Philip Athans - Scream of Stone

He looked back at Wenefir, who gazed off into the gloom again, imagining.

12 Alturiak, the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR)

THE GRAND CANAL OF THE SECOND EMPEROR, SHOU LUNG

Ivar Devorast sat on a hill a hundred and thirty miles west along the Grand Canal of the Second Emperor from the city of Wuhu, a hundred and fifty miles northwest of Ch’ungkung. Ran Ai Yu stopped, the bowls of rice beginning to burn her hands, and stared at him. She had seen westerners in Shou Lung before, had seen the faraway, lost looks in their eyes, the confusion and fear in their halting speech, the insecurity that came from being in a place at once familiar and so alien. She knew she’d felt the same the first time she’d ventured west into Faerun, and she still felt that way most of the time, even after having spent so much time in Innarlith, Calimport, and surrounding cities.

But Ivar Devorast showed none of that discomfort. His eyes darted from the unfamiliar to the exotic without ever betraying a sense of the difference between one and the other. He’d picked up a few words of Kao te Shou already, even though they had been in her home country for but a few days.

The voyage had lasted a month-fast even for her-and Devorast had seemed equally at home aboard the vessel he’d built for her, the wondrous Jie Zuo , as he was passing through the occasional magical portal they’d used to shave time from the voyage. She had been concerned about his reaction to that, but he’d had none. He seemed either to trust her to convey him safely to Shou Lung, or he simply didn’t care. She hoped it was the former, but feared it was the latter.

And so there he sat, on a high hilltop overlooking the Grand Canal of the Second Emperor, stretched out far below them, a ribbon of blue-black water no different from any river. On the other side, following the canal’s lazily-winding course between the moundlike hills ran the Kaifeng Highway, a band of dusty brown punctuated here and there by the clouds of dust kicked up by a passing caravan. Ships and barges alike plied the waters of the canal, square sails making the most of the cool, strong breeze that tore through the hills. He sat facing north into Hungtse Province, though where he sat was the northern frontier of Wang Kuo. Ran Ai Yu knew that Ivar Devorast cared little for that distinction, or for any of the names people had given anything. She spared a glance at her own ship, which sat tied to the edge of the canal three hundred feet below. The ceramic tiles sparkled in the sunlight, and the sight of it filled her with awe, even though it had been hers for more than six years.

“Rice?” Devorast asked, not turning his head.

Ran Ai Yu smiled and stepped forward, not speaking until she had come to his side and he looked up at her.

“Yours will be no less impressive,” she said.

He glanced at the bowl of rice she held out to him and cracked just the tiniest of smiles. Ran Ai Yu felt her heart expand in her chest, but she fought down the feeling. She couldn’t keep herself from blushing, though, but Devorast didn’t seem to notice.

He took the bowl from her hand and said, “Thank you. For the rice.”

“May I sit?” she asked, and he nodded.

She sank into a lotus position next to him, close but not so close that anything could be implied. She took a deep breath and settled her own rice bowl in the folds of her robe.

They sat for a long time in silence, neither of them eating, just staring off into the distance at the bald hills on the other side of the canal, at the wakes of the boats running along the water, and the clouds drifting lazily across the azure sky.

“You will have to go back,” she said, and her jaw started to tremble so she closed her mouth.

“I have only been here a few days.”

“And what have you learned?”

He didn’t answer for a long time, so Ran Ai Yu waited.

“Did I come here to learn something?” he asked her finally, the sound of a challenge in his voice.

“Didn’t you?” she asked. “You came here to see the Grand Canal of the Second Emperor, and here it is. Will it help you build your own?”

He nodded but seemed determined to leave it at that.

“They will finish it without you,” she said. “They will try, at least.”

Again, he failed to respond.

“You can stay here as long as you like,” she said. “It would be my honor should you decide to accompany me to my home in Tsingtao. There you can stay for as long as you wish.”

She didn’t expect an answer from him, and got none.

“Should you decide to stay in self-imposed exile”-at that he looked at her, startling her-“then nothing would make me happier than to be your host for as long as you wish. But you should not choose that. You should not go to Tsingtao with me, or stay here upon this hill. You should return to finish what you have begun, and finish it in your own way, and in your own time.”

He sighed-a rare sound indeed from Ivar Devorast.

“I will take you back, if you wish,” she said, “aboard Jie Zuo.”

Another long stretch of silence passed while she watched two clouds slowly collide and merge over the far hills of Hungtse.

“How long was that?” Ivar Devorast asked.

Ran Ai Yu looked at him, but he continued to stare out at the horizon.

“How long did we just go without speaking?” he asked.

Ran Ai Yu shook her head.

“I am curious about things like that,” he said. “We measure distance. We break it up into inches, feet, and miles. But time passes only at the whim of greater forces: the sun, the moon, the stars, and the tides.”

Ran Ai Yu narrowed her eyes, and try as she might, she could not understand what Ivar Devorast meant to tell her.

“You should go back,” she said, unable to keep the regret from her voice.

He looked out into the far reaches of the farthest east.

20 Alturiak, the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR)

FIRESTEAP CITADEL

They stepped out of the coach and into a cacophony of taps and cracks. Hundreds of men milled about, seemingly at random, groups surrounding pairs fighting each other with wooden swords. Other rings of men encircled half a dozen men fighting another half a dozen men with long, blunt-ended poles. Orders and encouragement-and more than a few insults and jibes-burst free of the general din.

Pristoleph nodded to a lieutenant who saluted him and helped Phyrea down from the coach. Not paying attention to the lieutenant’s status report, Pristoleph watched his young bride take in the scene. She squinted in the winter overcast from under a wide-brimmed hat.

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Pristoleph said, cutting off the officer’s report.

The soldier bowed and scurried away into the general confusion.

“You’re sure you’re well?” Pristoleph said, allowing every bit of the doubt he held to show in both his voice and his face.

Phyrea didn’t look at him. She held a small black parasol under one arm, which she fiddled with. He couldn’t help thinking she wanted to open it, as though the dull gray light was too bright for her. He’d been noticing that she was growing more and more sensitive to light, as though she was becoming a creature of the Underdark, and he didn’t like that.

As he continued to watch her, her tight squint began to relax a little and she almost began to smile.

“Well?” he prompted.

“This is yours now?” she asked, and he could tell she was impressed. Just then Pristoleph thought he’d somehow done the impossible. “You bought this?”

“The citadel?” he replied, taking her by the arm and leading her along the winding dirt track that led through the drilling grounds toward the tall stone fortress. “Firesteap Citadel belongs to the ransar-or, well, let’s say, the people of Innarlith. I bought the castellan.”