The Key to Creation (30 page)

“That doesn’t solve our problem,” Sherufa said. “How can we chip away the ice without damaging those charts?”

As a solution, Grigovar simply smashed the legs of the table, picked up the entire tabletop—wood, ice, and charts—and tucked it under his arm. “We can worry about that back on the
Al-Orizin
.”

On a thin wooden shelf, Yal Dolicar discovered four gold coins imprinted with an unusual design. He pried the coins free with the tip of his dagger and pocketed them with a crooked smile and a shrug; Saan indulged him.

“We’ve disturbed these sailors enough,” Ystya said. “Can we go back to the ship now?”

Outside, the cloudy sky grew grayer, and the icebergs seemed to have crowded closer. Tied up to the strange ship, the
Al-Orizin
’s hull creaked. “Best to sail on, before we all freeze,” Grigovar said.

“Or before the frost giants come back.” Yal Dolicar’s teasing tone fell flat.

Saan scanned the floating white mountains, half expecting to see a giant bearded figure emerge from the ice crags.

When he heard his lookout shout, he couldn’t make out the words, but he saw his crew pointing at the icebergs, at the water. Rather than a frost giant, though, he saw a sinuous blue-and-silver form that undulated through the gray waves.

The cold waters parted, and a scaly metallic blue head rose up. A graceful knurled horn protruded from its snout. A whirlpool of frost curled from its blowhole as the monster let out a loud hoot, then dove again and circled the two trapped ships.

“It is Raathgir,” Ystya said.

Ishalem

From the high lighthouse tower on the Ishalem headlands, Kel Unwar used a spyglass to peer out at the waters beyond the harbor.

For nearly a week he had been expecting the arrival of Soldan Vishkar and his warships. Without the hundred Nunghal vessels, Unwar felt vulnerable, and he needed guardians to protect the canal mouth. His men had finished mounting the four bronze cannons in stone emplacements at the mouth of the harbor, their barrels pointed out to sea. The weapons would not be enough to stop a concerted attack, however.

Unwar had already sent word to Olabar to inform the soldan-shah about the Aidenist army camped to the north of God’s Barricade, but he was not overly concerned. Even though they were assembling catapults, the Tierrans could not penetrate the towering stone wall; Unwar had built it to be eternal.

Still, these Aidenist soldiers seemed far more determined than before. And every time he saw their army, their Fishhook banners, their hateful faces, he was reminded of what they had done to Alisi.…

Clad in silver mask, dark cloak, and black gloves, the Teacher—his sister—joined him in the breezy tower room. Alisi peered through the thin slits in her mask. “We lost an important weapon when the Aidenists rooted out my
ra’virs
. If any still remain hidden among the Tierran soldiers camped at the wall, I have no way to contact them.”

“The ’Hooks will be suspicious of any unusual behavior, especially now,” Unwar said. “But they can’t have discovered all of our
ra’virs
.”

“My students know their mission, and we will have to trust them. The Tierran army clearly plans to stay for some time.”

Alisi spotted the ships on the horizon before he did. She pointed, and he turned the spyglass. “Vessels coming—a great many sails.”

He let out a satisfied sigh upon seeing the impressive fleet, running calculations in his mind. “Vishkar has done well. This is better than I had hoped. We may even have enough vessels to sail through to the Middlesea and strike Gremurr.” He knew the soldan-shah would be pleased at that.

But Alisi kept staring. Sunlight reflected off her burnished mask, and her voice had a razor’s edge. “Those are not Vishkar’s ships.”

Unwar jerked up his spyglass again, twisted the barrel to sharpen the focus, and realized that the sails had been painted with a barbed curve—a Fishhook. The sight sizzled into his eye like a hot nail.

The Aidenist warships dispersed to form a cordon along the mouth of the Ishalem harbor, leaving themselves room to hunt down any vessels that ventured too close. Over the next hour, they encircled and seized four outbound ships and chased off three military patrol craft.

As soon as he saw the ships arrive, Unwar sounded the alarm and had his soldiers launch war galleys to go fight the Tierrans, but they were greatly outnumbered and broke off without engaging the enemy. Instead, Unwar stationed his forces at the mouth of the canal, to prevent the invaders from penetrating the waterway at all costs; he sent anxious archers to man all of the watchtowers along the length of the canal, should the Tierrans succeed in breaking through.

