Chapter Twenty-Four: A City and the Sea

Raimie

Sev was the strangest place I’d ever seen. To be fair, it was the only human city I’d visited, which might have something to do with the awe I was feeling. I’d thought Fissid was a wonder of civilization, but seeing this place, I knew differently.

So many buildings rose above me, homes and shops alike, and it didn’t matter that only a third of them looked inhabited. It was still evidence of more people than I’d seen in my life.

Then, Eledis led me into a marketplace, and I couldn’t move. People had flooded this open square, rushing about their business or taking a leisurely stroll or pausing to speak with merchants and friends, and so many bright colors assaulted my senses from both merchant stalls and the clothing of passersby. Dozens of conversations merged into a muted roar while the rumble of cart wheels and thunk of dropped crates interspersed it.

I couldn’t get enough of it. This display of humanity was like nothing I’d seen before.

It was also a lot.

At my side, Eledis said, “This is busier than I expected it to be.”

Jumping, I stared at my grandfather. This was the first time he’d spoken to me since the Withriingalm, even when gathering me for the outing this morning, and hearing his voice now was jarring. I wasn’t sure what this meant, whether he’d relented in his silent treatment or not, but I’d take advantage of the opening.

“Why’s that?” I asked.

Slowly turning my way, Eledis examined me for a moment, looking down his nose all the while, and I returned his stare as blandly as I could. With a long sigh, he crossed his arms before looking away.

“In the last few decades, Sev has fallen on hard times. Pirates have attacked the city, blockading Blackwell Bay far more often than they have in the past, and no one knows why,” he said. “Funding the city’s defense has stretched its coffers, which has led to higher taxes, and this has, in turn, seen a mass exodus of citizens from Sev. Hence, why I expected to find most marketplaces deserted here.

“In the end, though, it works out for us. More people in the city means a greater chance of finding a ship’s captain who will make the crossing to Auden.”

“I see.”

I didn’t know what else to say. Fortunately, Eledis wasn’t looking for much from me.

“We should start asking around,” he said. “I’ll take the city proper. You head for the docks. We’ll meet here when the sun reaches the horizon. Can you handle that?”

An entire day in an unfamiliar place, a city no less, with no one to guide me. Swallowing hard, I focused on keeping my hands from shaking.

“I think so,” I said, marveling at the confidence in my voice.

“Good.”

Eledis rummaged through a pocket, withdrawing a sack from it.

“Take this. It should move things along,” he said. “Careful with it, though. That’s the last of our coin. Don’t throw it away on unnecessary bribes.”

Accepting the sack, I said, “I’ll do my best.”

With a fond smile, Eledis ruffled my hair, which I tolerated with as much dignity as I could.

“You’re a good kid,” he said. “I’m sorry I’ve been so hard on you lately. Ignoring you as much as I have was a mistake. Maybe once we’re done here, we can stay in a waystation tonight so we can talk some things through. What do you think?”

I thought that my grandfather had waited for far too long to bridge the gap between us, but I wouldn’t tell him that.

“It would be nice to sleep in an actual bed instead of on the ground tonight,” I said, “and I could use a proper meal.”

“And you shall have both!” Eledis said, grinning, “but first, we need to find passage across the Narrow Sea.”

“Naturally,” I said, returning the smile. “So, I’ll see you in a few hours?”

“That’s the plan. Good luck, Raimie.”

Eledis quickly merged with the crowd around us, leaving me wondering what to do. After pocketing my gifted coin, I started wandering, hoping to learn where the docks were located.

In the end, they were easy to find, which made sense. If Sev controlled Blackwell Bay and the bay was the only safe haven from the Accession Tears storms, of course the city would focus on naval trade. Because of that, a large chunk of its revenue would be devoted to its harbor, making it a focal point.

After taking the road to the bay, I set foot on its docks and couldn’t take a single step more while my mouth went dry. I looked out at branching, sprawling piers and the many ships anchored near them, and a little voice in my head started screaming, although I wasn’t sure why.

