“And do you really think so?” Holo gave him a bright, guileless smile and cocked her head.
“I suppose my master also taught me that honesty is a fool’s errand.”
Holo chuckled through her nose, then teased, “So much so that I can’t help making fun of you.” She spun about with a dancer’s grace, then walked off into the crowd.
Lawrence slumped and sighed, scratching his head.
A smile rose to his lips; these tete-a-tetes were a joy, it was true.
And yet, he thought, will I never regain the upper hand, I wonder?
He was confident he could at least get back the deed that had been swindled away, but that seemed like sour grapes.
I love you.
It had been only a short while ago, yet already the moment when he’d faced Holo and spoken those words seemed like the distant past. Thinking back on it, Lawrence was tormented by some nameless feeling.
The strange emotion made his face twitch and his breathing labored.
And yet – it was not a bad feeling.
The elusive thing had a definite sense of calmness, of peace about it.
It was only a bit – no, a good bit – embarrassing; the bit of regret he felt probably came from having lost the contest.
“What contest?” he asked himself with a derisive smile, looking in the direction in which Holo had disappeared.
He shrugged and sighed, then walked in the direction of the pier.
Lawrence soon found a ship, which was possibly fortunate and certainly unexpected.
Though the port was jammed with people desperate to send out a vessel, when Lawrence calmed himself and looked more closely, he saw that there were many ships loading up cargo per the usual routine, and when he called out to one, he received a ready reply. With every ship being so busy, Lawrence expected the fares to be exorbitant, but they were actually quite reasonable.
Lawrence pretended not to notice the tension melt away from the aged captain’s face when he mentioned his female companion.
He understood why Eve went to such efforts to hide her face and her sex when doing business.
“Still, what business could you have in Kerube? No respectable boat will be headed there in this season.”
The captain had the unfamiliar name of Ibn Ragusa and explained that he was from a poor, chilly village at the northern end of the western coastline.
By repute, people from the far north were lean and snow tanned, taciturn and keen eyed, but Ragusa was round and effusive with a complexion more ruddy than tan.
“Unsurprisingly, it has to do with the fur trade.”
“Oh?” Ragusa looked Lawrence up and down skeptically, cocking his head, his neck imperceptible between beefy shoulders. “You don’t look like you have any cargo.”
“My onetime business partner made off with it.” Lawrence pointed to the still-swollen part of his face. Ragusa laughed with gusto, his face looking for all the world like a puffer fish.
He slapped Lawrence’s shoulder as if to say such things happen, then asked, “So, where is this companion of yours?”
“Ah, she’s off buying rations–” Lawrence began, turning in the direction of the row of venders – but then he felt a presence at his side.
There was Holo, standing as though she had been there for years.
“–And here she is.”
“Oh ho! Such a fine cargo!” boomed Ragusa with a clap of his hands, so loudly that Holo’s shoulders flinched.
Sailors, as a rule, were a loud-voiced lot.
Too loud, no doubt, for Holo, whose hearing was so keen she could hear the sound of someone furrowing his brow.
“By the by, what’s her name?”
Perhaps thinking they were a married couple, Ragusa asked Lawrence rather than inquiring of Holo directly.
In any case, he was nothing like the moneychanger that had once tried to seduce Holo immediately upon meeting her.
A bag holding bread or the like hung from Holo’s shoulder, and under an arm, she carried a small cask. Looking every inch the apprentice nun returning from an errand, she looked up at Lawrence.
That she was keeping up appearances in front of other people was one of the reasons, Lawrence mused, that even if she teased him, he would be unable to be angry with her.
“It’s Holo.”
“Ho! A fine name! Pleased to meet you. I’m Ragusa, master of the Roam River!”
Any man would be eager to boast in front of such a comely maiden.
Ragusa spoke as though it was the most obvious thing in the world for such a girl to be traveling with Lawrence, and he extended his meaty, calloused hand out in greeting. “But this means we’ll be sure to make the passage downriver safely, too!”
“Meaning…?”
Ragusa grinned and guffawed, patting Holo’s slender shoulder. “The market’s declared that it should be a beautiful maiden that’s fitted to a ship’s prow to pray for her safety!”
It was true that the prows of long-distance trading ships were generally decorated with a carving of a female figure.
Sometimes they represented a pagan goddess; other times, they were of a sainted woman from the Church’s history. (Lawrence did have the sense that it was always a woman that watched over a ship, and ships were often given female names as well.)
Still, he felt like Holo was a bit out of her depth in this capacity – she was a wolf, better suited to hearing prayers for safe overland travel than any sort of waterborne voyage.
The image of Holo dog-paddling through the water came to mind; Lawrence couldn’t help but smile slightly to himself.
“So, are you ready? We’re not scheming to move fur like everybody else is, but we do have some cargo that needs to be hurried,” said Ragusa.
“Ah, er, yes. Were you able to procure food?” Lawrence asked of Holo, who nodded.
Given that she was a wolf, Holo was awfully good at playing the innocent little lamb.
“Then go ahead and sit anywhere that’s free. You’ll pay up when we get there.”
