Tears rolled down Lavinia’s cheeks. She shook her head, struggling to speak around the lump blocking her throat. “No, it isn’t that way. Just the opposite. I am bound to Darag and to his tree through him. I’m . . . .” Lavinia couldn’t finish her sentence.
Ty closed his eyes. Several emotions crossed her brother’s face, relief followed by a pallor bringing out his dark lashes and hair. Ty reached out and pulled her into his arms.
“You will have a long and very happy life with him, little sis,” he said huskily.
Lavinia hiccuped a sob against his chest. “I know.”
The incongruity made both of them laugh softly. Ty wiped Lavinia’s tears away and kissed her on her forehead like he had when they were kids.
They began the walk back in silence, Ty’s brow slightly furrowed. He glanced up towards the camp as their three companions became visible. Ria was biting her lower lip, staring intently on a haphazard braid of grass she held in her hand.
“Have you noticed Ria’s skill doesn’t seem that strong?” Ty said softly to Lavinia.
She looked up as well, her forehead scrunching. “She moved our parent’s whole boat back to Mirocyne, that doesn’t seem so little.” As Lavinia watched, Ria sighed and lowered her hand with the grass while she rubbed her forehead with the other. “Maybe there is something the Ashanti didn’t tell us about Spirit Elementals using the other elements?”
“Maybe there is a lot the Ashanti didn’t tell us.”
They left at daybreak, heading into the flat sea of grass. The dirt path was wet but not impassable. Lavinia never asked if Darag or Niri helped keep the way clear. Strange birds with haunting calls flew over the marsh and more of the colored lizards crossed their paths. When the wind was still, hordes of insects would flock about them. After the first assault, the Elementals made sure the air was never still.
At times the grass fell away to rolling bogs of peat or mud. The horses would roll their eyes and shy away from deep pools near the flat mossy expanse. Lavinia could feel the alertness to Darag and Niri, like they sensed something else in the Marsh. It unnerved her, which didn’t help her horse.
Finally as the sun neared the western horizon, the trail became an elevated pathway on supports of thick bamboo driven deep into the muck. The walkway of woven rushes with scant planking strained under the weight of the horses, swaying and sagging as the ponies passed one on each section at a time. Darag looked at the ropes and boards with unintentional dismay.
“They need an Earth Elemental.”
Niri laughed softly. “I’ll ask if they are hiring for you.”
Darag sent a gust of wind into her face, blowing her hair across her eyes.
The bamboo platforms of Ashi’Shinai were outlined by the setting sun, the beginnings of the Bay of Tiak glowing behind. The tide was nearly out and the thin layer of liquid was broken by tall grasses and mud flats. The house platforms were over twenty feet in the air above the marsh’s surface. Narrow boats strained on reed ropes, wanting to join the rushing water as it raced to the bay.
The fibrous swinging bridges stretched between platforms, linking the square houses into a community. The dim light was barely enough to see under the wide overhangs to the woven half walls and wide glassless windows. Lavinia ducked under the trailing leaves of a plant growing from an overhang. It hit her harder than she expected. Glancing up, she realized there was a baby squash dangling amidst the vine.
In silent awe, Lavinia looked with new eyes around the marsh village where gardens grew on the edges of roofs and pathways were either bridges or by canoe. Beyond the village, tiny fires flared and flickered through the marsh, brighter than foxfire and moving like the lights in Lus na Sithchaine. She could not imagine what caused the strange flames in this world of water. To the east towards the center of the marsh, a roiling glow softly lit the sky.
“Darag, do you know what that is?”
Lavinia wasn’t sure why the marsh unnerved her other than it wasn’t water nor farmland nor forest nor desert. It was a land inbetween filled with sucking mud, dangerous tides, and scaled creatures that watched her with intelligent eyes.
Ty looked back at his sister. “It is the dragon, Isha.”
CHAPTER 37
THE BAY OF TIAK
Tam’s boat rolled under him. Ty resisted the urge to get up and look to see what the weather and seas were like. With Niri curled next to him, it was not a hard notion to fight off. She sighed and leaned against him, content to be on a ship again and at sea. Ty smiled, slipped his arm around her and lay back down.
