Marie Brennan - Voyage of the Basilisk

I gave her a précis of my dealings with Suhail, from our partnership in Namiquitlan to our chance encounter in Seungdal, and all that had followed after. “Do you trust him?” the princess asked when I was done.

“Yes,” I said. The word came forth without any need for my brain to approve it first. “I do not know his lineage, but he is a gentleman in every other sense of the word, and very brave. I am certain he will help us if he can.”

Hannah looked unconvinced. “Miriam, to reveal your identity to a foreigner…”

“The alternative is to remain a prisoner, or to risk the Yelangese using me as political leverage. But it is a moot point if escape is impossible regardless.” Miriam focused her attention on me once more. “Tell me what you can of this caeliger.”

Under other circumstances—when I was rested, perhaps, or at least had not been subjected to one of the more harrowing days of my life—I might have been able to make a more considered decision as to what I should communicate to the princess, and what might best be retained as a secret. But I was not rested, and my day had been harrowing; and so I sat there in that small, airless room and told her very nearly everything.

The only reason “very nearly” did not become “all” was because the princess remained attentive enough to draw us back to the purpose when I strayed too far into digression. She did not hear the tale of how Jacob and I had discovered the secret of natural dragonbone preservation, nor much of what had transpired in Vystrana. But I told her of Frederick Kemble, the chemist I had hired to continue Gaetano Rossi’s research; of the break-in, which I believed to have been orchestrated by the Marquess of Canlan; of the Va Ren Shipping Assocation, which was now profiting from that research. And I told her of the recent interest in the hunting of dragons, which seemed to have military backing.

“Then they likely have more than one of these,” she said. I knew from her quiet tone that I had just added another few kilograms to the burden of her worries. “It seems, Mrs. Camherst, that you also have a pressing need to speak with the admiral. He must know of this at once.”

I did not contradict her, but neither did I share her enthusiasm for the notion. While it was true that Scirland needed to be apprised of this Yelangese innovation, I did not much relish the prospect of explaining dragonbone preservation to men who were likely to immediately begin planning how to exploit it for their own benefit.

Regardless, it was true that escape needed to happen, for the princess’ sake if not my own. And limited although its range must be, the caeliger seemed our best prospect for doing that.

If escape were to happen at all, it must happen soon. The Scirling delegation had been kept in friendly captivity, insofar as such a thing is possible; the Keongans felt no animosity toward the princess or her people. They only held her because she was their best bargaining chip for getting Waikango back. House arrest had been imposed when the warriors saw the caeliger approaching, because they did not know what it portended, and it continued now because of the Yelangese. “They were reluctant to lay hands directly on me,” Miriam said, when I asked how she had gotten free earlier. The rest of the time, the Scirlings were permitted to move about in small groups—albeit under guard to ensure that no one attempted to slip away into the interior of Lahana.

“There has been no need to keep us under closer watch,” Hannah said. “What good would it do for the men to overpower the guards? They put us on this side of the island because there are so few settlements here, and what few are nearby have had their canoes taken away. We could escape this location, but we would still have no way off the island. They would find and stop us well before we could steal long-distance vessels from anywhere else.”

The caeliger, of course, changed that. Our bad landing would not have inspired the Keongans to believe it was capable of travelling very far, but even if they did not think that craft a danger, the Yelangese most certainly were. Messengers had been sent; soon additional warriors would come and take the princess to a more secure location.

It could not spirit us all to safety, though. Only a few could go; the question was which few those should be.

From the start of her captivity, the princess had insisted upon sharing meals with the rest of her crew. This violated the tapu which said men and women should eat separately, but Miriam had thought it wise to preserve opportunities for conversation with Captain Emery, precisely for eventualities such as this one. The Keongans permitted no fire that evening, but did allow us out of our huts to share a cold meal of cocoanut meat, bananas, and taro paste, which gave us a chance to speak.

The men had spent their time questioning Suhail, much as Miriam had questioned me, and had unsurprisingly lit upon a very similar notion. Under the guise of asking one another to pass platters of food, Hannah and the captain arranged the plan. Four would go in the caeliger: Suhail, for his previous experience and knowledge of hot air balloons; one Lieutenant Handeson, who knew balloons and engines both; the princess; and myself.

I would have argued this last point if I could have. The full range of the caeliger was unknown, but would certainly be improved the less weight it carried. My presence might mean the difference between Princess Miriam reaching Kapa Hoa (which was the closest island outside the archipelago) and Her Highness drowning in the sea. But she considered it vital that my knowledge of the Yelangese caeligers be shared as soon as possible; and so I must go. I could not dispute it too strenuously, not without the Keongans noticing something amiss. They did not speak Scirling, but they could recognize the sound of an argument.

“They are good people,” the princess said to me quietly, as we waited for the moment to strike. It must come soon; the island was falling into dusk, and soon there would not be enough light to see the caeliger’s controls. “I do not applaud their actions, of course—they should not have taken me prisoner. But I have a good deal of sympathy for their position. By all accounts, Waikango is not only a gifted war-leader—a gifted king —but a just and decent man. I would rather have him for an ally than the Yelangese emperor.”

I looked at her sidelong. “Do you intend to speak on their behalf, once you have returned? Despite what they have done?”

She gave it due thought. Unlike myself, the princess was a woman who considered everything before she committed to it. “I do,” she said at last. “There must be repercussions for the ones who kidnapped me; we cannot let that go unanswered. But I think the men responsible knew that they would ultimately be punished for what they have done. I am not held in the same esteem as a princess of their own people, but they have violated proper behaviour nonetheless. Such actions have consequences. They accepted those consequences, for the sake of their people.”

Her tone was one of quiet respect. In her shoes, I do not know that I could have been as forgiving. The Labane who took me prisoner in Mouleen were loyal soldiers of their inkosi, and they knew that by venturing into the Green Hell they risked death, but that did not make me any more charitable toward them. Then again, the Labane had not treated me half so kindly as the Keongans had treated Miriam.

The princess caught my gaze and held it. “Remember that,” she said.

Before I could ask her precisely what it was I should remember, the men sprang into action.

It was not an easy fight. The Keongan guards were all large men, and armed; the Scirlings and Suhail were unarmed, and moreover were attempting to avoid killing anyone, on Miriam’s orders. But they also outnumbered the islanders, with so many having been sent away on various tasks. Nor did they have to achieve permanent victory: they only had to occupy the guards sufficiently that we four could run for the caeliger.