I stare at the velvet drapes, wondering how I managed to get myself into this mess. Yesterday at this time, I was loading eggs into my family’s wagon. My largest concern was whether Flink was going to eat all my mother’s chickens or if Sebastian’s grandfather likes Adeline more than he likes me.
Undaunted by my lack of response, Avery continues, “You’re brooding. Would you like to talk about what happened with Sebastian? We have plenty of time.”
I shoot him a look that would silence most full-grown men.
“No? Perhaps you’d like to tell me about this Connor fellow,” Avery continues—because the captain’s not your average full-grown man. “Sounds like you had quite the romance going. And here I thought you’d always been enamored with” —Avery grins when I shoot him another murderous look— “Him.”
“Connor is no one.” I scrunch my nose after I say the words. That’s not terribly fair to Connor. Of course he’s someone. He’s just not my someone. “Just a man my mother wanted me to marry.”
“My mother had a girl picked out for me as well.” He looks distant for a moment, and then the ornery expression returns. “Ah, memories.”
“What happened? Did you desert her in the wildlands, too?”
He smiles. “No.”
I lean forward conspiratorially and lower my voice. “Do you think it didn’t work out because she realized you have no heart?”
“Maybe,” he says as he inches a bit closer, “she realized my heart was waiting for yours.”
Avery chuckles, thoroughly amused by the repulsed look on my face. I refuse to continue this ridiculous conversation, so I lie my head against the backrest and stare at the ceiling.
“They won’t attack the carriage.” He sounds awfully confident for a man who requested guards instead of a driver and footman. “Get some rest.”
“You can’t know that.”
“They’d have to be fairly desperate, and I don’t think they are. Not yet. Not until we get closer to Teirn. After that, it will be far more difficult to catch us once we’re on the Serpent.”
Finally, I meet his eyes. “How much is my bounty?”
The captain doesn’t even hesitate. “Twenty-five thousand denats.”
It’s a good thing I’m sitting. I clasp the bench so tightly my knuckles turn white. That’s a ridiculous amount of money for a map.
“How much is yours?” I demand once I’ve caught my breath. “And Adeline’s?”
“Adeline’s is only two thousand. I’m confident if she stays close to Sebastian, she’ll remain safe. That kind of money isn’t worth incurring the wrath of Kalae’s nobility.”
“And yours?”
He crosses his arms, hesitating. “Same as yours.”
He’s lying. Why?
I study him, deciding I will demand he tell me later. For now, I sit back, processing his words. It’s a strange thing to have a price on your head. No one’s ever wanted me dead before. I mean, Sebastian might have threatened it a few times, but he didn’t actually mean it.
I grow cold. It’s a chill that sinks into my bones.
What is the chance we’ll make it aboard Avery’s ship? What’s the chance I will be able to truly defend myself if we’re apprehended?
“I need a bow,” I say quietly, staring at the sleeping dragon on the floor of the carriage. “You owe me that at the very least. A quiver, some arrows.”
“You can have anything you want as soon as we reach the next city.” Avery glances out the window. “What is the next one, anyway?”
“Arbormath, but there are a few villages between here and there.”
“Best not to stop anywhere too small. No reason to give the locals something to talk about.”
“I thought the bounty hunters wouldn’t attack the carriage?”
He meets my eyes, almost smiling. “But perhaps we should not test them.”
“How many men did Duke Eldemyer send? Do you know?”
“Well…that’s the thing.”
I glare at the man across from me. “What thing?”
“It’s less the duke hired men, and more he had the bounty posted on every bulletin board from here to Mesilca.”
My throat closes, and a simple thing like breathing suddenly becomes a challenge.
“Once we’re on the Serpent, it will be smooth sailing to Mesilca,” he continues. “I swear it.”
I stare at him, so angry I can’t speak. Avery seems to know it’s best to leave me to my own thoughts because he once again stretches out on the bench, clasps his hands behind his head, and closes his eyes. I glare at him, unsure if he’s actually asleep.
