When Dragons Rage

5

Will awoke muzzy-headed. It wasn’t that he’d drunk too much the night before but that he’d stayed up much too late, and Resolute’s dawn rising had left him perilously short of sleep. While he had managed to burrow back into the blankets and tried to use them to shut out the light, his efforts failed. He dozed and awoke a half-dozen times before surrendering, slipping from bed and getting dressed.

Despite being half-asleep, he did pull on his mask, tying it into place before he left the room. Prior to the previous night, he’d seen that mask as silly. As a thief he’d always known the value of wearing a mask, but that was to preserve anonymity. An Oriosan mask did just the opposite, proclaiming all manner of details about the person behind it. It struck him as not a little ironic that the customary tool of a thief here allowed him to scout out potential targets by interpreting mask decorations that indicated prosperity or nobility.

And while he’d worn his mask since Yslin, he’d been wearing it to humor those backing the army. But the previous night in the common room, he’d watched how common folk were treating him. They were reading the mask and believing what it proclaimed. They knew it had been given to him by the king, and that he was the Norrington. To them, it didn’t matter that he’d been a thief. The simple fact was that he had been given a mask that elevated him, and it made all the difference.

Part of him wanted to dismiss the mask as nonsense, but he didn’t. First—and it pained him to admit it—was the fact that the people really were looking to him as their hope against Chytrine. Their faith surprised him, for in the den of thieves where he grew up, having faith in someone was the first step to being betrayed. Had he wanted to wring money from those who believed in him, he could have had whatever they possessed in a heartbeat.

He didn’t want their money, however. He wanted their good wishes and hopes. He had a mission—saving Crow—and his mask told those in Tolsin that he was to be trusted. It gave him a legitimacy he never would have had otherwise, and he was determined to use that power to save his friend.

And while it surprised him that he was employing so valuable a tool for someone else’s benefit, he also acknowledged that the world was no longer as it had been just six months earlier.

Will wandered down the stairs and through the inn’s common room. He nodded in response to the innkeeper’s greeting, then headed out into the town. The coming winter had left a chill in the air, but the sun’s caress warmed him. The sun had long since climbed above the Bokagul Mountains to the south, and somewhere between that and Tolsin lay the city of Valsina, the home of the Norrington family. His father’s wife controlled the estates, holding it for her children—allegedly his half brothers. Bosleigh Norrington had acknowledged the two boys as his, but dark rumors suggested he had not sired them.

Tolsin itself wasn’t very impressive, though it was large enough to support two inns and a third tavern, as well as a smith and several carpenters and woodwrights. It had a market square in the heart of town, with farmers and traveling merchants selling their wares.

As Will wandered, eyeing the Thistledown Tavern for any signs of easy ingress, he recognized some folks from the inn’s common room the night before. He exchanged a kind word or a wave, and noticed they warmed to his attention. Six months previous he would have been calculating how much he could take them for, but now he found himself thinking about how his failure would mean doom for them all.

“Good morning, my lord.” The voice remained soft, despite a certain keenness of tone. Sephi slipped her hand through the crook of his right arm and smiled at him. “I need to speak to you.”

Will kept his expression impassive as he looked at her. She’d pulled her black hair back into a thick braid, and her hazel eyes shone from within the depths of a dark brown mask. It had an orphan’s notch cut at the bottom of the left eyehole, indicating her father was dead. Will wondered for a moment if Distalus, the man she had been traveling with in Alcida, had been her father. No question that he’s dead.

Sephi pressed her lips into a flat line when he failed to greet her immediately. “Please, Lord Norrington. I know you think I have done you a grievous wrong.”

You betrayed Crow! He wanted to shove her away. He might have done just that, save for two things. The first was that, since she had been a spy in the employ of the Oriosan government, she might be of use. To save Crow I will use anyone and anything at hand, and not regret a moment of it.

The other was that hint of pleading in her voice. She wanted him to understand why she had done what she did, and that meant she could give him information—trading it for forgiveness. Information he desperately wanted, so he answered her with a nod.

“Yes, Sephi, if that is your name, what you did hurt me.” He drew in a deep breath, then slowly exhaled. His voice remained even, but his tone was cold. “Crow saved your life and you turned him over to enemies who will kill him.”

Her shoulders slumped. “That is how it seems, I know. And, yes, I am Sephi. Please, my lord, I would have you know why I acted as I did.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“But it matters to me. You are the Norrington, and I’ve hurt you.”

