CHAPTER 33

18th Day of Kheraya’s Settling, Year 634

A qua’turn after Larr suggested that they seek a Bound device from pirates in the Sea of Gales, the Sea Dove made land in Vondehm, the royal city of Herjes, on the isle’s eastern shore. As in the Knot, the crew and captain had to await permission from city authorities before leaving the ship. This was a busier port, however, and they waited several bells before being approached by a uniformed man.

He was tall, muscular, his dark hair salted with white. Elaborate etchings covered the right side of his face, centered around his eye.

Captain Larr spoke with him on the wharf, a pouch of coins tied to her belt. The official remained stoic. Larr’s expression tightened through the encounter. In time, she paid him several gold rounds and ascended the plank to the dock.

Standing with Tobias, Mara gazed after the official as he followed the pier to the next ship. Men and women disembarked from the various vessels moored to the docks, but the only Herjeans she saw – the only people bearing the geometric etchings for which the isle was known – were men.

“That didn’t seem to go well,” Mara said, as the captain passed.

A frown lined the captain’s brow. “It wasn’t so bad. Their wharfages have increased.”

Mara quirked an eyebrow.

“Herjean men can be… unpleasant,” Larr admitted. “This is the only isle between the oceans where I’m made to feel presumptuous for captaining my own vessel.” She gave a thin smile. “Well, here and Westisle. No matter. We’re free to visit the city,” she said, raising her voice so the rest of the crew would hear. A cheer greeted these tidings. “Back on the ship by midnight.”

This earned a groan, but in moments, members of the crew were headed off the ship and into Vondehm.

“I have matters to attend to,” Larr said. “Some of it is of interest to the two of you. Would you care to join me?”

Tobias glanced at Mara. “I’ll stay with Nava. You should go.”

Mara agreed, and soon she and the captain had disembarked, and ventured into the heart of the royal city. Mara spotted more Herjean women here, all of them marked with those same etchings. The city itself resembled others she had seen during their travels. Beyond the squalor nearest to the waterfront, Vondehm might have been cleaner than most. Soldiers, in green and silver livery, patrolled the streets in numbers. Pairs of them, swords on their belts, muskets fixed with bayonets, stood on nearly every street corner.

Captain Larr showed no alarm at their presence. She walked with confidence, surveying the shops and peddlers’ carts that lined the lanes. They didn’t stop at any of them, nor did they linger in the city marketplace.

“Where are we going, captain?” Mara asked.

“To a smaller marketplace on the west end of the city,” Larr said, speaking as she might of the weather. “The main market caters to the city’s wealthy, and merchants who come here to get rich off them. This other is for traders and farmers and craftsmen who operate beyond the city’s walls.”

“So there’s more gold to be made in the main market.”

“Yes, but one of the traders at this other is a man I’ve known for many years. He traded with my father. And he has friends who…” She glanced around them. The street wasn’t as crowded as those nearest the wharves, but neither was it empty. “Who live west of here,” she went on, her meaning clear enough. “I sent a message ahead. He may have information for us.”

The back of Mara’s neck tightened as the captain said this. She looked over her shoulder.

“Is something the matter?”

“Probably not. I’m just not used to… to this place.” Or to treating with pirates and smugglers.

They walked on. Mara scanned the byways.

She expected this second marketplace to be different from others she had seen. Seedier. More menacing. It was neither. Had she not known that Vondehm had another market, she would have assumed this one served the entire city. Men and women, most marked with etchings, crowded around peddlers’ tables and carts, shouting for attention, waving purses or holding up coins they squeezed between finger and thumb. Children and dogs ran underfoot. The entire plaza smelled of woodsmoke and rotting greens, fried bread and dead fish.

Larr led Mara around the perimeter of the market, dark eyes peering into shadows, searching. After circling nearly the entire space, she muttered something Mara didn’t hear and angled into the crowd. After a few steps, she paused and leaned close to Mara.

“I probably don’t need to say this, but let me talk. Don’t say anything unless you’re spoken to. These are Herjean men, many of them. A few might hail from Westisle itself. Most of them are asses. They’re quick-tempered, used to getting their way, and dangerous if provoked.”

“All right.”

