Islands of the Inner Sea

by L J Chappell

  ‘Alright, Nanny,’ Aruel said. ‘Before you go, you should know that it was Sigierno. He probably followed you here.’

  ‘Your cousin Sigierno?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Oh, he’s always been a no-good worm.’

  ‘Yes,’ Aruel agreed. ‘Yes, I thought that.’ She stepped forward and hugged Hirendra: ‘Good-bye, Nanny: thank you for coming.’

  Vander hugged the old woman as well. ‘Good-bye, Nanny, and thanks for everything you’ve done for us.’

  ‘It’s been my pleasure, really it has,’ the old woman seemed a little overcome by the emotion of the moment. ‘And just wait until I tell the Duke about Sigierno!’

  ‘I think it was probably the Duke that sent him, Nanny,’ Aruel cautioned.

  ‘Yes,’ the old woman nodded. ‘Yes, I daresay you’re right. So I’m probably better not mentioning it.’

  ‘They might come and ask you anyway.’

  ‘I daresay you’re right about that as well.’

  ‘Well, we’ll probably try to …’

  Hirendra pressed a finger to Aruel’s lips. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Don’t tell me anything. I don’t want to know what you’re going to do or where you’re going to go. I’m going to fetch my bag now and go back to my hotel room. I’ll catch a boat back to Arrento tomorrow, and I don’t want to see either of you again.’

  The old woman shook hands with Kiergard Slorn: ‘It was certainly an experience doing business with you, sir,’ she said. And then she turned and walked out of the temple, pausing for a moment to kiss the feet of one of the statues by the door.

  ‘I hope she’ll be alright,’ Vander said.

  ‘That will depend on how people feel about her on Arrento,’ Magda said: ‘how likely they are to believe that she really doesn’t know anything.’

  ‘Then she should be fine,’ Vander smiled. ‘She doesn’t have an enemy in the world.’

  ‘And what about us?’ Aruel said. ‘What can we do now? We can’t stay here. Even if we evade the Guard, news will get back to Arrento and they will send more people. More determined people, and better armed.’

  ‘What was your original plan, before this happened?’ Slorn asked. ‘What were you going to do once we delivered Vander to you?’

  ‘I assumed we’d just stay here, in Perastia,’ she shrugged. ‘It’s nice enough. Or if we became bored, we’d go somewhere else. Vallierta, perhaps. And eventually we’d end up back on Arrento. Everyone would have forgotten about Vander by then, or he could just keep out of sight.’

  ‘And the business with the Royal Jewels?’

  Aruel looked baffled: ‘Well, no-one would connect me with that. They would have no reason to suspect me.’

  ‘Your cousin followed Hirendra here in order to find the jewels, so it seems that they immediately suspected you. Your plan was never going to work.’

  ‘That doesn’t make it a bad plan, though. Does it?’

  It was Kiergard Slorn’s turn to look baffled.

  ‘Neither of us can go home now,’ Vander said, ‘probably not ever. And it won’t be safe for us to stay in this part of the Inner Sea, at least for a few years. Not until this whole affair blows over and the Duke stops looking for us. Until then we have nowhere to go and nothing to do. I suppose we are carrying a small fortune in gemstones.’ He looked expectantly at Kiergard Slorn.

  ‘Fine,’ Slorn said. ‘I know what you’re asking – you want to come with us.’

  ‘I don’t …,’ Aruel started.

  ‘Yes,’ Vander cut her off. ‘Yes, we do.’

  ‘Well?’ Slorn asked the others, with a slight sigh. ‘Does anyone object if Vander and Aruel join our Company, even if only for a while?’

  One by one all the others agreed, with a nod or a word or a shrug.

  ‘Great,’ Garran frowned at them. ‘What with you two and our mage, we’re becoming a charity for homeless vagabonds and refugees.’

  ‘He’s joking,’ Ubrik assured them. ‘Welcome to the Company.’

  ‘Now that we’ve agreed we’re all one happy band, we need to get a move on,’ Kiergard Slorn pressed them. ‘I’m sure Sigierno will have recovered by now, so they’re probably mobilising the rest of the Guard. It won’t be long before Perastia is crawling with armed men searching for us. They may already have started asking at hotels and inns.’

