by Sharon Shinn
Kirra and Donnal were as often gone from the ship as present, having one way to entertain themselves that none of the rest of them possessed. Senneth saw them take dozens of shapes before the journey was done, from gull to hawk to fish to eel. “Better be careful some hungry sailor doesn’t snare you on a line and fry you up for dinner,” she admonished Kirra one night after that young lady had come back to their cabin sleek and wet from a swim in the ocean.
Kirra grinned and ran her fingers through her matted hair. “Oh, I’d turn human as soon as the hook went through my lip and he started hauling me back toward the rail,” she said. “He’d think he caught a mermaid or some other creature of the sea and be so startled he’d drop his line in the ocean.”
“If he didn’t shoot you with a crossbow instead and let you bleed to death in the salt water,” Senneth said.
Kirra laughed. “I think Captain Abernot has put a moratorium on shooting gulls and catching fish, during this stage of his journey, anyway,” she said. “He worries just as much as you do.”
Of Tayse, during this long, dreary week, Senneth saw almost nothing. Unless the six of them were together, eating or gaming or talking. He kept to his cabin most of the time, clearly a man who was not happy to be water bound. It was obvious he considered them all safe for the first time since they’d set out on this journey, so his own ferocious vigilance was eased. He did not feel the need to set a guard on Senneth’s door, or watch her every movement, or be aware of, night and day, exactly where she was.
Senneth missed the unfailing attention, bitter as it had sometimes been. She knew she would miss it even more once they arrived at Ghosenhall and Tayse left her life entirely.
The few times she saw him outside of his cabin and strolling the deck alone, he mostly kept to the stern of the ship, watching the water unroll behind them. She knew without asking that he was guarding their back trail, making sure no fast-moving Gisseltess ships raced out of the southern waters to menace them on their journey. He could not entirely ignore his own protective instincts.
They had been on board ship six days before Senneth took the chance to speak to Tayse alone. It was early evening, and her traveling companions would soon gather in the galley to eat their meal half an hour before the sailors began arriving in their own dinner shifts. The sun was very low over the western horizon, about to disappear into the farthest edge of the wrinkled sea. The breeze was fitful, but cold as always. Tayse stood braced against the back railing, his coat gathered around him, his gloved hands loose on the top bar.
Senneth came to stand beside him, taking a casual stance, pretending that it didn’t matter to her if he greeted her with a smile or a scowl. He did neither; he glanced down at her with little expression on his face at all, and then moved over somewhat to make room for her.
They stood there a moment in what Senneth hoped was companionable silence before she spoke. “Any ships in pursuit?” she asked lightly.
He shook his head. “Not that I’ve seen, or Donnal or Kirra. I’ve asked them to look when they go out on their adventures.”
“Ah. Then they aren’t just playing like children when they turn themselves into sea creatures and water birds.”
His face relaxed in a faint smile. “Well, I imagine it’s more playing than reconnaissance, but I trust them to at least patrol the seas for enemy ships.”
“Captain Abernot says we should make land tomorrow. I have to say, I’m looking forward to it.”
“Yes,” he said, the word so heartfelt that she laughed.
“And are you looking forward to returning to Ghosenhall as well?” she asked. “This has been a long journey for you, I know.”
He looked down at her, his dark eyes hard to read. The smile was gone. “I will be happy to be back in a place I know with people that I understand,” he said at last, the words very slow. “But this has been a journey it will be hard to walk away from. I think the roads and stops along the way will stay with me longer than they usually do.”
“You have not traveled enough,” she said. “Or you’d know that every journey makes its own map across your heart.”
“You have traveled too much,” he said. “Or you wouldn’t think that life holds only such journeys.”
“It is true,” she said, “that I have chosen to make the road my home. But no other home seemed feasible.”
“You could join the Riders, as Justin has suggested,” he said. “It wouldn’t take much training to make you good enough. And the king would welcome you into their ranks.”
“But would the Riders?” she asked, amused. “I am an element that does not mix so well with certain others.”
