Burning Bright (19 page)

A passage wide enough for two people to walk with arms linked opened up to the rail, and Elinor moved forward. They had fought two more battles, guided to their targets by the Admiralty’s Seers and Speakers, after leaving Tenerife, sinking one and capturing the other. In both cases she had brought her talent to bear on the enemy with some success, though nothing as spectacular as
Joyeux,
and her displays had won her supporters even as they had terrified others. They called her Milady, bowed when she passed, and went out of their way to make her comfortable. Ramsay, on observing this, had smiled one of his little smiles, but said nothing, and Elinor, torn between embarrassment and relief, had settled on the latter and responded to her admirers with friendly gratitude.

She smiled at the man, who bobbed his head. “What are we looking at?” she asked. The horizon was as empty as it had been for the past eighteen days.

“ ‘Tis land, Milady,” the man said, “ ‘tis Bermuda. We’re here!”

Elinor shaded her eyes and saw the faintest fuzz like mold growing on the surface of the sea. “Land,” she breathed. “Land!”

“You’ve seen it, now back to work,” Beaumont said, and the men scattered, casting glances at the horizon over their shoulders as they went. “We’re still a good ways out, but with this wind it shouldn’t be long,” he told Elinor. “And Mr. Hervey will Bound in shortly.”

“Is that important?”

“You’re to go directly to Admiralty House from
Athena
rather than taking a carriage from Ireland Island, where the docks are. It minimizes the number of people who will want to know who you are. Mr. Hervey will take you and the captain.”

“Why cannot Mr. Hervey go now? Surely he is not limited by distance.”

“Mr. Hervey’s never been to the Caribbean before and doesn’t know the House’s signature. He’ll have to Skip there, learn the signature, and come back.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

Beaumont scowled. “I—Mr. Hervey, would
you
answer Miss Pembroke’s questions? I beg your pardon, but I must return to my duties.” He left her with a nod, and Elinor ground her teeth. Beaumont was always perfectly polite, but it was also perfectly clear that he wished she were serving elsewhere. He might be Ramsay’s best friend, but they were as different as fire and ice.

She looked to where Hervey stood on the far side of the quarterdeck with the other midshipmen working their navigation calculations, saw him turn in her direction, and then he was in front of her with a faint popping sound as if a cork had been drawn. She stepped backward in surprise, and he laughed. “Beg pardon, Miss Pembroke, I didn’t mean to startle you. You wanted to know about my talent?”

She laughed with him, but faintly, for he had startled the air from her lungs. “I cannot believe we have never discussed it,” she said. “I suppose we have been too preoccupied with literature.”

“That’s more interesting than talent,
I
think,” he said. “Besides, there’s not much to tell. I can Bound to a place I don’t know so long as it’s within my range, and I can Bound anywhere in the world if I know its signature.”

“And a signature is—?”

Hervey leaned on the rail and let his hands dangle. One foot kicked at the mass of hammocks strung in the netting. “Bounders have to recognize where they’re Bounding to,” he said. “So lots of public places, and some homes, have Bounding chambers. You’ll see when we go to Admiralty House. They’re these white rooms with symbols painted on the walls, easy to remember.
Athena’s
is near the bowsprit, by the heads. Just a little space, but that’s enough.”

“But you must know
Athena
well enough that you would not need a Bounding chamber, surely?”

Hervey laughed. “Don’t I wish! With Bounding, you have to keep all the details of a place in your head, so complicated places, like my Great-Aunt Fanny’s sitting room with all her fol-de-rols, nobody but an Extraordinary can Bound to. And no Bounder, Extraordinary or otherwise, can Bound to an outdoor place, with everything moving and changing all the time. I need the simplicity of a Bounding symbol. Best I can do is Skip from one end of
Athena
to the other.”

“So,” Elinor said slowly, “if I wanted to keep you out of a Bounding chamber you knew, I would have only to alter it in some way you cannot expect.”

Hervey eyed her admiringly. “You’re devious,” he said. “That’s exactly what they do in the Army to keep enemy Bounders out.”

“But I do not see how an enemy Bounder could enter a concealed location to learn its signature in the first place.”

“You have to have a Seer with a gift for drawing. And it’s risky even for an Extraordinary Bounder if the drawing’s not perfect. That’s why we don’t keep a book of symbols for Bounders to learn. Better to get the first-hand experience.”

