The Blade Bearers (Blade and Bone Book 6), page 7
“I’d like for you or other senior Archers to send a report to me each evening,” Meyer said. “I want high-level information: Pockets of trouble. Skirmishes you’ve encountered. Crime you might have uncovered.”
“We aren’t able to stop all crime,” Gregan said.
“I know. But if you see tendencies, I’d like to know about them. And I want you to tell me about any rumors that begin to have teeth.”
“What kinds of rumors are those?”
“The ones that might give me more insight into what’s happening.”
“You can just go to the king, can’t you?”
“The king needs to know about those rumors too,” Meyer said.
That stiffened Gregan’s spine a bit. “I’ll make sure you get your reports, Master Meyer.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Now, unfortunately, I have more that I need to do. We have some bastard thinking he’s going to rob this wagon before we have a chance to distribute everything here.”
Meyer watched as the Archers grabbed the man trying to rob the wagons and held him down. The man struggled for a moment, but then he abandoned his fight.
There had been a time when a man like that would’ve been brought to one of the prisons, but what was the point in it? It was a crime of opportunity, and tied to hunger and necessity, Meyer suspected. The man was dirty and thin, and he probably wasn’t alone in needing much more than what he had.
And what the people needed now were supplies.
The king should be the one controlling that and directing the movement of supplies, but it seemed as if he wasn’t willing… or able. Thankfully there were men like Gregan who had taken it upon themselves to help coordinate, but at what point would everything fall apart?
Verendal continued to expand, even though the actual borders had not shifted. The Archers needed help, and it wasn’t anything Meyer was normally accustomed to helping with. At this point, he wondered if perhaps he had no choice but to do so. Maybe what he really needed to spend his time doing was to help organize the city.
Until he had a handle on that, he wasn’t sure that he’d be able to offer any measure of justice.
He started back toward the city, pausing when he neared the Sanaron section. He needed to visit with Adira to see what help her people might need. Even though executions had been halted, at least for now, that didn’t mean Meyer had nothing he could be working on. In fact, it felt as if he had more to do than ever before.
All while he was supposed to be enjoying his retirement.
Chapter Six
LILY
Lily sat inside the well-lit tavern, a stack of bones resting next to her, feeling the heat of the hearth glowing behind her. It was comforting in a certain way, not only because she was sitting here with other hegen, but also because she felt as if she were making some measure of progress on her preparations.
Distantly, she was aware of her hawk-and-owl-hybrid talisman flying overhead. She had to push that thought out of the back of her mind, knowing that if she didn’t, she would focus only on it and lose herself in what that talisman saw. She didn’t want that to be the only thing she paid attention to.
The knife skittered across the bone quickly. The knife itself was not altogether special, other than the fact that it was particularly sharp and made of a type of alloy that could carve and peel away the bone more easily than others. She had experience with it, at least enough that she knew how to keep it sharp, but worried what would happen if she were to lose the bone knife. She’d lost one once before, and was luckily able to replenish with another hegen supplier, but if she were to lose this one, she would have to either talk to Odell or get to another city where she could find the right kind of supplies. They wouldn’t be found here.
She was drawing out the talisman with the knife, sensing what she wanted to make, and she could feel the way it was starting to take shape. She understood what it was for, much like she understood just what she might be able to create, if it worked the way she intended. There were times when she wasn’t exactly sure if it would, but this wasn’t one of them. Lily believed she could create this bone talisman in no time.
“You have even more speed than usual,” Odell said, glancing over to her talisman. The older man’s eyes had a bit of a haze to them, and Lily had always wondered how he’d managed to carve such detailed talismans while losing his eyesight. He had on a gray jacket and pants, and his balding head reflected some of the light.
He was seated on a chair behind her, which had been found in another home. Odell had taken a liking to it immediately. He sat in place for long stretches of time, rocking as he carved, though his own carvings had begun to go faster than ever before. For all his talk of her speed, it was Odell’s that really mattered. They needed talismans. Lily could only carve so many, especially as it did take something out of her, and Odell could help with that.
There were not as many hegen who had any real understanding and connection to the art as there could be. So many of them had been steered away from using bone carvings. Lily had a predilection for them, as did Odell, but most others were like her mother—they feared the power trapped within bone, and worried what might happen if they were to exclusively use it.
The door to the tavern opened, and Lily glanced up. Her hand paused in the middle of carving another explosive talisman. If they were to be attacked, she wanted to have as many as possible, and she wondered if they had much time for her to spare.
Esmerelda strode in, looking lovely. She reminded Lily of her mother, but only from the sense of authority she exuded, not based on her appearance at all. Esmerelda had raven hair and almost milky-white skin, whereas Lily’s mother had auburn hair, with a darker, tanned complexion and freckles.
She wore a jacket that she had woven, and even as she approached, Lily could feel something from that jacket and recognized the latent energy within it. There was some potency to it, though Lily wasn’t exactly sure why she could feel that so strongly from Esmerelda, nor did she know what it meant that she had something like that.
