“We are,” Teryn stated with a glance at me. I gave him a nod.
“Good, we shall lead you out. I would ask, Mahouk, that my wife and son be given leniency as they are innocents in this plan.” Lady Ashwish began to argue, but her husband silenced her protests by placing a hand on her swollen abdomen. They began conversing in Sandrayan. Teryn looked morose. Once the discussion ended, Jaska led the way, carrying his boy as we followed a thin winding staircase hewn from the rock itself downward. The steps were slick with moisture, the stone walls bore the marks of the pickaxes used to create them, illuminated with oil-soaked torches that sent black smoke curling up the stairs.
Teryn carried the princess, for she was lighter, and I toted the prince. Both twins were silent, eyes round with wonder, as we carefully followed Jaska and his woman downward. He never once let her arm out of his grasp. Keeping her on her feet was his main concern. It came to me to wonder how a man with so much to lose would commit such an atrocious act against his king. Surely he knew he would be imprisoned for his actions. By law, he could be hanged or beheaded, not that those penalties were used anymore, but an attack on the royal family was treason, and that carried a heavy penalty. Yet he had not only planned the kidnapping but had participated in it fully. The man was either a foolhardy twit or a noble champion. It remained to be seen which term would follow him into the annals of Melowynn history.
That was not for me to decide. My job was to protect the twins as well as Teryn. While it felt as if the danger had passed, I could not let my guard down. Jaska was not to be trusted. While he may appear to be accepting his fate, he could be leading me and my charges into a trap. I shifted the prince to the left to free my sword arm. If they thought to lead us to our deaths, I would take one or more of them with us.
“I hear the sea,” Prince Al’fur whispered near my ear. It was growing louder the lower we descended. We rounded a large jutting shard of white rock, ducking slightly, and stepped out onto a rock floor, smoothed by thousands of seasons of the sea washing over it. The sun was bright, glaring off the wet rock to make us all wince.
“This way,” Jaska called over the roar of the waves. We followed him out into the sun and wind, the caw of gulls and the rush of wind through dancing fronds greeting us. Our boots sank into wet black sand as we climbed up onto a wooden dock that looked out over the ocean. Bobbing on the waves were ten ships, among them two war vessels flying the Sandrayan flags. A show of power that sent a strong message to the ragtag rebels. A silent flex of military saying that the vahasi knew he had the upper hand but was being gracious. I prayed Aelir would be as forgiving when we sailed into the port of Celear. If not forgiving then lenient…
The others were smaller vessels, most without markings or banners. Among them sat the Simin Draya, restored to her glory with her golden bow spar glinting in the bright sunlight.
“A most welcome sight,” Teryn commented before glancing at me. “Sorry. A welcome sight for most.”
“I’m sure the journey will be better returning home than it was coming,” I replied, trying to be upbeat for the twins, who were gleeful seeing the armada of boats with their snapping sails.
A small skiff was launched from the Simin Draya, with one lone sailor and two guards. The children clapped happily when we were inside the rowboat. I found little to applaud as the surging waves began to play a soft, chaotic tune with my gut. Knowing it would only grow worse the longer I was on the sea, I dug into my satchel for my tin of paste as the guards placed heavy iron shackles on Jaska’s arms and around his ankles. Hiswoman began arguing, but Jaska calmed her with a few softly spoken words. The lid of the tin came off with a clink. Both children looked at me as I smeared paste onto my tongue and made a face.
“That smells like dirty baby clouts,” Alfina stated, her regal nose wrinkling.
“It tastes like it as well, Your Highness,” I gagged, which set the prince to giggling.
“Must he be shackled?” Teryn asked the guards as he passed his child over the side to me. I got them settled on either side of me. “What would happen if the ship goes down? Masha is most concerned over that fate.”
Ah, so her name was Masha. It was pretty, just like the woman fighting for her partner.
“Then he would drown,” one of the guards clad in blue robes with a tall, fluted gold hat flatly replied. I had seen that headgear in the palace when the vahasi visited many seasons ago. So these men were royal guards, just as I was, only they looked much crisper than I did at the moment. I had come to learn that coil root took on a displeasing, moldy scent after a time. Perhaps it was not meant to be worn for days on end as the bark possibly was not only absorbing any ground liquid but my sweat as well. A hot bath would be incredibly welcome. “He is to be shown no mercy by order of the vahasi and the mainland king.”
