The other lands

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The way it happened was strange, Rialus thought. He had lived through it, watching the change in their fortune as it occurred, but it was all so oddly muted. It was sudden, yes-and Dariel had made a fuss-but for all that it was cordial as well. It barely seemed possible that the civil interactions he and the prince had had with Sire Neen and the Ishtat Inspectorate had actually led to him and the prince becoming prisoners.

There was no other word for it. Chains. Manacles. That strange bit shoved in the prince's mouth and strapped tight. They spent a long night together in a cramped cabin, and the new morning found them propelled into motion with nothing explained. Ishtat guards escorted them-with shoves and prods and more threats than the situation called for-down and down into the belly of the ship. Eventually, they emerged through a hatch in the hull near the water level. A gangway descended to what appeared to be a floating platform. It was already crowded with leaguemen and Ishtat, all of whom stood apparently waiting for them. There were several other figures there. Numrek. Rialus had not seen them since the voyage began, but he recognized Calrach and his entourage of ten or so.

Rialus walked down the gangway on careful feet and landed on the strange surface. It was like an enormous slab of gray stone, rectangular and smooth but otherwise featureless. Initially Rialus thought they were to wait here for whatever vessel was going to ferry them to land. Despite the complete uncertainty of what they were heading toward, he rather wished it would arrive. He disliked the hulking enormity of the ship at his back, so huge it could have squashed them if it shifted. Since he was thinking about that, he nearly fell over when the platform beneath him moved. The entire thing pulled away from the Ambergris and slid toward the shore. It was such a strange feeling, for the gray slab did not so much float on the water as drive through it like a solid wedge, unaffected by the swell of waves and tide.

"You look perplexed, Prince," Sire Neen said, "as do you, Neptos. Well you should be. There are a great many things you don't know about the world. Even I am surprised by new things on occasion. How to explain this to you?" Sire Neen searched for the words, clicking his tongue. He ostensibly spoke to the two Acacians, but he pitched his voice loud enough for the amused leaguemen around them to hear.

"Think about the ways that we harness the natural world," he said. "Wind billows against our sails and drives our ships forward. We are familiar with that, but it's no less amazing. We can sit in a cabin while the invisible wind drives us across the globe. A thing we can't see, can't touch-the air itself-can do work that thousands of laborers couldn't accomplish. We can harness the power of flowing water to grind grain or lift loads. We can heat a cold room with fire. Have you never thought how strange that is? Why does wood burn? Why does it make heat? What happens that turns the log into ash? There are so many mysteries, but the league has long pondered such questions. And we have learned some answers.

"But I speak of our own knowledge, not of the Lothan Aklun's magic-which is what powers this vessel. For centuries they told us nothing, gave us nothing, kept all their secrets to themselves." Several of the listening leaguemen grumbled at this. "Recently, though, we had two occasions during which to extract some secrets from them: when we negotiated a contract between them and Hanish, and when we struck new terms between them and your good sister. They gave us a barge like this one. Even as they gave us these things, they withheld the secrets of them. We don't know how to make a vessel like this. It's sorcery, but a very useful sorcery. We will know their secrets soon, of course, since we can now explore their libraries and warehouses and records at will."

Rialus could see that Dariel wished to say something. Sire Neen could, too. He smiled. "I know what you would say, Prince. You'd curse us-the league-as treacherous, devious beasts. And you'd be right! In commerce it's the bold who succeed. The league is bold, and-I'm sure you're starting to see-we have succeeded incredibly. Isn't that right, friends?"

The leaguemen around them agreed. A few of the Ishtat guffawed. Rialus had never seen the company so chipper. It was downright unnerving. He itched to try speaking to Sire Neen again. How to do so, though? What words to catch his interest? He could think of nothing that the leagueman wouldn't squash before he'd even finished his first sentence. He knew more was coming, more news, more revelations, likely more horrors. He did know that Dariel was no longer a person he wished to be too closely associated with. He slid a step away from the prince, as far as he could get before a guard jabbed him.

He set his eyes on the approaching shore-if shore it could be called. There was no sign of actual earth or beach or other natural features. It was a confusion of buildings that together made one continuous barrier several stories high. It was undecorated, pale hues of tan stone, stained by the sea and by weather, with few windows or anything else to indicate that the inhabitants could look out. It was like the unadorned backs of buildings, like warehouses viewed from a rarely trafficked alleyway.

"Look at those walls," Sire Neen said. "Our spies told of these, but it was hard to credit them. On one hand they spoke of the Auldek being a military power that no longer fears anyone-neither in the Other Lands nor among the Lothan Aklun-but they swore they built massive walls to hide them from the sea. I think I understand it better now, having listened to the Numrek howls."

"They'd be howling right now," another leagueman added, "if they weren't so ecstatic about seeing Ushen Brae again."

"It may simply be that the Auldek fear the ocean, fear it so much they believe they must hide behind a wall to be safe from it. Isn't that strange?" Sire Neen waited a moment and then turned to Dariel. "All right, Prince, hold your tongue. Keep your eyes open, though. There's going to be plenty to see. But what of you, Rialus? You've barely said a word all day."

Rialus was surprised Neen had noticed. No, he had not spoken for some time. He almost felt his own mouth as stuffed as the prince's, filled with awed questions that bulged his cheeks as much as a mouthful of stones would have. Actually, it was the fact that he had so many questions that kept him quiet. The things his eyes took in, the words he heard bantered about by Sire Neen and the others, the long history of things he had believed to be and had expected always would be and was now being told were no longer all struck him dumb.

Sire Neen waved his fingers toward him, almost flirtatiously. "Say something. Speak. Speak."

"I–I-" Rialus stammered. "I don't know where to begin."

"I'm not surprised. There is nothing harder for a mediocre mind to understand than the fact that the world is ever vulnerable to great change. People like you-and the prince here-believe that the world is. Just is. Some things are. There is an order, you believe, a pattern to things that you never imagine can be changed. You only ever see portions of the way things are. You are like a soldier on a battlefield. You see what is before you. You choose right or left and try desperately to stay alive. That's you, yes? You'll forever be surprised when you realize you have no control over your fate. But the league stands atop a high ridge. We look down and see the entirety of it. With such a view, the world is so much easier to navigate. And to reshape. There are risks, yes. Surprises, surely, but-Look, we've reached our destination!"

The structures that marked the shoreline were but a stone's throw away, the distance narrowing. For a moment, the leagueman's eyes scanned the dock and the heights of bare wall above it. He looked every bit as transfixed by the sight as Rialus felt.

"The league is bold," Sire Neen said, musingly, "and to the bold goes the world, all its riches, all the power. This will be a fine day."