Mara followed the captain to a broad table set beneath a canvas shelter. The table was covered with a random array of items: pistols, knives, blue bottles full of wines both pale and dark, strands of dried kelp, gemstone-crusted brooches, necklaces, and bracelets, and more. Mara didn’t see any chronofors or sextants, but she wasn’t sure peddlers would display such items. Three men sat in chairs behind the table, all of them marked with etchings, all of them wiry and olive complected. One was sleeping. The other two had eyes of pale green. They might all have been brothers.

The middle one wore a black shirt and matching breeches. The one to his right, who carved a piece of bone with a small blade, wore a leather vest over his bare torso. The shelter stank of stale whiskey, but those pressed around the wares didn’t notice or care. Larr halted behind the men and women closest to the table, and peered over their shoulders as they jostled one another and bartered with the two sensate men.

Mara stood with her, hearing more than she saw. The booth seemed a den of chaos, of argument and barely controlled violence. She sensed the peddlers were enjoying themselves.

At one point, Vest spotted Captain Larr and dipped his chin fractionally in recognition. No words passed between them. The peddler began haggling with a burly, bald man over a flask of dark liquor.

Shortly after, the man in the black shirt stood, and slipped out of the booth through a slit in the canvas. He said nothing and didn’t spare Larr and Mara a glance. A spirecount later, the captain touched Mara’s shoulder, gestured with a quick cant of her head, and led her away from the booth. They strolled to the next table, and the one after that.

Then they slipped between two booths to a sheltered patch of brown grass, out of sight of others in the plaza.

Black Shirt awaited them there. He was a full head shorter than the captain, and barely taller than Mara herself. A pistol hung on his belt, as did a large knife.

He flashed a dark smile at the captain, exposing crooked yellow teeth. “Seris.” He barely took notice of Mara.

“Weld.”

“You’s looking well. Merchant life must be good.”

“No,” Larr said, her eyes wide in an innocent stare. “We’re barely scratching by. We had a dog on board for a while, but we were forced to eat him. Would have starved otherwise.”

He laughed, high and harsh. “Right, I’m sure.” He nodded in Mara’s direction. “This your new girl?”

“This is an associate of mine.”

Black Shirt looked Mara over, his gaze brazen and hungry. Mara suffered it without squirming, and refused to avert her eyes.

“She’s a pretty one,” he said with a leer. “She have a name?”

“Not that you need know,” Larr said.

He faced the captain again. “All right.”

“You received my message?”

“Bound devices.”

“Just so.”

“Everyone wants ’em, you know. We get inquiries all the time. Not only merchants and traders. The Oaqamarans are after ’em. So are the Sheraighs and the Aiyanthans. Milnos, Vleros. You’d think all these places have Binders of their own, but they want devices quicker than their folk can make ’em.” He considered Mara again. “Northisler, right? You the one wantin’ a bound piece? A chronofor maybe?”

“I’m a Spanner,” Mara said.

“Is that right?” He sounded doubtful.

“You want me to Span for you right now? Sell us a sextant and I’ll do it.” She smirked. “I’d even have to strip down.”

The leer returned. “I like this one, Seris. She has spirit.” He pivoted back to the captain. “But I’ve got nothin’ for you. There’s none to be had here.”

“None at all?” Larr asked. “I don’t believe it. There’ve been none in the Ring Isles either, or in the Knot. How can there be no Bound devices for sale anywhere between the oceans?”

“Bad luck, I guess.”

“I’d rather not go on into the Sea of Gales, but I will. I’ll go to Westisle if I have to. So if you’re holding out, hoping I’ll pay more…”

She trailed off as Weld shook his head. “You’re not listenin’ to me. You think I don’t want the sale? You know me better. You also know that I take care of them I call friends. We’ve had our differences, you and I, but you’re a friend. And I’m tellin’ you now to think on what I said.”

Larr blinked and stared. Color drained from her cheeks.

“Blood and bone.”

“There’s nothing for you here,” he said again. “I’d be on my way if I was you. You catch?”

The captain touched Mara’s shoulder, already turning to leave the patch of grass. “Come along.”

Mara glanced back at the peddler, who watched her, speculation in his glance. She hurried after Larr.

“What’s the matter? What did he mean by all that?”

“‘The Oaqamarans are after them,’” Larr repeated in a whisper. As they entered the plaza again, she scanned the throng. She held her pistol; Mara hadn’t seen her pull it from her belt. “The Sheraighs, the Aiyanthans. Vleros and Milnos.”

