1633880583 (F) (27 page)

“How do you steer?”

Muninn grabbed a pair of the long, straight branches and waved them at Bone’s face. “With these.”

“Ah.” Bone rolled his eyes. “Gods help us, more sticks!”

“I’ll show you the uses of a stick—”

“Enough,” Gaunt said. “I’ll try it, if you’re so dubious, Bone.”

“Wait,” Bone said, and he glared at Muninn. “I haven’t even had time to ask what the hell
he’s
doing here.”

“I’m here because your wife is most persuasive,” Muninn said, throwing her a hard look. “I will share your adventure, to repay any debt to you.”

“You will travel with us?” Bone exclaimed. “What of your wife, your wards?”

“They will get along fine without me,” said Muninn. He chuckled, though it sounded rather like a gag. “Indeed, I once caught my wife getting along fine with the elder ward in the barn.”

“Oh,” Gaunt said.

“Ah, how can a foamreaver blame her? Her blood’s still hot, and I am a palsied waste. She loves me still, I think. But when she wants me, it’s a desire mixed with pity, as satisfying as cheap spirits. You like it at the hour, but it poisons you over the days. Let it rest. Let me roam.”

“Indeed,” Bone murmured. “Let’s go.”

Into the tall, deep Kantenjord woods they went.

CHAPTER 13

TORFA

Mother Earth and Father Sky
, thought Lady Steelfox of the Karvak Realm,
I wander a place so dim I cannot tell black from white. I cannot distinguish colors on the horses I must ride. Help your daughter find her way
.

Steelfox had attended state gatherings before, representing her particular khanate and the Karvaks at large. She’d shared wine with the gold-bedecked Oirpata, taken tea with proud warriors of the Five Islands, broken bread in Kantening trading forts beside the Mirrored Sea. She had her power base in the taiga forest realm of the True People, whom Karvaks named the Reindeer People. She was no stranger to peculiar customs and new foods, and prided herself on a diplomatic tongue.

None of that had prepared her for the bleak, volcanic shores of Oxiland. Oxiland was mad.

The Oxilanders were even now screaming at each other like children.

“You’ve betrayed us, Huginn!”

“Nonsense, I’ve created an opportunity!”

“Did you know of this, Jokull?”

“No, Gissur. Huginn said he’d solve the mystery of the Orb Dragons.”

“And have I not done so?”

“I would wipe that smile from your face with a sword-edge, Huginn, were you not under my roof.”

Steelfox either had to watch them snarl or nibble at the carcass in front of her, the fermented remains of some gigantic toothy fish. There was alcohol of course, green stuff that burned the mouth. That was surely part of the problem, but she kept drinking it anyway. She wanted to skulk off to a tent.

She’d been given to believe this Jokull Loftsson was some manner of king and could treat with Steelfox on behalf of his people. Now, four days after her arrival, as she sat serenely beside him in her best blue deel, her dark hair bundled high and coated with fat, Jokull still bellowed angrily like a drunken bravo, arguing with the men named Ylur, Styr, Gissur, and Huginn—the last now revealed as one of Jewelwolf’s agents. The one who was supposed to smooth everything over.

“Consider the advantages, Jokull!” Huginn was saying. “The Karvak Realm is so expansive, you could drop all of Oxiland into it and it would be lost in the grasses. With their balloons and Wind-Tamers they’ll set up a trade network to beggar the routes to the Mirrored Sea or Amberhorn. No more will there be a Braid of Spice, but a Braid of Clouds! We can sell them our meats and cheeses, our walrus and narwhal ivory . . . and in return we’ll have the luxuries of the East! Muslin, spices, jade, even ironsilk!”

Steelfox cleared her throat. “Gentlemen. What Huginn says is true. The world is changing. We now command the skies. The Karvaks would be glad to add Oxiland as an ally. We will be visiting these islands often.”

“Don’t listen to the witch-woman!” said the bellicose, red-bearded chief named Styr. “I have seen her familiar, a falcon that even now circles this steading.”

At his words, Steelfox couldn’t help but stretch her mind to where her bond-animal flew, keeping an eye on Innocence Gaunt.

The boy was not party to this meeting; Huginn had bidden him wait outside the great hall, in case a scribe was wanted. The falcon Qurca whirled high above Jokull’s steading, watching the lad, who paced back and forth beside the wall. Light snow was falling, whirling between the pillars as Innocence scowled and trod. Steelfox did not know his mind, but she could sympathize with his mood. Important matters were being discussed, and he had no part of it.

