The Fall of the Dagger (The Forsaken Lands) (26 page)

Rot it, she had a way of chiselling information out of you, just by
looking
… Worse, he could not lie, or even prevaricate, because her witchery meant she could read him like a book.

He sighed heavily. “Sorrel Redwing lost a daughter under horrible circumstances. She has little place in her heart at the moment for anyone except Piper.”

“You care for her, nonetheless.”

“Of course I do! You have no idea how much we have been through together, side by side. I love her as much as it is possible to love a friend without going that one step further.”

“She doesn’t care for you?”

“Not in that way, no. I’ve been aware of that for a long, long while. Perhaps even longer than she has!” He smiled. “The attraction was there initially perhaps, but there was also always something missing. Now it’s not something missing, but rather something… inserted. Somewhere along the line we’ve become more akin to siblings. I feel like an older brother always trying to protect her because I got her into this mess, at least partially. And she’s the younger sister telling me she’s not a child any more and can look after herself.”

Fritillary shook her head and waggled a finger at him. “That’s not a good basis for a marriage.”

He laughed. “No, it’s not. So it is just as well we aren’t contemplating one, isn’t it?”

“Tell me about Piper.”

“She’s a delight. Intelligent, charming, pretty. Everything that a parent would want in a daughter. But – but there is no doubt that she is Valerian Fox’s child and that she is also a sorcerer.”

“Who else knows that she is the Regala’s child?”

“Ardhi. Juster guessed. He knew about devil-kin and guessed we took Piper from Ustgrind to save her life.”

“Who knows she is Fox’s child?”

“Possibly the midwife who delivered the twins. Apparently Mathilda said something during her travail—”

“That woman’s dead.”

“Then, if she didn’t tell anyone, just Sorrel, myself, Ardhi and Lord Juster.”

“You told Lord Juster?”

“We needed his help. So that he would give it, we had to tell him why it was necessary. Ryce, on the other hand, knows nothing. He has assumed she is Sorrel’s, born of some Lowmian liaison. He’s too polite to ask for details.”

“I think it best that neither Ryce nor anyone else ever find out Fox sired the twins. What else should I know?”

It was an order, he knew that, but he had also to give thought to the responsibility he and Sorrel had to Ardhi’s homeland. “The future of the Va-forsaken land depends on our secrecy.”

“I can’t make promises when I don’t know what I’m promising!” she said. “The only thing I can say is that I won’t do anything with the information you give me that runs counter to your wishes without discussing it with you first. I will also take all you say seriously, because I trust your judgement in this.”

With that, he had to be content. He leaned forward and dropped his voice as he began to tell the story of the Chenderawasi.

By the time Saker had finished the tale and answered all the questions, it was dark outside. The shrine keeper brought some food, but both of them only picked at it. Fritillary was silent for a long time as she considered all she had learned.

“I am relieved,” she said at last, “that you feel the two hemispheres are linked through our beliefs and that their
sakti
is not so very different from our witcheries. When I first heard about the dagger, I was afraid of the opposite. That it was linked to the sorcery and the curse of the Horned Death.”

“I’m even wondering if the Chenderawasi Avians are so very different from our unseen guardians. They
are
more visible, but like unseen guardians, they dispense magic.”

She looked intrigued. “An interesting thought!”

“Ardhi mentioned a price for hiding the shrines. Was it the unseen guardians who paid it?”
Or was it you, because you have been walking those unseen paths?

“Some of the older oaks are dying,” she admitted. “There will be new trees, new guardians.”

His insides lurched uncomfortably. “But a young guardian of a young oak…”

“… can’t grant witcheries for many years,” she finished for him. “We will all pay in the end. Fewer witcheries granted for several generations.”

And you
chose
to do that.

She smiled faintly. “I believe we would have lost more if the trees had not been hidden. Shrine keepers and witchery folk were being targeted.”

Dear Va, what a decision she had made, knowing how much she was damaging the future of the whole hemisphere. Heroic? Presumptuous? He gazed at her, half of him admiring the resolution and courage of her decision, the other half appalled at her gall.

And she knew it, damn her.

