Hello readers.
Apologies for my somewhat erratic postings of late, but I have been gallivanting through France, Germany, Scotland and the north of England during the English school summer holidays and haven't had much access to the internet.
I must also apologise in advance for the next few chapters as I have to write them from scratch and they have not been easy. I shall endeavour to do better. Please keep R & R-ing, as it encourages me to keep going.
Chapter 14- Thorny Bay
There was salt in the air. Leila could smell it. Salt and something vaguely rotten. The air was soft and cool and dried the sweat on her face as the two wolves reached the crest of the hill. Spread out before them was a spectacular vista. The green rolling hills they had been travelling over for the best part of the last week gave way sharply to cliffs that plunged down into a sapphire blue expanse of never ending water, reflecting the bright sky. Seagulls and tern floated on the breeze above the cliffs and ships and boats of all sizes dotted the water.
Leila had never seen the sea before and was quite impressed. The town at the base of the hill, however, did not fill her with confidence. Thorny Bay was a large town Kingdom's standard, with at least 200 houses and other buildings clustered around the water front. She felt the ever present knot of tension in her stomach tighten a little at the thought of entering another town, but they had little choice if they wanted to find passage back to the continent.
Over the past week Leila and Lucius had travelled quickly through the rolling green landscape of the 6th Kingdom, avoiding villages and farms and keeping off the main roads. Neither of them had any difficulty finding their way, their sense of space and time was far more developed than in humans and they could not get lost.
Leila found Lucius to be good company, easy to talk to, willing to do his share of chores when they set camp at night, and full of information about places she had only ever dreamed of. She enjoyed his company, which surprised her. She had been alone for so long she had become used to being totally self-sufficient, but wolves were pack animals and no wolf on its own was entirely happy.
She did not, however, tell him of her time in the 3rd Kingdom, the memories were still far to painful for her talk about with anyone but Simon, the crazy old man whom she loved like a father. She made sure that Lucius did not see her without her shirt on, not from false modesty, but to hide the troll's handiwork.
In the same way she could tell that there were things that he was not telling her, things about his past that he kept close to him past. She did not pry, she understood the need to keep secrets.
Now, she feared, their shared time was going to come to a close. Once they had reached the continent Lucius would continue on whatever journey he was on and leave Leila to go her own way and wander alone again. However there was little she could do about that, she would not beg him to stay with her, that was not her way, but she certainly would not drive him away.
"Do you think we will really be able to find a passage back to the Kingdoms from here?" she asked, trying to drive the nagging doubts about Lucius from her mind.
"This is one of the main ports for the 6th Kingdom," Lucius said, sweeping his arm to take in the wide bay and the ships clustered around the docks built where the river met the sea. "From here we should be able to get a boat to any of the western Kingdoms. The difficulty is going to be finding someone who will take us."
"Why do you say that?" Leila asked.
"People don't like wolfs," Lucius said, "We are considered bad luck among the mariners, and they won't take us if they know what we are."
"So we hide what we are," Leila said, "There's nothing unusual about that."
"Nothing at all," Lucius said. "A week until full moon," he said almost as an afterthought.
A week, Leila thought in response, we have to get to one of the mainland Kingdoms in a week or we'll have to head back into the forest. "How long does it take to sail to one of the other Kingdoms?" she asked.
"A couple of days, I think," Lucius said, "We should have enough time."
"But we will have to hurry," Leila finished for him. "Let's go and see what we can find."
Thorny Bay was a bustling place, with many people hurrying to and fro without paying anyone else the slightest attention. They were in sharp contrast to other people who sat around on benches outside houses, shops, warehouses and what Leila supposed were inns, who paid attention to everyone.
She was nervous in the town. The only other town of any size she had really been in was the one where she had been sold as a child to the troll by the hunters, an experience witch did not give her fond memories. She stayed close to Lucius who seemed at least a little more comfortable in the crowds and watched around her carefully. At one point she felt a hand on her belt pouch. She turned with a speed only a wolf or one of the fey could muster, caught the pickpocket by the arms and snarled at him, her eyes flashing gold. Her nerves were on edge and she reacted far more violently than she should. The boy, seeing a brief flash of the wolf within his potential victim, tore his arm free and dashed off through the crowd.
"I shouldn't have done that," Leila said to Lucius.
"He shouldn't have tried to pick your pocket," Lucius replied easily. "The docks are this way."
"But he'll tell everyone!" Leila whispered fiercely, "Then we won't be able to get a ship."
"It's too late to worry about it now," Lucius said seriously. "Let's just try to find something quickly just in case the story spreads."
Leila gnawed her lip and followed Lucius. Had she sunk their chances before they had even started?
They made their way to the docks on the water front where there were ships of every shape and size spread out around the bay. The dock front was lined with warehouses and full of people bustling to and fro carrying all sorts of cargo from the famous 6th Kingdom mattresses to ingredients for all sorts of magic potions as well as more mundane cargo such as sacks of grain.
Humans, elves, the occasional troll, dwarves, gnomes and goblins rushed through the street on their various errands. Thorny Bay was one of the busiest ports in the 6th Kingdom and had one of the greatest mix of species. Leila slowly relaxed, surely a wolf among this lot wouldn't cause too many undue comments.
Lucius grabbed man wandering past with a clip board who was shouting at three goblins moving mattresses. "Where do I find out about getting passage to the 4th Kingdom," he asked.