He had always wanted to sail the Fjords of Karii. It had been one of the last things he had said to his sister before heading to his apprenticeship. But the Gypsy Empress was not the sort of boat that could navigate the tides and winds of the Bay of Tiak with or without an Air Elemental. But he had learned what he could of the bay and the marsh, hoping to see it when his dreams had been only about sailing. Before Arkira had tormented his soul and promised him off like an unwanted dog. Which despite everything, he had to admit, had worked out for the better.
Tam’s boat was designed for this sea and these tides. Ty had known that when he had seen the hull silhouetted in the moonlight off the waters of the bay where it was anchored beyond the mud flats of low tide. Beautiful and sleek with two masts to respond to the shifting winds, the rippling line of the long rudder had extended far behind. Ty had smiled at the sight of the ship as they approached in the narrow marsh canoes.
It had taken a few minutes in Ashi’Shinai to determine where to find an inn. There had been no way to judge one house from another. The few villagers they had seen had looked at them without expression. Even a boy standing with legs splayed on either side of a canoe as he folded a net into the bottom had barely glanced up as they passed. Dark tattoos had swirled across his cheeks, black against his olive skin, blacker than his brown hair and eyes. A thin necklace of stones, glinting scales, and what looked like lizard claws had hung around his neck over his bare chest.
Ty had been at a loss until his eyes settled on the canoe. If there were an inn, there were be more than the one or two boats tied near the houses. After that, things had moved swiftly.
Tam and four of his crew had sat at a table near the door, their dress had been unmistakable to Ty. Pants with hems high enough not to be drenched by waves washing decks and loose, short sleeved shirts fastened by fine leather straps or braids of rope, and with a sailor’s knife tucked in the belt. With tanned wiry muscles, a white scar across his right arm, and russet brown hair nearly long enough for a pony tail, the only difference Tam had from his men was his measured stare as he brushed his fingers along his mustache to scratch absently at the short beard over his chin.
“What business can we offer you?” Tam has spoken directly with little need for civilities.
“We’re looking for a boat to take us down the Fjords of Karii.”
Tam had sat up straighter, his glance taking in the table where Niri, Lavinia, Ria, and Darag, dark beneath the cowl of his robe, sat.
“We sail on the next high tide. Where do you want to go?”
“As far as Xiazhing.”
Tam’s eyes had dulled a little at that point. It had been a decision to choose Xiazhing as it was at the base of the river Dhazoh, the best route to the Temple of Winds as far as Niri and Darag could guess. It was also a small town along the Fjords, not known for anything in particular.
“I don’t have room for the horses.”
“They aren’t going.”
This had brought a muffled burst of conversation from a group of men with the brown skin and wide faces of the people of the steppes. As they leaned in toward each other, their long, intricately woven dark braids shifted over the thick woven, cream wrap around shirts. When they shifted, the belts attached to their leather pants were visible with their assortments of small pouches and throwing knives of the same type that Ty preferred.
Tam had scratched his beard again. “I can take you
to Xiazhing. We are heading down the Bay further than that. I should be able to get you there within two days. We’ll stop twice on the way, but not for long. We leave before dawn when the tide is high. Get rooms and I’ll knock when its time. I’m Tam.”
Ty had sold the horses to the steppe riders before he got back to his companions, guessing that the undiscussed price with Tam would be just about the same he’d made on the horses. That was the way business was dealt from what he had seen.
The hardest part of the night had been when he’d pulled Ria aside. Ria had blinked at him when he’d told her about him and Niri, her expression not registering any emotion.
“I knew you’d liked her for awhile.” Ria had said finally. “I’m going to get some sleep, if you don’t mind.” She had turned and went to her room without another word. As soon as he was alone with Niri, he’d forgotten to worry about how Ria had taken the news.
The ship took a large wave nearly broadside, rolling it uncomfortably across the beam. Ty’s eyes shot open and he sat up in bed. Niri started chuckling and rolled over to look at him.
