Small Magics (38 page)

“Is it over?”

Thomas caught the change in her tone. “Are you jealous?”

“I am not!” Eileen snapped. She turned away, and when she spoke again, she sounded much more composed. “I’m just asking.”

“Aye, it’s over. Her father serves the king, and he was moved to another city. We talked about keeping on, but her father didn’t really approve of me and….” The smile vanished and Thomas didn’t finish the sentence, just waved it all away with a motion of his hand. “It ended.”

“I’m sorry.”

“So was I.”

Eileen didn’t say anything to that and Thomas, caught up in his own bittersweet memories, didn’t feel like talking. The moon slipped behind a cloud, casting them into darkness. They stayed there, silent, until it slipped out again and its light once more lit the river. Thomas took a deep breath and let the memories flow out of him with the air.

“On Ailbe’s porch,” Eileen’s voice was low, tentative. “Why didn’t you kiss me?”

Thomas thought back to that night, to the feel of her in his arms, and the terrible pain in her eyes. “Because you’d just been hurt. Because I’d just killed someone and I didn’t know if I was going to hang or have to run away or what.” His eyes sought hers in the darkness. “I didn’t want to make things worse.”

“Oh,” Eileen kept her eyes on him a moment, then turned away to stare out at the river again. “Thank you.”

Thomas, feeling incredibly awkward, searched around for another topic of conversation. “Did I ever tell you about the worst lecture I ever attended?”

Eileen shook her head, clearing whatever thoughts were there away. “No. What was it?”

“Well, once upon a time, there was a nasty history professor named Dr. Magnus Dodson…”

The story led into another, then into a third. Thomas kept going, telling her tales of the Academy and his friends there, until her eyes began to slide shut and she nodded off against his shoulder. He let her sit there a while, enjoying the warmth of her body beside his. At last, he woke her and led her back to her blankets. He tucked them around her, then lay down on his own and tried to sleep. He didn’t manage it for a long time, but at least his mind was filled with the girl asleep next to him, rather than the problems that lay ahead and behind.

When he woke up, it was to the feeling of cold rain falling on his face.

The three quickly scrambled to get their few possessions out of the rain, and took themselves to the cabin. Vicki made them breakfast and kept them dry until the captain and his sons stretched out some fabric for them, tying it to the crates and spreading it wide to keep the rain off a fair sized section of deck.

Thomas and his friends huddled there for the entirety of the morning, talking quietly about inconsequential things, arguing lightly over events from the past that they all remembered differently, and wishing the time would pass faster.

The barge made a landing shortly after lunch, pulling into the dock at a small town. Richard announced that they would all spend the night ashore, and told them where the inn was. Thomas was glad for the chance to stretch his legs, even if it meant getting soaked, and George and Eileen were feeling exactly the same. Thomas reclaimed his sword from the captain, and all three went ashore as soon as the barge reached the dock.

Thomas led them first to the inn to get a room, then the three took themselves throughout the town, finding fresh supplies for the rest of the trip. A few enquires also led them to a Healer and, with a few quiet explanations, they managed to have Eileen and George’s stitches removed. After that, they sat in the inn, watching the rain come down and the grey afternoon slip away to dark night, while the fire kept them warm. The four boys, Thomas noticed, were not gambling on shore.

“Not surprising,” was George’s comment. “They can’t cheat here and get away with it.”

“So they do cheat?” Eileen asked.

“Aye. Badly. I’m expecting them to try and take me for all they can our last day.”

“I told you,” said Eileen to Thomas. “I knew they were doing something.”

“And if they do?” asked Thomas.

George smiled. “I’ve got a plan for them.”

“Which is?”

George’s smile spread to a grin. “You watch and see.” He picked up his glass, but found it empty. “We should have another, I think.”

“You should have another,” Eileen rose from her chair, a little unsteady. “I’m going to see if they can send up a washtub to the room.”

“And shall we have a girl to wash your back?” asked George.

Eileen hit her brother in the arm before stalking off to the bartender.

