“There you are,” Vaseto said when he arrived. “I knew it would be good luck to send you away.”
“What do you mean?”
“Cazio. He just boarded that ship.” She waved at a four-masted merchantman.
“That’s a Vitellian ship,” he said.
“Yes. Bound for Paldh. Don’t watch too closely.”
“Were Anne and Austra with him?”
“No. Look at me.”
With some difficulty, he tore his gaze from the ship and looked into Vaseto’s brown eyes.
“There,” she said. “Pretend you’re interested in me, not the ship.”
“I—” the image of another pair of eyes flickered through his memory—those of the woman he’d seen on the ship. And then, with a guilty start, Fastia’s.
Vaseto must have seen something in his face, for the taut lines of her own softened, and she reached a gentle hand to stroke his cheek. “You call out a name in your sleep sometimes. Did you know that?”
“No,” he said.
“Is she dead?”
“Yes,” he said.
“You saw her die.”
This time he only nodded.
“The pain will pass,” she said. “Like any hangover.”
He managed a humorless chuckle. “That’s a strange comparison,” he said.
She quirked her shoulders. “Perhaps an unfair one. I have only observation to go by, not experience.”
“You’ve never lost anyone you loved?”
She cocked her head, and a strange look came into her eyes. “I have never loved,” she said. “I never will.”
“How can you possibly know that?”
“It’s part of who I am. I will never know the touch of a man.”
“That’s not the same thing as love,” he pointed out.
“No, I suppose not. Yet I feel certain that I will never love.”
“I hope that is not true.”
“You can say that, when it has brought you such pain?”
“Oh, yes,” he said.
“When she died—could you have said it then?”
“No,” he replied. “I wanted to die myself.”
She smiled and tousled his hair. “And that is why I shall never love. Now, don’t look, but our friend has left the boat.”
He started to rise, but she grabbed his hand. “Be still,” she said.
“But we must speak to him.”
“If we do, any others who are watching will see.”
“Let’s follow him, then.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, either.”
“But what if he did not take passage on that ship? What if we don’t see him again? No. Right now he is my only link to Anne, and I cannot let him leave my sight.”
She considered that, and then sighed. “You may be right,” she said. “I may be too careful in this matter. But Anne—” She stopped abruptly, and for the first time Neil realized that Vaseto was somehow uncertain. And that she had said something she shouldn’t.
“What about Anne?” he said.
“I cannot tell you. But she is important for more reasons than you know.” She rose. “Come. Put your arm around me. Walk with me as you might a lover, and we’ll follow Cazio.”
He did as she said, slipping his arm around her waist. She was very slight, and it felt very awkward.
“That’s him, there,” she said. “In the plumed hat.”
“I see him,” Neil said.
They followed him through winding streets to a dim and dilapidated part of town, where rough-seeming men watched them pass with blandly hostile faces. At last Cazio went up the steps to a building and entered it.
Neil quickened his pace, but Vaseto dragged at him.
“Wait,” she said, then gave a cluck. “No, never mind. It’s too late.”
Neil saw what she meant. Men seemed to have appeared in the street, all around them, armed with knives and clubs. Neil reached beneath his cloak and felt for the pommel of Crow, but it wasn’t there. Like his armor, it was back in their lodgings.
Vaseto began speaking sharply in Vitellian, but the men continued to close in.
“Stay back,” Ospero advised.
Ignoring him, Anne pushed past, trying to see. Ospero’s men had surrounded a man and a boy. The man drew a knife, turning slowly. The boy was shouting something about how they were friends of Cazio’s.
She looked at Cazio, who had a look of concentration on his face.
“You know him?” she asked.
“I think so,” he replied. “I think he was a guest of Orchaevia’s, from time to time. I don’t know the other fellow.”
“Wait,” Anne shouted. “See what they want.”
At the sound of her voice, the stranger’s head snapped toward her. “Anne!” he shouted. “I’m sent by your mother!”
He was speaking the king’s tongue, with an island accent. Anne’s heart spun like a top.
“Ospero, tell your men to leave him alone, please,” she said. “I think I know him.”
“Let him come closer,” Ospero said.
The boy said something low to the man, whose gaze had not left Anne. He nodded and walked to the door. As he did, he removed a wig, revealing the blond hair beneath.
“Sir Neil?” She gasped.
“Yes,” he said, going down on one knee.
“No, no, get up,” she said quickly.
He quickly obeyed.
“Mother sent you?” she asked. “How did you find me?”
“That’s a long tale,” the knight answered. “I went to the coven, and found it destroyed. The countess Orchaevia directed me here.”
“I—” something seemed to explode in Anne then, like a glass bottle in a fire. Tears burst from her eyes, and though she barely knew him, she threw her arms around Sir Neil and wept.
Neil held Anne awkwardly in his arms, not knowing exactly what to do. He felt her tremble, and closed his eyes. And the sounds of the world dimmed.
Though sisters, Anne and Fastia did not look much alike. But Anne felt like Fastia. The scent of her neck was the same. Anne trembled, and Neil felt Fastia’s dying shudder. His own tears suddenly threatened.
“Sir Neil?” Anne said, her voice muffled in his shoulder. “Sir Neil, that’s—that’s quite tight enough.”
He released her and stepped quickly back. “I’m sorry, Pr— I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve just been searching for so long, and your mother—”
He felt a joy at saying that that nearly eased the swell of grief. He hadn’t failed this time. He’d found Anne. Now he had only to get her home, and he could return to the queen’s side, where he belonged. “My mother? Is she still well?”
“Your mother is well,” he affirmed. “She grieves, but she is well.”
She lifted her chin. She didn’t wipe at her tears, though, but left them to crawl down her face. “You were there, Sir Neil?”
He nodded, feeling his throat clutch. “I was there,” he said. “I was there with your sisters. Your father was in another place.”
Cazio coughed quietly and said something in Vitellian. One of the words sounded like Roderick. Anne rolled her eyes briefly and shook her head. Neil stood impatiently while the two conferred, with Vaseto putting in something now and then.
When they were done, Anne nodded at Cazio. “Sir Neil, this is Cazio da Pachiomadio da Chiovattio. He has proved himself a friend to me. Without his aid, Austra and I would never have escaped the coven.”
Neil bowed. “I am honored to meet you,” he said.
Cazio bowed, as well, and then Anne introduced Neil to the Vitellian. Neil presented Vaseto to both of them. When that was all done, Anne turned back to Neil.
“Cazio knows that I am a noble of Crotheny,” she said. “He does not know my family name.”
“You do not trust him?”
“I trust him. But I am cautious.”
Neil nodded, trying to get Anne’s measure. He hadn’t known her long or well in Eslen, but she seemed very different from the willful brat he had heard described. She had certainly learned Vitellian quickly enough, and the roughness of her hands was proof that she had indeed been engaged in labor that few of royal birth could begin to imagine. That did not suggest a spoiled brat, but rather a woman who was learning to do things for herself. Learning to do the things that had to be done.