Bane and Shadow

by Jon Skovron

  They were silent for a moment. He savored the peace of it. Lately, his mom had been more difficult. Losing patience, yelling, hitting. His dad said it wasn’t her fault. That she was just getting sicker. His dad was out now, secretly having sex with people for money so he could pretend to be an anonymous art collector and buy all the new paintings that nobody wanted.

  This secret weighed heavily on the boy. It hurt to feel this wedge of separation between himself and his mom. To fight against it, he snuggled in closer to her, savoring her kindness and openness, even if it was only temporary.

  She smiled and ran her fingers through his messy hair.

  “You were born in dark times,” she said. “And I’m worried you’ll have more dark times ahead. I know…” She hesitated and he could hear a faint constriction in her voice, like she was fighting back emotion. “I don’t know how I will be able to help you. So you must always be like your namesake. You must find the beauty in the darkness. That is what we artists must always strive to do.”

  “Am I an artist?” he asked.

  “Of course you are,” she said.

  He woke up in Casasha’s house, with the shutters still closed and only the flickering light of the fireplace. Casasha sat by the fire, sipping a steaming mug.

  He stood up, feeling strangely light. How long had he slept? He picked up his painting and brought it over to Casasha.

  “Well? Did I fix it?”

  She stared at her mug, not looking at him or his painting. Her voice was unexpectedly soft and weary. “Why don’t you go outside and see for yourself?”

  He wasn’t exactly sure what she meant, but he was more or less used to that now, so he obediently walked over and opened the front door. He looked out at the trees and the sky overhead. The breeze felt good after being in the stuffy room so long. It took a few moments before it dawned on him he was looking up at the moon and stars. It was night, and he hadn’t changed.

  Or had he?

  He looked down at the self-portrait in his hands. It was all over the place, with parts that looked like the Shadow Demon, parts that looked like Red, and parts that looked like Rixidenteron. It really was a mess. But maybe it was a beautiful mess.

  “How did you expect to tame the darkness,” asked Casasha from her spot by the fireplace, “if you refused to accept the light?”

  He turned back to her. “It was always in me, wasn’t it? The Shadow Demon.”

  “To some degree. So was the artist. The biomancers strengthened the one, so I strengthened the other.”

  Red looked at her and tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Do you have any more canvases?”

  “No, but I have some parchment and charcoal.”

  “That’ll do fine,” he said.

  “For what?”

  “For me to sketch your portrait.” Then in the most scathing tone he could muster, he said, “Obviously.”

  She looked over at him, and there was surprise in her expression. Then she suddenly laughed—a rich, unfettered sound that echoed through the room.

  Red sat on the small porch, his smoked glasses firmly in place as he watched the first rays of the sun. His fingers itched to paint it. But they itched to paint everything now. It was a little annoying, but it was also a nice reminder, whenever he started to worry that he’d imagined everything that happened the night before.

  “My Lord Pastinas,” called Merivale as she rode up to the house on a beautiful golden mare. “How are you feeling on this lovely morning?”

  “Like a perfect mess,” he said.

  She smiled. “Was Casasha able to help you sort things out?”

  “Yeah.” He jerked his thumb at the closed door behind him. “She just kicked me out, though. Said she was tired of me thinking so loudly.”

  “She does that,” said Merivale.

  “I owe you, Meri-kitty,” he said. “A lot.”

  “Yes, I’m glad you bring that up. And I’ll need you to address me as either ‘Lady Hempist’ or ‘my lady’ from now on.”

  “Oh?”

  “It won’t do to have you getting so familiar, now that you’re working for me.”

  “Me?” asked Red. “Working for you? Since when?”

  “I hope you didn’t think I was going through all of this simply because I’m fond of you. As the chief spy to Her Imperial Majesty, I hardly have the luxury of such idle indulgence.”

  He gave her a wry smile. “I guess not.”

  “And you did just say you owe me, didn’t you?”