Maybe it was the expanse of water behind this view. Maybe it was the type of people who were strolling and running over these wood planks. Gods, their appearances and bearing were so different from anything I’d ever seen!

I didn’t know why I wanted to make the long sprint back to camp after observing everything in front of me, but the voice screaming in my head was making it difficult to think.

When someone jostled me, I snapped out of it, rapidly blinking at something I shouldn’t fear, before shaking myself. What had that been?

As I joined the flow of foot traffic in front of me, a creepy-crawly sensation still skittered over my skin. One would think that after the last few months of life-changing revelations, another mystery wouldn’t affect me, but it did.

It was why I fumbled my way through my first few interactions with sailors and their captains, but soon enough, I was making enquiries of them with ease. Even still, I was laughed at more often than not. Most people thought I was either pulling a prank or had lost my mind, and each rejection had me using a sharper tone with the next group I approached.

Halfway through the afternoon, I’d made it down one side of the dock, leaving only a few more ships to check. Idly, I bypassed most of these, noting their sailors already loading cargo onto them, but one, a sloop anchored off of a secluded pier, caught my eye. With no activity around it, its captain would make a likely candidate for what I wanted, but as I headed toward it, someone stepped into my path.

“I hear you’re looking for passage to Auden.”

I frowned at the tanned man in front of me, wondering why he seemed familiar.

“I am,” I said. “How do you know about that?”

The stranger flashed a smile.

“Word about something like that travels quickly here,” he said. “If you’re interested, my captain would like to talk specifics for making the journey with you.”

A jolt rushed through me, although I did my best to hide my eagerness.

“I’m interested,” I said. “Where’s your captain?”

“In the city at the moment,” the stranger said, “but she won’t be long. We could wait for her on her ship.”

He gestured toward the seemingly abandoned sloop, and cocking my head, I narrowed my eyes at it.

Was this a good idea? I was already far away from other people. Did I want to further isolate myself, potentially putting myself in danger? Or was that paranoia talking? After everything that had happened recently, I found it difficult to trust unknowns.

But I’d never get anywhere if I didn’t.

“That sounds good,” I said.

I followed the stranger up the sloop’s gangplank, and we headed toward the captain’s quarters. Once there, the stranger held the door open for me, and I stepped inside.

The change in lighting briefly blinded me, but when I could see, I found myself in a small cabin with colored-glass windows looking out over the harbor. A bunk was shoved against the far wall while a desk had been bolted to the floor, and I’d started toward it when an arm was dropped over my head.

It pressed into my neck while a hand on the back of my head pushed me further forward, and I managed a choked cry before my airway was cut off.

And all the while I was berating myself for not trusting my gut. Stupid, stupid…

Squirming and raking my fingernails on the arm holding me did no good. The stranger stood firm even as I blindly stomped for his feet.

I only got a reaction when I reached for Silverblade. Freedom was mine for half a second, but then, force twirled me around until my face was smashed into a wall.

A stabbing ache in my nose kept me from taking advantage of my opening. I could only woozily acknowledge my escape before I was caught in a chokehold again.

With panic lacing into the energy surging through me, I reached behind my head, desperately grabbing for a hand. While pinching the skin between the stranger’s fingers, I wrenched on what felt like a thumb, but nothing happened. The stranger didn’t even flinch.

As my vision narrowed to pinpricks, I was left with seconds before I was at this man’s mercy, and the panic lapping at me took over, letting instinct reign supreme. I wasn’t sure what I did, but pure power came crashing through me, raw and exhilarating. When I jerked on that held thumb this time, something cracked.

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With a restrained hiss, the stranger released me, and gasping for air, I stumbled for the door. I flung it open, catching a glimpse of the uniformed woman behind it before she moved. As she spun, her foot collided with my temple.