Will stopped and turned to face her, placing his left hand over hers. He let a little warmth filter into his voice, promising a healing of the rift. “I’m sure you did what you did because you thought it was right.”

“Yes, that’s it exactly.” She nodded solemnly, then lowered her voice. “I feel I can confide in you, my lord, because we have seen each other naked.”

A small jolt ripped through Will. Back during the summer Crow, Resolute, and he had run into Sephi in Alcida. They’d rescued her from a band of gibberkin. Her companions had been slain and she had been hurt. While they had traveled together for a number of days, he’d never seen the tall, slender girl naked. Will was certain he’d have remembered that.

Then it struck him. When we met, she had no mask! For her to be without a mask was to be as vulnerable as he might have felt without clothes. And Crow had his mask stripped from him! Will couldn’t even begin to imagine how much that must have hurt his friend.

He nodded slowly to the girl and began his manipulation. “Yes, Sephi, you can trust me. Since being made aware of who I am, well, considerations wear on me, but I know how important trust is. And, I will admit, I did feel betrayed by you.”

“But, Will, I mean, Lord Norrington, I didn’t… that wasn’t my intent.” She sighed heavily. “My lord, you have to understand, I grew up here in Oriosa. I grew up with tales of the Traitor, and Oriosans felt his betrayal more keenly than others. The Norrington Prophecy, the one that predicted your coming, had previously been taken to refer to your grandfather, and then to your father. When Lord Norrington went out to fight Chytrine, there was much rejoicing, and when he failed and went over to serve the Aurolani Empress, we knew despair. Worse yet, he had been betrayed by Hawkins, the coward. And then, to expunge the evil of your grandfather murdering Queen Lanivette, your father headed north to do what that proud band of heroes failed to do.

“You know well what happened. Your father, brave though he was, fell prey to the blandishments of Chytrine.” She lowered her voice again and led him down into an alley between the town’s main stable and carpentry shop. “Distalus said that your father had tried to get Chytrine to free those who had become her sullanciri. She tricked him, and his father talked him into joining her.”

Will shivered. He’d met his father. He was now a twisted creature serving Chytrine as herald or ambassador. From stories it was obvious that his father had not been well when he went north, and whatever Chytrine had done to him had not healed him.

Sephi continued. “You know the tale of Nefrai-kesh killing Queen Lanivette—I was there when Distalus told it to you. He didn’t tell the whole thing, though. When the sullanciri grabbed her, he held her head in his hands before he twisted it off. He told her how Chytrine hated the Traitor, and that Oriosa was going to be the first nation she destroyed, since it was Hawkins’ home. He told her that Hawkins was still alive, and that while he lived, Oriosa would always be in jeopardy. Then he killed her by twisting her head off.”

Will frowned. “How did Distalus know this?”

“Because the king was there, my lord. Prince Scrainwood was there, beating on the sullanciri, trying to get him to free the queen. He could not, and Nefrai-kesh placed the queen’s severed head in the prince’s hands, then promised to come back for him. He said he would come back if Hawkins was not dead.

“This is why, my lord, when the king ascended to the throne, Hawkins was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. Chytrine took that as a sign, and that is why Oriosa was spared, even temporarily. King Scrainwood then sent agents out, agents like me, to scourge the Southlands to find Hawkins—and to find you. He wanted you safe, so you could destroy Chytrine and save our nation.”

“He wanted me found? He already had the Norringtons in Valsina.”

Sephi shook her head. “They’re big enough to look the part of heroes, but they don’t look the part of your father’s son. You fit perfectly, and I know you will fulfill the prophecy.”

The thief had no difficulty reading sincerity in her words. He couldn’t explain exactly why he knew she was telling the truth, but years of dealing with the best liars in Yslin’s underworld had let him sort fact from fiction. She wanted him to believe her, and he did.

“How is it, then, Sephi, that you managed to identify Crow as Hawkins? You weren’t even born when the Traitor was exiled.”

She shifted her shoulders uneasily. “I didn’t, not really. After you rescued me, there were things that had been taken from my possessions. Distalus had been keeping notes and I had to assume they had fallen into the wrong hands. I didn’t know who any of you were, but I took some things while we were together. From you I had a gnawed bone, a piece of bloodied cloth from Resolute, a lock of Crow’s hair. When I got to Yslin, I turned them over to the king’s sorcerers and they used magick to identify them. They actually didn’t figure out Crow was the Traitor until they returned to Meredo. By then Crow was in Okrannel and they lost track of him until they received a message saying he was escorting Princess Ryhope south from Fortress Draconis. I was sent here to Tolsin to identify him.”

