The inn turned out to be infinitely nicer than the one in Drias, much to her relief, but she found out why when she came to pay for the room and stable. Whatever she had to do to free Fenrir, she needed to do it quickly, because anything more than a couple of nights would have her near penniless for the journey back to Callodosis.
So, she left her horse with instructions for him to be treated like royalty, the horse she’d inadvertently stolen from Keeran, and headed straight out on aching legs to find the docks.
Although quieter thanit had been earlier in the day, Llmera still hummed with the energy of a capital city, with music wafting from closed doors alongside spiced scents that had Aelia’s mouth watering.
The subtle smell of brine permeated the city, but it grew stronger as shops and restaurants gave way to the warehouses and grimy taverns that lined the streets leading up to the docks. Although it was still early evening, many people on the streets looked like they’d already seen the bottom of one too many tankards. Aelia resisted the urge to find the hilt of her dagger as their leering followed her down the street.
Aelia only slowed when she reached a break in the sea wall, the paved streets giving way to a dock full of ships being readied for the open water. Gulls soared between their masts, their sharp calls in harsh contrast to the soothing rush of the waves lapping against the rocks below.
A few were warships, proud and intimidating; some were preparing to transport the wares of merchants around the world; but most of the vessels looked as though they simply sailed the coast and returned with fish to feed the city. The smell was overpowering, clogging the air as the day's catch was unloaded, but Aelia was too wired to notice.
Somewhere in amongst the floating beasts before her, was a ship readying to transport humans to Ideolanthea. Aelia swallowed the familiar nausea she’d been fighting since she’d heard Beserkir tell Keeran about the King’s deal, to save theartemians from war by forsaking the humans. She had no idea what the ideolan would want humans for. All Ideolanthea cared about was their war, and the humans would make weak soldiers against the magic wielded in the Mithrylaya.
She’d spent the last few days praying to gods she didn’t really believe in to let Fenrir still be in Llmera. If he’d already been shipped off to Ideolanthea, she doubted she’d ever be able to track him down.
Aelia stopped at the water’s edge, leaning onto the handrail atop the sea wall with crossed arms. She looked out over the array of ships; she had no idea what she was looking for, but somehow she had to work out where they were keeping the humans.
Ships came and went, the black waters beneath them making Aelia’s stomach churn as their hulls slipped silently through the waves, their sails tucked safely away. It took her a while to work out how they were heading so surely out to sea without any visible means of power, but when she saw a jet of water explode out of the ocean into the air, her mouth dropped open.
An artemian, in its second form, was dragging them safely out to deeper waters. Now she knew what to look for, she could see monumental shadows lurking beneath the surface, huge creatures of the deep ready to tow ships in and out of the docks.
Smaller marine creatures accompanied the fishing vessels, leaping and flipping out of the water in a way that brought a reluctant smile to Aelia’s lips. She wondered what role the Shifted artemians played; whether they helped detect the fish, or perhaps even helped to guide them towards the nets. It was a different world; one she could have watched for days.
Aelia sat and dangled her legs off the sea wall, leaning her chin on her arms as she peered over the lower metal bar of the handrail. Minutes turned to hours as the cries of the men and women working the ships washed over her. Watching them workwas bewitching, so vastly different from what she was used to in the forest, and yet the teamwork necessary made her think of her logging team with a pang of homesickness. They worked even as the sun set, loading and unloading until Aelia’s back ached for them.
She noticed a constant presence amongst the chaos as the hours passed. A young woman in a perfectly pressed uniform Shifted frequently, flying from ship to ship on the black wings of a raven. She meticulously documented the contents on her ledger, searching every nook and cranny for contraband, unperturbed by the late hour.
Aelia watched with growing exhaustion, thinking of the overpriced bed waiting for her in the inn. Now she’d formulated something of a plan, her thoughts started to wander. They quickly got stuck on Keeran, as they so often did. Memories of the night she’d left him whirled round her head, starting with seeing him with Beserkir, flitting to the pair bond revelation, before landing on the way she’d found out…
The moment thoughts of being perched on that that wall in front of Keeran snuck in, she slammed down on them, forcing herself to focus on the clerk still flitting around the dock. The woman’s work ethic was not to be sniffed at, and Aelia watched most other workers leave before the conscious clerk finally tucked her ledger into a black leather satchel and made to head home.
Aelia uncurled herself from the hard ground, her joints stiff and uncooperative after so many days in the saddle. Still, she hardly minded a little stiffness, not when she was still so relieved Keeran’s ‘tea’ had eradicated her pain. She guessed she’d never know what he’d put in it, which was a damned shame because it was nothing short of miraculous.
After a few awkward steps in which her legs gradually agreed to function again, Aelia took off after the clerk, keeping enoughof a distance so as not to draw attention to herself. Her nerves started to get the better of her, and she rubbed her clammy palms on her trousers, struggling to control the shallow gasps of her breathing.
If she was caught, she’d be flung straight into a cell for assault, and Fenrir would end up in Ideolanthea. But after hours of sitting up there, she hadn’t been able to think of a better plan, no matter how hard she racked her brain.
So, when the woman turned onto a deserted street, Aelia picked up the pace and barrelled her into a dark little alleyway. The clerk was so petite she would have been knocked to the floor had Aelia not grabbed her, slamming a hand over her mouth to muffle the woman’s predictable squawk of surprise. She was careful to keep the woman firmly facing away from her. Too pumped full of adrenaline to feel guilty, Aelia dragged her back into the shadows, easily overpowering her flailing attempts to get away.
“Stop struggling,” Aelia panted in the woman’s ear, sticking her dagger into her abdomen just hard enough to make its presence known. “If you tell me what I need to know, you’ll be home in time for dinner. If you don’t?—”
Aelia pressed the blade in firmly enough to make the woman gasp, her breath dragging against Aelia’s palm.
“Do you board all the ships that pass through Demuto’s docks?”
The woman hesitated, and Aelia could have sworn she sensed the woman’s surprise. After a brief pause, she nodded.
“Even the ones carrying the humans to Ideolanthea?”
This time, the pause was longer, but a nod still followed it.
“Do you know what’s happening to them when they get there?”
She immediately shook her head.
“Do you know where they keep the humans before they’re shipped out?”
Another nod. Aelia sucked in a relieved breath, getting a waft of the woman’s floral perfume.
