As soon as Shae stepped down from the wagon, she understood why Aro wanted them to move slowly. It wasn’t just worry for Kayden’s health.
There were two men behind the wagon, dressed in snow-dusted furs and armed with bows. Two more stood on either side of the wagon. All of them were watching her warily. Glancing around the rear corner, she could see that there were four more men across the road in front: two on foot, and two more on horseback, carrying long spears. One of them, older and taller, wore armor under the fur at his shoulders. Long-faced and lean, he had a black eye patch over a scar that ran from his thinning white hair into the white beard of his chin. From the way he held himself and the way the others looked at him, he seemed to be the man in charge. Shae took note of that.
She also took note that the wagon had been stopped where the road turned in a stretch of closely packed pine trees. An excellent place for an ambush, and she chastised herself for being inside with Kayden instead of being outside where she might have been able to help somehow.
After a minute, the wagon creaked. Kayden appeared at the rear door, wearing the wool clothes and the wide fur cloak that she’d laid out for him. The thick garb already hid his injuries well, but when he saw the armed men, he visibly straightened his back, as if he had no pains at all.
“Gentlemen,” he said, nodding at the two men. They didn’t respond.
Shae reached up and offered her arm to help Kayden manage. Face tight—she could sense his pain—he accepted the help only to the bottom of the stairs. Then he shook himself free of her and tucked his cloak behind the sword strapped to his side. It brought the handle of the blade into easy reach. Perhaps more important, Shae thought, it exposed the handcannon that was also strapped to his hip.
The brace on his leg was hinged at the knee—Aro wasn’t boasting when he said he could do amazing things with aluman parts—but it still gave Kayden a slight hobble as he made his way toward the front of the wagon. Shae walked beside him, ready to defend him if they attacked—or to catch him if his strength gave out.
When they reached the front of the wagon, Shae saw that Aro Lanser was leaning back in his seat, his long coat over his chest, his left hand nursing his pipe. His wide-brimmed hat was cocked back on his head as if to give him a better view of the men in front of him. Relaxed, he puffed a cloud of smoke, then pulled the pipe out of his mouth to use it as a pointer. “Kayden Mar of Felcamp,” he said, “may I introduce the sneaky bastards of the Blue Keep.”
Ignoring Kayden and Shae, the older man with the eye patch looked over to the lumicker. “Sneaky bastards that snuck up on you, old man.”
Aro’s mustache twitched; then he used his pipe to push his cloak aside. His boltgun was firmly in the grip of his other hand, and the barrel of it was clearly pointed at the other man’s chest. “That one’s Oth Marek, Kayden. Captain of the keep’s guard. You’ll want to keep an eye on him, since he’s missing one.”
Marek’s smile bent the line of his scar. “What brings you back here, Lanser?”
The lumicker settled his boltgun back into its holster and pulled his furs close as he crossed his arms under them to get warm again. “Just bringing your new lord.”
The captain turned his one eye back to Kayden. His face was unreadable. “You’re Kayden Mar of Felcamp?”
“I am.”
“Had word you were coming.” Marek looked him up and down. If it was an appraisal of worth, he did not seem impressed. “Our latest lowland lord.”
A couple of the guardsmen to the captain’s left didn’t even try to hide their amusement, and Kayden turned to them. “You have a problem with King Mark’s commands?”
The two looked uncomfortable. “Begging pardon, my lord,” one of them managed. “We just—”
“You just go through a lot of lords,” Kayden said.
“Yes, my lord.”
“And the last one? Was there anything impressive about him?”
The captain answered for them. “The last one could scream loud enough to set loose a snowslide. Found that out when an aluman ripped him into several pieces.”
Aro made a scoffing sound. When Marek looked over at him, Aro pulled something from his pocket and tossed it down to Shae. “Hold it up now,” the lumicker said.
Shae’s stomach lurched when she saw the crystal in her palm, but she held it up for them to see.