“Some of them are after us, too.”

“I fear all of them are. We need to get back to the ship, and then we need to leave these waters.”

“And go where?”

“Wherever we can. The southern Ring maybe. Or the Labyrinth. Anywhere but here.”

“Do you think we’re in danger from the pirates?”

“He all but told us we were. I’d guess there’s a bounty on your heads. Trading with pirates is one thing, but a bounty? That’s free gold as far as they’re concerned.” Larr cast a look over her shoulder. “I’m sorry. We should have listened to Tobias.”

As the sun turned a slow arc above the Vondehm waterfront, the air warmed. Small clouds scudded across the blue, but nothing that threatened rain. When Sofya woke from her midday nap, Tobias took her into the bay for a swim.

She was still too young to float on her own, but she held on to his hands and kicked her feet, squealing with delight as he pulled her in broad circles. After a bit of prodding, she put her face in the water. The first time, she came up sputtering and coughing, but Tobias showed her how to hold her breath and how to blow bubbles in the brine. Soon she was submerging her entire head and poking it up again. She laughed so hard she gave herself hiccups.

A cloud passed before the sun, plunging them into shadow. Tobias checked its size and position. The sun would peek out again before long.

Something in the broad patch of blue beside the cloud caught his eye. Sofya called to him, but he barely heard.

It had to be a seabird.

It’s too big.

“Papa!”

He pulled her close and put an arm around her. “One moment, love,” he said, still squinting at the sky.

Three of them, circling. Too large.

“Blood and Bone.”

“Bloody bone,” she echoed in a singsong. “I go under again.”

“Later,” he said, kicking them back toward the rope ladder on the Dove’s hull.

“No!” She struggled in his arms. “I go under again!”

“One time,” he said. “Then we have to get back on the ship. Mama will be back soon.”

She agreed to this, and dunked herself twice more. They climbed back onto the deck. The sun had cleared the clouds. Tobias had to shield his eyes to study the sky. They were still there.

Belvora. Again.

He dressed Sofya and pulled on his own clothes. Leaving the princess to wander the ship, keeping an eye on the soaring demons, he approached Bramm, who had already returned from his foray into the city.

Leaning on the rail beside the man, he said, “Quietly, calmly, look overhead and tell me what you see.”

Bramm regarded Tobias, then did as he asked. He spotted them within a fivecount. His imprecation was stronger than Tobias’s had been.

“What do we do?”

Before he could answer, he spotted Mara and the captain striding toward the wharf. Both of them held pistols.

“Take someone into the city,” Tobias said. “Find the rest of the crew and get them back here. I think we need to leave.”

The sailor had spotted Larr as well. “Right.”

Bramm and Moth left the vessel. They met the captain on the wharf, spoke with her for a tencount. Larr made no effort to stop them.

She and Mara rushed up the plank. He met them at the rail. “How did you know?” Larr asked.

“Know what?”

She shook her head. “Why are Bramm and Moth–”

He pointed at the sky, cutting her off.

Larr spotted the demons before Mara.

“Damn!”

“What happened in the city?”

Mara described their encounter with the peddler. As she talked, Sofya ran to her and pulled at her shift until Mara picked her up.

“I put my head in da water.”

“Good for you, love.”

Larr squinted up at the Belvora again. “What kind of enemy works with pirates and demons and merchants?”

“Orzili,” Tobias said. “Back in Hayncalde, I had the sense that he was working for the autarch and the Sheraighs and even for himself. We shouldn’t be surprised that his reach is this long.”

Bramm and Moth had the rest of the crew back on the Sea Dove within a single bell, and still that felt too long to Tobias. He expected the Belvora to pelt down on them at any moment. He should have known better. By day, the demons would keep their distance. As long as they circled so high, they could track the ship in complete safety and report to their allies, whoever they might be.

“Are we safer on land or sea?” Mara asked, as the crew readied the ship for departure.

Larr stood at the wheel, overseeing preparations. At the question, she came forward.

“Neither choice is good. The demons are a threat no matter where we go.”

“I’m not as worried about the Belvora as I am about Orzili and his men,” Tobias said. “We’re safer from them on water.”

“Not if they’re on a marauder, or a war eagle.”

“They won’t be. They’ll use tri-sextants to Span directly onto the ship.”

