In the Darkness Visible - Elk Riders Volume One

Chapter 11: Mornaport

Sade and Vondales followed the sails of ships on the trade routes because neither of them had ever had a lesson in navigation. Sade kept replenishing the mage wind hour after hour. He had never called upon his powers so much and was quickly learning that fatigue could come from the use of magic just as it could come from physical exertion. He slept stretched out across a thwart whenever he could. At night they steered as close as possible to other vessels in order to keep the faint glow of their sails visible in the moonlight. By dawn they would distance themselves again but never so far as to lose sight of the sails. Sade was thankful he had packed the waterskin because they would have died of thirst out on the salt sea for the three days it took them to spot land.

When they had, it presented them with further decisions like where to come ashore.

"We could come ashore outside of town and hide the boat," Vondales said.

But Sade differed. "How would we hide it? It is too big for us to haul onshore. It will be safer at a public dock."

They had a few coins left between them that Sade hoped would pay at least for a few hours on the port. He leafed through each of his books trying to decide which one he might sell. He hated to part with any of them, but they were the only things of value they had between them and they needed to eat. Sade had not been so famished and weak with hunger since the days after their mother had died and they had eaten scraps of their own clothing. He hoped to buy some fishing tackle or even a crab pot and bait so that they might be able to feed themselves. It would be a meager existence but it would provide them some sort of start towards self-sufficiency.

They were not even sure of which island it was that they pulled into, but by the size and number of boats—at least sixty—Sade guessed it was Greatport, the capital of the Rowess Isles and seat of government for the whole of the archipelago. A large city might be good to disappear in, he thought, but on the other hand there would be no shortage of lawmen about to enforce order and give two murdering thieves pause.

Whalers, cargo cutters, and fishing boats all rocked on the harbor's waves. Even far out on the water Sade and his brother could hear the commotion of the port. It was so much bigger than anything they had ever seen before. The crush of people on the shore carrying crates, hauling nets, bartering and trading for goods, made the mob that followed them on Linusport appear small and insignificant by comparison.

"I never imagined there were so many people in the world," Vondales said from the bow, looking back at Sade who was working the tiller. He let the mage wind drop so as not to attract too much attention and sailed into the harbor on the world's wind. But he soon found he lacked the skill required to dock their craft at the pier. He whispered a final incantation to push the craft close enough that a dockhand tossed a line to them. Vondales pulled them in the rest of the way, the dockhand's eyes lingering on the spell book open across Sade's lap.

"How much to dock?" Sade asked the dockhand as he closed the book. The dockhand was not much older than them, with just a feathering of a beard along his chin and under his nose. He responded in an accent that was so thick that Sade had to ask him to repeat himself.

"Ninety pence," he said, slowly articulating the syllables.

Sade haggled with him down to forty-five if they left before sundown when the fishing vessels would return. Sade proposed that they shove off and simply sleep the night floating in the harbor. The dockhand was satisfied, took his forty-five pence, and was off to tend to other boats. Sade and Vondales were left on the dock feeling bewildered by the crowds of people, the strange accents, and the jumble of city buildings waiting for them on the shore. Food was their first priority and Sade called back the dockhand and paid him an extra two pence for information on the best places to buy food and fishing tackle. The boy offered the names of a few shops, but again, his accent was so thick Sade barely caught the words. Instead, he continued down the dock, reluctant to ask the boy to repeat himself. Vondales kept close to Sade's heels as they made their way. Sade tried to look as if he knew where he was going. After all a port was a port and it shouldn't be too hard to find a trader selling fried fish or fresh bread from a booth. He could see some of the longshoremen eyeing them suspiciously as they neared the end of the dock. Sade told his brother to take his hand off the handle of the hatchet he had stuffed into his belt. "You don't see anyone else walking around that way. Be casual or we'll attract attention."