He carefully turned it over, realizing he was holding an artifact that by its mere age was profoundly valuable. He did not expect to be able to read it. Everything from the
ancient time of Percepliquis would be in Old Speech. He looked at the markings and was stunned to find he could understand them: BRIG’S RUM DISTILLERY. DAGASTAN, CALIS.
He blinked.
“Where’s Myron?” It was not so much the question as the voice that pulled Hadrian’s attention away from the jug.
Elden had spoken. The big man stood like a wave break on the sand, his head twisting around, searching. “I don’t see him.”
Hadrian glanced up and down the beach. Elden was right-the monk was gone.
“I’ll find him,” Royce said, annoyed, and trotted off.
“Elden?” Wyatt called. “Can you give me a hand here?” he said, trying to pull up a large weathered plank mostly buried in the sand. “We can use this as the keel, I think.”
Alric and Mauvin were dragging over what looked like the side of a wooden crate. “There’s another side to this back there among those rocks,” the king informed Wyatt.
“That’s great, but right now can the two of you help us dig this beam out?”
Gaunt wandered the beach halfheartedly, kicking over rocks, as if he might find a mast hiding under one. Magnus noticeably avoided the water, sticking to the high beach area and glancing over his shoulder at the waves as if they were barking dogs he needed to constantly assure himself were chained.
Arista came running down to where the four dug the beam out of the sand. “I found a huge piece of canvas!” she said, and did a little dance.
Hadrian noticed her feet were bare. She held her shoes in her hands, swinging them by the heels, her robe swaying. As he looked at her just then, she could have been any number of girls he had known from taverns or small towns-not a princess at all.
“Don’t you like my celebratory dance?” she asked him.
“Is that what that is?”
She rolled her eyes. “Com’on and help me get the canvas. It will make the perfect sail.”
She ran back down the beach and Hadrian followed. She stopped and, bending down, pulled on the corner of a buried piece of canvas. “We’ll have to dig it out, but I bet it is big. I think-” She stopped when she spotted Royce and Myron walking toward them.
“There you are,” Hadrian said in a reprimanding tone. “You had Elden worried, young man.”
“I saw a crab,” Myron said, embarrassed. “They have these huge claws and run sideways-they scurry very fast-like big spiders. I chased him down the beach, but he disappeared into a hole before I could get a good look. Have you ever seen a crab?”
“Yes, Myron. I’ve seen crabs before.”
“Oh, so you know how fascinating they are! I was literally carried away-well, not literally. I mean, I wasn’t actually carried by the crab; lured is more accurate.”
“Royce, look at the canvas I found!” Arista said, repeating her little dance for him.
“Very nice,” the thief replied.
“You don’t seem suitably impressed. It’s going to be our sail,” she told him proudly. “Maybe we should have a contest for the person who finds the best part of the raft.” She followed this with a greedy grin.
“We could do that.” Royce nodded. “But I don’t think you’ll win.”
“No? Did you find something better?”
“Myron did.”
“Better than the crab?” Hadrian asked.
“You could say that.” Royce motioned for them to follow.
They walked around an arm of the cliff wall that jutted into the sea, causing them all to wade up to their ankles for a short bit. On the far side, resting on the sand about a half mile down the beach, was a small single- mast boat that listed off the keel. Its pair of black sails dangled from the yards, feebly flapping in the sea breeze.
“By Mar!” Hadrian and Arista said together.
A loose board on the boat’s deck creaked under Hadrian’s weight and Royce glared at him. Twelve years they had worked together, and still Royce did not seem capable of understanding that Hadrian could not float. The problem was that Royce apparently could. He made it look so easy. Hadrian walked like the caricature of a thief-on his toes, his arms out for balance, wavering up and down as if he were on a tightrope. Royce walked as casually as if he were sauntering down a city street. They communicated as they always did on the job, with facial expressions and hand gestures. Royce had learned sign language as part of his guild training but had never bothered teaching Hadrian more than a few signals. Royce was always able to communicate what he needed by pointing, counting with his fingers, or making simple obvious signs like scissoring his fingers across his level palm, imitating legs walking on a floor. He expressed most of his silent dialogue the way he was now: through rolled eyes, glares, and the pitiable shaking of his head. Given how irritated he so often looked, it was a mystery why he put up with Hadrian. After the first trip to the Crown Tower, both were convinced Arcadius was insane in paring them. Royce hated him and the feeling was mutual. Just as Royce recently confirmed, the only reason they had gone back together was out of spite-their shared dislike compelled them. Royce wanted to see Hadrian give up, or die, and Hadrian refused to give him the satisfaction of either. Of course, what ended up happening was something neither of them expected-they were caught.
Royce held a hand out palm up, and Hadrian stopped moving, freezing in place as if he were playing a kid’s game. He could see Royce tilting his head like a dog trying to listen. He shook his head and motioned for him to follow again.
The two had left the rest of the party on the beach, safely back near where Arista had found the canvas, as they scouted the ship. It looked abandoned, but Royce refused to take chances. What they found on deck only further suggested it was deserted. The wood was rough and weathering badly, paint was peeling, and crabs scurried about as if they had lived there for some time. The bow plaque indicated the name: Harbinger. Still, one last mystery needed investigation. The little ship was tiny compared to the Emerald Storm, just large enough to support a below-deck cabin, and they needed to see what was inside.
The door lay closed and Royce inched up on it as if it were a viper ready to strike. When he reached the cabin, he glanced back at Hadrian, who drew his swords. Royce carefully twisted the latch. The corroded metal stuck and he struggled to free it. Then the door fell inward with a creek and banged against the inner wall. Hadrian rushed forward just in case. He fully expected the cabin to be empty, but to his surprise, the faint light falling through the doorway revealed a man.
He lay on a small bed within the small cabin. He was dead, his face rotted, the eyes and lips gone and most of the flesh eaten, perhaps by the crabs. Hadrian guessed the man had died not too long ago, less than a year certainly, perhaps only six months. He wore sailors’ clothes and around his neck was a white kerchief.
Hadrian whispered, “My god, is that…”
Royce nodded. “It’s Bernie.”
Hadrian remembered Bernie as the wiry topman from the Emerald Storm. He along with Staul-whom Royce had killed-Dr. Levy, and the historian Antun Bulard had worked for Sentinel Thranic. They were the third and final team the Patriarch had sent in to obtain the horn. The last Hadrian had seen of them was in the dungeons beneath the Palace of the Four Winds.
“This looks like blood on the bed and floor,” Royce said.
“I’ll take your word for it-I just see a shadow-but what’s that around his belly?”
“Linen-bloodstained. Looks like he died from a stab wound to the stomach, but it was slow.” Royce climbed out of the cabin and looked around the ship, bending down to study the decking and the lines.
“What are you looking for?”
“Blood,” he replied. “There’s blood all over the place, spots on the deck, handprints on the ropes, and on the wheel. I think he set sail wounded.”
“He could have been attacked on board.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. He looks to have initially survived whatever fight gave him the wound, that means the other guy must have been hurt worse, only there’s no other body.”
