Harbinger

by Shae Ford

  She shrugged. “Only time will tell. Though I’ve found that having a rogue on your side can often be useful. He’s friendly, at least — which is something you and I aren’t very good at.”

  Well, he supposed she was right about that. He’d just mustered up the courage to take a bite of his stew when Aerilyn returned.

  She stomped up to the table with her chin firmly in the air. Her nose was red, but her eyes had a dangerous glint in them. “I’ve made a decision,” she declared. “There’s no point in returning home right away — I’ll not spend the winter alone with my tears. So, since you refuse to come with me, I’m coming with you. When do we leave?”

  *******

  At just before midnight, Kyleigh led them out the door of The Jolly Duke. Chaney and Claude caught wind of their adventure and begged for hours to come along. But Jonathan finally convinced them to stay with the caravan.

  “What’ll your pap do come winter, when he hasn’t got anyone to help him in the shop?” he said, and the brothers very reluctantly admitted that he was right.

  When Kael stepped out into the street, he heard the crash of a window slamming open. Claude popped his head out first, followed closely by Chaney.

  “We’ll miss you!”

  “Bring us back something from your adventure!”

  After swearing he would, they waved and went back to their beds.

  Horatio came down to see them off. He’d been upset when Kyleigh said they were leaving, but couldn’t deny the fact that their contract was up. “At least take your wages,” he said, but Kael pushed the silver back into his hands.

  “I’ve got no room in my pack. Use it to take care of the villagers.”

  Horatio nodded stiffly, and then pulled him in for a bone-crushing hug. “You’ve always got a place with us, if the mountains don’t suit you.” He nodded to Kyleigh. “And make sure that girl stays out of trouble.”

  He promised he’d try.

  Horatio seemed prepared to let them go — that is, until Aerilyn came skipping out, a full-to-the-seams rucksack hanging off one shoulder of her pale blue traveling cloak. Then his face went purple.

  “Absolutely not!” he roared, snatching her by the pack. “You aren’t going anywhere but home.”

  “I’ll go where I please!” she shouted back. “I’m a grown woman, it’s high time that I make my own way.”

  Horatio stepped in front of her, using his belly to herd her back inside. “Men make their own way, ladies do not. The realm isn’t safe for a woman anymore, and I swore to keep you safe! I’m not going to pack you off to Kingdom knows where, to do Kingdom knows what — that’s the opposite of safe!”

  She shoved back on Horatio’s stomach, trying to use her shoulder to wedge herself out the door. “But Kyleigh travels all the time — and she’s a woman!”

  “A woman with all of Midlan on her trail!”

  Horatio yelled until he was out of breath. Aerilyn huffed and stomped her foot at everything he said. It wasn’t long before furious tears sprang into her eyes and she started wailing about how unfair he was. Then someone leaned out the window above them and said that if they didn’t shut it, he’d called the guards. And Horatio was in the middle of telling the man exactly where to put his guards when Kyleigh grabbed his arm and pulled him aside.

  There was a great deal of hissing and spitting on Horatio’s end and a lot of calm, even whispering from Kyleigh. Eventually, she got him to speak at a normal volume. Then came the arm-crossing and head-nodding. A few minutes later, they seemed to reach an agreement.

  “So we have a deal?”

  Horatio glared at her hand for a moment before he finally took it. “Very well. But not a hair on her head, do you understand?”

  Kyleigh’s face was serious. “For as long as I draw breath.”

  When Horatio turned and said, very reluctantly, that Aerilyn could go, she shrieked in delight. She threw her arms around his shoulders and told him what a wonderful, generous man he was. The two of them likely would have sobbed about how much they would miss each other all night if Kyleigh hadn’t cleared her throat and reminded them that they had a ship to catch. So they said goodbye to Horatio one last time, and then they followed her down to the docks.

  Kael couldn’t believe how monstrous the ships were. Lanterns hung all along the path, spaced a few feet apart. They were intended to warn travelers of the water’s edge, but the light gave him a better view of the boats. He pulled the Atlas out of his pocket and made a game of checking off the ones he saw.

