“Promise.” He knelt and hugged her tight. “I’ll always come back for you.”
Was being able to say goodbye harder or easier than just losing someone? I didn’t know if I’d have had the strength to let Tali go, knowing I might not ever see her again.
“Find Da,” Bahari said, hugging him when Halima was done. “Bring him back with you.”
“I will, I promise.”
We all got hugs too, and Ouea herded the little ones back inside the house. I took Danello’s hand. It trembled, and he grabbed mine tighter.
“They’ll be OK, right?” he whispered.
“Safer than we’ll be. Ouea won’t let anything happen to them. And Quenji’s pack is staying, too, so Zee and Ceun will look after them as well.” So much more than Tali ever had.
He took a shaky breath and nodded. “OK, let’s go.”
“We’re all loaded up,” Quenji said, smiling from the driver’s bench of the wagon. “How far to Geveg?”
“Two or three days.”
He made a face. “Sounds boring.”
We climbed in the wagon and took seats on the wooden benches on both sides. Not the most comfortable ride to Geveg, but we’d manage.
Quenji snapped the reins, and we rumbled down the road, everyone quiet save for the occasional cough. I watched the farm fade away in the night, unable to shake the feeling I was leaving family behind.
We rolled into Dorpstaad, one of the few places in the marshes big enough to be called a town. It sat on the edge of the lake, with blue-reed marshes on one side and rich farmland on the other. Wasn’t much more than a few dozen trader posts, but it did have the ferry dock to Geveg Isles, a traveller’s house, and one coffeehouse – a welcome sight after two days on the road.
Beyond the buildings the lake sparkled, but Geveg was hazy, and thin tendrils of smoke curled above the rooftops. Fires.
“Jeatar did say they were rebelling.” Danello sounded calm, but he had to be worried about his father. “Doesn’t look too bad though. No worse than the riots a few months ago.”
It had to be worse than that if the Gov-Gen had been killed. But I knew hope when I heard it.
Quenji parked near the stables and arranged for a paddock and a place to store the wagon. It was too expensive to ferry them across, and there were few places to store them in Geveg if we did. Between what Quenji had no doubt stolen and what Danello had won from the soldiers playing cards, we could afford a few days’ keep.
I stretched my sore muscles. “Let’s find out when the next ferry is.”
The ferry dock was empty. Not even the usual beggars crouched by the pilings or resting under the mangrove trees. The ferry itself sat empty at its berth at the far end of the dock.
“Maybe it’s not running?” Aylin shielded her eyes with her hand and gazed over the water. It was flat today, barely any breeze to stir the surface.
“Or they’re not letting it dock at Geveg,” Danello said. “That’s the easiest way to keep people from leaving the city.”
“Or coming into the city,” I added.
This would be a problem. Without a boat, we weren’t getting into Geveg. A few fishing boats were docked at other berths, plus one skiff that looked fancy enough to belong to an aristocrat.
“If you know how to sail it, I can steal it,” Quenji said, following my stare.
I’d had enough of jails and cages for a while. Besides, we needed to draw as little attention to ourselves as possible. “Let’s see if someone is willing to take us across first.”
Lanelle snorted. “No one is going to risk their neck to help us.”
“Us, maybe,” said Aylin, “You, no.”
“Let’s look around.” I sighed. You’d think after two days of baiting each other they’d be tired of it.
We left the dock and headed for the main street. People were out and about, but the town lacked the usual bustle. No one was looking for work, and no day vendors had set up carts on the streets. It made sense if no one could get out of Geveg, but it was still eerie.
The scent of coffee lured us to the coffeehouse on the opposite side of the block, down near the traveller’s house.
“Anyone hungry?” Danello said.
My stomach rumbled. Breakfast had been a long time ago – and not much of it at that. “Sounds good. We might be able to find a fisherman there too and ask about paying him for passage.”
Aylin linked her arm through Quenji’s. “I haven’t had good Gevegian coffee in months, so let’s—”
A soldier in pynvium armour walked out of the coffeehouse.
Lanelle gasped. “Undying!”
“Be still.” I looked away fast, keeping my face down. My heart raced, and my feet wanted to follow, but running would get me noticed.
A regular soldier in Baseeri blue walked out next, and a boy in Healers’ League green followed.
Soek? He was one of the apprentices Vinnot had been experimenting on in the spire room along with Tali. He’d helped me escape, even tried to help free me when the tracker captured me, but we hadn’t seen him since that day.
The same day I’d lost Tali.
Soek stared at me, his eyes full of fear; then he looked away and shot a nervous glance at the soldiers escorting him.
What were they doing to him? He had to be a prisoner; he’d never help the Undying or the Duke. But why here and not the League?
Folks stepped aside, their heads down, and let them pass. The Undying walked with the same arrogance I’d seen in Baseer, as if he knew nothing could hurt him.
For a moment I wondered if there was any pain in that armour of his. If so, I could hurt him plenty.
“Eyes down,” Danello whispered into my ear. “You’re glaring at him.”
Was I? I looked away, face flushed, but I couldn’t help peeking again.
Soek and the soldiers walked to the traveller’s house. Soek glanced helplessly at me once more before following them inside. A plea.
People started moving again, and I caught a few loud sighs of relief. We darted into the coffeehouse and grabbed a table in the back where we could watch both the door and the dining room.
“Was that Soek?” Aylin asked, keeping her voice low.
I nodded. “We have to save him.”
“No, we don’t,” Lanelle said, face pale. “We have to get out of here right now. There are Undying here.”
I leaned closer. “We knew there was a chance we’d see Undying,” I half lied. I’d figured we’d see them once the Duke got there, but not this soon. Had he sent some in advance? “It’s just one, and he doesn’t seem to be doing anything but guard duty.”
“Who’s Soek?” Quenji asked.
“A friend of ours. He was an apprentice at the League. Nya, he looked really scared,” Aylin said to me.
“He did.”
“You