The Queen of Death

30

Esprë giggled at the warforged s deadpan praise at such a tense moment. She cut herself off an instant later, but not before she caught Kandler smirking at her just a bit too. Sallah, on the other hand, just looked annoyed.

“I wish to impress upon you how serious this is,” Sallah said, leaning toward the young elf.

“You don’t think I understand that?” Esprë wondered if the knight had meant to be insulting.

“I don’t think Kandler has been as clear with you about it as he could. If you decide to sail to Argonnessen, you will surely be killed.”

Behind Sallah, Kandler shook his head and pursed his lips, “No.”

Esprë suppressed the giggle tickling at her mouth. Sallah wasn’t so successful.

“Does he think I can’t see him?” Sallah said with half a smile.

“I have to put up with antics like that all the time,” Esprë said.

Sallah’s face turned serious again. “This is why I suspect you may not understand how mortally serious this all is.” The lady knight straightened up and pointed off to the southeast. “That way lies Argonnessen,” she said. “That way lies death.”

She turned toward the northwest. “In that direction lies Thrane. There we would have the whole of the Knights of line Silver Flame to act as your bodyguard. Jaela Daran, the Keeper of the Flame, will protect you and keep you from harm.”

Kandler tapped Sallah on the shoulder. “May I be allowed the opportunity to present my point of view?”

He spoke as politely as Esprë had ever heard him, and this worried her. Kandler wasn’t much for manners. When he became polite, she knew something was horribly wrong. “I must add one thing first,” Sallah said.

The lady knight got down on one knee before the girl. As she did, she drew her sword and held it up before herself. The silvery flames flickered before her, and Esprë could see the light from the blade reflected in Sallah’s emerald eyes.

“No matter what your decision, Esprë, I pledge myself to your cause. I will not abandon you. Our fates will be intertwined. I say this so you know that I do not take your choice here lightly. I place my life in your hands, and I can only pray that you will choose what is clearly the correct path.” Sallah stood up then and resheathed her sword. “Look into your heart, Esprë. You will see the Flame burning there, and it will light your way.”

Sallah snapped a quick salute to the girl then stepped aside, gesturing for Kandler to move up. He took one step forward and put his hands on Esprë’s arms. Then he thought better of it and sat down before her. In this position, Kandler had to look up at Esprë, and she found she liked it. She wanted to reach out and tousle his hair. The several days’ worth of beard he wore on his face ruined the illusion of him being a child though—that, and the few gray hairs she could see on his head from this unfamiliar angle.

Kandler folded his hands in his lap and spoke. He kept his words clear and distinct and his tone even and reasonable. Esprë saw no drama in his presentation, just the facts as he saw them.

“I’ve been to Thrane,” he said. “They have good people there and bad. If the Knights of the Silver Flame say they will protect you, they will do their best. But they will fail.”

Sallah started to interrupt, but Kandler, Esprë, and even Xalt cut her off with unforgiving glares.

“Thrane cannot hide you from the world. One way or another, Vol has been able to follow your movements. Majeeda did it too. Others—like the dragons or the Undying Court—will figure out a way. I’ve infiltrated Flamekeep myself.”

Sallah gasped at this news, but Kandler ignored her and pressed on.

“I trust that the Church of the Silver Flame will not give you up to its foes. It will do whatever it must to protect you, including go to war. If the church teaches its members anything, it’s to value their vows. I can see this breaking down in two different ways, though, and neither is pleasant. In the first, the people who want you dead send assassin after assassin to kill you until they succeed. They will have an inexhaustible supply of murderers willing to risk anything for the reward offered for your head.”

Esprë put a hand to her throat.

“The second, sadly, is much worse. Some nation may decide that the assassins aren’t working or won’t work or are too damn subtle or whatever. It’ll opt for the direct approach instead. They’ll send an army to Thrane for you. It’ll be war.”

“You really think they’d go to war over me?”

