Page 45 of Taken By Shadows

And some part of me was excited to know I was staying for a while and I would get to train with a sentinel. One of the most skilled warriors the Four Corners had to offer. Usually, they worked outside a structured army, from what I’d read. And I would get a chance to learn from someone like Denora. To rise to the rank of Head Sentinel of Hayden was beyond impressive. I remembered the determination in her eyes when I’d first seen her astride her mount, bow pulled to its full weight. Her aim had been piercing as she’d loosed that arrow into Gold Teeth’s hand. Unflinching. And under Kaed’s command.

It did make me wonder why Kaed travelled with Sentinels of Hayden. How important was he to the Crown that he’d receive such an escort?

Irrelevant, I thought, swiping the question from my mind.

My feet carried me downhill, towards the salty air of the waters.

While I wasn’t trying to leave, I also didn’t want any attention from Kaed this morning. The walls were being watched, and the guards on duty might recognise me or have been warned by Kaed or Gavrin to look for me. And I wanted to see the sea. Books were beautiful and a magic of their own, but I wanted to feel the sea on my skin. The nearness of her wildness. The unbound power in her waves that the pages of my fables painted with words and ink.

Lost in my thoughts of longing, I smelled my way towards the harbour, its salty brine pulling me closer.

The city looked like it housed a multitude of entertainment. I passed parlours and tailors, taverns and markets. Even game halls and theatres. While I wasn’t exactly ready to stay long in this city, I was aware of how much I already liked the vibrancy of such a place.

Smooth with sea spray and algae, the worn flagstones of the docks finally fell beneath my feet. The silhouettes of the ships bobbed in the early morning pre-dawn, their masts like spears and tridents rising to pierce the gradient sky.

I’d never seen the sea. Not like this. I’d seen paintings and sketches. But something about the lapping waters that were inked in lapis lazuli tones soothed a part in me. My body felt an urge to move with the tide as she breathed in and caressed the land. I’d never felt fully content in the hardened snow grounds of Shadowfall. Even the mossy blankets of the forests weren’t what I longed for. But seeing the sea for the first time, the hairs of my skin raised up, and my body tingled like listening to music that scintillated my senses.

I was so struck by the newness, the novelty of what lay before me, that I didn’t hear them as they crowded me.

“Lost, are we?”

I turned, my feet nearly tangling in the rough lines of the moored ships. Blood drained from my face when I took in the sight of the three human men who stood on the pier before me, cutting off my option to leave the way I’d come.

They weren’t dishevelled, but they weren’t nobility. The man who’d spoken had a scar through his cheek from ear to nose and a crop of tired hair that fell to his jaw. The other two were similar in that they both had dirty dark hair and wiry builds, one with stubble, one without.

They didn’t seem inebriated. In fact, they seemed calm. Poised.

Something cold slithered over me. This wasn’t happening by chance. Had they been waiting for me, or just someone unlucky enough to come this way?

I looked around. The towering breakwater rose to my left and to my right, the hull of a ship without a gangway to board. My only options were to swim or walk straight into their hands.

“I don’t have anything,” I stammered as my eyes darted in the dim light for anything, anywhere I could go.

“Maybe we don’t want anything.” The one with the scar took a half step towards me.

“Oh.” I unclenched my fist. I felt ashamed for assuming they were here to rob me. Or worse. In my defence, I’d had a bad run of luck these past few days. “I’m sorry. I just—I—nevermind.”

The man with the scar spoke again. “We don’t want anything from you. But we also can’t abide you being here.” His eyes stripped me from head to toe as he noted my appearance. He was surprisingly calm as he spoke. But I could hear the ice that pierced his tongue.

My back stiffened at his words, his demeanour. The way the other two flanked him, fanning out wide.

“What do you want, then?” I dared the question, and I took a tentative side step.

One of the dirty-haired men mimicked me.

“What we want is for your kind to leave this city.”

“Yeah. Out! With the lot of you. We don’t want your kind here.” The man with stubble sneered, his nose dripping something sticky.

“That’s okay. I’m leaving.” I tried, side stepping again.

This time, they all moved with me.

“It’s not about you leaving. It’s about your kind always finding a way to come back. To infest this once-proud city. You are all the same. Immortal cockroaches.” He spat the word immortal like it was a poison shard in his skin. “Hard to hurt and just won’t die. But we’ve gotten better at that part.” He spoke slowly, like he wanted me to savour his thoughts.

I tried to peer beyond them, for anyone to see, but there wasn’t a person awake at this hour at the docks.

“You shouldn’t. I …” I fumbled for a way to stall them. “My—” What should I call him? My betrothed? My intended? My abductor? All of them were as ridiculous as the last. “He won’t let you live if he finds you. Just let me go, and he doesn’t need to know.” Whether my words were true or not, I just hoped they would believe me.