By the time he had reconstructed the rosy image of how things should be, Mandon had finished sharpening his blade and handed the weapon back to him. “I give you this sword with my fervent wish that you never need to use it.”
When Bannon smiled, this time he did feel the sting in his lip. “That is my hope, too. Always my hope.” But he doubted that would happen.
Bidding Mandon farewell, he left the shop and made his way down to the docks and the waiting Wavewalker.
CHAPTER 7
Nicci reached the docks in Grafan Harbor after making her way from the darkly cluttered buildings to a more spacious district of merchants’ warehouses and administrative offices. The harbormaster’s hall was a busy place, with the windows and doors thrown wide open to let in the breezes. Clerks in high-collared jackets bustled along the docks with their papers and quills, interviewing ships’ quartermasters to inventory and tax the exotic and ordinary cargo.
Dockside inns and taverns were adorned with garish signs and unappealing names. The Snout and Maggot was unusually busy, filled with people who conversed in shouts instead of normal voices. In front of the tavern, a pudgy boy offered burned meat pies to sailors who lounged on the steps or leaned against the outside wall.
Servicing the steady flow of lonely men in port, rickety-looking brothels were crowded so closely against one another that the patrons of one establishment could hear the lusty activities in the adjoining brothel. Wildly imaginative murals painted on their exterior walls advertised improbable images of the services their women or boys performed. As Nicci considered the murals, she doubted many sailors could manage the intricate, overly flexible positions. She bit her lower lip, where once a golden ring had marked her as Jagang’s property. From her unwelcome experience in the soldiers’ tents, she knew that while most men believed they had great prowess as lovers, they were usually just brutes who finished quickly and without finesse.
She walked past moneylender stalls, extravagant ones that financed whole sailing expeditions, or smaller and more usurious moneylenders who preyed upon desperate sailors. A forlorn-looking man was locked in a pillory in front of one moneylender’s shack. Slumped and scowling in the restraints, he had been pelted with rotted fruit, and he sneered back as passersby jeered at him.
Nicci knew how Tanimura worked. Some supposedly compassionate captain would pay the man’s obligation and take him aboard a ship as part of the indentured crew, but such “rescued” men were bound to such impossibly high interest rates that they were practically slaves. Although Nicci despised slavery, she also had little sympathy for any fool who would create such a situation for himself.
Walking along the waterfront, she assessed the ships tied up at the docks, keeping her eyes open for one named Wavewalker, which Bannon Farmer had suggested. Those vessels with large cargo holds were clearly trading ships, while narrower-beamed hulls and streamlined construction signified fast patrol ships or warships.
Groups of hairy, muscular men offered their services as porters like human oxen hauling cargo to where shouting merchants held auctions. Laborers pulled thick hemp ropes through squeaking pulleys to raise crates and pallets off the decks.
At one smoke-and grease-stained cargo vessel, the sailors struggled with a block and tackle to lift the severed tentacle of a huge sea creature. The leathery gray skin was covered with slime and adorned with suckers. The heaving workers swung the flopping appendage over the side, and it landed with a thud and a splat onto the dock. Butchers swept in, using saws and cleavers to chop the tentacle meat into smaller steaks, while young apprentices ran up and down the docks calling out, “Fresh kraken meat! Fresh kraken meat for sale!” The smell was so foul and fishy, Nicci couldn’t imagine anyone willingly eating the stuff.
She was startled to hear Nathan’s voice call to her. “There you are, Sorceress. I am ready to help you find us a ship to carry us on our grand expedition to the Old World.”
When Nicci turned to look at the wizard, she nearly laughed at his appearance. Upon leaving the People’s Palace, Nathan had worn fine traveling clothes, but during their journey through the Dark Lands and then down to Tanimura, his garments had grown bedraggled, the fabric faded, the cloth frayed around the cuffs, the hem of his cape tattered. Now he sported new brown leather trousers and a white linen shirt with fresh starched ruffles down the front, voluminous sleeves, and wide folded cuffs, each fastened with a golden link. He wore an open embroidered vest, a fine forest-green cape. He also carried a bound satchel, which no doubt held other shirts—probably another few impractical white ones that would become stained and dingy in no time at all—as well as vests, trousers, maybe even a second cape, as if he needed one.
Nathan seemed to interpret her expression as admiration. “Hmm, I may have to reassess my opinion of Tanimura. It is a marvelous city after all, despite my past unpleasantness here. An entire district devoted to nothing but tailors! Shirt makers, jacket makers, trouser makers, cloak makers. The selection is extraordinary!” He lowered his voice to a husky whisper. “Would you believe I found two alleys devoted to highly creative smallclothes for women?” He cocked an eyebrow, and Nicci knew he did it just to annoy her. “I could take you there, Sorceress.”
“I think not,” she said. “My black dress and my other travel garments are quite adequate, and I am traveling in service of Richard.” She had no interest in obtaining lacy smallclothes to entice some unknown man. Nicci had never needed lace, if that was what she’d been after.
Nathan continued with his unflappable exuberance. “And cobblers specializing in all types of boots.” He tapped the toe of his new black boot on the dock boards, adjusting the fit. “Belt makers, button carvers, bucklesmiths—did you know that was a profession? Bucklesmiths!”
Nicci could imagine him walking among the shops, fascinated by so many choices, like a child overwhelmed by a sweet shop. “I am surprised you made up your mind so quickly.”
“Indeed! After I first escaped from the Palace of the Prophets, Clarissa and I went to a tailor outside of Tanimura, and he took some time to complete the job to my satisfaction. Very meticulous.” A wistful flicker of memory crossed his face. “But here in the city, with such extraordinary selection, I merely needed to name the clothes I wanted, and some tailor would find the items, exactly in my size.” He made a quick, satisfied sound in his throat, hefting his packs. “I bought several outfits.”
He looked along the docks, scanned the numerous ships tied up in the harbor. “So, I am ready to depart. Have you found us passage?”
Nicci thought of the young man in the alley. “I’m looking for a ship called the Wavewalker, a three-masted carrack due to depart tonight, sailing south. It may be what we need.”