'Aye,' she said. 'If we'd waited for the boy to get calm enough on his own…'
'She's right,' Mornis said. 'I don't like that thing either, but it's saved us some time.' He took a deep breath and disappeared under the water until only a faint glow from the magic candle was visible.
The boy fell silent suddenly, then lurched free of the sconce and waded into the water after Mornis.
As the light left the cabin, Jherek looked at the ship's mage. Her face remained calm, but there were unshed tears in her eyes.
'It was the only way,' she told him in a shaky voice.
'Skeins will keep him safe enough till we reach the surface. The raggamoffyn is controlling his body now.'
'Aye,' Jherek replied. 'You did what you could.'
'You don't think I should have done this.'
'Lady,' Jherek said, 'I only know what I should do. I wouldn't dare to presume to tell another what to do.'
'You're so young,' she said. 'How'd you get to be so judgmental?'
'I'm not.'
'You are,' she said. 'Maybe you don't realize it yet. You're going to have a hard, narrow path ahead of you.' Without another word, she dived beneath the rising water that claimed the interior of the cabin.
Jherek followed her, feeling the whole cog slide deeper into the ocean. He felt confused about her, about what she'd said. He didn't know what he was going to do about that, or why he felt he had to do anything at all.
XXI
15 Mirtul, the Year of the Gauntlet
The boy sat inside Mornis's cabin less than an hour later, wrapped tightly in a blanket now instead of the raggamoffyn. He ate warmed-over chowder greedily from a beaten metal bowl, pausing only to chew the chunks offish.
'Do you know who the pirates were that attacked your ship?' Captain Tynnel asked.
The boy shook his head, still chewing. 'No, sir.'
One of the few Breezerunner's captain had allowed into the room, Jherek stood near the doorway, watching the boy. Wyls was educated and mannered, the son of a merchant who'd hired the cog as transport. He'd had a good life ahead of him, the young sailor reflected. Now all that had been lost, unless there was family he could get home to.
Wyls stared into the chowder bowl. 'They came out of nowhere and attacked our ship,' he said. 'The captain tried to run, but they had a faster ship. My father locked me in the cabin before they got on our ship, but I heard the fighting.' His breath seized up in his throat.
'Easy, lad,' Tynnel said, dropping a hand to the boy's head. 'You just take your time. I only need to know a few more things, then you can sup till you've a full belly and cover up in those blankets.'
The boy nodded and continued holding the bowl in both hands. After a moment, he asked in a broken voice, 'What else do you need to know?'
'When did the pirates attack the ship?'
'It was early, soon after morningfeast. I remember because I'd only been out on deck a short time before my father locked me away.'
'When did they break the ship up?'
'After the fighting stopped and they looted the cargo hold. I remember hearing the winch creaking. I unlocked the door and lay under the bed. When the room was searched, they were hurrying so much they didn't find me. I locked the door again after they left.'
'Then they broke the ship?' Tynnel asked.
'Yes. I was looking out the window when they sailed their ship over ours.' Wyls looked up at the captain and asked, 'Will you help me find my father?'
'Aye, we'll search, lad. Maybe they were put off in a lifeboat.'
The boy nodded.
Even though he knew why Tynnel had said what he did, it sickened Jherek to hear the lie. If the boy's father yet lived, he'd have demanded sanctuary for his son as well. Jherek left the cabin, satisfied the boy was going to be taken care of.
Back on the main deck, he stopped at the railing and breathed deeply. He still carried a chill from swimming even though he'd changed clothes. Glancing at the prow, he spotted Sabyna sitting there alone. She was swaddled in a heavy woolen blanket.
Uncomfortable with how things had been left between them after the encounter over the raggamoffyn, Jherek went to the ship's galley and got two bowls of chowder from the cook. A pot was generally kept going for the men taking the night shift.
He carried the bowls of chowder to the prow. 'I thought maybe you'd like some soup,' he said quietly, extending one of the bowls.
She looked up at him, then took it graciously. 'Thank you.' She put the bowl in her lap, gray tendrils wafting around her as Breezerunner sailed in ever-widening circles in the attempt to find other survivors of the pirate attack.
'May I join you, lady?' he asked, feeling uncomfortable and afraid that she'd tell him no.
'You'd want to sit with me after what I did to that boy?'
'Aye.'
She shook her head. 'Then sit.'
He did, folding his legs. The wind had a chill bite to it now. He ate the chowder in the silence that stretched between them.
'Are you cold?' she asked, setting her bowl aside.
'I'm fine.'
'You're shivering.'
'Only a little.'
'Here,' Sabyna said, stretching the blanket out, offering him part of it.
Hesitantly, Jherek took the blanket and wrapped himself in it. Immediately, he became overly conscious of her body heat saturating the blanket, and of the way she smelled of lilacs in spite of the swim.
'Is the boy all right?' she asked.
'He's eating, and from the look of him, he'll be sleeping soon. He told the captain that Skeins scared him, but he understands why it had to be done.'
'Good.' Sabyna pushed wet hair from her brow. 'He'll start to feel the real pain in the next couple of days, when he realizes he's survived and his father hasn't.'
Jherek knew that was true, and that there was nothing he could do to spare the boy that pain. Living hurt was a fact he'd learned early, and one that had stayed with him the longest. 'What will Tynnel do with him?'
'The best he can,' Sabyna answered. 'He'll post for the boy's family and leave him with a temple in Athkatla when we reach the port for care. He'll check on him, but that boy could well end up being an orphan. It happens. This is a hard world.'
'Aye.' Jherek hunkered in the blanket for a time, wishing he felt more like sleeping. He felt drawn to the woman. In the three days aboard ship, he'd watched her and liked what he saw. Rescuing the boy the way she had, though, had shown him some of the differences that lay between them. He wished it would have made him like her less. The attraction, however, remained.
'I heard the boy tell Tynnel that pirates took the ship,' Sabyna said.
Jherek nodded.
'Pirates killed my brother,' she went on in a voice so quiet it was almost a whisper, 'but I told you that, didn't I? My father was ship's mage on Glass Princess back then.'
