Cold Steel (The Spiritwalker Trilogy)

by Kate Elliott

  “Promise me you’ll stay out of trouble until tomorrow, Cat. When I come back, we will figure out how to get you to Europa.”

  “Of course I’ll stay out of trouble! When do I ever deliberately court trouble, I should like to ask?”

  “When do you not court trouble, you should be asking!” Bee snatched her sketchbook from the side table and stuffed it into the knit bag she carried so she could keep it and her pencils next to her at all times. “I am not the one who goes about punching sharks or speaking my mind so caustically to arrogant cold mages that they fall in love with me. Come along.”

  When Bee set her mind to drag a person along with her to wherever she was set to go, it was impossible to resist, nor did I try. Hand in hand, we descended the stairs to the courtyard. The boardinghouse had a wall and gate that separated it from the street, while the living quarters were laid out in a square whose center was a courtyard. Because it was hot year-round in the Antilles, most of the daily life went on in the spacious courtyard. A wide trellis and a canvas awning covered the benches and tables where customers drank and ate and gossiped, but right now, with the heat of the afternoon ebbing, the courtyard was empty except for Uncle Joe and the lads setting up benches and trays while Aunty Djeneba and her granddaughters cooked in the outdoor kitchen.

  They were not one bit overawed by Bee’s borrowed consequence as she made respectful goodbyes to the women and charming farewells to the menfolk. Outside the gate, Taino attendants handed her into the carriage that had waited there half the day while she visited me. We embraced and kissed, after which she promised ten times to return in the morning.

  “Bee, don’t fret. How much trouble can I get into overnight?”

  “That’s what worries me.” She squeezed my hands so tightly that I gritted my teeth rather than wince. “Dearest, promise me you’ll do nothing rash.”

  “Ouch! I’ll promise whatever you wish, only you’re crushing my fingers again!”

  She released me at last. I waved as she drove off down the cobblestone street through the quiet neighborhood where lived people whose labor built and sustained the city of Expedition.

  The moment I went back inside, one of the lads handed me a broom. I swept between the benches and tables as had been my habit in the weeks I had lived and worked here, for I had come to enjoy the household’s routine. When I finished, I went to the shaded outdoor kitchen.

  “Aunty,” I said to Djeneba as she prepared a big pot of rice and peas, “I don’t see Rory and Luce. Did they go to the batey game?”

  A wry smile creased her lined face. “So they did, Cat. By that frown, I reckon yee’s not so glad to see Luce walking out with yee brother.”

  My frown deepened. “I am not! He’s no better than a tomcat. A pleasant, kind, charming, and well-mannered tomcat, but no better regardless.”

  “Luce is sixteen now. Old enough to choose for she own self.” She handed me a wooden spoon and directed me to stir the pot as she added more salt and pepper. “Is yee determined to wait tables tonight? Yee don’ have to work if yee’ve no mind to do it.”

  The pot simmered, a luscious flavor wafting up. I licked my lips as I wielded the spoon. “Aunty, you know I can’t sit quietly. Waiting tables will keep my mind off Vai.”

  “It surely did before.” Aunty’s laugh coaxed a reluctant smile to my lips as I remembered the clever way he had won me over by bringing me delicious fruit to eat and confiding in me about his embrace of radical principles. “Yee never could seem to make up yee mind about Vai. Yee pushed him back with one hand and pulled him close with the other. What settled yee?”

  “Really, Aunty, did you think he would give up before he got what he wanted?”

  “Yee’s a stubborn gal, Cat. I had me doubts.”

  “You shouldn’t have had. I think I was always a little infatuated with him, even back when I disliked him for his high-handed ways. The Blessed Tanit knows he’s handsome enough to overwhelm the most heartless gal.”

  “Good manners and a steady heart matter more than looks, although he have all three in plenty. Still, I reckon yee have the right of it. ’Tis no easy task for a gal to say no to a lad as fine as he. Especially after the patient way he courted yee.” She took the spoon. “Yee get that man back.”

