“Fresh water we’ve got aplenty,” she said. “But no shelter and not much food, and no weapons but my sword and dagger— nothing much to hunt with, I mean.”
“Unfortunately I’m no bowyer,” Tanis said regretfully. “And by the time we made a bow and found something to tip the arrows, we’d likely starve. Baaros, what I’d trade for a handful of
fishhooks.”
“Hooks!” Relief surged through Jael. “You don’t have to trade. Look.” She pulled the small pouch of needles and sinew from her kit of herbs. “We can bend the needles into hooks and cut barbs into them with my dagger. We can bait them with some of our dried meat.”
Jael was still too weak and sick to be of much use, but Tanis quickly put this plan into action, forming three hooks which he proclaimed strong enough for fishing. Threads from Tanis’s shirt were carefully unraveled and then laboriously braided into strong line. Jael and Tanis briefly tried the hooks, but stopped to plan as soon as they caught their first fish. There was no way to cook the fish on the raft, and Tanis and Jael were not quite hungry enough to eat them raw. The fish would quickly spoil on the raft in the sunlight, however, so it was quickly decided that as soon as Tanis had caught a good number of fish, both to eat and to smoke, they’d land the raft to camp for the night, even if it was well before sunset.
“We should try to hunt and smoke some meat, too, as we’ll have the extra time today,” Tanis said hesitantly. “I can set snares when we camp. I’ll go as far as away as I can, but—”
“I know.” Jael grinned ruefully. “Even when you killed the fish, I felt it, but there’s no help for it, is there? I guess I’d rather feel you kill something than have you wander too far away and maybe get killed yourself. I wish there was something I could do.”
“There is, and plenty, when we land the raft,” Tanis told her. “You can try to make some kind of shelter when we stop, and see if you can get a fire started to cook the fish. Maybe you can find flint, though I don’t know if we can strike sparks on that metal of your dagger. Once we’ve landed, maybe you can set lines for eel. And if you can forage anything to eat, too, that would help. Meantime, though, you’d best rest and save your strength.”
They dined on some of their journey food, preferring to cut up any tiny fish they caught for bait. By early afternoon, however, Tanis had caught nearly a dozen large fish, and the sun had grown so hot that Jael gladly agreed that it was time to find a suitable spot to land. Unlike Letha, Jael would not be content with tying the raft to tree roots with their short length of rope, and besides, she wanted to locate flint. At last they spotted a rocky bank, and with both Jael and Tanis using all their strength, they were able to draw the raft a little way up on the rocks where it could be securely tied to a boulder.
To Jael’s joy, willows lined the riverbank, and she quickly found one large enough to support a good-sized woven-switch bower for herself and Tanis. With the pelts for their bedding, they’d sleep in greater comfort than they’d likely enjoyed since they’d left Allanmere. She found a piece of flint, too, on the shore and was delighted to find that it would spark against her dagger.
By the time Tanis returned from setting his snares, Jael had the shelter prepared. Rocks and mud made a small drying oven where the fish could smoke over green wood overnight, and she’d set eel lines baited with fish heads in the river. By that time, she was too exhausted to make the lean-to she planned for the raft; it would simply have to wait until tomorrow.
It was then Tanis’s turn to watch the fire and the fish while Jael explored the woods near the camp; however exhausted she might be, she couldn’t stomach the thought of nothing but plain fish for supper. There was no fruit or nuts to be had this early in the year, of course, but there were tender young greens to pluck and roots to dig. To Jael’s utter embarrassment, she had to call out to Tanis and follow the sound of his voice back to camp, although she wasn’t more than five hundred paces away.
There was no pot to cook the greens and roots in, but Tanis solved the dilemma by wrapping two fresh-caught and cleaned eels, together with the greens and tubers, in clean rushes and then in mud and laying them in the fire as Nilde had done the rabbits. Jael was not particularly fond of eel, but baked with the fresh herbs, it was tasty, and certainly better than what little dried meat they had left.
When they finished eating, Tanis checked his snares and brought back three large water rodents of a type Jael had never seen before, although she recognized the pelt as one she’d seen among Letha’s furs. Tanis carefully cleaned the pelts while Jael cut the meat into neat strips for drying.
