Temple of the Traveler: Empress of Dreams (37 page)

Lord Conifer asked, “How did you like Center?”

“Unbalanced.”

“Granted. How so?”

“I offered them the secrets of the universe, the teachings of the gods, and all they were interested in was petty jealousy and sex magic.”

Tashi chuckled. “Think how the emperor feels. He taught you a fraction of what he knows.”

Pinetto stiffened.

“What is it?” asked the swordsman.

The scream of rage from the sky turned Conifer’s face white. Pinetto sent up a flare so they could all see the source. The Defender leapt into Tashi’s hand.

When the dragoness landed on the prow, the ship tipped forward slightly. Tashi interceded between Serog and the old man. “Take him to the wheelhouse; she wants me.”

He held his pose, feeling the hatred roiling off her. He heard Sarajah shout his name. He told her, “Stay. This is between your mother and me.” He heard the wheelhouse door shut, for all the good it would do. The ward might hold her back till dawn.

“You would fight me again, sheriff?” dared the dragoness.

With effort that made veins stand out on his arm, he sheathed the Defender. “I would not harm the mother of my beloved.”

Serog huffed, pulling her gums back to show her long, pointed teeth. “I wish to harm you.”

“You won’t,” he said, drawing a cleansing breath. “You’ve granted me passage. I guard your daughter with my lives. If you slay this body, I will find my way back with the next; however, the pain would cripple you.”

“You mock!”

He shook his head slowly. “Test me.”

“You were to ask my permission before crossing my domain. I demand a sign of obeisance.”

He knelt, vulnerable.

“Ask for my daughter’s hand like a man,” the dragon hissed.

“I humbly request your blessing on my . . . union with Sarajah.”

“Free me.”

Tashi shook his head. He heard Sarajah whimper in fear. He snapped. “This is my battle!” Staring into the jeweled eye of the stone-colored dragon, he said, “No. You have not proven your repentance. How many people have you killed this week alone? The price is too great.”

Holding out his left arm, he bowed his head. “Take my left hand for this incarnation and let there be peace between us for your daughter’s sake.”

“No!” mother and daughter shouted at once.

Sarajah opened the door and a sudden wind slammed it shut again, trapping her inside. The dragon took his left hand in her foreclaw. “What if the hand isn’t enough?”

“Take what you will, as long as the loss doesn’t kill me,” Tashi said, not looking.

The dragon’s puffing sounds slowed. “Your demonstration of love and bravery has spared your life.”

Tashi sighed and relaxed.

The other foreclaw jammed into his groin and he choked back a cry of pain as the barest tip penetrated his flesh. She bent her head to whisper in his ear. “But it’s not right that you get what you want while I suffer. So you get the curse instead.”

He felt the twisting inside that meant the changing. It was far from any Door, but the ancient dragon was skilled at the art of shaping and full of mana. The alteration was a minor one.

As she whispered, his insides writhed. “Until I walk the shores of men freely, you shall never enjoy my daughter Sarajah. Any other woman will be twice as pleasurable, but your manhood will not hold touching her.”

Sweat poured off him, and he held his jaw clamped tightly.

“So mote it be.”

She released him, and Tashi collapsed to the deck. “We’ll see how sane you stay wanting something that badly.” Serog laughed and departed the ship.

****

Sarajah swore as she and Pinetto laid Tashi out on the metal-plate roof to heal. The wizard adjusted the special lenses. The wound had sealed, but the black mark remained. They left Tashi on the roof to rest while they returned to the wheelhouse. Sarajah said, “It’s a curse of some kind. I couldn’t hear the details, and he won’t talk about it yet. I can’t believe the fool agreed to her terms.”

Pinetto stammered, “M-maybe at the seam in your kingdom, you could counter—”

“She’s a goddess and has millennia more experience than I.”

Pinetto looked down. “He loves you that much. We’ve pretty much established that he has no self-preservation instinct.”

“Everything conspires against us.”

“The emperor can find a way to fix it when we reach Center again.”

She glared at him. “You’re the finest of friends, but if I hear that cheerful tone again tonight, I swear I’ll slap it off.”

