Scimitar Sun (30 page)

“Ain’t no wonder. I wouldn’t want to be in the water when one of those hot flows hits it. You can hear it two leagues off shore, the crackin’ and poppin’. I imagine it’d deafen anyone under the surface, to say nothin’ of boilin’ ya to death.”

“Well, it’ll give me the opportunity to update Orin’s charts, anyway,” Cynthia said, brightening. “Not that they’ll be accurate for very long, but it’ll give me something to do while we wait.”

“Other than keepin’ the
Pride
off the rocks, you mean?” Feldrin said, arching one black eyebrow.

“Well, yes, but how hard will
that
be?” She smiled at his deep-throated grumble. “Don’t worry. We can stand off half a mile or so while we wait. Just heave to in fifty fathoms and we’ll be safe enough.”

“Aye, unless the blasted mountain throws a ball of molten rock down on us,” he said, still frowning. “Sorry, Cyn, but it makes me nervous. Fire and water, you know.” Mouse perked up at the mention of fire, and looked worried.

“I know, I know,” she said, remembering her conversation with Camilla on the subject. “Love and sorrow…”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing. Just an old rhyme that Cammy brought to — ”

The click of the dining hall’s big double door brought her up short, and she looked up. Edan poked his head into the room, a worried look on his freckled features.

“Tim said you wanted to see me, Mistress?” he asked, stepping through the doorway with Flicker hovering around his head. The firesprite looked disappointed when she saw the unlit candelabrum on the table, but perked up when she saw Mouse, a mischievous glint in her burning-coal eyes.

“Yes, Edan. Please come in.” Cynthia gestured to the chart-strewn table and scooped up Mouse before he could dart off to torment the firesprite. “Now you be good, Mouse, and stay put.” She perched him on her shoulder, ignoring his petulant “hrmph” of disgust. “We’re making plans for our trip to Fire Isle, and we wanted you in on it.”

“Oh! Oh, yes!” He brightened immediately and approached the table and sat in an adjacent chair, his eyes widening at the array of charts. “Wow! I didn’t know you had maps of the island.”

“We don’t,” Feldrin said, a little edge in his deep voice. “These are
charts
, not maps. They only show the water, not the land, or not much of it anyway.”

“Oh. Sorry. Yes, I see.” He squinted at the detailed renderings, pulling Flicker back as she eyed the flammable parchment. “No, Flick! Don’t even think it.” She sat back on his shoulder and sulked, her fun spoiled. “It looks confusing.”

“It is,” Feldrin said, pointing to a relatively deep channel between two promontories. “This is the only point of approach on the lee shore. These numbers are the depth of the water in fathoms, so you can see how jumbled up the sea floor is. The approach’ll be dangerous. If we make a mistake, we could rip the bottom right out of the
Pride
.”

The boy’s eyes widened, his features paling, his fear palpable. “But how will I get ashore through that?”

“I’ll be aboard, Edan,” Cynthia said with a thin smile. “I can see what lies beneath the surface, so I’ll be able to guide the ship in safely. Then we’ll put you in a launch and take you ashore.”

“A launch? You mean one of the
little
boats?” His fear doubled, audible in his tremulous voice. “But won’t there be waves? What if it tips over?”

“Well, then you’d have to learn to swim,” Feldrin said with a malicious grin. “Quickly.”

“Oh, stop it, Feldrin!” Cynthia scolded. “Don’t worry, Edan. I’ll be with you, and the water will be as flat as a mill pond, I promise.”

“Well I suppose that would be — ”

“But it will
still
be dangerous,” Feldrin interrupted, his scowl intact. “And this is
my
ship we’re talkin’ about.”

“Which brings up something that we need to ask of you, Edan,” Cynthia said, noting the instant flicker of suspicion on the boy’s face. “We’re doing a lot for you; Feldrin is risking his ship and the safety of his crew to help you, and I don’t mind telling you that being that close to an active volcano makes me more than a little nervous. I agreed to do this as a favor to the lightkeeper, but there’s something you need do for us as well.”

“Of course,” he said, his tone eager but edged with worry. “Whatever you need.”

“What we need is for ya — ”

“What we need,” Cynthia broke in, cutting through Feldrin’s usual lack of diplomacy with a calming tone, “is a delicate subject, Edan. It involves Camilla. Specifically, your feelings for Camilla.”