“We are turning into one of the fjords. We must be near the first stop.”
Ty laughed and leaned down to kiss her. “I’m not even going to ask how you know.” He traced the line of her brow down to her cheek. “I don’t like your lavender eyes. I can never tell when you are summoning your power.”
Niri tried to keep from smiling, opting for a poor imitation of a Priestess’ hauteness. “For such a small task as that, I barely need to summon anything other than time on a boat.”
Both of Ty’s eyebrows raised. Then he decided to see how ticklish she was. It took them another fifteen minutes to finally make their way on deck.
Tam yelled orders to his crew in a clear voice. As Ty and Niri made their way to an out of the way corner along the stern, sails pivoted or fell, and the rudder swept behind them like a dragon’s tail as Tam ordered the boat hard to starboard. It was an efficient operation, necessary to sail on tides that rose and feel tens of feet amid dangerous winds sweeping down the fjords.
They were coming in near full tide when the incoming water slacked before reversing. They tied up to a wooden floating dock attached with ropes to the solid pilings of the main wharf so that it could slide up and down with the rising and falling water. A well worn ladder connected the two, barnacles and seaweed encrusting the nooks.
Beyond the dock, a small village trailed down a notch in the high rock wall of the fjord. Cut steps connected perches where thick beamed wooden houses nestled like the nests of some great bird. Steeply sloped roofs with edges that flared gently up over the deep drip edge were roofed in tiles the same color as the stones making up the fjord. The blue black roofs blended into the shadows while the cream colored beams glowed in the afternoon light.
Darag, Lavinia, and Ria came up to watch the merchandise be offloaded. Ty couldn’t tell what goods Tam was selling. They were held in a handful of oak barrels and two wooden trunks. Only two men from the village met Tam on the dock, exchanging money with few words.
Within an hour as the tide began its reversal, the ropes attaching them to the wharf were untied. Tam ordered the jib unfurled. It caught the wind and the bow of the boat swung away from the dock, catching in the outgoing water to pull the boat smoothly around. They slipped out of the fjord with all its dangers without a fuss. Ty smiled. Tam was exactly the sort of captain Ty would have liked to have been apprenticed under.
They arrived at the second stop just as the sun was setting. The western wall of the fjord draped shadows across the narrow inlet. The village was a scattering of lights along a section of the eastern wall where it fell close to the sea and rose inland with a gentle sweep. From the number of lights, Ty guessed it was a large town, bigger than Ashi’Shinai and the first town along the fjords.
Water fell from a stream in a notch along the far back of the inlet. The sound echoed from the vertical walls until it was lost to the drum of waves breaking against the rocks. This time, the tide was near low making the smell of salt and seaweed strong inbetween the high walls where the evening breeze was light. The large pilings of the town’s docks were almost as high as the main mast of Tam’s ship. Tam tied them to the floating section, which was only a man’s width wide. He unloaded his cargo, lashing it to the braces of the floating dock while doing business with the men, who had climbed down the slick ladders from the main dock above.
Before the tide turned, Tam ordered his boat untied. The slipped out from the narrow fjord to the moonlit bay. Ty sighed with contentment. For once he did not need to keep watch or take a turn steering a ship. It promised to be a pleasant night.
It was barely mid-morning when Tam gave the order to turn the ship into a wide fjord. The imposing cliffs along the coast fell away to odd spires of rock sculpted by the torrent of the river Dhazoh that flowed at their base. Where the river could spread out, it was wide and tumbled over boulders, cascading down short drops to the waters of the Bay of Tiak. Where it was narrowed by the rock spires or had channeled through the cliffs, it was deep, swift, and dark.
The outgoing tide was not favorable for their arrival. It was mid-point between high and low, the water pushed out to sea all the faster by the river water falling into the fjord. Ty frowned, leaning forward onto his forearms where they rested on the ships rail as he stared at the racing current. Tam was pacing.
Xiazhing was not visible from sea level, having been built above the fjord rim. Only a dock rested at water level with a narrow path leading up the cliff to the village. Broken timbers of pilings lodged between boulders stood as a testament to the power of the river at flood or the tides during a storm.
