The Broken Eye
Page 78

Antonius leaned close. “No scars. No scars?”
“I think that’s part of the magic. Well, it has to be.”
Antonius hefted the sword and stabbed it down on the deck. Its point sank deeply into the polished, fire-hardened wood. He looked at Gavin skeptically.
“I think it’s different, for me,” Gavin said.
He’d been doing a lot of thinking in the last day of freedom. First he’d thought of Karris, Karris, who had been so painful to think about when he was in the hell belowdecks. He could see her smile, the arch of her neck, her hair—blonde, now—and her tears of joy as they embraced once more. He could feel her fingers touching his face while he slept, assuring herself he was real. He could imagine nipping her fingers to startle her, and laughing together. He imagined her slim legs around his hips, her warm embraces—but then that, too, still hurt. His body had been hollowed out like a bowl for sorrows, and imagining pleasure filling it again was torture. He tried to imagine what she would say when she saw his eyes, instead. She had married a Prism. She had accepted the costs of being married to the most powerful man in the world, but she’d accepted the rewards, too.
He was that man no more. What he had promised was not what he was going to give her. What would she say to this withered husk?
I am not now that which once I was. What work of noble note might yet be done, by me? By this cripple?
That, too, was too cruel to countenance. So he’d thought about the musket-sword. It was the black in it that captivated him. It looked like obsidian. But no one could work obsidian into such delicate spirals; the stuff wasn’t malleable. Obsidian fractured with hard, sharp edges. During the war, those who could afford obsidian had edged their arrowheads with the stuff, as it cut through luxin better than steel did. But few could afford it. That it interfered with drafting was known, though. Hellstone, drafters called it, thinking it darkness personified, a negation of light, and thereby a tool of the enemy.
Gavin had his—the real Gavin’s—men collect all the weapons lined with hellstone and any gems or decorative pieces, put them in a few crates, and had them ‘lost’ when they got back to Big Jasper. It was war, albeit the end of the war, and things go missing. He’d used that treasure to line the tunnels of Gavin’s prison beneath the Chromeria. He was very familiar with obsidian.
And this didn’t make sense.
“Can we try a little bit at a time, rather than just run you through and hope for the best?” Antonius asked.
“When you put it like that,” Gavin said, “that sort of makes sense.”
Antonius grimaced. He lofted the sword and extended it toward Gavin’s chest. “How about I hold the sword in place, and you can move forward as much as you want, and maybe the crew won’t keelhaul me for killing you?”
“Fair.” Gavin held the tip of the white-and-black sword to his chest. He leaned in—
—and jumped back, cursing, blood dribbling down his chest.
Antonius jumped back, too, eyes wide. There was a moment of silence, while Gavin rubbed at the wound. “So … that wasn’t how it worked before?” Antonius asked.
Gavin cursed louder, swore at the heavens. There was no way he’d been imagining it. At least not the second time. The dagger had been a dagger when he’d fought his father and Grinwoody and Kip for it, and a sword thereafter. Gunner had admitted that he’d pulled it out of Gavin’s chest—that Gavin had been fully impaled.
Maybe it only worked once. It took all your magic, and then it was done. But obsidian didn’t do that. It could drain luxin from your blood, sure, but it didn’t stop you from ever drafting again. Not even all obsidian did that.
“Can I try it on you?” Gavin asked.
“You said it took away your ability to draft,” Antonius said.
It wasn’t as if Gavin had wanted to tell him, but there hadn’t been any way to avoid it, either. The boy had asked him to draft some repair to the galley, and Gavin had no lie ready for why he wouldn’t. “That’s right,” Gavin said. “It’s a guess, of course, but the events correlate.”
“So you want me to give up my ability to do magic to satisfy your curiosity?” Antonius asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I want to help, but … Maybe we could wait and try some other way?”
Gavin sighed. He couldn’t exactly blame the boy. “It’s almost first watch. Time’s up. We need to decide.”
Yesterday, in their initial exuberance and fear, they’d simply rowed until dark to get away. None of the slaves had thought to use sextant and compass to find their position, and it had been overcast. Antonius Malargos said they were between Rath and the Jaspers, two days out from Rath.
The crew gathered on deck. Many of them had slept on deck, not trusting that someone wouldn’t come and lock them to an oar once again. In the growing light of the rosy-fingered dawn, they took their places.
Antonius spoke first. “This day, we must decide our destination. We’ve food and water for what? Five days? I’ve heard tales of your rowing prowess, and I’m sure you could reach half the coast of Blood Forest and half the coast again of Ruthgar. But there are only two viable options: go to Big Jasper, or go to Rath.”
“Why would we go to Rath?” someone asked.
“You left out the third option,” someone else said. “We can keep pirating. Sun Day’s coming, all sort of fat fish in the water for us to take.”
“Listen to me!” Antonius said. He was too fearful, too young. He thought he was losing the sailors’ attention. He wasn’t. They simply wanted to taste their freedom a bit. What could make a man feel more like a free man than interrupting his betters without consequence? For men who’d lived under the lash, it was fine wine.
“I’m offering you freedom, and more,” Antonius said. “My cousin, Lady Eirene Malargos, is fair and rich and connected. If you land in the wrong city, you’ll be seen as fugitive slaves, game for anyone to recapture. You land somewhere worse, and you’re mutineers. You could be hanged or ’hauled. My cousin will give you papers, filed in every capital. Freedom. Never having to run again. It goes without saying that we split the cargo. Even shares for everyone. No share for me, though I rescued you. All that, and fifty danars each.”
“We want to keep the ship, too!” someone shouted out.
“The Bitter Cob will be sold and the profit divided up with the rest of the shares,” Antonius said. “That’s the only way everyone gets an even split. If some of you want to go in together and buy it, that’s your business.”
Gavin stood up. “Lord Antonius,” he said, inclining his head. “I want you to know how much we all appreciate you and your actions. We’ll make sure you’re amply rewarded. However. I’m not really sure why you’re even trying. We’re going to Big Jasper, because whatever you offer, I’ll double.”
The men cheered.
But Antonius held up his hand silent, waiting. Someone shouted, “Shut yer yaps, ya rabble, let the lord drive the price up!” The men laughed, but eventually quieted.
“Two things,” Antonius said. “One that you know, and one that you can’t. First, you all know Eirene Malargos’s reputation. She is a tough trader, but she always keeps her word, no matter what. Second, in normal times, Gavin Guile could indeed double whatever she and I could offer you. In normal times, I know Gavin Guile would honor his promise to us, though we all know that the Guiles have earned their surname anew a thousand times each generation.”