Against my better judgement, I stepped closer.The woman moved aside and I craned to see down the alley.
A Mereish word was painted on the pale red brick in soot and something thicker—my dreamer’s sense, coiling, warned it was blood.
“It translates best to ‘oathbreaker,’” the woman said, standing just two paces from me now.“But it means much more.It means to break the trust of kin.Of blood.It means to break faith and tradition.It means final, irrevocable exile.Maren was a traitor to my people, and they do not forgive such things lightly.If you knew Maren, it is best to pretend you did not.”
The bitter taste of smoke was thick on my tongue now.Maren had shared Mereish secrets with me.He had promised to help me track down a Mereish healer-mage and find a cure for Ben’s and my corruption.
Had that kindness—had I—contributed to his death?
The woman watched me, her eyes softened with sadness, but there was a shadow beneath them that made my fingers twitch towards the buttons of my jacket and the pistol beneath.
“I knew him very little, regardless,” I told her, slipping my fingers through the buttons of my coat to rest them over my stomach, as any gentleman might.“I will intrude no longer.Again, my deepest condolences.”
I hastened back to the crowd, the street and ship where Mary, I prayed, was still safe.But I glanced back as I reached the square.The woman had turned to stare at the rubble, the wind blowing the ends of her fringe into her eyes.
She did not look at me again.
THE NATURE OF GHISTEN WOOD—Ghisten wood is harvested from a ghisten tree and possessed of that tree’s vital spirit, which has grown through the boundary between worlds.Commonly used in the making of figureheads, doors and religious icons, ghisten wood is immensely valuable and highly prized by all nations of the world.
—FROMA HISTORY OF THE WINTER SEA AND THE PEOPLES THEREIN,TRANSLATED FROM THE MEREISH BY SAMUEL I.ROSSER
FIVE
The Woman from Hesten
SAMUEL
Istepped into the dark street outside the port mistress’s high-fronted offices without feeling the cold.I hardly saw the dwindling crowds or smelled the pungent array of fish, brine and smoke.My eyes glazed over the names on the envelopes in my hands without care, noting only that none of them came from the Admiralty.
The port mistress’s words, confirming Monna’s assertions aboutHarbringer’s destruction, lingered in my ears.My thoughts were entrenched a hundred leagues away, in the hold of a Mereish ship where my brother languished—or the prison where he was chained, or, if my Sight had been wrong, the pit where his charred bones had been tossed.
Maybe he never made it to any of those ends.Maybe his body had been dashed to pieces on the rocks along with his crew, and his bruised, frozen flesh was long devoured by crabs.
My spirit began to drift, out from the security of my bones and into that Other realm.I ducked into the mouth of an alley, where the shadows were deep and only too happy to shield me.
I leaned against the wall and bowed my head, eyes closed, body braced as dark water began to slosh around my feet.
There.I saw Benedict’s light again, dim but present.Still not dead.Not yet.
I closed my hand around the coin in my pocket.The spectral water retreated.The world sharpened once again, but for once I resented that retreat.Because here, in the human world, there was no distraction from the reality of my brother’s doom.
“Captain Rosser?”
A short man peered at me from the mouth of the alley.He wore a fine blue frock coat with black cuffs and a bicorn hat—a naval captain.His demeanor was oddly amiable, even curious, with a laden satchel under one arm and a paper cone of roasted nuts in the opposite hand.
“Captain Archer.”I straightened, a lifetime of etiquette moving my lips and limbs without regard for my inner turmoil.Archer was an old acquaintance from my naval days which I had, with some reluctance on his part, managed to rekindle since my part in bringing the notorious pirate Silvanus Lirr to justice.Archer captained a courier vessel, the appropriately namedSwift, and I had no doubt the satchel under his arm was packed with correspondence to be left with the port mistress for Aeadine ships.
“Forgive me.”I gave a shallow, polite nod.“I did not see you.”
“Hardly saw you there in the dark myself.”He waved his cone and I caught the scent of cinnamon, sugar and warm almonds.“No matter.I’m on my way to see the mistress, but you look… terrible.Nut?”
“Ah, no, thank you, Captain Archer.”My eyes flicked to his bundle of letters.My lips moved of their own accord again, but this time in desperation.“Have you any word ofHarbringer?”
Captain Archer’s expression stilled momentarily, then he let out a short sigh.“Yes, yes.You’ve my deepest condolences.”
“What happened?”
“A storm and a reef, I heard.The surviving crew reported that Captain Rosser ordered them closer to land, something to do with a few abandoned villages and locals building breakwaters in winter, strange actions.I will not dally with you—the wreck was a bloodynightmare.Did all we could to keep it from the public, but you know how these things are.The Mereish are touting it as the greatest victory of the year, never mind the ship ran aground.Not much leaks out of that country, butthisdid.”
