Phoenix’s Fire (The Ruins Of Men #2)

Chapter 55

Fifty-Five

Ayla

I t was a beautiful day outside. I had all the windows open in the house, doing something called "airing it out." Rymar had suggested it before he'd headed into town to handle city things, and I liked it. I'd never realized how much the smell of the air changed, but up here, it was always just a bit different.

Unfortunately, opening the windows allowed more dust to come inside. I was doing my best to wipe it away before it accumulated when Kanik walked in the front door carrying a pair of rods, but not the sort I was used to. Still, the sight of two long wooden things in his hands made my guts clench.

"Did I make a mistake?" I asked, heading to the archway between the kitchen and living room to watch as he set those in the corner behind the door. "Rymar suggested opening the windows, but if that's wrong..."

The look he gave me was filled with confusion. "Huh? No, it's a nice day."

"Oh." My eyes jumped to the rods again.

Kanik looked back. "Yeah, um, I thought you might want to go fishing today."

"I don't want to be punished," I blurted out.

His head snapped between the rods and me. "What? Ayla, those are fishing poles."

"They look like rods," I said.

"Well, some people call them fishing rods," he admitted.

I clenched my hands before me. "Husbands are given a rod with their first marriage."

"No, no, no," he hurried to assure me, closing the distance between us. "Not that sort of a rod. It's a tool to catch fish. Nothing more. I'm so fucking sorry, Ayla. I didn't even think of that."

Letting my eyes close, I let out a breath of relief. "Okay, because I've never opened the windows before, and I was so worried."

"No, the windows were a good idea," he assured me. "I just thought that since it's not hot, you, me, and Holly can all go to the docks and try out fishing. I mean, we probably won't catch much, since it's best to do it around dawn or dusk, but it's easier to see what you're doing during the day."

"Now?" I asked.

He rocked his head from side to side. "Go put on something to sit on the ground. I don't care if that's a dress or pants. We'll have a blanket, but you'll need a bowl for Holly, plus her toy and leash. I'll make up a lunch we can carry with us, okay?"

"Yeah?" I asked. "Pants are good for this, right?"

"Light pants," he said. "Not the leather. That will be too hot."

"Okay!" So I spun and hurried up the stairs.

Belatedly, the noise made Holly wake up from her nap in a sunbeam by the window. When I heard her nails on the stairs, I couldn't help but smile. That dog didn't like it when I was out of her sight. It didn't even matter if she was looking. If I went to the washroom, she came with me. If I went upstairs, then so did she.

And I kinda liked it.

But dressing for something I'd never done before was never easy. I found a pair of soft pants. They were made of similar material to my shirts. My shirt matched, simply because I really liked it when the colors looked pretty together. I slipped on my sandals, then gathered up all of Holly's things. When I was finally done and managed to carry all of that back downstairs, Kanik had a basket sitting on the table in the living room.

"I got your medical bag emptied out," he said, passing me the canvas bag. "Put Holly's stuff in there?"

"Does she need to be on her leash?" I asked.

He shook his head. "No, but I'm not sure how she'll do around the docks, so we might need to put her on it later," he explained. Then, "You ready?"

"Yes!"

I carried the canvas bag. Kanik took the rods and the basket. It looked heavy, but I liked the way his arm changed shape as he lifted it. The muscles in his bicep flexed, proving it was impressively big. The hunters in the compound had been strong men, or so I'd been told, yet their arms were slim and lean compared to most of the Dragons I'd met.

Together, the three of us headed up the street. Like always, Holly stuck to my side, but when we reached the market, Kanik turned. This was the first road I'd ever walked down, the place where people had gathered to jeer and spit at me as the men took me to Naomi's clinic. But this time, the few who looked over offered smiles or waves instead.

"Hey, Kanik! How's the class this year?" a man called out.

Kanik lifted a hand in greeting. "I got a lot of good kids, but ask me after the first exam." He laughed, the man laughed, and we kept walking. But when we were far enough away, Kanik leaned in, "His daughter's one of my students this year. "

"You haven't said much about school," I told him. "You just get up early and come home in the afternoon most days. Do you like it?"

He murmured under his breath. "The start of the school year is always a little different. I have new students, since the ones from the year before are older and learning different things. So we all have to get to know each other. It's like making new friends, except they're the kids, and I'm the adult trusted with them."

"You're a good teacher, though," I assured him. "I bet your students are happy."

"I wouldn't go that far. Most kids would rather be playing than learning. Still, I've gotten a lot of questions about you."

"Me?"

He nodded. "They know the Phoenix is my roommate, and that you have saved many lives. The first day of class, they made me speak English so they could hear it, and we've been learning how to properly pronounce the words the way you do."

"So they can understand the Moles?" I asked.

"Well, that's our reason," he said, "but for them, it's like a secret language. Most teachers speak it how we were taught - which is how I pronounced things before I met you."

"Walf," I teased.

"Exactly," he said. "So the kids like that they can speak real English as a secret language between classes. They get confused when I answer back, but I don't get them in trouble for what they say. The way I see it, if they're having fun using the language, that means more people to help us with the refugees like Meri, and hopefully Callah."

