“What the hell is she doing?” Zollin asked.
Eustice merely shrugged his shoulders and hurried down the stairs to the passenger deck. The raindrops were fat and cold. Zollin looked up and saw that all the sails had been taken in except the smaller sails at the top of the masts. The sailors were hurrying down from the rigging as the lieutenant began barking out orders. Zollin was getting soaked, but he continued to watch the activity on the ship. Any loose materials were quickly carried down to the ’tween decks areas, and trapdoors were being closed and latched.
A sailor hurried up to where Zollin stood at the top of the stairs and shouted to him. “Best go below sir, this looks to be a bad ’un,” the sailor cried.
Zollin glanced back up at the command deck and saw the woman still at the rail. He made a quick decision then and stepped away from the stairs. “No, I want to stay out here.”
“It’s not safe, sir.”
“I’ll chance it,” Zollin said, heading back toward the command deck.
The rain was falling in heavy sheets now and the wind was starting to pick up. Zollin was cold, and it was difficult to climb the stairs to the command deck as the ship started to lurch in the heavy waves.
The captain shot Zollin a dirty look, but Zollin sent peaceful thoughts toward the officer with his magic as he circled around the helm and went to the ship rail not far from the woman. He thought she was arrogant and rude, but she was also very attractive. As much as he didn’t want to be, he found himself hoping that she might be attracted to him. He didn’t know what to think of that, but the storm soon made it too rough on the ship to think about anything other than survival.
Zollin held onto the rail with a tight grip and did his best to keep his balance as the ship rose and fell on the waves. It was only a few more minutes before the wind began to howl, blowing the rain so that it fell at such an odd angle that Zollin thought it was falling sideways. He was beginning to wonder what crazy thought had prompted him to stay out of his cabin when he heard the woman laughing.
It was hard to see in the rain, but Zollin held his hands up to block the rain and he could see the woman gripping the rail with one hand and laughing like a child. He’d seen similar looks from children riding a horse for the first time. It was as if she was experiencing something thrilling and wonderful, but Zollin was just cold, wet, and frightened. The sea had turned so dark it was almost black, and the water on the crests of the waves was white, highlighting the towering walls of water. The ship rose and fell so steeply that it was hard for Zollin to keep from falling over.
Like the woman, the captain and the lieutenant were standing easily, with just one hand each on the post in front of the helmsmen’s large wooden ship’s wheel. They seemed unfazed by the wind and rain whipping into their faces. The woman’s two guards were struggling as much as Zollin was. They quickly had both hands on the railing, and one even knelt down on the deck to escape the worst of the raging wind.
Zollin’s magic was churning inside him. Strong emotions seemed to stoke the magical fires that burned in him. He had been angry before, but now he was scared. The ship, which had seemed massive at first, now seemed tiny and weak before the anger of the sea. Zollin looked east for the coast, but he could just barely make out the Walheta Mountains. He thought briefly about the fact that he was leaving Yelsia for the first time in his life. The thought was both frightening and exciting, but the storm made it seem more monumental somehow.
Soon the waves towered over the ship and more often than not crashed onto the main deck. Zollin was fascinated to watch the seawater slosh across the deck and drain out of the scuppers along the ship railing. Luckily the waves normally broke over the front of the ship, and since the command deck was at the rear of the vessel, Zollin only had to worry about simply staying on his feet and not being rocked overboard.
The worst of the storm only lasted a few minutes, but it was a full hour before the seas calmed enough that the captain ordered his men to open up the hatches. Zollin was soaked and very cold. He hurried down to his cabin and stripped out of his wet clothes.
“That was a complete waste of time,” he said, his teeth chattering.
Eustice wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and Zollin knelt down and kindled a small flame in midair, directly in front of him. He rubbed the blanket over his head to help dry his hair and then dressed in dry clothes. He could have used magic to dry his wet clothes, but then he might have to explain how the clothes got dry so quickly.
“I think that woman is insane,” Zollin went on. “At least the storm is giving Mansel some time to figure things out. I hate that something happened to him. I can’t imagine anyone giving him that much trouble. They must have ambushed him or something.”
Eustice nodded, but didn’t add much to the conversation. At first the eunuch’s silence had bothered Zollin. His sense of justice couldn’t stand the thought that someone had been so cruel as to cut off part of his tongue. It just reaffirmed his opinion about Offendorl and the Torr. He’d been right not to go to the Torr when they had come for him in his village almost a year ago, but resistance had cost them all so much. People had died that could have lived if he’d gone, and it seemed that everywhere Zollin went magical beings were appearing, and many of them were viciously cruel. Still, he knew that much worse could have been done if he was under the evil wizard Offendorl’s control, and Eustice was living proof of that. The wizards of the Torr had no regard for non-magical people. They were just pawns to be used and then cast aside, regardless of their well-being.
Zollin squatted down by his magical fire again, holding his hands close to the flames. He was thinking hard about how to help Mansel. He needed to find his friend and see what they could do to get him out of the mess Mansel had landed in.
“We have to find a way to help Mansel,” Zollin said to Eustice, who nodded in agreement. “I’m not sure what the captain has in mind, but he obviously felt like Mansel did something wrong. We can’t let them hurt him anymore.”
Eustice was still nodding when someone knocked on the door. Zollin looked surprised and snuffed his magical fire as Eustice opened the door.
“Hello,” said the woman who’d been on deck. Her hair was still wet and her clothes were dripping water onto the wooden floor. She looked at Zollin for a moment with an appraising eye and then said, “I love the storms at sea. They make me feel more alive than almost anything else. I think perhaps company would be nice. Will you join me for dinner?”
Zollin couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The woman had been rude before, and now here she was asking him to dinner. He had half a mind to tell her off, but the other half was lonely. He missed Brianna so much. Her tender smile, the way she made him feel about himself, the excitement of holding her close and feeling her soft lips on his. The woman in his doorway didn’t make him feel the same way, but it was similar, and he couldn’t refuse it.
“Yes,” was all Zollin managed to say.
“Good,” the woman smiled. “Meet me in my cabin in half an hour.”
She walked quickly away, leaving a trail of water behind her. Zollin stood as still as a stone, flabbergasted at what just happened. Eustice was looking at him questioningly, but Zollin had no idea what had prompted the woman’s change of heart.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I didn’t even speak to her outside. I just went up on the command deck to see what was going on. She just stood by the railing and laughed. She thought the storm was funny, I guess. I found it terrifying.”