4
“Danu, I’d rather take my sword to that man than trade words with him again.” Ursula strode into the council chambers, having adjourned court after sending me ahead to study the scroll in more detail.
“Groningen is right,” Harlan replied. “You did well. Kral did not expect your talons. As I expected, it was a treat to watch you gut him.”
“Hardly. I’m not sure I even scratched him.”
“Oh, you did. Believe me. But don’t call me ‘prince’ again.” Usually so even tempered, Harlan sounded brusque enough that Ursula gave him a long look.
“I only meant to point out your rank in comparison to mine and his. I might not understand Dasnarian, but I heard the insult in his tone to you quite clearly.”
“I know why and I appreciate it.” He brushed her cheek in apology. “I, however, put that person behind me. I am no prince of Dasnaria.”
“Given what we witnessed today, I can understand that.” Ursula dropped herself into the chair beside me, peering over my shoulder at the text as if she could read it. “What does the cursed thing say?”
“I might need Captain Harlan’s assistance on a few words. What does this mean?”
“Volcano.”
Great. More volcanoes erupting. “So the gist of it is that one of their protectorate kingdoms, I think—not Dasnaria, but an island called Nahanau?” He nodded at my pronunciation. “The island experienced a number of unusual events.”
“Nahanau is actually a chain of islands,” Harlan explained, sitting on my other side to study the scroll also. “Somewhere between the Thirteen and Dasnaria. It might not be far from Annfwn, in truth, in the waters west of it.”
“Danu’s tits,” Ursula cursed softly.
I nodded in agreement. “The timing seems to match when the barrier fell. Apparently there’s a dormant volcano—or the islands are dormant volcanoes?”
“Much like at Windroven,” Ursula commented.
“Makes sense. Nahanau experienced a tremendous storm with strange elements. Driving rain in different colors, wingless creatures falling from the sky. And, if I’m reading this correctly, something inside the volcano, which is no longer dormant.”
“You’re reading it correctly,” Harlan said in a grim tone.
“The something is . . . a mo’o?”
He shook his head. “That’s not a Dasnarian word, but the one next to it, gyll, means gold.”
“People died,” I told Ursula, who returned my gaze, eyes dark with sorrow.
“It’s my fault.” She sighed and scrubbed her hands through her hair, hitting the crown she’d forgotten she wore and tossing it on the table.
“Amelia would say you simply acted on the will of the goddesses,” I pointed out. “Regardless, you did what you had to do. None could have known the barrier would collapse and magic blow out everywhere like that.”
“Andi knew,” she said thoughtfully. “And she thought that maybe the barrier didn’t collapse, but stretched, because she could still feel it. Whatever secret magic she does back in Annfwn, she was going to do it and report back. If the barrier moved instead of falling, it could be that Nahanau is now inside it.”
“Other parts of the Thirteen experienced similar storms—perhaps from the barrier passing through as it expanded?”
“Could be. I wish we could ask Andi. We don’t have all the time in the world.”
“We could send Zynda.”
“I don’t think we need to yet. I’ll have to answer Kral’s charges first. I don’t much like that he’s right. At least I can tell him that I killed Illyria, not you,” she said to Harlan. “Dasnaria can charge me with her murder if they want to.”
“That part makes little sense. The Temple of Deyrr might be angry about it, but the Crown doesn’t do the temple’s bidding. Hestar would not send Kral all this way over the death of a priestess. Especially as she wasn’t acting for the empire, but rather on a private quest of hers or the temple’s.”
“To obtain the Star of Annfwn,” she agreed.
“And we still don’t know why.” I turned to Ursula. “Can you explain to me what it does—or did?”
“Does, I think.” She stretched back in her chair, eyeing the crown. “It was passed down among the queens of Annfwn. Salena gave it to me when I was a girl and told me that it would guide me.” She flicked me a look full of irritation. “So vague as to be worthless. I know it responds to my sisters, heating when they’re near.”
“Even still?” Harlan asked with concern.
She put a hand over her stomach. “Even still.”
“I don’t like that it remains inside you. That can’t be good for your health.”
Ursula gave him a slanted smile and raised her brows. “Will you cut it out of me, then? I seem to be fine, and at least we don’t have to worry about hiding it from Deyrr. That reminds me, though, Dafne—you should add that to your records, that when I die, it should be cut out of me and given to Stella.”
Not something I wanted to think about, but I made a note. “You swallowed it before whatever you three did that changed the barrier.”
“Whatever we did, yes.”
“Could the ‘guiding’ aspect be that the Star allowed you to determine where the barrier would be?”