  Some he knew were sailing boats: they were smaller than the rest and built for speed. The Duke probably used them to pass around his ridiculous laws the second he thought of them. All he had to do was breathe in to know that most were wide-bottomed fishing boats: the stench of dead sea life hung in the air like a rotten cloud. Even if he held his nose, he could still taste it in his throat. Jonathan pulled his shirt collar over his nose and Aerilyn gagged quietly into her handkerchief. Kyleigh had her hood pulled up, so he couldn’t tell if she was making a face or not.

  He’d be surprised if she wasn’t.

  Gruff shouts and a chorus of laughter drew his eyes to the tallest ship. A group of bearded men leaned over the high rails and beat their tankards against their breastplates, trying to get Aerilyn’s attention. When she looked up, they whistled.

  Jonathan pulled her behind him before she could retort and clamped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry, gents — she’s spoken for!” he said with a wink.

  The soldiers laughed and raised their tankards to him, and he saluted smartly.

  “I’ll be sure and give her a kiss for you!” he called. Then, out the side of his mouth to Aerilyn: “They aren’t worth it, lass. They’re drunker than a full moon and hanging over the ocean in armor. I’d bet my favorite toe that at least half of them won’t live to see the morning.”

  They weren’t three steps away when they heard a loud splash and round of guffaws.

  “See? What did I tell you?” he said with a grin.

  The ship Kyleigh led them to was a merchant’s vessel, judging by the many large crates stacked over its every surface. As they walked down the long bridge to the boarding ramp, Kael felt an odd twist in his stomach. His legs shook a little and he found that if he looked down at the water, the feeling got worse.

  He was probably just excited.

  Most of the men aboard the vessel were the Duke’s soldiers, all clad in full armor. A very few were normal sailors — and yet they seemed to be the ones doing all the work. They weaved around, loading crates, tying them down, getting the ship ready to set sail while the Duke’s men leaned against the rails and watched.

  Kyleigh led them up the ramp to a soldier who greeted them with a glare. “The coin you gave me was for two, miss,” he said to Kyleigh. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to recognize her face from under the shadow of her hood. “I’m not allowed to have four passengers, and I haven’t got the room for them.”

  “You aren’t allowed to have one passenger,” she retorted. “And for the price I’m willing to pay, I think you’ll find the room.”

  He looked at the heavy purse at her belt and shifted his weight uncomfortably. “You don’t understand, miss. If the Duke finds out, I’ll lose my place. And in these times that might as well be a death sentence. I’m sorry, but you’ll have to find passage elsewhere.”

  Kyleigh’s hand went to her sword, but Aerilyn stepped in before she could get them all killed. “Please, sir. Our business is very important and we haven’t got much time. Couldn’t you see it in your heart to help us? At least until the next port?”

  Under the spell of Aerilyn’s eyes, it was amazing how quickly the soldier softened. “All right,” he grumbled. He took the purse Kyleigh handed him and tucked it quickly into his pocket. “This way.”

  They followed him to the back of the boat, where a small canopy had been stretched over the space between two stacks of crates. “You’re to stay here at all times. If you need to reli
eve yourself, tell one of the guards. They’ll escort you to the railings. Otherwise, stay put and don’t make a ruckus.” He lowered his voice. “The seas aren’t safe anymore, especially for our sort of boat.” With that, he marched away — leaving them to get settled for the night.

  Their space under the canopy was a far cry from an inn. Even when they camped in the Valley, Kael could sprawl out in every direction. But now he had Aerilyn’s shoulder pressed against his side, squishing him into the solid wood of the nearest crate. Jonathan was laying lengthways and already asleep, judging by the heavy breath he kept blowing into the top of Kael’s head.

  After a bit of squirming, he found that if he rolled over on his side, he could get some space. He turned towards the crate and noticed that it had the sun of Whitebone branded into the side of it. He was tracing the burnt edges with his finger when he heard Aerilyn hiss:

  “Kyleigh, are you mad?”

  “Last time I checked, no,” was her cool reply.

