Deepwoods (Book 1) (28 page)

Siobhan didn’t like ships for one specific reason: ceilings.

She wasn’t a giant, not like some women from Teherani could
be, but she did have an unusually tall stature for a woman. In fact, she could
look most of her men in the eye with the exceptions of Tran and Wolf, her two
giants. Most of the time her height came in handy, but whenever she boarded a
ship, she had to hunch over to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling, or the
top of the door jambs. It was one of those things that she remembered the first
six times and forgot the seventh, so she always landed with some sort of bruise
on her head.

After smacking her head on the ceiling three times, Siobhan
gave up and went to the foredeck. It might be colder there with the sea breeze,
but at least she wouldn’t land on Orin with bumps on top of her bumps.

Tran and Wolf quickly followed her example and retreated to
the forecastle, the only possible place for them to really sit without being in
someone’s way. She’d seen them smack their heads more times than she had, so it
didn’t surprise her they chose cold over pain. She put her back to the railing,
sitting cross-legged on the wooden deck, and looked out over the sea. Even
though they’d only been on the ship for an hour, she could barely see Wynngaard
as a thin line in the distance. Her nose twitched at the strong scent of salt
and tar. Still, an itchy nose was preferable to being down below.

Without a word, Tran sat on one side of her, Wolf on the
other, and between the two of them they blocked the wind quite nicely. She
shifted into a more comfortable position and smiled in satisfaction.

“Shi-maee.”

“Hmm?” She turned to look at Tran.

“What do you expect to find? In Orin.”

“I have no idea,” she admitted frankly. “At this point, I’m
not sure if anything could surprise me. Maybe whatever reason that drove the Coravine
guild to attack Blackstone is very obvious and we’ll see it once we’re in the
city. Or we might need to spend days looking and asking questions before we
figure it out. I don’t know. It’s just that my gut is telling me that there’s
something important we haven’t figured out yet.”

He grunted understanding.

Silence passed comfortably between them as they sat there
with their own thoughts. Siobhan let her eyes rove over the ship. It wasn’t the
largest merchant vessel she had ever seen, but it had a good size to it.
Jarnsmor hadn’t put them on a cheap, flimsy ship to say the least. At the speed
they were going, she’d say they’d arrive in Orin about lunchtime. (Fortunate,
that; Fei and ships didn’t exactly get along where food was concerned.)

Wolf craned his head to look toward the bowsprit at the very
front of the ship. “Those two look like seagulls.”

Siobhan shifted about to look. Heh. He was right. Fei and
Rune were balanced on the edge of the bowsprit, not seemingly disturbed by the
idea that dropping into the ocean at that angle would certainly get them
killed. They were animatedly talking about something, Rune’s hands rising to
illustrate some point he was making. The wind blew and snatched away their
words before she could hear them, so she hadn’t the faintest idea what subject
had ensnared them so.

“I’ve noticed that Fei talks to Rune often,” Tran noted
slowly.

“They’re kindred souls, those two,” Siobhan said with a
smile. “They both like high places. I wonder if they were birds in a previous
life?”

Wolf shook his head slightly. “It’s not that.”

Her eyes cut to him. Oh? That sounded like a knowing tone.
“What?”

“I asked Fei about it. He said that Rune reminds him of
himself.”

Tran blinked at him. “Eh? How?”

“That’s as much as he said.” Wolf gave a shrug.

Rune reminded Fei of himself? Fei had said that before, but
she still didn’t see the similarity. Those two were as different as day and
night except their preference for high places and general sneakiness. Or at
least, it looked like that to her on the surface, but in truth, there was a
great deal that she didn’t know about both men. Rune’s past was a complete
mystery to her aside from him belonging to a dark guild. He didn’t trust her
enough to share his secrets and she hadn’t yet figured out whether she should
ask or not. Sometimes old wounds bleed anew if they’re prodded at.

Fei, in many aspects, was just as much a stranger. He’d been
in the guild for eight years, and was one of the older members, but he’d never
once told her why he was so far from home. He never had anyone contact him from
Saoleord, either. He’d been eighteen when he’d come to her, which was a very
tender age to be alone in a foreign country. She’d been willing to take him in
just because of his youth, but he’d proven to be a good fighter when Wolf
tested him, so she hadn’t adopted him as a member on sympathy alone. As time
passed, she had learned not to ask about his family or find out more of his
story. Clearly, it was too painful to talk about. It might always be that way.

She watched the two sneaks sitting out there chatting avidly
with weighing eyes. They were similar, huh. Now there was food for thought.

“You should trust Rune,” Tran announced firmly.

At first Siobhan thought he said that to her, but when she
looked up, she found his eyes locked with Wolf’s. Oh, now this was interesting.
Tran was trying to change Wolf’s opinion on Rune?

Wolf’s brows slammed together and a tic developed at his
jaw. “I don’t want to hear that from you. And since when did you come up with
that, anyway?”

“You should trust him,” Tran repeated stubbornly. “Did you
know that he checks in on every person before he goes to bed himself? He does
it again after he wakes up, too.”

Siobhan sat up abruptly. “How do you know?”

“Fei told me,” Tran answered her patiently. “I don’t know
how he knows, though. All I know is, Rune’s honestly concerned about every
person in the guild. That boy has been sleeping with an eye open ever since we
took him on. He’s dealt with threats we didn’t see.”

Hooo…and here she thought Wolf’s senses of danger were too
sharp to miss anything. She glanced at him and found him frowning.

“How far out is he patrolling?” Wolf asked slowly.

“Farther than you are. Whatever you set the limit at, he
goes out further.” Tran’s tone remained carefully neutral as if, for once, he
wasn’t trying to challenge Wolf or start a fight. “I think he’s afraid to lose
Siobhan.”

