“He’s not going to want to talk to you,” Meredith says, trying to hold Leah back from Lord Valerid’s office. “Frankly I don’t even particularly want to talk to him, the mood he’s in.”
Leah fiddles nervously with the charm that lets her talk to Seffon. There are too many things she wants to discuss with him, but none of them are certain enough to make it worth reaching out and using up one of the unspecified number of charges.
“Then I’ll talk to Wellen; he might know something.”
Meredith’s sudden silence makes Leah nervous. She turns to look at her, and Meredith won’t meet her eyes.
“He was on the mainland, when the attack hit,” Vivitha says. “Cheden’s ships are too deep to dock at the island, so they ransacked all the mainland and left the islands to the foot soldiers. We haven’t heard from anyone outside since the siege began, other than the fishermen.”
Leah nods stiffly. “Then is there anyone in the keep with knowledge of Devad? I need someone who will understand the seriousness of this.”
“This is about the military secrets, isn’t it?” Meredith says, with high tension. “The ones you mentioned at the execution?” When Leah hesitates, she snaps at her. “Don’t accuse us of withholding answers and then withhold yours when people are dying!”
Vivitha looks at the floor, curious but too aware of the mood to brave asking.
Leah sighs. “We call it black powder or gunpowder, where I’m from. Here, it’s called the Great Three.” Meredith chokes on air, and Vivitha stands a bit straighter. Leah raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t realise it was so well known. I thought it wasn’t used?”
“There’s a story, from a long time ago,” Meredith says. “Devad found out how to create magic without magic. They were horrified by their discovery, and created a committee to control the spread of the knowledge. The Great Three have only been used twice since then.”
“Twice?” Leah prompts. “I know about the attack on a Cheden ship, but what’s the other?”
“They used it twenty years ago, during a skirmish on the Shining Island,” Meredith explains. “Valerin had started sending pearl divers to the island, and Devad responded by sending thunder and fire through the waters. The island’s been largely untouched ever since.”
“Can they do that to the river here?” Vivitha asks nervously. “How far does it reach?”
“Do you know what it is?” Meredith asks, and Leah nods grimly. “What does it do? What’s its exact purpose?”
Leah pulls her arms in tight then throws them outwards. “Fwoosh.”
“And sulphur is part of it?” Vivitha asks, rubbing her face. “That’s not a common mineral anywhere I’ve been.”
Meredith nods. “It’s found in volcanic regions across the Wendish dessert, but the air around it is highly toxic. It isn’t safe to mine, and it isn’t profitable; what’s it good for, other than stinking?”
“How did Devad ever get a supply of it in the first place?” Vivitha wonders.
“It’s found in trace amounts in living bodies, and in cinnabar, but the bright-yellow stuff is only found around volcanoes or places with hot springs,” Meredith says. At Leah’s curious look, she shrugs. “I read a lot.”
“So they might not have a supply?” Leah starts pacing, speculating. “They run out of their most useful weapon, and Cheden has the recipe too, but neither of them has the missing ingredient. The only place to get it is up-river, but Volst controls the river trade. Hmm. Are there any other hot springs you guys know of?”
Meredith and Vivitha look at each other and shrug. Vivitha answers. “They’re not popular; most people can’t stand the smell. Valerin makes use of this one because it’s a cheap heat-source in winter, and there isn’t a lot of coal or lumber for alternatives. There are a couple others in the province, but much smaller and harder to get to. Nent might have some near their volcanoes, but if they do they’re not telling anyone.”
“We could ask Kimry; her family were miners.”
“More importantly,” Meredith cuts in. “If Cheden has the Great Three, what will they do with it? How powerfully does it burn?”
“Very, and if it’s in a tight space, explosively.”
“With how much force?”
“With enough force to…” Leah trails off, arms spread wide, and ends up grabbing Meredith’s shoulders. “Meredith, it explodes. Depending how much they have, and how they decide to use it, they could kill us in a dozen different ways. So please. Go tell Lord Valerid.”
Meredith nods, but hesitates again. “Leah, how sure are you?”
“If I’m wrong what are the consequences?”
“We’re caught evacuating the keep, and the whole city is put to the sword.”
“Surely not the whole city?”
“Leah.” Meredith’s face looks much older than thirty at that moment. “We will either starve in here, or be killed out there. You’ve promised us a cavalry battalion, and immediately after you say our enemy has a weapon that can ruin us without even needing to use magic.”
Leah does not respond, and simply nods. Meredith sighs and starts off towards the Lord’s office, and Leah follows behind. Vivitha hesitates, and Meredith instructs her to go find Iris, in case an evacuation is necessary.
“Will an evacuation be possible? I thought you were trapped on this island?”