  “I will get him back, I promise you, Aunty.” I did not add that I had no idea how I was going to manage it. “Bee will help me. We’re going to make our plans tomorrow.”

  The thought of him trapped in my sire’s claws made me burn. Yet not even worrying could dampen my appetite. I ate two bowls of Aunty’s excellent rice and peas, by which time the first customers had begun to arrive. They greeted me with genuine pleasure, for even though I was a maku—a foreigner—in Expedition, folk here did appreciate my willingness to speak my mind. Better yet, they laughed at my jokes. The easy way people conversed pleased me, and no one thought it at all remarkable that a young woman had opinions about the great matters of the day.

  “I certainly hope the new Assembly will not allow the Taino representatives to bully them on this matter of a new treaty,” I said to a table of elderly regulars.

  “Hard not to feel bullied when a fleet of Taino airships sit on the border chaperoned by an army of soldiers who have already marched once through Expedition’s streets,” said Uncle Joe from the bar. “Peradventure without yee intervention on Hallows’ Night, Cat, we in Expedition would have had to bow before a Taino governor instead of setting up this new Assembly. If yee had not done what report say yee did do.”

  I dodged past the lad who with pole and ladder was lighting the courtyard’s gas lamps. With a shake of my head, I set a tray of empty mugs on the bar as I made a grimace at Uncle Joe. After the dream I had just had, I did not want anyone to begin reflecting on the part I had played in halting the Taino invasion of Expedition Territory. He nodded to show he understood, then turned to draw a pitcher of ale from a barrel to refill the mugs.

  Between one breath and the next, the lively rattle of conversation ceased. The courtyard fell silent. I had my back to the gate. As Uncle Joe turned with the full pitcher, glancing past me, his gaze widened. He reached under the counter and set his machete next to my tray.

  He had done the same in my dream, only my sword was looped to a cord around my hips. The blade of his machete caught a glimmer of gaslight that carved a shimmering line along its length.

  I swung around.

  Prince Caonabo stood in the open gate, surrounded by attendants and soldiers.

  Just as he had in my dream.

  2

  All eyes—and it was crowded tonight—shifted from the newcomers to me, and back to the prince’s retinue. Aunty Djeneba had been cooking cassava bread on a griddle in the open-air kitchen. She stepped back from the hearth to examine the interlopers. As the thin bread began to crisp, I could not rip my gaze from its blackening edges. The smell of its burning seemed to come right out of the dream I’d had, the way fire had caught in my flesh. Had Prince Caonabo come to kill me?

  Was this what it meant to walk the dreams of dragons? Had I dreamed the dream meant for Bee because we were holding hands as we napped and her dreams had bled into mine? Or had I simply been waiting for this meeting, knowing the Taino would not let the death of their queen pass without a response?

  Aunty realized the bread was burning, flipped the flat round onto the dirt, and gestured for one of her granddaughters to take over. After wiping her hands on her apron, she walked to the gate. She looked majestic with her hair covered in a vividly orange head wrap. Her height, stout build, and confident manner made her a formidable presence.

  “Prince Caonabo,” she said, not that she had ever met him before, but there could only be one Taino prince in the city of Expedition. “To see one such as yee here at me gate is truly unexpected.”

  One of the prince’s attendants answered in his stead, for like any lofty nobleman, Caonabo did not need to speak for himself. “His Good Highness has come to this establishment to find a witch.”<
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  Most of our customers looked at me. I dressed in the local style so as not to draw attention to myself, but the days when I could hope to be just another maku girl making a living after being washed ashore in Expedition were irrevocably over.

  Aunty stiffened. “We shelter no witch in me respectable house, nor have we ever, I shall thank yee to know. Nor need we answer to the prince, however good and high as he may be. Expedition remain a free territory. Yee Taino don’ rule us.”

  The attendant blew a sharp whistle. Taino soldiers swarmed into the courtyard from the street, rifles and ceremonial spears at the ready, but the prince raised a hand to forestall any action.

  “This afternoon I have spoken to the provisional Assembly,” the prince said with the precision of an intelligent man who has learned through countless hours of intense study to speak a language foreign to him. “We have completed our discussions and renewed the treaty between the Taino kingdom and Expedition Territory. One matter remains before I can leave Expedition.”

