The Gods of Amyrantha (70 page)

'I'll survive,' he said, surprised to discover he wasn't as cold as he might have been, given he'd being lying naked in a puddle of stagnant water for half the night. He gingerly felt the scratches on his face but they seemed to have healed already, which was something to be grateful for.

'How do you know we're twenty miles north of Herino?'

'We passed the oyster farms just before you woke.'

Declan nodded. Desean was probably right. He pushed himself up and turned to examine the pile of rags Stellan had indicated in the stern, finding a shirt with the sleeves ripped off and a pair of rough, moth-eaten trousers among them. With some difficulty he managed to get dressed without capsizing the rocking dinghy and then sat on the seat facing Stellan Desean.

'Did you want me to row for a bit?'

Desean nodded. 'If you think you're up to it. My blisters are starting to get blisters of their own.'

'It'll warm me up.' Declan stood up and carefully changed places with Stellan, picked up the oars and

began to pull on them, pleasantly surprised to find the task much less painful than expected.

Stellan Desean watched him from the other seat in silence for a time before asking, 'Why did you come for me?'

'Tilly asked me to. Why did you risk your neck to help me?'

'I wasn't sure I would ever be able to face Arkady again if I didn't.'

When Declan didn't answer, the duke fell silent again for a while.

'Do you know what's happened to her?' he asked, some time later.

Declan shook his head. 'All I know is that Jaxyn doesn't have her. She may have given him the slip in Ramahn. I have one of my people there with orders to help her if they can.'

'You love her, don't you?'

Declan didn't break the rhythm of his rowing. 'She's my oldest friend.'

'That's not what I mean, Declan. And you know it.'

'It's all the answer I'm going to give you, though,' he replied. 'Were you heading for Lebec?'

'I have friends there,' he said.

'You have no friends, Desean. Not anywhere. If you show your face in Lebec you'll be back in custody within the hour.'

'I believe my staff is loyal to me, Declan, despite the fact I'm no longer officially their duke.'

'Your
staff,
as you so delicately refer to them, your grace, are for the most part, Crasii slaves. Every one of them will be under orders to report so much as a rumour of your survival to Jaxyn.'

He shook his head. 'I don't believe they'd betray me.'

'They won't even think of it as betraying you. They are compelled to obey the Tide Lords. Didn't you ever wonder why Jaxyn was so damned good at getting the Crasii to obey him?'

Desean shrugged. 'I just thought he was good with animals.'

'There's no Lebec for you any more, Desean.'

'Where
were
you going to take me?' he asked. 'I mean, you came to get me out. Were you planning to hand me back into custody, or did you have some sort of escape route in mind?'

'I was planning to hide you in Tilly's house until I could get you out of Herino.'

'Well, that plan is rather moot. What now?'

Declan thought about it for a moment, realising that along with everyone thinking Desean was dead, they probably thought he was dead, too. He tried to decide if it mattered any longer and was a little disturbed to realise it probably didn't. Chikita was well placed to become Jaxyn's bodyguard, which meant the Cabal would have a pair of eyes and ears in his inner sanctum. The orders he'd delivered on the way to the prison would ensure Warlock and Boots were on their way to Caelum within a few days, firmly ensconced in Syrolee's court.

Other than Jaxyn losing a cooperative minion, who was really going to suffer if he was no longer the King's Spymaster?

'We'll go north, for now. Past Lebec and into the Shevron Mountains,' he said, thinking there was at least one safe place he could hide Desean.

'What's in the mountains?' the duke asked.

Declan began to pull a little harder on the oars now he had a destination in mind. 'Family,' he said.

'Whose family?'

'My family.' The former spymaster smiled at the former duke in the darkness. 'I'm going to take you to meet my Pop.'

It was nearly two weeks later when Declan and Stellan arrived at Maralyce's mine. It was late afternoon, the wind-driven snows of the past few days relenting for a

time as autumn tried, one last time, to make its presence felt in the mountains. When they arrived they found Shalimar sitting on a chair by the cabin door, taking advantage of the last of the autumn sunlight while he watched Nyah tossing horseshoes at a stick poking up out of the ground by the entrance to the forge.

Nyah squealed when she saw them, dropping the horseshoes and running to Declan. She threw her arms around him gleefully. 'You're back!'

Declan glanced at his grandfather with a questioning look. The old man smiled, but made no attempt to move from his chair. 'She's bored with the company of two old fogies, I suspect,' he called. 'Welcome back.'

Declan untangled Nyah, pushing her away firmly. 'Your highness.'

She bobbed a quick curtsey, grinning broadly. 'Master Hawkes. Who's this?'

'Princess Nyah of Caelum, allow me to introduce his grace, the Duke of Lebec, Stellan Desean.'

Nyah curtsied much more formally to Stellan when she realised he was high-born. The duke stared at him, aghast.
'You're
the one who kidnapped Princess Nyah?'

'I
did some people in Caelum a favour,' Declan said with a shrug.

'But ... everyone in two nations is looking for her. Tides, even I heard about it in prison. And you had her here all this time?'

'So arrest me,' Declan said, a little puzzled by Stellan's reaction. Perhaps the duke in him couldn't let go. The idea that he was consorting with criminals was going to be a hard adjustment to make. Perhaps even harder than accepting the Tide Lords were real. That just took enough evidence to make him see the truth.

Putting aside generations of inborn prejudice might well prove the insurmountable task.

Declan pushed past Nyah and crossed the yard to where his grandfather was sitting. On closer inspection, he had aged even more since Declan had seen him last. His eyes were rheumy and he was trembling faintly. Declan squatted down beside him. 'How are you doing, Pop?'

'I'm still alive.'

'That's a start.'

