Of Warlords and Children (Trafalgar Law Book 2)

Chapter Sixteen

Rayne's Pov

"Ugh... hell!" I scream, flailing my legs. I'm slumped over in an armchair just staring at the ceiling. Being on Zo is boring. Honestly this is like exile but worse. People here are pretty nice. The first day we were here without Law I'd slipped out of the submarine and gone exploring. 

Perhaps walking around this place wasn't the best idea I'd had. In fact it was probably one of the worst ideas yet. I keep my head down as I walk through the small town located on Zo. People all around are pointing to me and whispering. It's suffocating now. 

I go to pick up the pace and get out of here when someone pulls on my sleeve. I turn around to see a small kid no more than five years old. It's a little boy with dark hair and a wide, gap-toothed smile. "Hi lady! You're pretty!" 

I'm taken aback at his words, this kid was really forward. I give him a smile, "W-well thank you. I'm glad people still think I'm pretty."

The child smiles and runs off back into what I assumed what his house. Suddenly people were out on the streets again, in fact they seemed to welcome her now. People were at their stalls in the markets and beginning to take out their wares. Others were coming out of their houses with their families in tow. 

It was strange, almost like time had started again. 

"Here darling, come and drink some tea." An old woman says as she brings me in closer to her merchant stall to sit. 

I shake my head, "Ah no it's alright. I don't want to trouble you."

"Sit." At her stern order I hurry over and sit down. She was oddly familiar to me, in fact she reminded me of a certain red head.

"Ah... okay."

"Now tell me, what are you doing here? This isn't exactly a place young people come too often."

"Ah well, to just get away. You see the world is starting to get riled up again and my... eh... husband thought it would be better to have me safe and out of the way. He's a notorious pirate and he's worried about me."

The woman eyes me for a moment before she chuckles and shuffles over to one of the cabinets. She opens it and takes down a few bottles and boxes with leaves. They make shaking noises, they were full of pills. She turns to me with her hands full and places them onto my lap before tossing the leaves into the kettle boiling on an open flame. 

I pick up one of the bottles but I can't recognize the names of the compounds on it. "What are these?" I ask, giving the bottle in my hand a little shake. For a few moments she doesn't answer me. Rather she keeps her back to me, tending the tea.

"Hey, what are these?" I ask again. My heartrate speeds up a bit, this is beginning to worry me. Why won't she answer? 

Finally the woman turns around with two chipped tea cups in her hands. It was a little odd, they weren't from the same set but rather two different ones. For a woman of her status it was certainly within her reach to have a set of china, nicer china than this. After all her stall was one of the larger ones and the clothes she wore were fairly nice.

"Take it or I'm going to drop it on your lap." She says, pushing the blue cup toward me. 

I use both my thumbs and pointer fingers to hold it around the edges. I put it on my lap just long enough to grip the handle so as to avoid burning my fingertips further. She sits down and takes a sip out of her own cup like the liquid wasn't scalding. "Those," She points at the bottles in my lap, "Are prenatal pills, they'll help you along, though I'm assuming your husband had you on some as well?"