A Jewel Bright Sea

by Claire O'Dell

  Andreas ordered a cold meal shared out—rolls stuffed with smoked pork, cold porridge, and tea left over from their earlier meal. Anna’s appetite had vanished hours ago, but she ate her share and drained her water flask as ordered.

  After the meal, Andreas hung a shaded lantern from a branch and spread a map over the ground. “We are here,” he said, indicating a point along the dotted line that was the trail they followed. “And here are the temple ruins.”

  The temple ruins lay close to the summit, on a broad flat expanse dug into the side of the mountain. Anna could recall how it looked beneath the midday sun, an empty square of stone that vibrated with magic. She suppressed a shudder at the memory and concentrated on Andreas’s next words.

  “Druss will have a perimeter watch set,” he said. “So, we split into three parties here. Felix, you take command of five. Go downhill and around the temple until you are directly beneath it. Druss won’t expect any visitors, so she’ll have a campfire lit. The better to question her prisoner,” he added.

  That provoked some uneasy laughter.

  Andreas grinned. “Just so. Once you reach your goal, Felix, give the signal. Whistle three times. What kind of bird was it that you told me about?” he asked Katerina.

  “Nightjar,” she replied. “Such a nice innocent bird. I can do that.”

  “Good. Then you go with Felix.”

  Karl muttered under his breath. “Gods-damned fucking birds.”

  “Would you rather announce yourself to our friends?” Andreas said. “No, I thought not. Then a nightjar it is. Eleni, you take another five uphill from the temple. Give me your own signal. What will it be?”

  “The same,” she said. “It’s the best choice. One bird calling to another.”

  He nodded. “Good enough. Felix, when you hear a monkey’s screech, shoot a flight of arrows toward the temple. Make as much noise as you can and draw the outer perimeter away. Eleni, your task is to get Sarrész away from Druss—as quickly as you can, before she slits his throat. My people will secure the camp. Once we do, I’ll give a shout. That is when you,” he indicated Felix, “will turn back and engage the enemy. At least that’s the plan.”

  “What about me?” Anna asked. “What is my part in this madness?”

  Now Koszenmarc hesitated. “This will be a messy, bloody fight in the dark. I want you out of Druss’s way until later, when we question Sarrész about the jewel.”

  “A truth spell?” she said doubtfully.

  “I was thinking the man would be grateful for his rescue,” he said dryly. “No, I mean to offer him a substantial reward in exchange for his cooperation. But Druss will not be gentle with him. We’ll need your medicine and your magic to keep him alive, and once we persuade him to hand over the jewel, you are the only one who can determine if he’s given us the genuine thing. The man could be on the verge of death and still be telling lies.”

  Others laughed, but Anna bit her lip. A glance at Maté showed that he was frowning.

  Maté’s words came back to her, more unsettling than before. If he meant to turn the jewel over to the Emperor’s people, he would have announced it to his company.

  Later, Anna told herself. Later I will ask him questions. And he will answer. And if he doesn’t, I will have a different kind of answer, won’t I?

  Everyone refilled their water flasks, then the company set out again, single file. Their progress slowed as the trail bent up and up again and the footing turned uncertain, despite the quarter moon above, a bright sliver just visible through the thick trees.

  One or two bells later, a warning passed down the line. Anna halted and drained her water flask. The moon had set, the stars themselves were little more than faint pinpricks against the sky. Koszenmarc walked down the line, speaking a quiet word to each member. Felix and his people split off to the left, along an almost invisible track that wound down the hillside to make a long, long circle around the ruins. Eleni and her party headed up the slope to take their position on the opposite side.

  “Anna.” He had come to her at last. “You’re angry with me.”

  She wasn’t angry, precisely. It was Maté and his questions that had awakened doubt in her. “I don’t want to be an afterthought,” she said at last.

  His fingertips grazed her cheek, a brief electric touch. “Ah, no. You are anything but. We cannot succeed without you. I cannot succeed without you.”

  He spoke with a strange intensity that unsettled her more than anything else these past few weeks. But she knew that this was not the moment for questions and answers. She touched her fingers to his lips, felt him smile. Then he was making his way back to the front of the line.