I felt the closest to complete that I ever had in my life. The emptiness, ever within me, had almost filled, but this glorious sensation was negated by the fact that my hands were bound together, and after what had happened in the waking world…

Yowling, I thrashed against what was holding me, desperate for freedom. I kicked with my dangling legs, hoping to hit something, hoping to hurt whoever had captured me.

But the only other person in my nightmare realm was…

“-imie! Please, stop,” Nylion was shouting with a choked voice. “You will knock us off!”

As I realized who I’d been fighting, I went still, and reflexively, I buried my face into the surface in front of me, one that was warm and firm and smelled like home. One that was moving in time to my companion’s elevated breathing rate.

Jerking back, I barely stopped myself from making the movement violent. What was going on? Where was I? Why was Nylion-?

Finally, I registered my surroundings. The unnerving walls of the well rose around me, and I was hanging from Nylion’s shoulders, which should have had me asking a host of questions. Instead, I glanced between my feet, finding the ground far below us. Damn, it would hurt if we fell, even if we’d also survive it.

“You’ve made progress,” I said.

“Yes, well,” Nylion grunted.

Quietly swearing to himself, he tugged on my arms until they were in a position where he could free my wrists.

“What else was supposed to do while you were dealing with real world problems?” he continued. “Sit around, waiting for you to return?”

“That doesn’t seem like you,” I said.

“Exactly,” Nylion said. “Now, would you kindly get the fuck off of my back? I did not take the strain of your weight into account when starting this climb.”

Carefully, I clambered over Nylion with both of us grumbling at each other. When I latched onto the wall, numbness spread up my arms from it, but this time, the feeling was made infinitely worse by the return of my emptiness, something that only happened when I was no longer touching my friend. Strange, that.

“So, why are you here this time?” Nylion asked, starting to climb again. “Did you forget to take a sleeping tincture again?”

Wincing, I pulled myself level with my friend.

“Unfortunately, no,” I said. “Someone attacked me again, but I don’t think they want me dead, considering I’m not seeing colors in the sky.”

Nylion turned the opening of his hood toward me.

“Care to elaborate?” he drawled.

I gave him an overview of what had happened, answering his questions when he had them. At some point during this, we stopped climbing, dangling by our fingers from a substance that shouldn’t exist, and after the tale was finished, Nylion was quiet for a time.

When the silence became too much for me, I asked, “Have any suggestions for me?”

Nylion ducked his hood, sucking on his lip for a moment, before facing me again.

“You should let me handle it,” he said. “I can be fast and efficient. You would be back with Eledis before you are supposed to meet him, so he will never know that something went wrong. It would be like when w- you were a kid.”

“You did get me out of plenty of scrapes back then,” I mused before turning serious. “How would we do that, though? This isn’t like when I’d get lost, and you’d help me find my way home with your whispered directions. You’re my imaginary friend. You can’t change things in the real world.”

Nylion just stared at me, and this went on for long enough that I started adjusting my hold on the wall.

“Do you trust me?” Nylion asked.

Thinking back on everything this manifestation of my mind had done for me, I could only nod.

“Then, TRUST me,” Nylion said.

“Ok,” I said in a small voice, shrinking on myself.

Why did I feel like I’d just been scolded?

Nylion jerked his hood in a single nod.

“You will have to hold me for a time,” he said. “Can you do that?”

Could I bear another person’s weight from this far up? Could I have Nylion that close, pressing my body into the wall?

Suddenly, my heart was pattering far too quickly while my throat had closed, and I had to clear it several times to remove the blockage.

“I can try,” I said before jerking my chin behind me. “Hop on.”

Slowly, Nylion shuffled onto my back, and only after we’d both stopped shifting did I notice that the hole in my being had been filled again. I opened my mouth to comment on it when Nylion spread his fingers in front of my face.

“You will have to keep me in place with your own strength,” he said. “Unless you have gained the ability to touch what once pinned you to the floor?”

Wincing, I circled my fingers around Nylion’s wrists.

“I won’t be able to do this for long,” I said.

