North Star Guide Me Home (32 page)

Beyond the snow-covered city, ships clustered in the harbour past the ice clinging to the shore. Makaio’s mages had built a pier out of rock to help unload the vessels, and the day before he’d climbed up here to watch the trickle of people returning to the dead city.

For weeks they’d debated what they’d find in Lathayan. No smoke stained the sky over the abandoned city, no soot settled out of the air to blacken the snow. The city was deserted, utterly abandoned.

This morning was different. Wafting smoke rose from dozens of chimneys, the exhalation of a city coming back to life. From this height, he could make out figures weaving through the icy streets, trampling the white snow grey. He’d expected to find Lathayan in ruins, but they’d found more houses standing than not, even if they were settlers’ houses built in the southern style. There would be time to make it theirs.

From above, the city looked peaceful, but within the houses was another matter — they’d been ransacked multiple times and what was left was a hopeless jumble of broken furniture and household goods, tattered rags and rat-chewed leather, perishable relics of lives long gone. The children had already been set to work to sort through it.

The children. It made his heart ache to think of them, even more so now that his household had babes of their own. He couldn’t look at those skinny, chilblained mites without thinking that they’d been someone’s precious child, and that those who had lost them might still be out there somewhere, their hearts torn out each day from not knowing what had become of them — or worse yet, lying dead and forgotten, either here in the north or on the plains of the empire. The lucky ones had forged new families from the ashes of the war and many folk had adopted orphans in honour of their own missing children, comforting themselves with the hope that their own were being cared for by strangers in turn. It was the northern way in times of crisis to pull together to survive.

Cam shook himself, realising he’d been lost in thought for some time. The stonemason was watching him patiently, too diffident to interrupt his reverie. ‘What do you make of it, master mason?’

‘Oh, it can be repaired, sir, but not right away. The ice has gotten into the cracks. We’ll have to wait for it to thaw and take it back to solid stone, but then the repairs will be simple enough. There’s plenty of cut stone wanting use down in the town.’

‘Or perhaps our mages can thaw it out faster,’ Cam said.

The mason flushed. ‘Of course, sir. My apologies, I didn’t think of the mages.’

‘We’ll get used to having them around soon enough. I don’t like leaving these great gaps here any longer than necessary.’

Standing by his shoulder, Ardamon scowled. ‘Time was when you could count on walls to keep invaders off your backs. Now they just slow them down, if you’re lucky.’

‘Better than nothing,’ Cam said, ducking into the tower to head downstairs again. ‘And with our own mages to defend them they won’t fall so easily.’

‘Once they learn their craft, you mean?’ Ardamon said. ‘I hope you’re right. And Cam, I’ve been meaning to ask … what are we going to do about Rasten? Surely we can’t leave that mad dog on the loose.’

Ardamon must have been waiting for a time when Sierra was absent to raise the question. Cam didn’t blame him. ‘He’ll have to be dealt with, I agree,’ he said, but there came a heaviness in his chest when he said the words. Rasten couldn’t be trusted, sooner or later the madness within him was bound to rear its head … but would the folk who looked to him for leadership see it the same way? They’d seen glimpses of Rasten’s darker side, but to them he was still their saviour, the one who’d freed them from their chains. They were too blinded by gratitude to see him for the rabid beast he was. ‘We’ll just have to wait until the time is right.’

Ardamon grunted. ‘First we have to find him, I suppose. He slipped away from the folk you had watching him, even before we put to sea.’

‘Mm. But I doubt he’ll stay hidden for long.’

‘And Sierra? She won’t take it well.’

‘If he slips back to his old ways, she’ll see it was necessary. I hope. Now, what about —’

His words were lost in a great muffled roar. The ground trembled, throwing him and Ardamon both against the curving wall of the tower. Ardamon grabbed Cam by the shoulder and pushed him onwards. ‘Down, quickly, in case the wretched tower collapses! By all the Gods, I told you we ought to have a mage in the royal guard.’

They reached the ground and were out in a few long strides, but the earth still trembled, punctuated by sharp, percussive blasts rippling like the skin of a drum. Outside, the rest of the folk who’d gathered to accompany Cam were staring towards the northwestern quarter, where the earth erupted in hissing jets of steam.

Cam merely glanced to Ardamon. ‘Issey and Sierra — where did they go?’

‘I can hazard a guess. Kell’s dungeons were in that quarter.’

‘Ah. I suspect
were
is a good choice of word,’ Cam replied.

