She spoke carefully, easing up to her questions. “Did Nanna care for you?
“Until I was seven. He scratched the horses nose. “Were going up top, Shadow. Well come back down later. He made a face. “If we can stand the smell.
The deck jolted under them, and Allegra grabbed a nearby beam.
“Were moving! Ozarson whirled around. “Lets go watch!
The boy was off before she could answer. He took the rickety stairs two at a time and disappeared. Following him, she came up into a brisk wind just as the craft swooped away from the dock. Grabbing her cap, she worked the pins in her hair so they held the hat secure on her head. Cap or no, people might begin to suspect she was a woman, but they were closer to Aronsdale now, in an area of blended cultures, which would make her traveling on her own less unusual.
Before today, the only “ships she had seen were boats that darted across the lake near her home. This was such a sight! Sailors were up in the rigging, and sails unfurled like billowing clouds. The schooner surged away from the banksand away from any horseman who might gallop in to catch it at the last minute.
Allegra hung on to the stair railing and tilted her head into the wind, filled with elation. This ship could reach Aronsdale in no time. The Saint Verdant turned south at the border and cut back into Taka Mal, which meant the nomads must have crossed it when they took her from Aronsdale to Jazid. She had been so drugged, she didnt even remember. If she and Ozarson disembarked at the point where the river turned south, they could probably ride to Crofts Vale in less than two days.
Ozarson was at a rail of the deck, the wind tossing his curls as he leaned over to peer at the river. She went to him, surprised she could keep her balance on the swaying ship. Other travelers gathered along the rail, many waving to people on the receding dock.
The boy straightened as she came up next to him. “I love it! He stretched his arms out as if to encompass the entire river. “Have you ever seen anything like this? Its magic!
She smiled at his exuberance. “We might make Aronsdale in two days, if this wind stays strong.
“This is a good adventure. He indicated the rippling wake of the boat. “I could make an equation to describe those waves.
The idea intrigued Allegra. “How?
“Some periodic function. Maybe sines and cosines.
“You know trigonometry?
“Not very well, he said as if admitting a shortcoming, when he was describing a level of mathematics most adult scholars in their lands didnt know. “But Im trying to learn.
“You like math.
“I love it. He leaned on the rail. “Three times thirty-seven equals one hundred and eleven. Thats the prime factorization. You know one hundred and eleven cant be prime because its digits add up to three. So its divisible by three.
She laughed, delighted. “Ill teach that to my students.
Ozarson scowled, looking for all the world like Markus. “You shouldnt make things up.
“Im not. And stop scowling at me, turnip sprout. Women can do math just as well as men.
“Thats not true! He squinted at her. “Is it?
“It most certainly is.
“Not in Jazid.
She regarded him innocently. “Are you saying people in Jazid arent as smart as in other places?
“I am not! He glared at her. “All right, Allegra. If you tell me the answer to this, Ill believe you. I have a dart board. Its perfectly round. The distance from the center to the edge is five times as long as my little finger. He held up the pertinent digit and wiggled it portentously at her.
She could already guess the type of problem. Something with the area or circumference of a circle. “All right.
“A smaller circle is inside the bigger one, he said. “It has the same center, but the distance to its edge is only three of my little finger. Whats the probability that if I throw a dart, it will hit the smaller circle?
“Thats easy. Nine over twenty-five. Thirty-six percent.
He gaped at her. “Even Major Gaizz didnt do it that fast!
“I told you, she said, relieved he had given her a problem she could do. “I help out at a school. All you have to do is take the ratio of the smaller area to the larger.
“Major Gaizz said it was easy when I explained, he allowed. “But he didnt know how to do it right away.
“How old were you when you made up the problem?
“A couple of years ago.
At age seven? Even at fourteen or fifteen, the age when most children quit school, she knew of very few who could have done that problem. “You must learn fast.
“After Markus and I went into hiding, I was scared, Ozarson said. “Doing number games helped me calm down. His mood brightened. “I helped General Yargazon last year.
She couldnt imagine the ice-hearted general letting a child help him. Then again, he genuinely seemed to like the boy. Maybe it was just women Yargazon hated.
“What did you do? she asked.
His voice warmed as he talked about what was obviously his favorite subject. “The math was easy. He was working out this war-games scenario. In one part, he needed to divide up the men so he had the same number in each group, but he had to plan for three different outcomes. He couldnt figure out the smallest number of soldiers he needed to have was eight per group in the first scenario, twelve in the second and fourteen in the third. He told Markus it would take over thirteen hundred! Thats wrong. He just needed the least common multiple of eight, twelve and fourteen. One-hundred and sixty-eight.
“Did you tell him?
“Of course. His mouth quirked up. “He thanked me and went on with his work. He thought I had no idea what I was talking about. Then Markus told him to see if it worked. When it did, the General laughed. He said I would make a great commander.
She would have liked to be a fly in that tent when it happened. “You should become a mathematician. You would be great at it.
His voice quieted. “I cant. He turned to stare out at the river. “I have duties.
I cant. Such simple words for so much pain. He couldnt pursue this great gift of his because he had to invade countries, wage war and conquer people, all to ensure his country survived.
Ozarson gazed over the water with his chin lifted in a regal posture she doubted he even realized. The wind blew his hair back from the same profile etched on Jazid coins. Watching him, a chill went up her spine. Greatness lived in this boy. Someday he would be a king like no other, his name remembered for ages. Whether it would be for great deeds or terrible, she didnt know, but he would become a legend.
If he lived.
CHAPTER 15
THE GILDED LAND
The day passed in a swirl of wind and colors. Allegra loved the river. She ate enough for the first time in days, and her bruises began to heal. Each time the schooner stopped on the river, she scanned the shore for Jazidian soldiers. She saw none. That night, she and Ozarson camped next to Shadow. At first, she watched over the boy. Incredibly, when she collapsed into sleep, he watched over her, the king of Jazid acting as a guard to a commoner in the smelly under-deck of a Taka Mal scow schooner.
The next day was just as exhilarating. As night fell, many passengers gathered on the upper deck. Everyone passed around wine bags, Aronsdale cheeses and citrus fruit from Taka Mal. They sang ballads and folk songs. It delighted Allegra to lift her voice purely for the joy of singing, with no worry about spells. Ozarson sat on a big coil of rope, listening, his eyes glowing in the light from covered lamps suspended on ropes. When someone launched into a ballad about a Jazid folk tale, he joined in with a boys treble voice, untrained but clear and full.
That night, she and Ozarson slept under the stars, curled in a pile of rope. When a sailor called them a pair of turnip sprouts, the atajazid laughed. In the morning, they bought oranges from the citrus peddler. Their hexacoins were running low, though; if they didnt reach Crofts Vale soon, they would run out of money.