by Duncan Lay
“Duchess?”
The man’s deep voice disturbed her contemplation but she turned from the window with a smile. Munro was pretending to be an expert dressmaker at the moment but his real job was being head of the King’s informers. The former chamberlain, Regan, had had quite the network spread throughout Berry, keeping an eye and an ear on what people were doing and saying. She had found all the details in the King’s papers and taken over the running of the network. Yes, maybe she should have said something to Fallon about it, but he would not have grasped how important such a network could be. He might have even demanded it be destroyed. And, given the way things had turned out, she had been right to keep it from him.
Once Fallon had betrayed her and stuck her in this gilded prison, she had been able to get word out for Munro so at least she knew all that was going on in the city – even if she could do nothing much with that information.
“What is the latest news from Prince Swane?” she asked.
“He is locked in Meinster, as much a prisoner there as you are here, your grace,” Munro replied. “He does not have the ships to sail to Berry, nor can he cross the mountain passes at this time of year, especially without a base on this side. Without any of the nobles here to help him, he is stuck in the country’s east. So our message has intrigued him. He wants to know more.”
“Was there any mention of my previously helping Fallon? Did he indicate I will have a place high in his favor if we can regain his kingdom?”
“Duchess, that I cannot say. I learned long ago not to try to predict the mood of the nobility,” Munro said simply.
Dina chewed her lip. She was confident she could do much to bring down Fallon, but it was only worth risking if she knew Swane would reward her. An exchange of scrolls was not enough reassurance. She needed to look Swane in the eye.
“I need to get out of here,” she said abruptly. “I know things about the Guild of Wizards that their ruling council would not want made public. They will have to help me. With magical help, I can make sure Swane gets over the mountains. And then the nobles around here will open their warehouses to the prince, if I speak to them first and remind them of the promises they made to Aidan, promises I found in his papers. Finally, with your help, we can open a gate into Berry for Swane’s men. Yet I need to speak to these people myself, both to convince them and to make sure Swane knows it is me he has to thank for returning him to his throne.”
“But your grace, we have discussed this before. There are too many guards on this house. I have some men who can sink a knife into a back but no one trained for this,” Munro said carefully.
“We need a distraction. Something to summon most of the men away from here. Perhaps a fire.”
“Your grace, we would need more than a distraction. We would need something big to happen to take away the attention of so many guards,” Munro warned.
“Something will occur to me,” she said confidently. “Get the men ready and have them nearby. I will get out of this and I will make Fallon rue the day he ever turned on me.”
*
Fallon held Bridgit close.
“I should have been there. I should have listened to you when you warned me,” he said softly.
An exhausted Kerrin had been finally put to bed, still protesting he was fine, and now had Caley snoring away with him in one room. Fallon had felt bound to offer the dog back to Dermot, her original owner, but Caley listened carefully and then stayed with Fallon. Dermot agreed it was the dog’s choice.
Finally, Fallon and Bridgit began to tell each other what had been happening for the past moon.
He listened in horror to her tale, although the horror soon turned to pride at what she had done. “I always said you would surprise yourself with the strength you have inside.”
“I would have been happier not to have to find it,” she said wryly.
He grimaced at the deaths of Sean and Seamus, although a little regretful he couldn’t try something similar on them himself, and shuddered as she told him of the escape and the fight to make it back across the sea, how they had nearly starved and then run into Kemal.
“You did something to him when you took his family, and he cannot forgive you,” she finished.
Fallon was not listening to that, still overcome with the thought of all she had been through, how she had held the people together.
“Your father was right. I should have just sailed for Kotterman and tried to get you all back, so you did not go through that,” he sighed.
“You probably would have died,” she said flatly. “It would have been a slaughter and, even if you got most of us out, they would have chased us and sunk us all.”
“But still—”
“I am back now, and safe. It has all worked out.”
“But so much could have gone wrong! And you did it all while pregnant!”
She closed her eyes for a moment. “Not all of it. I did not realize at first.”
“But—”
“Will you stop saying ‘but’! I am here, you are here, we are safe and alive. We should give thanks to Aroaril for that.”
He hugged her closer still. “This baby will be a symbol,” he said. “It shows that our lives have changed and our luck with it. After all we have been through, surely we deserve this child.”
“I thought we deserved all of them,” Bridgit whispered.
“You know what I mean.”
“When the child is born, then I can relax. Not before,” she said. “Then I might believe that it is recompense for all we have been through.”
“I will protect you. You, Kerrin and the new baby,” he swore.
“Don’t make promises you may not be able to keep. We might have to protect you,” she said, poking him in the chest. “What have you been doing while I was away?”
Fallon hesitated. He had made so many bad decisions, what would she think of him? Then he began anyway. Talking about it with her might lift some of the guilt he had carried.
*
Bridgit too listened with a mixture of horror and sympathy as Fallon’s tale grew: the escape from Lunster, saving Cavan, fighting the spawn of Zorva, being unable to help Kerrin, Fearpriests, killing Cavan, becoming a hero to the city and then killing Aidan.
