Dragonoak (23 page)

“You can
stop that, right? The glowing's gonna give us straight
away.”

I
nodded, not believing it. All the work I'd done in Port Mahon over
such a short period of time had washed most of it out of me, but
drawing closer to Gavern's ship, to what I had to do, was causing
it to thrum again.

“Get on
it, Rowan. We've only got a few seconds now. Better think real hard
about why you're doing this. Me, I just wanna get back and see
Lanta again.”

Gavern
deserved to die. There was no doubting that, but that didn't mean I
had any right to kill him. That was the block I needed to push
past. I needed to focus on why I was doing this. To help the
others. To return to Asar. And surely Claire's dragon-bone armour
had survived the flames. Surely I'd be able to dig that out from
beneath the ash and cling to that, if nothing else...

“Thank
the gods,” Varn said, lugging something out of the boat's
one-person cabin. “Here. Catch!”

My skin
was dark again, and I grabbed what Varn threw my way, fingers
wrapping around the chunk of wood before I processed what it was. I
looked down to find one of Reis' old legs in my hands, patterns
cruder than the ones they now boasted.

“Um...
?”

“Gotta
have some proof you know Reis, right?”

“Reis is in on this?” I asked as the shadow of Gavern's ship
swallowed us whole. “
You're
working with Reis?”

Varn's
attempt at a scowl manifested as a smirk, and with a wink, she
disappeared, hiding behind the cabin so that the pirates whose
attention we'd caught would think I'd come alone. Three of them
were leaning over the edge, getting a good look at me, ready to
call for back-up the moment the short, scruffy, unarmed Felheimer
became a threat. The ship was so tall that craning my neck back
made me dizzy in the way that looking up at mountains once had. I
tried to pick Gavern out from the souls rumbling around within, but
knew that I couldn't kill him from such a distance without wiping
out the rest of the crew as well.

“Girl,
you'd best be turning on back,” one of Gavern's men
said.

Had I
turned and sailed away, I got the feeling he would've used my boat
for target practise.

“I've
come from Mahon,” I said, voice barely reaching above the waves.
“I've got information for Gavern.”

I heard
the words as though I wasn't speaking them, and the pirates took
the time to furrow their brows before nudging each other in the
sides and chuckling amongst themselves.

“Don't
reckon that'll be of much use to him. We've got a couple of ships
razing the damn town to the ground as we speak!” a second man
called. “Only sorry I had to stay here and miss out on
it.”

“It's no
good. Two of those ships have already been sunk, and Mahon's
claimed the third,” I said, louder now. “Your men's heads are being
put on spikes, and those are probably the lucky ones.”

“You're
gonna have to do better than that, girl,” the first man said,
snorting. He'd pulled his sword from his belt and had it rested
along the ship's railing, as though I needed reminding of the
danger all around me.

“Look!”
I said, hoisting Reis' leg up and feeling ridiculous for
it.

The men
did look, scrunching up their faces as they squinted.

“The
hell is that?”

“Idiot
. That's only Reis' leg,” the
one who'd yet to speak said. “Don't you listen to a bloody word
Gavern says?”

It did
the trick. With a warning that I'd better not try anything funny, a
rope ladder was thrown off the side, and I tucked Reis' leg under
my arm as I climbed. I kept my eyes fixed on my hands, knuckles
only turning white because of the way I gripped the rungs, and the
ladder creaked and twisted as I climbed. One of the men grabbed my
shoulder at the top and another seized hold of the leg, rushing
over to Gavern's cabin ahead of me. Once they were convinced that I
had no weapons hidden on me, I was shoved roughly across the wide
deck, and stopped in front of the cabin.

There
were a dozen men on the deck, but none of them seemed particularly
interested in me. Only the two men guarding the cabin stared down
at me for more than a few seconds. They both towered over me,
tattoos and scars splayed across their sun-darkened skin in equal
measures, and I stopped myself from shaking by reminding myself
that I was stronger than all of them combined.

