Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
RANAN
T his human female is infuriating. No matter how many times I tell her that she is my wife, yet she does not believe me. She looks at me with doubt in her eyes, fear in her posture. She frets that the smallest inconvenience will make me change my mind and I will abandon her on the nearest shore.
She is…right.
That is the worst part of it.
Because I did try to get rid of her. I did attempt to find a human settlement and leave her there, only to realize they would treat her far more poorly than I would. So I am keeping her, and yet the promise of that is not enough. I must somehow prove to her that I have truly changed my mind. That I will not abandon her just because she has her monthly moon courses, or that she does not feel well. I will not leave her behind just because I am inconvenienced by her presence.
I don’t know how to prove this, though. I do not need to make clever conversation to the rocky shores and the waves. I do not need to entertain the fish I catch. I certainly do not need to please the humans I rob with my presence. I am good at being alone, and I bring my wealth back to my family’s flotilla. It is an arrangement that suits both of our parties well.
And yet now I have a wife, and I must change something, because it is growing increasingly clear to me that she will not be able to survive with the few amenities I keep stored on Akara’s back. I think about the look on Vali’s face when I offered her cloth—the sheer wonder when she touched the silks, the way she held the burgundy fabric as if she had never caressed anything finer. It makes me want to find the nearest human settlement and shake them all, one by one, for treating such a pleasant female in such a manner.
It makes me want to find more pretty things to please Vali, too. That urge annoys me, because she should be grateful I am keeping her, and yet I am the one eager to please. Hmph. I do not need to do anything to give her a better home than she had.
I tell myself this even as I spend all night hunting the seagrass fruit.
I tell myself this as I make the swim to shore and cut down more cattail pods for her.
I tell myself this as I spend half the night swimming ahead of Akara to my grotto, where I store the goods I steal from humans and look for things that might please her. I have jewels and weapons and a few statues and vases, but nothing that seem as if they would appeal to a woman in pain. Frustrated, I dig through the fabrics I have stolen from laden ships and use them to make a large, soft pile that will act as a bunk. I normally drift in the water at Akara’s side when I sleep, but she clearly needs a bed.
I remember that she mentioned raw fish, too. The humans cook their meat, I recall from the few human settlements I’ve passed through. They cook their meat and cover it with salt and add roots, as if they are trying to make up for all the flavor they have burned out of it. She will want to cook her food once I bring her to the grotto, I suspect. She liked the raw fish I gave her before, but she could have been pretending. I look around at the treasures and pick up a jewel-crusted pot, wondering if this is used for cooking. My people do not cook. We eat what the sea provides, cold and raw. It irritates me that I must go to such lengths to suit her, and I toss the pot aside with a huff.
I swim back to Akara, my mood sour. Through our mental bond, I know automatically how to find her, letting our link guide me to the hamarii despite the endless sameness of the open waters. I climb back up onto her back as dawn nears, and glimpse into the tent at my human wife.
She lies upon the floor in a huddled ball, curled around her limbs. Cattail pods are emptied, the shells neatly lined up by her feet, and the scent of cattail fluff—and blood—is everywhere inside the tent. The burgundy fabric is carefully folded under her head, acting as a pillow, and she uses her torn dress over her loins instead of the fabric I gave her. Vali is asleep, her breathing regular. Even in her sleep, however, her brows are furrowed, as if she cannot escape the pain even then.
All of the annoyance I have felt at having to accommodate her vanishes in a moment. She hurts, and I want to make it better. She has been all smiles and eagerness since I met her, and I do not like seeing her like this. I do not like how helpless it makes me feel.
I drop my bags of cattails and seagrass fruit just outside the tent, hitch one of the pouches of gold to my belt, and head into the waters again. Perhaps I can find a place where they will trade gold for this “willow bark.”
As I tend to move along the same stretch of shoreline, I also have a few villages that I visit from time to time for trading. They provide me with supplies, and I trade them necklaces and gold and they do not ask questions. It works well for both of us. There is a village not too far from my grotto, so while Akara continues her leisurely swim towards my home, I head farther up the shore to Godsthorne. It’s a peaceful, tiny village at the crossroads of a major Aventinian trading route. While few farmers live here—the soil is too rocky for most crops—there’s a small population of traders, and an inn that stays busy.
