Crown of Renewal

by Elizabeth Moon

  What did I tell you about enemies?

  His advisor was back.

  She scorned you; when you take the crown, destroy her.

  Ways to do that ran through his mind, vivid instructions from his advisor. He argued. The woman was old, not attractive. Why bother when she would die soon enough anyway? All he wanted was the crown and the other jewels, the power to rule everything.

  That is not enough. Everyone must fear you, not just admire you. You will never be safe until they do. The strong never leave an enemy unbroken. Vengeance, always vengeance. And this will add to Phelan’s anguish when …

  He shifted in his bed, and his ribs stabbed again. If his advisor kept talking, he did not hear it. One of his physicians came in then.

  “My lord, you must rest if you are to travel tomorrow safely. Your leg is seeping again. You must have numbweed for the pain so you sleep soundly.”

  He hated numbwine; a strong man should not need it. But now his leg throbbed, and the night was hot, the humid coastal air scarcely moving through the windows. He nodded and drank off the goblet of the stuff once it was mixed. The drug took effect; he sank into a soft, dark cloud and neither dreamed nor heard his advisor the rest of that night.

  Ka-Immer, Aarenis

  Dorrin woke in the dark, stiff and chilled from sleeping in the open, to the sound of a high whistle and bare feet running on the deck. Stars had faded; the sky gave enough light to see the masts and rigging black against the eastern sky. Someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into a line of sailors hauling on a rope. She took hold, pulling when the others pulled without knowing why. The rattling of blocks and the rising line of sails made it clear.

  “Heyyyy … HO! Heyyyy … HO!” She pulled on “HO!” along with the others.

  “Freeeeee—ALL.”

  Something thumped loudly on the deck on the dock side of the ship. Another something. The ship jerked a little, and the bow came away from the dock. From ahead and below, Dorrin heard a low chant, counterpoint to the one on deck. She wanted to go look, but if she was being crew, then she should do exactly what crew did.

  “Heyyyy … HO! Heyyyyy.… HO!” Other sails were rising now, ever clearer against the brightening sky. The ship did not seem to be moving even as fast as a walk until the sail made a noise, then filled, no longer hanging straight down. FLUP. Another sail … FLUP. The deck shivered under Dorrin’s feet.

  “Waaaaay … ON!” someone shouted. She could see the shapes of the sailors now and feel a touch of wind on her cheek. They were pointed almost straight away from the dock.

  “Come along,” said a voice she recognized as the cook from the storm. “You’ll be in the way out here.”

  She let go the rope and followed him, noticing others now moving quickly about the deck in patterns—a dance she did not know. Half the sails were up, and the one the captain had told her was the steering sail jutted out at an angle to the others. Away from the dock and the city buildings, away from the rise of ground behind the city, the breeze strengthened. The ship glided on, gaining speed as it went, until they were out beyond the harbor, when a still stronger breeze filled all the sails and the ship tilted gently over the first swells.

  Everything was back in Dorrin’s cabin but the box. When she went down in the hold, it came to her hands before she touched it. She did not need to open it to know the crown and jewels were still there; the crown murmured its contentment. Back in her cabin, she slid it under the bunk again. From her window, she could see the shore of Aarenis angle away to the northwest, one side of the funnel-shaped bay into which the Immer emptied, with Immerdzan at its mouth.

  She ate breakfast in the main cabin with the captain, Sun poured in the windows at the stern. The cook had made stirred eggs, and a southern hot sauce was on the table, along with a dish of oilberries.

  “We’re sailing west across the bay,” he said. “We’ll head south between Seafang and Whiteskull, into the Immerhoft itself, and then, barring weather, it’s easy sailing to the western ports.” He shoveled in another mouthful of eggs, followed it with oilberries, then bread and honey, and gave a satisfied sigh. “I don’t expect any trouble. We’re a known ship; I pay the bribes in whatever Immer port I dock—did that yesterday while you were up the mast—and there’s nothing in this cargo that would interest them.” He belched, then went on. “They always look at the cabins—but yours was bare as an eggshell, and your things stowed where they wouldn’t bother. They saw crew, and cargo I’d paid the toll for, and nothing more.”

