A Song for Orphans

by Morgan Rice

  “Is it the right payment?” she asked.

  “It is,” Finnael admitted. “And I imagine that there is only one skill that Siobhan will have sent you to me to learn.”

  He lifted a plant, and just as in her dream, Kate saw it wither as the energy was pulled from it.

  “I take it that is what you wish to learn?”

  “I…” Kate hesitated, because she still wasn’t sure if this was what she wanted. She had a horrible feeling that this was part of some plan of Siobhan’s, and she had no doubt that if her would-be teacher was giving her a better way to kill, it was only so that she could do it on command. How many more like Gertrude Illiard would there be if she accepted this?

  “You don’t seem certain,” Finnael said. “Could it be that Siobhan has found herself an apprentice with a conscience?”

  Kate swallowed, unsure if he meant that as an insult or a compliment. Maybe that was the point. Maybe this was another test. In any case, Kate knew there was only one answer that she wanted to give.

  “I don’t like being just a cog in Siobhan’s plans,” Kate said, “even if I am supposed to be her apprentice. What use is this power, except to murder people?”

  Finnael nodded at that, then moved over to another plant that looked to be wilting.

  “It is a good question, and one that Siobhan didn’t bother asking when I showed her this,” Finnael said.

  “Why not?” Kate asked.

  “Maybe she didn’t need more. Maybe she was just so talented with this that she could work the rest out for herself. She certainly seems to have learned to manipulate the energies of her domain.” Finnael sighed. “Maybe she didn’t see the use in something that wasn’t a weapon.”

  Kate could imagine that. Even so, she wanted more from this than just another way to kill. She saw Finnael touch the partly wilted plant, and she felt the power going into it. To her shock, she saw the leaves of the plant become green, the stem straightening.

  “The power to manipulate life energy can heal as well as kill,” the old man said. “It is not just about taking, but about moving power, even giving it if you are willing to take the consequences.”

  In an instant, Kate knew that he hadn’t always looked like that.

  “I still don’t understand,” she said. “How does all this work?”

  “It will vary,” Finnael said. “Each of us has things we can connect to, things that are ours to manipulate. Places that become foci for power, mediums that they like to work with, whether water, or fire, or blood. For me, it is the things that come onto this mountain. For Siobhan, it is the land around that fountain of hers. I take it you have drunk from it?”

  Kate nodded. She could still remember that first taste.

  “Perhaps not a wise move, considering what she can do with it.”

  Kate didn’t want to think about that. She’d already seen enough of what Siobhan could do, given the fates of those who had crossed her. She’d seen them, screaming in the depths of it.

  “So I could learn to tie myself to a mountain so that I can learn to revive plants?” Kate asked.

  She saw Finnael shrug. “It might not be like that for you. As I said, it varies for everyone who learns it. Once, there were those who could draw on the powers of whole kingdoms, or the congregations of the old gods. But that was a long time ago.”

  Even so, Kate wasn’t sure that she wanted this.

  “If Siobhan has asked you to do this, I suspect there will be a reason,” Finnael said. “I do not have her talent with the futures—if I did, I wouldn’t need what you gave me—but I can attempt to see some things.”

  He led Kate over to a spot where a mirror stood, covered with a cloth embroidered with the constellations, the Hawk and the Mask, the Stones and the Scales of Balance.

  “If I can see out, others can see in,” he explained without being asked. “Now, look deep, and tell me what you see.”

  Kate frowned, sure that there should be more to it than that. Even so, she looked, staring at her reflection, then looked deeper, trying to stare through the glass. She could feel power coming from Finnael beside her, but more than that, she could feel her own powers rising up from within.

  The image in the mirror shifted, and she saw Sophia asleep somewhere. No, Kate realized with a start, not asleep. She was too pale for that, too still, and her chest wasn’t rising with breath. A wound in her chest spoke of violence. She was on a boat somewhere that Kate didn’t recognize, the port outside not one that Kate had seen before.

  Almost as soon as it had come, the image faded, leaving Kate staring and hoping that she’d seen it wrong.

  “She can’t be dead. She can’t,” Kate said.

  Beside her, Finnael shrugged. “Remember that this is just a glimpse of what could be. No one can show you more than that.”

  “But this… this will happen if I do nothing?” Kate asked. “When? Where?”

  Again, Finnael spread his hands. “This is not my strength, so I would guess soon. Where is easier. There is a fishing village an hour’s hard ride away to the south. I buy food there sometimes.”

  Kate turned toward the door, ready to see how fast she could run.

  “I would also guess that the power to heal would be useful in such a situation,” Finnael said.

  Kate knew that he was right. She needed to learn, if she was going to save her sister. Yet there might not be any time. For all Kate knew, the things she’d seen might happen at any moment.

  “How quickly can you teach me?” Kate asked.

  “How quickly can you learn?” Finnael countered.

  He stood, motioning for her to join him, and picked another plant.

  “Can you see the energy there?” he asked. “Can you feel it?”

  “I… don’t know,” Kate admitted.

