Naamah's Blessing - By Jacqueline Carey Page 0,208
discreetly. “I believe I mentioned it to you, my lord?”
“You did, and I am in accord.” Thierry de la Courcel glanced around at our assembled company. “I do not blame any man here for harboring fears and doubts. We set forth on a journey of outlandish risk. If I had the choice to make over…” His voice trailed off briefly. “Let me say that I would never have caused my father such anguish. And you, my rescuers!” His voice grew stronger. “I would never have said my life was worth the cost of so many lost in the effort to save it. And yet, here on the far side of the world, we have witnessed wonders. Great and terrible wonders, beyond comprehending.”
I found myself nodding in agreement.
Thierry cleared his throat. “Since Captain Rousse has held his hand, it falls to the court of law to pass judgment on this man. For now, I would see the slate wiped clean ere we set sail. Let there be no further recriminations. What is done, is done. We are all victims of our own ambitions, our own follies, our own weaknesses. Let us set them aside, and venture forth joined in one single goal. Let us return to Terre d’Ange and reclaim her throne!”
More cheers arose, and this time, there was a sound of unison in them. Thierry stooped, taking Edouard Durel’s chin in his hand.
“Are you prepared to help convey me home, sailor?” he asked.
Still on his knees, the fellow lifted his damp gaze, his eyes shining with tears and gratitude. “Aye, your highness!”
“Good.” Thierry let him go. “Let’s be about it, then.”
SEVENTY-NINE
The same day, the Naamah’s Dove set sail.
Her hold was laden with trade goods: nuts and kernels and seedlings from Tawantinsuyo and the Nahuatl Empire alike. Samples of maize and a dozen different varieties of potatoes. Tomati plants reckoned in error to be deadly, hot peppers that seared the tongue. Sack upon sack of chocolatl beans, and the fragrant seed-pods called tlilxochitl, or “black flower.” A few lengths of vicuña wool, fine-spun, light and airy.
Feathers; glimmering feathers, wrought into capes and tapestries.
Gold.
It was true, Terra Nova was rich in gold. Our ship did not quite wallow beneath its weight, but we carried a great deal of it, samples of Nahuatl workmanship along with raw, unprocessed ore.
I stood in the stern of the ship with Bao and Eyahue and Temilotzin, watching the shores of Terra Nova fall away behind us and the vast sea open up to swallow us, rendering us infinitesimal.
“It’s big,” Temilotzin said in a subdued voice. “Very, very big.”
“No bigger than your courage,” I assured him. “Do not fear, Captain Rousse will see us to safety.”
Temilotzin glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “I hope you are right, lady.”
I did, too.
Days, weeks, months… it is hard to measure the passage of time on a journey. What matters is the distance between the starting point and the destination. League by league, wave by wave, we whittled it down, while Captain Rousse studied the skies and took complicated measurements with his instruments, marking our progress on his charts.
I wondered how it was that the folk of Terra Nova, who were cunning engineers, had never ventured out to sea. Of a surety, they were comfortable on lakes and rivers. Mayhap it was because the vastness was so very daunting that unlike our explorers, they had no cause to suspect there was aught on the far side of the enormous oceans. And I wondered, too, how much that would change in ages to come.
I hoped that we might learn from one another, sharing the best our disparate cultures had to offer.
I hoped that dreams might outweigh ambitions.
Prince Thierry was introspective on the journey, and I daresay many of the same matters occupied his thoughts—not to mention the conflict to come. From time to time, he summoned me to speak with him, plying me for details of House Barthelme’s machinations. I told him everything I knew, including my own futile efforts to thwart them, and how it had divided the realm.
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Or rather, I’m surprised you found as many adherents as you did.”
“Because I was born to the Maghuin Dhonn?” I asked.
“That, and the chaos and scandal you left in your wake.” Thierry smiled wryly. “For all your uncanny ways, you were so young and naïve! I thought you were a fool for letting Raphael, and then Jehanne, turn your head.”