Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
E leksi hastened after Neve on his horse.
Who would she recognize in these far reaches of the kingdom, and why would she feel comfortable alerting them of her presence? She must have trusted them implicitly, which confused Eleksi, because the raucousness in the hamlet didn’t suggest discreet folk.
The noise came from both men and women. In particular, one woman’s voice sounded like sharp talons on steel to Eleksi. At least the people were unlikely to be royal guards, behaving in such a way. Certainly, they weren’t Spider Kings, who always moved with stealth. Perhaps the revelers were celebrating a northern harvest festival, or some other local event.
Regardless, he and Neve should remain hidden. Whether she knew the people or not, secrets were only safe until a single person passed along a whisper.
As he neared the hamlet, a ship’s mast appeared over the treetops. It swayed gently back and forth, the ship anchored in the nearby bay. The black flag flapping from the highest mast bore a pair of cutlasses.
Eleksi swore under his breath. The ship belonged to Dark Tide Clan pirates. He rode harder, cresting a rise and pulling up beside Neve, who’d halted on the very edge of the hamlet.
The cottages and tavern were surrounded by evergreen trees, except on the eastern side, which comprised a glittering blue cove and a white sandy beach. The pirate ship was moored offshore, the magnificent vessel resplendent in the sunshine. A series of rowboats had been dragged onto the beach.
“Do you mean to say that you know pirates?” he asked her.
She pushed back the hood of her cloak. “I’m sure I told you.”
“I’m sure you did not.”
“I met Jarin and Riella at the royal wedding. They were looking for Polinth, to kill him.”
Eleksi blinked. “Jarin and Riella are pirates?”
Neve scanned the hamlet. “Jarin is. Riella’s a siren.”
“A siren attended the royal wedding?”
“Polinth experimented on her. He gave her legs and she never reverted to her original form, even after he was killed.”
“Right.” He gave her a dubious look. “And we can trust them?”
She nodded. “Unequivocally. At the very least, we ought to find out if they have any information that might help us. They keep well aware of the movements of the royal guard, in the interests of evading them.”
Eleksi was torn. He didn’t wish to undermine her by expressing more doubt, but she’d trusted Clayton, too. As deft as he was with his dagger, he didn’t relish the thought of clashing with an entire ship’s worth of Dark Tide Clan pirates.
The circumstances between Clayton and the pirates were different, though. Neve had worked with Jarin and Riella. She would’ve gotten a proper measure of them.
“Alright, let’s ask them,” said Eleksi. “The hour grows late, anyway. We can’t ride much further today.”
Friends or not, exposing Neve to a hamlet full of pirates was risky. They were known for being talkers. The same information network that Neve hoped to utilize could just as easily work against her.
But if he and Neve were going to overthrow a monarch, they’d need to trust someone at some point. And it may as well start now, because tomorrow wasn’t promised—not with the Spider Kings in pursuit.
They dismounted and looped their horses’ reins around a fence post before walking into the hamlet.
The shouting and laughter came from a tavern in the center. It had an open-air courtyard and was packed with local residents in work overalls and aprons, and pirates with their tattoos and deep tans. Several pirates caught sight of Eleksi and Neve, drunkenly drawing cutlasses.
“Oi, stop right there!” one yelled.
Eleksi tensed, ready to draw his own weapon.
Neve’s silver sword was slung across her back, although she made no move to reach for it. She stood on her tiptoes, surveying the mass of people.
From the middle of the crowd, a woman in a cotton blouse and brown trews pushed to the front. Her braided hair was white-blonde and something about her energy strongly activated Eleksi’s combative instinct.
This had to be Riella, the siren with legs. Sirens—the natural enemy of human men—had always put him on edge. He would’ve chosen to fight five Spider Kings over one siren.
But she ignored Eleksi, running straight for Neve.
“Hello!” She hugged the sorceress, lifting her from the ground and spinning her around. “This is the best surprise! What are you doing here?”
Riella set Neve down.
“I’m so pleased to see you again,” said Neve, her grin showing her dimples. “My presence in this part of the kingdom is a complicated story. But what are you doing here? Sounds like a celebration.”
The siren’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “It is. We finally caught up with a slaver we’d been trailing for weeks. May he rest in pieces at the bottom of the ocean. The whole clan converged and we’ve been celebrating for days now. Jarin will be thrilled to see you.” She turned her attention to Eleksi, arching an eyebrow. “But I see you’re not alone.”
“He’s helping me, Riella,” said Neve. “This is Eleksi. Eleksi, meet Riella.”
The siren nodded at him stiffly.
A pirate walked up behind her, radiating relaxed goodwill. He was built like Eleksi, tall and broad. But he looked like he lived in the sun, bronzed and golden, whereas the assassin looked very much like he lived by the light of the moon.
He greeted Neve warmly, then shook Eleksi’s hand. “I’m Jarin. Welcome. You must join us for a drink.”
“Yes, come on,” said Riella, beckoning to them. “I must hear this complicated story about what you’re doing this far north. Will you be here long? We set sail for Klatos on the morrow.”
The tavern was smoky and lit dimly inside. A fiddler played a lively tune from a makeshift dais near the bar, audible over the drunken chatter and bawdy singing. Despite the celebratory atmosphere, Eleksi couldn’t help analyzing every person, as well as noting the exit points.