  He had her hold it, then pulled power through her, drawing it from the plant and then pushing it back in while Kate tried to watch the movement of it all. She could feel it, she realized, and do more than that, because now she could see the faint glow of it around the plant. She noted that the plant was still slightly brown and wilted by the end of the process.

  “Why isn’t it as green as it was?” she asked.

  “The process isn’t perfect,” Finnael explained. “It takes more life than was lost to restore a thing. You try now.”

  Kate tried, but even though she could feel the energy around the plant, she couldn’t quite grasp it.

  “Again,” Finnael instructed.

  “I have to get to Sophia before—”

  “Again. And this time don’t focus on just the plant. Feel for what your domain will be, or your conduit. Feel what connection you will need.”

  Kate reached for the plant’s energy once more, trying to feel it, and understand it. She let herself spread out, and in that moment, she felt vastness all around her. She felt grass and hills, rivers and moors. It felt far too immense to be the kind of domain Finnael was describing.

  Even so, she found that she could draw energy from it; just a fragment of the whole, sending it out into the plant she held. She looked up as the weight in her hand increased, and to her astonishment saw that the flower had grown into something twice the size.

  She wasn’t the only one looking astonished. Across from her, the old man was standing there looking as though everything he’d just seen was impossible.

  “But that…” Finnael began. “The last ones who could do that were…”

  Kate shook her head. She had no time for his astonishment. “Have I done it? Do I have what I need to save my sister?”

  She saw the old man nod, and that was all she needed. Perhaps she stood have stood there long enough to thank him or learn what he had to say. Right now, though, there was only one thing she could think about: her sister was in danger, and now she had the power to save her.

  Kate sped away with all the speed her powers gave her, hoping that she would be in time.

  CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

  Sophia searched
frantically for the boat with the seahorse at its prow, knowing that she only had so much time before Rupert and the others realized they had been tricked and came back to search the harbor properly.

  She scoured the boats there, ignoring the tiny fishing vessels too small to ever risk making such a crossing and the boats that clearly showed other signs. There were still enough large vessels, however, that she had to hurry among them, looking them over and hoping that this one, or that one, might prove to be the one she needed.

  She needed to find the ship, because she needed to get to Ishjemme. She needed to find her uncle. What would it be like once she did? First, she suspected that she would need to persuade him that she was who she claimed to be, because a man with that kind of position would be wary of imposters. After that… she didn’t know.

  It was simply too hard to imagine the idea of having some kind of a family again beyond her sister, even if it was just an uncle she couldn’t even remember. Or could she? If Sophia concentrated, she thought she could bring to mind an image of a man with the same red hair as her mother, who had seemed happy to laugh and play at being soldiers with Kate.

  Was that her uncle, or was she just constructing an image to fill in an empty space? Even if that was him, could Sophia really expect that he would have stayed the same after so long? People changed, especially when they found themselves in the middle of difficult circumstances.

  Sophia tried to push down her hope, but even so, it was impossible not to feel it. She wanted this to be true. She wanted to find her uncle, and after that… that part was almost too much to think about. Would her uncle know what had happened to her parents?

  Finally, she saw a seahorse larger than a man affixed to the front of a ship. The vessel had two masts, and a bank of thick oars that would be useful in rivers. Most of its hull had been painted a mixture of blue and gold, so that the seahorse swirled with the colors; even the sails showed the same sign.

  When she came closer, Sophia saw that Borkar was up on deck, supervising the loading of the ship. He didn’t look as relaxed as he had back at the inn, and one glance at his thoughts said that he was planning on leaving as soon as his ship was fully laden.

  “You’re planning to leave without me?” Sophia asked.

  He turned, looking down from the rail of the ship at her. He jabbed a finger back in the direction of the village.

  “Are you the reason why there were soldiers from the queen’s own regiment wandering around the village?” he demanded.

  Sophia thought about lying, but how could she, when she was the only new person in the village, and Rupert had been shouting his threats to her for anyone to hear?

  “Yes,” she admitted, “but that just means I need to get out of here as much as you do.”

  She saw the captain shake his head.

  “Not on my ship you don’t,” he said. “I’ve no love for those royal scum, but I’ll not give them an excuse to burn my ship with me and my crew on it.”

  That answer hit Sophia as surely as a punch might have. She’d been sure that once she made it to the ship, she would be safe. She’d paid for her passage, so she’d assumed that it represented a bolt hole for her in the face of Rupert’s attempts to capture her. To be told that Borkar wouldn’t carry her on his ship felt like having that safety ripped away all at once.

  Maybe there was a time when Sophia would have stood for that. Now, though, she needed this too much. She clambered onto the ship, pulling herself over the railings to confront the captain. Sienne leapt up beside her, landing lightly.

  “I told you,” he said. “There’s no place for you here.”

  “You were quick enough to take my money,” Sophia pointed out.

  “I’ll return every Royal to you,” Borkar replied. “But I’ll not risk getting into a fight with a full squad of soldiers for some girl I don’t even know.”

  Sophia thought about offering more money, offering anything the captain wanted, if only he would take her across the sea as he had promised. She looked into his thoughts, trying to work out what would sway him, and what she found surprised her. He wasn’t just angling for more money.

