The Vampire & Her Witch Chapter 1867: Gone Fishing (Part One)

The man on the dock wore a heavy woolen cloak that seemed to be made more of patches than the original fabric, and the cap on his head had seen better days. His face was weathered from wind and rain, and if you’d taken him to any dockside tavern in Blackwell, he’d have blended instantly with the crowd.

"Miss Lynnda?" The man on the dock asked, holding his lantern up higher to get a better look at the young women making their way down the creaking wooden pier. "Is that you?"

"Master Odhar," Ashlynn said with a smile. "This is my sister, Maelynn," Ashlynn said as they approached. "Thank you for renting us your boat on such short notice."

"Yer friend, Wendy, said it were important," Odhar said, revealing a few missing teeth when he spoke. "Ye sure ye can ’andle tha’ boat yerselves? There’s room enough fer’ two more men an fer a silver penny; I’ll guide ye’ m’self," he offered. "Don’t seem right ta send two lasses out on tha’ river in tha’ dead o’ winter," he said, scowling at the young women before him.

He wasn’t wrong about their being room in the boat. The cobble was bigger than a skiff, and heavier too. Perhaps ten paces long and open from end to end, with a flat run of floor and high flaring sides that would almost come up to a person’s hip if they stood in the middle of the boat.

The whole thing sat in the water as a shallow bowl with the front end pinched. There was a stubby mast lying down along the thwarts, unstepped, with a sail wrapped around it. Even with two oars, a bailing scoop, a wooden bucket of bait, a folded net, and a coil of lines, there was enough room for four to five people plus whatever they caught.

But neither Ashlynn nor Jocelynn had any intention of letting someone else join them.

"We’ll be fine by ourselves, Master Odhar," Ashlynn said, speaking a bit more firmly than she had been.

"Our, our pa is a lineman, you know," Jocelynn said, doing her best to join the act. Ashlynn seemed like a whole other person had stepped out of her when she started talking to the guard at the gate, and she kept it up here too.

Jocelynn didn’t know how Ashlynn did it so easily, but she’d had plenty of practice putting on smiles she didn’t feel and saying the things she was supposed to say even when she didn’t want to. Now, she just had to find the words that would convince the man to leave them alone so they could get out on the water where they belonged.

"Tonight’s an important dinner," Jocelynn tried. "But, but pa isn’t here... It wouldn’t feel right serving up something we didn’t catch ourselves. You understand, don’t you?" Jocelynn said, doing her best to strip her speech of years of practiced polish.

"It really is important," Ashlynn said, flashing Jocelynn a smile before pulling a silver penny out of a pouch at her waist and handing it to the rough fisherman. "If you know a good spot where the fish are biting," she said, letting her voice trail off suggestively as she held out the coin.

"On a day like today," Odhar said, taking the coin and pocketing it. "Ye won’t get much downriver wit’ all the lordlings crowdin’ in an’ takin’ tha’ easy spots," he said, pointing upriver at a spit of rocky land that helped form the basin where Lothian city sat.

"Up past tha’ Snake’s Tooth," Odhar said. "If ye’ cross over ta tha’ north bank, where tha’ reeds grow tall, it’s good fer panfish wit’ yer nets, an’ not far from there, where tha’ river runs deep, ye get yer best line fishin’. Not much wind fer tha’ sail today," he said, licking his finger and holding it up in the air. "Against the current, ye sure ye don’t need ta’ hire an oarsman?"

"Sure as I can gut you like a fat trout if you think a pair of women are easy to bully, Master Odhar," Ashlynn said, dropping her sack into the boat before setting her hand on the hilt of a curved knife at her waist that Jocelynn hadn’t even realized her sister was carrying. "Our pa didn’t raise us to be meek little kittens," she said, her emerald eyes hardening in the lamplight.

