The Blood Forest (Tree of Ages #3)(2)
“Something is wrong,” Iseult muttered, drawing her attention.
She followed his gaze to the distant port. It was smoke surrounding the city, not fog, though she saw no flames over the city walls. They were still too far out to see anything else.
“Is the city on fire?” Ealasaid questioned.
Iseult nodded. “So it would seem.” He smoothed his hands over his clothing, all in shades of his customary black, as if preparing himself for a confrontation.
Finn squinted her eyes in the direction of the city, but could not tell if men still guarded the walls or the dock. She turned her gaze out toward the open ocean, then pointed, “There’s Anna’s ship. It seems they will arrive shortly after us.”
She turned to see Iseult nod. “Yes, if we decide to dock at all. The smoke might mean Migris has been attacked. It may now be inhabited by enemy forces.” He frowned at the thought.
Finn knew he was likely thinking of Conall. He’d regaled her of his visit back to the place of his birth, now just a ruined city. It had been taken over and fortified by Conall, a Reiver commanding magic-using refugees. Reivers were the wild people of the borders, bandits by most accounts. Finn had encountered such a group while she was on Anna’s ship. The altercation resulted in disturbing repercussions. She could still clearly picture the man’s skin melting from his bones at her touch.
She shook away the memory, focusing on the current situation. She had no desire to encounter Reivers ever again. If they inhabited the city, they would simply have to dock elsewhere.
Maarav came to stand at Iseult’s other side, leaving his men, Tavish and Rae, to tend the sails. He peered out across the water. “Can’t say I like the look of that. I’ll not be pleased if my inn is no longer standing.”
Finn chewed her lip in consternation. She’d almost forgotten about Maarav’s inn, The Melted Sea, named after the ocean they now sailed.
“I don’t think your inn is necessarily a priority right now,” Ealasaid sniped back.
Maarav only chuckled. The pair often seemed to be at each other’s throats, but spent more time together than apart. Finn suspected Ealasaid enjoyed Maarav’s company more than she let on, though she also seemed constantly irked by the man.
“I’d say it was burned at least a full day ago, judging by the lack of visible flames,” Iseult commented. “The remnants of the city will likely smolder for a while longer.”
Ealasaid let out a shaky exhale, muted by the sound of lapping ocean waves, more rough now that they were closer to shore. “The whole city?” she asked. “Are you saying the entire city was burned?”
Iseult nodded, then gestured toward the sight. “Look at the smoke. That’s not the smoke of a single building, or even several.”
Unease blossomed in Finn’s gut. Migris was only the first stop of many on their journey, but they would still need to resupply. Weeks out to sea had depleted their provisions, and they only had two horses, belonging to Iseult and Maarav. Not to mention that whoever had burned the city might still be in the area.
“Should we still dock?” Finn questioned, searching the sea again for Anna’s ship to find it was making steady progress toward the shore. It seemed they planned to dock despite the smoke.
“Aye,” Iseult replied. “The nearest ports to Migris are Sormyr, far south, and,” he hesitated, “another far north.” He glanced at Maarav.
Finn supposed he was alluding to the hidden city Iseult had secretly told her about. All on the ship had departed from there, save Finn, who’d been on a ship with Kai and Anna at the time. She couldn’t help but be a little jealous. A city completely concealed within a rocky wall, forming a secret cove, sounded like quite a sight, and it irked her that she wasn’t supposed to know about it.
Maarav and Iseult turned away to aid the men with the sails, prepared to guide the ship toward the docks, leaving Finn and Ealasaid alone.
“Do you think it was the Faie that burned the city, or was it the Reivers?” Ealasaid questioned distantly, still leaning against the ship’s railing. She turned her gaze to Finn. “Or perhaps even An Fiach?”
Finn took a shaky breath and pushed her waist-length hair behind her ear, unsure which option was worse, though it wasn’t necessarily any of the three. The Cavari, her tribe, could have been to blame, or perhaps even the Ceárdaman, the Travelers, relinquishing their role as watchers to twist the strings of fate.
“Let’s just hope whoever it was did not decide to linger,” she replied. “And let’s hope there are supplies left to find, lest we starve before anyone has the chance to kill us.”
Ealasaid’s face scrunched up like she might be sick. Finn could not blame her, she was tempted to lose her breakfast herself.
“Bladdered, cursed dragon,” Kai growled, giving a final tug to the blanket.
Naoki perched on the bed, digging her talons into the straw of the mattress. She clasped the other end of the blanket in her beak, refusing to let go, while fluffing up her sparse white feathers to make herself appear larger than she was. He tugged again, making her wings flap chaotically as she tried to maintain her balance, sending loose papers fluttering around the room from the bedside table.
Kai let go of the blanket with a huff. “We can’t just go walking about with a dragon out in the open,” he explained tiredly. “If you’d just wear the blanket, perhaps we could pretend you’re something . . . else.”