Dire Sparks (Song of the Aura, Book Five) (19 page)

Twice more he checked to make sure he had not been seen or followed. Three times he doubled back on the same two alleys. One could never be too careful. Once out in the main city, though, he cut straight to his destination. The fewer people who saw him in this disguise, the better.

Once he had reached the shipyard he sought, Gramling entered the largest warehouse in the complex, bribing the guards with stolen coppers from two days before. This place was run by the Golden Navy, but it was still one of the best places for business that he had ever come across. Inside, he made his way to the back rooms where he knew to find the one he sought. And in the smallest, dingiest mapmaker’s chamber, he found just the Kinn he’d planned to confront all along.

Touch and go,
he told himself.
Very touch and go… but he’ll bend, if you make him. Just don’t let him break.

“
Hello, Trekno,”
he said in the Kinntongue, sliding down the mask so that light from a window fell on his face. The thin Kinn man behind the desk leaped up, scattering his papers and ink. A flame flickered in one hand, but the mapmaker extinguished it as soon as he realized who was before him.

“
Ag… Ag… Agrivor Gramling! Why are… No. I don’t want to know. What do you want with me?”
His consternation was amusing, really. Gramling would have to kill him if he blabbed, but if he served well…

“
You owe me. If not for my efforts, you would still have been back at the Golden Sepulcher when it fell. You’re a spineless rebel, Malcyte Trekno… but you’re too useful to let get away.”

“
Actually,”
stammered the cowardly Pit Strider,
“It was Lordyte Zonder who… I mean, he thought I’d be more use… disguised…”

Gramling snorted, and leaned forward, palms on the desk, fire in his eyes.
“It was ME, you fool. I told him to send you here, because you’d be a liability in battle. You’re weak, and twice as likely to sell out as you are to fight. Even that Paleskin girl was better than you… and you were her teacher!”

“
I… I… I…”

Gramling let the Kinn stutter and shake. It was no concern of his what Trekno thought, as long as he performed his duty. Finally, though, he’d had enough.

“
Listen to me, Trekno. You are because I allow it. If the Law knew you were a rebel, and a disguised Pit Strider runaway to boot, they’d tell the Argentor. And the Argentor would kill you in minutes, if he knew.”
The shock on the Malcyte’s face was hilarious, but Gramling kept his humor in check.

“
Ah… A… Are you with the Law?”
Drat this uniform. He’d forgotten about it… if he said no, now, as he’d planned, his compromised position might cause Trekno to consider double-crossing him. Well… he’d have to risk it.

“
No. But if you don’t get me passage with the next troop convoy… SAFE passage, for two passengers, with no questions asked… The Law will be on you instantly. With the recent rebellion being put down, any traitors to the Golden Nation will be snatched up like twigs in a blaze. I have connections, Trekno. I could even burn you to death myself… RIGHT NOW!”

He yelled the last two words, hoping no one outside the room would think strangely of it. Stranger things had happened in the belly of Goldenport, after all. Trekno was pale and trembling so hard his teeth chattered… but Gramling smiled coldly and straightened up, folding his arms casually across his chest.

“
I… I… will do as you ask,”
the Malcyte said, bowing and scraping as if his life depended on it… which it did.

“
Good,”
Gramling said. He turned to go, but stopped just inside the door.
“Malcyte Trekno?”

“
Y… yes, O Agrivor?”

Gramling turned his head slightly.
“I visited that scrawny woman of yours, earlier today. Don’t try to double-cross me. I know everything about you… and her. I’d hate for her to suffer for your cowardice… and that’s just what will happen, if you don’t do as I ask.”

“
Ye… Yes, my lord. Return in the… the evening, and it will be arr… arranged.”

“
Thank you.”

Then he left. Elia was waiting in an abandoned building on the outskirts for him to retrieve her and bring her to the docks.

This would be the trickiest part of all.

~

The building where he’d left her and stowed their supplies had once been a city manor of some magnificence. The skeleton of what it had been still held some measure of the original splendor, but most of the structure had been razed to the ground in some unnamed earlier conflict. Now, it was not much more than a crumbling monument to what had been. No sound broke the tomblike silence, and…

…
No. Wait. Gramling halted, ready for trouble. There
was
a sound, coming from further in the ruins. It sounded like… water. Running water. Daring to hope, he sped around the corner of two cracked walls, into what had once been a central courtyard of the manor.

Elia sat over the gutted remains of a sandstone fountain, floating on a seat of ever-flowing water that gushed up from below.
Impossible…
Gramling’s heart leaped, and he threw back his head, laughing at the sky.

“
You did it!” he cried, not caring who heard. “You’re Sea Striding again!” he ran to the edge of the fountain, but Elia did not break her posture in the slightest. Her legs were crossed under the skirts of the gray peasant’s garb he’d stolen for her, and her arms were wrapped around her stomach as if she felt cold.

Slowly, her head raised and her eyes opened. The sightless white orbs disturbed even him… but he had never said as much to her. Then, hesitantly at first, but growing more confident, she smiled. She hadn’t smiled even once during their journey. Turning her head towards him, she joined in his laugh.

