A Country Falls (Greatest Thief 3)

Part One - Navire - Chapter One

The city of Navire sat on the edge of a large inland lake,  connected to the Roeser ocean by the wide Navi River. The river's entrance was guarded by two cities. On the left, Greal sat close to the water and had a busy port. The right side of the river was higher up, and Giar looked more like a small fort than a proper walled city. Despite their proximity, they were two different cities. Even if the Telts insisted on treating them like one city, and calling them Giareal.

The cities were a welcome sight after our trip. Since leaving Zianna, we had only stopped once to briefly visit the city of Pagea, on Greater Pitten Island. The Pitten-Pax Island chain had once belonged entirely to Navire. From a distance, the islands had all looked similar. There wasn't much to indicate which three were part of Zianna, and which were part of Navire. Somewhere beside those islands we had crossed into Navire's ocean.

As we sailed slowly onto the Navi River, a third flag was raised on our mast. As a West Draulin ship, the Thief Queen was allowed to fly West Draulin's flag at the top. Underneath it fluttered Zianna's flag. The third flag was a plain white sheet, meant to indicate that we were approaching the capital city peacefully. Still, as we sailed between the two cities, the sailors and Tannix's knights seemed somewhat nervous.

For the first hour or so on the Navi River, Tannix stood beside Ender on the quarter deck. He made himself very visible for anyone inspecting us through spyglasses. Once several Navirian navy ships had passed us without incident, he relaxed and climbed down to the main deck. It was just past noon, and we weren't likely to reach the end of the river before dusk. There wasn't much for Tannix to do but wait, and waiting was hard for him.

I hovered nearby in case he needed me, but mostly he restlessly paced around the deck. I understood why he was so nervous. The last time he had dealt with a foreign kingdom, he had been in chains, in an interrogation room. He also didn't want to act as an ambassador. He didn't like the political side of being Lord West Draulin, even though he was good at it.

He didn't have a choice, though. Our kingdom was on the brink of war with Deorun. The King, Tannix's older brother Tandrin, had given him a task to do. We were sailing to Navire, hopeful that Queen Navire would agree to join us. I had full faith in Tannix's ability to convince her. We all did, but that didn't mean he wasn't worried about it. So he found ways to distract himself as he paced around. Talking briefly with sailors or knights, stopping to pretend to inspect some part of the ship he didn't really know much about, or standing still and watching the coast go by. I liked watching the coast, and not only because I still didn't like water. Mostly it was because of how different Navire was.

My home city, Zianna, was pressed between the Adymuss River and the Cliffs of Loth. The land was a rocky desert, studded with shrubs and other hearty little plants. West Draulin was covered in farmlands and small forests. Deorun looked like an endless expanse of sand, which came to life near water. Navire was different. Thick forests grew right up to the edge of the water, made up of tall trees and lush undergrowth. In some places, it was cut away as roads ran alongside the river, or we would pass small villages. The trees were like nothing I had ever seen, but that wasn't the end of the differences. Brightly coloured birds flitted through the forest. At one point a pair of large blue birds settled on the Thief's shrouds—the ladder likes ropes that reached up the masts. The air was hot, but damp in a way I had never imagined air could feel. My clothes felt sticky, and every time we passed by a village and saw children swimming, I was almost envious.

Sometime in the afternoon, Tannix pulled Acen aside and the pair of them disappeared into the captain's quarters. I was tempted to follow, but for the sake of our hired sailors I had been doing my best to act the part of servant. Tannix and Acen likely wouldn't mind me listening in. If Tannix hadn't been so distracted they might have even invited me. The sailors wouldn't understand, though, so I stayed out on deck. Being a servant didn't give me the right to listen in on a conversation between Lord West Draulin and the captain of his guard. The only thing that gave me that right was something that we had to keep secret.