Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
But they’ve been looking for me for the last nine years, ever since I escaped the convent. And, somehow, I’m still here.
“Promise me you’ll be here when I get back,” I implore the new boatsman. It’s awful having to put your trust in someone you don’t even know.
“I’ll have to be if I want my egg,” he says casually, splaying his calloused hands.
I swallow hard, still unsure if I’m making the right choice. I’m always paid handsomely for the services I render, often based on what eggs I end up stealing. If I don’t, I’ll be left behind. Another reason I can’t come back to the mainland empty-handed tonight.
“I don’t know how long I’ll be,” I tell him, glancing up at the dark sky. It’s the cycle of the pink moon, the crescent shape barely visible through the smoke from the volcanoes. Pink moon dragon eggs are mellower than the others, much like humans born under it, but beggars can’t be choosers in this case. Some people prefer the softer side effects that come with consumption of pink moon eggs, though the Sjef, the head of the syndikat, Ruunon Dalgaard, would scoff at that. The syndikat is the opposite of soft.
“You bring me the finest and the strongest eggs,” Ruunon had said to me the one and only time I’d met him. It had been a heavily guarded clandestine meeting on the blackened lava fields outside the Dark City. “You do this consistently, and we will have a fine partnership.”
So much was implied with what he didn’t say. That if I didn’t, then he’d kill me, Lemi, my aunt, and anyone else I knew. That was the way the syndikats worked. I had never met any of the other houses from Vesland or Norland and their crime families, despite how regularly their hired thieves pilfered the Midlands, but I imagined they all operated in the same way. With ruthlessness and violence and aversion to mercy.
But at that moment, when Ruunon offered me the job, I felt the first taste of hope since my father had died. It was dangerous to work for such men, but the promise that came along with it, the promise of a better life, sealed the deal.
“I’ll leave at dawn,” the boatsman says gruffly. “I’ll be here until then. You don’t show, I’ll assume you’re dead and you’ll be left in my wake. And no, I won’t give the dog a ride back even if he makes it.”
I try not to narrow my eyes at him. “I’ll see you before dawn,” I tell him before I say the wrong thing. Then I look to Lemi. “You okay with a night swim?” I ask him as I gather my empty bags and tie them to the holsters and straps around my leathered armor.
Lemi just wags his tail eagerly, knowing his fun is about to begin.
“Now don’t go disappearing on me. You’ll be towing me to shore,” I warn my dog, adjusting my two swords on my back, thankful that they’re made from ash glass forged in the depths of the Banished Land, weapons as light as they are strong.
Lemi seems to frown at that, his fluffy brows furrowing over his warm brown eyes.
I stand up, the boat rocking back and forth from my weight, and give the man one last glance, willing him to be here until dawn and not either chicken out or sell me out. Then I take a deep breath, preparing myself for the half-mile swim, and swan dive overboard.
Despite my armor and swords, I barely make a splash, the dark, frigid water engulfing me. I take in a harsh gasp of air as I surface, just as Lemi lands in the water beside me. Shivering already, I manage to swim over to him, grabbing ahold of his harness with stiff fingers. I hear the man on the boat chuckle behind me but I don’t bother paying him any attention now. All I can do is hope he’ll be there when I get back. Focus on getting the goods and getting back before the sun rises.
Lemi pulls me through the water with ease, though I can tell he just wants to shift himself onto the shore already. “Easy, boy,” I warn him. He’s shifted before while I’ve been holding on to him and it’s most unpleasant. Even though I don’t end up traveling with him, there is a bone-rattling shock as I’m left behind and he shifts elsewhere.
Thankfully the wards are close now. They’re nearly invisible to the naked eye, save for the faint glimmer of rainbows when you look at them from your peripheral vision. In the dark they’re harder to see but you still feel them, the faint hum and vibration of energy they give off, eons of magic condensed, a warning to those who may have strayed off path. A warning that would work on anyone else except for me and any other egg thieves.