The Grand Crusade (51 page)

Alexia considered that for a moment, then frowned. “He’s a curious one. Your memoir makes it quite clear Lord Norrington was a very good tactician. Throwing away three regiments is not a wise thing.”

“I agree, which means he must have more troops coming in. That would coincide with your assumption that Chytrine is using your dreams against you and will ambush you down the line.”

She raised an eyebrow. “But if we follow that line of logic, then he should not have sent the message that suggests he has more troops, and he should not have deviated from the dream, because now I have to be aware that things are not going to happen as planned. I will be on guard.”

Crow nodded. “But Nefrai-kesh would know that you’d read his message correctly, so he must be doing something else.”

Alyx laughed, sat on a chest, and pulled her boots off. “I don’t care what he does, just as long as a shadow falls across him when we finally meet. Maroth can finish him.”

Crow’s face closed. “No. Nefrai-kesh is mine.”

“Beloved, you don’t need to make any demonstration for me.”

“It’s not a show of bravado. I just owe it to the man he was before. I won’t be stupid about it, but I just know it will happen. It has to happen this way. I didn’t kill him when he asked me to, so now I will when it is what he least wants.”

Alexia nodded solemnly. “I won’t gainsay you that opportunity. When do you think he will face us?”

Crow frowned. “The next battle he will let Tythsai die. The one after that.”

“That’s the last battle of my dreams.”

“That would be it, then.” Crow rested his left hand on his sword’s hilt. “Within the month, this could all be over.”

Resolute ducked his head as he entered the Aurolani galley’s cabin. He found he couldn’t straighten up all the way, and the stench of the place quickly overrode the salt and wet-leather scent of his clothes. There didn’t seem to be enough room in the small cabin to hide a putrefying gibberer, but Resolute’s nose was telling him one had been chopped up and concealed in all the nooks and crannies.

Kerrigan looked up from the foot of the berth. He had the small chest there filled with clean cloth, and had fashioned a small bed for Qwc. The Spritha had stretched out and lay beneath a scarf.

“How is he, Kerrigan?”

The youth shook his head. “I used some spells to see if he was hurt. I don’t know Spritha physiology too well, but I think he is okay. He didn’t say anything, though, not a word. What happened?”

Resolute held on to a crossbeam. “The Aurolani had captured me. Qwc rescued me.”

“He led you to safety?”

“No, he actually rescued me.” Resolute nodded toward the sleeping Spritha. “He put his spear to great use. Tagothcha should treasure it.”

Kerrigan blinked. “Qwc killed someone?”

“Many someones. All of them.”

The young mage glanced down at Qwc, then drew the scarf up a bit further and tucked it in. “Don’t worry, Qwc. You’ll be okay.”

Resolute watched the tenderness with which Kerrigan acted, and felt a smile growing on his face. He’d done his best to care for Qwc on their journey in the others’ wake, but they had been moving fast. Qwc might have wanted to talk about his experience, and that might have been helpful, but silence had been the

rule. So the Spritha had taken to sleeping more and more, and Resolute had fashioned a sling bed for him and had carried him as a child might carry a doll.

Kerrigan stood, then frowned. “Why don’t you sit down? That’s a nasty wound on your head.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Resolute, it’s open and oozing. I’ll handle it. Please?”

The Vorquelf nodded and took Kerrigan’s seat. He jerked his head toward the figure in the bed. “Who’s this?”

Kerrigan shrugged as he probed the wound with his fingertips. “He’s the person who took the fragments. Oracle said he’s the last adult Vorquelf in the world. Trawyn said he was a dreamwing-eater. She said he was likely to be dangerous until he had been free of dreamwing for a while, so I hit him with the spell Chytrine used on me. I modified it a bit, of course. He can come out of it when he’s sane.”

“That was a good precaution.” Resolute winced as a crusted scab broke. “Predator on the wheeldeck

That wasn’t the first time he tried to go back, was it?”

“No.”

“You dealt with it?”

“I had to.” Resolute couldn’t read the expression on Kerrigan’s face in the backlight of the spell the youth cast. Heat seared into the wound with a golden light flashing. It felt as if all the itching the wound had done and would ever do had been combined. It kept building and building. Resolute longed to scratch away at it, but instead he grabbed the edge of the stool between his legs and held on.