  ‘How do we leave, if the Guard are looking for us?’ Vander asked. ‘I don’t know when the next ferry is or where it’s going, but they’ll be able to stop us or send word ahead, so we’ll be arrested when we get off.’

  ‘We have a boat in the harbour,’ Bane reassured him.

  ‘We have a boat in the harbour?’ Vander asked. ‘Our own boat? Here, in Perastia?’

  Lanvik noticed how quickly the Company had become “we” to Vander: he guessed it might take longer for Aruel.

  ‘What about the trunks?’ he asked. ‘Should we fetch them now, or will we come back for them later?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Ethryk assured him, ‘they’re already aboard: they’ve been aboard since the day we arrived. And she’s freshly provisioned. But it’s going to be a bit crowded – we were tight for space before, and now there are three more of us.’

  ‘Let’s go, then.’

  ‘All together?’ Vander asked.

  ‘Safer and quicker that way,’ Bane confirmed. ‘They’re probably not looking for a group this large. And if anyone does see us and try to stop us, then we’ll be stronger together.’

  They left the temple and walked briskly down towards Perastia’s main harbour. This time they headed for the wooden jetties that offered longer term berths and handled smaller, private boats. They walked up to a slightly battered and weathered pale brown and white ketch: its deck was a little below the level of the jetty and they had to climb a few steps down to it.

  ‘Welcome aboard,’ Kiergard Slorn announced.

  ‘Glad to be here,’ Lanvik said.

  ‘You were right – this is going to be cramped,’ Aruel said, looking critically up and down the length of the top deck: the little boat couldn’t have been more than thirty or thirty-five feet long.

  ‘She’s called Magda’s Choice,’ Slorn told them.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘When we were buying a boat, we narrowed it down to three options. This one was Magda’s choice,’ Garran explained. ‘Why else?’

  Beside him, Lanvik could almost feel Menska bracing herself before they went aboard. She and Ethryk travelled badly by sea, and that was presumably even worse in smaller boats: certainly, they both looked distinctly unhappy just walking across the deck as it gradually rose and fell.

  ‘Everyone who isn’t helping needs to get out of the way,’ Slorn said, taking the wheel. ‘Menska, Thawn, Vrosko Din, Vorrigan, Lisamel, Tremano – get everyone else’s packs and go below until we’re underway. Magda, you too, and Karuin. And Ethryk – you’re already looking unwell and we haven’t even started moving yet.’

  ‘Are we rowing out a bit?’ Bane asked Kiergard Slorn.

  It was Aruel who answered: ‘There’s a bit of wind,’ she shrugged. ‘Why would we row?’

  ‘Do you want me to take the wheel?’ Vander asked, noticing a slight hesitation from the rest of the Company.

  ‘Fine,’ Slorn shrugged. ‘Show me what you can do. Take the wheel.’ He stepped aside and asked, ‘How much more sail do you want?’

  ‘Can someone get the jib up,’ Vander seemed to take charge, ‘and the mizzen.’ He turned the wheel anticlockwise and then clockwise, presumably checking the rudder was free.

  Kiergard Slorn smiled, slightly bemused, but when the others looked at him for confirmation he shrugged and nodded, so they untied the sails and hauled them up using ropes attached to the two masts.

  As the sails billowed slightly, the boat started to pull: Vander glanced at the sails, then nodded to Aruel. She climbed back up to the jetty and released the boat from the bollard at the stern, tossing the rope onto the deck. The jib was hanging quite loosely on
the jetty side, while the smaller sail on the rear mast caught the wind: between them, the two sails started to pivot the back of the boat out into the harbour.

  Aruel reached the prow, unhooked the rope from the bollard there, then looped it back round once and leapt back aboard, sure-footed, holding the loose end. She fed the rope through her hands almost quicker than Lanvik could see as the boat reversed out in a gradual arc.

  ‘Gods,’ Ubrik muttered as they accelerated backwards, but Aruel ducked down in front of them and pulled the jib across to the other side. As the wind caught it and Vander turned the wheel, they slowed and then started moving forwards instead.

  ‘You can hoist the mainsail now, if you like,’ Vander commented.

  ‘Don’t you have enough sail already?’ Ubrik asked him. ‘In harbour?’

