This made the woman laugh again, then look upon them with something that really did feel like kindness, without self-interest.
“I do, actually,” she said. “Far from the eyes of your wealthy persecutors.”
“Do we so obviously have wealthy persecutors?” asked Bitterblue.
“With your evasive answers, and those fine coats you’re wearing? And those thick golden rings on your fingers? I hear your accent too, girl. You should take those rings off if you don’t want rumors circulating about a wealthy Lienid girl on Trader’s Beach.”
Bitterblue pulled her hands inside her sleeves. “Rumors about me are fine,” she said. “It’s my friend we don’t want people noticing.”
“Interesting,” said the woman. “What else do you need, besides a bath?”
“Nothing,” said Lovisa, who needed so many things. She needed to know what rumors were being told of a fire last night in Flag Hill. She needed to know how to get to the north, without an airship and without being recognized. And she needed the queen to stop talking so much.
“Are you on the run?” asked the woman.
“No,” said Lovisa, too quickly.
“Mm-hm,” said the woman. “The proprietor of the bath I mentioned can help people on the run. Especially people who want to get far away, fast. Ask her about it, if you like, and show her your fancy rings. And don’t delay, for there’s a storm moving in.”
How suspiciously easy, how amazing that this woman could provide every last thing they needed. “Why don’t you just point us toward this bath,” Lovisa said, with no real intention of visiting the bath, “and we’ll go.”
“You won’t find it on your own,” the woman said. “I’ll provide someone to lead you.”
“No,” said Lovisa. “We prefer to manage alone.”
“But,” Bitterblue said to Lovisa, “do you know the route to your friend?”
Lovisa responded in Lingian so that the beach woman wouldn’t understand. “How hard can it be? We follow the coast.”
“Do you know the terrain?” asked Bitterblue, also in Lingian. “Do you know how to sleep outside in the cold?”
“We’ll find hotels!”
“Do you know for a fact that there are hotels? Hotels where you won’t be recognized, or our identities guessed? Won’t your parents ask at the hotels? We need to get you away from here quickly, without leaving a trail.”
“‘Far away, fast’ means airships,” said Lovisa. “Airships mean the Varana family. What if this woman is trying to drop us into the lap of the Ledra elite?”
“Does she really look to you like someone in league with the Ledra elite?”
“Is this the better plan you promised?” said Lovisa hotly. “Trusting everyone we meet?”
“We’re going to have to trust some people! At least occasionally!”
“You need to start being honest about who you are,” Lovisa said. “People won’t hurt you if they know you’re the drowned queen.”
“We need to get you someplace safe before we start throwing that truth around.”
“Maybe do not assume that people you meet speak no Lingian,” said the woman, in rough but coherent Lingian.
Lovisa looked up at her in slack surprise. The woman was studying Bitterblue with a dawning interest, but she spoke plainly. “This is Trader’s Beach,” she said, speaking Keepish again. “This is where the Royal Continent ships come in. We all understand a bit of every language that passes through. Just a tip, as you make your way up the coast.”
“Ah,” said Bitterblue. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” the woman said. “As far as whom to trust, I’m Ona, and I live on this beach. I’m known as the firekeeper. Everyone knows me; ask whomever you like about me. I’m not going to sell two frightened girls to the wolves, certainly not to the Varanas. Anyone will tell you so. And I think that after all,” she said, flicking a glance at the ring Bitterblue still held in her palm, “I’m not going to take one of those rings, just for helping you find a bath.”
It seemed to Lovisa that the part of her that decided things, always so clever and sharp and keen, was broken. She couldn’t sense the air around this woman. She couldn’t feel whether it was smart to trust her or not. But she knew they had to do something. She glared at Bitterblue, who was probably making bad, unsafe decisions from a place of impatience and desperation, and felt tears sliding down her cheeks.
Except that Bitterblue didn’t look desperate or impatient. She looked confident and unruffled, curious. Happy. She reminded Lovisa of Mari, when he was telling her the latest thing he’d learned in one of his doctoring classes. And she reminded Lovisa of Nev, needing no one, sure of herself.
Angrily, Lovisa flicked her tears away. She couldn’t trust Bitterblue, but she had no ideas of her own. She would trust the part of Bitterblue that reminded her of Mari and Nev.
* * *
—
A Keepish girl who wouldn’t tell them her name led them to the bath, north along a seaside promenade. From there, Lovisa had a clear view of the clouds gathering on the horizon.
To their left were cliffs that dropped to the water. Sometimes the path turned into wooden footbridges that crossed deep ravines. It was plain that the queen didn’t like the footbridges; she bolted across them, squeaking in alarm when they shifted or swung under her feet.
“They’re designed to move with the wind,” said their guide, who was as small as Lovisa and the queen. Lovisa wondered if Ona had chosen this girl on purpose, to make them feel safe. So they’d be more easily taken in?
“How much farther is it to the bath?” Lovisa asked.
“Maybe an hour,” the girl said, “at this pace.” She led them off the path and away from the water, uphill, into a grove of trees. She kept glancing with big eyes at Bitterblue, which meant that the gossip had already begun. Bitterblue was eating, for Ona had given them bread, fruit, nuts for their journey. In fact, Bitterblue hadn’t stopped eating since the moment the food arrived. She chewed slowly, with a kind of reverence. Because my parents starved her, Lovisa thought.
Their route steepened. At a high break in the trees, Lovisa stopped and looked back, trying to catch sight of Flag Hill.
“What is it?” asked Bitterblue, stopping with her.
Lovisa shook her head, wanting, needing to be left alone as she tried to find the place where her house had burned, and the Gravla house too. Needing to see with her own eyes what she’d done. Wishing she could spot her brothers, which was absurd, of course. But all she saw were hints of peaked roofs and more trees. She couldn’t find it.