Finder: First Ordinance, Book One (24 page)

"Look at the sailor's garb," Melis breathed. He watched as four people slipped onto a small boat from the main vessel, which hadn't been visible on the water until it appeared suddenly on a clear, sunny afternoon.

Not far away, waves washed upon the thin, sandy strip surrounding the thick glass of Avii castle.

"You can barely make out Quin's hair color, she's so covered in filth, and do you see, there?" Edden pointed. "She's dressed, with no evidence of wings. They'd have been pushing against her blouse if she'd had much at the time."

"There's no question that's her," Melis said. "But who is that with her? Have their images been run through the recognizer?"

"Twice, with no results. No chip implants in any of them, or on the vessel, and every registered vessel has a location chip embedded somewhere, in case it gets lost or stolen."

"So they're leaving Quin at the castle, then," Melis said as he watched Quin and one of the unknown sailors disappear inside a narrow doorway.

"Looks that way. I want to question Gurnil about this, but worry it might be a mistake."

"As do I. See, the sailor is leaving, without Quin," Melis pointed out. "He's getting into the boat, and the other two are rowing him toward the ship."

"Keep watching. You'll see the point where the vessel disappears again, just as it appeared in the beginning."

"Might I suggest doing another search, Edden?"

"For what?"

"We have satellite images that go back decades. Shall we do a search for similar appearances and disappearances, all from the same coordinates?"

"How far back do you suggest we look?" Edden sounded interested.

"Let's do twenty turns first, and see what that yields," Melis said. "And go farther back than that, if we feel it's warranted. Now that we have coordinates and can program the comp on what to look for, it'll be easier—and faster."

"Do it," Edden said, rapping his knuckles on Melis' desk in a decisive gesture. "Bring the results to me as soon as you have them."

* * *

"Berel, we found a baby, sick with the wasting disease in its lungs," I said when he called. I was concerned that others among the Avii were already ill, or would become so quickly.

"Did you heal it?"

"Yes. She's fine, now," I said. "I'm worried about the others, now."

"Me, too. Father worries about the people here, and if the Avii fall ill, what will we do?"

"I don't know," I mumbled, shaking my head at Berel's image. "As far as I know, I'm the only one who can make someone well if your medicine and physicians can't."

"What about Princess Halthea?" Berel asked. "I worry that she'll sell your services to the highest bidders, so only the wealthy might survive the poison."

"That has been handled, up to a point," I said distractedly. How could I tell Berel that the Orb appeared to save me and make Halthea a Yellow Wing at the same time? Likely, none in Kondar knew of the Orb's existence, let alone that it held enough power to make changes such as it had.

"When did you begin healing?" Berel asked. My breath stopped.

"Nobody knew I could, for a long time. My first healings were done for animals," I replied truthfully.

"You can heal animals?"

"Yes. They like me," I said, rustling my feathers. "They are as deserving of a healing as anyone else."

"What if someone came to you that didn't deserve to be healed?"

"I don't heal anyone of their advanced age to keep them from death," I said. "That would be wrong. If I were asked to heal someone with evil intentions, I would do my best not to do so. They are undeserving."

"Can you tell—when they're evil?" he asked.

"I can, but I beg you to keep that secret," I said. "It could kill us both."

Chapter 16
 

"I feel guilty that we're tapping my son's tab-vid," Edden muttered, tossing the chip recording to Melis. "She gave him information in confidence, yet here we are, looking to exploit it. I wish we could come out and ask the girl who those sailors were and where they came from, but we can't. Not without alerting the Avii King and his Black-Winged brother."

"I'd like to present our findings to Firth—it may be that the unidentified DNA sample given to him by Gurnil is connected to those sailors."

"True, but there's still no race connection to Quin, so how might they have come upon her? This mystery deepens by the day," Edden rubbed his forehead. "Never mind that—give this information to Firth and see what he and his assistant can make of it. What have you found in your other research?"

"Three separate occurrences so far, when a seemingly ancient ship appears near the original coordinates, one or two are left at Avii castle and the ship sails away, disappearing as it always does, along the same general latitude."

"That doesn't deviate with the tides?" Edden asked.

"No. It is just as baffling to me as it is to you."

* * *

"Did you examine the sample?" Marid asked.

"I'm glad you placed a spell-shield around it. There's enough radioactivity from only a few of those organisms to make any mortal ill."

"Imagine what many of those can do—against your enemies," Marid smiled.

Marid's guest had arrived late at night, and Marid kept the lights low in the Belancour receiving area—to mask how things appeared worn and run-down. For years, few had sought out the Belancour clan, and seldom paid what Marid had once commanded for spellwork.

He cursed Grey House, blaming them for his troubles. This though, he nodded at the sphere, which his guest held carefully in both hands—this could garner enough to pay for anything he might want.

"I expect the organism will die easily enough, once I have what I want?" his guest asked.