Meredith looks over her shoulder at Leah, tiredly. “Better to tell them we can try, than to tell them we’re doomed to fail.”
*
Two hours after her initial return to the Lord’s office – Or, Baron, I suppose? The Baron? Wow, that feels weird to say – Leah is returning again. The room is still in disarray. Her forgotten coffee mug is gone from the stack of books, and Leah is slightly bummed.
“Are you done with the things you wished to accomplish?” Lord Valerid asks, barely looking up from a map of the city streets. “Unless you’d like to communicate the information verbally, I have some notes that ought to be sent to Seffon’s forces before they reach the city. I assume you have a way of reaching them?”
Leah looks to Meredith, who takes pity and steps forward. “Leah knows why they stopped the hot springs.”
The Baron sets the map aside and looks up. “Please.” He gestures to the chairs.
Leah is unnerved by the fact that she has hardly been insulted since arriving, but sits down anyway. “They needed the sulphur in the spring water. I’m not sure what volume of water we’re looking at, or the density of minerals, so I don’t know how much they could have harvested in three days. They use it to make explosives.”
“What kind?”
“The Great Three,” Meredith says.
The Baron’s face twitches only slightly. He leans back in the chair. “And we don’t know how much?”
“No sir,” Leah says.
Lord Valerid sits silently for a long time. Meredith waits patiently, and Leah does so as well, hoping not to be yelled at or accused. Simply being in the room makes her uncomfortable.
“How can it be avoided?”
Leah tilts her head, trying to remember if she ever knew. “It burns with great force the moment it is exposed to flame. I don’t think you can do anything to protect against it.”
“Then how do we prevent it ever getting used?”
Leah bites her lip. “I don’t know much about the articles of war, here – what rules apply, or don’t – but isn’t there usually something for ceasefires? My memory…hasn’t returned. But that much I’ve heard mentioned. Call for a ceasefire, or send someone to negotiate. All you need to do is halt hostilities for one day, until Lord Seffon’s forces arrive. With magic reinforcement I believe you will be able to resist.”
The Baron’s face is set in harsh lines. “Are you aware of what happened to the last negotiator we sent out?”
“I am.”
“Then who would you propose we send on this new suicide mission?”
“Me.”
Meredith inhales sharply. The Baron’s lips purse. He shakes his head.
“Consider it, sir,” Leah continues, flatly. “Captain Eschen must still be nearby – I imagine he will be orchestrating this siege. I have been told that I spent much time with him, before my accident,” She gestures to her head, “So he will at the very least be curious about what I have to say. Once he lets me start talking, I’m set; I can talk him into keeping me alive for one day.”
“After the duel, he’d probably just kill you outright,” Meredith says, tautly.
“And then I’m one less thing you have to worry about, sir.” Leah shrugs. “If I am a plague, let me be a plague on your enemy.”
That gets a smile from him, though only a brief one. “We will send up the peace flags in an hour. Do what you must to prepare. Will you go alone?”
Leah considers. “I think I must.”
The Baron nods. Meredith shrinks a little bit in her chair.
Heart beating heavily despite her confident words, Leah stands and gives a formal nod to the Baron. Meredith stands to follow.
“Captain Havren, a word.”
Leah gives a tiny nod to Meredith, who barely shakes her head, eyes wide. Leah closes the door behind herself. She walks a few steps down the hall, out of earshot, and presses the iron charm to her wrist. A second later, she feels the tingle of it activating.
“Leah?”
“Cheden put Valerin under siege for its sulphur. They diverted the hot springs three days ago. They’re making charcoal, and I assume they’re either getting the third ingredient from Devad or they found some in a tanner’s shop which they raided.”
A short pause. “Gods above. How will they use it? Can you get out?”
“I’ve got…sort of a way out. Mainly I’m hoping to buy time for your people to get here. Also, I feel like research into the Lady of Murk might prove useful to my condition, if I ever get back.”
“Oh?”
“Leah very much wanted to escape her life here, according to her friend in the keep. She was very religious, and there’s a certain prayer…I’m sure you can ask Solace about it, if she ever shows up again.”
“You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”
“No, I just wanted to report in right away.”
“Then why does this sound like you’re saying goodbye?”
“Because you’re good about giving me information, and I feel like you would have mentioned if the beacon charm had an activation effect.”
“A what?”
“A little tingling zap, after I press it.”
Another pause. “That’s not supposed to happen.”
“That’s what I thought. So really, I’m saying this now – and I hope you’ll forgive me, Seffon – ”
“Will I?”
“Because I believe there’s a good chance captain Eschen is listening in.”
Leah keeps hold of the charm, but does not speak. Seffon’s end is silent. The tingling feeling on her palm intensifies, then stops. Finally she lets go of the charm and drops her hand.