***

The next morning dawned as grey and rainy as the one before. Breakfast was warm and very welcome, and eaten as the rain poured down outside the inn. Thomas wished they could stay there for the day, rather than heading back on the river. The captain was not willing to linger, though, and as soon as breakfast was gone, he herded his sons and wife out the door and towards the dock. Thomas and George pulled their coats close, and Eileen wrapped her cloak around herself, and all three followed quickly behind.

The group reached the barge at a quick trot, and George and Eileen hastened on board to where the captain’s two youngest sons were making tight the canvas over their passengers’ makeshift shelter. Thomas, of a mind to do the same, had to stop while the two elder sons undid the ropes from the moorings and tossed them on board. Thomas hopped on board as soon as they were done, then turned to watch as they pushed the barge away from the docks, skilfully using their feet and poles and jumping aboard at the last second. Their father called from the stern, and the young men bent themselves to pushing the poles against the bottom of the river, forcing the heavy barge away from the shore and out into the current.

There were boats coming down the river towards them.

Two of them, Thomas saw as he squinted into the rain. They were large river vessels, masts empty of sails and oars stroking the water. They had pennants which hung limp against the mast, the rain plastering them down even as the wind tried to make them flap.

Some noble,
Thomas thought,
heading for shelter to wait out the rain.

Lucky them.

The barge moved out into the river and the rain began to come down harder. Thomas was about to join his friends under their makeshift shelter when he spotted a figure standing alone at the bow of the first boat. The man was thin as a whipcord or the blade of a rapier. His black cloak covered him, obscuring any features that the thick rain might have left unhidden.

Thomas felt his heart in his throat.

He stepped back into the shelter of the crates, wishing for just a moment that the pennants of the boats would flap just enough for him to see their insignia. They didn’t, and as the barge slipped into the middle of the river, the rain began to pour harder, becoming a thick grey curtain that obscured all sight of the shore and enveloped the boats and the man on the bow.

No reason for it to be Randolf,
Thomas thought as he stood, getting drenched and staring out into the thick haze of the rain.

But no reason for it not to be, either.

He went to where his friends stood under the stretched-out canvas, and after a moment’s thought, told them nothing. All he had seen was a man standing in the bow of a boat, waiting to come to shore. There was no reason to think it was any more than that. Of course, that didn’t stop the idea from staying with Thomas like a persistent itch that would not go away whether scratched or left alone.

The rain kept falling for the rest of the morning and the afternoon and the whole of the next day. The captain offered them crates to keep between themselves and the wet deck, but didn’t allow them to sleep inside the galley, saying the weather wasn’t bad enough for that, and so they sat, venturing into the small cabin for food, or to pass a moment in warmth. George continued to gamble with the captain’s sons and came out slightly ahead every time. Thomas played chess with Eileen or the captain and watched the river go by and worried. Eileen wandered between the various groups. By the end of their fourth day on the river all three agreed that the only thing worse than being stuck in the rain was being stuck on a barge they couldn’t leave. Fortunately, that night, the captain pulled them in at another town. Thomas, George, and Eileen practically ran to the inn, revelling at the chance to get dry and warm and stay that way for more than a few hours.

The next day dawned clear and bright, and all three breathed a sigh of relief. They settled onto the barge again, and the youngest of the captain’s sons joined them. “We’ll be in Hawksmouth by early this evening,” he told them. He rattled a pair of dice in his hands and grinned at George. “This afternoon will be our last chance.”

“Not in a dicing mood,” said George. “Thanks anyway.”

“Oh,” the young man looked disappointed, then tried again. “We could play some cards?”

“No,” said George. “Thanks.”

Thomas watched the young man’s face fall as he went back to the stern, probably to tell his brothers. Thomas looked at George. “This was your plan? Say no?”

“That’s part of it,” said George. “The next bit comes when they start getting insistent.”

By noon several of the brothers had stopped by, asking him to join them for one more game. George refused them all. In the end, all four came at once, practically demanding he join them at dicing. George took a moment to wink at his friends before pushing himself to his feet and stretching.

