Foul Tide's Turning (16 page)

‘Better for who?’ said Helrena. ‘Not for my house. I prefer the doctor working precisely where he is.’

‘I am not certain that is wise,’ said Apolleon.

‘Wise? I shall decide what is wise here. Never make my decisions for me again, Apolleon … that foolery you arranged in the arena,’ said Helrena. ‘Cross me in that manner again and I will have no further part in your schemes. I am nobody’s puppet. If you wish to think for me, seize the diamond throne and make
yourself
emperor instead.’

Apolleon bowed. ‘And who would wish for that, who was not born to it?’

Oddly, Duncan actually believed the nobleman’s words. There was something genuine in the way Apolleon had said it. He really
didn’t
desire the imperial throne. Far from finding the statement reassuring, however, it had the opposite effect on the Weylander. It made him fear the unexplainable, capricious head of the secret police all the more. The nobleman strode from the chamber, leaving the rest of them to digest the news.

‘Damn Circae,’ said Helrena. ‘My wounds from the arena are hardly sealed with bandage spray and she finds a way to turn my victory over Elanthra into a resounding defeat.’

‘Maybe Gyal’s better being considered the front-runner for emperor. Let the assassins’ blades be sharpened for his spine instead. The throne’s a hard, uncomfortable seat,’ advised Paetro, cautiously.

‘It’s a
safe
seat,’ said Helrena.

‘Few wish an empress to ascend to it,’ said Paetro. ‘The power of the imperial harem loses its potency without hundreds of royal brood-mares lounging around in silks to give the empire’s great and good their chance to produce a living lottery ticket for the next crown.’

‘The rest of the imperium can go hang,’ said Helrena. ‘The diamond throne’s there for whoever has the will to take it. I have as much right as Gyal Skar to rule.’

‘Just as long as you’re not doing this simply to make Circae unemployed,’ said Paetro.

‘That’s merely a very happy bonus,’ said Helrena. She looked at Duncan. ‘You don’t have to travel with us to Weyland. It will not be a comfortable experience to watch the punishment squadron avenging the slave revolt in your homeland. The empire wants blood spilled, and there is only your people’s to sacrifice.’

‘I have to go,’ said Duncan. ‘I was there when Lady Cassandra was taken. It was my duty to keep her safe.’

‘No, lad,’ said Paetro. ‘That duty was mine.’

‘If you wish to allocate fault,’ said Helrena, ‘kindly blame Apolleon. It was his rash decision to pursue the outlaw Sariel into the lee of an erupting stratovolcano that damned our ship. What is done is done.’

‘I have to go with you,’ said Duncan. ‘Don’t ask me to stay.’

‘Very well,’ said Helrena. ‘Never give me cause to say
I told you so
.’

‘I won’t,’ promised Duncan.

‘In that case,’ said Helrena, ‘use what time is left before we depart to train with Paetro.’

‘I know how to use a sword,’ said Duncan.

‘May the ancestors spare me your male pride. I am not talking of exchanging sabre blows with villagers, but the full range of skills and techniques legionaries are trained with. Modern arms and equipment.’

‘Our job is to protect
you
,’ said Paetro.

‘I suspect I will need neither a bodyguard nor a food taster for the moment,’ smiled Helrena, sadly. ‘When we are in Weyland there will be ample opportunity for Circae’s allies to have us killed simply by ordering us towards the worst of the fighting. Train hard. My house has lost enough people in this business. I do not wish to add any more, least of all you. Save your suspicious eyes for when we serve alongside Gyal and Machus.’ She waved the pair of them out and they left together.

‘She meant it, you know,’ said Paetro. ‘About staying in the imperium when we ship out.’

‘You’re going,’ said Duncan.

‘There’s not a force strong enough to keep me away,’ said Paetro. ‘I’m shipping out to bring back the young highness. And I’m going to track down the bastard that killed my girl and make him regret the day he set foot in the imperium.’

‘It won’t help your family if you die on foreign soil,’ said Duncan. He remembered how shockingly fast the deranged, travel-worn pastor of Northhaven had drawn and fired his guns. Duncan left for dead. Hesia a corpse in the volcanic ash. Paetro wounded. Almost too fast to follow. Not a skill that Jacob Carnehan had mastered behind the pulpit, that much was certain.

‘I’m no celestial-upper,’ said Paetro, ‘but I still have my honour. That’s all I have. He won’t catch me by surprise again. Won’t be a duel. I’m a soldier, and I’ll kill him like one.’