“Then, I will be quick,” Nylion said with his lips brushing my ear. “Do not drop us.”

Shuddering with a gasp, I didn’t notice the addition of weight on me until it had nearly peeled me off of the wall. After scrambling to maintain my hold, I hissed hot air between my teeth. Gods, my muscles were already close to failing.

“Oh, for the love of…” I said before clinging more tightly to inky black. “Hurry up, Nylion.”

For the first time in years, Nylion emerged into the world. He took a moment to enjoy it, breathing in fresh air with a tang of salt in it, but then, his head banged into something, flaring pain beneath his skull, and he remembered why the real world sucked.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself at an awkward angle. The narrow confines of a ship’s hall were skewed from their typical up and down, and from the unyielding surface he was bouncing on, he’d guess that he was hanging over one of his assailant’s shoulders. Since he didn’t know where the other one was, he decided to bide his time.

“This doesn’t bother you?”

From the rumble transmitted through his perch, Nylion determined that this voice belonged to the man carrying him.

“What do you mean?” another, higher-pitched voice asked.

“You know what I mean,” the man said. “She had us attack him, the boy she doted on in years past.”

“True,” the woman said, “but like you said, that was years ago. We don’t know what’s changed since then.”

The second assailant was ahead of them. With her located, Nylion was prepared to free himself, but he waited, hoping for a better opportunity.

“It still feels wrong,” the man said. “I trained him, watched him grow up. How am I supposed to stand idly by while he’s taken to Daira for execution?”

“You’re following orders,” the woman said. “That’s all you need to know.”

The man stopped short with his shoulders heaving.

“You don’t understand. His potential… he could have been the greatest spymaster that Ada’ir has ever seen, and we’re supposed to accept, without question, that he’s a rebel based on the word of an Eselan?” he said. “I can’t do that to little Raimie.”

There was a pause, but then, Nylion’s perch rocked back and forth, as if shaken.

“He’s not little Raimie anymore. Get your shit together, Bryruned,” the woman said. “I’ll make a circuit of the docks. When I get back, I expect our traitor to be in the brig with you standing guard.”

She brushed past, quickly disappearing, but Nylion was too caught on a thought to pay her departure much mind.

Bryruned? Hell, this man’s identity would make the next part more difficult.

They started moving again, and with every bang of his body into a wall, Nylion suppressed a yelp, although doing that wasn’t especially difficult. He’d suffered much worse than this before.

A door creaked open, and when Bryruned lowered Nylion from his shoulders, he rolled with that momentum, reaching his feet in the same moment he hit the ground.

He didn’t stop to enjoy the shocked look on Bryruned’s face, instead darting out of the cell while throwing its door shut behind him. When a loud clang failed to reach his ears, he assumed that Bryruned had gotten to it before it had closed. This had him put on a burst of speed.

Fortunately, the sloop followed a layout that Nylion was familiar with, so he quickly reached the main deck, sprinting for the gangplank. He was nearly halfway there when an arrow thunked into the wood, several paces in front of him.

“Stop!” Bryruned shouted. “Don’t make me put one of these in your back.”

Slowly, Nylion raised his hands before turning around. As warned, Bryruned had an arrow pointed at him with the bowstring half drawn, and when he met Nylion’s eyes, he blinked with his features tightening.

“Well, look at you, all grown up,” he said before shaking his head. “What are you playing at, Raimie? First, you act like you don’t know me and let yourself get ambushed. Then, you almost escape me, something that you used to struggle with. What’s going on?”

Nylion wasn’t sure how to go about this. After so long trapped alone, he was more than a little rusty when it came to… well, everything, but out of every skill he’d once had, talking was definitely the weakest. Considering how shit he’d been at it before, that was saying something.

He’d only just gotten comfortable speaking with Raimie again, and Raimie was Raimie. How did one converse with others?

Fortunately, the tinge of hostility infecting the air helped to loosen his tongue, familiar with that sensation as he was.

