“It would have been enough that she will need to face the consequences of losing the
Weeper,” StarDrifter snapped, keeping his balance with an unconsciously graceful ease that did
nothing for Ba”al”uz” irritation with the man. “You did not need to ensure her death!”
“I had not realized you”d developed an affection for her,” Ba”al”uz said.
“I had not realized you were so fucking vindictive.”
Ba”al”uz sneered, then looked at the Weeper. “Give it to me.”
StarDrifter hesitated, then held the Weeper out for Ba”al”uz.
The instant it left the warmth of his arms, the Weeper shrieked.
It did more than shriek. It wept and wailed and sobbed until the cabin literally throbbed
with sound and sadness.
Before Ba”al”uz could touch the Weeper, StarDrifter wrapped it in his arms again.
The noise ceased abruptly.
Now Ba”al”uz had a reason to not be merely irritated with StarDrifter, but to develop a
considerable loathing for him.
“What have you done to it?” Ba”al”uz said. “Why won”t it leave you?”
“I have done nothing to it,” said StarDrifter, “and I can”t even begin to imagine a reason
why it might not want to go to you.”
They”d stood there and stared at each other for a long moment, then StarDrifter turned
aside and sat down on his bunk. He wrapped himself in a blanket, the Weeper beside him, and
affected to go to sleep.
Ba”al”uz stood for a long time, watching StarDrifter”s back, then he, too, lay down on his
bunk.
Sleep did not come.
Over the next two days conditions on the fishing vessel grew ever worse. The ship”s crew
fed StarDrifter only the very worst of scraps from their galley (a fact that hardly surprised
StarDrifter, given Ba”al”uz” earlier threats), although he often found a better gruel in his bowl
than that which appeared in Ba”al”uz”, and a piece of good toasted bread secreted within a
napkin.
While Ba”al”uz and StarDrifter wanted to go directly to the southern coast of Escator, the
fishing boat was going on a circuitous route to get there. It did, after all, need to collect fish, and the best fish was always to be found in the Widowmaker Sea far to the north of Coroleas. Both
this fact, and that the boat appeared to be heading into rough weather, did not improve Ba”al”uz”
temper in the slightest.
To cap off all his woes, Ba”al”uz suffered badly from seasickness.
StarDrifter didn”t get a twinge.
StarDrifter discovered that one of life”s greater pleasures was standing over Ba”al”uz in
his bunk, looking down at his green face while chewing voraciously on a piece of bread and fish,
and asking, through his enthusiastic chewing, if there was anything he could get Ba”al”uz from
the galley. It invariably drove Ba”al”uz into a hissing, spiteful fury, and gave StarDrifter an
excuse to spend many hours on deck, the Weeper tucked comfortably under one arm, chatting to
the crew as they went about their chores.
The crew had been wary of StarDrifter at first, but as Ba”al”uz” antagonism toward him
grew ever more noticeable, so did his popularity with the fishermen.
They knew what the Weeper was, and they were intrigued by StarDrifter”s acquisition of
it, while at the same moment growing ever more anxious about whatever repercussions its theft
might have for them back in Coroleas.
“Frankly,” StarDrifter said one afternoon, as the crew paused for a break after spending
hours cleaning their nets, “I”d advise you to seek sanctuary with King Maximilian in Escator. He
has a good reputation for protecting his fishing fleets, and I”ve heard the harbor at Narbon has
excellent facilities.”
“But our families are back in Yoyette,” the captain said, obviously still smarting over
Ba”al”uz” threats.
StarDrifter was about to say something, but just then the Weeper, tucked under
StarDrifter”s arm, went cold.
It did more than go cold—it became completely icy.
StarDrifter pulled it onto his lap and, along with the crew, looked at it in surprise.
Its contours were outlined in frost.
A sense of incredible peace pervaded StarDrifter. He looked up at the crew, and saw that
they, too, had expressions of wonder on their faces.
