The Shattered Land_ The Dreaming Dark - Keith Baker [16]
Lei said nothing. A light rain was sweeping through the canyon, and Lei had her oilskin cloak wrapped tightly around her body. Her silence was a beacon warning of her foul mood; Lei rarely passed up a chance to talk about anything magical. She had accepted Daine’s apology, but she’d barely spoken to him since then. Pierce was walking ahead of them, carving a safe path through the throngs of people clustered on the Cliffside bridges. Merchants called out to them as they passed, and beggars cajoled and pleaded, flaunting the wounds that they had supposedly suffered during the Last War. Daine knew that Jode would have known the difference between the true cripples and the fakes, but he saw only misery. The thought of Jode’s face brought a wave of loneliness.
“Lei,” he said. “You’re angry. I get it, but what’s the point of coming if we’re not even going to talk?”
He reached and put his hand on her shoulder, and she turned to look at him. Without saying a word, she thrust the tip of her staff directly at his face. Instinct took over; he threw himself to the side, and the staff narrowly missed his neck. Even as he opened his mouth, he heard a loud cry followed by choking gasps. A tall, emaciated changeling was kneeling on the bridge behind him, gagging and clutching his throat; a small knife had fallen from his hand.
“Someone needs to watch out for you,” Lei said. She didn’t smile as she offered him a hand up. “Around here, watch your purse.”
The incident on the bridge helped to cool Lei’s anger, and by the time they had reached the docks on the Dagger’s edge she had dropped the wall of silence.
“Why haven’t we been here before?” Daine said, stepping over a pile of what appeared to be ogre dung. He could see a few of the massive creatures unloading crates from a nearby cargo ship; apparently they weren’t very particular when it came to hygiene. “It’s got all the comforts of High Walls, not to mention a thief in every crowd and fresh shit in the streets.” He studied a pair of merchants who were haggling with their fists. “I wonder how much one of those little caves on the cliffs costs.”
“I came down here a time or two during my guild training,” Lei said absently, studying the ships.
This wasn’t much of a surprise, considering that it was Lei who’d known the directions to Greenman Pier, but all the same Daine wondered what business a young Lei might have in such a dingy neighborhood. “Why was that, exactly?”
“Oh, combat training.”
Daine glanced at her, but her face was a picture of distracted innocence. “You couldn’t do that at the enclave?”
“My instructor said it wasn’t the same if you learned under controlled conditions. Though I don’t know … looking back on it, perhaps he was just trying to get rid of me.”
“Yeah … perhaps.”
Pierce paused, and Daine almost walked into him. Pierce pointed toward the river. “I believe that is our ship.”
Greenman Pier was, surprisingly enough, green. Daine couldn’t make out the names of the vessels docked there, but Pierce’s eyes were far sharper than his. The ship Pierce had chosen was a small boat, its hull stained black and silver. The sails were black, and the kraken’s arms of House Lyrandar were emblazoned on the main sail.
“There’s a wind spirit bound to the sail,” Lei said thoughtfully. “See how it’s rippling slightly, but none of the others are? Should make for a swift voyage, even if it’s not as fast as an airship or a larger elemental galleon.” She pondered the ship for a moment, and just as Daine was about to start walking she spoke again. “Who is she?”
“Lakashtai?” It had to come up sooner or later. “We met her at the King of Fire months ago, during that whole business with Teral and the brainsucker. She bought us drinks. Remember?”
Lei rolled her eyes. “Of course. She bought us drinks, and eight months later, she shows up and threatens to kill you, and on that basis you’re about to jump on a boat with her? She said you sought her out.”
“Oh, that. Well. Yeah.”
“I don’t like this. I don’t like her. How do you