Free Blood Storm by Rhiannon Hart

took from Ercan, on the other hand, some they’ll train to fight, but most they’ll train to be spies and infectors.’
    The general picture of harmings I’d had in my head diversified into three sub-categories: attack harmings, spies and infectors. Then another category occurred to me: rebel harmings. Rarely seen in the wild, these harmings enjoyed throwing themselves into the path of danger and certain death. They were stubborn, cranky creatures, chronically under-slept and easily identifiable by the haunted look in their eyes.
    ‘How long will it take to sail to Pol?’
    ‘A week. Maybe a week and a half. It’s not the best time of year for the crossing as the winds are weak. At the peak of the season you can do it in four days with a good ship like the Jessamine .’
    A week and a half was a long time to be without anything to do. I would have liked to browse for books to read on our journey across the ocean, but Rodden had other ideas. ‘One more job. Rememberwhat the captain said? He’s got a ship’s cat. That means no rats for us, and I was counting on them for our blood supply.’
    ‘Oh, of course. So now what do we do?’
    ‘Rabbits. We’ll say they’re meat for Griffin and Leap, which will explain why they’ll be disappearing one by one.’
    The only rabbits we could find in the marketplace were children’s pets. They were fluffy and white with big floppy ears, and much fatter than wild rabbits. Rodden counted them. ‘Fifteen. We’ll just have to ration them. One between us every day.’
    The stallholder overheard and widened her eyes, but the coins he slapped in her hand kept her mouth shut. We lugged the hutch of rabbits back to the inn with our parcels.
    ‘We’ll have to be discreet about feeding,’ he cautioned as we laid the hutch in his room. ‘Sailors are a superstitious bunch and I think blood-drinking would make them nervous.’
    ‘That’s all right. I’ll just do it in my room.’
    ‘Room? You don’t get a room. You get a patch of deck to lie down on. This is a trade-ship, not a passenger boat. We eat, sleep and wash on deck.’
    ‘I see,’ I said, my voice tight. ‘You didn’t think that as probably the only female on board I might like alittle privacy?’ I was beginning to get the impression that Rodden enjoyed putting me in situations that tested my limits of being filthy and uncomfortable.
    He shrugged. ‘Can’t be helped. No passenger ships between here and Pol, Your Highness,’ he added.
    I rankled at the use of my royal address. He only said it when he wanted to annoy me. I put down the other parcels and stalked back to the market.
    ‘Back by four,’ he called after me.
    I ignored him and kept walking. The rest of the day I spent browsing the bookstalls and sitting in tea shacks with more mugs of camai , and I only returned to the inn at the very last minute.
    Rodden was standing outside. ‘You’re late,’ he snapped.
    I shrugged. ‘Can’t be helped,’ I said, mimicking his words from earlier. We walked to the dock in silence, me carrying our bags and weapons and Rodden with the rabbits.
    The ship wasn’t quite ready for us to board, so we sat with the captain at the Krill ’n’ Mermaid. Rodden was fidgety and drank an excessive amount of rum and I got the feeling he was nervous about something. The seagulls were annoying Griffin again and she sat on the back of my chair, hackles raised.Leap was preoccupied by the crayfish pots, peering at them suspiciously as though they were about to swallow him whole. I was still sulking and the captain was drunk, so there was very little conversation at our table.
    At last a sailor waved to us from the deck.
    ‘That’ssusss,’ the captain slurred, getting unsteadily to his feet.
    I cast a baleful look at Rodden. He’d checked that the boat was sound but had neglected to do the same for the captain. But Rodden was ignoring me, his face pale and clammy. As he stepped up to board he went green and vomited off the