A Jewel Bright Sea Read online

  She spoke matter-of-factly, but Anna had not forgotten her comment from before. A dangerous trick, Thea had called Anna’s own leap into the void. But what choice do we have?

  Unless they knew where Sarrész had landed in the islands, theirs would be a long and sifting search. Like tracing sunlight through water.

  CHAPTER 11

  Two days later, Joszua set off with the Konstanze, while Daria took command of the Mathilde. Both ships had been painted fresh with new colors to make them less recognizable, and both carried a handpicked crew who could fight as well as sail the ship. Over the next few weeks, the ones who remained behind drilled with weapons twice a day, while their captain led them through maneuvers in case of invaders.

  A matter of common sense, Maté had said to Anna during one of their few encounters. He’s a thorough man, our Lord Koszenmarc.

  Koszenmarc, Anna thought with bitterness, was too damned thorough. She ought to have realized that the moment he rescued her from Commander Maszny. Somehow, he had learned about her arrest. Somehow, he had anticipated the commander’s decision to take two separate routes to the garrison. Somehow…

  Her stomach twisted into a knot. Anna didn’t want to think about Maszny, or what Lord Brun would say about her pact with Koszenmarc. Nothing good. That much she knew.

  “Stop,” Thea said. “You’re trying too hard.” She leaned close and clasped Anna’s arm. “You don’t need to sacrifice yourself for a thief and his goods, no matter how lovely the prize.”

  They both sat cross-legged on the floor of the surgeon’s quarters. A shallow basin with a heap of incense occupied the space between them. The incense had burnt to ashes an hour or more ago, but its scent still hung in the air, like an echo of the current itself.

  “I was almost there,” Anna whispered.

  “You were not,” Thea said crisply.

  Anna wanted to argue, but she could not. Her goal was to achieve that balance between the magical and the mundane—to achieve and hold the balance for longer than a moment—and no matter how much she wished to debate the point, she had not done so. Her head throbbed, and her skin felt aflame with undirected magic. From a distance came the sussuration of waves over sand and stone. Normally she found this a soothing counterpoint to Thea’s voice as she led Anna through their magical exercises, but today, the cave felt close, and she sensed a charged quality to the air, as though a storm hovered over the islands called Asulos.

  “I just need a few moments,” she said.

  “Perhaps more than a few,” Thea murmured.

  “But…”

  “But nothing, my young friend.” The other woman laid a hand upon Anna’s head and hummed softly. There were no words to this invocation, but the air stirred with magic’s clean, clear scent. The tension that gripped Anna’s skull eased and she drew a long breath. “Good,” Thea said. “Now, no more arguments. You’re a talented young woman, my friend, but you are young, and your teachers—whoever they were—drove you far too hard. You are much like a bud forced to bloom.”

  She’d said those same words before, when she insisted that Anna first practice what she called the rudiments of magic. Finding the balance point between the magical and the mundane, learning to exist in that moment for longer than a breath, following the patterns of the magical current instead of bending them to her human purpose. Anna wanted to argue that her father had taught her the rudiments, and much more, but she knew what Thea meant. The tutors Lord Brun had hired had pushed her over and over, insisting that she memorize those cursed spells. Spells for battle. Spells for assassination.

  And for a very good reason. Anna needed to find the jewel and quickly.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I feel much better now and—”

  “And I said no more magic today.” Thea stood and held out a hand. “A nice brisk walk in the ocean air will clear our heads. I heard Joszua and the Konstanze returned just a few hours ago. If we wander by, we might hear some gossip.”

  The Konstanze stood at anchor in the inner harbor, with a sizable crew at work repairing damage from a storm. Anna and Thea threaded their way between the sailors and had reached the harbor’s narrow entry when the Mathilde came drifting between the cliffs, with Daria and her second-in-command at the rail.

  Daria waved to Thea. “My love! I am so glad you didn’t go into a decline in my absence.”

  Thea waved back, her eyes alight with humor. “Will you have a day or two before you set off again?”

