The Bell Tolls for Me

There weren’t a great many ports in the north. The river that passed by Balat Palace wasn’t navigable, and was frozen part of the year. To reach a point from which they might embark, they needed to head elsewhere. Isabella sat in a humble, unassuming carriage alongside Valerio and one other.

Bernadetta.

Yesterday, she had given her cousin leave to travel briefly to discover some information. Isabella wasn’t foolish enough to let her go without an escort. Thus far, she hadn’t done anything suspicious. Isabella hoped it lasted. Bernadetta was far cleverer than she had any right being. Right now, she only stared out the window silently. Valerio stared at her, making no effort to disguise his disdain. Isabella had come to understand why Bernadetta was who she was. It certainly wasn’t enough to excuse it, but it did help her move on from the betrayal.

“Do you have any idea where you’re going to begin with Edgar?” Isabella asked.

Bernadetta looked away from the landscape. “I do have some insight into the psychology of the king. The primary trouble is that he’s a very arbitrary and whimsical person. When he wants something, he’ll pursue it with utter focus. People before me have tried to harness that drive.” She took a deep breath and sighed. “Very few have ever succeeded. Considering his random tendency to torture and maim for information… we can’t approach this in a targeted fashion.”

“Right. No agents or direct leaks,” Isabella concurred. “You’re thinking of something like a rumor?”

“Of course.” Bernadetta leaned in, the light falling to illuminate her shrewd violet eyes. “Getting a rumor to catch on organically is quite the ordeal. If it’s inorganic, that’s something that the king could easily catch on to—and then, poof.” She imitated an explosion with her hands and then leaned back. “But you have an advantage. The Veymontists. In particular, you have some ties to the would-be reformer, Alistair.”

Isabella stared. “I spoke to him once or twice. Nothing more than that.”

Bernadetta smiled. “Please. We’re on the same side now. I know that you were the ones to shelter him.”

“You know, or suspect?” Isabella asked. As Bernadetta only continued to grin, Isabella sighed. “Fine, very well. We may have helped keep him alive. But all of the things that he achieved—the widespread religious fervor—was of his own doing.”

“Oh, I wasn’t doubting that,” Bernadetta said. “That’s why their movement will be particularly useful to us. They’ve already been incredibly popular among the common folk. With the mass execution of the nobility, they’ve started to gain something they never before had: elite support. Innumerable numbers of aristocracy are openly welcoming people that had been decried as heretics not weeks ago.”

Isabella closed her eyes in some alarm. If that was true, they were a genuine threat to her father’s authority. He didn’t suffer threats for long. She had already heard about some brutal crackdowns in the capital, but perhaps they might soon be spreading elsewhere. But the fact that he was focused on them…

Anything Edgar hears coming from them, he’ll take doubly seriously, Isabella thought. Only a day of freedom and she has something solid.

“And why would a group of reformers help convince Edgar to take to sea?” Valerio asked.

“I’m not quite certain yet.” Bernadetta looked back out the window, and Valerio scowled at her. “Did you expect I would have the whole problem solved after only a day? It may have seemed effortless on the receiving end, but I assure you that everything I’ve done has taken quite a bit of work.”

Isabella was contented with that. Employing the Veymontists was an angle that she hadn’t considered. It was also very plausible to attract King Edgar’s attention. She only worried that Bernadetta wouldn’t attempt anything untoward.

“I wanted to thank you for this,” Bernadetta said suddenly. “I should be dead. I’m not. I… thank you.”

Isabella looked at her. “My hope is that you make me someone benevolent rather than foolish. That power rests in your hands, Bernadetta.”

Bernadetta nodded seriously.

“You’ve thanked her… but you’ve never apologized,” Valerio said.

Bernadetta looked at him. Then, her gaze went to Isabella, before glancing back out the window once more. For a long while, the only noise was the loud carriage as it carried on down the road.

“You said I could’ve stopped this all, Isabella,” Bernadetta said quietly. “...but for one moment, I’d like you to consider my position. On one side, I have the sages. You’ve met them.” Her eyes went distant as the carriage rolled onward. “And on the other, squeezing me all the same… is Edgar. In what world would you have been the sensible option?”

“It isn’t always about being sensible,” Isabella said.

Bernadetta didn’t respond for a bit. “For some people, morals are a luxury. You’ll find plenty of such souls in the slums.”

“Don’t lecture Isabella about suffering. She’s been through more than you know,” Valerio said immediately, leaning forward intensely. “I’ve met plenty who grew up in miserable hovels, who had to kill to survive. It doesn’t have to be that way if the people beyond the slums do what’s right.”

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Bernadetta met his gaze without flinching. “You love her quite a bit, don’t you?”

Valerio’s expression morphed to confusion, caught off-guard. His anger lost its momentum, and he leaned back, nodding.

Bernadetta looked at Isabella. “I told you that I wanted revenge, in part. I meant what I said. I was as honest as I could be. The way I see it, I can best achieve that at your side. I know you well enough to know you wouldn’t take a deal with the sages unless you had something in mind to thwart them.”