When Tanis saw Jael’s hanging bower, however, he gave it a rather dubious glance.
“Sling beds are one thing,” he said. “Sleeping three man-heights above the ground is another. What’s the matter with a lean-to?”
“I’ll make a lean-to for the raft tomorrow. But what if it rains tonight and the river rises?” Jael said practically. “We’d be flooded out with the bank so low here. Besides, trust me, we’ll sleep safer and more comfortable up there. I’ve done it a hundred times at least.”
Tanis said nothing further, but he made Jael climb up first, and then she had to help him climb out onto the limb and through the opening into the fur-lined bower. Once he was settled, however, he admitted that the nest was cozy and comfortable.
“I wish I’d fostered in the Heartwood with you last summer,” he said with a sigh, nestling into the furs. “But I’d hardly begun my Guild apprenticeship, and besides, I—well, I like the city. But there’s no denying you’ve learned some useful skills.”
Jael laughed and rolled over beside Tanis, propping her chin on his chest.
“Probably nobody but you or Aunt Shadow would ever say that,” she said. “In the forest, Mist thinks—oh, he’d never say so—I’m all but useless. I can’t hunt, I get lost, I sniffle and wheeze all the time. And in the city, Mother thinks my swordsmanship and my unarmed combat are pitiful and weak, I’m too clumsy to be a thief, and I can’t be a scholar if I can’t remember what I’ve just studied.”
“Well, your swordsmanship and your unarmed combat were good enough to best a few highwaymen and a skinshifter,” Tanis said, folding his arms around her. “We haven’t gotten lost, and you don’t sniffle and wheeze when you remember to take the potion High Lord Argent gave you. As for scholarship, I couldn’t have woven this shelter or built that little oven or found the plants you brought back, and you ‘re the one who taught me how to set snares and catch fish, so I guess you learned the important things well enough. And as for thieving, it’s just as well you can’t do it, else you’d have no use for me at all.”
“I could always use someone to gut fish and steer a raft,” Jael teased. “Carry bags, such as that.”
“Maybe I can think of something better.” Tanis reached for the sack he’d brought up with him and pulled out one of the bottles of Bluebright, raising his eyebrows inquiringly.
Jael took the bottle, then hesitated.
“You know, we’ve come a good distance out of our way,” she said slowly. “It may be even a longer journey before we find my father’s people than we’d expected. We really shouldn’t waste it. I can’t get any more. Besides,” she added, sighing, “I just don’t feel very good still.”
Tanis sighed, too, but he nodded.
“You’re right,” he said. “I guess I wouldn’t expect amorous inclinations from the greatest courtesan in Allanmere if she’d been mostly poisoned the night before.” He was silent for a moment. “Listen. It’s starting to rain a little, I think.”
Jael grinned; she’d already heard the falling drops, even with the gentle murmur of the river almost under them.
“Do you think the raft’s safe, and our food smoking in that little oven?” Tanis asked after a moment’s thought.
“If they’re not, there’s nothing we could do to make them more safe,” Jael said, shrugging. “The raft’s up on the rocks as far as we could pull it, and it’s tied. There was
nowhere higher to build the oven, either.”
That was true enough; there was nothing to do but snuggle deeper into the furs and hope that the river would not rise far. Jael was still weak from the drug the night before and bone-tired from her exertions; she did not worry overmuch, but was asleep almost as soon as she laid her head on Tanis’s shoulder. Occasionally she would half-wake, listen to the gentle patter of raindrops on the leaves of their shelter, and drift back into slumber.
In the morning the air was fresh and sweet, the sun was shining in a nearly clear sky, and the river had risen just enough that the raft would be easy to push from the rocks. There were four eels on Jael’s lines, and the fish and meat in the oven were well smoked. Jael wrapped the eels in rushes to cook while she and Tanis finished preparing the lean-to for the raft.
Tanis helped Jael cut sturdy poles and strip them of branches, and together they wove tight mats of rushes to form a fairly weatherproof shelter. At least the pelts would not be spoiled by rain, and Jael and Tanis would have some relief from the sun while they traveled. When the eels were finished cooking, Jael knocked her oven apart and carried the rocks to the raft, where, with a little new mud, she built a sort of bowl under the roof of the shelter in which they could build a small fire to cook any fish they caught. Tanis cut more rushes and took some of the willow switches from their bower, from which they could weave a basket to hold their catch.