Yet soon enough, when she could arrange it, he would be in an important talk of his own. She’d been surprised to see him here, but perhaps the hands of the gods were in it. Soon she must make her offer.

“She is under my protection as well,” Jokull was saying, reminding her that dividing her attention in this way was dangerous. “Lady Steelfox. You say your people will be ‘visiting.’ You and your party have behaved courteously. But I’ve heard from our cousins along the Mirrored Sea that your people are ruthless conquerors.”

“We have a reputation for bloodthirstiness,” Steelfox said. She did not so much as glance at the two warriors who stood behind her in their conical helmets and armor coats, staring over the seated nobles at two of Loftsson’s men, bareheaded but protected by mail shirts. “Though the same,” she added, “could be said for your own people.”

“Point taken. What will you do if we reject you?”

“That is not truly my decision. My sister Jewelwolf is in charge of our venture in these islands. Where conquest is the goal, she commands. Where diplomacy is desired, I will act.” She tried to keep the bitterness from her voice. Steelfox was one of the best archers in the realm, but she was never accounted a war-leader, nor a baatar, a courageous combatant.

“You are refreshingly blunt,” said the youngest chief, a yellow-haired man named Gissur.

“We are strange to each other,” Steelfox said. “There will be much misunderstanding, even if we strive to be honest.”

“I quite agree,” said Gissur, giving Huginn a withering look. “So this sister of yours. She’ll decide the Karvak response if the Althing rejects you?”

Steelfox frowned. She had not yet conceded the point of waiting for the Althing. “The Grand Khan, my brother-in-law, decides which countries we conquer.”

“And just who,” said a snowy-haired old chief named Ylur, “is currently on the menu?”

“Alas.” She smiled. “That is information I could only disclose to an ally.”

“Ha!” said red-haired Styr, tipping down some of the green drink. “I like you, Karvak! Though we may be enemies soon enough. I think we can guess what will happen, Ylur. Oxiland is of course lovely this time of year, but face facts, we’re poor. And Spydbanen’s a barbaric wilderness, even for us! The real prize is Svardmark, especially Soderland. If Corinna’s realm falls, who’s left? Gullvik can barely hold onto Grunndokk. Laksfjord and Lysefoss are just independent towns. The Five Fjords have some power, but it always ends up with Regnheim and Vestvjell at each other’s throats, and Lillefosna, Grimgard, and Vesthall choosing sides. They can’t even agree on a capital, let alone a unified defense. Garmstad and Ostoland might put up a fight, but Corinna had better watch the skies. With her gone, these Karvaks can pick the rest of Kantenjord like meat falling from an overcooked carcass.”

There was silence at the table.

Jokull Loftsson’s voice was subdued. “Let me guess further,” he said to Steelfox. “Your terms of alliance would require placing armies on our land.”

Steelfox bowed her head. “The Kantenings are accounted wise.”

Ylur pounded his fist on the table. “There is no point even hammering this out. Such talk must await the Althing. The other chiefs would want our heads for even discussing this much.”

As he spoke, Steelfox noted Jokull’s wife, Torfa, frowning at the proceedings. Torfa and a group of female slaves had been serving them, but now the lady of the hall paused and narrowed her eyes at Steelfox. Torfa leaned over and hissed something in Jokull’s ear. The uncrowned king’s face reddened as though slapped, and he snapped something Steelfox couldn’t follow. Torfa stiffened and exited the hall.

Well, now
, Steelfox thought.
That was interesting
.

Through Qurca’s eyes she saw Torfa leave the great hall and snarl at Innocence. “Your master and his witch-woman are ensorcelling our men! Well, they haven’t counted on the strength of Oxiland’s women! We will die before we lose our freedom!” That said, she stalked toward the main farmhouse.

This concerned Steelfox. Qurca also caught sight of some of Steelfox’s own party approaching Innocence. This concerned her also.

These allies were not soldiers but three drab-robed warrior monks bearing unusual curved, serrated blades. Steelfox bit her lip. Her use of the Fraternity of the Hare was an alliance of convenience, and sometimes it seemed rather more convenient for the Fraternity. It couldn’t be coincidence they approached Innocence while she was otherwise occupied.

She sent Qurca to drop upon the eaves.

