A Dance of Dragons: Series Starter Bundle (16 page)

Jinji held her breath as they approached.
Behind the walls, more stone, more people, more noise, more
movement. More of everything except the one thing she
wanted—trees.

"Your Highness," four men said in unison,
kneeling down on one leg, nodding in respect to Rhen. He continued
walking, waving, but not pausing for anything more.

Jinji gawked at their metal-coated bodies,
chinked and chained together, covered by a slight cloth in bright
blue over their chest. On the cloth, some sort of beast that she
did not recognize in darker blue.

They did not stand again until Ember had
passed fully through the gate, and then as one they moved, alert
once more.

But Jinji's attention was already elsewhere,
on the rows and rows of homes filling her entire line of vision.
They were wooden and something else, something that looked like
mud, but she knew couldn’t be. They slanted on top of each other,
leaning, pulling, held up by a mystery Jinji could not understand.
Each one had holes, some sort of material she could see through.
Movement flashed, some eyes popped through, meeting her curious
stare with one of their own, making her feel not quite so alone in
her awe.

The road still held under their feet, hard,
but to the side she noticed the mud had returned, catching on
people's clothes, the bottoms of their homes, dirtying everything
close to it. The people wore clothes that were so different from
Rhen's, more like hers, dull and drab to match the dirt.

And it was loud. People screaming to no one,
pointing to slabs of food laid out on tables, holding out strips of
clothes or items Jinji did not recognize. Girls talking, giggling
as their eyes scanned the streets. Children screeching, jumping,
running in front of horses in some sort of game. Men boasting,
pushing carts, cursing at the crowd.

But like a cloud, silence followed the two
of them. Conversations paused, everyone stopped to lower their
heads, all the while peeking up under hooded brows to watch Jinji
on the horse.

Behind them, noise grew, louder than before,
the word
Arpapajo
crashing like a wave into Jinji's ears.
Rhen looked back once, his expression concerned, but that was it.
His head scanned slowly from side to side, watching everything.

Keeping her eyes ahead, she finally saw the
stone castle, the one Rhen had mentioned, stretching into the sky,
almost blocking the sun from her eyes. It was impossible. Yet there
it was.

And then it was gone from her sight as Rhen
turned them down a narrow road, somewhat vacated.

"Are you alright?" He asked, turning to pet
Ember and run a hand through his hair, pushing the reddish locks
from his brow.

She nodded, not sure how to express the mix
of fear and excitement brewing in her chest. Everything was new,
everything was an adventure, everything was terrifying. Taking her
hands from the saddle, she flexed her fingers, forcing her blood to
pump again.

"You'll get used to it, the staring I mean.
Everywhere I go, people look and then just when I get close enough
to say hello, they turn, eyes to the ground as is proper. Since I
was a boy that's how it's been with the common folk and even some
of the nobility." He patted her knee. "You'll get used to it."

But would she?

"I'm sorry I took the shirt," he said,
wincing slightly, "I thought it might be funny to see your
expression. I wasn't really thinking." He shook his head, blowing
out air.

Jinji looked at her dark skin, more out of
place in all this gray than it ever had been in the forest
contrasted against golden bark.

"I stand out either way," she told him. Her
chest felt heavy, as though a fist had closed around her heart.
Even in the middle of more people than she had ever seen, Jinji was
alone. She swallowed the grief down, forcing her shoulder back,
steady. "Besides," she continued, meeting his stare like she would
any other stare she came across, "I don't intend to forget who I
am."

Rhen paused, considering her.

"Then you're a better man than I am, Jin,"
he responded, so softly that she almost didn’t hear it.

Then he slapped Ember's behind, earning a
nip on his shoulder and a very annoyed sounding neigh. But Rhen
just grinned, scratching his horse's ears and pulling them all down
the street.

A flash of blue caught her eye, far down
where the narrow lane opened up again. The noise grew as they
approached. The sun returned, as did the crowd. But Jinji's eyes
were still glued to the blue, to the water, chopping and crashing
against gigantic wooden structures that somehow floated atop it.
Men swinging from ropes. Giant white cloths that looked like clouds
against the sky. Squiggling fish caught in nets bigger than her
entire village.

"These are the docks." Rhen shrugged, as
though this were somehow normal.

"And those are…boats?" She asked, searching
for the word.

"Not boats, Jin." Rhen patted her shoulder.
"Ships. Big, beautiful ships."

"And this is how we get to the isles?" She
asked, wary.

Rhen just nodded as a mirthful smirk
sprouted on his lips, birthed from a memory Jinji didn't have
access to.

He led them forward through the crowds that
parted as they neared, to the beginning of a long wooden row
standing over the water, lined with ropes and ships. Tying Ember's
reins to an open post, he scanned the area.

"This should do." He nodded. "You can walk
around if you'd like, but I wouldn't go very far from Ember. She'll
keep you safe, just in case any unfriendly people come near. I
should be back shortly."

He waited until Jinji gave her consent
before disappearing into the crowd. Once he was gone, she slid from
the horse, stepping over the creaking wood, until her eyes dropped
over the edge and down into the churning water.

Breathing deeply, she sat, letting her feet
dangle over the side as her body began to relax. She imagined she
were home, toes dipped into the cool water of their little stream,
not feet above the deepest waters she had ever been so close
to.

Keeping her eyes downcast, Jinji watched the
blues intermix—bright and greenish swirls faded into cloudy gray,
warmed into sun-kissed turquoise. All were flecked with bubbling
white as they splashed over and under each other, fighting for the
top spot. Farther down, the ground faded in and out of view as the
waters changed, muddied each other, and then cleared.

Blue strands popped into her vision as the
spirits awakened in her eyes, spiraling in and out, braiding and
weaving, splashing into the yellow strands of air and then sinking
to the green strands of plants below the waters.

