Page 36 of Queen Demon
Tahren gave Ziede an apologetic glance and Dahin subsided reluctantly.
As the Belith coast drew closer, Ziede asked, “Dahin, where should we land? Outside the city? Or near the university?” She pushed her hat back to peer toward the domes of the city center. “It’s been decades since I’ve been here and I’m not sure I ever knew where the university was. Didn’t someone say they moved it?”
Kai caught the flicker in Dahin’s expression that said he hadn’t given this any thought yet. “I know where it is,” Dahin said. He stepped up to the raft’s steering column, not making eye contact with Tahren.
Tahren shifted aside enough to let him take the steering if he wanted to, but said, “We have no authority here, except what the Rising World lends us. Should we land first at the Assembly Hall?”
Kai could see Dahin wrestle with the urge to snap at her. But he only said, “I have authority, I’m a famous scholar.”
Kai pointed out, “The Rising World council called an emergency meeting for the news about the expedition. That means the local Cohort Leader will have been told and probably all the Rising World envoys in Ancartre have already met about it.”
There might not have been time for word of Tahren’s return and Kai and Ziede’s reappearance to arrive yet, but it wouldn’t be that many days behind them. Rising World couriers traveled fast. Appearing officially anywhere, especially at the university which had already asked for assistance, without announcing themselves to Ancartre’s local Rising World council first, would cause a lot of comment and strife and delay. But announcing themselves to the council would cause even more comment and strife and delay.
Tahren gave Kai an ironic look. “You have a plan.”
Tahren knew him too well. Kai said, “The Warden of Nibet House said the Tescai-lin was in Ancartre.”
“Oh!” Dahin brightened. “Do you know where?”
“Probably staying with the Enalin envoy.” The members of the Rising World didn’t keep formal envoy houses in every city, just the largest. Like the others, the Enalin envoy had probably taken a private house for the purpose. It would be close to the Assembly, and probably well known to the local vendors. “We’ll have to ask someone.”
Before the invasion, Ancartre had been a city of white stone, of towers and domed temples dedicated to learning and art, wide processional ways lined with obelisks. Bashasa had told Kai that his father had visited it several times in his youth, and taken inspiration from it for the school he had built in Benais-arik, wanting it to be a center of study that would draw people from all over the known world.
Early in the Hierarchs’ invasion, Ancartre had been overcomeby an overland attack and used as a staging point for advancing on Palm. The Voice of the Hierarchs had slaughtered much of the city’s population but left the buildings intact. It was the combined forces of the surviving people of Belith, Palm, the Enalin and the Arike and the rest of the new Rising World coalition who had done the structural damage, fighting to drive the Hierarchs out.
As they flew in low toward the busy harbor, much of it had been rebuilt, the rubble cleared away. Twin stone breakwaters with a two-story colonnade walkway atop them extended out to form a graceful half circle, like arms reaching to embrace and shelter arriving ships. Tahren lowered the raft even more so they could fly under the curving carved arch that framed the harbor entrance, to make it clear they were not attempting to enter by stealth.
They passed over a small flotilla of western archipelago boats with colorful sails, then the long stone piers where the large and sturdy square coastal traders of Belith were anchored. Ancartre was supposedly built of marble, and it glared white under the bright sunlight like it very well might be. Kai had always thought privately that some of it was whitewash or limestone, but he didn’t have any proof of that. Along the shore were white buildings with cylindrical roofs that must be warehouses, trading factors, boat-builders. Among them were open arcades busy with people coming and going. The cool wind brought the smell of charcoal smoke and fish. Above the harbor were low hills covered with more two- and three-story stone structures, with neatly paved streets, then the domed temples that circled the city center.
The houses and city structures that had been rebuilt were smaller, their coloring brighter and less weathered; from the air the difference let Kai trace the path of destruction where the Rising World’s forces had pushed through from the harbor up the gentle hills toward where the Temple of Merciful Philosophy had been turned into the Hierarchs’ residence. Firepowder and Witches like Tenes who could convince spirits to move theground and break stone had carved that path through the City of Enlightenment. Carved out the Hierarchs like a physician cutting out a festering boil.
