The Waters Rising (14 page)

“Now, pay close attention. Here is a list I made for you. Here are the signs of the birds and the names of those signs written in Tingawan.”

He stared at her significantly. “You understand?”

“If I am where birds are kept, and if I wish to send a message, I find a bird with the right symbol on his leg. I put the message in the little tubes as you have taught me, and I set the bird loose.”

He smiled at her, looked for a moment as though he might have wanted to hug her, but withheld this spontaneous reaction, substituting another approving smile. “Memorize the signs. Then destroy the list.”

How long has he been planning this?
She shivered inwardly at the depth and detail of the arrangements that had been made. For her alone? No. For the soul of the princess? Oh, yes. She bowed her head, saying, “You are generous, Cousin.”

“I do not feel generous,” he said angrily, looking away from her. “What I have done is barely adequate, tucking away bits and pieces, here and there, like a squirrel hiding nuts! If it were within my power at this moment, I would equip an armada to carry you to your people, to Prince Lok-i-xan, whose power is far greater than that of Mirami or any of her family. That is not possible, but it is possible for you to make a southward journey by way of the abbey to Merhaven, near Elsmere. If not immediately, then presently you may take ship there and sail the southern route to Tingawa. If something happens to close that route, in time you will be old enough to withstand the rigors of the north. In either case, you will use the treasure I have sent in either place to make your way home.”

She felt an inward pain at this. Twice he had told her he was sending her home, and each time it made her hurt, with a strange, persistent aching. She swallowed deeply, searching for something else to speak of, turning the strange discomfort aside for the moment.

He did not let it rest. “One thing only, Xulai. One thing more important than anything else in the world. More important than I am, or Wold, or any of the rest of us.
You must get to Tingawa!
Somehow. However long it takes. You must get there. It is not just for the soul of my beloved. It is not just because of my promise to her father. It is not for any simple, easy reason. It is a matter far more important than that could ever be! You must take my word for it that it is far, far more important! Promise me! No matter what other thing intervenes or interjects itself, no matter how tempted you are to go aside from this journey, no matter what seems more important, more urgent! Even if your best friend is in danger, even if you have a husband or child who is threatened, even if you are aged and walk with a cane before you can complete the journey, you must get to Tingawa! Promise me!”

He held out his hands. She put her own into them and bowed over them, shaken to her heart at the vehemence of his words. “I promise you, Cousin. I promise you.”

After a moment’s silence, he said, “They know, in Tingawa, that the princess is dead. They know I am asking you, that is, the Xakixa, to make this promise. Both she and they required it of me when we were wed. Precious Wind was sworn to keep it. Now you are sworn to keep it.” He paused for a moment. “I must tell you something troubling . . .” He shifted uncomfortably.

She leaned forward and placed her hand over his. “Tell me whatever I need to know, Cousin.”

“Great Bear was sworn to serve Xu-i-lok. When he was sworn to service, we all thought, well, when . . . if the princess died, you would return to Tingawa immediately. If she did not die, you would stay here in her service while Great Bear and Precious Wind might return to Tingawa as they chose. We all knew Great Bear would choose to go home. He had already paid a part of the bride-price for the woman he had chosen. At the time, she was only a child, named Legami-am, but of a very good family. It was something of a coup for Bear to have betrothed her and there was plenty of time for little Legami-am to grow up before she and Bear would wed . . .”

“Ah,” she whispered. “But it has been a very long time.”

“It has been a very long time, longer than anyone could have foreseen. She is older now. They have sent messages to each other, they have seen each other’s pictures, they have been lauded, one to the other, by their families. Now Great Bear is afire to go home and start a family.”

“But we
are
going to Tingawa.”

“You are going by a long, slow way. Great Bear is not happy about that. Also, while in the service of Xu-i-lok he could not earn the prizes he had been earning at the battle games. He is a poorer man for having made this commitment, and I will not let him lose by his faithfulness. Half a year ago, Prince Orez sent three men to the abbey. They carried a very large reward I had given him for Bear and Precious Wind. It is more than enough to make up Bear’s bride-price. I will tell Precious Wind about it before you leave.”