This time, as they once again trusted their fate to the Willow River, Jael’s heart was lighter. Yes, they were far off their path and being carried farther away all the time, but they’d make the best of it. After surviving highwaymen, trappers, and skin-shifters, of what consequence was a few more leagues on their journey?
The river was flowing a little faster, likely because of the rain, but the water was deep enough that there were no rocks to worry about, and the river was so wide that the occasional fallen and half-submerged tree was easy to avoid. By midday Jael had developed a fair knack of using the large steering oar to guide the raft, and they took it in turns, one steering while the other fished or cleaned and cooked the catch, carefully saving the heads and entrails for bait. They told tales to pass the time, Tanis reminiscing about the cities he’d visited, and Jael repeating the elven legends she’d heard in the Heartwood or spinning outrageous yarns she’d been told in her childhood by Shadow and her friends at the Guild of Thieves.
As afternoon turned to evening, however, and the sun touched the horizon, forcing them to find another bank where they could stop for the night, Jael and Tanis became silent. There’d been no sign of any settlement along the river, not even another boat.
This time Jael and Tanis merely tied the raft securely and stayed on it. There were no willows here, and why build another shelter when there was one on the raft already? Jael found a few potherbs and tubers to supplement the fish they’d caught, but tonight the food, well spiced with worry, had no savor.
They ate silently. Jael thought sourly that where there were no choices, there could be no conversation. They’d wagered there’d be some settlement near Tilwich, and they’d lost that wager. There might be nothing closer than several days’ journey down the river, and now it was too late to turn back; even if they could find Tilwich by traveling on foot up the river, perhaps constructing a travois to carry the pelts, their only trade commodity, it would be a long and dangerous journey. Jael had no illusions that either she or Tanis was fit for extended rough travel through the wilderness on foot. A sword, even Jael’s sword, was not much of a weapon if they were attacked by a pack of wolves. There was simply nothing to do but stay with the river until they did find a settlement large enough that they could trade what they had, and where Tanis might be able to steal a little money, too.
At least, Jael reflected, they could stay clean; there was the river to wash their clothes and the sun to dry them, and Jael easily found roots that lathered in water when well pounded. When the sun grew too hot, Jael or Tanis would simply strip and slide into the river, holding securely to the rope. There was always fresh water to drink, and plenty of fish and eels to eat.
It was, in fact, five more days before they began to see signs of settlement. Jael was the first to spot a small boat tied to the bank, and a well-trod path winding into the forest—doubtless someone’s home. She was so excited that she almost made Tanis stop the raft then and there; Tanis pointed out practically, however, that where there was one boat and house, there’d be more, and there was no need to risk a wary settler turning his bow or his dog on them as soon as they set foot on his land.
Tanis was soon proven correct; more boats appeared, some tied only to stakes or trees, but others lashed firmly to well-built small docks. At last Jael spotted a young boy fishing from the bank, and Tanis was quick to steer the raft toward him, calling out to ask what city lay ahead. The boy listened puzzledly, then called back something in a language Jael did not recognize. Tanis knew several other languages, and he tried a few of them, but the raft was drifting onward even as he spoke, and finally he was forced to resort to gestures before the boy nodded his comprehension, pointed downriver, and said, “Zaravelle,” spreading his hands far apart to indicate a large city.
“Zaravelle,” Jael repeated, her heart sinking. “That’s all the way to the south coast, Tanis!”
“I know.” Tanis put his arm around Jael’s shoulder, hugging her comfortingly. “But it’s a large city, as large as Allanmere. We can buy horses there, and supplies, and sleep in an inn again. Besides, just think—I’ve never seen the sea, have you?”
That cheered Jael a bit; she’d always dreamed of seeing the great salty sea Shadow told such stories of. And Tanis could probably take a purse or two at the market, enough to see them supplied again. Well, they’d simply make the best of the situation, just as they had before now. And a hot bath and something besides fish to eat would be nice.