  “I did.”

  “Fortunately, I know exactly how you can repay me, as well as the empress, who so kindly allowed you to keep your head on your neck, even after you nearly killed the ambassador.”

  “And what, exactly, do you want me to do?” he asked apprehensively.

  “To become a spy in Her Majesty’s service, naturally. You are hereby charged by Her Imperial Majesty with utilizing your existing connections to the biomancers, as well as your astonishing abilities and undeniable charm, to assist in rooting out corruption within the empire once and for all.”

  His eyebrows slowly rose above his dark glasses. “That sounds… ambitious.”

  She smiled at him, a twinkle in her eyes. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fun.”

  27

  The fleet of Dire Bane anchored a good distance from Dawn’s Light to await nightfall. Bleak Hope sat in her cabin, alone, and let herself be swallowed up by Sadie’s loss. None could equal that old woman in her bold, irreverent wisdom. It was more than just Hope’s loss. It was the world’s. Hope longed for some sort of comfort, but when she realized that the person she would have been mostly likely to seek it from was Filler, her sense of loss only deepened.

  But Hope had fought through pain before. Whether physical or emotional, she would not allow it to stop her now, so close to her goal. So as the sun began to set, she steeled herself against the grief, and went topside to greet the darkness.

  The island was called Dawn’s Light because it was the first island in the empire to touch the sun every morning. That also meant it was the first island to lose the sun every evening. Before she completely lost the sunlight, Hope trained her spyglass on the fortifications that had been put in place since her last visit. Cannon trenches had been dug across the sandy shore, built up with sandbags. Two massive frigates lay anchored nearby. They clearly thought they were ready for her. Hopefully they were wrong.

  The plan was to come at Dawn’s Light from three different directions just as the sun rose. The Glorybound would attack from the northwest, where the dock was located. It was the biggest and most heavily armed of the three ships, and that was the most fortified side of the island. The Rolling Lightning would attack from the northeast, and the Kraken Hunter from the south.

  Since the Kraken Hunter had to circle all the way around the island to reach the southern shore, they set sail while the other two were still getting ready.

  As they took the long arc around the eastern side of Dawn’s Light, they gave it as much distance as they could without getting caught in the massive and unpredictable currents of the Dawn Sea. It wasn’t likely they’d be spotted in the gathering dark, but she was taking no chances.

  She stood next to Missing Finn on the quarterdeck as usual, but she felt a distance between them that she wasn’t sure how to bridge.

  “I’m sorry about Sadie,” she said at last.

  He smiled sadly. “I spent more years missing her than being with her.”

  “It seems unfair,” said Hope. “That she would be snatched away just when things were finally working out for you two.”

  “That’s life for you,” said Finn. “Never does seem much concerned with being fair.”

  “The Vinchen believe that life is fair, ultimately. That all things equal out in time.”

  “Of course they’d say that,” said Finn. “Justice comes more often to the strong than to the weak.”

  “Then it is up to the strong to make things fair,” said Hope. “I promis
e you, Finn. Her death will be avenged.”

  Missing Finn remained silent. Hope couldn’t tell if her words gave him any comfort.

  The Kraken Hunter is in position! Jilly’s voice chirped in Brigga Lin’s head.

  “Jilly, please don’t shout.”

  Was I shouting? Jilly’s voice came more gently. Sorry, master. I didn’t realize. That probably means I was shouting in teacher’s head, too.

  “Probably,” agreed Brigga Lin. “I will tell Captain Gray that everyone is ready. Stay focused so I can let you know when he thinks we’ll be within firing range.”

  Yes, master.

  Brigga Lin moved to the quarterdeck, where Gavish Gray gazed out through the darkness at the distant northeast coast of Dawn’s Light. She wasn’t sure what to make of this captain. He certainly seemed knowledgeable about sailing, bringing his own ship and crew, all of whom worked together with the smoothness of experience. But he had a strange sort of resigned air mixed with bitter amusement. She worried his attitude would make him a less than ideal ally in the coming battle. Nettles had been very insistent on sending him, but Brigga Lin wasn’t sure what to make of her anymore either.

