Jin Li Tam watched the girl's face redden under her older sister's gaze. Then, once more she looked to Aedric. The first captain looked resolved but angry. "Very well," she said. "I am satisfied."
And yet, I truly won't be until my son and I leave this dark, mad land you are making.
Ria nodded. "We will feast tonight in my new home." She looked again to Winters. "I think you will be impressed with our progress, little sister."
Winters said nothing as Ria turned her horse. Aedric whistled them forward, and they found themselves suddenly at the head of the procession, with the Machtvolk queen riding now between Jin and Winters as Lynnae and Aedric dropped back. The Machtvolk riders and footmen formed a wall to either side of the Gypsy Scouts, and together they moved at a moderate speed.
They rode in silence now, cutting north and passing between two watchtowers that loomed over a newly cut dirt road now mostly gone to mud. Ahead, Jin Li Tam saw low hills shrouded in mist that brushed the tops of the pine trees, and she thought she heard something from the forest there.
As they drew nearer, she became more sure of it and glanced to the woman beside her.
Ria's face bore quiet delight.
It was the sound of singing on the wind.
The song grew as they approached, and suddenly, the rain let up. Scattered rays of sunlight perforated the cloud cover, though the air was still cold enough for Jin to see her breath.
She heard Jakob's muffled laughter and adjusted her cloak so that his tiny face could peer out. They'd learned early that he loved music, and one of her favorite new pastimes as a mother was pretending to sleep while Rudolfo sang quietly to their son.
Now, all around her, voices sang, and she felt the hairs rising on her skin as the lyrics became clear. And as they entered the forest and climbed into the low hills, she saw the people crowding the sides of the road, their evergreen branches raised high in trembling hands as they sang of a healed home through their Child of Promise, a Great Mother of daunting beauty and a Crimson Empress of infinite mercy who prepared even now for her bridegroom.
The song rose high into the winter sky, and Jin Li Tam realized suddenly that other voices joined in around them as the Machtvolk escort and even their queen lifted up their own voices.
Close against her breast, Jakob laughed in delight, and she realized suddenly that tears coursed her cheeks. But even as Jin Li Tam wept, she did not know if her tears were from the beauty or the terror of the overwhelming hymn that encompassed them.
Winters Winters arose early and slipped out into cold northern air beneath a predawn sky flung wide with stars.
Of course, she'd not really slept. The events of yesterday had rushed at her all through the night. Even during dinner-a lavish feast of salmon, elk and wild mushrooms-the song echoed through her, punctuated by memories of Jakob's delight by it all and Jin Li Tam's unexpected tears.
She rarely sheds tears. Winters wished she were like that, too. But she wasn't. And what she'd seen and heard since her return to these changing lands had added more sorrow, more remorse to her shoulders. Winters wished she were like that, too. But she wasn't. And what she'd seen and heard since her return to these changing lands had added more sorrow, more remorse to her shoulders.
On the surface, all looked well, but beneath it lay something darker. The watchtowers were up, but they watched both outward and inward. And the children, enrolled now in schools, were volunteering to take the mark as they learned a more balanced history of their people a more balanced history of their people through history, poetry, drama ... and the gospels. They were also training the children now in the blood magicks and scouting. through history, poetry, drama ... and the gospels. They were also training the children now in the blood magicks and scouting.
She'd heard this over dinner when the song wasn't pulling her back to their grand entrance into her former lands. And on that ride, she'd seen the evidence of other changes-there was more lumber being pulled from the forest; there were more houses and structures built and more uniformed men moving to and fro among her people.
Winters heard a sound behind her now and looked over her shoulder. She saw one of her sister's guards following at a distance and behind him, a Gypsy Scout that kept to the darker patches of night.
She let her feet carry her, and somehow, despite the changed landscape, they found a familiar path and bore her to the caves she'd once called home, the caves that stored the Book of Dreaming Kings and held the Wicker Throne. The heavy oak doors were closed now, and when she saw the guard there, she paused. He stood in shadows cast by the watch lamp on its post and stepped forward when he saw her approaching.
