Kalie Rana

Between Maria, Lux, and Hark soon after, the entirety of the Lord’s manor was in an uproar as the three of them rushed me first away from the body of the nature witch, then out into the dark of the night.

“You’d best be waking Marcroft or else we’ll be speaking in his private chambers,” Hark said, as the last in a long string of commands he had given to the butler keeping time with us as we left the manor.

“Forgive me sir, but—”

“But nothing, have him meet us at the stables, or else I’ll be coming to him.”

“Yes sir.” A part of me didn’t really like to see Hark running roughshod over the servants of the manor, but on the other hand, there was just an attempt on my life. Outside, the embarrassment only grew. While the fight and the spells that had been cast were more than enough to wake another majin like Hark, it was obvious that the vast majority of the people in and around the manor had little idea of what had just happened. Other than the guards that had been knocked out by the majin on her infiltration, the only other people awake were the butler and several of the attendants that had been assigned to Hark during his stay. Like setting off dominos, his servants went around gathering more, so that by the time we were at the front of the manor, the people awake had tripled.

Outside, one notable servant who was not awake was the stablemaster. His stable hand however, was easy to rouse from his bed of straw just inside the stable.

“Oi, boy. Go find your master. We will need the horses sent here by Corvus, along with the carriage.”

“Yes sir! Of course sir!” Just the look of Hark would’ve been enough to send the boy running, but a specific order meant that he’d at least be running in the right direction. A few minutes later the stablemaster arrived and began the arduous process of first explaining to us that the carriage and horses sent by Corvus weren’t available, then, once the situation was explained, he went about trying to rework his lie into something that resembled the truth. Until eventually, he admitted a version of the truth that wouldn’t get him executed.

“Of course my lord! I’ll fetch the repaired carriage right away!” By the time our carriage had finally arrived, another problem arrived alongside it.

“By Leona above! My lady! I’m so terribly sorry that something terrible has happened to you on my property!” Lord Marcroft, who seemingly took the time to fully dress and apply a pancake of white makeup, met us as the carriage did.

Upon seeing his faux shock, I wanted to loudly, and openly accuse him of being the one behind the attack. Or at the very least, the reason it happened. However, Lux beat me to the punch.

“I see the carriage is in working order now, isn’t it my lord?” The first of us to speak, Lux’s pointed question was one that already knew the answer to. As Hark had implied before the feast, there was no doubt in my mind that the ‘breakdown’ of the carriage was no accident.

“It would seem that our craftsmen were quite quick indeed,” Marcroft said, trying his best to give away nothing. The man was a fool if he thought that his excuses were anything but paper thin, but I kept my mouth shut and allowed the two men who were a bit more experienced with mainland custom to handle it. With both Lux and Hark on the warpath, there was little doubt in my mind that Marcroft would be completely screwed by the time we arrived in Corvus.

“I’m sure that the carriage driver will now know better than to let the damaged roads be a problem,” Lux said, stepping closer to Marcroft. To my surprise, the man didn’t flinch at the move, only standing more strong.

“The damage that the storms wreaked was more than enough that it would not be a surprise to me if your carriage sees another breakdown before arriving in Corvus, my good man.”

“Is that a threat my lord?” I said, finally breaking my seething silence.

“Of course not my lady! A warning, nothing more. Just, be careful, you never know what may happen, if you allow your guard to falter. With the storms coming to an end, you never know if there will be ruffians about.”

“Thank you Lord Marcroft, I will bear that in mind.”

***

“I’ve heard of these storms three times now! What in the world are you all talking about? How in the world would storms ruin roads, but also have something to do with the harbor, and now have something to do with bandits! For Leona’s sake! You mainlanders all like to speak in riddles don’t you?” I managed to maintain my composure until Maria, Lux, and I were alone in the carriage. A part of me was upset that Hark wasn’t coming with us, but at the same time, him staying in Scuttleview meant that any retribution we managed in Corvus would be swift by the time word made it back here.

“In the Lacan Protectorate, the Storms is what is known as the Interregnum in the south.”

“Wasn’t that just what your lord called those purges? Just like the emperor before him, I guess there’s no getting away from it.”

“They weren’t purges. It was all in self defense.”

Lux is defending the White Raven? That’s a first. Maybe as we get closer to Corvus, the chain around his neck gets a little tighter. I just hope that he’s still himself by the time we arrive.

Seeing that I wasn’t interested in getting another dig in, Lux continued, “it was the civil war that was led by Marcroft’s predecessor and uncle, Lord Henry Vreen. The Vreen’s had been the kings of Lacan and Scuttleview had been their seat of power since they arrived from the old continent. After the Ravencourt broke the empire of Holaria, Vreen saw it as an opportunity for him to take the power that the emperor had stripped him of, and the White Raven kept just out of reach. He orchestrated the deaths of the White Raven and his Heir, before plunging the entire alliance into a civil war. The war finally ended last year with a peace being achieved after Vreen gave himself to the Alliance’s army.”

“But if he’s related to him, how did Marcroft get placed in power?”

“Marcroft and his fiefdom bordered Corvus in northern Lacan. He surrendered a week before the Alliance’s army even arrived, and gave them a forward position in Lacan. The man is a traitor. A rat. Nothing more. But, he earned a gift from the new White Raven, so he was given control of Scuttleview, while Lacan itself was given to another in the Ravencourt.”

