The Palace of Impossible Dreams (65 page)

“The bargain we had meant I would be with Arkady.”

“And you
had
her, Rodent. It's not my fault you couldn't hold on to her.”

Medwen looked at both of them for a moment and shook her head. “Tides, you two are unbelievable.”

“I'm not going anywhere without Arkady,” Declan insisted.

“Well, you're damned well not staying in my house while you argue about it,” Ambria said. “Take your problems elsewhere. I want neither of you in my wetlands for another day if I can avoid it.”

“There's gratitude for you,” Cayal said, turning to Arryl. “Haven't you got something to say about this?”

Arryl seemed a little more sympathetic than Ambria. Despite himself, Declan was forced to admit that even though he tried not to befriend any of the immortals, it was very hard
not
to like Arryl. She was just that sort of personality.

“I think Cayal's right. You should let Arkady go, Declan,” she said. “At least until you've worked out what you want to do.”

“What I
want
to do?” He looked around the kitchen, shaking his head. It still seemed surreal that he was even sitting among these creatures, let alone discussing his future with them. “I'd like to roll back time, actually. And not be immortal.”

“Do you have a backup plan?” Cayal asked.

“Much as it pains me to admit it,” Medwen said, rolling her eyes at the Immortal Prince, “I fear Cayal may be right. Arkady has her own path to tread and you're not likely to be a part of it. You should let her go. You can always find her again later. If you still think it's a good idea.”

It was easy for them to say it; easy for them to dismiss Arkady as nothing but a distraction. None of them had any concept of what it felt like to know that through his own stupidity, he might have driven her away.

Nor were they likely to care, he realised. He needed to take another tack. Come up with a reason they
would
understand. “I'm not just saying we need to find her because I'm heartbroken. Jaxyn's probably still looking for her. Even if I concede you have a point about us having different futures, I'll be damned if I'm going to leave her to his tender mercies.”

Oddly enough, it was the mention of Jaxyn that seemed to change Arryl's mind. Even Cayal nodded in agreement. “Well, when you put it like that, I suppose there is something to be said for making sure she's out of his reach, at the very least.”

“I thought you were desperate to get back to Jelidia?” Medwen said.

“We can do both. We have to find a ship in Port Traeker anyway. It won't take that much longer to track down Arkady. Assuming she's still in Port Traeker and hasn't taken off for parts unknown.”

“We have to find her,” Declan insisted.

Cayal shook his head. “No, we just have to ascertain that if
we
can't locate her, neither can anybody else. She's spoken with her feet, Rodent. If she wanted to wait for you, if she wanted to
be
with you, she'd be here now.”

“The best you can do now is assure yourself she's safe,” Arryl agreed.

“And once we've done that, then we're heading back to Jelidia, if I have to truss you up and toss you in the hold of a ship to get you there.”

“And you can take that flanking cat with you,” Ambria added with a scowl.

“What are you talking about?” Cayal asked.

“That feline who betrayed us. The one Arkady made you heal,” she said to Arryl, lifting another plate of fresh bread onto the table for them. “Jojo. She's a Crasii through and through. Not only does her presence here upset the chameleons, but if I hear one more
to serve you is the reason I breathe, my lady
, I'm going to strangle the wretched creature.”

“She can come with us, I suppose,” Cayal said with a shrug, helping himself to the bread. “It'll make it easier to pose as merchants when we hire a ship, if we have a bodyguard.”

“Do you actually have the money to hire a ship to take you to Jelidia, Cayal?” Medwen asked.

“No,” he said. “But I don't intend to let that stop me.”

“You never mentioned we'd be
stealing
a ship,” Declan said.

Cayal looked at him and grinned. “What's the problem, Rodent? Does stealing go against your religion or something?”

Declan shrugged. “I just thought that with thousands of years to work on it, you'd have amassed enough wealth by now to buy a whole fleet of ships, not have to resort to petty theft.”

Arryl shook her head, glaring at the men. “I hope you two don't intend to snipe at each other like this all the way to Jelidia. It was getting on my nerves a month ago. If it keeps up for much longer, I'll abandon the both of you and you can live forever, Cayal, and be damned.”