“Right. The sun’s almost up, and some of us have a ship to steer through hostile waters. We’ll keep to the Bablios side of the Tamarind River; we don’t want another confrontation so soon.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something? We have an invisible cat to pick up. I told him we were arriving today.”

“We can’t land in enemy territory,” Pinetto insisted.

“The panther’s not going to swim out to us. What about Tamarind fortress? The city’s on a rocky island in the middle of the river, but there are high, narrow bridges to each side. There shouldn’t be many soldiers left there since the Executioners are tied up in Silverton and Center.”

The wizard sighed. “I’ve been awake all night. How long will the demon take to get to us?”

She shrugged. “Our communication was a little vague. Once I call his name, it could be an hour, or he could wait until sundown to arrive. He’s a little unpredictable—the whole cat mystique. You can take the hammock while Tashi and I go ashore.”

“You won’t need my power blasts?”

“I have my own blast,” she said, tapping the tuning fork around her neck.

“You might take that writ of passage from the Pretender just in case, if he hasn’t sent word to the world to kill you on sight.” He paused before adding, “There, was that gloomy enough for you?”

“Thanks, I actually feel a little better.”

Pinetto couldn’t sleep long. Tamarind Fortress was a ghost town. Despite the guards and the witch being in signaling range, he was terrified that someone was hiding on shore or one of the criminals would break loose. Worse, the dragoness could be lurking in the caves above them, watching.

He needed more of the criminals working for him instead of against him. Pinetto climbed down to the hold. What he saw there outraged him. Three guards were playing cards with Baba Nesu. The old man was no longer dressed in rags and only a token chain held one arm to the table. They were using spools of silk thread they’d brought for trade as chips. “What are you doing?”

“Passing the time in a civilized manner,” Baba Nesu said smoothly. He was balding, with a trustworthy face and a salt-and-pepper beard. One of the guards handed the old man a cup of tea.

If it weren’t for the life-or-death nature of their quest, Pinetto might have laughed. “You, me, up on deck. Now.”

The prisoner shrugged, lifted the table and slid his chain out, and filled his pockets with his spool winnings. When they were alone on deck, Pinetto said, “Let’s start with the premise that you’re my prisoner.”

The old man shrugged. “I could escape any time I want.”

Pinetto shook his head and pulled out a dart. “I don’t think so.”

“What’s that stain on the deck?” asked Nesu.

The wizard looked down and chuckled. “A dragon tried to rip Tashi’s balls off. He’ll be fine. I’m glad I don’t have a mother-in-law . . .”

The old man had vanished. He heard someone cry out on the dock and ran to investigate. Nesu was pinned to the wooden planks by an unseen force. Pinetto smiled as he slowly climbed down and winked at where he thought Bagierog to be. “You were saying?”

“Please, release me. I’m a harmless old man.”

“You’ve never hurt anyone?” Pinetto challenged.

“No.”

“Everyone else on this ship has, and we’re good at it. I understand you’re not a combatant. I won’t make you go back to Center to fight; however, you were brought here to help us, and help us you shall. Where were you planning to go to? You don’t even have any money.”

“I have a stash in the hills nearby. Plus, the thread I took from the hold is valuable further south if you know where to trade it.”

“Why?”

The old man winked. “I’ll tell you if you let me go.”

“We need you to get us past the Crooked Isle at the other end of this river, both in with this ship and out with the others we need. Do that, and we’ll see.”

The man paled. “Pretend to be smugglers and pay the bribe. Say nothing of your true mission. I can handle the transaction for you, but don’t force me back to the Archanos islands.”

“Why not?”

“I was involved in a business deal before my capture. I took delivery of some . . . alchemical items, and the payment was confiscated by the Imperial troops as back taxes. Now, my contact has spread the word that I kept both.”

“Several governments have hunted you for twenty years, and now you’re afraid? We can protect you.”

“Word would get to her; it always does. You don’t cross alchemists. I can pay you with magical items. No one would notice my absence for days.”

“I swore an oath to the emperor. We have to rescue the people of Center from the Pretender. We’ll work out the terms of your release on Crooked Isle. For now, I need your word that you’ll help us faithfully and not try to flee.”

“Gemstones?” offered Nesu.

Pinetto’s hair crackled with static forces. “Promise or I’ll gag you for the rest of the trip.”

