Wintercraft: Legacy Read Free Page B

had to guard at all costs.
    ‘Do not allow anyone to take that from you,’ Dalliah said. ‘Keep it safe.’
    Kate nodded her agreement. She would keep it safe . . . even from Dalliah. She followed Dalliah down the short staircase to the main deck, where the Blackwatch were already lowering the boat.
    ‘Your assistance has been appreciated,’ Dalliah said to the man in charge, as she unhooked a small travelling bag from the side of the deck. ‘I have no doubt your military plans will run just as smoothly, when the time comes.’
    ‘We are prepared,’ said the officer. ‘Three of my men will row you to shore and I have already sent word for horses to be readied for your arrival. You and the girl will be escorted to Fume, as we agreed.’
    ‘And the city gates?’
    ‘Entry has been arranged,’ said the officer. ‘My men will get you inside. They have procured the item you asked for. Beyond those gates, the city is yours.’
    Dalliah nodded her head in thanks and the officer backed away. ‘Climb down quickly,’ she said to Kate. ‘Fume is two days on horseback. We will need time to work before the Continental army begin rattling their swords outside the capital.’
    Kate descended a long rope ladder leading down into the waiting boat. The tiny vessel was barely big enough for a handful of people and its rear half was covered by a wooden roof raised on posts, allowing passengers to seeout and the wind to surge in. Two officers were already seated near the middle, each manning an oar. Kate took her seat on a small bench under the roof and Dalliah sat beside her, followed by another man who knelt at the front of the boat, sweeping a spyglass across the cove, searching for any signs of life. Once he gave the all clear, the boat’s tether was released and the officers worked the oars steadily towards the shore.
    The rhythmic sound of wood upon water accompanied them across the choppy sea. The small group travelled in silence, leaving the great black ship behind them, but before they had rowed very far Kate heard a fluttering sound nearby. She looked back and spotted a shadow moving among the ship’s sails: something too small to be one of the crew and too large to be one of its resident rats.
    A bedraggled crow had settled in the rigging with its wings hunched up, glaring directly down at her. Its inky feathers completely absorbed the light from the rising sun, making it look like a shadow except for a bright streak of white feathers that slashed across its chest.
    ‘Kate.’
    Dalliah’s voice made her look away, not wanting to draw attention to the bird.
    ‘You will carry this.’ Dalliah slid her travelling bag from her shoulder and dropped it at Kate’s feet. Its upper flap had folded open, revealing a collection of old books and loosely rolled scrolls packed neatly together. Most of them were written in a language Kate did not know, but a few of the symbols she spotted were familiar: an open eye, a wolf, a sword . . . As she agreed to take care of thebag, the crow skittered out of sight behind the ship’s sails. When she looked up again it was gone.
    The officers rowed together, steering the boat into the cove. The watchtower’s point of land blocked the coast further north from view, while the cliffs turned inwards to the south, leaving nothing but a vast expanse of sea. Crags of dark rock loomed high above the travellers, their upper edges glistening with frost.
    Dalliah’s hand rested upon Kate’s and Kate felt a wash of calm creep over her. Her thoughts threatened to retreat again into a distant part of her memory, ready to be locked away, barely remembered, as Dalliah continued to keep her mind under control, but Kate had no intention of allowing herself to be subdued like a child. Tiny flickers of memory had begun to return. She did not want to forget them again. This time, she resisted.
    A flurry of hailstones rattled hard upon the boat’s roof and stabbed into the waters around them. Kate barely