She gratefully shrugged out of the pack and took Liden’s lighter one. “Thanks.”
“Don’t mention it.” He looked at her with a flat stare. “Seriously don’t, especially to your sister.”
“Got it.” Sarta kept moving a little less fidgety than before. “But I think she’ll notice. She’s always watching, like the owl over the farm.”
“You realize owls sleep all day long, right?”
“Oh, never mind!”
Liden smirked. It was fun to watch her overreact, and it was so easy to get under her skin.
After walking until the sun was nearly set, they set up camp, gathered firewood, and Knell went off by herself to do some hunting. When she ran into the woods she was like another person. She’d leap from one rock to another, then grab a tree branch and swing herself up off the ground. She could move through the entire woods without ever stepping on a single dry leaf or making any sounds. It really was incredible.
Liden, Hunlok, and Sarta were stringing up their supplies around the fire to dry them off while Debir sat with a faraway look as if making some kind of mental calculations. “This place is pretty creepy,” Sarta said, looking around through the trees. “Are you sure there aren’t any wolves or incantas?”
Debir snapped out of his meditative state and turned to her, shaking his head. “Incantas? Really? They live in the snowy northern realms beyond the kingdom of Merryn.” He snickered a little, which earned him a punch in the arm from the youngest member of their group.
“We’ve been traveling north since we left Ryr. How was I supposed to know?” she retorted with a scowl.
“We’re still in Kresthin,” he replied. “The only snow we see is on the peaks of the mountains. I guarantee we won’t see any incantas on our trip to Zulholm.”
“You promise?” she said, looking a little more relieved.
“If you see one, I’ll stand in front of it while it eats me so you can get away,” Debir replied.
“What about wolves?”
Liden peaked from around a thin blanket he had stretched out over a clothes line. “With a wolf, you’d be on your own. There’s no way you could outrun one of them.”
“You couldn’t outrun a wolf either,” she countered.
“I wouldn’t need to. I’d just need to outrun your skinny little legs.” He shrugged and grinned wide at her. She took the shirt she was ringing out and threw it at him.
Debir stood up and joined the others. He grabbed a wet pack and hung it up on a low branch of a tree. “At this season, we’ll be pretty safe from wild animals in the woods. These woods are a favorite hunting spot for people from Bardwatch, Astyr, and even as far away as Freyr. Most of the animals here are wary of humans unless they are desperate for food, so during the warm season they’d rather find some easy prey like a squirrel or a rabbit.”
Hunlok chuckled to himself. “Skinny legs. Good one.” Everyone stopped talking, turned, and exchanged looks. “We’ll keep the fire going,” Hunlok said as if trying to cover his delayed reaction to Liden’s joke. “You’ve got nothing to worry about.”
“Thanks, Hunlok,” Sarta said, scooting closer to where he was sitting. “I feel safe with you around. If a wolf did attack me, you’d pull out your lasso and throw your rope around it, like tying up a milking cow.”
The bigger boy stood up and left to go get some more firewood. “You don’t actually tie up a milking cow,” Hunlok replied.
“So what’s with the faraway look, Debir? Thinking of a girl from back home?”
“Hardly,” Debir responded automatically, refusing to rise to the bait in Liden’s remark. “Just running through some numbers.”
“Do any of those numbers have to do with the robbery at the office?” Since they had left the ship, he’d been wanting to finish their partial conversation.
“Oh yes, the office,” he replied as if he had forgotten the entire reason they were here. “All that day I had been filing paperwork and doing some minor clerical work, and I remember there was one unusual report. It didn’t really register with me until I was on the ship.”
Liden commented. “They were there for a file, not for money. But they took the money too, to cover their real purpose.”
“Exactly. Hunlok…” He looked around the fire, and found only Sarta was there, so he turned back to Liden and continued. “When we saw the robbery, we assumed it was for gold, but the men we saw were dressed like merchants. So I got thinking about it: Why would wealthy men rob a place with a relatively meager strong box?”