She stopped, unsure of what to do or say. Suddenly apprehensive, she glanced over her shoulder again. The men that followed her had stopped as well.
"Is the way to the Book closed, then?" she finally asked.
The guard's eyes narrowed. "Yes."
She studied him, finding him suddenly familiar. He was perhaps ten years older than she was, and though the face paint bent his features, she was certain that she knew him. "You are one of Seamus's grandchildren."
The guard nodded but said nothing. He stepped farther into the light and waved to the guard that followed her. Positioning himself so that her body was between him and the others, his hands moved quickly and her eyes were drawn to them.
Hail Winteria bat Mardic, true queen of the Marsh, he signed to her. he signed to her. I am your servant, Garyt ben Urlin. I am your servant, Garyt ben Urlin.
Winters blinked, his words overpowering her. She opened her mouth to speak, remembered herself, and willed her own hands to move into the house language of Y'Zir. Grace to you, Garyt. Grace to you, Garyt.
"These caves are closed by order of Queen Winteria the Elder," he said aloud. And his hands flashed again. We may bear the mark on our bodies, but we do not all bear it in our souls. We may bear the mark on our bodies, but we do not all bear it in our souls.
She felt the heat in her face before she felt the water in her eyes. She remembered these words-she'd said something similar to Seamus on the day of his sobbing confession. But these were not words of comfort spoken into shame. They were words of loyalty and commitment. She felt a tear break loose. "Thank you," she said.
Turn now, she willed herself. And she did. She turned and took another path her feet remembered. The landmarks had changed, but she still found her way. At last, she stood in a wide, bare patch of ground near the river. It was a place she'd come to when she needed to meditate upon the dreams she'd had until just a few months ago. she willed herself. And she did. She turned and took another path her feet remembered. The landmarks had changed, but she still found her way. At last, she stood in a wide, bare patch of ground near the river. It was a place she'd come to when she needed to meditate upon the dreams she'd had until just a few months ago.
She tried to remember those days spent in meditation but found the memory of them elusive. Instead, her mind was filled with the song and the children that took the mark and those doors now closed and guarded where her book of dreams lay hidden. She'd seen and heard so much the day before and had assumed it meant her people had wholeheartedly embraced this new way of life.
But Garyt hadn't, despite the mark he'd taken and the uniform he wore. And now she was certain there were others like him.
Drawing her knives, Winters balanced them in her hands and shifted on her feet. Overhead, the stars wrapped themselves in rain clouds to leave her in darkness. The sound of the river's slow current mingled with the soft and distant hoot of an owl.
Winters drew in her breath and held it.
All is not lost here, she realized. she realized.
She brought the knives up, held parallel to her forearms, the edges facing out. She moved her legs apart and slowly released her breath, remembering the form that Jin Li Tam had taught her.
Then, Winters began to dance and in that dancing, laid aside her tears.
Chapter 11.
Vlad Li Tam.
Vlad Li Tam stood in the bow of his flagship and squinted against the fading light. He'd taken to sleeping during the day so that he could spend his nights here, watching.
So far, their penetration into the deeper waters of the Ghosting Crests had been uneventful. And while his children had finally seen the anomaly that their father was so utterly fixated upon, they still did not fully comprehend the depth of his obsession.
Not obsession, he told himself with a sigh as he scanned the waters off his bow. he told himself with a sigh as he scanned the waters off his bow. Love. Love.
But even as he thought it, he knew it was ridiculous. Yet he felt the mark of it on him as real as the scars that Ria had given him. His heart raced when he stood here, waiting for his ghost to appear. His hands were clammy. His mind was filled with the image of her graceful movement in the water, and when he tossed in his cot and tried to sleep, it was the song that emanated from her that kept him awake. No matter where he went upon his ship, inevitably the sunset found him here. Waiting.
