Page 82 of Skalterra By Nightmare
“Tiernan and Fana, you next.” Ferrin beckoned them forward. “Forgive Galahad, Baron. He’s difficult to impress. We thank you for your generosity.”
Tamora shook her curls back over her shoulders.
“I prefer his honesty to whatever this awkward groveling is. Take care of pretty little Blue here. It’d be a shame for such a strange Nightmare to go to waste.” She winked at me, turned around, and stalked back towards the cabin.
Ferrin mumbled something under his breath and shepherded Orla and me towards the gangplank with a protective arm around our shoulders.
Lamps of swirling white Skal cast the wooden sides of docks and cabanas in shifting, dull light that fought to stave off the rapidly falling night. The entire town of Riverstead sat atop the water, comprised of wooden huts and stalls built into a messy network of docks. The evening was still young, and fishermen and dockworkers bustled around us, carrying cages of crawdads, fishing equipment, and nets of river fish.
I held a hand over my nose as a woman carrying a basket full of trout passed by, bringing with her a cloud of nauseating fish smell.
“The Baron gave us enough Skal to last a few days if we don’t run into any trouble,” Ferrin said, gathering us under the swirling light of a lamp. “We’ll still need to refill in Tulyr, and there are a few more supplies we need to stock up on before we leave Riverstead. Orla, you’ll come with me to find a new cloak. Tiernan, go with Galahad to find food. Just-Wren, you’re in charge of Fana. I want her as far from the Baron as quickly as possible, so get her to the forest beyond the riverbank, and wait for us there.”
“The forest?” I chewed on my lip.
“But I’m Fana’s Riftkeeper,” Tiernan protested. “She should stay with me.”
“She’ll be plenty safe with Wren.” Ferrin watched the Baron’s boat over our shoulders. Tamora’s Nightmares passed back and forth over the gangplank, restocking the boat for the return journey to Vanderfall, but the boat’s continued presence darkened Ferrin’s brow under his coiffed hair. “Orla, let’s move quickly.”
Orla waved goodbye to me, and Tiernan glowered as Galahad led him towards bright storefronts that sent light spilling across the river’s surface.
“Alrighty!” I slapped my hands together and spun to face Fana. Despite having been dragged back to Skalterra night after night to keep the kid safe, my interactions with the Divine Sovereign had been few and far between. “Fana.”
She blinked up at me with round brown eyes.
“Yes?”
“Oh. Nothing.” Forget Divine Sovereigns, I hadn’t much interacted with children in general. I didn’t know what they liked in my own realm, let alone Skalterra. “I was just saying your name.”
“Alrighty.” Her lips twitched into a smile under her yellow hood as she repeated the word. “Just-Wren.”
I pulled my own woolen hood up to hide my blue hair and put a tentative arm around her thin shoulders to guide her forward. The last remnants of day still hung in the sky. The setting sun outlined the distant mountains in hues of red, and rolling hills to the west peeked out at us from between the roofs of cabanas. Cicadas chirped at each other in the forest, loud enough that we could hear them all the way out on the water.
Fana’s hood swiveled back and forth as she watched children running barefoot down the planks and leaping over the gaps between walkways. A couple of women pulling cages from the depths of the river chided them as they harvested their crawdads.
“Can we do that?” Fana asked. One of the children landed on the edge of a walkway, teetered for a moment, and then fell backwards into the water to the laughter and cheers of his friends.
“Ferrin said to get to the forest as quickly as possible,” I said, though I would’ve loved the excuse to avoid the woods. “It won’t take long for the others to finish their errands, and if we aren’t at the riverbank—”
Fana’s shoulders fell, and she turned away from the kids to stomp ahead of me.
“I don’t know why I thought you’d be more fun than Tiernan.”
“I’m way more fun than Tiernan!” I quickened my step to catch up to her, and she looked up to raise a dubious eyebrow.
“Your hair color is more exciting, but that’s about it. Tiernan says ‘fun’ is a luxury.”
“And when’s the last time he let you have fun?”
She thought for a moment.
“It was fun in the steamcart when you shocked his nose with your little lightning.”
“So Iammore fun than Tiernan.”
I studied the serious set of Fana’s brow below the hem of her hood and wondered what sort of upbringing she must’ve had. She was the last Divine Sovereign, so her entire family was dead. Even if she’d had a happy childhood, no amount of fun could heal losing so much.
Fana’s eyes darted to a pastry stand manned by an old woman, and her steps faltered.