But the Aidenist fleet was content to stay out of cannon range, far from the war galleys, like vultures waiting to feed on a carcass.

“Why won’t they come in and attack? They are cowards.” Unwar paced around the upper lighthouse room.

“They might attack, but they would never hold Ishalem. We would overthrow them within a week, a month.” She watched the ships out at sea. “No, they are blockading us, which is just as bad. We can’t sail in or out. They’ve cut us off.”

Unwar couldn’t understand the strategy. “Do they think the great city of Ishalem can be harmed by a siege like that? We can still get supplies by other routes.” He wrestled with the unanswerable questions. Though he was a kel, a military leader, by vocation he was an engineer, a planner. He understood how things worked, but this behavior had no logical explanation. “What are they trying to accomplish, Alisi? And what does the army camped outside the wall intend to do?”

He remembered the foolhardy Alamont horsemen who had ridden to Ishalem thinking that a mere ninety brigands could take the holy city from the entire Uraban army. Perhaps Queen Anjine and her military didn’t understand the geography of the isthmus and of Uraba. Could she truly be so ignorant? He didn’t think so.

With a whistle and a smash, several huge boulders hammered into the high wall at the northern end of the city; he could see the puffs of white rock powder from the impact. The Aidenist army had begun using their catapults.

Shrill horn blasts, made tinny by the distance, sounded an alarm, and soldiers rushed to God’s Barricade. Unwar drew in a long breath to quell his surge of anger. He said through gritted teeth, “They are like vermin, attacking any weak spot of exposed flesh.”

Alisi stepped away from the window so that her ominous form fell into shadow again. “They are not stupid, Unwar. The fact that you do not understand their tactics does not mean they won’t surprise you. Be vigilant. You can be certain they’re planning something terrible.”

“In that, I never underestimate them.”

The
Dyscovera

The next island they encountered was small and relatively featureless, its hills covered with golden grasses and hunchbacked shrubs whose branches pointed along the direction of the prevailing winds.

With every landfall, Prester Hannes hoped they would at last find a sign that proved to everyone the correctness of his convictions. Hannes had not deserved his initial punishment and never felt guilty, never experienced doubts. His faith was his anchor, and his vision was crystal clear. He pitied those who did not possess his absolute certainty. The world would be a better place if all people had such clarity and conviction. When one carried the word of Ondun, there was no room for doubt and indecision.

He could only hope the captain would come around as soon as he saw the proof for himself. He could sense that Captain Vora
wanted
to resolve their differences so they could stand united when they reached Terravitae.

Now, as the two ship’s boats ground ashore on the rocky beach, Hannes set foot on the solid land like a conqueror. “I claim this land, whether inhabited or not, in the name of Aiden.” He regarded the captain with stiff formality. He noted the rustling brown grasses, felt the cool wind that moaned over the hills. “If you have decided to maroon me, after all, Captain, the previous island seemed much more pleasant.”

“I’ll not maroon you unless you give me cause. Stay true to your promise and you have nothing to worry about.”

“I take my vows seriously, Captain. I swore on the Fishhook.”

The captain had chosen six strong sailors to accompany him, and the men trudged off in two groups with empty water casks in search of island springs. Hannes dreaded that the men might discover another abomination like the misleading Leviathan skeleton.…

Javian accompanied the small party ashore, and Captain Vora asked the young man to join him and the prester as they scouted the island. He gestured toward a high point on the headlands. “Let’s walk up there to get the lay of the land.”

“We’ll be able to see the whole island from there.” Javian set off ahead of them with his usual energy. From the
Dyscovera
’s lookout nest, they could tell this was just a small swatch of land, but Ondun had asked His sons to discover the world. Hannes dutifully joined in the exploration. He was also glad for the opportunity to spend time with Javian, who showed signs of becoming a devoted follower.

They hiked uphill through the grasses, saying little, which was fine with Hannes; Javian called back for them to hurry. At the summit of the hill, the breeze increased to a shrill, relentless gust. Hannes’s hair whipped about his face.

