Suiden motioned with his hand and two soldiers and several sailors detached from the crowd, converging on the chaplain. “Instead of standing with you?” he asked. “Why should we? Rabbit saved us and you did not.”
Obruesk opened his mouth but the captain spoke over him. “Alive by magic beats to flinders death by drowning, no matter how unholy you call it.”
The chaplain jerked an arm away from a soldier. “Saved us? The sorcerer called the demon in the first place! I’ve seen his familiar speaking with his succubus,” he said. He looked beyond Laurel, his eyes wide in outrage. “There she is now, as bold as brass!” I followed Obruesk’s glare and saw Honor Ash standing behind Laurel. The crowd shifted, staring between me and the Faena and the haunt, and for the first time a thread of uneasiness wound through the men.
“When?” Suiden asked. “When did you see them talking?”
“What does it matter? They are in collusion, working towards their nefarious—”
“Oh, stifle it!” Captain Suiden said, suddenly irritated.
Javes shot a look at Suiden, then looked away, meeting Esclaur’s eyes for a brief moment. Both their mouths quivered.
“It was after the storm, wasn’t it?” Suiden demanded. The chaplain didn’t say anything, and the captain’s green eyes glinted at him. “They were friends, Obruesk. He probably does speak to her ghost, just as Basel’s troop mates still speak to his.”
“Yes, sir,” someone said just loud enough to be heard. “We’re trying to get him to come back and do the cooking again.” A smattering of laughter went through the soldiers and the tension once more relaxed.
Obruesk’s mouth opened, but Suiden held up his hand again. “You are a pest. Enough.” He gestured at the first two soldiers. “Take him below. Gendy,” he added as the men took hold of the chaplain’s arms. “He’s still clergy. Respect the office, if not the man.”
The chaplain cast me a look as he was led away and the thought flitted through my mind that he wasn’t going to bless me anytime soon—but I already knew that. I was more concerned about getting my knife back without Suiden seeing. He had turned to Doyen Allwyn and I took a cautious step towards where it lay on the deck.
“Leave it, Lieutenant,” Suiden said, without looking at me.
I stopped.
“If you would take over the office of chaplain for the duration of our trip, Doyen Allwyn,” Suiden asked, sort of.
“Yes, of course” the doyen replied. He glared after Obruesk. “When I return to Iversterre I will speak to the patriarch about whom he allowed to be his second.”
Everyone became still.
“Your Reverence—” began Lord Esclaur.
“I know what I said and where I said it, my lord,” the doyen replied. He worked his shoulders and dragged in a sigh. “I desperately need to pray. Blessings.” He waved his hands in our direction and stalked off.
Captain Suiden also sighed and looked around at the crew and troopers. “You are all dismissed.” No one moved and the captain’s brows came together. “Is there a problem?”
“Please, sir,” Jeff said, “Rabbit was telling us about what happened with the storm and all when the chaplain interrupted him.”
“He was?” Groskin said, pressing forward. “What did he say?” He caught Suiden’s eye. “Uh—”
“That it was like when you dream you’re flying, only better, sir,” Jeff said.
“Oh, I say,” Javes said, also stepping up. “I would like to hear.”
“But I’ve already told you—” Suiden began.
“Indeed, yes. I would too,” Esclaur said as he followed Javes.
First Lieutenant Falkin said nothing but turned a pleading look on Suiden, who sighed again and gave in. “All right. Lieutenant Rabbit can finish his telling.” His eyes narrowed at me. “But afterwards you come see me, understood?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied, still holding my boot knife behind my back.
Suiden gave a faint smile. “In the meantime, put your clothes back on and both knives away.” He turned, almost bumping into Laurel, and his brow raised. “Sro Cat?”
“A moment, Captain,” Laurel said. He produced a vial and a clean cloth from his pouch. “To prevent the wound from corrupting,” he said as he dabbed the stinging lotion on the small stab wound under my ribs. He wiped the drying blood off from where it had run down my side, then stood back, and putting the cloth and vial away, sat down on the deck, his staff resting against his shoulder. “I should like to hear also.”
