Jax dipped the oar back into the water and stroked. “Aye. When I first joined the Kingsguard as a young soldier. King Axel led us in battle against Cherem.”
“That must have been exciting.”
Jax nodded. “Bloodvoicing is a great power when used for good.” He paddled two great strokes and his bushy, black eyebrows furrowed. “Be wary of your new master. He was once a very powerful bloodvoicer, but his stamina has decreased over time. Now he’s simply conniving. He uses his apprentices for strength, teaching them only enough to manipulate them into tools for his own agenda.”
He glanced at Khai, then back at Vrell. “Thank Arman for your unique gift, Vrell. You may not be as strong as the newly gifted one, or many bloodvoicers before you, but your ability to block is unprecedented. Continue to guard yourself at all times. Remember, no one can own a man. Stay true to yourself, no matter what your master commands you to do. Someday we all will have to answer to Arman for our actions.”
Vrell swallowed this information, thankful that Jax had confided it to her, but terrified of what lay ahead. She wanted to ask if he believed in Arman as the only true God, as she did, for she had never heard him mention His name in such a way, but before she could form the question, he spoke again.
“I sense Macoun Hadar hides much from the Kingsguard and the Council of Seven. Arman does not like when His gifts are misused. Hadar knows this, but I think he grows overconfident in his old age, despite his weakness. Or desperate. Another reason to keep your wits about you.”
Vrell looked over the side into the water. She could see nothing beneath the dark waves. She glanced up at the forest and saw that it would soon end in a jagged cape. “I have never heard of Macoun Hadar. Is he related to the prince? Why does he live in Mahanaim?”
Jax nodded. “He is very old. He was related to King Johan, Axel’s grandfather. He has lived in Mahanaim since Lord Levy’s grandfather ruled the stronghold. Which is probably why Lord Levy has let him stay.”
Vrell wished for more of Peripaso’s cave water to soothe her parched throat. She had not considered what she would be doing when they actually got to Mahanaim. Jax’s warning sent a shiver along her bones. Hiding out in Mahanaim until Prince Gidon married another did not seem as appealing as it had under the blistering sun on the NaharPeninsula. Nothing about the place she was headed felt safe.
“The drink he gave you,” Jax said, jutting his chin at Khai, “was it red?”
Vrell looked down to a stain of the gooey mixture on the hem of her tunic. “Yes.”
He nodded. “The âleh plant stifles bloodvoices and opens your mind to be read. If you are ever forced to take some, eat karpos fruit. It counteracts the âleh.”
Vrell filed this knowledge away. “Jax, could you teach me to fight? I would like to have a trick up my sleeve should anyone decide to force such a drink on me again.”
The boat rocked with Jax’s booming laugh. “I don’t know, Vrell. You might be small, but you did manage to knock out a fully trained Kingsguard knight and tie him to a stalagmite. Not bad, if you ask me.”
Vrell’s cheeks burned and she glanced at Khai. “Still, there may not always be dripstones to aid me. I used to practice with Lord Orthrop’s younger sons. They taught me the basics. But Shoal always bested me in a heartbeat.”
Jax chuckled again. “There is little I could teach you in one day, Vrell, but you are right. You cannot hide under a fern your whole life. Still, in a fight, there are advantages to being short.”
Vrell swelled with excitement. “That is what I must learn.”
She listened as Jax shared stories of crippling blows humans had used on him over the years. She would hide and duck if need be, but she wanted to learn to defend herself at her full height, short as it might be. The next time Khai or someone like him tried to attack, she would be…
The boat slowly rounded the rocky cape, and the land ahead came into view. Vrell gasped. The rocky coast on her left came to a point where it nearly met the flat, grassy land that curved down from the right. Two colossal pillars — clearly manmade — rose from the land on either side, each one wider than three redpines. An iron portcullis stretched across the sea between the pillars, its black bars woven in a tight, intricate pattern.
Beyond and slightly to the right, she could see the second set of the Reshon Gates standing sentry, looking much smaller from her position. Further right, in the distance, the stone city of Mahanaim sat like stacked yellow, brown, grey, and orange blocks against the velvety backdrop of Darkness.
Vrell shivered at the sight of the Evenwall. She had been to Mahanaim several times but had never gotten used to seeing the cloudy mist fogging half the city like a rainless thunderstorm. She had never set foot on the side of Mahanaim that was in Darkness.
Jax rowed the boat toward a small dock jutting out from the gatehouse at the foot of the northern pillar. A guard wearing a black Kingsguard cloak with no embroidery walked toward the boat, his footsteps hollow on the wooden dock.
“Sir Jax. We worried you had fallen off the edge of Er’Rets. I see Khai is making himself useful as always.”
Jax chuckled. “The Mârad has been making trouble to the south. We had quite a battle before Sir Dromos took us in.”
Vrell wondered why Jax didn’t mention the ebens, who seemed more to blame for the trouble than the Mârad rebels.
“I hope to get the full story of it tonight in the barracks.” The guard glanced at Vrell. “Well, I’ll get the gate so you can be on your way.”
He walked back to the shore and around the pillar to the edge of the gate. He gripped a black handle and turned a crank. A small gate within the large one clinked as it rose into the air. Khai stirred, but did not wake. When the clinking stopped, Jax paddled the boat toward the opening and under the first Reshon Gate.
“Will we go under both gates?” Vrell asked.
“No. Our boat’s small enough to take the ArobCanal straight into the city.”
Vrell had only ever come to Mahanaim on horseback. She had seen the slimy canals from the safety of the keep but had never traveled one. They were not considered safe for a lady, so Lady Fallina Levy had said. As Jax rowed nearer to the city, Khai slept and Vrell worried.
The hour passed quickly. The temperature rose and the air became moist and muggy. Soon Jax steered the boat into a bog-like canal walled in stone. It was early afternoon, but the nearness of the Evenwall made it seem as if the sun had passed behind a thick cloud. Vrell could not see her reflection in the murky water. Lime foam clustered around weeds that climbed the stone wall as if hoping to escape their swampy home.
A sandstone curtain wall loomed ahead, stretching across their path in both directions. Jax slowed the boat alongside a large stone ledge that shot out from a gatehouse on the right. An iron portcullis gate blocked their path into the city.
“We’re back.” Khai’s nose twitched and he opened his eyes. “I could smell it.”
Jax took a deep breath and bellowed, “Lo! Jax mi Katt wishes to enter.”
A voice floated down from the gatehouse. “Jax is back!”
Vrell could not see any men, but the portcullis started to rise. Jax paddled under it and into the city of Mahanaim.
Buildings made from all colors of stone loomed above like hundreds of fortress keeps side by side. Swampy canals separated them from each other like miniature moats. The thick mist of the nearby Evenwall moistened Vrell’s face. Every so often their boat passed long canals that stretched west and gave Vrell a glimpse of Darkness. Vrell couldn’t imagine why people lived on the dark side of the city.
Jax guided the boat through the maze of canals without hesitation, though Vrell couldn’t tell one canal from the next. She would be lost here on her own. Grungy men shot dark looks down on them from the buildings above, as if casing their boat. Jax’s size repelled their gazes as quickly as they came. Vrell drew her arms around herself.