“There you are,” Esmerelda said, taking a seat at the table. “I was hoping that we could talk.”
“I’m making preparations,” Lily said.
“I don’t intend to interrupt. I believe you’re skilled enough that you can have a conversation while carving, are you not?”
Lily frowned. “I’m skilled enough to do that, yes.”
“As I thought. What I’d like to see is whether you have any interest in learning about other techniques you can incorporate into your talismans.”
“I don’t know if I have enough time for that.”
“And I don’t know that we don’t have time.” Esmerelda looked over to Odell. “You have chosen to abandon other techniques.”
“Not abandon,” he said. “It’s just that my art has never really involved many other flourishes. I generally have taken much more time with my carvings, until I began to work with her.” He nodded to Lily. “And ever since I have, I’ve found that I need to use a more efficient approach. I’m not saying I mind, as she does invite a certain element of urgency to what she’s taught us, doesn’t she?”
“She absolutely does,” Esmerelda said.
Lily set her bone knife down. “What do you hope I might be able to learn?”
“You’re creating protections. That is to be commended. We may need those, given what we might have to face, but at the same time, there are other ways of augmenting what you’re doing. I see your talisman circling above the city, and while it works, there may be a better way for you to do that.”
“It’s the only thing I know.”
“How much strength does it take from you?”
Lily shrugged. “I don’t even think about it.”
“But you should,” Esmerelda said. “You may not want to think about it, but you should. You absolutely should. The more power that you put into each talisman, the more your own energy is divided. That matters. You may not think it does, but it does. And if we’re attacked, you’re going to have to find a way to use every bit of your potential in order to help protect the city, and the people. We all will.” She touched her hand to her jacket. “What do you think I placed into this?”
“I don’t know. It looks like grasses and flowers and…” Lily leaned forward. “Maybe a few stones.”
“Though they’re hidden beneath the rest, they provide a framework. But each aspect builds on the other. The branches and the woven grasses combine with the energy of the flowers, along with the strength of the stone, to grant me power that I wouldn’t have otherwise. Had I not used each of them, I would have found that the protections here were not enough.”
Lily snorted. “You want to help me figure out a way to make my explosives more potent. Great. The citadel was trying to do that for a long time, and unfortunately, they failed. Or maybe I failed. I don’t know which it was. They had their own techniques, and while they were more than happy to share certain aspects of those techniques with me, there were some that either they didn’t want to share the origin of, or they thought I would uncover them on my own.”
That was a part of the citadel that had always maddened Lily. For all that they’d taught her, they’d also kept secrets. She’d been expected to contribute to their knowledge, but had never been given an opportunity to partake fully of that knowledge. In some regard, Lily suspected that was because they hadn’t entirely trusted her, though she wondered if that was the only reason.
“Much like your talisman that flies over the city, there are other ways of making your explosive more effective,” Esmerelda explained. “You’re putting quite a bit of yourself into its making. Using only bone is certainly one technique, but it’s not the only one. The bone could be the base of the construct, but think about what you need for the explosive.”
“I have no idea what I’m using as the explosive,” Lily admitted. “It just seems to work. I fire it, and it blasts the ships.” She hadn’t done so in quite some time, which was fine for her. It had taken some of her strength when she had done it the last time, and she didn’t know if she’d be able to re-create that strength if it came down to it. She certainly didn’t want to have to unleash the power of that explosive again. Not with how much it had taxed her the last time.
Honaaz had even had trouble, and for whatever power he possessed, he was certainly gifted in ways that she still couldn’t understand. And he had a challenge with that. She didn’t know why, and she didn’t know what it meant that Honaaz had struggled the way he had, but she understood that she needed to be careful.
“You’re probably using less art,” Esmerelda said. “It’s not something I understand all that well, as it’s not something that any of our people understand all that well, but pouring so much of yourself into it also requires considerable strength. It’s a wonder you survived when you did the last time.”
Odell grunted.
Lily shot him a sharp look, and the old man leaned back, returning his attention to his work. He looked to be making something that resembled a hawk, and though it was a small carving, his skill was incredible. But it was more than just his skill that she thought she needed.
She needed him to finish. He was too deliberate.
“No. He’s right,” Esmerelda said. “You did push so much of yourself into it that you very nearly didn’t survive.”
“I’ve told you about the attack, and I’ve told you what I did, so none of this is news to you.”
“Perhaps not.” Esmerelda fidgeted with her hands, twisting a grass bracelet on one wrist. “It’s a shame that you weren’t able to stay with your people longer.”
“It’s not that I didn’t want to. I simply did not have the opportunity.”
“Be that as it may, in the time that I’m with you, I will teach you as much as I can. I’m hopeful that you will find a way to manipulate the art so it will grant you a different connection to it than what you have already done. I’m also hopeful that you can find a way to control it that won’t require you to pour so much of yourself into it. That’s my hope.”
“How would you have me do this?” Lily asked, holding up her carving.