"What?" the man shouted back above the noise.
"Passage to the 4th Kingdom!" Lucius shouted back.
"How should I know!" the man shouted, "Shove off, I've got work to do."
A goblin pushed between them, sending Lucius reeling back. He stepped back before he was knocked over. "Strike one," he commented to Leila. "Do you want to try next?"
Leila swallowed nervously. She didn't want to be seen as weak in Lucius' eyes, so led the way along the dock until she found a likely looking man wearing a big hat outside a building. "Excuse me," she said, trying to muster confidence that she didn't feel.
The man looked her up and down and she had a distinct impression he was looking straight through her clothes. "You're not the usual client I get," he said, "Or are you looking for a job?"
Leila glanced over his shoulder. There were a number of women of varying species ranged on the porch of the building. She could feel her face going bright red at the outfits they were almost wearing. "N-no," she stuttered a little, "Nothing like that. We're looking for passage to the 4th Kingdom and wondered if you knew which ship is heading out next."
"Are you sure you don't want a job?" the man asked, looking hopeful.
"Absolutely not!" Leila exclaimed.
"Ah well. Corry!" he called over his shoulder to one of the woman who pushed herself away from the wall on which she was leaning and sauntered across to him.
"Yars?" she drawled.
"Which ship is heading to the 4th Kingdom next?" the man asked.
"That'd be the Golden Tresses," Corry said, "I said good bye to one of the crew not half an hour ago."
"The Golden Tresses," the man said to Leila, "and if you're ever back this way and looking for work, you know where to find me."
"Thanks!" Leila said and fled back to Lucius' side.
Lucius was looking vaguely amused.
"You knew, didn't you!" Leila accused.
"Well dressed men in big hats standing around outside building are one of two things. One of them is a head merchant. The other, well, you've just found out," Lucius said. "You handled it really well, though."
"I've never been so embarrassed in all my life," she said, "But I know which ship is going out next, the Golden Tresses."
"The Golden Tresses it is then," Lucius said, "I wouldn't have been able to get that out of him."
"Why not?"
"I'm male."
"I had noticed," Leila said, starting to calm down. Lucius might have known she would be embarrassed, but she, at least, got the information they needed.
The Golden Tresses was a wallowing cargo ship, built for capacity rather than speed or beauty sitting at the far end of the docks near the sea wall. It was being loaded with crates of spinning wheels that had not been particularly well packed and threatened to spill at any given moment.
"Is that the only ship going to the 4th Kingdom?" Leila asked dubiously. "I don't know much about ships, but it doesn't seem very sea worthy to me."
"I'm not thrilled about the idea either," Lucius said, "But it's this or go back to the forest for another week."
Leila bit her lip. She wanted to get back to the continent, she wanted to continue her hunt for her brother, but she could not deny to herself that she had not already wasted time. Surely another week or so would not matter? She growled at herself, annoyed. How easy it was to justify wasting yet more time. Was it truly because she didn't think the ship safe or because returning to the continent would most likely mean losing Lucius? She didn't want to lose Lucius, but she also wanted to find her brother and do something about this curse the Three Fold Goddess had told her about.
Lucius was waiting patiently for her decision.
"All right!" she said, more exasperated at herself than his irritating patience. "Let's ask."
The man at the bottom of the gang plank seemed to be the likeliest person to ask, but this time, Leila made Lucius do the asking. It went remarkably smoothly. A couple of coins from Leila's carefully managed store and they were up the gang plank and on the deck of the ship.
If this thing holds together in anything more than a light breeze, Leila thought, it will be a miracle. The ships timbers did not look particularly solid, but they had made their decision and they were committed. Anyway, Leila was an old hand at miracles.
They had not been promised any sort of accommodation, so they found an out of the way spot to sit and watch the frantic activities of the mixed species crew. Neither Leila nor Lucius had seen such a diverse range of beings or heard such a diverse range of expletives used in such a small area. Watching a diminutive male fairy with salt spotted wings swearing heartily at a full sized ogre, making less than flattering comments about his smell, his size, his brain capacity and his ancestry and not being subsequently flattened was an education for both wolves.
"So why is it," Leila whispered to Lucius, "That with this diverse range of beings, that wolves are considered bad luck?"
Lucius shrugged. "Superstitions never make any sense," he said, "They are based mostly on hearsay, fear, lack of understanding and what some bloke said to someone's great grand father in a pub one night."
"You two!"
The wolves both jumped. They looked up at a dwarf wearing an oversized three cornered hat and a puffed up air about him.
"Are you the supercargo?" he snapped.
"The what?" Leila asked.
"The passengers!" the dwarf barked back.
"Yes, we are," Lucius said.
"Well, you're to stay out of the way and bunk in the fo'c'sl," he jerked his finger over his shoulder at the prow of the ship where a short flight of steps led up to another deck. "We'll be underway in an hour or so."
With that he turned and left.
"Charming," Leila murmured. "The fo'c'sl, whatever that is, is it then."
"I think I'll just stay here until things settle down a bit," Lucius said.
"Good idea," Leila said and leaned against his side. "This is going to be an interesting trip, I've never been to sea before."
My apologies for the chapter, it proved very difficult and I spent a lot of time thinking it over. If you don't like it, don't worry, neither do I.