“What was in the file?” Liden asked, hoping that if they could figure out what the men were after, they could know who might want it.
He was disappointed when Debir shrugged his shoulder. “I didn’t read much of the report. I don’t usually read them, I just file them, and retrieve them when needed.”
Liden was getting more and more confused as Debir kept talking. He trusted if his friend said there was a strange file, but each time Debir spoke, it left him with more questions. “Why did you read any of it?”
“I was curious. It was delivered with the other battle reports from the minor scrimmages that have been happening along the border, but it was thicker than most of them, by a lot. I opened the file, read the first page, but before I could file it away, Sergeant Avatol took it to his office.”
“All right, I’m totally lost. What was in the file?”
“It was an investigation. I didn’t get to read much of it, but I think there was some foul play happening along the border villages. Something to do with burning civilian homes.”
“Doesn’t that happen all the time?”
“Exactly,” Debir replied. “So if they are investigating, there must be more to it. My best guess would be they maybe found out which northern captain ordered it so they might be making plans for a counter attack. I really don’t know.” He shrugged.
Liden leaned back and tried to think through this. Although it was all just guess work, the pieces did seem to fit together. If it was a report of wrong doing, that would make sense for someone to find the report and destroy it. Namely the person guilty of doing the wrong. But they didn’t know who would have been named in the report, or why they wanted it. “Or it could just be a couple of thugs with nice clothing robbing the office.”
Debir nodded. “There’s also that possibility.”
“I guess since we’ve left that problem behind in Ryr, we should focus on getting to Astyr, right?”
“We’ll make it to Astyr just fine, but we might need to stop for a time to pick up a few side jobs so we can buy the supplies we’ll need to make it to Freyr. We have one extra mouth to feed, and some of our stuff was damaged in the salt water.”
“I think it makes the jerky taste even better.” Liden grabbed another piece and began chewing on it, still feeling like his stomach had a hole from his illness on the ship.
“We’ll see how much your stomach likes all the salt water you’ve eaten when morning comes,” Debir replied, going back to his faraway look.
“What kind of work can we do in Astyr?” Sarta asked. “It’s not like we can raise money doing a circus act.” Everyone stopped talking and looked at her. “Oh no! That was your plan.”
“We have to practice some time,” Liden argued, “if we’re going to win some prize money in the Zulholm festival.”
“I think you’ll need to practice a lot,” Sarta put in. “Well, all of you except Hunlok. His rope tricks are nearly perfect. The only thing that would make them better is if he ended by throwing that lasso around my waist and pulling me in close.” She batted her eyelids exaggeratedly.
Hunlok grabbed his lasso rope and spun it in a circle around his head. Sarta’s eyes just about popped out of her head she looked so excited. She stood still with her arms at her sides. Hunlok threw the rope, the open loop passing over Sarta’s head, then he pulled it. The rope tightened around her and he pulled her to himself. When she was close, he swung the rope around her several times, tyin
g her arms securely to the side of her body, then he picked her up, brought her over to her sleeping roll and put her down on the ground. “Happy dreams,” he said, patting her on the head.
*****
The sun rose early in the morning and the groggy group slowly packed their supplies, grateful for how much lighter everything felt after a night of hanging near the fire. A refreshing breeze wove between the trees, bringing the fresh smells of a new day. Liden turned down the offer of the last piece of rabbit meat from Knell’s only kill the previous night, holding his stomach. It felt like he had been kicked by a horse. He held up the pulleys Debir had taken from the ship; they were the last items he needed to pack before he tied off his pack. “Do we really need these?”
Debir nodded with a sly grin as if he had some kind of secret plan for them. Either that or he just liked to see Liden struggle to carry something useless as a personal kind of joke. “I have something in mind for those.”
Liden didn’t complain as he put them into the pack because, as with the pain in his stomach, Debir was usually right with his predictions. If he thought they would be useful, he was happy to have the extra equipment.
