The Road To Cordia

  "You can prove that?" asked Ee'Rick.

  Lil'Li slumped with defeat. "Not without Lady Fayre's Thread of Truth."

  When she learned the two prisoners were from Lady Fayre, Lil'Li had counted heavily on the Thread to resolve things legally; now war might be the only answer. The thought of her country torn, bled to death by civil war, made her sick. But she refused to just give up. Without a royal female carrying the Queen's Gift on its throne, Cancordia would crumble away into nothing, easy pickings for the jackals just waiting beyond the borders. To prevent the destruction of Cancordia would she be willing to marry Lord Raptor? Civil war, or wife to Lord Raptor? Lord of the Circle, help me.

  "What is the Thread of Truth?" The Fisherfolk girl asked.

  Lil'Li leaned wearily against the dirty wall, her knife forgotten in her lax hand. "Do you know of Lady Fayre's gift?" she asked.

  "No," said Ja'Nil. "Someone said she has a powerful one, but that was all."

  "Her gift is to infuse into thin threads of Troyceum—"

  Ee'Rick made a soft whistling sound.

  "Yes," agreed Lil'Li. "Troyceum is very rare and valuable. Also the process of infusion takes a great deal of energy on Lady Fayre's part."

  "Infuse it with what?"

  "The Truth."

  "I beg your pardon?" said the always polite Ja'Nil.

  "If you take hold of it, or if it even just touches your skin and you lie, the Thread instantly heats, first to red, and then to white heat without destroying the Thread itself. In the old days if someone was accused of treason or murder, the Thread would be wrapped around their throat and they were asked if they were guilty or innocent of the charge. If they lied, the Thread would heat so rapidly and so hot that the person being questioned would be decapitated."

  "Ugh," said Ja'Nil picturing the whole thing.

  "I understand there was very little blood because the wound was immediately cauterized."

  "That must have been a comfort," said Ja'Nil meaning to be sarcastic, but actually, feeling too nauseated for her tone to be effective.

  "What if the accused admitted his guilt, or said nothing?" asked a fascinated Ee'Rick.

  "Then they were imprisoned for a number of years, depending on what they had done."

  "You said, 'in the old days'. So Lady Fayre is not the only one who has this gift?"

  "It is passed down in her family. Not all family members are as gifted, but Lady Fayre most certainly is."

  "And you really think Lord Raptor would cooperate in something like that?" said Ja'Nil.

  The Princess reappraised the Fisherfolk girl. She asked intelligent questions. Lady Fayre had sent her here and she, and the good-looking man of the Golden Wolf Clan, had managed to escape from the dungeon.

  "What's your name?" asked the Princess.

  "Ja'Nil of the Fisherfolk."

  "And I am Princess Lil'Li."

  "I know," said Ja'Nil with a small smile.

  "Welcome to Cordia, Ja'Nil of the Fisherfolk." The two girls studied each other carefully, and then both smiled.

  "As for Lord Raptor cooperating," continued the Princess, "If I can manage to bring it to the council, he will have no choice. That is, if the council isn't already corrupted." Then she changed the subject. "You said the ring was 'crumbly'?"

  "From the water," said Ja'Nil.

  "You let the ring get wet?" her voice rose in astonishment. Gone was the friendly smile. The Princess was furious.

  "Hold off," said Ee'Rick. "There was no carelessness. We were caught in a Funnel Storm."

  Lil'Li was still glaring at Ja'Nil, who glared right back.

  Who did this spoiled, arrogant, white haired, black-eyed person, who kept fluttering her lashes at Ee'Rick, think she was? So she was a princess? So what, she was still a… a bitch.

  "The Thread was in the ring," said the Princess.

  All three of them were concentrating so hard on each other that at first they didn't hear the men's voices. Ee'Rick was the first to react. So quickly that Ja'Nil barely registered what was going on, he stamped out the glowing light stick on the floor. They were immediately plunged into darkness.

  "What -?" said Lil'Li.

  Ja'Nil felt Ee'Rick grab her hand and shove it into the back of his belt. She wrapped her hand around it.

  "Quiet," he hissed.

  He must have grabbed the Princess also. Ee'Rick hustled them into a side alcove that only he could see. Ja'Nil kept expecting to run smack into a wall, but Ee'Rick guided them both safely away from the opening door. They stopped and stood very still watching the faint light that did not quite reach them as two men, one carrying a lantern, passed them. The men headed toward the dungeon.