“Nothing is ‘going on’. Last I checked, I was running an errand for my grandfather, and you attacked me,” Nylion said. “What the hell?”

Ugh. Speaking in the singular still felt wrong, setting his stomach bubbling like a tincture in a cauldron. Some of that unease must have translated through the expression on his face because Bryruned narrowed his eyes, scowling.

“You. Running an errand. For Eledis,” he said. “Yeah, I don’t buy it.”

“I do not care if you believe me. It is of little importance,” Nylion said. “Let me repeat. You attacked me, and now, you are keeping me here on threat of death. What. the. hell?”

Shrugging, Bryruned said, “I’m following order, same as you. Or as you used to do at least.”

“Yes, well. Children are susceptible to blindly doing as they are told,” Nylion said.

Inside, he was reeling. If Bryruned was here on orders, that meant Auntie was probably here too. Why? Was it because of Raimie’s family?

No. It had to be a coincidence.

But why else would she be in Sev? Maybe she was negotiating with the city state’s mayor, pressuring them into joining Ada’ir again. That fit her personality well.

But Bryruned had said that by attacking Raimie, he’d been following orders. So…

“Does Auntie know I am here?” he asked.

Why not be direct with this? It couldn’t hurt anything, could it?

“You know I can’t answer that question,” Bryruned said.

“Which means that she does,” Nylion said.

Shit. This changed things. Fucking godsdamn…

Still cursing in his head, Nylion did his best to show off a rueful grin, despite the pangs of guilt and grief already running through him.

“Well, if she wants to see me, I will have to oblige her. It is not like I can run,” he said. “So? How should we do this? I assume you will want me in the brig until she returns.”

“Can you blame me?” Bryruned said. “If I put you anywhere else, I’d be risking a lot.”

Shaking his head, Nylion patted at the air above his head.

“I understand. You have to do what you must,” he said. “I will stay in place so you can put shackles on me.”

Wincing, Bryruned nodded.

“That might be best,” he said.

Slowly, he approached Nylion with his bow ever at the ready, but once he was close enough to draw a blade, he let the string go slack, pulling a set of shackles from his pocket.

“Hands,” he said with a wave.

Just as slowly, Nylion lowered his arms in front of him, displaying his wrists, but before Bryruned could secure him, he slapped his hand to the other man’s chest.

“I am sorry,” he said.

With his features hardening, Bryruned dropped the shackles to reach for his sword, but Nylion already had a weapon at hand. Dark energy pulsed from him, carving through Bryruned’s chest, and with a pained grunt, his essence fled from his body, turning it boneless. Before it could hit the deck, Nylion scooped it up and over his shoulders.

Striding to the sloop’s railing, he tossed the body overboard. The noise from the dock covered up the splash.

For a long while, he stared at that patch of the ocean’s surface, absently drumming a finger on the railing’s wood. He couldn’t decide if this was yet another thing he must keep from Raimie.

On the one hand, the Raimie he’d known would have understood what Nylion had done. He’d see why Auntie shouldn’t know that he’d been on her ship. He’d see that, in his current state, he wasn’t ready to face her. Unless things had changed, the danger from that meeting alone could spell his end.

But that was the thing. Nylion wasn’t sure if this current Raimie was his Raimie—the implications of which he still obsessed over when he was alone—and this version wouldn’t get it. He wouldn’t know how easily Bryruned would have escaped any restraints that Nylion could have put on him, and if that had happened, the man would have run straight for Auntie. He wouldn’t understand that by making Bryruned disappear, Nylion had been painting a picture of yet another soldier’s desertion. Instead, Raimie would focus on the sacredness of all life rather than on his own safety.

And that was Nylion’s primary purpose in life: keeping Raimie safe.

So, Nylion wouldn’t tell him what he’d done or would soon do. It would be better that way, no matter how much it would eat at him in the coming days.

Slapping his hands on the railing, he told the water below, “I wish there had been another way.”

Then, he hurried to find a hiding spot for when the woman returned to this sloop.