  “Captain Bane is ready to proceed,” she told Gray.

  He gave her an uneasy look. “They sent their thoughts to you through that girl, then?”

  “Roughly speaking, yes.”

  “Is she, like, your biomancer in training, then?”

  “I’m not sure it would be accurate to call either of us biomancers at this point,” said Brigga Lin.

  Gray shrugged. “If you say so.”

  “How long before we’re within firing range?”

  “We can be there in under ten minutes, but the Rolling Lightning is a far sight faster than the Glorybound, and I know Bane wanted Vaderton to strike first, so we should give him a head start. You tell me when he’s starting, and we’ll start a short time after that.”

  “I’ll check back with them,” said Brigga Lin. “It’s nearly dawn. If we wait until full light, we’ll lose what little element of surprise we might still have.”

  “So how does it work?” asked Vaderton.

  Jilly was aware that he was giving her a curious look as she sat on top of a barrel and tried to keep her breath even and thoughts flexible, just like Brigga Lin had taught her.

  “I’m not really sure,” she admitted. “There’s still so much to learn. Brigga Lin says it’s going to take years.”

  “I believe most biomancers study for ten years before they are granted their robes.”

  “I don’t want one of those bludgeon robes. Nothing pat about them,” said Jilly. “Anyway, I think this mind message thing has something to do with electricity.”

  “Really? Like lightning?” asked Vaderton.

  “Apparently it’s inside our heads all the time and that’s how we think.” She frowned. “Or… something like that.”

  “So it’s like you’re sending tiny lightning bolts back and forth to each other?” he asked.

  She shrugged. “I guess. Although one of us has to be the central node, or the whole thing falls apart.”

  “And that’s you,” said Vaderton.

  “Or maybe they just wanted an excuse to keep me out of the action.”

  Vaderton’s eyes widened. “Out of the action? We’re about to throw ourselves into the teeth of a fortified artillery battery.”

  “Yeah…” Jilly fingered her knife. “But I’d rather be landing with Captain Bane, fighting on the front line.”

  “I suspect a fight like this might be a bit over your head.” He patted her mop of tangled hair. “Literally.”

  “That a height joke?”

  “No, it’s a youth joke. I’m sure there will be plenty of time for Captain Bane to teach you the many ways she knows how to kill people, and perhaps by then you’ll be old enough to hold a sword.”

  “You ain’t seen half the stuff I can do with this knife,” said Jilly.

  “Ain’t” is not a word, Brigga Lin’s voice said in her mind.

  “Sorry, master.”

  And I hope you’re showing proper respect to your elders.

  “Yes, I am respecting the old people,” said Jilly.

  “Hey!” said Vaderton.

  You’ve completely lost focus, haven’t you? chided Brigga Lin. How can Hope stay in touch with us if you aren’t reaching out to her?

  “Sorry.”

  Something could be happening to her right now and we’d never know.

  Panic spiked through Jilly’s veins. She thrust her thoughts out. “Teacher! Is everything okay?”

  Ouch, yes, I was fine until just now, replied Hope. Is everyone else in position?

  The Rolling Lightning is in position, said Brigga Lin.

  “So is the Glorybound,” said Jilly.

  Good, said Hope. Jilly, have Vaderton start now.

  “Yes, teacher.”

  Brigga Lin, remind Gavish that he needs to wait until the Glorybound is fully engaged and drawing fire before we try to land.

  He knows, said Brigga Lin, but I’ll remind him.

  Alright. Dire Bane’s voice crackled with the determination that always awed Jilly. I’ll meet you in the middle of the island.

  Looking forward to it, said Brigga Lin.

  And then they were both out of Jilly’s head. She felt a brief pang of emptiness. She liked having the two women she respected most in the world in her head at the same time, and it felt good being the center of their plan, even if it did keep her out of the actual fighting.