  "Are they going to check on us?" asked Ja'Nil after they had passed.

  A yell from one of the men answered her question.

  "Off we are then," said Ee'Rick grabbing Ja'Nil's hand. He shoved both girls ahead of him through the now-unlocked door and slammed the heavy portal closed behind them. They could hear the lock snap into place.

  "That won't hold them long," said Lil'Li. "They have keys."

  Ee'Rick didn't bother answering. He took hold of Ja'Nil's hand again and started down the passageway.

  "No," Lil'Li said, "come this way."

  Ja'Nil was completely turned around and on top of that, she couldn't see a thing. All around she could feel the walls closing in, the ceiling inching down to meet the floor. She would be crushed! Her frantic hands clutched at Ee'Rick's belt. Why, oh, why was she always such a coward?

  Suddenly, a blue and green glow illuminated the three of them. The Princess, standing at the opening of a narrow pathway, had lit another glow stick. Now she gestured at them to follow her.

  The pathway she led them through was not only narrow, but also strewn with rough pebbles and small rocks that had fallen from the unsupported ceiling and walls, causing Ja'Nil and Lil'Li to stumble occasionally. Ee'Rick exhibited no such problem, Ja'Nil noted sourly. She cast apprehensive glances at the ceiling. If small rocks could fall, what was to stop large rocks or tons of earth or - stop it! she silently ordered herself. "Where are we going?" she asked. They had stopped at an intersection of tunnels.

  "I am going back to my rooms and hope that I have not been missed," said Lil'Li. "I cannot simply run away."

  Ee'Rick nodded approval. "Easier to stay and fight, than to fight your way back in," he said.

  "Exactly," agreed Lil'Li. "I ask if you will carry a message?"

  "To Lady Fayre?" asked Ja'Nil. She would love to leave Cordia forever and return to Rainbird Keep, but first, she reminded herself, she had to find the children's father.

  "No," said the Princess. "To Captain Y'Nota. He is in charge of the remaining militia stationed outside the walls."

  "What message?" asked Ee'Rick in a non-committal voice.

  "Tell him the message comes from the one he taught to use the green bow. Tell him Lord Raptor has taken de facto charge of the palace, and of me. Tell him," Lil'Li stopped and took a deep breath. "Tell him that I do not know if any on the council are involved in this treason. Tell him also that Lord Raptor killed my mother. Will you do this?"

  Ee'Rick ignored the question and asked one of his own. "How many troops does this Y'Nota have?"

  "I don't know. Lord Raptor arranged for most of the militia to be sent far away on what I believe to be a false mission just before my mother… before he killed my mother. Will you take my message to Y'Nota?"

  Ja'Nil looked at Ee'Rick whose expression told her exactly nothing. Still, what else could they do?

  "Yes," said Ja'Nil. "I will."

  There came a shout and far off down the passageway Ja'Nil saw a faint light.

  "I have to go," said Lil'Li. "Here, take these." She handed each of them a wicked-looking knife, and then pointed toward an even narrower passage than the one they were in. "Follow that tunnel. Always turn right whenever there is a choice. It will lead you outside the palace, but not outside the walls. You'll have to wait unt
il the gates open in the morning. May the Lord guide your steps." So saying, she turned and vanished down another passageway.

  The faint light was growing brighter. Ja'Nil could hear the sound of several pair of heavy feet coming their way.

  "Off we are," said Ee'Rick putting the knife Lil'Li had given him in the empty sheath hanging from his belt. Ja'Nil hastily slid hers into a loop on her belt. He took her hand, fastened it firmly on his belt, and led off into darkness.

  CHAPTER 29

  She had imagined the walls closing in and the ceiling falling in the previous passageway. The one they now found themselves in seemed even worse. Still blind, and blindly clinging to Ee'Rick's belt, the walls in this passageway squeezed so close that at times Ja'Nil's shoulders brushed against both walls. At these times Ee'Rick, had to move sideways, as his shoulders were too broad to progress in the normal fashion, would hold her hand until they came to wider spots. The ceiling pressed low, so both of them traveled hunched over. Ja'Nil couldn't tell if they were going up, down, or around in circles. At least she could no longer see the guards' lights, nor could she hear them.