Because she draws me.
More importantly, he suspected that she was aware of her pull upon him and used it now to move him and what remained of his family southeast, farther into the Ghosting Crests than any Named Lander had sailed.
The stars throbbed to life above him as the sky blurred from purple to deep charcoal, and as he watched, the moon lifted itself into the sky-a sliver now but enough to light the water. As the day slipped past, the noise of the crew dissipated and the night noise of wave and clanking engine took over.
Here she comes, he told himself, and he felt it on his skin, in the tiny hairs within his ears, as her song started up beneath the water. A patch of ocean shimmered and undulated ahead, and he clung to the railing, leaning forward. he told himself, and he felt it on his skin, in the tiny hairs within his ears, as her song started up beneath the water. A patch of ocean shimmered and undulated ahead, and he clung to the railing, leaning forward.
He watched as she moved through the water, tendrils of light trailing behind like hair. There was a grace about her that he'd never seen before, and once more, he felt his heart aching and felt that compulsion to join her.
I have become a foolish old man. And even as he thought it, he watched as she abruptly changed course and struck south. He raised his hand to the pilothouse behind him and pointed in the direction she raced, waiting for the ship to turn along with their guide. Slowly, he felt the list as the ship bore hard to starboard. And even as he thought it, he watched as she abruptly changed course and struck south. He raised his hand to the pilothouse behind him and pointed in the direction she raced, waiting for the ship to turn along with their guide. Slowly, he felt the list as the ship bore hard to starboard.
After an hour, she was back and changing course yet again, this time heading due east.
He motioned to the pilothouse again and heard the engines groaning as they increased power and turned the ship. He gripped the railing and let the wind catch hair he'd been too distracted to cut and a beard he'd been too unfocused to trim. Ahead, as the ocean around and ahead grew darker, he watched his ghost in the water.
The d'jin slowed enough for them to keep up, adjusting course here and there as needed, and Vlad Li Tam stood watch and counted the hours as they raced over a placid sea.
The sky was lightening when they finally slowed, and he watched as the blue-green lights swung in a wide circle ahead of them. Squinting ahead, he saw something vaguely outlined in the water, and he called it out for the watchman and pilot.
As they slowed and approached, the d'jin rolled and broke the surface, illuminating the small drifting object with the glowing tendrils of light.
It was a lifeboat.
Behind him, the ship went to third alarm and he heard his family scrambling. Before the flagship's longboat slapped the waves, the d'jin had darted off to the southeast again, and Vlad knew that she would not be back until the next nightfall.
Sighing, he left the bow and moved to the port side where he could watch. He saw Baryk, bare chested and wearing silk sleeping pants, and approached.
"Your ghost has found us something," the warpriest said.
Vlad Li Tam studied the water below, watching as his men, illuminated in the light of their lantern, threw their hooks and drew the drifting boat to their own. "Yes," he answered, though his voice sounded more distant than he'd wanted it to. "She has."
He heard excited voices carrying up and across the water, but he wasn't able to pick out any of the words. He saw them scrambling into the boat and heard their gasps at what they found there.
Two men manned the oars of the lifeboat and steered it toward the flagship. The longboat followed after, and when they reached the lift, Vlad leaned over the railing. "What have you found?"
His fifty-first son looked up. "The boat bears the markings of the Kinshark Kinshark." Lying in the bottom of it, Vlad saw a vague shape that took form as the longboat approached with its lantern, and found himself gasping with surprise as well.
What have you brought us, my love? He blinked at the shape, uncertain of his eyes. He blinked at the shape, uncertain of his eyes.
There, stretched out cruciform, lay a broken metal man in Androfrancine robes.
Rudolfo A light snow fell in the northern reaches of the Ninefold Forest, and Rudolfo shrugged the flakes from where they gathered in his cloak. The morning air was still and heavy with the smell of wood smoke and pine. It was cold, too, carrying his breath away in clouds as he walked his woods in the quietest hour between night and dawn.