Then the light faded, and slowly the itch began to subside. The Vorquelf nodded, but still didn’t release the stool. “Thank you. Want to tell me about Predator?”

“Not much to tell. You put me in charge. He didn’t like it.” Kerrigan shrugged again. “I just asked myself what you would have done, and I did it.”

“Hardly. He’s still alive.”

“You didn’t kill him either.”

“He can still pull an oar.”

“He could still carry a stretcher.” Kerrigan gave Resolute a lopsided grin. “I pretty much asked myself what you would do whenever I had to make a decision—well, except I didn’t do any killing. It worked—until we got here, that is. I’m glad you showed up because I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t.”

“You’d have thought of something. You made good time coming north.”

Kerrigan’s grin grew. “I told them you’d have marched them further and faster, and that Icouldif they forced me to.”

“Clever.” The itching having vanished, Resolute stood. “If they keep pulling strongly, we should make Saslynnae inside a day and a half.”

“We’ll put into the main port? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“What part of going to Vorquellyn isn’t?” Resolute sighed. “We go directly in, make straight for thecorüesci, and hope our sleeping friend can get us in. We get Will and go.”

Kerrigan sighed heavily. “Does that sound as impossible to you as it does

to me?“

Resolute started to give him a sharp answer, but hesitated. The youth had actually risen above himself and taken charge of the expedition at a point when it could have fallen apart. Resolute firmly believed Will was the key to destroying Chytrine and redeeming Vorquellyn. Kerrigan’s efforts made certain they’d be able to rescue Will. For that, if nothing else, he deserved more than sarcasm.

“Yes, it does sound impossible, doesn’t it?” Resolute smiled slowly. “But if Will’s going to come back from the dead, our task is nothing by comparison.”

“Good point, Resolute. I’m glad you’re back.”

“As am I. Take care of our two charges here, will you? Let me know if anything changes.”

“I will.”

Resolute returned to the wheeldeck and breathed deeply of the fresh air. Below, the Grey Misters pulled on the oars. Spray splashed against the prow where Oracle stood looking north. Resolute had no doubt that, despite her being blind, she’d see Vorquellyn well before the island appeared on the horizon.

Trawyn looked back at him. “You should know that anyone standing here can listen in on conversations in the main cabin.”

“Thank you. Did you hear something interesting?”

She nodded slowly. “Predator was not alone in wanting to turn back. I was ready to go along with him to keep the fragments out of Chytrine’s clutches. I think it’s wrong for us to be taking them to Vorquellyn.”

Resolute slowly smiled. “Kerrigan faced you down as well?”

Her good eye narrowed. “He did.”

“Really? And when we visited Rellaence before, it was Will who made you Loquelves back away from your prejudice against the Gyrkyme.”

“It was.”

“That’s rather remarkable.”

“Yes? How so?”

“You, a princess of Loquellyn, and human children give you fits?”

She barked a sharp laugh. “Vorquelf children are giving me more fits.”

“The Grey Misters are no problem for you, so you mean Oracle.”

Trawyn looked north, toward the ship’s bow. “Yes, I must admit, her quiet adamancy about the prophecy and how things should go is an annoyance. It was only logical and right for us to return to the south. You were gone, we had two fragments and a very dangerous person to deal with. But she said he was the key to thecorüesci. There was never any doubt on her part that we would get to Vorquellyn and find Will.”

“That’s just how she sees things.”

“Oh, I understand that. I respect her gift.” The Loquelf shifted her shoulders. “That gift is rare in children, but not unknown. Still, no one has ever been wholly right. What if she is wrong?”

Resolute shook his head. “There are more ways for her to be wrong than there are stars in the sky. I decided long ago to believe she is right and not to worry about it. All the signs point to it.”

“But what would you know, Resolute? You are a child. You carry a Syverce, but you are not bound to a homeland. You cannot know the sort of duty that weapon confers on you.” She turned and pointed back to Loquellyn. “I am bound to my home, and it tells me what I must do.”

He arched a snowy eyebrow. “And are you being told that what you are doing is wrong?”

She faltered. “No.”

Resolute rested his left hand on the sword’s hilt. “You know that were I not meant to bear this sword, I could not touch it without pain.”

“And I know enough of you to know you’d not show pain if you felt it.”