  “I shan’t know until I report to our captain.” Daria tossed off a kiss to her hand, then turned back to confer with Felix as the ship glided past.

  Thea gazed after her beloved a moment longer with narrowed eyes. Over the past three weeks, Daria and Joszua had each returned twice from their search for Aldo Sarrész. No news was the official word, but each time, they’d spent half a day in private conversation with Koszenmarc. And each time, Anna had overheard the tense whispered conversations in the night between Thea and Daria as she lay in her own small chamber next to theirs.

  What if I was wrong, and he died in the void? No, she had seen those footprints running, leaping from the void back into Eddalyon. But time passed differently in the place called Anderswar. For all she knew, the man could still be falling, falling from one world to the next.

  She and Thea continued around the island, walking along the narrow band of rock and sand. A band of dark blue clouds blurred the horizon—another sign of the coming storm. Across the way, the senior members of Koszenmarc’s company were drilling with swords and staffs on the smaller of the neighboring islands, and the crack of wood against wooden blade echoed over the water. Anna recognized Maté’s silhouette as he parried, then with a sudden burst of strikes, drove his opponent back.

  “Your friend makes his partner work for every hit,” Thea said. “He must have been a soldier or a guard. Not that I’m asking,” she added hastily.

  “I’m not sure he’d mind if you did ask,” Anna replied. “Though I can’t promise he’d answer truthfully.”

  Thea laughed and shook her head. “That much I had guessed already. He reminds me of Daria. And myself, a bit.”

  It was the closest any of Koszenmarc’s people had come to talking about their personal histories.

  I’m lucky they don’t, or they might ask me questions I can’t answer.

  They came to the far side of the island, which faced east over the open sea. Here Thea paused and lifted her face to the breeze. Her hair, which was loosely tied back with a ribbon, rose into a silvery halo. The clear morning light picked out the lines etched in her face, and she seemed far older than Anna’s previous impression of the woman. A mage and a surgeon, a gifted teacher. What had brought her into Koszenmarc’s company?

  Bu that stirred up too many questions about her own motives.

  The wind blew fresher and stronger. Anna closed her eyes and breathed in the salt air. For a moment, she had the same sensation of kneeling on that otherworldly cliff, with all of Eddalyon spread below her. In between the worlds, in between magic and air, one moment and the next…

  Eyes still closed, she whispered a tentative invocation to magic. A whiff of pine tang colored the salt-scented air. Her skin prickled, and she sensed a gap in the fabric of the world. She held her breath, felt the balance tipping first one direction then back…

  …then, oh, yes, the moment of balance. Here, magic waited. Here, anything was possible.

  Anna released her breath, and with it, her hold on the magic current. This time, the power trickled away like raindrops, and even when it had entirely left her she did not feel that sickening lurch she had thought the necessary price of magic.

  “You had it,” Thea said softly.

  “I… Yes, I did.”

  It seemed such a small thing. Nothing like the spells to summon cold fire, or draw down destruction upon the enemy. But as Anna automaticall
y erased her signature, a trace of that balance remained behind.

  “Do you always do that?” Thea asked. “Wipe away your magic?”

  Anna shrugged. “My teachers insisted. A matter of discipline, they said.”

  A precaution, so mages could not track her, but that was part of her own secret history.

  “A useful habit,” said another voice.

  Anna jumped and immediately wanted to curse. Koszenmarc stood a few feet away, a curious expression on his face. How long had he been watching?

  “Thea,” he said. “Go to your quarters. Daria has news for you.”

  Thea spared them both only a keen glance before she left. Anna hesitated, not certain if she ought to follow, but Koszenmarc gestured for her to stay. “I have news for you as well. Come, walk with me.”

  He indicated the shore leading toward the far point of the island, which angled toward the north. North and Valentain, Anna thought, but she said nothing as they made their way through the rising surf. For a dozen yards or so, the shore disappeared entirely beneath the waves, only to reappear as a wide expanse of sand, while the cliffs that surrounded the rest of the island tumbled down to a rolling slope thick with brush.

