The Wrath of a Shipless Pirate (The Godlanders War) (11 page)

C
orin barked a laugh. “You can’t be serious! I saved you from Ephitel’s prison coach.”

“No. Jeff and Delaen did, with a little aid from an elf named Avery.”

“And Maurelle! I know—I led her there.”

Aemilia shook her head. “Your story falls apart. Maurelle came later. At that time, she was still a pawn of Ephitel.”

Corin sank down on his heels, completely shaken. “What are you telling me?”

She raised her chin. “I see through your charade as
easily
as you saw through my disguise. Do not let it hurt your pride. I will admit, I am astonished at how much you have been told.”

“I have been told nothing; I lived through all of this. Just days ago. But
…
” he trailed off, grasping at a memory. He groaned. “Oberon tried to warn me. It was a dream within a dream. He tried to explain it to me, but I didn’t understand.”

Aemilia found her feet and withdrew a pace, a newfound worry clouding her expression. “I don’t think I understand either. What are you saying?”

“It wasn’t real—not
this
real—but it
felt
real. It was another dream, a special dream made just to show me what had
happened
when Jezeeli fell.”

She backed another step away, though there was nowhere to escape. “You grow more worrisome with every word you speak. Do you know that?”

Corin shook his head. “It was always complicated. Sum
mon Del
aen. If anyone can understand, it will be her.”

“I dearly wish I could, but Delaen died in Ephitel’s first strike.”

“No. She was in the throne room when the city moved.”

The woman snapped, her calm restraint shattered as she stomped her foot. “That isn’t real! Stop speaking of your
fantasies
! This is my life. These are my memories!”

“And they are mine,” Corin answered, quietly calm. “They are not the same, but they are just as real for me. I made new friends in Avery and Maurelle. I watched the coward Kellen become a hero. And I remember Delaen advising Oberon upon his throne before he moved the city. My experience may not h
ave c
hanged the world you know, but Oberon invested much
…
he sacrificed much to share that glimpse with me. If you still serve his goals, you must respect the things I’ve seen.”

“And
you
must understand how this all sounds to me. You suffered an ecstatic dream about a tragic history—and that is
only
if your story’s true—and you would have me trust your vision more than my own memory?”

Corin went a step toward her, stretching out his hands. “I would never ask for that. I only ask that you trust
me
.”

“A pirate?”

“A fellow servant of King Oberon. An ally in the war on Ephitel. One other person in the world who can remember the city that once was and the wretched things that happened there.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she dipped her head and came a little closer to him. “You do have a silver tongue.”

“Some say gold.”

She barked a startled laugh, and Corin went to meet her. He could not doubt that this was the same woman. So serious, so worried, so anxious to do right. He tilted her face up to his and said softly, “I know how difficult this all must be for you. Imagine how it was for me, an unsuspecting Godlander, to be tossed into a fire and emerge in ancient Jezeeli.”

“It is a wonder you survived.”

“More than you know. I picked a fight with Ephitel.”

She gasped. “You didn’t!”

“Oh, I did. I think that’s what Oberon most wanted from that dream—to find a champion to avenge his death.”

Aemilia frowned. “That does not much sound like Oberon.”

“Perhaps. But it is what I most remember.” He thought about the dwarven pistol tucked safely beneath his cloak and gave a g
rim sm
ile. “I shot Ephitel. In the dream. I very nearly
killed hi
m.”

A hungry smile touched her lips, but it quickly faded. “It wasn’t real.”

“No,” he said. “But I wish I’d done it all the same.” He thought a moment and gave a little shrug. “I suppose there is some worthwhile advantage there.”

“Where?”

“In that it wasn’t real. You do not remember me, and that’s a shame. I was a dashing hero, and the other you was
most
impressed.”

She smirked. “This is an advantage?”

“No. It is the contrast. It is a shame you don’t remember me, but quite a comfort to discover Ephitel does not remember either.”

“Oh. I suppose that must be true. You said you shot him.”

“In the back. On two separate occasions.”

She laughed. “You would not have survived one day in Ephitel’s Hurope if he remembered that.”

“But I do,” Corin said. “And that gives me an advantage. I know things he doesn’t know.”

“And you will use this advantage?”

“Haven’t I already said as much? I mean to make him pay for everything he’s done—in your memories as well as mine.”

She touched her chin, considering. “And just what would he have to fear from some outraged sailor?”

“A pirate captain,” Corin corrected. “And a hero of the Nimble Fingers. A well-traveled rogue who’s most resourceful.”

“Oh, but you are more than that,” she said. “What happened to you in the dream? What power did you gain there?”

An instinct for survival barely conquered Corin’s vanity, but it made him hesitate before he named the sword on his hip, the dwarven pistol on his belt, or the magic that propelled him over continents with no more than a thought. These were not enough on their own to make him a match for Ephitel, but they gave him a chance. And with the druids’ help, with a little careful planning, Corin finally believed he might succeed.

But something stayed his tongue. He frowned, searching for the cause, and found it in the druid’s eager gaze. He caught her shoulders gently in his hands and pushed her back to arm’s length again.

“If you did not remember me,” he asked, “why have you been stalking me?”

She blinked, surprised. “I
…
what?”

“You found me two times in as many days in sprawling Khera. And then, months later, you tracked me down across the sea here in Marzelle. Even after I disarmed you, even after I named you to your face, you tried to trail me when I went to face Tommy Day. And then, when I had shaken you, you searched out Charlie Claire where I had hidden him, to pump his dear, soft head for information.”

