Plague Arcanist (Frith Chronicles Book 4)

by Shami Stovall

  The porthole beckoned me with the soft glow of a beautiful dawn. I ambled over, curious to see a village near a desert. The thick glass obscured my vision, but not enough to hide all detail. I could make out the houses and dirt roads, and the tree line—a bright green—clearly ended at the edge of a vast, dry valley.

  “We’ll be getting water,” Adelgis said. “You can bathe before we continue on our merry way.”

  I tucked my hand into my underarm and scratched. “Probably a good thing.”

  “Definitely a good thing,” Luthair said from the darkness at my feet.

  I chuckled. “When clothes can talk, these are the things they say.”

  “Destiny decided that I needed to guide two arcanists through the sweaty period of their life people call young adulthood.”

  “Good thing you don’t have a sense of smell.”

  “I’m thankful for the little things in life, my arcanist.”

  I examined the storeroom with a quick glance. Besides the crates and barrels of rum, Adelgis and I were alone.

  “Where’s Fain?” I asked.

  “He’s getting us food.”

  My stomach grumbled in protest. “Hm.”

  “You know I can give you dreams of bountiful banquets or lavish feasts.” Adelgis pulled his black hair free from the ponytail and allowed it to fall past his shoulders. It had gotten longer, and he combed it with his fingers. “At least then you could experience something tasty.”

  “No, thank you. That would only be more depressing when I awoke.”

  “What would make you happy, then?”

  The Frith Guild.

  I missed them.

  That was why I wanted to see how Master Zelfree had joined. I wanted to see him interact with others when I couldn’t—be with the people I missed when it was impossible for me to return. And in a strange way, Zelfree and I seemed to share a few life details I hadn’t known before. It made me feel… more connected to the man.

  “He doesn’t like it when people know his personal history,” Adelgis muttered, obviously hearing every one of my thoughts. “Master Zelfree wasn’t pleased when he realized I could see everything in his life.”

  “Did he tell you not to share anything?”

  “No.”

  I crossed my arms, well aware that Zelfree disliked people knowing anything about him. “Maybe just… give me the memories that aren’t personal-personal. If that makes any sense.”

  “I’ll try to think of a few to show you,” Adelgis said. “Until then, we should freshen up and perhaps mingle with the crew.”

  10

  The City Of New Norra

  The Sun Chaser didn’t land, it remained fifty feet in the air, the gusts below the hull powerful enough to bend the nearby trees and rip away leaves. Fain, Adelgis, and I left the ship along with the captain, Jozé, Karna, and Vethica. Deckhands were left in charge of loading the airship with supplies. They used a pulley and crane to lift all the heavy materials onto the deck, and while I found it fascinating to watch them crank up several crates and barrels of water, I decided to head to the edge of the village.

  The captain’s roc, Mesos, glided down from the clouds and landed on the ground with a few powerful and controlled flaps of her massive wings. Her talons dug into the dirt, leaving deep holes wherever she stood.

  I walked close to her, shocked at how tall she was once standing on the ground. I had only ever seen a roc up close one other time in my life—when I had visited Port Crown, the pirate’s den. A roc had stood guard at the rocky water gates.

  Mesos stared down at me with bright, round eyes. The gold of the irises matched the brilliant gold of her feathers, and she lowered her head so that her beak came within a few inches of me. With each exhale, her crisp breath washed across my shirt and shoulders.

  Captain Devlin approached with his arms wide. Mesos fluffed her feathers and made a cooing noise, but due to her huge size, it sounded closer to a deep rumble, akin to a monster or some other spooky creature only conceived of in nightmares. The captain hugged his gargantuan eldrin, his arms unable to wrap all the way around Mesos’s neck.

  “How’s my favorite lass doin’?” he asked as he scratched between her feathers.

  Mesos cooed again and then leaned on him.

  “Hey, hey, hey!”

  The roc gently fell forward and laid on the captain. It reminded me of a chicken covering her eggs, and she “snuggled” him like only a giant bird could.

