“This is horrible,” Pressip said. The Numa native had spent his lifetime hunting in the humid rainforest. Despite his days learning the ways of the deserts, the Barren Road lived up to its name. There was no sand to blow at them, just arid, dead ground. In the heat, they had all stripped down shirtless. Tagg hadn’t even hesitated to display the spider-web scar tissue on his shoulder, nor his significantly less toned arms. Continue reading Vaenuth 34
After a few days in the drinking houses of Sheld, Vaenuth learned a lot about the crime family she sought to learn from. It was true that Lerran of Sheld had usurped his father Gharo. The continued thriving of the criminal organization was a tribute to the widespread corruption of the region, or to Lerran’s merits and tactics, or to Gharo’s backwards thinking. All three of these seemed to be relevant factors from the rumours that Vae heard while she gambled a hand of cards against the bawdy workmen of Sheld. Continue reading Vaenuth 33
“I wonder if Hulean will be there still,” Tagg said, as he did some stretches with his arm and shoulder.
Vaenuth shrugged. If the magician was, he would present a valuable advantage—as she understood it, magic could heal wounds faster or bestow misfortune on their enemies. It might even be helpful for the upcoming negotiation. If the strange man was not there to help them, then Vae’s mission would continue exactly as she had planned it. She felt the ocean spray on her hands as she leaned over the rail of the ship and watched the waves. A moment later, she looked up. Continue reading Vaenuth 32
“Are we ready?” yelled Captain Smetter, with his hands on the big wooden wheel. His crew barked back a handful of incoherent words—could be the wind, or it could be their sailor’s dialect—and the stocky man turned his scarred cheek to Vaenuth and her friends. “Shall we?” he asked, quietly. Continue reading Vaenuth 31
Vaenuth impatiently waited after knocking on the old wooden door. The clinic hadn’t opened yet for the day, and a beggar sitting nearby was eyeing her with raised eyebrows even though she wore appropriate Noress garb, a full torso of soft green linen fabric that breathed the hot air while still protecting her body from the innocent eyes of the childish people that lived here. Vaenuth hated it, but the guard on the docks had made it clear. Continue reading Vaenuth 30
Tagg did not get better. His fever got worse, and he spent more time asleep than awake. Natch at last spoke to the captain, and Vaenuth was invited too. It was decided between the three of them to set in to land—they were sailing around the bend of Var Nordos’s northern coast. They would sail into Raider’s Lake, and harbour in Soros. Continue reading Vaenuth 29
The Flying Hound was back on the sea, this time setting out across the Bay of Nordos with no land in sight. The massive bay was filled with clear blue water, and the shining sun filled it with light. They had passed no ships in a few days, but they saw a massive Numa coupled barge on the horizon that morning. Continue reading Vaenuth 28
“Twelve,” agreed Tagg, and handed the merchant in the tall red hat a handful of coins. The warrior gently took a thin wooden slab from the man, covered in small kelp wraps with a variety of fish, meat, and cassava within. He held the plate between their group, and Vaenuth grabbed on at the same time as Arloe. Continue reading Vaenuth 27
Nothing seemed old about the Elder Coast. The dense wall of trees and vines crept right up to the rocky coast, where moss and seaweed clung. Sometimes, animals could be seen in the shadows of the rainforest, but many times it was just a stoic bastion of plant life. Vaenuth knew why it was called the Elder Coast—these were the lands upon which humans had first arrived on the continent, thousands of years ago. Continue reading Vaenuth 26
Trader’s Bay never really ended, it narrowed and widened into a long murky channel dotted by The Sweating Isles. As they sailed them, Vaenuth learned why. She could not remember her journey here on her way into Numa’nakres, some five years ago—she could only recall the darkness of the water and the captain she had been hammering for passage. Now she paid for passage, and in irony, remembered that other captain’s words to her about this dark channel of water. “The shadows before the dawn,” he had told her. That whole time in her life had been just that. She had fought for the light and earned her place in it. Continue reading Vaenuth 25