CHAPTER TWENTY

The strings of Celia's lute hummed mournfully as the sun started to break over the horizon. She looked at the dawning light with fatigued and bleary eyes. She and Jack had been driving Appa to fly through the night to return to the Great Divide, fully expecting to find Brishen the prisoner of honor there. They had been surprised to learn, however, that he had almost immediately been whisked away by a visiting noble of the Dominion, headed for a harbor town to the east. And so, they had immediately taken off, flying utter east as fast as they could. Now, as they flew directly toward the rising sun, Celia could see the tiny specks that she knew would suddenly grow into a whole town once they had neared. A small part of her heart allowed hope to seep into her body, and she felt warmed, both by it and the dawn.

Reaching over, she gently nudged Jack's sleeping form, and immediately her older brother sat bolt upright, his hand flying to his dirk. It took a moment for him to realize his surroundings, and he relaxed. He squinted in the sudden light of the sun, then turned to her. "Are we close?" he asked. She nodded, but said nothing else, her fingers idly toying with her lute. She had refused to sleep that night, and it had been the thing she occupied herself with in the wee hours of the night. Certainly, it was better for her than worrying. She had played for herself every ballad, chanson, and song that she knew, and once she had finished all of those she had started all over again, her fingers gingerly dancing across the fretboard and open strings and plucking into the lonely night.

Jack was starting to become more alert. "We'll land just outside of town," he said, "and walk in. Keep a low profile, and—"

"I know." Celia cut him off, but it wasn't out of rudeness. Jack understood. In their spirits, now was not the time for talking, for laying out strategy. He yearned to just let loose and start talking Celia's ear off. He'd always been the affable one in the family, despite the aloofness he had had to maintain in the village. But he understood that his sister needed something right now, and his words were not that thing. So instead, he patted her on the shoulder reassuringly and said nothing at all.

Appa started to dip lower into the sky, and the two felt the earth rushing up to meet them. The air was thicker, more oppressive, and everywhere it smelled of grass and conifer. Warily, the two slid down Appa's proffered tail and onto solid ground. They were tired and starting to wear thin, but they had far more important things than sleep. As far as they were concerned, the world's future now rested on them.

Brishen's groggy awakening reminded him of the first night in the Ingwald, and immediately he was put ill at ease. But the gentle rocking of the floor beneath him reminded him of where he was, and he looked around. Everywhere, he saw blue. He couldn't see where the sea ended and the sky began. The sun was low in the sky; it was fairly early in the morning. He was strewn across the crow's nest haphazardly, his limbs a tangle in the small space. The young wanderer lurched to his feet, and surveyed what was happening on the deck below.

The sailors were hustling about, conducting their duties as normal. There was yelling, swearing, and laughter, and in spite of his headache, Brishen smiled. This crowd was coarse, but they were doing what they loved, and as a free spirit Brishen could appreciate that. One of them noticed he was awake, and called up to him. "Scion!" he yelled. "You're up!" Other men started to notice, and pointed at him. Deciding that he should at least be social so early in the morning, Brishen straightened up and then leapt from the crow's nest, a cushion of air slowing his fall and causing his clothes to billow softly. His feet landed gingerly, and he couldn't suppress a grin.

In the daytime, the pirates seemed a good deal less fearsome. Putting a human face on them had helped last night, but seeing them in the clear light put Brishen at ease more than anything else. Even the ship seemed to be less intimidating. The blue sails were no longer menacing, but instead made the ship look as though it were some extension of both sea and sky. Nonetheless, he never lost sight of the fact that these men were still pirates, and in particular these men were the crew of one of the most feared ships on the sea. They seemed affable enough, but Brishen couldn't imagine what they might have done in the pursuit of profit.

The captain stumped up to Brishen, the crew parting in his path. He had a pipe clenched in his teeth and was regarding Brishen with interest. "Slept well, did you?" he asked breezily. "I expect you would, with all the grog you put away last night." He jerked his head towards the captain's quarters. "Take a walk with me." Despite the tone, Brishen could tell that it wasn't a request. He nodded, and followed the captain's lead across the deck and to the cabin.

The room was surprisingly spacious, filled with artifacts from all over the world. Well-used maps hung from the walls, and complicated navigation equipment lay in disarray on the captain's desk, holding in place a map that was so old that it had turned yellow. Brishen turned his attention next to the various trophies the captain had collected during his long career on the high seas. He saw the skull of what had clearly been a formidable beast, a glittering blue stone that somehow reminded him of the Water Tribe, and more than a few trinkets that looked as though they had been taken from Dominion ships. Despite the light coming in from the windows, last night's candles were still lit.

The captain waded through all of this clutter like an expert, and grabbed a bottle of what looked to be fine Dominion wine. He began pouring into a pair of pewter goblets. "You know, Scion, that your return has been anxiously awaited by the world for a very long time. Yes, the world's hoped for you to emerge from whatever corner you hid in, so you could end all of this mess." Brishen noticed that when he wasn't in the presence of his crew, the captain sounded surprisingly erudite for a man of the sea. He mentioned this to the captain, who just gave a strange half-smile that caused his pipe to bob up and down.

"You're observant," he said. "I talk like this because a long time ago, I was educated at the University of Erdenheim, a student of the bursarial arts." Brishen's eyes widened. The University of Erdenheim was said to be the finest educational institution in the world. Long before the war, students from all of the four nations had come to learn there. Even the Wind Folk, vagrant as they were, had educated men among their number. "I was educated, I got my diploma, and I signed on with a trading company in Reikdorf port. I was the exchequer on a merchant ship, making good gold and living what they told me was a good life."