He and Neve sat on stools at a high wooden table with Riella and Jarin. The barkeeper brought over flagons of mead. They clinked the mugs together and drank. Eleksi kept one hand under the table on the handle of his gold dagger, rhythmically tapping his silver ring against it.
“Now, tell me what you’ve been doing?” asked Riella, looking pointedly at Neve. “Why aren’t you at Starlight Gardens?”
Eleksi took a long draw of his mead. Would Neve tell her friend the whole truth? He decided to stay silent and let her do the talking, so that she could share as much she wanted to.
With a pensive frown, Neve set her flagon on the tabletop. She looked at Jarin for some time, her gaze drifting to the gold pendant around his neck.
“I had to leave Starlight Gardens in rather a hurry,” she replied. “And I’ve had to keep moving.”
Riella and Jarin leaned in, the siren’s eyes wide with interest. “But why?”
Neve took a long breath. She leaned in as well, lowering her voice. “I’m afraid I’ve unwittingly made an enemy of Queen Meliohr. A mortal enemy. She wants me dead.”
To Eleksi’s surprise, Jarin had the strongest reaction. He thumped his fist on the tabletop and his voice filled with venom. “Garstang filth. First my mother, now they’re after you?”
Riella squeezed his hand, her face gentle with compassion.
Eleksi narrowed his eyes, trying to piece together what he was hearing. Who was his mother?
“She wants to kill you because you’re a sorceress, correct?” continued the pirate.
“Ah, not as such,” replied Neve.
“Why else would she single you out?” he asked.
Neve hesitated. She swallowed hard and lowered her voice further, to barely above a mutter. “I discovered that, well, King Leonid is my father. I’m illegitimate, of course.”
Riella swore quietly and Jarin raised his brows.
“She wants to eliminate you as a threat to her position,” he said.
“Yes,” replied Neve. Eleksi noticed her shoulders loosen fractionally. Sharing the burden of this information had been good for her, and it made him glad they’d encountered her friends. “And we believe she’ll kill Leonid as soon as she thinks she can get away with it. She’s weakened him terribly already.”
“How can we help you?” asked Jarin at once.
Riella nodded fiercely, her blue eyes blazing. “We owe you, infinitely. Without you, we’d both be dead.”
“Truth be told, I’d help you even if we didn’t owe you.” Jarin drained his mug and set it down on the table. “I hate Garstangs.”
“Do you have a plan?” asked Riella.
Neve answered. “We plan to infiltrate the palace with the help of a sympathetic underground network loyal to the Nikolaous, and—” She ran her thumbnail backward across her throat. “—the queen.”
“Fantastic,” said Riella, closing her eyes briefly in satisfaction. “I love it.”
“But we must be covert in our actions,” went on Neve. “Her death must appear to be a betrayal from her own people, or we risk causing disaster with Morktland. As awful as Meliohr is, Reynard is far worse.” Neve’s eyes found Jarin again. “I’ve also learned that Garstang acts of sabotage might go deeper than any of us supposed.”
Jarin’s hand touched his gold pendant. “When you say other acts of sabotage?—”
The sorceress nodded. “Those acts, yes.”
Sadness passed over Jarin’s tanned features.
Neve raised her eyebrows at him, as if asking his permission for something, while Eleksi watched on with interest. The pirate inclined his head in assent.
“Reynard might’ve baited your mother into attacking the Nikolaou family, to rid himself of his biggest foes in one fell swoop.”
The puzzle pieces slid into place. Eleksi gulped a mouthful of mead to hide his shock at the revelation. Jarin was the son of Levissina, the infamous dark sorceress?
“She still committed the curse, of course,” said Neve gently. “But the events have new shades of gray. Morktland benefited greatly from her campaign of violence. Meliohr married Leonid, and Prince Davron is marooned in Velandia. Leonid had been trying to send messages to him, but those messages were intercepted by Garstang men and either rewritten or destroyed. King Reynard is but a few moves from controlling Zermes completely.”
Riella’s face brightened. “But those messages to Davron may not have failed entirely. Just last week, we met a captain on the Klatos docks preparing to sail for Velandia. His orders were to collect Davron and his new bride from Port Hyacinth and bring them to Klatos.” She tilted her head. “We’d never seen this captain before. Lukov. Not very friendly, and he wore a strange little land crab. Our cabin boy overheard the conversation when he passed their mooring. This is good news, is it not? Davron might get a chance to contest the throne after all.”
“But gods, if he is en route to Zermes, we must help him,” said Neve, her face impassioned. “He’s the legitimate son of the late King Branimir and he is in grave danger.”
“And we need allies in our mission against the queen,” said Eleksi. “Who better than Prince Davron himself? Our goals surely align, even if he doesn’t know it yet.”
“Aye.” Jarin rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. “As popular as the prince was with the Zermetic people, he’s been absent for a decade. He’d need as much backing as possible, especially against enemies as cretinous as the Garstangs.”
“Excellent,” said Neve, clasping her hands in front of her on the table. “We’ll aid him in any way we can. I wonder when they’ll dock at Klatos?”
Eleksi fell silent, staring into his empty flagon. Something bothered him, like a fly persistently buzzing around his head, just out of reach.
“When you say the captain of Davron’s ship wore a land crab,” he said to Riella, “do you mean this?”
He brought his hand from beneath the table and placed his palm on the surface, showing his silver spider ring to the siren.
“Yes!” she cried in recognition. “He wore exactly the same ring. On his thumb, like you.”