Pathway - Chapter 211

“It was an accident,” Ju Feng said.

“When I swore I would never use magic again, I broke my promise almost immediately. I locked all the dangerous spells away, yes, but even the little magics caused me pain. I kept those spells close, and cast them often. It was the only way I could forget.”

“It’s not so easy for the rest of us to forget,” Ju Feng said. “The worst and the best memories stay with you. Some things you’re supposed to experience, no matter how painful.”

“Do words like that aid you, when you touch a man’s bare flesh?” Chang Chang asked. “When you learn when he will die?”

“No,” Ju Feng said. “But I still say the words. It’s all I can do.”

He turned his head away from her and tipped his hat down over his face. Chang Chang started to say something else but let it go.

She pulled the letters out of her pack and laid the bundle in her lap. The first she’d already read. She folded it carefully and laid it aside.

The second letter had dirt caked around the edges of the parchment. Chang Chang fingered the stains. This letter had come from outside WaterWay. She wondered what it had gone through to make its way to her great-uncle’s house.

Breaking the brittle seal, Chang Chang unfolded the pages.

Dear Granddaughter, I wish you could be with me as I pass through the lands. You would love this country. The sun is rising, the air is crisp, but the dying hints of campfire keep me warm. If I listen closely, I can hear the most remarkable sounds. Brant would call me sentimental, but I imagine I can hear the voices of those who walked these roads long ago. What stories would they tell, these brave phantoms, if they could stop a while by my fire? Would their adventures be of storming perilous castles or tilling fertile fields? Would they slay dragons or raise daughters? All these things I wonder, as I sit by my fire and think of you.

Chang Chang clutched the parchment in her hands. This letter and the handful following all came from a different land or city—some she had never heard of. Four years went by in a bell as she read. The only thing she could conclude of her grandfather, besides his affection for her, was that restless was too weak a word to ascribe to him. He never stopped moving.

***

Dear Granddaughter,

Today I looked for the first time upon the city of Luskan. I pray you never have cause to enter this den of depravity and violence. There is no law but that of the thieves’ guilds and street gangs. Ever at war with each other, they take no notice of a lone man seeking shelter.

I sat upon a rooftop and looked out over Saint Island, at the ruins of the Host Tower of the Arcane. The locals say it is a cursed place, and I cannot help but agree. The restless dead walk that isle, sentinels to its lost power. In my younger days, I would have longed for the challenge and promise of treasure to be found in such a forgotten stronghold. I can see the magic swirling under shattered stone. It drifts among the bones of the once mighty wizards who ruled here. The riches tempt me even now, but my strength would never hold out long enough to reach the isle, which seems as distant as gentle Waterdeep. No, tonight I long only for a warm blanket and unspoilt food. Strange how one’s priorities shift with age.

Chang Chang stopped reading. Hatsolm rolled onto his side, bumping against her leg. He coughed once, deep in his chest, then again. A fit overtook him, and he curled upright into a ball, his body shaken by the hacks and wheezes. Chang Chang pulled his blanket up over his shoulders. He opened his eyes and looked at her.

“I’ll get you some water,” she said.

“No need.” He wiped the blood from his mouth. “It’s over.” He pulled the blanket over his head and laid back down, his face turned away from her.

Chang Chang looked at the letter in her hand. Chang Wei had come to WateWay seeking refuge from the world, and he’d found it, in a way, through Kaelin and his ghostly troupe.

Chang Wei spoke of being old. The tone of this letter was much different from his earlier messages to her. Perhaps he wasn’t sick like the other, but he seemed in no fit condition to travel in Luskan. Her great-uncle had always said the city was not a city at all, but a damned place where only the desperate sought refuge.

She went back to the letters. They continued in Luskan for a year, all written from the same perch on the rooftop. Chang Wei had constructed a rough shelter from abandoned slates of tin and wood, in the ruins of a condemned tavern. The more she read, the more Chang Chang suspected that her grandfather’s adventure would not continue beyond the hellish city.

