Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Chapter 17 - Lance - Little Mouse

I hate that I still love this city, if only because there's so much joy despite everything. The people are out and about, smiling at us despite our current dark wardrobe and the disemboweling stench. They offer us painted seashells and small pouches of different colored sea salt for good fortune or preserved health – and we don't have to pay for any of it. We don't take the offerings, though I'm very tempted to.

It's hard to walk around trying to find someone with no soul when there are hundreds crowding all over the streets. You'd think that since we're nearing mid-winter it would have people staying in their cozy houses, but no. They're just as lively as those in Fredal, even more so with all the musicians around every corner.

As the five of us – Darius, Vlad, Garrison, Winston, and I – weave our way through the crowds, we keep our eyes and ears peeled for anything unusual. Nothing of use has found us in the past five hours, but I can't help but feel as if there's something here.

Darius looks like he wants to scream at everyone to shut up. He's been fidgety ever since we stepped into the city, and I don't want to ask him why until we find somewhere less populated. His moods can go from the smallest of rippled waves to a whole tsunami in a matter of seconds. He's become unpredictable at certain times when it comes to certain things, but he has control the rest of the time. Doesn't really ease the nerves, but it helps.

We started in the center square of the city, splitting up into our quarters and made our way here to the edge of the city that goes all the way from the castle to Declan Cove's rocky shores. Dozens of docks filled with ships and smaller boats rock the entirety of the cove's edge. According to Darius who I got to talk about the city to distract him, kids and adults alike will all be jumping from the docs or a ship's edge during the summer. No one's swimming in the chilled ocean water now, but they all still take up what space there is.

Sailors filled the taverns nearby, so we sent Mal, Ozzie, Henry, and Alex into them to see if they could get anything from there. The other five went north, and we headed east. It's the busiest part of the capital, and the wealthiest when it comes to information due to the constant incoming trade that happens. Everyone stops in Declan Cove for one reason or another. Business, pleasure, travel - you name it. Thinking about it now and looking around at the vast variety of people here on one street alone or the ships docked, their flags stating proudly who it carries and where it originated from, this should've been the first place we came to. 

Declan Cove was always Fauna's favorite, and I've kept the little fact to myself, that way the others wouldn't be as distracted as I am. I keep having to scan everything twice because I drift off. She loved the fried fish and the music and the dancing in the streets that she'd jump right into and join if she wasn't in her Ebony attire. With Declan Cove being so rich with gossip and rumors and information, we could never walk these streets without people instantly whispering and being more careful of their volumes as we passed.

It happens here and there now when someone's eyes drop to the blades on my hips. Kind of hard to mistake them for anything else, which is why I ended up tucking them further back on my hips, concealing them within the cloak that I also drew forward to hide the distinct suit as well. 

We left our last camp spot last night while the moon was still out, figuring that we'd need more time to search the entirety of the capital than time to sleep. It's gigantic. The grand marble castle sits atop a hill, the town's borders going from the coast right up to the gray sandstone outer castle walls that look white in the reflecting sunlight off the water. The town circles all the way around to the wildflower fields. Some people even have homes within the massive garden, trading the bustling city life for something more rural, but still close.

The buildings closest to the castle belong to the wealthy. They build their hoses as wide as they can, as it's considered rude of them to build upward and block the magnificence of the castle. The sailors and merchants who own or work on ships live in the southern quarter closest to the cove, and the eastern and western quarters mainly hold the proletariat people. The further north you go, the less housing you see while cobblestone gets traded for dirt. Nice as it is to have traders constantly bringing in goods from all of Ker, Cadorelin relies mainly on its farmers in the northern quarter to supply the marginal mass of supplies for its residents. The quarter is still bright and full of rather happy people, but there's no missing the dirt under their nails from them trying to keep coins in their pockets.