Ascendant (60 page)

"Really?"
Going to sea wasn't something Koren had considered. Could he do that?  A
ship could take him far, far away from Tarador, far away to lands where no one
was hunting him, no one knew him, no one knew about his jinx.

"Well, I
don't know as to myself, never been there, but-"

"No, not
the South Islands, I mean, I could go aboard a ship, as a sailor? I've never
been to sea before."

"Why,
sure you could. Merchant ship're always looking for able-bodied men, lots of
sailors jump ship when they get to port and get their pay." And too many
of them spent their pay on drink, the man thought to himself. "You got any
skills?"

Koren thought
for a minute. "I'm good with a blade, and a bow." As he said the
words, he suddenly wondered if his magical skills would go away, now that he
was no longer servant to the wizard. "And, and, I'm good with
horses."

"Huh.
Well, not much use for any of that on a ship, unless you're in pirate
territory, and I suggest you avoid that. Good pay, not worth the coin, if you
ask me. Anything else you can do?"

"Uh,
well, I lived on a farm. I, uh, I don't know." What kind of work did
sailors do aboard a ship? "Um, I can cook?"

"You can?
Where'd you learn that?"

"I,
uh," Koren hesitated to say too much, "I was a servant for a rich
man, a, uh, a merchant, and he liked foods from his homeland, Stade? So I
learned to cook the kind of foods he liked. But, I can cook regular food, too. Taradoran
food, I mean."

"That's
good, that's good, a good cook makes for a happy crew, that's for sure. If you
go, look for a ship flying the Estadan flag, it's red with a white circle and a
black star. You speak any of their lingo?"

Koren
shrugged. "A few words, not much."

"Can't
speak a word of it, myself. Don't hold with strange foreign talk."

"How, uh,
how would I get there, to the sea?"

"I'd duck
aboard a barge, if I was going. Plenty of barges headed downriver out
there," he pointed toward the docks, "sneak aboard one. This time of
year, with the spring flood, they're overloaded with cargo, because the water's
deep. And with the moonlight tonight, they'll be leaving soon as they're
loaded, not wait till morning. The next stop is about a day downriver, so you
need to get off and swim to shore, before they start messing with the cargo
again. You can swim?"

"Yeah."
Koren was reminded that the last time he went swimming was in the river with
Ariana. The more the man talked, the more the idea of going downriver sounded
like a good idea. Down the river, find a ship, and leave Tarador behind. Leave
his life behind. Start over, somewhere new. Somewhere so far away that people
could not have heard of his jinx. Maybe, so far away that he could leave his
curse behind? Why not? "Yes. I'll do that, thank you." Peeking out
the window, he saw only a few people at the docks, and the clanging, banging
and cursing noises of a barge being loaded had died down. Was a barge getting
ready to leave, soon? "Any advice on how to get aboard one of these barges?"

The man
snorted. "If I did something like that, I'd go up to the front of this
warehouse, the front of the building is on the dock, over the water. There's a
couple floorboards loose, if you know where to look, you can climb down under
the pier, get into the water, and up the side of a barge. Loaded the way they
are, they're low in the water, and there's netting on the sides." The man
raised a bottle to his lips, then looked at the bottle, put the cork back in
it, and set it down. "Aaah, I've had too much of that tonight
already." He spat on the floor, then rose unsteadily to his feet.
"You seem like a good feller, I'll show you where it is. Stay behind me
and move real quiet like, and keep your head down."

They had to
squeeze between stacked crates and piles of grain sacks to get to the middle of
the warehouse, the man had to lean on crates, and then on Koren, to keep from
falling down. Koren wasn't sure which smell was stronger; the musty, dusty
warehouse, or the whiskey on the man's breath. With the only light coming from
one half-closed door facing the river, Koren slid his feet along the floor,
feeling for objects they might trip over. When they got near the door, the man
put a finger to his lips, so Koren would be extra quiet, then pointed to the
right with a shaky hand. When the floorboard squeaked under Koren's foot, the
man gripped his arm, and they both froze. "Quiet! It's right here."
He whispered. As the man tried to get down on his knees, he fell and rolled
clumsily onto his right side. "Ah, don't you ever start drinking, young
man, it'll be the death of me yet." He pushed himself onto his knees, and
felt around the edges of the boards, until he was able to get fingernails
caught on one, and lift it up. The other three boards were easy to remove, and
Koren peered down to see dark water splashing around thick log pilings which
supported the floor of the warehouse. Boards had been attached to the piling
next to the gap in the floor, forming a rough ladder.