Isabella tried her very best to betray nothing with her face.

“I told you to look at things from my perspective,” Bernadetta continued. “Do so again. Do you expect me to side with the sages, who practically abducted me from my home and worked me like a slave for some dubious ideals? Do you expect me to side with Edgar, a murderous psychopath masquerading in a veneer of regality? Or do you expect me to side with you, who’s generous enough to forgive the person who killed her?”

Isabella said dryly, “I expect you to side with yourself.”

Bernadetta laughed lightly through her nose. “Fair enough. But you should be able to see clearly that you offer the most for me out of anyone.”

The carriage rolled ever onward toward the coastal city.

***

The city of Randen was a great deal larger than the capital city of the north, which the Balat Palace watched over. It was only natural that a city that had access to the ocean would grow larger. It was also much closer in style to the cities that Isabella knew. It had prospered from union with Dovhain.

And that means that Edgar might have influence enough to take notice of us here, Isabella reflected. But then, that was part of what they intended. Valerio had brought her here for one reason in particular: to show her his personal vessel.

“She’s my pride and joy,” Valerio told her, walking along the dock with more enthusiasm than she’d ever seen from him. “She’s been in Ambrose for a while, being refitted. And my word…” He studied it. “Isn’t she lovely?”

Isabella studied the ship. It looked like… well, a ship. She didn’t know what else to think.

“She’s built from tropical hardwood that laughs at rot and salt alike.” He ran his hand along the hull. “Every plank is fit so tight you could sail her dry through a storm. Look at her masts… straight as lances, the rigging new and strong, and her sails cut with my own design. Every part of this ship was designed with me in mind. It can handle my powers far, far better than a conventional ship.” He stepped back to admire it. “Even the fittings… polished brass and clean lines, no rough joinery or wasted weight.” He pointed up to a place unseen. “The rudder moves smooth as butter, and the pumps run easy with one man at the handle. She feels alive underfoot, balanced, eager. She’s the sort of ship that makes you believe no ocean is too vast, no wind too fickle.”

“She’s…” She paused. She almost said something rude. When she realized why, she couldn’t help but feel absurd. “I believe I’m getting jealous over a ship. Why is it a she?”

Valerio looked at her in confusion, and then laughed. “Ah, it’s just… I’m not sure. I’ve never really questioned it.” He pushed his tongue against his cheek, then smiled cheekily as he said, “Would you like me to describe you like that?”

“Not in public,” Isabella said dryly.

“Then in private?” he guessed.

Isabella decided to walk away immediately, leaving that last question unanswered. She walked up the plank leading to the deck, and Valerio followed shortly after her. Soon enough, Isabella set foot on the deck. She couldn’t understand much of his sophisticated knowledge about ships, but she could tell that this one felt more solid underfoot. Maybe it was because it had just been repaired recently, or maybe Valerio was right in this ship being exceptional. He knew more than her.

“If we’re going to be facing Edgar at sea, there’s no vessel that’ll be better at that job than this one.” Valerio walked over to the beam in the center of the ship. He tapped something—words. Isabella walked closer. It had her name inscribed in gild. “After all, if anyone can outmaneuver Edgar, it’s my Isabella.”

He’d named the ship after her. Isabella didn’t know why such a simple thing made her feel so warm. She had no strong feelings one way or another before, but now that she knew he’d thought of her while having this designed…

“I love it,” Isabella said. She continued, “Edgar is the type to name a ship after himself, as well, so that hypothetical of yours may become a reality.”

Valerio nodded. “Now, shall we set sail?”

Isabella looked around. “Don’t you need more men to crew the ship? This is quite a large vessel.”

Valerio smiled broadly. “Told you, didn’t I? This ship was designed with me in mind. Besides… I’ve got my first mate right here.” He put his hand on her shoulder. “No better time for you to learn how to use the wind powers of the Thalvassë.”

Isabella exhaled to relieve some of her anticipation. “I need to get him, first.”

***

Isabella and Valerio stood side by side on the deck of his ship. She stared out at the endless blue. There wasn’t a coastline in sight.

“How can you tell where to go when it’s like this?” Isabella said. “How can you be sure you’ll find this place again?”

“I use the sun by day, the stars by night, and the compass when neither will show their face,” Valerio answered quickly. “Trust me, I’ll know.”

She felt he was leaving a great many details out, but she didn’t press further. Isabella inhaled deeply and then turned around to open up a trunk. There was a shield inside—a shield with two stars and a crescent moon. The moment that she took it in her hands, the eyes on the shield opened up.

“Hmm…” Balat looked around. “Is this the place?”

Isabella nodded. “It is.”

“Then you know what to do,” the devil informed her.

Valerio watched the shield with special contempt as Isabella walked over to the railing. She held the shield out, giving the devil’s medium one last look before she released it. It quickly vanished into the sea, and Isabella didn’t see it sink.

“There we have it,” Isabella said. She looked at him. “Thank you.”

“You can’t tell me any details of the deal?” Valerio asked.

Isabella shook her head.

Valerio sighed in distress. “Well… I trust you.”