Will nodded, knowing she’d left out some details, but that hardly mattered at the moment. “When you saw Crow again, Sephi, did you remember he had saved your life? Did you remember how he cared for your wounds?”

Her hand tightened on his forearm. “My lord, you have to understand. All my life I had been taught to hate the Traitor and love my king. When I entered the crown’s service, bringing him to justice and ending the threat to our nation was a sacred goal. And then, when the sorcerers made the match, I was summoned to the capital. I was feted and praised. The king himself told me he was so proud of me. I was… well, I did not think clearly. I didn’t think at all until I had identified him and had told his brother who he was. The pain in Colonel Hawkins’ eyes, the hatred I knew I would see in yours…”

She hesitated for a moment. “I know that what I did was not wrong. I had been trained to it. I had to do it to save my nation. But I also know what Crow did on Wruona. I know now what he did at Svoin…”

Will nodded. “Last night they were singing Squab songs. In them, he’s a coward. He’s the first to run, the first to snivel, always deserving of a boot in the rear. Listening to the songs, all I could think was that this wasn’t Crow.”

Sephi nodded slowly, and Will gave her a smile. “Sephi, I know—Crow knows—that you were only doing your duty. You had no choice, but I also think you know that Crow isn’t Squab. There is no way anyone who was such a coward would spend a quarter century fighting Chytrine. And there is no way such a coward would inspire such fear in Chytrine that she would blackmail a whole nation into trying to kill him. The fact that she so wants him dead should tell you everything you need to know about him.”

Her eyes widened with the full import of his comment and her hand rose to cover her mouth. “Oh! What have I done?”

“It’s not what you have done, Sephi, that is important. It is done.” Will let warmth flood his voice and he began to offer her a way to rectify her errors. “And I would not ask you to betray your beliefs or your friends. The simple fact of things is this. Since we now know how much Chytrine fears Crow, we know that he is a key to her defeat. If Crow dies, she wins—and we can’t allow that.“

“Oh, my lord, I will do anything…” Sephi clutched his arm, then loosened her grip, her voice shrinking to a whisper. “You do not trust me, and with good cause. If I thought I deserved it, I would beg your forgiveness.”

Will smiled and reached up to stroke her cheek. “Sephi, the last thing I would want is for you to get into trouble. I do not want you to compromise your beliefs. There is something you can do to help, though, if you would be willing.”

She nodded solemnly. “Anything, my lord.”

Will aped her nod, then glanced about conspiratorially before lowering his voice. She leaned closer in anticipation and he knew he had her. He’d shown her how actions she thought would save her nation were actually going to do it harm. She would do anything to fix that, as he intended. In Yslin he’d not have cared one whit about using her, but here it made him a bit uneasy. Still, she got Crow into trouble, so she can help get him out again.

He spoke just above a whisper. “Just keep your eyes and ears open. I know you are good at that. If you hear or see anything that would help Crow’s situation, let me know. This is especially true in Meredo, since you know the city.”

“Yes, Lord Norrington, I will. I promise.” She sighed again. “When I met you, I knew you were special. I just didn’t know how special. I am glad my judgment then was good, and you have proven it here. Thank you, my lord.”

He gave her a wink. “Your keeping faith with Oriosa tells me a lot about my new nation, Sephi. Now, if we work together, we can guarantee its future.”

“Yes, my lord, exactly.” She slid her hand from his arm, then pulled away and headed back toward the street. “You will hear from me.”

Will nodded and watched her go. That minor pang of guilt over having manipulated her sparked in him again, but his sense of betrayal smothered it effectively. He wasn’t certain what she would do to help Crow, or how helpful she would be in accomplishing that task, but it didn’t hurt to have her on his side.

And if she was playing me, as she tried to do before? Will shrugged and stalked back toward the street. He was Lord Norrington. If she chose to spy on him and betray him to Scrainwood, well, she’d have to work hard to find something to betray. By the time she could have anything good, I’ll have learned enough to protect myself.

Smiling, Will returned to his stroll through Tolsin and could see, from the expressions others wore, his smile was a good omen indeed.