  “What matter might that be, that yee trouble us while we partake of food and drink?”

  Aunty still held the paddle she used on the cassava bread, and she had the stance of a woman ready to smack him with it right on his proud, highborn face if he didn’t give her a polite answer.

  His attendants looked comically startled that a common Expeditioner would speak to a noble prince in such a bold and disrespectful manner, but Prince Caonabo himself appeared neither offended nor taken aback. He seemed like a man who knew his place in the world but didn’t need you to know it because it didn’t matter if you did. And it didn’t matter. In this part of the world, in the Sea of Antilles, he was among the most powerful men alive.

  “Catherine Bell Barahal has been accused in the council hall of Expedition of being responsible for the death of the honorable and most wise cacica, what you call a queen, she with the name Anacaona. As Queen Anacaona’s only surviving son, and as heir to her brother, the cacique, I am required to pursue justice in this matter.”

  Because it would be cowardly not to acknowledge him, I met his gaze with my own.

  “I would like to know who made that accusation,” I said.

  “I made the accusation.”

  Customers got up and, with awkward goodbyes, hurried out the gate.

  Uncle Joe muttered under his breath, “Cat, step back here behind the counter. Then yee can make a run out the back.”

  “No,” I whispered. “I’ll bring no trouble down on you after everything you’ve done for me. But please send one of the lads out to make sure Rory does not come back here until the prince is gone. Send him to Kofi’s house.”

  I took in a breath to fortify myself, grabbed a dram of rum, caught Uncle Joe’s warning gesture, and set down the rum without drinking. I drained a cup of guava juice instead, for my mouth had gone quite dry. Then I walked to the gate to face my accuser.

  “Salve, Your Highness,” I said respectfully. I wasn’t sure what to make of Prince Caonabo. Despite his accusation, he did not glare at me in a hostile way. Instead, he acknowledged me with a lift of the hand.

  “Salve, Perdita,” he answered, calling me lost woman. That was the name I had been given on the day three months ago when he and other fire mages had discovered me washed up and half-drowned on the shore of Salt Island, a quarantine island I should never have set foot on and hoped never to see again. “You recovered your sword.”

  “So I did.” To all other eyes, my sword appeared as a black cane, but fire mages and the feathered people we called trolls saw it for what it was: a blade of magically forged steel. At night I could draw the blade out of the spirit world, but during the day it was just a cane unless woken by cold magic. “Your Highness, Expedition is a free territory. It is not ruled by the Taino, nor by Taino law.”

  “Expedition Territory exists as a free territory within the Taino kingdom only because the captains of the first fleet that arrived here from Africa and Europa sealed a treaty with my ancestors. One of the conditions written into the First Treaty was the establishment of quarantine islands against the diseases brought across the ocean. Another condition was the right of accusation. Should a person residing in Expedition Territory commit a criminal act against any Taino, the Taino have the right to demand justice. As the accuser, I am allowed to take you into my custody and deliver you to Expedition’s Council Hall. There you will be taken before a standing inquiry on the charge of murder.”

  Around us the courtyard lay still and silent. A sound of lively laughter and talk drifted from nearby households. Resonant drumming pulsed from farther afield, signaling a victory dance at the local ballcourt for the batey match that had been completed with the dusk. Three days ago there could have been no batey match, no dance, no drumming, for the entire city had been under occupation by the Taino army.

  I lifted my chin. “Queen Anacaona led an invasion of Expedition. An invasion is an act of war.”

  “The honored cacica’s action was not an act of war. Disease hit our people hard when the maku first came across the ocean from the east. Other nations suffered worse than ours because our behiques were wise enough to place a fence of quarantine around our islands. So you see, the First Treaty explicitly gives the Taino the legal right to act if any quarantine is broken. As you broke it, by escaping from Salt Island.”

  “What if I refuse to come with you?” I asked.

