The Sigil Blade (25 page)

“Agreed,” Logaeir said after some thought, making new plans even as the words escaped his lips. “But understand, you are committing your men to help us as needed when we take the island.”

“Your men will get equal shares afterwards,” Krin added. “As a captain, you will get four.”

“We won’t need them,” Edryd declined. Everyone but Irial reacted with surprise. “I will, however, take Esivh Rhol’s palace and everything in it. When this is over, it belongs to the Sigil Corps.”

“Agreed,” Logaeir said quickly, much too quickly.

Krin thought it was a little too hasty as well. “We need to talk about this,” he complained.

“Aisen will be the ruler of An Innis, of course the palace is going to be his,” Logaeir said.

It was Edryd’s turn to feel uncomfortable about getting something he had asked for: the palace, offered to him now along with an unwanted encumbrance. Edryd did not intend to allow anyone to install him as the ruler of this horrible island. He didn’t need to refuse though. If Irial’s plan worked, he and Eithne would be away on one of Aelsian’s ships before that attack happened, and if Edryd could manage it, Irial would also come with them.

“You can’t decide that,” Krin continued to protest. Esivh Rhol’s palace was too big a prize to just give away.

“The others will agree,” Logaeir insisted. “The bulk of the wealth on the island is in the hands of the harbormasters. Once the captains understand that we are getting Sigil Warrior reinforcements, with no reduction of their shares, it will be easy to convince them.”

“One other thing,” Edryd interrupted. “Oren and Ruach are my representatives with the Ascomanni, not you.”

“No,” Logaeir refused.

“They command my men, they come and go as they please, and they take orders only from me. If you need help from any of my men, you run it through Oren and Ruach.”

“Of course he will,” Krin said, “those are the rules as they apply with any of the captains.”

“No,” Logaeir said again, even more firmly.

Logaeir had already positioned himself as the Blood Prince’s second in command. Denying him that was a step too far, it would deprive him of every last shred of his credibility.

“I don’t care what you tell the rest of the Ascomanni, as long as you understand that my men do not answer to you,” Edryd said, offering a compromise.

“I will want to arrange introductions with the captains,” Logaeir said, modifying Edryd’s offer. “When I do, you will back up what I have told them, and you will endeavor to impress them.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Edryd assented.

“Now that is where I will have to disagree,” Krin said. “After the stories people have been telling, you need to understand that meeting you for the first time can be a disappointment. It isn’t going to impress anyone.”

Edryd laughed at the disparaging comment. The insult had been friendly and warm, instead of filled with the condescension and disrespect that came so naturally to Logaeir, and it made Edryd feel like at least one person didn’t expect impossible things out of him. Krin was especially honest and direct for someone in his profession, and was in many ways, Logaeir’s complete opposite.

Having brokered an understanding, tension faded from the room, under the realization of that rare circumstance where those who had participated had all gotten what they wanted. If everyone was also a little unhappy about it, then that only meant it must have been a fair exchange. There was, however, one person who was entirely unconflicted, holding no misgivings about the outcome. For Irial, the results could not have been better. Irial had been silent throughout, but Edryd had taken her advice and accomplished everything she had asked of him.

Sensing that everything had been decided, and without waiting on anyone else, Krin carved out a choice section of the roasted pig. Others followed, and soon most of them were busily engaged with their food, bringing a welcome silence to a room that had moments ago been filled with loud arguments.

Edryd noticed Eithne, still sitting in the same seat across from Logaeir. She had quietly listened to everything, and had now gotten a hold of the white cloth-covered book that she had been admiring. It took him a moment to accept the idea that they had just plotted the overthrow of An Innis in the presence of an eleven year old girl. No one else seemed to be bothered by it, but it made the whole scenario seem completely unreal to Edryd. He took a seat beside Eithne, more than a little curious himself about the contents of the book.

“So what do you think of it?” he asked her. He meant her opinion of the book about the Sigil Order, but she took it to be a question about the agreements that had been reached over the course of the evening.

“You gave Uncle Logaeir what he wanted, but I don’t know what you got in return,” she replied.

Logaeir had turned away towards Krin, but it didn’t escape Edryd’s notice he was paying close attention to this conversation with Eithne.

“That’s a good sign,” Edryd replied. “If you haven’t figured it out, then it will be much too hard a puzzle for him.”

Logaeir’s face tightened, unable to stifle his reaction.

“He thinks he is very smart, you know,” Eithne laughed. “He would be angry if he heard us.” Eithne knew very well that Logaeir was listening, and was having some fun of her own.

The evening wore on, and soon everyone was well fed with the roasted meat and helpings of vegetables that had been harvested from Irial’s garden. Edryd chose that moment to pull Ruach aside, and leaving everyone else behind, the two men took a walk out in the night air. Something was bothering Edryd, but there was little time to work with, and so he ignored his misgivings.

“Ruach,” Edryd said as they stood in the cold beneath a starlit sky, well away from the cottage, where no one inside could possibly overhear, “I need you to get a message to the Ossian First Fleet Navarch,”

“Who?” Ruach asked. There wasn’t any surprise in the question, just the need to clarify who it was Edryd was speaking of. Ruach knew little to nothing about Ossia or the officers in its fleet.

“His name is Aelsian,” Edryd replied. “His ships secure the trade between Ossia and Nar Edor.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” Ruach said.

“You don’t need to. On your way back to Nar Edor, the Ascomanni are going to have to meet up with one of Aelsian’s ships. When that happens, arrange a private meeting with the captain of the ship.”

“And give him what message?”

“Have him get word to Aelsian that Edryd needs to see him.”

“Edryd?—or Lord Aisen?” Ruach questioned.

“No, don’t use my real name. Don’t mention the Blood Prince or anything else of the sort. Aelsian will already know who I am, no one else needs to.”