“No cards or dice for me, today,” he announced. “I’ve spent too many days here sitting around to want to do more of it.” Arms raised above his head, he looked like a giant compared to the four young men in front of him. From the looks on their faces, they were realizing it themselves. “I’m in the mood to be moving,” George continued. He pointed at the empty space in the middle of the deck. “Tell you what, though, I’m always willing to wager on some wrestling. Who wants to try?”

The four young men took a fair bit of time looking back and forth among themselves before declining and retreating. As soon as they were out of earshot Thomas turned to George, “That was the rest of the plan, I take it?”

George grinned. “It was.”

“How much did you win off them?” asked Eileen.

“Enough to make them sorry for themselves,” said George. “And no less than they deserved.”

Eileen shook her head and sighed, then went off to find a place to watch the river go by. For the rest of the day the four sons cast grumpy looks whenever they passed George, but none said anything. George just smiled and waved happily.

The day crept by no faster than any of the others, and Thomas amused himself talking to Eileen or watching the river, or playing chess with the captain. He was deep into a late-afternoon chess game with the captain when Eileen cried, “There it is!”

She was standing on the crates at the bow, waving. Thomas gave the captain his next move, then headed for the bow. George met him there and the two joined Eileen in staring at Hawksmouth.

The forest had been giving away to farmland all day, and now there were only a few strands of trees along the banks, and, in the distance, the city. The walls of Hawksmouth were thirty feet high, made of a red-streaked brown granite that had once seen invading armies dash themselves to pieces on its surface. The city had long since overgrown them, however. Now the walls jutted up like a rather ineffective dam unable to hold back the tide of shops and houses and inns that had spilled out from inside and now engulfed its walls.

Thomas found himself filled with relief. For the last four years Hawksmouth had been his home. His friends were here. He had a place to stay that was his own. The bishop did not know he was here, and once inside the city he could vanish without a trace if the need arose.

George and Eileen were staring at the city, a mixture of amazement, fear, and curiosity on their faces. Thomas was sure he had worn a very similar expression four years before. He pointed to the buildings and began naming the ones he recognized. He told them the story of the construction of the High Father’s Cathedral, whose steeples rose high above the city walls. He found the royal castle, a thick cluster of towers and walls in one section of the inner city. Thomas quickly put a name to each tower as they glided ever-closer down the river.

“There,” Thomas, pointed to a tall group of buildings, rising above the apartments and houses and businesses near the edge of the outer city. “That’s the Academy.”

“That’s the Academy?” Eileen shielded her eyes with her hand. “Can we see where you live from here?”

“No. I’m in an apartment.” said Thomas. “You can’t see it from here. But that– ” he pointed to a domed building, “ –is the observatory, and there’s the church, and the big one in the center is the assembly hall.”

“It looks marvellous.”

Thomas felt himself grinning, and for the first time since they’d started running, something like hope was starting to form in his chest. “Aye, it is.”

Thomas and his friends stayed at the bow, watching the city grow closer. The farmhouses gave way to clusters of buildings, and the barge was soon floating through the city. Warehouses and docks lined the river, taverns and merchant houses filling the spaces between. Boats and ferries plied the the river around the city, and a pair of large bridges, big enough for even the largest of barges to pass under, spanned the water for foot traffic.

The captain called an order, shifted the rudder, and his sons brought their poles out once more. The barge pulled into the docks on the edge of the great walls, picking a spot as far from shore as possible.

“We aren’t going right to the sea?” Eileen asked.

“Nay,” said Captain Gloust. “The currents are too strong for the likes of us. We’d be pulled out and it would take a fair number of strong men to row us back. Better to stay upriver a bit.”

The barge docked, the four sons jumped to the wharf and tied the large craft to the mooring posts. Thomas and his friends gathered their gear and said a quick good-bye to the captain and his wife. The four boys said good-bye as well, and managed to sound almost civil when they did, which made George grin.