If they had trained heavily before their long voyage had reached Sheld, then this voyage forth was full of battle. Vaenuth could beat anyone they paired her against, though Tagg gave her the most trouble. Many a day was full of sweat and bruises, and the occasional loss of blood drops. The sailors aboard the Roost gave them a wide berth of the deck for their training. Even Lerran’s guards joined in once in a while. One of them rivalled Tagg in skill, and gave Vaenuth a bloody welt on her shoulder one afternoon. Pressip had almost started a real fight because of that, until Vaenuth declared it was a training bruise, nothing more.
Vaenuth read the same file that Lerran had given her almost every evening before she went to bed. She had memorized the names easily enough. Ra’las of Bellasa, now probably known as Ra’las of Starath. His wife, Elthia. And Trist, son of Ra’las. Did the son know of his father’s sins? Had he any idea what had been done to Vaenuth’s family? What had been done to Vaenuth herself? She had lost her virginity to a man who paid for it, when she was ten. How many others had Ra’las sold this way?
She fought her friends with the same anger—how could she not? How could she be anything but that fury, that ferocity, that hatred? She didn’t miss her caravan now. She didn’t miss Banno or Elli or Iloli or Hulean. She missed only the feeling of blood on her blade.
On the 27th, they spotted a ship north-east of them. It flew no flags of allegiance, which was not rare on the Grey Sea. It tried to catch up with them though, which was much more concerning. Roost’s first mate claimed he could see the drawing of parallel sword blades on its hull, the infamous sign of pirates and corsairs.
They were sailing perpendicular to the wind that day, so the captain ordered oars be lowered, and Vaenuth and her friends pitched in. Still the pirate vessel drifted behind them, keeping the pace. Late that evening, the wind finally began to pick up in their direction and they put the lurking ship closer to the horizon. It surrendered the chase sometime during the middle of the night, vanishing from their sights altogether.
They were more than halfway to Starath, the biggest mining port in the world, and the home of Vaenuth’s adversary.