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

think
of anything better than this place with Vandis nearby.
    “Yes,” Vandis said, and
Dingus felt his chest glow. “I’d be glad to make some time for you. Our ship
doesn’t leave for a fortnight.”
    “Hey-la-hey!” Dingus
said, just that.
    “I wish I’d been able to
book passage a little sooner, but I can see it makes you happy.”
    “I’m not ready to leave
yet, that’s for sure. I saw this fish, a huge one, all black with big white
spots, and it jumped—” He paused to nod at the barmaid laying plates and mugs on
the bench next to each of them. “—it jumped right out of the water and splashed
back down again. It had a real stubby nose, and a wide tail, and a fin on its
back almost like a knife.”
    “Sounds like an orca.”
    “Is that what it’s
called?”
    “Yeah. It’s not quite a
fish, though; it doesn’t have gills. It has lungs like ours, and when it jumps
out of the water, it breathes. It’s a kind of whale.”
    Dingus reached down and
picked up his supper. It was some kind of thing on bread, and he paid a lot
more attention to what Vandis was saying about whales with teeth and whales
without than he paid to what went into his mouth. He started to chew, and
gagged. He’d never once met a food he didn’t like, but this—this was the
absolute worst thing ever to pass his lips. It was a fishy, salty, caraway-seed
nightmare, and as quick as he’d taken a bite, he spat it out again. “What the fuck is this?” he blurted, interrupting Vandis.
    “Pickled herring,” Vandis
said.
    “Don’t you like it?”
Kessa asked, eating her own with every appearance of relish.
    “Ugh.” Dingus picked up
his tankard and drained the dark beer in one long draught. “That’s not food.
That’s a curse on mankind.” Watching both of the others eat it was almost as
bad as eating it himself. He tried to pick it off, but it was in little pieces,
and even when he was sure none of it remained with the bread and chopped egg,
he could taste it. He set the bread down, nauseated and hungry at the same
time. “Can I get something else, Vandis? Please?”
    “If they’ve got something
else, you’re welcome to order it,” Vandis said.
    “I’ll eat yours,” Kessa
said eagerly, and took the pickled herring plate away from him. Dingus wound up
with dark bread, onions, and cold boiled eggs. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t the
kind of supper he’d hoped for, either. Afterward, they all went upstairs to the
room Vandis had taken. Kessa enthused over the real beds the whole way.
    It wasn’t a big room, but
there were two double beds inside, made up with bright felt blankets. One
looked slept-in. On the east side there was a little fireplace with a friendly
blaze, and a table with a bowl and pitcher for washing. There were three plain
chairs around the table; Dingus suspected that was at Vandis’s request.
    “Since we’ll be here a
while, I thought we might as well be comfortable. You can share with me,
Dingus.”
    Kessa sighed happily and
fell back onto the neater bed, the one closer to the fire. “It’s so cozy,” she said, wriggling with joy.
    Dingus found the bed too
soft. He felt as if he were sinking through the ropes that held up the straw
tick. Vandis snored in a familiar way, rocklike except when he rolled over and
flung out a hand. It landed, hard, right over Dingus’s heart. Vandis kind of
smiled, and he let out a long breath and settled again. Dingus lay still,
thinking it’d be pretty stupid to wake Vandis because of it. Besides, his
Master hadn’t touched him once since the Moot. It wasn’t Vandis’s way, wasn’t
Dingus’s either, but every so often it would’ve been nice to get hugged,
especially when he knew Vandis would be leaving pretty much as soon as they got
to Windish, leaving for a place where Dingus couldn’t see him, couldn’t be
around him, couldn’t watch his back.
    He knew Vandis cared a
whole lot about him, but sometimes he thought maybe Vandis didn’t know how