“Now you are back with me, everything will be fine. We have Berry and the west and south now and in the spring we shall take the rest of the country. We can make Cavan’s dream of a better Gaelland come true. With you by my side, what is to stop us?”
She stroked his cheek. “It may not be that easy,” she warned. “Swane will not sit back and let us take his kingdom. And then there are the Kottermanis …”
He stroked her face fondly. “In the daylight we have lookouts scouring the horizon. And at night we have the boom placed across the harbor each night, fishing boats tied together to make a barrier with men patrolling it. If Kemal tries to play us false, he will get a horrible surprise. I have trained the men to fight Kottermanis in the streets and we’ll drive them into the sea and capture him and his family. The only Kottermanis left are a couple of merchants and we are keeping an eye on them.”
She sighed. “I hope you are right. But I still feel uneasy about him.”
“That is only to be expected, after what you went through. But you are safe now and I swear to Aroaril that I shall never let anything happen to you again.”
She shivered a little at that.
“What would I do without you?” he asked.
“Well, Aroaril only knows, because you managed to get yourself into quite the pickle here,” she said with a smile, trying to forget his earlier promise.
“I missed you so much. Like my heart had been cut out.”
She kissed him then. “Enough talking,” she said. “We can talk more later.”
“There are so many more things—” he began, but she reached down.
He grabbed her hand. “But what about the baby?” he asked hoarsely.
“After all it has been through so far, I
don’t think this will worry it,” she said.
CHAPTER 53
Kemal inspected the sky carefully. His fleet had been buffeted by a short, sharp storm the day before, giving them a taste of what it would be like in another moon or so. He could not wait any longer.
“High one, we are ready,” Gokmen announced. “The attack ships only await you.”
Three of the ships had been converted over the past two days, their masts taken down and the soldiers transferred there. Skeleton crews would sail three of the other ships, towing the attack ships into position, where they could row into the harbor after dark. The other two ships would stay out to sea overnight and then sail into Berry in the morning, when the harbor had been taken.
Kemal ignored the former slave master and turned instead to his agent. “Your men are ready, Abbas?” he asked.
“I shall return there now and then we will strike, two turns of the hourglass before dawn,” Abbas promised. He had sailed out, hidden in the hold of a small fishing vessel, crewed by a pair of Gaelish that were being very well paid for their efforts. He had brought with him vital information about the harbor defenses.
“They will not trouble you?” Kemal asked.
“They think I carry important cargo and I have been careful not to say anything in their language they might understand. When we return, two of my men will dispose of them. By the time they are missed, it will be too late.”
Kemal nodded in approval. He had left two score of his soldiers with Abbas when he left a moon before, in case a rescue of Feray and the boys could be arranged. Now those men would kill the guards on the floating boom made of boats and then open it up to Kemal’s ships. Without their masts, the ships would be much harder to see and, once on the docks, would pour soldiers onto Gaelish soil. Abbas’s men, who had spent the last moon learning Berry’s streets, would then guide them through the darkened capital. If all went to plan, Fallon would wake to discover Kemal was inside his castle and he was at the mercy of the Kottermanis. Then he could make sure he had Gaelland firmly in his hand while he took his leisurely revenge. If something went wrong then he had a second plan, to turn Fallon’s strategy against him.
“I shall see you at the docks, high one.” Abbas bowed and hurried away.
Kemal looked up at the sky. It was mid-afternoon and all that remained to be done was ensure his men were fed and well rested for their night’s work. He leaned on the ship’s rail and imagined his nightmares over, with Fallon in his grasp.
A gentle hand touched his shoulder and he knew without looking it was Feray. Nobody else would have dared. “Are you sure about this, my husband?” she asked softly.
“Did that Gaelish bastard put some sort of spell on you?” he asked. “Why else would you take his side in this?”
“I am on nobody’s side but yours,” she said angrily, her eyes flashing. She looked beautiful that way and it only reminded him more sharply of what he had lost that night to Fallon. He had thought, after being without his wife for more than a moon, that they would sleep little that first night. Yet he had found himself unable to be a man for her. It had to be Fallon’s fault. Until he brought Fallon down, he would not be able to rise. Her sympathy had only put even more of an edge on his temper.
“I think of what your father might say. Of how this will be explained,” she continued.
“He will hear about Gaelland being brought into the Empire and that is all he will want to know. I shall tell him that Aidan and his sons fought back and were killed, removing that problem from our new rule,” Kemal said icily.
“But what if you lose? What if they are ready for you?”
He laughed. “They are but peasants. We are warriors. And we have Abbas. He knows what they have been doing. They do not stand a chance against us.”
She reached out and gripped his arm. “My love, you have not seen them fight. I told you: Fallon took on a roomful of men to save me and your sons. The fact I am standing here now shows what a fighter he is. And his troops took down the King’s guards in less than a turn of the hourglass. I have been without you for a moon. I could not stand to lose you for longer.”
He turned away slightly. “I am no good to you now,” he said bitterly. “I am but half a man. Fallon robbed me of the other half. I have to take it back.”