“I swear to serve you faithfully, until you clear the Crooked Isle.”

“If you break your vow, the zookeeper can track you down and the witch has a pet that loves to eat fresh tongue.”

Nesu swallowed hard. “A businessman lives by his word.”

“Back on board.”

When the convict was gone, Pinetto said, “Thanks. I owe you for this favor. I don’t want you charging the witch for my mistake, Bagierog.”

“Guess again.”

“Which god are you?” He didn’t bow because he needed to be able to run. The wizard turned his cape around so that the ward intervened between him and the Dawn creature.

“One who owes
you
a favor,” said Archanos.

“I need nothing more than to return to my wife as soon as possible.”

“That may be beyond even my powers. I must pay you something, so I swear to avenge you against anything that kills you, man or beast.”

Pinetto thought of several comebacks, but settled for, “You don’t keep things so
quid pro quo
with Sarajah. Are you uncomfortable with an Imperial prophet?”

“There has been a history of duplicity.”

“Do you wish for me to step down?”

“On the contrary, I want to encourage you. We’re allowed to intercede a little for prophets, and I want to take full advantage.” After a few beats, the voice continued tentatively in a different vein. “A little bird tells me you’ve reordered my book and scribes are busily copying it.”

“I meant no disrespect, only to teach each reader at the proper level.”

“None taken. From the marks on your eyelids, I see you grasped all of it.”

“Enough to have some interesting experiments.”

“People are worshipping me in Center. I can feel them reading my words. I heard Pagaose’s rendition of your spell from here. You’re different; you’re changing things. We’re going to need that for the next war.”

“Next?”

“Against Intaglios and the remainder of the old guard. You need to start gathering weapons now: new wizards, green-eyed immunes, and magic items. I have a stockpile of powerful ones in my fortress on Ashter Island.”

“Named after your wife. You must love her.”

“She defends my stronghold still, but I can’t join her. Osos prevented me from returning as part of the terms of my surrender. I need you to start transporting the old weapons to Center. We have almost forty-nine years to prepare.”

“Yes, Lord.” Pinetto bowed his head. After a few beats, he asked, “Why don’t you go with us? Everyone will ask me.”

“Tell the ones who matter and can keep a secret that I am now allergic to certain metals in the ocean water.”

Pinetto knew better than to ask which ones.

Archanos asked, “What would you have as a reward for this task?”

“A simple thing.”

“Oh ho. What do you wish: power, knowledge, riches?”

“The cure for the Eutherosian plague. Because their goddess is dead, the punishment should be lifted. Her people deserve a second chance.”

“You quote my own tenets back to me.”

“They’re good ones.”

Pinetto heard Archanos sigh. “I will do this when I hold the Amber Scythe again.”

“Is there anything I should tell the priestess? She’ll be upset she missed you.”

“Little Sera is above all else a pragmatist. I don’t dare get near that damn sword her consort has. The metal is mingled, corrupted by its last use. The blood of the monster it killed calls out for mine.”

“You want me to find a way to get the Defender out of circulation?”

“Hah! A born trader. What would you ask in return?”

“Lift Tashi’s curse.”

“That is Serog’s weird. Even I won’t fight my mad mother-in-law. I’m only venturing this close to her territory because she’s busy feeding now. Bending the winds to her will is exhausting. Her rage can work miracles, but when the storm is spent, she is weak.”

“Very well, I have one other idea, but I fear you may strike me dead for speaking it.”

“Now I must hear it. For your many services, I will never smite thee for thy words.”

Chewing his lip, Pinetto said, “The emperor has instituted a new ordinance to avoid a repeat of the Myron incident. His rule can be ended by unanimous vote of the council.”

“This is wise.”

“Would you propose the same thing to the Council of the Gods?”

The air grew thick. Ropes of lightning danced between Pinetto’s fingertips and the invisible one’s hand. The wizard channeled energy from the borders into his shield ward. Even so, the longer locks of his hair were scorched. “You compare me to that gibbering fool?”

There was Door energy here as well! Pinetto drew upon it to shore up the wires that were melted into his cloak. “No. I’m saying that even Osos didn’t start evil. That much power can corrupt anyone, and you have more now than he did. It’s what you fought against, Lord. Please consider it.”