“An explosive?” Esmerelda leaned toward her and traced her fingers along the bone. “I can think of several different ways this could be attempted.” She frowned. “It depends on how violent you need it to be.”
“Incredibly violent.”
“She doesn’t do anything by halves,” Odell said, chuckling softly. “So when she says she wants it to be violent, I’m sure she means incredibly violent.”
Lily shot him another look. “That’s exactly what I just said.”
Esmerelda nodded. “There might be other ways for you to control the kind of power you’re looking to control. And there might be other ways to make it even more potent than what you have already accomplished. Unless you feel that what you’ve done is enough.”
Lily knew it wasn’t, but she also didn’t know if it made much of a difference. At this point, given what she could do with her art, she wasn’t sure if it made sense to draw on even more power or not. But if she could do it without taking so much strength from her, and without weakening herself as much as she often did, there was value in that. She couldn’t deny that. And as she looked at Esmerelda, she understood that the woman saw the truth in that as well.
After spending all this time with the hegen and traveling the way she had, Lily still needed to learn. She could easily imagine what her mother would have said. Then again, her mother might’ve been pleased. She would have wanted Lily to want to understand her art, and would have wanted her to find some way of controlling it so that she could use it to help her people. And increasingly, Lily felt as if the hegen that they had sailed with, and established a place with, were her people.
“What do you propose?” she asked.
“That we talk about some of the basics.”
“The basics? I feel like I’m a little beyond the basics.”
“Perhaps you are,” Esmerelda said. “But until we know if you are, we should start there. And once you’ve proven yourself, we can move past them.”
Lily was tempted to argue, but decided against it. There was no point doing so with somebody like Esmerelda, who was accustomed to teaching and doing things her own way. It wasn’t altogether different than Lily’s mother and how she had taught lessons. She had started with what she considered the basics, though Lily suspected that the two women had a very different sense of what was basic.
“I have a few items we can begin with,” Esmerelda said. “I suspect that some of these will be familiar to you.” She pulled out a satchel, set it on the table, and began to unroll it. “These grasses are part of it, but not the entire effect. There is much you can learn. Start with the grasses. Each blade forms a different aspect of the protection here. As you can see by how I’ve woven them into it, the grasses themselves have begun to grow together, bonding and becoming something more. And if you were to peel away one blade, you would start to feel the diminished energy of this entire thing.”
“It’s not altogether dissimilar from what we have with the bone carvings,” Lily said.
Esmerelda smiled. “Not at all. And in fact, I think it’s quite similar. Each piece of bone you peel away adds to what you need for the carving. With every bit that you draw off, there is an aspect that’s layered atop it, creating something else. And together, it becomes something more.”
Lily looked down at her carving. She hadn’t thought about it that way. When she was carving the talisman, it was more about creating the shape she wanted, thinking that by drawing out the bone, she could feel some aspect of it starting to shift and change. Yet she had never thought about how each carving she made added to the overall piece of art.
But why should it make a difference? It was not all that dissimilar from what she had seen artists using paints doing. Each brushstroke did something else, creating an additional layer on it, adding more power to a painting.
“I can see you’re starting to work through it,” Esmerelda said.
“I’m just considering what you said.”
“When you learned from your mother, did she not teach you the same way?”
“I think my mother realized right away that I didn’t have the same technique she did,” Lily said. “Regardless of what I might’ve wanted, I did not have her skill. I didn’t have the same understanding, either. I didn’t mind it, and I also don’t think she minded. We both came to understand that what I did was somehow different than what she did, and different than what others of my family could do.”
“Your mother was a wise woman if she recognized she could not teach you,” Esmerelda said.
“I think it disappointed her.”
Though maybe she had realized that Lily wouldn’t have been able to learn some of the techniques that she wanted to teach her. Could that be why she had sent her away? Lily had always assumed that it was because of her predilection for bone, or at least that was what she had started telling herself over the years.
“If it were up to my mother, I think she would have preferred to have been able to teach me the way she knew how to create art. And she did. It’s just that I didn’t have her ability.”
“I can’t say that I have your ability either, but I understand it.” Esmerelda reached into her leather satchel and pulled out a piece of bone that had been carved into a ring. “I made this before we left Verendal. It’s a simple construct meant to provide me with an awareness of my husband. I suspect he doesn’t even know I did it. I would’ve done so to our commitment rings, only that was part of a different ceremony.” She smiled and slipped the bone carving onto her finger. “I can tell that he’s alive. I can tell when he’s under duress. I can tell when he is scared. But I can’t tell anything else.”
“Why couldn’t you have made it so that you can talk to him?”
“Such things might be possible, but not for my kind of art,” Esmerelda said. “My art is tied to what I can comprehend.” She took the ring off, then slid it back into her satchel. “I don’t wear it all the time because otherwise I would find myself too caught up in what he’s doing. And there isn’t anything I can do about it. Knowing that he’s alive and well is soothing to me.”
