‘Was it something about the water?’
Steven’s eyes widened. ‘That’s it!’ he started to shout, then, lowering his voice again, he said, ‘He was talking about getting cleaned up, or getting clean clothes- no, it was a bath. He’d said something when he disappeared into the trees and I hadn’t really heard him because you and I were talking about the Bowman and whether or not they would have hot and cold running water. It was obviously a joke, but then-’ Steven paused. ‘You know what? He was talking to you. Right before I decided to use the staff, that little bastard was talking to you. He said, they have warm water at the Bowman, sire.’
‘Was it sire? Did he say sire? Or was it something else?’ Mark glanced over at Gilmour, who was shaking his head.
‘He said, my prince,’ Gilmour muttered, ‘I’m sure of it. I remember thinking exactly what you were thinking: what did he mean by that? Mark, you stopped to look up at him – that was just a breath before Steven sent him to the Northern Forest.’
‘I just needed to be sure I wasn’t losing my mind,’ Mark said.
‘Did you dream? Was it Traver’s Notch?’
‘Yes and no – not here, but the state swimming championships last year. You remember, Steven? Down at the Air Force Academy?’
‘With that girl Kenyon?’
‘Bridget, right,’ Mark answered. ‘I have no idea why – if it was Lessek talking to me – he chose that day. Or it may be just a bad memory sparked by our new friend over there.’ He gestured towards Rodler, who was curled in his cloak.
‘How was that a bad memory? I thought she swam brilliantly that day.’ Steven uncorked a wineskin and offered it round.
‘It wasn’t her. It was this guy from Fort Collins – I don’t remember his name, but his daughter was swimming against Bridget. When we walked in, I heard him say something rude about me. I don’t know that he meant it to be cruel, and at the time I dismissed it because I just figured he didn’t think anything of calling me a nigger.’
‘So what did you do?’
‘Nothing.’ Mark shook his head. ‘Oh, well, I did the usual thing all intellectuals do when met with that kind of situation: I frowned, acted displeased, expressed my outrage at his narrow-mindedness and blah, blah, blah, bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, but I didn’t kick him in the teeth or call him a white trash asshole or anything like that.’
‘But you wanted to,’ Gilmour said.
‘Of course I wanted to,’ Mark said. ‘I always want to.’
‘And today, when Rodler called you a Southie and you almost filled his chest with arrows-’
‘I guess it woke up the fury I felt that day at the pool.’ Mark looked over at the Falkan drug smuggler again. ‘But, Gilmour, there was more to it. The girl I was coaching, she called me my prince, just like Nerak did. And there was an almor, a big mother, right in the pool, and it called me prince as well. It said, “There is warm water at the Bowman, my prince”.’
‘That’s it – the last thing Nerak said before I clubbed him,’ Steven added.
Mark sighed. Everything that had been on his mind the past weeks came back in a rush – now he needed a few moments to sit by himself and sort them out. The process would go more smoothly if he could take a break from the conversation to determine if he was actually prepared to pursue this particular uncomfortable notion further, but from the look on Steven and Gilmour’s faces, he knew there was no chance of putting them on hold while he wandered about the copse arranging puzzle pieces.
‘What are you thinking, Mark?’ Gilmour asked.
‘Is it that obvious?’
‘I can smell the smoke,’ Steven joked, and the three men laughed softly together.
‘This may be nothing, but I need Garec to confirm a nasty suspicion I’m having.’ There was no going back.
Steven nodded and poked at Garec with the hickory staff. ‘Hey, Garec, wake up,’ he whispered.
The young Ronan rolled over, quickly lucid, and demanded, ‘Why? What’s happening?’
‘Lessek may be visiting again tonight,’ Mark said.
‘Grand,’ Garec groaned. ‘The last time he showed up we got attacked by a demon.’ He sat up and sniffed noisily. ‘What are we doing?’
Mark said, ‘I need you to think back to your dream at Seer’s Peak.’
‘My dream? How can I forget? First I have to stand and watch as the most beautiful woman in Eldarn has sex with a frothing freak while a bunch of guards and soldiers wait around in case she needs assistance. Then as if that wasn’t bad enough, I get to see Rona devastated by some kind of plague and my favourite woods haunted by an army of wraiths. And afterward, for everyone’s enjoyment, I am forced to repeat my dream over and over and over again until the details become so firmly lodged in my memory that I will probably be able to recall every moment on my deathbed three hundred Twinmoons from now. That, of course, was thanks to Gilmour – so anything you need from my particular vision is well preserved right up here.’ He tapped a knuckle on the side of his head.
Mark grinned. ‘All I need to know is if the woman that Doctor-’ He paused, trying to remember the name.
‘Tenner,’ Gilmour supplied.
‘Yes, that’s it, Doctor Tenner. The woman he chose to carry on Eldarn’s line, the woman having sex with the crazy, crippled prince, was she black?’
‘What do you mean, black?’
‘Did she have black skin? I don’t mean black, like shadow-black, but did she have dark skin, like mine?’
Garec nodded. ‘She did. When she came in she looked like a servant – there’s no difference once we all get out of our clothes, but from what she was wearing when I first saw her, I would guess she had been a servant at Riverend Palace.’
‘A South Coaster?’ Mark was on eggshells.
‘Yes, definitely,’ Garec said. ‘What are you trying to work out? That was a long time ago, and even if they did succeed in getting that woman pregnant – well, you read Doctor Tenner’s letter: she went off to live in Randel with someone named Weslox Thervan. If Tenner died in the fire, there was no one to produce that baby as Prince or Princess of Rona.’
‘But that baby would have been Eldarn’s true monarch, Rona’s prince.’
Gilmour nodded.
‘Mark,’ Steven said, ‘where are you going with this? Nerak might have been jerking your chain – he called you prince, but he called me sire about sixty-three times.’
‘But not in my dream,’ Mark said. ‘If my dreams are coming from Lessek, then it’s Lessek trying to draw my attention back to those words from Nerak, “There is warm water at the Bowman, my prince.” Did you notice that was the only thing Nerak said to me then? He asked the rest of us – once – if he could carry anything else, but apart from that, he mostly talked with you, Steven.’
‘So Lessek wants you to remember that comment. Why?’ Garec asked, ‘is it because you come from the South Coast?’
‘I don’t, Garec. My family comes from New York. Before that, we were lost in the confusion surrounding the American Civil War. No one has been able to trace back far enough to know what my origins were. Educated guesswork invariably leads to a slave ship that arrived somewhere in the American south after 1619.’
‘So South Coasters in your world are slaves?’
‘Were, Garec,’ Steven said. ‘It was long ago, a grim time for our world.’ Turning back to Mark, he asked, ‘Are you thinking that the servant girl-’
‘Regona Carvic,’ Garec said, ‘remember, from Tenner’s letter?’
‘Are you thinking that Regona somehow came through the portal to your world? That she’s related to you?’
Mark shrugged. ‘Why else would Nerak and then Lessek draw my attention to that comment, my prince?’
‘Holy shit, buddy, but that’s assuming a lot,’ Steven said. ‘I don’t see how it would be possible – the far portals have been in Nerak’s control ever since Sandcliff Palace fell, and Regona was taken to Prince Danmark’s chambers at least a Twinmoon after that. If Nerak had the portals, how could she have got through?’