"As easily as I can form a spell," Marid chuckled.

"Then I'll buy. When can you deliver?"

"Soon. Very soon," Marid said.

* * *

"I will not leave him behind to usurp my place," Tamblin thundered. Omina didn't cower—she'd learned long ago to never show weakness to her husband. Yes, she'd seen Tandelis and the Avii royals die in Tandelis' throne room, and that included two babes and all men-at-arms. She'd been unaware of the plot, so there'd been no time to warn them. She was surprised, actually, that Tamblin left her alive when others died about her. Now, Tamblin worried that his son might take his place.

Fool
.

"Then what's to stop anyone else from doing the same?" she snapped at him. "You have few nobles scheduled to sail with you. Which of those left behind will take your throne and rally the people of Fyris behind them?"

Tamblin went pale at Omina's words. "I will not leave the boy behind," he growled. "Get yourself to Lironis to protect my place. If you think any of those weak, sniveling pretenders are strong enough to withstand me when I return, then you are a greater fool than I imagined."

"As you wish it." Omina snapped her skirts as she whirled and strode from Tamblin's makeshift study.

"Boy!" Tamblin shouted for a page, who came running.

"My King?" the boy bowed low after sliding to a stop on the flagstone floor.

"Find Master Yevil for me. Do it quickly."

"Yes, my King." The boy departed as quickly as he'd arrived.

* * *

Ordin and I checked an older man and his two wives—he'd asked all the healers whether they had any older ones sick for any reason. All of these were ill. The man had fading brown wings, while both his wives had yellow.

All were ill from the poison—they loved fish pulled from the waters north of Avii castle, and had sickened from the subsequent exposure. I offered Ordin a slight nod to let him know they suffered from poison sickness. He'd asked me to make them comfortable—nothing more. It was easy to comply with his request, as it coincided with my own decision. "If they want a quicker death," Ordin told me earlier, "the gate is always available."

I made them comfortable as requested, leaving them feeling better than they had in weeks. As Gurnil and I walked out of their quarters, I received the premonition. No, I didn't want to send mindspeech to the ones who could help, but there wasn't anything else I could do.

Amlis
, I shouted mentally, stopping beside a glass wall and placing my hand upon it to hold myself upright.
Rodrik! The Queen is in peril. Run
.

* * *

Amlis barely noticed the wall being blown away as he leapt to protect his mother. Yevil held a strange object in his hand and barely missed killing Omina with it when Amlis rushed to her aid.

"Stand where you are," Yevil hissed when Rodrik raised his blade.

"Get away, you filth," Rath appeared in the doorway and shouted at Yevil. His blade, like his son's, was drawn and pointed at Yevil.

"Stand back, Father; he can kill you with that abomination," Rodrik snapped.

"Yes, I can, can't I?" Yevil laughed. "Back away. I have orders from the King."

"You are filth and an evil," Omina said, straightening her dress and staring Yevil down. "Whomever Tamblin asks you to kill, you take pleasure in toying with beforehand. Get it over with, then," she shouted. "I've hated you and that thing I married for a very long time."

"You think to take all of us down?" Omina's captain of the guard arrived with several guards at his back. He studied the room with a practiced eye before turning to Yevil. "Because as fast as you can move," he said, "I'll warrant there are those in this room who'll move faster."

Yevil lifted his hands in surrender. Rodrik jerked the weapon from him and stuffed it in the waistband of his trousers before nodding to the guards to tie Yevil's hands behind his back.

"I'll be out as soon as word gets to the King," Yevil shouted over his shoulder at Omina. "How much longer do you think to survive?"

* * *

"Quin?" Ordin offered water and apple juice as I blinked my eyes open.

I found myself inside his private study, with Dena and Master Gurnil nearby. "You fainted, I think," Ordin said as I accepted the apple juice and drank it first.

"I blacked out," I agreed, sipping water after emptying the juice glass.

"Do you feel ill?" Ordin asked, taking my wrist in his hand and checking my pulse.

"No. Tired, perhaps, but that's it." I couldn't tell him that Omina had almost died at Yevil's hand, or that the King had ordered her death.

"Then you should lie down for a while, and have a quiet dinner in your suite, with Dena, here," he said. "I'll check you in the morning. I believe Justis will allow a sick day or two, if needed."

"Thank you. A rest sounds good."

* * *

I went over the events in Fyris after lying down. Somehow, I'd managed to make Yevil's aim go awry, but failed to understand how I'd done it. Yes, Yevil was in Omina's dungeon for attempting to murder the Queen, but as he'd said, the King had ordered him to do it.

Never had I wished so much ill upon anyone as I wished upon Yevil and Tamblin at that moment. Both had so many lives to account for, and would ultimately kill all of Fyris if a way wasn't found to save its inhabitants.

* * *

"The King is leaving Yevil where he is for the moment," Rodrik said, carefully placing Yevil's weapon on the desk inside Omina's study. "Amlis and I still fear for your safety, Lady Queen."

