Chapter 10

“No!” Ellerie snapped, after Marco had asked her the same question for the third time. “I’ll tell you where we’re going when you need to know, and not before.”

“Then how do you expect me to plan for the trip?” the factor asked. He was a tall, slender man with a carefully groomed mustache and black hair that had started to gray.

“I don’t. You’re here to handle the finances and to translate. We’ll listen to any advice you want to give, but Boktar and I will take care of the planning, with help from the guide we’re picking up in Nysa. For the first leg, we’re heading east to one of the border towns between Nysar and Bancyra. Once we get there, we’ll decide where we’re going next, and let you know.” It had turned out that Nysa was just the name of the port city they were heading to. Nysar was the kingdom in which it fell.

“Fine,” Marco said, and stalked off.

Ellerie forced herself to calm down. She’d known from the beginning that making a deal with Senshall was a risk. Varsin had been eager to sign the contract, and had agreed to most of Ellerie’s—and Bobo’s—terms, but that wasn’t a guarantee that everything would go smoothly. Marco was a high-ranking agent within the company, accustomed to managing large deals on his own. He seemed to believe the group was working for Senshall rather than the other way around.

It didn’t help that, rather than naming his own representative, Burton Senshall had authorized Marco to act for him, voting Burton’s shares in addition to Varsin’s. That gave Marco four votes, or six if he could convince Razai to join him. She represented Renny’s shares.

Luckily, the contract was explicit—Ellerie was in charge of the expedition itself. Most decisions came down to her alone, without any need for a vote. Voting was limited to specific clauses that Bobo had convinced Varsin to add, clauses that would allow the group to react to unanticipated events. Plus, Ellerie and her friends controlled more shares, and thus more votes, than the Senshall group. As long as she could convince Corec and Boktar to vote with her, everyone else would likely follow along.

She was more concerned with Marco’s meddling. In addition to his attempts to discover the location of the ruins, the contract gave him the authority to block certain types of spending if he disagreed with it. If he did so too often, Ellerie was free to break off the deal without penalty, but if he did it at all, it could hurt their chances of success.

Razai had the same rights as Marco, but the demonborn woman was a puzzle. She’d disappeared after Corec had cast the warden binding spell on her back in High Cove. Corec had spoken to her since, but no one else in the group had seen her again until she’d shown up just as the ship was about to leave port. Ellerie knew little about her, other than the fact that she’d somehow become friends with Varsin’s concubine. Razai hadn’t shown any interest in getting to know the group, instead spending her time gambling and drinking with the crew.

The third new person that had joined the expedition was Leena, the cook. Unlike Marco and Razai, who were serving as company representatives, Leena was just an employee and had no voting rights. Another employee, a guide, would be joining them once they reached Cordaea, though they didn’t know who it would be yet. Burton had sent a letter along with Marco, asking his agent in Nysa to choose someone.

Putting Marco out of her mind, Ellerie decided it was time to get to know Leena. The expedition was Ellerie’s responsibility, after all, and it wasn’t fair to saddle Boktar with managing the cook on top of his own duties. Plus, mage or not, Ellerie suspected Leena would be the easiest of the Senshall group to deal with.

She found the cook washing pots and pans in the ship’s galley. The woman was wearing one of her high-necked dresses, this one in a bright yellow, but she had an apron on over it. Her long black hair was loosely tied together behind her back. There was a smudge of flour on her left cheek, but it served to highlight her striking features rather than mar them. Her sleeves were pulled halfway up her forearms to keep them out of the water, and there were tattoos on both of her wrists. The one on the left had three circles linked together in a row, ranging from larger to smaller. Ellerie didn’t have a good view of the one on the right.

“Leena? Hello. I’m Ellerie.”

The woman turned to face her, her eyes dark pools. She dried her hands and pulled her sleeves down, covering the tattoos, before speaking. “Yes, I’ve heard your name.” She seemed more self-assured than Ellerie had expected.

“Boktar tells me you’re from Sanvar?” Ellerie asked, then hid a wince. That was a stupid thing to say—the woman’s clothing wasn’t traditional Sanvari, but she was clearly Sanvarite.