Between the walls of the fjord, the wind seemed either absent or a plague. The wind had shifted since the day before and swept in from the bay along the length of the fjord, slamming into the rock walls and funneling upwards in sharp drafts. The gusts pushed them forward while the tide tried to haul them back. It was a difficult line for the ship to sail. Tam’s eyes narrowed as he walked the length of his ship again, his gaze jumping from the moving current to the full sails.
“Are you sure you would not prefer another town?” Tam asked Ty.
“It must be Xiazhing,” Ty replied with a tinge of empathy. He would not like to risk his boat in such a place.
Tam’s jaw tightened. He paused, eyes lifted as he weighed if more or less sails would help. A shift in the wind brought a sudden gust. It caught the mizzen sail in the aft of the ship more than the front. The rear of the ship was abruptly pushed to starboard. Two things happened at once.
With the ship no longer sitting straight in the outgoing tide, the bow started to swing around, bringing it broad beam to rushing water. The boat tipped slightly. The shallow hull bucked roughly in the waves. As the boat turned, the rear of the ship edged closer to the walls of the fjord. The sail of the rear mizzen mast caught the wind of the updrafts and billowed taught, propelling the ship backwards even as it slipped sideways.
Tam’s voice was tense as he ordered the sails to be dropped, the rudder turned hard to starboard to offset the wind. The boat did not seem willing to comply. With the ship broadside to the waves and the sails at the wrong angle to counter the wind and tide, they were at the mercy of the sea.
The rear mast groaned under the strength of the gale. The rigging thrummed. The boat was tipped seaward by the waves, yet was rocked toward shore by a stronger gust. The opposing forces caused the hull to twist. The wooden timbers moaned with stress. An outgoing wave washed the deck as the wind tipped the boat’s rail into the tide.
Tam’s knuckles were white as he held onto the rail amidship. Ty could read the choices slipping away from them. If they could drop the sail, they could float out with the tide. But they only had moments, not nearly enough time to take care of all the sails flying. Ty’s hand against Niri’s hip where he steadied her tightened.
And then it was over. The waves smoothed, no longer slamming into the boat. The wi
nd shrieked around them, but did not strike the sails. Niri looked over at Darag. He gave her a half smile.
“I figured you would take water,” he said to her unasked question.
Niri’s lips flickered with a smile. Everyone else on the ship had frozen, uncertain as to what had happened. Tam stared at Niri and Darag as the realization of what they were and had done swept away the tension of the moment before. A look of nausea raced across his face before he collected himself. He took a step towards where Niri and Darag stood.
Ty stepped in front of Niri. An irrelevant as that gesture was in truth, he could not help himself. With Niri’s power, the move was more a show of solidarity. Lavinia loosened her sword. Ria rose slowly to her feet from where she had sat on a bench. A warmth enveloped the air around her. Tam blinked once and stood his ground.
“Thank you for saving my ship Priest, Priestess.” Tam eyed Ria, but did not include her in his address.
“We are not with the Church,” Niri replied, chin lifting slightly. She and Tam eyed each other. His posture relaxed a fraction, a bit of color returned to his face while the forced smile on his lips took on a more genuine cast. He inclined his head, but did not speak.
“If you don’t mind, we’ll take the ship in.”
Tam waved the control of his ship away to Ty with an open gesture of his hand. Niri glanced at Ty. He could read the faint worry in her brow. The ship sat high in the water, not like the Grey Dawn. And Darag, for all his skill with wind, had never used it to sail a boat. Ty nodded to his sister, who relaxed her hold on the hilt of her sword and headed toward the mizzen mast ordering the sails to be dropped. Ty took the tiller.
It took only a minute to turn the ship around, Darag giving them a small amount of wind to help move the ship up the fjord. Niri redirected the tide. Tam watched quietly from where he waited at the bow. His crewmen listened to Lavinia’s orders when she asked for sails to be reefed or dropped. Ria sat and watched Tam, their eyes crossing several times.
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