It was like I was back in my catechism class when Brother Paedrig would walk in and give the signal for us to sit, but this time I was the one left standing as crew, soldiers, officers, lords, and haunts followed the Faena and, in one motion, seated themselves on the deck, waiting patiently as I redressed myself and put away my knives. Suiden propped himself against the mast, his arms folded, and I shot him a look. He once again gave me a faint smile. “I could stand to hear it again, Lieutenant.”
“Uhm, yes, sir—” Tabard in place, I turned back to look over the upturned faces as the wind gently circled around me, making my feather flutter once more against my cheek. I gave them a bewildered look.
Suiden’s smile widened. “Just start at the very beginning, Rabbit.”
“The very beginning?” I echoed.
“The absolute beginning,” the captain said. He opened his mouth, hesitated, then added, “Please.” So I stood before them all and recounted from the beginning as I understood it, starting with hearing laughter while lost on a mountain ridge and ending with the djinn storm. As I finished, the watch changed and I told it again. And again, and again, to a mixture of new and old faces, on into the night, the stars hanging dense and low over me, maybe to listen themselves as I spoke to all who would hear what it was like to be the wind and to soar.
I didn’t see the captain until the next day.
Chapter Fifty-five
Having just finished prayer and meditation with Doyen Allwyn, I was getting ready to begin meditation and talent work with Laurel, but we both rose at the shout. Trailing Jeff, Basel and the unicorn haunt, we hurried to the railing, my eyes straining for my first glimpse of the Border in five years. Home. Or almost home, as I’d never been to any of the coastal city-states.
We all reached the railing at the same time as Captain Javes, Chancellor Berle, and Lord Esclaur, both Javes and Esclaur with raised quiz glasses already aimed at the approaching shore. In the just risen sun it was nothing more than a thickened line on the horizon, but all gazed upon it with eager faces.
“Elanwryfindyll,” Chancellor Berle said, leaning out over the rail on tiptoes and shading her eyes. “Well, I guess we’d have to be closer to see anything.” She stood flat again and looked at me, ignoring the ghosts. “Glad to be going home, Lord Rabbit?”
I started to say yes, surprised at the sudden homesickness. But then Magus Kareste’s image arose, and I shrugged. “I don’t know, Chancellor.”
“Nothing like being certain, what?” Javes said, also ignoring the haunts behind me—until the unicorn pressed close to the railing next to him. There was a faint suggestion of a snicker, which quickly cut off when the captain glared about him, his quiz glass forgotten.
“She just wants to see also,” I said, addressing the air, my voice mild. “She is not making a statement on anyone’s love life.”
“Including yours, eh, Lord Rabbit?” Lord Esclaur asked, his eyes gleaming at me.
It was my turn to glare. “As I said, my lord—”
“It’s simplicity and purity she represents, honored folk,” Laurel said from over my shoulder, “not the lack of carnal knowledge. I’ve seen grandmothers walk with unicorns while those who were, hmm, physically untouched were shunned as if they were the plague.”
No one said anything, casting sidelong glances at the unicorn’s haunt and then at each other, the air suddenly thick with suspicions of hidden motives and unspoken agendas. I heard a faint purr.
“You are enjo
ying this too much,” I murmured to Laurel. The Faena gave me a bland look back, his whiskers twitching as Lieutenant Groskin joined us, followed by the leopard’s shade. The haunt threw himself down at Groskin’s feet as the lieutenant stopped at the rail, the cat’s sides heaving in a remembered pant as he too stared at the growing shore. Groskin watched the haunt for a moment, then raised his head, his eyes shifting between their normal brown and the gold of the panther, scanning the horizon.
“Elanwryfindyll,” he murmured, echoing Chancellor Berle. “Captain Suiden said we’re going before the Fyrst, Laurel Faena?”
“His Grace, Loran,” Laurel said. “The ruler of the city and its environs, but also head of the Confederation of City-States, and the Oldest One of the Gaderian of Deorc Oelfs—”
“The what?” Esclaur whispered to me. Javes and Berle leaned in to listen.
“Council of Dark Elves,” I whispered back.
“He’s a very old, very powerful elf,” Laurel finished. His tail lashed, though his face remained bland. “Very, very powerful.”
