Inker and Crown

Chapter 14

14

Kai

It was almost disappointing, how easy slipping away from the docks would be.

The order had come from Lord Nevon himself. All sailors were to stay by the docks and guard the shipyard. The fleet in the water and the new fleet under construction could not be allowed to be damaged.

Damaged. What a funny way to say blown up.

The waves lapped against the rock wall by the docks. The Arion Sea didn’t feel the need to be violent, even if violence was what the people who lived on her shores crept toward.

The near full moon gave off more light than Kai would have liked.

Lines of men in sailor blue and common work garb roamed the planks of the docks, searching for anything suspicious. Anything that might mean the ships were the next target of whoever had decided the journey was bad for Ilbrea.

Kai clenched his fists. It would be nice to not be angry at a they for trying to kill part of his family. Having a face to throw punches at, or worse, might quell the fire that burned in his chest enough for him to be able to properly breathe.

“I’ll take the spot, Kai.” Drew limped down the stone walk that bordered the sea, the bruising on his face utterly apparent in the moonlight.

Another reason to be angry.

“You grab a bite and a seat.” Drew laid a hand on Kai’s shoulder. “There’ll be plenty of time for all of us to prowl in the dark.”

“Thanks, friend.” Kai squeezed Drew’s hand then headed down the stone pier, toward the noisiest place on the dock.

Even when sailors were meant to be defending their ships, they couldn’t manage to be quiet. The massive room where the sailors were usually fed their midday meal was stuffed to the brim. The plain wooden tables lined with crooked benches overflowed with people demanding food.

Five harassed women scuttled through the dining room, bearing trays of meat and bread. Frie and ale had been banned from the docks until the soldiers declared the city safe.

No wonder everyone’s in such a foul mood.

Kai slipped to the far end of the room. The women were too busy serving to watch the door to the kitchen.

He bent double to slide through the door.

The kitchen fire burned brightly, heating the room to boiling despite the chill of the evening. Other than a mangy dog sleeping by the door to the street, the space was empty.

A staircase angled out the far side of the kitchen, cutting up to the storage rooms above. If the sailors in the dining room knew barrels of the ale and frie they had been denied sat right above their heads, there would be a riot on the docks unlike any the Guilds had ever seen.

But the others hadn’t bothered searching the nooks and crannies that surrounded the docks like Kai had. As a Karron ward, he’d found too many hidden treasures to allow any shadow to go unexplored.

Soundlessly, Kai crept up the wooden steps, skipping the stair that always creaked horribly, and pressed himself into the shadows that covered the landing.

Silence.

No chatter. No barrels being dragged across the floor.

Keeping his head low, Kai peered around the corner. The storage room was empty. Of people at least. Barrels of flour, salt, frie, and ale sat below hanging racks of dried meat. Crates of apples and tubers ready to be packed onto ships lined one whole wall.

Kai cut along the other side of the room, past the shelves of spices and packets of hardtack, heading directly toward the open window on the north side of the building. The breeze from outside did little to fight the heat drifting up from the fire below, but Kai was grateful someone had thought to open it. Winter storms had warped the wood of the building so the window made a terrible squeal when forced to move and took more time to shimmy open than he had to waste.

Giving one last glance behind, Kai crawled through the window and onto the slanted roof beyond. Fresh sea air greeted him. He had only been inside for a moment, but even that short time trapped in wood had made the fire in his chest burn hotter.

He had to do something.

His feet carried him quickly across the pitched roof, and leaping to the next barely required thought.

I should be finding out who did this.

That would be the most satisfying option. He knew the faces of the men who started the fight in the White Froth, but starting a brawl in a pub was a far cry from setting off an explosion so near the Princess.

And Allora.

Kai’s foot slipped as he leapt to the next roof. The pain shooting through his knee as he stumbled was the price for his drifting thoughts.

Kai shook his head, forcing himself to focus. Holding his arms to his sides, he made it to the far end of the roof faster than most would have traveled on the ground.

But if the men from the White Froth were angry, perhaps they knew who else might hate the Guilds enough to attack in Ilara.

“One foot at a time,” Kai whispered into the salty wind.

The roofs leading away from the docks were as familiar to him as the streets below. For a man raised on the ropes of a ship, scaling unswaying roofs was easy. The tricky bit came in puzzling out how to move from one to the next.

The tannery roof sat above the herbalist’s roof, but he could slip from one to the other without making a sound. A leap to the edge of the milliner’s roof was simple enough at this time of night when the streets were near empty and chances of people looking up and noticing his dangling feet were low.

