Rune turned to Tran and thumped his heart twice with an open palm before bowing his head. Tran blinked, not at all expecting to have Rune properly thank him using Teheranian manners. Siobhan felt a little surprised to see this too, but she knew the source of the young Wyngaardian’s sudden etiquette—Fei. He had indeed been paying attention to Fei’s lessons on how to treat everyone in Deepwoods.
Tran, after that startled reaction, relaxed into a slight smile and gave a bow back. Then he reached out and clapped Rune on the shoulder in a comradely gesture, which made Rune smile back at him.
Turning, Rune looked to Fei next and offered, “We will drink and speak of this later.”
Fei’s eyes crinkled up in silent approval. He folded his arm against his ribs and extended a free hand, which Rune mirrored before accepting the hand in a firm clasp.
Only then did Rune turn to Wolf. She watched with bated breath. Her stubborn enforcer had watched Rune properly thank each man in their own ways for their help tonight. Rune was honestly trying, but would he see that for what it was and accept it?
Rune seemed to take in a breath before saying quietly, “Heill ok sael.”
Wolf stared at him for a long second before lifting his right hand in acknowledgement, but he did not return the greeting, simply turned away and started to help with the cleanup.
Siobhan resisted the urge to go over and kick him. Stubborn, boneheaded, crepehanger! After everything Rune had done, he still couldn’t trust him? She stole a peek at Rune’s face, but he didn’t seem disappointed or surprised at Wolf’s reaction. Well, she shouldn’t have been either. It was easier to get the sun to change its course than to change Wolf’s opinion on something.
Sighing, she gave up on that for the moment and went to help clear bodies away.
Siobhan didn’t like ships for one specific reason: ceilings.
She wasn’t a giant, not like some women from Teherani could be, but she did have an unusually tall stature for a woman. In fact, she could look most of her men in the eye with the exceptions of Tran and Wolf, her two giants. Most of the time her height came in handy, but whenever she boarded a ship, she had to hunch over to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling, or the top of the door jambs. It was one of those things that she remembered the first six times and forgot the seventh, so she always landed with some sort of bruise on her head.
After smacking her head on the ceiling three times, Siobhan gave up and went to the foredeck. It might be colder there with the sea breeze, but at least she wouldn’t land on Orin with bumps on top of her bumps.
Tran and Wolf quickly followed her example and retreated to the forecastle, the only possible place for them to really sit without being in someone’s way. She’d seen them smack their heads more times than she had, so it didn’t surprise her they chose cold over pain. She put her back to the railing, sitting cross-legged on the wooden deck, and looked out over the sea. Even though they’d only been on the ship for an hour, she could barely see Wynngaard as a thin line in the distance. Her nose twitched at the strong scent of salt and tar. Still, an itchy nose was preferable to being down below.
Without a word, Tran sat on one side of her, Wolf on the other, and between the two of them they blocked the wind quite nicely. She shifted into a more comfortable position and smiled in satisfaction.
“Shi-maee.”
“Hmm?” She turned to look at Tran.
“What do you expect to find? In Orin.”
“I have no idea,” she admitted frankly. “At this point, I’m not sure if anything could surprise me. Maybe whatever reason that drove the Coravine guild to attack Blackstone is very obvious and we’ll see it once we’re in the city. Or we might need to spend days looking and asking questions before we figure it out. I don’t know. It’s just that my gut is telling me that there’s something important we haven’t figured out yet.”
He grunted understanding.
Silence passed comfortably between them as they sat there with their own thoughts. Siobhan let her eyes rove over the ship. It wasn’t the largest merchant vessel she had ever seen, but it had a good size to