“It might take some time,” he admitted. “But you would win them over. Most of them.”
“Oh, Tayse,” she said, leaning against the railing and watching the sea ruffle and calm behind them. “You don’t want me as a Rider, troubling you with my presence. You’re worried about my safety. You think that once you’re not beside me, I’ll tumble into danger as I round every curve in the road. I’ll promise you to be careful, and then you can watch me go with a light heart.”
“Hardly that,” he said, his own face turned toward the south.
“I have to confess,” she said in a low voice, “that I was glad you were in the room with me when I confronted Halchon Gisseltess.”
He was silent a moment. “I would have killed him.”
“I know.” She, too, held the silence briefly, and then she sighed. “But it’s better that you did not.”
“You’re afraid of him.”
“Yes.”
“What can he do to you? He doesn’t have the power to compel you to marry him, does he?”
She laughed. “I don’t think so, but if I hear that his wife has mysteriously disappeared, I think it will be time for me to go to ground.”
He looked down at her again, his eyes very dark and serious. “It is time for you to talk to your brothers, I think,” he said.
She had not expected such a comment from him, and she felt a strong wave of indignation. “And I think you don’t know anything about it.”
“When you and Kirra were dividing Houses for the war, all your calculations centered on Brassenthwaite’s fealty to the throne. If your brothers think you will be on the throne, it might change their sense of loyalty.”
“My brothers have no interest in me anymore.”
“I doubt that,” he said dryly. “Certainly once they find Halchon Gisseltess still wants the alliance, they will find you very interesting indeed.”
“I have renounced my Brassenthwaite heritage and my Brassenthwaite relations.”
“But they have not renounced you,” he said. “If Senneth Brassenthwaite is going to be at the heart of this war, she had better know who her allies and enemies are.”
She stared up at him, for that was putting it more plainly than she had ever managed to phrase it to herself. She was at the heart of this war, one way or another—because she was a mystic, because she was powerful, because she would fight for her king with a wholehearted passion. But Halchon’s proposal had put her at the center of conflict in the political arena as well. If she could thwart him, if she could sway Kiernan, she had obligations she had not foreseen—or had chosen to ignore.
“I hate my brother,” she said.
“You’ve changed since you were seventeen,” Tayse said. “Perhaps he has, too.”
“He will not take my side.”
“You don’t know whose side he is already on.”
She leaned forward, scrunching down over the railing, resting her chin on her hands as they clasped the bar. “And my grandmother’s dead,” she said. “And my mother betrayed me. There is nothing for me in Brassenthwaite anymore.”
“There is a kingdom at stake,” he said. “You have to go.”
Senneth did not reply. She kept her eyes before her on the curling lines of the wake, watching the water fold over on itself and then smooth into an eternal blue. He was right, of co
urse. She had to go to Brassenthwaite. Though it was the very last journey she wanted to make.
THEY arrived at Dormas in the middle of the following afternoon. It took nearly two hours to get their belongings packed, the horses off-loaded, and the raelynx set in a rented gig—just till they got out of the city, Senneth promised Cammon. The rest of them all stood on the wharf for a few minutes while Kirra finished giving Captain Abernot messages for her father.
Cammon seemed uncharacteristically nervous. “What if we see Kardon?” he asked, pushing his shaggy hair from his eyes. “He’ll recognize me. What if he wants me back?”
Tayse looked down at him with a lurking smile. “What makes you think we would give you back?”
“I wouldn’t want you to have to fight for me,” Cammon said shyly.
Justin laughed. “We fight for everybody, in this group,” he said. “Haven’t you noticed that by now?”
“Anyway, you’re safe enough. We won’t be in Dormas long enough for anyone to recognize us,” Senneth said.
But of course her words were to be disproved less than a minute later. While she and her friends waited patiently on the pier, a knot of horsemen clattered by—then came to a sudden, tangled halt as voices cried out a surprised welcome.
“Tayse! Justin! Is that really you?”
“Hey, it’s Justin! And Tayse! Why are you in Dormas?”