For the next two days they moved north through the forest until they came to the city of Astyr. Liden stared around him as they wandered the city streets, surprised by how open it felt. Nothing in his life living in Ryr could have prepared him for such a sight. The people in the streets weren’t dusty and dirty from working in the mines, and the city itself didn’t seem confined by the mountains. It spread out with houses dotting the outskirts of the city on the southern side. Each house had space around it with room to plant a small vegetable patch. He didn’t know much about this place, but what he was seeing, he loved. It felt open and free. It was beautiful.
“Over there,” Debir said, pointing at the shipyard.
“Are you really wanting to move forward with this?” Liden asked, not sure his friend’s idea was the best. It seemed too simple.
Debir nodded, then looked at Knell, Sarta, and Hunlok. Knell and Sarta looked almost excited to confront Kaves again, and Hunlok looked like always; neutral but loyal.
“Okay,” he reluctantly agreed. “Let’s try it out. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“We can get captured, tied up like rats, and sent back home,” Sarta replied.
“On that inspiring note…” Liden said, marching ahead of the sisters. “And rats don’t get tied up.” He shook his head as he kept moving forward.
The group crossed the bridge into the city, then headed west to the docks. It was easy to spot Kaves’ ship as it was one of the largest that could still come inland on the Serpent Tongue River. Liden watched for a time, trying to get a feel for the situation. Kaves pointed back and forth at his men as they rushed crates down the gangplank. There was a small crew of men working with some wood next to the ship, but Liden couldn’t tell if they were making repairs to the ship, the docks, or perhaps both. Next to the docks there was a row of tall warehouses. Knell and Sarta ducked behind those buildings, wanting to stay out of sight and hoping Kaves would forget about the little stowaway, while Hunlok, Debir and Liden strode forward, trying to act as confident as possible.
“Kaves, my good man,” Liden called out when they were close enough for him to recognize them, but still far enough away for them to run away if needed. The man turned around quickly and glared at the three of them.
“You lot have some nerve ye do, showin’ up ‘ere after…”
“You threw us off your ship for no reason without pay?” Debir cut in. He took several strides forwards and glared up at the much larger seaman in an almost taunting way. “We’ve come here to offer you a deal.” Debir held a single pulley in his hand high in the air so the man could see it.
Despite being far enough away that they still needed to practically shout to have a conversation, Liden was worried by the shade of red on Kaves’ face. He again rethought the wisdom of this plan. Kaves strode forward, closing in on them. Liden took a step back as if to run, but Debir shook his head just a little. This was his plan and Liden wasn’t going to leave him behind.
“You pile o’ fish guts!” He pointed down at Debir and reached out to grab the pulley from him.
Debir moved it out of Kaves’ reach. “I’m guessing it didn’t work quite like planned,” Debir tried to sound confident, but it came off as cocky.
“’Course it didn’t work! One of me crew near broke his back, we lost one crate of ore and the dock master is makin’ us fix the broken dock,” he shouted, grabbing out to take the pulley again. This time he swiped it from Debir’s hand.
Debir stood calmly, looking at the clearly frustrated sailor. He waited a moment to let the man cool off, then drew a second pulley from his pack. “Are you sure there’s only one missing?”
Kaves bent down so he was face to face with Debir and his tone changed from shouting mad to eerily soft. “I’ll feed you to the sharks, ya puny redtop, if you do a thing to harm me crew.”
Liden stepped in, not sure how much intimidation Debir could stand up to, and seeing that the man was getting dangerously close to just killing them all. “We didn’t mean to harm anyone, but we’re also not in the mood to be swindled. I guess if you look at it that way, we’re just like you.”
“Except that we were thrown off a ship and made to swim to the shore and hike for the better part of three days,” Hunlok added. He stepped up behind Debir, forcing Kaves to straighten up to look him in the eyes.
Kaves stood for a moment looking at the three of them, then slowly a smile began to crack on his face. “Aye, you do have a point. Though I meant ye no harm. A swim and walk in the woods is a little thing; it didn’t kill you. Then again, ye lied to me ‘bout knowing the stowaway and her sister nearly shot an arrow into me.”