I know the innkeeper, and he also peddles supplies from time to time. I shake off the water from the sea and make my way inland as the sun comes up over the horizon. It illuminates the craggy hills here and the cattle that graze upon them. There are few trees. I’m told that inland, in the heart of the continent, there are trees big enough to house entire villages, but I cannot picture it. A few sheepherders stare at me, covered in their human clothing from head to foot, and for the first time, I wonder whether I shouldn’t wear human-like clothing when I go into their towns.
Vali would know. She would be full of advice. Perhaps my wife will be of more use to me than I thought.
The road is a familiar route to Godsthorne, and before the sun grows too high in the sky, I can see the thatched roofs of the cluster of homes that make up the village. I head toward the largest one, the inn, and push the door open.
No one is inside. The inn itself reeks of too many people, spilled beer and last night’s food. The benches are propped atop the tabletops and the wood floors gleam wetly, having recently been washed. There’s a young woman with yellow braids behind the bar, rubbing a tankard with a rag and yawning as she does. The innkeeper’s daughter. She immediately straightens at the sight of me and races to the back room. “Papa! Visitors from the sea!”
I move to the bar and put my hands atop it, waiting impatiently. I want to get back before Vali is awake for too long and panics that she’s been abandoned. I should have said something to her last night, I realize. What if she awakens and thinks I’ve left her and jumps into the sea? She’ll sink to the bottom for certain, where Vor’s dark children will feast upon her. My mouth flattens at the thought. Why didn’t I say anything? She’s already skittish. I am three times a fool.
“Papa!” the girl screeches from the room behind the bar. “Papa?—”
“I know, I know,” calls out a grumpy voice. “I’m coming. Hold your woales, girl.” A fat, bald man enters the bar from another part of the house. His name is Anellas, and I’ve dealt with him for many years now. His eyes gleam with avarice at the sight of me, near naked, in his inn. “Hello again, old friend.”
Old friend. As if we are companions more than business partners. It reminds me that I’ve never told him my name. I have never seen the need to, and yet his words make me pause. Does he consider me a friend or is this a politeness? Should I be answering differently? I have never cared what humans thought. I don’t know why I care now.
I toss my bag of gold onto the bar top. “Trade.”
It’s all I ever say. When one word suffices, all I give is one. Today it feels impolite. I have a great many things I want to ask about. What is it that human women like to eat? What can I give my human to ease her pain with her menses? Why won’t she trust me?
“Of course, of course.” Anellas hustles over to my side, opening the bag with greedy fingers. “Been a while since I’ve seen you, sea friend. How’s the weather?”
“I have a wife,” I blurt out, and then my jaw clamps at how foolish I sound.
His bushy brows furrow and he looks up at me. “Felicitations…?”
“She needs willow bark,” I bite out.
“Ah. The monthly pains,” Anellas says with a knowing smile. He picks up a piece of gold and bites it, then shines it on his apron. “Willow bark isn’t cheap, though. Get her belly full of your child. That’ll take care of the willow bark thing. She’ll spend all your coin with her demands if you let her. Women are like that.”
Are they? I glance down the bar, where the yellow-haired daughter is watching us from the doorway, half hidden. She doesn’t look as if her father is spending coin on her at all. Her dress is ragged and patched, and she’s always been working here, even when she was very small.
Anellas bites another medallion, hums to himself, and then starts to rake it toward his apron.
I stop him before he can, hands slamming down on the countertop. “Wait.”
He pales, taking a step back. His gaze flicks over my four arms and my chest. “Is there a problem?”
I take a deep breath through my nose, frustrated. I came here for willow bark, true, but I also came for answers. I wanted to ask about human slaves and how they’re treated. I wanted to ask a great many things about human women, but looking at this man and his timid daughter, I do not think he will be the right one to answer most of them. I tap a finger on the bar as I think. Finally, I come up with a good question. “You have a human wife?”
“I did, aye. She died three years ago, my sweet Bessa.” He sighs and makes the sign of Gental. “Haven’t had a chance to find another, what with the Anticipation and all. Business has been too steady.”