  He had the look of a man accustomed to gazing at the stars as he attempts to fathom heavenly secrets. He did not look like an enraged kinsman trying to determine if a perfectly well-brought-up and inoffensive young woman has been party to a murder. “I seek justice, not revenge, Maestra Barahal. Duty binds me. I honor my mother as a dutiful son must. Even so, I offer you the protection of the law. If you do not come with me, I cannot answer for what might happen, for it has come to my attention that you have enemies who wish you ill and might use your refusal as an excuse to act against you.”

  “Who would those enemies be?”

  He raised a hand, palm up. A tiny flame rose from the center of his palm. A glow brushed along the skin of the prince’s two attendants. Both were acting as catch-fires for his fire magic. The greatest danger to a fire mage was that the backlash of power would consume her, as fire consumes any combustible substance. In Europa there were no catch-fires. Fire mages either became blacksmiths and were inducted into the mysteries of that extended clan, or they died young in sudden and horrible conflagrations. The Taino had learned to protect fire mages with catch-fires.

  “I think you know who they are,” he replied. “Fire in the wrong hands is a reckless weapon that destroys. In the hands of responsible people, fire heals. It can also offer a means to restrain the hearts of malevolent persons who disrupt the harmonious balance of society. The punishment for murder is that you lose the privilege to walk freely in a peaceful society and must serve it instead. That is why murderers are required to work in the cane fields, or to become catch-fires.”

  A shiver of doubt crept its icy fingers down my spine. I felt it wisest to say nothing.

  The prince curled his hand into a fist, dousing the flame. “Catherine Bell Barahal, upon my authority as heir to the Taino kingdom, and with the permission of the provisional Assembly that rules Expedition Territory, I place you under arrest for the murder of the cacica, Anacaona.”

  I found a bland smile in my store of weapons, and I brandished it. “I’ll go quietly with you, Prince Caonabo, under this condition. Promise on your honor as prince and future cacique of the Taino that you, and any and all of your court and subjects and hirelings, will not harm, persecute, or arrest any person living in this household now or ever. The people living here must never face retaliation for having sheltered me.”

  He gave my words thoughtful consideration. “On the honor of my ancestors and on the honor of my own person, I give my word that I and all those who are subject to my authority will not now or ever harm, persecute, or arrest any person living in this household.” />
  “Give me a moment, if you please.”

  I walked over to the kitchen shelter. Aunty had already sent the children into one of the rooms to get them out of the way.

  “Aunty, can you quickly put together a satchel of food for me? My skirt and jacket, from my room. And the cloth sleeve for my cane.”

  Aunty called over her daughter Brenna and gave her instructions, then took hold of my arm. “Do the prince mean to see yee brought to trial even though he is married to yee own cousin?”

  “I’m not sure what to think. Please let Bee and Rory know what’s happened.”

  Uncle Joe stepped in under the kitchen roof. His glare was enough to make my eyes water, since I knew he was upset because he cared for me. “Cat, what arseness is this yee’s playing at? I reckon the new Assembly ought better protect a gal who cut off the head of the Taino invasion.”

  “Do the Taino have the legal right to invade, according to the terms of the First Treaty? Because of the broken quarantine?”

  “Lawyers might say so. That was a long time ago.”

  “That it was a long time ago doesn’t change the law. I’ve extracted a promise from the prince that he will never harass or harm anyone who lives here.”

  Uncle Joe’s grip was hard, and yet because it was so, I felt heartened. “Don’ forget, gal, that in the eyes of many folk here in Expedition, ’twas the death of the cacica that freed us from the old Council’s unjust rule. When she died and the Taino had to withdraw, that was when the Assemblymen had a chance to overthrow the Council and change the government of Expedition.”

  “Yee shall find people aplenty in Expedition these days who shall fight to keep yee safe, gal,” said Aunty. “Don’ think otherwise.”

  “Believe me, I won’t let them kill me.”

  Uncle frowned. “The Taino rule the Sea of Antilles. Don’ make the mistake of thinking them weak. Their behiques is the most powerful of all. I reckon yee don’ truly understand how far the power of Taino fire mages can reach.”