The Hidden Fire (Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

his duffle on the other.  Kyric had no idea of where he kept
the nautical charts.  They went a few blocks in, and a few blocks along and
ended in a street of old houses.
    “Look for doors with bells tied to
them.  That means they have a room for rent — the more bells the more rooms.”
    After
eighteen days at sea, walking felt strange, and sleeping in a bed that didn’t
move felt even stranger.  But they were up early, and after a breakfast of
buttery corncake and calat , hot milk spiked with bitter-tasting roots,
they went out.
    “Before
we do anything else,” said Aiyan, “I want to visit an armorer.”
    “What
for?”
    Aiyan
looked at him.  “Armor.  No, not breastplates and mail skirts.  Just something
that might slow down a spear or an arrow.”
    Ularra
was a city of many tongues.  Kyric could hear smatters of Avic, Baskillian, and
Jakavian coming from the market stalls as they passed, but there didn’t seem to
be a Terrulan language.  Terrulan fishermen bartered their catch in Cor’el.  It
was also a city of trees.  Kyric hadn’t noticed in the dark, but tall, skinny
trees grew at the street corners, in the alleys, between the houses — almost
everywhere.  Little marsupial monkeys nested in the high limbs and ran the
rooftops.
    The
armorer had the straight black hair of the native Terrulans, along with the
traditional tiny feathers in his pierced ears.  Aiyan signed a greeting in Cor’el
and the man returned it, asking them in perfect Avic what they needed.  He measured
their torsos, taking each measurement with a ball of string, then cutting the
string and tacking it to the wall.  Apparently they were getting vests of
hardened leather that would lace up the sides.  Aiyan paid a little up front,
saying they would return in a couple of days.
    “Where
did you get all this money?” asked Kyric when they were back on the street. 
“This is certainly much more than you won at the games.”
    “I,
ah . . .“  Aiyan smiled sheepishly.  “Most of it came from Aerlyn, if you must
know.”
    “You’ve
seen her since that day on the docks?”
    “Well,
yes.  I saw her the, ah, day before we left Aeva.”
    It
seemed that they had many other errands to run before they could look for a
ship captain.  The sun had sunk low in the west by the time they made it to the
docks.  They strolled slowly, looking at likely caravels and carracks, signing ‘ no ’
to the charm sellers and dodging the pickpockets.  Aiyan called at almost every
gangplank, speaking to a couple of captains but mostly to the watch officers,
inquiring about the possibility of a charter voyage.
    They
paused at a small caravel.  Like most of them it had a squared-rigged main mast,
with lateens on the smaller masts fore and aft, the upper deck surrounded by
solid bulwark in place of a rail.  Other than it being fairly weathered, Kyric
could see nothing special about it and Aiyan made to pass it by.  Then Kyric
noticed the figurehead.  It was a Terrulan woman with cat-like eyes.
    He
must have started, because Aiyan turned and asked, “What is it?  Do you have a
feeling about this ship?”
    “I
saw this ship in one of the strange dreams.  Look at the eyes of the figure.”
    “Interesting,”
said Aiyan.  He went to the plank and called, “Ahoy.  What ship is this?”
    “ Calico . 
In her home port,” answered a woman’s voice.  She leapt onto the gunwales,
balancing lightly as she looked down on them.
    She
was tall and athletic, and dressed like a man, with faded grey breeches and a
ruffled silk shirt the color of cream.  She was hardly older than Kyric, and
had the dark brow and straight black hair of a Terrulan, tied back with a thong
sporting bright feathers, but her face had the angular features of a Syrolian. 
And a curious smirk to go with her sparkling eyes, as if she were deciding to
make them her playthings.  She twirled one finger around the butt of her knife
the same way another girl might twist a