by P. D. Kalnay
“Like the wyspire?” I asked.
Erialain looked surprised, and I got a kick under the table from Ivy. Then Erialain nodded.
“Yes, one good example. How did you learn that dark trade continues?”
Ivy frowned at me, but she answered the question.
“We found a warehouse filled with wyspire in Havensport. It was a substantial amount.”
“A great shame of our folk,” Erialain said, “and another matter you’d be wise not to mention in mixed company. You’ll find enough hatred in the wide world. You still haven’t told me why you are here. Have you fled marriage contracts to be with one another?”
“No,” Ivy said, “We were promised to each other.”
Erialain looked surprised by that.
“Why would your families make such a contract? Forgive me, Jakalain, but half-breeds are virtually unknown…”
“We were bound to serve on Knight’s Haven,” Ivy said, “to represent all three Houses’ interests as the island’s custodians. When it became known that Jakalain was Marielain Blackhammer reborn, the situation became more complicated.”
Erialain burst into laughter.
“I imagine it did!” She wiped tears from her eyes. “It’s amazing they still sent you, rather than annulling all contracts and hoping you went away—or making certain of it.”
“They had a try at those things,” I said.
“They planted a vine on the island to imprison us, and Jakalain made his own way to join me without the Houses’ knowledge,” Ivy summarised a year in a single sentence.
Erialain rubbed her wrists; I didn’t think she was aware she was doing it.
“How did you escape those vines?” she asked in a whisper.
I held up my left arm and released the gauntlet, showing her my stump.
“We shared a single vine,” Ivy said. “Jakalain broke our bondage with a powerful enchantment and at great cost.”
Erialain looked incredulous, but then she had been imprisoned for a long time. I wished I could help her.
“I can’t do it again,” I said. “Even—if you were willing to lose both hands.”
First Erialain looked startled, and then she smiled a resigned smile.
“You have done enough,” she said, getting up from the table. “Besides, I couldn’t imagine starting anew at this time of my life. I shall leave you to eat your meal. Ivangelain will wish to stay until she has recovered her strength?” Ivy nodded. “Then we’ll have opportunities to speak again.”
I waited until she was out of earshot.
“What do you think she meant when she said I’d done enough?”
“I have no idea, Jack, but I’m certain there are many secrets to learn. As she said, I wish to stay long enough to fully recover before we take to sea again, but that will go as swiftly here as in the lands of our people.”
Ivy returned to her food while I considered the conversation.
***
A strange sensation woke me from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Staying at The Hanging Garden was a little like camping, what with the lack of walls and exposure to the evening breeze. It was warm in Gaan, and I’d been fine sleeping in my clothes on top of the mossy bed. Three full moons and billions of stars provided enough light at the edges for me to see that Ivy slept soundly on her bed. The moss on Ivy’s bed had grown up and across, covering her in a living blanket.
I figured it must be a florathen thing.
I felt the sensation again, like a tickle at the back of my brain. Someone was inviting me downstairs; I say inviting rather than summoning because there was no pressure or expectation, merely… invitation.
As I sat rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I heard long warbling howls ring out across the city. Others joined until the cry was taken up by hundreds if not thousands of canine throats. Guards in towers called the time every hour on the hour; I thought it sounded less like language and more like animal sounds. Then the howls died away, and the city returned to silence. I’d already been there long enough to experience a few earlier rounds of howling. With another glance to confirm that Ivy still slept, I went down to the main level.
Erialain awaited me in the common room.
“I’m sorry to disturb your rest, but wished to speak with you privately,” she said. “Will you join me on the veranda?”
“OK.”
I wasn’t tired anymore and wanted to discover what was happening. We sat side by side on a bench by the river.
“What do you want to talk about?” I asked when no conversation followed.
“I have kept it safe and secret, and honoured our pact, but I fear few years remain to me. Soon you must choose another guardian.”
Huh? Weird in the middle of the night was definitely worse than standard daytime weird.
“Another guardian?” I asked.
Erialain stared at me for a moment.
“Could it be you arrived at my door by happenstance?” she asked, I suspected mostly to herself.
“Not much of my life has been happenstance, since I was sent to live at my grandmother’s. You remind me of her.”
I’d just made that connection, but they were also the only old fairy ladies I’d met so…
“Who is your grandmother?”
She sounded less serious and more bemused.
“Mabalain Stormborn Aerantial,” I said before I heard Ivy’s voice in the back of my head calling me an idiot.
Her eye did the exact same twitchy thing that Ivy’s eye did sometimes. Not a good sign.
“I shall assume you didn’t mean that as an insult, Smith.”
“It wasn’t—just an observation.”
Erialain was silent for few minutes.
“You’re new to this world,” she finally said. “How else could you have lived with her? Ah, that explains much, but my dilemma has now become a conundrum.”
I hadn’t a clue about the dilemma, and couldn’t make a guess at the conundrum.
“I really don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes, I see that now and yet you must have Marielain’s skills if not the memories to do what you’ve done.”
