The Orphans' Promise (36 page)

The man threw out all these insults with a smile on his face and without hesitation, but the heirs couldn’t imagine that Grigán would forgive such a flagrant lack of respect. To their great surprise, Grigán returned his friend’s greeting, “Old pirate, yourself! You smell so strongly of liquor, we just followed our noses!”

Zarbone laughed at his friend’s wit, and composed himself as Grigán’s companions stepped onto the dock. The old man appeared to blush under his white beard as the warrior introduced in succession Léti, Maz Lana, and Corenn.

“Ladies, please pardon my outfit,” he excused himself awkwardly. “You’re the first women to visit Collection.”

“Thank you for letting us invade, master Zarbone,” Corenn responded. “We are flattered by the honor, and hope we won’t be too much of a bother to you.”

“Oh please, you are welcome here! I have plenty of space!” he exclaimed, gesturing to his property. “The bad part about having an island as a home, you see, is that it is surrounded by water. You don’t get many visitors!”

Zarbone led them to the beach, and then along a trail that snaked through thick vegetation. He and Grigán reminisced over old times, jostling and teasing each other. Rey, who was an expert in this sort of banter, soon joined their conversation.

Yan interrupted them, “I can hear lots of animals.”

“Even some large beasts,” added Bowbaq, who had also noticed the unusual concert of growls and chirps.

“It’s my animal collection,” Zarbone responded casually. “Concerning which, if you see a large white lizard, about three feet long, try to catch him without hurting him. It’s my alabaster monitor. He keeps getting out. On an island, he can’t get very far, but I worry that he will fall into a snake pit or run across a sand eel laying her eggs.”

He turned back around and continued on as if it were nothing. The heirs watched him wide-eyed. Every step of their journey was an adventure in itself.

Even though he lived on an isolated island, Zarbone’s house would have made most Lorelien merchants jealous. He gave the previous governor credit for its construction; he just added some personal touches to the original. He paid the Guoris king a hefty sum for the added value of the home.

His house was two floors, the lower one used only to support the main rooms on the upper floors. It wasn’t made of bamboo and woven reeds, as the heirs had expected. To their surprise, it was built entirely of fine stone and marble, which could only have come from the continent. It must have taken several years for the whole operation, costing more gold than they would ever see. The end result was well worth it.

“Tiny cats!” Léti yelled, as they walked up to the front door.

“
Dwarf cats
,” Zarbone corrected her, moving aside to let them by. “They’re supposed to be more playful, but all they do is sleep and sleep. At least they don’t have to worry about the meaning of life. Just sleep.”

Léti petted one of the kitties that was lazily stretching out on its back. Up close, it looked very different from a normal cat, resembling a miniature tiger more than an ordinary house cat. Starved for attention, the little animal followed Léti inside.

“If you like him, I’ll give him to you,” the governor said. “There are so many of them on the island. Now that they’re starting to fight among themselves, you would make that little one happy.”

The young woman thanked Zarbone, but decided to wait on giving him an answer. How could she possibly look after an animal, even one so small?

Their host led them to the second-floor terrace and offered them a drink. Once they were through with the usual polite small talk, Grigán got right to business and gave a detailed narrative of their run-ins with the Züu. Zarbone listened to Grigán’s story actively, asking important questions and raising his eyebrows in surprise at the Züu’s determination.

“He’s a magician,” Corenn whispered to Yan. “He has the tic.”

“The tic?”

“Watch the way he points to objects as he talks, or stares at them. You’ll understand soon enough.”

After studying him closely, Yan admitted Zarbone might be a magician. Now that this had been brought to his attention, he noticed Corenn had similar mannerisms as well. He wondered if one day he would inadvertently show the same proof of his power.

It didn’t take the old man long to realize that Grigán was leaving out important details of his story. The warrior had omitted
everything that was supernatural. He took no offense.
A hidden truth is a white lie
, says the proverb.

“You’re really in a lot of trouble,” he said, digesting the evidence.

What would he think if he knew about the Mog’lur?
Rey thought to himself.

“So you’re being hunted by the Züu from the Upper Kingdoms. The killers have been sent by an unknown enemy, one whose motivations are no less mysterious than his identity… yes, you’re in a lot of trouble.”

“Oh, you forgot to mention Grigán’s short temper,” Rey added.

“Can’t you stop acting like a fool for just one deciday?” the warrior grumbled.

“Ha, you see! Proof right there,” the actor shot back, proud of himself.

Zarbone didn’t laugh at the joke. He had been in a good mood when the heirs arrived, but now he had a serious, pensive expression on his face.

“Of course you’re welcome to hide out here, but the Züu have an island less than a dozen miles away. They’ll end up finding out you’re here through the Guoris or the mercenaries.”

“We can’t stay here anyhow,” Corenn assured him.

She was thinking about how the demon had found them in the Broken Castle. There was no hope of hiding anywhere. They were not going to put Zarbone in danger, not like they had Séhane.

“What can I do to help you, then? Do you need money, Grigán?” he suggested with sudden inspiration.

“You’ve already given me far too much over the years. Don’t worry; we have what we need.”

“We want to see Usul,” Lana announced coldly.

Zarbone, speechless, waited for someone from the group to object. They couldn’t really be planning such a thing.

