Free Sovereign by Simon Brown Page A

back. The nobleman gasped once and slumped to the ground.
    Lynan turned his horse and left.
    Jenrosa watched him leave. For a long while she had observed him as the harbour was destroyed, saw the flames reflected in his white hard skin, saw the way his expression did not change the whole time his army wreaked ruin at his command. In the background her mind had heard the screams of the dying and wounded, heard the crash of buildings as they collapsed under the fire, smelled the fear and despair rise into the air with the smoke. And Lynan had hardly blinked.
    When he was gone she could not help slumping in the saddle, as if her watching of Lynan had been a casting of some kind and had exhausted her. Lasthear put a hand on her arm. 'Are you alright?'
    Jenrosa did not answer. Something in the corner of her eye caught her attention, and she turned to find it. At first she did not recognise what it was, and then her gaze settled on the harbour waters, gold and glistening. She dismounted and went to the water's edge.
    'Jenrosa?' Lasthear asked.
    'It's nothing,' Jenrosa said. She blinked. No, there is something, but what ? A memory stirred deep in her mind. She bent over and swirled a hand in the water, sending ripples out in a circle, each ripple carrying its own reflection of the burning harbour. Again something moved a deep memory and she searched for it. She moved deeper into the water until it reached her waist.
    'Jenrosa!' Lasthear cried out, her voice worried.
    Jenrosa glanced over her shoulder, was surprised at Lasthear's expression. 'There's nothing wrong.'
    'But you are so deep,' Lasthear said.
    Jenrosa could not help smiling. 'This is not…' she started to say, then remembered she was talking to a Chett, someone who lived in the middle of the continent where the shallow lake at the High Sooq was the deepest water she ever saw. 'I'm alright,' she said. 'I was brought up near the sea. I am in no danger.'
    Lasthear seemed uncertain, but said no more.
    Jenrosa waited until the disturbance caused by her moving had calmed and then stared into the water again, letting her eyes lose their focus, clearing her mind for the memory that was proving so elusive. Tentatively she used her hand to cause a new cycle of ripples. Again each ripple carried a reflection of the burning harbour. Even as she watched the wash run out from her like mirrored rings, she saw in her mind's eye the incantation she wanted. She whispered the words. Nothing happened. She whispered the words again, and this time saw the last ripple reflected a harbour that was not burning at all; she caught a glimpse of a perfectly blue sky, of high-prowed Haxus ships, of wooden cranes and bustling docks.
    She gasped in surprise and involuntarily took a step back towards the land.
    'Jenrosa!' Lasthear cried again.
    'Be quiet!' she ordered sharply. She tried calming down her own heart which seemed ready to burst from her, but even as she did her mind was racing. Where had the incantation come from? It had not been a memory after all: she had never learned those words, either from Lasthear or from her training with the theurgia. She had called up something much deeper within her than mere memory.
    She took a long breath and repeated the words as she set off more ripples, and this time each wave carried a different reflection. The words faded from her lips as she watched a hundred different scenes recede from her.
    'The past is the same,' she said, 'but the present has no boundary.'
    She heard splashing behind her. The water around her became confused and choppy. She turned, her anger changing to surprise when she saw Lasthear standing right behind her, oblivious to the water lapping around her waist. 'What did you say?' Lasthear demanded fiercely.
    'What?'
    'Just then, when you were watching the water. What did you say?'
    Jenrosa blinked. 'I'm not sure. I don't think—'
    Lasthear grabbed Jenrosa's arms. 'The past is the same,' she said, almost shouting the words.
    And Jenrosa