“So what is your range?”

“About five hundred feet.”

Elinor looked out at the green fuzz in the distance. “But we will surely be in port before you are close enough to Bound there.”

Hervey laughed. “That’s what Skipping is. I take a sight and Bound as far as my range lets me, then I take another sight and do it again, over and over until I’m where I want to be.”

“But will you not fall into the sea? That seems dangerous.”

“Have to be fast. Like skipping a stone over water. You go fast enough, you don’t sink.” Hervey chuckled. “Don’t worry, Miss Pembroke, I’ve been doing this a good, long time now. You should watch me go!”

“I think I may have to, if only to reassure myself you will not simply sink like a skipping stone that has reached its limit!”

Ten minutes later, Hervey stepped up to the bow and tucked his hat under his arm. Ramsay handed him a flat packet. “Don’t stay for a response,” he told the midshipman. “Admiral Durrant will want to…discuss those orders, and he might not care whom he discusses them with.”

“Understood, sir,” Hervey said, then tipped his hat at Elinor, tucked it under his arm, and vanished. She leaned well out from the bow and saw a tiny figure appear high in the sky several hundred feet ahead of them. She had only just fixed her eyes on him when he began to fall, and she cried out—then he vanished again, and was the merest speck of a gnat in the distance, and then he was gone.

Elinor turned to face Ramsay, who was smiling. “My stomach is always in knots when I see him do that,” he said. “Though I’ve never seen him dampen so much as a toe.”

“May I see the Bounding chamber while we wait for his return, Captain? I find I am curious about what Mr. Hervey does.”

Ramsay smiled, that little twist of a smile, and bowed her down the companionway. “As you have already captivated half the crew,” he said, “I believe you may go anywhere you like.”

Some time later, Elinor was reading in the great cabin when a knock at the door preceded Ramsay’s entrance. Elinor’s fist always clenched when he knocked; it should not have been necessary. They should not have allowed low minds to ruin their friendship, and she had not resigned herself to the necessity.

“Mr. Hervey’s back,” he said, “and we will leave as soon as you are ready.”

“Will you think less of me if I admit to some nervousness about such a mode of transportation?” she asked with a smile.

“Since we know less about the mechanisms of Bounding than of any other talent, you’re right to be nervous. I can only assure you that I’ve been Mr. Hervey’s passenger more than a dozen times, and nothing has ever happened to me.”

“And if I admit to nervousness about meeting Admiral Durrant?”

Ramsay’s good cheer dropped away. “I’d like to tell you that’s unfounded. You should keep in mind that the First Lord wants you here, and Admiral Durrant is too honorable to disobey a direct order. And, honestly, if he’s going to argue the point he will probably argue it with me, not you. So you could be nervous on my behalf if you like.”

“I should prefer not to be nervous at all. I think I will change my gown and comb my hair, if you don’t mind, Captain.”

Ramsay inclined his head. “We’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready.”

Elinor dressed with great care in her second-best gown, her best being her evening gown, which would be entirely inappropriate. She brushed out her hair, pinned it up, and hoped she did not look as haphazardly gowned as she felt. If only she had more than a hand mirror…She sighed, smoothed the fabric over her hips, and went to open the door to the great cabin.

Ramsay and Hervey were both wearing their dress uniforms, though Ramsay looked relaxed and Hervey stood like one of the masts, unmoving and stiff. “We’re doing this in here because it’s awkward and can look undignified,” Ramsay said. “Hervey has to carry anything he takes with him when he Bounds, which means he will need to carry each of us for the second it takes him to slip between places. I apologize for the indignity—”

“But surely he cannot lift
you
?” Elinor exclaimed. Ramsay had at least four inches on Hervey and certainly outweighed him.

Ramsay’s lips twitched. Hervey said, “He’s not
that
heavy,” and went red. “I’m stronger than I look.”

“I beg your pardon, Mr. Hervey, that was rude of me. I was simply surprised. Will you go first, Captain?”

“I will, if only to reassure you.” Ramsay stepped closer to Hervey and hooked his arm around the midshipman’s waist; Hervey, with a sidelong glance at Elinor and even redder cheeks than before, put his arm around Ramsay’s waist in return. Ramsay looked as if the whole thing was as ordinary as peeling an egg.