The Temple of Merciful Philosophy had never been fully rebuilt; possibly the Belith felt that the Hierarchs had corrupted it, or that the slaughter of the Hierarchs inside it by the Rising World had corrupted it, or both. The dome of the circular structure was cracked like an egg, half of it collapsed away, open to the air, and the other half was shored up with heavy timbered scaffolding.
They came down over the busy harbor front, where people were loading and unloading cargo on the docks, scraping hulls or mending nets for the fishers, walking along the broad terraces, or lying in the sun on the decks of their ships, taking a rest from work. Some noticed the raft, pointing at it, but no one seemed panicked or upset, which Kai took as a good omen. Tenes signed,Where should we go? Should we land on a dock?
Ziede nodded. “If there’s a place in the city for landing ascension rafts, there may be Immortal Blessed there and we don’t want to have those conversations.”
Kai pointed. “There’s an empty one.” The dock had stone pilings and should be sturdy enough. The rafts weren’t as heavy as they looked.
“Just don’t tell them who we are,” Dahin muttered as Tahren wrestled with the steering to make the raft’s descent as gentle as possible. Kai could tell it was a struggle; ascension rafts hadn’t been designed to be subtle. A curious crowd gathered on the broad stone walkway above the dock. “We need to come up with some sort of story, some explanation of why we’re here.”
Tahren said, “I honestly don’t think we do.”
Below, someone called out, “Hail the craft! Are you landing?” They spoke Old Imperial, but in the thicker accent of southern Palm.
“If you permit it.” Ziede leaned out over the rail. “Will the dock hold us?”
“Ah, it should! Land away!”
Tahren managed to set the raft down gently, with only a little creaking from the thick hardwood planking. Kai had stuffed his veil up into his sun hat and now pulled it down as a person walked up the dock toward them. They wore a long shirt with rolled-up sleeves and wide pants, which were common everyday clothes in Belith and Palm, but had one of the long stoles wrapped around their chest and shoulders that officials wore here. The stole was blue and a little weathered, so Kai guessed this was a port official. They wore their sun-bleached hair in the most common Belith style, cut short in front and braided down the back. They had the traditional facial tattoos and Kai thought the curled designs along the cheekbones were considered masculine, but it had been so long he wasn’t certain.
They approached the raft with wary politeness, and introduced themselves as a dockmaster, with theesuffix on the end of the word in Belithan that signified male gender, so that answered that question. The dockmaster said to Tahren, “Hail to you. Immortal Blessed?”
It was obvious from the fact that she was piloting an ascension raft, if not her height and build. “Yes.” Tahren pushed her hair back, tumbled by the wind, and made a vague gesture to the rest of them. “With my family.” Sanja, who was much better at deception than Tahren, popped up onto the bench and tilted her hat back so the dockmaster could see she was a child. “I’m sure there’s a fee to use the port. We’re not sure how long we might need to stop here.”
“Ah, yes.” The dockmaster had clearly seen enough to know that Immortal Blessed families did not usually include mortals or veiled Witches, even if they were all dressed like well-off Arike. Which would probably explain why they were not continuing on to land wherever ascension rafts normally did, probably the nearest Immortal Blessed enclave. “Just a day’s fee, then, for now we’ll say.”
There was a pause as they had to remember where the money pouch had gone and turn out a couple of bags before Kai realized it was in his coat pocket. Then he had to count out the amount in a mix of Rising World currency from Benais-arik and of local coins from the various trading posts they had stopped at. At least Dahin just stood around making exasperated noises instead of hiding under the steering column like he had in Benais-arik. By the time Kai finished paying, the dockmaster was a good deal less wary. Presumably he thought Immortals on the run with a stolen ascension raft would be better organized.
