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\chapter{Stirrings}\label{chapter-2-stirrings}}



\epigraph{``Everything happens for a reason, and this time the reason is
that I godsdamned said so.''}{Queen Elizabeth Alban of Callow}



I let Akua trail behind me as we walked through the half-frozen mud.

Archer hadn't been wrong, I thought, to call this place a shithole. But
where she likely saw it as sloppiness on their part, a refusal to pull
up their sleeves and improve their own lot, to me Trousseau reeked of
desperation. Too many hard years, too many taxmen more interested in
their tallies than what those cost to the people who made up the
numbers. I didn't like it, that she thought that way. I could admit that
to myself. There were times where her indifference to the lot of others
galled me deeply, because it ran against what I'd been raised to -- that
when it got dark outside, everyone was in it together. I'd learned,
though, to follow that somewhat callous belief to its source. The
Ranger. I'd loved the stories about Indrani's mentor as a child,
certainly more than those about the Calamities. After all she'd been
absent for most the Conquest, and unlike the others she wasn't Praesi.
The last specks of that childhood fondness had waned when she'd answered
an offer a help by nearly murdering me on a whim. What Black saw in her
I didn't know and doubted I would ever understand, but I could make my
peace with that. What she'd done to Indrani, though? That was another
story.

She'd taught Archer that her fate would only ever be defined by her own
hands, and that I could only approve of, but she'd left the lesson
half-finished. She'd never told my friend that she was exceptional, that
not everybody could be like her. That sometimes people failed and gave
up, and that didn't make them \emph{unworthy} in some way. Just tired
and hurt and without an answer as to why they should keep trying. It was
an easier way to live, I supposed. Looking a misery and believing it was
the miserable solely responsible for it. Never aching at the sight.
\emph{But I don't think it's a better one}, I thought. Maybe it was
unfair to blame the Lady of the Lake for passing down beliefs she seemed
to genuinely hold to, but I wasn't inclined to fairness when it came to
the Ranger. She had her claws too deep in too many people I loved, and I
could only think of the marks she'd left behind as wounds.

``I don't suppose we have a destination in mind?'' Akua mildly said.

She'd caught up to me while I was deep in thought. I could not help but
notice from the corner of my eye that her dress of pale and gold was
untouched by the mire we were passing through, or that she left no
footprints. Not quite alive, not quite dead. As in so many things, Akua
Sahelian was straddling the line.

``There's a knot of drow further down the street,'' I replied. ``And I
could only think of one reason so many would gather in one place.''

The shade kept to silence for a moment.

``She has been getting more rowdy, not less,'' Akua finally said.

Even with the wind that had me wishing I'd wheedled a scarf out of the
drow before leaving, her voice was perfectly heard. Couldn't be sure
whether that was just an oratory skill she'd picked up in Wolof or some
kind of sorcerous trick, not that I cared all that much. Convenient was
the word that came to mind more than anything else.

``We all cope in our own ways,'' I replied. ``It'll run its course in
due time.''

Indrani had come very close to dying, in the battle for Great Strycht.
Not because of a Mighty, some glorious duel she would now be laughing
about. When the Sisters had eviscerated my hold on Winter they'd flooded
their city with frost. Archer had been out on the edges, when it
happened, picking her targets and stirring up the pot. But she'd still
been caught in the mess, and Winter unleashed was not something you just
walked off. I suspected that in way the brush with death wasn't what had
unsettled her. She'd been riding that horse for years now, and enjoyed
every moment of it. It had been that when death came knocking, the bow
in her hand and the blades at her side couldn't have done anything to
stop it. The realization that sometimes a steady sword-arm wasn't
enough, even if you were clever and brave and burning with the need to
leave a mark on the world.

``And if it doesn't?'' Akua said.

``Then we'll deal with it,'' I calmly replied. ``All of us, together.''

The shade sighed.

``I don't suppose that a reminder you've not spoken with our informant
would be of any use before we get entangled in yet another drinking
binge?'' she asked.

I glanced at her amusedly.

