Steph Swainston - No Present Like Time

I ducked into Mist’s cabin and she immediately leapt up, dashed across and flattened a piece of paper against my chest. She yelled, “What is the meaning of this? What’s going on?”

“Huh?” I tried to pick at the note but her palm pressed it tightly to my shirt.

“What have you done, Jant?” she demanded, clapping the paper to emphasize every word. I recognized it as the Emperor’s letter that I had sent to Awndyn with a loyal rider four days ago. My handwriting covered the back of the envelope.

“Hey, hey…Don’t blame the Messenger. San sealed this, not me. I haven’t read it.”

Mist threw up her hands in complete exasperation, “Then read it!”

DELIVER TO THE HAND OF MIST ONLY

Gio Ami shows interest in Tris. Be informed that his spies will try to discover the coordinates and the means to reach the island. You will make it easy for them to learn this information. With discretion, leave your charts or records where they may be readily accessed. Comet will tell you my further orders.

SAN, EMPEROR OF THE FOURLANDS, JULY 13, 2020

I threw a cushion to the floor and sat down. Through the stern windows the panorama changed as Stormy Petrel turned on her anchor. The lamps of homes and pubs on the seafront, the lighthouse on the harbor wall, the notched tops of yew trees in Awndyn cemetery protruded above the land’s dark profile. The ship swung back: yew trees, lighthouse, seafront.

“I don’t know what this means,” I said weakly.

Serein Wrenn had his feet crossed on the table, honing his rapier’s edge with a tiny silver whetstone and watching the barometer drop. He said, “We hoped you would explain.”

I told him San’s edict on rapier fighting and Mist listened intently as I described Gio’s rally. I folded the letter and held it in a candle flame until it burned completely back to my fingernails. I finished by saying, “So, Wrenn, you have to relearn broadsword techniques quickly; and Mist, you gave Gio’s spies that chamber pot and notebook.”

Mist tutted. “Never! As ordered, I neglected to lock them in the safe, and they were stolen by a midshipman with confused allegiance. He thought he had performed a cunning heist…But it makes me scream with frustration; after all last year’s secrecy.”

“Gio has a very strong force around the Pavonine,” Wrenn added. “And he’s got three other carracks. It’s not going to be easy to stop him leaving.”

“Damn. That explains the lights I saw on the quay.” Wrenn threw me a packet of ginger biscuits and I started munching them. I said to Mist, “San said you have to take care of the rebels offshore. Can we follow him?”

Mist gave me an incredulous look. “You have no idea, Rhydanne. Ninety percent of Awndyn supports him. He recruited most of my old crews and he’s cleaning out the harbor stores. Gio’s more ravening than Insects! May dogs shit on his grave. I need to send to Grass Isle to hire sailors loyal to me-mobilize some Awndyn Fyrd-call in old favors. He’ll be long gone before we can raise the troops. So I must find food and…blood and foam! That’s without counting recaulking, fumigation, repairs! It’ll take at least a fortnight! San knows that!

“Tell him I’ll certainly follow Gio-Petrel is faster than those Plainslands crates. We have stun sails, bilge keel; we’re stable while they corkscrew, pitch and roll. I have tricks up my sleeve. If I catch them I’ll sink them all right, but I might not gain more than a couple of days on their tail.”

She ruffled her hair vigorously. “This is not like the Emperor. San knows very well it takes me two weeks to get this ship prepared. He doesn’t make mistakes. Gio’s Awndyn carracks are tough second-class merchantmen designed to round the cape. Ships Taken Up From Trade. In the right hands they could reach Tris. So now we’re all STUFT.”

“I heard that Tornado already had the dissidents under control,” Wrenn said. “San’s given Gio a means of escape. Why in the Empire does he want to do that?”

Mist said, “He usually asks a lot of me, but this…”

Wrenn slid a scabbard over the rapier lying across his knees. “Perhaps San thinks Gio will sink, then he’ll be rid of the little plucker and two whole boatloads of bastards.”

Mist said, “No. He never leaves anything to chance. Sometimes I think even god coming back is just a story he invented to suckle us.”

Nausea rolled over low in my stomach. I wanted scolopendium and my hands were beginning to shake. “San can’t be allowing Gio to reach Tris. Tris is so peaceful. Gio intends to ruin it.”

“True, but if we save the island from Gio, it’s more likely to become part of the Empire,” said Mist. “What does Tris mean to San?”

“I don’t know. It must be more important to him than Gio’s rebellion is…” Then I figured it, and in a moment I saw time as San sees it. Its profound length funneled out before me. I stared into a black well, as linkages and patterns suddenly lit up across centuries. Even Eszai can’t see them; the Emperor plans them.

Of course I had no proof, but I was convinced that I was right. It was a feeling of falling as terrible as when the Circle breaks. One life was a second, a spark. No human can think back and forth over such an immense span. “Oh, my god! I’m absolutely certain…Gio is acting as the Emperor’s cat’s paw.”

Mist gave Wrenn a smile. “I know inspiration when I see it. Jant, what’s the real meaning of San’s command?”

“He’s sending Gio to Tris!” I jumped to my feet and pointed at her. “You didn’t discover Tris by chance, did you?”

She blanched, but stood her ground. “Comet, let’s work tog-”

“ Did you? How stupid I am! One little island-the vast ocean! What are the odds on that? Petrel should have sailed straight past on either side! You weren’t just lucky; San gave you the location, didn’t he? He sent you to find Tris. San must have wanted to find the Trisians ever since they left the Empire in the first place!”

“What?” said Wrenn.

Mist said, “I don’t understand. What do you mean, ‘in the first place’?”

“Ata, what were your orders? Why did you do it-to prove yourself? No wonder you even played the marriage card. San wants Tris back in the Empire at any cost.”

Mist admitted, “Yes, Comet. All he gave me were the rough coordinates and I tacked east until I came upon Tris.”

“The rough coordinates? You must have itched to ask him how he knew!”

“Yes,” she said softly. “But I can’t question the Emperor, and I practice self-control.” Her eyes were expressionless.

“Everybody knew, back then,” I said, awestruck. “Two thousand years ago, the whole Four-Fivelands knew there was an island in the eastern ocean. San wanted us to rediscover Tris.”

“But why give it to Gio?”

“Because every new problem is a solution to an old problem,” I ranted. “San has sent Gio to invade the island instead of us!”

Mist said, “Oh. Because he can’t be seen to do it himself?”

“Yes. Listen; San ordered me to tell the Senate, ‘Our Emperor has sent us to protect you from Gio Ami.’ He makes Gio sound like a formidable enemy, so that he has an excuse to send us!”

“Gio is a formidable enemy,” Wrenn pointed out. “I’m determined to prevent him and his scumbag highwaymen from destroying Capharnaum.”

My hand on the door handle. “Well, at last San has the means to reach the Trisians, to catch up. Tris is a loose end that must have bothered him for two thousand years! He gave you money to rebuild the fleet after the last Insect swarm, didn’t he, Mist? How does it feel to be one of his instruments? And Serein, what’s it like to be his Swordsman executioner? No better than Gio, who thinks he’s rebelling but he’s just San’s pawn. San wants the descendants of the fifth-century rebels returned to the fold; wouldn’t you? Oh, I really need a fix.”