  "Ee'Rick," she whispered. He didn't answer. Had she really spoken? Maybe she had become mute as well as blind. Maybe the belt she clung to so tightly was just a scrap of leather attached to nothing but her imagination. What would happen if she opened her hands and let it go? The very thought made her dizzy. Was she really in some stygian underground, or was she adrift on the ocean in the dark of night? She had let go of Yonny, hadn't she? She deserved to drown here in the dark pit.

  She began panting… frantically trying to draw in air, but she found none. Only blackness. Only thick, airless, oily water. No air. Without realizing it, she had stopped moving.

  Ee'Rick felt a faint tug on his belt and then nothing. Ja'Nil had let go of him. Fortunately, they were in one of the wider and higher areas. He was able to stand up straight and turn around easily.

  Ja'Nil stood in frozen stillness, arms outstretched, her hands open and reaching. She was hyperventilating so rapidly that he feared she would pass out from lack of oxygen.

  "Ja'Nil," he said softly.

  Lost in the razor grip of some personal nightmare, she was unable to hear him.

  "Ja'Nil," he said more sharply this time. Still no response.

  He held both her upper arms and looked closely into her eyes. Wide open, they stared right through him.

  "By the Golden Goddess, you fly into a trance for nothing at all. It's only a tunnel, soon to end." He spoke softly, reassuringly to her.

  She remained staring through him.

  "A powerful gift you must have, my little Fisherfolk girl. Come," he said, clapping his hands sharply in front of her face.

  Ja'Nil jumped and looked around fearfully; she was still blind in the darkness. "Ee'Rick?"

  "I'm here. Are you rested enough?

  "Rested?" She was exhausted, as if she had just swum across all five of D'za's oceans.

  "Off we are," he said, taking her hand firmly now that they could walk two abreast. "I can smell the fresh air," he said. "Can you not?"

  She sniffed obediently, "Fraid not."

  "Well, you've a tiny nose."

  She put a hand up to her nose to see if it might possibly have shrunk. "I do not."

  Ee'Rick tactfully changed the subject. "You trusted the Princess, I think," he said in a thoughtful voice.

  "Don't you?"

  "Let's stop here and talk for a while," said Ee'Rick.

  "I want to get out of these tunnels."

  "And I want to talk about what happens once we get out." He gave a downward tug on her hand. Ja'Nil realized he had lowered himself to sit against the wall. Feeling around, she found his shoulder and lowered herself to sit cross-legged next to him, her shoulder touching his.

  "Well first we're going to deliver Princess Lil'Li's message to Captain Y'Nota." As she spoke, Ja'Nil remembered that she was the one who had said yes to delivering the message. Ee'Rick had been silent on the issue, promising nothing.

  "Why?" asked Ee'Rick.

  "Why deliver the message?"

  "Ah-huh."

  "Well, because I said I would."

  "So you did."

  "Why would I not deliver her message?"

  "For one thing, it's dangerous. For another, it involves you in what could be a messy political battle, but most of all, how does it serve you and the Fisherfolk?"

  "We may be Fisherfolk, but we're Cancordian Fisherfolk."

  To the Hellion Pits with this blackness, she thought. If only she could see Ee'Rick's expression. Holding a conversation with only spoken words was incredibly limiting.

  "You're a Cancordian too. Aren't you?" she asked.

  "Yes and no," he answered.

  "Oh good, that clears things up."

  Ee'Rick gave a short bark of laughter. "We, like the Dragons, have a treaty with Cancordia," he explained. "As long as the treaty is honored, we consider ourselves, for all practical purposes, Cancordians."

  "And the treaty has been broken?"

  "Aye," he said. "Numerous times, as has the Fisherfolk treaty."

  "We don't have a treaty."

  "Unwritten perhaps, but still an agreement. You pay your taxes, obey the laws, and if necessary, join the militia to protect the country in times of war. In turn, roads and bridges are built, thieves and war lords are punished, teaches and healers are provided and so forth. Now tell me," he said, "Has the agreement been kept?"

  "Not lately," admitted Ja'Nil. "But we can't just stop being part of our own country."

  She could feel Ee'Rick shrug. "My people are thinking of breaking away from Cancordia."

  "That's what Lord No'Sila did."

  "Lord No'Sila?"

  "Of the Red Horse Clan; Warlord, killer, traitor."

  "Yes, I've met the man. We are not of the Red Horse Clan." His voice was cold. "I am not Lord No'Sila."

