Our Lady of the Islands (36 page)

“It
can’t
be! We can’t …” Arian looked near tears. “We’ve gone entirely the wrong way!”

“It … seems so,” said Sian.

“But — I followed all the markings! We should have crossed The Well, gone under Meaders and Bayleaf and Toad, then come up on Apricot!”

“Well, I’m afraid we haven’t …” Sian said gently.

“We’re
needed
at the Factorate House! We should have been there
yesterday!
”

Sian glanced nervously around. This alleyway was somewhat concealing. No one was paying them any attention yet, but if Arian kept on this way, they would be noticed very soon. “Arian. Calm down. We’ll fix this.”

As Arian began to cry, Sian pulled her into an embrace. “It’s all right,” she whispered, stroking Arian’s hair. The faintest breath of ginger rode the sultry air as Sian’s fingers grazed the back of her friend’s neck; a small cloud of despair filled Sian’s heart, then dissipated.

The Factora-Consort’s weeping slowed and stopped a minute later. She disentangled from Sian, and took a small step back to gaze at her with mixed embarrassment and gratitude. “I’m all right now.” She wiped quickly at her eyes.

“Good.” Sian smiled at her. “So …”

“So, we are on the wrong side of Alizar, entirely.” Arian shook her head. “We couldn’t have gone farther astray if we’d tried.”

“We must not have been oriented right. From the start.”

“Or I didn’t understand the maps as well as I imagined.”

“Well, at least no one should be looking for us
here
.”

Arian gazed down at herself. Freda’s filthy, ragged, water-ruined dress, her hair bedraggled, dried mud and rock dust instead of cosmetics. “Indeed. They would not see
me
even if they were.” She looked up and grinned at Sian. “And you’re no prize yourself, Our Lady of the Bare Feet.”

“I imagine not. And if we’re staying up here, I must find some sandals. The streets are going to be far less gentle than the tunnels were.”

Arian looked down at the docks. “We should just go find a boat and … oh.”

“What?”

“The streets are not gentle here at all.” Her tone had darkened; Sian followed her gaze.

A band of heavily armed soldiers marched along the waterfront, scattering people before them. Sian noticed more shouting from a few streets away, and … “Was that … cannon-fire?”

“Hide,” Arian whispered.

Sian rushed into the shadows of a stand of trumpetvines growing between two nearby shacks. Arian gave the soldiers another quick look, then fled to join her.

“They wear no family colors that I recognize — including ours,” Arian whispered. “They could be Lord Colara’s, but if they bear insignias, I can’t see them from up here. And … I can think of no reason that anyone’s guard should be patrolling Malençon.”

“Are they looking for us?”

“I don’t want to find out. Do you?”

“So … back to the tunnels after all?” Sian asked, her heart sinking.

“No. We can’t. It took us most of a day just to get here; it would be double that to backtrack all the way to Apricot — assuming that we didn’t just get lost again. We have no light left, and no food still.” Arian sat thinking a moment, as the soldiers passed the end of the wharf, then turned onto a street and marched away. “We must go see if the streets are all so heavily patrolled, or if those men just happened to be passing by.”

“All right.” Sian was dubious. Both she and Arian looked up as yet another
boom
sounded in the distance. Why would anyone be firing cannon here on Malençon — or anywhere in Alizar, for that matter? Perhaps that wasn’t what it was at all. She glanced down at what seemed a little market of some kind down near the end of the wharf. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Arian reached out and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing? We mustn’t separate.”

“My lady, I cannot put you in danger too …”

“Danger? You say this to me now — after all we’ve been through? Have you some power to keep me
out
of danger, cousin?”

Sian shook her head.

“And please do not revert to all that ‘my lady’ nonsense. I must be Freda here at least as badly as anywhere before. Besides, I think we’re very far past all that by now — in private anyway. Now tell me, what do you intend to do?”