‘We need Cassandra back alive.’

‘I know my damn duty. The young highness returned safe first. Hunting that devil down second.’

‘What I don’t understand is why the pastor took Cassandra hostage and has made no demands.’

‘None that we know about,’ said Paetro.

‘Did Father Carnehan say anything to you when he took Cassandra?’ asked Duncan.

‘Nothing polite,’ said Paetro. Duncan knew the old soldier well enough to know when he was dissembling. There was something more to this matter that he would not talk of.
But what?
And that wasn’t the only mystery nagging at the Weylander. ‘What is Doctor Horvak working on for the house that is of such importance?’

‘Has the princess not told you, lad?’

‘She said to me that there are some things I am better off not knowing, safer not knowing …’

‘Well, then, there you have it. As far as this matter is concerned, I haven’t been taken into her confidence either. But I think we can hazard a guess by the limits of the ambitions of those involved: Apolleon and Helrena.’

‘What limits?’

‘My point precisely,’ said the solider. ‘Taking the diamond throne is enough of a game for almost every schemer and celestial-caste nob inside the imperium. But for those two? Taking the empire is only the first part of the equation. The real question is what do you do with the empire once you hold it? When you can answer that, I suspect you will know what the good doctor is beavering away on.’

‘Helrena doesn’t want Apolleon to lay his hands on the doctor or his work.’

‘If the man had the doctor, maybe he’d change his tune about who should take the throne next.’

‘Well, at least Helrena doesn’t fully trust him,’ said Duncan. ‘That’s something.’

‘That’s a fine intuition. I’m going to make you a soldier, yet, lad,’ said Paetro, slapping Duncan’s back. ‘You learnt how to spot snares and poisoned plates and explosive trip-wires hidden under a mattress well enough. Let’s see how you do with legion training in as short a time as any trainer was ever given.’

It wasn’t going to be easy, but then, nothing worth earning ever was.

Jacob Carnehan wasn’t having a good start to the day. He looked at Sheplar Lesh, freshly arrived from the great forest with pine needles still clinging to his jacket. ‘So if you’re standing here, where the hell is the imperial brat?’

‘Tied up in a wagon outside Northhaven,’ said Sheplar. ‘Kerge watches her. We had no choice in our departure, even without the marauders closing in on Quehanna. The gask council did not wish her to remain in their city any longer. They scryed the future and concluded she is bad luck.’

‘They got that much right,’ said Jacob. ‘Don’t need their talents to tell you that. We need to get her stashed somewhere, quick. Northhaven is crawling with strangers asking too many questions. One of the king’s hands is here as well, a prefect, and I guarantee he hasn’t come north to sample the ice wine.’

‘I plan to take the bumo north,’ explained Sheplar. ‘To Rodal.’

‘Will your country offer you and Kerge sanctuary?’

‘Officially? I am not certain. They are not eager to become embroiled in Weyland’s internal politics, old ally or not. But I still have many friends in the skyguard and the temples. They will help me when they understand what is at stake. The key faction that would oppose us travels south to Arcadia in an attempt to broker a peace between Prince Owen and the usurper.’

Jacob nodded. It was the best of a bad lot, then. In the mountain heights of Rodal the king’s killers and assassins would stand out like sore thumbs. So would an imperial girl and a gask acting as her jailor, of course, but it had to be safer than hiding her in Northhaven farmland; where he’d need to protect Cassandra Skar from the vengeful locals as well as the ruthless forces looking to free her.

‘There is another option,’ said Sheplar.

‘Speak,’ said Jacob.

‘The bumo is no longer an effective shield against the king’s vengeance. She is like a young hare scrabbling around the bush, drawing predators towards our camp. We could simply release her. Let your king find her and carry her back to the empire.’

‘Then what?’ said Jacob. ‘We trust that crown-wearing viper to leave us alone? I didn’t bring back half of Northhaven’s children and cut Vandia’s chains off them, just to have them start turning up with their throats slit by “bandits”.’

‘They will keep coming for her,’ warned Sheplar.

‘Let them come,’ said Jacob. ‘As long as we have the emperor’s granddaughter as a body shield, their aim’s going to be off.’

‘Or be very careful,’ warned Sheplar.

‘I’m a careful man, myself.’

The aviator looked at him oddly. ‘Indeed. I can see that. There is no more to the matter than this? You have not concocted a plan with that devil Sariel which you have not cared to share with me?’