“I understand. I assume we should keep this all a secret from the Ascomanni as well,” he said.

“Tell Oren if you get a chance, but no one else,” Edryd confirmed.

Edryd looked around and saw nothing, but remained troubled by something he couldn’t quite place. Whatever it was that was bothering him, it was somewhere nearby, hidden by the dark. “You had better get back. I will be along in a minute,” he said to Ruach.

Edryd watched Ruach leave, watched the light scatter out from the cottage when he opened the door, and watched it disappear again as Ruach stepped inside, shutting the door tight behind him. Edryd had now pinpointed the position of the irritant that had been disturbing his thoughts. There was someone there, close enough to have overheard the entire conversation. Edryd turned, but all he could see was darkness. It was clouded and obscured, but the hidden person had a mind with an open window through which Edryd could look.

“Aed Seoras,” Edryd called out.

“Well met, Lord Aisen,” Seoras said, shedding fragmented distortions as he emerged from out of the night. To Edryd’s eyes it looked as if Seoras was taking form directly from shifting flows of the dark. As the shaping ceased, the window became clear and Edryd sensed that Seoras was wracked with worry.

“You knew all along,” Edryd said.

“No,” Seoras admitted. “At first I had no idea. More recently I have had my suspicions, and this morning I thought that I was certain, but until I overheard you and Ruach, I can’t say that I knew for sure.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Nothing,” Seoras answered, as though he were surprised that Edryd would ask.

“Then why are you here?” Edryd had picked up on Seoras’s fears, but they were not so deep as his own in that moment. Seoras was a threat that he could not ignore.

“I made a discovery this morning,” Seoras began. He spoke now as though his discovery had not come about when he had tried to kill Edryd and as if this were some ordinary conversation between friends. “Through the dark, there is hint of a deeper level to the world. You may have felt it yourself. In a fight it often manifests as a sort of intuition. If someone begins to shape the dark, it creates an echo that travels. I can detect an attuned individual from a great distance away, just by the ripples they leave in their wake.”

“That is why you thought I could shape.”

“It was why I was willing to believe you when you said you could not,” Seoras corrected. “In subtle ways, we all shape as we interact with the world. Some of us do have a greater affinity for it than others, but with you, I can see nothing. It is as though you don’t exist. You appear to have no connection to the dark.”

“But that shouldn’t be possible.”

“No it shouldn’t,” Seoras agreed. “And there is an even bigger mystery. Do you remember I showed you how a sword can be used as a focus for the dark? Well a focus doesn’t need to be a sword. In particular, a well attuned person naturally aligns the currents that flow through the dark in a way that amplifies the effects of shaping. Anyone who does this should be a beacon to anyone who can comprehend the dark.”

Edryd felt an awful sensation in the pit of his stomach. The implication was clear. Powerless on his own, he was an awful tool in the hands of someone like Seoras, whose power multiplied in his presence. He had even more reason now to be fearful of the man’s intentions.

“You do have a connection to the dark, and you do alter its pattern, you just happen to be doing it in a very specific way. You bend and reshape the dark in a way that conceals. It makes you invisible to someone like me.”

Edryd might have failed to grasp this concept, if not for what he had discovered that afternoon. He had observed what Seoras was describing. He hadn’t understood its function then, but it was clear now.

“I spent all of this afternoon trying to replicate the effect. Unfortunately you were not there for comparison, but what you are doing defies study and observation, so maybe it wouldn’t have helped. I managed a crude and flawed version, but you saw through that a moment ago. What you are doing is incredibly stable and far more complex.”

Edryd didn’t want to tell Seoras how effective his crude and flawed attempt had really been, but Seoras was right, it hadn’t been the same thing.

“How can I do something like that when I can’t actually shape?”

“It is proof that you are shaping all the time, even in your sleep,” Seoras suggested confidently. “There is something profound at work here, some knowledge that was lost even before the Sigil Order was destroyed. You and I can rediscover it.”

The worry was gone from his teacher’s mind. He had become so excited that he had forgotten whatever it was that had been troubling him. Seoras didn’t care who Edryd was, he only cared who it was he might become. The shaper had a singular obsession, and that was uncovering the secrets that had once been mastered in an earlier age by the Knights of the Sigil Order, and he saw Edryd as the means by which he could achieve that goal. This conversation was forcing Edryd to make alterations to the plans that were even now in the process of unfolding, and he was going to need to be ready to make some rapid adjustments.

“This isn’t what you came here to tell me,” Edryd said, trying to sound unimpressed. He knew that Seoras was here about something even more important.

“That discovery, this skill of yours, it is no minor thing,” Seoras replied. He was surprised by Edryd’s even reaction, and he was further impressed by his students having somehow divined that he was here for another purpose. “I did also come with a warning,” he said. Fear was encroaching once more upon the shaper’s mind. “You need to leave the island.”

This was not amongst any of the things that Edryd could have imagined Seoras might say, and he was unable to form a response.

“I know you think I have tried to keep you here, but you have made false assumptions on that subject. Logaeir wants to keep you here, and so does Esivh Rhol. I have an interest in you as well of course, but I have only been trying to keep you safe in a very dangerous place.”

Edryd could not accept this as the truth. The only person Edryd needed protection from was Seoras. Ignoring Esivh Rhol, it was troubling that Seoras knew Logaeir by name. Rather than confirm a connection to Logaeir, Edryd focused on the other man.

“What does Esivh Rhol want with me?” Edryd asked.

“He’s interested in you because I’m interested in you. When he learned of what you had done to Hagan and Cecht, he decided right then that he wanted you working for him.”

“I have had no dealings with the Ard Ri at all,” Edryd said, reacting with disbelief.