The Razed Ruins Part I: Ill Tides

Chapter 16.1: Lord Fornes

Lord Fornes laughed. "These are your tidings? News that every man, woman and child already knows?"

"Simultaneously, Rollo Calazar is mobilizing the Boshovo. They've been gathering at the soldier's field in Dehn in impressive numbers. There were rumors they were marching south."

Lord Fornes studied Hagar closely, perhaps scanning for symptoms of deception. "You are a man without honor, I have known that for years. Why tell me this information? You betray your own colors, your nation, your ruling house. I look at you, rough as a sea-battered cliff, and I wonder how you ever charmed my daughter from her purity." His face curled into a look of marked distaste. "It makes me sick." I deserved that. And more.

"I've never kept my aversion for House Calazar secret," Hagar said, not allowing himself to look lashed. "I give you this valuable information now in patriotic defiance. At your next council of lords, it may win you some favor."

A broad smile spread over Lord Fornes' face. "The last eight years have not been kind to you, Captain. Too many sleepless nights in salty air. But you're a mariner through and through. If I spilled your blood no doubt it would smell like fish." For a moment he looked pleased with himself, but quickly his smile dropped. "Favor, you say? This is what I will get from your 'information'? You know little of Benecia politics. Why do we care if ugly white people 5,000 miles away are gathering their armies?"

Hagar shook his head. "There hasn't been a true civil war in the Union for centuries. But something big is coming."

"Anytime a great leader is lost there is instability. But many have come and gone, and New America always looms..." He looked thoughtful, and for a moment Hagar almost thought he'd forgotten he was standing there. "How long does that journey take you? From Dehn to Benecia?"

"Maybe three months, Lord, depending on the winds."

"And I suspect this was not your first stop?"

"We were trading with the spicers."

"The spicers," Lord Fornes said simply. "So this information is already at least four months old. It could be worthless by now."

Hagar held his ground. "There is more."

The graying man raised an eyebrow. "Go on."

"We sailed the Gap six days past." He hesitated. "The armada had no presence. Just a few scouts that tried to run us down."

"Pity they were unsuccessful."

Hagar ignored the jab and went on. "There was no garrison. The soldier's field at Gap City also was empty."

"Soldier's marching south from the north and north from the south. Maybe trouble in the Americas is brewing."

"Your gift, my Lord," Hagar said. From the shoulder-bag he carried, he withdrew a large parchment, rolled and tied with a swatch of red ribbon. He handed it over to the confused lord with a smile. "It is a map, my lord, of the Gap and the Southern America Sea."

Hagar saw the greed in his eyes. "A map bearing your seal?"

"Yes, my Lord. Sell it, adorn your walls with it, or burn it; it is yours to do with what you will."

"Perhaps it can buy back the honor of my princess? Perhaps it is enough to compensate for eight years and counting of raising a bastard grandson?"

"Of course not!" Hagar said defensively but looked down at his feet. "I shall return, my lord, and compensate her fully for her troubles. And you for yours."

"Swear me nothing! The word of a smuggler is worth less than the foul lips from which they were uttered. When you return, if you return, I dearly hope you will bring more than a single map."

"When I return, I will be a wealthy man. Only death and the God of the Deep could stop me."

"You can keep your heathen 'God of the Deep'. There are many things that could keep you from your word!"

The two men stared at each other coldly, each as determined as the other not to look away first. Finally, it was Hagar who shrank backwards.

"Thank you, my lord, for the kindly reception and hospitality," he said. "I will leave your house in peace and with the promise of a more permanent return soon." He tried to smile. "And when I return, I shall be a wealthy man and a determined father." Lord Fornes gave only a cold scowl in return, and Hagar backtracked from the manor in conflicted turmoil. At the end of a long hallway, he made the mistake of peering through an open door and there, like a dream, sat his long-estranged love Corrina Fornes, talking with a young servant and smiling lightly.

For a strange moment Hagar was thrust into a dream. The world dissolved around her. The only thing that mattered were the crisp, handsome features of her face. Every curve, every nuance as perfect as it was years earlier when he'd fallen in love with her with such reckless intensity he'd been willing to risk everything—his honor, his life, even whatever immortal soul he might possess—just to bask in her radiance. She was laughing now, a young but blossoming boy scampering around her legs. He was lighter of skin but his hair was identically black and straight. There was something terribly familiar about his face.

Hagar was painfully slow to realize he was looking at his own son.

His blood iced over. He'd known Corrina Fornes had become pregnant, but he'd been forbidden by her overly proud father to ever meet his child. They boy's existence, however, had troubled him incalculably in his sleep even though never until this very moment had he seen his beautiful face.

Corrina noticed him standing there and their eyes met. His body trembled as they stared silently into each other's eyes. He raised his hand, perhaps to call out to her, but her face transitioned from surprise to anger and she threw the door firmly shut. Hagar stared at the closed door in regret.