The custom of paying upon arrival was only tenable for water vessels – being surrounded by water made riding for free difficult.
“Just pretend you’re riding on a great ship,” finished Ragusa with a great laugh, every inch the sailor.
Among the vessels that plied the river, carrying cargo up and down it, Ragusa’s was a bit on the small side.
It had no sails, and the bottom was flat – but despite that, the boat was rather slender and long. Had it been any narrower, it would have been easy for an inexperienced captain to accidentally capsize it.
Directly in the middle of the boat was a waist-high pile of burlap sacks, each of which was easily big enough to fit Holo inside. From their overflowing mouths, Lawrence could tell they were filled with wheat and legumes.
Directly astern of that pile were several wooden crates.
Since Lawrence could hardly open them up and peek inside, he couldn’t say for sure what their contents were, but given the seals or crests that had been branded upon the crates – which were all of a similar size – he assumed they were relatively valuable. This was certainly the cargo that needed to be hurried. Like any merchant, Lawrence found himself curious about what they contained.
If the crates had been brought from farther upriver, they could contain ore out of a silver or copper mine or perhaps small-value coins minted near an iron mine and destined for export. Tin or iron wouldn’t have been so carefully crated, and it would be equally strange to transport gemstones without so much as a single guard.
Owing to the low level of the river, the amount of cargo aboard the vessel was quite small relative to its capacity.
There was little rainfall during this season, and thanks to heavy snowfall in the mountains, the river’s headwaters were frozen over. This caused the water level to drop and made it easier for a heavily laden boat to run aground. Just as a wagon’s wheels could be easily mired in a muddy road on a rainy day, a boat running aground
was a fact of life. In the worst of such cases, cargo would have to be thrown overboard, and worst of all, it was an obstruction to other shipping traffic, which could damage the reputation of the shipmaster responsible.
It was said that the very best of those who spent their lives plying the river could man the tiller with their eyes closed, no matter what the river’s state.
So what of Ragusa?
Lawrence thought it over as he took a seat in an open space near the boat’s prow, setting down the blankets and supplies he carried.
The surface of the water in the harbor sloshed drunkenly, and the boat’s rocking was slight but constant. Lawrence hadn’t felt the sensation in some time, and it made him nostalgic; he smiled ruefully. The first time he had ridden in a boat, he had been so afraid that it would flip that he had held tight to the vessel’s edge.
Now it seemed as though he had not been exceptionally nervous.
He had to smile when he saw Holo edge ever so carefully up beside him to sit. She set down the cask of wine under her arm, unslung the bag of delicious-smelling food from her shoulder, then finally noticed Lawrence’s gaze. She glared back at him.
“What’s so funny?” she asked. Her low voice was no act.
“I was just thinking I used to be as nervous as you are.”
“Mmph… I’ve no particular fear of water, but ’tis unsettling indeed when the craft rocks.”
It was strange for her to so readily admit to being afraid.
She curled her lip, irritated at his obvious surprise. “It is because I trust you that I would admit weakness.”
“I can see your teeth behind that sneer.”
Once Lawrence had pointed it out, Holo quickly stifled her sneer, then smiled unpleasantly. It was certainly true that she had been scared, but admitting to that fear was pure calculation.
Lawrence didn’t know if she was actually being agreeable or not.
The next instant, Holo straightened suddenly. “This won’t do. I cannot start getting along with you now,” she said, turning her head aside sadly. She had said before that no matter how enjoyable her time with Lawrence was, she was afraid of eventually tiring of it. Lawrence felt a shock, as though he had touched something very hot.
He soon corrected himself – Holo was not being so serious at this moment.
Even without bothering to ask, he knew what it was that they had to avoid. Knowing there were traps ahead but not knowing exactly where would make it hard to walk – but if one knew where the cliff’s edge was, skirting along it was easy enough.
Venturing to say as much was neither cause for Holo to admonish herself, nor was it reason for Lawrence to be on guard.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
They would end their travels with a smile. Having promised each other that much, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Lawrence calmed himself and answered, “That sounds like a line out of a stage play.”
He didn’t say the rest of what he was thinking, which was that it sounded like a line out of a stage play about forbidden love.
In response, Holo – perhaps irritated at Lawrence’s failure to be properly flustered – looked his way quickly. “Could you not just play along?”
“Not so long as your face is so malicious.”
Holo’s upturned eyes had given her face a desolate cast, but then she sniggered and clicked her tongue.
Lawrence smiled, at a loss – this wolf’s expression could change awfully quickly.
Not a moment later, Ragusa came running down the pier, his footsteps banging loudly as he shouted in his characteristically booming voice, “Well then, let us be off!”
He quickly untied the boat from its mooring, then tossed the rope aboard, following it himself with a leap like a boy jumping into a river – no mean feat. Ragusa could hardly be called thin, even as rank flattery, and the boat heaved beneath the sudden weight, listing so far to one side that it seemed like it might capsize.
Even Lawrence was alarmed – to say nothing of Holo, whose body stiffened as her face turned serious.
