The Fabricator's Mask (The Queen's Blade Book 6), page 1
The Fabricator’s Mask
The Queen’s Blade Book 6
D.K. Holmberg
Copyright © 2024 by D.K. Holmberg
Cover by Damonza.com
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Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Author’s Note
Series by D.K. Holmberg
Chapter One
Ididn’t care much for the rocking of the ship.
I’d traveled by ship many times now, and most of those times, I hadn’t had any difficulty, but there was simply something about the way the Ardem ship moved through the waves, swaying from side to side, that left me uncomfortable. It was likely tied to the fabrications they used to enhance the speed of the ship, though it could simply have been the shape of the hull and the way that we were traveling. I could imagine what Harent would say if he knew that I felt this way. He was a seasoned sailor, so he would undoubtedly give me a hard time.
“You don’t look very comfortable,” Ellie said, leaning on the railing near me.
I had planned on her staying behind, but she’d convinced me to bring her after reminding me that she had even more to learn than I had. She was staring out at the swells, rolling with the movement of the ship far more easily than I did. Then again, a man my size probably took on the waves in a way that others didn’t. At least, that was what I told myself.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“You just have to let things move around you. Haven’t you traveled like this before? I’m pretty sure you said you were in the army.”
“I was in the army,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean that I traveled by ship very often.”
She laughed. She seemed far too amused by my discomfort. “When we left Rizal, we took a few ships. Baring was always struggling to find the right one.” She was quiet for a few moments. “He was always good about taking care of me, even though I knew that it was hard on him and that he wished that he didn’t have to.”
“Your brother cares about you.”
“I know he does. You think he’s doing all right?”
I shrugged. “He’s working with Jos and the other Investigators. I’m sure he’s going to be fine.”
“I know, but he can be a little hardheaded, and I don’t want your Investigators to be too mean to him.”
I snorted, arching a brow. “You don’t want them to be too mean to him?”
“You know what I mean. I don’t want them to pick on him. He means well.”
“I hope so,” I said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It just means that I hope so.”
She turned. “Do you regret bringing me with you?”
Ellie had asked me this question before, and in a way, I did, though I wasn’t going to tell her that. She didn’t need to know how I felt about it. She just needed to know that I was willing to bring her with me. Ellie needed training. And I figured that if anyone would benefit from the opportunity to be around people with power similar to mine, it would be her. In a way, we were both naive about what we could do. Ellie more than me, but at least she’d grown up around a Blade and had seen firsthand the type of power that Blades had.
Another wave struck the ship, and I staggered, this time stumbling away from the railing. Ellie once again laughed.
“You probably aren’t much of a dancer, are you?” she said.
“Not particularly.”
“Well, maybe that’s something you can learn while you’re out here. I bet that pretty woman that you’ve been following around would like to see you dance better.”
“What do you mean, that I’ve been following around?”
“I have had quite a lot of free time. And I was curious where you went, and what kind of things you did, so I…”
“So you followed me?”
She frowned. “Sorry if I wasn’t supposed to. Sometimes you go sneaking off, and I thought that I could try to understand more about what you do. Who is she, anyway?”
I didn’t really want to talk about Dara. That had been one of the harder parts of leaving Busal City. And she been hurt when I had told her that I was leaving for a little while. She understood, but she had questioned me.
“I thought the Queen’s Blade stayed in the city.” Dara had not made any point of trying to hide her disappointment when we were standing in her shop.
I had been trying to decide what to tell her, and how to tell her, about the Queen’s plans for me.
“That’s my intention, but I need to learn from the Ardemians. That’s why she has asked me to go.”
“What happens next time?”
She meant the next time the Queen asked me to leave. Unfortunately, the answer to that was obvious, though I wondered if it was obvious only to me. I wouldn’t have much choice in the matter. If the Queen asked me to go somewhere, I needed to go. That was my role and my responsibility as her Blade.
So when we’d parted, I had tried to reassure Dara that I was only going to be gone for a month or so, because I wouldn’t be able to stay away from the city for that long, but she had just smiled sadly as she had pushed away from my embrace.
“I know you, Zaren. You tend to get caught up in things. And I suspect that such things might keep you away.”
Those words had stayed with me. Not just that she suspected that I would get caught up in something else. That was unfortunately likely, as I had a knack for it. It was more about her saying that she knew me. And she did. More than anybody in the time that I’d been out of the army, at least. I’d let her get close, and now I worried about what that meant.