“On three,” Hervey said, and the two of them counted together aloud. When they both said “three,” Hervey heaved, Ramsay’s feet left the floor, and the two of them were gone. Elinor found she was holding her breath, and let it out in a drawn-out hiss.
Oh,
he’ll have to hold me, too, and that will be so awkward for him. And for me. Oh, I cannot see how Captain Ramsay could do this so many times and not feel embarrassed.

After a few minutes, Elinor heard footsteps, then Hervey opened the door, his face flushed as if he’d been running. He held out his arms. “I don’t mean any disrespect, Miss Pembroke,” he said, “and you know I think of you as a sister, so don’t… don’t…”

“I am determined this will not be awkward for either of us,” Elinor said, and allowed him to put his arms around her and circled his shoulders with her arms. “Have you not Bounded with a woman before?”

“No.”

He was right; it was like embracing her brother, if she’d had a brother. “Count to three.” She counted off with him, and on three—

—
she was transparent, empty, her body a gauze shell that might float apart if she forgot who she was. She couldn’t even feel Hervey’s arms around her; there was no air, not that she needed air, no light even though she could see her body
—

—and she was herself again. Hervey released her and stepped away quickly. “That wasn’t so bad,” he said.

“It was very strange.” The room they were in was little bigger than a closet and was lit by frosted glass lamps behind which burned tiny, happy flames. Its walls were white plaster, and on the wall opposite the French doors, also white, was painted a complex symbol of irregular angles, red and blue. “If that is what you think of as simple,” she said, pointing at it, “I am amazed at your ability to remember even one of these.”

“I know about forty,” Hervey said. “That’s average. Some Bounders know as many as two hundred.” He pushed open the French doors and Ramsay looked up from where he’d been contemplating his boots.

“You’ll wait for us in the front hall,” he told Hervey, and offered his arm to Elinor. “Though it isn’t as if you need my assistance walking,” he said.

“I am not certain of that, Captain,” Elinor said, taking his arm. The ground beneath her heaved like
Athena’
s deck. “It feels as though Bermuda would like to throw me into the sea.”

“You’ll be fine,” he said, and proceeded down the corridor, forcing Elinor to wobble along beside him and Hervey to trail behind. By the narrowness of the hall and its plain, somewhat cracked dingy white plaster, she guessed they were in the servants’ annex. Chicken and carrots were cooking somewhere nearby, and she heard voices mumbling as if through water. The smell of soup made Elinor’s stomach quiver with hunger.

A woman came out of a door ahead of them, and Elinor gaped in astonishment. She had never seen anyone with such dark skin, like melted chocolate without cream, nor black hair that crinkled tightly around her face. The woman didn’t look up, though Elinor could tell by the way she looked so fixedly at the floorboards that she was aware of them. A slave? Elinor half-turned to watch the woman go, then had to quicken her pace to avoid slowing Ramsay down. Perhaps he was so accustomed to seeing slaves that this one was a commonplace. Elinor glanced once more over her shoulder; the woman was gone.

“When we meet Admiral Durrant, say nothing, no matter how angry he makes you,” Ramsay said in a low voice. “I’ll do the talking for both of us.”

“I beg your pardon, Captain, but why?”

They emerged into a wider hallway, high-ceilinged with smoothly finished walls painted cream and trimmed with rust-red moldings. Candles behind glass chimneys clung to the walls every two feet, casting flickering shadows over the floor and ceiling and imperfectly lighting the way. The floorboards were narrower and paler than Elinor was accustomed to, a warm brown that appeared to be its natural color, and her wobbly feet ticked across them like clicking beetles. Aside from the gilt-framed portraits of men in naval uniform lining the walls, they were the only ones in the hall, and her footsteps and Ramsay and Hervey’s heavier treads echoed off the paintings.

“Admiral Durrant is a good strategist and a courageous man, but he is also a misogynist who’s not as intelligent as he thinks he is,” Ramsay said, “and he doesn’t think Scorcher talents are any more use than parlor tricks in this war. If he heeds you at all, he will be hoping to make you look irrational and ungoverned so he can justify sending you home. So don’t rise to his insults.”

“But surely an Admiral must be a gentleman also?”

“Gentleman, yes. Well-mannered, no. Don’t be surprised at his rudeness. As I said, he will be looking for ways to be rid of you.”