“Well,” Sister Mirda said, gently breaking the silence, “we can simply believe the marriage will improve from here.”
29.
Their third day in Seawatch dawned even more gloomy than the first two. No wonder Embarrans had a reputation for somberness; this place made Seattle look like Palm Beach. If it hadn’t been for the serving maid who brought them breakfast, Grace would have had absolutely no idea the sun was up.
“Thank you, Mirdrid,” Grace said sleepily, rising on an elbow in bed as the serving maid set down the tray.
Grace had spoken a little with the young woman the previous day—part of her new effort to not terrify servants. Surprisingly, it had seemed to work, as the young woman curtsied and gave a shy smile. She was pretty, like a flower bud only just beginning to open. One of her brown eyes was lazy, but the other focused on Grace.
“Let me know if you need anything else, my lady.”
“Of course, Mirdrid. And do bring me the embroidery you’ve been working on—the piece you told me about yesterday. I’d love to see it.”
The serving maid smiled again, then hurried from the room. Grace pushed back the bedcovers, only then realizing that Vani wasn’t there. She touched the place where the assassin had lain, but the sheets were cool. Grace climbed down from the bed using the wooden step, poured herself a cup of
maddok
, and sat by the fire.
The others appeared a half hour later. First Falken and Beltan showed up at the chamber door—the bard to talk, the knight to see what he could scrounge from Grace’s breakfast tray, having evidently vanquished the contents of his and Falken’s own. Grace was still in her nightgown, but she had wrapped a blanket around herself, and she hoped it rendered her sufficiently queenly. Then Vani was there, and it was testament to her poor state of health that all of them saw the assassin enter the room.
“Where were you last night?” Grace asked.
“I was searching the keep.”
None of them needed to ask what she had been searching for. After supper last night, Grace had told them what she had seen in the gallery: the presence. Watching, but not alive.
Falken glanced at the
T’gol
. “Did you find anything?”
“No. As Lord Elwarrd said, there are few left in his keep, so it was easy to move about. And I found no trace of one such as Grace described. There was only...” A frown crossed Vani’s face.
“There was only what?” Grace said.
“Nothing.” Vani reached her hands out toward the fire. “I saw no trace of anything such as you described, Grace.”
Beltan gave her a skeptical look. “What makes you so certain this person wasn’t just hiding from you?”
Vani treated the knight to a withering glance. The message was plain: If there was something to find, the
T’gol
believed she would have found it. However, now that she had gotten a night’s sleep, Grace wasn’t so certain what she had sensed with the Touch last night. It had been so fleeting, and she was still running a slight fever. Maybe there hadn’t been anything there at all.
Then why can you still feel it, Grace? Death. The feeling was
so strong it almost stopped your heart.
“You shouldn’t have been out last night,” Grace said to Vani. “You’re still not well. You need to rest.”
“I will rest now.” The
T’gol
sat cross-legged by the fire.
Beltan swabbed a porridge bowl with the last scrap of bread. “So, does what you saw change our plans?”
Grace considered the options. The medicine was beginning to work; a quick check of all of their threads showed she and Falken were greatly improved. And Vani and Beltan were better as well, but not so much that Grace felt they were out of danger. If they left the keep and marched through this wretched weather, their condition could easily deteriorate.
So regardless, they couldn’t leave Seawatch yet. Should she tell Lord Elwarrd what she had seen, in case there was a danger to the keep? No, she decided. If there had been any sort of mundane intruder, surely Vani would have found it. And Grace didn’t care to explain to the lord just how she had sensed what she did. They would simply have to keep their eyes open while they rested for a few more days.
With no other options for entertainment, they spent the day in their chambers again. Falken played his lute to help pass the hours, and sometimes he would sing in a low voice, and Grace would find herself drifting through visions of ancient halls and secret towers.
Leweth came just after midday to make sure all was well. Grace asked after Lord Elwarrd—not out of a desire to see him, but simply out of curiosity.
“I’m afraid the earl is engaged again today,” the steward said, bowing in apology. “But if we are fortunate, he will be available for supper. In which case I know he would be most pleased if you would join him again.”
“Of course,” Grace said.