'You been traipsing around the mountains dressed like that?' he asked, taking in Declan's ragged sailor's garb. They'd been too afraid to go anywhere near civilisation, and Declan still wore the clothes he'd found in the stolen dinghy. Oddly enough, until Shalimar pointed it out to him, he hadn't really noticed the chill breeze that swirled around the small yard.

'It's not that cold, Pop.'

'That's young bones talking.' He smiled weakly, jerking his head in Nyah's direction. 'It's been nice to have some company while you were gone.'

'Is Maralyce not here?'

Shalimar shrugged. 'She comes and goes. It pains her to see me weakening.'

'So she just abandons you here to die?' 'You judge her too harshly, Declan.' 'Maybe.'

The old man stared at Stellan for a moment and then turned to look at Declan. 'What's Desean doing here?'

Declan glanced at the duke who was talking to Nyah, still in a state of shock over finding the Crown Princess of Caelum hiding out in a miner's camp in the Shevron Mountains. 'Tilly wanted me to save him from Jaxyn.'

'I'm guessing she didn't instruct you to bring him here?'

Declan shook his head. 'No, it wasn't part of the plan. Do you know when Maralyce will be back?' 'You in such a hurry to see her?' 'I need to ask her something.'

'Haven't seen her for a few days. I couldn't really say. Are you hungry?'

'Not particularly. But I'm guessing Desean is. We've been living off what we could forage on the way here.'

'Well, you must have been living the high life in Herino, lad, because you look none the worse for it. Help me inside, eh? There's a stew on the fire, and I wouldn't mind some tea. It's getting a bit too chilly out here, anyway.'

Declan helped his grandfather to his feet, appalled at how frail he was. It was as if the Tide was eating him away from the inside out. Soon there would be nothing left of him but a dried-up, hollow old shell.

Nyah saw them heading indoors, and with Stellan Desean following, they all retired to Maralyce's tiny cabin so Declan could bring his grandfather up to date on what was happening in the outside world.

It was after dark before Maralyce arrived, and although he couldn't say how, Declan knew she was coming even before the cabin door burst open. She stared at this sudden and unwelcome influx of visitors in her small sanctuary and then glowered at Declan. 'It's you.'

'Last time I looked,' Declan replied warily. 'We weren't expecting you for days. This is Stellan Desean, by the way. Arkady's husband.'

Maralyce glared at the man with ill grace. 'So we're to be honoured by the whole wretched royal family, now, are we?'

Stellan rose to his feet and bowed with court-bred grace. 'It's an honour to meet you, my lady.'

Maralyce ignored him. Her gaze was fixed firmly on Declan.

'Outside,' she ordered. 'I want to talk to you.'

Declan rose to his feet and followed her to the forge where she turned on him, studying him in the darkness for a time before asking, 'How?'

'How what?' he asked, afraid he knew the answer. More afraid of that answer than anything he had ever faced in his entire life.

'Don't play games with me, boy.'

He looked at her closely, hoping for some sign his fears were groundless. 'You can tell, can't you?'

She nodded. 'Felt you before I even reached the surface. What happened?'

'There was a fire ...' he said, not sure where to begin. Then he threw his hands up helplessly. 'Tides, Maralyce,
1
don't
know
what happened.'

'It's pretty flankin' obvious what's happened, boy.'

Declan shook his head. 'It can't be. The Eternal Flame is gone. The Immortal Prince extinguished it five thousand years ago.'

'Bah! Eternal Flame, my arse. It wasn't that special.'

He stared at her in shock.
'What?'

Maralyce shrugged uncomfortably. 'We thought it was better if people believed there was only one way to make an immortal. Kept the numbers down, you see ...'

'We? Who is
we?'

'Me ... and a few of the others ...'

'Other immortals?'

'Well ... of course ... who else would I be talking about?'

'But ... but Cayal told Arkady it took him a whole damned ocean to put the Eternal Flame out.'

Maralyce shrugged. 'Well, he would, wouldn't he? Makes him sound much more heroic, that way. Truth is, Cayal wouldn't have had a clue when the flames actually died. He was so lost to his rage he didn't know which way was up until it was all over.'

'Why didn't you say something sooner?'

'Didn't know you were gonna get yourself toasted, otherwise I might have.' When she saw he wasn't amused, she shook her head. 'Look ... you don't understand, Declan

'I understand, Maralyce,
believe
me, I understand.' He closed his eyes for a moment, unable to accept what was happening and then opened them and looked at her bleakly. 'Is there any chance this is ... I don't know ...'

'What?' she asked. 'A mistake? Temporary? A big mix up?' Impatiently, Maralyce grabbed his wrist and pulled the knife from her belt. Before he had a chance to object, she sliced across his forearm with it, cutting so deep he felt the blade grazing bone on its way through.

He cried out in pain, as the blood sprayed from his severed veins, but Maralyce refused to let him go. 'Look!' she commanded. 'You tell me, boy.'

Declan forced himself to look, forced himself to watch the bleeding stop and the muscles began to knit together. The pain was unbelievable, almost as unbelievable as what he was seeing.

Declan fell to his knees, Maralyce still gripping his arm, as his flesh repaired itself with alarming speed.

'No,' he whispered through the pain. 'Tides ... not this ...'

It wasn't Maralyce who said it aloud, however. It was Nyah who put Declan's greatest fear into words, making it so horribly final. It was as if somehow, by giving voice to the suspicion he'd been living with since waking up in the bottom of Stellan Desean's stolen dinghy without a mark, not a burn, even the wound Chikita had inflicted on his face a few hours earlier healed without a trace, she had made it real.

He glanced up and saw the little princess through his tears of despair and desolation, standing at the entrance to the forge, her eyes wide. She must have followed them from the cabin.

'Tides, Declan!' Nyah exclaimed. 'You're an immortal.'

EPILOGUE