I just shrugged. Lyrian had taught me all I needed to know about trusting strangers.
“You said I’d done enough before, what did you mean?”
“Marielain Blackhammer freed me from Balkanik, the man who owned me, and this place. Then he purchased me, along with the inn.”
“Marielain owned you?”
“For a single hour only. He gave me The Garden and my freedom.”
I’d like to think I’d have done that, but having listened to Marielain’s journals, it was difficult picturing any charitable action.
“I’ve read a lot of his journals,” I said. “That sounds out of character.”
“He felt some small guilt at my fate, and perhaps retained a fondness for me from our youth, but an equal part of his kindness stemmed from a recognition of the uniqueness of my circumstances—and how I might serve his purposes.”
That was the Marielain Blackhammer I knew.
“What did he want from you?” I asked. It sounded as if she’d been hiding something for him.
“He left a treasure here for me to conceal and protect, but never returned for it. I cannot say more, even to you, nor can I give it to you unless you ask for it by name. These were the conditions Marielain bound me to, and they hold me as tightly as the vines.”
“So you can’t give it to me, even though it’s mine?”
“The treasure didn’t belong to Marielain, but to the man he travelled with. I can tell you no more.”
She didn’t need to. Although I’d only listened to a fraction of the journal entries, I was sure Marielain only left Knight’s Haven to travel with Janik. I thought I knew what she was hiding, but it changed nothing for me. Ivy and I didn’t need an extra burden.
“I’ll leave it here for now, if that’s all right?”
“I will keep it safe and hidden for as long
as I live.” She sounded resigned. “You’d be wise to keep this secret from everyone, including Ivangelain.”
“I don’t keep secrets from Ivy—and she already knows.”
I sensed the necklace behind me on the other side of the veranda, and looked back at Ivy, who wasn’t there. Then Ivy stepped away from a big potted fern that was way too small to have concealed her. She’d been invisible until she moved. I’d felt the necklace with my inner eye, but had seen nothing with my regular ones. Ivy walked over to the bench.
“How did you discover I was here?” she asked me at the same time that Erialain said, “Impressive, to veil yourself from me in my own home.”
“You can turn invisible!” I jumped up off the bench. “How come you never told me?”
“All florathen can cloud the eye and conceal themselves,” Ivy said.
“Few have your aptitude,” Erialain argued.
Ivy shrugged. “Jack, how did you know I was behind you?”
“The necklace,” I said. “I made it, so–”
“Of course,” Ivy smiled, “for a moment I thought you had found yet another talent. What treasure hides here?”
I was about to tell her, but Erialain spoke first.
“The fewer who know secrets, the less likely they are to spread, but if you must tell Ivangelain, I suggest doing so quietly, back in your room and not out in the open. I wish to return to my bed. Good night.”
“What were you thinking, wandering off without me?” Ivy asked when she’d gone.
“You were having a good sleep, and I sensed no danger. Let’s go back to bed.”
“Very well.”
I followed her up the stairs and back to our mossy beds, where she promptly lay down again.
“Don’t you want to me to tell you the secret?” I asked.
“It is enough that you would tell me. She isn’t wrong. Often secrets should not be told, and knowledge which comes without price is the most dangerous kind.”
I considered that for a second.
“What if you paid for the secret?” I asked.
“And what price will you place upon this mystery?” Ivy asked with a giggle that made me suspect she knew the answer.
“How about a kiss?”
“Good night, Jack.”
Ivy rolled over, and the moss crawled up to cover her again.
Chapter 12 – A Free Lunch
We picked our breakfast from among the diverse fruits growing around our beds, which I thought was cool and weird at the same time. Ivy told me that was how it was done, so I went with it. She seemed content to sit around all day, but I had my energy back.
“I just want to have a look around,” I said.
Ivy was giving me her best disapproving frown.
“We aren’t tourists, Jack, and you draw trouble the way honey draws draknats!”
Draknats?
“How long are we staying here?”
“Ten days at most. I am already stronger.”
Ivy had buried her feet ankle deep in the soil at the southern edge of our terrace/room and was sunning herself in the early morning sunshine. Ships and boats of all sizes went about their business on the sparkling river.
“I’m supposed to just sit around here for ten days with a whole alien city to explore, right outside?”
“It will extend our sojourn here if I come with you. You’re the one who said we should make our way swiftly to Anukdun by sea rather than waiting for the next caravan.”
“I think I’ll be fine just walking around, looking at stuff.”
Ivy’s expression said she thought otherwise.
“I can take the hammer and my shield; nobody will give me any trouble.”
“Jack, with your hammer in hand you will draw attention wherever you go, and while most will fear you, the truly dangerous—and those wishing to make names for themselves—will find the hammer’s pull irresistible. We’ve had less than a day of peace and quiet. Are you in such a hurry to do battle across the city?”
That sounded like an exaggerated concern, but before I could say so, Marak cleared her throat behind us.
“You have a visitor in the front hall,” she said.
“Who is it?” Ivy asked.