He’s a brave man. If I were a girl with slightly less moral fiber, I might end him right now. But that would make me the kind of low-life snake he is, and I would never sink that far. Especially when he did save me last night. Not that I couldn’t have taken care of those men myself, but…
I’m not sure I could have taken those men myself. There were at least five of them and only one of me. The odds weren’t exactly in my favor.
The sun rises, but it’s soon swallowed by a storm moving in from the west. Wind blows the drapes, and I shiver. The first drops of rain fall, and then the sky opens up.
When I was young, I would climb into the hayloft and watch the rain. More often than not, Sebastian was with me. We’d sit there for hours, watching the clouds weep.
Sebastian hates rain, hates the mud it brings and the chill in the air. I love it, especially thunderstorms with chaotic lightning and loud booms of thunder. Right now, it matches my mood. I revel in the rumbles in the distance, close my eyes as the wind whips past the curtains and through my hair. Somehow it soothes me, purges the fury in my core.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you called the storm.”
I snap my eyes open and find the captain watching me. Though he wears a smile, his expression is almost guarded. He waits for me to say something. The clouds have darkened the sky to near twilight, and his eyes are dark in the dim light.
“Why did you save me in the wilds when the amphibian beast attacked?” I demand. “Why risk losing your sword if you knew you were going to leave us for dead?”
He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t leave you for dead. I had full confidence you’d make it back to Mesilca.”
“Why did you kiss me?” The question is odd, perhaps even has a romantic connotation, but my tone is flat. I don’t ask in breathy anticipation; I ask out of morbid, impartial curiosity.
Avery’s eyebrows jump, but he quickly schools the surprise from his expression. He watches me—studies me, maybe wondering if there’s more to my question than there is. Apparently deciding there’s not, he sits back and crosses his arms. “Because I wanted to.”
“Do you always take what you want?”
“Usually.”
I know he’s waiting for me to press for more, but I simply don’t care enough to pursue more of the conversation. The storm quiets, and so does my mood. The lightning travels away, and soon we are left with the soft, constant patter of an autumn rainstorm.
CHAPTER SEVEN
How Much are You Worth?
I must drift to sleep at some point because I jerk awake when the carriage comes to a stop. I sit up, blinking, temporarily forgetting where I am. Holding up a hand to signal me to wait, Avery opens the door. He stands at the entry, exchanging a quick, curt conversation with the guards.
He motions for me to follow him out. I once again ignore his offered hand and climb down the rain-soaked steps myself, hoping not to fall. Flink yawns, stretching, and then follows us, head butting me in the rump to make me move faster. With my feet firmly planted on the street, I glare at the dragon as I attach the lead to his harness. Flink, of course, doesn’t notice. After he’s secure, I raise my hood to ward off the drizzling rain.
Beside me, my dragon looks about, intrigued by the new place. Our carriage passed through Arbormath on our way home, but we didn’t stop. The sig
hts and smells are new to my pet.
I have only been to the city a few times, and each of those times was with Sebastian. Father rarely came this far, and he never brought me with him. Most of our business was done in Reshire. Still, the city is as I remember it. The cobblestone streets are gray, wet, and dark. The carriage stopped at the stables, right in the heart of the city. The local duke’s castle rises to the east. It’s not a pretty structure as some are, but rather utilitarian with a rectangular construction with few windows and no balconies or terraces.
“I’m not familiar with this city,” Avery admits, falling into step beside me. “Where is the closest bowyer?”
He seems on edge, and he constantly glances about us, as paranoid as I was earlier. One guard stays with the carriage, and the other follows a way behind us, watching our backs.
“A few streets down.” I find myself watching people as well. They’re all terribly shady looking. I’m not sure who’s more suspicious, the woman selling flowers or the baker flirting with her. Perhaps it’s the boy with his pen of ducks.
I roll my shoulders, commanding myself to relax. “I want to go to the local community board.”
Avery looks at me. “Why? Hoping to take a side job as we rush to Teirn before someone can abduct you?”
I give him a hard look.