I look around the empty inn, but perhaps the time of day is wrong. Still, this man had a wife. He has a daughter. Surely he knows some about females. So I eye him and slide one of the necklaces out of the pile. “Trade for the others. This one you can have for free if you answer my questions.”
“Gladly, sea friend.” He smiles broadly, perhaps a little too broadly.
“How do I prove to a human woman that she is my wife?”
Anellas’s face screws up and his heavy chin jiggles. “Prove? Prove what? You are her man. She should be glad to have a strapping, virile man like yourself. She’s the woman. You don’t have to prove anything.”
Unhelpful. I glance down the bar at the daughter, hovering in the doorway. She bites her nail and looks as if she wishes to say something. “Speak.”
Her gaze flicks to her father uncertainly. When he waves to indicate that she should speak up, she takes a step forward. “What kind of marriage was it?” she asks. “What kind of ceremony? Did you offer a bribe to goddess Belara?”
I lean back, surprised. “Ceremony?”
“Why yes,” Anellas slides back into the conversation, his tone as greasy as his brow. “Surely you had a wedding ceremony? And after that, the bedding ? Ho, ho.” He chortles, quite pleased with himself.
The daughter continues to watch her father, creeping forward another step. She twists her hands in her apron. “A ceremony would make it feel real,” she says in a soft voice. “A ceremony in front of family.”
“I am not near mine.” A ceremony? Truly? The only weddings I have gone to have been lavish affairs between a sea lord and his bride, involving days of feasting and many sacrifices to Vor, and so many flotillas joined together that one could step on turtlebacks for as far as the eye could see. That does not strike me as something that Vali would want.
Then again, I do not know Vali.
“A handfast is just your word,” she continues. “Words can be dismissed. A promise can be broken. But in front of family? That makes it real.”
Hm. Her words are wise. I imagine taking Vali to my flotilla and introducing her to my parents, my sister. They would insist upon a feast. They would fuss over my bride once they got over the strangeness of a human in their midst. And they would accept her.
Perhaps that is what I need to do, then. If I take Vali to my family and have her meet the flotilla, she will know that I am telling the truth. That she is my bride, that I will not abandon her. I grunt, oddly pleased. “Thanks.”
She smiles.
I pluck out a bracelet from the pile before Anellas can get his hands on it and shove it down the bar towards her. “For you. For your help.”
Anellas frowns, but the girl is fast. She snatches up the bracelet and runs away before he can complain. He shakes his head as she retreats, glancing back at me. “Women. She’s not wrong, though. Fuss over your female a bit and she’ll be eating out of your hand.”
Eat out of my hand? I imagine Vali slurping fish out of my grasp. Is this a human custom? I’d rather she eat out of her own, but I try not to let my repugnance show.
“Now, my friend.” Anellas rubs his hands together and gives me another too-big smile. “Let us trade. What can I get for you today? Willow bark tea, yes. What else?”
“Ribbons,” calls the girl from the back. “Ribbons for her hair!”
“Hush, girl,” Anellas yells back.
But I like the idea. “Ribbons,” I echo, thinking. “And ugly cloth.”
“Ugly cloth?”
I nod. “Functional. Not pretty. Cloth you can get dirty.”
Anellas nods. “I think I know just the thing. I have some in the back. It’s expensive, though.” His expression turns woeful. “Almost as expensive as the willow bark tea. You’ll want a cup for your lady to drink out of. Or do you have one?”
I flick a hand at him, indicating he should include a cup. If she needs this to drink tea, I will get it for her. Tea, a cup, ribbons, and ugly cloth she won’t be afraid to get stained. I cross one set of arms, thinking, while Anellas touches my gold with covetous fingers. Then, I know just the thing.
“Cooked food,” I blurt out.
“Cooked food? I can make you a fine meal?—”
I cut him off with a hiss. “For her .”
“Ahhh. Is the lady near?” When I scowl, he elaborates. “Should the food be portable?”
I nod.
He waggles a finger in the air. “Let me get you hardtack and dried meat. And cheese. And some dried fruit. Does she like nuts?”
I have no idea. But I imagine she will like anything more than raw fish. “Give me some of all of it.”