Sunlight woke me the next morning, and it took me a moment to remember where I was. The sound of the engine was unfamiliar, as was the movement of the bed. But eventually, I came to my senses and sat up in the empty room. After much arguing, and Kieran's solemn oath that he would join his crew's sleeping quarters, I relented and slept in his room. His bed was soft feathers, and the soothing movement of the ship was enough to lull me back to sleep. Instead, I pulled myself together and re-braided my hair.
I went to put my mask back on, but I hesitated. It was one thing to wear it in Forcadel, but we were at least a few hours away now. It might be more conspicuous to wear such a thing. If Kieran hadn't recognized me, perhaps no one else would so far from the main city. So I left it with my things and ventured out into the sunlit deck.
"Good morning, Veil," Kieran called from the quarterdeck. "How lovely you look maskless this morning."
"Seemed a bit odd to keep wearing it in the daylight," I said, coming to join him. Sarala, standing next to him, gave me a cursory glance, then returned to watching the river.
"I trust you slept well," Kieran said, walking down the stairs to join me. "Would you like some breakfast?"
"I can do without," I said, cognizant of Sarala's gaze and that Kieran had told them I was freeloading. I couldn't go the full trip without eating, but I wasn't going to flaunt it in their faces.
"Oh, don't be ridiculous," Kieran said, throwing an arm around me. "We can't have you starving half to death. You're my guest."
Knowing it was useless to argue, I allowed Kieran to feed me a small apple and some salted pork downstairs. While I ate, he flitted around the engine, which was at the front of the ship. He'd test the fluids, check the stores, listen to the groan of the motor and tell me if he thought it was squeaking or not. I couldn't hear any difference from the day before, but if he thought it was making too much racket, he'd open the steel door and poke inside, watching the gears turn.
"What does it run on?" I asked, when he pulled his head out.
"Steam," he said. "We use coal from Niemen to heat sea water which powers the engine. It's an older model—the newer ships get more miles for less fuel. But I don't feel like learning a new ship's quirks."
"I can understand that," I said, downing the rest of the cup of water he'd given me. "I don't want to cause a problem with your crew, Kieran."
"Oh, they'll get over it," Kieran said, as I rose from the small table. "C'mon, I'll introduce you to them all."
Sarala seemed to be the only one discomfited by my presence, as the rest of the crew welcomed me warmly. Eldred was Kulkan, a short, squatty man with dark brown hair and eyes that disappeared when he smiled. He spent most of his time on the sails, watching, adjusting. Dunstan was also Kulkan, but he towered over the rest of the crew. Soft-spoken with a book under his arm, he sat at the bow of the ship, his long legs dangling over the front. Henry, a teenaged boy from Forcadel, seemed fastened to his side, pestering him with questions. The fifth member of the crew was Aruna—who was from nowhere, so she said.
"Sprung out of the ground somewhere along the Kulkan and Forcadelian border," she said, flashing me a smile that was missing a few teeth.
The only country Kieran didn't have represented on his crew was Severia.
"Why would I want them on here?" he asked with a small shrug. "Up until recently, they had no rivers in their country and they had nothing of value."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"See, I assembled my crew strategically. Sure, Sarala can gut you, and Dunstan and Eldred can intimidate the best of them."
Both Kulkans cast Kieran a dry look over their shoulders and shook their heads.
"But also, when I go into Kulka or Niemen, I can use them to give me cover. Country loyalty can buy you a lot, you know. More than gold, sometimes."
"The opposite is also, sadly, true," I said darkly.
Kieran cleared his throat and lowered his voice so only I would hear him over the wind. "Well, to be fair, you also let Ilara sleep in your castle, so…?"
The anger evaporated into shame. "True."
"She certainly played you, didn't she?" Kieran asked with a coy smile.
"Rub it in."
"I'm not trying to be mean," he said. "They say she killed her entire family to become queen. There were three older brothers who died, and when her father died, she just took over."
I frowned; none of that had come to me. "If I'd known her past history of regicide, I might not have let her in my front door."
"Not a lot of gossip that's not Forcadelian gets to Forcadel," he said with a smile.
"What else do you know about Ilara?" I asked, turning to lean against the bannister.
"It's as I said—she's focused on amassing power, not on what's best for her kingdom. She allows thieves to make money off her people, as long as she gets access to the right people. It's how she got herself into Forcadel without anyone knowing."
I grew silent, trying to keep my mind on the steps in front of me, and not those further down the road. "You know, if you'd asked me four months ago what I wanted most in the world, I would've told you running away from my responsibilities would've been top of the list. Being here with you, on this boat, speeding toward the border." I shook my head. "I would've been thrilled."
"And now?"
I watched a woman paddle downriver in a small rowboat. "Now…as much as I don't want to be queen, I don't want anyone else to be, either. Or at least not Ilara."
"Why don't you want to be queen?" Kieran asked with a look of surprise. "It's the best job in the world! You get to wear fancy tiaras and ballgowns, order people around. Sleep on a pile of gold."
"No gold," I said with a weary laugh. "And it's not really ordering anyone around. It's like playing a game of chess, but instead of playing with pieces, you're playing with lives. If you make the wrong move, people die."
"Oh, don't be so glum," he said, patting my back. "Look, you've had a setback. It happens to the best of us. All you need is to get back under that mask and remember who you are. I'm sure you'll have plenty of opportunities when we get to Skorsa."
The landscape slowly changed from green fields and marshy bogs to brown, dry grass, then dark rock. We passed riverside villages, smoke curling out of chimneys during the day and small fires visible in windows at night. The air grew chillier with each passing day, until the nearly unbearable heat from the Forcadel summer was a distant memory. Now, an icy breeze slid past my skin every morning, and even the midday sun seemed less fearsome than usual.