  ‘It’s alright to speed up as you leave port,’ Vander grinned. ‘It’s when you come in that you have to slow down. Or so they tell me.’

  Lanvik was unconvinced by Vander’s bravado – as far as he could tell, they were already travelling fast and the entrance to the port was looking narrower and narrower as they approached it. Needless to say, though, they cleared the wall cleanly, with plenty room to spare on both sides.

  ‘Showing off,’ Garran remarked, as he, Ubrik and Bane pulled on the rope that hauled the sail up the main mast.

  ‘So, what’s our course?’ Vander asked as the little boat reached open water, slowly picking up speed.

  ‘Just take us away from the shore and out of sight for now,’ Kiergard Slorn answered him. ‘Before we go much further, Lanvik here has a decision to make about where he wants to go.’

  ‘Is he leaving us?’ Vander asked, surprised.

  ‘That’s what nobody knows, but he feels the call of Uvellia.’

  ‘You’re not going to put me ashore again here, though, are you?’ Lanvik laughed. ‘I’m probably a wanted man in Perastia. If you drop me off in Vallierta, I’m sure I can take passage from there to Tirassa.’

  ‘I think you probably could, Master Wizard,’ Kiergard Slorn agreed. ‘But that’s not the way it has to be.’

  ‘Whatever you decide at this point, we’re going to come with you,’ Bane explained, from behind him. ‘As long as you don’t mind, of course. We were going to give you money, like we said earlier, but that didn’t really seem like enough.’

  ‘You have no friends, no memory and no idea of where you’re going,’ Garran joined in, ticking these points off on his fingers. ‘It seemed obvious that you need people to look after you … at least until we can find a proper job: one that pays.’ Ubrik hit him on the upper arm, and he added: ‘Also Lisamel believes it would be a pity to end your musical education so abruptly: the rest of us aren’t in complete agreement with that point.’

  ‘Thank you. Again.’

  ‘Don’t mention it,’ Kiergard Slorn said. Lanvik assumed that he must have been working on the others: if he believed that his best chance of retrieving the Glass Sword from Ceran’Don would be with Lanvik, then the Company had to stay together.

  ‘It’s up to you, Master Wizard,’ Slorn continued, ‘but you have to choose now. Which way do we sail? West, or East? West, for some well-deserved rest and the space and time to ponder on what to do next. Or East to Uvellia, to find out why it seems to be so important to you?’

  ‘East,’ Lanvik said, after a moment. ‘Let’s go east.’

  3

  Ubrik and Garran stayed on deck with Vander and Aruel as they trimmed the sails and got a feel for how Magda’s Choice handled, while Slorn, Lanvik and Bane went below.

  ‘Well?’ Magda asked. ‘Which way are we going?’ She directed her question at Kiergard Slorn, rather than at Lanvik.

  ‘East,’ he said. ‘To Uvellia. And after that, we don’t know.’

  The others were a little quiet about that, and a number of them seemed uncomfortable. Lanvik assumed that their decision to accompany him had not been as universal or as casual as Bane and Garran had made it sound.

  ‘Well, there’s still plenty of light,’ Slorn continued, ‘and I’m sure no-one wants to be shut away down here any longer than they have to be. But before we go up on deck, can we keep two people with Vander and Aruel at all times? I know we’ve asked them to join, but that was a bit of a forced decision for them. Aruel doesn’t seem very happy about our new arrangement: she probably considers that they acted under some duress, so I don’t know how dependable she’ll be. Also, I don’t know how much I trust her. I told them that someone would relieve them in an hour, so they can settle in down here. Whoever does that should check our heading as well … just in case.’

  The others nodded and then shuffled a little awkwardly, without leaving.

  Vrsoko Din cleared his throat, and said: ‘The rest of us have discussed this, and we thought we should clear the air with you and Bane and Magda. And Lanvik.’

  ‘Clear the air about what?’ Kiergard Slorn asked. Lanvik wondered if he was about to witness some kind of mutiny.

  ‘If we end up going to Ceran’Don from Uvellia then it’s fine to claim that we’re there to support Lanvik, to help him discover who he is – or who he was. I’m sure most of us are happy with that as our reason. But we also need to acknowledge that your main interest is probably finding and retrieving the Glass Sword, now that you have the Emerald Crown.’