B
y the time the others returned to the ship that night, Sorrel was almost spitting with impatience. She hated being confined to bed, even if it was in Lord Juster’s luxuriously appointed cabin. There was only just so much admiring she could do of the Pashali embroidered bedding, the gilded porcelain chamber pot with the dragon handle, or the intricate carved panelling that had been installed in Javenka to replace the damage done to his cabin by the Lowmians.

“I’m sure I’m well enough to get up,” she told Grig when he looked in on her as she was having her lunch, brought to her personally by the cook a few minutes before. “Can you bring me my clothes?”

He looked uncomfortable. “I could,” he replied, but his tone told her he was reluctant to do so. “Saker would be upset with me if you don’t stay in bed, though.”

“Saker does not dictate what I do,” she said crossly.

He grinned. “He does try, nonetheless, doesn’t he?”

“And are you abetting him?”

“Well, in this case, it’s more what the healer said, which was that you should stay abed today.”

“I could go up on deck in my nightgown…”

“The dock lumpers would love that.”

“I could glamour myself some clothes.”

“Believe me, you’d be chilly up on deck without a cloak.” When she glared at him, he relented. “If you are that determined, I’ll fetch your clothes – but I’d hate to see my embroidery of your wound ruined by you climbing the steps to the upper deck. Really, Sorrel, it’s better you don’t.”

She heaved a sighed. “All right! All right! I’ll stay in bed.”

“I thought you’d be sensible about it.” With that infuriating remark,
he left, leaving her to twiddle her thumbs and curse her well-meaning male friends.

When Saker did return it was already dark. He knocked and poked his head around the door when she answered. “Are you respectable? I’ve brought your clothes from your cabin. Grig tells me you think you are well enough to get up.”

She glared at him. “I’ve been well enough all day long. What happened? Have you any idea how hard it is to lie here and not know—?”

“Everything’s fine.” Briefly he sketched what had happened and the decisions that had been made. “Pontifect Fritillary wants to meet you, so when you’re dressed, come to the wardroom.”

“She’s
here
?”

“Yes. Stop complaining and get some clothes on. Do you want any help?”

“No!”

“I didn’t mean—”

“Out!”

He grinned and left the cabin.

Pulling on her clothes hurt, but once it was done she found she could walk normally, although she was careful not to move her arm too much. She stepped out into the companionway to hear a woman saying, “And you want to protect these islands from
us
?” The door to the officers’ wardroom was ajar.

Saker replied, “From rapacious traders and fortune hunters, yes. We have a window of opportunity now, before people like Uthen Kesleer and his trading company—”

She reached out to knock on the door, but pain gripped her side as the movement stretched her newly healed skin. She was forced to lean back against the wall to catch her breath.

“Kesleer is languishing in jail at the moment,” the woman said. Pontifect Fritillary, she assumed. “He may already have been executed.”

Saker grunted. “Really? Can’t say I’m distressed by that news.”

“I will speak to the Regala about drawing up trade treaties. You talk to Prince Ryce when you have the opportunity. If I am successful regaining my place as Pontifect, I can do more, by appealing to religious scruples. However, let’s win our war first.”

“Thank you, Your Reverence.”

She raised her hand again to knock, but halted when she heard his next words.

There is something else worrying Sorrel and me—”

“The twins.”

“Yes. I’m not sure we know how to stop them growing up into sorcerers.”

Sorrel could see Saker’s profile through the crack of the open door. He dug into his belt purse and fished out the second of the circlets the Rani had given them. “Prince-regal Karel must wear this. Always. The Rani hoped it will stop the development of his sorcery. Piper already wears hers.”

She took the gold circlet and ran a finger over the softness of the feathers that had been use to weave it. “Regal enough for a prince, isn’t it? I will give it to Regala Mathilda as soon as I can. I do have to go back to Ustgrind. Tedious place. Mathilda fights the starched-collars of the court as best she can, but they are such
dour
men. Copper-counting, figure-toting merchants, all! She is having more luck with some of the women, fortunately. Offer them freedom they’ve never had before, and there will always be a few who’ll snatch it with joy.”

