As Hanas disappeared, and the sea stretched out like a sheet in every direction, the world felt suddenly very, very large. Her heart began to race, and she sucked in, filling her lungs with air.
She was alone. And though she was frightened, for the first time in years, she was also free. That night, when the Good Luck found its current, Elrick gave her a blanket and a corner of the cabin floor, and she curled up with the little owl, and let the ship rock her to sleep.
* * *
The water below the boat had come alive.
The currents on the open sea had shone a low and steady blue, but since they’d passed the port, trading the ocean for the waterway that would carry them inland, the water had been changing colors. Now it glowed an eerie red, shot through with threads of crimson light.
“Amazing, isn’t it?”
Tes’s head jerked up. Elrick was leaning over the side now, too, staring down into the current. “You can see it?”
“Well, I’m not blind, so yes, I can see the light of the Isle. As can everyone, from Tanek on.”
Tes marveled at the idea of a magic others could see. Elrick was no longer watching the water. He stared at her, turning a question over in his cheek. This time he seemed about to give it voice, but at the last, he swallowed it, turned his gaze back to the river.
Since picking her up in Hanas two nights before, he hadn’t asked a single question. Not about who she’d been, or what she was running from. Not when she fixed each and every object in his crate. Not even when he came into the cabin once and caught her adjusting the threads around the little owl, her fingers hooking through what must have looked like empty air.
“Your business,” he’d said, turning on his heel, and walking out again.
Now they stood side by side, leaning over the rail as the color deepened in the water below.
“They say it is a source,” explained Elrick. “A place where magic runs so strong the naked eye can see it.” The naked eye, she thought as he nodded at the prow. “It will only get brighter as we near London.”
London.
She knew of the Arnesian capital, of course, but back in Hanas, it had felt like the stuff of stories. A city so big you couldn’t see its edges. The jewel of the empire, overflowing with magic. Rosana had once gifted their mother an illustration of the royal palace, which had supposedly been built on a bridge over the Isle, though that seemed a ridiculous place to put a castle.
Or so she thought, until she saw it.
Soon the river widened into a crimson thoroughfare, crowded with ships, and on either bank the buildings rose, so many and so close she couldn’t see the streets between, and Tes finally had to close her eyes against the shine and tangle of so many burning strings. Beyond her lids, a shadow, as she felt them pass beneath a bridge, the brief dark like a cool compress. And then, the light was there again, and Elrick telling her to look.
When she opened her eyes, she saw the soner rast, the city’s beating heart. The palace vaulted over the crimson river, its spires pricking the sky, the sun turning them to flame.
The docks were crowded with all manner of boats, from small skiffs to massive ships with more masts than the Good Luck had sails. Boats with spellwork carved into their hulls, and streaked like paint along their prows. Everywhere she looked, she saw the lines of magic. An almost blinding tapestry of threads.
Her spirits sank a little when she scanned the docks, and saw no market, no makeshift stalls.
“This city has a hundred markets,” said Elrick, at her side. “You will find them all.”
She threw a mooring rope down to a waiting dockhand.
Elrick laid the ramp.
“There you are,” he said, as if he’d simply given her a lift from one port to another. As if he hadn’t saved her, set her free. Her borrowed boots sounded as she crossed the deck, the coin pouch in one pocket and the owl tucked beneath her arm. She felt too light, as if she’d forgotten something instead of leaving it behind on purpose. She set off down the ramp, but Elrick caught her arm.
“Wait.”
If, in that moment, the sailor had invited her to stay aboard, she might have said yes. But he didn’t. Instead he took her hand, and placed the small dark stone inside it, the one he held on to as he guided the ship. He curled her fingers around the rock.
“To ground you,” he said, “whenever you’re at sea.”
She held fast to the little stone as she descended the ramp, and crossed the dock. Held fast as she reached the steps that led up to the street, and into the vast and vibrant city. Held fast as she plunged into the rippling current of light and motion, and knew that no matter what, she would find her way.