Winterfinding (12 page)

“
We found all we could and
shared all we had. Many and most in our city have turned to
cannibalism. Or they are so desperate, they’re no better than
animals. They root around in garbage; they’re fortunate if they can
hunt sea birds, pigeons, or rats. My people are so twisted now that
you’d be hard pressed to see them as more than vermin.” Soren’s
voice rose and its timbre stuttered. His anger was choking him.
“Because the Spires coveted our position, coveted our contracts
with you. They want to wipe us out, watch us die and stand over our
corpse with their hand out to you like nothing
happened.”

Qala placed her hand on her brother’s
shoulder. He shook her off violently but immediately came back to
himself. He reached out and the two held hands for a moment.

Umma had seen enough. “That cannot be
allowed to happen.” She said flatly.

“
And what can you do about
it?” Qala demanded. “This fleet no doubt terrifies them. You could
break The Blockade. Help us get back to our feet.”

Umma shook her head, “We will not provoke
Silvincia.”

“
They what good are you?
Why are you here? To watch us die and tsk tsk The Spires as you
take their coin and given them what they want?” Soren made no
attempt this time to temper his sister.

“
We will assist you
through indirect means.”

“
Such as?” Soren
asked.

Umma began to peel away the grey cloth
around the object on the table. Both Soren and Qala watched hoping
to have revealed to them some mystical cure-all. But when Umma was
finished, all that sat on the console was a rock. Perhaps the
blackest object either had ever seen, it looked as though it had
the texture of charcoal but you could just make out some kind of
liquid sweating out of the thin lines of the stone.

“
This is raw bithumin. At
the casual temperature, it appears like this. It is brittle but
profoundly hard. When it is heated, as you may well know, it
becomes more pliable. You Rikonese have done a fine job of
purifying our great resource.”

“
I’ve never seen it like
that before.” Qala muttered.

Soren nodded adding, “We only ever get it as
the thick slurry or ground powder.” He stared at the bithumin stone
then looked at Umma, “So this then?”

“
This fleet is laden with
raw bithumin. We have decided to make a grand gesture and provide
your peoples with enough of our precious resource to last you in
Essia, Cassubia, and Silvincia for the next hundred
years.”

“
We can’t afford this.”
Qala said. Confusion quickly overtook her anger.

“
We know.”

“
Then why bring it to
us?”

“
They aren’t bringing it
to us.” Soren said quietly.

“
What?” Qala
demanded.

“
Quite right, acting Prime
Alder.” Umma continued, “We are presenting this to
Silvincia.”

“
For what?” Qala shook her
head.

“
For you.” Rava Din’s deep
voice startled Soren and Qala.

“
You’re ransoming us?”
Qala looked horrified.

“
Not exactly.” Umma
replied.

“
We can’t pay that back.”
Soren shook his head.

“
Can the Spires even
afford it? Even with The Cathedral backing them?” Qala
asked.

“
We shall see.” Umma
covered the raw bithumin back up. She then took one of the small
glasses from the other console, submerged it in the milky liquid,
and held it out to Soren. “I have let the admiral know of our
offer. I offer to you, acting Prime Alder, not a truce or an
allegiance, but a promise…”

Soren took the glass. Umma filled another
and gave it to Qala, and then she filled a third for herself. “A
promise that we shall do all we can to free your city and save your
people. Even though we will not raise arms against Silvincia or
speak ill of your precious faith.” Umma raised the glass and then
downed its contents with a flourish. Soren and Qala did the
same.

Soren winced in pain and brought his hand to
his mouth to hold back his retching. Qala sworn, throwing the glass
down to the ground where it shattered. “By the Light, what was
that?” Qala spat several times, as Soren closed his eyes trying to
keep himself composed. Umma stood in calm repose.

“
We call it cyniss. It is
imbibed to seal agreements.”

Soren’s voice was scratchy, “We apologize
for our reaction.” He coughed and shook his head. “We mean no
disrespect.”