“That may be true, but I don’t feel pain. Oracle said I would have a sword from the hand of the Norrington. Will gave me this blade. That was just one more sign that we are right. Will is the Norrington, and the Norrington is the redemption of Vorquellyn.”

The sea breeze tugged at her short locks. “You have such faith in that prophecy, Resolute, that I almost want to believe it, too.”

“Why don’t you? There is something here I don’t understand.”

She shook her head once, then fixed him with a one-eyed stare. “Haven’t you ever wondered why we never took Vorquellyn back from the Aurolani?”

“Of course. I assumed it was because you felt no urgency. What are years and centuries to immortals?”

“It wasn’t that. Our passenger down there, he looks peaceful in sleep, but wait until he awakes. You will see pure agony in his eyes.” She rubbed a hand over her forehead. “You were perhaps too young to understand. I remember. We isolated the children because we feared what would happen. You didn’t see it. When they took Vorquellyn your adults were hurt and heartsick, much as I am now. But when Chytrine desecrated Vorquellyn, the pain in their eyes, the way they shrieked

They were a people driven mad by a land that was dying.

“Don’t you see, Resolute? We never took Vorquellyn back because it isdead. There is no redeeming it. There can’t be.”

Her words shot through his middle like a crossbow quarrel. He thought back. Had he seen the pity he now read in her eyes in others? Had he been beguiled by the patronizing attitudes of most elves? Had he somehow missed how they ached to be wrong, but how they knew they were not? How they ached because the lost children of Vorquellyn could never be redeemed?

Resolute’s hands curled into fists and his lips pressed into a thin, grim line.

Fury built in him, sharply and quickly, but just as quickly he forced his hands open. He let his anger drain away.

“I understand what you have just told me, Princess. Thank you.”

“How can you thank me for that? I’ve just told you that you’re on a fool’s mission.”

“Yes, you have. You’ve also just told me why you never acted to free my homeland. It makes sense, which means I can release all the energy I’ve used up resenting Loquelves, Croquelves, and Harquelves. That you are wrong doesn’t matter.”

“Wrong? Do you think we came to this conclusion without thinking about it? I was privy to councils. Our greatest minds—military, political, and magickal— say Vorquellyn cannot be redeemed. Even Adrogans saw that in Svoin, and burned the city to the ground. There is no relieving a place from the Aurolani taint.”

Resolute’s silver eyes became slits. “Just because you don’t know how to do it doesn’t mean it can’t be done. If Chytrine spoiled it, there must be a way to change the taint.”

“And if there isn’t, what do you do then?”

“Doesn’t matter, does it? At least the idea you hold in your head will be proven right or wrong. If you’re right, I’m no better off, but the world is because Chytrine is dead. If you’re wrong, then I will have a home and a future. Fool’s quest or not, that’s worth the effort.”

“I don’t know, Resolute, if you are just a child or a fool or both.”

“Probably both, but when Vorquellyn is redeemed, I’ll be neither.” He gave her a half smile. “Keep the ship steady north and we’ll be all the sooner learning the truth.”

arkus Adrogans had not quite been prepared for the Aurolani reaction to his destruction of their regiment. He had expected one of three possibilities. The first was a major push into the border area where the regiment had disappeared, and perhaps further, into Winalia’s domain. The second was a general reinforcement of border stations. The third, and the very least he expected, was an increase of patrols within the Aurolani holdings.

He got none of these. It was easy for him to suppose the regiment had been an independent command that was expected to operate on its own based on orders, but the lack of mentions of it in even the most cursory reports back from the border should have been cause for alarm. Had he been in the Aurolani commander’s position, he would have sent orders for border forces to find the regiment and report back on its status.

The lack of reaction surprised him, but he found a reason for it: the wood kept flowing. His scouts reported seeing wagonload after wagonload of wood being brought into the domain, and in less than a week his forces had located the shipyards. While he accepted the veracity of the initial reports, he and Phfas went forward with scouts to spy things out.

The shipbuilding operation was far more massive than he could have imagined. The old maps of Noriva called the city that had once been there Alcytlin. When Noriva had been an independent nation, that city had been a major trading port, and many said it was the finest deep-water port in the world. With the Boreal mountains as a backdrop, and white cliffs on either side of the harbor entrance, the naturally beautiful location would have screamed haven to any sailor.