“Fair point,” Debir said, raising his hands in the air in surrender.
“Not really,” Liden cut in. “She was just giving you a warning shot. You actually threw us off the ship. I think it’s more of a fair trade if we have her actually shoot you with an arrow.” Liden pointed up to the top of a nearby warehouse where Knell stood with her bow at the ready. “Don’t worry. She’s very good. She’d only hit you in the leg, or arm. Just a little thing, she won’t kill you.” He gave a smug smile as he mimicked Kaves’ tone.
Kaves looked up from the corner of his eye, but didn’t fully acknowledge Knell as part of their negotiations. He probably knew they wouldn’t actually have her shoot him, but his smile seemed to indicate that he was more amused by the situation than annoyed or angered. It took a special kind of person to brush off a threat like that as if it was nothing.
“I’m behind on me work. What do ye want?”
“Pay for the work we did on the ship, and we’ll give you these pulleys with instructions on where they go.”
“No chance of that,” he replied. “I’m not payin’ ye a copper without seeing the system fully workin’. As for the work you did, ye did no work for the full trip.”
Liden threw out his arms in protest. “Because you threw us off the ship.”
An arrow thudded into the dock boards next to Kave’s foot and Liden turned around in alarm. He quickly waved Knell off and she assumed a more relaxed pose. “Best be watchin’ yer flappin’ arms eh?” Kaves tried to act as though the arrow shot hadn’t shaken him, but his eyes did continue to dart up to the roof of the warehouse every couple of seconds.
“Sorry,” Liden replied sheepishly. In a calm tone he repeated. “We worked the entire time we were on the ship.”
Kaves shook his head. “Ya did nothing but sick over the side, and the stowaway came with ya. I’d say we’re even on that count.”
“Deal,” Debir cut in sticking out his hand. “You pay me for the pulley system, we’ll get it installed and tested to your liking, and we’ll call it even.”
“Deal!” Kaves shook his hand, but had a sly look on his face Liden did not like.
“One more thing,” Kaves added
, lowing his voice down to a near whisper. “When the ship came in to the docks, we were boarded ‘n searched before we unloaded a single crate.”
“What were they looking for?” Liden asked.
“T’was not a what they be searchin’ fir, but a who,” Kaves said, looking at the boys. “Two young men. One large, one slight, both from Ryr, said they killed a soldier. Offered a handsome reward too.”
“We didn’t kill anyone,” Hunlok replied quickly before Liden could deny that the accusation was about them. He slapped his palm on his forehead. “And how did they get here ahead of us?”
Kaves looked at Debir and Liden, then shot a glance at Hunlok. “I know ye be innocent, I can see ‘t in yer eyes. Otherwise I would not have let ye on me ship in Ryr. As for the news beating ye here. This ship be large, not fast, and word spreads like wildfire, ‘specially when thars a reward. When we’ve tested your system,” he said, looking at Debir, “then ye best be moving again and fast. Anyone with the money to put up a reward for ye that fast has power in these parts. Whoever it be, ye can’t stand ’gainst that.”
Liden felt a chill run down his spine. Not only had they not outrun the people who had framed Debir and Hunlok, but the seemingly invincible sailor was warning them to be warry of whoever was chasing them. “Let’s get started on those tests,” he said.
It took nearly five hours for Liden to realize why they had gotten the short end of the stick on the deal with Kaves, and his arms, shoulders, and back ached for the oversight. Kaves’ idea of testing the pulley system to ‘his liking’ was showing him how it worked until the ship was completely loaded and ready to sail. However, true to his word, as they finished loading the ship, Kaves came with a small purse of coins that would be more than enough to get them the supplies they needed to get to Freyr. “Fair trade,” he said, extending his hand.
Debir reached out and the sailor began to smile. “I told ya b’fore, I’d have ya on this crew. The offer stands. For you,” he added looking only at Debir. “I’ll not be wantin’ yer sick friend,” he added with a smile.
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