Two days later, with the ship resupplied and with both Delon and Alos outfitted in clothing suitable for the sea- except for Delon's iridescent belt with its large, ornate buckle, which the bard wore as a gaudy reminder of an ambition not well conceived-they set sail on the final leg to the city of Pendwyr, the Brise yet hugging the coastal waters of Vancha, for although the High King's fleet had broken the blockade, Rovers yet plundered some ships plying the straits. In less than a sevenday they were well clear of the northern Straits of Kistan, and they set out on a northeasterly course, now faring across the indigo depths of the Avagon Sea. The wind held, though it rained now and then. Yet onward they sailed, the realms of Hoven and then Jugo unseen beyond the northern horizon.
Three weeks into October they fared through waters muddied by the vast outflow of the mighty River Argon and by sundown they came upon the coast of Pellar. In the late candlemarks of the third day after, under starlit skies they sailed into Hile Bay, the harbor ringed 'round by sheer cliffs, towering upward a hundred feet. As they fared toward the anchorage, on the high precipice above twinkled the lights of a city, its buildings ranging along the lengthy, steep-sided headland sheltering the bay.
They had come to Pendwyr at last, the place where they hoped to find a ferret in a High King's cage.
CHAPTER 43
After securing the Brise in a slip assigned by the harbormaster, Arin and her companions made their way up the steep cliffside road to the headland above, Alos wheezing and complaining all the way, the old man stopping at intervals to rest and catch his wind.
"I should have stayed at one of the dockside inns," Alos declared.
"Ha!" barked Aiko. "At a dockside tavern, you mean."
Alos stuck out his chin. "Inn. Tavern. What do you care? You've no claim on me. When you get what you've come for and are on your way to who knows where, I'll not be with you. I'm free at last and no longer part of this madness, dragging me over the oceans of the world and stealing peacocks and chopping off parts of queens. You've no claim, y' hear?"
Aiko growled, but Arin sighed, and the old man would not meet her eyes. Delon hefted the oldster's gear, and Egil said, "Let's go."
They came in among buildings of stone and tile and brick; the only wood in sight was that of brightly painted doors. They made their way into the city and, after asking about, procured rooms in the Blue Moon, an inn overlooking the bay below.
Following hot baths and a hot meal they took to their beds, and when morning came Alos was gone.
"Gone?" asked Egil. "Gone where?"
Delon shrugged and gestured out beyond the windows of the common room, where an early morning fog curled up across the headland and through the streets of Pendwyr. "I don't know. His bed had been slept in, but when I awoke he wasn't there. His goods are gone as well."
Egil gazed at Aiko, but the yellow warrior merely stared back, her face impassive. Then he turned to Arin. "Fear not, love, we can always find him and cast him aboard the ship."
Arin looked away from the fire in the nearby hearth, the blaze driving the damp chill away from the room. "Nay, chier, let be." She glanced at Delon, then back to Egil. "To do such to Alos would be no better than clamping an iron collar 'round his neck."
Egil took a deep breath then let it out. "As you will, love. As you will."
A serving girl came to the table bearing a great platter heaped with eggs and rashers of bacon and biscuits and honey and a pot of freshly brewed tea. Delon took it upon himself to serve them all, shoveling food onto each of their trenchers and filling their mugs with hot drink.
As they dug in, Egil peered 'round the table. "I suppose our next move is to go to the caer and look for the High King's cage, eh?"
Delon set his mug aside. "Perhaps it isn't at the caer at all. Perhaps there's a garden of beasts elsewhere."
"It may be that King Bleys doesn't keep ferrets at all," said Aiko.
Delon cocked an eyebrow.
Aiko shrugged. "Perhaps the ferret in the High King's cage is a person, just as you were a mad monarch's rutting peacock."
"If I am indeed the peacock of the rede and it's not that preening bird in her garden," said Delon.
"Hmm," mused Egil. "Regardless as to whether or no you are the peacock-though I think in fact you are- still Aiko may be right: the ferret could be a person, too. If so, then the High King's cage could be the caer itself or a dungeon within the caer or-"
"Or the city jail," interjected Delon.
"Could be a brig on a ship," added Egil.
"My songs would have it be a remote tower… with a princess locked away in a chamber at the top." Delon grinned.
Egil looked at Delon. "Does the caer have a tower?"
Delon shrugged. "Perhaps. Perhaps not. Tower or dungeon: I don't know. I've not been here before."
Egil turned to Arin. The Dylvana had stopped eating and was again staring fixedly into the fire. "Are you well, love?" he asked.
Arin looked at him and sighed. "Nought. I can see nought in the flames. I have had no visions since the one concerning the green stone. Could I but ‹see›, mayhap we would have some guidance, some hint of what to do. Yet I think the fires will be empty until this quest has run its course."
Egil reached out and laid his hand atop hers.
"Wild magic," said Arin. "That's what Dalavar called it: wild magic. It comes at its own beck, and I can do nought to make it occur." She sighed and stroked his fingers, then freed her hand and took up her knife and began cutting a strip of bacon.
"Well," said Egil, "I say we need visit the caer and see what there is to see concerning the High King's cage, and discover what we can about the ferret, whoever or whatever it may be."
"The jail, too," added Delon. He scooped up a spoonful of egg and biscuit and stuffed it all into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Finally he took a great gulp of hot tea and said, "If the High King has a ship of his own, we ought to see if anyone is in the brig."
Arin set aside her knife. "It is so frustrating: all is clouded in mystery. We know not if the ferret in the High King's cage is even in Pendwyr. Yet, there is this: if Aiko is the cat who fell from grace, and if Egil is the one-eye in dark water- recall, we have four one-eyes to select from, three with Alos gone-and if Delon is the mad monarch's rutting peacock rather than the bird we left behind, then we are stumbling along the correct path regardless of being blind. And so, we must search Pendwyr for the ferret. Whether or no we truly find what we seek is left up to Fortune's whims-and may She turn Her smiling face our way. Even so, even if we leave here with the ferret, then we must seek the cursed keeper of faith in the maze, and we have no inkling as to where to look for whoever or whatever that might be. More than that I cannot say."
Aiko reached for a biscuit. "Forget not the statue in the hedge, Dara; the keeper of faith in the maze might yet turn out to be the one-handed queen."
Delon laughed, then sobered as his eyes flew wide. "Say, we're not going to go back for her, are we?"
"If we do," replied Aiko, slicing the biscuit with her trencher knife, "then perhaps I'll bring her along as the queen with no head."
Arin held a hand palm out. "If she is the keeper of faith, then I would think we need her alive to complete the quest."
The corners of Aiko's mouth turned down. "Then when this quest is over…" She drew a finger across her throat. As if contemplating Gudrun's demise, Aiko smiled and calmly spooned honey over the cut biscuit halves.
Arin shook her head. "'Tis the ferret we are after at the moment and not the keeper of faith."
Egil said, "Surely the ferret is here in Pellar and not elsewhere. I mean, where else would Bleys keep a cage?"
All eyes turned to Delon, and he shrugged. "I hear he has a fortress in Rian. Challerain Keep, I believe."