A Plague of Giants (Seven Kennings #1) - Kevin Hearne Page 0,228

around her, I said, “I like lobster for dinner.”

A sardonic nod. “Congratulations, Culland. You’re Brynlön’s newest tidal mariner.”

“What?”

“Only thing faster than a rapid is a tidal mariner. That’s how we test. How are you feeling?”

“Worn out.”

She nodded. “Tapping into that speed will age you.”

“Is that the only difference between a tidal mariner and a rapid?”

“No, there are more. That’s just the easiest thing for us to test. We have a tidal mariner in the palace who will train you from here. Let’s head back, but at a slower pace, and we’ll get you some clothes finally.”

She led me back to Pelemyn and underwater near the palace. There was a locked hatch door near the ocean floor, and she spun the handle around and hauled it open. We entered and swam up through clear water through three more doors until we emerged in a pool inside the palace. A mariner was waiting nearby, and when she saw me, she plucked a robe off a hook and smiled, offering it to me. “Welcome, sir. Let’s get you dry.”

“Where are we?” I asked.

“You’re in the Wellspring of Brynlön,” Nara said, pulling herself out of the water and dripping on the marbled tile. “The pelenaut wants to meet all new tidal mariners immediately. Standing orders.”

“The pelenaut? I’m going to meet Pelenaut Röllend?”

Gerstad du Fesset reached for a towel and ran it over her closely cropped head, leaving the mariner to nod and smile at me. I hauled myself out of the water and put on the robe, feeling a chill develop in the air.

“You’ll want to practice doing this,” the gerstad said, and as I watched, the water soaking her uniform fairly leapt out of the fabric and dropped back into the pool, rendering the towel unnecessary.

“Definitely handy.”

The gerstad beckoned me to follow, and it was only a short distance to the front of the Wellspring, where a cluster of blue and white uniforms stood out against the coral of the wall and a sheet of water cascaded into the same narrow pond from which we had emerged. I felt underdressed. I couldn’t see the pelenaut, and my attention was so preoccupied with trying to see him that I didn’t realize the gerstad had stopped in front of me, and I ran into her.

“Oh! Sorry.” There was another woman in front of me who looked a few years my senior. Lines on her neck and face and a bit of gray at the temples. She had many shiny things on her uniform, and I had no idea what any of them meant.

“No harm done,” the gerstad said. “Culland du Raffert, I’d like to introduce you to Second Könstad Tallynd du Böll, our senior tidal mariner. She’ll be handling your training from here.”

We bowed to each other, and the Second Könstad thanked the gerstad for the introduction and dismissed her.

“Farewell, Master du Raffert,” Gerstad du Fesset said. “If you are free for that dinner later, you may find me at the garrison after 1500. Otherwise, another night.” She gave me a tight nod and spun on her heel, leaving me with the impressively festooned officer. My knowledge of the military was so minuscule that I had no idea what her rank meant except that it must be higher than gerstad.

“A new tidal mariner is very welcome! But you look a bit overwhelmed,” she said. “Not the kind of day you expected, is it?”

“No. Rather expected it to be my last day.”

Her nod was grim and understanding. “The queue for the Lung is long these days. Lots of people figuring they should have been taken with their families, and they see it as the honorable way out.”

It was so precisely what I felt that I welled up and looked away, wiping my eyes. “Yes. Excuse me.”

“Apologies. Who did you lose?”

“My family. In Festwyf.”

“I’m very sorry. I lost my husband—not to the Bone Giants but earlier. I know the sting of that pain. We can’t bring them back, but you’re in a position now to save the families of many others and perhaps exact a bit of vengeance if you wish it.”

“How?” The idea of revenge hadn’t occurred to me before—it seemed an impossibility—but now that she had suggested it, I found the concept attractive.

“Let’s get to that after we meet the pelenaut. He will simply welcome you and thank you for serving the country, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

I wasn’t sure that I wanted to serve the country or wear a uniform, but I also