The stables were where his path ended. Merchants who owned a horse, but hadn’t room at their home for their animal, all kept their horses together. The stench was plenty to tell passersby what the building held. A long rope dangled from the side of the stable, strong enough for hoisting feed, and an easy path to the ground for a sailor.

A line of water barrels hugged the side of the building.

Kai swung wide, landing on the cobblestone street, avoiding the dull thunk of his boots hitting the wood. He already missed the freedom of the rooftops. But there was no time to linger. The emptiness of the streets made them all the more dangerous.

“Come on, Gelda, don’t let a fellow down.” Kai reached into the darkness behind the row of water barrels, hoping his fingers wouldn’t meet animal muck. With a sigh of relief, he grasped a glass bottle and coarse wool. “That’s my girl.”

The bottle of frie Gelda had left him was two sips from full―a favor Kai felt sure she would remember―and the wool cloak had just the right amount of filth on it.

Kai tossed the cloak around his shoulders, hiding his sailor blue.

Wrenching the cork out of the bottle, Kai let a little frie spill onto the cloak. With a smell like that coming off him, no one would wonder why he roamed the streets.

Adding a bit of a wobble to his step, Kai headed out to the main roads of Ilara, taking the fastest route to the Guilded section of the city.

“Need a place to rest, love?” a woman’s voice called from down the street as Kai turned onto Mason Lane.

“Not tonight, dearie.” Kai waved over his shoulder without turning back. “Best not to linger on a night like this.”

“Next time then.”

Kai gave another wave as a group of common men came into view. Metal workers from the look of them. Their stumbling put Kai’s to shame.

“Brother!” the man at the front of the pack shouted. His voice bounced off the stone of the houses. “Are you enjoying the freedom of the night air?”

“It’s a fine night.” Kai nodded. “A wonderful one.”

“Then come and celebrate!” a second man spoke. “We are at the dawn of a new day.”

“Not quite dawn yet.” Kai stopped when the men were twenty feet away. Better to let them approach than walk into the middle of them. “And best to keep it down. There are soldiers all over the streets.”

“Paun soldiers?” the first man asked. “Or unguilded traitors?”

“Come here, little paun!” the smallest man in the group called, as though summoning an animal. “Come here, mewling little paun!”

“I’d best be on my way,” Kai said as the thump of boots sounded from the nearest cross street.

“What’s going on down here?”

Kai cursed under his breath as seven soldiers appeared behind the common men.

“We’re enjoying the fine night air in the common part of town.” The smallest man turned and bowed to the soldiers. “Don’t see why it should matter to you. There’s no princesses to worry about here. Only us sewer rats.”

Kai slipped into the nearest alley. The space was barely wide enough for him to squeeze through sideways, but it was better than being caught on that street.

“The soldiers are commanded to protect all citizens of Ilbrea, and that includes the people who live here.”

A damp, rotting stench flooded Kai’s nose as a rat scurried past his feet.

“And who protects the people of Ilbrea from you?”

“Just run, you slitches,” Kai muttered as he shimmied his way out onto the far side of the buildings.

“Stop right there.”

Kai’s shoulders sagged as a voice spoke from behind him.

“What sort of man has business creeping between houses in the middle of the night?”

Kai turned slowly, careful to keep his hands well clear of his cloak.

Two soldiers glared at him, both looking as though they wanted nothing more than to take out their fatigue and frustration on his ribs.

“I’m trying to get clear of whatever is about to happen on Mason,” Kai said. “I’m Guilded. I just didn’t want to walk around the streets in blue tonight.”

“Really?” One of the soldiers raised a thick, black eyebrow.

Shouts carried from the other side of the houses.

“Can you blame me?” Kai shrugged.

“Let me see your mark.” The soldier grabbed Kai’s wrist, yanking up his sleeve to see the twisting breath of wind permanently inscribed on Kai’s skin. “All right then.”

“What are you doing out here?” the second soldier asked. “I thought all sailors were watching the docks.”

“I have a friend who was near the damage done today. I need to be sure they weren’t hurt.”

“Best get there and back fast then.” The thick-eyebrowed soldier nodded. “You know, I never thought we’d be looking at Guild marks to see who to worry about on the streets of Ilara.”

“It’s a dark time.” Kai pressed the mostly full bottle of frie into the soldier’s hand. “In case you need it on the long night’s watch.”

“Thank you, sailor.”

Kai didn’t wait for the conversation to continue. He was nearly to the Guilded part of the city. Slip past the cathedral, and he’d be up the cliffs in no time.