“Shoulda brought the battery…” she grumbles, then starts wandering the halls of the keep, looking for her old rooms.
*
A quarter hour later she comes across the shared rooms she and Jeno had once slept in; empty and scoured clean, though that doesn’t surprise her. She sits on the bed frame and runs a hand along the wood, breathing deeply.
A quiet knock sounds at the door. “Come in,” Leah says, the words echoing.
Iris enters and sits beside her, uncomfortable in the silence, thumbs twiddling. “Meredith and Valerid are shouting in the office.”
“Yeah, it’s always rough when mum and dad fight in front of the kids,” Leah says, and Iris gives her an odd look. “Never mind me. What’s on your mind?”
Iris sighs. “I kinda thought you were dead, you know. Up until the execution stuff.”
“You saw me escape, though.”
“Yeah, but…you went west. There was no way you’d show up at the gates and he’d just…let you in.”
“I snuck in. It’s a pretty good story.”
“Oh?”
Leah summarises, explaining how she wandered through, her goal of getting to the very center part and then turning herself in, how she thought it was probably stupid but the very fact that she was surrendering ought to raise enough questions in their minds to justify keeping her alive.
“That’s just the sort of dumb plan you usually come up with,” Iris says with a smirk, elbowing her.
“Yep, it sure is.”
Iris’s smile falls, and she turns to look at Leah carefully. “Is something going to happen? Are you planning something?”
Leah takes a deep breath. “I discussed it with Meredith and the Baron.”
“Ugh, I hate calling him that.”
“Right?” Leah smiles a bit again.
“All the fucking titles…we get it, you came out of a lucky twat, congratulations.”
Leah bursts out laughing, then coughs a bit and gets under control.
“There, that’s more like the normal you,” Iris says, rubbing her back. Leah’s spirits crash a bit, realising with the warmth of the touch that Iris hasn’t been told.
“Remember what Vivitha said, about me being ‘fake Leah?’” she begins, haltingly.
“Pfft, yeah? What was that about, anyway?”
“And you remember how I don’t have any of Leah’s memories?”
Iris does not speak, but keeps her hand on Leah’s back. Leah feels a bit of tense fear build up, hyper-aware of Iris’s strength and the potential for a negative reaction, but pushes forward with her explanation.
“I think Leah and I…swapped bodies. My mind woke up here, a month ago, in this body. I lied, and I played along, saying I was her, because I was afraid of the consequences if people found out…especially because people were so afraid of Seffon, and would assume he was…controlling me, or whatever.”
Iris nods, deep in thought, then resumes rubbing Leah’s back. “That sounds terrifying. I could never have lasted in your shoes; I’d have insulted the wrong person, or stepped on the wrong foot, or picked the wrong flower.”
Leah waits for the “But…”, but it doesn’t come.
“Is our Leah okay?” Iris finally asks.
“I don’t know for sure. It seems likely she’s in my body, back home. I get occasional flashes.”
“Can we go find her? Set things right?”
Leah shakes her head. “My home is…too far. Another world.”
“Like another planet?”
Leah shoots her a startled look. “You guys know about planets?”
Iris shrugs. “It was one of the things you were screaming about when they dragged you off to jail.”
“Wow. Huh. Right.”
“We just called them wandering stars, before this. That is what you meant by planets, right? The weird things in the sky?”
Leah laughs a bit. “Yeah, that’s it. Weird things in the sky.”
“Awesome.”
Leah and Iris sit together in the room for a while.
“Do you know where my diary is? Or, Leah’s diary?”
Iris looks around at the empty room, thinking. “They put a lot of your stuff in the weapons shed by the stables, but you took all of that. The diary might be in Lord Valerid’s office, with the rest of his stuff on you – spy reports and such,” she adds, seeing Leah’s look.
“Hm. Nothing else I really wanted to do here, then,” Leah says, looking around the room. “I wanted to see Wellen, I guess, but apparently odds are good he’s dead. Nothing left.”
“Got some new stuff though, I see,” Iris says, jangling the charm bracelet. “Who’s this from?”
“Seffon, actually. They’re abjurations.”
Iris drops the bracelet abruptly, but looks at it, fascinated. “Really? You can use them?”
“Yeah, he taught me how.”
“You’ve been learning magic?”
“Just a bit, here ‘n’ there.”
“Awesome. You’re triply a criminal now: jail-breaker, insurrectionist, magician.”
Leah snickers a bit, jangling the charms. Iris looks away from them, though still giving off an impression of mistrusting them, or expecting them to blow up in her face unexpectedly.
“What’s this thing you’re gonna do?” Iris asks, a little nervously. “Is it magical?”
“Would it be, if the Baron had signed off on it?”
“True.”
