Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
RANAN
“ R ANAN .”
The woman screams my name, and I fight back a surge of irritation as I swim through the waters of the cove, back toward where I left her. I went up and down the coast, looking for a human settlement. The hut near the water’s edge made me think there would be a city nearby, but all I’ve seen are a few rude farms that look far too poor to take on another mouth to feed, and a few travelers—all male—that eye me as if they’d like to rob me.
I can’t leave the woman with them. They’ll have her on her back before my back is turned. And while she irritates me, she also prayed to the gods that I would save her, and I’m loath to put her back in the same position. There has to be a place I can leave her safely. An inn of some kind, or a shop. Somewhere where I can give her a few necklaces to sell and send her on her way.
But when I find nothing, I head back to the water’s edge and slip into the waves so I can think. The sea always helps me clear my thoughts, and as I swim through the rolling blue waters, a large fish moves past, a fish much larger than should be in these waters. It reminds me of the human woman and her vow to offer a sacrifice to the god Vor.
She wants to thank him for bringing her to me.
I don’t know what to make of that. I’ve treated her badly ever since she arrived and yet she still wants to thank the gods. Her situation must have been terrible for her to enjoy my company. I think of how she was chained with the other slaves, how she’d mentioned that she was going to end up in a brothel, and I feel a twinge of guilt. What happens if I leave her on the shore to her own devices?
But I can’t be responsible for her, I tell myself. She doesn’t belong with me. What happens to her after we part ways is in the hands of the fates.
Even so, I follow the large fish and make note of where it dives when it heads into the reefs, just in case I come after it later. If she doesn’t have a chance to make her sacrifice to Lord Vor, I’ll make it on her behalf, I decide. It’s the least I can do.
Now I suppose I had better see what she’s screaming over. Probably a crab of some kind. Served many sea-ogres, my arse. I’m the only sea-ogre she’s ever met. She’s a liar and I despise liars. My mood sours again, I surface from the waves and stride towards the shore, only to hear another scream.
It’s her—Vali.
“Don’t touch me!” she cries.
I scan the beach, my senses on alert, and spot multiple figures on the sands. She’s found other humans, it seems, her dark, long hair easy to spot. She’s closer to Akara than I am. You told her to stay close , I remind myself. I stride towards her location, scowling, just in time to see one of the men grab her by the front of her dress and rip it down her body.
She plants a fist in his mouth and kicks at the one holding her, screaming with outrage.
My temper soars, too. Who do these men think they are that they can grab a woman and attack her? There is a scatter of shells near their feet, evidence that she was minding her own business.
I snarl as I approach, storming toward them and flexing my four arms to look as intimidating as possible. They’re so focused on Vali’s flailing arms and legs that they have yet to notice me…which only pisses me off more. “What do you think you are doing?”
They turn to look at me, and as they do, their eyes widen. The one clutching Vali by the waist drops her immediately and she falls to the sand, her breasts spilling out of her ripped garment. She cries out, remaining where she is, and glances up at me. There’s a trickle of blood coming from her nostril, and the sight of that incenses me.
They hit her? They came upon a pretty female on the beach and attacked and hit her? Are all humans such monsters?
“Why are you touching my wife?” I snarl at them, moving to stand in front of all three fishermen.
“We didn’t know she was yours,” the oldest—the one that ripped her dress—stammers. “We thought she was an escaped slave. A free prize for anyone.”
“And because you thought she was a slave you attacked her?” I march up to the bearded one, glaring down at him. “Explain this to me.”
He shoots a glance at the other men. “If she was an escaped slave, there’d be a bounty on her head. Easy coin. If not, then we could sell her again. That’s all. We were just looking to have a little taste and make a few coins.”
So they would rape a stranger and sell her to the first buyer all because they thought she might be a slave.
“She’s got cuff marks on her wrists,” protests one of the others. “And she’s wearing a slave shift. We did nothing wrong.”
“I should cut your throats and feed you three to my turtle,” I hiss at them. They quail, shrinking back from me and eyeing my trident. I tap my leg. “Vali, come here.”
That makes her look up. She gives me an indignant stare, clutching the remains of her dress to her breasts, but slowly gets to her feet and moves to my side.
“Should I kill them, wife?” I ask, folding two of my arms over my chest and brandishing my trident with a third hand. “Say the word.”
“Yes,” she says immediately.
I’m surprised. I thought she’d beg for their lives, say it was all a mistake. But her tone is hard and just as angry as mine, and it’s clear there’s a dark streak in her.
“Wait! Wait!” the bearded human says. “We can come to an agreement!”