“
Poison would have been
sweeter.” Qala muttered.

“
It usually is.” Rava
added smiling at her.

“
Worry not, acting Prime
Alder,” Umma smiled, “It is a rancid drink and your reaction is
perhaps the most honest one I’ve ever seen.”

Soren nodded slightly, his face still
twisted from the cyniss and his eyes watering ever so slightly.
Qala seemed to be attempting to wipe the taste off her tongue by
scraping it along the back of her hand.

“
What exactly,” Soren
asked “is our agreement?”

“
Our fleet will secure the
release of your people.” Umma said plainly. “Now I shall allow you
to return to your city.” The guards came forward to escort the two
out. Although both looked rather dissatisfied with Umma’s answer,
they put up on objections and departed.

Rava stepped down from beside the throne to
come down to Umma. “The pestilence is upon them. I did not think it
would happen so soon.”

Umma shook her head, “They’ve been refining
the bithumin to such a degree, dousing their lands with it. Putting
it in everything. They don’t just use it to grow their food. They
infuse it in their food, they use it in their clothes, in their
building, and I would bet it’s even in their water. Too
pervasive.”

“
You’re saying the process
has been accelerated.”

“
Simooms don’t just
happen. Their soil is bleaching. Their groundwater is receding, if
it’s not already contaminated.” Umma looked at Rava, “We need to
move quickly. If they discover what is really going on, this fleet
is worthless and we lose everything.”

“
Now and into the future.”
Rava assented. “What would you have me do?”

“
The spy. Let him
go.”

“
With what he knows, isn’t
that the last thing we should do?” Rava was skeptical.

“
He will lead you to his
paymaster. Then we will know who was behind the incursion of our
sovereignty”

“
You would have me,” Rava
said with contempt, “shadow a weasel.”

“
You are the only one
skilled enough to allow him believe he is free, see what he sees
and more, and then put an end to the spy and his
master.”

Rava grinned, nodded, and left. Umma stood
in silence, and then abruptly threw both consoles down to the
ground. The crashing of the metal and shattering of glass made the
guards start for a moment. She strode out of the chamber and yelled
at the guards, “Clean it up and bring me our fastest courier.”

Spires Army

They had been riding for a day and a half,
nearly non-stop. There had been brief moments of pause but
otherwise the four of them hadn’t had much time to speak. Now
though the horses were exhausted. If they kept pushing them, they’d
certainly die.

Kyrio Tobin had put them in the hands of
Kees and Arcite, two stoic soldiers. Tobin had given them a
parchment with details about how to reach a safe house once they
were in Sulecin and the means to contact his agents. It all still
seemed far too rushed for Fery’s liking.

Declan and Arcite had been sent off to
gather water from a nearby creek. Goshen was working on creating a
fire as Kira minded the horses. Evening was coming on quickly; Fery
felt the chill in the air. Autumn was nearly done. It would be
proper winter soon. Fery stood unsure of what to do with herself.
She watched as Goshen’s fire came alight. Kira threw down the last
of their gear and then sat down next to the pile. She didn’t say
anything, just stared into the nascent fire.

“
That one,” Kees the other
soldier that had been in Tobin’s employ came up next to Fery and
nodded toward Kira, “has been in a dark place for some time
now.”

Fery was a bit startled, but she didn’t let
Kees see it. “What can I do?”

Kees smiled, “Empty hands getting to
you?”

“
My ass is sore, and I’m
exhausted. If I stop, I don’t know if I’ll get going again.” She
managed a weak smile.

He gestured for her to follow him, “Let’s
forage a bit. We’ll need more wood for the night; it’s getting
proper cold now.” She followed behind him as he spoke to her over
his shoulder.

“
How far ahead of the army
do you think we are?”

Kees shrugged, “At least the length that
we’ve ridden.”

“
That’s helpful.” Fery
muttered. She bent down and plucked a large mushroom cap. “This any
good?”

