by Katie Roman
“We take care of our own,” she said finally, releasing her grip on the knife’s handle and putting both hands in her lap.
“What?” Donald asked.
“I don’t expect nobles or servants of nobles to understand, but the Guild has always looked after the men of the Dawn and we’ve always looked after the Guild. We have had our tiffs, of course, but I have nothing but respect for Marcus. Now he’s in trouble and we must help him.”
“You once put a price on Grace’s head! How is that for seeing to your own?”
“Grace,” Kay said, pointing a finger at Grace, who wanted nothing more than to eat in peace, “is not one of ours; nor has she ever been.” Kay took another deep breath. “At least until this debacle. If she’s on Frederick’s list now, then she’s one of ours. You, on the other hand, better learn some respect because you are most definitely not.”
Donald opened his mouth to say something, but Grace shook her head. There was no need to rouse Kay’s anger further.
“Quinn is set to rally the farming prisoners just after they report for work detail, correct?” Grace asked, moving the conversation along.
“If he’s rallied the support Drake, Jestin, and Aeron think he can, he should be rousing everyone to fight once they reach their work detail. He was told to make sure Nicholas and the Traitor’s Bay prisoners stay quiet. Once we’ve dispatched the archers on the cliff, they can overpower their guards on the beach.”
“And what if Quinn isn’t able to rally any support?” Kay cocked an eyebrow.
“Then the offensive continues as planned with much less manpower.”
“Comforting.” Kay’s tone was dry.
Grace cleared her throat. “Do you not have faith in Quinn?”
“Of course. It’s everyone else I lack faith in. However, there’s nothing to be done for it now. We go in, we get Marcus, and they can do whatever they wish with their precious duke.”
Silence settled over the table. The three companions picked at their food, finding it more interesting than contributing to any further conversation.
Grace didn’t feel much like eating. Frederick had locked her up for treason, even though she didn’t actually commit anything against the crown. But when she stepped off the Dawn in the morning with a sword purposefully drawn against crown soldiers and guards, it would be too late to turn back and sue for mercy. The thought weighed her down.
Frederick abused his citizens by keeping them hungry all because of his ridiculous grudge, and even allowed martial law to be declared in his biggest city. If he was a bandit on the road bullying someone out of their money, Grace wouldn’t have thought twice and would have given him a knock upside the head, but he was the king. Leon and George had always impressed upon her that their family served king and country. Yet now Leon was dead due to this treason and George suffered by virtue of blood. This was the path Diggery set her on, but why?
Kay snapped a finger under Grace’s nose. “Wake up.”
“If Drake is not successful, we will all be hanged and quartered,” Grace said, allowing her dinner companions into her inner thoughts. “We are officially traitors to the crown.”
Donald hung his head and Kay shook hers.
“That has been my fate for years. Besides, if Drake prevails, he’ll pardon our transgressions. And if he doesn’t, then I’ll do what I’ve always done. Take to the seas.”
“An easy solution for you,” Donald sneered. “But what about the rest of us? You sit and talk as though committing treason is the easiest thing in the world.”
“Didn’t you once masquerade Grace around like a knight? A crime punishable by death? A crime that flew in the face of the king and his court? Yet here you sit, still in one piece. If you cannot weather the storm ahead, then you may sit at the inn in Dagnian and await the next trade ship. I am sure they will have need of a strapping young coward.”
“Call me a coward, will you?” Donald slammed his fist onto the table and their glasses and plates jumped from the impact. He rose up out of his seat slowly, but his face was red and his hands were clenched in fists that still rested on the table. A vein pulsed in his forehead. Grace had never seen him so angry. “You run away from everything. You live by stealing from others. You were too afraid to live honestly, and yet you have the audacity to call me a coward? I became a sailor and have provided for myself, and before this whole mess never once had to run off to sea to escape my problems. You are a miserable wretch who only knows how to bully people to get her way.”
Kay rose slowly, balling up both her fists and putting them on the table, mirroring Donald’s posture. “Get out of this cabin.” Donald didn’t move. “Now!” Her voice shook the little room.
