Cold Iron

by Stina Leicht

  “Of course,” she said. “Do you have someplace you can go? Do you need money? I can have Jami arrange everything. No one will be the wiser.”

  Dylan swallowed. “How would you like Sea Lord Kask to owe you a favor?”

  She paused. “How big a favor? Big enough to keep you safe?”

  “Bigger.”

  “Big enough to negotiate a favorable supply transport contract?”

  “I can’t promise, but it would be reasonable to ask for such a thing in exchange.”

  “You’ve got to be joking,” Suvi said. “Haven’t you been exiled?”

  “Self-exiled, thank you very much. And if Isak is involved,” Dylan said, “well, it may be time for me to go home.”

  “So, you know Isak Kask?”

  “Isak Whitewave of Clan Kask. I do.”

  “And you think you can do something about this?”

  “I’ll need to make some inquiries first,” Dylan said. “I don’t suppose your korva would mind if I borrowed a couple of birds?”

  “Not at all.” Glancing to her right, she spotted a flicker of white against the water. Like many of the vast lakes that formed the chain of water linking the seven kingdoms, Dagfinna Lake was too huge to see the opposite shore until one was more than halfway across it. Since more than half of Dagfinna was considered Ytlainen territory, it was highly unlikely that the object she’d spotted was anything but a ship.

  She pointed. “Is that Falcon, you think?”

  “You always did have a gull’s eye.” He stood and squinted, his muscular frame moving with a grace that didn’t seem possible. “I count three masts. A frigate. Might be Falcon. Might be from Ytlain, too. Can’t see what she’s flying.” He scampered up the standing rigging and pounded on the platform above. “Pirnes! Damn your bones! Wake up! Cast the glass starboard!”

  Suvi heard curses followed by the alarm bell. Three sharp clangs—the signal for a friendly ship.

  Dylan grinned down at her. “Best get out of those breeks before your father catches sight of you.”

  She nodded.

  On her way to her cabin, Suvi stopped at the rail and whispered, “Major Ander Lahtela, may your passage be swift and true. Let no darkness bind you, and may the Judge give you your due.” Then she reached into her pocket and found a gold eagle. It was worth far more than Dylan indicated was necessary, but Lahtela had been Eledorean, not Waterborne. Plus, Suvi hadn’t killed the man herself—Jami had done it on her order. So, theoretically it was an offering from them both. She pitched the coin over the side. Gold shimmered in the sunlight for an instant before it vanished.

  Royalty didn’t have cleansing rituals. She hoped it would be enough.

  TWO

  Twice the size of Northern Star, Falcon drew alongside, casting long shadows on the deck. Boarding planks thumped Star’s rails. Servants scurried across with baggage. The boatswain’s call signaled her uncle’s arrival and brought one and all to attention on Star’s decks. Uncle Sakari’s stern figure emerged from Falcon’s chaos dressed in reds and browns. Suvi noted his complexion lacked the sickly pale quality of her father’s. Uncle Sakari’s stride on the boarding plank was confident and sure. He didn’t even look down at the water. The silk ribbons binding his queue whipped in the wind.

  “Good to see you,” he said, giving her father two slaps on the back with the hug after the ceremonial proprieties had been observed by those of lesser rank. “I’ll finally get a decent glass of Islander. All those vineyards and the Ytlainen don’t know a damned thing about distilling wine into a good Islander.”

  With another of the boatswain’s whistles, the crew scrambled to their duties while Falcon’s boarding planks were withdrawn.

  “Negotiations were a success, I presume?” her father asked.

  “With few exceptions, we got what we wanted,” Uncle Sakari said.

  Her uncle turned and trapped her in a smothering hug. “Little sparrow! You came to meet me!”

  She endured his touch with strictly controlled revulsion. Made of Ytlainen silk, his coat felt slippery and cool against her cheek. He smelled of amber and leather. As much as she liked amber, at that moment, she vowed to never wear it again.

  “I’ve brought you a present,” Uncle Sakari said, his eyes changing from brown to a deep green. He fished in his coat pocket and retrieved a carved wooden box.

  “Thank you, Uncle. You’re very kind.” She emphasized the word uncle and accepted the gift without touching his hand.

