Thank Tanit, the next morning dawned clear. We walked all morning. I was hungry, and he actually looked tired, although I was not about to tell him so.
Instead I talked. “Kofi said you would be the net that Expedition’s radicals threw across the ocean to Europa.”
“If the charter the Assembly is writing in Expedition can be displayed in towns here, that may encourage people to demand that communities should have a say in ruling themselves.”
“That’s why Kehinde wanted the portable press from Expedition so badly, isn’t it? To escape princely censorship of her pamphlets.”
“Kehinde?”
“Professora Nayo Kuti, the scholar and radical pamphleteer. The prince of Adurnam imposed martial law when the people demanded the right to elect a single tribune to the Adurnam council. If electing a single tribune to represent all the people is too radical for such a prince, imagine what he would say to the idea of an Assembly!”
The trees and ground with their coat of snow sparkled in the sunlight. The sky was so blue it seemed to have no limit, only to fall away forever as into a spirit world where every layer fit inside another layer without ever reaching an end.
“That’s not the only thing I carried away from Expedition,” he said. “In Europa, cold mages have always stood at odds with the blacksmiths who wield dangerous fire. What if cold mages and fire mages could work together, as they do in the Taino kingdom?”
“I thought fire banes were slaves in Taino country.”
He smiled as at a jest I ought to understand. “The situation is more complex than that. In the Antilles those with cold magic are generally so weak and untrained that it’s no wonder they are considered an inferior breed of magister.” He indicated the basket. “Even the cacica was startled and impressed by my magic.”
I opened my mouth to joke about how she had been ogling him on Hallows’ Night, but when I considered the contours of his pride and the respect due to her dignity, I decided against it.
Fortunately he had gone on. “She explained to me how catch-fires work. It is exceptionally dangerous both to the fire mage and to the catch-fire. That is why when a Taino man or woman first blooms with fire magic, a kinsman volunteers to become their catch-fire. To the outside eye it may look like slavery. But it is just the family taking responsibility until the new fire mage learns to properly control the weaving.”
“But I heard of fire banes being sold against their will into the Taino kingdom.”
“I don’t know, love. It may be. People also act wrongly at times. But I can’t help but think about how much more we could do in Europa if cold mages worked in harness with fire mages. Not that the mansa would ever listen to me.”
“Honestly, Vai, the prospect of fire mages and fire banes working together alarms me. We’ve seen what James Drake is capable of.”
“Not every person is like James Drake.” His breath misted the air before its heat faded.
“If cold mages and fire mages worked together, then people would fear them more and hate them worse. What would stop magisters from taking over everything? I mean, besides the Wild Hunt? Any magister who learned how to hide from the Hunt in a troll maze would tell every other magister. If mage House magisters hide, then someone else will die. Someone has to die to feed the courts. As some unknown person did when we were in the spirit world. As Queen Anacaona did.” I tapped the basket.
“People will die regardless.”
“Yes, but we don’t have to accept the things we might change. ‘Risks must be taken if we mean to get what we want,’ as Brennan Du once said to me.”
“No doubt hoping to impress you so you’d give him a kiss,” muttered Vai ungraciously.
“Not every man admires me just because you do.”
“That is exactly my point, Catherine. As long as clientage remains part of any legal code in Europa, as long as princes and mage Houses can bind entire villages into generations-long servitude, then how can things truly change? Camjiata is the only one with a legal code that will abolish clientage. There is no benefit to the princes and mage Houses to abolish clientage, because they prosper by it.”
The skin of frozen snow crunched satisfyingly beneath my boots as I smashed each step into the ground just as I planned to smash my foes. “Did Camjiata charm you like he charmed Bee? He’s not our friend.”
“Perhaps not, but he is our ally in the fight to abolish clientage. ”
“How can you say so? He shelters Drake. Who, may I remind you, wants to kill you, after you’ve witnessed me being humiliated!”
“I can crush James Drake.”
“Never let it be said that you lack confidence.”
His tone sharpened. “Do you doubt me, Catherine?”
I halted in the middle of the path. “Of course I don’t doubt you! But James Drake nearly burned me alive. The backlash of his magic didn’t pour harmlessly through me as it did through you. Even so, the worst thing was that he meant to kill you, if he could have. When I saw him again, I was so angry and scared that I kept insulting him until he lashed out at me. He would have done something dreadful if the general hadn’t stopped him. I don’t know how to stop myself from provoking him if we see him again.”
He grasped my arms. “That man will never hurt you, Catherine. Never.”
“That’s right, because I will kill him.”
He was silent for so long I thought he might be displeased by my bloodthirsty rejoinder. At length, with a frown, he spoke.
“I know you hate your sire, love, and I understand why you do. But don’t forget there is a part of him that gives you strength.”
“He’ll never truly let go of me,” I murmured, shuddering, for an unreasoning fear seized me. What if he could hear and see all I said even here in the mortal world? How could I ever escape, with his claws already in me?
“James Drake?”
“You’re the one James Drake can’t let go of. He doesn’t really care about me. I meant my sire will never let go of me, never stop hunting me…”
Perhaps the wind whispered. Alarm, like a dagger, pricked my neck. I pulled away from Vai to examine the woodland. Flakes of half-forgotten snow drifted among the slender trunks.
Vai drew cold steel and spun a breath of magic to waken my sword.
Sometimes the danger that stalks you stays hidden because it comes in plain sight.
A black wolf trotted down the path toward us, out of the south. When its uncannily golden eyes met mine, I knew it was some manner of kin. The wolf flicked a look over its shoulder and loped into the trees. A chittering bird fell silent. Tremors brushed the soles of my booted feet. A metallic jingle chimed.
“There’s someone coming,” I said. “Horses and men.”
Where the path dipped, curving to the right, nine men came into view. Four riders had spears braced in their stirrups, with bowcases slung from their saddles and primed with arrows. One carried a musket. Five men walked alongside lugging packs and traps. They wore sturdy winter clothing and fur hats. Some had the white skin of northern Celts, while others had mixed coloring. Seeing us, they halted in surprise.
Vai touched my arm. “Be ready to hit the ground. I will stun them all.”
The man with the musket gave a curt command. The horsemen dismounted, and all knelt submissively. The leader handed his musket to a comrade. With hands open and extended in supplication, he walked forward. He was an older man with a dusky, weathered face and a beard streaked with gray. Something in the shape of his blue eyes and the cut of his cheekbones struck me as familiar, although I had never seen him before.
Where I had grown up, young people showed respect to their elders by never looking them directly in the eye. Although we were younger than he was, the man kept his gaze lowered subserviently. Twenty paces from us he pulled off his hat to reveal a thick head of dark red hair, veined with white and pulled back into a braid. Ten paces from us he dropped to both knees.
“Salve, my lord.” He enunciated each word carefully. “Of your presence, we know nothing before we are coming upon you. We would not be displaying our spears in your face if we knew. To us, grant forgiveness, at your pleasure. To our households, your coming brings honor. What do you desire?”