  When they reached the point itself, Koszenmarc stopped, hands in his pockets, his gaze toward the north. Though he and his company had been careful never to mention exactly where Asulos lay, Anna could guess. East of Vyros and the main cluster of islands, though how far, she wasn’t certain. Several hundred miles south of the mainland. Within the known charts, but close to the edge, where few traveled.

  From the distance came the echo of swords clashing against swords. The senior drill had ended, she could tell, because she heard Eleni calling out instructions in a slower, much more patient voice. Two hours at least had passed since the Mathilde had made port. Longer still since Joszua and Konstanze had arrived.

  “Joszua has news about our friend Sarrész,” he said.

  “Where?” Anna said quickly. “And is he alive?”

  “Idonia, to answer your first question. Possibly, to answer your second. According to Joszua’s friends, a man very much like our quarry was sighted four days ago in a tavern, in the port city of Kasteli, gambling for ship’s passage back to the mainland. He lost that gamble, and no one has heard from him since. But I have an idea. We shall leave for Idonia with the evening tide. I want you to scour the past with your magic, and I want Thea to observe.”

  It was at once a command and a request. Anna paused, not certain how to respond. “I should pack my gear,” she said at last.

  He held up a hand. “In a moment. I have more news that touches upon you.”

  The noise from the drill had died away. Only the growl of the surf and the occasional bleat from the goats and sheep across the water intruded upon the stillness. Cat and mouse, Anna told herself. That lovely calm she’d felt when she achieved the magical balance had vanished.

  Koszenmarc did not appear to notice her uneasiness. “Joszua is a most valuable spy,” he went on. “He has a number of contacts on Vyros and Idonia. His family. Several friends who do a brisk trade with Vyros and other islands. They brought him word that your friend Raab not only escaped, he seems to have vanished entirely.”

  He is not my friend. But her heart gave a leap at the thought of Raab free and able to get word to Lord Brun.

  “That’s a fortunate thing,” she said carefully. “We wouldn’t want Commander Maszny to question him. Otherwise he might learn about Sarrész and our plans. Our clients would dislike that very much.”

  “Possibly,” Koszenmarc murmured. “Maszny did question your maids. They knew nothing of course, other than the Lady Vrou’s men hired them shortly before you departed the mainland. He concluded the maids were innocent dupes and gave them each a sum of money and the price of their passage home.”

  Now she was truly grateful for the news.

  “I’m glad,” she said.

  He glanced at her, again with that keen and curious glance. “You are.”

  They had not spoken since he accused her of luring Isana Druss to trap them all on Vyros, and she wasn’t sure what to make of that statement, or why he had told her about the maids. She waited, expecting him to say more, but he made no other comment. They turned back toward the inner harbor where they parted, he to his sanctuary at the island’s peak, and she to pack for the voyage.

  * * * *

  Once more, Eleni Farakos remained behind. So too Daria Ioannou and Maté. Anna told herself the latter was a reasonable decision—they had no need for a skilled hunter and a landsman—but when she heard the news, she couldn’t help but wonder if Koszenmarc deliberately kept them apart.

  If I asked, would he answer? she thought. If he answered, would I like that answer?

  She had no time for wondering or guessing. A few hours later, she was aboard with the rest of the crew, and the evening tide saw the Konstanze away from Asulos. Koszenmarc had plotted a course arcing north around Vyros, through the open seas between the islands and the mainland. The wind held true, and within three days the lookout had sighted land.

  Anna and Thea heard the commotion above decks and broke off their morning session of magic. Koszenmarc was already on deck with Old Hahn by his side. As Anna followed Thea to a spot by the rail, out of the crew’s way, Hahn called out orders to the crew aloft. The sails came down and the steersman tacked to port, then they were beating against the wind toward an island that seemed to fill the horizon, dark and massive and rising up to a series of mountains that overlooked a wide harbor.

