24 Imogen
Imogen
The day was bright and clear when the Eleuthios finally glided into Della’s pale green waters.
The main island was an expanse of green rolling hills. From the ship, I could make out the rare white dot of a caretaker’s cottage, wholly surrounded by land and roaming flocks. I clung to the rail, Agatha quiet at my side, and thought of the first time I’d seen Varya.
Compared to Varya’s lush, flowering landscape and dense clusters of white stone buildings, Della looked almost vacant, save for a grouping of large, colorful buildings at the edge of a port, where goods would come and go.
But we were not docking on Della’s main island.
We were headed for Kardinia, the smaller island to the north, where the majority of Dellens—and their Mage Seer—resided.
As the ship drew nearer to Kardinia and into Port Temis, slicing the flat water like a blade, I saw unobtrusive brick and wooden homes. A massive statue of their Great God, Milton, who’d had power over beasts, loomed at the port’s entrance.
I squinted up at his stone effigy. They couldn’t be seen from my vantage, but I knew that he held silkworms in his outstretched hand and that the hare tucked under his arm was wrapped in a sling of their famous silk.
I remembered that their island had been built with their animals in mind.
The sweeping vistas has been left as undisturbed as possible, and most citizens were farmers, shepherds, or silkers.
I leaned closer to Agatha, who gazed out at the city as it drew nearer. This was the first time I’d managed to coax her out of her cabin during the day, as she’d spent most of them sleeping. “Will you not answer me?”
“Fine.” She huffed a breath and said, albeit begrudgingly, “The Mage Seer is in a tower in the very middle of the city. It’s the tallest building, and the oldest.”
I searched the skyline for it, but saw only an indistinguishable cluster of tiled roofs. “They built all those other buildings around her?”
“Yes.” She glared up at me from beneath the wide brim of her hat. “I don’t like this, Imogen. You lack any reasonable fear of magic. It’s an asinine idea.”
“It was Theo’s.”
Her dark brow rose in a gesture that looked so much like her old self, I smiled. “Oh, Theo.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Where is he? Let me tell him to his face that he’s an idiot.”
I looped my arm through hers and held tight. “Agatha, I don’t have the time—or the knowledge—to brew draughts. I don’t have any other option.”
She shook her head. “I know you have no other option, but once again, I must make it clear that Mage Seers are to be taken seriously. Do you think she won’t sense that something is amiss when you go in with a made-up story about needing a draught?
Or won’t recognize your God’s blood when you give it to her? ”
“I—We will be exceptionally cautious. I promise.” And I meant it. I gave her arm a thankful, placating tug. “And to that end, what else can you tell me about Della’s Mage?”
Her exhale was drawn out and woebegone. “She is the youngest of the Mage Seers, if I remember correctly.” She cut me a furious glance. “Yourself excluded. She’s of Dellen descent. She’s the most feared in the realm, so I’ve heard, due to her ‘unsteady’ mind.”
My stomach dipped. “I wonder if the magic has made her mad.” I wondered if it might do the same to me in time.
“Likely the isolation,” she said, sounding as if she were somewhere else. “The pain.”
The life of a Mage Seer would lead most to madness.
The isolation and pain were one thing, but it was the need that I feared would unmake me.
The remote yet insistent way it prodded and pulled, like a finger tapping at my shoulder, vying for my attention.
I stared contemplatively at the glittering surface of the bay when it turned suddenly blinding.
I groaned as a white light flashed behind my eyes. My grip on the ship’s rail turned bruising as a cacophony of sensations fell over my body, like a veil strewn over a bride. I could hear Agatha’s voice beside me, calling my name, but she sounded garbled, like her mouth was full of water.
I let the vision take me.
Blood filmed my tongue. I was in warm, slick liquid, like the water in Eusia’s pool, but now the walls were tight.
My elbows bumped into the hard sides. Fatigue pulled at me, making me sluggish, but my stomach felt full.
I twisted and my knees thudded. Frustrated, I glanced down at my body, and to my shock, there were no knees there at all.
My lower half was scaled a blue-red, stretched unnaturally long, and webbed. Like the nekgya I had drawn up from the deep water. Before I could look closer, my gaze cut up toward a pewter sky and glowing white sails.
At the top of the main mast, a deep-blue Obelian flag snapped in a harsh wind.
