"Sapphire," Shad said, "has no stomach for executions—nor, I must admit, do I."
"Good," Allister replied. "Anyone who does would make a poor ruler. Unhappily, sometimes a ruler must make that decision."
They discussed the situation of the pirates and smugglers as they crossed to the Smuggler's Light. Some were truly hard cases, others were simply sailors gone bad. A few were slaves escaped from Waterland who had bought their freedom from being resold by the pirates by joining in their ventures.
Only when they had reached one of the long, rectangular rooms that radiated off the base of the tower did Sapphire and Shad begin the long history that had led them to this point. The room had been chosen for its relative warmth—it backed onto the kitchens, which had been turned into infirmaries—and for its promise of privacy. For that reason, Shad and Sapphire held nothing back.
Queen Valora's treachery was reported, and the truth of that report confirmed by a broken man with a bandaged hand who Sapphire introduced with spitting scorn as Baron Waln Endbrook, ambassador from the Isles to the courts of New Kelvin. Allister could hardly believe that this was the same man he vaguely recalled being introduced to at the Hawk Haven wedding.
"I hate him," Sapphire said as he was led away. "He mutilated Citrine's hand—cut off two fingers. He left her here in the keeping of smugglers and pirates, knowing she would be sold into slavery if he didn't return."
"That's one execution," Shad added, "neither of us would have trouble ordering. Unfortunately, he has the means to buy his life."
They told him then of Lady Melina's part in the plot, of the securities she had given so that Baron Endbrook—on behalf of Queen Valora—had been willing to trust her. They brought in Derian Carter to tell the part he and his companions had played, and though the young man was a long time over the telling, King Allister had a feeling that something was being left out.
He didn't interrupt, however, for Shad and Sapphire had shifted to the part of the story that involved them most closely. They told how Sir Jared's message had confirmed their own worries, how they had charged forth to the rescue, how the rescue had been effected.
During this part of the tale, they ceased being self-conscious and became what they were—two young people, barely into their third decade, who had risked much and succeeded where all others had failed. Allister liked them for their enthusiasm and even for their bragging. They hadn't held themselves in the reserve, nor taken undue risks, but had chosen parts where they were needed.
I think, despite all the ways we could have gone wrong
, he thought,
that Uncle Tedric and I may have chosen wisely. Ancestors guide them when we are no longer here to do so
!
By the time the long telling had ended, all but the soldiers being left to hold the lighthouse against the pirates' possible return had departed the swamp. Word was sent that the slower contingent carrying the wounded was already under way to Port Haven.
"We can follow more swiftly," Shad said. "Anything more you want to know, Father?"
"One thing," King Allister replied. "Where are those damned artifacts?"
There was an uncomfortable pause; then Derian Carter spoke up.
"Firekeeper asked me to tell you—all three of you," he fumbled as if uncertain of what titles to use.
"Go on, son," Allister said, "no need to stand on formality here in private."
"She said to tell you that she'd like an audience with you, not here, out in a bit of swamp. It's about the artifacts. She has them, you see."
D
erian knew he was flushing as he delivered his peculiar message, but he couldn't help it. Maybe Firekeeper thought nothing of ordering kings and royal heirs apparent hither and yon—especially out into swamps at the dead of winter—but
he
did!
He could tell that King Allister's bodyguard, standing to that point impassive against the wall near the door, thought something of it too, and it wasn't a kind thought. Visions of recent assassination attempts danced in his eyes and he frowned.
"Really, King Allister," the guard said, stepping forward, "I must protest. Sir Whyte Steel would never permit such a thing and I cannot either."
"Enough, Perce!" King Allister snapped with what Derian thought was truly the royal note to his voice. "I register your protest. However, the lady in question is very odd and very honest. If she wants us in the swamp for whatever reason, I, for one, am going."
Derian was relieved to see that Shad and Sapphire were of one mind with King Allister.
"Firekeeper is odd," Sapphire said to the guard, "but as you may recall from our wedding, she is also firmly on the side of our safety."
Perce had to be content with this, but Derian could see that he felt the responsibility strongly.
