CHAPTER 16: Redemption
The rain stopped shortly after midnight, and Pitbull came out of the sickroom where he had taken Eren, telling them that he was out of danger. Earlier he had drawn the poison from Aiyan with some sort of spell that involved rubbing salt into the wound. He had done it mostly one handed, and it had looked painful for both of them.
Aiyan spent several hours composing a long letter and sealing it with the emblem of the flaming blade. In the hour before dawn, they wrapped the boy in a blanket and carried him to Pitbull’s wagon. Kyric and Aiyan sat with him in the back while Teodor drove them to the royal residence. He was awake, but sat still and said nothing. He only stared into the dark.
When the guards officer at the gate saw that it was the prince, he urged them to hurry to the main house. He would send a rider ahead to tell Princess Aerlyn. But Aiyan placed Eren in his arms, along with the letter he had written.
“But the princess will wish to speak to you personally,” the officer said. “She will want to know where he was held, and by whom.”
“It’s all in the letter.”
At Aiyan’s signal, Teodor turned the wagon around, and they drove through the dark streets all the way to the old harbor.
They secured a room overlooking the harbor square. Teodor went to an undertaker and made arrangements for Jela and Sedlik. Aiyan knew that Sedlik had a sister living near Karta. He wrote to her and paid a rider to take it straightaway. Kyric tossed for a couple of hours in an attempt to sleep, then Teodor returned, hobbling on his makeshift crutch, and they took a few bites of bread and cheese. They sent their filthy clothes out to be washed, and didn’t speak to each other the entire day. Kyric had time to think.
All he felt was guilt. Men had been killed all around him. Jazul had died. Aiyan and Pitbull each bore a vicious wound. And he had come through it unhurt. But worse, far worse than that was the guilt of what he had thought about Jela. It had been an insidious thought in the back of his mind that he could not push away.
He had blamed Jela for her death. The horrible little voice said that it had been her fault for going to the reception, that Vaust had connected her with Aiyan, and that he had found her when he read her father’s name in the paper. But now he saw that there was no way of knowing. Vaust might have seen her on the street by chance and followed her home. Morae could have seen it in Derndra’s Mirror.
Their clothes came back and they went out for supper that evening. Kyric ordered little and ate less. They overheard someone at another table talking about how the Senate had failed to meet that morning, and how Senator Lekon was reported to be very ill.
Teodor stood at the window of their room. “I think our boat has come.”
It had been a long sweaty night. They were up early but stayed in the room all morning, Aiyan pacing by the window. Kyric wasn’t sure if he was waiting or simply trying to make a decision. At one point he called to the landlord for ink and paper, changing his mind and saying he didn’t need it a moment later.
Teodor spent the time sharpening and polishing his sword. Aiyan had sat down at last and shown Kyric how to clean the intricate mechanisms of the wheel-lock pistol. It was almost noon when the two knights began discussing how they would return to Esaiya.
“It’s Sea Sprite. Looks like the masters sent Marrus and Jorlin to find us.”
“Good,” Aiyan said. “Saves us a trip to the narrows.”
They gathered the few things they had. Aiyan ran his hand across the book of rudders before tucking it under his arm. They walked down to the harbor, meeting Sea Sprite just as it came to dockside.
The two men in the sailboat were dressed in identical tunics, dark blue with intricate white stitching falling to the knee, reminiscent of a knight’s surcoat. They too wore the silver lockets with the mark of the flaming blade.
Aiyan handed them the book of rudders and his gear. “We must return to Esaiya at once,” he said to them.
They helped Teodor into the boat, and Aiyan turned to Kyric. “I couldn’t have done this without you. I only hope that you don’t come to curse me for it.”
“I’m the one who chased you down the road to Karta. I’m the one who didn’t walk away after the archery contest.”
“That’s a lot to shoulder. I think you must accord some of it to me. Still, I can’t help but think the Unknowable Forces had a part in the way we met.”
He held out his hand. “I will see you again, Kyric.”
Kyric’s mouth fell open. “You’re not taking me with you?”
