Page 14 - UnderEarth

witch, his most valuable cargo and Yanlin’s greatest treasure.
“You’re to rest in your hammock until the Healer says you may get up,” Lake ordered. “And then you will stay on board this ship. No more sailing off in Finder. In a five-day we reach the Inner Sea. The Drowned Ones dare not dirty those waters. You’ll be safe enough from them then, but until we reach the Inner Sea, you’re ship-bound.”
Storm nodded her obedience, only sighing a little in disappointment. Her uncle left quickly, relief flushing his face. Finder, the small sailing boat Teanu the Elder had given her, was tied to Wayfarer’s stern, bobbing in their wake like a seal pup trailing its mother.
She put a hand to her head and felt her hair, which was gathered into a topknot. When she had been declared the first ever female Weather-witch, her girl’s plaits had been cut off and her tunic exchanged for a sleeveless one. Women could not sail with the fleet, so Storm was declared a non-sex, neither male nor female. She would never marry or have children – a fact she had been able to forget on the occasional mornings when she had been allowed to follow the fleet in Finder.
It was good, therefore, that she had work to do. The
next day, Storm set a cup of water on the floor. She
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