Ash Princess (Ash Princess Trilogy #1)(25)
“I hope it won’t get too chilly in…oh, where was it S?ren said you were going? I’ve never been very good at geography,” I say with my best attempt at looking sheepish.
He gives me a sideways glance, but if he finds anything strange about the question, he doesn’t say. He clears his throat.
“The names do tend to run together,” he agrees. “But not to worry—the Vecturia Islands are only a bit north of here.”
That was easier than I expected. Too easy, I can’t help but think—though why should Erik think my question was anything other than an idle query from an idle mind? It’s practically small talk.
The Vecturia Islands. I repeat the name over and over in my mind, determined to remember it. Something about it pricks my memory, but I can’t place it. Hopefully, Blaise will be able to the next time I see him.
Crates of ammunition are stacked next to cannons. I run the numbers in my head quickly. From what I can tell, it looks like each box can hold roughly ten cannonballs, and there are five boxes sitting at each cannon. S?ren said there were twelve cannons….That’s six hundred shots altogether. And there are a fleet of these warships, with the largest operating as the command ship, where S?ren will give orders from.
“There are an awful lot of cannons,” I say as we walk past another cluster of them.
“The Vecturians are barbarians,” Erik says with a dismissive shrug, though that word chafes. It’s the same word the Kalovaxians use to describe Astreans, though the Kalovaxians are the ones who thrive on war and bloodshed. “We aren’t anticipating too much trouble, but we need to be prepared,” he continues.
I decide to press my luck.
“That sounds dangerous,” I say, biting my lip. “I can’t imagine what would make that journey necessary.”
He opens his mouth to answer, but after a second of hesitation, he closes it again. “Kaiser’s orders,” he says with a tight smile. “I’m sure he has his reasons.”
“He always does,” I reply, hoping my smile looks more natural than it feels.
THE YOUNGER OF CRESCENTIA’S SLAVES is waiting for me on the dock when we disembark. I tell Erik that I’ll pray for his safety before leaving him.
As I approach the girl, her eyes dart around in an effort to avoid mine. “The Prinz escorted Lady Crescentia back to the palace,” she says, “but they promised to send the carriage for us soon.” She’s skinny to the point of malnutrition, yet her cheeks still have a childish roundness. Her large, dark eyes are sunken deep in her face, making her look far older than I’m sure she is.
She doesn’t curtsy, but then, Astrean slaves never curtsy to me anymore. It can too easily be construed as paying deference to a sovereign, and more than a handful have lost their lives for it. The Kaiser has done everything in his great power to isolate me from my people. Even when there are Astrean slaves around, we can never speak, and most of them won’t even look at me. I never used to understand it. I thought he was simply cruel in putting up so many walls around me. But if I hadn’t been so lonely, if I hadn’t felt so separate, maybe I wouldn’t have been so desperate to break myself into what he wanted me to be.
No one can say that the Kaiser isn’t smart. But now I’m determined to be smarter.
The Kaiser would never have approved leaving me alone with an Astrean, even with my Shadows nearby. But maybe this is one of the inches of freedom that executing Ampelio has bought me. I won’t waste it.
“I would prefer to walk, if you don’t mind,” I tell her. “What do they call you?”
She hesitates, doe eyes darting around briefly. She knows my Shadows are here, too. “Elpis,” she says, so quietly that I barely hear her.
“Do you mind walking, Elpis?” I ask her.
She chews her bottom lip for a few seconds until I’m worried she’ll draw blood. “We’ll have to walk through the slave quarter, my lady,” she warns. “It will be empty this time of day, mostly, but…”
“I don’t mind if you don’t.”
“I…I don’t mind,” she says, her voice strengthening. “We don’t have a guard, though.”
“We have my Shadows,” I say, though they’re more to keep me leashed than to keep me safe, and I doubt they’d step in unless it looked like I might be killed or disfigured. They certainly wouldn’t lift a finger to help Elpis. She must know this, too, because she looks at me warily.
“Of…of course, my lady.”
I can’t blame her for her discomfort. She was younger than I was when the siege happened. Astrea is little more than a ghost story to her. I’m not sure if that makes her a more or less dangerous person to trust. There is so much more than a whipped back at stake this time. I need to be sure of Elpis.
I’m tempted to look around for my Shadows as we walk, but I know by now that I won’t see them and it’ll only make me appear suspicious. Maybe I’ll catch sight of a scrap of black fabric darting through a nearby alley, or hear a handful of soft footsteps, but nothing more. They’re trained to be neither seen nor heard, and I’m sure they have Spiritgems aplenty to aid them in that. I’ve heard that cloaks lined with Air Gems can make the wearer invisible for a time, and nearly soundless.