She studied me thoughtfully. “An interesting thought. Andi communicates with the barrier, keeps it strong and governs its permeability from what she calls the Heart of Annfwn—and no, I don’t know what it is. It’s apparently some deep, dark secret and she refused to say. Don’t write that down. I’m probably not supposed to have told you.”
“Not unlike the secrecy around the Star.”
“True. But I don’t think I decided to move the barrier.”
“What if you did, without realizing it? Protecting your realm is always at the forefront of your thoughts,” Harlan said. “The Star might have responded to that and extended the barrier to encompass them all, guided by your will.”
“If so, then how did Nahanau, which I’ve never heard of before this day, get caught up?”
“Andi talked about the barrier like a dome,” I said, thinking it through. “What if it’s shaped like the soap bubbles children play with when the maids do laundry? The word ‘heart’ implies a center—what if it has to be a sphere radiating out from there? So when you guided it outward to cover all the Twelve plus Annfwn, it went in every direction, sweeping up Nahanau also.”
She closed her eyes briefly, perhaps offering a prayer to Danu. “You want me to tell Kral that I not only attacked Nahanau, but I annexed it?”
“It would be interesting to watch his face,” Harlan remarked in some satisfaction.
“Oh, yes, laugh. Keep laughing when he brings down the might of Dasnaria on our heads for it.”
“Wait.” A thought occurred to me. “If our theory is correct and the barrier didn’t collapse, but expanded, how did Kral sail through it to get here?”
They stared back at me with expressions of dawning comprehension. “They didn’t,” Harlan said. “The ship was already inside, probably in the Nahanau islands. Kral has long been fascinated by the place.”
Ursula nodded slowly. “That has to be it. So Kral is bluffing about being sent by Hestar. He’s here on his own, with all the men he has.”
“It is very much in character for him to bluff like this, yes.”
“Then we have an advantage over him and I intend to use it. Perhaps we can knock down his bravado enough for him to let me make amends without him seeing me as weak.”
“So, what is this gold that’s mentioned?” I frowned at the document and checked my notes. “He said that in his initial accusation, too—‘a valuable treasure horde.’ ”
“One way to find out. Let’s have him summoned. Bring him here to talk privately. See if you can convince him to leave the muscle behind.”
Harlan stood and kissed her on the top of the head. “Yes, Your Majesty. Remember to put your crown back on.”
She glared at it balefully. “I already hate the thing.”
Letting her stew, I went to arrange for food. Perhaps food and wine would soothe some of Kral’s savagery.
Kral glared as balefully at the food as Ursula had at her crown, then shoved it away. “How do I know you don’t seek to poison me?”
Ursula stiffened in offense—she might slit his throat, but a warrior of Danu would never stoop to poison—so, with a sigh, I took a slice of meat from his plate and ate it. “It’s not poisoned.”
“It could be poisoned with a substance you’ve developed a tolerance for,” he said, his gaze going to Harlan and Ursula. Kral looked different without the armor. Taller than Harlan, yes, but not as heavily built. A leaner, somewhat darker, sharper version. The shark.
He’d brought his guards but agreed to leave them outside the room. He wore his sword, however, so Harlan did also. Ursula had convinced Harlan that he couldn’t stand behind her as he preferred, because it would look like protective hovering and Kral would interpret that as weakness on her part. Harlan conceded the point, sitting at the table to translate. Instead of translating that last for Ursula, he spoke directly to his brother.
“Kral. I know we have anger between us and this incident has started badly. However, the High Queen is interested only in protecting her realm. She has no need to kill you if your problems can be resolved diplomatically. Besides,” he said with a malicious grin, “she is a highly trained fighter such as you’ve never seen. She moves faster than a snake heated by the sun. If she decided to kill you, it would be with a blade, not poison.”
Kral listened, not looking at Ursula. “She has seduced you. Are you certain there’s no black magic at hand? Tell me now and I’ll free you.” He glanced at me. “The nyrri understands, I know, but she is no warrior. I can silence her easily if she attempts to speak.”
“I have given Ursula the Elskastholrr,” Harlan told him, then nodded at Kral’s astonishment.
Ursula looked between them, gaze sharp. She’d recognize that word if nothing else, along with her name, and she returned Kral’s long, assessing stare with unflinching steel.
“You . . . You what? But . . . that cannot be compelled. Which means you have gone crazier than I thought.” Unexpectedly, Kral broke out into an enormous laugh, booming like Harlan’s, and grabbed the plate back, stabbing a slice of meat with a small dagger. He stuffed the meat in his mouth and pointed the dagger at Harlan. “At least you shall make a colorful contribution to the grand Dasnarian tradition of pledging doomed eternal love to the worst choice possible. Will she make you king?”