Behind him, the camp stirred to life as Lysias's sergeants moved among the recruits with their pine switches, slapping buttocks and thighs as they went about motivating the men to a more eager wakefulness. Already, the Gypsy Scouts were up and loaded-as was Rudolfo-and this morning they would ride ahead of the battalion so that Rudolfo could see their discovery for himself.
Just days on the heels of Jin Li Tam and Jakob's departure, his second captain, Philemus, had brought word of what his scouts had found after days of chasing the metal men. He'd been sipping a pear wine that was nearly too sweet for his palate and pushing his fork through a rice-and-venison dish that seemed flavorless when the officer was ushered into Rudolfo's private dining room.
"We've found where they were running," he'd said. And even in that moment, Rudolfo could see on the man's face that he would be packing and riding out himself. The next day, under the cover of a training exercise with Lysias's army, he and an elite squad had set out for the far northern reaches of his territories.
Normally, Rudolfo relished those times he spent away from the manor. He'd always equated it with freedom, but lately he'd found himself counting security as a higher value than liberty. More and more, his guarded manor and his Gypsy Scouts felt safer to him than the wide open expanse of the forest his forefathers had claimed for their people two millennia ago. And everywhere he went, he carried a knot in his stomach and the dull ache of tension behind his eyes.
Picking his way carefully across the new-fallen snow, he tried to find solace in the morning but found worry instead. True to her word, Ria had welcomed his family into her lands-her entire people had welcomed them, it seemed. And she'd also sent what fruit they'd harvested in their investigation. Scraps of intelligence, cut no doubt from the prisoner they'd taken, that pointed south to the coastal nations. The War for Windwir had begun that strain, and then the events last winter-the assassinations and the resulting Council of Kin-Clave-had further eroded their relationship with those nations. The Delta continued a kin-clave on paper, largely forced by Esarov and his compatriots there in the Governor's Council. But it was becoming clear that the attack upon his family and his library was a well-orchestrated operation by allies now become enemies in the madness of these dark times. And he could see why these friends had become enemies. His family and people were the only ones to have profited from the desolation of Windwir, and the rise of the Machtvolk and their demonstrated kin-clave with the Gypsies surely pointed toward collusion. The clear evidence that it was all the product of a carefully crafted Tam intrigue, right down to the Y'Zirite resurgence with its gospels, shrines and evangelists, was not enough.
Closing his borders and raising the army would not be enough, he realized, and that truth frightened him.
He heard a low whistle behind him and turned. Philemus slipped from a darker patch of the forest. "The scouts are ready, General."
Rudolfo sighed and forced his mind back to their present dilemma. Mechoservitors passing through his lands ... and what his scouts had uncovered far to the north, at the foot of the Dragon's Spine. "Very well," he said, turning back to the camp. "Let's ride."
They rode out before the sun rose, their horses magicked for speed and strength, hooves muffled by the River Woman's powders. His arm ached with each passing league, and the air grew colder as they climbed the wooded foothills at the base of those impenetrable mountains.
By the time they arrived, the sun was a white disk veiled in gray and the snow had let up. They left their horses behind with a handful of scouts and slipped into a narrow canyon only marginally hidden by drifts of fallen pines and displaced rock.
The lieutenant whose men had pursued the mechoservitors to this place led the way, with Philemus and Rudolfo close behind. The uneven ground and the patches of ice made it slow going, especially with only one hand to steady himself. Rudolfo noted that the officer was careful to match his pace to that of his king. He smiled at this.
As they made their way deeper into the canyon, the walls narrowed, blocking out the white sky above. The ground sloped downward as they went, and the temperature dropped until Rudolfo saw crystals of ice forming and his feet found slick patches. The narrowing corridor twisted and turned until it finally spilled out into a large cave lost in shadow. One of the scouts lit a watch lantern and unshuttered its light.