``Are we pretending you can't recite every answer they gave you
verbatim?'' I said.

``I can do the intonations as well,'' Akua casually boasted.

``Of course you can,'' I said, rolling my eyes.

I didn't bother to knock when we got to the tavern, or at least what I
assumed to be that. It was ratty enough it didn't have a sign hung
outside, though I did remember reading somewhere some parts of Procer
had put a tax on that. I'd be in a better position to cast judgement on
that if some Fairfax who'd seen drinking liquor as sinful and debasing
behaviour hadn't put up a bewildering array of punitive taxes on
everything alcoholic not even a century ago. \emph{Still}, I thought,
eyeing the bare and windowless wall outside\emph{. At least the next
king dismissed the measures.} For all I knew, some prince out there was
still lining his pockets with this sheer stupidity. The door was
unlatched and the mangled carpet in front of it suffered the attentions
of my boots for a moment before I entered. Calling what lay at the
centre of the dirt floor a fire pit would have been overly generous, I
thought, considering it wasn't even lined with stone. The place was
cramped in some fundamental way, from the narrow walls to the twisty
tables. There was a room in the back which I deduced to be the owner's
sleeping place as well as the kitchen, insofar as this place could be
said to have one of those.

Akua closed the door behind me, and already Indrani was waving us over.
She'd shrugged off her coat and somehow divested herself of her mail,
leaving her in dark green tunic and trousers whose tightness were quite
flattering to her frame. I glanced back up and saw a smirk touching her
lips, so she'd definitely caught that. \emph{Well}, I admitted to
myself, \emph{it wouldn't be the first time.} Or likely the last,
honesty compelled me to admit. The return to mortality had left me with
all sorts of hungers in need of sating, and I probably would have sought
her out if she hadn't done it first. I was only human after all, and
even now that thought had a pleasurable ring to it. I shot a look around
and found no trace of the tavern-keeper, turning to raise an eyebrow at
Indrani.

``It got a little too much for the old man,'' Archer languidly shrugged.
``Got some of our minions to bring him somewhere for a lie-down.''

``You didn't do anything, did you?'' I asked, frowning even as I took
off my gloves.

``Aside from empty a bottle in the short span of time since you've found
this place,'' Akua drily added.

My eyes found the cheap bottle of red she was referring to, along with
her four still-full sisters lined up neatly to the side. One was already
open. The shade passed me without a sound, sliding herself in a stool
across the table Archer had claimed. I unclasped my cloak and followed
suit, hesitating for the barest fraction of a moment before sitting on
Akua's side. The stool there struck me as marginally less likely to
break if I moved around a bit.

``Just a bit too much agitation for him, I think,'' Indrani told me.
``What with the drow walking the surface again and the wicked minions of
the Black Queen patronizing his humble establishment.''

Akua's own comment got as a response a gesture that would have seen me
spanked by the orphanage matron if I'd ever been caught doing it in
public.

``Temporary eviction would have been necessary regardless,'' the shade
said. ``If we are to discuss business on the premises, that is.''

``Aw, shit,'' Archer complained, eyeing me balefully. ``Really, Cat?''

``I'd rather do it in here with a fire and an open bottle than out there
in the cold,'' I shrugged.

``Fine,'' she waved away. ``But I'd like to lodge a formal protest.''

``Pass it along to my secretary,'' I drily said. ``Triplicate, standard
form.''

Indrani turned her gaze to Akua.

``Sadly, as a mere spirit I cannot be handed such forms,'' the shade
blatantly lied. ``They'd go right through me.''

``I liked you better before we taught you to be an ass,'' Archer
complained.

``No you didn't,'' Akua said, full lips quirking.

Indrani did not contradict her, and neither did I. After what had taken
place in Great Strycht it was\ldots{} difficult to distrust the
Diabolist as much as I once had. I wouldn't be taking my eye off her
anytime soon, sure, but it was hard to forget that when we'd all reached
the end Akua could have chosen to cut and run, and hadn't. That meant
something. Given that she was perhaps the most skilled liar I'd ever
met, figuring out exactly \emph{what} it meant was the trouble.

