Of Dawn and Darkness

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

The Consultants had lost the battle, no one disputed that. After they spent the rest of the day scouring the Gray Island, shaking as many Consultants as they could out of their holes, the Imperialist Guilds took to their ships flush with victory.

Even if the attack hadn’t worked out quite as they’d hoped, even if General Teach was wounded and in dire condition, even if many of the Consultants were still on the run, they’d won. The Gray Island was theirs.

And now the Consultants were fleeing.

They’d come out of a hidden harbor on a black ship with a twisting eye where the crow’s nest should be. Calder didn’t recognize the ship, but he recognized its kind: it was a Navigator’s Vessel, and not one belonging to the Guild. The Consultants had their own pet Navigator.

Not the first secret they’d kept from the other Guilds, he was sure.

The ship led them on a spirited chase, but in the end it was only one vessel, and they were more experienced on the Aion. Calder cornered it himself, and took it upon himself to address the Consultant refugees onboard.

Including, he was sure, the Gardener Shera.

Calder stepped up to the railing, raising the captain’s horn to his lips. “Ladies and gentlemen of the Consultant’s Guild, you may notice that we have you surrounded. We’re going to escort you back to the Capital, where—”

He’d intended to say, “Where you’ll be treated with all respect and courtesy,” but a pudgy green monster fluttered down from the rigging and interrupted him, in a resonant masculine voice that boomed out over the ocean. “SURROUNDED!”

Calder lowered the horn and muttered to Andel. “Cage it or shoot it, I don’t care which.”

He gathered himself before addressing the Consultants again. He’d lost his place, so he simply made it up. “…where representatives of loyal Guilds will gather to determine your treatment.” That sounded appropriately vague, if not as friendly as he’d intended. Shuffles’ appearance had tainted his mood. “I can say that, if you cooperate, we would be delighted to have an organization with your expertise on the side of the Empire. We only wish for humankind to stand united, as the Elders wish to consume us all—”

He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it.

“CONSUME US ALL!” Shuffles declared, even as Andel chased it across the bridge.

“Andel, Foster, I’m shoving something into a cage as soon as this is over. I’d rather it be Shuffles.”

After another moment to clear his mind, he picked up the captain’s horn again. “I assure you, we have only your best interests at heart.”

“BEST INTERESTS,” Shuffles said with a laugh, making it sound like the threatening declaration of a demented murderer. Calder gave up, tossing the horn to the deck. If the Consultants didn’t get the point by now, they never would.

For a few seconds they didn’t respond, and Calder wondered if they might not have a captain’s horn of their own. He was planning on moving closer before a cloud of mist exploded into being around the enemy ship.

Bastion’s Veil. Only instead of surrounding the Consultant’s island, it shrouded their vessel, rapidly expanding into a solid bank of fog. Calder stared into the cloud, anger and hopelessness warring within him.

They’d gotten away.

Even now, Cheska was organizing a search, shouting her orders to the other Navigators, but he knew they wouldn’t catch up. The majority of the remaining Consultants were aboard that ship, not counting the thousands of Guild members on assignment all over the world. They’d taken Consultant headquarters away, but what had they really gained?

He slumped down to the deck, leaning his back against the wheel, and closed his eyes.

Someone sat down next to him.

He looked over to see Bliss staring at him from two inches away. “In pets, sudden listlessness and lack of energy can indicate that they are sick,” she said.

“I’m not an animal.”

“Then you’re distressed.” She reached into her coat and pulled out a folded-up blanket. It was big enough that it should have made a noticeable bulge in her coat, leading him to wonder irrationally if she’d created it out of nothing. She reached around him, tucking the blanket over his shoulders.

There was nothing wrong with him that a blanket could possibly solve, but it was nice to have someone worry about him for once. He leaned his head back, looking into the sky. “Thanks,” he said.

“You’re welcome.”

She joined him in looking up, even as all around him the Navigators searched frantically for the vanishing ship.

“The crack in the sky,” he said suddenly. “What is it really?”

Bliss pondered for a moment. “There’s nothing wrong with the sky. What we’re seeing is a rift, such as the Elders use for transportation to and from the void. It is simply very high above us.”

For Bliss, that was a surprisingly coherent answer. He decided to push a little further. “What’s on the other side?”

“Popular belief says it’s where the Elders come from. That’s likely to be true. We can verify that most of the Great Elders use the void for transportation and communication.”