“More powerful than the High Council?” Berle asked.
“No,” Laurel said. “No one is.”
“Why are we going there, then, honored Laurel?” Groskin asked. “Why not go to where the High Council meets?”
“We are,” Laurel said, his face blander, though his tail lashed once more. “His Grace is also the High Council’s Dark Elf representative and it’s his turn to host the next session.”
“He sounds a right welcoming fellow, what?” Javes said, his eyes still on the horizon. He then cast me a look. “What’s it like there for people like us, Rabbit?”
“Who, sir? Humans?” At Javes’ nod, I almost shrugged again. “I really don’t know. I’ve never been to any of the coastal cities.” My mouth quirked. “In fact, they’ll probably consider me just as provincial as everyone in Iversly did.”
“Never?” Javes asked, turning fully to look at me. “How, then, did you get to Iversterre?”
“Through Veldecke, sir.”
Everyone else turned to stare at me. “But no one can go through there,” Berle said, frowning.
“Well, some can,” Groskin said, also frowning, “but only certain ones for very specific reasons. And never longer than a day or, at the most, two.”
“I remember the king saying that,” I said, this time yielding to a shrug. “I was let through, though, no problem.”
“Did you join the army there?” Javes asked.
“No, at Cosdale, sir,” I said, naming a town on the King’s Road a little to the south of Freston.
“Why not at Veldecke?” Esclaur asked.
“Because it was too close to the Border.” My mouth quirked again. “I was running away, my lord. I didn’t want to be in reach of anyone or anything that might come across.” I rested my hands on the railing. “I attached myself to a supply caravan going to Cosdale and was out of Veldecke almost as soon as I came into it.”
“I’m surprised the caravan leader allowed it,” Esclaur said, his brows creased.
I shrugged once more. “She was the one who said I could. Worked me hard too.” My smile widened. “I figured the army would be very easy after that. It was.”
“I know the caravan leader who makes the Cosdale run and I’m surprised that once she had you she let you go,” Groskin said.
“Oh? Likes them young, does she?” Berle asked.
I stiffened, giving the chancellor a hard look, and Groskin caught my elbow. “No,” he said. “Just as close to free labor as she can get. She has latched on to other lads in the past and they had a devil of a time getting loose.” He made sure I was staying still, then let go.
“She did say that I owed her for meals and my space by the campfire,” I said. “I told her to get stuffed—I mean, I told her I didn’t and left.”
“She didn’t sic her lump of a head guard on you?” Groskin asked.
I frowned as I thought back, vaguely remembering someone shouting, and running footsteps as I walked away. “If she did, he didn’t catch me.”
“Is she someone we should be watching, Lieutenant?” Javes asked Groskin.
“I don’t know, sir. She never really broke any law that I knew of.” There was a movement at Groskin’s feet and I looked down to see the leopard looking up at us, his fangs bared.
“And again, maybe she did,” Groskin said, his voice soft as he also looked down. He looked up at me, his eyes now bright gold. “You never saw in the carts, Rabbit?”
I shook my head. “No. I was assigned to the caravan’s draymaster.”
“The smuggling didn’t really start until after you’d left, Rabbit,” Laurel said. “The caravan may not have been carrying any contraband—then.”
“Another one, contracted by the army to supply the garrison itself,” Javes said, rubbing his forehead.
“I thought you already traced the run goods to Veldecke, sir,” I said.
“To the town, not to the garrison proper,” Javes replied. He sighed. “I do not envy you this assignment, Berle.”
“Neither do I,” Chancellor Berle said, gazing out over the water.
I cast a glance at the Foreign Chancellor, wondering if she ever found out what we’d been discussing in Captain Suiden’s great cabin when we were interrupted by the djinn storm. If she had, it didn’t come from me—though that may have been because I was never alone. Laurel, Doyen Allwyn, Jeff, or the haunts were always with me, sometimes all at once.
At the thought of haunts, I looked around. The railing was thick with ghosts, the masts, spars, rigging also full, some holding their shapes, others streaming in the wind, making the sails look tattered. Where I could make out faces, each one was turned to the shore with a fixed intensity and I wondered what our landfall would be like.