As suddenly as I was thrown into the vision I was ripped out. Now all I felt was the balmy breeze rolling over the bay; all I saw was a clear, azure sky.
“Imogen, what happened?” Agatha gripped my arm.
“I saw…” I grimaced at the taste of bloody flesh. “It’s just what we thought. Eusia is on her way to Obelia. On the empress’s ship.”
Agatha went very still as she looked at my white eyes. “Oh Gods, Imogen.” Her face drained of the little color she’d recovered. “A vision?”
“Yes.”
The anchor was lowering now, and the launch was being prepared for Theodore, me, and a handful of guards. My stomach clenched with nerves. “Come with us.”
Agatha snapped her head toward me and swatted at the air. “No.” she said, “I’ll be resting.”
“You’re not spending another day in your dark cabin alone,” I insisted. “Come ashore with us. We need clothes, you can buy us some dresses.”
She looked to the launch, then back at me warily. A self-conscious hand rose to touch the brim of her hat, but I took it into mine and gave her a gentle smile.
“It will be just fine. Please. Come. You pick whatever you like for me, I won’t complain,” I teased.
It took a long moment, but she finally gave my hand an agreeing squeeze.
“Wonderful.” I scanned the deck, looking for Theodore.
“And to boost your mood further, let’s find the king so you can give him a good tongue lashing. ”
Agatha gave a snort as we moved closer to the launch, and though she clung tightly to my hand, a faint smile—the first I’d seen since we’d found her—lifted the corners of her mouth.
Four soldiers rowed Theodore, Lachlan, Agatha, and me across the dancing water of the bay, toward the packed docks. Agatha sat straight-backed, the small smile I’d seen on her face long gone. She stared at the choppy waves.
“What sort of gowns will you look for, Agatha?” I asked, trying to take her mind from whatever dark corner it had curled into.
“Gowns of misty gray.”
I flicked my eyes to Theodore beside me, then to Lachlan, who met my look with an uncertain one of his own. “Oh? Why gray?” I asked.
“So that when I meet the empress again…” She paused. Fear made her voice fragile. Her breathing went shaky. “She will think I’m a portentous apparition, come to haunt her and make her pay.”
“Oh.”
Lachlan pulled in a deep breath, and while I saw concern course through him, he nodded mildly and said, “I think a veil would be a nice touch. If you wish to give her a real fright.”
I pulled the golden chain I wore out from beneath my shirt and unlatched it so I could take the rings from it.
They rattled against each other in my palm—one sunny gold, one stormy gray—as I extended them toward Agatha.
“I assume one of these will be enough to get both of us new gowns and underclothes, but take both just in case. I don’t know the cost of Dellen silk. ”
Beside me, Theodore went so rigid he might as well have turned to stone. Both Agatha and Lachlan grew quiet at his sudden turn of mood. I looked to him slowly, cautiously, and when I met his glower, a little thrill of fear ran through me. “What is it?” I asked in a hoarse whisper.
He cut a glance to the rings in my hand, then back to me.
I sat up straighter, flustered. “I—Oh. It’s not a personal slight. They’re the only things of value I have.”
Theodore’s jaw worked. “I have money, Imogen. And it is at your disposal.”
I drew my hand into a fist around the rings and spoke through my teeth. “Well, thank you, but you don’t carry money on your person, do you? How will we pay for the clothes?”
“Lachlan will simply tell the shop owner they are being purchased by the Varian crown. Funds will be sent at a later date.”
He’d said it like I should have guessed such a transaction were possible. Like my na?veté was the most grating thing he’d ever experienced in his life. “How will the dressmaker feed their family in the interim, how will they—”
“Fine,” Theo said, his voice deep and chagrined. “Use the ring.”
The launch was nearing the docks now and not a moment too soon.
Lachlan raised a quiet hand. “In a lucky turn of events, I suffered tremendously and went to Markis for money before leaving the ship.” He looked to me.
“So you can keep your rings.” Then he scowled at Theo. “And you can unreel yourself.”
I don’t know what compelled me to do it, but I put the ring Evander had gifted me back onto the chain around my neck and shoved Theo’s ring onto my fourth finger with a huff.
The launch docked, and all of us, soldiers included, wound our way through the densely crowded docks, to the even denser streets of the city.
Kardinia had been built in a compact circle, the streets crooked and arching, the buildings stacked high.