Emaldo scratched behind his ear nervously, his fingers trailing over the map we'd drawn and redrawn over the last two days.

"Say it," I repeated. The tell of his was going to turn a little itch into an open bleeding sore in his hairline if he didn't stop scratching. "I don't remember the layout, so you're the best I have to recreate the damage. If we're going to bring enough supplies then I need to know what's in your head."

"There's something I'm missing. It's right on the tip of my tongue but I can't connect the pieces."

Two days we'd been collecting every shred of information on Eskeria. Margo had ransacked the harbor master's records; an entire staff had been combing through the royal archives for any reference. The best map maker in the city slept in the King's war room listening to Emaldo describe the Sapphire City as he'd found it.  

 The scribe had been recording everything for hours as sailors came and went, recounting the same story but from different points of view. He could no longer hold his quill for the cramp in his hand. It wasn't until the seasoned warrior, who had seen more than his share of battle, described the market, what was left of it, that I had my first thread.

The majority of the stalls had burned down to the frames. A cart of the last of the falls harvest had been overturned and rotted husks of pumpkins littered the street along with bodies, mostly decomposed.

I knew the significance of that. It pushed its way through the black depths of my memory and it was as if I'd known what that meant all along. All those years of training at the knee of my father lost but pieces were returning.  

    The sailor's weathered face searched mine and knew I understood.

  "They weren't raiding for the sake of raiding," I confirmed watching his mouth thin into a strict line in agreement. "They had a specific goal in mind so they left the goods behind because they didn't need them. They must have been well stocked to sail to Eskeria and back without bothering to help themselves to fresh produce and goods. Pumpkins feed a lot of men and store easily. They would have been prized loot. No moving army would have left them behind if they could. And they had the time, once Eskeria was sacked they would have had weeks, even months to remain on the island reaping the benefits. But they didn't. They left immediately and didn't have the need or the time to resupply. Where did they have to return to, or who did they have to report to?"

There was a sharp approval in his eyes. It irked me that the first impression of me would always be that of a woman and I would have to prove myself to everyone. "Yes, your majesty. They didn't need supplies or they would have taken everything of value and there were no signs that they had stayed in the town. Nothing to suggest they lingered for more than a day. There were casts of wine piled near the docks left untouched, and the market stalls that weren't burned still held stores of wheat and goods. Mice and rats had gotten to most of the grain but no human had gone back for them. They attacked, they killed and they left within a day or two."

I was keeping my own notes and jotted down my thoughts. When I glanced over my writing it was mostly a list of questions and things to do. "I'd seen at least five ships in the bay when we fled. How much stores would they have needed to supply each ship and feed the crew?" I spoke out loud but Phillipe wrote as I spoke digging for a piece of paper in the stack. It was the list I needed to ask Hugo. He had another for the architect and the third list for Commander Rupert. Things to clarify so I could get a clearer image of what happened and how. What would a fleet of that size need? What would trained soldiers have done differently? Pirates? I had a vague description of the ships but what sized cannons would have been needed for the artillery to reach that far inland? Cannons were expensive and difficult to purchase without leaving behind witnesses. Someone somewhere knew something. Breadcrumbs. I needed breadcrumbs.

"The closest land to Eskeria that could supply a fleet is Karpathios. Small, even by Eskerian standards, it's mostly transients and vagabonds. An isolated floating market ruled by capital, not by any standing governing. No laws or codes of conduct. Theft is the only restriction. Other than that, all goes. It's four days to Eskeria from there with clear skies and calm seas. The next closest landfall is two weeks at best. They would have taken the food and wine for a return journey if they had that far to sail. I need to stop in Karpathios, after Eskeria but before Rhundipar. If I can get a description of the crew or captain then I can start asking more specific questions of the Tsar. If I don't know what to ask. I won't be able to catch him in a lie and I don't believe for one second that he doesn't know something. A fleet would have been noticed at Karpathios and so would a single ship buying five times more goods than it could hold. Someone would have seen something. The regular inhabitants are paranoid and cynical, they notice everything. My enemy had to buy supplies from someone on that uncivilized patch of sand."

Dismissing the stalwart soldier, he bowed to me. I nearly missed it with my whirlwind thoughts but forced myself to recognize his respect and thanked him. It wouldn't do to disregard their efforts, even distracted as I was it would be thoughtless. They were doing all of this for me so I took the time to acknowledge his contribution. It was the first mistake my enemy had made and the first real clue I had. If it had been within my power, I would have given him a title but it wasn't.

When he left, the next in a long list of interviews took his place. Some offered details that would haunt my sleep. Children hung from the palm trees, a family of four drowned in a fountain in the town center. Their bodies trapped beneath nine inches of water by an iron gate that once stood at the entrance of a church. Details that cut me to my soul but offered no facts that would help me find their murderers. It went on for hours, then turned into days. Retelling after retelling, ghost after ghost. The scribe recorded every word, fingers wrapped in bandages after the blisters burst, empty bottles of ink piled up on the side. The map maker's hands, fingers stained black with coal, sketching a picture of the death of Eskeria. The remnants of previous versions littered the floor around his feet. A visual diagram of how my people were killed.

