"You've kept well out of sight," Sapphire commented, swinging down out of the saddle and tossing the Blue's reins to the nearest rider. "My advance scout—" she nodded toward one of the riders, "—had some trouble finding you."
"We thought it wisest," Derian said, bowing respectfully as he spoke. "Firekeeper's been in the swamp, but no one other than Lord Edlin has ventured beyond the edges."
"Edlin?" Sapphire's brow furrowed. "That idiot's here?"
Defense for the young lord came from an unexpected quarter.
"My brother," Firekeeper said calmly—and she offered no bow, "is no idiot."
Sapphire's blue eyes flashed, but she caught herself before she descended into an unfitting wrangle. Seeing that his wife was temporarily out of words, Prince Shad intervened smoothly.
"Fitting that you defend your brother," he said, dismounting and offering Firekeeper a warm smile, "since we are here to rescue our sister. Tell us all that has happened. How did you come here? How did you learn of this situation? The note Sir Jared sent was understandably short on particulars."
Sapphire recovered herself enough to nod.
"Glynn," she said to the rider who held the Blue's reins, "why don't the rest of you join the others in setting up camp? Unless there's real need, don't trouble us."
Glynn, a handsome woman with thick dark hair drawn up into a knot at the back of her head, nodded and turned her gaze—reluctantly, Derian thought—from her inspection of the little camp and its inhabitants.
As all but the prince and princess took their leave, general greetings were exchanged. Wendee Jay was introduced, and her connection to both Duchess Kestrel and Firekeeper explained.
Once, Derian thought, his mood balanced between relief that Sapphire had checked her temper, and amusement, Sapphire would have thought a servant beneath her knowledge.
He felt a twinge of satisfaction that he had been one of those who had forced the proud woman to alter her view.
Lord Edlin sauntered in, three rabbits dangling from his hand, as they were settling themselves about the fire.
"I say!" he said. "I thought it might be royalty come to call when Bold came squawking after me. Hello, cousins!"
His bow was more a waist-level bounce than a courtly obeisance. From her expression, Firekeeper was forgiving Sapphire for thinking her adopted brother an idiot.
"Don't mind me," Edlin said, sitting himself on the fringes of their circle. "I'll just sit here and clean my catch."
He began to do so immediately, tossing the offal to the crow and wolf—Elation was too proud to descend to such—as relaxed as if this were some hunting trip and not the advent of a desperate venture whose ending no one could even guess.
"Tell us everything," Prince Shad repeated. "How did you come on Lady Melina?"
They told their tale much as it had happened, for it became clear that skipping any detail would lead to questions. Only Firekeeper edited her part, playing down her trip west until it sounded as if she had merely decided to go after the artifacts as something of a lark.
Derian caught a glimpse of Elise's expression—a glower moderated by evident worry—before the young woman smoothed it from her face.
Something has happened between them, he thought. Something to do with the artifacts.
Telling took hours, for they could not explain how they got into Thendulla Lypella without explaining about Grateful Peace and they could not explain about Grateful Peace without explaining something about the governmental structure of New Kelvin. Unlike Elise, neither Sapphire or Shad had ever been very interested in foreign countries—though Shad, as a sailor, knew something of Waterland and other seafaring nations.
Had Derian not known Firekeeper well, he might have thought she slept there on the ground, her head pillowed on Blind Seer's flank, but he did know her and the tension he had sensed in her earlier had not left, it had merely been subdued.
When, at last, they ended their tale with an account of how they had decided to come east after Citrine, Sapphire sighed and spoke.
"Well, Mother certainly has taken a great deal upon herself," she said, "and so I certainly can't blame you for doing the same. Why didn't you come to us sooner?"
From where she lay, her eyes still closed, Firekeeper said:
"Diplomacy. Too slow."
Shad, perhaps fearing that this time Sapphire would not keep her temper, cut in quickly.
