The Wandering Knave of the Seven Seas: The Voyage of Neptune's Mermaids

Chapter Five: Ocean Blue

The marketplace was bustling with storeowners frantically attempting to sell their merchandise before their competition, their shouts inaudible over the excitement of the crowd. Sophie walked beside me with her head down, glancing up only now and then with a frightened gleam in her otherwise pretty blue eyes. Here, in the midst of chaos, she was lost. But here, in the midst of danger, I was at home. I walked ahead of Sophie, my impatience and curiosity getting the better of me, and stopped at every store to get a better look.

“Do you think we have got everything yet, Lydia?” Sophie asked from behind me, her voice as terrified as her eyes portrayed. I turned to see her cowered against my side, almost touching me, the basket in her hand only partially full of the ingredients we needed.

I shook my head, my hair sweeping around my shoulders freely—another perk of being away from my duties. “Come on, Soph. This is our only day off this month; let us spend it with excitement! You surely would not want to return to the Manor now!”

Sophie cast her eyes downward, a flash of guilt crossing her features. Sophie had come here with her raven-coloured hair in a tidy and elegant bun but now it wore down around her face like a curtain, shielding her from the others. “Maybe we should go down to the harbour?”

A smile twitched at my lips and I rolled my eyes. “Do you really believe you would feel safer down there, Sophie? I thought you were worried about the Pirates?”

Her eyes flickered immediately up to bore into more imploringly. “Aren’t you?”

Her question caught me momentarily off guard. Was I afraid of the Pirates? It had been only a day since William had warned me, and since then no one has come to collect me. I suppose I should be feeling either relieved it hasn’t happened yet or frightened that it will, but I honestly only felt disappointment. To show my worth to the unworthy would prove how strong I was; how strong I could be. But to expose Elijah would leave me devastated.

“Yes,” I finally said, turning towards the next shop without looking at her, “I guess I am.”

We stopped next at a weapons parlour, which Sophie protested immediately, but even her pleas wouldn’t have stopped me. I stepped up to the place, looking down admiringly at the shinning weapons there, gleaming bright under the sunlight. A short sword caught my attention and I plucked it from the table without hesitation.

“Excuse me, Miss,” The shopkeeper rebuked immediately, sounding very frustrated. He was a burly man, with a large stomach and large hands. HE looked down his rather large nose at me, as if I were a child playing with an adults things. Sophie slunk backwards, but I kept myself guarded. “Unless you are intending on paying for it—”

“She isn’t paying for it,” Someone said from behind me. I turned then, surprised at the intrusion, and stopped dead in my tracks. Sophie stood a little way off, watching with wide eyes. I suspected my eyes were just as wide. The man was fully cloaked, his face hidden under the darkness. He threw a bag of coins onto the table. “I am.”

“Thank you, sir, but I am capable of paying for myself,” I snapped, reaching out to take the coin bag back but the cloaked man stepped forward and banging his hand over it, stopping me. I narrowed my eyes. “Sir, I simply can not accept.”