Oath Bound (Book 3) by M.A. Ray Read Free Book Online

grown up closer to the Shining Sea than to this great, gray, wild
reach of water. Off to the east, along the land, was Dreamport, and slightly
west of that—between here and there, across the sea—was Rodansk, which Vandis
said a guy could see on a very clear day.
    A small town snuggled
into the fjord, on the landward end where the grade wasn’t so steep, and three
ships lay inside the walls at anchor with sails furled, swaying gently in the
tiny waves that made it through. A wide ramp angled down to the town. Out
closer to the sea, the walls sloped upward, until around the mouth they dropped
sheer. Dingus smelled brine and fresh fish on the chilly wind that whipped from
the north. Green clumps of plant life clung to the walls, especially at the
mouth, and near the surface of the water, what looked to be sandy clusters of
rocks.
    The caravan eased down
the ramp. Dingus helped some, but had to admit he was distracted; everything he
saw, heard, and smelled was completely different from anything he’d ever
experienced. In the background, the constant wash, wash, wash of waves called,
“Dingus, Dingus, Dingus…” He wanted to go climb down at the mouth and see what
the plants were, what the sandy rocks were, what the ocean tasted like, since
already salt touched his tongue. “It’s cold,” Kessa complained, but the wind
made his blood sing, and he kept gazing around at the fjord even while they
walked through the town, so the thatched buildings and dirt streets completely
passed him by.
    “Dingus,” Vandis said.
Since the Hayedi had gone down to the docks to sell off their cargo, he was
calling Dingus by his right name again.
    He stopped. He realized
he’d walked right past Vandis and Kessa, who’d stopped outside one of the
bigger buildings. It was an inn with a strange sign, sort of a cross between a
fish and a dog. His heart sank at the thought of going inside when he hadn’t
even gotten half a look around.
    Vandis looked at Dingus’s
face and laughed. “Go.”
    “You guys aren’t coming?”
    “I’m exhausted,” he said,
“and Kessa’s teeth are chattering.”
    Dingus sagged. “All
right. Let’s go in.”
    “We talked about this,
remember? Get out of my face a little while.”
    “But—”
    “Dingus. The only thing
that’s going to happen to me is a nap. I don’t want you hovering. Go. Just be back at sundown for supper.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Vandis raised his eyebrows,
mouth pulled down, and Dingus backed off quick.
    “Okay, thanks, bye!” He
dashed away and spent the afternoon crawling all over the fjord, feasting his
senses, testing his body, like he’d wanted to anyway. It was the best thing
since the Moot. He picked out a spot on top of the rocks to come watch from
later, climbed down and saw that instead of being rocks, the sandy patches were
made of some kind of alive things that opened and closed slowly with the waves
shattering against the dark cliffs. He tasted the ocean: dirt and salt,
insanely salty. He stroked bare fingers over the shells of those little alive
things, over slimy plants. He saw, far out to sea, a huge black-and-white fish
gone small with distance as it leapt high into the air like a fish in a pond
and came down with a terrific splash he could hear. And that wind! Cold
and damp, it lifted his hair even where it was soaked from the spray he’d
collected down by the water, and he felt sure this was the Lady’s country. When
the sky began to darken he made his way back down to the inn, wet, exploding
with questions, and passionately in love.
    “Have a good time?”
Vandis asked when he came through the small, smoky taproom and took a seat on
the bench next to the fire. Water steamed off his clothes, and all he could do
was grin until his face hurt. Kessa snickered, but Vandis didn’t; he grinned
right back and said, “Well, let’s hear your questions.”
    Dingus spilled them,
starting with, “Will you come out with me tomorrow? Please?” He couldn’t