The Eighth Warden Ch. 023-024

She was right. He still felt sick, but now he could think of something other than how miserable he was.

"Thank you," he said.

"The healing probably won't last more than a few hours, so let me know if it gets bad again. We should probably try to do it before meals, so we can eat something. I'll only be able to heal us a couple of times each day."

Corec nodded. "How are the others?"

"They're all fine. Katrin's playing her flute and Bobo's trying to talk to a couple of seaborn sailors about their homeland, but they're ignoring him so they can work. Shavala climbed up the...what do you call it? The rigging? She's been up there all morning."

He grimaced. The thought of Shavala climbing in the wind threatened to bring back his nausea. "No problems with the sailors? I didn't see any women among the crew."

"The men stare, but men always stare. The captain yells at them if they try to talk to us."

Corec took a moment to study her. With her blonde hair, delicate features, and unusually blue eyes, it wasn't a surprise that the sailors stared at her. All three of the women were beautiful, though in very different ways. He realized he was staring, too, and looked away. "Let me know if there are any problems."

"I can watch out for myself," she said.

"I know, but the others..."

She frowned and nodded. "Katrin also told me you don't think we'll find a wizard in Circle Bay."

Corec sighed. "I promised to look for a wizard, and I will, and I'm sure we'll find one. I just don't think we'll find one who can actually help us. We've tried three already, and from everything I was able to find out, Rallus is one of the most powerful wizards in Tyrsall. If he couldn't help us, I'm not sure any wizard can."

"If Rallus even cast the banishing spell. You said yourself that you weren't sure."

"Yes, but we also tried two others. Do you really think we'll have better luck elsewhere?"

Treya slumped. "I guess not, but then why am I going to Circle Bay with you? We've got to try something!"

"We'll keep trying, but I thought you came because that bishop friend of yours said we should stay together."

"Telkin's my friend, but I'd never met Bishop Lastal before then. You still don't trust him?"

"I think he's hiding something, at least."

"How do we find out?"

"We might not be able to. We can't go into the Temple of Allosur and accuse the bishop of lying to us. I don't even know for sure that he is."

"So, what do we do?"

"Stay together until we figure it out. Lodarin seems to think I should be able to feel myself casting the spell. Maybe I can learn how to undo it."

#

As she swayed in the wind, Shavala wrapped her arms more tightly around the rigging from her perch on a spar—which the sailors called a yard—two thirds of the way up the foremast. After three days of travel, the sight of the ocean all around her still hadn't lost any of its wonder.

When she wasn't watching the ocean, she was watching the sails, but she still hadn't figured out how they worked. The ship was sailing almost perpendicular to the wind, but somehow they were able to arrange the sails in a way that let them keep moving south. The crew kept a close watch on the wind at all times, and would adjust how the sails were configured based on how it was blowing. Each of the three masts had multiple sails, and when changes were needed, one of the crew members would shout them out. Sailors would then scramble all over the masts and the rigging, furling some sails and unfurling others.

Shavala couldn't follow what they did. The sailors spoke in a combination of Eastern and Seaborn most of the time, neither of which she was fluent in, and when they called out changes, they didn't seem to be using real words at all. Bobo hadn't been able to follow it either. When the sailors weren't busy changing the sails, they were constantly put to work cleaning or looking for things that needed repairs.

For something so large being pushed by nothing more than wind, the ship went much faster than she had expected. Captain Tevian had told her it could make eighty or eighty-five miles a day in typical weather.

The ship went faster when there was more wind, or when the wind was coming from directly behind it. She wasn't sure how to make either of those things happen more consistently, though. Meritia had never taught her to manipulate the weather, warning her not to attempt it until she was stronger and more skilled.

But what was the harm in trying? Shavala extended her elder senses, reaching out to the wind she could feel all around her. She'd felt it before, of course. Wind was nearly always present, even on a still day, and she could sense it to know how it would affect the flight of an arrow or the glide of a hawk.

She'd never tried to grasp the wind itself, though. It was huge, and heavy. How could air feel heavy? The wind in her hair was connected to the wind surrounding the ship, and it was all being constantly pushed by the winds farther out. By other things, too, like the warmth of the sun reflecting off the water.