"Aye! I don’t want no trouble, lass," Odhar protested, quickly holding up his hands. "I’ll just wait here on tha’ pier fer ye ta’ finish up," he said, taking two steps back. "Good, good luck," he said before turning quickly and leaving the sisters alone with the boat.

"Ash..." Jocelynn said, looking at her sister in amazement. "You..."

"Hush now," Ashlynn said, reaching out to take the sack that held Jocelynn’s change of clothes and tossing it into the boat before holding out a hand to help Jocelynn into the small craft. "It’s ’Lynnda’ on the docks, you know," she said with a slight wink as Jocelynn boarded the nameless coble.

"Right, ’Lynnda,’" Jocelynn repeated as Ashlynn joined her on the boat, marveling at the way her sister went from threatening to playful so quickly.

"I’ll take the oars," Ashlynn said, taking her seat in the middle of the small boat and reaching for the oars. "You get the tiller," Ashlynn said, nodding at the handle at the tiny vessel’s stern.

"Where are we going?" Jocelynn asked as she took her own seat, moving as easily on the rocking boat as she had on dry land. Some things, it seemed, would always be part of her, no matter how long she’d been away from the sea.

"We’ll head upriver, past the Snake’s Tooth," Ashlynn said, glancing over her shoulder before she dipped the oars in the water and pulled. "Odhar might have thought he could take advantage of a pair of young women, but I don’t think he was lying to us," she said as the boat slid smoothly away from the dock.

"’Wendy’ told me he charged her an extra silver penny for the lines, the nets and all the gear," Ashlynn said. "And an extra two snips for the bucket of bait," she added as she rowed smoothly toward the center of the river, dragging the tip of one oar in the water to help Jocelynn turn them toward their destination.

"He struck me as greedy, but not dangerous," Ashlynn concluded. "I don’t mind spreading around a bit of silver when times are hard, but I wasn’t about to let him spoil our morning by tagging along."

"Who is ’Wendy’?" Jocelynn asked once they were far enough away from the docks that they wouldn’t be overheard.

"Lady Morwen," Ashlynn said with a smile. "I couldn’t exactly send Heila down here to rent us a boat, now could I? When I told her what I needed, she was happy to help."

"I see," Jocelynn said, holding on to the rough handle of the tiller and leaning slightly back as she looked past Ashlynn toward their destination, letting her eyes roam over the other boats with lanterns hanging from their prows or masts as they made their way out into the early morning gloom before she turned back to her sister.

Jocelynn knew that Ashlynn was stronger now. She’d seen what Ashlynn was capable of when she fought Owain Lothian. But the Ashlynn sitting across from her wasn’t just strong as she pulled them through the water. She was practiced, angling the oars expertly and keeping a steady rhythm as she rowed against the river’s current.

They were going fishing, and it was exciting, but it was also strange. The Ashlynn who left Blackwell rarely set foot in small boats like this. For a woman who couldn’t swim, the daughter of the Count no less, trips in small boats were just too risky.

The few times they’d gone fishing in deep water, it had always been on one of the larger ships in the Blackwell fleet where they could stand together on the aftercastle and drop their lines over the side of the railing.

But Ashlynn had changed, and now, she rowed the small boat upriver with the same ease that she’d adopted a false name and a whole new persona to interact with the guard at the gate and the fisherman on the dock.

A persona named ’Lynnda’ who had a fearsome reputation among the Lothian guards and knights after what she’d done in the Summer Villa.

"Um, Ash," Jocelynn asked, swallowing heavily as she worked up the courage to broach such a delicate topic. "Can I, can I ask you a question? About being ’Lynnda’ and... and what you did in the Summer Villa," Jocelynn said hesitantly.

"About the spying?" Ashlynn asked, even though she doubted that was it. No, looking in her sister’s trembling seafoam eyes, Ashlynn was fairly certain she knew what Jocelynn was really asking about, but she asked to confirm anyway. "Or are you wondering about Sir Kaefin and Sir Broll...?"