  “Immer was there. In Ka-Immer.”

  “Yes, flat on his back in his palace, is what I heard, gossip before I came back to the ship at close of trading and pulled the plank. Took a wound or two in a battle, is what they said, but I don’t know for sure. By the time he’s up to see or ask questions, we’ll be out of sight and any gossipers on shore will have nothing to say about a woman aboard old Blessing.”

  Dorrin hoped he was right. What he said made sense, but years as a mercenary had taught her that careful planning did not ensure anything. An enemy might not—too often did not—do what seemed logical.

  “Come up top with me,” the captain said after breakfast. “The bay’s a busy place, lots of ships.”

  Dorrin followed him up the ladder. The deck up here seemed to magnify every slightest movement of the ship, but the swells were not very big. She had no trouble keeping her feet. The morning sun made sails visible even when ships were far away. Behind them, the coastline they had left seemed lower, flatter.

  “Those are fishers,” the captain said, pointing to a group of three small boats, low to the water but with upturned bows. “More over there. And there’s one like Blessing, heading out from Immerdzan. Could be Bountiful.”

  “What’s that one?” Dorrin asked, pointing to another long low ship with one square sail, angling well away from them.

  “Galley. Men row it as well as depend on the sail. They can move faster than a ship like this. Shallow draft, too; they can go right up a river or land on a shore. That one …” He squinted at it. “Headed for one of the fishing villages along the shore or maybe Immerdzan. Ah, now. Look there … see the different color to the water?”

  Dorrin saw it ahead, a broad streak of brownish green.

  “That’s the Immer … pushes its water out this far and farther, too. We have to cross it, and it’ll push us south even as we’re sailing west. Help us on our way to the sea beyond Seafang.”

  Ka-Immer

  Alured awoke late in Immerdzan from the heavy dose of numbwine. His ribs hurt him less when he woke, but his leg throbbed under its bandages, and when his physician unwrapped it, the wound had opened again. His foot was swollen, red, and the swelling extended up his leg.

  “You must rest, my lord, with the leg elevated. I will poultice it and draw out the heat—”

  “No! I must go to Ka-Immer today.”

  “My lord Duke, you are fevered—”

  The necklace, hidden under his nightshirt, slid across his chest, tugging at his neck. “I must go,” he said. “I will go.” To the servants standing by, he said, “Order the carriage at once.”

  No. Fool. Forget that crown.

  He struggled to sit up, fighting the physician, his servants, everyone.

  Take off the necklace. Lie down. You are sick. You should not have come. I told you. You are a fool—

  “I am strong,” he said aloud. “I will go.” He felt the other’s magery pushing against his will, demanding mastery. Cold malice now, as he had seen when he was a boy and the master had been tormenting someone else … no praise, no encouragement, only contempt.

  I thought you were worthy, but you are nothing … a stupid fool, just a pretty face who will not listen … you think more of that bauble than you do of me.

  “Let me alone! Get out … I don’t need you—!” He squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the others in the room, fighting the pressure, murmuring his own name, his real name, over and over. “Alured, Alured, Alured …
I am Alured …”

  The pressure ceased. He opened his eyes to see the others staring at him, some frightened, some worried, and one … looking back at him with eyes he knew very well.

  “He’s very sick,” the harbormaster said. “We must all hope he does not die. He thinks he does not need us, but … without us, he will certainly die.” That suggestion of a drawl, that insinuating tone … His advisor, he realized, had deserted him for another.

  He felt both terror and relief. With all his strength he said, “I will not die. And I will gain what I seek.” He looked at his physician. “Something must be in the wound. Cut it open, find it, clean it—or cut it off if you must.”