How could anyone move the wind? It wasn't well ordered, like water. Water went down, when not blocked by something else, and it preferred to travel in paths that had been smoothed out by other water before it. The wind, on the other hand, was chaotic and unpredictable.

She took a deep breath, then tried to take the wind that was blowing in her hair and aim it away from her instead. Her vision grayed out and she lost hold of the rigging she'd been using to keep her balance. As she slipped off the spar, she managed to grasp a rope that hung nearby, and used it to guide her fall to the triangular platform below her. She landed with a thump, startling the boy who was there untangling a knot.

"You a'right?" he asked in Eastern.

She nodded, but didn't try to speak yet. The boy continued his work, pausing every few minutes to glance at her suspiciously.

After her nerves had calmed down, she decided to stay on the platform rather than climb back up to the yard. "Why don't we sail closer to land?" she asked in the trade tongue.

"We must ta follow da currents," the boy said.

"Currents?"

"Da currents of da water. Ta make da ship go faster."

Rivers had currents, but she'd thought the sea only had waves. How could there be a current going south while the waves were headed west toward the coast? Perhaps water wasn't as well ordered as she'd thought. She was about to reach out with her elder senses again when a small, silvery shape jumped out of the water. At first, she thought it was a fish jumping up for an insect—if there were any insects this far from shore—but it didn't fall back down again. The silver shape flew in the air, faster than the ship, then dove back into the water.

"What was that?" she asked, pointing.

The boy looked that down just as another of the shapes jumped into the air. "Flying fish."

"Fish can fly?"

"Some of 'em. Da bigger fish is probably trying ta eat it."

Shavala was astounded. She'd spent years learning about animals, including ones she hadn't seen in real life yet, but she'd never heard of a fish that flew. It hadn't been in her book of rare wildlife, either. She and Bobo were still reading through the entries, but she'd looked at all the pictures and would have remembered something like that.

"I'm going to get a better look," she said.

She scrambled down the combination of rope ladders and rigging that the sailors used for climbing the mast. After three days, she'd gotten almost as fast at it as them. Katrin and Bobo had both flatly refused to try, and Treya had looked sick at the thought. Corec hadn't come up from his cabin long enough for her to mention it to him.

Once on the deck, she ran to the railing to look over. The fish were still jumping out of the water, and now that she was closer, she could see the wings spread out to their sides, though it seemed they were gliding rather than actually flying. There were larger, darker shapes in the water pursuing them, and she watched as they continued leaping out of the water, then dropping back down again. Sometimes, they'd barely touch the surface with their tail before launching back into the air.

Perhaps she should be taking notes on any plants or animals that hadn't been covered by her druid training. Unfortunately, she couldn't add drawings like the ones in her book—she hadn't inherited any of her father's artistic skill, much to his disappointment—but she could still describe what she'd seen, and write up any details she could find out from the ship's crew. She went to look for the captain to ask about borrowing paper, pen, and ink.

###

Chapter 24

Circle Bay was white. Nearly every building was painted with a pure whitewash, even those made of brick or stone. It felt like home, and Katrin found herself grinning as she waited for her friends to disembark. She hadn't realized how much she'd missed the view until she saw it again from Osprey's deck.

The city was built on the northwest shore of Circle Bay itself—a large, roughly circular gulf protected from the rough storms of the sea by the short peninsulas that formed the eastern half of the circle, leaving a narrow mouth between them that led to the open ocean. Circle Bay was large enough that over a third of the fishing vessels in the city plied their trade in the bay itself, with no need to venture farther out.

Bobo was last to leave the ship. "Captain Tevian says it'll take at least six days before he's back here from Valara," he said. "If we want to leave before then, we'll need to find another ship."

"I don't want to think about that right now," Corec said. He was gripping a dock piling and had his eyes closed so he couldn't see the water around them. While he and Treya had gotten better toward the end of the trip, it was obvious they were both happy to be back on the sturdy surface of the wooden pier.

"Does anyone know where I can find the Three Orders chapter house?" Treya asked.