"Inelegantly put, my dear, but Firekeeper does have a point. If the matter had been resolved through diplomatic channels we'd still be trying to confirm that Lady Melina was in Dragon's Breath, and that the New Kelvinese had been in possession of the artifacts. By the way, who has them now?"
"I do," Firekeeper said, this time opening her eyes and sitting up. "They are safe. Safer than Citrine now that pirates must notice horses and camps and troops all over here."
She waved to indicate the military camp that had taken shape very efficiently despite the semifrozen ground.
"How long do we wait to go for her?"
Sir Jared, who had been mostly content to let others do the narrating, now intervened.
"Firekeeper is again inelegant," he said quickly, "but she does have a point. She's been scouting the area around Smuggler's Light and from her reports Edlin has been roughing out a map. Defenses are even better than they were two years ago when I was here with Princess Lovella."
This firm but gentle reminder that he was the only veteran present of that ill-fated campaign gave Doc's words unwonted authority. The question of the artifacts was put aside—though Derian did not doubt it would be raised again—and the matter of rescuing Citrine approached with new urgency.
"Lord Edlin," Prince Shad said, "you're a cartographer?"
His skill in this area had been mentioned during the earlier report and now Edlin beamed.
"I do fairly well, what?" said the young lord with a grin.
"You'd be honored in Bright Bay," the crown prince continued. "Sailors love maps almost as much as they love ships. Let us see your latest effort."
This, when produced, was less colorful than the Dragon's Breath map, but, since Edlin had packed along his drawing supplies, it was still a work of art. Even Sapphire looked impressed as the map was unrolled and the corners weighted down with rocks so that all could see it.
"The birds do help with getting the overview," Edlin explained happily, "and Firekeeper is a joy for noting varied terrain and rises and such. I've done my best to shadow in the high ground and the worst of the bogholes and such. I've even had her tell me some of the major landmarks."
Shad traced some of the darker green lines.
"There seem to be several quite clear routes to Smuggler's Light."
"Not so clear," Firekeeper said, sounding disgruntled, "but there, yes."
Derian sensed that it was his turn to cut in.
"Firekeeper sees things no average scout would," he explained. "Even Race Forester was astonished by her wood's lore. I suggest that rather than depending on the map, you have her first take your scouts along any route you want to use—get them used to it."
To his relief, Shad was nodding.
"Like harbor pilots," he said. "Good idea. Now that we've finished discussing the more—uh—delicate matters…"
Like cursed artifacts, you mean? Derian thought sarcastically. And unauthorized espionage within the borders of technically friendly nations—stuff like that?
"Now that we've finished with those matters," Shad continued, "and don't really need to discuss them again for now, I think it would be a good idea to invite some of our troop commanders to join us. From what I gathered during the war, land commanders expect to confer and such, not like at sea."
Of course at sea, Derian continued his silent commentary, it's rather harder to get everyone together, isn't it? Every man isn't an island, but every ship does a pretty fine imitation.
What he said aloud was:
"Would Your Majesties prefer us to adjourn to your camp? I see that the
royal pavilion has been raised."
Sapphire shook her head.
"Better not to encourage eavesdropping. In any case, if the pirates haven't noticed us yet, Firekeeper's right, they will. A spy would find sneaking up on this camp, especially with Blind Seer and Firekeeper here, pretty impossible."
She's buttering up Firekeeper, Derian thought, amazed. When she arrived, the two of them were like alley cats spitting at each other. Now it's praise and flattery. I wonder what she wants?
Over a meal delivered by the royal couple's camp stewards, their augmented group discussed the various approaches to Smuggler's Light—their advantages and disadvantages, the need for building portable bridges, the question of how to get troops across the killing ground fairly intact.
The longer they talked, the further they defined the situation; the further they defined the situation, the less certain Derian felt that they would find any way inside. Smuggler's Light seemed an impenetrable fortress. The pirates held not only the high ground, but the most valuable playing piece on the board, and, to make matters worse, if Firekeeper was right, they were prepared for trouble.