“
Yes…” her voice was nearly bursting with joy. “When you left… I was ready to die. To take my own life, even. But then… I felt the
sea
.”

“
The Power of Sea?” he asked, reaching up. She took his hand without hesitation, and he grinned like a fool. Her senses were improving dramatically, without sight. Could this really be happening?

“
No,” she answered. “The sea. We’re so close to it... I can sense its vastness, just waiting for me to touch it. To draw on it.”

The water she had summoned from the long-dead fountain began to recede, and she stretched out her legs to step onto the lip of the pool. As the last of the liquid receded behind her, she stepped to the ground, taking his arm and leading him-
leading
him!- to where their supplies were stowed in the courtyard’s corner.

“
How… how has this changed things?” he asked, almost afraid for the answer. She was having trouble with her pack - not perfect, then - and he helped her put it on.

“
It’s changed
everything
,” she said, a bit wistfully. “The sea opened up a new world for me. I still can’t
see
… at least, not with my eyes. But I can sense things with Sea Striding that I could never sense before. It’s sight… of a kind. I could do it a little, back in the Sepulcher. Now… it’s the only way I can manage.”

He put his own pack on, and they walked across the courtyard to the manor’s exit. Elia avoided the fallen blocks of sandstone as if she really could see again.

“
Are there limits?” Gramling asked.

Elia shrugged. “I suppose. The more water in the air, the more nearby… the better. The less, the worse. I’m in my element, here.”

“
Literally,” he joked, and she gave him a flat stare. Blast, but that was unsettling!

“
Not funny,” she said, but her stare broke and she pealed into laughter.

“
Shhh,” he cautioned, “we’re not out of danger, yet.” He halted. “Oh… almost forgot. I have a disguise for you, similar to mine.” He pulled it out from under his robe, and handed it to her. “You’ll need it.” She took it, smiling oddly.

“
I still need you, too, Gramling,” she said quietly. “Don’t leave me, whatever you do.”

He smiled, but something felt uneasy in his heart. “I won’t. I swear it.”

Gribly closed his eyes for sleep, and when he opened them again he was standing atop Traveller’s mountain. The Gray Aura soon materialized beside him, looking singed on the edges but otherwise his usual, wry-humored self.

“
Well, you did that far easier than I’d expected, Youngling,” Traveller said. “The Otherworld is no easy thing to reach, but you’ve done it faster than… anyone.”

“
You mean faster than my father,” Gribly said, voice grim. That gave the Aura pause, but eventually he nodded.

“
Yes… that is what I meant. He was no easy student. Your powers of divination are quite astute, my young apprentice.”

Gribly snorted. “When I learn to speak your language, I’ll tell you. Until then, please speak like a human being.”

“
But I’m
not
a human being,” Traveller protested. Gribly didn’t deign to answer. “Anyway,” the Aura finally continued, “that’s not what we’re here for.”

“
What
are
we here for?” Gribly inquired. The Aura’s mental summons had come most unexpectedly. “Lauro isn’t going to like me letting myself fall asleep on guard duty… especially since we’ve been pushed back past the Lost Walls. It’s been a hard month. His nerves are on edge, what with commanding… and all.”

“
There is something you must see,” was Traveller’s only reply, and his tone brooked no argument. “Have you the staff?”

“
I do.”

“
Raise it.” Gribly did. “Now, follow my example.” The Gray Aura lifted his right hand, and Gribly lifted the staff in unison. The Aura moved his arm, pointing ahead and to the right, as if he could pierce the layer of clouds ‘round the mountain with his finger. Gribly mimicked the motion. “Now look where the staff points,” the Aura finished.

“
But I’m already…”

“
Look.
With more than your eyes, Gribly. Honestly, Boy…”

Gribly
looked
. And what he saw took his breath away, in more than one way.

The clouds seemed to open up before him, and for a moment it was as if his eyes had taken flight and sped down through the air, blindingly fast. The world was a whirling cauldron of color, which would halt at odd times, revealing a glimpse of this or that terrain, this or that building, this or that realm…

A series of rapid visions followed, so fast Gribly could not tell up from down, real from unreal, dream from reality:

…
He saw two dark figures, crouched in the hold of a ship. Though he could not see their faces, he knew in an instant that they were hiding from someone… someone powerful, who was searching for them to kill them, or worse…

“
Ah… your mind sees first what your heart holds closest,” Traveller said.

…
He saw a man wearing a bloody crown, fighting draiks on a snowy hill stained red. The man’s face was too blurry to see, but his tarnished breastplate bore the emblem of a soaring white hawk…

“
So begins the end,” Traveller whispered.

…
He saw a fleet of golden warships, sailing on a bloodstained sea, with an enormous red-gold serpent swimming in the lead…

“
The tide sweeps on, but this time its bite will draw blood.” Traveller’s voice was angry, this time.

…
He saw another mountain, dark and jagged-peaked, surrounded by black clouds and crimson flashes of light. Near the top stood a man with a melted golden face, laughing in the wind…

“
No! Not there!” interrupted Traveller… but it was too late.

“
COME,”
said the golden-faced man, in a voice like sundered skies.