Balance.

Nature.

Cupping her hands, Jinji pictured the
jinjiajanu between the elemental strands, the pure white mother
spirit that tied everything together. And then she imagined a rock
resting on her fingers, painted with the faces of her family
members.

Closing her eyes, she spun the weave,
praying to the spirits to listen to her plea for a moment to mourn,
a moment to remember.

When she opened them, the image was there,
dancing an inch over her fingers, solid. Four faces—her father, her
mother, Leoa, and Janu—all smiling, as though saying hello. She
would not forget their faces, ever. And to make sure, she had
called this illusion every day since she had left the village. Each
time, her throat caught and her eyes burned, but she didn’t look
away.

"Ka'shasten," she whispered,
my
family
.

Jinji's heart slowed, her mind began to
clear, and for a brief moment, she felt at peace.

And then a shadow passed overhead, skipping
over the image, distorting it.

Jinji released the illusion, gasping, and
looked up.

A bird.

Just a bird.

And yet, she looked out over the water,
following the shadow as it floated over the waves, reminding her of
the dream—her nightmare.

A shadow was never just a shadow. Not for
her.

"Rhen?" She called, jumping to her feet.

But as she spun around, it was not Rhen
standing close by. On the other side of Ember, a few feet from
where she stood, two men were in close conversation. Their clothes
hung loose on their bodies, dirty and ragged looking. Their skin a
deep tan, not born that way but turned that way from hours of
exposure in the sun.

They hadn't seen her, were not paying
attention.

Jinji leaned in closer, following a hunch
that told her this was not a coincidence.

"Dead?" One man asked, shock coloring his
words.

"Ay, dead," the other confirmed.

"But how?"

"Another mystery." The second man shrugged.
"They found the two of them below deck, one stabbed and the other
with a cut throat. No one knows how it happened, or why."

Cut throat?

Maniuk flashed before her eyes, the image of
his hand stilled and a blade at his throat. A shadow was never just
a shadow, she repeated. This time it was a sign.

"But Georgey? Kill himself? I've never seen
a man more at peace on the water, like a fish he was. Always
climbing the ropes, securing the sails, never a complaint. He used
to say it was as close as a man could get to flying, standing all
the way up on the lookout while the wind whipped his face raw."

The other one shook his head. "I guess there
was more going on than we knew."

"Ay, something unnatural, something godly,
like we're being punished. You heard about the little boy and his
sister found just outside the wall not two days ago? I heard rumors
her throat was slit too, though the Lord of Roninhythe says the
children fell to their deaths."

"Fell to their deaths?" He guffawed, "if
they fell, then I'm a Son of Whyl."

The other man laughed. "If you're a Son of
Whyl, then I'm the conqueror himself."

"You smell enough like the grave."

They both fell into a loud round of
laughter, giving Jinji enough time to crouch down and hide behind
Ember's wide body before they noticed her eavesdropping.

"Jin!"

Rhen's voice startled her, coming from the
same direction she had just turned from. She straightened her legs,
watching as the two men jumped apart, bowing their heads low as he
neared. Rhen paid them no attention, walking straight to Ember as
they scurried out of the way.

"I found my ship." He smiled, obviously
proud of himself. "We leave tomorrow."

"And until then?" She asked, anxiety leaking
into her chest.

Rhen winked. "Follow me."

Jinji paid little attention to her
surroundings as she followed Rhen down the docks and back to the
street. The mud was squishy and wet beneath her feet. Her mind was
still on what she had just overheard, wondering if the deaths could
somehow be connected—if her shadow was after more than what it had
already taken, after more than just her ruin.

She might be closer to answers than she ever
realized.

If only she could talk to more people, learn
more about these deaths.

But—she looked down at her clothes, at her
skin—she was nothing more than something to gawk at to these
people. A walking myth. Something to stare at, not talk to.

Looking to the side, she eyed Rhen's
profile. His straight, sharp nose. His pearly flesh freckled and
kissed only minutely by the sun. His red hair, gleaming brighter
against the stone around them. He stood out too, but not nearly as
much. And he was powerful amongst these people—it radiated off him.
If she asked him for answers, he would find them. It was only a
matter of opening up and telling him what she searched for.

But her lips tightened, unsure, holding
back.

Now was not the time.

And Jinji wasn't sure when or if she would
ever be able to talk about what had happened, with anyone,
anywhere.

He met her stare, green eyes sparkling like
the surface of the water she had just been studying.

"We're here." He grinned. Her lips tugged
wide, a natural reaction to his overflowing glee.

And then she looked above, at the sign
hanging overhead. She couldn’t read it, but somehow she knew what
it said.

The Staggering Vixen
.

Her gut dropped to the floor, the word
whore
fluttering back to the forefront of her mind.

Rhen tied Ember to a post, flicking a coin
into the hands of a skinny boy waiting by the door, who immediately
ran inside and emerged seconds later with a bucket of water to
place by her hooves. Ember sunk down, licking greedily, and Rhen
pushed open the door, letting Jinji enter first.

Holding her breath, she passed him,
resisting the urge to close her eyes and walk forward blindly.

But oh, how she wished she had.

As soon as she had crossed the threshold,
Jinji was grabbed into an embrace, her face thrust into the largest
breasts she had ever seen, while a woman cried out, "What a darling
you are!"

Jinji pushed away, careening back and out,
immediately crossing her arms over her considerably smaller chest
to keep them flattened and contained, as if the mere proximity to
the busty women around her would somehow spurn them into
growth.

"Martha!" Rhen called behind her, slapping
Jinji forward and farther into the room. "An ale for my young
friend. And two for me!"

Jinji groaned inwardly as his laughter rang
in her ears, loud once more.

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