Rudolfo didn't realize he held his breath until he released it and saw it clouding the cold air. In the center of the cave, he saw something out of place, and it took a moment for him to place it.
It was a large, round steel door set into the floor and propped open. Shattered fragments of granite lay around it, and it was obvious to Rudolfo that the hatch had been closed and hidden away beneath the rock floor of this place until recently.
Moving forward on careful feet, he leaned in and let his eyes follow the limited reach of the lantern's illumination. Stretching below, lost in shadows, a steel-lined well penetrated the cave's floor. Rudolfo squinted at strange shadows, realizing suddenly that they were rungs set into the side of it, vanishing down into shadows.
"Gods," he whispered. And the well swallowed his words, the echo of them drifting back to his ears.
He'd wandered these hills since early childhood and had probably stood on this very spot.
Philemus looked from Rudolfo to the scout who had led them in. "You tracked the mechoservitors here?"
The lieutenant nodded, and in the lantern light, Rudolfo noted the blush rising to the man's cheeks. "We did." His eyes darted to his king, then looked away. "We could not keep up with them. They were gone by the time we reached the cave."
Rudolfo nodded, then stooped to pick up a loose chunk of granite. Stretching his hand out over the well, he released the rock and leaned in again, cocking his ear.
Silently he counted the seconds until far below he heard the muffled clatter. Then, he crouched and looked at the rungs set into the side of the shaft.
Philemus crouched beside him. "Does it lead where I think it leads?"
Rudolfo turned to his second captain. "I suspect it does."
An underground route to the Marshlands. He knew that the Dragon's Spine was laced with caves, but this was different. Someone had built this passage. Someone had hidden it here beneath the stone long ago. The metalwork of the hatch and walls was of a kind he'd not seen before, and he stretched out to touch it. Warm to the touch and pitted from time. He knew that the Dragon's Spine was laced with caves, but this was different. Someone had built this passage. Someone had hidden it here beneath the stone long ago. The metalwork of the hatch and walls was of a kind he'd not seen before, and he stretched out to touch it. Warm to the touch and pitted from time.
"This," Rudolfo said to Philemus, "may be an unexpected gift."
"It could be," Philemus agreed. "If they really were bound for the Marshlands."
But Rudolfo doubted they would lie about that. Even the book they'd given Isaak pointed to the Marshlands. Tertius was the renegade Androfrancine scholar who had educated Winters.
"I'm certain they were." Rudolfo touched the metal surface once again, surprised that it was so warm despite the cold of the day.
An unexpected gift indeed. But what to do with it? But what to do with it?
Suddenly, he remembered the first time he'd discovered one of the many secret passages and rooms scattered throughout the nine forest manors he'd grown up in. He'd been six and playing spymaster with Aedric's father, Gregoric. He'd leaned against a section of shelves in his father's library, discovering a knot in the pine that seemed out of place, one that moved to his touch and unlocked a hidden panel in the wall. He'd spent an entire summer finding every door, every passageway, every hidden ladder and stairwell he could find.
Rudolfo smiled at the memory.
This is not so very different. He looked at the men who stood with him. "This remains secret," he said in a low voice. "I want a perimeter kept at all times and guard stations at and in the cave. Use magicked scouts. Bring Lysias in and show him; I want a training ground for the new army established nearby and two companies of scouts deployed to assist." He slowly raised himself to his feet, his eyes never leaving the well. "I want couriers to the mines in Rudoheim and Friendslip-five seasoned men from each." He looked at the men who stood with him. "This remains secret," he said in a low voice. "I want a perimeter kept at all times and guard stations at and in the cave. Use magicked scouts. Bring Lysias in and show him; I want a training ground for the new army established nearby and two companies of scouts deployed to assist." He slowly raised himself to his feet, his eyes never leaving the well. "I want couriers to the mines in Rudoheim and Friendslip-five seasoned men from each."