As soon as he stepped past the first row of Guilded homes, he shed his cloak, draping it over his arm for the return journey.

A mark on my arm gives me leave to walk freely. Not what I expected when the sorcerers seared my skin.

The uniform was a help, but stealing a sailor’s blue was as simple as waiting outside a bath house for someone to be careless. A Guild mark could only be given by a sorcerer.

Kai vividly remembered the sorcerer’s stylus pressing into his arm. The horrible burning sensation, as though the woman in purple had taken a hot iron to his flesh. And then the childish disappointment that his mark didn’t move. Mara’s and Niko’s compass marks had moving images of needles that would always help them find north. Kai’s was a motionless twist of wind.

The cathedral rose up like a ghost in the night, surrounded by soldiers who didn’t give Kai more than a glance.

They should be checking the marks. I’ll tell Tham.

But Tham wasn’t in the city. Another weight to add to the fire in Kai’s chest. His family should be all together if horrible things were going to happen. It was how their little clan survived.

Two soldiers had been placed at the bottom of the twisting road leading up the cliffs.

“What business do you have up the road?” a soldier asked. Dark bags under the man’s eyes showed even in the moonlight.

“I’m Kai Saso, former ward of Lord Karron. I’m here to check on my sister by home, Allora Karron, who was with the Princess this morning.” Kai kept his chin tilted up, looking as regal and stern as someone would expect of Lord Karron’s wards had they never met them.

“Very well.” The soldier nodded for Kai to pass. “And I saw her through the carriage window when they brought her home this evening. She looked fine. Tired, but fine.”

“Thank you.” Kai clapped the man on the shoulder and headed up the cliffs at a jog.

His legs should have been exhausted. He’d been at the shipyard, working on the new fleet when word of the explosion came. Then the world had started to spin, and the flames in his stomach had flared.

He pushed himself to run faster, letting the pain of uselessness force heat into his limbs.

Another line of soldiers waited at the top of the cliff.

“Kai Saso, former ward of Lord Karron…”

Another at the gates to the Map Master’s Palace.

“Kai Saso…”

Men in map maker livery waited at the front door of the house.

“Kai?” one of the men called as he ran up the lawn.

“Is Allora here?” Kai asked. He didn’t know the man’s name, but he recognized his face. Recognized all the men’s faces.

A tiny bit of the twisting in his stomach loosened.

“She’s here.” The man nodded. “I don’t know if she’s awake, but if she is, I’m sure she’d be glad to see you.”

Kai nodded and swung open the giant front door.

He expected to have to go to the family wing of the house to find her and shake her awake, but a moment after he closed the door, Allora appeared in the hall, wrapped in a long, white robe.

“Kai,” she breathed, running to him and flinging her arms around his neck in a most un-Allora-like way. “You’re safe. Thank Dudia I know at least one of you is safe.”

“Allora.” Kai rocked her back and forth in his arms. “What are you doing down here?”

“Waiting for you or Adrial.” Allora didn’t let go of Kai. “Or for my father to come back from the council, or for a letter to come from Niko.”

“Poor, dear Allora, you’ve been going mad, haven’t you?”

Tears poured down Allora’s cheeks. “The world caught fire and Niko left, and Adrial’s locked in the Sorcerers Tower and I can’t get to him. Mara and Tham are headed north, and they may not know anything has happened. The Queen fell ill when she found out about the explosion.”

“Come on.” Kai took Allora’s hand, leading her to the front parlor.

Her immaculate writing marked the envelope clasped in her other hand.

Nikolas Endur. Map Maker. Eastern Mountains Journey.

Even after a day of panic, Allora’s handwriting slanted and curled perfectly.

“I―” Allora pressed the letter to her chest. “I just need to send this to him. I’m the Lord Map Maker’s daughter. I know how impossible getting a letter to a journey can be.”

“But they only just left.” Kai took the letter and slipped it into his pocket. “And they’re not sailing on the Arion Sea. I’ll find a way to get it to him.”

“Thank you, Kai.” Allora brushed the curls away from his forehead as she had when he was only a boy. “Please don’t leave tonight. I know it’s awful of me to ask you to stay away from the ships to sit here with me while I worry.”

A dozen soft seats lined the parlor, but by habit Kai pulled Allora down onto the most comfortable couch with a view of the front lawn. “This is my home, Allora. You are my family. I love the Sailors Guild and the ships, but…”

He wasn’t sure what the but was.

“But our little family is what sees us through.” Allora nestled her head onto his shoulder, and together they sat, watching the great lawn bathed in moonlight.