Sea of Sighs (Empath Book 2) (7 page)

“What? What’s so funny?” Quinn’s voice was
sharp, and it matched her shortening temper.

“Well, nothing really. I just didn’t expect
to see you again so soon.”

“Why are you here Ross?” Maertn asked.

“Getting straight to the point aye, young
lad? I thought that was Quinn’s job. Still, refreshing to hear you
speak first for once. I’ll be truthful. Essentially, Eden sent
me.”

Quinn went cold, and Ross sped to fill the
gap his words left. “He’s not coming, Quinn, he can’t leave the
city.”

“It shouldn’t relieve me, but it does.”
Quinn answered quietly.

“I know lass, I know. He knows why you left,
though he didn’t accept it at first. You shouldn’t have left him,
the way you did. He’s heartbroken.”

“He would have only tried to come with me
Ross. Imagine the disruption that would have caused. I had to get
out of the city before I was arrested, and would have been stopped
at the gates whilst they figured out what to do with Eden. What
kind of position is that to be in?”

“No position at all, I’m not saying what you
did was the wrong thing, I’m just saying it was ungrateful.”

Quinn’s eyes teared in frustration. “What
else was I meant to do? String him along like a puppy? He is a man
Ross, a lord, and a guard captain. He is able to make his own
decisions.”

“Aye, and his original decision was to come
with you, though that choice was taken away from him. What he did
point out, though, was that I know a damned sight more about
Sha’sek than both of you combined, and that leaving you to your own
devices was not a good idea on my part. So, I’ve come to join you
both as your official guide. He might be angry at you for leaving
him, Quinn, but he doesn’t want you to die out here.”

Quinn’s jaw went slack. “Eden convinced you
to follow us? What did he do? How is he?” Her heart had started
beating hard just at the mention of his name, and Quinn felt a pang
of loss. Tears stung her eyes. She dashed them away quickly.

“Eden’s safe. He’s heartbroken, but he’s not
the one in trouble. He convinced me, yes. To follow you, no. If you
think I’m letting you out of my sight from now until I’m back in
Everfell, or wherever this little adventure leads us, you’ve got
another think coming. I’m under implicit instructions to keep you
alive, and I’m going to be making sure you get back to that boy, no
matter what happens.”

“What about me? Am I an afterthought?”
Maertn tried to make it sound jovial, but no one missed the hint of
frustration in his voice.

“On the contrary Maertn, you are the entire
reason I was able to get out of the city in the first place. As far
as the king’
s concerned, I
’m here looking
after you. Unfortunately, Quinn, Vance would rather see you dead.
Not surprising, in the circumstances, but not good news,
nevertheless.”

“Is he going to send someone to murder me?”
Quinn was suddenly petrified, and Ross was mortified that he had
put such ideas in her head.

“Spirits, no! Vance isn’t that kind of man.
If he wanted you dead, you’d be dead,
don
’t question that. He’s given you your freedom,
and he wouldn’t take that away on a whim. I’m here to make sure
Maertn—and therefore you—make the right choices, not to murder you
in your sleep. Do know which island you are going to? Which nobles
to approach? Which guilds to avoid? Spirits, that last one is the
most important thing, and that, I can teach you. I know many places
that would kidnap and sell an empath for the price of a small
kingdom. You’re a commodity, Quinn, and you don’t even know it.
Maertn, too. You both might be young, but he,” Ross jabbed a finger
at Maertn, “is one of the most talented healers I’ve ever seen in
my life, and I saw my fair share of them during the war.”

Both of them blushed, unable to dispute
Ross's experiences. They were both grateful for his presence; he
was a reassuring familiar figure of superiority, especially for
Quinn.

“So, what do we do now?” Quinn’s voice
sounded as small as she felt.

“I have my own ideas, Quinn, but I need you
to start learning about these decisions; you’ll be out here on your
own one day, and you will only be able to survive by learning what
others know. Do you know where you want to go?”

Quinn and Maertn shared a sidelong glance.
Their plan to go to Port Kahnel and across to the first island they
landed at was, in retrospect, extremely foolhardy. Quinn was
secretly glad that Ross had come chasing them, and she was certain
without checking that Maertn felt same way. They both looked back
to Ross, Quinn’s former master, now acting as their mentor and
friend.