  Four days later, he arrived in Ka-Immer, weak from blood loss but the wound now draining only clear fluid. It had been a fragment of metal the original physician had not found, and now, he was sure, he was healing. All the way the necklace had shifted on his chest with every change of direction, and once in Ka-Immer it pointed at the harbor. He would wait until morning, he decided, before talking to the harbormaster here; it had been a difficult journey. He accepted a dose of numbwine without protest and slid into dreamless sleep.

  When he woke, the sun was well up, shining through the window, and the necklace no longer pointed to the harbor. The harbormaster, summoned, told him his messenger had never arrived … and Blessing had sailed that very day on the dawn breeze.

  Dorrin was asleep, making up for the previous night, when the captain woke her. “Come up; you need to see this.” The tone of his voice told her it was nothing good.

  Once on the upper deck, she saw the sea was now a darker blue, with the sun highlighting sails in the distance.

  “That one,” he said. “Big square sail. It’s on our track and has been since midmorning. Top basket saw it first, sure it came out of Ka-Immer. Not a merchanter. Closer now than it was, though it’ll be dark before it catches us. And there’s one just come out of Whiteskull—see there? Anything out of Whiteskull is a pirate.”

  “It could be someone headed for the western ports like us.”

  “Not likely.” He was silent a long moment. “If they’re after you … All I know of you is the Sea-Prince asked me to take a passenger and ask no questions. And I haven’t.”

  “You haven’t,” Dorrin agreed.

  “But now … you told me you were in Aarenis before, even in the Immer ports. Fighting, you said: that would be Siniava’s War, eh?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you might have enemies, you said. Even the Duke of Immer. You should’ve been safe enough aboard, up there in the basket … but someone’s on our track, with a way to call in help. What did you do, steal from the Duke? Summat of great value? Is that what’s in your box that only you can move?”

  “I stole nothing,” Dorrin said. “Something was stolen from my family, long ago. Stolen again in Fin Panir before I even knew it had been lost to us. And from that theft it came to Aarenis and the Duke of Immer; that much is known.”

  “So … you are hunting it back?”

  “No,” Dorrin said. “I have the rest … what it belongs to … and Immer wants it. He thinks it will give him mastery of the whole world.”

  The captain stared at her a moment, then burst out laughing. “Mastery of the world! The man is crazy! And why would he think that?”

  Dorrin shrugged.

  “It must be magic, whatever it is … if he thinks that.”

  Dorrin said nothing.

  “And you have it. Here, on my ship?” He looked around as if it might be up on the top deck with them. “No—you have it on your person? Or in that box.” He came close to her. “What is it?”

  “I must not tell you.”

  “Not tell me? When my ship is in danger, you think you will not tell me what that danger is?”

  “The danger is in those ships,” Dorrin said. “Not in what I have or do not have.”

  “Do not chop words,” he said. “This is my ship—my life. My people. We carried you safely from Bannerlíth, through storm and good sailing both, and gave you cover in Ka-Immer. Yes, I know you fought with us against the pirates, but that saved your skin as well as mine. I will not risk my ship and my people for some … some …” He turned aside and spat. “You will tell me or you will go over the side, and may the fish demons gnaw your bones to sand.”

  “If you throw me to the sea,” Dorrin said, “and Immer finds what I left aboard, he will rule everything and great trouble will come of it. Do you think he will treat you courteously when he finds it? No: he will kill you and everyone aboard to hide what he has taken and keep it secret, and all Aarenis will come to be as Aare is now, a barren land.”

  “You speak nonsense,” he said, breathing hard.

  “I speak truth,” Dorrin said, touching her ruby.

  “So … what do you plan to do, truth speaker, when they catch up with us? Will you hide in the basket again and pretend to be a sailor? Hide in the hold and be dragged out like a rat? Or fight? I tell you, though we carry crossbows and cutlasses, if it comes to it before we are out in the open sea again, we will not fight free before more ships come from Whiteskull and Seafang both.” He took a breath or two, looking again at the distant sail behind them. “I am not willing to lose my ship for you. I do not hate you, but …”

  “Will they be here before it’s dark?” Dorrin asked.

  “What? No … no, not if the wind holds, but they can follow us in the dark. We will show against the sky as long as it is light, and they will be close … Why?”