Her hands gripped Lawrence’s clothes tightly, and this was surely no joke.
“Watch the finest ship handling in three kingdoms!” said Ragusa mightily, thrusting a long pole into the water and heaving down on it, his ruddy face turning even redder.
At first the boat seemed not to respond to Ragusa’s cry, but soon its stern slowly drew away from the wharf. Ragusa lightly raised the pole and, adjusting its direction, pushed down again.
The craft, loaded with enough goods that it would take fully four horses to haul them all, was moving under the power of one man.
Sailors were famous for their boasting, but Lawrence felt like he understood where it came from now.
Ragusa was moving the entire boat by himself, after all.
Having pulled away from the boat’s mooring, Ragusa now poled the craft along the route that led to the river.
Despite the constant flow of waterborne traffic, they didn’t collide with a single other vessel as they glided easily over the rippling water.
Ragusa seemed to know most of the vessels they passed and gave most of them friendly greetings – though he occasionally exchanged angry shouts and raised poles with some.
They gradually gained speed, which the long craft grew more stable with, and soon they approached the port’s exit to the river.
At the wooden tower, which served as a checkpoint at the border of the port, was a group of men who were trying to stop the flow of furs, and having forced their way past the town guard, they hurled curses at the boats that had managed to break through this last line of defense.
The vicissitudes of fortune were ever thus.
Men wearing chain mail and iron helms came to the entrance of the tower. They were probably mercenaries and knights who had been specially retained for the occasion.
The boat carrying Lawrence and Holo rounded the tower, and as it entered the river proper, one man yelling curses from the very top of the tower was restrained by the mercenaries. Lawrence wasn’t feeling especially sympathetic, but at the same time, he hoped there would be no fatalities.
As he watched, the things that had happened to him in the town came floating vaguely to his mind.
Just as the men in the tower were now in real trouble, Lawrence himself had only just faced his own problems.
He had been shocked by Holo’s suggestion that they end their travels together and shocked again by her reasoning.
In the end, the feeling had pierced Lawrence’s selfishness, but he decided that was what Holo had wanted.
Thinking back on the scene, it made him want to show Holo – who was far from comfortable in the unfamiliar boat – a little kindness.
But such kindness was always for naught.
Somewhere along the line, Holo seemed to have recovered, and though she still held fast to Lawrence’s clothing, she now looked intently past the vessel’s prow and along the river.
Her profile was inarguably intrepid.
“Hmm?” She seemed to notice Lawrence’s gaze and looked up at him questioningly.
She always knew precisely how she appeared to others.
Lawrence wearily looked the other way, gazing at the town of Lenos as they left it behind.
He heard a giggle.
“Your kindness is so very frightful,” said Holo, chuckling, letting go of Lawrence’s clothing.
Her head ducked, Holo’s breath escaped from her mouth and flowed whitely past her as they moved. This couldn’t be helped, not even if he wanted to pluck the fur from the little devil’s tail.
Still, it was cold upon the river. She couldn’t very well afford to lose her tail.
Lawrence replied slowly, “For my part, I’m afraid of your smile.”
“Fool.” Holo’s smile shined from underneath her hood.
As it flows gently past the town of Lenos from east to west through the grasslands, the Roam River is a perfectly normal river.
&nbs
p; In the spring and early summer when the water level is higher, they say the shipments of lumber that are floated down the river are an amazing sight, looking like some great water serpent, but at the moment, all they could see both fore and aft was the orderly line of boats.
There were also sheep drinking at the river and travelers walking alongside it and the clouds floating gently overhead.
If Holo was motivated by curiosity, she was also quick to lose interest. She rested her chin on the edge of the ship’s hull, her face a mask of understandable boredom, occasionally dangling her fingertips in the water and sighing.
“There’s nothing to do,” she muttered, at which a dozing Lawrence, curled up in the same blanket as she was, woke, yawned, and stretched.
“Mmph. I’m just happy not to have to be holding the reins.”
It was nice not to have to concentrate on avoiding the countless holes in the road, and there was no need to be on a constant lookout for the hawks that might set their eyes on his cargo.
Above all, there was no need to rub his eyes constantly to stay awake even when exhausted, listening to his companion snore while he became more irritated by the moment.
It was enough to make him want to travel by boat all the time, but Holo seemed to already be too bored to stand it. She withdrew her hand that had disturbed the water’s glassy surface and flicked droplets toward Lawrence.
The winter water was very cold.
Lawrence made a face, and Holo turned away and leaned against the side of the boat, removing her tail, which covered his feet, and pulling it back to her hands.
As Ragusa napped on the other side of the loaded cargo, there was no need for concern.
“Why don’t you try counting sheep? I’m sure you’d go to sleep eventually.”
“I was counting until a moment ago. I gave up around seventy-two.” Holo brushed her hands quickly through her tail, combing out bits of debris and matted fur.
With each brush, flea-like things popped out of her fur, but even if she’d been worried about them, there was nothing to be done.
It was enough to make Lawrence believe the talk of being kept awake by the sound of jumping fleas and lice during warm summer nights.
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