"I'm coming with you," he said in a tone that brooked no disagreement.
Derian shrugged. "I don't see how Firekeeper could mind one more. We're quite the little party."
In addition to the three rulers, Firekeeper had requested that all the members of the group that had gone into New Kelvin come as well. This had caused some argument, for Elise and Doc felt that their place was with the wounded. The military surgeons, however, gave them leave.
"We'd been prepared to handle this without your assistance," one reminded Doc. "And if we have a few more casualties because your talent let live some who otherwise would have died, we shoulder that burden gladly enough."
So Firekeeper got her way. She usually did, Derian thought rather sourly.
Blind Seer rather than Firekeeper was waiting to guide them—a thing King Allister's bodyguard viewed with increased distrust and dismay.
Edlin saw Perce's expression and said cheerfully:
"Takes a bit of getting used to, what? Still, he's as trustworthy as I am, just not as sunny to look at."
Shad was quick to introduce Edlin, the only member of the party King Allister had not met before.
"Edlin Norwood, Lord Kestrel, Father."
"Norvin Norwood's son?" King Allister said. "I am pleased to meet you. Your father directed a cavalry troop for me in the past war."
"And left me at home to manage the harvest, what?" Edlin said. "Still, I've bloodied my sword in this little fracas, you know. Not too bad. Grandmother's still holding the reins at home; Father's managing well enough. Maybe I'll do a turn as a scout or a sailor, what?"
Derian saw King Allister blink as Edlin babbled—doubtless thinking, as everyone did, how unlike were father and son. The king's response, however, was the soul of courtesy.
"If you wish to go to sea and your father can spare you, I'll speak with one of my captains."
"I say, that's wonderful!" Edlin beamed. "I think we'll need more Hawk Haven sailors as time goes on, can't keep relying on your good navy, you know."
Derian heard King Allister say softly to his son, "He speaks like a complete idiot, but there's sense in his head."
"He's a first-rate cartographer, too," Shad responded in the tones of one who offered a great compliment.
Firekeeper awaited them on a little island—hardly more than a few stable hummocks gathered around a cluster of rocks. A channel of mud and slimy water separated her from them, and Blind Seer's posture made quite clear that both woman and wolf intended for them to remain apart.
Without preamble, Firekeeper began.
"I have the artifacts," she said, taking the three precious items from a feed sack and spreading them on the largest of the rocks.
Reactions varied. Derian's companions looked at them with distaste mingled with familiar fear. King Allister's bodyguard actually took a step toward his monarch, as if expecting a comb, a ring, and a mirror to suddenly transform into ravening beasts and rip out the man's throat.
Derian admired Perce for his bravery. Clearly, his first impulse had been to shrink back.
Sapphire studied the artifacts as if wondering what there was to them that would make a mother abandon her children, a noblewoman choose exile from her birth land.
King Allister and Shad, however, viewed them with curiosity colored with distaste.
"A ring," Shad said. "We were right on one."
Allister nodded. "And the long one was a mirror, not a mask or fan. I never would have guessed, not in a million years or with all the wisdom of the Silver Whale, that the last was a comb."
"What do they do?" Sapphire asked.
Derian waited for Firekeeper to speak, and when she didn't—when indeed a thinning of her lips made clear that she did not plan to speak—he spoke for her.
"Grateful Peace, the New Kelvinese thaumaturge I told you about, said that the mirror was the only one which had begun to relinquish its secrets. They believed it was a scrying device of some sort. The impressions they were getting were weak and blurred, so I don't know how useful it would be."
Sapphire frowned slightly. "And they had figured out nothing about the others—not even with all their magic?"
"The magic of New Kelvin," Derian said carefully, "may be more in their hopes than in reality. Certainly, we saw little enough evidence of it."
"That is neither here nor there at this point," Sapphire said. Then she sighed. "Though I suspect it will be of great importance in the future. Why have you brought us here, Lady Firekeeper?"
Firekeeper nodded, appreciating the bluntness and apparently not hearing the irritation in the princess's tone.