StarDrifter, as did the crew (and none of them knew how they knew this, but know it they
did), realized that the crew”s families were safe…and no longer in Coroleas.
After that, StarDrifter began to eat and sleep with the crew, and left Ba”al”uz to the cabin.
Three nights after leaving Coroleas, while the fishing vessel was some two leagues from
the Escatorian coast, a storm began to build.
CHAPTER SIX
The River Lhyl, the Tyranny of Isembaard
Ishbel opened the curtain that gave her tiny cabin on the riverboat some privacy, then
moved toward the foredeck, where Axis and Zeboath were sitting in the twilight.
Ishbel had felt much more relaxed and at peace since the night she had healed Madarin.
She now traveled with a group who knew precisely what she was—the archpriestess of the
dreaded Coil—and who not only did not condemn her, but either regarded her with intrigued
fascination or varying degrees of adulation (several of Madarin”s comrades had asked her,
hesitantly, if perhaps she might talk to them about the Great Serpent and enlighten them).
She was accepted and to some degree respected.
She no longer had to keep secrets, or listen to a husband who asked her to hide her
origins and pretend to be something she was not.
And she still had the power of the Coil within her.
Ishbel had been so unsure of herself from the moment the Great Serpent had revealed he
wanted her to leave Serpent”s Nest and marry Maximilian. The realization of her pregnancy had
distressed her, for she”d believed that it would disrupt the Coil within her, and separate her still
further from the protection and the love of the Great Serpent.
She should have listened to the Great Serpent.
Wash with the tide.
He had not been upset by her pregnancy, and indeed had appeared pleased by it, while
the experience with Madarin had demonstrated to all, and most particularly to Ishbel, that her
connection with the power of the Great Serpent had not been lost at all.
Above all, having relaxed away from her fears and the draining need to constantly hide
her true identity, Ishbel was beginning to enjoy herself. She found herself intrigued by the
company with whom she traveled, and fascinated by the land and culture through which she
moved.
It was all so different from her life within the Coil at Serpent”s Nest. Ishbel knew she”d
clung to her isolation, and to the enveloping, if suffocating, protection that the mountain and the
Coil afforded her, because of the childhood terrors that continued, even now, to torment her.
But she was discovering that she might learn to deal with the terrors, that she was capable
of dealing with most things, and that she had more courage and fortitude than she had thought.
She also trusted Axis and Zeboath to an extent she”d trusted few people in her life.
Maximilian”s lack still managed to cause her some sleepless hours at night. She could
hardly forget him, not with his baby growing inside her, but Ishbel wondered if Maximilian ever
thought of her. She thought that he”d probably accepted her kidnapping with profound relief. No
longer was he saddled with a wife who was not merely an embarrassment to him, but one who
threatened to saddle him with the guilt of every murder and injustice committed throughout the
Central Kingdoms over the last half year. Maximilian would likely annul the marriage and forget
her.
Well might Axis have said that BroadWing had told him Maximilian would tear apart the
earth for her, but Ishbel thought she knew the truth of her relationship with Maximilian far better
than did BroadWing.
Maximilian would not care overmuch, she was sure.
Ishbel climbed the short steps to the top deck, lifted her head, and walked out to join
Zeboath and Axis.
Ishbel decided she liked this hot, vast country. It was so different from anything she”d
ever known previously. She appreciated the warmth of the evening wind, and the scent of distant
spices it carried on its back. She enjoyed being able to wear loose, less restrictive clothes. She
was fascinated by the vast aridness that spread beyond the fertile swathes of agricultural land that
ran either side of the river. But of everything, Ishbel loved the River Lhyl the most. It was so
peaceful and so beautiful, so calm and yet so strong, lined with deep reed banks that, at dusk and
dawn, throbbed with the glorious song of the frogs and during the day erupted great clouds of
brightly plumed river birds into the air.
The river was a world to itself. To Ishbel, it sometimes appeared to be so full of promise
and sweetness that her eyes filled with tears.
She felt a wonderful serenity within herself every time she stepped from the lower decks