Vortex Chronicles: The Complete Series
Page 123
“Could say the same to you,” Vi replied in the old Western tongue. Even though she knew her pronunciation and grammar were flawless, thanks to Yargen’s magic, it still felt odd to pronounce the words once more. “What brings you here, brother?”
“We’re starting a sailing route between here and Norin. Regular runs on fast ships.” He swept his eyes across the table; Deneya and Taavin both gave nods. They had begun inking Taavin’s hair to make it black. With the deep tan of his skin, he looked the part as much as Deneya. “I don’t think we’ll have much room for passengers. But for the right price, I could liberate you from this icy prison.”
Vi chuckled. “Perhaps we should take him up on it?”
“I miss the desert sun.” Deneya sighed longingly.
“I’m afraid we don’t have much in the way of money.” Vi turned back to Luke. The son of the maritime minister in the West. A loyalist of the Knights of Jadar still, no doubt. In the face of an old enemy, Vi saw an interesting opportunity. She lowered her voice and leaned forward, speaking conspiratorially. “Not a lot of opportunities for us here.”
“I’ve no doubt.” He muttered something she couldn’t make out, but it ended with “Southerners” in a nasty tone.
“Perhaps… we could work for passage?”
“I have all the crew I need.”
“One of us can do the work of two men without tiring,” Deneya boasted.
Taavin remained silent. His expression was passive at a glance. But she could see the questions in his eyes. What are you doing? he silently asked.
He’d just have to trust in her. It was a skill Vi was still teaching him.
“Is that so?” Luke hummed at Deneya. “I believe it of you. But these two…”
“We’re stronger than we look,” Vi insisted. “Give us a chance. You won’t regret adding additional red-blooded Westerners to your crew.” Red-blooded Westerners—she’d heard the Knights of Jadar using the term and hoped it struck a chord.
“I’ll be the judge of that. But consider me intrigued. Plus, I’m always happy to help out my kin.” Luke held out his flagon and Vi knocked hers against it before they both drank. “Come to the docks tomorrow. We’ll put you through the wringer. If you can keep up, I’m sure I can find a position for you three.”
“Thank you, sir…” Vi paused.
“Lord,” he corrected. “Lord Twintle.”
“Lord Twintle.” Vi gasped, then bowed her head low. “Forgive our impropriety.” Taavin and Deneya followed her motions. No matter how much time passed, Vi was certain a Twintle would always appreciate people prostrating before him.
“You know of me?”
“Oh yes,” she said eagerly. “Who of Mhashan’s blood doesn’t know of the illustrious Twintle family? You stood up for the old ways when very few would. Or so I’ve heard…”
“Luke! Are you going to spend the whole night over there?” A burly man lumbered over, throwing his arm amount Luke’s shoulders. “Your crew would like a drink with their benefactor.”
“Yes, Cole, I’ll be over.” Luke looked back to them, pointedly at Vi. “And I look forward to seeing you three bright and early at the Lady Black.”
The two men went over to the pack of Westerners, talking as they left. Vi saw Cole glance back on more than one occasion. She busied herself with her flagon as she stole glances from the corners of her eyes. She didn’t remember a man named Cole the last time she’d been in the West.
But that had been nearly twenty years ago, which was plenty of time for Luke to find new allies. Especially now that he was the new Lord Twintle.
“Want to tell us what that was about?” Deneya asked in hushed tones. The Westerners were no longer paying them any mind.
“And why we’re trying to get on a ship with Twintle of all people.” Even though Taavin couldn’t have recognized the man by face, he recognized him by name.
“To find an enemy, we have to go were enemies lurk,” Vi whispered back. “Twintle is up to something. If he’s coming to Lyndum willingly, I’d stake my life that whatever he’s up to is big, and intended to work against Solaris. He and the rest of the Knights have had decades to lick their wounds from the blows they were dealt at the fall of Mhashan, and my cutting their ranks in the Caverns. They’re emboldened again, and their coffers are fat.”
“You think they might be planning something with QA.”
“I can’t be certain, but they’ve done it before. Why not go to her again?”
“And your rationale is there’s only one way for us to be certain—to get on his ship,” Deneya continued.
“Yes. Either Adela didn’t manage to get the treasure off the Dark Isle and it’s here somewhere, or she took it, and it’s on the Stormfrost. If it’s the latter, the Knights might be our best way to get to her.”
“Clever, I’ll give you that.” Deneya grinned and stood, sliding out from the bench of their booth.
Vi and Taavin followed. They slipped out the main door and into the cool night with only a glance from Twintle. It was the last weeks of summer, and the chill of autumn was already beginning to settle on the world.
Taavin linked his arm with Vi’s, allowing Deneya to walk ahead. He lowered his voice. “Are you sure about this?”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“I don’t like the notion of working with the Knights.”
“Trust me, I’m not a fan of it either.”
They arrived at the single-room hovel they’d been staying in near the market. Most nights, Vi longed for something better. But it was a roof over their heads and they didn’t have much in the way of gold or silver—some pilfered treasure Vi had stolen from the palace before they left, Deneya’s meager wages from working in the stables, and whatever coin Deneya’s craftsmanship brought in.