"That's
how I get in here, to keep out of the weather." The man said, pride in his
voice. "Hurry now, if that barge is done loading, a guard will be coming
by to check this place soon."

Koren stared
at the water below, at the uneven boards nailed to the piling, at the darkness.
That way lay his future; to run, to hide, to leave his country behind, to
forever deny who he is. "I don't-"

The man patted
him on the shoulder. "The first step is always the hardest, is what I've
found. After that, it gets easier."

That was
something Koren's father had often said. Especially when he wanted Koren to do
something hard, something that would take all day, like plowing a field.
Something hard, like leaving everything he had ever known behind. Hard, because
it was the right thing to do, the best way to protect the people he cared
about. "All right." He heard himself saying, and stepped carefully
down onto the first board of the ladder, before he could change his mind. The
board wobbled a bit, but held his weight. When he climbed down enough that only
his head was above the floor, he looked up at the man, whose face he could
barely see, except for the man's scraggly beard. Pulling a silver coin out of
his pocket, Koren pressed it between his finger and thumb,
wishing
it
would bring the man some good luck, to turn his life around. The coin seemed to
grow warm. "Here, take this."

"Oh, I
can't take your money." The man protested.

"It was
given to me, I can give it to you."

The man held
the coin up to the poor light, Koren could just see his eyes open wide as the
man realized he had been given a gold coin, not a common copper piece.
"Well, bless you, young man. And, good luck to you, wherever you may
go."

"Yes,
Your Highness?" Paedris asked, standing at the door to his tower, more
than slightly flustered at finding the crown princess waiting for him. He was
still feeling very weak, even walking down the stairs to answer the call at the
door was an effort that had left him slightly out of breath.

"I wanted
to thank you for healing me," Ariana answered, unconsciously moving her
right shoulder blade, where the stone had hit her and knocked her to the
flagstones of the courtyard. "I brought chicken soup," she said as
she held up a large silver tureen, her arms shaking. The tureen was solid
silver, part of the royal dinnerware, and it was heavy by itself. Filled with
soup, Ariana had to hug it to her chest to keep from dropping it.

Paedris saw
her distress, and tactfully said "Why, thank you, Your Highness. Perhaps
your guard could carry the soup, while you help an old man up the stairs."

Ariana
blushed, and silently mouthed 'thank you', with a wink to the wizard. Paedris
held onto her arm lightly, he truly did need help climbing the two flights of
stairs up to the chamber that had been built for a wizard to receive guests. In
the years Paedris had been living there, he had few guests other than other
wizards, and the occasional army captain or general. The chamber had never been
fancy, and now it was quite simply a mess. Rather than climb more stairs,
Paedris had requested his bed be moved down here, and with Koren gone, the
chamber was not being cleaned regularly. Servants from the palace were sent
every couple days, but none of them liked being in the forbidding tower, and
left as quickly as they could, after hurriedly tidying up. Paedris sat down in
an over-stuffed chair, and waved toward the table. "Set it down there,
good man."

The guard
frowned when he saw the table, already overloaded with old plates, bowls, mugs,
scrolls and cutlery. Ariana scooped up an armful of dirty dishes, and set them
on the floor. When the guard had placed the soup tureen on the table, she
dismissed him. "You may leave us, wait in the courtyard."

The guard
lifted an eyebrow in surprise. The crown princess was never supposed to be
alone with a man, she always was accompanied by a guard, or a maid. Always.
"Your Highness-" The guard began to protest.