``So, someone folded,'' I said, steering us towards safer waters. ``How
out of date is what they had to tell?''

``She has a relative in the monastery to the north she sees regularly,''
Akua said. ``And the sisters there are part of the general
correspondence of the House of Light, regardless of their relative
insignificance. The last direct letter is a month old, one could
generously assume the news themselves two weeks older than that.''

I raised an eyebrow.

``That quick?'' I said. ``I thought we were in the middle of nowhere.''

``Two day's ride away from the minor city of Rochelant, as it happens,''
Diabolist corrected. ``To the west. In a broader sense, we are skirting
the eastern edge of the principality of Iserre.''

I drummed my fingers around the table, idly noting it kinda looked like
someone had digested it for a bit before it'd ended up here.

``Closer to Callow than I thought we'd end up,'' I said. ``That brings
up unpleasant questions, in retrospective.''

``Could just be that you traded Winter for crows, Cat,'' Indrani said.
``You and Zeze were screwing about with the stuff for everything, back
when the Observatory was raised.''

``I was not given the opportunity to observe the arrangements in great
detail,'' Akua conceded pre-emptively. ``However, I am intimately
familiar with the artefact used at the centre of the array. It should
not have been affected by our latest alliance and its\ldots{}''

She paused, golden eyes taking me in.

``Metaphysical repercussions,'' she settled on.

I snorted. How delicately put of her. I wasn't truly beholden to the
Sisters in any way that could be considered vassalage -- that would have
rather defeated the point of what I was supposed to be to them -- but it
remained a fact I'd thrown Winter under the horse and been handed a
direct tap to what had become of the Night afterwards. The power was a
lot more volatile, true, and tended to exhaust me physically in a way my
mantle never had. On the other hand I'd stopped going raving mad
whenever I reached a little too deep and I could enjoy hot soup again.
In a lot of ways, I still believed I'd ended up on the better side of
that evening.

``So why aren't we able to reach Juniper, then?'' I said.

``She's finally succumbed to Hakram's charms and the bedroom door is
locked under pain of death,'' Indrani suggested.

``Sabotage is a possibility,'' Akua said, more practically. ``The
Empress will still have agents in Callow, and might prefer your
communications crippled. As for why Sve Noc could not reach out
directly-''

``I know, you've already said,'' I waved away. ``Masego warded that
thing so ridiculously viciously not even they want to risk putting their
fingers in it.''

I felt a well of pride at the fact that Hierophant had somehow put up
defences around the Observatory so harsh even a pair of living goddesses
were wary of attempting to force them, inconvenient as it was at the
moment. And he'd done it while remaining within allocated funds, too,
which was just another feather in his cap as far as I was concerned.

``Doesn't seem like Malicia's style,'' I finally said. ``If you'd said
she was listening in I'd buy it, but breaking it entirely? She prefers
appropriation to outright denial when she can swing it.''

``There are other possible culprits,'' Akua said. ``More with motive
than means, but a few with both. The Dead King. The heroic segment of
the Tenth Crusade. The royal court of Arcadia. Perhaps even the
Wandering Bard.''

``That doesn't really narrow it down, does it?'' I grunted. ``Still, I'd
tend to scratch off the Bard from the list. Black's pretty sure she can
only meddle through Named, and those we sent back to Laure would know
better than to get involved with her.''

``Ugh, you two are yammering on about who \emph{could},'' Indrani said,
pouring herself another cup. ``But that's just means, and we got a lot
of nasty surprises assuming we knew all about those. Maybe wonder about
who \emph{would}, instead? Whose kind of play is this?''

