Iron and Wood #Wattys2017

Chapter Twenty-Four

It took a month for the ship, a merchant sloop, to sail across the waters that turned from black to pure azure to Dangyong.   Dolphins followed in its wake, chattering happily as they leapt over the waves. 

Shal sat on the deck with a borrowed knife, hacking her hair back to an inch.  The black locks were caught up in the wind, flew over the ocean and dispersed.  Her head felt much lighter without it.  Haugr vanished over the horizon.  

Later, she caught her reflection in a tin plate.  She looked, minus the new armor, like she had the day before the Turning.

Shal looked away.

On the first night on the ship, she turned to the wall and stifled a sob, feeling unwanted tears seep out of her eyes.  She did not sleep at all, and was on the deck when the sun rose.

The second night she drifted off into an uneasy sleep as the sun was cracking over the horizon, and dreamt that Ella was beside her.

The third night she slept soundly, but the dream always floated to the surface before she awoke.  The cot would dip slightly, and she would feel warmth beside her, a tickle of long hair or the brush of skin.

Then she would awake, and it would be cold.

The sun was high in the sky as she finally stepped off the gangplank onto the steady ground.

Dangyong had brick and stone buildings that towered high over the cobblestone streets, looking like they were held up by magic.  Clockwork whirred and ticked in the shops she passed, along with more technology she did not recognize, glittering and moving in jerky, unnatural ways in the dim light. 

The  winding streets, too narrow for even a cart, were so full she could not have stretched both arms out without touching someone.  The noise was deafening, and the smell impossible to make sense of, a mixture of things sweeter than anything she had ever smelled and other things that made her gag.  

In her peripheral vision a young boy swiped a purse out of a woman's pocket.  Shal checked that the pouch holding Asbrandr's reward to her was still hidden tightly against her ribs.  Her hand brushed over the sailor's ring on the necklace hanging around her neck.

Shal bit her lip, wondering if Ella would receive any letter she tried to send.  She was desperate to explain, but could not think of anything to say that would not make the girl's opinion of her worse.

She put the necklace down the front of her tunic, hidden underneath her new armor.

"Soldier!" a man called from the doorway.  Shal turned and approached him cautiously.  "You look lost."

"I'm looking for a man named Lok Sung." 

The man's expression changed immediately.  The curiosity disappeared, to be replaced with a sneer.  

"Good luck, then." 

He stepped inside and sharply shut the door. 

***

Shal figured that the best place to find her father would be a gambling house.

She found one quickly, on the corner of a street, the door open with a muscular black-haired man guarding it with a sledgehammer.  

"What's your game?" he asked gruffly as she approached.  

"I'm not here to play."

The guard raised his eyebrows boredly.

"Drink?"

"No, I'm--"

The guard looked her up and down.