It was the middle of the night when Sophie was awakened by a stumbling Eolisti returning from wherever it was that she’d gone for the rest of the day. Sophie sleepily tried to ask where she’d been and tell her that Khalil was furious, but the Anai just waved her off, either unwilling or unable to answer her questions. The Anai smelled heavily of alcohol and, after kicking off her boots, collapsed onto the bed.
Concerned, Sophie checked Eolisti’s pulse and her breathing, but she seemed to just have passed out. She must have gone to another tavern with that other Anai. She knew Eolisti would be in for a rough time in the morning.
After heading back upstairs, Sophie had spent most of the day in the room, either talking with Khalil and Joel or catching up on the sleep she’d missed the night before. She’d sent Eolisti’s clothes off to be laundered along with her own. They’d realized that Eolisti was missing in the late afternoon, and Sophie had been worried. Even so, she found that she couldn’t be mad at Eolisti for running off. Sophie knew how bored she had been in the desert, and the loss of Sahl had hit the Anai particularly hard.
When morning came, it was much as Sophie had predicted. Eolisti was very quiet, tiptoeing around the room and wincing at even the slightest sound. Sophie asked her how she was feeling, but the Anai just laid her head down on the room’s small table with a groan. Sophie shook her head and smiled to herself as she slipped out of bed and dressed. At least Eolisti had a good time the night before.
She sat at the table across from Eolisti, being careful to make as little noise as possible. Sophie couldn’t help but feel excited. Today, she would be leaving her old life behind her. She knew deep down that there would always be the threat of her adopted family finding her, but even the Vizier wasn’t powerful enough to influence governments halfway across the world. Everything they had been through had led to this. Once they left the harbor, she would feel a lot safer.
She felt giddy thinking of the possibilities. She would be able to use her magic again as she liked. Perhaps she could even attend one of the mages’ colleges she had read about. The money that Zephan had given her should be enough to cover the cost of tuition. At least, she hoped that it would be.
Sophie had to admit that she was also a little sad. To her, departing on the ship meant the last part of her journey. It would take weeks to get across the sea, but after that, what would happen to her friends? Joel had made it clear that he would be going back to Ta’Shela from here and would not be accompanying them to the western continent. She’d have to say goodbye to him today. And what would Eolisti do once they reached the opposite shore? Would she continue with them to Morigael or return to her home?
There was a knock at the door, bringing Sophie out of her thoughts. Eolisti, still face down at the table, groaned and covered her ears with her hands. Sophie stifled a laugh and padded over to the door. Khalil and Joel waited on the other side, the latter looking rather tired. She stepped back to let them into the room.
Joel glanced at Eolisti and frowned but didn’t say anything about the state she was in. Khalil leaned against the wall, his arms folded over this chest. He could probably smell the lingering alcohol coming from the Anai. “There are a few supplies we need to get before leaving,” he said softly.
“I thought the ship wasn’t departing until this afternoon,” Sophie said in surprise. Had the time frame moved up?
“Yes, but I’d rather have everything ready before then.”
“Why are you telling us then?” Eolisti said, her voice slightly muffled from her position. “Just go get it.”
Khalil pressed his lips together disapprovingly. “I don’t want to leave Sophie here by herself all day,” he said shortly, “and you’re in no condition to safeguard her, Vendarii. So she will be coming with me.”
Eolisti’s head snapped up so fast that Sophie worried she might have whiplash. The Anai stared daggers at the hooded man. “I’m in better condition than you are to watch her back,” she said through gritted teeth.
He ignored the jab. “I need you to take the extra food to the docks. Liam, the bartender downstairs, has an extra cart that you can use. The ship is a caravel called the Westwind. Ask for Capitan Alvar, and he’ll get you situated. You can meet us back here once you’re done with that.”
Sophie had the strange suspicion that Khalil could have just paid the proprietor to deliver their supplies to the ship and that the only reason he hadn’t was to give Eolisti something to do.
