We were on a main thoroughfare that dropped east to some docks, just visible between the walls of weather-beaten whitewashed buildings. Over the rooftops, marsh reeds marched into the distance. I craned my neck but couldn’t yet see the sea.
Egard and Belamy had the room adjoining mine and in their drunken state hadn’t even closed the door. They sprawled, snoring, on canvas-covered cots. An empty wine bottle lay on its side near the window, and a few stained playing cards were scattered over the floor. I eyed their slumped figures, disdainful.
Perhaps it was time to give my “guardians” a little scare.
Downstairs, the taproom was noisy and bustling, but my uniform—and the laconite pendant against his chest—alerted the barman, drawing his eye to me immediately. Those who could afford it often wore protections against us.
“Orha,” he said. “Another one o’you. You’re alone.”
I sidled to an empty space at the bar. “My guardians sent me down to get breakfast.” I held out the letter of passage from Arbenhaw, which I’d eased from one of Egard’s pockets. “Could I have buttered eggs in bread? And cold meats?”
His eyes roved the parchment; then he nodded, handing it back.
“What did you mean, ‘another one of us’?” I asked, my pulse picking up.
He threw me a quick glance as he poured out two ales. “Last month,” he commented. “One fromthere,just like you.” He nudged his chin at the letter I held. “Same uniform an’ all. Just that we don’t see many of you.”
He sloshed the ales onto a tray with some bread and hefted it, making to head down the bar.
“How did she seem?” I said desperately, heart drumming. It was the only thing I could think of to ask. But with a shake of his head, he was gone, tray held high.
Half an hour later, I heard the inevitable ruckus: shouts from upstairs, then the thumping of boots. Egard appeared first, eyes raking the taproom. Belamy, behind him, looked to be nursing a painful hangover.
“You.”Egard stalked up to me, face bright red. “Thought you’d tryyour luck giving us the slip? Thought you’d treat yourself to a little something on our tab?” He scowled at the remnants of egg on my plate.
“You looked like you needed your beauty sleep.”
I felt a little thrill at my words, knowing he couldn’t harm me if he wanted his coin. I’d never talked back to the Instructors at Arbenhaw. Now I was outside its walls, I couldn’t resist.
Egard looked as though he was about to explode.
“Come on,” Belamy said, steering me roughly away. “Tides mean we need to get going across that causeway.”
A tingle went through me: half anticipation, half apprehension. I hadn’t seen the sea since I was eight years old. And I knew the tides here were different from those down south.
Outside, the clouds had lowered and a brisk wind blew, bringing the scent of oncoming rain. As my case was loaded onto a cart pulled by a gray mare, I watched sailors loitering in fraying linens and wool caps, rusted whistles slung around their necks. Servants lugged sacks and ewers of water, picking their way with practiced ease around the wagons and over the ruts in the road. A knight on horseback nearly clipped me as he passed, two men-at-arms behind him, broadswords strapped to their backs.
And above the din, I heard a distant roaring.
We walked east, toward the docks I’d seen from my window, passing through a cobbled square surrounded by narrow shop fronts and houses. One of the shops was selling news pamphlets, and I slowed my pace, eyes roving the headlines.
But there was nothing, of course, about one drowned Orha, even though it had happened right here in this bay. Deaths in service were a common enough occurrence. Instead, it seemed, the pamphlets were going wild about the declining health of one of the ruling Regents:Who Will Fill Chamber Seat Left by Dying Dunlin?
“Hoi, get moving,” came Egard’s low growl.
But something else in the square caught my eye: a line of great metal plaques affixed high on the walls of the buildings. Each was engraved with symbols and figures, and I hesitated, staring up at the dense rows and columns. It was like another language; I could make no sense of it.
This time, Egard butted me from behind, and I grabbed at the cart to keep from falling. I’d seen no sign of a place called the Veil, the establishment my mysterious meeting would take place in, but I couldn’t exactly look for it now…
Besides, once we emerged from between the buildings, all thoughts of the Veil flew out of my head. A wide vista opened out before us, and all around were the endless marsh reeds. I looked down the hill, beyond the docks, and saw it there—
The high tide, battering the coast.
It filled the bay from end to end, dull daylight glinting off boisterous waves as clouds of seabirds wheeled above us. Even up here, I felt a thin mist on my face.
If I remembered right from my lessons at Arbenhaw, every month was split into archwater and pallwater. This had to be archwater, when the tides were fastest, flooding the bay with frightening speed. The stone docks we’d emerged onto were deserted; no one took boats out when the sea was this wild.
“I don’t understand,” I said to my guardians, trailing them down to the water’s edge. Rhama had said there was a causeway to the island, but there was nothing in the bay save churning waves. “Don’t we have to wait for low tide?”