“Alright,” the man who'd taken my proof to Gavern said,
stepping out of the cabin, sans the leg. “Gavern wants to see ya,
girl.”

The
cabin was by no means small, but it was difficult to imagine any
room being able to contain Gavern. For the longest time, he'd been
nothing but a force of nature to me, and I expected him to be more
shadow and rolling thunder than man. Yet when I stepped into the
cabin, door immediately pulled shut behind me, I was greeted by a
sleek, neat looking man, sat comfortably behind a desk.

The
resemblance between Gavern and Queen Nasrin was striking. The two
of them must've taken after their mother. He was older than she was
by a handful of years, and the gold and silver chains around his
neck complimented a cloak that was far too extravagant for the
weather.

“A piece
of Reis Jones,” he said, glanced down at the leg placed across his
desk, and gestured for me to take a seat. “Though not the part that
would've been at the top of my list.”

I pulled
the chair out without taking my eyes off of him. Why was I sitting
down? Why wasn't I finishing this here and now? Behind me, Gavern's
bodyguard pulled the bolt across the door, trapping me in there
with the two of them. I hadn't done it yet; did that mean I
couldn't do it? I clasped my hands together, certain I was going
remain there, unmoving.

“So,”
Gavern said, leaning back in his chair. “You wish to betray Port
Mahon. Why might this be?”

“Because...” I bit down on the inside of my mouth, eyes
skidding around the room. We were surrounded by glass cabinets,
each shelf covered in intricate ornaments; silver cutlery and
golden figurines; compasses placed next to pocket watches, all
ticking in time with one another; gleaming coins from distant
shores and uncut precious stones laid between decorative knives;
but even such a wealth of distractions couldn't hold back my answer
forever. “Because Canth's a mess, and Port Mahon's a bigger mess.
I've been here for... for five years, now, and it hasn't got any
better. I heard that you had a claim to the throne, and the Queen
doesn't seem to be doing anything to help, so...

“So I
thought this would be better. For Canth.”

The lies
flowed out of me easily. Too easily. I shouldn't have been talking;
I should've got it over with, by now.

“Is that so?” Gavern asked, tapping a finger against his
chin. “Why, then, do you believe you can make a difference –
a
real
difference
– when I've
hundreds
of men working for me?”

“I—”

Do it, do it
, my mind screamed.
Gavern's bodyguard circled me, rattling a drawer open. I glanced
off to the side but Gavern clicked his fingers, forcing my
attention back onto him.

“Never
mind that. Might I ask you another question?” he asked, leaning
back in his seat and idly playing with one of the chains hanging
around his neck.

“Of
course,” I said, fighting the urge to turn and face the man who was
now standing behind me.

“Do you think me stupid, girl?” Gavern asked in low,
controlled voice. “Rumours of a Felheimish necromancer have been
seeping out of Mahon this past month, and word has it said
necromancer recently took a trip to Chandaran. How
is
my dear sister, by
the way? Has she grown tired of admirable poverty yet?”

A rope cut across my chest, stopping me from leaning forward
to plead the case I didn't have. He knew. Gavern knew what I was
all along, and he'd let me into his cabin; he had something
planned. Now was the time to do it. Now,
now
.

“Stop
struggling. You aren't going anywhere, girl,” Gavern said as I
twisted enough in the chair to stop Gavern's bodyguard from doing
anything beyond restrain me; he hadn't laid a hand on me and
couldn't tie me in place if I didn't stay still. “We can put this
all behind us, can't we? I do apologise for these unfortunate
necessities, but I am not foolish enough to let a necromancer touch
me.

“Now. I understand that Nasrin is Queen and all, but how much
are you being compensated for your services? As far as I hear, she
can barely afford to pay the paltry few servants she keeps around.
Does her gratitude put food in your stomach, keep a roof over your
head? I propose that you work for
me
. I would not pass up the
opportunity to have a necromancer number amongst my
ranks.”

