The Crimson Skew (The Mapmakers Trilogy) by S. E. Grove (33)

32

Smoke Maps

NOSH AND BITTERSWEET left on the afternoon of the thirteenth, setting out to find Datura. Sophia found it difficult to say good-bye. From the moment Nosh’s gentle face had appeared so close to hers in the Salt Lick train station, the moose and the boy had surrounded her with a sense of considered protectiveness. She had traveled with only two Eerie in her short life, but both of them had a kind of measured stillness that was reassuring in difficult circumstances. She felt worried, uncertain, and suddenly less safe. First Goldenrod, then Bittersweet; I’ve been traveling with an Eerie by my side for a month and a half, she thought as she stood outside Smokey’s front door, watching moose and Weatherer depart. Now I’ll have to get used to traveling without one again. When will I see them next?

Theo was mending well, and the excitement of learning the Art of Iron, as Everett called it, infused him with energy. Nevertheless, Smokey said she would feel more confident about her patient if he slept one more full night in quiet and safety.

“That is,” she added with a smile, “when you’re finished telling us about it.” They were all standing in the kitchen after dinner.

“It’s like listening,” he said, extending his scarred right hand, “but with your bones.”

“That sounds impossible!” said Sophia.

“It’s not easy,” Theo admitted, with the air of someone who is a little embarrassed at the greatness of his own gifts. “At first, I had no idea what he meant. But he said to stop thinking about it and just focus on hearing what my hand had to say.”

Sophia reflected that it was not unlike what Bittersweet had taught her: to observe and interpret without considering how. “What are you trying to find now? Your boots?” she teased. “I’m pretty sure I saw them under the cot.”

Theo laughed good-naturedly. “I was trying to sense the Eerie Sea. I know which way it is, because I know it’s north, but I was trying to see if I could feel the way.”

“Can you?” Casanova asked, watching with interest.

“A little. It’s like I want to go that way”—he pointed—“and I can’t explain why.”

“Is it pulling you to bed?” Smokey asked. “Because that’s where you ought to be right now.” Theo laughingly accepted her reprimand, and they all retired for the evening.

• • •

ON THE MORNING of the fourteenth, Sophia woke to the sound of Smokey’s quiet preparations in the kitchen. She was wrapping bundles of food, setting them aside in tidy piles. “Bread, dried meat, and fruit,” she said, seeing that Sophia was awake. “There is water along the way. Casanova has one pack, and you’ll borrow one of mine.”

Sophia rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “Thank you, Smokey.”

“I’ve set out some clothes for you to wear that are better than that raider garb. Everyone will hear you for a mile around.” She held up a pair of buckskin pants, buckskin boots, long woolen socks, a linen shirt, and a wool cloak. “Pants are better for travel anyhow. I’m only a little taller than you, so I hope they will fit.”

“They look wonderful, Smokey—thank you.” Sophia changed rapidly into the clothes, finding them only slightly too large—but comfortably so. The boots were a perfect fit, and she looked down at them admiringly, happy to find that everything was so warm and light.

“You’ll find the weather cooler than here, because of the ice.”

Sophia folded the cloak carefully and tied it onto the borrowed pack. “I wonder how far away the sisters are.”

“There’s no telling.” Smokey finished wrapping another bundle. “But you must turn around and start back when you are halfway through this food, regardless of where you are. You’ll find nothing to sustain you there.”

“The three of them must eat somehow.”

Smokey shook her head. “I wouldn’t eat what they eat,” she said darkly.

Casanova and Theo joined them in the kitchen. Casanova carried a large pack that seemed already stuffed to the brim, but he set it on the table and opened it, stowing all the food Smokey had prepared.

“Wool blankets and rubber tarps for the ice,” Smokey said, handing them to Casanova. “Theo, these are for you.” She held up a linen packet. “Clean bandages and a small flask of medicine. Take no more than a sip or two if your shoulder begins to hurt again. It will numb the pain. And choose a good walking stick—your balance will be off with your arm in a sling.

“There’s enough food for four days, no more. If you aren’t back by the eighteenth, we’ll have to head in after you, and I can’t promise it will end well. So turn around in two days,” she said, “regardless of where you are. Besides, if you aren’t back by then, it will be too late to save the grove anyway,” she added matter-of-factly. “And one more thing.” She held up three short candles.

“Ah,” Casanova said, smiling and taking them in one large hand. He handed one to Theo and one to Sophia. “Carry these on your person. You don’t want to lose them.”

“But we already have enough candles,” Theo said.

“Not candles made by Smokey.”

“They are smoke maps,” she said, a trifle apologetic. “You’ll forgive me for worrying. But I just want to be sure you can find your way back, should anything go wrong. Light the candle, and the smoke will guide you here, to me.”