Kees turned and took the mushroom from her
hands. He snapped the cap in half for her to see. The grey-white
flesh suddenly turned a dark purple. Kees shook his head, “See
that? When they change color like that, best just leave them
be.”

“
Poisonous?”

“
Not always, but can make
you sick more times than not. Just best to leave it. But this on
the other hand…” Kees tossed the cap aside and gestured for her to
see what he had found—a couple of large blooms looking like a
delicate cauliflower. Each were nearly the size of a man’s head.
“These will do well. It’s called sparass. Tuck these away in this.”
He handed her a coarse sack and then each of the mushrooms.
Standing he kept on into the woods.

“
It’s getting a bit too
dark to see anything, let alone hunt.” Fery said.

“
We’re too loud and smell
too bad to hunt anything. But you’re right, we’re losing light.
Let’s get some wood.”

Fery had a small hatchet that she’d grabbed
before leaving the Spires camp. She hacked at a couple of branches.
Kees shook his head, “Try to get deadwood, stuff that’s dry. We
don’t want anything that’s supple cuz it’ll take too long to burn
and smoke up.”

“
I know how to get
firewood.” Fery snapped. Kees ignored her and disappeared into a
thicket. She could make out his shadow. “What did you mean back
there?” Kees grunted in what sounded like a questioning way. “About
Kira. You said she was in a dark place.”

“
The alm, right.” Kees
emerged from the thicket, threw down an armful of twigs, and then
disappeared back into the thicket saying nothing.

“
Well?”

“
Well what?”

“
What did you mean by a
dark place?”

“
That she was in
one.”

Fery let out a long, exasperated sigh, “By
the Light…” she muttered.

“
Think about it for a
moment, you’re her friend.” Kees emerged again with several rather
large logs. He began to bundle the twigs and logs, tying them with
a notched leather strip. “The Spires is using her assault as an
excuse to attack The Cathedral. She thinks she’s to blame for her
home being threatened.”

“
That’s ridiculous. She
knows she couldn’t control what happened to her.”

“
That’s hardly satisfying.
Find your emotions to be reasonable, do ya?” Kees pulled hard on
the leather strap and the wood creaked faintly. Fery hacked off
another branch and tossed it on her pile.

“
It’s more than that.” She
muttered.

“
Oh, most, likely. I
imagine she’s had a great many things that have led her to be that
glum.” He lifted the bundle and seemed to be judging its weight.
Setting it down, he pointed at her pile. “Strip those but don’t cut
them in half, we can use the bark. I’m gonna get one more load
about this size, then we need to head back.”

Fery nodded and began to whittle her
branches down. “She was attacked on the high road, but those
bandits nearly killed Goshen.”

“
The paladin?”

“
Yeah. Nearly killed him
twice. She blames herself for that I know because she wanted him to
be her escort. The bandits abused her on their ship. They nearly
killed another friend of ours then too.”

“
Where’s he at
then?”

“
North.”

“
Gah, that’s unpleasant.
Probably the dumbest thing he could do.”

“
Why’s that?”

Kees paused, looked at her, and gestured all
around them. “Autumn’s over. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we
got our first winter storm over the next couple of days. Any
farther beyond Sulecin and things get colder faster. Light be
damned, Far Port’s probably been frozen over since late Mabon.” He
seemed to sniff the air like a hound. “Smells like snow.”

Fery hadn’t thought about it before but it
suddenly struck her that it did smell like snow. She giggled a bit
but caught herself, desperately hoping Kees hadn’t noticed.

“
Then before we got snared
by you all. Some corrupt Spires men tried to kill us. She’s been
hunted for what feels like ages and it’s only been since
Lammas.”

“
Some folk have been
hunted their whole lives.” Kees muttered.

Fery grimaced, “And then there’s you all.
With your little plots. Schemes. Using us.”

“
Well, that’s not really
my area.”