The Spirit War(85)

Josef glared at the servant, who just smiled politely. Shaking his head, Josef looked over his shoulder. “I’m going to see what this is about,” he said. “You two stay here and keep working on what we were working on.”

“Sure thing, boss,” Eli said with a salute. But Nico met Josef’s eyes as she nodded. Josef smiled. She at least could be trusted to stay on target. That would be enough. He checked his blades one last time before he followed the servant into the hall, closing the door solidly behind him.





CHAPTER


12


As many times as she’d seen the white walls of Zarin rising in the distance, Miranda had never been so glad to be home. Gin’s time chained in the mountain seemed to have left him ready to run. Even with two passengers, he’d raced down the mountains in record time, though Miranda wasn’t sure if that was because of the urgency of the situation or if he just wanted Sparrow off his back. For his part, Sparrow hadn’t changed a bit. He still took up every bit of breathable air.

“Finally,” he cried as Zarin came into view. “Civilization. Powers, it’s been too long. I can’t wait to eat something that hasn’t had dog slobber all over it.”

Miranda sniffed indignantly. “You’re free to catch your own food, you know.”

“Hardly matters now,” Sparrow said. “We’ll be at the gates in an hour if your little puppy keeps up the pace.”

Miranda winced and glanced down at Gin. He’d threatened to eat Sparrow if the man called him a puppy one more time, but the ghosthound kept running as though nothing had happened. She sighed. Sparrow had no idea how lucky he was that spirits had a hard time hearing him. Of course, Miranda could hear him just fine, and that was enough to make her consider letting Gin eat him anyway.

As their road joined the main highway connecting Zarin to the northern Council Kingdoms, Miranda was astonished by the volume of traffic. Loaded carts filled the paved highway, forcing people on foot and horseback to spill over onto the fields beside the road. Since a ghosthound isn’t the sort of thing you want in the middle of a crowd of horses and ox-drawn carts, Gin had to turn out farther still, beyond the hard-beaten grass that lined the road and into the mud of the freshly plowed fields.

“Lovely,” Sparrow said, lifting his boots as high as he could.

Miranda ignored him. “What’s all this?” she said, nodding at the packed roar. “It’s months too early for the new year’s market, unless I am drastically wrong about how long we were under that mountain.”

“Those aren’t farm carts, either,” Gin added. “I smell steel.”

“You’re right,” Miranda said, straightening her knees so that she was almost standing on his back. “And they’re marked, look.”

Every cart was marked with a flag or seal. The traffic went on farther than she could see in both directions. Hundreds of carts from more countries than she could name hauling what had to be thousands of tons’ worth of goods into Zarin. But for what?

“They’re supply wagons,” Sparrow said, yawning. “You know, for the war.”

Miranda stopped Gin right there, nearly throwing Sparrow off. “War?” she yelled, whirling around. “What war?”

“The upcoming war with the Immortal Empress,” Sparrow said, resettling himself.

Miranda was staring at him like he’d just grown a second head. “The Immortal Empress?”

“Yes,” Sparrow said. “You know, terrible lady? Comes from across the sea with thousands of ships to kill us all? Don’t they teach you any history in that little social club of yours?”

“I know who the Immortal Empress is!” Miranda shouted. “What I want to know is what is she doing back? I thought she was defeated at Osera two decades ago?”

“Defeated?” Sparrow snorted. “She lost a few ships and a little pride, but women who own half the world don’t roll over just because you beat up their forward fleet. She retreated is all. Your real question should be, what took her so long to come back and finish the job?”

Miranda stared at him. “Well?”

“Well what?” Sparrow said, leaning back tiredly.

“What took her so long?” Miranda said, gritting her teeth on each word.

“How in the world should I know?” Sparrow said. “But she’s back now, and word is she’s got a fleet large enough to crush us flat five times over. Of course, that’s probably an exaggeration, but there must be some truth to it if Whitefall’s worked up enough to squeeze the Council Kingdoms this hard. There must be carts from here to Gaol.”