‘As if. I haven’t seen Sariel since he left town,’ said Jacob. He waved towards the window. ‘He’s out there, somewhere, chasing the lost memories of his old life.’ Always start a lie with the plain truth. Bait, not shield, was exactly what Lady Cassandra Skar was to Jacob. As large as the imperium lay, there weren’t nearly enough Vandians in their legions to begin to pay for murdering Mary Carnehan.
Burning my town. Taking my son.
And Vandia was millions of miles away. Only reachable with their own shockingly advanced ships … unless they chose to come to him.

‘I think I preferred the smelly one when he was half-insane,’ said Sheplar. ‘Sanity does not suit him.’

‘I reckon Sariel’s still mad.’
Mainly at our enemies, right now. Which is the way I’d like to keep it.
‘Come on. I’ll see you safe out of town.’

Kerge and Sheplar had parked their wagon on the road out to the river, smoke from the warehouses and docks visible in the distance trailing into a cold, clear sky. Jacob couldn’t walk this road without remembering the horrific sights he’d witnessed here during the raid. All the captured townspeople too old or sick to be worth their haulage costs beheaded by the slave traders, the children and young chained and marched out to the pick-up planes, ready to lift off for their carrier bird. His wife, Mary, had endured that sad sight too, before she’d been murdered by the skels.
Lord but I miss you. The sight and sound of you. Having someone to talk to.
The now empty cornfields the covered wagon sat in had grown higher than ever in the summer past, nurtured by the blood of the dead. That was a fair analogy, Jacob reckoned, to the present health of the kingdom. Never richer. Never poorer. And all of it nourished by the people’s blood.
I’ll bring Benner Landor’s fields a fresh crop of fertilizer. All of it Vandian
.

Kerge sat on the cart’s tailboard, ahead of a wagon bed with a cylindrical grey canvas cover stretched over arched wooden bows, two oxen in its harness. They had brought a horse along too, tethered to the wagon and tugging happily at the grass along the verge. The gask waved when he saw Jacob and Sheplar approaching.

Jacob drew to a halt in front of the wagon. ‘Where’s your little friend?’

Kerge reached back into the flatbed and pulled a blanket off a pile of woodchip crates. Lady Cassandra Skar sat there wedged between two boxes, glowering at him. Despite himself, Jacob smiled. ‘Take the gag off for a minute.’

The gask did as Jacob asked. The young Vandian indignantly shook her hair. ‘The empire has not forgotten about me! They will arrive to free me and you will be skinned alive for every humiliation heaped upon my person.’

‘Didn’t work out so well for you, last time. I left a couple of legions face down in the ash of that ore-spewing volcano your people value so highly. And this is
my
country, girl.’

‘It’ll be left as burned-out as the volcano’s dead zone once we’ve finished with it.’

‘I should hand you to that serpent sitting on our throne. The two of you deserve each other.’

‘The empire has provinces without end, armies without peer. We will be the tide that sweeps your people away.’

‘There is no tide that can reach Rodal’s heights,’ said Sheplar. ‘And the rocks of our peaks do not burn.’

‘If your savage hill tribes value silver, someone will be willing to knife you in the back and turn me over to my countrymen. It happened in the forests, it will be the same wherever you try to hide me.’

‘I got plenty of lead to trade them,’ said Jacob. He patted the brace of pistols under his coat.

‘You’re a fool, Weylander.’

‘Your people murdered my wife. Mary’s buried next to our two children. My old life’s buried down with her and all the townspeople you had butchered. Maybe I am a fool, girl, but that’s only because you took everything from me. I’ve nothing left to be.’

‘The empire will find something.’

Jacob raised his hands in the air. ‘You’ve hollowed me out. I’m empty, here. And a man without hope, that’s a man without fear.’ Jacob climbed into the wagon and re-fixed the girl’s gag. Kerge and Sheplar checked the wagon for the journey ahead, inspecting the hooves of the oxen and the grease on the wheel axles. Lady Cassandra Skar glared silent loathing at him. Jacob pointed to the mountain range barely visible in the distance, beyond the river and the hinterland of hills and valleys that led up to the vast heights. The league’s stone walls, where the Rodalians kept out the nomad hordes that haunted the steppes beyond. He whispered to her. ‘You think those are mountains? They’re not, Your
Highness
. They’re an empire-sized snare, big enough to bury every legion you’ve got.’ Jacob smiled coldly at the Vandian and dropped the blanket over her, concealing her presence from the prying eyes of other travellers. ‘You’ll see.’