I jolted
in the chair and the bodyguard leant back. He hadn't touched me,
and Gavern hadn't wanted to risk me getting my hands on him; he
thought my powers depended on touch. He was getting
comfortable.

“You
think I'll come work for you?” I asked, wanting to hear him out.
Wanting to know how mistaken he was. Light was seeping back into
me, and foolishly, I lunged forward. The rope pulled tight around
me and I saw stars as something crashed against the back of my
head.

“I do. I
have every confidence that you'll see things my way,” Gavern said,
gesturing for his bodyguard to hand him the implement he'd stuck me
with. Vision darkening before it cleared, I watched as Gavern toyed
with a torch between his hands, holding it over a candle and
letting the flames lap at it, growing. “Ah, look at you. All aglow.
Scared, are you? Let's put it this way: you, sweetheart, are a
necromancer, and this is a burning torch. One lick of these flames
and you're ash.”

“Wait a
moment,” I said, slowly turning the information over in my mind.
I'd gone decades without ever meeting another necromancer, and even
Reis, for all their travels, hadn't met one before me. Why should
Gavern be any different? Why should he have anything but rumours to
work with? “You think you can kill me with that torch?”

“Indeed,” he said, scoffing, confident he knew me better than
I did. “It's like burning dry leaves, isn't it? I can only imagine
how excruciating it must be. Tell me: how much of yourself are you
willing to lose to the flames before seeing things my way in
earnest?”

Gavern
was delighted by the cruelty of his question, but all I could say
in reply was, “Oh.”

“Oh?” he
asked, and it was the last thing he ever did.

Slumping
forward, Gavern thudded against his desk in the same moment his
bodyguard hit the floor. It was done, just like that, and I'd
barely been aware I was doing it. I didn't know how to push death
slowly into a person, if that was possible at all, and so there was
no drawing it out, no seeing the stages between life and
death.

The rope
fell away from me and I rose, heart pounding, skin
glowing.

No one
tried breaking through the door to rush into the cabin. They hadn't
heard anything untoward from inside, or if they had, they'd assumed
that I was the one struggling. Pushing open the windows, I caught
sight of Varn's boat, and briefly considered how best to get
Gavern's body out of there. His head would be all the proof we
needed, but though I'd killed him, I didn't have the stomach to
hack any pieces away from him.

The rope
used to restrain me wasn't long enough to lower him towards the
boat, but I didn't need it. My mind reeled back to King Jonas in
his crypt, and with my eyes locked on it, Gavern's corpse sat back
up. I stepped towards the window and it did too, moving easier than
King Jonas' body had. There was no strain behind it, for the limits
my powers had been pushed to, and the two of us moved in concert,
climbing out of the window.

I didn't
hesitate and the corpse wasn't given the chance to.

We
plummeted towards the ocean, hitting it with a thud that stung my
skin, and blinded by the water churning around me, I kicked my legs
and clawed my way to the surface. I wasn't going to let myself
drown, not now that there was a way home.

Varn's
hands wrapped around my arms as I reached the surface, and she
hauled me up the side of the boat, almost dropping me back into the
sea when she caught sight of Gavern trying to climb his way out of
the waves.

“Fuck!”
she shouted, looking around for something to hit him
with.

“It's
alright, it's alright,” I reassured her, coughing up sea water and
releasing my hold on Gavern. “He's dead, Varn.”

The
corpse crumpled in on itself and Varn kicked it in the ribs;
paused; kicked it again, and broke out into delighted laughter when
it didn't move.

It
wouldn't take long for Gavern's men to work out what had happened –
to work out that Gavern was gone, at least – but we had time enough
to fly back to Port Mahon. At the sight of the body Reis confirmed
to be Gavern's, we were welcomed back as heroes, and Akela did the
honours. With a swing of her axe Gavern was divided in two, head
left with us, body given to the town.