"What happened, then?" he asked. "How did you come to be a corsair?" His curiosity had gotten the better of him, though he expected the captain would have continued on with his story if Brishen had not asked.

"I tired of the rules, of the bounds that kept me from being a truly free man," the captain said, putting Brishen's goblet down in front of him. "And when I tired of that, I broke away from everything. I left my job, took my gold, and started my new life here on the seas. 'Twas the best decision I ever made." It was an interesting story, but Brishen found it strange that a pirate such as the captain would be so open about his history. Most pirates were reluctant to talk about themselves at all, unless they were boasting about the various deeds they had committed.

"The reason I tell you all this," the captain said, almost as though he'd read Brishen's mind, "is because of what we pirates are facing. In the century that you've been gone, o Scion, the waters have gotten to be unfriendly. The Dominion's tightening the leash. Soon, there won't be room enough for bad men like ourselves to run about at all." He took a long swig from his goblet, and then set it down on the desk, empty. "Things are in a bad way, Scion."

"I can feel your pain," Brishen said. "Pirates like yourself are a dying breed, aren't they?"

"That's one way to look at it." The captain took a long drag from his pipe and puffed out a cloud of smoke vaguely in the shape of a skull.

"Well, from what I understand, I'm all that's left of the Wind Folk. And that's thanks to the Dominion of Fire, as well." The captain nodded grimly, and surveyed Brishen.

"You'll have made some dangerous enemies, lad," he said. "I take it the man who captured you back there was important?"

"He said his name was Hector," Brishen said slowly, trying his best to remember everything his former captor had said. "He's a count or something." The captain's eyes showed a flash of recognition.

"He's a right tough bastard," the captain said. "In charge of the entire campaign against the Earth Kingdoms, and he's got a huge fleet behind him as well. If you could have one man against you, he's the worst you could have."

"Well, there's more than one," Brishen said. "I was attacked by Prince Diego almost as soon as I awoke, and he managed to track me to Katarin Island, down south."

"The prince will be trouble, too," the captain nodded, turning his pipe over and shaking some ash out of it. "Said to be the best sword in the Dominion." From Brishen's two duels with Diego, he had to agree that the prince was certainly as skilled as his reputation had boasted.

"Captain," he said, "I don't suppose there's any chance I could go through what you plundered last night, is there?" The captain raised his eyebrow.

"And why would you be wanting to do that?" he asked, a tinge of his lowbrow speak returning to his voice.

"I want to see if my staff is in your hold. I need to get to the Northern Water Tribe immediately, so I can master the art of hydromancy." The captain re-lit his pipe, and nodded.

"I'll have one of the boys take you down to the hold."

"Pirates," Jack said dejectedly as they walked back uphill, towards a waiting Appa and Momo. "Of course there would be pirates…" He felt angry enough to hit something. It seemed as though fate was conspiring to keep Brishen away from them. Every time they managed to get a lead, something took him further and further away. Now, Brishen was out at sea, and that was a vast area, too vast for them to comb it. Appa could not fly across the entire ocean, and the further they flew the more likely they were to run afoul of a Dominion flotilla. The situation wasn't good.

"Where do you think they could be headed?" Celia asked. Jack shook his head.

"I don't know," he said. "But it's a ship, it has to make berth somewhere." He wracked his brains, panning through all of his knowledge about seafaring and what waypoints were most likely. "The most obvious place would be Remas," Jack said, "but that's well within Dominion waters, and we don't know the secret sea routes that they would to reach that place. But I don't think that they're going there," he added.

"You don't?"

"At least, I hope not," Jack continued. "I think that they would stop off somewhere closer, probably an out-of-the-way island, or else a hidden harbor."

Celia started fussing about with one of their maps. "Where do you think those might be?" she asked.

"Well, that's the problem," Jack answered wryly. "An out-of-the-way island is going to be out of the way, and a hidden harbor…" He sighed. His sarcasm wasn't going to make this any easier. They were approaching Appa, who raised his head and grunted in recognition when he noticed them. Jack patted Appa's flank as he started to climb aboard. "Sorry, Appa, no luck today," he sighed. He settled down in the saddle, and immediately the urge to catch up on his sleep welled up and threatened to knock him out then and there. Celia settled in on the other side of the saddle. "Yip yip," Jack called lazily, and with a grunt, Appa took off. The sudden jolt startled Momo awake, and the lemur looked around warily before slowly settling back into sleep. Jack reached over and tugged the map away from Celia, spreading it out on the saddle.

"I think our best bet is to look up and down the coastline for a harbor," he said. "But that will take a while, and there are some harbors so well-disguised by the land that we would have to land and take a look for ourselves. That will take even more time." He looked up and saw that Celia wasn't even looking at him. She appeared to be lost in thought, even as her hands worked to tune her lute. Suddenly, she sat up and crawled over to Appa's head while Jack watched.

"Appa," she said softly, speaking directly into his ear, "I know how special Brishen was to you, and how special you are to Brishen. I think you two have a special bond, and I want you to find Brishen for us. Can you do that?" Appa grunted in response, but neither Celia nor Jack had any idea if Appa was responding to her or not. Jack threw a skeptical glance to Celia.

"Seriously?"

"The two really did have a connection, something deeper than just master and pet or friendship," Celia said defensively. "And since Brishen's the Scion, he's the living bridge between our world and the Spirit Realm. I think it's better than just combing the coastline for something that might not be there," she added. Jack was about to protest, but bit back his words. He sighed, and then nodded.

"All right," he said. "We'll try things this way."

Appa started to veer left, heading out for the open sea, the hopes of Jack and Celia resting on his back and in his mind.