So it seemed Jaska would feel the brunt of Aelir’s anger. As it should be. I had found a grudging respect for the man, but hehadstolen children, taken them into danger, and held them for ransom for a cause. That was not to mention his drugging an old woman while nearly killing a pixie princess. Surely a less radical way could have been found to bring attention to the plight of the poor. What that would have been, I had no clue. The status quo had been in place for centuries with no signs of massiverevisions on the horizon. Mayhap something this boldwasneeded to shake the nobles from their complacency. There were no easy answers.
Jaska was shoved into the skiff. Holding onto the twins to keep them from tumbling into the sea, I heard his shoulder impact the wooden seat. He grunted but made no other sound as he righted himself. He was moved from the seat to the bottom of the boat, where he knelt the entire way to the Simin Draya, then was taken off first and led away. Porgo stood on the side of the boat, reaching down to lift the princess from my arms, followed by the prince.
After Teryn and I aided Masha up, her son was passed along. I waved the ambassador to go first, placing my hands on his lean waist to boost him upward. Then I followed, easing my way to the deck of the familiar boat while my stomach began to make unpleasant sounds. I sat under the awning, my back among pillows, my sight on the horizon. The twins cuddled up to me, curled under each arm, as Teryn barked at the guards. They were being none too kind to our prisoner as they chained him to the mainmast in the blazing sun. The others who had filed out behind us, the rebels who had taken part in this abduction, were being rounded up by the army of the vahasi. Their fates were in the hands of the Sandrayan leader. I hoped he would be merciful to the young and the elderly.
His wife shouted in Sandrayan, his son crying softly, until Teryn motioned to the warship with a wave of his hand. The guards then freed Jaska, hauling him down into the small hold of the ship instead. The rich smell of lavender flowed out of the small space. The trapdoor was closed with a slam. A vibrant conversation between Teryn, Masha, and the guards broke out. Porgo joined me in the shade, squatting down to make funny faces at the twins, who seemed most intrigued by his tattoos.
“Mahouk Nouradi is telling them that he will speak to the vahasi as well as your king about the unnecessary roughness being shown to Ashwish. I have my doubts that the father of these two will think a few days in a flowery hold would constitute abuse, but our ambassador is a man of firm morals and a soft heart.”
“I suspect my king would have preferred Ashwish be chained to the underbelly of the boat for the duration,” I whispered over the heads of the prince and princess. Porgo nodded as if in agreement and then handed the twins a dry cookie. Once Teryn was done vocalizing, he and Masha joined us, her son climbing into her lap after she tenderly lowered herself onto a soft pillow.
“Masha speaks no mainlander,” Teryn explained as the guards joined us under the awning. “She has asked that her son be fed. I assured her that whatever foods we have onboard will be split among us, even the man in the hold, evenly.”
I nodded. The twins broke their cookies in half to share with the sniffling son of Ashwish. Masha lowered her head in thanks while we waited as another skiff, smaller, sped across the water. A tall woman with blue ink on her skin like Porgo’s joined us, her yellow gaze moving over us as the captain met her at the rail. With a few words, the woman took a seat, told us her name was Payya, and explained she was the vahasi’s wind whisperer but was on loan to get us home to Celear at twice the speeds. While Porgo rested, she would summon the wind to keep us sailing.
“Wonderful.”
Porgo chuckled when I softly moaned. So there would be no breaks in the turbulent waves even overnight. My skin would ooze barnacle paste by the time I arrived home. Teryn tenderly patted my thigh.
Home.
It felt so far away here, surrounded by people speaking a foreign tongue, gazing at hot, dry lands. I ached to see my friends, ride a horse, and look out over the fertile fields of the mainland. If I never had to enter or sail on water again, I would be well pleased. Aside from a bath.
“Settle your gullet, mainlander, we are flying at full sail!” Porgo laughed aloud as the winds began to howl, filling the large sails with a gust.
I double-dipped another glob of pearly barnacle goo.
For reasons of safety for the twins, the prisoner, and his family, we slid into the sea cave under the castle in the dark of night. It had been decided—announced to us via a raven as we rounded the tip of the vills of Renedith—that the masses in Celear and throughout the mainland were too bloodthirsty to be trusted if we sailed into the main port. Aelir wished no harm to befall Masha or Kinya, her son. He had not mentioned whether he worried over Jaska. I doubted so.
