Waterborne (Wanderlust 3)

Chapter Twenty-Five

First, they had to understand where they had been stranded.

The cutlasses Jale had found were too rusty to cut through the thick underbrush, making their climb up the hillside difficult. Jale took the lead, ducking under or squeezing around branches and tree trunks. As well as being smaller than him, Jale had the added benefit of wearing boots when they had been captured. Tanden followed, stepping carefully with his bare feet, and cautiously holding up an arm to block the branches that flung back towards him after Jale pushed them aside.

It took some time for Tanden to realize that the ease in which Jale moved through the jungle came from practice. She was a ranger, after all. Before joining the crew, she had made her living travelling across Tallen Tiya and living off the land. The jungle was nothing like the colder, temperate forests of her country, but the skills clearly carried over. Tanden was exhausted by the time they reached what he thought was the top of the cliff. But Jale stood there, barely out of breath, looking at the forest with a calculating eye.

"I think we should head this way," she announced suddenly, and off she went.

Tanden followed, trying to ignore the ache that was building in his right ankle. It was healed. He didn't have time to nurse it back to health again.

Jale's ability to read the land led them to a large, rocky outcropping that loomed above the trees. It was the perfect place to get a look at the land. She began to climb it.

Tanden took a deep breath before following her path. "How did you know this was here?"

"I didn't. Not—" Her right foot slipped on a slick patch of dirt and decaying leaves, but she easily caught herself on a nearby sapling. "Not really. I didn't know this rock was here, but I knew the dirt was getting thinner. That led me to guess that the trees would thin out, and..." She waved at the rock, like she was presenting it to him. "You can look at the clouds and the size of the waves and just know things. It's experience, right?"

"Hmm." Tanden grabbed the same sapling she had braced herself on, and pulled himself over the slippery patch of rock. "Yes, that makes some sense. I'm just... impressed."

She shot a glance over her shoulder. "Were you impressed in Tallen Tiya?"

"That was home. Of course you understood your home. This is different."

Jale lifted herself over a fault in the rock. "Trees, rocks, dirt. It's different, but it's the same. We should get a good view from up here." A couple more steps and she was at the top, hands on her hips.

It took Tanden a moment to join her. With a groan he rolled his shoulders. "I'm not meant to be on land. So, what's..."

The words trailed off. The mountain he had seen from the ship loomed in front of them, but it wasn't attached to the piece of land they were standing on. Their piece stretched off in both directions, looping around the mountain in a rough circle. A wide band of water, a bit like a castle moat, lay between the ring of land and the mountain, bordered by narrow strips of beach.

Tanden didn't know what to make of it. "I thought we were on Avi Island. But that's... no. So the mainland must be on the other side of the mountain. That's assuming my map is correct. We should be able to reach the mainland, and follow the coast north until we reach the Southern edge of Cray Shia. Then heading South would eventually get us back to the Danil River, and... Jale?" He glanced at her, half expecting her to interrupt, but she was staring at the mountain silently. "I know it's a lot of walking, but if we could reach a city or village on the coast of Cray Shia, I might be able to get us a—"

"I know what this is," Jale said.

Tanden glanced at the mountain. "Avi Island?"

"It's a..." Jale frowned, frustration etched on her face. "In Tigo—further north than we went, on the border with Tier, there's a mountain like this, surrounded by a ring of smaller mountains, with a valley between them. It was made when the mountain..." She flung her hands into the air. "Burned. Hot rocks and, and..."