  “Aren’t you going to ask me what it is?”

  “I assume I’ll find out when I open the box.”

  Uncle Sakari touched her father on the shoulder. “Very cautious, this one. Smart. You’d never know she shared the same mother with that—”

  “Don’t.” Her father frowned.

  Suvi’s mouth tightened, and she clamped her fingers around the box in an effort to keep it from joining the golden eagle at the bottom of the sea.

  After dinner, Suvi took refuge in her cabin with Piritta while her father and Uncle Sakari discussed the details of the Ytlainen visit. She picked up the unopened box and lifted the lid as if it might bite her. A tiny glass vial filled with a pale golden-hued oil rested in a bed of cotton. The letter S coiled on its glass surface, painted in emerald green—her favorite color. Touching the jeweled stopper, Suvi caught the intoxicating scent of amber, apple blossom, and myrtle.

  Piritta gasped. “A courting gift, and there’s no mistaking it.”

  Suvi stopped holding her breath, but the muscles in her stomach cramped. “I don’t suppose I could ignore its meaning.”

  “You could try, but I’m not sure how long the ploy would last. You have had suitors before.”

  “Yes, but does Uncle know?”

  Piritta returned to her embroidery. “As closely as he watches you?” she asked. “Anyway, you haven’t exactly been discreet.”

  “Can I help yearning for one aspect of my life that isn’t a state secret or a complete lie?” Suvi sighed. “What am I going to do?”

  “A long journey away from court?”

  “That isn’t a bad idea, although hardly original.”

  Not looking up from her sewing, Piritta pointed at the door. “Jami’s back.”

  Suvi tiptoed to the door. Putting a finger to her lips, she rested the other hand on the latch and then yanked. A slender, scarred, middle-aged woman dressed in black stood poised to knock. She was wearing a man’s coat, breeches, shoes, and stockings tailored to fit her decidedly not-male figure.

  “Hello, Jami,” Suvi said.

  “I do wish you wouldn’t do that,” Jami said in a cultured accent that would’ve fit in at court. Long honey-blond hair threaded with silver slipped over her shoulders, and she moved with a feminine grace that belied her masculine clothes.

  Suvi stepped aside, making room in the little cabin, and then shut the door. “Were you able to hear anything?” she asked in a whisper.

  “I was able to hear enough,” Jami said, tugging off her gloves.

  Uncle didn’t employ a Shield. Kainen magic was unreliable on the lakes, but it worked well enough to make precaution sensible. Does he think me feeble, or am I meant to know what was said?

  Jami risked more than a headsman’s ax by listening in on the king’s private councils, and Suvi wouldn’t have asked her to do it if she hadn’t volunteered. Suvi knew Jami’s reasons. Suvi made a point of knowing every one of them well. However, those reasons had nothing to do with Suvi’s battle with her uncle, or the rewards Jami was promised, and had everything to do with Jami’s own private feud. Jami was different from Piritta. Jami was far more dangerous, and Suvi’s mother would’ve warned her from using Jami, but unlike her mother, Suvi understood the stakes when she decided to take on her uncle in the first place.

  “Ytlain has refused to enter the war,” Jami said. “However, they will support safe lake passage for our supply lines.”

  “That isn’t much of an offer,” Suvi said.

  �
��They want no part of this war,” Jami said. “Can you blame them? Five years this has been going on, and no end in sight.” She frowned and the crisscross scars on her right cheek deepened.

  Suvi let the comment lay. In truth, she agreed.

  Jami continued. “You aren’t going to like the rest, I’m afraid.”

  “I’m not Father. And you know it,” Suvi said. “Speak.”

  “Your weathermaster has been sent to the brig,” Jami said. “Your father now knows what we know about the Waterborne spy.”

  “Shit,” Suvi said, and toed on her slippers.

  Jami arched an eyebrow at the swear word. “No punishment has been assigned. Not yet.”

  Suvi asked, “Is Father alone?”

  Jami said, “He was when I left.”

  “Jami, stay here. I’ll have another job for you when I get back,” Suvi said. “Piritta, come with me. I’ll need you to shield the conversation, if you can. Do you think that’s possible from the passageway?”