Larr frowned. “Tri-sextants?”

“Spanning devices that… It’s too much to explain right now. The point is, if we’re at sea, they can’t surround us. We fight on equal footing.”

“You’re forgetting the Belvora!”

Tobias frowned in turn.

“If we stay, we might have help,” Larr said, more to Mara than Tobias.

“The men we saw today?”

“They harbor no love for the autarchy, or for the Sheraighs, I would imagine.”

“Can they be trusted?”

A bitter smile crossed the captain’s lips. “Not even a little. But we don’t have many options.”

“We should at least leave the wharf,” Tobias said. “If we’re going to be attacked from the city, I want to see it coming.”

“Agreed,” Larr said. “We’ll oar out to the middle of the harbor and drop anchor.” She started back toward her quarters. “In the meantime, I’ll get word to Weld and his brothers.”

“I thought you didn’t trust him,” Mara called after her.

“I trust in gold,” she said over her shoulder.

Seeing Mara’s furrowed brow, she halted and returned to them. “He warned us today. If he and the others were working with the Sheraighs, or whoever is after you, he wouldn’t have done that. He’s a cutthroat, and he’d sell his mother for the right price. That said, he also named me a friend. He wouldn’t do that lightly.”

She left them again and closed herself in her quarters.

Tobias considered the Belvora, and then the wharf and the lanes beyond them. He could almost feel Orzili at his shoulder and smell the man’s sweat, mingled with the fetor of Hayncalde’s dungeon. He nearly gagged.

“Are you all right?” Mara asked, a slender hand on his arm.

“No. We’re trapped. We’re right where he wants us.”

“I’m sorry, Tobias. I–”

He took her hand. “It’s not your fault, or the captain’s, or mine for that matter. If it wasn’t here, he would have found us somewhere else. We knew we couldn’t run forever.”

Larr emerged moments later with a pouch of coins and a folded piece of parchment. She gave both to Bramm and spoke to him at length. When she finished, he nodded and left the ship. Next, the captain had Moth and Yadreg lower the pinnace to the water and tie it to a bollard.

Not long after, Tobias and Mara cast off lines, and other members of the crew rowed the Sea Dove away from the wharf and to the center of the harbor. Other ships lay anchored there. Not many, but enough to keep the Dove from being too conspicuous.

Of course, with the Belvora soaring above them, it hardly mattered if they were conspicuous or not. As long as the demons sensed his magick and Mara’s, those working with them would know exactly where to find the ship.

Larr joined Tobias and Mara again.

“Bramm will deliver my message to Weld and his brothers, and he’ll buy us fresh supplies of ammunition, powder, and paper. We may have run out of good fortune, but we won’t run out of bullets.”

Tobias didn’t answer.

“We’ve done what we can,” the captain said. “There’s naught to do now but wait. The attack will come, or it won’t. We’ll prevail, or we won’t.” She flashed a wry grin. “That’s probably not very reassuring, is it?”

Mara said nothing, eyes on him.

“Actually, it’s more reassuring than I would have expected. I’ve been afraid of this fight for so long, the fear has settled in my bones. I’m sick of it. Better to have it come, one way or another.”

“I couldn’t have said it better.” The captain moved off, shouting orders to others.

“So you’re not afraid?” Mara asked, when they were alone.

“Oh, I’m terrified.” A quick smile passed between them. “But if we have to face Orzili, let’s get it over with.”

They checked the Belvora once more, then joined others as they gathered weapons at the ship’s prow. Nearly a full bell later, Bramm returned with the ammunition, powder, and paper. The powder wasn’t Aiyanthan white, but Herjes produced decent yellow powder, which would be good enough, as long as the weather held.

Time crawled by. Larr watched the mouth of the bay, anxious, her lips pressed into a taut line. Occasionally Tobias heard her mutter about the other ships and how they should have arrived already. Tobias had been suspicious of the pirates, leery of this alliance of convenience. But he saw their failure to join the Dove as an ill omen. Just before dusk, Bramm spotted two thin plumes of dark smoke rising from beyond the bay. Tobias feared the worst. Judging from Larr’s grim expression, he guessed she did, too.

The crew ate a cold dinner on the ship’s deck. Tobias saw his own tension mirrored in the faces of the men and women around him. Aside from Sofya, no one said much. She chattered as usual, wandering from one cluster of sailors to the next, coaxing smiles from even the gravest of them, like a commander circulating among her warriors on the eve of battle.