Kandler frowned. “Over what you represent. Remember, (he Treaty of Thronehold was only signed two years ago. Some nations didn’t want to sign it. They’ll take any excuse they can find to start the conflict up again. The reemergence of the Mark of Death, that’s going to be enough for them, especially if they find it in the custody of one of their foes.”

Esprë felt her legs start to wobble. To think that something like the Last War—which had taken her mother’s life—could start up again over her made her think that perhaps she’d been too hasty with Xalt. Throwing herself over the gunwale didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.

“I know, Esprë,” Kandler said softly. “This isn’t fair. No one should have to shoulder something like this. No one should be expected to have to make these kinds of decisions, especially not you.”

Esprë wiped at her eyes. She hadn’t felt any tears there yet, but she wanted to make sure. “What—and what if we go to Argonnessen?” she asked, her voice raw and low.

“I won’t lie to you,” Kandler said, his face grim and drawn. “Sallah’s right. It’s probably death for all of us. Tactically, we don’t stand a chance against a continent full of dragons. Killing Nithkorrh, well, you saw how hard that was, and we got lucky. We can’t count on our luck to hold out for that long.”

“But it won’t mean war,” Esprë said. “We’d be the only ones to die.”

Kandler nodded. “You never know. I’ve never been to Argonnessen. No one on the ship has, not even Burch.”

“I thought he’d been everywhere!” Esprë said with a false grin.

It had been a long-running joke in Mardakine that there wasn’t a place in Khorvaire where Burch didn’t know someone. Of course, they weren’t talking about Khorvaire any longer.

“You would counsel your daughter to enter the darkness rather than face the light?” Sallah said.

Xalt spoke up. “To sacrifice herself so that others may live?”

Kandler craned back his neck and gave the knight a weak smile. “Didn’t think I had it in me?”

Sallah gazed down at Kandler, and Esprë saw her love for the man shine in her face. The lady knight had done such a good job of suppressing that affection since she had declared her intentions to leave the Phoenix that Esprë had begun to wonder if it had ever existed at all.

“I always knew,” Sallah said. “I just didn’t understand.” She reached down and placed a gentle hand on Kandler’s shoulder, and he reached up and covered it with his own.

“Well,” Esprë said, bringing the eyes of the others back to her.

She saw the soft curls at the edges of their mouths now, and somehow she knew that everything would be all right—at least between Kandler and Sallah.

“It seems the decision has already been made,” the young elf said. An enormous relief washed over her. The horrible choice that they’d placed before her had been removed, or so she thought.

Kandler grimaced. “Sorry, Esprë, but it’s still your call. I just laid out the facts as I see them. Whether Sallah agrees with me or not, this isn’t something we’re putting to a vote. There’s only one voice that matters here, and it’s yours.”

Esprë frowned. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“It’s not. It’s not fair that any of this has happened to you—to any of us.”

“That’s not the point, is it?”

“You can only do what you can do,” Kandler said. “The question is: What would you like to do?”

“How very cryptic of you,” Sallah said. “You’d make a fine priest of the Flame, I think.”

“I couldn’t handle the vows of celibacy,” he said.

Sallah looked confused. “There aren’t any vows of celibacy,” she said as if the very thought were alien to her. “How do you think my parents had me?”

“I don’t know,” Kandler said, smiling at Esprë, knowing that Sallah couldn’t see his face. “I’ve heard some religions going on and on about virgin births.”

Sallah smacked the justicar in the back of the head. “Hey!” he said with a mischievous grin.

“Excuse me,” Esprë said before the two could grab each other and started rolling around on the bridge. “I have a decision to announce here.”

Kandler and Sallah fell silent and looked up at her with expectant eyes. Esprë noticed that the chatter around the roast tribex had ceased too. Everyone on the ship waited to hear her speak.

When it finally came to it, Esprë could hardly the name of their location out. Her lips seemed to freeze together, but soon they thawed and she spoke her mind.

“Argonnessen,” she said. “We’re going to Argonnessen.”