“Oh!” Sophia exclaimed. “Thank you. A smoke map,” she murmured. The short candle looked quite ordinary and smelled pleasantly of beeswax. She tucked it into her satchel and then placed her satchel inside the pack, making room between the wool blankets.

“Do you have to take your satchel, Sophia?” Casanova asked. “All that paper. It’s a lot to carry.”

She nodded. “It has my maps. And my notebook. And the garnets they gave me in Ausentinia. I have to bring it.”

“Sophia never goes anywhere without her satchel,” said Theo, smiling. “It is as well traveled as she is.”

“Very well,” Casanova said with amusement as Sophia blushed. “Let’s head off, then. Smokey,” he said, turning to embrace her, “thank you. We’ll be back on the eighteenth or sooner, I promise. I’ll take good care of them.”

“I know you will, Grant.” She hugged Sophia and Theo in turn. “One more thing,” she added as she stood in the doorway. “The Eerie Sea carries its name for a reason. Do not be troubled by what you might see or hear there. It is an uninhabited Age, and it cannot harm you. Until you reach the realm of the three sisters, at least.” The three started down the path. “Be safe,” she called after them.

—9-Hour 40—

THEY WALKED NORTHWARD, away from Oakring. For the first part of their journey, they had no need of Theo’s guiding hand, for Casanova knew the way toward the Eerie Sea. Elodeans traveled there periodically to spend time in the ice caverns, and their trails were visible, though overgrown.

Sophia felt deeply grateful, as they proceeded, that Theo had been so fortunate as to meet Casanova in the Boston jail. At Smokey’s house, she had already seen the gentleness with which he cared for her friend. Now she could see that he was a thoughtful companion on the road, as well. Clearly he had taken his promise seriously. He held the branches up out of their way to let them pass; he warned them of loose rocks underfoot; and he seemed to know the name of every plant and the meaning of every sign around them.

“Owl pellets,” he said, holding up a tufted bundle of what appeared to be lint and bones. “The owls cannot chew, so they swallow their food whole and regurgitate some of it. You see,” he said, pulling it apart, “the remains of a little mouse.”

“Seems messy,” Theo commented.

“You try eating a mouse whole,” said Casanova.

The land they traveled through was mostly flat and sparsely forested. The trees seemed to droop overhead, their foliage battered by the charcoal hail. The path was covered with fallen twigs and torn leaves.

As they walked, Sophia periodically looked up at the skies. She had not seen Seneca since he had dropped Goldenrod’s token, and some part of her was always waiting for the falcon to appear. Every flutter of wings drew her eye. “That’s a duck hawk,” Casanova said, following her gaze when a swooping figure made her stop.

“Very beautiful,” Sophia commented.

“Also known as a peregrine falcon. They are fairly common in these parts.”

“Casanova,” she said, “Theo was lucky to meet you in the Boston jail.”

He smiled. “Lucky Theo.”

Theo stopped in his tracks. “Why did you call me that?”

Casanova smacked his forehead with the palm of his hand. “How could I have forgotten? So much has happened, it entirely passed me by. When you were ill on the way to Oakring, we were stopped by raiders. They knew you. They even gave me dried meat, saying it had iron you needed. And one of them, named Skinny Jim, called you ‘Lucky Theo.’”

Theo’s strained expression relaxed into a smile. “Skinny Jim,” he repeated. “Well, well.” He turned back to the path, still smiling.

“Who is he?” asked Casanova.

“A raider I used to know.” Theo laughed, tapping his walking stick against a tree trunk. “He made his name as a knife thrower, actually, before he turned to raiding. He was one of the few I met who seemed to think there were rules to raiding. He never stole from women or from old people or from people who had children.”

“That rather shrinks the pool, doesn’t it?” Sophia remarked.

“Considerably. I never said he was a successful raider. But a few times, it worked out for him. He robbed a rancher in the southern Baldlands once and made off with enough money to live for two years. Of course, he spent it all in six months, but it was good while it lasted. Skinny Jim. A thief with scruples.”

“Like the pirates,” Sophia said.

“Like Casanova,” Theo suggested.

Sophia eyed Casanova cautiously. “Is that true?”

Casanova shook his head, a smile twisting his face. “I’ve never told Theo why I landed in the Boston jail. He’s fishing.” He ducked beneath a tree trunk that had fallen across the path. “Could be I was in jail for embezzlement. Or murder.” He turned and gave them a menacing look.

Theo laughed. “Sure. Very likely.”

“Or treason,” said Casanova, with less mirth in his voice.

“Treason,” Sophia repeated.

“’Course it was treason.” Theo scowled. “With Broadgirdle as prime minister. Cough too close to him and it’s treason. No doubt he was trying to stuff the Boston prisons so he’d have enough foot soldiers.”

Casanova pointed up the path. “There’s a clearing up ahead, and we’ll take a rest.” Theo and Sophia waited, hoping he would say something more. He did.