Shad and Sapphire had arrived in midmorning. The sky was dusking into evening when Princess Sapphire pushed a hand through her thick blue-black hair and said:
"The situation looks pretty desperate, doesn't it?"
One of her squad commanders, a veteran of Princess Lovella's failed attack, spoke for them all.
"It does, Your Majesty. The place is better protected than before. We don't know how many people are in there, but they don't need many to hold it."
Sapphire nodded agreement, shared a glance with Shad that—to Derian's eyes—looked positively conspiratorial.
"My little sister is in there," she said. "Citrine is only eight. I'd like her to see nine, but I don't want to waste the lives of good, brave people just for that."
Everyone was staring at Sapphire now. Firekeeper, Derian thought uneasily, looked positively angry. Probably only Sapphire's fulsome praise a bit earlier was making her listen.
"So we have a plan," Sapphire continued, "a plan for softening them up. We didn't go into it before for two reasons. First of all, it was important that we learn what we're up against. Even if this plan works, we're going to need to make a show of arms at some point. Secondly, we couldn't instigate this plan until after dark, so we had time."
She paused to swallow some hot mulled wine, and Shad picked up right where she had left off.
"The pirates have every advantage," he said. "Good walls, supplies, all the rest. Taking that place means a siege—possibly a long one."
Derian saw the squad commanders exchange glances. Obviously none of them fancied spending the winter parked on the edge of—or directly in—a swamp. On the other hand, it beat getting riddled by arrows from smuggler's light. They straightened and paid closer attention.
"However, we can shorten the time needed for that siege," Shad continued. "As Lady Blysse has learned from her scouting, they are still storing the majority of their livestock in pens between the buildings at the lighthouse's base. If some or all of these were slain or set free, they would lose their fresh food.
"True, they would not need to feed the livestock then, but take note of what they have there: goats and pigs will eat almost anything—in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they're using them to clean up their scraps. Chicken feed—well, that's proverbial. Rabbits might be more of a problem, but they could slaughter them early and not be too put out. I wouldn't be surprised if they augment the duck food with material from the swamps.
"Therefore, if we get rid of their livestock, we cut deeply into their supplies far more rapidly than we would if we simply waited."
The scout commander nodded. "I could send in my people, but even so there would probably be casualties."
Firekeeper laughed huskily.
"Let me go," she suggested, "me and Blind Seer and I don't think there be casualties—unless you mean ducks and pigs."
Princess Sapphire nodded.
"We'll take you up on that offer," she said. "It's precisely what we were hoping for."
Counting on, Derian thought. No wonder you started flattering her!
The commander of the scouts looked disgruntled and Sapphire was quick to soothe him.
"This is meant as no insult to your scouts, Wheeler," she said. "Lady Blysse is—simply put—unique. She has already been across the moat. Blind Seer can either watch her back or join her."
The enormous wolf's jaws gaped in what Derian would swear was laughter. Clearly he thought the entire thing was a tremendous joke.
"Blind Seer come with," Firekeeper said. "Bold can watch."
Sapphire went on as if there had been no interruption.
"They can go by night, Wheeler. Moreover, if anyone sees Blind Seer's footprints… Well, that moves us into our next tactical element."
Wheeler stroked the bridge of his nose thoughtfully, his face lighting up and his expression becoming almost merry as he considered what his princess was saying.
"I offer no further objections, Princess Sapphire."
"Well, does anyone else wish to offer any objections to that stage of the plan?" Shad asked. "If not we'll move onto our next element."
A female voice, trembling slightly as at its own temerity, took advantage of the prince's purely formal pause.
"I do," it said.
Wendee Jay, who had been in and out of the council circle occupying herself with some of her more routine tasks, now stepped boldly into the light. She curtsied deeply and then spoke her protest in a breathless rush.
"Last time Lady Firekeeper swam the moat, Your Majesty, she thought no one noticed, but I did and she was chilled to the bone. I'm not saying that she can't do what you ask, but some provisions should be made for preserving her health—otherwise you'll have her coughing out her lungs."