“We have gold,” says another, taking a step back and glancing at the shack in the distance. He clearly wants to run for it. If he does, he’ll find my trident lodged in his spine.
“Show me your gold and I’ll tell you if it’s enough to buy your lives.” I turn to Vali, gesturing at Akara in the distance. “Return to the tent.”
She shoots me an equally venomous look—and I am surprised by her all over again—but does as she is told and retreats to the safety of the turtle.
The humans do have a fair amount of gold for poor fishermen, and it’s clear Vali is not the first they’ve attacked. I clean them out of their riches and find out which one hit Vali and deliver a hit of my own…and a warning. If they touch what’s mine again, I’ll kill them and rob them. The smell of urine follows me as I abandon them on the beach, as the eldest has pissed himself with fear.
I return to Akara’s side, moving to her head and running a hand over her sharp beak. She blinks large, dark eyes up at me, reaching out with her thoughts. She smells humans on the shore and doesn’t like it. I prod at her, wondering if Vali’s scent bothers her, but she only sends a mental picture of me back—she associates Vali with me now, her scent with mine. Hunh.
The humans are troubling, though. If they attacked Vali, then I cannot simply leave her near a settlement. If I do, she will be enslaved again before the day is out. I’ve seen the cuff markings on her wrists as well, though I didn’t know slaves had a particular sort of garment. All seakind wear as little as possible, our women as bare as our men. I know nothing of human dresses. It’s not my fault they mistook her for a slave.
Even so, I’m glad I arrived in time. I don’t like that they hit her. I don’t like that they tore her clothes and attacked her. Just thinking about it makes me furious, and I’m tempted to go back up to the hut and cut their throats anyhow, just to sate my anger.
I stroke Akara’s bony head and think of the large fish I saw earlier. Is this Lord Vor telling me that this female should be my bride after all? Did he send her to me? It is something I will have to think about. For now, I need to return to Vali and reassure her, as she will no doubt be full of tears and gratitude that I have saved her yet again. I’ll give her the gold from the men, I decide. And if she offers to touch me again, I’ll still turn her away, but I like the thought of her offering.
If she is to be my bride after all…the idea irks me less this day. I think of how warm she was, how soft in my arms last night. I don’t need a bride, but perhaps I am too much alone after all.
I duck into the tent, looking for the woman. She is seated in the back, the bags neatly arranged to allow more floor space. Her dress is off and she’s busy knotting it, trying to piece it together again. The blood still trails from her nose, and when I enter, she looks up and sends me a look of pure anger.
“What am I to you?” she demands.
I am taken aback by her tone. She has been pleasant and eager to please all this time and now she is like this? “Excuse me?”
She grabs another torn end of the fabric in her hands, not caring that she sits naked in front of me. Her hands knot material in jerking, angry movements. “I want to know what I am to you. You asked for a bride. I volunteered. You said yes. Yet you treat me like I’m a wart that has suddenly appeared on your nose. It makes me wonder, and so I am asking you—what am I? Your wife or your slave?”
I scowl.
“I’m asking because I can’t tell. You treat me like I am nothing to you. You don’t answer when I talk to you. You act like my questions irritate you. Your home has no comforts for a person, much less a man seeking a bride.” Her accusing gaze flicks up to me as she makes another furious knot in the clothing. “You address me in front of others as if I’m a dog , tapping your thigh and telling me to come.”
I narrow my eyes at her. True, I did do that. I simply wanted to get her away from those men attacking her.
“So am I a dog? A slave? Because you tell me not to call you master. What am I, then? You cannot say I’m not a slave and then treat me like one around others. I don’t know how to act. I don’t know how to please you. Tell me what I am to you so I can behave accordingly. If I am a slave, I know how to behave. If I am your wife, I know how to behave. But I cannot be both.”
She’s chastising me, and it only makes my mood blacker because…she’s right. I don’t know how to act around her. My plan was to abandon her at a human settlement, but she doesn’t know that, just as she doesn’t know that I’ve changed my mind now that I’ve seen the humans in question. I have to figure out what to do with her. “Where is your family?”
Vali laughs and shakes her head, the sound mirthless. She makes another tight, furious knot in her garment. “Dead and gone. My father was killed years ago and I was sold into slavery. My city was just now razed by Aventine, so there’s no one to send me back to, if that’s what you’re asking. Parness is nothing but stones and burnt fields.”
She’s more observant than I’ve given her credit for. I’m not surprised by her answer, either. While it would have made my life easier to turn her over to family members, I somehow knew there weren’t any. Who would let a young, clever, pretty woman in their family get taken by slavers if they could do anything about it?