  Their party continued along the trail another half mile or so. Once more they stopped, and everyone drew their weapons. Koszenmarc led Anna off the trail, down the hillside, to a thicket of saplings and thorn bushes. “Stay here until I come for you,” he whispered. “If all goes wrong…”

  “If all goes wrong, I shall murder Druss myself,” Anna whispered.

  Andreas laughed softly. “I believe you.”

  His lips brushed hers and he was gone.

  Anna huddled down in her hiding place, her bag between her feet, her cloak at once thick and insufficient against the damp autumn night. Faint starlight cast a patchwork of pale silver far above, but here the ground lay in darkness so thick she could almost taste it on her tongue. The rich scent of damp earth, of orchids dying on the vine, all of this overlaid by a musky thread from some wild creature. One of Koszenmarc’s monkeys, no doubt. As for Koszenmarc himself, she could just make out the faint rustle that marked his passage back to the trail.

  More silence. Her heart beating too fast, too hard. She held her breath as long as she could, sucked in a lungful of air, and tried again. Again. How long, dammit, before Felix gave his signal?

  A thin, high cry broke the night. Anna flinched. Another cry sounded, ending in a sob. Her imagination invented a hundred terrible explanations. The rational part of her brain informed her that the cry came from a distance. Sarrész. Druss had lost her patience.

  A heartbeat after that realization came a piercing warble, almost the echo of Sarrész’s cry. Once, twice. Three times. An agonizing silence followed, and Anna had time enough to wonder if what she heard was Felix’s or Eleni’s signal. Then came a repeat of that same warbling, this time from far above.

  A screech, like that of a startled monkey, answered the second warble. Anna could not hear the arrows themselves, but she imagined a flight loosed toward the enemy. A strangled yell, the crash of broken branches, as if a hundred soldiers stirred up the forest—

  The attack had begun.

  Loud curses broke through the night. Druss, her voice unmistakable, shouted orders to her people. The noise of battle echoed over the hillside, much louder than she had expected. Where was Maté in all the confusion? Koszenmarc had assigned him to Felix’s party. Anna had already guessed he didn’t want Eleni or Maté distracted from their duties. Stupid man. As if a soldier like Maté, or a warrior like Eleni, would allow themselves to be distracted.

  A crash sounded in the forest, a few feet away from her. In a panic, Anna burst from her hiding spot. Her foot caught in a tree root and she went tumbling down the hillside. One bump, another sharp drop, then she landed atop a blanket of dead leaves and…

  …the ground gave way beneath her.

  Anna reached out wildly. Her fingers closed around loose dirt and crumbling leaves. She had just one moment to curse her bad luck, then she was falling, falling through dust and dark.

  She landed abruptly in a heap. For a long moment, she could not breathe, could not think. Then her lungs sucked in a painful breath. Dust clogged her throat. She choked, drew another wheezing breath, then coughed out the dust and bits of leaves. Anna gathered enough spit to wet her mouth and swallowed. Slowly her scattered thoughts collected.
>
  A pile of dirt and leaves had broken her fall. Above, the opening was scarcely visible against the night. Below…the air was thick and close. She staggered to her feet, one hand pressed against her aching ribs. Someone, some damned fool, had dug a hole in the ground, in the middle of the mountainside. Anna reached out, expecting to find the edge of the hole, but her hand met nothing but air. She shuffled a tentative step forward. Her boots scuffed against stone—no, stone tiles, cut and laid.

  Then it struck her.

  This was not a hole. It was a tunnel.

  The secret passageway.

  Anna gulped down a laugh. The innkeeper at Iglazi had not lied after all. There was an underground passageway, as romantic and impossible as you could imagine. She pressed a fist against her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles. A part of her understood she was panicked and desperate. Another part knew she had to keep quiet.

  With an effort, she swallowed her laughter. She could not summon a magical light—the enemy might be searching for her aboveground—so she dropped into a crouch and felt around until she located the pile of dirt where she had landed and found her bag. She slung it over her shoulder and gripped the strap with trembling hands.