He smiled and Sorrel wondered if he was thinking of her, climbing the rigging, hiding behind her glamour, dressed as she was now in a sailor’s garb and revelling in the freedom it gave her.

“I need to speak to Sorrel,” Fritillary said.

And that
, she thought,
is as good an entrance line as any.
She stepped into the wardroom. “Your Reverence,” she said. “I am here.”

The woman was impressive: taller than Saker, filling the space around her with the power of her presence. Even her stance as she rose to greet Sorrel commanded attention, though her dress was unadorned and her wiry white hair escaped untidily from under a net snood. Saker had once told her she was about fifty. Well, she looked older. The startling whiteness of her hair was unexpected.

“Mistress Sorrel, a pleasure indeed to meet you. Saker has outlined your adventures since the two of you met. I fear your life has been overturned by this witan of mine, for which I apologise.”

“Oh, I think my life had been turned upside down before we met.”

“Either way, I fear there will be more adventures. I have need of your witchery. Saker is going to Throssel with the prince and Lord Juster. Prince Ryce’s wife and son have been imprisoned in Vavala by Valerian Fox and they must be extricated so he cannot use them to influence Ryce’s behaviour. Someone with a glamour, to help rescue Princess Bealina and her son, would be appreciated.”

She was speechless; Saker was not. “Wait a moment,” he protested. “We do know – or we think we know – that Fox can’t coerce someone with a witchery, but he could probably see through a glamour. Of what possible use would Sorrel be? She’d be captured the moment he laid eyes on her!”

“He’s also seen me before,” Sorrel said. “Although he might not recall my face.”

“There’s another thing too,” Saker added. “We were told by the Rani of Chenderawasi that we are a ternion and it is in that unity of three that our strength lies.”

Fritillary’s gaze didn’t waver from Sorrel’s face. “This is your choice. But hear me out before you decide. Of course, I can’t force you. If you go to Throssel, there is nothing much you can do that others cannot. Ryce will rely on his friends to get inside the castle, after which there will be fighting.”

She was beginning not to like Fritillary. After all she had been through, this woman thought she was useless? She wanted to say that Juster had found her very useful last time he’d needed to see the king, but instead she listened, feeling the muscles of her face hardening into a glower that she didn’t bother to disguise. Saker shot her a glance in warning, but then quickly looked away.

“In Vavala,” the Pontifect continued, “I need somebody who can get inside the palace unseen, warn the princess what is going to happen, tell her what to expect. If she doesn’t know, the plan might fail.’

Her gut wrenched in protest. “I need to go to Throssel. Piper is there. She is my responsibility.” Her voice wobbled, but even as she spoke, she wondered if Fritillary understood.
Do you know what it’s like to leave a child? Do you understand that I think of her every day, all day, and dream of her by night?
She bit the words back.

“Once Throssel has fallen to Prince Ryce, Piper can be brought to Vavala under Saker’s care,” the Pontifect said.

She battled her disappointment. No, her
grief
. “And how do you intend that I get to Vavala?” She wasn’t sure why she even asked. She would
not
go.

“With me, via the timeless route from shrine to shrine. We must free Prince Garred and his mother before Fox gets any inkling of what is happening in Throssel.”

Her throat tightened. She could hardly breathe; to have the prospect of returning to Throssel snatched away from her was more than she could bear. She shook her head with more violence than was needed. “No. Oh, no. I won’t go.”

Fritillary stared and she stared back. “I’m sorry to have to remind you of unpleasant facts, Mistress Sorrel, but Piper is not your daughter and you have no rights in her life. In fact, I believe Regala Mathilda told you to bring her to me. I am aware that you have risked your life more than once to keep her safe. From what Saker has told me, you’ve cared for her with love, but that still does not mean you have any authority over her disposition. Mathilda intended that I be her guardian.”

Her throat swelled with pain, preventing her from venting her protests.

“We know she is not really a princess of Lowmeer any more than Karel has a right to be the Regal,” Fritillary continued. “It is probably best that Piper’s connection to him is kept secret.”

She swallowed back the lump in her throat. “I – I am aware that ultimately Regala Mathilda will dictate what happens to Piper. But what are you trying to say? Because I’m not sure that I am prepared to keep my mouth shut if it means a sorcerer will sit on the throne of Lowmeer.”