They started in that direction, trailed by Cam’s guards and a pair of pages. The ground was still breaking open in whistling jets when they reached the entrance, just as Isidro and Sierra staggered out of the darkness. Isidro had Sierra’s arm flung over his shoulder and his false arm around her waist to bear her up.

‘By the Black Sun! What happened? Is she alright?’

‘She’s overtaxed herself,’ Isidro answered for her as Sierra sank to her knees, breathing hard. ‘She didn’t charge her power first.’

‘What did you do?’ Cam said, crouching down to peer into Sierra’s face.

‘Buried Kell’s dungeons,’ she gasped, gulping as though winded. ‘By all the Gods … I just wanted them gone.’

Cam beckoned the pages over. ‘One of you lads go and fetch her something hot to eat.’

‘Yessir,’ a lad said, and took off at a run, leaving Cam to look around at the haze of steam.

‘When you say “buried” …’ Cam said.

‘Come on,’ Isidro said, turning back towards the palace doors. ‘I’ll show you.’

Signalling Ardamon to stay with Sierra, Cam followed Isidro into the gloom. As they descended the air grew steadily warmer, until it felt as though they were walking into a furnace. Isidro halted on the final flight of steps, above a landing that glowed with an eerie red light, radiating with heat like a forge.

Cam climbed down a few steps more, holding one hand up to shield his face from the heat. The heavy, metal-bound doors were gone — in their place was a featureless glowing slab, a door to nothing and nowhere. ‘That’s … that’s rock?’

Isidro nodded as Cam retreated with a low whistle. ‘I’d been wondering what to do about the wretched place. Issey, can you do it, too? And the other mages? Those breaches in the fort walls need to be repaired.’

‘I can do it. Delphine and Makaio’s mages, too. I’m not so sure about ours, yet.’

‘Alright, that’s one matter solved, then. So what was down there? Did they leave much behind?’

Isidro grimaced, and shrugged. ‘No one sacked the place. Looks like they peeked in and crept out again without touching anything.’

‘Hmm,’ Cam said, ‘I’m not surprised.’ He mopped his brow, sweating with the heat of the cooling stone, and backed away. ‘Let’s get back up there. We’ve got a cursed lot of work to do.’

Once the first round of ships were unloaded and life in the ruined city fell into some sort of routine, Makaio set sail eastwards to make contact with the parts of the country that had escaped the worst of the war. Mira sent with him a few folk who showed talent for diplomacy, hoping to win support for the new king. Makaio left a few of his mages, promising to send news through them.

Since Cam’s Akharian tent was hopelessly inadequate, within a few days the household relocated into the palace. Not to the old royal quarters, which were deep within the interior and still choked full of the wreckage of battle. Instead, the workers focused on restoring just one wing of the fortress to a habitable state. The rooms that were hastily outfitted for Cam and his family were decidedly humble, built of plain stone and salvaged timber, but so spacious that it felt like luxury compared to the cramped tents they’d lived in for so long. It was warm, too, with a stove-wall that heated both the common room and the sleeping-chambers, as well as a sunken stone-lined firepit where they could gather to talk of the day’s affairs.

The household was just settling in for the evening when there came a rap at the door. Anoa, who split her time between serving as Mira’s handmaid and spending nights with Ardamon in his secondary quarters in the barracks, went to answer it and returned with a messenger, who greeted Cam with a bow. ‘Your grace, Lord Ardamon sends to tell you that a caravan is approaching the gates. They’re from the Wolf Clan, sir, and say they’re bearing gifts and supplies from Lady Tarya.’

Sipping on mulled wine, Cam barked a laugh. ‘Gifts from the Wolf Clan? Whatever they’re bringing us is bound to be more trouble than it’s worth.’

‘How many?’ Isidro asked.

‘Sixty-odd warriors, sir, and the same again in unarmed folk.’

‘Any sign of mage-craft?’

‘The mage on duty sensed nothing, but one of the lads is a Sensitive and reported some hotspots among the sleds, sir.’

‘Spies,’ Sierra said.

‘Oh, without a doubt,’ Mira said, dandling Cade on her lap, ‘but I want to hear what they have to say.’

‘Tell Ardamon to bring them in,’ Cam said. ‘We’ll come down to meet them.’

The messenger bowed. ‘Yes, sir.’

As the lad left, Sierra turned to Cam with a frown. ‘Why in the Fires Below are we letting them in?’

