27 Little been spoken

They climbed onto the dirty deck of Sintara, an average sized galleon with three towering masts in the middle and two in the front and back, fourth in line to leave the port. Still about half hour left before its departure. All around them scrawny men huddled with ropes and sails and cages that they were carrying downstairs. The other men, big and muscular ones with whips and swords, guarded the wooden deck, looking about with their harsh eyes so that the skinny ones in chains didn't skip their tasks.

They were slaves, Raivi realized, though not quite the term they would use here. Looking back at the port below Raivi saw the silhouettes of the Dogs, unmoved, among the ever moving mass of commoners like jutted rocks in a river as it flows fluidly around them. He wondered if they knew that these slaves were here so far into Edra, the home city of Sharak then decided that they must, but they just didn't have the authority to do anything even if they tried. They couldn't get any testimony from these captives; it was all way too political even for the Dogs. They stayed away from situations that didn't threaten the security of the city.

Slavery was not allowed in Edra, or anywhere else in The Great Mahani Kingdom and punishment even as far as beheading was not unheard of if caught practicing it. However they were just things Raivi had heard and wasn't certain how much of it stood true.

"I will be…" was the only warning Vynder gave before he disappeared, again. But something about it was strange or so Raivi thought but his instincts were often faulty.

An old man in a beat-up butler's outfit showed them to their quarter - a small cubicle of wood with three beds, two of them being a bunk on one side, and the single one on the other side within a hand's distance. The small door closed behind them and Cinsa sat on the single bed with a thud. Raivi took the lower bunk opposite her, elbows instantly resting on his knees and looking up at Cinsa whose eyes were studying the peeled off, grey wall.

'Was she okay? What was happening?' Raivi wanted to ask, instead he settled for "Something is off about Vynder," which he softly muttered but audible enough in that box of a room.

Cinsa moved her head straight up to look at Raivi, her grey eyes on his. Their eyes spoke more than their lips did but Raivi wasn't nearly as good a reader of stares as she was.

"Slaves," Cinsa's lips moved slowly, "He is …sensitive about them" and said in a withdrawn manner as she pushed herself farther back on her bed and folded her legs and sat leaning her back on the wall.

Raivi jerked with a startle, he hadn't known that about Vynder in their six months old friendship. Shouldn't be much surprised that Cinsa knew, he thought as she also seemed to know more about Raivi than he himself did. And he didn't even know how that worked.

"What do you suppose he is doing then?" Raivi asked, somehow finding himself curious to it.

"Freeing them, starting a slave rebellion onboard and fucking the pretty ones." Cinsa said and crossed her arms across her chest and leaned her head back touching the wall with her eyes closed.

"Do you mean 'or'?" Raivi hoped she did and gulped for the answer.

"No!" She said casually. "Don't worry, he is careful." She said in a familiarly reassuring tone as if seeing his thoughts. Maybe she did. "Vynder is careful. He is the most careful of the three of us."

Raivi scoffed at her hilarious joke but was it one? She didn't seem like she was joking. But it couldn't be anything else Raivi told himself. Vynder was always fooling around causing trouble, how could HE be the most careful person among the three of them?

"He hides it well." She said again but it seemed more to herself than to Raivi, eyes still closed and head back.

"Always looking, always watching and never is where we think he is."

She took a long breathe and then exhaled out of her mouth in a soft fizzle.

"But I was almost there, so close… just… a little more and I would have known…" she spoke softer and softer with each words until they became nothing but a whisper. She pushed her head further back almost unconsciously and her jaw jutted up, exposing more and more of her neck beneath her scarf. The scarf shifted and something white was shown under, a scar-

"Cinsa! What is THAT?" Ravi forced harshly and Cinsa widened her eyes open. Her hands clutched her scarf over her neck in a sharp move and watched around wild eyed. "What was that?" he hissed again.

Cinsa kept staring at him, almost feral. Raivi felt his heat rise up in his neck. He saw her sweat and a long wisp of white smoke rose from his sleeve. He looked down at the sleeves of his linen shirt, expecting to see scorched marks on it – they were always the first to show the signs of burning, he didn't know why. His hands promptly rubbed the freshly formed scorch marks and wished them gone around all the wood.

"It's nothing." Cinsa replied from her position slowly, and only then did he realize that he had asked her a question because he wasn't expecting a positive reply in return. She was lying and he didn't care, he wasn't looking for an answer, not now anyway. Cinsa wasn't going to give him a straight explanation, he had known.

"What is wrong?" He asked again, hoping this time he would get something more than just a 'nothing'.

She blinked at him, her face flashing her usual color. "What do you mean?" She asked with an eyebrow raised and acting completely innocent.

Raivi squinted as if to say, 'you know' and she looked even more confused.

"Why did you call me that?" he said, his voice grave "…Milord." He decided to drift from a futile subject.

It was the first time he had asked about it so directly. He felt a heating sensation in his ears, but there was no appearance of fire yet. His stomach knotted in a very uncomfortable loop and his heart started beating faster as he met her cool eyes. It was not right, he shouldn't be feeling like this with his only friend, then again he never had to question her like that before. 'Damn it, why couldn't she just answer?'

Heat spread again, this time it WAS his fire. Spreading through him within his veins and blood or at least that was how it felt. Again, his concentration was broken and he found himself calming his mind. He couldn't even push his mind, how would he push her? Just looking into her eyes he would burn this whole ship down because he couldn't bear to stand his ground. He really hated himself, his body that didn't listen to him and was always ready to turn everything around him into ashes.

"Are you feeling alright? Do you need to lie down?" She asked this time, usual distant concern in her tone. Raivi didn't look at her and still felt his heat rise. Just leave me alone, he thought bitterly, if you are not going to answer me, but didn't say it out loud. He didn't think he could.

"Vynder." Raivi breathed, hoping to divert Cinsa's attention to a bigger matter at hand. He really needed to be alone, he thought as he grimaced at the trail of white smoke from his sleeves.

"Here" Cinsa offered him a vial, round with clear liquid in it, a sleeping draught. "I am going to go and see he doesn't do too much, you relax here, okay?"

Raivi took it with a thankful nod and didn't wait for her to leave as he uncapped it and downed the whole thing in one gulp. Cinsa waited just for a shocked moment before leaving and slammed the door behind her. Raivi laid down, feeling himself lighter by the moment. His fire was fading now and so was his mind. His eyes turned heavy and he sighed painfully as sleep finally took him.