It was midaftemoon when they reached the docks of Zaravelle. When Tanis tied the raft to one of the docks, however, and Jael handed up to him their bundle of furs and sack of supplies, a young man in what appeared to be a guard uniform hurried over, addressing them in the same language the boy had used. Tanis shook his head and again tried every language he knew, and Jael tried Olvenic as well, but without success. At last the guard succeeded in conveying through gestures that there was a fee to be paid for leaving a raft or boat tied to the docks. Pulling a handful of coins from his purse, the guard held up two coppers and pointed to Jael and Tanis, holding his hand out sternly. Jael and Tanis glanced at each other and grinned, and Jael pulled out her dagger and slashed through the raft’s rope in one stroke. The guard’s eyebrows shot up as he watched the raft float sedately away downriver to the sea, but he made no protest, only shrugging as Jael and Tanis shouldered their bundles and walked into Zaravelle.
Jael had hoped to smell the sea, but her nose was immediately assaulted by the city odors she knew so well—sweat and mud and leather and dung, cooking food and incense and burning wood and urine and—
Jael sneezed resoundingly.
“We’ll find an inn first,” Tanis told her. “Maybe the innkeeper can direct us to someone who might buy these pelts. It’s a good thing you thought of those herbs, or they’d smell musty and I’d get less for them. We’ll wait about selling my ring and your earrings, though. Maybe we won’t have to sell them at all.”
“You ought to find out if there’s a Guild of Thieves in Zaravelle,” Jael said slowly. “If we’re going to be here several days, you should get permission to work the market, and the Guild would be a good place for you to find out a bit about the city—any odd laws we ought to know, maybe recommendations of merchants to trade with or to avoid. If you can find anyone you can talk to, that is.”
“I’ll find someone,” Tanis reassured her. “Thieves, like merchants, tend to see a lot of leagues under their bootsoles. With a token from the Guild of Allanmere, I should be able to get at least temporary permission to work here.” He shrugged apologetically. But I�
��1l need some of the money. There’1l probably be a fee.”
Jael quickly tired of carrying the heavy bundle of pelts, but it took them some time to locate an inn that appeared clean but cheap. Bargaining for their room and supper was difficult, as the innkeeper could not understand a word they said, nor they him, but at last Tanis settled on half a Moon per night including supper, two Moons paid in advance, and Jael was able to deposit her bundle of pelts in their room. Tanis, however, kept his bundle, saying he’d try to trade the pelts while looking for the Guild of Thieves.
“I could go with you,” Jael suggested. “I spent a lot of time at the Guild in Allanmere.”
“It’s not the same,” Tanis said, shaking his head. “These aren’t the people you knew. These are strangers, some of them vicious people, and you’re not a Guild member. It’s better if you don’t come.”
Jael sighed, but Tanis was right. She’d been at least fairly competent and useful in the wilderness, but here in the city there was nothing for her to do but stay out of trouble, it seemed. Tanis took two Moons with him to pay any guild fees; that left Jael with one lone Moon in her pocket and a city full of people she could neither speak to nor understand.
When Tanis was gone, Jael found her way to the market, having nothing better to occupy her time. Zaravelle’s market was rather different from the one in Allanmere; as most of its trade goods were brought in on large ships, either from Tilwich to the north or along the seacoast, there were more large shops and permanent stalls, and fewer movable wagons and carts. There was no Compact here to limit the cutting of timber, and Zaravelle had not been built on a handy foundation of ready stone, so most of the buildings were wood. Too, Zaravelle had no farming community as did Allanmere, but rather a prodigious fishing industry; consequently preservation-spelled tubs of fish of all shapes, sizes, and colors replaced the quantities of fruit and vegetables Jael was accustomed to seeing. There were many wares Jael did not recognize, and ordinarily she’d have been an eager browser among the stalls, but the Moon in her pocket was all she had, and supper was the only meal she was guaranteed, so she reluctantly turned away from the fascinating goods. Besides, Jaellyn the Cursed wandering too close to the preservation-spelled fish might mean a smelly disaster for Zaravelle’s fishmongers.
Dagger's Point (Shadow series) Page 15
