“For that price,” the wizard added, “my companion and I will each receive a private stateroom.”
The captain chuckled good-naturedly. “A stateroom? I see you’ve never been aboard the Wavewalker. In fact, I wonder if you’ve ever been aboard a ship at all? Yes, I can find a cabin for each of you. Some highborn nobles might consider them closets, but each room has a door and a bunk. After a week or two on the waves, you’ll think of them as fine accommodations.”
As long as she got to her destination, Nicci didn’t care about spacious rooms or padded furniture. “That will be acceptable.”
Some of the crewmen lounged on the deck, assessing the new passengers as if they were some strange fish they had drawn up in a net. Since the ship was due to depart soon, a stream of sailors continued to return, some staggering with hangovers, some carrying possessions they had purchased in port. They glanced at Nathan with a curious expression, no doubt wondering about his remarkable clothes and his fine sword, but their eyes lingered on Nicci, drawn to her long blond hair and the black dress that accentuated her curves. Nicci saw no sign of the young man she had rescued in the alley.
Dismissing the scrutiny of the sailors, the captain directed the two guests to their cabins. As she crossed the deck, Nicci noticed five shirtless men whose broad chests sported a waving line of tattooed circles. All five had dusky skin and mud-brown hair pulled back and tied like the tail of a warhorse. Although most of the crewmen turned their gazes away from Nicci’s stare, these haughty shirtless men stared at her with undisguised hunger.
Seeing their lascivious grins, Nathan stepped in front of Nicci. “Make way! Don’t you know this is Death’s Mistress?” The shirtless men grudgingly backed off.
Their cabins in the stern of the ship proved to be just as small and unimpressive as Captain Eli had led them to expect. Nicci could tell that Nathan was disappointed in the accommodations, and she said, “Even a small cabin is better than lying on the forest floor in the cold rain and fog of the Dark Lands.”
“You are ever the optimist, Sorceress,” he said. “I concur.”
For now, as the sun set over the delta of the Kern River and the tide began to go out, they went back up on deck to watch the preparations for departure.
Captain Eli shouted orders as his crew climbed the masts and crawled out on yardarms to unfurl sails. Others slipped thick hawsers from dock posts and loosed the ropes from stanchions on the pier. Hour bells rang from towers along the harbor.
She still had not seen Bannon Farmer aboard, and she feared the young redhead had blundered into another group of cutthroats in an alley and had suffered the fate she expected him to.
Just as the sailors prepared to lift the Wavewalker’s boarding ramp, though, a young man with long ginger hair bounded down the dock. “Wait for me, I’m coming! Wait! Wavewalker, wait!” Nicci noticed that he was now carrying a sword, which bounced and slapped against his thigh as he ran.
Bannon raced along as merchants and dockworkers scattered out of the way. He bumped into a reeling, drunken sailor who couldn’t seem to remember where his own ship was, but Bannon spun past him and ran up the boarding ramp. His fellow sailors laughed, and a few exchanged coins. “I told you he’d be too foolish to jump ship when he had the chance.”
Captain Eli gave Bannon a scolding look. “Some of our crew were betting you’d be a one-voyage sailor, Mr. Farmer. Next time don’t be late.”
“I wasn’t late, sir.” Bannon panted hard, swiping his loose hair out of his eyes. His cheeks were flushed with the effort. “I’m just in time.”
When Bannon noticed Nicci, his face brightened, and the broad grin only emphasized the growing bruise on his smashed lips. “You’re here! You came. Welcome aboard the Wavewalker.”
“It seems we will be passengers. This ship is going where we need to travel.” She took a breath, then added, “Thank you for the recommendation.”
He held up his plain, unadorned sword. “See, I found a blade. Just like I said.”
The other sailors joked. One said, “Some might call that a sword—I’d call it a grass cutter.” Another said, “Who do you intend to impress with that ugly thing? A blind woman? Or maybe a farmer who needs to chop down tall weeds.”
They all guffawed.
Bannon frowned at his clunky sword, then re-formed his expression into a cheery grin. “A sword doesn’t have to be pretty to be effective at killing,” he said, repeating Nicci’s earlier words. “It’s a sturdy sword.” He held it up. “In fact, that’s what I will name it. Sturdy!”
Captain Eli cut him off. “Enough showing off your sword, Mr. Farmer. Right now, I need your hands and your muscles on the rigging ropes. I want to be clear of the ships in the harbor and out in the open water before night falls.”
Standing beside her at the starboard rail, Nathan mused, “Well, we are on our way, Sorceress. To Kol Adair, wherever it is.” He gave her a wry grin. “I think I’m already starting to feel whole again.”
CHAPTER 8
The sea was calm and dark, and the full moon rose like a bright torch as the Wavewalker glided out of Grafan Harbor. The three-masted carrack cruised past the chain of islands that strung out past Halsband Island, which now held only the pulverized rubble of the Palace of the Prophets.
After they had left the glowing lights of Tanimura, the night sky became a deep velvet black. Nicci stood on deck and looked up, trying to find new patterns among the bright stars that had shifted in the universe.
The canvas sails strained tight, creamy white as the full moon shone on them. The ropes glistened with a thin film of night dew. The carved figurehead of the Sea Mother stared forward with wooden eyes, as if watching out for hazards ahead.
Bannon came up to her near the bow, smiling shyly. “I’m glad you decided to come with us aboard the Wavewalker.”
“And I am glad that you survived Tanimura.” Nicci couldn’t tell whether he had learned any wariness or common sense from his time in the city. “It has been a day full of surprises.”
He still proudly clung to his new blade. “You were right about the sword, that it needs to be serviceable, not pretty. And sturdy. It needs to be sturdy.” He held the weapon as if it had become his most prized possession, turning it back and forth as he watched the moonlight play along the discolored blade. He swept it sideways in a practice stroke. “I can’t wait for a chance to use it.”
“Do not be so eager for that, but be ready if need be.”
“I will. Do you have a sword of your own?”
“I don’t need one,” Nicci said.
His expression fell as he was suddenly reminded of what she had done to the thugs in the alley. “No, I doubt you would. I saw you hurl that man and smash his head against the wall. It cracked open like a rotten pumpkin! And that other man … you turned his neck to jelly! I don’t even know what you did to the third one.” Bannon shook his head. His eyes were wide. “I was trying to fight him for you, but he just … died.”
“That is what happens when you stop a person’s heart.”
“Sweet Sea Mother,” Bannon whispered. He brushed his hair back. “You saved my life, no doubt about that, and you were right—I was too innocent. I should never have blundered into a situation like that. I expect the world to be a nice place, but it’s darker than I think.”