As it turned out, Lani did own a ship, Milmond was much closer to the rich cities than Dulkan and was a city itself. Viscount Ellis owned a few small vessels, but nothing that would survive further downstream, let alone in the southern sea. It had been decided that Braydon and Nela would be going to Narabun, accompanied by Steven, Gerald and Roan. Rhydian would take up Roan’s duties while he was away.
When she found out that she would not be going with them again, Mireille gave Braydon the silent treatment. Or the more silent than usual treatment. For the week that it had taken to send a letter to Lani and get a reply, she had not said a word to him. At one point, he had gone to Nela to ask what was wrong.
“Does she really like big cities that much? I know she liked Boshil, but I did not think it was to this extent.” He asked Nela, the girl had still been attached to Nela even though Nela agreed with him to not bring Mireille.
“Yeaaah, it was the city that she is upset about not seeing.” Nela rolled her eyes at Braydon deluding himself.
“So it isn’t. Then what is it?” Braydon got the distinct feeling that he was being mocked for not realising something obvious.
*Sigh*
“Let’s go get something to eat.” Nela gave up, if he could not figure it out then it was not worth it to tell him. Instead she pretended like he had never asked the question in the first place.
“Thank you for letting us use your ship, are you sure that you don’t need any compensation?” Braydon asked Lani, she had come to see them off from the riverside. The food and other supplies had already been loaded onto the ship, a small caravel. It was quite the expensive ship; as to his knowledge, only the Leighians knew how to build them.
“You can compensate me if you don’t bring it back.” Lani joked, but was half serious. This was a rather expensive ship after all, especially for someone of her rank. It could almost be counted as half of her entire fortune. Braydon would have thought it was all she owned if he did not see how prosperous Milmond was, southern cities really were something different.
“If this ship doesn’t come back, do you think I’ll be able to?” Braydon also cracked a joke in the same semi-serious manner. Travel by sea was basically the only way to travel between Fiveria and Shuluk, there was no way that travelling by land was safe.
“Then, good luck on your travels, I pray for your safe return.” Lani bade them farewell as they boarded the ship. If everything went as planned, they should be back in Milmond by the end of the month, if not sooner. It was now April, and the spring winds were known to make easy sailing in the south. Braydon and Nela both waved to Lani as the ship pulled away from the riverside. It could be called a dock by generous interpretation but it was merely just some posts for tying up ships and one peer. The larger docks were on the southern coast, a number of which were held by Duke Burn. His naval capacity was one of the reasons why Duke Ryder had not consolidated the south fully under his control.
“How long until we reach open water?” Braydon asked the captain once Milmond started becoming smaller in the distance. Once they were on open water, there would be very little chance that someone would try to stop them. While they were on the river, there was always the possibility of some noble deciding to cause trouble, even if it was small.
“We should reach the river mouth just before nightfall, Sire. From there it will take about two or three days sailing to reach Narabun depending on the winds. Even if there are no winds, we would still be there in four days.” The captain replied. Lani had been nice enough to let him use her crew, instead of him having to use his own troops to sail the ship. Though Braydon suspected that was because his troops had no experience in sailing and she did not want her ship damaged.
“It was good that Lani had a ship, we’d really be in trouble otherwise.” Braydon and Nela stood by the port side of the ship. If Lani had not owned a ship, they would have had to ask a merchant for help and there was no guarantee that they would be able to go by unchecked through other fiefs. That would mean that there would be a significant chance of their trip to Narabun being found out.
“If she didn’t have one, I would have advised against going all together.” Nela responded, a reasonable position. There would be too many risks and the political ramifications would not be small if one of the other factions got word of what they were doing. Even if the King found out, that would not be great, it could lead him to be ostracised within his own faction. Lani’s relative neutrality was a godsend in this regard.
“That might have been the best choice.” Braydon nodded.
“All that we can do now is enjoy the view and wait.” Nela said to Braydon as they watched the passing scenery. And it was truly picturesque, the southern regions were the most prosperous outside of the capital and its immediate vicinity. The lack of much conflict and being sat on the coast meant that the south was truly becoming richer by the year, something that could not be said for the rest of the kingdom.
They passed many scenes of farmers planting crops, the planting had been going on since mid march and they were almost done. Occasionally there would be villages or towns off in the distance that were humming with activity, merchants travelled the roads and passed by them on the river. Braydon was determined to turn his lands into a similar scene. He wanted Cliforge to be just as, no more, prosperous as this.