“I’ll come see you the moment I get back,” I had said.
Dara had arched a brow. “The moment? You won’t go and see the Queen first?”
“I will come see you the moment I get back.”
I wondered if I would be able to keep that promise. I shouldn’t have made it, but she was the person that I would want to see the moment I got back. I didn’t tell her that she would be on the way to the palace.
Another wave struck, and I staggered again, losing my footing this time and striking the railing with a hard thump. I struggled to hold on so that I didn’t fall over.
“Most find it easier to stay stable if they use one of our devices,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned to see Aronith watching me. He looked casual as the waves continued to swell, causing me to shift my feet. Ellie didn’t have any difficulty, but then Ellie was much smaller than me.
“Do you really think that would work for me?” I asked. “Especially given what I am?”
“It’s my understanding—and correct me if I’m wrong—that you and your kind need to actively work against such fabrications. If you don’t, it should work just fine. But then, I have offered it to you a few times already on our journey, and you have been… I suppose, reluctant.”
“I have been reluctant, mostly because I don’t want to waste anything, and…”
“And you believe that you don’t need it.”
“I believe that I shouldn’t need it.”
He laughed. “‘Shouldn’t’ and ‘don’t’ are different matters, aren’t they? Pride can get in the way.”
“I’m trying not to let it.” I looked at the ship. The deck was fairly open, and other than the captain, standing at the helm, a few deckhands were busy at their work, adjusting lines, checking the sails, and generally having a much easier time than I was. “How much longer?”
“That’s what I came to alert you about, Mr. Joha. Unfortunately, we have sensed some storms in the distance, so we are veering a little more north than we normally would.”
I flicked my gaze up to the crow’s nest, high on the mast. “You sensed?”
“As you come to know Ardem, you will come to see that there are many ways of using power.”
“So this is just another one? You have some items that allow you to detect storms?”
“Such items are invaluable, especially with what we face when out in open water. Should it be otherwise?”
“I was just curious, I suppose. How do they work?”
Aronith smiled tightly. “Another question that I’m not sure I can answer for you.”
“Because you don’t want to share or because you can’t?”
“Partly because I am unwilling, but mostly because I am unable.” He shrugged. “The real challenge is in understanding the workings of fabrications, and in that, I am not an expert. My role is something a little simpler, as you’ve seen.”
I had a hard time believing that anything was so simple with him, especially considering what he was able to do. I had seen him navigating various types of power, and though I wasn’t sure what he was capable of, I believed it was more than just fabrications. Then again, with somebody like Aronith, somebody who was so crucial to the people of Ardem that he had been chosen as the security for their delegation, it was likely to be a great deal more than fabrications.
“What dangers might there be?”
Ellie moved closer.
Aronith glanced down at her.
I hadn’t been convinced it was a good idea to bring her with me, as I did not know what to expect when we got to Ardem. I certainly didn’t want to bring Ellie to a place that was dangerous.
But in a way, having her along offered a measure of protection that I hadn’t anticipated. The Ardem delegation did not view her as a potential threat. They regarded her more with curiosity, and that could be incredibly valuable.
This was why I had ultimately agreed to have her come along.
“There are always dangers, Mr. Joha, but in this case, you are right to ask. As we travel more to the north, there is the issue of piracy. Not one that we should have any real difficulty with, as we are well equipped to handle such things, but one that can pose a danger nonetheless.”
I frowned, turning to where I thought the north was. “Piracy.”
“I imagine you don’t have much difficulty with that along the coastal waters. But out here in the open water, it is more of a challenge, unfortunately. For those who, like us, need to cross the open water, we have learned to navigate around pirates. But they have grown increasingly savvy. And unfortunately, they have also grown increasingly capable. Most of the time, we are able to fend them off before they cause any problems, but there are times when they have managed to overpower us.” He shrugged again. “We are in good hands. Besides, we have enough of value on board that we will expend every effort to ensure the safety of this vessel.”
“You have really expensive fabrications?” Ellie asked.
Aronith regarded her. His eyes narrowed as if he was deciding how to react to her, and perhaps whether he wanted to challenge her assertion, but he decided otherwise. “Fabrications, yes, but that is not what we value. We value the people on board.” He nodded to me. “Don’t worry, Mr. Joha. We will get you safely to Ardem.”
He strode away, and I glanced at Ellie. “You’d better be ready,” I said.
“What for?”
“For a pirate attack.”
