Time's Demon

by D. B. Jackson

  “Yes, Droënalka, I remember the words as well. Tell me, are you pleased with the result? Did I not please you just a short time ago?”

  She colored again.

  “As I thought. And so I choose to revisit the matter, as we agreed at the time I could.”

  “That’s not… we agreed that we both could. Or rather, that together we could agree to do so.”

  “Is that what we stipulated? You admit yourself that the wording was vague. Carelessness on your part. We also said that ‘access to your time sense would be payment enough.’ We placed no constraint on how long I might maintain that access. Again, carelessness. It could be days. It could be centuries.” He thinned another smile. “You should know better than to bargain in desperation with one of my kind.”

  It seemed to Droë that someone knelt on her chest, that she couldn’t possibly draw enough air.

  “You need not look so frightened. I have no intention of binding you to service for centuries. But neither will I allow you to end our agreement now. No, we have much to do, you and I.”

  “You deceived me.”

  “I took advantage of you. There is a difference, and I make no apology.”

  She saw little point in arguing the matter. Qiyed was right: she should have known better than to bargain in haste with an Arrokad. She had been too eager, and he had used this against her. If she could have done the same to a Shonla or Belvora, she would have. It was the way of the Ancient races.

  “All right,” she said. “You choose to revisit our arrangement. In what way? Tell me your terms.”

  “Better,” he said, sounding smug. “You need not despair. We can work together, you and I, and we can both profit. I will have the benefit of your time sense and your strength. You will have access to my knowledge, my awareness of this world between the oceans. We will find your Walker. Perhaps we will rid him of the woman with whom he journeys, so that he can be yours.”

  She gaped. “I never told you of the woman,” she whispered.

  “No, you did not. An interesting choice on your part. Understandable, perhaps, but telling as well.”

  “You’ve found them?”

  “I have made inquiries, during the intervals between our encounters.”

  “Inquiries.”

  “With other Arrokad, other Ancients. Knowledge of the misfuture has been most helpful in this regard. You see? You gave me that as payment for my summons and this boon, yet it benefits you as much as it does me.”

  “The Walker,” she prompted, unable to keep the urgency from her voice.

  “Yes, of course. Rare as they are, Walkers are not difficult to find once an Ancient knows to search for them. As it happens, two voyage together even as we speak.”

  “That must be them.” She couldn’t mask her excitement.

  “Indeed. In time, we will go to them. Until then, we have other matters that require our attention. Agreed?”

  “What other matters? Where?”

  “Patience. I am asking you first: is this agreeable to you? You will help me with these matters, and then I will lead you to your Walker.”

  “Yes,” she said. Too quickly, she knew, but he had caught her unawares. Two Walkers…

  “Freely entered and fairly sworn?”

  “Freely entered and fairly sworn.”

  “Very good. Now, before we go on, it is time you learned what it is to swim with an Arrokad.”

  It was a measure of her eagerness to find Tobias that she didn’t balk at this. In her quest for the Walker, she had already soared with a Shonla. Maybe it was inevitable that she should take to the sea as well. She was past the point of caring about such trifles.

  “Very well.”

  “You will have to touch me, despite your determination not to. You will climb onto my back and ride me across the waves, as did the porpoise riders of old.”

  Another capitulation. She had bargained poorly, a mistake for which she would pay a cost.

  She had much yet to learn about desire, about the Arrokad, about herself in this newest incarnation. Still, she was not without resources of her own. She was stronger than she had ever been, stronger than he knew. She retained her time sense, her ability to move at speed, the cunning she had honed over centuries as a predator.

  Qiyed thought his power over her complete.

  She knew better. In time, he would as well.

  CHAPTER 23

  18th Day of Kheraya’s Descent, Year 634

  Rain, wind, and, finally, fog as thick as molasses kept the Sea Dove in Kantaad’s Blackrock Bay for several days after Tobias and Mara revealed the truth of their plight to the ship’s crew.