She tried a teasing smile. “You must admit, you are a
captivating
subject.”

She was trying to manipulate him—and not too subtly at that—but it was a pretty smile all the same. Corin tucked the thought away and shook his head. “Has it even been ten
minutes
since you said discovering my secrets was your top priority? What set you on my trail, Druid? What do you want from me?”

She dropped her smile and ducked out of his grasp. “Charlie told me something of your new abilities. Your
…
travel magic. We did not yet know what it was, but every time you used it, you triggered warnings in our systems.”

“Warnings? Of what sort?”

“Technical. It is our job, before anything else, to keep this world intact. To keep the dream—as you have called it—
running
smoothly. When you twist the dream to propel yourself across the Medgerrad, everything else has to bend and twist to compensate.”

Corin nodded, thinking of the months he’d lost when he’d used the magic before. “Time?”

“It can be time. It can be space. It can be histories or random chance or causality itself.”

“Can it be controlled?”

“Of course it can. By fairies. Elves. It’s how they work, the same way you and I might breathe or keep our hearts beating. They twist reality around them, taste a dozen different samples, and choose the one most closely suited to their needs.”

“That!” Corin shouted. “That’s what I must learn. Teach me that, and I will be your hero.”

“Can I teach you how to breathe? It is not a human thing; it is a fairy thing.”

“But
I
can travel through the dream. Just as Charlie told you and as I’m sure you had already guessed.”

“It could have been teleportation. We did not know for sure until you skipped across the sea. It could have been great fortune. Or temporal manipulation. Or you might have been some new visitor from Fairy. The only thing the warnings told us was that a new anomaly was here. But
…
” She sighed and looked away. “None of the options would have been good news. Any anomaly is a threat to the world we’re sworn to protect.”

She seemed genuinely distraught, though Corin did not entirely understand why. He offered her a smile. “Ease your heart, because you’ve found your answer. I am the anomaly. I do have this ability to travel through the dream. And you have
nothing
to fear, for it was Oberon himself who taught this trick to me.
Gave
it to me, even. If
he
trusted me—”

She shook her head. “He never understood enough of what we do to judge that rightly. There are many things the fairies do, and all of them wreak chaos on causality, but they can all use their sampling to avoid the worst of consequences.”

“How does the sampling work?”

She gave him a theatrical shrug. “How could I possibly describe something so far from human experience? It’s nothing I have ever known.”

“Is it
…
could it be like a gray fog hanging over everything? Could it be time playing forward to some point, then skipping back and doing something slightly differently?”

She narrowed her eyes. “It
could
be like that. I’ve never really heard it put in words.”

“But I’ve experienced that,” he said. “When I tried to travel through the dream across the sea. I ran into
…
well, into you. And into Ephitel himself. And into half a dozen people I don’t know, men and elves looming out of nothing to interrupt m
y pat
h.”

“Focus points,” she said. “The men would have been druids. When you try to shape the dream, you can come into conflict with others trying to do the same.”

“It bounced me back. I nearly died because of it, and Charlie with me.”

She weighed this for a moment and shrugged again. “I do not know. I’ve never known a man who could step through dream before, so perhaps what you describe is just a symptom.”

“Ah, but I have also seen it somewhere else! When you shot me with your precious toy.”

She gaped a moment, then looked away with a blush on her cheeks. “I never shot you! You took it away.”

Corin grinned. “You shot me on four separate occasions. Every time, the world went gray and then started over, until at last I was smart enough to disarm you.”

“I wondered how you knew.”

“Sampling,” he said. “That’s what you called it.”

She nodded, looking stunned. “That’s it. And if you have that ability
…
I have never heard of any but an elf who could control
that
power. If you have that ability, you may not truly be the danger we thought you were!” She bounced on her toes, relief and excitement in her eyes. “Show me. Show me!”

And she slapped him. Hard.

Her face fell. “I’m not impressed.”

“I cannot summon it at will! That’s what I’m asking you to teach me. It just happens sometimes.”

Her shoulders sagged too. “I’m sorry, Corin. It is not something that can be taught.”

“But I already have the ability, clearly. I only need instruction!”

She met his gaze with sympathy in her eyes. “There is
nothing
in our lore to explain how fairies work. I doubt you’d find it in theirs, either. They just do. Some things can be figured out in time—”

“Like going miles at a step,” Corin said. “It works the way a normal dream works.”

“Precisely so. Our glamours work the same way.”

“Your disguise? The one I saw right through?”

She cocked her head. “Yes. And as it happens, I have never known of anyone but Oberon who could do that.”

“Oh?” Corin rubbed his chin. “What does that suggest to you?”

She sighed. “It suggests to me
…
that perhaps the things you say are true. I cannot imagine how you could have gained these powers
unless
he gave them to you.”

“You see? I am a hero. You should welcome me with open arms.”

“Unfortunately, no. You are a wild card. Perhaps if you had come to me with Oberon’s wisdom in your head or with complete control over the sampling, then I could trust you. But as you are, you represent a severe risk to this reality.”

Corin licked his lips. “I don’t like where this is going.”

She shook her head. “Don’t misunderstand me. You have some charm. And I take some heart in hearing that you are opposed to Ephitel. But you seem reckless.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “That I am.”

“And I find that most alarming. You could destroy the world, Corin. We cannot afford to let you run free.”