  "Even if you do form your own country, you'd still have Cancordia as a neighbor," Ja'Nil pointed out.

  "Aye, we realize that. That's why I'm here."

  "Why you're here?"

  "My father expects a report from me. A lot will be decided on my findings."

  "So you're not like a… a tourist, just traveling around for the fun of it?"

  He gave another snort of laughter.

  Stands to reason, thought Ja'Nil. He's probably a prince or something like that. No wonder he's interested in Princess Lil'Li. Two of a kind, that's what they are. She was feeling very sorry for herself.

  "If we don't tell Captain Y'Nota, the Princess probably doesn't have a chance."

  "And you trust the Princess?" he asked.

  She thought about it. Finally she said, "I don't trust Lord Raptor, that's for sure. Do you think he really killed the Queen?"

  "I think he's capable of anything," Ee'Rick replied.

  Ja'Nil nodded to herself. "So we know what Lord Raptor is like. The Princess is a, a… "

  "An unknown quantity."

  "Exactly. If we help her against Raptor she'll owe us, won't she?"

  In the darkness, Ja'Nil could feel Ee'Rick shrug again. "Rulers are not known for their consistency," he said. "Nor their gratitude."

  Ja'Nil thought that over for a while then made up her mind. "I'm going to deliver her message to Captain Y'Nota," she said.

  "Decided have you, little one?"

  "Yes."

  She knew the Fisherfolk would never sever their ties to Cancordia. Therefore, it was up to her to make sure Cancordia was the best it could be. As she saw it, it was a choice between the thoroughly evil Lord Raptor, and the still untested Princess Lil'Li, with Cancordia hanging in the balance.

  She wanted to ask him if he approved or disapproved. If he would help her get to Y'Nota or if he would leave her and go off to report to his father. But she didn't ask. She had made her decision. He would have to make his own.

  According to the Lord of the Circle, only actions were evil, not the men and women who perform
ed these actions; such people were mistaken, confused, deluded, working their way through a bad life cycle. She wondered if the Lord of the Circle had ever run across someone like Lord Raptor.

  They sat in silence for a while. "Very well," Ee'Rick finally said. "I will go with you to Captain Y'Nota."

  "Vast. Let's go."

  "Why hurry? We will have to wait until the gates open in the morning, which is still several hours away. We might as well wait here."

  She reluctantly sat back down. "Ee'Rick did you know about the Thread of Truth?"

  "No, but I've heard of truth tellers before, just not how they do it."

  "The Princess said the Thread was in the ring."

  "Humm."

  Ja'Nil scratched her ankle. She could feel the beads Ee'Rick had given her sliding up and down on the thin wire wrapped around her wrist. "Ee'Rick, what does Troyceum look like?"Depends. Sometimes it's liquid, sometimes it's powder, sometimes a thin metal."

  "Like a wire?"

  "Could be, I guess."

  Ja'Nil felt cold from the top of her head all the way down to the toes on her feet. Had she told any lies recently? Obviously not because her hand was still attached to her wrist. Or maybe the water had destroyed the Thread. Or maybe it was all a lot of nonsense. Just a fairy tale. After all, sometimes a wire is just a wire.

  "I want to get out of these tunnels," said Ja'Nil, suddenly frantic to be gone.

  Ee'Rick could hear the desperation in her voice. "Very well, little one." He took her hand in his and they started off again. "Someday you must tell me about your gift," he said.

  Ja'Nil froze. "Gift? I don't have a gift."

  "Perhaps it is not yet fully formed," he said.

  "I tell you I don't -"

  "Shh, we're here."

  CHAPTER 30

  They had come to the end of the tunnel. The opening was an irregular shaped hole hidden behind a large boulder. Over the top of the boulder, Ja'Nil could make out the night sky. Only White moon was up, but Bright moon would follow soon. Stars, scattered like sparse bits of sand, formed a halo around it.

  "I'll go first," Ee'Rick whispered in her ear. She nodded her understanding and watched as his lanky form blotted out what she could see of Cancordia's night. He had to twist and turn a bit to get his shoulders through the opening. Then the sky was visible again.

  She got down on her knees, as Ee'Rick had done, waited for his whispered "Jadẵ," then slithered through the opening into the blessedly fresh air. Now, all they had to do was find Captain Y'Nota without stumbling into any of Lord Raptor's men.