The Nine Oceans

Chapter 1

Korball

Bernard stared up at the sprawling estate. His cover on the beach was about to be severely compromised by the boat full of yelling navymen, but he hadn't seen who was on the horse and that person was a lot closer. Suddenly the pounding of hooves retreated back up the sand toward the maze and the manor. Bernard glanced over the rocks and saw... a woman? Riding at night?

Was that even legal in Korball?

He wiped the thought out of his mind and quickly replaced it with a plan to get up to the manor he could see the nearest roof of in the moonlight. Hoping whoever was out riding was blatantly trespassing and would ride away without causing any kind of alarm, or was an ally who wouldn't cause any kind of alarm, Bernard vaulted over the rocks, dashed up the beach, and dove for the thin bushes which was his next available cover. He didn't bother looking back to see if he'd been spotted – the navymen in the boat weren't as gearblocked as their uniforms made them look – and made a low run toward the tidy trees bordering the wide swath of manicured grass between the beach and the maze walls. He'd be able to easily lengthen his lead once in the garden's maze. It was designed to stop unfamiliar people from getting up to the house from the beach and, with the help of the rose and hawthorn comprising it, he should be able to get up to Madam Isabelle's window before the navymen were hammering on the front door.

He slipped through the maze, taking advantage of all the shortcuts, and stopped inside the final turning. Quiet hoof beats thudded across the thick grass toward the stables. Bernard silently cursed his bad luck. The quickest route to the garden shed roof was through the stable. Up until hearing the horse and rider walking toward the stable, that route had also been the best option for remaining unseen while crossing the yard to get to the garden shed and onto its roof. From there, it was an easy climb from the first ledge up to Madam Isabelle's window. He glanced out and saw – huh, it was a woman – jogging beside the rather lovely stallion she'd been riding at the beach.

He took two steps backwards and waited for the hoof beats to clop onto the packed roadway outside the stable, grinning at the frustrated yelling of the navymen attempting to navigate the start of the maze. Of what Bernard could gather, they all sounded angry even at this distance. He grinned wider at a particularly creative description of the dense thorns in maze walls.

Earlier this evening, when being provided the last meal he planned to eat on the Lindy, he'd been polite – as his mother had raised him to be – and thanked that navyman for the crew sailing so close to land. And, as his eldest cousin had taught him, he'd ensured being locked into a hold rather than a cell after being captured. Now he was a little richer and a lot closer to being completely free of this navy yet again.

The largest of the two stable doors rolled open, the flickering of a single wall-mounted flame splashing across the grass just past the maze exit, and the hoofbeats rang of steel shoes against flat paving stone. Then the door rolled closed. The smaller of the two doors opened just as Bernard was about to step out of the maze and he could hear a murmuring from inside. A shadow of someone entering the stable passed through the light shining out, but the small door closed again before he could make who the second person was, or any of the words being said.

He looked up at the dark wall of the looming manor he needed to escape into. Using any of the secreted doors at ground level on this side would be... Bernard decided, after a moment of consideration, the correct description was 'ill advised'. Hurrying around to any of the other sides would increase the risk of being seen by someone patrolling the grounds or living in the manor. Either of those options were far better than meeting what lived under the manor, but still weren't useful at the moment due to the approaching navymen.

The manor was large by every standard (except the one used by his aunt who lived in Tenet Mik) and the L-shape of it housed most people who would still be awake right now at the end furthest from the beach. Bernard considered his options and realized the easiest way to get inside would still be to go through the stable, out of sight. He would sneak around whoever the woman and second person were and continue on his way. Once out the other side of the stable, it was easy to climb onto the roof of the garden shed and he could still be in Madam Isabelle's rooms well before the navy demanded entrance to the house.