  The crew of the Sun Chaser snickered and laughed. Some even patted Mesos on her black beak, despite the fact that the edges were sharp enough to slice a man clean in half. Mesos exhaled, her breath becoming an icy fog that froze people’s hair in odd cowlick shapes. This seemed to amuse her, as she laughed a chirp-like laugh.

  “This isn’t funny,” Captain Devlin said as he dragged himself out from her feathered body. “You’re making us look ridiculous, you know that?”

  My father’s phoenix, Tine, circled down from the sky, her radiant blue feathers glittering with powerful magic. Her peacock-like tail twirled at the end, and the green-azure “eye” markings seemed more mystical than a normal phoenix’s.

  Tine landed on Mesos’s back, and although Tine was the size of a large turkey, she looked like a baby chick when perched on a giant roc. It was a bird dog-pile on the captain.

  “Did you know that female birds of prey are larger than their male counterparts?” Adelgis asked so close to my side that I almost jumped when I realized his proximity.

  Although at this point, I was almost fully accustomed to his weird timing.

  “I didn’t know that,” I muttered.

  “Female rocs, phoenixes, hawks, and eagles are all larger than their males. That means that Mesos will probably double in size before she’s fully grown.”

  “Interesting. Did you learn that from your father?”

  Adelgis tensed, his expression of fascination disappearing under a mask of neutrality. “Yes.”

  “Are you… worried about seeing him again?”

  “I’ve decided I need to have serious words with my father.” Adelgis forced a smile. “It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with. I should be the one to deal with my family.”

  “Okay.” I patted him on the shoulder. “Let’s go into the village then. Take our minds off things.”

  “That’s why I came to speak with you. I think it’d be better if you went back on the airship.”

  “Why?”

  Adelgis pointed toward the village. The houses were built tall with airy roofs, no doubt to help keep them cool. The stones used in the bases were large and wide, and the wood for the walls reminded me of cabins I had seen in old paintings. Adelgis motioned to the fields beyond the housing. Goats roamed in herds, fenced in with sturdy posts. On the other side of that, I spotted a group of horses with impressive riders. They wore leather and chain armor, and most were carrying nets, lanterns, and large satchels, as though they were traveling far.

  “They’re hunters,” Adelgis stated.

  He didn’t need to explain further. “Plague hunters,” I said.

  “If you wait near the airship, we can avoid them.”

  Although I dreaded the idea of separating from the others, I agreed with Adelgis’s assessment. Instead of tempting fate by wandering through a village where people wanted me dead, I waited back at the airship, despite my urge to explore.

  When I had been younger, I would’ve given my right arm to travel the world in an airship filled with extraordinary arcanists. Now that it was happening, I couldn’t enjoy it. I smirked to myself. Sometimes fate had a cruel sense of humor.

  Adelgis waited with me, though. He remained quiet and smiled whenever I looked over. He could hear every one of my thoughts, but I suspected his were beyond fascinating. The last time he had seen his father, Theasin Venrover—the man who was potentially my salvation—it had been to have an abyssal leech ripped from his side. His father had treated the entire ordeal like a chore. Theasin’
s responses to their interactions had made me wonder if the man was emotionally dead inside.

  What would Adelgis possibly say to his father?

  Captain Devlin, having freed himself from his roc, smoothed his long coat and straightened his tricorn hat. He regarded Adelgis and me with a jut of his chin, like a reverse nod, and I offered a quick wave of my hand.

  Before I had to make small talk with the man, Karna skipped out of the village and headed over, energy in her steps. The captain crossed his arms and watched her, like he already knew she wanted to speak with him.

  “Good news,” she said in her songstress voice. “I found two new girls who want to join the ranks of the Sun Chaser.” Karna came to a halt next to the captain, her blonde hair bouncing twice more after she stopped moving, her large curls somehow spring-like. She wore large trousers secured with a belt and an oversized coat, and I wondered if she had been impersonating someone moments prior.

