Chapter 14: Sky Have Mercy

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“You know,” he says. “Sailors have a hard life. On the Leviathans, sailors lose their footings in storms, fall all the way off.”

“Sky have mercy,” I say.

“Sky have mercy,” my friend says. “Horrible, that is. Your bones falling all the way to the bottom.” He shakes his head.

“Sky have mercy,” I repeat, eager for him to talk of something else.

“Of course, the long boats and the skiffs, well, no hard weather for them. That’s pretty safe.”

“Must be nice to see everything from up high,” I say.

“Of course,” he says, “Every ship has a crew and the crews make their own rules.” I look out at the sky, the nearby skerry, the tiny dot of a longboat, but glance back at my companion, wondering what he’s getting at.

“Yes, sir,” I say.

“And if anybody breaks a sailor’s rule, the rest of the crew chuck him off.” He snaps his fingers. “Just like that.”

Confused, I try to pull back as he grabs me by the tunic, bunching the cloth up in his fists, pulling me toward him.

I cry out and look around, look for anyone to help.

There’s four tents in my sight and three people watching us, but none rushing over.

My companion pulls me closer, up toward his face.

“If you come near Sabra again, I will throw you off the World.” He shakes me and shakes me again.

“Get off me,” I manage to say, trying to push him away. “Help!” I call out.

“Nobody is going to help you, pesca!” he shouts. “You don’t bother her again. Say it - say you won’t go near her.”

“I won’t - I won’t -” I say. “Help! Help!”

The man shoves me to the ground and one of the other men walks over. As he approaches, he says, “You shouldn’t hassle people, boy. Sabra’s one of our people and you aren’t.”

“I didn’t do-”

The stranger lands a kick in my side.

“You shouldn’t hassle people!” he shouts. The first man stands over me while the second hunkers down next to me. As I try to get up, he playfully pushes me back down. “Now you go back to the - wherever you’re staying.”

“The Three Goats,” I say. I’ve no idea what possesses me to supply that fact or why it would matter.

“Fine. You go back and you stay there until it’s your time to leave. Don’t go near Sabra. Don’t go near any decent folk.”

The first man spoke up. “You’re not special because you come from the towns or have a fancy job. You don’t get to threaten Sabra.”

“I didn’t,” I start to say, but the crouching man shoves me and tells me to shut up.

He stands up and both men stand over me. “Get up and get back to the inn. Don’t you dare leave it. And don’t come back to the lake, not even for the dark.”

The two men pull me roughly to my feet.

“You can’t leave me to the goblins!” I object.

“I’m one of the torchmen,” he says. “I won’t let you on the bridge.”

They shove me back toward Lake Town and throw little pebbles at my back to hurry me along.

I walk over sharp rocks and brambles as I skirt the edge of Lake Town, staying well away from Sabra. The two men and later, some of their friends, hound me the whole way, so I couldn’t step carefully. When I arrive at The Three Goats, my feet are cut and hurt.

When I greet the innkeeper, sitting outside, as she had been before, making a flatbread over a fire, she asks, “Who gave you my token?”

I say the peddler’s name. I’m sure to remember it, soon.

“If he sends another of his apprentices like you, I’ll turn him away. I don’t want trouble.”

“I did nothing,” I object.

She shakes her head.

“I did nothing,” I repeat, quieter, now. I’m hurt and angry at being picked on this way. I can’t even stand up for myself. There are too many of them.

“Here’s your dinner,” she says, tossing one of the flatbreads on the ground in front of me. “No food in the boat, so eat it and go.”

I look down at it, laying in the dirt at my feet.

“You’re going to want to pick that up,” she says. “That’s the dinner you get.”

“I’ll want water with that,” I say. “And not on the ground.”

I wait while she pours a mug of water for me. She holds it out, as if she would dump it, but then offers it to me. I crouch and pick up the bread. There is nowhere for me to sit, so I wipe the dirt off the bread on my britches and eat the bread standing up.

It’s soft and very tasty.

Submitted: May 28, 2023

Fantasy sprite goblins bones