In the back corners of the room were three pallets. Two were pushed together, the third on the opposite side. They went about their business, readying for bed with habitual precision before crawling under their respective blankets.
“Think the beds on the ship will be better than this?” Deneya asked the darkness.
“There will be bunks or hammocks, if it’s anything like the other vessels I’ve been on,” Vi answered, twisting both her body and her words as she dodged the heart of the question.
Taavin slotted into place behind her, one arm stretched out underneath her pillow. The other wrapped around her waist and tugged lightly, bringing her close.
“A hammock sounds nice. Fewer bugs probably.” Deneya yawned. “I bet it sways with the rocking of the ship. Lull us to sleep like babes.”
Vi laughed. “The first time I was on a ship, I was nothing like a babe. More like a drunkard, vomiting everywhere.”
“It can’t be that bad. The ride over from Risen was easy enough.”
“Risen,” Taavin murmured sleepily in her ear. Warmth flooded her at the sound of his voice so close, at the feeling of his body flush behind her. Vi savored every precious sensation. She’d been taking them for granted since he’d gained his body. “If we get all the weapons—” he yawned “—we’ll need to go to Risen and get the flame, to get Yargen’s essence within it.”
“I know.” Vi had been accounting for it from the start. She kept track of where Yargen’s essence was stored: the flame, the Caverns, the three remaining crystal weapons, Taavin, and herself. Every night, Vi reminded herself of the count. Because the question of what would happen to her and Taavin when the time to summon Yargen came always circled back into the front of her mind. “One step at a time. First we have to find the crown.”
“And get all the other weapons.”
Thoughts of Risen brought her mind in another direction. “Deneya.”
“Argh, I was just about to fall asleep. What?” she said with a flair of drama.
“You were not about to fall asleep.” Vi grinned. “What does Lumeria think has happened to you?” It had been over ten years since Vi had last heard of Deneya checking in with the queen.
“Makes sense,” Vi muttered, her lids becoming heavy.
It didn’t even occur to her that she had just found the idea of someone checking in once every fifty years reasonable. Fifty years would’ve been half of her lifespan once. Now, it was little more than a moment.
With every day that passed, she drew closer to the end of the world and further from the world she’d known… and the woman she’d been.
* * *
Vi woke up before her friend and lover.
Taavin’s breathing was slow and easy. The sunlight from underneath the crack of the door was already bright enough to see by. Vi twisted in Taavin’s arms. He sighed softly in his sleep and tightened his embrace slightly.
She ran her fingertips from the point of his ear down his cheek. His eyes fluttered open at the touch.
“Sorry to wake you,” Vi whispered, soft enough that Deneya wouldn’t hear.
“Waking next to you is nothing to be sorry about.” He blinked the morning’s haze from his eyes. “How did you sleep?”
“Wonderfully.”
He must’ve seen something on her face. “Is everything all right?”
“I hope so,” Vi started cautiously.
“What is it?”
“I’m going alone this morning.”
His brow furrowed. “All three of us are going—” She silenced him with a finger across his lips.
“Listen… I don’t know what ‘wringer’ Luke will put us through to see if we can keep up with his crew. But even if somehow you two can hide your ears for the test… you’ll never be able to conceal them long-term on the vessel. All it will take is one gust of sea breeze to take off your caps or bandannas, and then everyone will see them.”
“We can illusion them.”
“Those same sea breezes will make your hair wild. You won’t be able to predict its movements with an illusion.”
“We’ll illusion the whole head of hair, then,” he countered.
“And you don’t think that would ever look suspicious?”
“Dark Isle dwellers don’t understand what our ears mean. We could say it’s a birth deformity.”
“One you both share?” Vi arched her eyebrows.
“We’ll say we’re siblings.”
“Even though you look nothing alike?” Vi barely refrained from rolling her eyes.
“We both have black hair.”
“I have black hair, Taavin. You have bottles of ink.”
“There are bottles of ink in Norin as well. We can keep up the deception,” he insisted.
“I need you both here.” Tired of arguing, she got to the heart of the matter. “You need to keep exploring the tunnels and caves to look for the treasure. This way, we can divide our efforts: I’ll go and ensure Adela doesn’t have the crown while you two remain here to look.”
“You have no guarantee they’re working with Adela.”
“And you have no guarantee they aren’t.” Just when she was on the verge of exasperation, he cracked a grin and pulled her closer. There wasn’t a bit of space between them and she was left breathless as Taavin leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips.
“I understand, and I know.” He sighed. “I’m not going to fight you further.”
“Really?” Vi asked skeptically.
“If I tried, I think I would lose.”
“You would, because I’m right about this.”
“And I know it.” Taavin kissed her lightly once more. No matter how much time passed, the act still sent sparks up her arms that were their own, unique type of magic. He pulled away and murmured, “I still don’t want to let you go.”
“If it’s any consolation, I don’t want to leave your side. But whenever I’m docked here, I’ll be with you.”