  Tobias begrudged every bell. He imagined Orzili and his assassins closing in on the ship from all sides. It was all he could do not to disembark with Mara and Sofya, and hide with them in the highlands above Kantaad’s royal city. He still wondered if they should have remained in Chayde when they had the chance.

  When the weather allowed, he and Mara let Sofya totter around above decks, where she could chatter at the men and women working the ship. To their credit, the crew of the Dove did not treat them any differently. They went about their work, they laughed at the princess’s antics, and they traded good-natured gibes with Tobias and Mara.

  Tobias had worried that sailors on nearby ships might see or hear Sofya and grow suspicious. Captain Larr’s warning about the rarity of children on merchant ships remained fresh in his memory. But with the wind keening like a wild cat and, later, that dense mist muffling every sound, he could barely hear the princess himself. He wanted to believe he had allowed fear of Orzili to overcome his judgment. Yet, he didn’t dare let down his guard.

  More than anything, Tobias wanted to lead a normal life – whatever that meant. Years from now, Sofya would reclaim her family’s legacy, and she would need his help, and Mara’s. Until then, was it too much to ask that the three of them live as a family in peace and safety?

  Strangely, the answer came to him in the voice of Mearlan, the lost sovereign. Yes, he said in Tobias’s mind. That is too much. You serve Hayncalde, even now. And you serve this child by keeping her alive. Nothing else – not your life, and certainly not your comfort or happiness – matters as much.

  The truth was, he didn’t need Mearlan’s voice to tell him anything. He adored the child. He didn’t think he could have loved her more if she was his daughter. He would die to keep her alive. Not for history. Not for the royal court. For her.

  He would do the same for Mara, who emerged from the hold, bundled in a woolen overshirt, her hair tied in a loose plait.

  “Mama!”

  Sofya charged her, barreling headlong into her arms, and squealing with delight when Mara swung her high into the heavy air.

  He had left Mara sleeping and he greeted her now with a kiss. Sofya puckered her lips, made a kissing noise, and laughed again.

  “Did you sleep at all?” Mara asked.

  “A little, yes.” A lie. Thoughts of Orzili and frustration at their inability to leave this place had plagued him through the night.

  “I don’t believe him, Nava. Do you?”

  Sofya shoved her thumb in her mouth and shook her head.

  “Sorry, Papa, but we think you’re saying that to keep us from worrying about you.”

  “Is it working?”

  “Not at all.”

  Captain Larr approached them. Damp hair clung to her brow and drops of water rolled down her angular face like rain on a cliffside. She smiled a greeting, unperturbed by the fog.

  “I wanted to let you know that I’ve made inquiries,” she said. “Quietly, of course, and as lacking in specifics as possible. Bound devices are scarce here, as they are everywhere. I can ask in a few more places, perhaps sail us to another of Kantaad’s ports, but I assume you’d prefer I erred on the side of caution rather than persistence. This is but one isle, and not nearly the most prosperous in the Inward Sea.”

  Tobias wasn’t certain what the captain was talking abou
t. She seemed to be continuing a conversation of which he had no memory.

  “Thank you, captain,” Mara said, before he could ask Larr to explain. “As you say, we’re better off being cautious for now. That may change in time, but we’re not there yet.”

  Larr gave a decisive nod. “My thinking precisely.” She peered up into the unrelenting gray. “I hope to have us under way soon. I prefer not to chance the mouth of the bay in this fog, but I don’t wish to remain here another night. I’ll make my decision by midday.”

  She eyed them both, flashed a quick smile at Sofya, and strode away.

  Tobias rounded on Mara, whose cheeks had darkened. “Would you care to explain that?”

  “I’ve meant to tell you, but there hasn’t been time.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “We’ve been here for days, Mara. We’ve had nothing but time.” He smiled to soften this, but he was keenly curious.

  “A few days ago, I asked her to find us a chronofor.”

  “Why?”

  “Isn’t it obvious? Hasn’t it been since the slavers took this one?” She gave Sofya a little jiggle. The princess grinned around her thumb. “We need to have access to our abilities. We’re Walkers. And I’m a Spanner. Those are more than just skills coveted by the courts. Our talents make us strong. If we’d had a chronofor the night she was taken, we would have had other ways of getting her back.”