Leah leans her head against Iris’s shoulder. “We need a ceasefire, but they killed the last guy who went out under a peace flag. I figured, if Eschen’s still out there…” Leah chews her lip. “Vivitha told me that apparently, before the whole memory thing, he and Leah were close.”
“Fucking.”
“Not fucking, just spending time together.”
“Good.”
“Huh?”
Irish shrugs. “You can do better than him.” Leah laughs at this. “But I see where this is going. You’re going to walk out to negotiate.”
“I am.”
Iris breathes deeply. “I hope you’re better with words than our Leah was.”
“I hope so too.”
Iris rubs her back again, then stands and offers her a hand up. “When do you leave?”
“Ten minutes? Maybe less.”
“Time for a drink?”
“Gods, yes.” Leah turns to leave, heading for the cellar, but Iris catches her and stops her.
“Uh-uh.” She pulls a flask out of her pocket. “All yours,” she says, passing it over.
Leah takes it with amusement and uncorks it. About to take a sip, she stops dead, recognising the scent – bitter, sweet, herbal.
“How…?”
“Back in Algi,” Iris says. “You were afraid you’d get in trouble for keeping it, but you didn’t want to throw it away. You asked me for advice, and I promised to hide it – you were new to the group, you were worried the others would reject you if they thought you were magical.” Iris gives her another gentle punch in the shoulder. “And you chose to trust me.”
Leah looks down at the healing potion in her hands, barely a sip’s worth, sloshing in an inconspicuous tin flask. She straps it securely to the belt on her hip, in the empty space the dagger used to occupy.
“You’re taking this better than the others have, so far,” Leah says, a little hesitantly.
“Your stupid plan?”
“No, the body-swap. And you’re still referring to old-Leah as ‘you,’ not ‘her,’ so I just want to be sure you understand…”
Iris rolls her eyes. “I heard it the first time. You switched. But you’re still Leah.”
“No, I’m – ”
She puts a finger over Leah’s lips to silence her. “I have been awake for almost three straight days. You’ve just told me something so bat-shit insane that I’m not actually sure if it isn’t just a hallucination. If I’m going to be mad at you for lying, or for impersonating my friend, or for running away from us, I’ll do it after the war is over. For the moment, I’m going to continue treating you as my friend, because that’s who I need you to be right now.”
Leah shifts a bit and blinks rapidly, uncertain. “I…”
“Glad we’re clear. Now go kick some ass,” Iris says, pushing Leah out the door with a conspiratorial grin.
Distantly, the horns change their call, and Leah steels herself, walking down to the courtyard to watch the gates of the bridge open for her.
*
Leah walks out, spear and shield held loosely, cape rustling back and forth with each step. The Cheden forces had withdrawn a short distance when the horns had changed their call to one of ceasefire, but are still armed and at attention.
Leah keeps her steps steady and casual, looking straight ahead, and watches for the familiar armour. She finally spots him, making his way to the front. He is too far away to make out any expression.
She stops about ten paces away and gives a deep bow. Eschen reaches the front and watches her, warily. She hears the gates close behind her.
“Yours is not the face I expected to see,” he says, coldly.
Leah beams. “Is that so?”
The captain’s face grows darker. “I thought you’d run away with the bard.”
“No, I ran away with the Duchess’s daughter.”
His face darkens further, and he shifts his stance. “She’s still alive, I take it?”
“As well you know.”
Eschen shrugs. “I haven’t had any updates since the waxing quarter, when my spell was severed. The sash, I presume?”
Leah shakes head. “It doesn’t work that way. It only works when the caster is close by, not the target.”
“Pity you’re not wearing it now.” He raises a hand.
“I have the schematics.”
He lowers his hand, the rest of his body motionless. “Do you?”
Leah nods.
Eschen walks over, slowly. Leah keeps her stance, but tightens her grip on the shield, very subtly. He rests a hand on the back of her neck, and Leah’s heart thunders. The world goes dim, and her shield and spear fall from her hands.
“Do you have the schematics?”
Leah feels the air rush around in her lungs. “I know how to make the battery bandolier. The information is in my mind.”
The captain lets go. Leah sags to her knees, falling sideways over her dropped weapons. Through the piercing sunlight, she can see a dark figure stand up from the top of the wall, bow drawn.
The arrow flies and skims past Eschen’s head, leaving a bright red line across his right cheek, shaving off some of his scruff of beard. He turns in an instant, and raises a hand slowly, as though pulling something heavy. When he opens it, a wave of sound rushes out, knocking over everyone on the wall around the archer.
“No ceasefire is recognised at this time. Resume,” he gestures almost casually to the soldiers, who restart their hail of arrows. Leaning over, he picks Leah up and fireman-carries her away, the spear and shield in his hand.
Well. That almost worked.