“And the weeks or months when you’re sailing to and from Norin?”
“I’ll yearn for you—for where I am home.” Were she able, she’d hide from the world and spend forever in his arms. Taavin’s embrace was one of the few places she still felt fully herself. She was Vi, here, nothing more or less. “Hopefully, I can gain some kind of lead on Adela early and I’ll return to you quickly.”
“Or maybe we’ll find something and call you home.”
Vi nodded and heard Deneya begin to stir. Before the woman was up and about, Vi leaned in for one more kiss—for one last, longing second when they were entwined. Then she pulled away.
There was work to do.
Deneya was understandably frustrated by the notion of not getting to go on the ship and prove her prowess. But she ultimately agreed with Vi that it would be for the best.
Then, with just a pack to her name once more, Vi emerged into the early morning.
She made her way through the narrow streets and alleyways of the compact city down to the docks. Vi instantly knew which ship was the Lady Black. It bore Twintle’s family crest on an oversized sail.
“And what’ll you be wanting?” A gruff sailor sitting at the end of the gangplank stopped her as she approached.
“I’m here to see Lord Twintle,” Vi said in Mhashanese, hoping to earn some favors with the man.
“You really think the Lord sleeps on a ship when he has the comforts of port?” So much for winning him over.
“Then I’d like to speak with the man named Cole.”
“That’s cap, captain, or Captain Dower to you,” the sailor corrected.
“May I please see Captain Dower?”
The sailor stared her down for several long seconds, spit something he’d been chewing into the strip of water between the boat and the dock, and finally pushed away from the pylon he’d been leaning on. “All right, green gills, come along. You’d best hope it’s something good to be troubling the captain this early.”
Vi followed him onto the main deck of a narrow ship. She was instantly reminded of the Dawn Skipper. The Lady Black was a little larger, designed to carry more cargo, but both vessels had clearly been designed with speed in mind.
“You wait here,” the sailor ordered, disappearing into the captain’s quarters at the stern for a minute before reemerging with the man Vi recognized from the night before as Cole—Captain Cole Dower, she now gathered. “This is the one looking for you, sir.”
“Thank you.” Cole dismissed the man and looked Vi up and down. “You had two others with you last night.”
“They decided the high seas are a bit too intimidating for them.”
“So the scrawniest came instead.” Cole shook his head and turned away. “Go home, girl.”
“No.” Vi stood firm. But the man didn’t so much as glance over his shoulder. When he continued toward his cabin, Vi had no choice but to scamper after him. “I said I would not leave.”
“Well, there’s no room for you here.” Cole opened the door and disappeared into his cabin, leaving Vi standing on deck, a bit dazed.
This was a test. Her trial period had begun and they were going to see how determined she really was.
Vi did a quick scan of the deck and then started toward a man who was pulling out a bucket and mop. The ship was fairly quiet in port. But that didn’t mean there weren’t chores that needed doing.
“Give me those.”
“Who are you?” the man asked, but he was already handing her the mop.
“Your new crew mate,” Vi declared, hoping she’d be right by the end of the day. “When I’m done with this, what can I do next?”
The man gave her a long list. After she finished swabbing the deck, Vi coiled rope and sanded a portion of the wall underneath one of the windows in the crew’s quarters. She worked without question or comment other than, “What’s next?” or “What else can I do?” until the sun hung low in the sky. The narrow opening to the cargo hold kept catching her eye, but Vi ignored it, for now.
If there was one
thing she’d learned, it was how to be patient.
“I thought I told you to go home.”
“I’m almost done with this for the day,” Vi replied, not even looking back to confirm what she already knew from the voice alone: Captain Dower had come to check in on her.
“I have no pay or berth for you. Go home.”
“I don’t have a home, sir,” Vi said. The feeling of Taavin’s arms, closing tightly around her, filled her mind. He was the only home she had.
“Is that supposed to illicit sympathy from me?”
“No,” Vi answered, dipping her brush into the heavy paint and caking it onto the wall she’d spent the better part of the afternoon sanding down. “I’m merely stating facts.”
“Then my facts remain as well: I have no room for you. Now, off my boat,” he growled.
Vi calmly finished the section she was working on, returned the brush to the bucket, went to where she’d originally collected the paint from, closed the bucket, and dropped the brush in a soaking basin. When she emerged on deck with Cole, she noticed more than a few eyes on her. A group of sailors who were drinking on the quarterdeck went silent. Vi strode down the gangplank and settled herself on the pylon opposite the guard.
“Get going, girl,” Dower called down.
Vi wondered briefly how old Dower was. Thirty? Forty, perhaps? They might be nearly the same age, and here he was, calling her “girl.”
“You told me to get off your boat, sir. I am off of it. You said nothing about the docks and don’t control them.”
“Suit yourself,” he grumbled and disappeared.
That night, Vi slept on the docks in a twilight haze. She was ever aware of the heavy footfalls along the creaking wood, always listening for a threat. When dawn came, she unfolded her cold, damp body and ascended the gangplank to begin her work once more.
Once more, Captain Dower told her he had no room and no pay for her.