  More cautious exploration brought her to the tunnel’s wall. It was lined with brick, with buttresses at regular intervals. Anna slid down to the ground and leaned against one, hugging her bag close. What next?

  From a distance came the echo of voices.

  Anna’s heart leapt against her chest. Yes, they were coming in her direction. Druss’s people? Andreas Koszenmarc’s? She couldn’t take any risks. She eased herself onto her hands and knees and crept around the buttress. Just in time, because light rippled over the tunnel walls. Anna huddled as far as possible into the corner. If these were Druss’s people…

  It was then she heard a voice, a very familiar voice, cursing in the mainland dialect.

  “Gods damn you,” Raab said. “Gods damn you until the end of our lives. You’re not worth the trouble.”

  “Then let me go.” Aldo Sarrész was whimpering. “I’ve nothing you want.”

  “Except your life, you worthless slug. No, if Lord Brun wants you, Lord Brun shall have you. Now walk, dammit, or I’ll drag you down the mountainside by your hair.”

  A noisy struggle followed. The torchlight swung up and down. Then Anna heard a loud clatter and the light ebbed to a dull glow. Raab swore, then delivered an audible blow. Sarrész gave a muffled cry, but he obviously was resisting, because Anna heard a scuffling, then the sound of a heavy weight being dragged over stones.

  “You,” Raab breathed heavily. “You will pay for every gods-be-damned step. But I won’t leave without you.”

  “You won’t leave at all,” said another voice.

  Oh gods. Anna recognized Druss’s voice. She pressed both hands over her mouth to keep from whimpering in panic. Oh gods. No, this plan had not survived even the first few moments. Not Andreas’s. And apparently not Raab’s.

  “Captain Druss,” Raab said. “We had an agreement.”

  “Which you betrayed.”

  “No. The circumstances have changed—”

  “Then we renegotiate the terms.”

  Anna heard the whisper of a sword pulled from its sheath, a second drawn just as quickly, the crash of metal against metal that vibrated through the air. Someone gave a wail, Sarrész, she thought, then came the back-and-forth of footsteps, the rattle of a faster exchange. The noise of their battle echoed up and down the tunnel, and Anna could not tell which direction the fight had taken them. So it took her by surprise when she heard a grunt, like that of a punch delivered strong and fast, then a heavy weight hitting the ground.

  Oh. Oh gods. She knew the sound of death when she heard it. Only...whose?

  The gods were not delivering timely answers that day. She heard a cough, a series of thuds she could not decipher, then a soft and wordless plea from Sarrész.

  If he dies, we lose everything.

  Anna set her bag to one side and rose to her feet. She had one moment, no more. She seized her focus, found the balance point within a breath or two, and stepped out from her hiding place. A word, all she needed was a word…

  Light bloomed in her hand. Druss stood not three feet away. Raab lay at her feet in a pool of blood, his eyes wide open in the stare of death, his sword still clutched in one hand. An irregular shadow lay against the opposite wall. Sarrész, whether alive or dead, she could not tell.

  Druss’s eyes glittered in the magical light. “You,” she said softly. “I told you that you would regret making any trouble.”

  She raised her sword and slid a dagger into her other hand.

  A shout rang down the length of the tunnel. “Druss!”

  Andreas.

  Druss did nothing more than glance in his direction, but it was long enough for Anna. With a word, she called up the magical current in an explosion of light.

  Druss staggered back, blinded and swearing to all the gods. Andreas had not even paused. He closed the distance. One strike, and he slashed Druss’s left arm, sending her dagger skittering over the stones. Druss staggered back and raised her sword high. Not soon enough. With one smooth motion, Andreas drove his blade through her belly.

  Druss bent over double, staring at the blade in her stomach, her mouth rounded in an O. Her hand jerked open. Her sword fell to the ground. Very slowly she sank to her knees, then toppled over.

  CHAPTER 21

  Like a breath leaking out, Anna’s magical light faded to grey. She immediately summoned the current again. There was a hiss, then a pop, as if lightning arced across the closed space of the tunnel, then light flared, casting splashes of brilliant gold all around. Anna cupped the magic in her palm, lifted her hand high.

