What in the world is this place?
“Oi! Elliot!” That’s Sander’s voice, since Hex is still working on the net, and I turn to find him arm in arm with Freya and walking down the street with no other guards in sight. Isheserious?
“I’m going to kill you,” I grumble even though he’s too far away to hear me. He can read lips.
Sander merely grins and keeps heading in my direction.
At his side, Freya is beaming and taking in all the booths and shops that are popping up around us, like she’s a little girl at a carnival. Is this what she was so excited about? A street market? We passed at least three of them in Windgaard while on our tour with Halevik, but she didn’t ask to stop at any of them. Her hair is completely loose for only the second time since the tour started, and she looks…free. Like she has nothing to hide here.
“Well?” the old woman in front of me says, tilting her head as she continues to smile at me.
I feel like I crossed into the Twilight Zone at some point. It was probably while I was on the boat with Hex.
“Tova!” Sander slides his arm from Freya’s when he reaches my side, and then he leans over the table and plants a kiss on the old woman’s cheek. “It smells better than ever!”
She hands him a ceramic plate full of steaming fish and potato wedges. “You flatter me, Aleksander.”
“A fish for a kiss,” I mutter, rolling my eyes. “Got it.” I still feel weird about kissing a woman I met two minutes ago, no matter how good her food smells.
Next to me, Freya giggles and nudges my arm. “Did Hex not explain things to you?” She leans forward and kisses the woman’s other cheek. “I have missed you, Tova!”
When Freya gets her own plate of fish and chips, I glare at Hex until he looks up. He bites his lips to keep from laughing and returns to his work. “No,” I say in a growl. “He didn’t tell me anything.”
Freya holds her plate toward me, and I gratefully take one of the chips to curb my hunger as she explains, “Havenford only deals in trades. They are a self-sufficient village with a firm policy that everyone has what they need.”
I need food or I’m soon going to be in a worse mood than I already am, but I still don’t want to kiss anyone for it. “Hmm.” It looks like there are other booths offering food, and maybe one of them will take a different trade. But I’m almost afraid to ask.
“I don’t like kisses either,” Hex says, as if reading my thoughts. He shakes hands with the weathered old man, then comes over to me with something wrapped in cloth. He hands the cloth bundle to Tova, who takes it and offers a plate of food in return. “Bless you, Tova.”
Tova pats his cheek. “And because I like Sven’s butter so much, you can take this for your serious friend.”
Hex accepts a second plate of food, and I’m ready to hug the man when he looks at me and says, “I need my kiss first, El.”
I slap him instead, just forcefully enough that it catches him off guard and gives me a chance to snatch the plate from his hand. “Don’t push your luck, Prince Hendrik.” I stuff some of the fish into my mouth in case Hex tries to fight me and take it back, and the perfection of it hits me so hard that I almost moan. This definitely would have been worth a kiss.
With laughter in her eyes, Freya nudges my arm and nods in the direction of some picnic tables nearby. They’re under the awnings of one of the shops, which means they’re dry, so I gladly follow the three Alverra siblings and sit down between Freya and the street.
“What have you been doing this afternoon?” she asks when we’re settled.
I glare at Hex again, and he laughs. “One of the fishermen needed some help,” he explains.
“Oh, no wonder you are soaked to the bone!” Freya touches my arm again, her fingers hot against my chilled skin, even through my shirt. She needs to stop doing that. We can be friends, but clearly physical contact has a strong effect on me lately. “We should see if anyone has some dry clothes for you.”
“I’d hate to find out what those would cost me,” I mutter.
Her nose wrinkles with her smile, but my little quip didn’t get a laugh out of her. I shouldn’t be disappointed, but I am. I’ve only heard her full laugh a couple of times, and while it doesn’t match her princessy exterior at all, her goose-like laughter fits her well. It makes her real.
The four of us dig in to our food, eating in silence for several minutes while the street continues to grow busier. It’s coming alive now that the storm has passed, and for how small it is, I’m surprised by the energy of the place. It seems the entire town has come out with the sun.
“I always love visiting Havenford,” Freya says. “It does not happen often, and I have not been back for many years, but it brings me so much joy when I am here.”
“They really don’t deal with money at all?” I ask. “How can that be sustainable?”
Sander snickers and tosses a chip at my face. “Tova must have liked you. Normally a trade has to be more substantial.”
“Like butter?” I say to Hex, recalling the cloth bundle he gave Tova.
“Exactly,” Freya answers for him. “Things people need. A cup of sugar for an egg. Helping a sheep birth a lamb in exchange for fixing roof slats.”