“I was arrested for protesting the border closure and New Occident’s policy toward the Indian Territories. I was part of a crowd on the State House steps. The police took us in. At first, it didn’t seem serious. But I had trouble getting a lawyer, and the days passed. And then Broadgirdle—who wasn’t prime minister yet, but still in parliament—got a law through that made certain forms of protest count as treason. The law applied even to people who had already been arrested on lesser charges. So there I was—in prison for treason.” He paused, holding a branch aside so that Theo and Sophia could pass. “No doubt if I hadn’t been conscripted,” he said matter-of-factly, “I would have been hanged.”

• • •

BY MIDAFTERNOON, THEY had reached the limits of the territory Casanova could navigate. He paused in a clearing where a rotting lean-to stood decomposing beside a cold fire. “This is a stopping point travelers use to travel east–west. We’re as far north as I know to go.”

Theo raised his right hand. “Time to use the Art of Iron. Stand aside.”

“Please do,” Casanova said, with a mock bow. “Just keep your other hand on the walking stick, would you?”

Theo scowled at him. Then he closed his eyes and held the scarred hand out, palm down, as if waiting for something to float up into it.

Sophia watched him with anticipation. Minutes passed. Surreptitiously, she pulled her watch from her pants pocket and checked the time. She and Casanova exchanged a look.

“I can actually feel it pulling me,” Theo said finally, his eyes still closed.

“What’s pulling you?” Sophia asked.

“I don’t know. It’s just this tug. Not so strong that I can’t ignore it, but it’s noticeable when I pay attention.”

“Which way is it going?”

Theo opened his eyes. “But I can’t do it if I have to look around. How am I going to walk with my eyes closed?” he wondered aloud.

The other two looked at him blankly. “Maybe you can stop every few steps,” Sophia suggested.

Theo frowned. He closed his eyes and held his hand out once more. Then he took a hesitant step forward, opening his eyes as he did so. A few more steps took him to the edge of the clearing, and another carried him onto a boulder. He scrambled up it with some difficulty, leaning on the walking stick. Sophia and Casanova, glancing at each other, followed. “That way,” Theo said when they had joined him. “Where the trees are more yellow.”

“I don’t see anything,” Sophia admitted.

“Neither do I,” said Casanova. “But if you see it, then it must be there. I can take us that way.”

He helped Theo down off the boulder and guided them through the trees. Once, Theo stopped him, tapping his shoulder and pointing to the right. Another time, he pulled Casanova to a halt before a piney trail that wound uphill. “That’s a dead end. We should stay to the west of the pines.”

Casanova eyed him, impressed. “Expert at the Art of Iron, I see.”

Theo smiled, but Sophia noticed his weariness. She could tell that his injury was bothering him. He had been struggling ever since they left the clearing, and was trying to hide it—badly. More than once he had tripped, and only Casanova’s quick hand had prevented him from falling. She was on the verge of claiming that she needed to rest, thus sparing Theo’s feelings, when something made her shiver: a cold wind cutting through the dank air like a draft in a warm house.

“Do you feel that?” she asked.

Casanova nodded. “The breeze off the ice. We are very close.”

Soon after thirteen-hour, they stepped out of the forest and found themselves at the edge of the Eerie Sea.

The first thing they saw was a glacier. Cold air drifted off it in visible waves, and its surface gleamed in the afternoon sun. The sea itself was a sheet of silver, bounded on either side by mountains. The three travelers stood on the pebbled ground, amid a network of streams: some thin as ribbons, some that looked much deeper. “You found the way, Theo,” Casanova said, putting a hand on his good shoulder. “Well done. The Eerie Sea.”

“Doesn’t look so bad.”

“Glad you think so,” Casanova said dryly. “Personally, I did not come prepared for ice-climbing.”

Theo shook his head. He held his right hand out loosely, palm down, and then pointed. “There. We’re not going over the ice, we’re going under it. An opening to the caves.”

As he spoke, something moved from the direction he had indicated. The three of them stood silently, watching. It drifted smoothly, like a leaf on the wind. Sophia realized that it was an object floating on one of the many streams that wound toward them, most of which disappeared into the woods they had just left behind. “It’s on the water,” she said.

“That stream comes from the cave,” Theo added.

Casanova took a more considered look. “Yet it is moving in the wrong direction—away from the sea.” They continued to watch as the object drew closer: brown and white, like the feathers of a falcon or the wood of a birch tree. “A canoe.”

“It’s empty,” Sophia realized when it was close enough to see clearly. The canoe drifted easily along in the shallow stream, now one hundred feet, now fifty feet, now ten feet away from them. And then, when it reached them, it stopped. Sophia caught her breath and stepped back. The water continued to move, but the canoe did not, as if stopped by some unseen obstacle in its path.

“I think we are meant to climb in,” Casanova said.