Sian looked miserably at her feet. “I didn’t really want to steal sandals in front of the Factor’s wife,
Freda
. Even if we are
past all that
.”

“Oh, for all the …” Arian muttered. “Are you experienced at thievery?”

“No,” Sian admitted.

“What if you’re caught? Then all of this has been for nothing. Do you have some reason to believe you’ll even find sandals down there somewhere? All I see are docks and a tavern and a fishmonger’s storefront.”

Sian took another glance at that supposed market, and realized that Arian was right. “I was just going to check.”

Arian looked down at Sian’s feet, and sighed. Dry mud coated them, nearly to her knees. “I see no need to risk it,” she said, leaning down to unbuckle one of her own quite ruined sandals. “Here. One is better than none.”

“What?”

The Factora-Consort held out her sandal. “We can lean on each other if we have to. I’d rather wear one of my feet down than risk either of us being jailed for stealing just now. Especially in a port crawling with armed men.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I can and am.” She shoved the sandal into Sian’s hand. “Put it on.”

“I … thank you.” At least one of her feet might not be cut to ribbons now by the time they got to Home.

It was awkward going, but as they left the alley and started down the street, they saw no more patrols, though other signs of discord seemed disturbingly abundant — shops and taverns boarded up, quite hastily, it appeared; no children playing in the streets; a gang of grim young men moving furtively ahead of them, as if expecting something, or someone, unpleasant to show up at any moment. Arian shook her head. “Something has gone very wrong, I fear.”

Within mere minutes, Arian hobbled to a stop, and gave Sian an exasperated look. “This was not a good idea.” She reached down to remove her remaining sandal. “We look ridiculous, which is hardly safe if we are trying to avoid attention, and we’ll just both go lame as quickly this way.” She handed the second sandal to Sian. “Just for a little while,” she rushed to clarify as Sian opened her mouth to object. “We can trade them back and forth at intervals. That way, both our feet will get to rest from time to time. Until we find some sandals that seem safe to steal, anyway,” she added with a crooked grin.

Sian did not bother arguing this time.

As they crossed the narrow edge of Malençon to the southwestern waterfront, Sian gazed out across the bay at what she first took for a rising column of cloud in the orange evening light. Then she stopped walking. “Is that smoke?”

“Yes.”

They both stood, staring, in the shadow of a tall mangosteen tree.

“It’s Home,” Arian said miserably. She resumed walking even faster — as if she might be able to run straight there.

“You can’t know that,” Sian protested, following. “It could be coming from any of the islands in the channel. We can’t even
see
past Cutter’s. Not from here.”

Arian stumbled, clearly even less accustomed to bare feet than Sian was by now, then put a hand to her belly. “I’m so hungry, I can’t think straight anymore.”

“Listen, Arian. My daughter lives here, just past that peninsula. She and her husband will know what’s going on, and we can get a meal there. There’s no point rushing back across all the islands fainting from hunger without any notion of what we’re even heading into.”

“No! No more delays! Can’t you see? We have to get there!”

“They have a boat.”

Arian turned to look at her. “How large?”

“More than large enough. They’ll loan it to me.”

Arian stared out across the water at the rising column of smoke again. “All right.”

“What else should I have done, Maleen? She’s completely run amok. You haven’t been there to see. You don’t know.” Arouf fell silent, tired of speaking to his daughter’s back as she stared out the window at her son and husband in their yard, guarding the house from
looters
. He shook his head, unable to believe any of the things happening around him now. When Maleen just went on staring out the window, he asked, “Are you even listening?”

“Yes, I’m listening.” She turned impatiently to face him again, shifting the sleeping baby to her other shoulder. “I’m just not believing anything I hear. You filed a
legal complaint
? Against
Mother
?” She gestured crossly at the window behind her. “Has someone tampered with the islands’ food supply? Is that why the whole world has suddenly gone crazy?”

“You’re calling
me
crazy? Your mother is the crazy one! That’s what I’m telling you!”