But now she must focus upon the feast. All the chieftains but Huginn wanted to defer decisions till the Althing, making it clear Steelfox should attend. Huginn was saying, “Friends! You’re too quick to give up your rights! Since when has the Althing decided when and how
we
can raise fighting men? Gissur! When Tryggvi of Cauldronfall slew your thrall, did you wait till summer to raise a force and demand compensation? Jokull, when Palmar of Winterfork contested your claim to the Ashblack, did you need the lawgivers to tell you to station men there? We have
always
had the right to raise troops from those sworn to us . . . and to buy the services of more. I don’t see how hosting the Karvaks, if they cause no trouble, would be in principle any different.”

“Ah, Huginn the lawyer has returned,” Jokull said, and his tone was not unkind. Steelfox herself, annoyed as she was with the man, had to nod his way in thanks.

“Yes,” Ylur said, “he could well argue that case. At the
Althing
.”

The chieftains began loosing claims and counterclaims regarding the laws like so many arrows shot from horseback. Steelfox could not keep up, and so she dared listen through Qurca’s ears to Innocence’s conversation with the warrior-monks.

She couldn’t see them from the falcon’s perch, but she clearly heard Innocence say, “I’ve seen you somewhere.”

“And I have seen you, Innocence Gaunt,” said a woman’s voice. “It was during a battle, and matters were confused, and soon you fled upon your flying carpet. But I know you.”

“It’s not my flying carpet. It’s its own master.”

“Where is it now?”

“I wish I knew. Last I remember we were both plunging into the sea. What is your name, why are you bothering me, and what happened to your ear?”

“I am Dolma, of the Fraternity of the Hare, now sworn to the service of Lady Steelfox of the Il-Khanate of the Infinite Sky. And I have cut off an ear so that I can hear better.”

“Dolma. I don’t want riddles, Dolma. I want answers.”

“Such imperiousness for one so young! I gave up an ear so that it could be magically preserved and kept by our order. Anything said to it, any sound that comes its way, I will hear. In this way we may keep informed across the whole face of the Earthe. And you? What is happening to your forehead?”

“I—do not know. In the days since you arrived, people have said a pattern is growing there. Like a birthmark, only new.”

Steelfox wished she could see what he described, as she hadn’t managed to get close to Innocence yet. But she didn’t want Dolma to notice Qurca if she could help it.

“And you fear it,” Dolma said. “You fear it is connected to your power. The power of the Heavenwalls.”

“I’ll ask again. What do you want with me?”

“Innocence Gaunt, I hear things. I hear you are hunted and coveted. By people who might like you to be emperor of Qiangguo. By people who might like to control the emperor of Qiangguo. By people who couldn’t give a fig about Qiangguo but know power when they smell it. And by things who feel any of the above, but that are not people.”

“And?”

“And . . . your father was once kind to me. Maybe he just meant to use me. But I still appreciate the things he said. They helped me to find another path for myself, and the Fraternity. And if you need a friend, I would like to be that friend.”

Steelfox heard the smirk in Innocence’s voice. “Because you want to be friends with the emperor of Qiangguo?”

“Because I see a young person with a good heart, in a bad place. As I once was.”

Inside the men were still arguing.

“I have the right to have guests, Gissur! And an army! And an army of guests!”

“Surely things are different, Huginn, when a foreign power is involved! If these were Princess Corinna’s knights, would we even be talking about it?”

“Perhaps,” Jokull said, “we’ve fueled this fire with enough alcohol. Let us have a round of toasts and resume talk tomorrow.”

“A fine idea,” Ylur said.

“Indeed,” said Styr.

Outside, Qurca noted Torfa returning from the farmhouse with a large loaf of bread, a large knife jabbed within it. Her steps were lively through the snow.

“A last toast then,” Jokull said. “To old friends and new.”

Steelfox raised her mug, ready to ride into battle with the green drink once more. “Skal,” she said with the others, and soon her mouth felt like the heart of the Desert of Hungry Shadows.

But outside Torfa paused to say to Innocence, “Your master is a traitor and don’t think I don’t know it,” before stepping inside.

“What did she mean?” said Dolma, sounding concerned.

“I don’t know,” said Innocence, worry filling the voice that had so striven to be nonchalant. “When she came out she gave me a look to make my hair match the snow.”

Torfa strode to the table with her sheath of bread.