Donald sneered and breezed past Kay and Grace out the door. Kay sank back into her chair.
“I am sorry,” Grace began, but Kay held up a finger to her lips for silence.
“The ship is on edge. Let him be angry.”
“I have never seen you take a hit to your pride and not fight back.”
“You’ve always seen me at my finest.” Kay flashed her a wolfish smile. “You were also always more of a threat to me than young Donald ever was. You were able to get on Marcus’s good side quickly, something that took me time, coin, and favors to do. You were a noble, which is a group of people I thoroughly detest, your lot punches down on hard working folk, and you’re a good swordswoman. If you wanted to come on the Dawn and challenge me for my title as captain, you stood a fair chance of winning. Showing you up, ruffling your feathers, even eliminating you was all in the name of the preservation of my hard work. And you obviously never liked me, so I couldn’t exactly trust you.”
“Are you ruffling my feathers now?” Grace felt herself getting hot under Kay’s smug explanation of their past encounters. Kay had come very near to slitting her throat and Grace didn’t appreciate the cavalier nature of her tone.
“A lady keeps her secrets…and it does not really matter now.” Kay reached for her glass of wine and downed what was left in one long gulp.
“Because we are friends now?”
Kay laughed and set her glass down. “We’re not friends. We’re allies by necessity.”
Grace’s jaw tightened and she gritted her teeth. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. Her temper was as bad as Kay’s, though far less violent. She didn’t want an altercation, not when this woman was her only way back to Glenbard.
“You must understand…” Kay began.
“Friends are for the weak? Once this is over you will slit my throat?” Grace said without thinking.
“No,” Kay’s tone softened. “An ally is more powerful than a friend, Hilren. When battle is upon us, friends will drag you down. If a friend is cut down, it will muddle your mind to see them die.”
“And if your ally is gutted? That will not make you lose your focus?” White hot rage boiled in her insides.
“Allies are easier to replace. You just need to have something to offer.” Kay rose up again and left Grace sitting alone in the cabin.
~*~*~
The sticky heat of the day dissipated when the sun set, and the night was clear and warm. Kay stated that no one on her ship rode for free, and Grace, on the mend now, was given duty in the crow’s nest. She climbed up with instructions to watch the water for trouble. A few torches were lit in Dagnian, but no one was about in the town. On the water, the only thing to see was inky blackness. Stars dotted the surface of the water, making it look like the Fearless Dawn floated in the sky.
The crew slept around the deck to get away from the stuffy bowels of the ship. They were ordered not to go into town for drunken carousing. Sometime in the night Kay planned to move the Dawn along the shore to be near the prison’s dock. Occasionally Kay would make a pass around the deck to check and make sure her orders were being followed.
Since dinner, Kay hadn’t said anything to Grace; issuing her orders through one of her crewmen. Thank the gods for small favors, Grace thought as she watch
ed Kay make another pass around the deck. She had foolishly thought that Kay’s recent kindness meant their days as rivals were finally over. Grace supposed she should be thankful for this tentative alliance, since she didn’t want to return to the days when the pirate captain placed bounties on her head for minor offenses.
For a moment, Grace saw Kay turn her head up toward the crow’s nest. She expected a rude gesture or an insult, but Kay looked away and kept moving. Confrontation put off again, Grace propped her head up on her hands, elbows resting on the rail, and watched the black ocean.
~*~*~
Glenbard stretched out before Grace. She stood in the temple district, but not in an area she was used to. She stood in the bell tower of Kamaria’s Temple, but the giant bronze bells were silent. Below her, the streets were deserted. A golden haze covered the city. By her feet, the goddess Diggery sat, her wolf’s tail beating against the wooden floor.
“Does Kamaria know that you use her temple to bring your chosen?” Grace asked, never looking away from the empty city streets.
She is not my nurse maid that I must beg permission from, Diggery said. Besides, it is the highest view of the city.