  Captain Devlin growled something under his breath. Then he replied, “And what’re we goin’ to pay them with? We didn’t make coin in Thronehold—not when you failed to follow through with the assignment, and definitely not when Jozé gambled the remainder away.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Karna said as she rubbed his shoulder.

  “These supplies set us back. We might not have enough to pay the crew we do have.”

  “Oh, but we will once we reach New Norra.” Karna reached into her baggy pants and somehow withdrew a circlet crown from her clothing, as though it had been hiding somewhere in her undergarments. “We’ll make back everything we lost in Thronehold and more.”

  She twirled the circlet around on her finger. The black-and-red coloration reminded me of sovereign dragon scales. Why was she carrying around a crown?

  “She stole the late king’s crown,” Adelgis whispered.

  I snapped my attention to him. “The late king of Thronehold?”

  “Yes. That’s the artifact Karna was supposed to steal for our enemies. Apparently, she decided to steal it from them instead.”

  “When?”

  “The night of the queen’s assassination.”

  I never did understand why the dastards who had attacked Thronehold had wanted the crown. I had assumed because it was powerful beyond reason, but the simple circlet didn’t look like a magical item of vast ability.

  “You worry too much,” Karna said to the captain, still twirling the crown around with one finger. “Besides, I can always entertain some wealthy arcanists to get us the money, if needed.”

  “Do we really need more crew members?” the captain asked.

  Karna grab the crown and held it tight. “They’ve been through a lot, and they have nowhere else to go.” Her somber tone wasn’t like her. I didn’t think I had ever heard her so serious.

  Captain Devlin sighed. “Fine.” His soft tone betrayed the fact that he had probably capitulated hundreds of times in the past. “But only the two new deckhands.”

  “Aye, aye, Cap’n.” Karna winked, her melancholy expression vanishing in an instant. And while she was beautiful, even in ill-fitting clothing, Devlin had no reaction other than a pained groan.

  Four days of travel.

  It wasn’t long, but I only had a limited amount of time to solve my plague problem. Six months, at the most, before looking for a cure would become moot. Each day spent on travel was a necessary evil.

  The winds became hotter and hotter the farther south we traveled. Soon, there weren’t even clouds beneath us—it was just clear skies from the sun to the ground. Occasionally I’d glance over the railing, admiring the vast ocean on one side of us and the vast sand dunes on the other. More than once, I spotted interesting sights. Giant whales beneath the waves, tall rocks jutting out of the desert—I wanted to show them to someone. Illia would’ve loved to see the sea life, and I suspected Zaxis would say something along the lines of, that rock isn’t so big, I’ve seen larger when I travelled with my family. You’re such an island bumpkin, Volke.

  Imagining his childish insults got me smiling. I missed them.

  A harsh whistle sounded across the deck.

  I glanced up, my heart in my throat. Then I spotted it, off in the distance—New Norra.

  It had to be. There were no other cities around, just the never-ending waters of the ocean and the sands of the desert.

  A river sliced its way inland, forming a delta where the ports for New Norra had been created. They called it the Lion’s Tail River, and since the city was the only one for miles, hundreds of boats floated at or around the docks, waiting for their turns to load and unload.

  Boats of every shape and size dotted the water. A two-masted schooner, a lug-rigged bilander, a ship-of-line, a man-of-war, dozens of merchantman vessels, and even a couple of brigs, just like our airship. The bright white sails were so numerous, they appeared to be clouds resting on the waves.

  New Norra sprawled out in every direction, but it never got too far from the life-giving Lion’s Tail River that made up the heart of the city. Boats could travel the waterway, and bridges had been constructed with the ability to lift up and down—something so marvelous and ingenious, I wondered why other nations didn’t use them.

  In all my excitement, I didn’t even realize how overheated I had become with the wootz cotton under my clothing. I stood in the bright daylight, staring out over the delta, river, and massive trade city, my breath stolen by the wonder of adventure.

  If only Illia were here to see it.

  And Nicholin, and Atty, and Titania, and Hexa, and Raisen—they would all enjoy the sight.