  “Well the last time I checked, we were stuck on a ship carrying goods from the desert. And do you know what they make in the desert?”

  “Sand?”

  “Jewelry!” Aerilyn said, with no small amount of exasperation. “Gold, silver, diamonds — these crates are probably spilling over with treasure. Did it ever occur to you that treasure practically makes us a beacon for,” she lowered her voice, “pirates?”

  Kyleigh snorted. “Pirates are just an old fisherman’s tale.”

  “No they aren’t! Didn’t you hear what that guard said, about how the seas aren’t safe anymore? Gold was hardly enough to get him to bring us along. And I’m telling you, it’s because of the pirates. We should get off this very instant. I’m sure we can find another ship to travel on —”

  “Have you ever met a pirate?”

  An indignant gasp. “Of course I haven’t! They’re not exactly the company one invites to tea. Besides, merchants are the sworn enemies of pirates. We actually work for our coin, thank you very much. Pirates are naught but drunken thieves — and they’ll kill you and hang your body from the mast of their ship.”

  Kyleigh laughed. “Oh, please. Why would they do something like that? Just think of the mess. We aren’t getting off,” she added, “so you might as well get some sleep. I promise things will look much less deadly in the morning.”

  Chapter 19

  Anchorgloam

  Part of agreeing not to cause a ruckus meant that Jonathan was absolutely banned from playing his fiddle. When the captain threatened to throw it overboard, he stuffed the instrument hastily into his rucksack and sat on it. Not long after that, he found a pack of cards — and made it his personal duty to teach Kael how to play.

  On the front of each card was a painted image of a person or a beast. The highest card in the deck was the King. He glared out from under his crown and clutched a vicious-looking dagger in his right hand. There were four Kings and each ruled over a different color suit: black was the strongest, followed by red, then blue, and finally green.

  It took Kael a few hands to figure it out, but soon he could hold his own at the table — much to Jonathan’s dismay.

  “And here I thought you’d be a purse,” he grumbled as Kael collected his winnings: two bread slices and a slightly wrinkled plum.

  “What’s a purse?” Aerilyn asked.

  “A bloke who can’t really play and just winds up paying the rest of the table,” Jonathan explained. He tossed a black knight out in the middle. “You might as well hand over your cheese, gents! There’s not a card left among you that can trump him.”

  Then Kael played the black dragon and his mouth dropped open in shock. “You’re a villain,” he said accusingly. “A cold-stomached killer!” He threw his cards down and rolled over on his back, clutching his heart.

  And Aerilyn took the opportunity to punch him in the gut.

  They passed the long days at sea playing whatever games Jonathan could think of: Madman’s Crumble, Scalawaggle, Ditch the Witch, and Burnt Pecan were just a few. Though Kael strongly suspected that Burnt Pecan wasn’t a real game: Aerilyn had never heard of it, and the rules kept changing in Jonathan’s favor.

  As long as he had something to occupy him, Kael didn’t think the journey was all that bad. But the moment he ran out of things to do, he began to notice how miserable he was.

  Never, in all of his life, had he been forced to live in such cramped quarters. He’d always had the wilderness to escape to, the wide-open land to run across and plenty of trees to hide in. But on the merchant ship there was no escape, and it wasn’t long before he began to feel like a rabbit caught in a snare. If Jonathan had a tune stuck in his head, he hummed it until it got stuck in Kael’s. If Aerilyn asked him a ridiculous question, he couldn’t pretend like he hadn’t heard her — because she was always sitting right at his elbow. The soldiers would sneer at him, call him a mountain rat or a redheaded stork, and there was nothing he could do about it.

  “If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you never want to clock a man in the middle of the sea,” Jonathan warned when he’d muttered darkly about their heckling. “If his mates decide to toss you, it’s a long, cold swim to shore.”

  “I don’t know how to swim,” Kael admitted.

  He shrugged. “So it’d be a short one, then.”