He thought his heart had hardened over the last few days. He had thought that Jela’s death and all that followed would make him immune to petty hurts. But suddenly he was ten years old again, and his mother was leaving him at the rune convent, saying that it would be only for the summer, that she would come back for him. And he saw every sign of the lie on her face.
“I thought . . . I thought I was different. I thought you were teaching me. I thought you were training me to become one of you. You introduced me to the princess as your squire — and I saw that it wasn’t a lie. Am I not your squire?”
Aiyan placed his hand on Kyric’s shoulder. “Remember what Teodor told you about the barrier surrounding Esaiya? There is a law of the order imposed upon us by the Unknowable Forces. No man may come to that island by the hand of another. If we were to take you, we would not be allowed to pass.”
“How am I unworthy?”
“I cannot say that you are.”
“Then what of redemption? Jela and Sedlik were killed because of us.”
“No,” Aiyan said, his grip tightening. “They died because of the hate of evil men. Nothing more and nothing less. You must understand that, for if you do not, you will never be whole, never be at one. Look me in the eye and know that I speak the truth.”
Kyric still felt helpless. “I have killed men. Be they evil or not I ask you: How will I be redeemed? You had your master to show you the way. How will I find it alone?”
Aiyan loosened his grip. “My master showed me a way, but even now I don’t know if I have found redemption. I feel that I will not know until my life is at its end.”
He leaned in close, lowering his voice. “Listen to me, Kyric. You are the most naturally gifted young man I have ever met. You have started on the path without anyone having shown it to you. But one step is only one step. And your natural talent, bereft of any training, leaves you vulnerable. I believe that we are not done with each other. I have every confidence that we will meet again very soon.”
Kyric looked away from him. “Then is there nothing for me now?”
A chorus of hoofbeats made them turn. A fine open-topped carriage with a cavalry escort rolled along the harbor road, stopping in front of the dock. Princess Aerlyn stepped out. Aiyan and Kyric went to meet her.
She smiled when she saw them coming, but to Kyric she seemed a little sad. Aiyan stood before her and bowed deeply.
“Please don’t be formal with me,” she said.
“You are a princess and I am in your service. How else should I be?”
“Be the man who danced with me on Solstice Eve.”
Aiyan smiled at her then, a little sad as well. “How did you track me down?”
“Our good Senators are not the only ones with informants in this city.”
“That is good to know.”
She brushed a strand of hair from her face. “I read the book you suggested. There is much in there of which I would know more. I also read the letter you wrote me. I couldn’t stop reading it. I understand why you think . . . why you think that we cannot . . . “
She couldn’t speak her heart with Kyric so near, so he stepped away. Eren and Kaelyn sat in the back of the carriage. When he walked toward them Kaelyn jumped down and ran to him, reaching up to him, wanting to be held. He lifted her into his arms, like he had done on Solstice Eve.
She laughed with delight. “Have you see
n any more elephants?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“The pygmy elephant got to go home.”
“What a lucky elephant.”
Her eyes sparkled with sunlight and the sea. She whispered into his ear. “Thank you for bringing my brother home.”
He was surprised that she knew. He whispered back into hers. “Your servant, my lady.”
Aiyan and Aerlyn had fallen silent. They looked at one another, and Aerlyn took his hand and stood close to him. He kissed her lightly, with the barest brush of his lips upon hers.
Kaelyn saw it. She kissed Kyric on the cheek, the same cheek that Jela had kissed.
Go then. Hero.
Aiyan turned away from Aerlyn and she watched him walk to the boat. He turned back before he boarded. “I will see you again,” he called. Kyric wasn’t sure if he spoke to him or the princess.
Aerlyn stood motionless as they cast off, and Kyric took Kaelyn back to the carriage. Eren didn’t look at him. It seemed that he burned with a cold fire.
“You must remember,” Kyric said to him gently, “that what you are feeling will not last. Nothing lasts forever.”
Eren met his eyes then, and solemnly shook his hand.
Kyric drifted away from the docks and crossed the harbor road. He went back to the room and looked out the window. The royal carriage had departed, and Sea Sprite was lost among many sails out on the bay. He felt empty. Spent.
He sat on the hard little bed and stared at nothing. He sat there until dark.