"Yeah," I said, liking that.

But then he turned again, angling us away from Naomi's clinic and towards a part of town I'd never been to before. When my steps got shorter and I started looking around, Holly moved closer, pressing her side against my leg. Kanik noticed, so he started pointing at buildings, explaining what they were.

Most things in this area were factories that made things. Metal was a lot of it. One was for tools. Another, smaller place made nothing but arrowheads, including Zasen's war arrows. There was a building for furniture, and even one for binding books!

"They make them there?" I gasped.

He chuckled. "Yes. They have big machines where they set the letters up and then print hundreds of copies of a single page. Then they do the next. When it's all finished, they put it together, and then they have machines for making the covers. Sadly, I only know the basics of how it's all done, but it's called a printing press."

"Oh, that's amazing!" I breathed.

Then we turned again, and something large and blue stretched out before me in the distance. The smell of the air changed again, but I couldn't place the smell this time. There were strange buildings with fabric, and beside them, dozens of people moved around - and a horse!

"Is that the ocean?" I asked.

Kanik laughed before quickly smothering it. "No, Ayla. That's just a river. "

"And horses?"

"Yep," he said. "We have a handful in Lorsa. They're hard to keep because they eat a lot of grass and need space when they aren't working. There's a stable for them, and we use them to pull carts so we can carry the heavy things that come off the ships."

"Ships?" I asked.

So he pointed at one of the fabric things. "That's a very big boat that travels up and down the river," he said. "And this entire area? We call it the docks."

And suddenly a lot more made sense. I'd seen pictures of ships with their sails. These were different, but close enough I could see the similarities now that I knew the name. Instead of dozens of sails, they really only had one or two. There were also other kinds with wheels, and some with holes along the sides, but they were smaller.

"Why are there ships?" I asked.

He pointed away from the crowded area, and over to a stretch of water that was much less busy. "We use them to trade," he explained. "Up and down the river are other towns. Even as big as Lorsa is, we can't make everything we need, so we sell the excess we have and buy the things we lack. The ships carry it, meaning fewer trips than if we did it by foot." Then he gestured towards my dog. "Make sure Holly doesn't get distracted. Some of those ships are for fishing. They go out and use nets to catch a lot. She might smell it and run off."

"Holly, heel," I ordered, reminding her to stay with me.

She looked up and wagged her tail, proving she had no interest in leaving even as we moved further from the distant hustle and bustle. As we walked, one of those horse carts came towards us, taking up most of the road and forcing us to the side. I grabbed her collar, but stopped to stare, impressed at how it all worked.

"And we're going right over here," he said, guiding me off the road and onto a narrow foot trail that aimed into the grass.

It wove around some rocks, behind a line of buildings and onto a corner of land that had water around three sides of it. From here, I could see the water split directions, heading towards Lorsa on one side, and towards the forest and hills on the other.

"Over there," Kanik said, pointing away from town, "the river turns into rapids as it goes through the mountains." Then he pointed towards Lorsa. "There's a bay that way. All of this is an offshoot of the main river, which is up that way." And he gestured to the north. "It weaves around a lot."

Then he set the basket down mere feet from the edge of the water. Opening that up, he removed a blanket and spread it on the ground. The basket went on one corner. He put the rods beside it, and then took my bag from me.

"Have a seat on the blanket," he said. "I brought some bread for our hooks, since that will be our best chance to get some fish, and I'll get those ready."

I nodded, easing myself down on the blanket, then gave Holly her toy. "Stay close," I told her. "Guard."

She wagged in response and lay down beside me, cheerily chewing on her toy while Kanik fumbled with a string attacked to the fishing poles. On that, he attached little round things, then further down, some metal things. At the end, he added a hook. A piece of bread went on that.

"Okay," he said, passing it over. "The water gets deep quickly here," he said. "So all you have to do is push this button, and it allows the string to play out. Then you can sling the hook into the water."

"Can you show me?" I asked.

Kanik chuckled. "Like this."

Step by step, he demonstrated how the device worked, then slung the tip, making the hook and additions fly away from us and plop into the water. Even more impressive, he used the device on the end to wind it back up. Then it was my turn.

There was some laughing as I nearly hit him with the thing. More when Holly wanted to fetch the hook and what Kanik called a bobber. But eventually, I got my line "cast" into the water, so Kanik sat down and prepared his own.

"And now," he told me, "we wait. When that ball is pulled under the water - it won't usually stay there, just bounce under a few times - you can reel it in. Mostly, we wait, talk, and snack on our food."

"So I can set this down?" I asked. "Or do I have to hold it the whole time?"

"Put your foot on it," he suggested. "Bigger fish can drag it into the water."

So I set it down, draped my leg over it, and leaned back, feeling the sun on my face and the cool breeze drifting over my skin. Leaning back, I looked up to see big clouds breaking up the blue of the sky, and in the distance, the noise of the docks made it clear we weren't really alone, but we were still private.

"I like this," I decided. "Lorsa is even more amazing than I realized, and it feels like the more I learn, the happier I am."