lady—”

  Harper shushed him before he had a chance to say something to one of Kerniall’s three rulers that couldn’t be taken back. Likewise, Orla rattled off a sharp rebuke in Icori, and after a few moments, Faiva sat back down with a glower. An odd, troubled look had come over Gideon’s face, but I didn’t have time to parse it.

  Reassured that Grashond and the Icori were not going to war—for now—Harper and the sisters wanted to discuss the political implications of some of the other goings-on between the Icori and colonists farther out in Adoria. That didn’t require the rest of us, and Shirsha led Jago, Roger, Gideon, and me to a small room used for weaving so that we could work out our differences. Not that there was much to be worked out. I’d made up my mind that I was going with the Icori, but I did have questions for our guests.

  “How are my friends?” I asked Gideon. “Are they okay?”

  Gideon pulled up a small wooden chair and sat down. “They are. They miss you, though, and there’s been some friction since you left. A few went into a complete panic because they don’t believe they’re going to Cape Triumph now.”

  Those words tore at my heart, and I looked down at my hands to hide how I felt. After seeing the way Orla and her sisters held their own among men, I refused to start crying in front of these three.

  “I don’t suppose there’s been any response to my letter to Jasper Thorn?” I asked hopefully.

  “No. I don’t even know if it’s possible.” Gideon’s eyes narrowed as he did some mental calculations. “Assuming it made it straight to Watchful on the coast with no delays overland, it would have had to immediately get on a ship to Cape Triumph and get a same-day response from him. Then that letter would have to make the return trip with no delays. Even then, I’d say the soonest you’d hear back is another week, and that’d be extraordinary in the best of times, let alone winter.”

  I nodded. I’d expected as much. “Well, then the other girls will get there when they get there. And I’ll be able to alert Jasper to their situation in person. Assuming everything goes as it’s supposed to on your end.”

  Roger caught my tone. “I understand why you don’t want to return to Constancy, but rest assured, we are going to honor our word to help the rest of the girls get to Cape Triumph. And believe what you want, but I am trying to protect you. I wouldn’t want my own child to go off with those godless barbarians, and I don’t want you to either.” Despite his brusqueness, there was a sense of good intentions in his words. He believed he was doing the right thing.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Truly. But my decision is made. I’ll write letters to the others that you can take back with you, and if there’s anything I can do to help ahead of their arrival in Cape Triumph, I will.”

  Roger gave a shrug. Gideon looked truly disheartened, and I had a vivid image of the girls in Constancy wearing similar expressions. No guilt, I firmly told myself. I’d help the other girls if I could, but I was Merry’s mother, not theirs. They would have to be their own advocates.

  “Well, that’s that.” Roger slid his stool back and rose. “I did my duty but failed with you, girl. Rest easy—we’ll give a faithful report to the council of what happened. Let’s see if Harper’s ready, Gideon. If we leave now, we can get a good jump on the day. Gideon?”

  Gideon hadn’t moved. He wore that same troubled look I’d noticed earlier. Slowly, he lifted his eyes to Roger’s. “Is it true what was said back there—when Jacob took the medicine, were the Icori already sick?”

  Jago spoke before the magistrate could. “Yes. There was an outbreak of black fever here.”

  “Why didn’t I ever hear about that?” asked Gideon, aghast. “The council never mentioned it. All we heard was that he broke the pact for more money.”

  “Because it was irrelevant.” Roger leaned against the wall, tapping his fingers impatiently. “The bitterroot was promised to us, for our use. It doesn’t matter who he sold it to or why.”

  “I’d think it matters if human lives were on the line! Do you know how many people live here?”

  “No. What I do know is that if a similar affliction strikes Constancy, we’ll suffer. Human lives will be on the line too—and likely lost now. That will happen whether he sold it to them in sickness or in health.”

  Gideon got to his feet and approached Roger with neither nervousness nor gentle words. “But surely there should have been some consideration, given the circumstances! Some compromise or solution. Did you really just outright refuse the request and consign those people to death?”

  Roger shook his head. “They deny Uros and the angels and have probably killed more of our people in Adoria than that fever would have taken of theirs. It wasn’t worth pursuing ‘some compromise or solution’ with people like that, even if such a thing had existed.”

  “One did,” I interjected. “Jago offered to restock the town’s supply but missed his chance because of the council’s censure.”

  “Is that true?” Gideon exclaimed. His cheeks were flushed—with anger, not shyness. It was the first time I’d ever seen him so worked up. Even when we’d been threatened by the Lorandians, he’d remained calm. “You wasted that time with him—when it all could have been settled so simply?”

  Roger’s condescension shifted to something harder and colder. “Gideon, you have my respect as a minister—but you are a junior minister. You are still, in many ways, an outsider with much to learn.”

  Jago pulled my arm and stood up. “Tamsin, let’s give them some privacy.”

  Before I could protest and demand some answers, Shirsha appeared in the doorway and loudly cleared her thro
at. “Pardon me,” she said uncertainly, “but the dannas are asking for you again.”

  Animosity crackled between Gideon and Roger, but the two put their dispute on hold to go back to the hearth room with us. The group in there looked ready to disperse, but Orla beckoned us to where she stood with Lieutenant Harper. “I’m going to get the word out, here in the north, to hold off on any aggressive action until things are sorted out,” he said, “but the south has seen a few of these weird raids too, and I want to make sure nobody jumps the gun there.”

  Orla nodded along. “To help him get there faster, we’ve agreed to let him send a small group of soldiers down the East Sister River to spread the word. They’ll accompany us on the trip next week, and we’ll bump some of our people from it to make room. They’ll go on a second expedition leaving about two weeks later—an expedition that will have enough room to accommodate your friends and the others from the ship, Tamsin.”

  I gasped. “Do you mean that?”

  “They’ll still have to pay passage, of course,” Orla added.

  “Certainly. Thank you, Orla. You have no idea what that means to me, and what it will mean to them.” Three weeks! I was so excited, I could barely stand still. Adding in travel time down the river and across Denham, the others girls would be in Cape Triumph in just under two months—well ahead of the three if they went with the Heirs. Jago ran a hand through his hair, and I could see thoughts spinning behind his eyes. “Can I have those spots on the later trip, Orla? And then let the Gray Gull passengers take mine on the upcoming one?”

  Orla’s wry smile vanished. “You want to give up your early passage?”

  “It isn’t that much of a delay,” he replied with a shrug. “I’ll still be ahead of most of the other northern traders, and it’ll be easier on Tamsin and the others to all stay together.”

  “I see.” Orla glanced to me, then back to him. “It makes no difference to me. As long as the space is divided out correctly, and everyone’s ready to go on time, it’s fine.”