“It seems Lord Elwarrd is a busy fellow,” Falken said after the steward left.
“With all his knights gone, he probably has a lot to take care of by himself,” Beltan said.
Vani and Beltan both slept the entire afternoon, which pleased the doctor in Grace. And if their repose was aided by the powder she had slipped into their cups when they weren’t looking, well, they could be angry with her when they woke. Grace herself was beginning to feel a bit restless—a sure sign she was getting better—but she was content enough to pass the time talking with Falken. However, sometimes the light shining in his eyes when he spoke of their plan to find the shards of Fellring troubled her. Even if they did somehow find Ulther’s sword—and then somehow managed to make it whole again— it still didn’t mean Malachor was anything but a memory. And what good would that do them?
The truth was, despite Falken’s obvious faith, Grace didn’t see how any of it was going to help them against the Old God Mohg. Or his servant, the Pale King. Or the Onyx Knights, whoever they were and whatever they wanted. In the end, she would just be one skinny woman with a rusty old sword she didn’t know how to use. But when she tried to tell Falken of her concerns, she saw the unguarded hope in his expression and the way he clenched his silver hand into an excited fist, and the words died on her tongue. Instead, Grace asked if she could examine his silver hand again. The thing fascinated her, especially since Falken said a witch had made it for him.
Though made of metal, the hand was alive, just like Falken was; she could see the hand’s outline shimmering when she used the Touch. So that seemed like something a witch might do. But forging metal into such a fine shape, and enchanting it so that it could move in such a complex manner—from what little she knew, that seemed more like the magic of runes to her. And sure enough, when she turned it over, on the palm were three small runes—so faint she saw them barely as a glimmer—arranged in a circle. But how could Falken’s hand be a result of both witch magic and rune magic? Her examinations failed to reveal an answer.
Outside, the sky turned from slate to pitch as the sun set. Leweth came to their door again, this time to regretfully inform them Elwarrd’s duties would not allow him to take supper with them as he had hoped, and that trays would be delivered to their rooms. Grace was just as glad; she had no desire to return to the great hall and gaze again into the shadows of the gallery. Although she did feel a momentary pang of disappointment that she would not see Elwarrd.
Vani and Beltan had awakened by then, and both were better for the rest, although Grace was worried about the blond knight’s cough. She made him spit in a napkin, and traces of rust showed against the white cloth. Grace prepared a brew for both of them, and while they eyed their cups suspiciously, they drank the tea after she gave each of them a stern look. They ate their supper and, with little else to do, went to bed.
The next day passed in much the same way, as did the next. The weather remained oppressive, and their host remained curiously absent, leaving them to take meals in their rooms.
“It’s going to be impossible to beg our leave if Lord Elwarrd never shows up,” Falken said in frustration the afternoon of their fifth day in Seawatch.
Grace was cutting shapes from a stiff piece of parchment using the knife she usually kept tucked in her boot. “I don’t know what’s keeping Elwarrd away. But couldn’t we go if we had to? Surely the lord would understand.”
Falken gave a grim shake of his head. “To break the rules of hospitality is a crime worse than stealing. And it’s a mortal insult. If we left, Elwarrd would have every right to hunt us down and clap us in irons.”
“Not that he has any knights to send after us,” Beltan said, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Besides, didn’t you once leave Kelcior without begging permission from King Kel?”
The bard looked every bit as indignant as a wet rooster. “That was different. Kel had already decided to put me to death, so it wasn’t as if leaving could have made things any worse.”
Grace didn’t see how the knight could argue with the logic of that. She kept cutting with the knife.
Vani sat at the table beside her. “What are they, Grace?”
“I don’t know. I was bored and felt like making something, and this is what I came up with.” Grace picked up one of the shapes she had cut from the parchment. It was vaguely human-looking, only lopsided, and the proportions were wrong. Evidently she was better at putting people back together than making them from scratch. “I suppose they must be paper dolls.”
Beltan picked up one of the shapes, turning it this way and that, clearly trying to decide which way was up. “So what are you supposed to do with it?”