  For once, the only person who didn’t annoy him on an hourly basis was Kyleigh. The boat was small, and the further out to sea they went the larger the waves became. So the vessel rocked back and forth in unreliable patterns, sloshing them around like the last sip of ale in the bottom of a tankard. And Kyleigh’s stomach didn’t take well to the movement.

  Her face was always tinged some shade of green. She had a difficult time keeping her rations down and spent most of her days laying on her side with her hood pulled up, trying to sleep. He actually felt sorry for her, and he got her a cup of water anytime he could.

  Eventually, the long days would fade away and then the nights were mostly pleasant. He’d had no idea just how big the sky was, but out in the middle of the sea, the stars were magnificent. They danced the length and breadth of the sky, winking back at them knowingly. He wished he could see the world all at once as they did. He imagined his troubles must look ridiculously small from up there. But from where he stood, they were monstrous.

  Aerilyn put on a brave face during the day, but darkness left them with little light and nothing to do — except brood. So when night fell, her thoughts must have turned to Garron. Her bravery would melt away and be replaced by tears. Kael often woke to the sounds of her quiet sobbing.

  He knew how she felt. When the sky went dark, thoughts of Tinnark would swim before his eyes. He would toss and turn, worrying over Amos, wondering if Roland was safe … and regretting that he wasn’t with them. Sometimes he worried that he would never see them again. Sometimes he thought about jumping overboard and swimming back the way he came, giving up this mad quest for the wolf he knew.

  So even though Aerilyn kept him awake, he couldn’t begrudge her tears. If anything ever happened to Amos, he knew he would cry — death was the only thing a boy from the mountains was allowed to mourn.

  *******

  On the fourth day, Kael woke up and immediately thought he was going blind. He rubbed his eyes, turned his head this way and that, but no matter how he strained all he could see was a cloud of white. The air smelled strange, too — like moldy stockings.

  He waved his hand across his face, and the white moved. It felt … slimy, and it made his palm itch. For a split second he could see his feet, then white crept over them again. That’s when he realized he wasn’t going blind: the ship was sailing through impossibly thick fog.

  He remembered very clearly what Jonathan said about the fog on the seas: Ships sail into them, and they never sail out.

  He could tell by the many worried shouts coming from the deck that the Duke’s soldiers felt the same way. Armor rattled as several pairs of feet rushed from rail to rail, almost
as if they were expecting an attack. Above him, he could hear one of the guards snapping at the man who steered the ship.

  “Are you blind, you great, stupid gull? Don’t tell me you didn’t see it — you couldn’t miss a fog like this from seven horizons!”

  “I swear I went around it,” the man said, an edge of panic in his voice. “I set me course and put it to the rudder. But it kept creeping up on us, even moving against the wind.” His voice was shaking now. “I tell you, I’ve not seen fog move like that in all my years. It ain’t natural.”

  Kael decided it was time for Kyleigh to wake up. He reached blindly, feeling in her direction. When he brushed her armor, her hand shot up and clamped on his arm.

  “It’s me,” he hissed, before she could twist it off.

  “Oh.” She loosened her grip but didn’t let go. After a moment, she seemed to realize their predicament. “What in blazes …?”

  “It’s fog,” he said as she sat up. “Look.” He waved his arm, ignoring how it made him itch, and the white retreated enough for them to glimpse the deck.

  “Wait a moment — do that again,” she said.

  When he obliged, enough cleared that he could see her face. For some reason, she was grinning.

  “Help me wake the others, and make sure they stay quiet.”

  In the time it took them to get everyone up, the fog cleared a little. They could now make out the shadows of men as they ran back and forth across the deck. Several times a loud clang would make them jump, followed by a body striking the floor and the muttered apologies of the man who managed to stay on his feet.

  The soldier who’d taken their coin was barking for his men to fall in line. Kael thought his voice was coming from the ship’s wheel at first, but then it sounded again from the bow. It was the blasted fog, blocking their view and throwing every sound in the wrong direction.

  Then all at once, the ship went silent. It was like someone had gone and dropped a wet blanket over their heads. The running and the shouting ceased, the men lined up at the railings froze. Not a whisper passed among them.