Her eyes widened. “Wait. He said that we were safe, didn’t he?”
“The fact that he even came to mention anything suggests that he knows something is amiss.”
I looked over at the Busalan ship, sailing not far behind us. I had been offered the option of traveling on board that vessel, but I had suggested to Dorian that I might have a greater value in traveling with Ardem, primarily in uncovering any threats.
“What if they take over the ship?” Ellie asked. “Baring used to tell me stories about pirates. Most of the stories were probably just tall tales, though I wouldn’t put it past him to have heard some things. Our mother didn’t really talk about it, but she didn’t travel much. She used to, but—”
“It’s all right, Ellie,” I said.
I had come to learn that when she was nervous, she tended to babble. And in this case, I couldn’t tell her that she had no reason to be nervous, because she had every reason and every right to feel that way. But I wanted to reassure her.
“I should’ve stayed in Busal City, shouldn’t I?” she said.
I braced myself as another wave struck. I looked out into the distance, and though I couldn’t see anything out on the water, I wondered whether I might detect something magical. I hadn’t attempted to use my ability, not while on board the Ardemian ship, surrounded by so many powerful fabrications. There might be something to the process of resisting any power that posed a danger in itself.
But it was time I tested for magic.
“I think you have been given an opportunity here. There’s only so much that I might teach you, and only so much that Asi would be able to teach you.”
The two of us had been working with Ellie, as we were the only Blades in Busal City. I thought there had to be other Blades remaining. Waleith wouldn’t have been able to kill all of them. But the question was where they were, and how they had hidden.
And I wasn’t about to hunt them down. Doing so would expose them. I figured that they would eventually report in, though I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know if they would even view me as somebody to report to. Asi certainly didn’t know. She knew that I was the Queen’s Blade, but I was not in any sort of command structure that she had been a part of, mostly because I had never been to the Blade training compound.
“I know that I could learn more. It’s just that I’m a little nervous, Zaren. I’m sorry. I know you think of me as this—”
I squeezed her shoulder and patted her briefly. I didn’t know if this was reassuring or intimidating. “You don’t have to explain.”
I didn’t want her to explain, because I didn’t want her to feel she had to justify her emotions. Ellie was still young, after all. She had been through so much, and I certainly didn’t want anything to happen to her, because I wanted to protect her as much as I could. That was my promise to her.
“I’m a little nervous as well. Not about what we might face. If there are pirates, we are probably in good hands, especially with what Ardemians can do, but I’m nervous about what we will find once we get to Ardem.”
“Why?”
“For one, I’ve never been to Ardem. I’ve heard stories about it, and I have heard stories about the kind of power they have, but I don’t know what it will mean for us. I want to understand the kind of power they promise we can learn, and I want to become a better Blade. And if what I learn here helps me, then it’s going to help you.”
“But?”
“But it means leaving everything behind. I’ve done that once. And I thought that I was done with it.” I shrugged. “Now here we are.”
“You said we’re only going to be gone for a month,” Ellie said.
“Thereabouts,” I said.
“But it might be longer, mightn’t it?”
“Depends upon what we find,” I said. “And depends upon what they need from us.”
Although I didn’t know it yet, there was another reason I was here. Another reason that the Queen had negotiated my passage. And another reason that the Ardem delegation had agreed to it. They wouldn’t have simply accepted my presence if they hadn’t felt there was something they could gain from it. They wanted to use me in some way. And that was fine, because I wanted to use them in some way. I was curious as to whether I would find the answer before we reached Ardem.
“I’ll keep an eye out for pirates,” Ellie said.
“Good. I’ll do the same. Though I hope that neither of us finds anything.”
“If they have magic…”
“I know,” I said. “I’ve already thought about that.”
“I figured,” she said. “So what would you do?”
“Well, I’d do whatever I needed to do. And so would you.”
When she looked up at me, I forced a smile.
And I was pleased when she patted the fabricated dagger at her side.
Not that I expected a dagger to do much if we faced pirates, but I liked the confidence, nonetheless.
Chapter Two
The pirates attacked once darkness fell in full.
I shouldn’t have been terribly surprised by that, though the timing was intriguing. It suggested that they had a way to match the speed of the Ardemian vessel. And that was with us traveling as quickly as we were. Then again, pirates probably didn’t worry about comfort quite as much as the Ardemian vessel did. For a simple ocean crossing, it shouldn’t have been an issue, I knew. But this was anything but a simple ocean crossing.
