The Rain Wild Chronicles: The Complete 4-Book Collection. Robin Hobb
the use of them for private messages. It was emphasized to me that Keepers have no special status that allows them to send messages for free. This, it seems to me, would include appending personal messages to official communications. I have no desire to report you for violating these rules, but if evidence of personal correspondence reaches me again, as it did by chance this time, I shall report you to all three Councils, and I am certain you will be liable for the expenses of all the free messages you have sent.
Respectfully, Keeper Kim
By the time they reached the main dock at Cassarick it was almost too dark to see. Even the mosquitoes had given up for the night. The lanterns hung on each corner of the barge illuminated little more than the preoccupied faces of the polers as they endlessly plodded past her. There was a hypnotic quality to watching their circling dance on the deck. She still found it amazing how easy it was for them to propel the barge upstream. When she had spoken of it to Captain Leftrin, he had grinned and said something about a very sophisticated hull design.
Alise had stayed out on the deck, well bundled against both the night chill and the insects that descended with darkness. The stars overhead had been distant and yet brilliant. Her first sight of the lights of the town had made her gasp in awe. Like Trehaug, the newer settlement of Cassarick was strung and strewn through the treetops above the river. The yellow lamplight shone from windows through a lacy network of branches. At first they looked like a scattering of stars caught in a net, but as the barge moved steadily closer, the lights grew larger and brighter.
‘Won’t be long now,’ Captain Leftrin told her on one of his frequent visits to her perch. ‘Ordinarily, we’d have stopped for the night an hour ago. But I know how anxious you are to get here and meet your dragons, so I’ve pushed my crew a bit today. I’d hoped we would dock while it was still light, but no such luck for us. So I suggest that you spend another night with us here, and make an early start of it tomorrow.’
Sedric had come out on deck and joined them. In the dark, neither of them had noticed his soundless approach, and they both jumped when he spoke. ‘I do not think we are that tired. I think a bit of extra effort to find an inn that offers hot baths, soft beds and a gentle wine with a warm meal would be worth it.’
‘You won’t find any of that here,’ Captain Leftrin warned him. ‘Cassarick’s a young settlement yet; most of the folk who work here live here, and visitors are few. There’s little call for an inn. Oh, if we’d arrived while the sun was in the sky, we might have found a family that would give you a room for the night. But after dark, well, chances are you’d just go from door to door and find nothing. You’d have to climb a lot of steps in the dark. Or use a basket hoist, if you could find one that was manned and you were willing to pay the fee.’
Alise nodded at his reasoning. ‘There’s no sense in packing up all our luggage and setting out in the dark in the hope of finding a hospitable family. One more night aboard the Tarman won’t hurt us, Sedric. In the morning, you can look for lodgings for us while I speak to the local council about the dragons.’ It seemed a solid arrangement to her. The boat was not palatial, but it was comfortable enough. The food was plain but nourishing. Captain Leftrin might be a bit rough around the edges, but his efforts at gallantry were flattering in their sincerity. She enjoyed his company even if Sedric obviously found him provincial. Several times that day Sedric had given her long-suffering glances at the captain’s extravagant compliments to her, and once he had smothered a laugh over the man’s efforts to be charming. She’d been surprised that it offended her when Sedric found the captain a cause for amusement. It seemed unkind and petty of him.
And flattering.
She tried not to dwell on that thought, but could not help herself. Leftrin’s attentions to her had taken her completely by surprise. They had made her uncomfortable at first, and even suspicious. But in the last day, she had become convinced his admiration of her was sincere. She could not deny the thrill of pleasure that went through her at the thought of this rough, masculine river-captain finding her attractive. He was so unlike any other man she had ever met. His company made her feel that she was truly adventurous, even reckless in undertaking this trip. At the same time, his evident strength and competence made her feel safe. She had indulged herself in his company, telling herself that it was only for a short time and that she had no intention of being unfaithful to Hest. She only wished to enjoy, for a time, that a man found her pretty.
Then Sedric had reacted to him in a way that she could only construe as protective. It had shocked her. And stirred to new life her ancient childhood infatuation with him. Even before he had blossomed into such a gloriously handsome man, he had fascinated her. He’d paid attention to her when no other boy would have looked at her, with her wild red hair and thick freckles and flat bosom. He’d been kind. Oh, how she had dreamed of him, her best friend’s big brother, being more than kind to her. She’d twined their initials on her lesson papers, and stolen one of his riding gloves. It had smelled like him, and she both blushed and laughed to recall how she had kept it under her pillow, and smelled it every evening before she went to sleep. She could not recall now what had become of it, or when she had given up her dream that someday he would turn to her and admit that he loved her, too. Was it possible that he had once cared for her? Was it remotely possible that in some corner of his heart, he still did?
Oh, it was a silly fancy, as silly as her timid flirtation with the captain. Silly and absolutely delicious. And what harm could it be for her to imagine, just for a day or so, that two such different men could find her attractive? Hest had, for years now, made her feel so dowdy and stupid and boring. In the light and warmth of the captain’s regard and Sedric’s protectiveness, she felt like a flower stirring back to life.
In her brief time on the Tarman, Alise felt her adventure had approached what she had imagined it would be. The big scow sat so low in the water that it seemed but a breath above the river; it made the trees tower all the higher above them. The birds and the strange river creatures, both dangerous and mild, were closer to her here. From the barge’s deck, she’d had glimpses of what Leftrin called marsh elk and riverpig. One large, toothy gallator had slid from his sunbathing on the mudbank to come and keep pace with the barge for a time until Skelly had given him a good rap with her pole that sent him slashing back to shore. She had seen several varieties of very large water birds; Leftrin had caught her sketching them into her journal and been completely amazed at her great artistic talent. He’d persuaded her to leaf back through her days on the river so that he could exclaim over some of her other efforts. She had blushed with pleasure when he’d recognized Captain Trell from one of her sketches, and when he’d told her the Rain Wilds names for some of the exotic plants she’d drawn, she’d pleased him immensely by lettering their names in under her sketches. ‘So pleased to have been of service to such a scholar, ma’am!’ he had told her, with such sincerity that she had blushed.
One insight he had given her had dismayed her. He’d sought her out as she sat in her chair on top of the deckhouse, bundled against the evening chill, with the netting of her hat pinned down against the insects. ‘Would you mind if I joined you briefly?’ His careful formality was at odds with his rough demeanour. ‘It comes to me that I’ve a bit of information that you might want to know.’
‘Of course you may join me! This is your ship, isn’t it?’ she replied, at once intrigued by his conspiratorial tone.
Without more ado, he had taken a seat on the deck next to her chair, folding up with an ease that surprised her. ‘Well, it’s like this,’ he began immediately. ‘The Council at Cassarick has made a plan about the dragons. The dragons have agreed to it, but for a number of reasons, the word hasn’t been spread about much. But seeing as how it’s important to you that the dragons be there for you to talk to, I’ve decided to take you in, confidential-like. The fact is, the Council is getting ready to move the dragons out of there. And the word I’ve received is that it’s