“Is there proof—that they gave it to us?” Vi might already know better, but she was curious to hear what misinformation was currently in fashion.
“What else could it be? Take it from an old woman…” She shook her head, as if disappointed. “I’ve been around these parts for many years and have heard many tales. That is a world wild with magic. It’s why they only ever allowed our traders in and out of a single port on the Barrier Isles—they didn’t want us to see what they had. Where else would a disease that first targeted a sorcerer’s channels come from than a land like that?”
An evil god bent on destruction?Vi thought loudly. Outwardly, she merely shrugged. Jayme remained silent.
“Especially now that it’s afflicting non-sorcerers, none of the sensible ships are sailing to the Barrier Isles.” The elderly woman knelt down with a soft“ooph,”hoisting a tray ofmannikfrom within her cart. She continued to speak as she restocked the steaming basket. “And those who go even that far are only the most foolish and greedy seafarers.”
“Foolish and greedy?”
“Greedy, because they say that unscrupulous merchants on both sides will ignore the ban, meeting in the middle at abandoned atolls for the sake of goods. Nothing hikes the price of foreign wares like a trade ban.” That was exactly what Vi imagined Erion was doing. “Foolish, because those waters have always belonged to Adela.”
Adela. Vi’s blood turned to ice. The mere mention of the name filled her with thoughts of Fallor and the last vision of her father. “What do you know of Adela?”
“You don’t know the stories?” The woman huffed at her.
“Adela terrorized the seas surrounding the main continent for years,” Jayme supplied. “But that was…” She thought for a long moment.
“More than a century and then some ago.” A man who had been ferrying trash out the back door of one of the restaurants to a bin by the old woman’smannikstand joined in the conversation. “Adela is long dead, and don’t go speaking her name around these parts. It brings storms and bad luck—though luckily not the pirate queen herself.”
“Evil doesn’t die, only bides its time,” the elderly woman cautioned.
He gave a wave and started back for his store, pausing on his own landing adjacent to where Vi and Jayme sat. “The woman is batty and you’re batty for believing her if you think Adela lives.” Before Vi could speak in protest, defending the kind old woman who had given her the most delicious food known to man, he continued. “But she’s right that those are pirate-infested waters, worse now they can pray on vessels traveling without the Empire’s protection. I wouldn’t be surprised if an impostor took up Adela’s mantle. I don’t know what test of courage you’re looking to embark on. But turn away now before you stick out your neck too far and lose your head for it.”
Vi took a bite ofmannik, chewing it over as Jayme thanked the man for his warnings. The woman threw a rude gesture at the man’s back.
“We should get back.” Jayme stood.
“Sure.” Vi rose to her feet as well, shoving the rest of hermannikinto her mouth in one bite. But it seemed they could not escape without one more remark from the watchful woman.
“You are neither foolish or greedy.” Her eyes settled right on Vi. “You are hopeful, and that is far more dangerous.”
“Thank you for the warnings,” Jayme said, practically tugging Vi along. When they were out of earshot she added, with a glance over her shoulder, “The man was right—she’s batty.”
“You think so?” Vi looked back as well.
“If Adela were alive she’d be… at least eighty? Ninety? Perhaps even over a hundred. So even if she is still among the living, claiming she sails the seas as a pirate is downright insane.”
“So you don’t believe the old woman… Or Fallor?”
“Nah. Though what the man said rings of truth. I’m sure someone claiming to be Adela is terrorizing the seas and thriving on the notoriety. Adela is the stuff of Southern bedtime stories meant to scare children into behaving.”
“Is she really so infamous?”
Jayme gave a nod, continuing unprompted: “She was the most notorious thief in Solarin—perhaps that’s why you haven’t really heard of her, growing up in the North. Just when the King Romulin’s guard was closing in on her for a whole number of crimes, they say she fled to the coast, to Oparium. From there, she turned her attention to the seas. As a Waterrunner, she was unstoppable on the waves.”
“A sorcerer?” Jayme made an affirmative humming noise at Vi’s interjection. “Just what the South needs—needed—another sorcerer to hate.”
“This was before the War of the Crystal Caverns,” Jayme reminded her. “I think most of the sorcerer hatred came from that.”
“From all I’ve read, I’m inclined to agree,” Vi muttered. “So you’re not afraid, then?”
“Oh I’m terrified.” Jayme shoved her hands in her pockets. “Of storms, and swells, and backstabbers, and pirates, and whatever awaits us on the Crescent Continent. But the one thing I’m not afraid of are ghosts.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Two more dayspassed before their time ran out.
“Miss Yullia!”