Eolisti scoffed, obviously irritated to be ordered around by Khalil. “I should go with you. After all, Joel will be busy making sure you don’t walk into a wall or something,” she said defiantly.
Khalil’s hands curled into fists and Eolisti glared at him. Sophie cringed at Eolisti’s words. She had gone a step too far. The air was so thick with tension that Sophie felt like shrinking into a corner.
Before things got out of hand, Joel intervened. He cleared his voice loudly, making Eolisti wince and look at him. “The sooner you all are away from here, the safer you will be. Getting the food to the ship while we’re fetching everything else would save us a lot of time.”
Eolisti turned her glare on Joel, but it was somewhat ruined by her pouting bottom lip. “But I can’t trust this guy with Sophie’s safety,” she gestured at Khalil. “I’m her Vendarii. What if he does something fishy and I’m not around?”
Joel knelt down so that they were eye to eye and patted Eolisti’s hand comfortingly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be with them. I won’t let anything happen to either of them.”
Eolisti let out a long sigh. “Fine,” she said with a huff and turned her head away from Joel. “I’ll take the food over to the boat, I guess.” She stood slowly and rounded up her boots.
“We’re going to get you some different clothes,” Khalil said, speaking to Sophie. “It will help you blend in once we reach Tanalin.”
“What about you and Eolisti?” Sophie’s eyes roved over his clothes. They weren’t exactly what she’d seen the average person wearing.
“I already have what I need, and the Anai will stand out regardless,” he said, guessing what she was thinking. “Anai aren’t as uncommon over there as they are here, and from my experience, their clothing style doesn’t differ much between the courts.” He hesitated before continuing. “I don’t know exactly what you look like, but from how you’ve been described to me, you should be able to blend in fairly well. We’ll also pick up some dye for your hair in case we end up needing it.”
Sophie’s hands instinctively went to her head, thinking of her disastrous dye job years ago. She remembered the bottle of strong-smelling dye in their supplies, but was hesitant to let Khalil know they already had some. The longer she could hold off, the better.
Eolisti, having finally located her boots and donned them, slipped out of the room with another glare at the man.
Joel scratched his chin in thought. “I think I know a place where we can find that. I know a tailor who has a place not too far from here. Or at least, he used to. It’s not in the best part of town, and it’s been a while since I’ve been here, so I can’t make any promises, but at least it’s a place to start.”
Sophie slipped on her sandals while the men talked about the area where the tailor was located. She wrapped the shawl around her head and neck, then followed Khalil and Joel out the door.
The tavern downstairs was empty, save for the same burly barkeeper that had been there the day before, drying a glass with a clean white cloth. It was too early in the morning for any of the sailors to be awake, much less looking for a drink. There was no sign of Eolisti. She must have already talked to the man behind the counter and left. He looked up from his busy work as the three of them came downstairs, and nodded at them as they headed toward the door.
The sun was shining brightly upon the little port town and was almost blinding to Sophie, who had stayed inside since she had arrived. A cool ocean breeze ruffled the shawl about her head, and she took a deep breath, savoring the smell of the sea. Tanzar, Zo’rahn’s capital and where she lived most of her life, was also a port city.
It was nowhere near as hot here as it had been in the desert, thanks to the cool breeze coming in off the ocean. The cobbled streets were beginning to fill with people, mostly families setting up stalls on both sides of the road or eating breakfast under the shade of an awning. It was like walking down to the docks with Zephan when they didn’t have lessons. Sophie was hit with a wave of sadness. Nobarum was much smaller than Tanzar. The residents’ clothing was different and their demeanor more cheerful, but altogether it reminded her of the place she had left behind.
Despite everything, Zo’rahn had been her home. Now she didn’t know what was going to happen. Yes, she was going to Morigael, but would she remain there or be moved somewhere else? She glanced at the back of Khalil’s head. His hood was up like always, and the dark fabric fluttered in the breeze. Surely, he knew something of where she would end up.
She shook her head. There would be plenty of time to figure that out later. Right now, she needed to concentrate on getting onto the ship and out to sea. She could ask Khalil what he knew once they had set sail.
