coordinated strike from across the Peles Ocean using massive fleets.
“How did they cross without losing ships?”
“We’d like you to ask Saviič that very question, among others. I have a list.”
She produced a sheet of paper with a numbered list of questions for Saviič, and we walked together down to the dungeon. Teela accompanied me to his cell this time, her nose wrinkling at the smell. The Bone Giant seemed pleased to see me but returned in short order to his customary entreaty.
“Give me my book, please,” he said in Eculan.
“I will soon,” I replied, and continued with my uncertain grasp of his language. “I am nearly finished with my copy and need your help. When I have finished a copy, I will return yours. But first, will you answer a few questions about Ecula for me?”
He flicked his eyes to Teela, registering that these questions were most likely going to be hers, but then chucked his chin at me. “Ask.”
I consulted the list. “When your soldiers go to fight, do they wear…” I didn’t know the word for “armor,” so I settled for “defense.” “Defense clothes?”
Saviič grimaced. “Defense clothes? You mean oklop?”
“Oklop?” I flashed my hands up and down my torso. “You wear to keep body safe?”
“Yes, yes,” Saviič said. “Oklop made of bone. Front and back.”
“And oklop on your head?”
“No. Paint faces like bone.”
I translated this to Kaurian for Teela, and she kept her face impassive and her voice controlled, giving nothing away in her expression that Saviič could read. “That confirms it, then. It was his people who attacked.”
I moved to the next question. “Does Ecula want to fight us? Attack us?”
Saviič shook his head. “No. I come to find ship. No fight. I have no oklop, no sword.”
He hadn’t answered the question. “Not you. Not Saviič. Ecula. Your home, your people. Do they want to fight us?”
The Bone giant shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe if you have Seven-Year Ship.”
“We don’t,” I assured him, and then translated for Teela.
“Huh. Go on,” she said.
“Ecula has boats,” I said to him. “Bigger than yours. Boats that can cross ocean without krakens taking them?”
“Yes.”
“How do you make these boats?”
“With wood.” He snorted as if I’d asked the stupidest question ever.
“But krakens take our boats made of wood. Why not yours?”
He didn’t answer for a while, his eyes traveling between me and Teela. “I don’t know,” he finally said, but once again he was a terrible liar. There was something about their boats he didn’t wish to share. After turning to Teela and translating for her, I asked her a question.
“Do we still have his boat?”
“No; it was wrecked on the coral of the islands when we found him. But I’m sure that there are boats off the coast of Brynlön now that we could investigate. Last question.”
I asked Saviič, “What are Eculan leaders called?” and berated myself for not asking him earlier. So many other words had seemed more important when his leaders clearly were not accessible.
“Our leader is the kraljic.” That was very close to the Uzstašanas word for “king.” Interesting.
“What is his name?” I asked, since the suffix of the word was a masculine ending.
“Kraljic Boškov.” A king, then.
“And the leader of your soldiers? What word is that?”
“The vojskovodja.”
That completed the short list of questions. “Thank you, Saviič. I hope to see you again soon. I will bring your book next time.”
We exited the dungeon and made directly for the Calm. We found Mistral Kira dressed in dark mourning grays, the gold pin of her house on her shoulder providing the only color. She welcomed me and asked what I had learned, but not until she had dismissed all other ears from the Calm. After I related my worries about the Eculan religion and added the answers to Teela’s questions, she stopped me regarding Saviič’s denial of Ecula’s intention to attack.
“He said maybe they would attack if we had the Seven-Year Ship?”
“Yes.”
“Well, we know we don’t, and we didn’t get attacked. What if they thought the Brynts or the Raelechs had it for some reason?”
“Worth investigating,” Teela said.
“I have an alternative theory that we can test,” I said.
“What is it?”
“According to Saviič, eighty-four of the faithful sailed west. How many returned? We know for sure that Saviič did not. What if the only survivors who returned to Ecula landed somewhere in the north? It’s plausible since any who landed on the Fornish coast most likely fell prey to their forest, and our coastal waters are less than hospitable. They