At the bottom of the pile, Chang Chang found an especially thick bundle. The seal was cracked; the wax had not been sufficient to hold the folded parchment. Was it a memoir? A deathbed request? It was the last letter. Chang Chang’s fingers shook as she unfolded the sheets.

***

Dear Granddaughter,

The time has come. You are old enough now to be told the truth. But even if you were not, I have no time left to delay this tale. I pray it never happens, but if Cerest comes looking for you, you must be prepared. Ju Feng watched Chang Chang reading her letters. Her attention was completely absorbed by the writing on the page. He sat up quietly, slid into the shadows, and climbed the ladder. When he got to the dock he glanced down to be sure he hadn’t been followed. He slipped the illusion cloak from his shoulders and moved through the shadows in his own form.

When he was safely out of earshot of the beggars, he pulled the sava pawn from his pouch and warmed it between his fingers. He felt the connection at once.

“What is it, Morleth?”

Tallmantle’s voice. “Where’s Tesleena?” he asked. “Has she tired of me so soon?”

“She walks in Underway, seeking Chang Chang,” the Warden said. “Know that if Tesleena comes to harm through your delays, none of the squalor in WaterWay will be able to hide you from me.” The Warden’s voice was polite, even conversational.

“Your wizard will be fine,” Ju Feng said. “Chang Chang is another matter.”

“What’s happened?”

Ju Feng hesitated before plunging into the tale. He left nothing out—his battle in the Haven, Chang Chang’s letters, her unique memory, and every instance of her spells going wild. He gave a detailed account of what Saragui had told him about Chang Chang’s gifts. When he’d finished there was a long silence.

“Are you certain?” the Keeper asked. “Certain she is dying?”

“I haven’t touched her,” Ju Feng said. “Nor will I, so do not waste breath in asking. “But I see the evidence of my eyes. She needs help. Perhaps Tesleena—”

“Are you saying you’re willing to bring her in?”

Ju Feng clenched the pawn in his fist. “Can you aid her, if I do?”

“Tesleena and I will do everything in our power. Tell me where you are, and I’ll send a patrol to get you.”

She won’t forgive me, Ju Feng thought. But she’ll be alive.

“Not yet,” Ju Feng said. “It has to be her decision.”

“Ju Feng—”

“Thank you, Warden. I’ll be in touch. Give my regards to Tesleena.” He severed the connection.

In the end, there was no choice. Perhaps, if he let the Watch capture them, the Warden would take pity on him and not reveal his identity to Chang Chang and the others.

“So it’s the coward’s way, as always.” He shook his head. Soon he would be well and truly hidden in the Watch’s skirts, a tamed dog they used for their own amusement. Or was he already there, and he just didn’t realize it? If that was so, what more could the opinion of one dying woman matter to him?

Tarvin couldn’t believe his luck. Ju Feng, expelled from the bowels of the beggar ship by the gods’ own sweet blessing.

He considered subduing the man, but thought better of it when Ju Feng spoke into the sava pawn. Tarvin recognized the Watch Keeper’s voice, though he could make out little of the substance of the conversation.

If Ju Feng was here, then Chang Chang Tearn was somewhere nearby. Tarvin looked down into the ship, but he could see nothing except rag-cloaked bodies.

Odds were she was hiding among the sick. It was brilliant, in a twisted way. The wench must be truly desperate.

There was no chance in the Nine Hells he was going down there to search for her. He could go back to the Court and warn the others. They would come in force and root the beggars out, but in the meantime Chang Chang might leave her hiding place for a safer one. If she did that, he would lose his chance to capture her.

Tarvin sank low in the shadows, hiding himself again behind the crates—abandoned food cartons, by the smell and the buzz of flies. For now, he would wait.

He watched Ju Feng clench his fist and slide the pawn away in his pouch. He looked angry, perhaps at something the Keeper had said. Was he upset that he was about to lose his wild little plaything?

Go on and sulk, dog. The Keeper will have you both. Tarvin smiled at the thought.