Page 34 of Potions & Pints
This time, though, as his foul mood worsened, he felt it was in anticipation of what was to come, not what lay behind. They had made it through the Heaving Sea, against all odds, and against, it seemed, the plans of Prince Valar himself. But perhaps the worst was yet to come. Gamlin Ait was no place for the uninitiated, and he worried for the others.
He didn’t yet admit it to himself, but the truth was, he worried most for Vir.
17
As usual, it took what seemed like forever for the port to come into focus. Then they had to slow down even more to approach the dock. Tan recalled that as a child he never did understand why the ships’ captains came up alongside the dock so excruciatingly slowly. Then one day he saw one that didn’t.
That memory stuck with him and had perhaps been the best lesson in patience he had ever learned. Now he stood on the deck, studying the shoreline. Vir came and stood beside him.
“What’s that?” Vir asked.
“The sea wall,” Tan said, avoiding the obvious.
“What’s it made of? Are those…”
“Yes, Vir, they are skulls.”
He looked up at his…friend’s normally happy go lucky visage. Vir seemed absolutely horrified.
“Stuff washes up,” Tan said. “The heaving sea, it claims a lot of lives.”
“It’s horrible,” Vir says.
Tan didn’t know what to say. Just up the hill a giant spider was feeding on something wrapped in silk. The meal looked to be about the size and shape of a person. Tan shuddered. Supposedly spiders injected their food with a toxin to immobilize it and keep it still while it was being consumed.
Some people figured it also anesthetized the victim. Tan didn’t know if there was any scientific proof to that, but right then, he desperately wished it was true.
“Over there,” Tan said, pointing past the dock. “That’s where the market is.”
His goal was to distract Vir from noticing the spider. That worked, but then, of course, Vir had a million questions.
“I could use some new thread,” Vir said. “I’ve been wanting to try embroidering something.”
“Oh,” Tan said, surprised.
Then again, it wasn’t really a surprise. Vir always rebounded from any disappointment quickly. It was one of the things that was so nice about him, about having him around.
“I’m sure you can get some thread somewhere,” Tan said. “I was more partial to the gambling halls myself, last time I was here.”
That wasn’t entirely true. Tan hadn’t enjoyed anything the last time he was there. Tan hadn’t even been the same person.
He’d liked gambling before. Or rather, he’d liked the thrill of it – the thrill of anything dangerous. Last time, before his mission to Gamlin Ait, before his life had changed forever, he’d been winning. He had to appear to be in the moment, all the while trying to glean information for Valar. It was more challenging than it sounded like.
And apparently I wasn’t very good at it,Tan reminded himself.
One minute he had been playing cards—winning nicely, in fact. The next there was a very angry elf at the table pointing at him.
Tan had thought he was being accused of cheating. He had been cheating, of course he had been. Everybody did. It was practically part of the game. Tan was always careful to cheat just enough not to arouse suspicion, but also not so much that someone would eventually take umbrage with it. It was a delicate balance.
Pili came and stood next to Tan, interrupting his memory.
“Well, I can’t blame you for not wanting to come back,” Pili said with a shudder. “No wonder you were willing to brave the Heaving Sea to get out of here.”
“I couldn’t have done it without your tribesmen. I thought I was dead when they came along and rescued me,” Tan said. “I owe them my life. Some debts can’t ever be fully repaid, but if ever the opportunity arises…”
It was less about the former rescue and more a reminder that they would probably need to save each other again sometime in the not-too-distant future. Pili nodded. By the grim look on his face Tan guessed Pili had some idea of the dangers that awaited them on shore.
“What do you mean you were rescued?” asked Vir.
