Page 100 of Storms of Allegiance

“Do I want to know how you already have local coins?” I asked when we’d finished our drinks and returned the cups to the boy who came running after us to fetch them.

“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what’s worrying you.” Nik gave me a self-satisfied smile. “Unless liberating some supplies from the ship’s hold counts as stealing. But since those belonged to Grey, I can’t say I feel guilty.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t have it in me to protest. My focus was now firmly on the people around us, and we attempted several more conversations with an equal lack of success.

“They all seem so…lifeless,” I said after our last awkward attempt. “They aren’t curious or interested in anything much. This is an incredibly closed-off community—how could the arrival of an entire ship not set everyone talking?”

Nik frowned, glancing along the closest row of stalls. “My first instinct is to assume they’re holding back—that they know it’s dangerous to talk about the Constantines, the ship, or anything related to them. But I don’t think it’s that. You can guard your tongue, but it’s hard to keep curiosity from the eyes. And they don’t seem afraid or even wary.”

“Just genuinely uninterested,” I finished for him. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

We continued wandering along, no longer touching. After seeing several of Grey’s followers clustered around a leather worker’s stall, I had refused to let Nik take my hand again. The other mainlanders hadn’t appeared to notice us, but I could feel the lingering effect of their presence.

We finally reached the edge of the market, stopping at the final stall to buy several sweet buns. I hummed in pleasure as I polished off the first one. Whatever strangeness gripped these people, it hadn’t affected their ability to cook.

Before I could take a bite of the second one, I noticed a pair of bright eyes fixed on us—or more specifically on the buns in our hands.

I smiled at the two young children who lingered just outside the edge of the market, as if they knew they would be chastised if they stepped inside. The older one drew back a little at the attention, but the younger one smiled more broadly.

I held out the bun, and he jumped up and down. Evading his older sister’s grasp, he scampered forward and snatched it from my hand, as if afraid I would change my mind if he delayed.

“Fergus!” the girl snapped. “That’s rude!”

“It’s all right.” I smiled at her and held out another bun. “We have plenty to share.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“Of course.” I waggled it encouragingly.

“See, Lumi,” Fergus said around a large mouthful. “I told you they’d be nice.”

“Us?” I asked in bemusement.

“Not specifickerly,” Fergus said, still speaking with his mouthful. “Just the ship people.”

I exchanged a glance with Nik.

“You were talking about those of us who came on the ship?” I asked.

“Of course.” Lumi accepted the bun I was offering and took a daintier bite than her brother. “We’ve never had a ship arrive before. Even our ma says she’s never heard of one coming. Not ever.”

“And she’sold,” Fergus added.

Both children regarded us with wide eyes, expecting us to recognize the import of this news. I looked at Nik again. I doubted their mother was actually that old, but she was right that they’d never had newcomers before.

“It’s natural to be curious,” I said, picking my words carefully. “Is everyone talking about us, then?”

Maybe the islanders were better actors than we’d given them credit for, and their disinterest had been a show for the new arrivals.

But Lumi wrinkled her nose in an expression of disgust. “Of course not. The rest of them are never curious aboutanything.”

“It’s boring.” Fergus gave a world-weary sigh that made me hide a laugh behind my hand.

“What about the other children?” Nik asked. “They must be curious at least?”

The nose wrinkle reappeared. “We don’t play with them much,” Lumi said. “They’re just like their parents.”

“Boring,” Fergus spelled out, in case we were confused.

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