“Why did you not send it now, with us, Cousin?”

“Better three hunters from Etershore, dressed shabbily, not worth the robbing, than a well-manned group of wagons from Woldsgard, Xulai. Such wagons are bait for snoopers and spies, some of them very clever. You will be looked over more than once on the way. The men from Etershore carried the treasure in gems, light in weight, easy to hide, and the abbey is accustomed to such. We know the funds are safe, waiting for them, for the men brought me the receipt on their way back, signed by the prior. I will give it to Precious Wind before you go. Neither she nor Bear will lose by their honorable commitment. Still, I wanted you to know the source of Bear’s discontent. He will get his treasure when he steps on the ship to Tingawa and not before. I believe him to be honorable, but we all know the danger of giving Bear any treasure so long as his . . . habit may come upon him.”

“I will be aware, Cousin. Does Precious Wind know this?”

“Yes. She knows part and will know all before she leaves. And she knows Bear well, and therefore understands the need. She calms him, but still he . . . frets.”

“How do they know in Tingawa that the princess is dead?”

“I sent birds to Wellsport and Etershore. Sometimes a small boat is blown across the sea by storm, and we send messages on the return voyage. Despite that, I am positive the Tingawans knew of it the moment it happened.” He turned slightly, staring out the window into the west, as though to find that far-off land. “If I learned anything about the Tingawan people from . . . from her, it was that these
knowing
senses of theirs are very real. Perhaps only some of them are so gifted. Xu-i-lok certainly was. I think Precious Wind is, also.”

He went to stand at the window, saying thoughtfully, “This business of being a soul carrier seems to be spoken of quite openly. The custom is generally known of in your land, and yet no one in Norland knows much about it. Not about it or about you . . .”

“Some in Norland know some things about Tingawa, Cousin,” Xulai blurted. “The duchess has a spy here.”

He turned to her, face drawn. “I know. Cook knows. The scullery maid. She’s not the first. She stays in the kitchen or up in her cubby beneath the roof, and Cook sees to it that she learns nothing at all. Your name, perhaps. Why you came here. Who your protectors are. And that’s all. She does not know anything about my disposing of the treasures of Woldsgard, and you must not talk of it, Xulai, not with anyone, not even with your Tingawan protectors. What they do not know, they cannot say. The important thing is that you and they are to go away from here, staying here and there in safe havens until your journey can be completed.”

“Where do I go first?” she breathed, her own eyes swimming. “Where, Cousin?”

“Ahh,” he said, leaning forward to put his hand on her shoulder. “To Wilderbrook Abbey, child. Precious Wind will go with you, of course, and others you know and trust. Bear will go with you, at least as far as the abbey, though he’ll probably leave you there for a time while he scouts the trail south. It’s been decades since we’ve heard from anyone who has actually traveled that route, and we feel it needs to be reconnoitered before you set out on it.”

“If he will go, may I ask Abasio, the traveler, to come along?” begged Xulai.

“Traveler?” He seemed dumbfounded. “Who?”

“The man with the dyer’s wagon,” she said. “He’s staying in the yard. I wanted you to meet him today, but there was no occasion for it. He tells the most wonderful stories, and he told me the other day he wanted to see the great falls.”

“How could he have come here without seeing them?” he asked sharply, with a suspicious glance out the window that looked down upon the castle yard.

“He came through the northern forests, then down along the south side of the highlands to Ragnibar Fjord, through the Stoneway, and from there down the road that comes past the gard. He has told Bear all about it. They have exchanged a good deal of information about the northern forests.”

