We were once again at a wide section of river, and as we sailed east we hit a certain point where you couldn’t see either shore, and a feeling of isolation fell over me as I looked out over that copper ocean which appeared to flow inch by inch towards the waterfall at the edge of the world.

  But soon the other shore was in sight. I half expected to see a crowd of monsters waiting for us, swarms of those bug creatures, or even a horde of Kalamuzi. There was nothing. The east looked barren and deserted, as if nothing had ever lived there besides the scarce trees and dying grass.

  “You know,” I said aloud to Amaia beside me, “I’ve just thought of a flaw in this plan.”

  “What’s that?”

  “We’re going to find the pirate’s dock, presumably,” I said. “And there’s going to be no one there. And our missing cargo probably won’t be there either, unless they plan to return for it later once the heat has died down. But why bother? We’re probably just going to find a dock, and what’s that worth to us?”

  Amaia shrugged. “I’m just along for the ride.”

  I laughed. “Enjoying yourself?”

  “I’m still here, aren’t I?”

  “I don’t know what else you’d do. Decide you hate boats halfway through and jump into the water? Swim all those miles back to Coernet?”

  She twisted her mouth as if considering it. “That could be fun. Never done that before.”

  “Don’t get any ideas,” I said. “I’ve seen those metal plates you started wearing on your arms. You’d sink like a stone. What are those for, anyway? Can you use your magic to-”

  “There it is!” A shout from behind. I turned first towards the voice - it was Hoyom - then towards where he was pointing.

  Sure enough, there was a dock there, more impressive than I had imagined. I, of course, had pictured a little wooden affair, half destroyed by time, barely more than a log to tie up to and a small wooden platform to disembark on.

  Instead, while the edge was indeed lined with wooden planks, these were beside great stone stairs which lead up to stone walls and a stone street above. The street seemed unnecessary as there was only one structure along it, made of the same white-grey stones which had been cut into uniform blocks.

  “Can monsters build houses and docks?” I asked aloud, half-joking. But Hoyom, now beside me, took the question seriously.

  “Of course not,” he said. “This is only some remainder that they haven’t destroyed yet.”

  Despite that, it was in such a condition that I would have believed if he had told me it was built only the day before we arrived.

  My hopes of success were getting higher by the second. I was imaging how impressed Gad would be when I returned with his cargo, and maybe the heads of a couple of pirates, too. That’s not murder, right? That’s justice. Something like that.

  Aster must have had similar thoughts based on what he shouted from behind me, where he still manned the sails. “They must have stashed our cargo here!” he yelled. I raised an eyebrow at the word “our,” but said nothing. I supposed we were working together.

  “Makes sense,” Hoyom said beside me, nodding. “They can return here at any time without fear of being caught. If they’re drug addicts, that can return whenever they need a fix, and enjoy a interesting voyage home. If they mean to sell it to some insane alchemist, they can use this as a dead-drop spot.”

  “I guess so,” I said. “If we’re really lucky there won’t be anyone here and we can just snag those crates.”

  As we approached the shoreline, Amaia and I kept an eye out for signs of movement while Hoyom and Aster worked to maneuver the ship. Ikhamon should have been watching the shore as well, but he talked little and I can’t say I knew what he was doing, exactly.

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  Soon we were alongside the dock. Hoyom leaped from the ship with a length of rope in hand and, after some further adjustments, tied it to a post that jutted out from the wood. Following instructions, I threw him a second line, which he tied up as well.

  We hadn’t seen any signs of enemies, but that only made me more on edge.

  “Well,” I said, trying to act unconcerned. “Are we ready to step onto this cursed ground?”

  Hoyom, who already had, answered, shouting up at the ship. “Someone should stay behind to guard the ship,” he said. “In case the pirates show up while we’re inside.”

  Amaia shook her head. Apparently she was looking forward to disembarking - I only hoped that wouldn’t end with another blackened arm. I declined as well, mostly because I didn’t want to look like a coward.

  “I’ll stay,” Aster said. “I can keep things ready in case we need to retreat.”

  “I will stay as well,” Ikhamon said. Then turning to me, “If you don’t mind, sir.”

  I shrugged. “Sure, that’s fine. Two men to fight off the monsters that swarm the ship while we’re inside.”

  Aster began to speak up, saying that that wasn’t necessary, but Ikhamon interrupted. “It is decided then.”

  That decided, Amaia and I leapt from the ship as well, following Hoyom’s lead. It was lucky that it wasn’t a far drop, but I was sure we’d need help getting back in when it was all said and done. Hoyom had used his wind magic to help his jump, and we didn’t have that luxury. Still, we landed with nothing more than a bruise.

  We made our way up the dock, up those massive stone stairs, and I kept my head on a swivel. I thought I would feel some difference, that once I had stepped foot on the dock, or even more so on the stone steps which were built on shore, that I would feel the cursed nature of the place. While I did feel uneasy, that was simply nerves. As far as a feeling went, we could have landed on the other shore by mistake and it would have felt no different. Perhaps it was the necklace hanging around my neck.