“Soulglass,” Marek said. “Blue Keep has plenty powering its defenses. You’ve helped fix some of them, Lanser.”
“So I have,” the lumicker said. “Which is why I know the keep doesn’t have what this crystal will power.”
“What’s that?”
“Something new.” Aro’s eyes twinkled with almost childlike excitement.
“New?”
The lumicker nodded. “And all thanks to Lord Kayden here. And Lady Shaesara. They’re the ones who killed the aluman whose heart she holds before you.”
The men surrounding the wagon seemed to be looking at them more closely now. It made Shae uncomfortable.
“And you’re Lady Shaesara, I take it?” Marek asked.
Shae opened her mouth to deny it—she was the Bone Pirate, by Ti’nay’s tricks, not a lady—but the lumicker cut her off.
“A lady she is,” Aro said. “But no need to stand on ceremony. Shall we head up to the keep, Lord Kayden?”
Kayden looked between the lumicker and the one-eyed man, then nodded. “Yes. Much to see and do. You’ll take us to the keep directly, Captain Marek.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
Marek and his fellow man on horseback turned their steeds to head up the road. The other guards around them pulled back and quickly disappeared into the snowy woods.
When Kayden turned and headed to the wagon, Shae stayed close beside him. To her relief, he only needed help when he made it to the steps. She assisted him as best she could without appearing to do so. There was no question that they were still being watched.
With Kayden inside, Shae climbed in to join him and shut the door. As soon as it was closed, Kayden’s energy gave out. He braced himself against the stove, and Shae reached out to help take his weight. She led him up to the bed, where he sat down heavily.
Beneath them, the wagon’s wheels began to turn again.
“You did great,” Shae said. She helped get the fur cloak off his shoulders.
“You, too, my lady.”
Kayden was smiling despite his pains. Shae just rolled her eyes and pushed him back into the blankets. “We’ll talk about that when we get there. Which might not be long. Rest while you can.”
Kayden nodded, and closed his eyes.
Shae set his cloak to the side, took one last, lingering look at him, and then climbed up and through the half-door to join Aro on his bench seat up front.
“Well,” the older man said, “I’d say that went well.”
“It did?”
The lumicker puffed at his pipe. “First impressions are important. The lad did well. He’s resting now?”
Shae nodded.
“Good,” he said. “Proud of you both. Almost enough to bring tears to the eyes. Those of us with two of them, anyway.”
He laughed through his pipe, and Shae laughed too. The sound felt good. A kind of warmth against the cold. Captain Marek and his companion, riding ahead of them, looked back at the noise, but they didn’t say anything.
“Oh,” Shae said, reaching into her pocket and finding the crystal. “This is yours.”
The lumicker took it with a nod, placing it into a pocket of his own somewhere under his heavy cloak of fur. “Meant what I said, you know.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ve got special plans for this one. Something new.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Aro Lanser smiled around the pipe in his teeth; then his grey eyebrows raised up toward the rim of his hat. “And there it is.”
Shae followed his gaze forward, past the wagon team and the men riding ahead.
The pine trees were giving way in an arcing line, like an army whose march had finally ended. Beyond was a narrowing flat, framed by slab-like walls of mountain that hung their heads in cloud. The river, dwindling to a stream, still twisted its way along the floor up toward a saddle between the peaks. There was a stone wall there, grey and black, reaching into the faces of cliffs on either side of the valley. The road they were following switchbacked to it, then bent as it got close and cut into the angular walls of a keep nestled on the south side of the pass. A single tower climbed free of the fortifications, a square with high buttresses like spurs at its corners and a tattered red banner hanging down its side. At its top, the long, sleek shape of an airship floated at a mooring tower.
“The Blue Keep,” Shae whispered.
“So named for its lumick defenses,” Aro said. “Can’t see them from here, of course.”
“They all face the other side?”
“The lands where the alumen live.” He pulled deep on his pipe. “Folks call it lots of different names, you know. I call it death.”