  “My arcanist?” Luthair asked.

  “Yes?”

  “We have now officially gone to a place I never visited with Mathis.”

  I didn’t know why, but that information made me smile. “I’m glad, though it looks like we won’t have much in the way of shadow.” I lifted my hand to shield my eyes as I tilted my head back. The radiance was enough to cook an egg inside its shell.

  “Perhaps you’re right,” Luthair said. “Look at the walls of the city.”

  I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen them sooner—giant crystals made up portions of the city’s sandstone walls, glittering with a myriad of colors. When light filtered through the twenty-foot-high crystals, it cast rainbows across the sand, watch towers, and walkways. The mystic glow they all emanated made me wonder if they were magical. I’d bet my life they were.

  “Maybe they’re a part of the city’s protections?” I said.

  “Protections from what?” Luthair asked. “They’re a city-state that borders no other nations.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe there are things in the sands.”

  Luthair didn’t reply.

  As the Sun Chaser flew closer and closer, the crew hustled to secure everything for a more anchored landing. They avoided me, always maintaining a distance of ten feet or more, and I made my way off the deck to give them space.

  “You should be careful inside the city, my arcanist,” Luthair said. “Without any information on the people and surrounding territory, we’re at a disadvantage.”

  I nodded. “Don’t worry. I intend to find out where Theasin went and then leave as soon as possible.”

  11

  The Khepera Mystery

  To my surprise, New Norra had a sky dock, a small platform built off the city’s outer wall to allow for airships to tie down. The dock wasn’t as large as the several such docks dotting the delta—some so giant they could accommodate fifty ships—but it allowed for four airships to remain secure at the same time.

  Once the Sun Chaser had been tied down, Captain Devlin, my father, Karna, Vethica, Fain, Adelgis, and I disembarked. Unlike with normal sailing ships, where the gangplank was nothing more than a wide board of wood, the Sun Chaser had rope railings. Obviously, it was to prevent people from falling, since one misstep wouldn’t result in diving into the ocean—it would result in a 150-foot drop to the dunes below.

  The afternoon sun beat down w
ithout mercy. The wootz cotton made everything worse, and by the time I reached the end of the gangplank, I was ready to call it a day and head back onto the airship.

  My mouth became so dry, it felt stuck in place. Twitching my lips reminded me they were on the verge of cracking.

  “Welcome, Captain Devlin,” one of the city dockhands said as she approached.

  She wore loose, baggy trousers, a cloth belt, and a flowing shirt with sleeves down to the wrists. Her helmet came with a flap of cloth that hung over the back of her neck and ears. A rifle was slung over her shoulder, and she kept a knife at her side, but otherwise, she didn’t look weighed down or encumbered with heavy equipment. At first, I thought having so much clothing would be bothersome in the heat, but I quickly realized it was meant to protect the wearer from the unforgiving rays of the sun.

  The captain stepped forward, straightened his leather belt, and then motioned to the city. “What’s going on? It looks like people are stalled in the delta.”

  “It’s the Marshall of the Southern Seas,” the dockhand said. “She’s making it difficult to travel down the coast.”

  “Why? What’s that old salt biscuit want?”

  “She wants to investigate New Norra, but the governor isn’t allowing her soldiers beyond the shipyard. It’s made things real tense around here.”

  Captain Devlin lowered his hat over his face and sighed. “Nothing about this trip has gone to my liking.”

  Vethica pushed the captain aside. “This doesn’t have anything to do with the khepera, does it?” Her tone matched her panicked expression.

  The dockhand took a hesitant step backward. “I’m not sure.”

  Khepera?

  Those were a rare type of mystical creature. From what I could recall, they were giant scarabs, about the size of a human head, with shimmery iridescent shells and glittering wings. Much like phoenixes, they were creatures of rebirth, but they were also creatures of renewal and the sun itself. Could they be found somewhere out in the Amber Dunes? That made sense. Khepera preferred to live in sand, after all.