He stared into a dusty corner, thinking for a time. “That’s amazing. I’d like to talk with him. We’ve had no visitors coming that way for a long time. Did he mention trolls?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Trolls, Cousin. He did, indeed. He says there are far too many of them past the Stony Mountains but that they do not seem to reproduce. I always thought they were mythical.”

He laughed, a brief bark, half amusement, half self-mockery. “So I’ve always thought, but some years ago my birds brought me word that an age of myth had begun again in the east.”

“East, where?”

“Beyond Norland, over the Great Stony range, on the far side, where the plains begin. Oh, it was some years ago. I was told there were trolls, and giants, and griffons, and . . . any other creature you might care to mention. We here in the west heard of a great evil building in that area. It was said a great sorceress had flown into the sky to retrieve the secrets of the ease machines and return them to earth. I confess, some of us were more than a little worried over that possibility. There seemed to be a dreadful kind of inevitability to it, but either she never went or she never returned.

“Of course, that was when I was much younger. Before . . .”
Before she died.
He blinked back a tear and cleared his throat. “Later we heard the evil had somehow been vanquished, though it seems to have left a hole to be filled by the next dreadful thing.”

“Trolls?”

“I haven’t been there. Perhaps your traveler has. Ask him if he would talk with me. He is your friend?”

“More like family, I think,” she murmured. “He seems very close, as though I had known him before, somehow. He says he would love to see your birds.”

The duke smiled at this, thinking:
If Precious Wind says the man is harmless, and if the child enjoys his company, why not? She’ll have others around her to guard her. Surely, quickly, she must be taken to the abbey. Too much danger gathers here.

“If he wants to see the birds, send someone to bring him to the bird towers tonight, or come with him yourself. And let him accompany you to the abbey, if he likes. The place is known to be kindly and hospitable. They have a wonderful school there; the teachers are drawn from everywhere in this world, even from Tingawa. You will have youthful companions. It will be pleasant for you, I pray.”

“When do I go?”

“Day after tomorrow, early in the morning. And, dear child, should anyone meet you on the trip and ask how old you are, you will say you are seven . . .”

“Is that how old I am?”

“It is how old you look, though you may be . . . a little older. I am told that Tingawan women age very slowly. Though some girls here in Norland marry as early as twelve or thirteen, Tingawan women do not become marriageable until they are around twenty years old. I want you to look and act as young as possible for your own protection. The younger you are believed to be, the more inconsequential you will seem.”

They sat quietly for a time, hand in hand, before Xulai murmured, “If Princess Xu-i-lok died of a death curse, Cousin, it took a long time achieving its purpose.”

His hand clenched around hers, hurting her, and she cried out.

“Ah, I’m sorry, child, but it hurts to hear you say it. Yes, it took years. We fought it, Xu-i-lok and I. It may be that she fought it in ways I don’t know of. I have friends who comprehend these things, and they tell me the princess had powers and strengths of her own. The curse could not be broken, but it could be resisted, so we fought endless sorties against it, countless divagations, continual feints and retreats. I let it be known at the beginning that Xu-i-lok was my betrothed and my beloved, that I would keep her beside me so long as breath was within her. Every season that she survived was a small victory. She bade me keep her alive as long as possible.” He wiped his eyes again. “She said if it were only to annoy the one who had planned this, it was worth living to do so. She said that given time enough, we might do more than merely annoy . . .”

Xulai sighed deeply, aware that a dreadful oppression had risen from her heart. She had not been guilty of keeping the princess in pain, nor had her cowardice undone the princess’s will to go on living. “She knew she was cursed.”

“She knew before I did. It was a day or so before we were to be wed. She came in from walking in the woods and told me it had happened. I remember it as though it happened this morning. She was carrying a trowel and her hands were muddy. She had been mucking about, she said, among the forest plants. They fascinated her, and she had been exploring. She was near that old temple—you may have seen it—when the knowledge came to her. She had that Tingawan way of seeing things, knowing things. I should not have been surprised, earlier, at the questions you asked, for it is a talent your people share, that knowing without being told.”