The Midnight Storm (A New Dawn #2)

Chapter 44 - Alex

Sailing to Whitecliff Bay had been a mistake.

Other than the shadow of the tall white cliffs that stretched along the coastline for miles on end, the city had nothing to offer. Few trading ships came and went, leaving the harbour mostly to fishing boats so rotten to the core only a skilled Water Magician could keep the ship from making water and sinking beneath the churning waves. For that reason, the crew of the Kraken's Kiss refused to buy any of the fish the broad-shouldered, light-haired Silvermarkers brought ashore.

Not that they had any more success selling their wares. The rain that had followed them since the Horseshoe Mountains pounded down, feeding the ever-growing rivers of mud in the streets. A woman brave enough to venture out in the downpour took one glance at the bracelets Kaisa and Dag were selling, then walked straight past them. She ended up buying bread and butter from a wild-looking man in stained rags a few stalls further. At one point, a single bottle of milk had been on the counter, but the man had taken it away—not enough coins.

Alex shivered. Soaked to her undergarments, the piece of chalk in her bosom now soft and soggy, the sticky heat of the Jade Islandic seemed like a faraway dream. She followed the woman to her home, a shack that looked like it had been temporarily built to last a few moons, maybe a year, until the tough times were over, but the insides revealed a family who had long settled for the cracked walls held together by rusty nails.

Though it wasn't the worst house she had seen in the two days they had spent here, she marked the wood with a single stripe. Not interesting to rob.

She strolled up the hill, going against the dirty brown stream. Back in Laneby, she had known days of hunger and torn clothes, but never to this extent. There had always been food on the table; her empty stomach her choice in favour of her younger siblings. Amy and the twin's hand-me-downs hadn't been her taste, but their clothes had prevented her from walking around with a shirt that had been patched one too many times. Two winters ago, their leaking roof had been fixed with the help of Master Harald and Lord Brandon in exchange for a cup of tea. Whitecliff Bay didn't have the luxury of a tight community where one looked after the other, not when every single person was struggling to survive.

A man in a silver and white tunic rather thin for the weather passed her with three large scrolls under his arms, a bucket in one hand and a brush in the other. She scrutinised him, hoping for something worth stealing. It had been her idea to travel north; she couldn't return to the Kraken's Kiss empty-handed.

If he had a pouch full of coins, he hid it well. The more likely bet was that he didn't have any.

She met up with Liene and Pan, their moods as dark as the locks of hair plastered to their forehead. They were sitting on an old stone wall that once had surrounded a manor or a small castle, but now only served as a reminder that Whitecliff Bay had seen better days.

"You two have any more luck?" Alex asked.

"What do you think, Greenie?" Liene blinked slowly. "I managed to one damned silver coin, only to feel so bad about it that I returned it. This town is turning me into a bad pirate."

Pan twirled a rusty dagger around his hand. "Found this, half-buried in the sand and covered in blood, in an alley not far from the wharf. Gave it a good clean, but if you ask me..." He paused to study the faded engravings on the hilt. "... I might as well have left it there. It's not worth anything."

"You should tell your mother to sail even more north, to the next town," Alex said. Surely not all of Silvermark could be this bad.

"I don't know." Pan slowly lifted his shoulders. "She wants to sell Burnfirth's spoils as quickly as she can—get rid of the evidence. I told her I'd hide underneath a fake bottom of a casket filled with gold, then present the gift to their Lord so I could rob 'm blind. She threw her spyglass at me—guess she didn't like that idea."