Javian called, “Look what I found! Someone’s been here before us.”

Hannes shaded his eyes and saw a stone obelisk, a four-sided pillar as tall as a man, propped up by a cairn of rocks. “Maybe they came from Terravitae. We could be very close.”

With his hand, Javian scraped away thick moss and dust. “It’s covered with writing, but I can’t read it.”

Symbols had been chiseled into the flat stone surfaces, now pitted and weathered nearly to indecipherability. Hannes ran his fingers over the writing in search of the Fishhook or, with uneasiness, the Unfurling Fern. But if this obelisk dated from before Ondun left the world, it had been here before Aiden’s Arkship landed at Ishalem—long before his grandson Sapier had formed the church with the Fishhook as its symbol.

The captain stood beside the obelisk. “Can you translate it for me, Prester?”

“Give me a moment, I think I can make out some of the letters.” Hannes traced them with his fingers, interpolating the designs, trying to match the symbols with what he knew from the most ancient pages in early editions of the Book of Aiden. “This is very old.”

As he studied the marks, the prester struggled to hide his surprise and confusion. He was glad the Saedran chartsman hadn’t joined them, for Sen Aldo might have been able to decipher the message as well. While waiting for the prester, Javian kicked around in the grasses, looking for other artifacts.

When he was ready, Hannes spoke the lie with great conviction. “It’s cause for great hope, Captain. See the writing here? It says this marker was left by Aiden himself on his voyage from Terravitae. He placed the obelisk as a sign of his passage!”

Captain Vora’s eyes shone. “A marker left by Aiden…I’ll call the men, and they can uproot this pillar and carry it back to the
Dyscovera
.”

“No!” Hannes had to quash that idea at all costs. The captain was startled by the vehement reaction, but Hannes made up a believable explanation. “Captain, if Aiden himself left this marker, then it’s a sacred object. Who are we to disturb it? Leave it here as a sign for others who come searching.”

The captain pondered, then nodded. “If that’s your wish, Prester. Maybe we shouldn’t disturb it. I’m glad we stopped, but now I’m even more eager to move on.”

Javian peered out to sea from the high point. “Does that mean we’re close to Terravitae?”

“I believe so. Let’s gather the men and set off by nightfall.”

Hannes ran his fingers over the stone, afraid that the sacrilege would burn his hands. But he had to know more. “Please, Captain…I’d like an extra hour here to myself, while they finish. I wish to contemplate and pray. This is very important.”

The other man studied him, trying to read falsehood in the prester’s eyes, but Hannes remained firm. Finally, the captain nodded. “Don’t tarry too long. If you’re not there when we’re ready to push off, I’ll leave you behind.”

“I have no intention of being marooned, Captain—especially when we’re so close.” He knelt to study the obelisk in an aspect of prayer and meditation.

The captain said, “Javian, run ahead and tell the men to get the water barrels loaded aboard the boats.” The young man hurried off in front of Captain Vora, who took his time following the grassy slope back down to the shore.

When he was alone at the site, Hannes scowled and reread the markings, hoping he had been wrong in his initial translation, but there could be no doubt. The stone pillar stated that Aiden
and
Urec had sailed here together, that they had stopped at this island for supplies and left this marker as a sign of their passage.
Together.
Then the two Arkships had continued their joint search for the Key to Creation.

But that was impossible. The two brothers could not have sailed together, could not have had the same quest, could not have
cooperated
. Aiden and Urec would never have camped in these hills as companions rather than as rivals.

At first, Hannes had felt a thrill of fear to touch the ancient stone, sure that the letters had been carved by Aiden himself, but now the truth began to dawn on him—the only possible explanation.
Someone else
had placed this marker to deceive faithful travelers. It was a counterfeit, a lie.

This must be a test Aiden had left for him, a trick that only a devout believer could see through. Since few of the
Dyscovera
’s crew had strong faith, he had no intention of letting others be deceived, and he would not confuse them with muddled facts.

He tore away the rocks that supported the pillar and pressed his shoulder against the stone face, straining until the obelisk loosened in the dirt that had held it for so long. He pushed and rocked, and at last toppled the pillar to the ground. Soon, grasses would grow up and over it, and no one would notice it again.