  “Put me and my box in your rowboat. I will row away. When they stop you, I will not be there.”

  “You know how to use oars?”

  “No … but it can’t be that hard. I watched the boats in the harbor.”

  His eyebrows went up, and a snort of amusement came. “Cannot be that hard? If this were not a serious matter, I would do it now and let you find out how hard it is not.”

  “I do not want you to lose your ship or be hurt or your crew to suffer because of me,” Dorrin said. “If I leave the ship with my box, you will be safe.”

  She could tell he was considering that, though he was shaking his head slowly. “You will be killed. It will be my fault. The Sea-Prince will ask when I come again if you made it safely to Marley.”

  “If we are close enough to the western shore I can row to shore, and hide … make my way west on land …”

  “But you want to go to Aare—”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “What you do not know, you cannot be made to tell,” Dorrin said.

  “You’ll never make it to shore,” he said. “I just wish I knew how someone found out you were on this ship.”

  “Someone in Bannerlíth,” Dorrin said. “Or … the thing stolen from my family was a magical item. Perhaps it guides him.” She was sure of that.

  The other ships drew nearer. Now Dorrin could see the black and green design on the sails of both: a sea-monster, with arms, claws, a serpent body, and a fish’s tail. She went back to her cabin, put on her mail, belted on the sword, and pulled the box out from under the bunk. She at least would fight. She felt the ship slow … heard flapping as the sails came down. When she came on deck, sailors were in a row across the deck, armed with wooden staves and cutlasses, watching her, and the captain was leaning over the railing of the upper deck. She looked up; two sailors in the top basket had crossbows aimed at her.

  “Here’s what it is,” he said. “You admit you, or what you’ve got in that box—or both—are what they want. Those are all Immer’s ships. I paid the fees—nothing held back, and they know that. If we make it easy, they’ll take you and won’t harm my ship or my crew. If you want to fight them, do it somewhere else, not on my ship. If you were willing to be cast off in a rowboat, you should be willing to do that.”

  “And if I’m not?”

  “If you think you can take down my crew, that’s near four hands altogether, including the cook behind you now with a
carving knife, you’re welcome to try, and we’ll hand you over to them bound and bloody and probably dying.”

  Dorrin glanced back. The cook grinned at her, not a friendly grin.

  Free me. Open the box.

  She let the box slide out of her arm and set it on the deck, then bent to the clasp.

  “Stop!” the captain said. “Don’t open it. I’m not letting you throw it overboard or loose whatever magery is inside. Just stand there until they come, and then get off my ship.”

  “Later,” she said quietly to the crown. It did not reply.

  The ship rocked gently in the waves as the other ships came nearer. All were galleys, one of them rowed by men in green and black uniforms and the others by crews of what looked like brigands, but with green and black badges to match the pennants flapping from the mastheads. Two slid alongside, one on either side; the others waited at a little distance. One hailed the captain; its crews wore the uniforms.

  “You have a passenger.”

  “Aye, so I do. Standing there on deck.”

  “We take.”

  “Go ahead.” The captain nodded to his crew, and two of them tossed a bundle of netting over the side.

  Men with cutlasses and crossbows swarmed aboard from both sides; one of those in green and black wore a helmet with a green plume. Blessing’s crew retreated to the bow, offering no resistance.

  “You didn’t say at Ka-Immer,” the man with the helmet said to the captain.

  The captain shrugged. “Nobody asked.”

  The man looked at Dorrin. “Put sword down.”

  “No,” Dorrin said.

  “Or we kill.” He half drew his own sword.

  Dorrin shrugged. “If you kill me, you will not be able to move the box.”

  He laughed and said something she did not understand. Two of the men in black and green came toward her and took hold of the box. They tugged; it did not move. Tugged harder … still no movement. They looked at her, then at their commander.

  “You cannot move it without me,” Dorrin said. She murmured nonsense, hoping they would take it for a command, and touched the box with her boot. It rose in the air and settled into her arm. Their eyes widened.