“Well, seeing as you’re here, we were hoping
you could tell us.”

Ross chuckled. “You didn’t have any plan,
did you?”

“
We weren
’t
exactly given much time to make a plan Ross. Why didn’t you come to
us before?”

Embarrassed to be asked, but unsurprised by
the question, Ross scratched at the back of his head and muttered
awkwardly. “Well, you could say, I thought I was trying to be more
loyal to Vance. His most dangerous lord has been caught in open
rebellion, so I didn’t think he’d want to see me chasing you into
the desert. I am meant to be chamberlain, after all.”

“I can understand that,” Maertn replied
without hesitation. “You’ve got to draw a line somewhere, and it’s
not as if you’re with the most popular people in court right
now.”

“See, that’s where the problem is. You did
just save the king’s life, and that’s why he’s let Quinn go.
Perhaps that’s the
real
reason he’s let me follow you. King
Vance isn’t heartless, and, regardless of what the opinion around
court is, he isn’t a fool. He knows that by helping you, I’m also
helping Quinn. He also knows that I’m the only person in Everfell
capable of helping you both survive.

“I have no idea what that man has planned.
Everyone doubts him so much that even I’m starting to believe he’ll
lose his throne soon. He was made king after the wars, though that
was mainly because everyone was scared of Shiver’s bloodlust more
than any belief in Vance as a ruler. He was the easy choice, but
you don’t stay in control of a kingdom by being a walkover. I
believe he
does
have a plan,
and I wouldn’t want to be in either Sammah or Shiver’s place right
now.”

“I’
m exiled
,
though, so those plans don’t involve me anymore. You’re saying so
yourself. Vance has let me go. What do
you
think I should do
next?”

“You’ve got your whole life in front of you
now, Quinn. Like I said, I shouldn’t be the one to decide. What do
you
want to do? I can take you to somewhere where no one
asks who you are. You have control of your powers, so you don’t
need to tell anyone
what
you are, and you can just live your
life out. You have plenty of experience at being a maid; just go
back to doing that.”

Ross's mocking sarcasm wasn’t lost on Quinn,
who snorted in response. “
I don
’t think
so.”

“Perhaps you can mock up a sign then, saying
you’re an empath for hire?”

Quinn blushed. “That sounds quite arrogant
doesn’t it?”

“More than.” Ross folded his arms
contemplating how to broach the topic with Quinn. Before going on,
he waved towards the fire that Maertn had started. “You need to put
some more logs on that, lad, it’ll be going out before long.”

“Blast! I’ll get some straight away.”

“
Maertn! You never
curse!
”

“I think he can say what he likes now,
Quinn. He’s not exactly offending anyone, unless you’ve become his
mother in my absence? Now sit down, I need to talk to you. Have you
at least got something ready to eat, or were you both planning to
survive on excitement until you reached an inn?”

“We had some roots. I was going to make us a
soup.”

Ross nodded thoughtfully. “That’
s a good start
; what about tomorrow?”

“We’ve got enough for a couple of days,”
Quinn said, defiantly.

“And what about meat? You can’t just survive
on vegetables, no matter what some of those healers say.”

“Maertn was going to fish for us.”

Maertn wandered back over to them, a couple
of long branches in his arms. “Well, I was going to give it a try,
I went a few times with Torran and it didn’t seem too hard.”

“Did you actually ever catch anything?”

“Not so much, but I saw how they did
it…”

“And let me guess. It didn’
t look too hard?
”

Maertn poked one of his branches into the
fire. They were both being thoroughly chastised by Ross. “You’ve
had enough fun making us sound like idiots. Please, stop treating
us like children and tell us what we should have done. Baiting us
into sarcastic little corners isn’t going to help anyone.”

“You want serious? We can definitely do
serious. But we’ll do it after you’ve both eaten.”

Ross had to give them one
concession: Quinn could make a good soup. Lack of meat aside, they
probably wouldn’t have starved on the road, although their diet
would have been distinctly dull. Night was drawing in now, and the
fire wasn’t overworked, keeping them nice and warm without lighting
up the camp for the entire plains to see.