“I don’t understand,” the boy said, his suddenly guarded expression belying his words. “I don’t have any — ”

“See, now, there ya go lyin’. Right there is why I’m tempted to just chuck ya into the Fathomless Reaches and have done with it!” Feldrin’s ire made Cynthia cringe, and it struck Edan like a physical blow. The young man blanched even paler and sat back in his chair, eyes wide, while Flicker darted behind his neck. “And I swear by Odea’s hand, if ya lie to us again, that’s exactly what I’ll do!”

“Feldrin, please,” Cynthia said, placing a hand on his arm and earning a scowl from his dark eyes. They had differed in their opinions of how to approach Edan on this subject, but she hadn’t thought he would threaten the boy. “Edan, we know you have feelings for Camilla, and there’s nothing wrong with that. What you have to understand is that Camilla is very special to us both, and that she has had a very bad experience with unwelcome romantic advances in the past.”

“I’m sorry,” Edan said, regaining a bit of his composure, though he still watched Feldrin fearfully. “I didn’t mean to lie about it, but I’m just a little…embarrassed. I didn’t think it was anyone’s concern but hers and mine.”

“You must understand, Edan, that Cammy is more than just a friend to Feldrin and me. We are family. She’s been through trials that would have killed anyone with less fortitude, and we will
not
have her go through them again. She wants to leave, but I have convinced her to stay, at least for a while, if you agree to do as we ask.”

“And what do you want me to do?” he asked, his mouth set in a firm line of displeasure.

“First, you must apologize to her for frightening her as you have. Then — ”

“Frightening her?” His eyes popped as if he’d been slapped. “Excuse me, Mistress Flaxal, but how have I frightened Camilla?”

“By telling her that, once you become a firemage, you’ll be powerful and get whatever you want!” Feldrin said, his dark eyes boring into the young man like thumbscrews. “She’s been hurt by power before, and it’ll
not
happen again.”

“But I didn’t mean — ”

“Regardless of what you meant, Edan, you must see this from her perspective.” Cynthia squeezed Feldrin’s arm, but kept her eyes on Edan. “Bloodwind kept her captive for almost as long as you’ve lived. He kept her in chains, a slave, half-starved and paraded before his captains as a prize for fifteen years. It took him that long to wear down her will to the point where, given the choice of being his slave or his wife, she took the latter. They were never married, and in the end it was Camilla who put a dagger in his heart.”

She let that sink in. In Edan’s eyes she could see his recognition of the hardships that Camilla had endured, as well as the fact that she had killed the pirate-lord Bloodwind with her own hand.

“I’m sorry,” he said finally. “I didn’t mean to…I mean, I…”

“We know you didn’t mean to hurt her, Edan,” Cynthia said, softening. “What we need now is for you to do what’s right. We want you to apologize and to tell her that you were mistaken, that you don’t have romantic feelings for her anymore. You didn’t know she’d been hurt, and now that you do, I know you won’t make any more advances, either now or after your ascension.”

“But I
do
have feelings for her,” he said, his brows knitting in anguish. “I know I’m younger than she is, and now I know that she’s been hurt before, but I
won’t
hurt her, not like Bloodwind did. I could make her happy!”

“No, Edan, you couldn’t make her happy,” Cynthia said emphatically. “The only person who can make Camilla happy is Camilla. If you truly have feelings for her, you’ll let her go; you’ll let her be happy on her own.”

Uncomfortable silence settled on them like a shroud while Edan thought about what they had said. Cynthia could see the emotions playing through him — the turmoil of desire, fear and determination each vying for purchase, like a man standing in the surf upon weed-slick stones. She knew there was much in his mind that he would not say, that he knew he could not say to them, so it surprised her a little when his eyes finally snapped to focus and his jaw clenched before he spoke.

“And if I refuse to do as you ask?”

Cynthia sat back and opened her mouth to speak, but Feldrin’s huge hand encircled her arm and his rough basso voice cut her off.

“Then there’ll be no ship to take you to Fire Isle,” he said, placing his other hand flat on the chart splayed before them. “You won’t have the chance to do yer little dance in the volcano, and you’ll
never
be a firemage,
ever
.”

Cynthia hated that they had to play this card, but she and Feldrin had agreed that it was their only means of pressuring Edan into leaving Cammy alone. If he refused, he would forego his ascension and have no power, and Camilla would have no reason to fear him. If he agreed…well, right now, Cynthia wasn’t sure she would believe him. The problem with their plan was that once Edan had completed his ascension, their leverage over him vanished.
But at least by then
, she thought,
we can have Camilla out of his reach.