  He considered this.

  “When we were in the Notch, before we sailed on the Dove, you and the Seer talked about running or hiding. We’re running now, Tobias. And I know we have to. In time, though, we’ll need to fight. I was looking for a way–”

  He raised a hand, stopping her. “You did the right thing. It’s a good idea.”

  Mara exhaled, relief written on her lovely features.

  “You could have told me.”

  “Could I? What would you have said?”

  She knew him so well.

  “That it’s too dangerous. That it risks drawing the notice of any number of people.”

  “Yes, and you would have been right. But we have to do it anyway. So I spoke in private with the captain, and she had an idea.”

  She described the generous arrangement Captain Larr had suggested. They had been more fortunate in finding her, and this crew, than he’d known. That stroke of luck, along with the very fact of his survival and Sofya’s, were enough to convince him that the Two smiled upon them.

  “She spoke of searching for Bound devices – not only a chronofor.”

  “I asked her to find me a sextant as well.”

  “Also a risk.”

  “Also a potential tool. And looking for Bound devices in general, rather than just a chronofor, will make her search less conspicuous, diminishing the risk.”

  He couldn’t argue. She had always been intelligent, the smartest of their cohort in Windhome. It was part of what had attracted him to her when they were novitiates. In a future he had lost and she had never known.

  “You’re seeing all of this more clearly than I am.”

  She brushed a lock of hair off his forehead. “You’re afraid, and you’re consumed with protecting Nava, as you should be. You concentrate on that. I’ll take care of the rest.”

  As the morning progressed, the sky brightened. Soon the fog lifted, allowing Tobias to see the shoreline and the ships around them. Several vessels departed from Fanquir’s wharf on sweeps, passing the anchored ships and heading for open sea.

  Some of the vessels near the Dove lifted anchor and rowed to the open berths at the docks. Others, the Dove among them, readied to leave Blackrock Bay. Sailors on an adjacent ship sang a sea song Tobias didn’t know. Men and women on the Dove joined in. Everyone took pleasure in this turn in the weather.

  Mara and Tobias helped ready the ship for their voyage while Sofya roamed the deck. Prior to the storm, the captain had spoken of sailing to the isles of the Knot. Tobias knew little about them save that they were remote from Daerjen and the rest of the Inward Sea islands. For now, that was enough.

  In time, the crew rowed them clear of the bay. Fingers of mist still hung over the glasslike water, and even after they reached the open sea, the air was too calm for sails. Captain Larr didn’t appear to mind. She ordered those below to keep rowing, but didn’t push them to maintain any particular pace. She steered the ship eastward.

  As the sky continued to lighten, she beckoned to Tobias. He joined her on the aft deck.

  “We make for the Knot,” she said over the rhythmic splash of the oars.

  “I remember.”

  “Do you approve?”

  He smiled. “Would you care if I didn’t?”

  She shrugged, eyes scanning the sea. “I’d entertain other suggestions if you have concerns.”

  When do I not have concerns? “The Knot seems a fine choice.” He followed the line of her gaze, spotted a pod of dolphins breaching the sea’s surface ahead of them. “I’ve never been there, but I’ve read about it. I’m eager to see her isles.”

  “It’s pretty enough. Not as lovely as parts of the Labyrinth, but what it lacks in beauty, it makes up for in other ways.” She glanced at him. “Beware the drink they call Graywater. It’s lethal.”

  He grinned. “I will. Thank you, captain. For your consideration, and also for your efforts to locate a chronofor.”

  “I take it you’re amenable to the arrangement I proposed.”

  “It’s more than fair.”

  She adjusted their heading. “I doubt we’ll find any devices in the Knot. The unfortunate truth is that the farther we stray from crowded waters, the less likely we are to locate a chronofor. In the same way, as we increase our odds of finding one, we also increase the danger to you and your family.”

  “I understand.”

