Secrets of the Swords, Book 1

Chapter 3: Salt and Strangers

Still keeping her eyes closed, Suthe took a few deep breaths to calm herself. Had it worked? There was no more shouting or crying—rather, just an unusual call from a lone bird. The heat of the midday sun had lessened, and there was the smell of salt on the breeze. Suthe rubbed her arms against the slight chill and finally opened her eyes. What she saw made her gasp.

The first unusual thing Suthe noticed about her new environment was the street. Rather than warm packed earth, the road before her was laid out in endless gray cobblestones. She took a step, and the stones felt hard and uneven under her sandals. It was an unusual sensation. But the avenue wasn't the only thing covered in stone—the surrounding walls were too, stretching up above her head and half-covered in crawling greenery.

Remembering the strange bird call, Suthe looked up to find a pair of white winged creatures circling overhead—seagulls. She had read about them in books but never seen them before in real life.

Shouts in a different language had Suthe cautiously making her way to the end of the vine-covered wall and peering around the corner. Her eyes widened in surprise at the old wooden docks sticking up out of the glittering blue water, and at the large boats sailing into the port. It was a sailor from one of these boats that Suthe had heard cry out—a fisherman, judging by the nets and tackle on his boat. Off in the distance, Suthe could make out the outlines of several larger cargo ships, too big to come all the way in to the docks.

"Where am I?" Suthe wondered aloud. Hesitantly, she made her way down a set of steps and along the beachfront. Closely packed storefronts lined the street facing the docks, and Suthe noticed that instead of the normal clay-and-wood construction of the residences in Crestdune, these buildings with strange pointy roofs were made almost entirely of wood, and painted in different colors.

A few people gave her, the dark-skinned foreigner, curious glances as she passed by. Likewise, Suthe returned their inquisitive glances with her own. Their clothes were different from hers—thicker than linen and dyed dark shades of blues, browns and grays, and sometimes even purples and greens. The outfits had far more layers, ruffles, and buttons than Suthe's own white and gold robe, and she began to feel very self-conscious of how out-of-place she looked.

But it wasn't just the clothes that intrigued Suthe. The people were different too. Many were pale and often freckled, although some were tanned from long hours working in the sun. And while some still had black hair like Suthe's, the tresses were straighter, like those from the south of Montmyth, in Melendru. Others had brown or even blond hair, and a few sported more coppery curls.

Suthe was so distracted by the people that she didn't notice the carriage until it was almost too late. Shouts in the strange foreign language she had heard earlier, combined with several frantic pointing fingers, finally alerted her that something was amiss.

When she finally turned, Suthe barely had time to register the terrifying black monstrosity bearing down on her before she had to jump out of the way. It lurched past in a commotion of clacking metal and creaking gears.

"That—that had legs!" she exclaimed after she had caught her breath, looking at the people around her. Oddly enough, no one seemed to mind that the carriage had been missing its wheels—not to mention there had been no beast of burden leading it. "What was that thing?"

But the bystanders merely gave her confused looks and babbled to each other in their own language before continuing on. Suthe bit her lip as realization began to set in. She was too conspicuous here, and there was no one she could ask for help. She might have escaped arrest in Montmyth, but she would starve or worse in this foreign land without someone she could communicate with.