“Someone’s coming,” Grant, lingering on my other side, warned.
Mary’s eyes flicked open, and all three of us looked up the beach.
Lanterns bobbed as a small party topped the rise of the bay, scattering reflections across hard-crusted snow and a treacherous, icy path.But Olsa and Illya walked with confidence, as did the stranger with them—a well-dressed man with clean-shaven cheeks and intelligent eyes.
“Captain,” Olsa called in Mereish, once they were well within earshot.“We have a guest.”
I went to meet them, leaving Mary and Grant where they were.
“Captain Novos,” the stranger said, citing my new identity as Usti smuggler and small-time pirate.“I am Alarik Sa Vis.Welcome, and thank you for bringing such old friends back to me.”At that, he cast a smile at the Uknaras.
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” I said.
“The pleasure is mine,” Sa Vis beamed.“It has been some time since I had such a unique business opportunity.Provided all is kept between us, of course.”
“Of course.”I nodded towards the waiting boat.“I am sure my friends passed on an invitation to come aboard?”
“They did.”Sa Vis nodded and rubbed his hands together against the cold.“Lead the way, Captain.”
Back aboard the ship, we settled into my cabin.
“So, what would you have from me, old friends, and new?”Sa Vis’s eyes swept from Olsa to me as he pulled out a chair and sat, seeming to take up a whole side of the table with his braced arms and prominent presence.
I looked at Olsa, prompting.We had agreed it best she reveal the details of our visit, given the history she and Illya shared with Sa Vis—stories of smuggling and daring deeds she had touched on during our tense journey to the coast.
“One of our crew is imprisoned in Fort Gat,” Olsa said.“We need a way into the cells.We need schedules and diagrams—anything you can give us.”
Sa Vis’s eyebrows halted halfway up his forehead.“You think I can help you with this?I have been trying to stayoutof that prison for thirty-five years.Everyone in this town has.”
“Then it sounds as though you’d appreciate us destroying the warden’s reputation,” Mary commented.
Sa Vis swiveled his head to regard her, eyebrows still high.“Now who are you?”
“The Stormsinger,” she replied and tipped her wine towards him.“But do not even consider stealing me.I make a terrible captive.”
I could not resist adding, “Unfortunately, she is correct.”
Mary cast me a look, the smile I had hoped for nowhere to be seen.
Sa Vis’s eyes narrowed, but there was amusement in them.“I would not consider it, my lady.”
I said, “We are prepared to pay well for any information on the fortress you have, as well as aid getting in and out.”
“I will not go near Gat, so I must decline the latter request,” Sa Vis said.“It is too dangerous, and my brother died there.”
“My deepest regrets.”
Sa Vis puffed his chest out and patted his breast.“My heart is hard now.I can bear the pain.He died there along with two hundred other prisoners, five years ago.They blamed it on disease, a common enough cause given the conditions of that prison.But since then, they stopped filling the cells.They take only mages, and prisoners of war and politics.Nowadays, it seems the Provost’s business is caging only the most powerful men and women.So…” St this, he stared at me directly, demanding an answer.“Why would your missing crewman qualify for his attentions?”
I exchanged a look with Olsa and wished, not for the first time, that I could communicate in silence as theghiseaudid.
“My own brother,” I admitted.“A powerful Magni mage.”
“Ah.”Sa Vis sat back and rested one ankle on his opposite knee.
“If there are so many mages at the prison,” Mary asked, leaning on her elbows on the tabletop, “do they have some way of concealing them, in the Other?Our Sooth struggled to see them.”
Sa Vis started to shake his head, but paused.“Yes, I believe so.Sooths struggle to access the Other near the fort.And I have never heard of anyone breaking out, so they must have ways of controlling the mages inside.”