“Do you think that if they knew what we carried, they’d allow us in the harbor?” Lord Esclaur asked, also looking around. “I know that if this were Iversly, the Royal Navy would be out in force doing its damnedest to head us off.”
“I don’t know that they can bar us,” I said. “Can they, Laurel?”
The Faena shook his head, his ears flicking back. “No, the right of homecoming is given to all—the quick and the dead.” Everyone turned to stare at Laurel.
“The right, alive or dead,” Lord Esclaur repeated. He groped for his quiz glass and raised it at the cat.
“Except in special cases,” Laurel said, ignoring Esclaur. “Like a practitioner of the dark arts.” The ship rose and fell in a swell; he rode it easily, his tail, now quiet, balancing him. “But as we have none such aboard—Elder Obruesk’s claims aside—we will not be prevented.”
“And this ‘Magus’ who is so anxious to get his hands on Lord Rabbit,” Chancellor Berle said. “Shall he be prevented?”
I gave the chancellor a sidelong glance at the abrupt change in subject.
“Interesting question, Berle,” Javes said. “But it’s out of your bailiwick, what?”
“Indeed, yes,” Esclaur murmured.
“I am concerned as the king’s representative—” the chancellor began.
“Your orders do not include Lieutenant Rabbit,” Javes interrupted. “Let it be, Berle.”
“And if it’s made part of my ‘orders’?” Berle asked. “If a magic—a Border—someone demands Lord Rabbit’s return to the Magus as part of the peace negotiations, then what?”
“Then you refer them to me, honored chancellor,” Laurel said. “I have sworn both to Rabbit and to King Jusson that he will not be returned to Magus Kareste.”
“And if they say that your oath is worthless and demand anyway?” the chancellor pushed.
“No one would say that anything I’ve sworn is worthless, honored chancellor,” Laurel rumbled, showing his eyeteem. “Any more than your fellow ministers would call you dishonorable and untrustworthy. It is an insult, no?”
“I beg pardon, Ambassador. I didn’t mean it as such,” Berle said, a faint flush on her face. “It�
�s just that—”
“Oh, I say, you too, Berle?” Javes asked, doing his silly ass smile.
The chancellor shot a glare at Javes before turning back to Laurel. “Sometimes, with the best intentions in the world, one is not able to deliver on a promise made.”
“Then that one should not have made the promise in the first place,” Laurel said, his fangs still gleaming in the sunlight. “I would suggest, honored chancellor, that when you arrive, you do not suggest to anyone that their word is not sufficient. Especially a Faena.”
“Tell me, Chancellor Berle,” I asked in the awkward silence, “would you hand me over to the Magus?”
“You heard Captain Javes and Ambassador Laurel, Lord Rabbit,” Berle replied, her wry smile sweeping her face. “You are not my concern.”
“I see,” I said, and turned back to watch the sea, resolving never to be alone with the chancellor.
Chapter Fifty-six
Elanwryfindyll’s harbor was very much like the one we had left behind in Iversly. There were ships sailing in, ships sailing out, and ships at anchor. There were docks, there were warehouses, there were gulls, and there were officials, all waiting for us as the Dauntless, Valiant, and Adamantine sailed into Elanwryfindyll. The rest of the convoy, including the vice admiral’s Pearl Fisher, was outside the harbor’s mouth. Only the ships carrying the cargo entered the harbor as, Laurel pointed out, any more would be a provocation. Vice Admiral Havram had, however, come aboard the Dauntless to be part of the diplomatic landing party and to take over the command of the ship from Captain Suiden.
The harbor reminded me of Iversly, but Elanwryfindyll did not. The city rose from the half circle of sparkling blue water, flowing up, tier upon tier, spreading out farther and farther until it spilled over the top of the sloping cliffs, in soaring colonnades, graceful arches, rounded domes, all bright in the early afternoon sun against the dark of the earth, the greens of leaves and grasses, and a riot of flowers. At the crest, silhouetted against the sky, was the Fyrst of Elanwryfindyll’s castle, with pennants flying from the turrets, and battlements.
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