If Jace was certain of anything in his increasingly uncertain life, he was sure that Sheiral would welcome the news that they would soon be making port and leaving the tiny, poorly furnished, and increasingly fishy-smelling hold of the Horizon Chaser behind them for solid land. He held onto this piece of news as talisman to ward against her ill-will and the stream of arcane, incomprehensible profanity she directed at him the moment he descended below deck, knowing that it would be just the thing to turn her mood around and coax a smile out of her, or possibly even a kind word.
He was, quite naturally, disappointed in every particular.
“We have to leave?” she asked, aghast.
“Uh…” Jace said.
“But… why? Why do we have to leave?”
“It’s Katryn’s boat!” Jace said. “She doesn’t want us here, and we don’t want to be here.”
“But where will we go?” Sheiral asked.
“Montport,” Jace said. “It’s much better than here, or Keeper’s Cove… a proper city.” Not ever having lived anywhere else, he’d actually been picturing it as being just like Keeper’s Cove, but bigger and with more wizards. “We’ll be safe there. We’ve left Montaldo and all them miles behind.”
“We’re safe here,” Sheiral said. “I’ve been in so many cities… they aren’t safe. Don’t you see? A tiny little boat in the middle of the water… nobody can get me here.”
“I can get you here,” Katryn said, coming down into the hold. She was so adept at walking down the narrow, ladder-like steps that she was able to do so forwards. “And if you don’t step off onto the pier of your own accord, I just might ask around and see if anybody wants to buy a piece of a gold-plumed sky princess… yeah, your glint’s starting to show through the grime, even in this green glow. I’d appreciate it if you throw a sack over yourself before you disembark. There are enough people after tracking my movements without anyone spotting you on my vessel, thank you very much.”
“What’s so special about her?” Jace asked.
“You tell me,” Katryn said. “But I’ve never seen anyone like her, and your story about the governor’s seeming likelier all the time.”
“If you let me stay on, nobody will have to see me,” Sheiral said. “I don’t eat much!”
“And you contribute less,” Katryn said. “Be glad I took you on as a passenger when I thought you were more likely a scullery girl who filled the boy’s head up with a lot of fancy nonsense. If I didn’t owe you passage to Montport…”
“You wouldn’t have,” Jace said.
“I might have,” she said. “Luckily we’ll never know. But you’re off my ship when we make port, or we might find out.”
“I don’t believe you,” Jace said.”
“That’s because you’re an idiot,” Katryn said. “But believe it or not, you’re not going to be on board when we leave Montport.”
“But I can be useful!” Sheiral said.
“I’ve seen a lot of unbelievable sights in my day,” Katryn said. “But I’m not ready to believe that.”
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