irritably, one forepaw flexing, then drawing back.
'By the gods,' the woman said in hoarse surprise.
Embarrassed, the young sailor risked a glance at Sabyna, not knowing what she might make of his answer. Her gaze didn't meet his, but unshed tears glittered in her eyes.
Jherek felt like a giant hand reached inside of him and tried to yank his heart from his chest. He sat up straighter, knocking the cutlass from his knees, his chest suddenly too tight to breathe.
The feeling of being yanked out of his own body passed as suddenly as it came, dropping Jherek back to the floor. He gasped, then his breath came back to him in a rush. Awareness returned to him, making him feel as though a part of him was gone, but he couldn't name which part.
'Your promise,' the diviner stated in a strained voice, 'is accepted.'
'Lathander help you, young warrior,' Glawinn said gravely, 'as I will if I am able.'
Jherek sat, stunned, unable to explain what had passed between the woman and him. He had no doubt that it would have consequences.
Dehnee took her hands from his and lifted the astrolabe from her lap. She spoke over the device, calling out in a language Jherek couldn't understand. A purple flame filled the yellowed crystal and threw a lambent glow over the room. A moment later and the light shrank back inside the astrolabe.
'It's finished,' the diviner said, and offered the instrument to Jherek.
The young sailor reached for the astrolabe, his limbs feeling like lead. When he touched the polished surface, an icy chill filled him.
'All the readings you take from that astrolabe will give you the position of Vurgrom's ship and not your own,' Dehnee said.
'You took a reading from the disk for Vurgrom,' Azla said.
The diviner didn't try to deny it. 'Yes.'
'What did you learn?'
The diviner shook her head. 'Not much,' she said. The disk is protected from the small skills I have.'
From what he'd been through in the last few minutes, Jherek doubted the diviner's skills were in any way small. He wondered what brought her to the Dragonisle, and why to that place's most desolate harbor. Had it been through choice, or need? How would that affect the promise he'd made her?
'But you learned something,' Azla said.
'The disk is designed to lead its possessor to a weapon,' Dehnee said.
'What weapon?'
'I couldn't see that much, but I know it lies somewhere off the coast of Turmish. In the vision, I was able to see that coastline and the druids that care for the place. In the past, I've been there.'
'You're certain of this?' Glawinn asked.
'Yes.'
The paladin faced Jherek and asked, 'Did the talisman ever try to guide you?'
The young sailor thought back. He had possessed Lathander's disk for only minutes. 'No.'
'Maybe the disk isn't guiding Vurgrom either,' Sabyna offered.
'It is,' Jherek told her.
'How do you know this?' asked Azla.
'Because,' the young sailor said, 'I felt it come alive in my grasp.'
VII
10 Flamerule, the Year of the Gauntlet
'You're keeping to yourself a lot these days.'
Jherek looked down from his position in the rigging and spotted Sabyna. 'Good evening, lady,' he said, and immediately felt uncomfortable.
There had been much to do in the four days since they'd taken their leave of the Dragonisle. Jherek had taken care to stay involved in shipboard duties that the pretty ship's mage hadn't been assigned to oversee.
'I've gotten the impression you don't care much for present company,' Sabyna said as she hauled herself up in the rigging and looked out over the curved horizon of the sea.
They were well away from land now, sailing by the mystic astrolabe. The canvas cracked and snapped as it held the wind.
'Not true,' replied Jherek. He marked his place in the romance Glawinn had loaned him.
'I thought maybe I was the cause.'
'Of course not,' Jherek assured her. 'Why would you think such a thing?'
'Because the last time we spoke I was so… forward.'
'You merely said what was on your mind.'
'Is that what you think?' she asked softly.
Despite the quietness of her words, barely heard over the crash of the waves below and the snap of canvas sails around them, Jherek suddenly felt as though he'd stepped into the jaws of a steel trap.
'Lady, I don't know what to think,' he admitted. 'These are very confusing times.'
'For all of us.' She held his gaze with her eyes and said, 'When things get confusing, people who are together should be most truthful with each other.'
'Aye.'
Jherek's temples pounded. He hoped she wouldn't steer their conversation in a direction that would force him to lie.
'Your name isn't Malorrie.'
'No. Malorrie is the name of a good friend and teacher.'
'Your name is Jherek. I know you feel that you have reasons to conceal your identity. I promised you I'd never push you about it.' Her eyes searched his and he saw the pain there. 'But times have changed. I can no longer bide my own counsel. There are things I must know.'
Jherek's stomach protested, wanting to purge its contents. Even though the wind raced over him to fill the sails, he felt like he'd come to dead calm inside, the last place a sailor wanted to find himself in an uncharted sea.
'Are you a wanted man, Jherek?'
'Aye.'
Sabyna didn't bat an eye. She'd already been mostly certain of that, the young sailor knew.
'Is it for something you have done?'
'I've never done anything in my life to harm another soul out of greed or anger.'
'I believe you,' she said.
Relief flooded through Jherek.
'So your guilt, the price on your head, came from association with others?'
'Aye.'
'So how did you come to be with these people that earned you the price on your head?'
'Through no fault of my own, lady,' Jherek replied honestly. 'It was ill luck.'
'When did you leave them?'
'I was twelve,' Jherek whispered.
'By the Lady's mercy,' Sabyna said in a hushed voice, 'you were only a boy.'
Jherek remained silent, hoping she had probed enough. Every question she asked-skirting so closely to the truth he felt he needed to keep hidden-felt like a healer lancing an infected wound. Only in this there was no release from pressure and misery, only the promise of even more, sharper pain to come.
'What did they do?' Sabyna asked.
'Lady, please, I can't talk of it.'
'Why? Jherek, don't you see that there doesn't have to be anything unsaid between us?'
Her question caught him by surprise. He shook his head, unable to voice what she wanted to hear.
