Smoothie spoke to the two otters in their language. Anya tried to make sense of their reply, but couldn’t, though she noticed the repetition of some particularly high-pitched squeaks. She would love to be able to speak native otter. One day, perhaps, she would be able to study otter language. Someone must have written a dictionary or primer. There might be one in the Wizard’s library …
“As far as the bridge,” said Smoothie, interrupting Anya’s momentary daydream. “Then we have to swim or you might be able to wade. They say it won’t be too stinky, because the rain flushed it out last night. Or too flooded, because the rain stopped this morning.”
Anya wrinkled her nose, thinking of exactly what the rain was flushing out of the sewers, into the canal and then the river. At least at Trallonia they had a proper cesspit, instead of just letting everything run into the moat. Letting it do that was very old-fashioned, and led to disease. Everyone knew that.
“All right,” she said. “It’s dark enough. Let’s sneak around the willows and take the boat.”
“There was another thing I just remembered hearing about the way into the meetinghouse through the sewers,” said Shrub.
“What?” asked Anya.
“You have to watch out for a monster that guards the stairs up,” said the newt.
This information was met with a deafening silence and a look of suppressed irritation from Anya that had all the hallmarks of being the precursor to one of her very stern looks.
“But thieves do get past,” said Shrub. “Apparently. So it can’t be that much of a monster.”
“Do you know what kind of creature it is?” asked Anya, forcing herself to speak slowly and remain calm.
“Nope,” said Shrub. “How bad can it be?”
Another, longer silence met this particular comment.
“Let’s go and get in the boat,” said Anya.
This time, she was unable to hold back a very long sigh.
A light wind was lifting the trailing branches of the willows as the intrepid questers followed Shrub single file along the riverbank and around the bend. The bright orange newt, as always, was much more visible than anyone else, causing Anya some concern as they came to the end of the willow-infested border and saw the long, high-roofed main building of the inn up ahead. The windows on all three stories were bright from the lantern light inside, with an occasional moving shadow indicating there were plenty of people inhabiting the place.
Shrub, however, did not hesitate, but continued on across the corner of the deserted lawn-bowls green, only just skirting a shaft of spilled light from the closest window. Anya followed on tiptoe, carefully avoiding the wooden balls that had been left higgledy-piggledy around the carefully tended lawn.
The jetty struck out into the river at a right angle from the lawn. There were at least half a dozen boats of different sizes tied up to it, but no one was in any of them. Shrub led the way over the rather alarmingly rotten and hole-peppered boards to the very end of the jetty, where one of the smaller boats swayed on the end of its mooring line. It was basically a larger version of the rowing boat Anya was familiar with from the moat back home, though with two sets of rowlocks and oars. It didn’t have a mast, unlike many of the other boats.
Anya pulled the boat in, climbed down, and held the craft against the jetty so the others could get in more easily. Smoothie handed down Denholm in his cage and the bottle of witches’ tears, then boarded as if she had done it a thousand times before. Ardent jumped with precision and moved to the bow to sit like a figurehead, while Shrub paced backwards and forwards on the jetty.
“Jump down,” whispered Anya urgently. She kept looking back towards the inn, expecting the sudden spill of light from a door opening at any moment, and then shouts of alarm.
“It’s too far,” said Shrub. “I’ve got short legs.”
“I’ll catch you,” said Anya. “Come on, jump!”
Shrub hesitated before launching himself off the jetty towards the boat. Anya made no attempt to catch him, instead moving back, while still holding on to the jetty. The newt landed heavily, but without injury.
“I knew you had it in you,” said Anya encouragingly. She had years of practice tricking her recalcitrant older sister into doing things.
Shrub muttered something and plonked himself down on one of the thwarts. Anya pushed them off from the jetty and sat down herself, shipping one set of oars. They were heavier and longer than she was used to, so as she began to row, she had to concentrate hard to make sure she didn’t “catch a crab”—slipping the blade of the oar out of the water and cracking her chin with the other end.
“Head towards the middle of the river, where the current is strongest,” Smoothie instructed. “More to your left—that’s it. Swiftie and Diver will meet us there. You won’t have to row much, except for direction.”
“It’s going to be hard coming back,” said Anya. She could feel the current working on the boat. “Can you row? We’ll probably need the second set of oars. I doubt I could go against the current by myself.”
“I’ll watch you and learn,” said Smoothie. She trailed one paw-hand over the side, cupped up some water, and splashed it over her face. “Ah, I love the river! Better to be in it than on it, but this is almost as good.”
It was beautiful on the water. The big moon was finally coming up, casting its gentle light across the water, turning the ripples from wind and current into lines of silver. The river was getting wider, spreading out, and the high banks and willows were giving way to once well-ordered farmland that, while not what it had been in the heyday of the High Kingdom, still looked neat and bucolic in the moonlight.
Looking at the moonlit land beside the river, and only needing to occasionally dip the oars to correct their way, Anya found her mind wandering, particularly with regard to the city they were heading towards. She knew that New Yarrow was built upon the ruins of Yarrow the City, which had been destroyed by the great tidal wave of the Deluge, accidentally summoned by the last High King. But that was about it.
“Who rules New Yarrow?” she asked Shrub, at least in part to make a peace offering for tricking him. Shrub was always at his best when showing off that he knew more about something than anybody else.