Blood Ties

Chapter 17: Nadia

Chapter 17: Nadia

Nadia stared out at the shining sea behind her and the sprawling city in front of her, and felt, for once, almost brimming with hope and possibility. The sparkling skyline of Lyona, Vytia bustled with life. The docks were teeming with people: vendors, buyers, and merchants hauling their wares, shouting about prices, and haggling with one another. She caught sight of a puppy diving under a cart that was being pushed by a butcher, the scents of the city surrounding her after long weeks spent at sea with only the cramped, dank rooms and salty sea air.

They were only here for a day or so, to allow the crew to refill the ship's food and water supply. But Nadia intended to make the best of it. Still, she veiled her hair as she saw the wealthy noblewomen of Vytia doing, covering their faces to keep the sun from darkening their skin. A few were even carrying parasols and fans, their maids straggling behind them to hold their purchases. She and Rowena planned to find the most curious objects and make gifts of them for one another.

She caught sight of a stall glittering with strange-coloured gems, and darted towards it, only to feel a hand on her arm, stopping her. Nadia whirled around. "Declan."

"Priestess." His fingers tightened on her bicep.

"Is there a reason you are inhibiting my movements?" She didn't even attempt to fight his grip, knowing it was useless. If he had had a knife, this might have been a different story.

He shrugged. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to leave my sights."

"Rowena and I--" she tugged at her sleeve, the one he had clamped down on. "We were going to the markets."

"And where is Rowena now?" Declan asked, gesturing around them at the Lyonan port. "She seems to have forgotten about you."

His mocking tone, his pitying voice, made something twist in her. She turned her arm, driving her elbow into his sternum. "Do not follow me, Prince. I will go wherever I wish."

She scanned the crowds. Rowena and Nolan were gone, his red hair bobbing and weaving into the crowd while Rowena's slight frame had vanished into the throngs. She'd thought she loved cities. Perhaps now, not so much.

"Have you ever been to such a large city?" Declan asked her, easily catching up to her with his long strides. He still wore that hat, the one he'd donned when they first met, and his face was clean-shaven beneath it, but the rest of his outfit was more suited to the warm weather of Vytia. Linen trousers and a matching white shirt, with a weapons belt heavy enough that she wondered how the weight of it didn't cause his pants to fall down. Though of course, she would never admit that out loud to him, fearing his lechery. "I assure you, the experience of being pickpocketed will not be pleasant."

"You speak from experience, I presume?" She kept walking, pivoting her gaze from his too-knowing one. So what if, for all intents and purposes, she had grown up as a cloistered priestess in a tiny city? It had been her city, and he had ruined it.

"I woke up piss-drunk in an alley, missing everything but my boots and my trousers. So I assure you, even princes are not immune to the predations of criminals," he said. "If anything, they are only more vulnerable."

Though he'd long since dropped her arm as they wove through the cobblestoned streets and small nooks and crannies of the markets on the docks, she felt the heat of him soaking through her clothes as his arm brushed hers when they squeezed through an alley. The aroma of some sort of frying dough hit her as she saw a street hawker making food. Nadia rushed forward; she had slept in that morning and had forgotten to break her fast.

Declan caught onto her excitement. He ordered for them in the common tongue. "Two of those, please."

"Of course, sir." The hawker, a tall, broad-shouldered woman with grease-splattered sleeves, expertly flipped two pieces of round dough, like a pancake, speckled with some sort of green herb and rolled them into paper cones. "Here you go."