I eyed her cup with a raised eyebrow, and with a put-upon sigh she
finally bothered to fill mine. And Akua's, though I was still less than
certain if drinking would actually do anything for the shade. I sipped
at what turned out to be truly horrid concoction distantly related to
wine while actually mulling over what Archer had said. Who would strike
like this? The Grey Pilgrim came to mind. He had the brains for it, and
the benefits would be obvious. With the Augur still telling Cordelia
Hasenbach how the pieces were moving, we'd have lost our eye in the sky
while the Tenth Crusade remained largely unaffected. Neshamah had the
know-how, but it seemed a little light-handed for him. At the moment
he'd have other cats to skin anyway: he should be hip-deep in angry
Lycaonese right about now, and that lot didn't know how to die easy.
Assuming the Bard wasn't involved, though assumptions were particularly
dangerous when it came to that thing, that left the fae. And unless
someone had fucked up real bad back home, they shouldn't have a foothold
in Creation that'd allow them to pull that kind of thing.

``The main benefit is confusion,'' I finally said. ``We'll be moving
blind out here, and unable to organize with Juniper.''

``Someone's putting their bet on riding the chaos better than the
rest,'' Akua murmured.

A disquieting thought, considering for once it wasn't me.

``The room's pretty crowded this time,'' Indrani said. ``All it takes is
a few punches thrown, and\ldots{}''

She dropped her palm against the table, the clap ringing loudly in the
empty tavern.

``In the spirit of that perspective,'' Diabolist said, ``perhaps one of
the rumours I collected needs to be reassessed.''

I cocked an eyebrow invitingly while continuing to subject myself to the
disaster Archer had obtained as table wine.

``We appear to be entering an all-out brawl between half the
continent,'' Akua said. ``The legions Lord Black took into the
Principate are currently in this very principality, and being pursued.''

My heartbeat quickened. \emph{No}, I told myself. \emph{He'll have a
plan. He always does.}

``By who?'' Indrani asked, sounding surprised. ``These are Conquest
officers, you're telling me Proceran scraps actually think they could
win against them?''

``The armies of the Dominion of Levant,'' the shade replied. ``Though
there's been word of conscription in Salia, so they might not be
alone.''

``That's not half the continent,'' I pointed out with a frown.

``The League of Free Cities appears to have joined the fray,'' Diabolist
said. ``With a significant army, though the numbers put to it vary.''

I let out a low whistle.

``Are you telling me Tenerife has fallen?'' I asked. ``Because that's
not good news for us.''

The First Prince had sent twenty thousand soldiers to hold that border,
and if the army had been slaughtered then that was twenty thousand men
gone that'd have been rather useful up north. The drow exodus would
strike like a hammer at the Dead King's back when it arrived, but I knew
better than to believe the Sisters had any chance of winning that war if
the rest of Calernia didn't get its shit together and move against him
too.

``I cannot speak as to what happened to the army garrisoned there,''
Akua said. ``But I can tell you, however, that the League's host is said
to have emerged out of the Waning Woods without having given battle
prior.''

I blinked in disbelief. Indrani, on the other hand, fell into a deep
belly laugh. Gods, Vivienne had told me last year that the Tyrant of
Helike had been sending agents into the region. Still, I'd assumed it
was as way to infiltrate the heartlands of the Principate. Not march an
\emph{army} through the place.

``You're actually serious, Shadehelian?'' Archer got out, chin still
quivering. ``Someone was mad enough to take a bunch of soldiers through
that?''

``Reportedly,'' Akua said, unmoved by the hilarity. ``One can only
wonder at the losses taken. Regardless, the point of interest is that
they emerged in Iserre specifically. And they seem intent on giving
battle now.''

``That's going to get messy,'' I said, rapping my knuckles against the
wood. ``Unless Hakram and Vivienne birthed a diplomatic miracle while we
were in the Everdark, which I'm not counting on. I really don't want to
start a war with the League.''

``And it ties in to Indrani's earlier words,'' Diabolist said. ``There
is another who prizes chaos as you do.''

My lips thinned.

``The Tyrant of Helike,'' I said.

She nodded slowly.

``While aside from mounting confusion I can ascribe no direct benefit to
such a measure being taken-''

``- for an old school madman like him, making everything messier might
be benefit enough,'' I grimly finished. ``Shit. I don't like having an
army on the field without knowing where we stand with them.''

