The Black Swan shrugged, then once more began tapping out a message. “The resemblance leads me to think otherwise, but no matter. I’ve returned to ensure that the future I lived through doesn’t come to pass. Your daughter died soon after I met her. Everyone died. Everyone.”
Aurora gave Infidel a puzzled glance.
“What do you mean, everyone?” she asked.
The room grew quiet save for the tapping of bone on wood. “All humanity is destroyed when the primal dragons rise as one to wipe out civilization in the span of a day.”
“That’s impossible,” said Aurora. “Hush would never take part in such destruction.”
“She does,” tapped the Black Swan.
“Why?”
“The dragons judge mankind for their sins; none are found worthy of forgiveness.”
Infidel looked pale. “Do… do we cause this? Does our quest to kill Greatshadow cause this destruction?”
The Black Swan shook her head. “The world carries on twenty years after the assault on Greatshadow.”
“The primal dragons think of time differently than we do,” said Aurora. “If there’s a risk that Lord Tower is going to trigger some kind of dragon apocalypse, we need to stop him.”
The Black Swan’s skeletal hand lingered over the board, edging toward the ‘YES.’ Then, her fingers returned to the letters to tap, “Rather than stop him, ensure he succeeds. We must hope the primal dragons will be weakened if Greatshadow is no longer among their ranks.”
“Hope?” said Infidel. “If you’re trying to change the future, shouldn’t we be going on more than hunches?”
The Black Swan shrugged and sank back onto the couch, growing very still.
“So, what, your plan boils down to guessing what we should do?” asked Infidel.
The Black Swan didn’t move.
Aurora put her hand on Infidel’s shoulder. “Don’t drive yourself crazy. I try to ignore any hints she tells me about the future. The more she tells you about tomorrow, the more she changes today, and pretty soon hunches and guesses are all you have. The best thing to do is make the choices you would make anyway. Try to pretend you’re in charge of your own fate, and not a puppet following someone else’s script.”
Infidel nodded as they left the room. “Yeah. Sure. I’ve never worried what the Black Swan thought before now. I guess there’s no reason to change that.”
They went back outside, blinking in the light. Aurora said, “I’m still going on the quest, but if you want to back out, I understand. I mean, if you’re pregnant…”
“I’m not pregnant!” snapped Infidel. “It’s not possible. It’s never going to be possible. Without Stagger, I wouldn’t want it to be possible.”
“You two never fooled around even a little? You can get pregnant just by-”
“No!” Infidel threw her hands up in the air. “This is crazy.” She gave a dismissive wave toward the Black Swan. “Forget her. All I know is I woke up this morning planning to kill Greatshadow, and nothing I’ve heard today has changed my mind.”
“What about the Truthspeaker?”
Infidel clenched her fists. “If he messes with me, he won’t be the first priest I’ve killed.”
Aurora nodded as they walked down the rebuilt dock. “For what it’s worth, I don’t believe the Truthspeaker’s powers will affect me. Our faiths don’t overlap even a little. The whole truth and lies as foundations of reality, that’s just dumb. The world is obviously a flux of heat, light, cold, and darkness.” She blew out rings of fog. “The evidence is right before your eyes.”
“Whatever,” said Infidel. “I’ll let the two of you debate religion. I just want to get on with this dragon hunt. The quicker I get my hands on that treasure, the faster I can build my palace and hire my cake servants.”
“There are simpler ways to get cake,” said Aurora.
They reached the edge of the dock. Once it had led all the way to shore; now, crooked pilings were all that remained.
“There are simpler ways to get back to the boat,” said Infidel, looking out over the water. “But simple isn’t always entertaining.”
Without warning, she grabbed Aurora by the hips and hefted her up, holding the oversized woman directly over her head. Aurora let out a yelp as Infidel leapt, flying out over the topsy-turvy pilings, lighting down every third or fourth post before skipping on again. They reached the mangroves in under a minute and practically flew the last dozen yards to the boat. The old boards creaked as Infidel landed and planted the ogress on the deck feet first.
“Don’t do that again!” Aurora growled as Infidel giggled.
“What?” said Infidel. “You don’t like short cuts?”
Aurora sighed. “I’m not as invulnerable as you. One misstep on your part could have broken my neck, for no reason other than you wanting to show off. You’re reckless, princess. Perhaps this was charming when you were fifteen, but it’s not a quality I want in an ally when we face Greatshadow.”
“I was just having a little fun.”
“Children have fun. A warrior needs discipline.”
“I’m living backwards. I was disciplined as a child so I’m having fun as an adult.”
Aurora didn’t look persuaded by the reasoning. Before she could argue, someone cleared his throat from inside the tilted doorway to the cabin. Both women turned to see Relic squeezing from the opening, a large canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
“I told you to wait for me,” he grumbled. “Speed is of the essence. Ivory Blade has contacted the Three Goons. We need to prepare your disguise, and the dye takes several hours to set properly.”
He dropped the sack to the deck. Things within it clattered loudly, as metal hit metal.
“There’s dye involved?” said Infidel, squatting down over the sack. “I like my hair blonde.”
“It’s not your hair we’ll be dying,” said Relic.
Infidel opened the sack and pulled out various objects. She paused to study what looked like two shoulder caps for a suit of plate armor. They were formed of half-inch steel and polished to almost a mirror finish. Only, as shoulder plates, they weren’t very practical; the two halves were joined together by a single link of chain. And, the plates were too rounded. No one had shoulders this circular. Infidel looked puzzled as she turned the metal cups over and over in her hand.
“What the hell is this?” she asked.
Aurora chuckled. “It looks like a plate-steel bra.”
Relic was very quiet.
Both women stared at him.
He stared back.
“No freakin’ way,” said Infidel.
“This would be easier if you’d wear a helmet,” said Relic. “If not, we must choose attire that ensures none of the king’s men will be staring at your face.”
I expected Infidel to fling the armored lingerie into the bay. To my surprise, she shrugged. “What the hell,” she said. “It’s about time I had an outfit that doesn’t get ripped to shreds every five minutes. But if there are chain mail panties in here, I’m drawing a line.”
It turned out that there weren’t any chain mail panties, which provoked a mixed reaction within me. As unfair as it was for me to have such thoughts, I would have been relieved to see a full-blown, padlocked, cast-iron chastity belt. Infidel might have shrugged off the talk of pregnancy, but I was a little worried. My poor mortal frame might not have been up to the task of fathering a child with Infidel, but the king’s men were more than mere mortals. Lord Tower could fly, Father Ver can change reality with his voice, and Ivory Blade supposedly can move faster than the human eye can follow. Who knew who else might along for the trip? What if someone among the heroes matched Infidel in strength and stamina? What if what the Black Swan said about an impending pregnancy was true?
CHAPTER EIGHT
The sun was directly overhead as we rode the churning waves toward the pirate cave. Was it only coincidence that Tower’s party had set up camp in the very place where all this had begun with the discovery of the map? I hadn’t told Bigsby the truth of where I acquired it, so he hadn’t passed on the information. Perhaps Ivory Blade had researched the map further and other sources had led him here.