Seconds later, they were surrounded by a small group of men and women jumping from their saddles and greeting the soldiers with strong handshakes or playful punches on the shoulder. Senneth thought she counted eight of them, but they moved so quickly and talked so rapidly that it was hard to sort them out. Not hard to know instantly who they were, though: King’s Riders, dressed in black and gold, and sporting the arrogant rampant lion on sashes across their chests.
And not hard to see that these were the people that Justin and Tayse were most completely comfortable with. Justin was wrestling with some attractive young man about his age, clubbing him about the head and ducking the good-natured blows aimed at him in return. Tayse was standing between two older men, talking with great animation—actually smiling. Actually laughing.
Cammon glanced over at Senneth. “True friends,” he said with a smile. Senneth nodded and dropped her gaze to the planks below her feet. She was wondering what it would be like to have Tayse’s affection so casually and willingly given.
“But are you done, then? With your mission? Weren’t you supposed to be off touring the southern Houses or some such thing?”
The artless question caught Senneth’s attention and made her lift her eyes. Not so good to be gossiping about such a topic in such a public place. Even through his thicket of friends, Tayse managed to give Senneth a reassuring glance. “Still on the mission, escorting friends of the king’s,” he said in a soft voice. “And it’s not to be talked of just now.”
“But who are—where—are these the king’s friends?” said the good-looking one who had been roughhousing with Justin. Young and tactless, but Senneth couldn’t blame him. His gaze rested first on her, then, with patent disbelief, on Cammon and Donnal.
“Mind your manners,” came the sharp words from one of the older men standing beside Tayse. “You’re pretty disreputable-looking yourself, and the king seems to hold you in high regard, though I don’t know why.”
A muffled laugh from the crowd, and the young man shuffled his feet. “Sorry,” he muttered.
“These are some of my companions of the road,” Tayse said in a calm voice. “But she’s the one who’s led us most of the way.”
“Ahhhh—” came from more than one throat, and Senneth knew without looking that Kirra must be making her way down the gangplank. Kirra would have seen the knot of soldiers and guessed as quickly as Senneth who they were, and she had no doubt assumed her most regal air and most golden aura. “Danalustrous, that one.”
“And you’re still not done riding?” one irrepressible soul asked. “I’ll come join you if you need another sword.”
“Thank you,” said Tayse, sounding amused. “So far we have managed to defend ourselves tolerably well without you.”
“Where are you headed now?” inquired one of the older men. “Or shouldn’t I ask?”
“Ghosenhall,” Tayse said.
“So are we!” the Rider exclaimed. “Can we travel together? Or is there a reason you should be a smaller party on the road?”
Senneth felt her heart grow tinier and harder inside her chest. No reason at all their party shouldn’t be augmented by Riders. In fact, Tayse was certain to see that as a good thing, an extra ring of protection around the companions he could never make safe enough.
“We’d be happy to have your escort,” Tayse said. “In truth, we’ve drawn more—attention—than I had expected. I’d like to think that, this far north, we would be wholly unmolested, but I wouldn’t mind sharing a few watches for the last leg of the journey.”
“Excellent,” said the other Rider. “How much time do you need? We’re ready to leave now.”
“So are we,” said Tayse. “As soon as we mount.”
Kirra had by this time joined the group and bestowed her radiant smile on all the newcomers. Even the women seemed dazzled by her obvious charm. “Tayse, have you found friends?” she asked lightly. “And all this time I thought you didn’t have any.”
More laughter for that. Tayse was grinning. “Plenty of friends, though they’re astonished that I’d spend so much effort guarding you,” he replied. “They’ve offered to escort us back to Ghosenhall, and I’ve accepted, assuming you have no objection.”
Like Tayse, Kirra was quick to realize that Senneth did not want the Brassenthwaite name spoken in this crowd, and she had no hesitation in accepting her role. “How could I object? I’m happy to be surrounded by King’s Riders. When can we leave?”