"These," she said, gesturing to her companions, "are here to tell you that these are indeed the things we took from New Kelvin. I ask Baron Endbrook if ever he see them, but he say he only see boxes so he cannot say for sure if these are what he brought in from his queen. Grateful Peace say, though, that these are the things he see opened and these are the things he see worked on. I have no reason to think he lie."
King Allister said, "Very well, we have confirmed that these are—to the best of anyone's knowledge—the very items that Queen Valora removed from my treasury, that were taken into New Kelvin, and were retrieved from there by you and your companions. What next?"
In answer, Firekeeper removed a steel-headed hammer from where she had hidden it behind a stone. Without comment, she brought it down, this time with all her considerable strength onto the face of the mirror. The polished silver bent and buckled, the ivory frame popped from the edge and lay in pieces.
Next she smashed down on the comb. It might have indeed been carved from stone rather than wood, but its delicacy could not resist the violent force turned against it. Where the hammer hit, the polished stone turned to powder. The remaining pieces scattered across the rock, one flying so far that it dropped into the mud.
"What," Sapphire screamed, "are you doing!"
"Am killing these," Firekeeper said, and her hand, holding the hammer poised above the ring where it rested in a hollow on the rock, trembled. "My people fear them. Your people fear them. I think such should die no matter what wonders…"
And to Derian's amazement the wolf-woman's voice broke as from a great unspoken grief.
"No matter what wonders," she repeated, faltering, "they can work."
Elation shrieked once, loudly, as she might before stooping upon her prey. Firekeeper stared at the bird, wild-eyed, then nodded.
Again, the wolf-woman brought the hammer down, this time with such force that the moonstone vanished in a puff of blue-white dust and the gold that held it was flattened, becoming almost flush with the stone she used for her anvil.
The stone itself cracked beneath the force of that final, angry blow, and Firekeeper leapt to her feet. Her trousers were muddy from where she had knelt, but she found purchase enough on the soft dirt to shove the rock so that it slid beneath the water and began to sink into the muddy bottom. Then she flung the remnants of the mirror and comb out into the swamp, where they plopped and sank beneath the ooze.
Firekeeper stared at them.
"That is all," she said. "Go."
Edlin opened his mouth.
"Go!" she repeated with a growl that Blind Seer echoed.
Derian spoke, feeling his words were incomplete for the occasion.
"I think Firekeeper needs to be alone. She'll join us when she's ready, either here or in the North Woods."
He saw the wolf-woman nod her shaven head, a gesture so full of grief and exhaustion that he longed to comfort her. Blind Seer wuffed softly and wagged his great bush of a tail once.
"You watch her, fellow," Derian said, brushing his hand along the wolf's spine.
None of the others uttered so much as a word of farewell, but turned and filed back toward solid ground. As Derian followed, he felt obscurely comforted. Blind Seer would watch over Firekeeper—that he could trust when there was nothing else in all the world to be trusted.
W
ith dull eyes Firekeeper watched her friends depart. She knew their plans, had heard them discussed earlier that day. Elise was going back with her father; the rest would take a few days to see Port Haven, then ride back to the North Woods. There had been much enthusiastic chatter regarding staying in proper inns and waiting out snowstorms where there would be hot cider and music.
She had no. heart for such things—indeed, inns with their crowds and smoke and noise held little enchantment for her at the best of times. These were not the best of times. Her dreams had vanished beneath the hammer's head, vanished when Elation had shrieked:
"The woman lies!"
The peregrine's cry had reminded Firekeeper in whose words she was placing such hope.
The mirror and comb had been destroyed by muscle strength alone—much as Princess Sapphire had destroyed the gem through which her mother had controlled her. The ring, however, had been broken by the sheer force of the wolf-woman's anger—not at Lady Melina, but at herself for being so nearly seduced by the woman's lying words.
Yet had they been a lie? Now she would never know.
Elation squawked at her.
"Do you truly go to the North Woods or do you go west to tell the Royal Beasts what you have done?"
"I won't go west," Firekeeper said. "I think I will go to the North Woods, though not at once."