"He has no care for me or the only son he has left," Omina huffed. "Yevil has poisoned any emotion left in the man."

"Yet he still listens to that abomination, even knowing that he was behind Timblor's death," Amlis snapped. "There is no logic to any of this."

"Perhaps we should consider an envoy to the glass castle," Farin strode in, a concerned expression on his face. "I hear from your guard captain that Tamblin has ordered Yevil released in two days, to supervise the troops on a practice run. It is a training exercise for the troops, as well as a test for the new ships."

"Any other man would be dead already, for attempting to murder the Queen," Rodrik muttered.

"Then I suggest we hide that weapon, or send it to the glass castle with an envoy," Farin said.

"I am dead already, if Tamblin thinks to allow Yevil to walk freely from my dungeon," Omina countered. "Find a boat and I will go."

"Omina, you cannot count on the edict to protect you. Not after their King and Queen were murdered," Farin observed. "If you go, you will not go alone."

"Mother, I will go with you," Amlis offered.

"Neither of you will make this journey without protection. Wolter, Deeds and I will go. Tamblin and Yevil want all of us dead; therefore, we will ask for mercy from the glass castle," Rodrik declared.

"Then take Fen and me as well. We'll die, here, without the Queen's protection," Farin insisted.

* * *

Orik, captain of the Sea Hawk, jerked his head up as Amlis and Rodrik stepped inside the inn near the waterfront. The inn wasn't the best one; it was poorly constructed, needed repairs and smelled of beer, piss and food. Orik had been drinking most of the day, and had just started to eat the bowl of stew the barmaid left before him when the Crown Prince arrived.

This is it
, Orik thought, as the Prince's appearance cleared his mind swiftly.
He knows I left Finder at the glass castle and now I'm as dead as she is
.

"Captain Orik," Amlis sat across from him while Rodrik remained standing.

"Prince Amlis," Orik nodded his head in an attempt at respect.

"I need your boat. And your silence," Amlis leaned in to whisper while dropping a bag of coins on the table between them.

Orik blinked at Amlis in half-drunken shock.

* * *

"I'll stay," Rath shook his head at Omina. "He told you to travel to Lironis. Let everyone believe that's your goal. I'll have my men hold him off as long as possible after he finds Amlis missing as well."

"Rath, he'll kill you," Omina sighed.

"He means to kill both of us—you know that. He's just waiting for the best opportunity. His mind was always weak; it's worse, now."

"And Yevil spills poison daily into that ever-growing emptiness," Omina huffed. "I don't want you to stay. Your death will come the moment he learns I've sailed away."

"We'll die anyway," Rath muttered. "Now or later—what does it matter? If not at Tamblin or Yevil's hand, then by the poison beneath our feet. I'll buy time for you, Amlis and my son. I suggest you leave quickly, however, and travel light."

* * *

"What about my father?" Beatris' eyes filled with tears as she blinked at Rodrik.

"My love, we must leave many behind, or our intentions will become common knowledge. My father is staying behind—at his choice. He means to buy us time to get safely away."

"What if we're turned away, or worse?" Beatris angrily wiped tears from her cheeks.

"Omina says we'll sail for Lironis if they won't speak to us or allow us in. I know none have sailed to Lironis for a very long time and the port is crumbling," Rodrik held up a hand to stop his wife's argument. "We'll take our chances there. If Tamblin wants to attack us in Liron's city, we'll see how many of those left behind wish to support him against the Queen."

"How can the King think to make sailors so quickly from those who've only walked solid ground all their lives?" Beatris turned away. "He conscripted my cousins, Rod. They'll die on the sea—they barely know how to swim."

"Beatris, my love, it is as Wolter says," he pulled her into an embrace. "We're all dead. We just haven't realized it, yet."

* * *

"I went to Lironis at the Queen's request sixteen turns ago," Wolter said. "I worked here, in her kitchen, before that. That's why I know how to prepare fish and shellfish."

Wolter stirred the fish stew after tossing in a few herbs and seasonings. "Taste." He held a spoonful of soup toward Deeds, who lifted an eyebrow before tasting.

"Good," Deeds mumbled with a nod. "Very good."

"Is all prepared?" Wolter asked softly.

"Everything is in place," Deeds replied.

* * *

"If another ship appears, do we have time to reach Avii castle when it arrives?" Edden asked. He, Melis and Firth had gathered inside Edden's office after a long day of meetings, where many things had been discussed and very little decided.

Most of the discussion involved the tainted fish pulled from the waters surrounding Kondar, and how much that taint could affect the people. Many council members had business concerns involved, and any moratorium placed on the fishing industry would destroy those businesses.

Others argued that the poison would adversely affect the population, and Kondar wasn't prepared for the increase in needed health care if the poisoned seafood were sold for consumption.