Heroes Return (16 page)

“Don’t be too sure of that, Dunleavy,” said Dane. “It all depends on what the parents do. Shintaro, have you ever been on a whaling boat?”

“No,” Taro answered, sounding appalled.

“We’ll go as soon as the fog clears up.”

“No, thank you.”

“We have to toughen you up. Look at your hands.”

Taro held out his hands. He looked at them. I looked at them. They seemed fine to me. “I’m a Source.”

“Is that all that you are?”

“Pretty much,” said Taro.

My mouth nearly dropped open in shock. What a horrible thing for him to say. And it wasn’t true. He was so much more than a Source. He was a truly good and decent man. He was an excellent friend. He could ease people’s pain with the touch of his hands. Why would he think of himself as nothing more than a Source?

“Then it’s time to change that.”

“Why aren’t you asking Dunleavy if she wants to go?”

I suddenly lost all sympathy for him.

“Dunleavy, do you want to go whaling?”

“Not at all.”

“There you go.”

I didn’t understand why all I had to do was say no to get me off the hook when that apparently didn’t work for Taro. I wasn’t going to fight it, though.

“You don’t have the kind of distractions here that High Scape offered you,” said Dane. “You have to find something to occupy your mind.”

“Perhaps, but that something is not going to be whaling.”

“You won’t know until you try. And really, whaling is exhilarating.”

Taro growled in that way that meant he was conceding and hated it. Everyone seemed to recognize it for the capitulation that it was.

Stacin wiggled down from his mother’s side on the settee, making her grimace as he obviously hit some tender spots. “Don’t leave the room, pudding,” she said.

I looked at her with surprise at the name with which she had cursed her son. She blushed, so I didn’t tease her. But really, poor Stacin. “We have to decide what to do about this person who attacked Lee,” she said.

“We can ask everyone where they were this morning,” said Dane.

“The person who did it will lie,” said Fiona.

“We might be able to tell who’s lying. We can be subtle. I’ll ask the questions.”

“Why you?”

“I’m harmless. All the servants like me. Some still think of you as a usurper.”

Fiona scowled but didn’t dispute his assertion.

“Then I should do it,” said Taro. “There’s no one more harmless than me.”

“Don’t talk that way,” I snapped.

He just raised one eyebrow, as though I were the one who was being unreasonable.

“Thank you for the offer, Shintaro,” said Dane. “But I don’t think you know the servants well enough to determine whether they’re being truthful.”

“I suppose,” Taro admitted.

Stacin, who had been exploring the room largely by falling against furniture, fell against Taro’s leg. Taro jumped slightly, and looked down. “Good day, there.”

Stacin stared up at him for a moment. It was cute, the blond toddler looking up at the grown dark-haired man.

“Treat,” Stacin said clearly before launching himself off Taro’s leg.

“Treat?” Taro asked.

Fiona grinned. “Usually he says that when he wants something to eat. He doesn’t usually talk to strangers. You must be special.”

“I’ll start talking to the servants now.” Dane headed for the stairs. “I promise you, Dunleavy, whoever did this will be dealt with appropriately.” He left.

“What does ‘appropriately dealt with’ mean?” I asked Fiona. I didn’t want anyone exiled to a life of starvation or anything like that.

She shrugged. “We won’t know until we find out who it is or what the circumstances are.”

All right. That sounded fair.

“I’m so sorry, Dunleavy,” said Fiona, cuddling Stacin, who had returned to her side. “All these things have been happening to you and in front of you. Believe me, this isn’t normal.”

“Maybe I’ve brought bad luck.”

“I know you say that in jest, but I do think something odd is going on. And it doesn’t coincide with your arrival. Odd things started happening shortly before that. The chandelier fell during a party. Fortunately, it creaked loudly before it came down, warning everyone. No one was hurt.”

I knew that chandelier was dangerous. What had possessed Fiona to put it back up?

Taro had taken a seat beside Fiona’s settee. He was threatening to touch Stacin’s nose with his finger, and the child was giggling and ducking down behind the armrest of the settee to avoid him. It was adorable.

“I’m thinking of getting a reading done,” Fiona said. “On the house.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“There’s a man among the tenant families who can use a spell on a house to see if there’s anything malignant about it.”

I wasn’t sure how to react to the assertion that a house, an inanimate object, could be malignant. I’d never heard of anything like that. “You think there’s something wrong with the house?”

“I believe it’s a possibility.”

“You have felt this way for a while?”

“Not really. Just since this run of bad luck. But there may have been negative things going on before, that I haven’t been aware of.”

“I see.” I had been wrong about so much in the past that I didn’t want to dispute with Fiona. Not to mention that it would be rude. But I couldn’t believe in a house causing bad luck. “What about the Guards?”

She snickered. “The Guards don’t know what the hell they’re looking for. I’ll figure out some way to get them out of the house.”

Taro managed to touch Stacin’s nose, and the child laughed.

Chapter Twelve

The fog didn’t burn off with the morning. It didn’t look as entrancing once the sun was up, but it was just as thick, and I found myself stuck in the house with nothing to do. Taro was edgy and not the best company. Fiona wasn’t up for much beyond lying down. Dane was questioning the servants. I didn’t want to spend time with either Tarce or Daris, even if either one of them wanted to spend time with me, which I was pretty sure they didn’t.

So I went to the library, looking for something to read, and found Reid there, deep in the book and writing furiously on paper. I passed him without talking to him, thinking it was the perfect kind of day to read something frivolous. A scan of the stacks showed me a wealth of novels, plays and poetry. No philosophical, historic or geographical tomes. That amused me, for some reason. Clearly the titleholders of Westsea didn’t feel the need to impress others with their collection of books. I pulled out a few books at random, and kept the one that was able to appeal to me on the first page.