  “Hey Hoyom,” I said as we climbed the stairs. “Do you know, is the turning quicker now that we’re on this side of the river? Or stronger, maybe? Or would the potion still work?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Should be stronger. Faster. You would think so, anyway. If you live closer to a dungeon, it would be faster, so it probably works that way.”

  “Better be quick then,” I said. “Don’t want you turning into a bug.”

  “Worry about yourself,” he said. “But yes. Let’s be quick.”

  I realized, though it should have been obvious, that he didn’t know about the necklaces Amaia and I wore, and I had nearly given that fact away.

  We soon reached the top of the stairs and stood at the foot of the stone building. It was large and well built, but clearly not any sort of luxury dwelling, despite its impressive construction. It could have been a warehouse, or a large shop, or even a riverside inn.

  Hoyom strode ahead and opened the door without hesitation. I couldn’t believe he was so cavalier about it, but hurried to follow behind him in case he was about to be attacked. Amaia took up the rear.

  There seemed to be no one inside. The sun was already starting towards the horizon, but the rays it shot through the building’s windows revealed a large space which was mostly empty.

  What it did contain made it seem as if someone was squatting there. A little table with plates and scraps of food, bedrolls laid out beside it. I found it hard to imagine someone sleeping on this side of the river for a number of reasons, and I wondered just how turned these pirates were. Perhaps they used their ill-gotten gains to buy enough potions to keep it at bay. Or maybe they really had figured out the recipe.”

  “I don’t see any crates,” Amaia said.

  “There,” Hoyom said, pointing. I had to squint, but there was a trap door built into the floor some distance off. He must have had good eyes, because I hadn’t seen it at all.

  “I suppose that’s where I’d stash my stolen goods,” I said.

  Lifting the door and peering into the darkness, I could see nothing, only a little ladder descending into pitch darkness. I let drops of nail drip into the hole, and thought perhaps I could make out some sort of storeroom.

  “After you,” I said, motioning Hoyom over. There wasn’t any particular reason to make him go first, but I suppose I had assumed he would want to, considering how quickly he had taken point to enter this building. But he only looked at the ground beneath his feet, and answered sheepishly.

  “Don’t tell Aster this,” he said. “Because I’d never hear the end of it, but, I, well, I can’t handle underground spaces like that.”

  “What? Why?”

  “I just don’t like ‘em. Makes me feel like I’m in a grave, like the walls are going to collapse and I’ll be buried.”

  “So what, claustrophobic?” I asked. And then, realizing that he might not know the word, added, “Afraid of tight spaces?”

  “I mean, I handle the ships galley just fine,” he said. “But underground, yeah, I guess you could say I’m afraid of it.”

  I laughed. “Alright, whatever. Amaia and I will head down, you stay here and keep watch. Probably best we have someone on watch duty anyway, so we don’t come back up to some sort of ambush.”

  Hoyom nodded. He was clearly embarrassed about the conversation, and I felt a little bad for him.

  It never crossed my mind that he might have been lying to me. You could see it written on his face that he really was scared of going down into that hole.

  “OK Amaia,” I said. “Ready?”

  I don’t know what I expected. She shrugged, and we were off.

  I took the lead, dropping an occasional stream of nails to check the distance to the bottom. Despite that it felt like we were on the ladder for an impossible amount of time before finally I reached my foot down to the next rung of the ladder and found solid ground instead.

  I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face. “Find some wood or something,” I said to Amaia, and my voice seemed to be swallowed up nearly as quickly as it had left my lips.

  Somehow, using the light of the occasional burning nail, we were able to find the smashed remains of some old barrel. I took the longest strip that remained intact, covered its end with nail, and fashioned myself a makeshift torch - curved, but serviceable.

  I had expected a small storeroom, but perhaps I should have guessed at the truth based off of the way noise seemed to be pulled away from us. The torch revealed a long tunnel, only slightly taller than I was, and wide enough that three could walk side-by-side. I couldn’t tell how far it went on, be we seemed to be at some terminal point, a smallish room used for exiting and entering the tunnel, surrounded by all sorts of trash it was hard to make out in the darkness.

  I wondered what the tunnel was for. If it had smelled I would have thought it an ancient sewer, but unless time had erased the smell, that was impossible.

  I looked around for our crates. I did find some, but they were clearly too old to be what we were looking for. After some searching we found many old containers like this, but nothing that looked like our stolen goods.

  “I don’t think it’s here,” Amaia said.

  I sighed. “I don’t think so either. Nothing to do but head back and deliver the bad news, I guess.”

  I turned my head up to shout at Hoyom at the top of the ladder, but my words died in my throat as I saw that the little trap door, that little square of light which shined above us like a star, had gone out.

  It could have been an accident, but I knew, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, that it wasn’t.