Quinn had hunkered down into a bedroll,
frustrated that Ross wouldn’t talk about Eden and overcome with
weariness. Maertn stuck close by both of them, and Ross thought the
lad wanted to say something, but didn’t have the courage. Instead,
they sat in a tense silence, listening to the crackle of the fire.
Quinn had her back to them and she wasn’t asleep.

He was making them feel safe, if only for a
short time. It reminded Ross of some of the fires he used to share
with friends before battles, though this wasn’t nearly as edgy, and
the songs nowhere near as rude.

“So Quinn, are you going to make some
decisions about your future before we talk about what you’ve left
in the past?”

She rolled over, not getting out of the
bedroll. She was curled up.
Protecting herself
, Ross
thought.

“I’ve always known I wanted to do. I need to
find out who I am.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, Sammah told me my father was Nerren,
and most people either know or believe that he was responsible for
the last wars. Then he said that he didn’t know who my parents are.
So, firstly, you can tell me the truth. You were there. Was an
empath responsible for the wars?”

“Yes. Nerren was responsible for the wars,
Quinn. He used his abilities to manipulate people into taking up
arms, and by the time the council realised what he was doing, it
was far too late to stop. But I don’t know if he was your
father.”

“Is it likely that either of my parents had
to be an empath me to have these abilities?”

Ross shook his head. “
I
don
’t know. You’re asking the wrong man.”

Quinn bristled. “I thought you knew about
Sha’sek? I thought you meant to be able to help us?”

“Steady on, Quinn. I know about the islands,
and I know about the guilds. I can tell you about the council and
the safe places you can go. I don’t know about your abilities. I
can’t help you there. What I can do is introduce you to people that
can help.”

“And are those people dangerous? The ones
you’d prefer I avoid?”

“Now
that
is an interesting question,
which I
can
answer. They are deceitful people. Men who would
slit your throat in your sleep rather than see you grow to become a
rival. That being said, there are very few people they fear more
than empaths.”

“Who would they fear more than an
empath?”

Ross met Quinn
’s
gaze across the fire. “The only kind of person just as rare;
apaths.”

“Is that why they sent Sammah away? They
were frightened of him?”

“Now that, I know somewhat more about.
Sammah was taking an opportunity where he saw it, and his brother
took an opening to get rid of unwanted thorn in his side. Sammah
has ambition, but he doesn’t have the birthright to match it. He’s
not an eldest son, and he’s never going to inherit. What he is
though, is clever. He has a tactical mind and the bloody desire to
match it. He, like those before them in his line, is an apath.
Everyone was surprised when his elder brother wasn’t the one with
the abilities. Sure, he might be something that we don’t know
about, but it’s nothing useful. An apath is worse than an empath.
They don’t feel everything; they feel nothing. That detached
dispassion is the sole reason Sammah’s house rose to a seat on the
council in the first place. They are the people with power. It was
seen as a sucker punch by many, that the youngest son of his house
was the one born with the apath ability.”

“So he doesn’t feel emotion. Why does that
make him such a threat?”

“Because he is completely detached from
reason.”

“Surely that’s wrong? Emotion and reason
aren’t inexorably linked. You can have one without the other?”

“You might think that, but you don’t know
the history of the islands like I do, and you haven’t watched the
career of Baron Sammah from close-up. Like I mentioned, he’s an
ambitious man, and he’s not going to stop at spending his life
rotting in country estate on a Sha’sek Island when he thinks he can
get the throne of Everfell.

“Sammah reasons that, because he was the one
born with the power, he deserves more than he stands to inherit.
When the wars ended and there was an opportunity to send someone to
Everfell as a courtesan and diplomat. He had the links and the
right name, so it was easy for Sammah’s brother to send him away.
Baron Sammah made everyone nervous and sure, they didn’t want him
around. But, critically, it allowed the Sha’sek council to put a
man with abilities into Vance’s court. Think about it, how would
anyone know what Sammah was unless he volunteered the information?
It’s just the same as you, Quinn. No one would know about you, not
when you have control of your abilities. So it’s up to you what you
become in Sha’sek. You’re not the girl that used to faint in the
Great Hall anymore.”