“So he’s just keeping the seat warm here.”

“Essentially, yes. He plays court, and he and the local nobles all vie for more power, but the whole lot of them are nothing more than rats that the alliance has neglected to exterminate.”

“Then why hasn’t the White Raven given the order then? Sure they play nice on the surface, but it can’t be smart to leave them be.”

“Only the Raven knows that. Maybe you can ask him, if you still care to know, after all. But after this, I can’t help but think he’ll do it on principal.”

“Maybe I will ask,” I said, glancing out the window as another thought came to me. “Do you really think that Marcroft would be stupid enough to try and have me killed in his own house? Like, of course we’d assume that he was the one who made sure that we’d stay the night, so wouldn’t that make him the prime suspect in any attack?”

“It would, but Marcroft is not one of the Alliance’s greatest thinkers.”

“But the people he surrounds himself with aren’t that stupid. Gullible maybe, but not outright stupid. The way I see it, either he was associated with it, and this is just a powerplay by one of the Rat’s court, or, the assassin wasn’t associated with him.”

“That is a possibility.” Our eyes met in the darkness of the carriage. The swaying lamplight was just enough that I could see the outline of his face not already illuminated by the blue of the moon outside.

“What was it that she said before she touched her collar? Breaks the bow? Something like that?” I said, trying to remember her words between the screaming explosion that cleared her head from her body. The sight—or at least the half sight of it—was almost too much for me to bear. All I could do was just try and dissociate it. It was her, or it was me and Lux.

“The water breaks the bow,” Lux said.

“Are you sure that’s what she said?” For the first time since we got settled into the carriage, Maria spoke.

“I believe so, why? Do you know something about that?” Lux asked. For once, it was nice that I wasn’t the only one in the dark.

“I do. Or at least, I used to. The water breaks the bow is the first half of a passphrase.”

“And now it’s a battle cry as well,” I said, adding in.

“What’s it a passphrase for? I’ve never heard of anything like that.”

“Well my good sir, that is no surprise to me. It was a long time ago that I heard it last. When I first left the mainland to take care of my lady.”

“Where in the world did you hear something like that Maria? Why in the world would you need to go through such skeezy channels to come to Cerith?”

“Skeezy?” Both Maria and Lux asked me simultaneously, with varying levels of confusion.

“Unreliable, dangerous. It’s a… new word that Lyia told me about.”

“Oh… okay then,” Maria said, before continuing, “it was not a dangerous crossing for me. Not any more dangerous than usual. Which is why I remember it so well. The person I overheard say it was Sinnok Barru.”

“Barru? Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Because you know his daughter, my lady, Siiva?” Siiva, Quivoq’s right hand woman during our training, and the only other air majin taken in by the Petrel, of course I recognized the name, it was her’s as well.

“What was the context though? Who were these people?”

“Sinnok was the only one I recognized, the others were just travellers like me. They used that passphrase as a sort of greeting. I think maybe it was a religious saying or something?” Maria seemed unconvinced by her own recollection, but it was all that we had.

“Do you think Sinnok’s group was connected with this assassin? Why in Leona's name would they want me dead?”

“That’s the oddest part my lady, I don’t think he would. He may have been before your time, but Sinnok Barru was not a bad man. In fact, I doubt that he could ever harm someone, or allow himself to fall in with those that would. He was a close friend to the Great Petrel, I cannot believe that anyone associated with them would see you harmed.”

“With Grandmother?” I asked.

“Regardless of the past, this is a good hint for where we can start. This man, Barru, is he a majin as well?” Lux asked.

“Yes, he was.”

“And this was what, about eighteen years ago?”

“Something like that yes,” she said before turning her attention to me, “how old are you again my lady?”

“Seventeen. Eighteen this year.”

“Then it was seventeen years ago.”

“What, you couldn’t remember? I thought we were close.”

“My lady, if you had to keep track of you for as long as I have, you would have a hard time not imagining it had been centuries.”

“Maria! That was so mean!” Even in the dark I watched a sly smile crawl across Maria’s lips. “Well done!”

“Thank you my lady,” Maria said, bowing her head slightly.

“You two are exceedingly bizarre,” Lux said, breaking the moment. “Let’s get back to the task at hand though. If it was seventeen years ago, then it was during the time of the Empire. Even though I don’t recognize the passphrase, there is a possibility that it had been used by the Ravencourt.”

“The Ravencourt? They’ve only been in power for the last eight years though, haven’t they?” I asked.

“In power for eight years yes, but the Ravencourt has a history much longer than you think. The court has been in existence ever since the birth of the empire.”

“Four hundred years ago? By Leona. But what would they have to do with some passphrase on a boat to Cerith?”

“There was little that happened in the empire having to do with the protection of majin that didn’t have to do with the Ravencourt. It would be no surprise to me if that man Barru had been transporting majin to Cerith. Especially if he was close with the Petrel.”

“Seventeen years ago they’re taking care of majin on their way to Cerith, and now, they’re taking me out just for leaving.”

“I suspect there is much more to this than we assume, Kalie,” Lux said staring into my eyes.

And if he’s right, then Grandmother may have had something to do with all this, back then too.