I paused by Reid on my way back to the door. I knew I shouldn’t disturb him, but I was curious. I stepped loudly to give him warning that I was approaching the table, then said, “Academic Reid?”

“Hm?” was his response.

“Can I bother you for a moment?”

He looked up, his expression vague. Then he blinked, his gaze clearing and sharpening. “How can I help you, Shield Mallorough?”

“I’m wondering if you have found anything interesting about the book.” It was probably too early for him to say anything, but there was no harm in asking.

“Well, I shouldn’t tell anyone but Her Grace, as she is the one who retained me, but you’re a Shield. You know how to be discreet. Please, have a seat.”

I eagerly did as I was bid. “Is it a book from the First Landed?”

“I’m pretty sure it is.”

And I had to suppress the urge to take the book from him and get another look at it. That book was hundreds of years old. It had actually been made by the First Landed. That was incredible. “How could it have survived so long?”

“The materials they used for constructing the books appear to be particularly durable. For example, this”—he tapped a page—“doesn’t seem to be paper.”

“What’s it made from, then?”

“I really don’t know. I’ve only seen this in the other two books. We haven’t been able to figure it out. But look.” He bent the corner of a page, and before I could gasp out a stunned objection, he unbent it. There was no crease in the paper.

Huh.

“Did you know there might be a First Landed machine in the caves?” I asked.

“Her Grace told me. I look forward to seeing it. However, I have no expertise in such matters.”

“Who does?”

“Academic Joanna Barker.”

“I’ve read some of her work.” I frowned.

Reid grinned. “You’re not impressed with her?”

“She claims there were already people living on this world when the First Landed got here, and it was when the two bred together that Sources and Shields came into being.” And that struck me as plain ridiculous.

“And you disagree?”

“Of course. We all know there was no one here when the First Landed came. To claim otherwise strikes me as being contrary for the sake of being controversial. And she seems to be reaching ridiculously far for evidence to support her theories.”

“You don’t believe the ruins of Masai and Balance support her conclusions? They don’t seem to resemble any structures we’ve found to be built since the Landing. They seem to predate the Landing.”

“How can the age of such things be determined?”

He winked. “I’m afraid I can’t give away our trade secrets.”

Would it be rude to ask what kind of trade secrets historians could possibly have? “So you agree with her?”

“I don’t entirely. I don’t entirely disagree, either. After all, this world is one on which people can live. It would seem wasteful if there were no people living on it until the First Landed arrived.”

“But our own records state that Sources and Shields were born centuries after the First Landed were cut off from their home. What is the explanation for taking so long to breed?” Of course, maybe they had hated each other at first. It would make sense that if there were people on the world before the First Landed arrived, they would hate their conquerors.

“Our records could be wrong.”

“Really?” I stared at him. “How could they be wrong? That wrong? That seems like something very significant to omit.”

Reid laughed. “The people who wrote them were nothing more than people, with flaws and motives. The only way to be certain of any period of history is to live through it, and even then there would be substantial gaps in your knowledge.”

I put a hand to my forehead. It felt like my brain must be spinning. Much like it had when I’d first read Barker’s works.

“Why does it distress you?” Reid asked.

“Because it doesn’t make sense. The world was full of natural disasters. These first people couldn’t have survived.”

“Our people managed to survive between the Landing and the development of Sources and Shields. But it is possible the natural events only became constant after the First Landed arrived.”

“But why would the history books not mention the presence of people here when the First Landed came?”

“Maybe the information got lost. Things were very chaotic for a while. Or perhaps something shameful had occurred. After all, if there were people here, this was their world, and apparently the Landed just took it from them.”

That was disturbing. Could this be true? Did my ancestors come to this world and take it from its people?

Then again, our history was full of people taking land from other people. That had never bothered me. It was what happened. It still happened, titleholders taking each other’s land by applying to the monarch. Why was I letting something that had happened hundreds of years ago upset me?

“Now,” said Reid. “In that book I told you about, the First Landed book about what kind of government would work best here, there was no mention of any kind of government already in place. I would think there would be, if there were people already living here.”

That made me feel better, for some reason. “Do you think this book will have any information about that?”

“I can’t be sure, yet, but it looks to me like it’s about the weather.”

“The weather?” I was disappointed. We knew all we needed to know about the weather.

He smiled. “We can’t expect all the books we find to alter everything we believe in.”

Perhaps not, but it would be better for us if the book addressed something we didn’t already know. Like what kind of music the First Landed listened to. What they ate. A book of manners.

“So here you are,” Taro said from the doorway.

I opened my mouth to explain why I was there, but Taro wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Reid. I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Neither did Academic Reid, from the looks of it. “My lord?”

“Tsk, tsk. Taro, please.” Taro sat on the edge of the table, facing Reid. “I have barely seen you since you arrived. And here you are buried in work without so much as a cup of tea to quench your thirst.”

“That is no matter. I tend to forget myself in work. Tea would grow cold before I thought to take a sip.”

“I do admire people who take their work so seriously. It’s refreshing.”

Hey, I took my work seriously.

“Are you being treated properly by everyone?” Taro asked.

Reid hesitated before saying, “Of course.”

Taro picked up on that pause. “I hope you trust me enough to come to me with any problems. I can assure you that I can work things out to your satisfaction.”

I couldn’t properly see Taro’s expression, but something about it seemed to make Reid blush. “Thank you, my lord. Ah, Source Karish.”

“Now, I told you to call me Taro,” my Source chided him.

“Aye, that’s right. Uh, sorry.”

What the hell was Taro playing at? Was he actually flirting with the man? I wouldn’t have thought Reid was his type.

Then again, I wouldn’t have thought I was his type, either. But maybe I was. That had never occurred to me. Perhaps Taro had a special liking for quiet, studious people.