“I have no wish to be king.”
“Nonsense, every man wishes to be king. Any man with balls.”
“Is that why you are here, Kral—do you think to be king here since you will never reach that status in Dasnaria?”
“Perhaps.” He nodded thoughtfully, scanning the room. “You know I could bring an army so vast that your queen would fall, no matter the speed of her sword or how many pet magicians she calls to her.”
“Ah, but there we know you are lying, Kral.” Harlan translated for Ursula, handing her the conversational ball. Like the hawk he called her, she went in for the kill.
It took hours—well into the evening—before Kral cracked and admitted that all had happened just as we’d surmised. He’d been on a mission to Nahanau when the magic storm hit. The devastation had been enough to stymie whatever they’d been there to do, which he would not elaborate on. Not wanting to strain the resources of the devastated islands, they’d left for home, with the intent of returning at another time.
And hit the barrier.
They had sailed south along its edge, seeking a way through, until they found themselves rounding the Crane Isthmus, following land north again in search of human habitation. One of his men was a historian and recognized Windroven’s distinctive profile from drawings and recalled the peaceful Port of Ehas as a place that had welcomed Dasnarians in the past.
“ ‘Welcomed’ as in ‘were easily conquered,’ ” Ursula inserted.
Kral grinned at her, still the shark with his flashing teeth, but no longer so hungry. “Would you have picked a different strategy?”
She conceded with a twitch of her shoulder.
“My historian knows enough of your Common Tongue to eavesdrop, especially as your realm is churning with discussion of recent events. A High King dead. A High Queen stepping over his body to the throne. And, against all probability, my baby brother and the Temple of Deyrr, in the thick of it.”
“Do not lump me in with Illyria,” Harlan told him, and Kral surveyed him, wary again.
“So she was here.”
“She was, and, no—I don’t know how or why.”
“It’s bad business to mess with the practitioners of Deyrr.”
“Believe me, I did not do so willingly.”
“It relieves me to know that. I had bad moments, wondering.”
“Then why make a production of accusing us of her murder and threatening to drag me back to face charges?”
“If you were unwillingly chained to your queen, it would have been a good gambit to take you away from her. I knew you could not have killed Illyria, so I offered the people here a scapegoat to pin the murder on, to escape the might of Dasnaria. I thought they might let our ship through the barrier wall to get rid of us.”
“I’m surprised you cared so much for my fate.”
Kral heaved out a sigh and folded his hands together on the table, a habit Harlan shared. “Many years have passed since you left, and I am not the same man I was. I . . . have regretted the nature of our parting. I would not have sought you out—would not have known how to—but now hlyti has brought us together. I knew it as soon as we landed at Ehas and heard your name in the rumors. I wish to make amends with you.”
“These are easy, and convenient, words to say.” Harlan considered. “Show me you mean to work together with us.”
Kral thought a moment. “Illyria’s presence here could have had something to do with a man who calls himself a High Priest of the Twelve Kingdoms, who has been consorting with the temple.”
I gasped and Harlan sat upright at that. “What do you say?”
“I know primarily from gossip. It’s unusual for a man to both wear pink—I saw those pink-garbed priests in your court—and be foreign. But it is a connection. I’m willing to trade information and assistance in return for being allowed to take my men home. Along with an explanation for the attack on Nahanau and restitution for the damage King Nakoa KauPo and his people suffered.”
Ursula had been patient with Harlan falling into conversation with his brother and translating only intermittently. She trusted both of us to fill her in completely later—or trusted her ability to badger us into doing so. But she had caught our alarm and surprise and spoke up sharply. “Translate.”
“Kral says that, if I’m not mistaken, Queen Amelia’s missing High Priest may have found his way to Dasnaria and is in the company of the Temple of Deyrr.”
Anger flared in her gaze and she just stopped herself from putting a hand to her sword. “Then he’s a traitor. Don’t translate that.”
“Kral is offering the information as a token of goodwill. He knows we have him trapped and he . . . wishes to make amends with me for past offenses.” Harlan explained the terms and Ursula thought about it while I took out a blank parchment, anticipating the agreement to be drawn up.
“Do you trust him?”