“Is running through the streets of Reshire not enough for you? You have to see the bounty yourself?” He attempts to take me by the shoulders, turn me so I must face him, but I evade him. I can tell he’s frustrated. The poor captain simply isn’t used to women who are averse to his touch. My heart truly goes out to him.
“Near the community board is the last place you need to linger,” he argues.
Ten minutes later, I have to agree. The parchment hangs in front of me, damp from the gusts of wind and rain. The artist did a fair job capturing my likeness, though Adeline’s picture is far lovelier.
Wanted, dead or alive—preferably alive.
That’s something at least.
Avery shifts, uncomfortable. There’s a young girl who stands to my left. Without purpose, she browses the board, likely avoiding afternoon chores. She glances at the notice that holds my attention and then looks at me. I turn away, nervous even though she’s no older than Kirsten. I can feel her young eyes on me, questioning, judging.
Avery rips the parchments from the board, folds them in half, and then shoves them inside his traveling jacket. “We’ve lingered long enough. Let’s find a bowyer and be on our way.”
With his hands on my shoulders, he forces me from the board. We’re halfway to our destination when I look at him sharply. “Your bounty wasn’t posted.”
“Which means someone has already taken the notice. Like I said, we need to keep moving.”
I glance around, wondering if that someone is watching us as we speak.
We make it to the bowyer’s shoppe with no incident, but as we’re headed back to the carriage, two men catch my eye. They watch us from the corner of the square. They are just two workers who are going about their business, taking a short moment to chat before they head to their jobs. But they keep glancing our way.
As we’re passing, I accidentally lock eyes with one. He’s an average sort of man, no one who would usually stand out in a crowd. He watches me though, and his expression reminds me of the wolfhounds that waited under the tables at the duke’s feast. Hungry. Patient—but hungry.
His gaze drops to the dragon at my side, and he narrows his eyes, thinking. Probably wondering if the beast is as much of a threat as his larger cousins.
“Avery,” I say under my breath as I clasp my new bow closer.
“I see them,” he answers, his steady gait never faltering. “Keep walking.”
It’s not that I don’t think I could fight these men. It’s that I don’t want to. It’s one thing to finish a beast who’s about to rip your head off. But a human? My palms begin to sweat.
The men don’t follow us to the carriage, but I can feel their eyes as we round a corner. Once we’re out of their sight, Avery nudges my arm, coaxing me to go a little faster. Flink protests, wanting to dawdle, and I give him a hard yank. Our guard closes in, hurrying us along. The man we left at the carriage leaps from his seat and opens the door, picking up on our severe expressions. Avery all but shoves me through the door. I’m about to protest, but he’s already tossing in my hundred-and-fifty-pound dragon.
The carriage starts rolling before Avery’s fully inside. Anxious, I look out the window. “Don’t you think this haste makes us look more suspicious?”
“They already knew who we were. It doesn’t matter now.”
“I thought you said no one would dare attack us in this carriage.”
He gives me a wry look, almost smiling despite the rigid set of his shoulders.
We rush through the city at a quick pace, which turns into a break-neck speed as soon as we reach the main road.
“The horses—” I begin to protest.
“We’ll buy new ones in the next city.”
I open my mouth, but I don’t know how to respond to that. Does Avery carry that kind of money on him? Just how much is the captain worth, anyway? And if he already has so much, why did he take my orchids?
Because he’s a pirate. A vile, loathsome, belly-dragging… My thoughts come to an abrupt stop because that pirate is now examining Flink’s foot and frowning. He prods between the scales, and Flink squeals like a pig.
“What is it?” I demand, leaning forward.
With extreme care, he plucks a cocklebur from the sensitive skin between the dragon’s toes.
“Better now?” he asks the dragon, ignoring me.
Flink tucks his foot under his belly and glares at Avery. The captain laughs and tosses the cocklebur out the window. He meets my eyes, still grinning.
I look away.
***
“Are you hungry?”