“I'm not sniping,” Cayal protested. “He is.”

“Don't you think it's fascinating,” Medwen observed to her immortal sisters, “that one can live to be as old as Cayal without growing up?”

“Tides,” Cayal said. “No wonder you three have been hiding out here in the wilderness for so long. There's probably not a civilised place on Amyrantha left that'll have any one of you.” He climbed to his feet, pushed his half-eaten breakfast aside and addressed his next words to Declan. “Come on, Rodent. Let's find this feline we seem to have acquired and get back to civilisation. Another day here with these whining women and you'll be wanting to die as much as I do.”

Cayal pushed past Arryl and stalked out of the room. It was Medwen who broke the uncomfortable silence, turning to look at Declan. “You will look out for him, won't you?”

Declan gaped at her in amazement. “You want
me
to look after
him
?”

“Cayal can help you, Declan, but I've a feeling you can help him more.”

“You people are universally insane, you do know that, don't you?”

“You see,” Arryl said, “that's why it's up to you. You haven't been immortal long enough for it to drive you crazy.”

They slipped into Port Traeker a few days later, to a city in uproar. There were signs up all over the place about public meetings to discuss the return of the Lord of Temperance, posters stuck on almost every other flat surface advertising prayer services to appeal to their reborn god, and almost as many advocating an end to public professions of faith.

Dressed as merchants, with a feline bodyguard in tow and two chameleon slaves in their entourage, nobody spared Declan, Cayal or Arryl a second glance. The hysterical aftermath of the aborted invasion of the wetlands seemed to be the only topic of conversation in Port Traeker, and everyone had an opinion about it. The only consensus, however, seemed to be that there would not be any further expeditions into the wetlands until somebody made quite certain that the falling disease which had afflicted the sailors of the first invasion fleet had been identified and could be dealt with.

The other interesting by-product of their interference seemed to be the fracturing of the alliance between House Medura and House Pardura. That made a second invasion of the wetlands even more remote. Without the resources and the Merchant Marines of the two most powerful Houses in Senestra, it wasn't likely anybody would be invading anything, anytime soon.

There was, however, no sign of Arkady.

The amphibians who'd taken Arkady to Port Traeker could offer no
more help than telling Declan where they'd delivered her, which was a small dock not far from the Medura Palace. He didn't think it likely she'd return there, and the only place in the vicinity which might tempt her was the Glaeban Embassy. Even Cayal laughed at the notion that she might have returned there. With her husband disgraced, and Jaxyn on the lookout for her, he thought it beyond improbable that she would go anywhere near the place.

Declan wasn't so sure, but he couldn't risk approaching the embassy himself, and didn't trust Cayal to do it for him. Besides, neither Cayal nor Arryl was Glaeban, and would be unlikely to get a useful answer out of anybody.

He did, however, have a feline at his command. And she truly was his to command. Declan was used to Crasii following orders, but the blind obedience of the Crasii to their Tide Lord masters was a little frightening.

“You're wasting your time,” Cayal said, as he listened to Declan give Jojo her instructions. “Arkady wouldn't be stupid enough to go anywhere near your embassy.”

“Do you understand what I want you to do?” Declan asked Jojo, ignoring Cayal.

“To serve you is the reason I breathe,” the little ginger feline replied solemnly.

That's not what I asked
, Declan thought with a sigh, but he was learning that was as good as he was likely to get.

“Then go. We'll wait for you here.”

The feline hurried out of the taproom, leaving Cayal and Declan alone at the table they'd commandeered, which looked out over the wharves. Arryl was out there somewhere, dressed like a Senestran lady with her servants in tow, scoping out a likely ship.

“I tell you, this is a waste of time.”

“I heard you the first two dozen times.”

“But apparently you're not listening to me. Arkady wouldn't risk going to the embassy.”

“The ambassador's wife here is her husband's cousin,” Declan told him. “If she was desperate enough, then she might have risked it.”