“I’m not really sure. I never had a doll.” Grace brushed the parchment figure in her hand. She found herself thinking of Tira: the mute, burnt, red-haired girl who had become a goddess before her eyes.
Falken gave her a piercing look. “You mean you’ve never had a doll since you were a girl.”
Grace shook her head. “They didn’t allow toys in the...” She swallowed the words. “I mean, no, I never did.”
Vani took up the knife and a piece of parchment. “I’ll show you a better way to make them. My al-Mama taught me, just as her al-Mama taught her. It was when I was a girl, before I went to the fortress of Golgoru for my training as a
T’gol
.”
The men quickly lost interest in this activity, but Grace and Vani spent the rest of the day folding dolls from the stiff parchment and cutting out clothes for them. Grace made paints from some of the herbs Leweth had brought and from dried berries stolen from the supper tray, and they used bits of charcoal from the hearth as pencils. Soon they had a king, a queen, and a dozen courtiers to attend them.
Last of all, Grace made a tiny doll—a child—with long, berry-red hair. When she was done, she stroked the child doll. She might even have whispered a song to it. Then, when no one was looking, she tossed it into the fire. Bright flames curled around the doll, and in a puff of gold it was gone. Grace pressed a hand to her stomach, and she shut her eyes to hide the tears. Like the doll, even Tira’s star was gone now.
By the next morning they still hadn’t seen Lord Elwarrd, and Falken was determined to go in search of the lord.
“I’ll accompany you,” Vani said, uncoiling her lean frame from a chair and stretching, as if she were simply bored and this sounded like a diversion.
Falken nodded, and Grace gave the
T’gol
a grateful look. They were all beginning to feel uneasy, no doubt just a result of being ill and confined these last days. All the same, she was glad the assassin was going with the bard.
Beltan made noise as if he wanted to go look for the earl as well, but Grace forbade it with a sharp glance. Beltan’s cough was subsiding, and the last time she checked, his phlegm had been clear. He was nearly well—and she wanted to make sure he stayed that way.
“One more day, Beltan,” she said, laying a hand on his arm. “That’s all I’m asking. Falken and Vani will find Elwarrd and get his permission, and we’ll go tomorrow.”
Beltan sighed. “As you wish, my lady. One more day, but no more. I’m getting tired of this gloomy place. If we stay any longer, we’ll all end up talking like Durge.” Thunder crashed outside, punctuating his words.
Grace couldn’t disagree with the knight’s sentiments. She hoped Falken succeeded in finding the lord, and that Elwarrd would let them purchase horses. Without horses, it would be a long walk to Omberfell.
It was Beltan who came up with a way to pass the time until the others returned. “I don’t know much about dolls, Grace. But I do know about fighting. And since we’re going to Toringarth to get you a sword, you should probably learn how to wield one.”
Grace wasn’t certain she liked this idea. Beltan had once showed her how to use her knife to defend herself, but a knife wasn’t all that much bigger than a scalpel. “You lost your sword in the shipwreck,” she said. “It went down with your armor. There’s nothing to practice with.”
“How about this?” Beltan picked up the iron poker that leaned next to the hearth. He hefted it, testing its weight, then gave it a few swings. “This feels about right. The balance is better than some blades I’ve wielded. It’ll do until we can get the real thing.”
Grace stared at the poker. A year earlier, she had used a similar instrument to beat back the
feydrim
that attacked her and Travis in her chamber in Calavere. The gangly monster had nearly killed them, but together she and Travis had defeated it.
Grace swallowed.
Maybe learning to defend yourself isn’t
such a bad idea after all, Your Majesty.
She took the poker. “Teach me.”
They started slowly. Beltan showed her a series of positions, standing behind her and moving her arms so she held the poker just so, and using his own feet to push hers into place. Then he stood back and watched as he called the names of the positions, and she assumed each one as quickly as possible. She was pathetic at first; she couldn’t even hold the poker steady. But after an hour, she showed a few faint glimmers of improvement.
Panting, arms and shoulders aching, she sat in a chair and let the poker clatter to the hearth.
“Not bad, Your Majesty,” Beltan said, his face lighting up with a grin. “You’re better than most beginners I’ve seen. It comes naturally to you.”