She pulled on his arm. “You are still the man I love. And as for that, do not worry. It means nothing to me and it will return to you soon. Maybe even now. Let me show you—”
“It means everything to me,” he said coldly. “Manhood is not something that can be given. It can only be taken. I shall return to you as a real man once more.”
He knew she wanted to say more but it was simple to him. Seize back his honor and return to her a man, the new ruler of Gaelland.
“Gokmen! I leave now! You will watch my family as if they were your own until I return!” he shouted.
*
He brooded on the slow trip into Berry. Abbas had said the Gaelish would use their cramped, twisting streets as a weapon, while springing ambushes from the rooftops. He planned to split his force into two, where each could come to the aid of the other if they became held up, while his archers had been told to look to the rooftops at all times. Despite Feray’s words, he had no doubt his men were much better fighters. Against men who were half-asleep and disorganized, it would be easy.
They took care to stay out of sight until night fell, then the attack ships were towed to within a mile of the harbor, then the rowers bent their backs. The ships were not designed to be rowed but it was a short trip. Lanterns along the boom, thoughtfully provided by the Gaelish, showed them where to go. The signal that Abbas had the boom in control was to see the lanterns raised and lowered repeatedly. Kemal watched for that sign while, packed onto the deck of his ship, soldiers waited for their chance to bring a new province into the Empire.
*
Brasso was bored. Not just a little bored but hugely bored. Not to mention cold, wet, miserable and hungry. Back when ships had been disappearing, walking the boom at night must have been exciting, nerve-racking and fearful. Every noise could have been selkies. Keeping watch for Kottermani ships was just not the same. Walking up and down these stinking fishing boats for four turns of the hourglass was not his idea of fun. It wasn’t why he had sweated and trained with Captain Fallon for so long. Tonight was cold, with a persistent drizzle that worked its way under his cloak and ran down his back. He trudged on, hunched against the weather, praying for the bell that announced each turn of the hourglass. Just two more and it would be dawn and he could go and have a hot breakfast – and go back to sleep. Maybe even find a woman who was impressed that one of Captain Fallon’s recruits had kept the city safe through the night.
A splash made him turn out towards the sea. The sound of rain on the boat timbers and on the hood of his cloak had dulled his senses but he was sure that sounded like an oar. But who would be out in this weather, at this time of night?
He strained to see something though the gusting rain, then heard a muffled cry from the next boat over. He looked across to see figures struggling in the light cast by the lantern hanging from the boat’s mast, a lantern that was now swinging wildly as men fought on the boat. Even as he watched in horror, a sword flashed in the dim light and someone went down. The other two men kneeled over the body, stabbing down again and again.
Brasso realized, with a spurt of fear that banished the cold, that the guard on the next boat was dead. And for attackers to have got that far, they had to have killed everyone else that side. He turned in the other direction and began to run, desperate to get away and sound the alarm. Except there were figures there too, looming out of the darkness. A sword swung at his neck and he jumped backwards, fumbling to get his blade out. But it was caught in his wet cloak and, as he struggled, another sword sliced at him. It cut along his chest and, worse, overbalanced him so he went backwards into the freezing water with barely a time for a shout.
*
Abbas ta
pped his bloodied knife on the mast of the center boat and received answering knocks in reply. He smiled in relief. The boom was theirs and no alarm had been raised. He snapped out orders and his men sawed at the wet ropes holding the boats together. One by one they parted, then the men took up oars and began to row the boats apart, opening a gap through the middle more than wide enough for the ships to come through.
Once he judged they were far enough apart, the lanterns hanging from the masts were raised and lowered, again and again, a signal for the Prince’s ships that Berry lay defenseless before them.
*
Brasso hung on to a rope with one hand while he frantically kicked off his boots and untied his cloak with the other. He was a child of the water, having grown up on boats, and the distance to the docks was not far. Except he had never tried to swim in heavy wool clothes before, nor with his blood leaking into the water with every heartbeat. The wound on his chest hurt like the pits of Zorva but it told him he was still alive: something not one of his fellow boom guards could say. Part of him wanted to climb back on board the boat and get some revenge. But the rest of him said he had to raise the alarm. He kicked off his trews and shivered. Time was running out. The cold water would kill him as surely as a knife. He pushed away from the boat and began to swim towards the lights of the dock, trying not to think about what might be coming through the boom after him.
*
Kemal saw the faint lights moving up and down and clapped his hands with delight, feeling the excitement of the hunt course through him. He had waited in the dark just outside the harbor, pacing up and down the deck as he imagined things going wrong. The rain was both a blessing and a curse – it would help disguise their presence but the water would stretch the archers’ bowstrings and reduce their range and power.
“Now!” he cried.
The sailors bent to their task, driving the ships through the water. Now was not the time to worry about noise, only speed, and they formed into single file, Kemal’s ship at the front, driving for the widening gap between the lanterns. His men wanted his to be the third of the ships through but he would rather burn in Zorva’s pits for an eternity than wait any longer. The ships tore through the gap in the boom and headed right for the marked place on the docks, where more of Abbas’s men stood, waving more lanterns in the rain. Kemal clenched his fist. Everything was going to plan and the Gaelish did not even know he was loose in their city.
