Or maybe the real reason Vi made no motion from the balcony was that she didn’t entirely believe her transgressions had been forgiven.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vi hadevery intention of enjoying her time resting and relaxing in the days that followed. She was between two major stops on her long journey to Meru. She’d finally made it to Norin and secured a vessel. And, to top it all off, she was somewhere safe where she could enjoy the luxury of letting her guard down.
As it turned out, doing nothing was utterly agonizing.
The first day, Vi roamed the Le’Dan mansion. There were rooms on rooms—some large, others small, some crammed to the brim with furniture and artifacts like small museums, others mostly empty save for a single table or lonely chair perched on a platform like a throne. One of the handmaids, Samri, took note of her wandering and became Vi’s impromptu guide.
She told Vi the history of the house, confirming Vi’s earlier speculations that it dated back over a hundred years and the whole ridge had once been Le’Dan property. Vi listened with half an ear, distracted when her nose picked up a familiar scent. Parchment, ink, leather, wood—all the glorious trimmings of a library. Sure enough there was one, and Samri led her right to it.
Vi spent the next two days in the Le’Dan library pouring over ship schematics, tidal records, island maps, trade manifests, and any other book on sailing she could find. If she was going to set sail, she may as well learn all she could about what she was up against. It made for a valuable distraction… but a distraction nonetheless.
Things still didn’t feel right between her and Jayme.
“Samri.” The woman was rarely far now, currently stationed at the door of the delicately decorated breakfast room. “Where’s Jayme this morning?” Normally, Vi wouldn’t worry about Jayme not showing up for breakfast. But this was now the second day in a row she’d been gone. Coupled with Vi’s simmering worry…
“I think she went out for a walk this morning, ma’am.” Samri lowered her eyes when she answered. She couldn’t be much more than thirteen, but her long black hair was pulled into a tight bun at the nape of her neck, and she stood as though she carried more years on her small shoulders than Vi.
It was a stark contrast to Ellene’s reluctant transition to womanhood. Vi lightly touched the bracelet around her wrist. Perhaps she should write? No, she couldn’t. Even Ellene couldn’t know of her plans, and Vi knew she was just grasping for an excuse not to look for Jayme.
“Do you know where she went?” Vi asked, lavishing a bread pocket with deep crimson jam.
“I believe she said she was heading down to the docks.”
Vi took a bite of the bread and chewed through the bright flavors of strawberry and warm wheat as she debated. Perhaps she should leave Jayme to her own devices… But Jayme had said all was well between them. Vi wanted to see Norin and reassure herself Jayme had been sincere. Going out would achieve both of those goals.
“I think I’ll join her,” Vi mused aloud.
“Very good, ma’am. If you won’t need me for anything else here, I’ll see to setting out clothes for you.”
“Thank you, Samri.” Vi nodded her dismissal.
Breakfast finished, a quick freshening up, one fresh set of clothes, and Vi was on her way. The guard at the gate did nothing to stop her this time. In fact, he showed extreme deference, the likes of which Vi would expect a servant to show her as the crown princess, not as Yullia.The perks of being a guest of Lord Le’Dan.
Like when she had first entered Norin, the city was still waking up. Most of the opulent areas of town were quiet; the shops catering to people with more gold than sense were still. Not far from the port was a store bearing the name “Le’Dan” emblazoned in gold on the door. Vi paused, looking at the glimmering pieces the shopkeeper was setting out for the day. The Le’Dan family truly did good work. Vi wondered how many of the strange, sparkling stones had come illegally from Meru.
Further down were the more conventional storefronts, which eventually gave way to warehouses and fish auctions. Before she knew it, Vi found herself standing before the greatest port in the world.
The docks were well alive by this hour of the morning. Men and women with arms as thick as Vi’s thighs carried barrels and hoisted heavy lines of rope, carrying them from place to place. At the far end of the docks there seemed to be some kind of bidding war, if the shouting crowd was any indication. Merchants bartered with other merchants, peering into crates and haggling over the contents inside. To Vi’s fascination and mild horror, some of those contents were still able to knock against the walls.
The air was scented with brine, fish, and sweat. Birds of all shapes and sizes squawked, filling the air and lining ship rails and ropes alike. Underneath the hum ships murmured, quietly creaking and straining against their ropes, as if trying to return to the open sea. Most flew flags of Solaris on their tallest masts. But some had red sails of the West. Others had what she recognized as Western family crests dyed into the canvas.
Vi wandered, looking for what would be a Le’Dan ship… Perhaps the ship that would take her across the Barrier Islands.
“Hey, watch yourself!” a man barked at her.
“Sorry…” Vi mumbled an apology, distracted by the man’s size. He was nearly as large as Fallor had been. There were people of every shape and size, surely. But some of the men seemed unnaturally large and hardened by the salt spray.
He continued on gruffly, paying her no mind. Vi turned, looking to a woman who was lounging against a pillar. A smoking pipe hung from her lips.
“Excuse me.” Vi approached. “Do you know where Le’Dan ships are?”
“Le’Dan?” The woman took her pipe from her mouth, spitting on the ground at the name. “Don’t go looking for work there, girl.”
“I’m not a girl.” The way the woman looked her up and down showed apparent disagreement.
“They’re swindlers. They’ll risk the lives of their crew for the sake of some coin, running the routes they run.”
