Vi calmly finished the section she was working on, returned the brush to the bucket, went to where she’d originally collected the paint from, closed the bucket, and dropped the brush in a soaking basin. When she emerged on deck with Cole, she noticed more than a few eyes on her. A group of sailors who were drinking on the quarterdeck went silent. Vi strode down the gangplank and settled herself on the pylon opposite the guard.
“Get going, girl,” Dower called down.
Vi wondered briefly how old Dower was. Thirty? Forty, perhaps? They might be nearly the same age, and here he was, calling her “girl.”
“You told me to get off your boat, sir. I am off of it. You said nothing about the docks and don’t control them.”
“Suit yourself,” he grumbled and disappeared.
That night, Vi slept on the docks in a twilight haze. She was ever aware of the heavy footfalls along the creaking wood, always listening for a threat. When dawn came, she unfolded her cold, damp body and ascended the gangplank to begin her work once more.
Once more, Captain Dower told her he had no room and no pay for her.
Once more, Vi slept on the docks.
It took a week.
Twintle suddenly appeared on the boat without warning, looking quite smug. He didn’t so much as spare her a glance as he went right for Dower. Vi hoped that Taavin and Deneya had been keeping an eye on the man while he was in town.
The call to cast off was made soon after.
Dower said nothing about having no space for her as they readied to set sail.
Chapter Thirteen
The passagefrom Oparium to Norin took about four weeks, round trip, depending on weather. They usually stayed in Oparium for two weeks when docked, and in Norin for a month or two.
In total, the trip to and from Oparium usually took about two and a half months.
Vi had done that trip four and a half times when things finally got interesting. They were docked in Norin when a woman with a scar over her left eye boarded late in the night. Vi had seen the woman on the docks when she was off the boat with the other sailors in search of a drink or card game. But she’d never had much of a reason to pay attention to her. That was… until now.
“I’m here to speak with Cole.”
“Not often a Southerner comes knocking in Norin.” Vi folded her arms over her chest. She’d worked her way up through the ranks swiftly and deliberately, to be one of Cole’s agents. He trusted her to not let just anyone onboard the ship.
“Twintle sent me.” The woman tucked her hand into her coat and produced a folded letter sealed with the same symbol emblazoned on the sail.
“Well, then, don’t keep the captain waiting with your lordly business.” Vi pushed away from the dock pylon and led the woman up the gangplank.
A Southerner… what would have Twintle working with a Southerner? Whatever it was, Vi was certain it wasn’t good. But perhaps, hopefully, this marked the start of a lead that would bring her to Adela.
Whatever the woman and Cole spoke about was short. She was strolling back down the gangplank with the same smug smile in only ten minutes. Vi worried the chain around her neck and wished, not for the first time in Norin, that she could still summon Taavin.
A few hours later, when the decks had long since quieted, a red-cloaked figure emerged from the night’s haze. Vi shifted off her perch, instantly alert.
“Fiarum evantes,” Luke said, just as he had all those months ago.
“Kotun in nox,” Vi replied, eying the red cape around his shoulders. Did the Knights of Jadar still meet in that warehouse? She’d cased it a few times without success, but perhaps she should do so again.
He started up the gangplank, but stopped only a few steps up and faced her once more. “You were that girl we liberated from the South. What was your name?”
“Violet,” Vi said.
“That’s right. You were the one who knew of my family.” Luke paused, hands folded behind his back. He looked more and more like his father as his hair began to salt. “How did you put it? That my kin, ‘protected the old ways’?”
“It’s what I was always taught growing up here in Norin. And it’s made working for you an honor, sir.”
“Is that so?” He stepped forward, looking her up and down in the dim light of the docks. “How old are you, Violet?”
