Exile of the Seas by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-04-30T18:07:11+00:00

~ 13 ~

“It will take some time to travel the remainder of the distance,” Ochieng said, raising his voice for all to hear, “since the negombe are already at rest, we may as well take a meal and freshen ourselves. No sense arriving looking like ruffians ourselves,” he confided to me with a waggle of his eyebrows.

I’d been so rapt by the sight of the city in the valley—and then staggered from the sight of the elephants—that I hadn’t realized the drivers had stopped their song and halted the caravan while I stood there. A bit chagrined, I nodded. There was no oasis nearby, but Ochieng kept stores of water in the wagons. As we’d arrived at our final destination, one with an enormous river, we could likely squander that water on cleaning up.

Ochieng beckoned me aside, speaking quietly. “If you’ll forgive me, Priestess Ivariel—you might wish to tend to your hair, before you’re seen in Nyambura.”

I blinked at him, flooded with voices from the past. Did he criticize my appearance? I couldn’t possibly grow it long enough to be appropriately feminine, nor could I—

“It grows out,” he explained in a low voice, “the white at the root is quite noticeable when you’re not wearing the hat. And your brows and eyelashes. Perhaps this is natural for your people, but if not, it could be that you use a black dye to cover the true color…” He trailed off circumspectly, as if merely voicing it further would be an unforgivable breach of privacy. “Regardless, there’s a space over there, to tend to such things, should you wish to.”

The skin of my face heated, making it feel stony. With no mirrors, I’d forgotten about my hair entirely. Kaja would be disgusted with my carelessness. I nodded curtly, unable to be gracious in my exposure and embarrassment.

Ochieng simply let me be, apparently unbothered by my rudeness. I retrieved my packs from the wagon, along with a cask of water. Small enough to carry under one arm, the casks when full nevertheless possessed a weight of density—and it had surprised me to find I could carry one easily now. Even two, one under each arm, when I’d helped fill them in the morning at the oasis, in preparation for the day’s journey.

I also took a curtain made of a soft woven material, the kind we used to make privacy in places without walls, draping it over the branch of a nearby tree. These trees grew unlike any I’d seen in Dasnaria or Elcinea. They reminded me of very tall mushrooms, if the cap were made of branches feathered with tiny, deep green leaves. With a smooth, almost golden bark, the trunks rose up without feature, abruptly blooming into the canopy. And they always stood solitary, the lone tree sometimes within eyesight in any direction.

I’d become glad of my height, as I could reach the lowest branches where others—like Hart—could not. Other travelers had used this place for a similar purpose, since a table made of heavy wood sat in the nook of the tree’s trunk.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.