  Idonia. The heart of the old kingdom. Their destination was the port city of Kasteli, where Eddalyon’s kings and queens once ruled. The ruins of the old palace were visible on the heights above the city—a sweep of jagged walls, breached here and there, and one lone tower rising against the dark green of the mountainside, a warning left by the conquerors from the mainland.

  They dropped anchor in midharbor, and Joszua climbed down the side ropes into a waiting harbor boat, which would take him dockside to handle the port fees. “We’ll take in supplies for the ship and for back home,” Hahn said to Anna. “Makes it more likely why we’re here, in case anyone cares.”

  Anna could imagine any number of people caring about the Konstanze’s presence, but perhaps the crowd of boats and ships in the harbor made a better camouflage than paint or patterns.

  The Konstanze’s launch made yet another of that crowd. The crew guided their launch to an open slip on the west end of the harbor, where they made fast. Koszenmarc gave orders to wait for the supplies, then return directly to the ship. He motioned for Anna and Thea to follow him.

  The district immediately around the harbor was a warren of streets lined by shipping offices and warehouses constructed of unadorned stone. Beyond lay neighborhoods with wine shops and taverns, and a few houses. Koszenmarc led them to a stone building with a tiled roof and a sign in Kybris that read simply Agathé. Next to the entrance, a slate listed half a dozen dishes and their prices. The place had a quiet, prosperous look, not a place where one gambled recklessly.

  “Thea explained something of the magic you use to track our friend,” he said quietly. “Here is the tavern he supposedly visited. Memorize what it looks like, remember the path we take from here. We’ll go somewhere quiet and safe for the magic itself.”

  Anna glanced to either side, taking in the street and what buildings bordered the tavern. Then she stepped to the Agathé’s entrance and pretended to study the menu. She noted the large open room inside, the wooden counter running the length of one side, the several rows of tables with benches, where a dozen men and women ate and drank tea or wine. Most definitely not a place for gambling, but possibly a venue a man like Sarrész would visit.

  Once she had memorized every detail, she stepped back to Koszenmarc’s side. “When did Joszua say our friend was here?”

  “Four d
ays before we set sail. Is that too long ago?”

  Seven days past. Yes, it was possible she could sort through the events. She nodded. “I can do this.”

  “Good. Let’s go to our quiet place.”

  Their path took them up a dozen flights of steps, through the center of the port city, with its mixture of ancient and new buildings, then into a district that Anna would swear dated back to the foundation of the old Eddalyon kingdom. Here the stone buildings had strange figures and faces carved into the portals, and the cool damp air had a whiff of the jungle. Nearly all the signs were written in the Kybris script, but she also saw the occasional placard in Veraenen.

  At last they arrived at their destination, a temple that surrounded three sides of a small courtyard. Koszenmarc mounted the half dozen steps to the temple entrance and tossed a few denariie into the offering bowl beside the entrance.

  Anna paused a moment. The stones, the magic, the strange quiet reminded her strongly of the bare ruins atop the mountain on Vyros. This was their quiet place? But Thea had already followed Koszenmarc, and she had to hurry to catch up with her companions.

  The entry hall was a large square, with lanterns hung from the ceiling. Statues occupied all four corners. Lir, in her aspects of maiden, mother, and crone. Blind Toc, a bandage over his eyes to symbolize his sacrifice that gave the world the sun and moon. Magic pooled here, like shadows drifting between the tiled walls.

  Koszenmarc led them around Toc’s massive figure and into a series of ever-narrower passageways until they reached a small room. Dark blue tiles, veined with silver, covered the floor and ceiling. Frescoes decorated the walls, depicting Lir and Toc from various legends. Toc, sacrificing his eyes to make the sun and the moon for his sister. Lir, grieving over Toc’s body, her tears transformed into stars. Lir and Toc in their season of love, giving birth to all creation. Sections were faded and flaked, with the stone underneath showing through, but someone had recently applied new paint with a delicate hand.