She could see the anger behind those pale eyes, those knitted crimson brows, and could feel his hatred like the heat from an open oven door. For the first time, the thought of helping this young man — so emotional, so naïve — gain the power to wield fire as she directed the might of wind and wave, frightened her. Cynthia had been fixed on how important her magic was to her and how sad it would be for Edan to never achieve his potential, but now she was not sure; the power of an elementalist in angry and volatile hands could be disastrous. She was considering calling off the whole thing, renouncing her vow to help the lightkeeper, when, once again, Edan’s response surprised her.

“I need some time to think about this, Mistress Flaxal,” he said, pushing himself up from his seat with shaking hands. The anger had faded, and his eyes flicked around the room as if he were lost. “I don’t know what I would do, what I would be, if I gave up my ascension. I could earn a living, I suppose, but…” His eyes focused back on hers, a thin hope kindling behind them. “Do you think that she…that Camilla might…”

“No, Edan, I don’t.” She hated herself for saying it, for telling him the truth. “She doesn’t love you. It’s not your fault that she doesn’t, it’s just the way things are.”

“I…I still need to think about it.” He nodded to them both and left the room, his thin shoulders slumped, his gait slack, Flicker flying in agitated circles about his head.

After the door closed, Cynthia and Feldrin sat for a while in silence, their hands clasped under the table. Finally, Cynthia expressed their mutual thoughts in words.

“Gods, I hated that, but I don’t know how else we could have done it.”

“It was the only way, Cyn,” Feldrin said, standing and starting to organize and stow the charts, rolling each carefully before tying it with string and slipping it into its own wooden tube. “But I still don’t feel right about helpin’ that lad become a firemage. He’s too full of fear, too much a coward.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call him a coward, Feldrin. Anyone willing to walk into a volcano must have some fortitude. Just because he’s afraid of the ocean, I don’t — ”

“It’s not just the ocean he fears, lass. You can see it in his eyes when he looks at ya. Fear’s runnin’ through his veins all the time, and he barely keeps it under control.” He stowed the last chart and slapped the cap on the tube with a crack. “Makin’ him a firemage, givin’ him that much power, is a mistake.”

“Why?” she asked, though she thought she knew the answer.

“’Cause there’s naught more dangerous than fear and power together.”

≈

“Oy! You there, boy! Come ‘ere!”

The gravelly dwarven voice stopped Sam in her tracks. She quelled the urge to run and instead turned to the thick-set little dwarven woman who ran everyone around the shipyard ragged with her tongue. She knew there would be a meeting like this, but she’d hoped to put it off a while longer. She was still getting the lay of the land. She knuckled her forehead and pitched her voice carefully.

“Yes, ma’am.” She trotted forward and grinned. “Some’at I ken do for’e, ma’am?”

“What’s yer name, boy?”

“Billy, ma’am. Billy Knockshire.” She tried to ignore the dwarf’s huge hands tucked into her belt, hands big enough to reach fully around Sam’s upper arm and undoubtedly strong enough to break the bone simply by squeezing. “Off the
Pride
, I am.” She made sure she stood just out of reach of the dwarf’s short arms.

“Are ye, now? I don’t remember seein’ ye ‘round these past four days.”

“Aye, the mate’s had me scrubbin’ the bilge, stem to stern. I just seen daylight today fer the first time since we arrived.”

“Oh, has he? Well, you can tell me the mate’s name then, I’m sure.”

“O’course, ma’am. Master Horace’s the mate of the
Pride
.”
Bloody suspicious female
, she thought, glad that she’d spent the past two nights eavesdropping as the crews relaxed and talked after supper. “There a prob’m, ma’am?”

“Just like to know everyone, is all.” The dwarf squinted at her skeptically. “You don’t look the type Feldrin Brelak would hire. How’d you get a berth on the
Pride
?”

“Well, uh, I di’nt ‘xactly get no berth, ma’am. I stowed away, an’ Master Horace agreed not ta chuck me o’rboard if I scrubbed the bilges. All I wanted was to get away from me paw. I co’nt take his beatin’s no more.” She shuffled from one foot to another uncomfortably, which wasn’t much of an act. None of her lies would stand up to much scrutiny.