‘Information,’ Cam said. ‘Whatever’s happened while we’ve been away, you can bet the Wolf Clan’s at the centre of it.’

‘Keeping them out won’t stop their spies, anyway,’ Isidro said. ‘It’d just deny us the chance to learn anything from them.’

Sierra gave him a look full of scepticism. ‘How can we trust anything they tell us?’

‘We can’t, of course,’ Mira said, ‘but hearing what they want us to know will be a start. Watch and learn, Sirri, you need to know how these things work.’ Mira called one of the nursemaids to take charge of Cade, and stood. ‘Alright, then. Let’s go see what my wretched kin are trying to pull on us this time.’

A short time later, they met the caravan at the palace steps. Sierra called up a chain of mage-lights and sent them floating over the long train of shaggy-coated
yaka
and weary folk in travel-stained furs.

The soldiers were mounted on fine warhorses, and a soldier came forward to hold the bridle of one beast as its rider dismounted. He was tall and broad-shouldered, with the build of one who’d never known hunger in his growing years and a face that reminded Sierra of Ardamon.

She’d never seen him before, but Delphine went tense beside her.

‘Ah,’ Cam murmured, ‘interesting.’

‘Who is he?’

‘Hespero. One of Dremman’s sons.’

The fellow was already striding towards them, tucking his mittens into his belt. ‘Greetings, cousin,’ he called to Mira.

‘Cousin,’ she said, with a small nod.

‘And Prince Cammarian — or am I to call you cousin, too? I hear you and Mira have made a betrothal.’

Cam cocked his head. ‘Prince, is it? I seem to recall that last time we met, you named me king, Hespero.’

‘So I did,’ the man said, ‘though I admit it was meant in jest. The Angessovars have suffered harshly this last year — three dead in a few months. Anyone claiming the name is taking his life in his hands, I fear.’

‘Oh, I don’t know. Your esteemed cousin dealt with one of them, and a good friend saw to the other two, and I doubt I’m in danger from either of them. I don’t believe you’ve met Lady Sierra, Hespero. The one they call the Stormblade?’ He held his hand out to Sierra.

‘No, I’ve not had the honour,’ Hespero said. He looked Sierra over boldly and bowed.

Sierra kept her gaze on his face. ‘Who is he?’

‘You remember how Delphi and I struck out after you last spring? Well, Hespero was the one who led the Akharians to us,’ Cam said. ‘He’s Ardamon’s elder brother.’

‘I see,’ she said, still studying him.

Hespero rolled his shoulders in a shrug. ‘Nothing personal, Cammarian. I was only following orders. Though perhaps you don’t have much experience with that sort of thing.’

‘You mean, following the sort of orders that include sacrificing your countrymen for our enemies? I can’t disagree.’

‘The ties of loyalty aren’t easily severed, your grace … at least, not for some of us.’

‘I’ve always found loyalty to be a path that runs two ways,’ Cam said.

Hespero shrugged and turned back to Mira. ‘Now, cousin, I’ve heard you were delivered of a son. Is this true? Is the babe well?’

‘Yes, it’s true. Cadrosec is very well, a fine, strong little lad.’

Hespero nodded, and seemed to be waiting for her to go on, but when Mira said nothing more, he frowned. ‘And may I see him?’

‘Oh, perhaps, at some point. Right now he’s sleeping.’

‘You could, I don’t know, wake him up, perhaps?’

Mira just blinked at him. ‘I don’t think so. What brings you here, Hespero?’

Hespero turned to gesture to the caravan of sleds, animals and people. ‘A gift from Lady Tarya and the clan. Your kin deeply regret the gulf that’s grown between us, Mira. As a gesture of goodwill, the clan has sent you goods we hope may be of use — there’s a supply of seed, bales of cloth and fur and so on. I’m not a man who knows much about household goods, but I’m assured it’s all useful stuff. There’s some very decent brood mares, and the goats and the
yaka
cows are good stock too. Lady Tarya sent a steward along, and she has all the lists and so on. And these folk are skilled artisans who have agreed to come serve you, should you accept them.’

‘I see,’ Cam said. ‘That’s a welcome gift. I’ll admit I’m surprised to receive it. Prosperity and success are the last things I’d suspect your people would wish on mine.’

‘Oh, come now, Cammarian, do you really think us so petty? You have both a daughter and a son of the Wolf Clan within your walls. The ties of kinship run deep. We wouldn’t risk harm to Mirasada, or the babe.’

Mira narrowed her eyes. ‘His name is Cadrosec.’