But I had the beginnings of a plan.

A course was set with every word. First to Eskeria, where I would put my people to rest. I would collect anything of Eskerian heritage I could find that hadn't been pillaged and let Eskeria go. I'd track my demons down, follow the trail wherever it led me. Karpathios was next and that would give me another set of clues and the next destination.

I had a list of five Eskerian embassies; Rhundipar, Hispellum, Ankor, Tearette and West Charlain. I was going to visit each one until every person of Eskerian blood was located. Then I'd hunt those responsible down and send them to the bottom of the ocean to rot.

It was in this storm of endless questions that Theodrid found me. 'When was the last time I'd bathed?' I thought when he stepped into the room I'd taken over. My gown was wrinkled with smears of ink staining the cuffs and lord knows what state my hair was in. 

 "Collette, my dear. Have you slept?" He looked around, taking note of the two plates of food left untouched.

Shaking my head to bring some sense of order to the piles of parchment that covered the table. "I haven't kept track. We'll be weeks at sea, I can sleep on the ship."

His careful study only made me more defensive. "I've come to inform you that Emory and I will be leaving. A friend and close confidant of mine and his family are on their way to the city. He's sending ships to guard Bryndury while you're away. Their carriages are faster this time of year when they don't lose an axle. We've received word that their caravan came across some trouble on the road so we're going to fetch them."

I tried not to flinch at his name. Emory hadn't spoken to me in days; not since the formal agreement, we'd come to in the throne room. We slept separately and I'd taken all of my meals here instead of the Great Hall so I hadn't seen him. Things once spoken couldn't be unspoken. Things once admitted, well. We both knew what that meant. As long as we avoiding saying it out loud then it wasn't happening, hadn't happened.

When I didn't reply Theodrid thrummed his fingers against the hilt of his sword. "I know you plan on sailing away the day after tomorrow and we won't be returning until that afternoon. I'd ask you to postpone your departure. Lord Masters is Cynthera's shipwright. You have some questions regarding the fleet he would be able to answer and information he could collect for you. It might be worth the wait if it leads to the names of your enemies."

I watched him for a moment, knowing he was right. I needed to know things, things about where those ships would have come from and who could have supplied them. But that meant a week of this silent holding pattern between Emory and I. I wanted to leave, yesterday. After nights alone with all of this awfulness and Emory in the same building, I simply wanted to leave. To put distance between us in reality so the distance between us now wouldn't hurt so much.

Eskeria had to come first. Answers had to come first.

"I'll give him a week. If this Lord Masters doesn't come up with anything of use then I must go regardless. The bodies have had months to decompose and Eskeria doesn't have as cold a winter as our northern neighbors to preserve them, not with the spring rains coming. The longer I wait the fewer I'll be able to burry. Eskeria doesn't have many large predators but there are dogs and smaller carnivores. I can't leave them like that any longer than I have to. Besides, now that the ice has melted there will be news of Eskeria's downfall traveling to my adversaries. They won't wait to send their own scavengers. My allies won't hesitate to pick the remains apart and take what they want for themselves. The Gem mines are valuable. The entrances are hidden and records of their locations kept secret from outsiders but a large enough search party, without anyone there to stop them, will find them in a matter of days. Beating them to the Sapphire City is the only advantage I have to protect my home."

Theodrid held his regal stature but the shallow rise and fall of his breathing let me know how disturbing he found my clinical approach. "I agree, but a week's delay may prevent months of waiting later."

"So be it. I'll return the remainder of your fleet to you once I leave Eskeria. It's too large of an expedition for an entire armada. Six separate destinations and that's only the beginning. This could take years to follow through. I won't keep your men that long. If I send you my notes so far would you consider reading over them and giving me your thoughts? I studied strategy and warfare growing up but it's returning slowly and incomplete. I could use your impressions."

The smile was empty and flat. "Of course, Colette. Emory and I will be leaving within the hour, give me what you can and I'll have something for you when we return."

I'd thought ahead of time and been prepared, copies of Phillips notes were made almost as soon as he made the originals. The leather folio was rolled and tied, tucked under Theodrid's arm as he left. Both of us well aware that even with his veiled attempts to bring it up I hadn't asked after Emory.

I stood looking through the open door even after he'd disappeared from sight. Tension and fatigue drawing my muscles taunt and stiff. There was something about the layout of the city that bothered me and needed my attention. The map we'd been forming was well detailed and precise but there was something about it I couldn't quite put my finger on.

 One last glance towards the door, waiting for someone I knew wasn't coming, the empty doorway was the only response I got. I turned away to study my home and tried to piece together what I couldn't remember. I couldn't cope with two heartaches of their magnitudes at the same time. Either one was too painful as it was, but both was more than I could handle.

My route was long, there were months at sea ahead of me. I'd be zigzagging my way across the straights from destination to destination. With what little I had so far, I was looking at a year of travel. Everything else, everyone else would have to wait. If they could.

And afterward, when this was all over? That was something I didn't have the heart nor the strength to think about.