Blood and Water - The Darkling

Chapter 2: In We Go

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𝕿𝖍𝖊 morning passed in a blur: breakfast and a brief trip to the Documents Tent to pack additional inks and paper. That's when the chaos began. Who was at the center of the trouble? Alina. Apparently, some records of the western coastline, Os Kervo, and the river system that runs through it were mysteriously burned. Now someone will have to cross the Fold to redraw the maps.

"I'll go. Put me on the skiff, I'll go," Alina says as she walks past me. Well fuck, I hate when I'm right. Even though I am not surprised, I still whip my head to glare at the back of my twin's head.

With a puff of anger, Lieutenant Bohdan turns around and walks toward my sister, "Yes. You will. Your whole unit will."

Once he passes, I quickly make my way to Alina's side and hiss, "I already know what you've done. How could you put everyone else in danger?"

She doesn't even have the common courtesy to meet my eyes when she replies, "I'm sorry, I just couldn't let Mal cross the Fold alone. I didn't think anyone else would be forced to join me."

"That's just it Alina. When it comes to Mal you don't think, you just do," I admonish with an exasperated sigh.

Deciding to once again release my anger, I wrap my free arm around her shoulder. "Come on, let's go face the darkness," I say as I pull her towards the entrance of the tent.

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Now I stand with the other surveyors, waiting our turn to board the sandskiff. Ahead lay the strange, shifting shadows of the Fold. Standing close to it once again stirs something within me but it is drowned out by the feeling that everything is about to go to shit.

Animals are too noisy and scare too easily for travel on the Unsea, so crossings are made on skiffs, shallow sleds rigged with enormous sails that let them skate almost soundlessly over the dead gray sands. The skiffs are loaded with grain, timber, and raw cotton, but on the trip back they will be stocked with sugar, rifles, and all manner of finished goods that pass through the seaports of West Ravka.

As we board, Mal approaches us. I let him argue with Alina while I silently take in my surroundings. Looking out at the skiff's deck, equipped with little more than a sail and rickety railings, all I can think is that it offers no place to hide. This worries me, not because I can't take care of myself, but because Alina will have nowhere safe in the event of an attack.

At the mast of each sled, flanked by heavily armed soldiers, stand two Grisha Etherealki, the Order of Summoners, in dark blue kefta. The gray embroidery at their cuffs, hems, and neckline indicate they are Squallers, Grisha who can raise or lower the pressure of the air and fill the skiffs' sails with the wind that will carry us across the long miles of the Fold.

Soldiers armed with rifles and overseen by a grim officer line the railings. Between them stand more Etherealki, but their blue robes bear the red cuffs that indicate they can raise fire. One of these Inferni, steps towards the middle of the skiff.

With a clap of her hands, she loudly exclaims, "Here's how it goes. We go into the Fold, it gets dark, but we like it dark. That keeps us from drawing attention. That's how we travel. The only light we use is the blue one at the mast."

She points at the light and then turns around to look at all of us, "It's weak but safe."

Raisa, one of my fellow cartographers, interrupts asking, "Why are you here if we're supposed to keep things dark?"