“Because we’re safe to him, and he’s never had that before,”
Siobhan translated his unspoken words with a long, exhaled breath.

Tran tapped his heart twice in quick agreement. “Wolf. That
boy’s no danger to us. You have to treat him as guild, or the next time we’re
in a fight, your eyes will be in the wrong place.”

Wolf held up a hand to stay him. “I know, I know. I realized
Conli was right in that. But what are we supposed to do with him?”

“We’re not going to do anything with him,” Siobhan
interrupted. “Remember? It’s his decision where to go once we are through
Island Pass.”

Both men gave her a dumbfounded
Is she kidding?
look.

“What?” she demanded in exasperation. “Did I miss
something?”

Tran looked up at Wolf. “Usual wager?”

“I don’t take sure bets,” Wolf denied. “Bet with Sylvie or
Markl.”

“They wouldn’t bet with me either,” Tran complained.

“That’s because it’s a sure bet.”

Siobhan grabbed both of Tran’s cheeks with her hands. “You
either cough up an explanation, or your smile is going to grow a lot bigger.”

He grabbed her wrists and pushed her hands down easily, eyes
twinkling in laughter. “Shi-maee, you think that boy is going anywhere? After
all you’ve done to win him over?”

She thought about that for a second. Then thought about it
again. “…What are we going to do with him?”

“You see it now, eh.” Wolf shook his head. “That kid isn’t
going anywhere. You just got adopted by an assassin.”

“It’s because you fed it,” Tran told her mock-seriously. “I
told you not to feed everything that comes to you. They just end up staying.”

“Now what was I supposed to do?” she riposted, playing
along. “He was hungry. And he needed a nice place to sleep after being
neglected for so long.”

“Yes, but now that he knows you’ll feed him, you won’t be
able to get rid of him.”

“There’s truth,” Wolf muttered to himself. “So, Siobhan?
What are you going to do with him?”

“I guess we keep him.”

Wolf rolled his eyes heavenward in a clear plea for
patience. “What are we supposed to do with an assassin?”

“I would suggest being nice to him, unless you want to be
murdered in your sleep.”

Tran laughed. “That’s a start.”

“Will you two be serious?”

“No,” she and Tran said in unison.

He dropped his head into one hand and shook it in
resignation.

“Siobhan-ajie!”

She twisted around and craned her neck to look up at Fei,
who had risen up to his knees in order to call to her. “What?”

“Come up.”

Huh? He sounded perfectly serious—unusual for him—and the
way that his eyes never deviated from the horizon said without words that she
needed to see something.

She put a hand on her sword hilts to keep them out of her
way as she grabbed the edge of the railing and hauled herself upright and over,
clambering up to where Rune and Fei sat. Rune gave her a hand up for the last
foot, which she took, and he hauled her easily to his side. Sinking onto one
knee, she looked at him briefly before turning to the direction Fei stared at.

Oh.

Oh
.

Finally,
finally
this was starting to make sense.

In front of her incredulous eyes, stretching out over the
water, was a bridge. It was like the Grey Bridges connecting through Island
Pass. She could barely see details from this distance, but it was obvious that
it wasn’t that far along. It only went out about a span or so. Not as massive
as the bridges it was obviously copied from, but sufficiently large enough for
trade.

Pieces started to click into place. Siobhan felt like
swearing but couldn’t think of any words strong enough to fit the situation.
She could barely tell what it was. In fact, if he hadn’t pointed it out, she’d
have never spotted it.

“That thing looks like it’s only about four or five months
old,” Fei told her. “It’s not big enough to have been there any longer than
that.”

“It’s bei’n worked on even now,” Rune added. Pointing a
finger, he tried to draw her attention to the right area. “Ya see there, at the
end, that trail of ropes? I see people hauli’n stones and such.”

Their eyes were better than hers, then.

Wolf rose to his feet and called to them. “What is it?”

She waved for him to wait and had the boys follow her back
to the forecastle to avoid shouting over the wind. Once they were there, she
answered Wolf numbly, “There’s a bridge being built from Orin’s shores.” The
full situation was still sinking into her mind. “It’s quite large, or at least
it looks that way, although from this distance it’s hard to tell.”

“A bridge?” he repeated. He whipped around, one hand rising
to shield his eyes from the sun. “I…can barely see it.”

“If Rune hadn’t pointed it out, I certainly wouldn’t have.”
She sat there like a bump on a log, staring at the bridge. That bridge was a
game changer. “Tran, call the others up here. We need to talk about this.”

It took barely a minute to call them up. She sat heavily,
the others following suit and finding space on the decking to sit as well. When
they were settled, she looked at the curious faces surrounding her. In short,
clipped tones, she explained what she’d seen.

Fei and Rune joined her, adding in a few details that she
hadn’t been able to make out over the distance, but which they apparently
could. Just how good were their eyes, anyway? When they were done, they sat in
a circle and just stared at each other, minds whirling.

It was Sylvie who broke the silence with a long sigh. “I get
it now. This is a war of finances. They barely have the funds as it is to build
a bridge with. But a trade monopoly between three of the most influential
guilds in Robarge and Wynngaard would be economically devastating.” Sylvie
steepled her hands in front of her, obscuring half her face. “And with no trade
specialty to offer, they have little bartering power to change the situation
with.”

“I’d have more sympathy for them if they weren’t sending
assassins after people,” Siobhan growled irately.

Sylvie grimaced agreement. “Still, their initial plan is not
wrong, a direct connection to Wynngaard will help them a great deal.”

“I’m not sure if that is truly the case any longer, not
after what they did,” Markl disagreed. “Iron Dragain is
the
trading
guild of Wynngaard. They unofficially set policy for all the trade on the
continent. Framing them for an assassination has not endeared Orin to Iron
Dragain.”