Jimes emerged from his room at that moment. “I thought I heard voices out here,” he mentioned.
“Lexy was here, but now she’s sleeping in my bed,” Silas explained, as Jimes raised his eyebrows.
“It’s not worth explaining,” Silas responded.
“What is the plan for today?” Jimes asked, to which Silas repeated his planned luncheon with Vertuco remained before they could depart.
The morning passed in a desultory manner as the travelers relaxed and came and went in various combinations as they arose from their slumbers. Stash came over to the cabin after he awoke, and Lexy went back to her cabin after a couple of hours of nap time.
Silas left his friends and wandered into the palace, then found his way to Vertuco’s offices after asking for directions twice.
Silas was shown to a room, where Vertuco and four others waited for him. They all rose from their seats upon Silas’s entry, and Vertuco promptly began introductions.
“I thought we should take advantage of this gathering to properly introduce you,” the Speaker began.
“Thank you,” Silas responded in a state of confusion, wondering why Vertuco needed to introduce him to anyone just a short time before he was due to leave the city.
Chapter 9
“Silas, you need no introduction, of course,” Vertuco was standing and gestured to Silas, who had approached the only open seat at the table. “Your eyes give away your identity in a most distinct way.
“It’s an honor to meet you,” spoke the woman who was seated next to his chair. She was one of the two women among the four strangers at the table, and she was the most ordinary in appearance. She was an attractive woman, to be sure, in a wholesome way, with a clear complexion that seemed to shine, and eyes that were piercingly green, and which seemed to examine him with alarming insight, as though she could read the fabric of his soul.
“This is Reese,” Vertuco introduced the woman, who stood and firmly grasped Silas’s hand. She was slightly shorter than Silas, he noticed. “She’s going to be traveling with you on your journey to Heathrin.”
“Why does she need to go to Heathrin?” Silas asked curtly, as he mentally stumbled over the thought of having to take care of a hanger-on during the long journey ahead.
“To take care of you!” Reese laughed pleasantly, catching Silas by surprise.
“What’s that mean?” he asked, as he still stood at his chair. The others in the group were grinning, he noted.
“Lady Katjen assigned me to be your bodyguard going forward,” Reese answered.
“Her Ladyship assigned the two best guards available to travel with you and protect you,” Vertuco spoke up. “She is most interested in you and wants you to succeed. She looks forward to your return after you defeat Ivaric.”
“Two guards? Assigned to me?” Silas could ask in no tone of voice but one of confusion.
“And I’m the other guard,” spoke a man across the table. He extended his hand in a friendly gesture, as Silas took it absentmindedly. “I’m Wither,” the man introduced himself.
“You were very kind with your description,” Wither noted to the host of the lunch.
“Well, it’s true – you two are the best guards the palace has to offer,” the Speaker insisted.
“And I’m Ditto; I’ll be going along too. I’m the most important companion you’ll have; I’ll keep you out of trouble,” the luncheon attendee who spoke up was a youngster, certainly even younger than Silas, with a small and wiry frame.
“Why would you want to come along?” Silas saw no point in taking a child along.
“You don’t remember me, do you? I work for Charms. I’m his apprentice, so to speak,” the boy explained. “I’ll be able to sneak around and help sniff out trouble to be avoided.”
Portions of a memory flooded in, as Silas recalled that Charms had used the boy in the past. Silas nodded his head in acknowledgement.
“And I must be the last of the companions going with you,” spoke up the remaining member of the group. She was a young woman, one who had a studious look to her. “Lady Dianu asked me to join you as a Healer assigned to you, to help keep you healthy and alive while you go to do battle on behalf of all of us. My name is Octavia.”
Silas looked around at the four proposed travelers. It made no sense for him to take them along. They would cause more trouble; they would require more supplies; they would be harder to hide as a larger group.
But they also brought some talents that were appealing. Having a Healer along would be almost as good as having a skin of water from the Healing Spring, while having two guards who were trained to fight would be useful when they got to Heathrin and confronted whatever outpost of Ivaric forces were stationed there; if Silas were to be preoccupied with using his abilities, the swordsmen would be essential to have along to protect him and the others. And Stash had already shown Silas – in a disconcerting way – how well a criminal companion could be a positive addition to a team.
“Sit down everyone, and let’s eat,” Vertuco urged.
“What’s this all about?” Silas asked as he took his seat. “I’ve been fighting Ivaric pretty well so far. Who decided I need all this help?” he wanted to know.
“Lady Katjen,” Reese answered.
“Charms,” Ditto replied.
“Lady Dianu,” Octavia chimed in with her own answer.
“Everyone in the city thinks I need help?” Silas asked incredulously.
“Not everyone thinks you need help,” Vertuco replied smoothly. “But many of our leaders want to see you succeed, and so they offer assistance to you.”
“I’ve already got companions with me,” Silas explained. “A fighter and a Speaker and a thief.”
“Now you’ll have more,” Vertuco replied. “More companions, more help, more sets of eyes. More fighters. Lady Katjen will be pleased to hear that there are more allies with you in your fight against Ivaric. It can’t hurt to accept assistance,” he lobbied Silas as servants silently placed plates in front of the diners.
