Redbark by Sherwood Smith

Author:Sherwood Smith [Smith, Sherwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: wuxia, xuanhuan, fantasy, martial arts fantasy, martial arts, strong heroines, imperial courts, comedy of manners
ISBN: 9781611389883
Publisher: Book View Cafe
Published: 2021-10-12T05:00:00+00:00

27

One job led to another, tea picking having become both simple and easy.

When at last the island’s tea trees had been harvested, summer had settled in, dry and hot under days of brilliant sunlight. Ryu and her companions forced themselves up each morning before dawn to do their drills. In the evenings, Ryu usually made her way to whatever stream could be found, where she could bathe in peace, though these were measurably smaller each day.

Finally word spread that picking was done until the next flush. Before the five of them could discuss what to do next—three of them talking, and two listening—the latest owner pulled Shigan aside one day, having determined that they were a band. Of course Shigan had to be their chief.

The next morning, when the four met for their morning routine, he said, “I volunteered us to crew on the boat taking last year’s tea cakes to one of the Fragrance Islands. They trade for cloth, but we don’t have to come back.”

“I’m ready to go somewhere new. But . . . crew?” Ryu repeated doubtfully.

“On a ship?” Matu swallowed.

Petal’s good eye flicked between them. Yaso was already gone, climbing the path upward in search of wild herbs.

“We take charge of the cargo, and help the sailors when they need an extra hand,” Shigan explained. “We unload and deliver the tea to its destination. We’d see a new island, and not have to pay for the trip. Instead, we get paid!”

Yaso made no objections, as usual—and quietly visited the herbalist to trade some rare herb finds for plenty of ginger medicine for Matu.

A couple of days later, as summer’s heat pressed down on the harbor, the five toiled alongside the rest of the ship’s crew trundling barrels of tightly packed tea cakes that they had helped pack themselves up the ramp to the ship.

Once they got the barrels to the deck, they tipped them one by one into nets, which were lowered to the hold, and then rolled into their assigned compartment. After that, they returned to the deck, where Yaso stood with Matu as the latter drank his first dose of ginger medicine.

“Hold!” The captain halted a string of bearers carrying bulky hemp-wrapped packages.

Ryu looked around, then upward, at where a couple of boys chattered as they hung the usual red flags inscribed with talismans to ward angry sky dragons and their typhoon winds. The bright summer sun lit the cinnabar dye to fiery crimson.

“Way! Way!”

Ryu skipped aside as burly, sweating porters muscled some very heavy barrels up the ramp. “Stow those on deck, midway along, either side,” the captain bawled.

Relieved, the porters slowly bumped the barrels along the deck. “What’s in those?” Ryu asked a passing porter.

“Iron hooks for cauldrons,” one said, briefly pausing to wipe his forehead across his sleeve. “Sends ’em twice a year to his brother . . .” His voice was smothered by the rumble of his barrel as he and his partner pushed it to where the captain indicated. When he upended it, it fell into place with a deep tunk that made the entire ship shiver.

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