The Mapmaker's War (12 page)

She told your guardian to lead you a different way. At the large rock in the forest, he touched the groove. He turned in a direction perpendicular to the path that led to the river. You came upon a hut built within a small glade. The door had a blue circle painted on its surface. An old woman greeted you at the threshold. The young man spoke to her. She beckoned you inside.

She took a poker and tapped a stone that lay beyond the hearth's fire. A chiseled design on the stone was the same as on the Voice's amulet and on the one given to you. Circle, triangle, square.

Safe, said she. She struck the symbol and pointed at herself.

Many, said she. She lifted the poker and swept an arc in front of her, back and forth. She looked beyond the curve.

Follow, said she. She placed the poker's tip at one angle of the carved triangle. From that point, she scratched a line into the dirt floor. On the ground she drew the symbol enclosed in the shape of a hut. She stabbed the drawn triangle and scraped a thick line through one of its angles.

You pondered her simple words and gestures. You thought of kind old women you'd found all alone, deep in the woods. Not all were like she. Some were. Certainly those who wore that color blue.

Thank you, you said. On impulse, you took the woman's hands and kissed her cheek. You sensed what you had learned was more valuable than gold.

Burl was at the bank when you arrived. His trustworthiness had been tested again. He rowed you back to the kingdom's shore. You told him of your meeting with the elders, the evening meal, and the coming child's welcome song. He looked at you with wonderment. As you disembarked, Burl said he'd been questioned the night before by men representing the King. He had returned home after he'd left you, to avoid suspicion. He claimed not to have seen you.

In fact, you'd given little mind to what awaited you when you reached the castle. You thought to linger in the forest by the bank to decide what to say. Instead, you used the incantation again and crossed the miles as if they were feet. You claimed your horse from the old woman. | her hearth bore the symbol | You made your return home. Such a long distance in so brief a time. Once everyone learned where you had gone, you imagined some would wonder how you managed a journey with no sleep.

NO POINT TO LIE. NO POINT TO SAY YOU'D BEEN LOST. WHO WOULD BElieve it? You had mapped the lands yourself. You admitted what you'd done, certain in the rightness of your effort. The settlement now knew the threat that loomed.

The parade of the aghast began.

First, Wyl. He was furious but more so relieved. He appeared to care less about what you had done than about the fact that you'd taken the twins. He grabbed the children from you with his own hands and marched to his chamber.

They are mine, you know. My issue—and my heir! said he.

Next, your mother, livid. What possessed you? You had us worried sick! Your place is here with these children. What business is this of yours? No, your father didn't listen to me all those years ago. Let you do as you pleased. And this is the result!

Then Ciaran. He controlled his anger. He admonished you for your disregard for protocol. In the years that had passed, he had garnered respect and power among the nobles. He was a fair man who honored the rules. He was also your brother, and that was why his ire was tempered by curiosity. He knew you wouldn't do such a thing unless there was a good reason. No, no one would call you impulsive except for Wyl, for certain reasons.

You told your older brother how lovely it was in the settlement. The people were kind and gracious. You couldn't explain why you felt so peaceful there, but you did. Some of the people you spoke to claimed they did protect a dragon and its hoard. You had seen the latter for yourself. It was unimaginable but real nonetheless.

Then. Yes. You realized Raef 's deepest motive.

The settlement and its perceived threat were one matter. The possible entry to the realm of the hoard was another. Raef believed Wyl and you had seen this great treasure store. You felt a sinister chill through your body, as if you'd learned of a murderous plan.

You looked your brother in the eye.

Raef and his loyal brutes will try to find it. It's meant to be known, but also meant to be hidden, you said.

Do you believe the beast exists? asked Ciaran.

Yes. I do now, you said.

He was quiet. Ciaran's skepticism was reasonable and expected. He liked tallies and tangible proof. You assured him that you had seen a place of astounding beauty. You saw what couldn't be explained. What you saw defied sense, no matter the tales you and he had heard as children.

Wyl now claims to have seen the dragon, said your brother.

I cannot confirm or refute that, you said.

In the coming days, that's not the main concern. There are real and present issues to address, said Ciaran.

He looked old beyond his years in that moment.

Your father never made an appearance. You saw him in passing

but he made no acknowledgment that he had seen you. You shared a bond of shame. His of you and the trouble you caused him. Yours of yourself, for no clear reason why.

