Page 102 of Wicked Tides
I followed Taupek and Ahnah, watching as she spewed long sentences to her grandmother that I couldn’t understand. There was a heaviness to both their tones as if they were talking about Sakari and when I heard her name uttered between them, I was certain. Taupek glanced back at me and slowed her pace even more than her limp already forced her to. I stepped up beside her as we strolled through the village. I could smell salted meat and fish among the thick scent of wood smoke.
Venturing further, I smelled something I was unfamiliar with. Something thick and musky with hints of dirt and grass. A long, square building sat off the path with a large, wooden round pen in front of it where two giant beasts leisured about nibbling dry grass. I slackened my gait at the sight of the four-legged animals.
“Horses,” I whispered.
“We have eleven of them,” Taupek said. “Have you not seen one before?”
“Wild ones. From a distance. Never have I seen them so close.”
“You will have to visit them in the morning when you’re rested.”
I blinked, trying not to gawk at the creatures like a child as we passed. I had seen them before galloping across the beaches of some of the large islands. They were gorgeous things, but I’d never tried to get close. The sound of their hooves slamming against the ground was reason enough for me to keep my distance. I never imagined they were so large.
Ahnah’s little voice stole me from my thoughts as she rambled to her grandmother.
“She tells me you have a companion,” Taupek said.
“My sister. Meridan. She waits on the ship.”
“She is welcome here.”
“Why is that?” I asked, furrowing my brows. “You know what we are, yes?”
“I do. We all do.”
“You would welcome a monster into—”
“Monsters are different to everyone. To you, men are monsters, yes? To a mouse, a fox is a monster.”
We walked in silence for a moment as I absorbed her words. “On our way through the ice, we saw others in the water.”
Taupek smiled as if the thought of the coldfins elated her and I couldn’t grasp it.
“It is a great honor to see them.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” I uttered under my breath.
“You come from a place of war controlled by the ones who can be the most ruthless. I can understand how things might seem strange to you here, but we are far from your home, are we not?”
“You seem educated for being so isolated from the world.”
She sighed, placing a hand on her hip where her pain seemed to be the worst.
“I was taken a long time ago like these girls. I saw and learned many things before I found my way back here to have my first daughter.”
“Ahnah’s mother.”
She nodded once. “She was a product of horrible acts, but I loved her just the same. Until she died and we surrendered her to the sea with many others during a great fever.”
I took a deep breath and let my thoughts wander back to Kea and Voel. The pain of losing people was something every being in the world had in common, whether the loss came early or later in life.
“Here,” Taupek said, gesturing toward a small cabin just off the main path. “This hut is empty.”
I turned to look at her, a thank you teetering on the tip of my tongue. Instead, I just inclined my head and then glimpsed Ahnah. She gave me a shy, solemn smile and I returned it with as much subtlety.
“Sakari was like a sister to her,” Taupek said. “We will have a farewell ceremony for her tomorrow when the village is fed and rested.”
Ahnah muttered a few words to her grandmother and Taupek smiled.