After they finished eating, Tobias took the princess below and sang her to sleep.

Soon after that, the attack began.

Tobias watched the city, in case Herjean authorities took it upon themselves to commandeer the ship. As he gazed westward, a group of men appeared along the shore near the wharf, on an empty stretch of lane lit by torchfire. They didn’t march onto the street, or emerge from a barrack. They simply winked into view, as if placed there by magick. As if they had Spanned. It might have been a trick of the light, but he thought he saw something golden flash with torchfire.

The men wore black. Assassins. Orzili’s killers. He kept his eyes on them even as he called Mara to his side and pointed.

She didn’t spot them until they struck out toward the pier. Tobias counted fifteen, maybe sixteen. He assumed they were armed, and that Orzili was with them.

His heart pounded, and his stomach knotted like wet rope.

“I’ll get the captain.”

Mara started away, but hadn’t taken more than two steps when a piercing wail from above rent the quiet of the harbor. Tobias searched the darkness, but couldn’t spot the Belvora. Turning back to the city, he saw that the men had halted. Several pointed out at the harbor.

A second demon scream came from so close that Tobias ducked. Others among the crew had armed themselves and now took positions around the ship. Tobias and Mara did the same, their muskets loaded and full-cocked, pistols on their belts.

Tobias scanned the sky, checked the city again.

He had lost sight of the Spanners.

He opened his mouth to shout a warning. Too late. Volleys of musket fire erupted from a nearby Kant. Bullets whistled past and gouged chunks of wood from the Dove’s rail. Flashes of fire illuminated the night. Smoke hazed the air around the other ship.

Tobias braced his weapon, aimed, and fired. A man in black dropped out of sight.

Bursts of flame, the roar of weapons fire, gouts of white smoke. He reloaded as quickly as he could. Heard musket fire around him. One of Larr’s men gave an odd sigh and collapsed to the deck, blood gushing from a hole in his brow.

Another howled and dropped her musket, clutching at a bloody shoulder.

“Tobias!”

He twisted, threw himself down and to the side. A talon carved through his shirt and the flesh on his back, tearing a cry from his lips. He fell onto the wound, pain burning like a brand. The Belvora. Forgotten for just an instant. Fool! Idiot! A child’s mistake.

The demon wheeled a tight circle, dove at him. He fumbled for his pistol, managed to pull it free. The Belvora veered again, up and out of the torchlight.

Mara rushed to his side.

“Are you–”

“I’m all right.” He forced himself up to a crouch, agony between his shoulderblades. “Aim for the tri-sextants!” he called to the others. “The golden devices, and the men who hold them.”

The two ships continued to exchange musket fire. Winged demons swooped over the Dove, menacing its crew.

Another of Larr’s sailors fell, blood staining his shirt.

The captain glared as Yadreg scuttled to the wounded man. “My crew are used to fighting pirates and slavers, not trained assassins. We’ll be wiped out in no time! They don’t need to board us!”

Another Belvora swept over them, a clawed fist barely missing Moth. Bramm and Gwinda spun, tracking the beast with their weapons. They fired at the same time. The demon wailed.

Muskets boomed from the other ship. Gwinda collapsed and didn’t move again. Blood from a wound to her back stained her shirt, pooled at her side, and coursed over the deck.

Tobias and Mara gaped. Even the captain didn’t appear to know what to do. Yadreg left the wounded sailor and crawled to Gwinda. Upon reaching her, he merely hung his head, his eyes squeezed shut.

Another Belvora dove at the old sailor, only cutting away when others on the ship turned their weapons in its direction.

“I’ll call them off, Tobias!”

Tobias froze, then stared across the ebon sea to the other vessel. He knew that voice. Everyone on the Dove watched him.

He heard crying from below. Sofya was awake. They couldn’t spare Mara’s musket, or he would have asked her to go below. He feared what might happen if Sofya climbed to the deck and Orzili Spanned to the ship.

“I’ll call off the demons; I’ll call off my men. Surrender yourself and the child, and the rest can live. Even the woman.”

He looked at Mara, who shook her head.

“Keep fighting,” Orzili went on, “and you’ll die anyway. And you’ll take the rest of them with you.”