Chapter 26 – Black Carriages On The Ferry

They anchored the Desert Rose in the evening near a small island with a decrepit lighthouse. Fominel knew the lighthouse keeper from long ago, and he knew of a spot to hide the ship.

Darya and Seris had swapped their disguises by the time they got there. Again, they couldn’t wear any fancy or normal dresses. The ferry was transportation for the poor. Young women looking their best with open necklines were asking for trouble. Even Dovarist holy women were a step too far in terms of drawing too much attention.

She had nothing in her wardrobe that could pass as a fisherman’s wife. She ended up wearing an old dress of Seris. It was tight around the chest and hips, but she could stretch it just fine.

They also went through the extra effort of making themselves unremarkable with some grease stains and messy braided hairstyles. Darya took one of Fominel’s rugged capes, and Seris found a tattered one in Rossarie’s room.

They packed better outfits in their bags to change into once they were on Galtean soil. It was better to be a mage or a Dovarist there.

Coming back to the weather deck after spending hours getting themselves ready, they met Fominel washing the blood stains off the floor with a bucket.

“Now that’s a proper disguise!” Fominel said with a grin. “Good work, you two!”

“You already ditched the bodies?!” Darya exclaimed. Fominel was terrifyingly efficient when it came to something like that as well.

“They won’t be found again,” he said, shoving the mop back into the bucket of red water.

I don’t even want to know what he did.

“Did you see a ferry on the way, Fom?” Seris asked, tightening the strings of Darya’s cape.

“Yes, the next one should pass by here in a bit. There’s one every hour,” he said, looking at the horizon. “I’ll drop you two off in the boat.”

“Can you join us after hiding the ship?” Darya asked. She felt safer with him around. Their little excursion to the fishing village had already ended with four dead pirates and a broken hand.

“That depends on whether my friend’s going to keep an eye on it. He might be too old to move now,” Fominel said, nudging his head at the lighthouse.

“If you can come, bring Enta with you, alright?” Darya said worriedly. She didn’t want to leave the baby wisp alone on the ship that could be looted by thieves at any point.

“Sure, princess,” Fominel said.

“Let’s get going then, the boat’s ready, Fom?” Seris asked.

“Yes, get on!” Fominel said, gesturing at the rope ladder.

The storm was already raging elsewhere. The waves were swelling, the sea growing more turbulent by the minute. It was getting foggy already. Fominel rowed the boat and kept circling the same area until the ferry emerged from the distant mist.

The ferry was exactly as Darya remembered from the VRMMO. They were steam-powered ships that looked more like rafts. The smoke trail was visible even through the mist, and the mechanical sound cut above the noise of the wind as it drew near. The last time she saw this transportation system was during playtesting in version six. She had worked on automating a fleet of twenty of these, traveling from one end of the crescent to the other end at regular intervals throughout the day.

Fominel rowed the boat near the side, and the ferry slowed down for them to get on. Fominel helped them jump off the boat into the metal ramp of the open raft.

“Be careful, you two. Seris, take care of the princess!” he said, patting their backs. Seris nodded as the ferry cranked loudly, accelerating again. Fominel disappeared with the boat into the mist.

He’s going to have to hide the ship before the storm hits. Can he do that?

The answer was yes. It wouldn’t even be the wildest thing he had done so far. They lingered on the ramp long enough to wave him farewell, turned back around, and climbed up a rusty ladder.

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It was more crowded than Darya thought. There were at least two hundred islanders on board. Everyone with cargo sat on piles of their own boxes, keeping an eye on their goods. Fishermen with smelly cargo had their own corner.

Three horse-drawn carriages were parked at the center with uniformed men around them. At a glance, she thought they were military of some sort, but they had no insignias or patches.

“That’s either navy or RCMF. don’t look at them,” Seris whispered when Darya nudged her to ask.

People stayed well away from these carriages. Seris decided to do the same. They found a dry area where women had naturally flocked to. On their way, Darya saw two or three well-dressed women who were getting catcalled constantly. They looked like students or apprentices of some trade. They seemed fine with the attention. They were in a deep conversation of their own, blocking out all the outside distractions.

This would’ve been a headache for me with the wrong dress.

She was already uncomfortable in a crowd. She wouldn’t make it through this ferry ride if she found herself or Seris at the center of attention. Their outfits made them invisible as long as their heads were shadowed by their hoods.

Everyone was huddling to shelter from the storm closing in. People seemed eager to put themselves and their goods where the storm couldn’t reach. They met many glares along the way as they passed through the gaps. It would’ve been stupidly easy to get into a fight simply by trying to sit anywhere.

They climbed up a rusty flight of stairs to find an unoccupied spot with a roof but no walls on the side. The seating there was a bunch of abandoned wooden boxes.

“Seventeen stops to Galtea, you can take a nap on me if you want, princess,” Seris whispered in her ear and patted her lap.