When it was time to disembark, she climbed down the ladder, stumbled into the snow, then fell.
“It’s my land legs,” she said as Lovisa and one of the flying team hauled her back up again. “And my intoxication.” Then a random man appeared out of the darkness and made her jump.
“Which way to wherever we’re going?” she asked him, in Lingian. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, repeating the question in Keepish, then beginning to giggle.
“Well now, where are you going?” asked the man, who was broad-chested and deep-voiced, with glasses that glinted from the light of the lantern he carried. He seemed surprised to be accosted by a small, swaying woman.
“I have no idea,” Bitterblue responded, patting his chest as she enunciated each syllable. “My, my. Your chest is nice.”
“Thank you,” he said, chuckling.
“Um,” said Lovisa, hastily interjecting. “We’re looking for the home of a girl named Nev who studies animal medicine at the Winterkeep Academy.”
“And where does she live?”
“I don’t know,” said Lovisa, “beyond that she’s in Torla’s Neck. We left in a hurry.”
“Okay,” the man said doubtfully, then pointed toward pure darkness. “I recommend you go that way until you find a trodden path atop a cliff. Then head north—to the right on the path—until you reach a small town set against some trees. Ask someone to direct you to the Magistry office there. Maybe they can help you find your friend.”
“You’re very kind,” said Bitterblue.
“Wait until the sun rises,” he said. “A person who’s been drinking whatever you’ve been drinking shouldn’t try to find a cliff path in the dark.”
“I’m terrified of heights, you see,” said Bitterblue. “So I drank some rauha, to help me with the illegal airship. I’m the Queen of Monsea,” she said, taking his hand and shaking it vigorously. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“And I’m the Lord of Lost Souls,” he said with good-natured amusement, then found them a couple of rocks to sit on until there was more light to guide their way.
From her rock seat, Bitterblue watched with interest as the people on the ground did some sort of exchange with the flyers in the airship, passing them small crates and taking crates from them. More smuggling? Then the airship rose into the sky again, a glow of pink in the east making Bitterblue wonder how far they would get before daylight presumably grounded them.
Before the Lord of Lost Souls and his companions melted into the darkness, he put some bread and cheese into their hands and entrusted Lovisa with a flask of water. “I think your friend is coming down,” he said to Lovisa, indicating Bitterblue, who’d pulled her coat tight against the cold that was becoming more noticeable to her, and was quietly weeping. “Keep her hydrated.”
“I’m all right, you know,” said Bitterblue. “I’m crying from happiness and relief.”
“She really is the Queen of Monsea,” said Lovisa.
“Sure she is,” said the man. “Second one I’ve met this month. It should be light enough for cliff-walking in half an hour. Don’t dawdle. There’s a storm coming in, and houses are few and far between in these parts. You’ll be walking well into the afternoon before you reach that town. Good luck.”
Bitterblue turned a beatific smile upon him. “Good luck to you too,” she said, “in your life of crime.”
His grin flashed in the darkness. He turned to go, then turned back and called out. “If it starts to snow hard,” he said, “explore the land inland from the path. There are hidden huts.”
Then they were gone.
* * *
—
As the sun rose, Bitterblue felt more herself. But she was also bone tired, and thirsty. Her blistered foot smarted terribly.
She’d never seen a place so vast and dramatic as Torla’s Neck. The cliff to their left dropped to a black sand beach with crashing waves that pounded so hard that sometimes she imagined the feeling of the impact in her legs. To the right, the land stretched out in hills that climbed to fir trees. Beyond the fir trees, mountain peaks alternated with strange, wrinkly formations that Bitterblue suspected were glaciers. She wanted to ask Giddon, tell Giddon. If he was truly in the north as the fox had said, had he seen those glaciers? Was he somewhere among these hills?
“Gorgeous,” said Bitterblue. “Just unbelievably gorgeous. Will it be obvious when we reach the town? Or will it be mostly empty, like this?”
“I don’t know,” said Lovisa.
“What did you say your friend’s name was?”
“Nev.”
“Do you know her family’s names?”
“She doesn’t have a family name. Poor people in Winterkeep don’t have family names.”
“Yes, but do you know the names of her family members?”
“Oh,” said Lovisa. “Hang on, let me think. My friend dated her for a while. Grandpa Saiet,” she said, after another moment. “Mari was always making me listen to stories about Nev’s stupid grandpa Saiet. And her father might be Davvi?”
“Okay, that’s helpful. What are their professions?”
“Are you going to ask me questions endlessly, all morning long?”
“Oh, Lovisa,” said Bitterblue, then held back her sigh, frightened of how close Lovisa walked to the cliff. Of the long looks Lovisa kept taking, down at the sea.
“Will you tell me about your brothers?” she said.
“What do you want to know about them?” demanded Lovisa.
“How many do you have? What are their names? How old are they? What do they like?”
“Viri is five. Erita is seven. Vikti is nine. And it hardly matters what they like, because no doubt everything they owned got burned in the fire I started.”
“I’m sure they got out safely,” Bitterblue said.
“I know they did,” Lovisa snapped. “I told them to get out before I ever set it.”
“They’ll remember that you warned them, their whole lives,” said Bitterblue, who had distinct memories of such moments from her own otherwise muddled childhood, memories of her mother, of attendants, even of her father’s advisers, doing things, saying things, to protect her from her father. “They’ll always be grateful to you.”
“I guess you know everything about my family,” said Lovisa viciously.
Bitterblue bit back on a sharp retort. “I know it’ll hurt your brothers if they never get to see you again, and never get to hear an explanation from your lips,” she said. And then she did something scary: She abandoned Lovisa to her thoughts and decisions, left her alone on the cliff, and climbed into the hills. Because it had started snowing, and the clouds at sea worried her. They were tall and dark and seemed to be growing closer. She thought it wouldn’t hurt to follow the advice of the Lord of Lost Souls; she also wanted Lovisa to have a job to do.