Seven days after we departed from Forcadel, mountains became visible in the distance, and Kieran beckoned me to his office for a geography lesson.
"See, here's Skorsa, on the border," he said, pointing to a black dot on the western side of the river. "You can't tell on this map, but the river pools into a lake and then narrows on the other side. That's where Niemen begins." He tapped the paper. "There's a large stone wall at the border with an iron gate that can be opened and closed. My sources tell me it's been closed since Ilara took over."
"Maybe I'll just continue on beyond the border on foot," I said, eyeing the distance to Linden.
"Don't be ridiculous," he said. "We've still got five days of river travel before we get to Aymar—that would take you weeks on foot. I promised you I'd get you as close to Linden as I could, and that's what I'm going to do." He grinned. "Besides that, I'm enjoying all these favors I'm racking up."
"Oh, and what are we up to now?"
"Well, so far, I've decided that you should commission a statue of me out of solid gold."
"You'd really want just a gold statue?" I said. "Seems awfully generous to donate all that gold to the people of Forcadel to enjoy in a statue."
"Enjoy? I'd stick it on the front of my ship!"
Around midday, the riverboat sailed into the lake, which was about as busy as a summer day in Forcadel. As Kieran had said, there was a large wall in the distance, stretching across the width of the river. A single, iron gate sat in the center of the river mouth.
"A lever system opens and closes it," Kieran said. "Much less complex than the one in Neveri, but that thing hasn't been closed in centuries. Here in Skorsa, the gate used to go up and down all day, as long as you have the coin to pay the Forcadelian mayor."
The Niemenians have been dying to get their hands on the city and control the border and the river gate. Katarine's words became clear as the gate came into view. There hadn't been any other barrier between Niemen and Forcadel on the river up until now. If Niemen controlled the gate, they'd control access to and from their country. It certainly seemed like an enticing prospect.
Almost as soon as the ship reached the docks, Dunstan and Eldred jumped off to moor it, and the rest of the crew sprang into action to ready the ship for the evening. Kieran spoke with the dock master, paying him another ten gold coins for the privilege of staying the night. I overheard wisps of the conversation, and none of it sounded good.
"One night?" I said as he climbed back onboard the ship.
"That's all we need," he replied with a thin smile. "You're The Veil! A miracle worker. You'll have the gate open in no time and we'll be on our way."
This time, I couldn't stay quiet. "Kieran, that's asking a lot. I don't know a thing about this city, let alone who I can ask to get information. I need more time."
"Well, you don't have it, so you might as well get moving." He turned to Sarala, who was throwing bags from the underbelly of the ship onto the deck. "Take The Veil with you and show her around."
She cast me a disgusted look. "Why?"
"Because I said so," Kieran said, quirking a brow. He pulled a silver out of his pocket and tossed it to her. "And make sure to feed her, too. We need our miracle worker to have a full belly if she's going to make magic."
Sarala caught the silver and pocketed it. "Fine, but she gets to carry the bags."
Skorsa was unlike any part of the country I'd ever seen. The Forcadelian crest was present, but on wooden buildings of painted red and orange instead of the more muted colors of the capital city. The windows were all closed—something rare in the Forcadel summers. But here, there was a pleasant breeze that only hinted at summer, pushing the smell of fish and city life out into the rocky fields beyond.
Sarala had clearly been here before as she navigated the strange streets like an expert. Our first stop was the laundry house, where I handed the bags off to a sweaty woman and Sarala paid two gold coins to get the clothes back by the end of the day.
"How often do you guys pass through Skorsa?" I asked, hoping for some conversation. Sarala had ignored me up until this point, but now that I'd carried her laundry halfway across the town, she should've lost her chip on her shoulder.
Apparently she hadn't, because she didn't respond.
So I tried another tactic. "Can you tell me where I should start to find out how to open the gates?"
"Aren't you supposed to be some kind of world-renowned vigilante?" she said, not even bothering to look at me. "Why don't you figure it out?"
I stopped short, the jab hitting a little closer to home than I would've liked. "What's your problem with me, anyway?"
She clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "I don't like freeloaders."
"I'll owe Kieran a favor," I replied.
"And what are the favors of a disgraced princess?"
The blood left my face, and I looked to see if anyone had overheard her, but the street was empty. When my gaze returned to her, she had a self-satisfied smirk on her face.
"Kieran's not the only one who pays attention," she said. "And what I want to know is, what's your business in Niemen? Asylum?"
"If you must know," I said, toying with the leather at my belt as I cast a wary glance around again, "I'm going to ask for some help."
"To?"
"To braid my hair. What do you think?" I snapped. "Now can we quit talking about it in the open where anyone can hear us?"
"Not until I'm satisfied," she replied. "What do you need help for?"
I sighed loudly and stared at the sky. "I'm going to Niemen to ask Ariadna to help me overthrow Ilara."
"Why?"
"Do you really have to ask?" I said, gesturing at the gate in the distance.
"No, I'm not asking about that," Sarala said. "What gives you the right to be Queen of Forcadel?"
I opened my mouth to respond, but found I had no good answer other than Felix and Katarine told me I should.
"Things are in upheaval now, but they'll settle as they always do," she continued. "If you walk away from the throne now, you'll be a forgotten footnote in the pages of history. The end to the Lonsdale line and the beginning of Severian rule." She smiled. "Does that grate on your ego, little princess?"
"This isn't about my ego," I said. "This is about the people. They're suffering."
"But will they suffer more if you plunge them into war?" she asked. "Do us all a favor and give up on this mission. Otherwise, you'll be remembered as a war-mongering princess who decided her crown was more important than people's lives."