“I am.”

“Has anyone told you where we’re going?”

“To Cordaea,” Leena replied. “Boktar said you’re searching for an old city.”

“Yes, Tir Yadar, one of the Ancients’ lost cities. The capital of their empire.”

Leena nodded but didn’t reply.

“What brought you to Tyrsall?” Ellerie asked.

“I needed to be there for another reason, but then I saw the posting for the job.”

She wasn’t giving Ellerie any openings to ask her about being a mage.

“How do you like it so far?” Ellerie said instead.

“I am still learning how to use the ship’s galley, but the cook here has been helpful. I’m more accustomed to baking; I was a baker once.”

That was the first information Leena had volunteered, and it explained the variety of bread rolls the woman had managed to produce in the four days they’d been on board the ship.

“You don’t mind being away from home for this long?”

Leena hesitated. “I will stay as long as I can. But for now, I must finish the washing. The ship’s cook will need to start the beans soon for the crew’s supper.”

Ellerie glanced at the pile of pots, pans, and plates. The group had always split up cooking and cleaning duties before, but now Leena was handling it all for twelve people.

“Would you like some help?”

“If you wish.”

They worked in companionable silence, which was more comfortable than the awkward conversation had been.

“I just talked to that elf woman again,” Marco said. “She still refuses to tell me anything about the route we’ll be taking past Nysa. I need you to find out whatever you can. A map, or anything else.”

Razai narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

“Because right now, we’ve got nothing to go on except their word. What happens if they fail? Where does that leave us?”

“Did Varsin put you up to this?” Razai had read the contract before signing on, and knew the secrecy had been deliberate. Marco certainly knew that as well.

He sidestepped the question. “It’s our duty to look after Senshall’s interests, and Varsin has invested a great deal of money into this venture. There’s no sense in leaving things to chance. Ellerie won’t talk to me about it, but perhaps she’ll talk to you. Or, if you happen to overhear something...” Marco trailed off, giving her a pointed look. How much did he know about her abilities? Renny had certainly had to tell Varsin something in order to get Razai included in the trip, but Renny didn’t know everything.

“I don’t work for you,” Razai said. “Or Varsin, for that matter. I work for Renny.”

“And how will she feel if the expedition fails and she loses her money, and the elf disappears with the secrets? We’ll give them their chance, but if they don’t succeed, then Senshall needs to be able to take over the search so we can recover our losses. Don’t forget, you and I have something riding on this too.”

He had a point. The contract was missing a lot of details about what would happen if the expedition was unsuccessful. Razai was under the impression that the negotiations had been rushed, with Varsin not wanting to risk the group seeking out a different trading house for a better deal.

“That’s true,” she said. “How about this? If we fail to find Tir Yadar, then I’ll torture the elf until she gives us everything she knows about the location. Will that do?” Razai drew one of her heavy knives and trimmed a fingernail which had grown too long and was starting to curve into the shape of a claw. She looked up at Marco expectantly.

His mouth gaped open. “I ... I didn’t mean...”

“Don’t worry—I’ll ask her politely first, before the torture. But for now, I’m going to take a nap.” She nudged Marco out of her cabin and closed the door in his face. Returning to what she’d been doing before the interruption, she unfurled the spare hammock she’d borrowed from Captain Valen and strung it above her cot, on the hooks that were already bolted into the wall for that purpose. She preferred hammocks on board a ship. She’d rather not fall out of bed if the weather grew rough.

Life on the Peregrine wasn’t bad. They’d be at sea for another three weeks, and she was getting paid good wages for doing nothing at all. It was a welcome break after the constant stress of watching for threats against Renny or the seaborn diving crews. Best of all, Vatarxis hadn’t sent Tifwa across the barrier to gloat about Razai ending up exactly where he’d wanted her all along. Even Corec was leaving her alone—though that could be because he had the worst case of seasickness she’d ever seen. The others in the group were giving her a wide berth, apparently unsure whether to count her as one of them.

Razai’s real work would start once the ship reached land, but until then, her only worry was boredom. She could only play so many games of dice each day.