Sophie and Khalil followed Joel through the streets to the west, bringing them closer to the docks, and she spotted a few dockworkers heading the same direction, probably to report in and start moving cargo for any ships that had come in during the night.
As they continued, the number of people gradually thinned until they were by themselves on the street. The structures around them had changed from townhouses and shops to warehouses and empty dwellings.
“It should be just a little further,” Joel said to them over his shoulder as he turned a corner into a narrow, deserted street. The buildings here were obviously less cared-for than the ones they’d seen a few streets over. They were very close to the docks now. Sophie could see the top of a ship’s mast over the roofs of the buildings on her right. It looked as if the salty sea air had warped the wood on the outside walls and several of the windows had spiderweb cracks or were missing chunks of glass. The area looked abandoned.
Why would there be a tailor down here? Did they work mostly for the dockworkers and sailors? Sophie looked at the two-story buildings surrounding them, but none of them had signs posted. This seemed like an area that had once been used as storage for ships coming in and out of the docks but was now abandoned. She opened her mouth to ask Joel if he was sure this was the right way when he turned to a door on his left and reached for the handle.
“This is it,” he said confidently, making Sophie bite back her question. The building didn’t look like much, more like a warehouse than a store. It had two stories like the other buildings and had a few windows on the second floor, but none on the first. She thought it was an odd place to run a business, but perhaps they just didn’t advertise what they did. Joel held the door open as Khalil walked in first, with Sophie following close behind.
When they entered, the first floor was large and mostly dark, the only light coming from windows high above, near the ceiling. There was a walkway that ran around the perimeter where the second floor should have been. Paint peeled and flaked from the walls. Crates and boxes were piled high all around them, hiding much of what lay beyond. The building smelled musty, and the floor was covered with a fine layer of dust and dirt in which she could make out footprints as she and Khalil walked farther inside. The floor creaked, and Sophie wondered if the wood was stable. Khalil seemed tense, creeping forward and stopping in the middle of the room, tilting his head to one side. It looked as though this place hadn’t been occupied in years.
Sophie glanced back at Joel, who looked utterly perplexed, and said, “Are you sure this is the right place? I don’t think there’s anything here.”
Joel gazed around, brows knit together. “It was here before,” he said, all the earlier confidence gone from his voice. “I guess it must have moved.” He glanced nervously around at the dark shapes of crates stacked high, clearly uncomfortable. Sophie couldn’t blame him, the room that they were standing in seemed menacing even to her. “Let’s go elsewhere…” He turned back around to leave and stopped dead in his tracks.
Two brawny dock workers with dark hair and scraggly beards stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, blocking their exit. They were dressed in similar clothing and looked about the same age, but the man on the left had an angry red scar over one eye. A creak in the rafters above them made Sophie look up just as Khalil grabbed her arm and jerked her toward him. Something came crashing down right where she’d been standing. She felt the air rush by her as whatever fell missed her by mere inches.
Once the dust cleared, there was only a pile of rotting wood that could have once been a small crate. Sophie didn’t think that the blow would have seriously injured her, but it would have hurt a lot.
Khalil kept his tight hold on her as she looked around wildly, seeing shapes moving in the dimness of the warehouse. She’d hoped that it was just her eyes playing tricks on her when two more men emerged out of the shadows, flanking them on either side. They looked much like the men guarding the door except that these two had clubs in hand. Joel backed up to where Sophie and Khalil stood, scanning the crates and pulling a short sword out of his cloak.
“Well,” came a rough, low voice from the dimness above them. “That didn’t go quite as expected.”
Khalil pushed Sophie behind him, much like he had when they’d faced the Soulless.
A new shape moved into a beam of light overhead, revealing a middle-aged man with bronze skin and short, black hair. He wore a neatly pointed beard, and the shadows of the warehouse made his face look gaunt and severe. Could this be the man that Khalil had told her about? The one who summoned the Soulless to attack them?
The man above stepped out of the light and moved along the shadowed rafters. “You can’t protect her from me.”