“Which means if the cousin has helped her, she'll say nothing, or she'll get herself in trouble. If she's
not
seen Arkady, she'll have nothing to say and you'll have simply tipped Jaxyn off to her whereabouts. Or Arkady
has
been there, been arrested, and is already on her way to Glaeba, at which
point you and I are going to come to blows, Rodent, because the Tide is getting higher every day, and I have no intention of taking another detour to go hunting Arkady.”

“Did you ever love her?” Declan asked, wondering if his dismissive attitude to Arkady's fate was genuine or just a show he put on for Declan's benefit.

“Only when she's nearby.”

“Tides, but you're a shallow bastard.”

“Something for which you should be grateful, Rodent, 'cause the last time my heart got broken, I destroyed a whole damned country. Here's Arryl.”

Declan glanced over his shoulder to find Arryl crossing the taproom toward them. Tiji and Azquil, dressed as her slaves, walked a few paces behind her, their eyes suitably downcast. Cayal slid across the bench to make room for her, leaving the Crasii to stand nearby to await their mistress's pleasure.

“Any luck?”

“There's a fishing boat, an ice-breaker, at the far end of the dock.” Arryl told them, taking off her gloves. “The captain says he's waiting for the spring melt, but the ship's ready to sail now, if we're offering him enough coin.”

“Did you tell him where we wanted to go?”

“I told him my husband and his brother wanted to go ice fishing. He told me you were mad.”

“But he didn't refuse?”

Arryl shook her head. “He refused to go much past the southern tip of Senestra at this time of year, but a purse full of nacre tiles convinced him to consider it. He seems to think you'll get all the ice fishing you want, without going too far south.”

“Once we're aboard and clear of Port Traeker, it doesn't really matter what he thinks,” Cayal said. “When can we leave?”

“On tonight's tide, if we're quick about it.” She glanced around with a frown. “Where's Jojo?”

“Rodent sent her to the Glaeban Embassy to check on Arkady.”

Arryl looked at Declan sadly. “You can't think she'd go there for aid, surely?”

“It's the last place I'll look, my lady. If there's no sign of her there, then I'll accept she's out of reach. Mine or Jaxyn's.”

Arryl put her hand over his and smiled encouragingly. “I'm sure she's fine, Declan. Arkady is a survivor.”

Declan appreciated her support, wishing he was as confident. Cayal said nothing further on the subject. Instead, he raised his hand and ordered another round of drinks.

Some three hours later, with the sun almost set, they were about to leave the tavern for the ice-breaker Arryl had found to take them to Jelidia, when Jojo returned.

“Well?” Declan demanded, a part of him hoping Arkady had not only taken shelter at the embassy, but was still there waiting for him. “Has she been there?”

“I spoke to the felines on the gate,” Jojo said. “They told me Lady Aranville had been at the embassy, but now she was gone.”

“Who is Lady Aranville?” Arryl asked.

Declan frowned. “I don't know. Did they mean Arkady?”

“I don't think so, my lord. When I pressed them, they said the only woman to visit the embassy in the past few months who was out of the ordinary was Lady Aranville. She'd told them to say nothing of her visit or her purpose in Senestra, and they were adamant about adhering to her orders.”

“Which means Glaeba has the best trained felines on Amyrantha,” Cayal remarked, “or your Lady Aranville was immortal.”

“How can that be? The only immortal in Glaeba calling himself an Aranville is Jaxyn. Diala is Queen of Glaeba now.”

“The only immortal you
know
about,” Cayal said testily. “Now, are we satisfied Arkady's gone, or are you going to stand here agonising over what some Glaeban noblewoman said to a bunch of mindless felines a month ago? The tide won't wait you know. Not the ocean one nor the magical one.”

Declan hesitated still, puzzled by the notion of who Lady Aranville might be, wondering why the felines would be so keen to follow her orders . . .

But Cayal was right about one thing: there was no sign of Arkady and if he didn't get on this ship with Cayal and Arryl, he may never find out what the Cabal was so desperate to learn.

Even if he stayed here, he might never find Arkady.