Vali makes another knot in the clothing and then jerks it back over her head, shoving her arms through the holes and settling the garment on her body. It’s a terrible fit, the material bunched at her neck and jagged, held together only by the knots she’s made. Her dress is now a great deal shorter, the neckline completely changed thanks to the rips, and yet she’s not demanding a new gown or fretting over the tears. She’s making do with what she has.
Something tells me this is not the first time that Vali has simply made do with scraps.
A dark bead on her bare arm catches my attention. As I watch, a line of blood slides down her skin. It’s not from her nose, which has dried on her upper lip. This is a different cut on the fleshy part of her bicep. “You’re bleeding.”
Her hand goes to her nose and she winces. “Aye. Those cretins hit me. May Vor fill their pants with nothing but sand lice.”
I hold back a snort of amusement at her creative prayer and reach out to touch her arm. “Here, too.”
She glances down at her skin and then gives a quick nod. “I fell on the shells I’d been collecting. Some of them were sharp.”
She’d been collecting shells, like a child. And those men came along and threatened her. I’m filled with rage all over again. Taking the hem of her much-shorter gown, I lift it and use it to wipe at her face, then her arm. “I don’t like that they touched you. Should I go back and murder them?”
“They were just treating me like a slave. They saw my garment and thought they could make coin.” Her tone is bitter. “I hope you robbed them good, though.”
“I did.” It doesn’t feel like enough. I dab at the blood on her arm. “Are any of these cuts deep?”
“No. Thanks for ruining my one garment, though. It’ll look vastly more appealing with blood all over it.”
She’s forgotten all about being a sweet, happy liar and is flaying me with her sharp tongue instead. I rather like it. It feels genuine. The real Vali is someone I can understand, not the smiling liar. I wipe another trickle of blood off her arm and glance up at her face. “My people do not wear much, so I do not think about clothing. It is clear you do, though. Do you need a new dress?”
Her expression softens. “I find it cold at night. I wouldn’t mind something warm to wear.”
I grunt, thinking of the fish leathers I have in my storage grotto. I also have some attractive bolts of fabric that fell overboard from a sinking ship that I rescued. They were in the water for a short period of time only and I dried them in the sun. They’re wrinkled, but still better than what she has.
“You…you didn’t answer me, Ranan. Can you please just tell me straight? What am I to you?” Her dark eyes gaze up at me, full of vulnerability. “I won’t be angry if you are keeping me as a slave. I understand it, I do. It’s just…if you decide to sell me, please make it to someone fair? I won’t ask for a kind master, because those are as rare as jewels, but perhaps not to a brothel?”
Here I have been saying I am not a monster, and yet I have been one to her. Is she convenient? No. But I demanded a bride, and she has volunteered. I brush the dried blood from her upper lip and study her face. I think of Vor, and the large fish that swam in front of me in the reef. Perhaps he has placed this woman in my path. Perhaps the god thinks I am lonely after all.
And I make a decision, though I might regret it later. “You are my bride.”
I will not dump her near the human settlements. To do so would surely see her enslaved again. It is not her fault my tongue twisted and I did not correct anyone. She is mine now, and I must see to her.
Relief brightens Vali’s face. She manages a trembling smile. “All right, then.”
I feel like a monster all over again. It’s never been my intention to be cruel to her, and yet I can’t seem to help myself. I should probably apologize, but the right words fail me. “I don’t talk much.”
“That’s all right. I’ll try to stay out of your way.” She hesitates and then adds, “And if I do ask something, could you please answer me without looking as if I just walked on your ancestor’s grave?”
Have I been that foul to live with? Looking at her worried face I suspect that yes, I have been. “I can try.”
“Thank you.”
I should feed her. Probably. That’s what one does with a wife, yes? “Are you hungry? I can get fish.”
“I don’t want to be a bother…but I’m absolutely famished.” She grimaces. “If you could show me how to get my own fish, perhaps I can hunt for myself…”
“Soon. Not today.” I don’t like the purple showing up under her eye. I stroke my fingers over her chin again. “Stay here in the tent. Akara’s going to start moving and I want you hidden until we leave the shore.”
She nods. “Where are we going?”
“To my home.” Home means many different things to one of the seakind. I haven’t yet entirely decided where we’re going, so the vagueness of the answer suits me. For now, she simply needs to know that we are leaving the shore—and the fishermen—behind.
And if I see them again before we leave, I will gut them and leave their innards for the gulls to pick through.