He stopped talking as the front door banged open and his little grandson, Biri, came trotting in to tug at Maleen’s dress. “Mommy, Papa said to tell you that some men who just came by say Lord Colara has sent soldiers to Three Cats to —”

“Yes, dear. Go tell your father thank you for me, but your grandpa and I are having an important conversation now, all right? Go back out and help your papa guard the house, okay?”

Little Jila stirred, and brought a thumb up to her mouth, but didn’t waken.

“Okay.” Biri pouted, but did as he was told.

If only everybody in this family were so obedient
, thought Arouf. “All I did was ask her to be accountable for her behavior,” he said when Biri was gone. “Was that so unreasonable? After she’d run off to march around with that Butchered God cult, and gotten herself infected with this … obviously
demonic
, and completely
illegal
—”

“She didn’t
march around
with anybody,” Maleen cut him off. “She was attacked on her way to meet with —”

“There
was
no Hanchu trade delegation, Maleen! Do you think I didn’t check? I don’t think you understand how much trouble she’s gotten us into. For a
week
now, I have been harassed —
at home
— by temple priests, Factorate security officials, trade associates, even bill collectors — all looking for your mother! If that’s not abandonment, what is it? Some strange oaf even showed up claiming that Sian had hired him. It’s been like a circus! If you ever came to see us anymore, you would know what she’s been —”

“I’ve seen!” she cut him off again. His daughter had grown very rude, it seemed, since having children of her own. “She was here just a few weeks ago, remember? And yes, she said some … strange things. But
abandonment
and
infidelity
? How could you?”

“I told you, she ran off with
Pino!
That was weeks ago!” He raised his arms helplessly. Had he not explained this several times already?

“And you call
her
crazy? Pino is a
boy
, Father! She’s old enough to be
his
mother too!”

“That’s what makes it so indecent! Can’t you see that? And he’s not the only one, Maleen. Oh no. These people who keep coming to harass me: they’ve been asking about some man named Reikos too. A sea captain! Who knows how many other men there are? She’s turning our townhouse on Viel into some kind of brothel! Just imagine what our clients —”

“
Listen to you!
” Maleen screeched. Jila woke up and started to whine.

Maleen’s eyes were round as coins now. She still wasn’t getting it. What more would it take, he wondered, to make her understand how bad Sian had gotten?

Before either of them could say any more, the front door banged open once again as Biri ran inside. “Mommy! Come look, Mommy!” he exclaimed. “There’s a fire on Three Cats now too!”

Maleen whirled around and went back to the window. Arouf came to see as well. Sure enough, a new column of smoke was rising there, just across the water. The insanity was coming closer. Maleen was right about one thing. Sian was not the only one who’d lost her mind all of a sudden. Maybe it
was
some kind of plague. Would they all be crazy like this by morning?

Maleen looked down at Biri anxiously, jiggling the baby. “I’m sorry, honey; what did Papa say those men told him — about the soldiers Lord Colara sent?”

“They went to fight Lord Orlan,” Biri said, his eyes bright with excitement. “On Three Cats.”

Arouf drew a startled breath. If the great houses were fighting each other now, then this was no longer just an Alkattha family quarrel.
What a disaster
. To think that he should live to see this … It hardly mattered what Sian did now, he thought. Nobody’s business would survive this — except the Mishrah-Khote’s. And the undertakers. Monde & Kattë was ruined now for sure.

Maleen looked back out across the water, shaking her head. “She could be anywhere out there … in all of this.” She reached down to gather her son close, snuggling both her children as they gazed out at the new fire, then looked over her shoulder at Arouf, in tears now. “Did you even
try
to find out where she really is before you did this?”

“I sent her letters!” he protested. “I even went to the townhouse — it’s clearly abandoned. I came here hoping you might know where she could be — as soon as I found out about the Factor’s absurd war against the Census Taker.”