No Present Like Time

miss a party. Especially important parties.”

Mist delved in her shoulder bag and brought out a thick book with crinkled pages. Her hands were pockmarked from her pre-Castle life as a milkmaid and butcher’s delivery girl on Grass Isle, rowing her skiff every day to deliver cuts of beef to the islanders and cutting remarks to the sailors who wolf-whistled.

She gave me the book. “This is the log of the Stormy Petrel. I have discovered an island, named Tris, reached three months out of Awndyn harbor on an east-southeast bearing.”

I said, “Where? Three months? No, that’s not possible; nothing’s that far away.” I glanced at Lightning. “You’re being very quiet.”

“I’m not going with you, Ata,” he said.

“Going where?” I exclaimed.

Mist said, “The Emperor requests that you and Lightning sail with me to the Island of Tris.”

“No!…Look, slow down, this is a lot to take in. San knows of this island?”

“Yes. I returned from my voyage last month. I kept it very confidential though I wanted to sail in triumph into port. I told San everything and he has ordered a second expedition that you two must join.”

“But…I don’t believe you. My duty’s here; I have lots of work to do in Wrought. You won’t need a messenger on a caravel; yes, I could be of more use working for you here. I-”

“You hate ships, we know. Tough.”

“Ships are fine as long as I don’t have to be aboard them.” I caught a glimpse of the projection, on which numerous Eszai by the long table were asking Wrenn questions, but I couldn’t see Tern. I was sure that I was being made the butt of a practical joke. I tried to give the impression that I was amused but was willing to see how far I could push Mist’s invention. “So what’s it like on this island?”

Mist handed me the notebook. It began with the coordinates of the Awndyn coastline, the edge of the chart off which she had sailed. Her round feminine handwriting encircled a sketch map: “The Island named Tris by its inhabitants,” I read, and: “The town drawn from the harbor. The natives say ‘Capharnaum,’ this must be the town’s name? Another settlement due south, name unknown. Triangulated height of mountain approx. 3000m.”

“Natives?” I said. “You mean the island is populated?”

“Aye.”

“Who by? Plainslanders?”

“Some are human, some are winged people, living together in the town. As far as I could see there is no Insect infestation whatsoever.”

The island was shaped roughly like the head of an Insect, being rounded with short, spiny peninsulae. Mist had recorded the inlets and promontories with customary precision. The land rose up a gentle concave slope, poured off a sizable river, and then soared into a massive peak. No details were marked, and the east coast was just a dotted line. “I didn’t sail that far, it’s only an estimate,” she explained. “I was interested in the natives. I couldn’t understand their language; that’s why I need you, Jant. I wrote some of the words down, see?”

“Can I study this?” I said enthusiastically. I would soon learn if it was a practical joke or not.

“That’s just what I want you to do! If the knowledge alone doesn’t satisfy you, there’s more than enough rum to wash it down with. Their accent gave me quite a shock. I think the corsairs used some of those words, who infested the Moren delta when I was a girl.”

I leafed through the logbook. Mist’s entries for each day were brief: “June 5. Distance traveled, 240 kilometers, lat. 29°S long. 129°E. Fresh gales and cloudy, good visibility. Sounding 100m, black sand with small shells. Ate a number of flying fish.”

“Flying fish?”

“Yes. And I have seen a place where oysters grow on the branches of trees.”

I shrugged. Well, why not? “You left Stormy Petrel stuck in Oriole River.”

“Aye. Frost’s company raised her. I spent last year refitting her for a deep-sea voyage.”

Lightning spoke: “There have been explorations before. They found nothing.”

“Saker, the ocean is a big place.”

“It’s not possible,” I said finally. “I don’t believe it.”

“Where the fuck do you think I’ve been for the last six months?”

“Keeping your head down and escaping embarrassment!”

Mist gave me a candid look, which was a sure sign not to trust her. “I have but recently rejoined the Circle, and this venture will prove my worth to those who would Challenge me or mutiny. This is not just another Grass Isle project seeking Shearwater’s Treasure. I’m serious! There’s nothing for me on the mainland, is there, since I lost Peregrine?”

Lightning looked at her mildly without replying. He opened the door a chink because we were all starting to suffocate, and muted music seeped in from the party outside. I lowered my voice. “How did you know which direction to sail?”

Mist said, “By chance. Yes. Well, there might be many-”

“No, there are not!” Lightning was quietly furious. “God founded the Castle to protect the world. If the Castle doesn’t know about this island then how could we fulfill our purpose? Insects might run rampant over it and we’d be none the wiser.”

“It might not fit with your ideology but all the same it’s there.”

I thought, maybe the Fourlands isn’t the only land and maybe we’re not the only guardians god left behind. I examined the scale. It was big-four hundred kilometers in circumference. “It isn’t an island like Grass Isle at all, more like a chunk of Darkling out in the ocean. Tell us, what’s in the town?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t leave Petrel.”

“Convenient.”

“I wanted more than anything to put ashore! We had weathered storms with ten-meter-high waves. Petrel lost half her caulking and cladding because Awndyn’s shipbuilders are so shoddy. You would not believe the trouble I’ve had with the unions. Her sails were torn, the rudder splintered. Most of my men were sick, some with scurvy, and we were desperate for fresh water. I took on supplies from the natives’ canoes but I didn’t land because the governors of the town didn’t permit me. They have many governors.”

“What?”

“I’m telling you it’s true. People came out in big canoes and surrounded us. I sketched them, there.” Stormy Petrel dwarfed the canoes, looking like a goose with her goslings, and none of the vessels had details since Mist was a poor artist.

I crouched down in the cramped space on the parquet floor by Mist’s feet. The sea was not my element; boats bring on a phobia that I can never rid myself of completely. My fear was reasonable because if I ever tried to swim, the weight of waterlogged feathers would drown me. I also had a sneaking idea that everybody was acting and deeper lies were readily being believed. “I’m not going. I might be the only Eszai who can crack this language but you can choose mortals from the university who have just as good a chance.”

“Don’t mistake me; I hardly want you there, Jant. The last thing I need is dead weight and winged liabilities on my ship. If I had my way, I’d be doing this on my own! But San picked you two from the whole Circle to accompany me and we’re obliged to obey. Here’s his written command.” She passed Lightning and me small envelopes with the familiar crimson insignia. “If you want to appeal, go ahead,” she added.

“I will,” said Lightning grimly. “I would love to see the result of my investment and your method of operation. I would like to be the first from the Fourlands to trade with Tris, but I am repairing Micawater and I should be there.”

“You knew? Damn,” I moaned, beginning to have the feeling that the conspiracy was against me.

“Yes, although I wish otherwise. The Melowne, the supply ship to be taken on this voyage, belongs to me. I have the Queen’s permission to send it so that Stormy Petrel’s crew will not suffer hunger again. And in return I have a quarter-share in whatever goods we bring back. But that doesn’t mean I must accompany the expedition, Mist. I will be a passenger on your ship if the Emperor decrees it. No more, no less.”

Lightning was rebuilding Micawater to look exactly the same as it did before the Insects damaged it five years ago. He obsessed about every detail in the restoration of his palace outside the town, believing it an inviolable duty to his family. He wanted to fulfill the trust they had placed in him to conserve the palace: he matched masonry,