  ‘Em, yes,’ Slorn admitted. ‘Yes it is.’

  ‘Don’t look so surprised. We’re not stupid.’

  ‘You’ve been carrying the Emerald Crown around in your bag for weeks now,’ Karuin explained. ‘Didn’t you know that you’re surrounded by some of the best thieves in the Three Lands? It would have been very strange for us not to take a look.’

  ‘How long have you known?’

  ‘We’ve known since the journey north, when you told us we were going to Darkfall,’ Vrosko Din said. ‘If we were only in Tremark to rescue Vander, then it would have been easier to ambush the Imperial party on the road or in Stormhaven. Waiting until they were safely inside the Imperial Compound in Darkfall was obviously the wrong thing to do, unless you had another reason to be there.’

  ‘Will you still come with us, then?’ Slorn asked. ‘However far we go?’

  ‘Of course we’ll come with you, but we felt it was important that everyone was deciding based on all the facts. It’s important for Lanvik as well. Most of us are coming to support him, but there could be a conflict between what he needs to do and your pursuit of the Glass Sword. So there might be some difficult decisions ahead, for all of us.’

  ‘I understand,’ Kiergard Slorn nodded.

  ‘And another thing …,’ Menska said.

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Obviously Bane and Magda knew about the Crown – that’s fair enough. But the rest of us are feeling a little insulted that you told Lanvik, even though he’d only been with the Company for a week.’

  ‘I didn’t tell him,’ Kiergard Slorn explained. ‘He went through my things. I understand that you went through my things as well, but he did it so clumsily that I knew about it. Besides, he’s a mage: I thought he might help me to get the damned thing to work.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Not a spark.’

  ‘Well, perhaps some of the rest of us could try,’ Tremano suggested. ‘Now that we know about it … now that you know we know about it.’

  ‘Yes,’ Kiergard Slorn agreed. ‘Yes, that would be a good idea.’ He paused: ‘Thank you all. I apologise for not telling you. But, on the subject of trust, can I suggest we also don’t say a word to Vander or Aruel about the Four Trophies.’

  Everyone nodded and muttered their agreement and then most of them went back up on deck. Although there wasn’t much room among the clutter of booms, sails, ropes and so on, down below was more crowded.

  The trunks were stowed at the stern behind a padlocked bulkhead but apart from that, the boat essentially comprised one long room that ran most of its length. There was a small galley by the steps, a narrow lounge and din
ing area, and then a number of cupboards and benches, and finally a single small toilet and washing area behind a little door at the bow. There was some storage space, enough for their packs but not enough to be able to actually unpack. Most of the cupboards actually pulled out and became berths when required, and all the benches and seats also pulled out or flipped over, so that the little boat could properly sleep twelve. The ceiling was low enough that Bane had to bend his head all the time, unless he was sitting down.

  Lanvik wouldn’t want to spend too much time onboard with the whole Company, certainly not now there were sixteen of them.

  ‘Can I check,’ he asked Kiergard Slorn. ‘Were you actually planning to row out?’

  ‘Of the harbour? Oh yes,’ it was Bane who answered. ‘We always row out. We’ve tried to leave using the sails before, but we usually bash into other boats and end up apologising or fighting.’

  ‘Well, perhaps it’s just as well Vander and Aruel joined us,’ Lanvik joked. ‘Did you know before you took the job?’ he asked, more seriously: ‘That they wouldn’t be able to go back home?’

  ‘I suspected,’ Slorn looked briefly uncomfortable. ‘I heard that some of the state jewels had been stolen, and our retainer was paid in mid-sized gemstones. It seemed reasonable to assume a link.’

  ‘But you went along with the job anyway?’

  ‘It was work, and her money’s as good as anyone else’s … even if it isn’t really her money. I assumed that any consequences would not be our concern but, as you say, perhaps it’s just as well they’ve joined us.’

  They held their course, with a couple of minor adjustments, through the late afternoon and into evening. While the sun shone, most of the Company stayed up on deck, chatting and doing nothing in particular, until it started to feel chilly in the wind.

  ‘How long will we sail on?’ Vorrigan asked – it was his shift at the wheel, with Thawn.

  ‘What do you think?’ Kiergard Slorn asked Vander. ‘How long before it’s too dark?’