Witch Born(98)

To her relief, the connection didn’t feel as strong as before. She had a vague feeling of Cord’s direction, but she couldn’t be sure of the distance. Hopefully, his link was as fuzzy as hers. She tried to keep her mind blank.

Sleep still clinging to her like a sickness, she stumbled to her feet. Shivering, she joined the columns of Witches who had climbed out of the smaller crafts to enter the surging, shouting chaos surrounding the docks.

Sailors were everywhere, directing the Witches from the small river crafts to board dozens of enormous seagoing ships, working the pulleys that loaded pallets of cargo, and scrambling up and down masts. One of them was probably the ship Senna had arrived on not long ago.

Any moment now, someone was going to glance under her hood and get a good look at her face. Ducking her head even lower, she mumbled an apology to the sailor and went back to the boat to pretend to look for something.

The Guardian from the night before caught sight of her in the boat. He worked through the throng toward her. “Here now, hurry up. You have to stay with your choir. They’ll leave you behind and then we’ll have no end of trouble figuring out where you should be.”

He held out his hand to help her out of the boat. Knowing her pale skin would reveal her, she pretended she didn’t see it and climbed out herself.

He watched her warily, the first hints of suspicion touching his features. He took her elbow. “Come with me. I’ll make sure you catch up.”

She had to get away from him. Now.

At that moment, the men loading a crate of cargo with pulleys and horses gave a shout, ordering the Guardian and Senna to stop. The crate wobbled unsteadily. The Guardian’s eyes were finally off her.

“I remember where I put it now,” she mumbled to hide her accent. He shot her an annoyed look but let go of her. She did the only thing she could. Moving out of sight beside the boat, she sat down and slipped off the pier into the water. The shock of the cold drove back her exhaustion.

Her sandals and clothes weighed her down and made swimming impossible. She unlatched her cloak and let it drift down to the bottom. She dove, managing to stay underwater until she’d put the ship between her and the too-curious Guardian. She came up on the other side and took a silent breath as he called for her in confusion. She doubted he would shrug off her disappearance, but there was nothing she could do about that.

Glad her time as a seal had taught her that ships usually had rungs up the side, she found them and hauled herself out of the water. Her clothes felt heavy and her limbs tired. The metal was slick under her sandals. Halfway up, she slipped and banged her shins on the rungs.

Dangling by her hands, she scrambled for purchase. She finally managed to haul herself up to the top rung. But the deck was swarming with Witches, Guardians, and sailors. There was no way she could climb over the rail without someone noticing. After hooking her arms around the top rung, she waited for things to settle down.

They didn’t. Even after the ship left the docks and moved downriver, she was stuck. Dawn finally came. Eventually, her clothes dried and the sun baked the shivers out of her. Soon after, she was hot, and her recently dried dress became damp with sweat instead of river water.

Cord’s panic seemed to have settled. She felt him moving toward her. He’d left the city of Lilette, his attention focused singly on her. Still, she didn’t think he’d catch up to her before they reached the open seas.

She tangled her arms through the rungs and dozed when she could. She grew painfully thirsty and desperately needed to empty her bladder. No matter how much she shifted, some part of her was always numb.

More than once, someone on the riverbank gaped at her. There was nothing for it but to wave and smile. Bewildered, they waved back. She saw lots of Mettlemots and was dismayed that, other than size, they all looked just like Pogg.

It was midday before they reached the open sea. The traffic on deck began to slow, and Senna started to hope she might sneak on board. But then a wind message came from the city of Lilette. Its meaning was garbled, barely discernible. All the Witches with any power of song or knowledge of war had already left, which led Senna to believe it had been sung by the weakest of Witches—Wastrels. They would’ve had to spend the entire morning singing for a single message.

She felt a little sorry for them, even if their song had betrayed the fact she was missing and presumed onboard one of their ships.

This announcement was followed by a heartbeat of silence, and then Krissin’s voice rang out, “Have the ship searched. Now.”

Senna readjusted her grip on the rungs and hoped they wouldn’t think to look over the side. After searching for what felt like hours, the ships rang with the confirmation that no one had seen Senna.