Chapter 26 #2
Smaller marine creatures accompanied the fishing vessels, leaping and flipping out of the water in a way that brought a reluctant smile to Aelia’s lips.
She wondered what role the Shifted artemians played; whether they helped detect the fish, or perhaps even helped to guide them towards the nets.
It was a different world; one she could have watched for days.
Aelia sat and dangled her legs off the sea wall, leaning her chin on her arms as she peered over the lower metal bar of the handrail.
Minutes turned to hours as the cries of the men and women working the ships washed over her.
Watching them work was bewitching, so vastly different from what she was used to in the forest, and yet the teamwork necessary made her think of her logging team with a pang of homesickness.
They worked even as the sun set, loading and unloading until Aelia’s back ached for them.
She noticed a constant presence amongst the chaos as the hours passed.
A young woman in a perfectly pressed uniform Shifted frequently, flying from ship to ship on the black wings of a raven.
She meticulously documented the contents on her ledger, searching every nook and cranny for contraband, unperturbed by the late hour.
Aelia watched with growing exhaustion, thinking of the overpriced bed waiting for her in the inn.
Now she’d formulated something of a plan, her thoughts started to wander.
They quickly got stuck on Keeran, as they so often did.
Memories of the night she’d left him whirled round her head, starting with seeing him with Beserkir, flitting to the pair bond revelation, before landing on the way she’d found out…
The moment thoughts of being perched on that that wall in front of Keeran snuck in, she slammed down on them, forcing herself to focus on the clerk still flitting around the dock.
The woman’s work ethic was not to be sniffed at, and Aelia watched most other workers leave before the conscious clerk finally tucked her ledger into a black leather satchel and made to head home.
Aelia uncurled herself from the hard ground, her joints stiff and uncooperative after so many days in the saddle.
Still, she hardly minded a little stiffness, not when she was still so relieved Keeran’s ‘tea’ had eradicated her pain.
She guessed she’d never know what he’d put in it, which was a damned shame because it was nothing short of miraculous.
After a few awkward steps in which her legs gradually agreed to function again, Aelia took off after the clerk, keeping enough of a distance so as not to draw attention to herself.
Her nerves started to get the better of her, and she rubbed her clammy palms on her trousers, struggling to control the shallow gasps of her breathing.
If she was caught, she’d be flung straight into a cell for assault, and Fenrir would end up in Ideolanthea. But after hours of sitting up there, she hadn’t been able to think of a better plan, no matter how hard she racked her brain.
So, when the woman turned onto a deserted street, Aelia picked up the pace and barrelled her into a dark little alleyway.
The clerk was so petite she would have been knocked to the floor had Aelia not grabbed her, slamming a hand over her mouth to muffle the woman’s predictable squawk of surprise.
She was careful to keep the woman firmly facing away from her.
Too pumped full of adrenaline to feel guilty, Aelia dragged her back into the shadows, easily overpowering her flailing attempts to get away.
“Stop struggling,” Aelia panted in the woman’s ear, sticking her dagger into her abdomen just hard enough to make its presence known. “If you tell me what I need to know, you’ll be home in time for dinner. If you don’t—”
Aelia pressed the blade in firmly enough to make the woman gasp, her breath dragging against Aelia’s palm.
“Do you board all the ships that pass through Demuto’s docks?”
The woman hesitated, and Aelia could have sworn she sensed the woman’s surprise. After a brief pause, she nodded.
“Even the ones carrying the humans to Ideolanthea?”
This time, the pause was longer, but a nod still followed it.
“Do you know what’s happening to them when they get there?”
She immediately shook her head.
“Do you know where they keep the humans before they’re shipped out?”
Another nod. Aelia sucked in a relieved breath, getting a waft of the woman’s floral perfume.
“I’m going to drop my hand now. If you scream, I swear to all the gods I’ll put a hole straight through your spleen.
Do you understand?” The woman nodded, trembling so hard that Aelia’s resolve nearly shattered.
But there was no going back now. She lowered her hand and breathed a silent sigh of relief when the woman stayed quiet.
“Good,” Aelia said, to herself as much as the woman, swallowing down on the nerves that kept threatening to make her lunch reappear.
If anyone peered into the alley, she was fucked.
If the woman screamed, she was fucked. She gripped her shaking fingers more tightly around the hilt of her dagger. “Where do they keep the humans?”
“In a…” the woman tried to speak, but her voice cracked, her abdomen heaving against Aelia’s restraining arm. “In a w-ware…”
Aelia’s gut clenched as guilt coursed through her.
“It’s okay. Take a second. Just breathe.” Aelia scrunched her eyes closed for a moment, hating herself for doing this to someone. “What’s your name?”
“R-rhea,” she gasped, her breathing erratic.
Aelia tutted and sighed, wishing she could harden herself against the woman’s obvious terror. Get in, get the information, get out. That had been the plan. But if she carried on, she was going to leave this poor woman traumatised.
“Rhea,” Aelia said, resignedly. “I’m not going to hurt you. My friend was taken, and I just want to get him back. I’m not a murderer, I’m not a thief. Until a few days ago, I was just like you, just trying to get by.”
“Your friend is human?” Rhea asked. She was still trembling, but her breathing wasn’t quite so frantic.
“No,” Aelia replied, a hard edge entering her tone, unsure why she’d be asking that. Was she a supporter of the Astraea?
“Then he’ll be transported separately,” Rhea said, appearing to have mastered some of her fear. “The humans are shipped out daily, but there aren’t as many artemian prisoners, so they wait for there to be enough to fill a boat before shipping them out.”
“Why ship them separately?” Did that mean Fenrir stood a greater chance of still being in Llmera? “When was the last shipment of artemians?”
“Artemians are logged as high-value cargo. They’re shipped in better conditions than the humans to reduce the risk of fatalities on the journey.” Rhea swallowed audibly, her voice still laced with terror. “There hasn’t been a shipment of artemians for a fortnight.”
“Where do they keep them?” Aelia swallowed the bile that rose at Rhea’s words. She dreaded to think what conditions the humans were being kept in.
“In a warehouse, not far from the docks.” Rhea didn’t hesitate, the words pouring out of her now. “Well, it used to be a warehouse. The Astraea have kitted it out more like a prison now.”
“You’ve been inside?”
Rhea shook her head. “No, I’m just a dock clerk. I don’t have anything to do with cargo before or after it leaves the ship.”
“But you know where it is?”
“Yes,” Rhea breathed, her voice thick with horror. “Everyone does. They make no secret of what goes on in there, to scare the rest of us into submission.”
“Looks like it’s working,” Aelia sneered, accusatorially. Rhea may just be keeping her head down to survive, but if more people had stood up to the Astraea, maybe things wouldn’t have got so fucked up.
Rhea paused before answering. “You don’t know what they do to us if we don’t cooperate.”
“Oh, I have a pretty good idea,” Aelia said, darkly.
Rhea whimpered, her body wracked with another bout of tremors.
“Just tell me where the warehouse is,” Aelia said hurriedly. She’d already spent too long talking, it was time to leave.
Rhea rattled off directions, repeating them word for word on Aelia’s request.
“You better not be lying to me,” Aelia lowered her voice threateningly. “Remember, I know where to find you.”
“I’m not lying,” Rhea said grimly.
Aelia could do no more, she had no choice but to believe her. She moved as quickly as she could, loosening her grip on Rhea and flinging her hood up in one smooth movement, before she spun and legged it out of the alleyway.