“I don’t distrust him.” Harlan looked long at her, as if seeking some kind of anchor. “I think you have nothing to lose. The restitution he asks is something your honor and sense of responsibility would compel you to do regardless, especially as these people fall within your realm. You will have to address the issue of any other ships trapped within the barrier, so you’ll have to set policy on that. I advise downplaying the accidental nature of the incident and simply offer assistance in helping them return home.”
“If Andi can even do it.”
“Something we’ll need to know,” I pointed out. “We’re facing the same situation Salena and the Tala did if we’re trapped within our own magical barrier, except over a bigger area and hopefully with more time.” Zynda and I had debated this during my time in Annfwn. An argument she’d made had stuck with me, an uneasy thought. What if magic is more like fire and the more fuel it has, the hotter it burns?
“What about this treasure he thinks we tried to take, the gold?”
Kral smiled easily when Harlan asked. “The Nahanau islands are rich in many ways. Why else attack? Be warned, however, King Nakoa KauPo is most obstinate. He will not see his islands assimilated into another realm easily. Dasnaria has been trying for years.”
Harlan studied his brother. “Why not simply take a force and conquer?”
“Far more easily said than done. Your queen will want to send an ambassador to negotiate. Someone nonthreatening.” His gaze lingered on me a moment before he pulled it away. “Do we have a deal or not?” He was evading, but Harlan let it go and I agreed with his choice. It likely didn’t matter.
Harlan summarized the last for Ursula, who nodded crisply and held out a hand to Kral. “Let’s hammer out the agreement, then.”
She surprised him only for a moment; then Kral clasped hers in return, flashing a glance at Harlan. “She has sword calluses.”
Harlan grinned, looking pleased for the first time since Kral’s arrival. “I know. A large factor in her seducing me and bending me to her will.”
“Hmm.” Kral released Ursula’s hand and bowed slightly from the waist, his respect solidified. “I begin to understand the attraction. Are there more like her?”
“Women warriors? As a matter of fact, there are. Once we make this agreement, I shall introduce you.”
“Then, let us have at it. Scribe away, nyrri.” Kral gestured at me. “I find myself hungry for more than meat.”
That part didn’t take long at all. I had my notes, so we simply reviewed the terms and I wrote it out twice—once in Common Tongue and once in Dasnarian. Kral and Ursula set their seals to both. The logistics would take more discussion, but with relief we left the council chambers with the possibility of conflict resolved. Ursula walked ahead, escorting Kral, while Harlan and I followed behind.
“Will you really introduce him to one of the women warriors?”
Harlan lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “I will pass the word to Jepp of Kral’s interest, and she can tell the Hawks. Best to keep it within their ranks. More than one will likely be interested in Kral’s offer. They know how to handle Dasnarian men.”
I shouldn’t have asked the question, because I blushed then. Any number of women at Ordnung had sampled what the Vervaldr offered and talked about the results as very satisfactory. I couldn’t see the appeal, myself, much as I liked Harlan.
He must have sensed my unease because he patted my shoulder. “Have no concerns, librarian. Kral may be a shark, but he’d never take a woman unwilling.”
“What is that word he calls me?” I asked him. “Is it an insult?”
Harlan grimaced slightly. “Not exactly. I don’t think he means it as such, but you might take offense.”
Not like him to be less than straightforward. “Just tell me.”
“It means a small, female nature spirit, one that lives in the cinnamon trees. Your eyes are very much that color and you are . . .”
“Short,” I filled in.
“Which is not an insult,” he hastened to add. “But compared to Dasnarians, you do seem unusually . . . I can’t think of the right word in your tongue.”
Ursula made a snorting sound and said over her shoulder, “Yes, you can. You just don’t want to say it.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I understand now.”
We entered the dining hall. Despite the late hour, an astonishing number of people had gathered to enjoy a celebration of coming to accord with the Dasnarians. Ursula asked Harlan to show his brother a seat—now as guest of honor—and to provide him with whatever he wanted. “I will pass word to Jepp,” she informed him wryly.
“So you can give instructions?”
She smiled thinly. “And so you can talk to your brother. Extract some of those amends he owes you, so I don’t have to.” Though she tried to pass it off as a joke, her quiet concern for him showed through.
He laughed, a soft one, and shook his head. “Will you fight all the world for me?”
“Yes. Which I don’t have time for.”
Kral looked back and forth between them, apparently bemused. Harlan lifted Ursula’s hand and bowed over it, kissing the back. His fingers caressed her palm as he did and I wondered if she knew how he felt about her calluses.
“Come, shark,” Harlan said to his brother. “Let us take a cup of wine together and talk of old times.”
“Have you anything stronger than wine, rabbit?”
“I might. I just might.”