6. Smoke on the Water“Hyrn was here?” asked Cait as they drifted into shore beneath the outstretched arms of the titanic oak tree.
“It's just a name I think,” said Johnny. “When the floods hit five hundred years ago, the inhabitants climbed into the branches of the tree to escape the rising waters. It was, like, only a village back then. But they all survived, so people figured the oak had magical powers. You know, Hyrn's protection. Since then the place has grown a lot. Only Guilden is bigger.”
Hyrn's Oak was clearly a fishing port, too. To one side of the bay, a wooden wharf stretched into the waters. Many flat-bottomed skiffs were moored there, nodding up and down in the swell. They were the sort of vessels she'd seen all along the coast, trawling the shallows for darting fish.
The w