"It's due west from here," Katrin said. "Go straight, then through the bazaar, and then there'll be a group of large, stone buildings. Some temples and schools, a theater, and the Assembly Chamber. It's just beyond those."

Treya nodded. "Where will the rest of you be staying?"

Katrin waited, but when Corec didn't reply, she said, "There are some good inns nearby there, where I used to play. Why don't we go find rooms first, so you know where we are? Then I can show you to the chapter house before I go look for my uncle."

#

Three hours later, she returned to the docks district with Corec. He'd seemed to have recovered from the voyage, but then he suddenly grimaced and stopped.

"What's wrong?" she asked, as a group of raucous fishwives passed around them, joking with each other.

"I just caught a whiff of the sea air," he said. "It brought back unpleasant memories of the ship. I'm fine now. Why would Felix move here?"

"This is where he was living when Barz and I first came to town. He had a tiny room and he played in the sailors' taverns. With three of us, we needed more space, and neither he or Barz wanted me playing for sailors, so we moved to a better area. It was more expensive, and he complained a lot, but we were making more money than when he was playing alone, so we were able to get by."

After Bobo had negotiated for rooms for the night and Treya had left for the chapter house, Katrin and Corec had gone to the apartment she'd been sharing with Felix and Barz, only to find someone else living there. Felix had paid the rent in advance before they'd left town, but before Katrin had a chance to track down the owner and complain, a neighbor had recognized her. He'd let her know that Felix had come back to the city a month earlier and moved out, taking their things with him.

"Which building is it?" Corec asked.

"The white one," she said with a grin.

He laughed. "Any chance you can narrow that down a bit?"

"Tulio said it's that one there, I think," she said, pointing. "Above that tavern."

"All right."

Five minutes later, after stopping to ask the tavern's owner which apartment Felix was in, she knocked on the door.

It opened, and her uncle stared at her from the other side. "Katrin!" Then he saw Corec and stumbled back. "You!" He fell on his ass.

"He didn't come for the bounty, Felix."

"What?" her uncle asked, looking up at them.

"You're not worth enough to drag you back to Tyrsall," Corec said. "I'm just here to escort her home." He reached down to Felix, who hesitated before accepting his help to stand.

"But you had that poster!"

"It's all been taken care of," Katrin said. "He got the bounty and he paid off my penalty fine. Is Barz still in prison?"

"Of course he is. Where else would he be?"

"Then give me the money. We're going to go get him out."

"What money?"

"The money you stole when you abandoned me!" she exclaimed. "The money we were saving up to get Barz released!"

"There isn't any left."

"We had ten gold and some expensive jewelry! How can there not be any left? Corec paid seven gold just for my own penalty! I was going to pay him back what I could!"

"There wasn't enough to pay for Barz, so I spent it. It wasn't doing anyone any good just sitting there."

"You spent it? On what?"

Felix shrugged, but Katrin could tell by the look in his eyes.

"Whores," she said flatly. "How could you have possibly spent ten gold on whores just since you've been back?"

"It wasn't only whores," he said.

"Bloody hell, Felix. That money was for Barz. First you abandoned me, now you've abandoned him!"

"It's his fault he's in prison! I told you it wasn't worth trying to get him out. I never wanted to leave Circle Bay in the first place!"

Katrin shook her head, trying to control her temper. Getting the money back from Felix had been a long shot—her uncle had always done the bare minimum for them, only taking them in out of obligation and only tolerating her as a student after he'd realized she improved his nightly take. Felix had never been the one she could depend on—it had always been Barz that tried to look out for her. At least she'd be able to return the favor one last time, though she wished it could have been through her actions rather than Corec's money.

"Fine," she said. "We'll take care of it ourselves. Is my stuff here or did you sell it?"

"It's here. And what do you mean you'll take care of it yourselves? You've really got forty gold to get him out?"

"Yes."

Her uncle looked at Corec suspiciously. "Why are you helping? She couldn't have made that much money on her own. Why did you pay her penalty?"

Corec shrugged. "We're friends."

Felix's eyes grew wide when he made the connection. "You're sleeping with him!" he said to Katrin. "You complain about me when you're a whore yourself!"