``Kind of the point, isn't it?'' Indrani shrugged.

I glanced at her, noticing we were now on the third bottle even though
neither I nor Akua had finished our cups.

``The uncertainty, I mean,'' Archer said. ``It's kind of like having a
stranger pointing a crossbow at you while you're in a swordfight. Every
time they twitch your hackles go up, and the tension will grow until
someone does something real stupid to get out of the situation.''

Akua's position in her seat shifted by the barest amount. She was, I
suspected, actually impressed. Now and then it was good to have a
reminder that Indrani was a lot sharper than she liked to let on.

``So whoever's leading that host is fucking with every other commander
on the field just by being there,'' I mused. ``That does sound like the
Tyrant from the reports. We sure the Hierarch is still alive? He seemed
a lot more interested in telling me to hold elections than invading
anyone.''

``Our informant is simply a relative, and the monastery rather minor,''
Akua said. ``There was only so much to be learned. I suspect the
appointed ruler of Rochelant will be better informed.''

That still meant at least three days -- drow moved fast, but not as fast
as horses -- of walking around Iserre with no godsdamned idea of what
was going on around us. I didn't enjoy the notion, but then I didn't
really have a better path to offer. Asking the Sisters to force the
wards on the Observatory, assuming I could even talk them into it, was a
lot more likely to result in that place collapsing or someone losing a
finger than it was in an elightening conversation.

``Then that's where we're headed,'' I said. ``I'll hash out the details
with General Rumena. Indrani, you good to walk?''

``Am I ever not?'' she drawled.

``You'd better be,'' I warned. ``Because I'm not staying in this town a
moment longer than necessary. We all know what happens to the drow at
dawn, I'm not losing moonlight I don't have to.''

Archer smirked.

``Would you like to race me just in case, Cat?'' she said.

I snorted.

``Please,'' I said. ``You're pretty fast, but you can't outrun a gate.''

I pushed back the chair and rose to my feet.

``Catherine,'' Akua said quietly.

I glanced at her.

``You can come, I suppose,'' I said. ``Though why you'd want to talk
with the crabby old bastard is beyond me.''

``Catherine,'' Akua Sahelian gently said. ``Sit down.''

My eyes narrowed, and I brushed back a lock of hair that somehow fallen
free.

``There's more,'' I said.

``Cat, sit down,'' Indrani said. ``She wouldn't ask without a reason.''

I felt a flicker of surprise at Archer's comment, though maybe I
shouldn't have. I'd told her everything that had happened in Great
Strycht, and the barbs she still traded with Akua had a lot less bite to
them than they used to. Gingerly I sat back down, keeping the weight off
my bad leg.

``Marshal Grem One-Eye is in command of the retreating Legions,'' the
shade said. ``The Black Knight is believed to be dead.''

I picked up my gloves, fingers closing around the leather.

``So?'' I said. ``All that means is that some part of whatever the Hells
he's after involves people thinking that.''

``Not unless he was willing to sacrifice a full Legion detachment for
that purpose,'' Akua said.

The leather stared creaking and I looked back at my hands, finding them
squeezing the gloves tight.

``Was a body shown?'' I asked.

She shook her head.

``Then he's not dead,'' I flatly said. ``And someone is about to have a
very bad day.''

``Catherine, the possibility has to be entertained,'' she slowly said.
``It would change the situation significantly.''

``It changes nothing. Because he's \emph{not fucking dead},'' I snarled.
``I'll take his damned head off for not warning me he'd pull this, but
he's not going to get killed by some pissant hero in the middle of
nowhere.''

The shade opened her mouth again, but Indrani raised a hand.

``Akua,'' she said. ``Best let that one go.''

She was humouring me, I realized. It stung that Archer of all people,
who besides myself and Masego likely knew the most about my teacher,
would so casually write him off. Angrily I pulled on my gloves.

``Finish your drinks,'' I coldly said. ``We'll begin the march for
Rochelant within the hour.''