Chapter Eight
“We’re never going tae reach The Butcher’s,” Kaladin said glumly.
He and Titan were nearing the mouth of the River Nith as it joined with the Solway Firth, heading toward the area where the ruins of the small boat was found yesterday.
The rain had let up, but only for the moment.
They were in a patch of blue sky, and all around them were clouds and rain.
But for now, that spot of blue sky allowed sunbeams to shine upon the shore banks of the river.
It wasn’t particularly sandy, but very silty.
The land around the river was lush and full of greenery, so the riverbank was rocky and dirty this far south.
Kaladin knew right where he’d seen the boat, but his mention of The Butcher’s was more for the fact that they were heading in the opposite direction of the establishment.
That wasn’t the way he wanted to go.
Titan was aware of this. He felt much the same way, but unlike youthful Kaladin, he kept his feelings to himself.
“If not this time, there will be another time, I’m sure,” he said steadily. “Now, where, exactly, did you see the boat yesterday?”
Kaladin directed his distinctive black-and-white horse all the way to the river’s edge. He looked around, orienting himself, until he pointed southward.
“Down there,” he said. “In fact, I think I can see it.”
Titan strained to see what Kaladin was seeing, even as Kaladin took off in that direction. He followed, but as they approached what looked like a pile of broken wood, the landscape leveled out and they could see something else.
More boats.
“Stop,” Titan commanded. “Kal, stop here.”
Kaladin obeyed, reining his horse to a halt with Titan alongside him. They could both see that there were five more boats on the shore, not far from the wreckage. Concerned, Titan began to look around.
“I do not see anyone else,” he said. “Do you?”
Kaladin stood up in his stirrups, searching for another living soul. “Nay,” he said. “There’s no one.”
Titan didn’t say anything, but he didn’t like what he was seeing. In fact, he had a bad feeling about the entire situation. Dismounting his steed, he began to make his way over to the wreckage. Kaladin wasn’t far behind him when Titan came to a sudden halt.
“Look at all of the footprints,” Titan said, pointing. “They’re all around the wreckage of that boat.”
Kaladin was starting to catch on. “It’s what Estevan was talking about,” he said. “The Ormsfolk. The Serpent People. God’s Bones, do ye think it’s them?”
Titan couldn’t think of who else it would be. Slowly, he backed up, stepping only where he’d stepped before.
“Find something to wipe away our tracks,” he told Kaladin. “I do not want anyone knowing we’ve been here.”
Kaladin turned to their mounts, several yards back, munching on seagrass. “What about the horses?” he said with concern. “They’ll see their hooves in the dirt.”
“Nay,” Titan said, shaking his head. “They’re still on the grass for the most part. They may notice a little, but we cannot worry about that now. I need to get a better look at that boat.”
Kaladin rushed into the grass about ten feet away, going to the nearest sapling, growing crooked against the constant sea breeze, and broke off two good-sized branches with leaves on them. He returned to Titan, handing him one, and the men began to erase their footsteps from the silty shore.
“If the rain comes, it will wash any evidence of us away completely,” Titan said. “And it has been raining all night, which leads me to believe these men have arrived within the past couple of hours.”
Like everyone else, Kaladin had heard stories about the Serpent People and the way they fought.
That was common knowledge for most people on the west coast of Scotland.
He’d heard that there had been a time, long ago, when the Serpent People raided the southern coast, Galloway and the surrounding area, but they evidently hadn’t done that for a while.
Still, the fact that they were facing the very real possibility that the Serpent People had indeed come after their captive had him edgy.
“If that is true, then where are they?” he said, looking toward the east. “They found the boat and they’ve gone off… but where?”
Titan shrugged. “They’ll walk to the first settlement they come to,” he said. “Caerlaverock Castle is not far from here. It’s possible they’ve gone there first.”
“Where is it?”
Titan pointed northeast. “That way,” he said. “It’s a Clan Maxwell property, fortified. I suspect that if the Serpent People go there, they will not gain entrance, but it has only been a couple of hours at most. They are probably still there.”
“How far is St. Margaret’s from Caerlaverock?”
Titan shrugged. “Not far,” he said. “That might be their next stop.”
Which meant they had to return to the abbey immediately.
But they needed to try to identify the other boats first, to confirm their suspicions, so they made haste down to the boats, neatly beached in a row.
They inspected them, all the while dragging the branches behind them to try to blot out their footsteps without disturbing the prints that were already there.
The boats smelled of piss and were cluttered with rubbish and dried fish, indicative of a sea journey.
As Titan rounded the third boat they’d come to, he suddenly came to a halt.
“There,” he said, pointing to something on the side of the bow. “See it?”
Kaladin peered closely. Something was scratched into the side of the boat, faded. He could barely make it out.
“It looks like a shape,” he said. “What is it?”
Titan sighed heavily. “I’ve seen it before,” he said. “Do not forget that Mateo’s great-grandfather was a Nordic prince. All of the de Wolfe sons were schooled in their culture and teachings because it is part of our heritage and our alliance.”
“What is it, then?”
“An othala.”
“What is that?”
“It represents the letter ‘O’ in the language of the Northmen.”
Kaladin stared at it for a moment. “Ormsfolk.”
“Indeed.”
No more words were spoken between them at that point. There was no need. After covering their tracks back to their horses, they took off as fast as the steeds would take them.
It would seem that a serpent was on their doorstep.