“Kalan Danar, your highness.”
“I’ll go see him,” I told Ivy.
She didn’t look keen to uproot herself.
“Perhaps the captain will agree to be your guide,” Ivy said.
“You mean babysitter, don’t you?”
“You should go see what he wishes. It’s rude to keep him waiting.”
I had no polite responses, so I followed Marak downstairs. Ivy obviously wanted quiet time. Captain Danar wore fresh clothing, he’d oiled his feathers and slicked them back, and he sported the most relaxed expression I’d seen on his face since Havensport.
“Prince Jakalain, you appear well-rested. Is The Hanging Garden to your liking?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. Ivy likes it.”
The captain laughed.
“May I tell you what I’ve learned in fifty-eight years of marriage to strong-willed woman?” he asked.
“I guess so.”
“You will find situations where both of you cannot be entirely satisfied. If you force your desires, you’ll end up suffering in other ways, spoiling the first victory, and then no one will be happy.”
“So, you’re saying that I should just give in, and let her have her way, so at least one of us is happy?”
That sounded like a crappy deal.
“It’s usually the best course.”
“Is that all the advice you’ve got?”
“If possible, spend most of the year at sea.”
“Thanks. Did you get everybody off the Starburst?”
“Yes. The crew are accounted for, and the cargo as well. Most are resting and the others still drinking. It was a challenging voyage.”
A bit of an understatement.
“I hoped to see some of the city, but…”
The captain gave me a knowing look.
“Princess Ivangelain is against the idea?”
“Yeah, she thinks I’ll get lost, or something…”
“I imagine the or something is the greater concern. It would be prudent to leave your weapons here if you move through the city and to avoid certain of the neighbourhoods. Fae are not well loved, especially in the ruins of the Empire. I have much to do in the wake of an unsuccessful voyage, but my son knows the city well enough. Falan has visited Gaan with me twice before and has lived here for the last months. I can have him act as a guide?”
“That’d be great.” Ivy couldn’t complain if I had a knowledgeable guide showing me around.
I ran upstairs to tell her, and she didn’t argue, but reminded me to be careful and not to say too much to strangers. I sensed a distinct lack of faith in my common sense. Then I hurried back down to rejoin the captain.
We strode up the street which was a crowded throng in the morning hours, storefronts displayed many different kinds of goods, and Captain Danar told me they were mainly the shops that sold goods his people had transported from other parts of the world. It was easy to identify the fabrics, pots, and foodstuffs. Other items were so strange that I had no idea what they might be. The captain set a brisk pace, so I saved my questions for Falan.
We made our way through the Danar shop, which was packed with people, mainly of the Anubean variety; they were heatedly bartering or examining goods. Then we passed through the warehouse section, before returning to the water-filled parking lot out back. My boat was right where I’d left it. A dozen longboats were being unloaded on the other side of the artificial lagoon.
“I’ll send the boy,” Captain Danar promised before disappearing into a building.
I dug through the supplies on the boat until I found the strong box that held our coin. Old Marielain had built that little iron box, and only Ivy and I could open it, even though it had no conventional lock. One told me it had protected Marielain’s
supply of the Blood of the World Tree. Now, it held our money. I scooped out a handful of coins and put them in an inner pocket in my robes. A pickpocket would need to have mad skills to get them without my noticing. By the time I’d re-stowed the little box, Falan was waiting on the wharf.
“Father said you wanted me to show you the city?”
“If you don’t mind. He said you know your way around Gaan?”
“I know the Valaneese Quarter like the back of my hand, since I run most of the errands and messages to our customers and trading partners. I haven’t been allowed to go outside our section of the city alone, but I know where the interesting parts are.”
That sounded perfect—I had no particular agenda.
“I’ll leave where we go up to you,” I said. “It’s all new to me.”
Falan gave me an enthusiastic grin and led me back to the street. He was like a younger and even chattier version of his father, and, within the neighbourhood, he knew almost everyone. People called out greetings and waved as we wove our way through twisted, narrow streets filled with shops and homes. I got a cooler reception and plenty of unfriendly stares, but nothing threatening. We passed by Anubeans, Valaneese, goblins, one ogre, and a few other kinds of people, but no fae were in evidence. From what I’d learned that was normal, and though my people had maintained a stranglehold on international trade for a thousand years, they weren’t big socializers.
Every sight, sound, and smell was interesting because it was new. Even so I suspected we weren’t seeing any of the actual sights of the city. Then Falan came to an abrupt halt, stopped talking, and stared at a Valaneese girl who was speaking with a stooped, grey-haired Anubean woman outside a shop down the street.
Our strange, meandering route, which had previously seemed aimless, made perfect sense.
I don’t know how long Falan would have stood there if she hadn’t spotted him, but his people have eagle eyes to go along with their other birdlike features. I’d discovered during our sea voyage that Captain Danar saw impressively far and with amazing clarity. The girl finished with the lady who looked to be a customer, turned to us and waved. Falan waved shyly back.