  I can’t risk my boys. If I give the Dowager’s thugs a reason to attack, they will. They’ve no love for me. And then I won’t be able to keep working to bring the kingdom back to what it should be. I can’t risk all that for one girl.

  “You’re working against the Dowager?” Sophia said.

  Instantly, there was a knife in the captain’s hand. Beside Sophia, Sienne growled.

  “Who told you that?” the captain said. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you and throw you in the bay.”

  “No one told me,” Sophia said. “I read it in your thoughts.”

  It was a big thing to give away, but right then Sophia suspected it was only the shock of something like that which would persuade the captain to help her.

  “In my…” That seemed to be enough to make the captain pause. “Is that why you’re seeking passage then? You’re trying to get out of the kingdom before the Masked Goddess’s priests get to you? I can sympathize with that, but there are a dozen directions you could run in. You don’t need to be on my ship.”

  If I’m caught with her, they’ll tear the boat apart. They’ll find the letters I’m carrying, and it will be over.

  “I don’t need to go in a different direction,” Sophia insisted. “I need to get to Ishjemme. There are things there I have to find.”

  “And what is there for you in Ishjemme?” Captain Borkar asked.

  She’s hiding something. Well, I have no more time for lies. It’s the truth, or she goes in the bay, and may all the gods forgive me.

  “My uncle is there,” Sophia said. She knew she had to say the next part, but she still hesitated, because there were things that couldn’t be unsaid. “Lars Skyddar.”

  She’s joking. She’s lying. Duke Lars’s nieces are long dead.

  “We survived,” Sophia said, answering his thoughts as much as a reminder that she could as because she thought he needed the explanation. “I am Sophia Danse, daughter of Lord Alfred and Lady Christina Danse.”

  He stared at her in disbelief, then something like shock.

  It can’t be… but she has the look of them. That hair, those features. And she has their talents.

  “You could be an imposter,” he said. “There are other red-haired girls in the world, and the eye sees what it wants when it comes to family resemblances. There are even plenty of those with power in the world.”

  “And why would I pick that one lie out of all the ones I could have chosen?” Sophia countered. “It might keep me safe for now, but it puts me in more danger later on. I can’t imagine that Lars Skyddar would react well to an imposter.”

  She has a point. She might be deluded, but the resemblance is uncanny. Which means…

  She saw the captain fall to one knee, moving with surprising grace despite his size.

  “Your highness,” he said. “Please forgive me. I would never have threatened you had I known who you truly were.”

  A part of Sophia wanted to sigh in relief at the suddenness of the reversal. She was safe now, after all. Even so, Sophia shook her head. “That shouldn’t have mattered. I shouldn’t have to be some kind of princess before you agree to help me. What about the next girl, or the next?”

  She saw him redden at that, but not with anger. She could feel the shame coming off him.

  “You’re right,” Captain Borkar said. “Please, accept my apology. I and mine have always been loyal to the true rulers of this kingdom. Please allow me to see you to safety.”

  Sophia could see that he would stay kneeling there until she did something, so she put her hands on his shoulders, pulling him up to his feet.

  “I just want to see my uncle,” she said. “If you can get me there safely, I’ll forgive just about anything.”

  He nodded, then turned to his crew. “Right, lads, hurry up. No, leave that, we’ve a more precious cargo. Prin
cess Sophia Danse is aboard today.”

  Sophia winced as he said it, because she had no idea if declaring it to the world would simply place her in more danger. To her surprise, the sailors crewing the vessel reacted in almost the same way their captain had: they stopped what they were doing and fell to one knee, their heads bowed almost in reverence.

  “Tell them to stand up,” Sophia said. “I don’t deserve this.”

  “You deserve this and more if you are who you claim,” Borkar said.

  “But it also says to anyone watching that there is someone important aboard,” Sophia pointed out.

  “Hmm, you have a point, your highness. Get back about your work, you lazy dogs!” Borkar gestured to the stern of the ship, where a cabin stood up from the deck. “We should also get you out of sight. My cabin will keep you from prying eyes.”

  Sophia followed him, with Sienne in her wake. The cabin was small and obviously designed more for practicality than comfort, but still far more comfortable than any of the spaces she’d slept in when she was in the House of the Unclaimed. There was a bed, a shelf with maps and logbooks set out on it, and a broad trunk that could have contained anything.

  For the first time since she’d reached the village, Sophia started to think that things might turn out well. She had a way to get to her uncle. She’d lost Rupert and his men. She knew where she was going. Even the days of walking for hours on end were over now, because the ship meant that she could simply wait, and rest, and watch the world that could be seen through the cabin’s small window.

  Through it, she saw Rupert and his men returning on foot, their horses long gone. Apparently, Captain Borkar had seen the same thing.

  “Damn it. They’re coming for the docks. Stay out of sight, and I’ll deflect them. We just have to hope that they’ve not talked to anyone at the inn, or it will be a fight after all.”

  Sophia crouched down near the window, trying to find an angle from which she could see outside without being seen. She extended her gifts as far as she could, picking up the anger of Rupert’s thoughts as he stormed across the docks.