“Why me?” Grace asked. The question had sat at the back of her mind since she was first taken from Arganis. In her waking hours she never had the energy to think of it, or else she ignored it on faith. Now, with the goddess near her, it tumbled out.
You care, not just for your own ambitions, but for others. When you were lost, you came to me. I needed a champion like you.
“But you’ve come among us in human form,” Grace replied, thinking of her friend, Kit. A woman she thought was a seasoned traveler turned out to be the goddess in disguise. It was a shock to say the least, and even felt like a betrayal.
I never meant to deceive you, Diggery said. I have long wandered as a vagabond; sometimes young, sometimes old, sometimes sick and disfigured. I wander only, reaching out to my followers, but never can I truly intervene. It would not be right. And my business is my own, whelp. The fur on Diggery’s back stood on end and she bared her teeth.
Grace kept her mouth shut rather than risk Diggery’s wrath, and Diggery stood and shook her body as though she were wet. She sat again, her fur smoothed down.
“I didn’t mean to offend. I am only seeking answers to how I fit into Drake and Frederick’s feud.”
It is not their feud I worry about. Glenbard is my home, and I am the city’s divine protector. Nowhere else is my name invoked so much, and nowhere else do people even bother with a temple in my honor. My people are suffering. I care for their safety and their future.
“And when you made me pick between fire and blood before Calvin’s wedding? How did that factor into your plans of me saving Glenbard?”
I told you then I could see the ends to both roads, but the future constantly shifts. I knew both roads would eventually lead you back to Glenbard. I couldn’t let you flee Cesernan.
“I never thought of gods as selfish,” Grace scoffed. A warm wind blew through her hair.
And we are as vain as peacocks. The wolf made a strange noise, something akin to a laugh, only terrifying. I have chosen you for your virtues; courage, fortitude, devotion. Free Glenbard and make it safe from the tyranny of fools like Robert of Escion. Do this, and consider my meddling over.
Grace looked down into the silver eyes of Diggery. Before coming to Glenbard, the goddess was nothing more than a small wooden idol in the temples. It was only necessary to pray to her when you were lost in the woods. But when Grace arrived in the city of Glenbard, she was lost and confused and she sought comfort from Diggery. She never thought of herself as pious, but time and again Diggery showed her the paths she needed to take.
“I didn’t ask to be god-touched,” she said finally. Around the temple, the golden haze began to dissipate. The dream city remained quiet, though it became warmer.
Again Diggery made the sound that might have been a laugh. No one asks, she said. Will you help me or not?
The people of Glenbard had not always been good to her. Some despised her for her noble birth; some ridiculed her for it, but most just viewed her as Grace, Glenbard’s noblewoman. She mucked out stables, served drinks, and scratched out a living like any of them. Glenbard – Rogue’s Lane – this was her home, and people like Marcus and Ridley had become as close as family.
“I will.”
Then prepare yourself. Diggery was gone as soon as she spoke.
Smoke billowed toward the temple’s bell tower. Grace squinted against the black clouds, seeing it originate from the castle that was once held by Duke Brayden, chief city magistrate. Robert of Escion lived there now, if what Marcus said was true. That was where Grace needed to strike, to smother the flames and stop Glenbard from burning.
~*~*~
“Wake up!” Kay’s voice cut through Grace’s dream.
She woke with a start, knocking her head against the mast pole. “I am awake!” The sky was still pitch black.
“Come down, your shift is up!” Men on the deck grumbled as their captain yelled up to the crow’s nest. “Shut up, the lot of you! Willis, get up there! The rest of you, wake up! We’ve work to do to get into position.” She waved across the black water where the Serish ship signaled the Dawn with a lamp.
Grace moved down the rope ladder to join Kay on the deck. A grumbling, short man started the climb once she was down.
“Come on, off to a real bed,” Kay instructed, taking Grace by the shoulder and leading her below decks. Grace stumbled along without a word of protest.
