Islands in the Sky

4.12

That first day after the wedding had been a little odd, Cassa thought afterwards. A lot had changed for her, all in a single day. The wedding itself, of course, and her quite surprising failure to prevent it, but also that she had reached an understanding with Willem so easily, and actually liked him a little, and that she was beginning to see more clearly how she fit into her grandmother’s plans. And what her grandmother’s plans actually were.

After that day, after everything had changed all at once, things had then settled down again quite quickly. Cassa supposed that was the way of it. That after change, things usually did settle down. Cassa’s life became quieter again, more commonplace again. She went back to mostly doing the same things, over and over, as she always had before. Now she was doing different things, not the same things as she had used to do. But other than that, life settled down.

She did her best with how things were. She did her best with the life that had suddenly been forced upon her, that of wife and fisher-fleet manager and merchant. She tried to get to know Willem, and she tried to learn everything she could about fishing, as well. Mostly, though, she learned about fishing. She barely saw Willem after the first few days. She concentrated on business, and began going down to the docks in Birdport most days, after her practices with Konstantin, taking the fishing business seriously, learning as much as she could about how it worked from the dockside. She had intended to go on a boat, too, in order to learn properly, but her guards had become worried when she announced what she was going to do. The guards had asked her to wait, a little desperately, and summoned Konstantin, and Konstantin forbade the fishing trip out of hand as far too dangerous.

Cassa had been annoyed. She had refused to accept Konstantin’s forbidding, and said she was a Middletower and her grandmother’s granddaughter and that she would do as she pleased. Konstantin had shrugged, and ordered the fishing fleet to stay in harbour, and said he would kill the first person who disobeyed him, and their whole family too. Then he had told Cassa to sit down and wait, and whispered to her not to behave like a spoiled child, and had sent word to Cassa’s grandmother of what Cassa planned.

The messenger must have run. The answer came back far more quickly than Cassa expected. Cassa’s grandmother forbade the fishing trip as well, and said so quite sternly. With quite grim finality, Cassa thought, as she looked at the note she had been handed.

Cassa understood why. Konstantin and her grandmother, and most other people besides, all were terrified of the open sky. Cassa was bothered by it too, bothered a little, but not so much she wouldn’t go off on a fishing boat if she needed to do so. Konstantin and her grandmother were both morbidly afraid, though, actually terrified, and were reacting as if Cassa was trying to make them go with her.

It was a shame, Cassa thought. It would probably have made the fisherpeople more loyal if she’d gone sailing off with them. She almost wanted to argue, to explain why she wanted to do this, but she knew it wasn’t the right time, not right away, immediately after her grandmother had made a decision.

Cassa had been forbidden, and didn’t dare disobey her grandmother directly. Even assuming any of her fisherpeople would be willing to help, knowing who they would be going against if they did. Cassa had been told no, so she stayed at the docks and watched instead. She watched, and talked to the fisherpeople, and learned as much as she could that way.