I don’t know what I am. I should be hungry. I haven’t eaten since yesterday afternoon, and dusk has already fallen. I glance out the window. The clouds hang low to the ground, masking the last of the day’s light. We’re a good six hours out of Arbormath, and no one has attacked us yet. Perhaps we overreacted a bit.
But I shiver when I remember the way the men watched me.
“Lucia?”
“What?” I lift my head abruptly. From the way he’s looking at me, he must have repeated himself several times. “No. I’m not hungry.”
“You need to eat.”
What is it with the men in my life ordering me around? First Sebastian and now Avery. Do I look like a damsel in distress? Do I look like Adeline?
“I’m fine.”
Avery watches me in the near dark.
I bristle as I wait for him to argue. “Well, say it already.”
“Say what?” he asks, sounding half amused.
“Tell me that if I want to keep up my energy and spirits, I need to feed myself.”
“I’m not Sebastian, Lucia. I believe you’re capable of deciding when and if you’re going to eat.”
I wait for a beat, deflated. “Oh. All right.”
Again, I look away. With the growing dark, I’m not sure Avery can see me anyway. Several moments go by, and my stomach growls.
“I could eat,” I finally say, readying myself for his teasing.
“I know a place near here.” He leans out the window, calling directions to our driver.
That’s it? That’s all?
Avery reclaims his seat across from me, silent.
Quiet, quiet, quiet.
It’s killing me. He should be groveling at my feet. How dare he sit there as if he hasn’t a conscience at all. Maybe he doesn’t.
A cool breeze blows through the window, and I shiver under my cloak.
“Are you warm enough?” he asks after a moment too long.
The question only brings back memories of a boat lost at sea with Sebastian. I nod, not sure if Avery can see, not caring either way. It pains me how much
I hate him. It’s a smoldering coal at my core, eating me out from the inside. I’m bitter and black, and I detest feeling this way.
Every part of me wants to lash out, but at the same time, he is nothing. Too insignificant to waste my words or fury on.
I know I should let it go. Spend the rest of the trip in quiet, meaningless small talk. Maybe I will. But not tonight. Tomorrow’s not looking good either.
Next week, perhaps. If we live that long.
Flink’s pressed against my legs, asleep. He’s warm against me, and I focus on his rhythmic snores.
We reach another city, this one in the heart of the province Montaview. To avoid the dense forests of Eromoore, we headed south. The cities are larger and grander the closer to the sea we travel, and it doesn’t surprise me Avery has acquaintances here. Though, from what I know of the captain, his friends are not of the sort I’d like to meet.
The carriage slows when the road turns from dirt to cobblestones. I sit with my arms crossed over my chest, listening to the sounds outside the window. We must pass streetlamps, because lights peek through the edges of the drapes. I’ve never been to Montaview, and I’m curious. It’s a fault of mine. I’m that cat.
When I can bear it no longer, I push the curtain aside just a smidgen. The city’s bustling. There are dozens of other carriages, and people talk on every corner. Merry flames flicker inside lampposts, and it looks as if this city is preparing for a harvest festival of their own.
Women hang wreaths, and pumpkins grace doorsteps. The province isn’t as mountainous as my home, and the air is a bit warmer despite the weather. Children play on the streets, chasing each other. Girls in gorgeous gowns mingle with peasants. Everyone has a task for the festival, whether it’s preparing food carts, hanging decorations, or ordering the men about.
I let the curtain fall closed.
“We’re almost there,” Avery says.
Several minutes later, the carriage comes to a stop.
“We’ll stay here for the night,” Avery says as he climbs from the cart. “It would be best not to travel after dusk.”
He offers his hand. Again, I ignore it. We’ve stopped at a manor. It’s large and stately, but a huge autumn wreath hangs from the gargantuan door, softening the place up somewhat. Avery brushes off my snub with a smile and escorts me to the front. Confident, he knocks twice and then steps back to wait. I stare at the door, craning my neck to see the whole thing. It’s easily three times as tall as I am.
Greybrow Serpent (Silver and Orchids Book 2) Page 6