  Piritta’s eyes were tilted like a cat’s, and usually it lent a certain feline shrewdness to her face, but not at the moment. “Not through a wall. Not while this ship is in the water and the wind is up.”

  “All right. Can you tell if anyone is near enough that it would require shielding?”

  “Easily, but I won’t be able to do much more. Neither will anyone else.”

  Suvi headed for the door. “A warning is all I require. Knock if there is danger.”

  Piritta nodded.

  When Suvi reached her father’s cabin, she motioned for Piritta to wait. Piritta perched on the bench with her embroidery hoop. The Royal Guardsman at the door gave Suvi a short bow of permission before she knocked.

  “Damn it all! What in the swiving hells do you want?”

  Suvi shouted through the door. “It’s me, Father. May I come in?” She heard a small slam. A book? A cabinet door? “Are you all right, Father?”

  “Enter.”

  She slid open the cabin door and was struck with a cloud of calming incense so thick, it made her cough.

  “The Waterborne have been spying on us! Spying! They’ve a spy on this boat!” Her father paced the room end to end—a full twenty-five feet. “We’ve traded with their kind in spite of their terrible manners. But I’ve done with patience.” He paused long enough to comb his hand through his hair. “I’ll have him hanged!”

  Suvi sat on a chair edge and attempted to be calm. “Are you certain he’s the spy?”

  “He’s Waterborne!”

  “Father, please. Calm down.” She folded her hands in her lap. “He’s innocent.”

  “Are you arguing with the evidence?”

  “You have more than Uncle’s accusation?” she asked. “Dylan Kask has served honorably on the Star for seven years. I’ve known him for—”

  “Sakari said you’d say that,” her father said.

  “Please, father. Dylan is a friend,” she said. And that’s precisely why he’s in danger, and you know it. “I’ve known him since I was twelve. He stood up for me when no one else would. He protected me when he didn’t have to—when it would’ve cost him to do so. I trust him. He wouldn’t do this.”

  “What do you know about him?”

  “He exiled himself. He left the Waterborne Nations, his family, and his own ship,” she said. “What else do I need to know? He’s been cut off for seven years, Papa. How does any of this make sense?”

  “He’s that pirate Sea Lord Kask’s son.”

  Suvi blinked. That, she hadn’t known.

  “Do you know why he left?” her father asked.

  “He’s never told me, and I’ve never asked.” She looked away. “He can’t be a spy. Why would a sea lord risk his own son in such a venture? Wouldn’t it make more sense to use someone easier to deny a connection with? Someone easy to discard if discovered? Anyway, Piritta would’ve told me if he were a spy.”

  “You’ve only employed that souja for three years—”

  “She would know. I would know.”

  “He’s Waterborne. How do we know that they don’t have the ability to—”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. They’re kainen,” Suvi said. “Waterborne aren’t that different from Eledoreans. Mother says—”

  “Your mother isn’t Eledorean, either.”

  “Are you going to tell me that I’m now suspect?” She pushed a bit further. “I’m only half Eledorean myself.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” her father said. “Stop shifting attention from the real issue.”

  “Let me handle this.”

  “You’re too young.”

  “I’m eighteen. And you assumed the rule of Eledore at seventeen,” she said. “We need to know what’s really going on. We’re in a good position. If Dylan Kask is a sea lord’s son—”

  “He is!”

  “Then we can use that to our advantage. We can force Kask to tell us everything.”

  “You’re assuming that the Waterborne have family ties like Eledoreans.”

  “Stop being stubborn and think,” Suvi said. “The Waterborne exist entirely on familial loyalty. Even if that weren’t enough proof, every year, they renew that loyalty through magically bound oaths.”

  “To their ship captains and contracts.”