Silas took a bite of the food in front of him, a mixture of greens and flavored oils, unlike any dish he had eaten before, while he thought about the offer of new companions. There was merit in accepting the offer; he and Mata had survived only because they had enjoyed the accompaniment of Petre and Erik during their flight from Avaleen. Of course, Silas’s abilities had grown much more powerful since that time. But there would be more companions to take turns standing guard duty or carrying out other chores during the journey ahead. And Reese and Wither were reported to be trained guards, people who would bring skills and competence to the trip.
“Alright,” he spoke up. “I’ll be happy to take them along, if we all agree that they aren’t in charge – they’re just members of the team.”
“Of course.”
“Understood.”
“That makes sense,” the agreements from around the table quickly assured Silas.
The meal proceeded, and Silas discussed the other members of the team, while learning more about the new additions.
After the meal, the four unexpected guests all lifted large backpacks that had been placed in the hallway, and they prepared to follow Silas back to the garden cabins to meet the Amenozume team members and then depart from the city.
Chapter 10
Vertuco watched the eight members of the covert team walk out of the palace gates and start their trip to Heathrin. He felt satisfied that Silas had new and capable members of the small team that was on a mission to begin the next phase of disrupting Ivaric’s reign of terror. Lady Katjen had informed him that she wished to offer the two guards to protect Silas along his way, as well as to keep an eye on him and learn more about him
“He’s a wild card, and we have very little information about what he can do. He could have a major impact on the trading market, and we need to know more about him – look at what his destruction of the Ivaric fleet has done to the world – thousands of people dead, dozens of ship
s no longer available to transport goods, the Amenozume market disrupted,” Katjen had revealed her thoughts to Vertuco.
Vertuco considered the lady’s words. There was truth to what she said, but also a shallowness, he felt. She was not the only one trying to track Silas’s movements either for that matter. Vertuco had failed to respond to several messages that had been sent by the Wind Word Speaker in Amenozume, a younger member of the Guild who Vertuco didn’t know, Sloeleen.
The Speaker had sent out requests for information about the arrival or whereabouts of Silas the Abomination. He was keenly missed in Amenozume, it seemed, based on the tone that Sloeleen had conveyed.
While Silas had been a guest at the palace, Vertuco had refrained from responding to the calls from Amenozume, but with Silas’s departure, the Speaker concluded that he should respond as required by the code of the Guild, to let the palace at Amenozume know that Silas had safely arrived.
“This is Vertuco, Speaker in Barnesnob, replying to Sloeleen, Speaker in Amenozume, ready to engage the Tree Leaf Code,” Vertuco faced northwest as he spoke. He felt fully at ease in sending a message to Amenozume; there were no lands or listening Speakers beyond it. No one was on a line to intentionally or inadvertently hear the message that Vertuco was transmitting. But he was going to send it in code, anyway. The change in regime at the Guild headquarters had taught him he couldn’t be too careful.
“The oak boughs are strong,” he began his coded message, letting Sloeleen know that Silas had arrived safely in the city, and had already departed to pursue his heroic quest of continuing to wage war against Ivaric. It was only fair and courteous to let the court in Amenozume know that their wandering hero was alive and well. And it was a professional courtesy to let the Speaker know that her Guild headquarters would soon be liberated by her friend – Silas had described his relationship with Sloeleen as friendly.
Once that message was sent, Vertuco turned to his other duties in the palace, duties that he had neglected for the hours of Silas’s visit.
And his message proceeded to travel across the stretch of ocean that separated the two nations, until it arrived at the palace of Amenozume, and caught Sloeleen by surprise as she was playing a card game with Silas’s cousin Forna.
Sloeleen’s head jerked up as she heard the beginning of a message.
“Wait!” she barked at Forna as she held a hand up in front of her, palm outward, while the other had dived into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a small tablet and stylus. Sloeleen began to write as quickly as she could, then paused, and started writing a few strokes more, then stopped again, her head now held high, her eyes unfocused as she waited to hear any further element added to the end of the message.
After seconds of silent patience, she grunted and looked down at what she had written.
“You got a message, obviously,” Forna commented. She’d not seen a Speaker receive a message in a formal manner before, though she’d seen Silas and Jimes exchange casual comments with each other.
“It was in code, from Amenozume,” Sloeleen replied. “I think it’s about Silas,” she added.
“What did it say?” Forna forgot about the card game at the first news of Silas since he had slipped away from the palace.
Sloeleen stood up. “I have to translate it; I don’t know this code very well. Then I have to go present the report to the Queen or the Princess before I give it to anyone else. That’s the official protocol,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“But I’m his cousin! I have a right to know,” Forna pointed out.
“I’d suggest you go find the princess and stay close to her for the next few minutes,” Sloeleen hinted, then she tightened her grip on the paper that held the coded message and she left the room, heading towards the Speakers Tower in the hopes of finding a code key she could use.
Forna took a moment to repackage the cards and place them on the shelf under the table, then she left the room and strode rapidly through the palace halls towards the official function rooms. She opened the door to one room, then another, then a third, looking for the princess and interrupting two meetings in the process, before she saw a pair of guards standing by a door down the hall. The presence of the guards indicated where the heir to the throne was.