“Now,” Tayse said, swinging himself to the back of his horse. Three of the new Riders hurried forward to offer Kirra help into the saddle. Kirra dimpled and allowed one of them to lift her up.
Senneth briefly exchanged glances with Cammon, who was grinning, and Donnal, who was seething. “Time to go,” she said. She managed to mount her horse without anyone’s aid, and then they were on their way.
CHAPTER 34
THEY were in Ghosenhall six days later. Cutting through Storian lands and traveling on the well-maintained highways of the middle regions, they made excellent time, better than Senneth would have expected from such a large group. She had reluctantly concluded that she must keep the raelynx confined to its cage for the whole trip, now that their numbers were so expanded and it would be harder to keep track of it during all the confusion of travel. Cammon begged her to release it but did not seem to think he would be able to change her mind. Their progress was slowed a bit by accommodating the cart that carried the wild creature, but even so, they accomplished their journey very efficiently.
Kirra quickly became the darling of the camp as all the male Riders jostled for a chance to flirt with her. Donnal scowled through most of the journey, dropping back toward the rear guard to avoid watching her smile and laugh with the strangers. “Don’t change shapes—don’t draw attention to yourself,” Senneth warned him, so he stayed in human form, but he glowered so much she thought he might as well have been a bear.
Cammon enjoyed himself thoroughly and proved to be almost as popular with the Riders as Kirra. This was no doubt because of the way Justin treated him, like a younger brother of whom he was inordinately fond. The women among the Riders instantly adopted him and fussed over him like adoring aunts. Senneth could not help but smile to see him so happy, practicing new sword moves in the evening, listening raptly to the tales told around the fires. Yes, she should probably leave him in Ghosenhall, whether or not she sought out a mystic to train him. The Riders would take him in, one way or another; he would be safe among them.
As for herself, for this leg of the journey, Senneth made herself as inconspicuous as possible. She did not go quite s
o far as to conjure the spells that would make her disappear, but she never spoke unless someone else addressed her, never made overtures to any of the other Riders, never offered to start a fire, and didn’t even bother to keep the campsite warm at night. She guessed that their new companions assumed she was Kirra’s maid or impoverished companion, when they thought of her at all, and she was content to have it that way. Everyone was civil to her, though completely indifferent; she thought, if she wanted, she could slip away entirely.
Except that, on the day she was feeling most glum about her near-invisibility, Cammon sought her out to ride beside her for two solid hours. Except that, over every meal as she was being most outrageous, Kirra would send a look and a smile her way. Except that, when a Rider accidentally bumped Senneth on horseback, Justin was instantly beside her, calling the other young man by all sorts of furious names and making sure Senneth was entirely unhurt.
Except that, every night as he made his circuit around the campfire, Tayse looked first for her. And every morning as they all mounted up again, Tayse watched to make sure she was steady in the saddle before he took to the road. And half a dozen times during the day, every day, Senneth would look up to find Tayse turned on his horse, glancing back at her. She had the eerie sensation that if, at any point during the night or day, she cried out in sudden terror, Tayse and Justin and Cammon and Kirra would be at her side almost before her voice had sounded.
Donnal, of course, would be at Kirra’s side, but Senneth had no quarrel with that.
The knowledge that, even lost within this larger party, her small group of friends were still tightly bound to her made her squelch the urge to vanish. But she could not say she truly enjoyed any part of that final trip.
THEY reached Ghosenhall on a sunny day that showed off all the charms of the royal city. It lay on a wide, flat plain and stretched out over the gentle land like a pretty mistress too lazy to rise from bed. Most of its buildings were low and rambling, built of warm granite or a honey-colored marble; in the public districts, the streets were wide and well-maintained. Parks and fountains and flower gardens were spread liberally throughout the streets, and though none of them were particularly beautiful at this time of year, they did contribute to the city’s open, uncrowded air. There were people everywhere, hurrying down the ample boulevards, calling out to each other, shouting at careless drivers, announcing their wares, waving to the Riders. Yet everything was so ordered and civilized that it was a joy to travel through the streets.