Derian quietly applauded Wendee. It was hard to speak up front of people you'd been taught since childhood were your betters.
Firekeeper looked over at Wendee.
"You noticed?"
"I was awake in my tent and heard you come back and speak with Lord Edlin. He may not have noticed, but I saw you were shaking. I was about to come out and insist that you get into something warm when you decided of your own accord to go to bed. The next day, you told us where you'd been and I put the facts together."
Edlin looked abashed at the look Wendee gave him.
"Sorry," he said. "I was excited about the crow being back, what?"
"Any thoughts on how we could deal with this?" Shad asked. "I think Goody Wendee raises a valid point."
"Lady Blysse could carry dry clothing in an oiled bag," one of the commanders suggested.
"Better she use some sort of bridge," another protested. "Keep her out of the water at all costs. It is Wolf Moon, after all, no time to be swimming in ocean water."
"Firekeeper?" Shad looked at the wolf-woman, soliciting for her opinion.
"A bridge is big," she said, her hand gesture showing that what she meant by "big" was closer to "awkward," "but the water is cold. If I take time now, I could make something to carry and lay across moat."
Wheeler, the scout officer, rubbed his hands together in approval.
"Let me put some of my people on it, my lady. They've skill in this. No need for you to reinvent the wheel and those I have in mind can be trusted not to breathe a word that they're building more than a prototype for future action."
Firekeeper caught the gist of his offer and graciously nodded her acceptance. Wheeler excused himself to give the necessary orders.
"Good," Sapphire said. "Now, as some of you have doubtless guessed, the second major element in our siege tactic is the need to break down the smugglers' will—their morale. As I see it, by whatever right Baron Endbrook has claimed a place there, he is a relative newcomer. Initially, the smugglers will view us as their enemies, but after Firekeeper has rid them of their foodstuffs and proven that they are not so impervio
us to attack as they think, then Prince Shad and I will send a message to them."
Shad continued, "We want Citrine Shield alive and safe. That's what started us down here. When we consulted with King Tedric and Queen Elexa, though, they rapidly showed us that there is a bigger picture here—a more complicated question. In short, Baron Endbrook cannot be permitted to operate on Hawk Haven land without penalty. If we let him do so, we send a message to Queen Valora—a message that she will interpret not as caution but as weakness."
"Moreover," Sapphire said, picking up on Shad's point so smoothly that Derian couldn't help but imagine prince and princess rehearsing exactly what they would say, who would make which points, it would be to our advantage to break the pirates' hold on Smuggler's Light. As long as rule of the sea was split between Bright Bay and Waterland, the pirates were a nuisance, but one we could deal with in our own time.
"Baron Endbrook has shown us that the pirates are willing to operate as the Isles' ally. We must show this cannot be. Therefore, if at all possible, we must take Smuggler's Light. If we cannot—and I am willing to admit we may not be able to—then we should at least leave them a clear message that the days of tolerance are over!"
She brought her hand down on her thigh as she concluded, a dramatic gesture that was not all affected. It was perfectly in keeping with her persona as the warrior princess, the heroine of ballad and song.
There was no applause, but the respectful silence that greeted her proclamation—outrageous as it was in view of what they had learned about the smugglers' defenses, in view of past defeats—was more acclamation than any cheering could be.
The meeting broke up soon after that. The commanders went to tell their squads an abbreviated version of plans. It had been decided that it would only help matters if a pirate spy learned of the plans to break Smuggler's Light. For that reason anyone seen leaving the swamp—except for Baron Endbrook and Citrine Shield, of course—was to be permitted to go.
In winter's hold, the pirates would find summoning reinforcements difficult. In any case, they were unlikely to wish to declare open war on Hawk Haven. Smuggler's Light was a good base, but it was not the pirates' only base—and now they might well feel they had a claim on Queen Valora.
Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart Page 68