“I recommend you reconsider,” he stated, flatly. “It would be better to take on the Züu.”

“It’s our only chance,” Lana reasoned. “We need answers, and surely the Guoris don’t guard their island as well as the Züu do their secrets.”

“You don’t get it,” he explained. “The Guoris don’t guard the island for their own personal pleasure. Even they avoid setting foot there. The only reason their vessels patrol the island is to keep people from bringing a curse upon themselves.”

“How can you say Knowledge is a curse?”

“I’ve heard stories of men completely consumed by curiosity who sailed for the Sacred Island. I’ve met a few of those who were lucky enough to return. Those people come back completely mad; that’s all there is to it. They go prostrate for days, moons, even years sometimes. All of them, every single one, end up killing themselves.”

“Eurydis will help us,” Lana affirmed, her voice lacking the confidence she wanted. “She will give me strength.”

“I regret to hear that you’re making this decision,” he concluded, sadly.

The old man was sure of himself. Bowbaq felt his conviction faltering. Then he remembered the Mog’lur, which gave him newfound determination.

“Ships are no longer patrolling the island,” Grigán said. “Why is that?”

“I wasn’t aware. They were still there not too long ago. That’s bad news for you. It means the Guoris have found a better way to guard the place. As for knowing what that might be…”

Grigán agreed with a sigh. He had already come to the same conclusion.

In the end, Léti decided to keep the cat. The tiny animal had faithfully followed her all night, and stayed especially close when they ate grilled fish with Zarbone.

Yan jokingly suggested that she name it Frog, because it jumped around more than it walked. The young woman found the idea charming and adopted it without giving it a second thought. The heirs welcomed a new member to their group: a dwarf cat that made Yan jealous every time it jumped into Léti’s lap.

She reminded Bowbaq of his promise to use his erjak powers on the animal of her choice, and the giant happily agreed to fulfill his promise.

But Léti’s choice shocked Rey. “Why waste Bowbaq’s gift on a
cat
? You could have asked him to train a dog, a wolf, a bear; I don’t know, something useful?”

“It would be hard to hold a bear in my lap,”
Léti retorted.

With her response the actor gave up trying to reason with her. If he knew how to use Bowbaq or Corenn’s powers, he would make gold. His friends were just country folk, though, unable to appreciate civilized society and the pursuit of wealth.

Zarbone granted his guests the privilege of visiting his various collections. They looked over several of them. One was just sundials with mesmerizing patterns, another a display of daggers, and another rare manuscripts. Zarbone saved the tour of his animal reserve for the next day.

Rey gave him the
hati
that he had kept since the beginning of his journey. He found the object revolting and was happy to finally find an opportunity to get rid of it. Zarbone accepted the gift with genuine appreciation. He already had a similar item, but it lacked the poison tip. He thanked him so profusely that even Rey was embarrassed.

Corenn dove into the manuscripts as soon as courtesy would allow, while Léti could do no more than stare at the lines of
shelves that held hundreds of volumes, most of which were in good condition. Seeing so much writing overwhelmed her.

“Wouldn’t that be funny if we found something about our ancestors in here?” she suggested, sliding her fingers along a row of perfectly aligned book spines.

A flash of memory struck Grigán just then. “There is something. Zarbone showed me a few years ago. Do you remember…”

“Of course,” the old man confirmed, pulling out a thick volume.

The page was marked, and he found the passage right away. They all waited impatiently for him to read it aloud.

“It’s in
The Five Dynasties of the Sultanate
. I stumbled across it randomly, when I was rebinding it. It says,
And so, Sultan Absoura no longer had a war chief, since he had sent his to the Island of Ji in Lorelia, following the request of a foreigner, named Nol. The emissary never returned, and Absoura was confronted with the problem of choosing a new war chief among
… the rest isn’t of much interest to you. I scanned the whole chapter. There’s not much, you see?”

“Do you mind?” Corenn said, reaching out her hand.

“Of course not.”

The Mother scanned the few lines of text avidly. The cited emissary could only be Ssa-Vez. However, something wasn’t right. Lana was the first to figure it out.

“I don’t remember a sultan named Absoura. My history lessons were a long time ago, but the name should still ring a bell…”

Her remark was the spark that set off a fire in Corenn’s mind. The Mother opened the book to its first few pages and found what she was looking for. It was more surprising and more important than anything they had found so far.

“This book is more than three hundred years old!” she announced to the group, solemnly. “These men followed a certain Nol to the Island of Ji two centuries before our ancestors!”

The heirs stared at each other, baffled. Their research kept leading to new questions, new mysteries, which invariably ensured more danger.

Zarbone asked for the book to confirm the date. Corenn was right, of course. He scanned the last pages to make sure the text didn’t mention any of the more recent sultans. It couldn’t be an error; the book truly was three centuries old.

“It can’t be the same Nol,” Rey commented, uncertainly.

Unperturbed, Grigán reminded him, “Impossible doesn’t mean much for us anymore.”

They couldn’t mention the portal in front of Zarbone, or the other world, or the Mog’lur, but none of it was far from their minds. Grigán was right: They had long ago surpassed the limits of reality.

“What could it mean?” Léti asked. “That the wise have been meeting on Ji for millennia? But why?”

“To make Nol’s
important decision
,” the Mother reminded them. “But we have no idea what that could be.”