She slapped his face hard enough to rock his head to the side. He stumbled, and Corec grabbed him by the shoulder to hold him steady.

"It's not like that," Corec said. "We're together. She's not a whore."

"Just let me in, Felix," she said with a sigh. "I'll get the rest of my clothes and a few other things, and then we'll leave you alone, like you always wanted. I'll be sure to give Barz your regards."

#

Treya moved out of the way and pressed herself up against the wall as another large group of messengers hurried past her through the corridor. She hoped she was in the right place. She'd stopped at the Three Orders chapter house first, to make sure, and they'd sent her on to the Assembly Chamber.

She knew that the Assembly ran the government in Circle Bay, but she hadn't been expecting to find so many people in the building. There were no signs posted anywhere, so she finally gave up in frustration and stopped one of the messengers, a middle-aged woman with a harried look on her face and a sheaf of papers in her hands.

"Excuse me, can you tell me where to find the Princeps' office?"

"That way," the woman said, pointing to the end of the hall, then continued on her way without another word.

Treya had expected something like the small personal offices that Mother Yewen and Mother Ola used, but the double doors at the end of the hallway led to a large hall bustling with even more people, some sitting at rows of desks and others rushing around the room.

She rolled her eyes. This was taking forever. She stopped another person, this time a young man who'd been staring at her so hard he'd walked into a desk.

"C...c...can I help you?" he asked, his eyes wide.

"Where can I find Enna?"

He pointed. "The inner chambers. Th...that way."

"Thank you."

She went through another set of double doors at the opposite end of the hall and found herself in a much smaller chamber, this one with only three people—a guardsman, a young woman sitting at a desk, and Enna. There was one more door in the new room, but it was closed.

"Treya!" Enna hugged her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm journeying, of course. And I brought you some letters so you wouldn't have to wait for a trader. One from Nina and one from Kelis for you, and Kirla sent something from Duke Voss for your Princeps."

"Oh! That was fast. Rufus just sent the pigeon to the duke two weeks ago. We should have you deliver all of our letters. Is Circle Bay your first stop, then?"

"No, I went to Four Roads mostly by foot, then back to Tyrsall by horse, and then here by ship."

"I went south, myself," Enna said. "It was warmer that way. But when my journeying time was done, I was headed back to Tyrsall when I stopped here and learned the Princeps was looking for bodyguards. I hadn't really figured out what I wanted to do with myself yet, so I decided to give it a try."

"And what's this about you and this Princeps fellow, anyway?"

"Oh. Kelis told you?" Enna lowered her voice so no one could overhear. "Rufus hired me as his bodyguard, but, uh, he kind of liked the idea that I had some of the same training as a concubine, so, well, I'm sort of sleeping with him now."

Treya stared at her. "Have you been talking to Renny?"

"No. Why?"

"After we heard about you and your Princeps, she had this absurd fantasy that I should do the same thing, but in reverse. Be a concubine, but be a bodyguard in secret. She thinks it would be romantic."

Enna laughed. "Well, you've had a lot more of the concubine training than I've had. Luckily, Rufus doesn't mind."

"Does he have a real concubine? What about his wife?"

"No, and no. He doesn't have time for a wife, and he'd never thought about a concubine before he met me. Don't give him any ideas, though, all right? I'd rather not share if I don't have to. He's too busy as it is."

"Why is it so busy here? Why are there so many people?"

"It's not that bad today because the Assembly's not in session. When it is, the corridors are packed. It can take ten minutes to get from one side of the building to the other."

"But what are they all doing?"

"The Assembly wants to be involved in everything that goes on in the city, and it's the Princeps' job to follow their demands. They're always adding new things they want him to do, but they never stop doing any of the old things, so he has to hire more and more people to take care of it all. This week, they decided the fishing fleets should report their catches every time they return to port. The type of fish, how many they caught, and where they caught them. It's crazy—it would take so much extra work, and the fishermen don't want to tell anyone about their fishing grounds. And everyone blames Rufus for it rather than the Assembly."

"Can't he tell them no?"

"He has to do everything they vote for, but this time, he's determined that it would require a tax increase, so he's sending it back to the Assembly. They'll have to decide whether to raise taxes or undo the vote."