Forna was known to the guards, and so was able to slip between them with a smile and a nod, and so enter the room where Lumene was listening to a table of men report on the need to dredge a channel in the city’s harbor to allow more ships to sail in and out at the same time. Forna silently walked to the front of the room and sat in an empty seat nearby as Lumene’s eyes followed her movement with a puzzled expression.
Forna heard a few minutes of arguments about how to charge shippers fees to pay for the dredges, as well as concerns about potential damage to the pearl oyster beds, but she didn’t hear any further sounds once she saw a small side door slide open, and Sloeleen appeared. Forna focused only on the brief walk the Speaker took from the door to Lumene’s side, and the passing of a note.
The princess glanced at the Speaker for a second, then at the note, and then her attention was wholly focused on the note.
Lumene abruptly stood up, causing the debate among the men to immediately drop down.
“My apologies, but I need to address the Speaker’s note gentlemen. You all are dismissed for the moment, and we’ll reschedule this important conversation in a day or two,” the princess explained.
“Sloeleen, to my quarters,” she added. “Forna, you too,” she spoke loudly as she began to hurry towards the doors of the room while she read the note in her hand carefully.
The note said that Silas was alive.
“You obviously knew this was coming,” the princess said to Forna as they walked down the hall. “There’s no other earthly reason why you’d snooze through that meeting.
“How long have you had this?” she asked Sloeleen.
“Just moments, your highness. Forna was with me when the message arrived. She must have gone to see you while I took it to be translated from code,” Sloeleen spoke defensively, trying to explain the situation.
“I don’t even know what it says yet,” Forna chimed in as they reached the door to Lumene’s suite and stepped in, the guards behind them taking positions at the door.
Lumene carelessly handed the note to Forna as the princess walked into the room and then stood at a window, staring out while she processed the information Vertuco had sent. Silas was launching himself on another quest, but it sounded to Lumene like a suicide mission; the bloody fool had only a small handful of warriors with him as he began his quest. He needed more; he needed protection. She knew that he wasn’t able to single-handedly respond to every challenge he faced. He had even needed Lumene’s own help to survive when they had been caught by the L’Anvien disciples in the southern forest near the lake.
“Forna,” Lumene immediately made up her mind. “I’m sending you on a mission.”
Forna missed the comment as she focused on reading the translation of Vertuco’s message
“Forna,” Lumene repeated more forcefully.
“Yes, my lady?” the Tracker looked up suddenly at the tone.
“I’m going to send a squad to Barnesnob to catch up with Silas and give him support. I’d like for you to Track your cousin and lead our people to him. Can you do it?” the princess asked. “We must support him and help him succeed. It’s only for the sake of protecting our nation from another invasion.”
Forna’s eyes widened. The princess was lying to her, she knew. The reason for sending troops to help Silas wasn’t to help him succeed, but to help him survive. Lumene wanted Silas to live, and she wanted him to return to her in Amenozume; Forna clearly saw – and probably others did too – that the princess was infatuated with the golden-eyed Speaker and Tracker and Mover.
“Yes,” I’m sure that if we have a few objects of his around here, it will be no problem to Track him,” Forna answered. She was eager to go, eager to be with Silas again and to l
ive through the excitement of his mission. And she was eager to tell him her opinion of his decision to sneak away from Amenozume without telling her or anyone else; he deserved to be scolded and set right.
“You go prepare yourself for the journey. I’ll arrange for a ship and a squad of guards,” Lumene directed Forna. “Come back to see me when you’re ready.”
“How quickly is this going to happen?” Forna asked, uncertain as to the princess’s intent.
“We should be able to get a ship out on the evening tide,” the princess spoke assuredly. “So you need to hurry.”
Startled, Forna took immediate leave of the princess’s suite, and hurried down the hall to the suite that she and Silas had shared. She found items of his clothing, and gently rubbed them over her hands as she thought about Silas and all that she knew about him. She closed her eyes and recollected Silas as a boy back in Brigamme, laughing and running along the forest paths. It was the truest measure of his nature, she was sure.
And then the connection snapped into place, and she knew where he was, even across the ocean waters.
She smiled softly and put his clothes down, then hastily pushed her own small collection of belongings into a pack and returned to the princess’s suite. Jade was there with Lumene, along with four officials of the palace, who all looked stunned as the impetuous princess dictated hasty orders to them.
“Have a squad from the royal guard ready to go to the mainland,” she was telling one man.
“My lady,” Jade spoke up. “A pair of the rebel soldiers – June and Natie – were close companions with Lexy, who ran off with Silas, as you know. The pair of them are desperate to reunite with Lexy again, and to work with Silas again.”
“Yes, I know them, they were helpful when we escaped from the palace. We’ll send them too,” Lumene agreed dismissively.
“And you’ll have the dock number of a ship for us within three hours?” the princess turned to face the advisor on her left, making the man’s face blanche before he assured the princess that palace staff members were securing a ship at that moment.
Foundations Broken and Built Page 9