  “Their captains and crews aren’t like ours, Papa. They aren’t hired. They’re family. The captains report to the sea lords, and the sea lords run the clans. Family loyalty is the foundation of Waterborne culture. They’ve no lands. Clan unity is what holds the Waterborne together,” she said. “If someone has broken their oath and if Sea Lord Kask does nothing, it will have serious repercussions for the entire clan. Do you know what happens when a clan breaks oath?” She didn’t wait for her father to answer. “They’re declared renegade and made targets for the Sea Hunt. They’re barred from every port where the Waterborne trade. And without a port, they’ve nowhere to get supplies or repair their ships. Do you know how long a ship can go without fresh water? I do. Trust me. It isn’t long. Their assets are free for the taking. Everything except the offending captain and crew. They’re put over the side to drown or feed the sharks.

  “Sea Lord Kask has more reason to fear this situation than we do.”

  Her father blinked.

  Suvi suppressed a smile. “I want your permission to arrange a meeting. I’ll take Dylan Kask with me and use him to negotiate a new treaty. Think of what we can gain. And while I’m there, I can find out what is really going on.”

  “Absolutely not! I will send someone else!”

  “Who? Uncle? We both know that won’t work. Why not me?”

  “You’re heir designate,” he said. “I can’t send you into a potentially hostile situation. Have you gone mad? What is to stop the Waterborne taking you hostage?”

  “You risk Uncle.”

  “He has command magic to protect himself.”

  “I do, too,” Suvi said, and then used his own prejudices against him. “And unlike the Ytlainen, no Waterborne possesses such a thing.”

  “Ah.”

  She let that sink in before pressing her advantage. “We can’t hold out much longer against the Acrasians without help. Even Uncle knows it.”

  “That’s not true!”

  “Then why did Uncle go to Ytlain?”

  Again, her father paused.

  “If help isn’t coming from Ytlain, then it has to come from another quarter,” she said. “Uncle won’t stop with Ytlain. He’ll go to Massilia and Kaledan next. The Acrasians know this and will put pressure where they can. Wouldn’t it be best if help came from somewhere least expected? We wouldn’t need the whole of the Waterborne Nations. At least, not at first. We don’t have time for that. One exclusive contract with one clan for supplies could bolster our armies against the Acrasians.” She didn’t mention that the supplies in question would include Acrasian weapons.

  “The Acrasians are animals. Humans. A few words, and the mindless creatures do whatever we want.”

 
; “Command magic has its limits,” she said. “The Acrasians have muskets. Better cannon—”

  “Ridiculous toys!”

  Suvi’s hands clenched. “We should use guns and magic. Nels thinks—”

  Her father towered over her. “I’m sick to death of his childish fears—”

  “Childish?”

  “I curse the day your mother gave him my name!”

  Nels hasn’t used your name since you cut him off. Suvi got to her feet and spoke in her steadiest voice. “Oh? I see, it’s far more mature to destroy an entire kingdom because you’re too pigheaded to see the real problems? You should listen to someone other than Uncle. An intelligent leader knows better than to ignore good counsel no matter where it comes from. Haven’t you told me so yourself?” She was an inch from her father’s face. This close, she could see the broken blood vessels in his nose and the glint of silver in his beard. For some reason, it made her uneasy—more so than his anger.

  He sucked in his breath, and his skin was turning a brilliant red.

  Careful, she thought. “Nels knows more about the Acrasian Regnum than anyone. He’s been to their cities. He studies their generals. He knows their strengths—”

  Her father made a mocking sound in the back of his throat.

  “—and their weaknesses. But fine. Don’t listen to him. Listen to me,” she said. “We need the Waterborne. You have to let me do this.”

  “You dare tell me what to do?”

  She dropped her glance to the patterned rug. “I only want to help you, Papa.” She took a deep breath and let tears well up in her eyes. “It’s only that if Nels is to go to war …” She let her voice drift off, leaving the sentence hanging.

  Her father didn’t say anything for a moment, then laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “My little sparrow, you’re like your mother—too soft for the hard decisions.”

  She kept her eyes on the floor to avoid him spotting her anger. Mother isn’t soft, and I’m not, either. She’s like Grandma Kai, who built that Ytlainen navy you’re so damned frightened of. How can you have been bound to Mother so long and know so little about her? How can you know so little of me?

  He stepped back. Suvi gave him a pleading look—the one she used on him anytime she wanted anything important. It was a childish manipulation, and she hated herself for resorting to it, but it worked. She could see it in his face.