Calder digested that, but Bliss wasn’t through. “You’ve seen Ach’magut’s library, haven’t you?”

He would very much like to know where she’d heard that, but there was no point in lying now. “Yes.”

“While Ach’magut was dead, we liberated our share of books from that library. Stole. Liberated. Liberated or stole? Either way, once we’d decoded the languages, we learned a few relevant facts. First, ours is not the only world out there.”

“I know that, Bliss,” Calder said. “My tutors showed me the planets through a telescope.”

“I didn’t say planets,” she said. “And don’t interrupt. Each Elder pursues something, and they move from world to world through the void in pursuit of it. Ach’magut pursues knowledge. Nakothi pursues the perfect balance of life and death. Urg’naut pursues absolute nothingness. Tharlos…” she paused to push down on her coat, “…pursues change. But wherever they go, they work apart. Against humanity, but neither with nor against one another. As we understand it, it was very rare for one Great Elder to ever encounter another.”

“Then how did we end up with seven?”

“That part of the books is very clear,” Bliss said softly. He found that he couldn’t tell what color her eyes were, besides ‘pale.’ “They were lured here. Lured and trapped. For untold thousands of years, the Great Elders have bickered and jockeyed with one another, but in the end they all have the same goal. To be free of this prison.”

Calder looked into the cracked sky. If that were true, all they would have to do is hold the door open, and all the Great Elders would leave. It sounded too good to be true.

But one detail stood out, and he had to ask the question. “They’re trapped here…then who trapped them?”

Bliss sighed. “That,” she said, “is a very good question.”

Only four weeks after their encounter with the Great Elder, The Testament arrived at the Capital. Either luck or the foresight of Ach’magut had been with them, because they’d sailed straight through the center of the Aion Sea with no more trouble than a vanishing island and a stray wormcloud. Not even the most optimistic Navigator would promise a trip from Aurelia to Izyria in one month, but they’d done it.

They were still miles away from the Capital when Calder saw that something was wrong. Ships, Navigator and otherwise, fled from the direction of the mainland like startled birds. Some of them were on fire. A few headed back toward the Capital, but it was a trickle compared to a flood. And not one of them responded to Calder’s request for information.

The Capital was so vast that it practically swallowed the coastline; once land was in sight, everything Calder could see stretching north and south was all part of the city. And all of it hung under a cloud of smoke, as though every chimney everywhere had started belching non-stop. Over the water drifted a constant sound that Calder only identified when they got closer: bells. Hundreds if not thousands of bells, all ringing in constant chaos.

The Testament was even closer before they could see the third sign of disaster. The red flags, bearing their moon-in-sun Imperial Seal, had all been defiled. A legion of Imperial flags always flapped above the Capital, ranging in size from those no bigger than a hand to the ones over the palace, which were broader than The Testament’s sails.

All of them had been scarred with a new addition: a thick black line slashing diagonally down the middle.

Calder’s eyes turned to Andel.

The former Pilgrim removed his hat once more, staring at the shoreline. He pressed the hat over his heart, one final gesture of respect.

“What will it be, Andel?” Calder asked quietly. He couldn’t deny a trembling of his own heart; as much as he’d hoped for this, the Emperor had always seemed constant. Eternal. Even when he’d finally believed that the Emperor would die, there was a difference between knowing it and seeing the evidence.

Andel shook his head. “I’m still trying to make excuses. Maybe the Capital came under attack, maybe there was a rebellion, maybe this is some game by the Elders and we’re still back in Silverreach. But I’m neither a fool nor a coward. I know the Emperor is dead, may his soul fly free.”

That was a first step, but anyone with the knowledge they had would have come to the same conclusion. Calder waited for the rest, but Andel didn’t say anything.

He carefully placed his broad white hat on his head, adjusted it, and walked away.

“Where are you going, Andel?”

“To do my job,” Andel called back. “You all have reasons to be glad the Emperor’s dead. Who says I don’t?”

Not daring to believe it, Calder watched Andel as he climbed up and took the wheel.

“The Capital’s in turmoil, Captain,” he shouted down. “Making port would be a dangerous gamble. I suggest we plot another course.”

That was the first time Andel had ever called him “Captain.”

“Sounds wise to me, Andel.” He stepped away, where he could see the man in white standing over the wheel.

Andel executed a shallow bow. “Then we sail at your command, sir.”

THE END

Of Dawn and Darkness

The Elder Empire, Second Sea