Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Go ahead. Do your business. There’s nowhere to go for miles.”
Nella dropped down and rushed behind one of the small trees to relieve herself. Kerrigan couldn’t even make it that far. After she finished, she came back around to Felix. He wasn’t wrong. She’d noticed that there was nowhere to run or hide in all of this. She couldn’t escape into a forest and fend for herself. With her jelly legs, Felix could easily outpace her. She’d have to think more carefully about this.
She stepped closer to him. “Why are you working for her?”
“That’s none of your concern,” he said stiffly. “Just get inside. We’ll be to Eivreen in two days’ time.”
“What are we going to do there?”
Felix glanced down at her, then quickly away. “That’s for Matron Flavia to decide.”
“You can’t keep me here against my will,” she argued.
Felix said nothing. Clearly, he thought that they could. And they had for the last day.
Kerrigan pushed her way toward him. “What you’re doing is against the law. You are going to get caught and punished for this.”
Felix blanched slightly. “We’re following all the laws. You might look like a Doma, but if you were, you would already be gone.”
That was true enough. She wasn’t a Doma. Whatever that was. But she didn’t understand how selling people could be legal here.
“Now, get back in the cart. I have to inform Flavia that you’re awake, and it’ll be better if we’re ready to go when that happens.”
Nella scurried back inside, taking the food Felix offered without complaint. Felix looked at Kerrigan, as if waiting for her to make an ill-advised run for it, but where could she go? She pulled herself back into the cart, looking skeptically at the food.
“It’s safe,” Felix told her. “Just eat it. Flavia isn’t going to waste more magic on you.” Then, he unceremoniously slammed the cart shut, reattached the lock, and headed back to the front.
Kerrigan took a bite of the small meal she’d been provided. She wasn’t going to squander it. Even if he was lying about the magic, they had two more days until their destination. She’d wake up again. Not that she would look forward to the magic leaving her system.
A moment after Felix went to speak to Flavia, she stormed out of the carriage, messy and sweating, as she stomped toward the cage.
“You, girl, tell me who you are.”
“I already told you,” Kerrigan said.
“Magic resistance like that is done through bloodlines. If you’re not of the nobility with that hair and skin, the resistance says it all,” she snarled.
Kerrigan shrugged. “Then, let me go.”
Flavia huffed angrily. “No one claimed you. That makes you fair for me.”
“What if you’re wrong?” Kerrigan asked, leaning heavily against the cart and arching an eyebrow.
“I’m never wrong.” She whirled back to Felix. “Keep her locked up and haste be with us.” She slammed the door of the carriage.
Kerrigan gritted her teeth as Felix hurried back to the horses. Soon, they were bumping along at an uncomfortable pace. It was much faster than when they’d set out. She and Nella bobbed up and down on the hard wooden slats until her bottom ached with every new movement. They were handed a wine skin through the wire cage for dinner. And both girls fell asleep with grumbling stomachs.
The next day followed much the same, except Felix insisted on tying her wrists and leading her by a rope to do her business. It wasn’t the most humiliating thing she’d ever done, but it was close on the list. Flavia wasn’t seen again. She even slept in her carriage. It sounded miserable to Kerrigan since the evenings were so mild.
By their last night, she could even smell the salt in the air that meant they must be close to the water.
“Nella,” she whispered on their last night in the cage.
“Yeah?”
“Are you afraid of who she’s going to sell you to?”
Nella reached across the space between them and touched Kerrigan’s hand. “No. I’m sure they’ll be wonderful. I’m sure yours will be too.”
Kerrigan had no intention of being sold to anyone. She would have already run if she’d thought that there would be an inkling of escape. But with the flatlands, there was no opportunity. In a city was a different story. Tomorrow would be a new day.
3
The Port City
Eivreen hit the horizon like a beacon on the otherwise empty terrain. The horses crested the only hill for miles to reveal the sunlit city far below. Kerrigan couldn’t help but crane her neck around the carriage to get a better view.
The buildings were short and white, as if made of crushed seashells. They glistened against the early morning light, casting gold hues across the port city. Ships like Kerrigan had never seen dotted the harbor. Long vessels with hundreds of oars and giant white sails. Dozens of them lined the mouth of the river that emptied into the sea beyond, and even more—hundreds more—smaller vessels, which must have been merchant and shipping boats, took over the remaining space.