  “Good. Then I’d suggest that you and Mara take time while we’re in the Knot to decide where you’re willing to go next.”

  He pushed back against the panic rising in his chest. “We will. Again, my thanks.”

  Tobias walked away. He would heed her advice eventually, but he wasn’t ready yet to confront that particular question.

  A wind rose late that first day, allowing the crew to ship their oars and unfurl the sails.

  Still, the voyage from Fanquir to the Knot promised to take days.

  Fortunately, the wind brought clear skies, allowing Tobias, Mara, and the rest of the crew to slip back into the comfortable routine they had established before the storm. Sofya had the run of the ship, climbing into the hold and back onto the deck as she pleased.

  Three days out, they passed the isles known as the Lost Children, and several days after that, they spotted Islecliff, the first of the Knot islands. By then, the weather had turned again, bringing clouds and rain.

  Islecliff might not have been a center of commerce, but it was a sight to behold. The towering rock walls for which it was named dwarfed the ship. Sea eagles, resplendent in white and bay, wheeled before the crags, their high cries carrying over the pelting rain and the crash of surf. Narrow fissures in the rock faces retreated into shadow, the waters within them frothy and rough. Dark forests topped the cliffs.

  As the captain piloted them past this first isle, she had one of her crew exchange the Aiyanthan flag on their mast for a flag of Zersa, the second isle on their route. Zersa’s seawalls were lower than those of Islecliff, its farmland rolling and verdant. Once they cleared its shores, they turned toward the busiest port in the cluster: Piisen on the central island of Grayisle, which loomed ahead of them, distant and pale in the rain.

  They sailed for several bells more, past sunset, before finally going to sweeps as they neared a broad harbor. Captain Larr always had her crew light torches on deck at night, but here she had them mount more than usual.

  “These waters are filled with Shonla,” she said. In response to Tobias’s look of puzzlement, she added, “Mist demons. Ships in the Knot are beleaguered by them. We have nothing to fear so long as we keep these lit, but woe to the vesse
l that has only a torch or two, or worse, none at all.”

  After hearing this, Tobias scanned the water continuously, searching for clouds of mist hanging low over the ebon swells. He thought he spotted a few, but couldn’t be certain. In response to a question from Mara, the captain said that other sorts of demons were no more common here than elsewhere in Islevale.

  They neared Piisen’s wharves close to midnight and lowered their anchor some distance offshore. At other ports, they might have continued to the docks; there was room for them. Captain Larr explained, though, that Piisen’s authorities had to approve a docking, and collect wharfages, before allowing sailors and merchants access to the city.

  “The Knot is different from other parts of Islevale,” Larr said. “In many respects it’s safer. You just have to do things their way.” Tobias was sobered by the warning, as he had been by word of the mist demons. A part of him wished Larr had mentioned these things before they set their course for the Knot.

  She is aware of them before she sees the ship or hears its humans. The scent of magick riding the seawind is strong and unmistakable. Two Travelers, and a third of indeterminate power. Prey.

  Under different circumstances she might attack now, claim one as her own. But rewards await her if she delays her feeding and alerts others to their presence.

  She prefers not to treat with humans; she refuses to submit to their authority. She is also canny enough to understand that they can be useful, and that patience might profit her. Her kind are not known for their forbearance, nor are they supposed to be in these waters. Humans again. They have asserted themselves in recent centuries. Before, they shied from the Ancient races. Now they have grown bold. She is not convinced this is a good thing, but that is a matter for discussion within the Guild. Another time, another place.

  She takes to the air, her first wingbeats labored. Soon, she catches a cool wind and circles higher, wings still now, silent. They will not hear her, nor will they see her against the dark sky. Another of the Ancients might, but not humans.

  A quick stoop and she could feast. However, her instructions in this regard have been quite clear. If she can identify them as those the humans seek, and if she can ensure that all three are taken at once, her payment – in additional prey, of course – will be extravagant. Locating and identifying all three will yield a reward as well. Take only one, or even two, and she forfeits what the humans offer.