For the brother she hoped to see again someday. For herself. Crude and primitive she might be, but she wasn’t breaking first.

4

“You know,” Serat said, looking out over the battlements. “I can’t actually remember the last time I saw the sun. It’s making my eyes water now. I thought I’d never adjust to this climate, but it appears that I have.”

Janek followed the consul’s gaze past the outer wall. The storm had cleared sometime in the dark hours of the night and the sun was shining for the first time in what seemed like weeks. The pine-clad slopes of the mountain across the bay were black and malevolently stark against a startlingly bright blue sky. He couldn’t see the docks from here, but he could make out the very tops of the sailing ships and the mouth of the harbor with the open sea beyond. He picked out the Order’s ship by the red flag flapping wildly in the breeze, and his mouth tightened. He really didn’t have time for this.

“What did you wish to discuss?” Janek asked, hoping to move things along. He’d been pulled from a warm bed and a willing woman for this. “Certainly not the weather. Or did you drag me up here hoping for the opportunity to push me from the wall and blame it on the wet stones?”

“A thought.” Serat’s mouth twitched with amusement. “But, no. I asked you here to tell you that I have news of the Raven. I don’t wish anyone to know, not the guards, not whatever spies lurk among the servants, and gods forbid the mages catch wind of it to take the story back with them to the capital.”

Ah, the Raven. The ship that was seen fleeing the harbor after the theft of a large shipment of jewels meant as tribute to the empress. The theft had been a great humiliation to Serat who’d sent word to the court about the find of rare and flawless stones which changed color from blood red to deepest sapphire to clear sea green depending upon who was holding them. Before Serat’s ship left the harbor, Erysian rebels stole the chest from the hold. Serat had been forced to send an apology to the empress instead, and he was livid.

Janek honestly didn’t expect the ship to return. If he’d stolen the stones, he’d have sailed directly south to the market in Desilon, sold them all off to the highest bidder, and would be living like a king in Risis.

“One of your men has located the Raven?”

“Not yet,” Serat said, with a frustrated edge to his voice. “Captain Madin has captured one of the leaders of the rebellion—a man named Dask. Several people witnessed him bragging about serving aboard the Raven. He’s the highest level operative we’ve managed to catch alive.”

Calling anyone in this godsforsaken place an operative was an exaggeration to Janek’s way of thinking. Poor Dask was likely a smuggler with the wrong sorts of friends. The rebellion on Erys was hardly organized enough to have leaders in the true sense of the word. He didn’t want to spend the next several days chasing shadows for Serat.

“Madin has him in a small village just east of where Callon once stood. Madin’s rider is in the kitchen. He can tell you exactly where to find the patrol.