"You may
leave us,
now
." Ariana insisted, in a voice of command that
belonged only to a crown princess, with no trace of the young girl. Paedris
rose halfway out of his chair, and gave the guard his best intimidating
wizardly glare. The guard might have stood his ground against a fourteen year
old girl, princess or not, but wizards were not to be messed with. The guard
had seen the charred remains of the assassin, after Paedris had risen from his
sickbed to chase the assassin across the rooftops, and blast the man from
Acedor into a crispy cinder. Bowing deeply to both princess and wizard, the
guard backed out of the room, and from the sound his boots made, fairly ran down
the stairs.

Ariana found
two clean bowls and spoons, and served the soup, before sitting in a chair
across from the wizard. Paedris, although he had been around the royal
Trehaymes since Ariana's father was a little boy, couldn't remember ever having
a royal person act as a dinner servant. He wasn't really in the mood for
chicken soup, but so as not to offend the princess, he took a spoonful, and
exclaimed in surprise "This is chicken fortana soup! How did you,
where-"

"I had
the kitchens make it for you, there is a man from Stade who works in the
stables, his wife gave the cooks her recipe. Is it good?" Ariana had
feared the cooks in the royal kitchens, who had been skeptical about making
exotic foreign food, had gotten it wrong. To her, the soup tasted good, a bit
too spicy for a girl raised on bland Taradoran food, but good.

"Good!
It's good. The peppers should be roasted a bit, and it's a bit bland, but
that's probably better for me right now. Thank you, Your Highness."

A bit bland?
Ariana wondered how the wizard could say that, as she sipped water to cool the
burning in her mouth. "I thought that, Koren said he used to cook special
food for you, and, since he's not here-" She stopped to wipe a tear away
with her handkerchief.

Paedris
remained silent for a moment, to let the princess recover her composure. It had
been four weeks since Koren ran away, four weeks that had seen the wizard
deathly ill, until Shomas Feany had arrived to heal him. Even now, Paedris was
still weak and tired.

"Have you
heard anything, any word?" Ariana asked. Paedris had sent word to those
other wizards who were on the way to Linden to tend to the stricken court
wizard, that he needed them instead to do whatever they could to find Koren Bladewell.
If Paedris died, that would certainly be bad, but Tarador would likely survive.
If Koren was captured by the enemy, Tarador, and the rest of the free world,
would certainly fall to the Dark One of Acedor.

"Of
Koren? No, no, nothing. You?"

"Nothing
from the army." Ariana twisted the handkerchief in her hands, then used it
to wipe away the tears that welled up in her eyes. "I never really told
him I was sorry that he didn't get credit for finding the Cornerstone. And that
I should not have made him leave the Regency Council meeting. I never told him
how I feel."

Paedris looked
away, to give the young princess time to compose herself. "It is early
yet. Plenty of time for a young man alone to realize where he belongs, and
return home." He added, unconvincingly.

"Home?
This isn't his home, not any more!" Ariana's voice fluttered with
anguish.  "He believes people here consider him a coward, a deserter,
an assassin, that you wanted him thrown into the dungeon? And he believes that
he's a terrible jinx who almost killed me. Why would he ever come back
here?" Carlana had tried to keep Koren's letter secret from her daughter,
but that had not lasted. As soon as Ariana heard a rumor that Koren had left a
letter, addressed to Ariana, the crown princess had summoned the royal
chancellor, to consult the law. The chancellor had informed her that, as
Koren's letter was addressed to Ariana, it was her property. Further, the
elderly chancellor said gravely, that interfering with delivery of mail to the
royal family was a crime against the state, a
serious
crime. Ariana had
never seen her mother so mad at her as when she had been forced, in front of
her own chancellor, to deliver Koren's letter to Ariana. Whatever anger Carlana
felt paled in comparison to Ariana's own anger, and then bitter sorrow, when
she read the note. Her mother trying to explain that Koren's woes were caused
by terrible misunderstandings only made Ariana feel worse. "He saved my
life again. If I hadn't seen him across the courtyard, that gargoyle would have
fallen right on top of me."