~*~*~
Orange and pink streaked across the water. The sky was still dark, but in the east the sun was making its triumphant way into the sky. A single candle lit Kay’s cabin on the Dawn. Kay and Grace were due to go aboard the Serish ship soon and prepare, but Kay let Grace sleep a little longer. The captain sat awake, watching the water from her porthole.
Grace thrashed and came awake suddenly, kicking what blankets Kay had to the floor. The younger woman had the look of a hunted animal. Realization dawned on her where she was and she ran a shaky hand over her stubbly head.
“Is it time to go?” Grace asked.
“Soon,” Kay replied softly.
Grace looked down at the floor and took in a few deep breaths.
“What ails you?” Kay asked, moving away from her little window.
Grace looked up, the candlelight catching her gray eyes, and Kay saw they were glassy with unshed tears. Kay was in no mood to deal with tears. Not today. Not when Marcus and Quinn needed her. Kay didn’t press the issue; she didn’t want to know anymore. Instead, she moved to her clothing trunk and pulled out a clean tunic and pants. She changed without a word. When she was done, she handed Grace a similar outfit to change into.
“No need to be bashful,” Kay said as Grace took the clothes.
Grace stripped off her borrowed shirt and slipped the tunic over her head without getting off the bed.
“Can I confide something to you?” Grace said when she rose to change her pants.
Gods help me, we’re confidants now, Kay groaned internally. She toyed with the idea of saying no, but didn’t. “I suppose.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone today.”
“I forgot what it is to be an un-blooded youth. I’d have thought a swordswoman such as you would have at least drawn blood in a duel before, though.”
Grace shook her head. “I’m not un-blooded. It’s just that…” She paused, looking up toward the ceiling. “I have taken lives. I don’t want to do it again.”
Kay raised an eyebrow in question. Young Grace Hilren? A killer? The very thought made Kay chuckle.
“Do you remember Mac Cooper?”
“Of course. He was the last real contender for Marcus’s throne until the Death Dealer sent him to visit the goddess of death. It’s been the only thing the Dealer and I ever saw eye to eye on. What does Mac have to do with anything?”
“I killed him. I killed another
man that same year when he certainly would have beaten me to death. I even helped Harris Atkins end his life.” Grace moved a few steps away from Kay and looked around the cabin for a weapon.
Did Grace expect Kay to fly at her in a rage? Knock her teeth out? There was some allure to the idea, but Kay couldn’t waste any time boxing Grace. “You’re the one who got my men into trouble that summer? Yours is the head I put a price on?” Grace nodded. “And here I have you at my mercy.”
Kay obviously had no love of the Death Dealer and had no patience for meddling do-gooders, but the Dealer had allied with Marcus and what Marcus did in Glenbard was law. Yet here on the ocean, even in Nareroc, Kay was the master. She flashed Grace a wicked grin.
“My, how the gods smile on us,” she purred.
“Don’t make me hurt you!” Grace stopped backing away and stood firm. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.
Kay laughed. She couldn’t help it. This little imp who stared so defiantly and challenged Kay, on her ship, was the Death Dealer. It was too much. The laugh started deep in Kay’s gut, rolling up and out like an eruption.
“Stop laughing!” Grace hissed.
“I…gods…” Kay doubled over as her laughs turned into heaving attempts to get more air in her lungs. “The very thought! I should have known, since only one as severe and righteous as you would become the Death Dealer. Unclench, Grace, I’m not going to hurt you.”
Grace remained rigid across the cabin from Kay. “I said we were allies for now.” Kay straightened herself, with only a few remaining giggles sneaking out.
“I don’t find this funny.”
“Of course you don’t, but personally I find it rather amusing that I would end up with my sworn enemy sleeping in my cabin.”
“This isn’t funny! Men will most likely die today!”
At this, Kay stopped laughing. There was nothing funny in that. “That’s true, but I plan to make damn sure it won’t be my friends and allies doing all the dying. You can sit in this cabin, quite safe from the unpleasantness of the world while your friends fight, or you can take up a sword and make sure they’re protected.”