darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,98

on the southwest and Dan Eyre on the northwest. It was a huge natural fortification, and the Avarsi had been using it to drop boulders on the neighbors for centuries. They had a thick network of forts strung along its whole length and they patrolled the area constantly.

“Which leads us back to the water route,” I said. “We’ll need to acquire a good boat or two, but once we’ve done that we can cross Leivas, exit by the river, pass Hove and most of Radewald on the west, and then take the river Dan much of the way back east to the foothills of the Almarn Mountains.”

“That or take the fork that leads past Luvarn Keep in Avars,” said Kelos. “I think you’re right either way, but it’s going to double the distance we have to cover and add nearly that much in terms of time.”

“But most of it spent on wild water,” said Faran. “That’s the thing that really sells me. The dead hate rivers and they’re none too fond of lakes, especially ones as big as Leivas. That’s without adding in the power of the Lady or a bunch of hungry Storm Eels. The risen will have a very hard job coming at us while we’re on a boat, and an even harder one following us.”

I looked at our other youngsters. “Do any of you have anything you want to add? You’re all full Blades now. That means pointing it out when the old guard fucks up. Maryam? You’re not one to shy away from speaking your mind. . . .”

“I’m fine.”

I raised an eyebrow at her.

“Really. Jax was very clear that we three are here to observe and to learn. So that’s what I’m doing. Observing.”

“Roric?” I said. “You’re Avarsi by birth. Anything to add?”

“No, sir.”

“Kumi?”

“I like boats and know them pretty well, so I can help with the sailing . . . or paddling . . . or whatever it is the particular boat we end up with requires. Beyond that, think of me as invisible.”

18

A knife slices through a sea of stars leaving the shattered universe rippling in its wake.

That image alone is enough to make me take back every bad thing I have ever said about boat travel, though really, it’s barges I hate. The sky was cloudless and moonless, the black waters deep and still. Where a barge is a battering ram forcing its heavy way through the water endlessly and tediously, the pair of slender hulled, sampan-like night runners we had purchased from a Varyan smuggler slashed through the water as effortlessly as a razor slitting an unsuspecting throat.

The boats were designed to move drugs and other small expensive packages back and forth across the lake between the Kvanas and Varya without submitting to silly things like taxes and customs inspections. Each one was long enough to hold six people, but had been rigged up for four paddlers with a couple of small watertight cargo cases in the middle. They had been stained a rough gray with the juice of the oris plant, and couldn’t have been much more than two feet wide at the beam. Both ends came to knifelike points.

Despite a shallow hull, they felt remarkably stable. Possibly because of the solid metal lance that hung about a foot underneath the boat. The lance provided both an easily removable second keel and a ramming beak designed to punch an ugly little hole below the waterline of any craft with a deeper draft than our own.

“Best way to deal with customs boats,” the smuggler who sold them to us had said. “Get up a fast run and give ’em a nice distracting fountain to think about.” He tapped a device on the floor of the boat. “Once the lance is sunk in good and hard you pull the pins here and upfront and leave it behind. If you place it right, it’ll foul either their oars or their rudder. Then you back-paddle, pivot hard, and run for the deep dark. Replacing the lance is an expensive bit of work, but it costs ever so much less than the headsman’s cut if they catch you with the wrong cargo.”

“Anything else we ought to know?” Kelos asked—I’d had him take point on haggling since he scared the resistance out of people even when they didn’t know who he was.

The smuggler nodded. “Don’t get caught out in the deep if a storm blows in. You probably won’t capsize, and you’ll stay afloat even if