  The secret tunnel was far broader and higher than she had guessed. Its brick-lined walls reached up ten feet at least. The floor was paved in flat stones that glittered. Centuries of dust had caught in the grooves, but the stones themselves were unbroken, unworn, as if they’d been laid yesterday. Now that she was no longer terrified, she felt the whisper of magic all around.

  A dozen feet away, Andreas Koszenmarc stood over the body of Isana Druss. Blood ran from a cut over his left eye, and even in the uncertain illumination she could see the bruises on his face. He shifted on his feet—unsteadily, she thought. Then his gaze swung up to hers. “Did she—?”

  The poisoned blade, he meant.

  “No, you stopped her in time. What about you?”

  He made a dismissive gesture. “A few knocks. Ah, no, you don’t.”

  Aldo Sarrész had lurched to his feet and was stumbling away. Andreas gave chase and tackled the man to the ground. Sarrész fought back, harder than Anna had expected, until Andreas grabbed him by the hair and yanked his head back. He slid a knife from a wrist sheath and pressed its point against Sarrész’s throat.

  “Cooperate,” he said. “You’ll be a much happier fellow.”

  He shook Sarrész like a dog shaking a rabbit, then let go. Sarrész’s head hit the stone pavement with an audible crack. He lay disconcertingly still.

  “You didn’t kill him, I hope,” Anna said uneasily.

  Andreas blew out a breath that might have been laughter, or exhaustion. “Tempting, but no. Here, help me make sure he cannot escape again.”

  He pressed one knee against Sarrész’s back, then cut wide strips from the man’s own shirt with his knife. Braided together, the strips made durable bonds, which Anna used to hobble Sarrész’s ankles, while Andreas tied his arms behind his back.

  Once he was satisfied, Koszenmarc hauled Sarrész to his feet. “Stop pretending. We know you’re awake. March, or I’ll drag you back up those stairs myself.”

  Sarrész whined under his breath about a world filled with enemies, but when Koszenmarc prodded him, he shuffled along in the direction Koszenmarc i
ndicated. Anna caught up her bag again and followed with her magical light cupped in one hand.

  Not far beyond where Anna had fallen through, the tunnel angled toward their left and began to slope upward. Koszenmarc moved slowly and stiffly, and Anna thought she could feel every bruise from her tumble down the mountainside. Sarrész had not ceased his complaints, but he kept them to a murmur.

  Two more bends brought them to a winding stairwell cut into the earth. Like the rest of the temple, the stones here vibrated with magic. Koszenmarc knelt and untied the hobbles from Sarrész’s ankles. “Up you go,” he said.

  Sarrész gazed up the stairs, as if contemplating one last excuse to delay the inevitable, but when Koszenmarc prodded him with the hilt of his dagger, he sighed and started to climb. Koszenmarc followed close behind, and Anna after him.

  Unlike the tunnel, the staircase was narrow, scarcely wide enough for a single person, and it coiled tightly around a stone pillar carved with prayers in letters and a language that resembled Kybris, but seemed far more ancient. This was no smuggler’s work, Anna thought. An escape route?

  The stairs ended at a wide tile, which lay askew over the exit, leaving a narrow opening. Anna extinguished her magical light. One by one they squeezed through the narrow opening. Sarrész immediately fell into a heap. Anna staggered. Andreas caught her by the arm and held her steady. He had his sword drawn.

  They were in a far corner of the square, near a statue of Lir, recognizable only by a pattern of stars along the hem of her gown and what could be her brother Toc’s sword at her feet. Beyond was the familiar square, empty under the starlit skies. The fighting had ended. Not far away, Koszenmarc’s crew had taken over Druss’s campsite outside the ruins—building a generous fire, setting up tents, and clearing away the bodies of the enemy.

  A shout went up from one of the crew on watch. Then Eleni was striding toward them. “Captain! I thought—” She caught herself, then glanced from Anna to Sarrész and back. “You found our prisoner.”