WYL CAME TO YOUR BED THE NIGHT OF YOUR RETURN. WHAT OTHER appeasement could you have given him then? You passed several nights like that. A time of suspense. There were meetings, many meetings. Some to which you were invited. The rest into which you stormed.

Why are you here again?

Yes, yes, we've heard this before.

Can you not control your own daughter?

We have a matter of security. This is not your place.

Drivel. Insanity. Raef at the center of it.

No one listened to you when you said the hoard was not a war chest. Your thoughts and opinions were ignored. They had no sway, although you believed words had power. You wondered, if there were no words, could battle be? How would one plan a siege or strategy without them? What kind of war could happen in the midst of silence?

The King fell ill, then dead.

Who knows the cause? Who knows the truth? Such things have happened to other sons and fathers.

The Queen, in grief, watched her favorite son crowned as King. Your husband.

Unlike his dispassionate father, Wyl was more easily persuaded. Council advisers warned against waiting. Raef remind him of the wealth and weapons they had both seen. You tried to argue with Wyl. You tried to find allies. Desperate, you turned to the widowed queen with hopes she could still reach the gentle side of her son.

No use. The Queen had made up her mind.

Think of the children, said the Queen.

Whose children? you asked.

The kingdom's children. It is our duty to protect them.

They're in no danger, Your Majesty.

Then why would my sons lie?

Intractable. Hopeless. You and Wyl had seen the dragon's lair. Both claimed to see different sights of the same thing. You and Raef had been to the settlement. Again, one place, two witnesses.

As a mother, who would you choose to believe? Who would you choose to protect?

Yet there again was the horrible flaw. You, too, were a mother, yet you were unsure whether you could have such a blind allegiance to a child. Would you know if your child lied? Not the tiny lies. I finished my peas. I didn't break the cup. The bigger lies, even the ones unspoken, the lies they might tell to themselves. But this matter of Raef and Wyl was one most mothers would never confront, wasn't it?

THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT. FOR EFFECT, OF COURSE. THERE WERE MANY ways to do what was to be done. But Raef was unsettled. You were still uncertain whether Wyl knew the entire plan.

Two men dragged you through the castle. A guard was next to you during a ride in a cart. For all you know, they rode you around the castle several times, then went to a nearby house. You were locked inside.

They did let you keep the children. They were not yet weaned. A woman you didn't know was sent to tend to their care and to some extent your own. She cleaned the chamber pots. She bathed the twins. There were bars on the windows. A tremendous bobbin and latch on the door. The noise of its mechanism like a giant footstep.

Raef arrived the next morning. He ordered you to make a map to the hoard.

What if I refuse?

I'll kill one of them. The girl.

Of course, you thought. Never mind the child was his niece. Raef 's own blood through his brother. He thought he played upon your mother horror. At the moment, perhaps he did. You felt your body move without thoughtful volition. Your back to the twins. Your body between them and Raef.

How will you know I've given you an accurate map? you asked.

I have my ways, said he.

Do you?

I know you take pride in your work's precision. You wouldn't risk your reputation.

I'm glad to know of my esteem.

Raef glared at you.

Remember as well that my brother traveled the route. He will see the chart when it's complete and decide what to do with you, said he.

Of course, you could have refused to make the map. Had you been merely asked, you would have declined. Now you were trapped. To refuse meant imprisonment or death. Within, the answer emerged. You chose the unknown without knowing why.

Make a list of what you require for this task, said Raef.

You asked for your drawing tools. You also requested maps of the whole known world. The works of charlatans and fools, the works of genius. Some you knew were no more than conjecture. None you had drawn yourself.

You required translated tomes on great travels from the castle library. The authors needed to be ones with keen eyes who described creatures and plants. Also, you needed illustrated references on birds and beasts, flowers and trees. The natural world was one, but all was not the same.

As you studied and compared, you thought of the old mapmaker. One of your first tests had been the most important.

Take these maps and merge them into one, Heydar had said.

You glanced at them, unsure where to begin.

Adept, what point do they share in common? you asked.

He pressed his fingertip to a mark on each chart.

And, Adept, what is the orientation? What is the scale? Shall I draw distance only? Must I account for the world's curve?