  “Captain Vaderton, Captain Bane said it’s time to make our run.”

  He nodded, then in a loud voice said, “Hoist the sails and prime the cannons! Let’s give Dawn’s Light a proper pounding!”

  The Glorybound surged forward, moving in a graceful arc toward the island. The sun was just beginning to spill over the horizon, so Jilly could see the low sandbag wall with regular openings. Behind that wall, she knew, were land-to-sea cannons, probably thirty-six-pounders or larger. Certainly bigger than anything a ship could carry.

  “We should be in range in a few moments, sir,” said Biscuit Bill.

  Vaderton nodded. “You may fire when ready.”

  “Vaderton is engaged,” Brigga Lin told Gavish Gray.

  “Aye.” Gray had his glass trained on the side Vaderton was coming from. “I can see a bit of fire and smoke. Let’s get to it, then.”

  The Rolling Lightning was a fast ship and Gray seemed able to coax every last bit of speed out of her. She sliced through the water like a knife, heading directly for the shore. The northeast wasn’t as heavily fortified, but it had more than enough artillery to sink their small ship.

  She saw a puff of orange and smoke from the artillery wall.

  “Incoming!” yelled Gray. “Prepare to jibe!”

  He hiked the wheel hard and the Rolling Lightning cut to one side, the sails rattling for a moment before snapping taut again. A moment later, a massive splash erupted off the port bow.

  “That was close,” said Brigga Lin.

  “We’re more nimble than that great lumbering brig of Bane’s,” said Gray, looking mildly insulted. “Besides, at this range, we can take a few hits.”

  “What about when we get closer?”

  “Well, now.” Gray licked his lips. “That’s when it’ll get interesting.”

  “Both the Glorybound and the Rolling Lightning are engaged,” said Bleak Hope. “Time to move in.”

  “Aye, Captain,” said Missing Finn.

  “Let’s hope they’re drawing enough fire to get us close.”

  The Kraken Hunter opened its sails and surged forward. The southern coast of the island was the least fortified of the three sides, probably because it was tucked in near the Breaks, so it would have been a challenge to get a full fleet on that side. Even so, the fortifications were more than enough to stop the Kraken Hunter if her plan didn’t work.

  Smoke bloomed in a line on the coast.

  “Incoming
!” called the watch from the royals.

  “Take cover!” yelled Hope.

  A series of shrieking whistles filled the air. Most hit the water, but one tore through the jib and another shattered the starboard gunwale. Hope knocked a knife-sized splinter out of the air with her clamp. Most of the sailors found cover in time, but a man went down with a thick chunk of wood in his calf.

  “Get him below and bind his wounds,” she told two of the crew. Then she closed her eyes. “Jilly, are you there?”

  Right here, teacher!

  “Tell Vaderton he needs to draw more fire or we’ll be torn to pieces before we reach the coast!”

  “What does she mean, draw more fire?” Vaderton shouted over the roar of cannons and the hiss of incoming projectiles.

  “She said you have the biggest and most heavily armed ship and that you’d figure it out.” Jilly decided not to repeat the rest of the message, which had been unless twenty years in the navy has turned him into a spineless wretch. She knew that in the middle of a bombardment, sometimes people said things they didn’t mean.

  “She wants us to move in close and present a credible threat,” said Vaderton. “Only then will they start pulling resources over from the other two sides of the island.”

  “How long can we last at closer range?” she asked.

  “As long as we must, I suppose.”

  He gave the order and the Glorybound took a deep arc toward the shore until they were close enough to see the cannon muzzles. At that range, the Glorybound’s cannons had enough force to start knocking down the walls. But the enemy cannons were more dangerous as well.

  As they swept across, they took several hits to the hull, but those weren’t low enough for them to start taking on water. Then one shot whistled overhead, followed by a thunderous crack as the foremast began to fall.