‘I apologise from the well of my soul, Hands of the Sea Lord,’ whispered the Elemental Man. Tsen smiled. They were all so. . traditional.
And that was about when the Watcher's exact words sank in, and Baros Tsen would never think those lovely thoughts of the quiet life of a t'varr again. From the well of my soul. Even in the heat of the water his skin prickled. ‘Who, LaLa? Who is dead?’
‘Zifan'Shu is murdered.’
Quai'Shu’s heir. Ah well. Dim-witted jackass. Never liked that one anyway. ‘How? And aren't you and the Picker supposed to stop things like that?’
The Watcher never raised his eyes from the floor so Tsen didn't get to see his face. He was good with faces. One little virtue in a sea of vices, as he put it himself, but he was a hard man to lie to. It was a skill he found useful mostly when gambling. ‘I was in a different world.’ The Watcher's voice gave nothing away. ‘The Picker was already dead.’
‘The Picker is dead?’ Tsen shook his head. ‘An accident? No. Someone. . someone killed an Elemental Man?’ That was supposed to be impossible, wasn't it?
‘He was killed by a dragon, Hands of the Sea Lord. Sea Lord Quai'Shu. .’ the Watcher seemed to struggle for a moment to find the right words ‘. . has lost his mind.’
Tsen's own thoughts stuttered, fumbling for a place to start. ‘Lost his mind? With grief, you mean, for his son?’ Hardly seemed likely, knowing Quai'Shu.
Ah yes, and then of course it had to come, that stupid sly little thought. The sea lord is mad? His heir is dead? He'll need a new one then, won't he? One who can see out his vision. And there's no reason for it to be someone who's tied to him by blood, none at all. It could be anyone. A kwen or a hsian. Or a. . a t'varr?
Shut up! Stupid nasty little thought. Could at least have had the decency to wait until later when he was alone.
Then a different and more chilling thought chased it out. ‘The fleet?’Not much point in being the sea lord of nothing after all. .
Quiet, you!
‘There is some damage but most remains intact.’
‘Some damage? LaLa, some is a word of terror to a t'varr, especially when what follows is damage. What damage, exactly?’ He shook his head, paused and frowned, still trying to put the pieces together. ‘And how do you know, LaLa? Where have you been? You were supposed to be in the middle of an inhospitable desert watching my alchemist and Chay-Liang. Not so close to the sea, that.’ With the words out and their taint of suspicion hanging between them, he found himself again pondering the incongruity of a sorcerer-assassin who could turn into wind and fire and rain being questioned by a naked man in a bath. A possibly very short-lived naked man in a bath. That was what came of being a sea lord's t'varr, he supposed.
‘The moon sorcerers themselves came.’ The Watcher sounded awestruck now. ‘They brought the dragons. They. . they showed us what happened. Chay-Liang and I.’
‘Dragons? There are dragons now?’ Father and daughter, where does it end? ‘Last I heard we were trying to steal eggs. Are you telling me now that there are dragons, on top of everything else, sitting in my eyrie, a thousand miles from here, wondering what to do with themselves?’ That was the t'varr in him. People were dead. For all he knew the world might be ending, but if it was, the offence was that it wasn't ending according to the proper plan. ‘Eggs,’ he said again, wagging a finger that apparently couldn't restrain itself. ‘Hatched in secret and revealed in their own good time.’ Live dragons? Xibaiya! Do the Vespinese know? Who else? And what are they worth? He frowned. Nasty little thought again, away with you! ‘Are they. . burning everything? Should we pack our chests and flee across the storm-dark while we still can?’ He'd thought he was joking when he started that sentence but by the end he wasn't so sure.
‘The alchemist is dealing with them, Hands of the Sea Lord.’ The Watcher touched his brow again to the slick marble of the floor. Tsen's head was drowning him in possibilities now, far more than he could manage all at once. He had to pause, if only for a moment.
‘Are they. . are they everything Quai'Shu said they were? Wild uncontrollable fire-breathing monsters? Unstoppable, yet tamed by this alchemist? They are tamed, yes, LaLa?’
The Elemental Man raised his eyes and met Tsen's gaze. Not something he was supposed to do to a sea lord's t'varr but Tsen decided he'd take it as a compliment this time. ‘They have left one full-grown adult. It is magnificent, Baros Tsen T'Varr. Unlike anything I have ever seen, and I have seen a great deal. I do not fear any man in any realm, nor any beast, but I fear this dragon.’ The Watcher's eyes went back where they were supposed to be. ‘Hands of the Sea Lord, yes, they are tamed but the alchemist urges you to return as swiftly as you can to the eyrie. He-’
Tsen cut him off. ‘No, no. The fleet will be here in a few days. I can't leave until I've seen it for myself. Do they still carry anything interesting or have all the eggs hatched and mysteriously flown to my eyrie by the hand of some mostly mythical wizards?’ Myeyrie? He raised an inner eyebrow at himself. How easy that came. ‘No, I need him to come to me. I need him to bring one of these dragons. A manageable one.’ Stupid thoughts came at him now as they always did, ones that had no business giving themselves a voice: This is no way to take a bath. ‘I'm sorry to treat you as a messenger but a jade raven won't be as quick and so I need you to do this for me. Make these arrangements at the eyrie and then return here and be with me when the fleet arrives and we shall see for ourselves whether Quai'Shu has yet found the mind again that he so carelessly lost.’
The Elemental Man didn't withdraw, which struck Tsen as odd as their conversation was clearly finished. ‘Hands of the Sea Lord, the fleet is not coming here.’
‘What?’
‘They have set course for Khalishtor.’
‘Well, who told them to do that?’
‘I suppose our sea lord.’ The Watcher bowed and backed away now, shuffling on his knees until he almost vanished in the steam-haze in the far corner of the bathhouse. There was a pop of wind and a swirl of mist and he was gone. Tsen sank slowly back into the water. The edge had gone from its heat, or maybe he was just getting used to it. His glass was all but empty. Still, he'd enjoy it for as long as he could. And there I was, complaining away at the burden of my work when it was merely ordinary.
He sent for Kalaiya again. All the preparations he'd made to receive the eggs would have to change. Stick everything in a ship and sail to Khalishtor, he supposed, and all his people too. That alone would keep half the palace busy. But it wouldn't be quick enough. Glasships. He'd have to use the house glasships. And then if Quai'Shu had lost his mind then the Council of Sea Captains in Khalishtor would have to be told. He'd need to talk to the fleet treasurer before that could happen. He'd need to know how truly bad it was. And there were other arrangements to be made. The council's debate on the Ice Witch that Quai'Shu had quietly paid a great deal of money to postpone until the proper time.