“That is indeed unthinkable. You would do well to remember that. I will leave you two to discuss this.” With that remark she turned on her heel and left them alone in the wardroom.

Trembling, Sorrel sat down. “Sweet Va, what did she mean?”

“That both of them might have to be killed,” he said. The grief she read in his look was not reflected in the flat tone of his words.

“Was she – was she threatening Piper to make me compliant?”

“Va, no!” He was appalled. “She’s not like that! No, it was just a warning so—” He couldn’t go on.

“So that I am prepared to lose her. One way or another. What are we going to do?” She dropped her face into her hands, not weeping, but so tired she felt she couldn’t keep herself upright.

He didn’t reply.

Surprised by his continued silence, she lowered her hands to look at him. “Pox on’t,” she said, “you think I shouldn’t go back to Piper.”

He turned away, refusing to meet her eye. “She’s right. Your glamour won’t be needed in Throssel. Prince Ryce will seize power there by force with his battle-hardened men. In Vavala, though…”

“But… Piper.”

“I know.”

He took her hand and held it. “I will bring her safely to you. I promise.”

She managed to nod, but she wasn’t sure he could do all he pledged.

Lord Juster insisted she remain in his cabin that night because the bed was more comfortable than her own, but she couldn’t sleep. Sometime after midnight, she rose and dressed to go up on deck. As she stepped out into the open air, she glamoured herself and walked straight past the sailors on watch. To keep out of their way she climbed up the shrouds to the crow’s nest, only to find it occupied.

Ardhi, leaning on the railing, looked down at her, head cocked to one side. “We have a saying, ‘When in child-bed, obey the midwife.’ I think it can be extended to mean, ‘When sick, obey the healer.’ I find it hard to think he suggested you climb the rigging.”

“No, but he did say Cranald had done an excellent job with the stitching, and his witchery was just to speed the healing along. Is there room enough for me in there?”

“Of course.” He helped her in, and she leaned against the railing opposite him, the space so narrow that they were almost touching. “I’ll leave if you want to be alone.”

“Please don’t,” she said. She hadn’t been looking for company, but when she’d seen him there, she’d felt a wave of gratitude. “Isn’t it lovely tonight!”

The cold air was clear. The port and bordering town were in shuttered darkness, so the sky’s meadow of stars blazed bright. As
they watched, folds of green and gold played across the northern horizon.

“We don’t have that moving light in the skies of the Summer Seas,” he said, “although I have seen it before, in Pashalin.”

“We call that the Night Queen’s Drapes. Legend says she draws them across the sky when she wants to sleep, but the Sky Queen of daylight hours keeps trying to open them. Eventually, in the morning, she succeeds.”

He gave a low laugh. “They wouldn’t help me sleep! I’d stay up all night, just to watch.”

“I’m going to Vavala with the Pontifect.”

“Yes. Saker told me.”

“I don’t want to.”

“I know. I will come with you.”

Surprised, she asked, “Are you sure?”

“I don’t think I’d be of much help in Throssel. Saker’s eagle eye is needed there, but my climbing skill? Not this time. On the other hand, I hear the Pontifect’s palace has high walls and high windows that are not barred…” She saw the flash of his smile. “Sounds like a place for someone whose witchery is the skills of a chichak.”

“What’s that?”

“A house gecko. They climb even better than me.”

“We’ll be splitting the ternion. Didn’t the Rani say those who fly alone, die alone?”

“Saker won’t be alone.” But he was worried, she could tell.

“The Pontifect might not agree to take you with us through the shrine paths.”

“I won’t ask,” he said matter-of-factly. “I’ll tell her I’m coming.” He turned her around to lean back against his chest, facing the sky. “Look up, and watch,” he murmured, lips close to her ear. “We believe that when danger threatens we appreciate everything more. Do you remember the way the ripples glowed blue at night in the Summer Seas?”

She nodded.

“In Chenderawasi, we have a saying:

When the sea is darkest

And the storm cloud frowns,

When the moray hungers

And the reef shark prowls,