“Maybe we’re on the planet,” the apprentice suggested.
“But we’re rocking.”
Suddenly, cool water rushed around my feet, and I leapt up, jerking the boy with me. “We crashed into water. We have to get out of here.”
After fumbling with the door for a moment, I pushed it open. Light flooded in and made me shield my eyes. The Vandar ship wasn’t bright, but the closet had been pitch-dark, and there was now sunlight streaming in from the ship’s cockpit.
“Come on.” I pulled Baru as I waded through the ankle-deep water that streamed in the ship. The ramp was open, and the raiders had all left, their heads bobbing in the water as they swam away.
A quick peek from the ship told me that we’d landed in the middle of some sort of lake, the water a vivid shade of sea-green. Wispy trees lined the black banks not too far away.
“We have to swim for it,” Baru said, tugging me toward the opening as the water rose to my knees.
“I can’t,” I said, panic clawing at my throat. “I can’t swim.”
Baru’s eyes widened, then he squared his small shoulders. “Don’t worry. I can take you.” He spun me around and crossed an arm over my chest, pulling us both into the water on our backs. “Just don’t drop that Gerwyn.”
I was too terrified to reply as Baru began to slowly kick us away from the ship and toward the shore. Furb was a mass of soaking-wet fur, but he didn’t struggle as I held him out of the water. After a while, the water lapped at my chin, and the boy’s breathing was heavy and ragged.
“Are you okay?” I asked as more water splashed into my mouth.
“Almost there,” he gasped.
I didn’t try to crane my neck around to see just how close we were, even though I knew we were sinking. “Let me go, Baru. You’re going to drown.”
“No one is going to drown today.” A heavy arm replaced the boy’s spindly one, and my body rose above the water again. Before I could recover from the shock of the deep voice reverberating in my ear, I was being dragged onto the shore.
Raas Vassim knelt beside me. “I would have thought you learned your lesson the first time you stowed away on a ship.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Vassim
Water streamed off Juliette’s body as I deposited her on the black sand, her thin dress plastered to her skin. Despite my fury, I couldn’t keep my gaze from roaming over her curves on display, or the irritation that the sight was not for my eyes only.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, gaping up at me.
I pulled off my boots and let water pour from them. “I believe I’m the one who should be asking you that question.”
Her cheeks flushed, but before she argued with me, a look of panic crossed her face. “Where’s Baru?”
I jerked my head toward the Neebix apprentice, who another warrior was helping onto the shore. “He’s fine. He was doing an admirable job of swimming you to safety.”
Juliette placed the Gerwyn on the ground, and the little creature shook himself hard, his gold fur poofing out around him. “We were sinking before you grabbed me.”
“I know.” I dragged both hands through my hair and let the water drip down my back. “How do you not swim? Your home world has a large body of water.”
She wrinkled her nose. “The shallows are full of sea creatures and kelp. No one swims in there. How do you know how to swim?”
“Our horde once landed on an aquatic planet. It was either swim or sink.” I waved a hand at my warriors on the beach and the last few cutting sharp strokes through the water. “All my raiders can swim.”
Baru staggered over, sinking down onto the sand beside Juliette.
She put an arm around his shoulders. “Thank you for saving me.”
“I didn’t save you.” He shook his head but didn’t look up at me. “The Raas did.”
“I only brought her the last bit. You were the one who got her off the sinking transport and almost the entire way,” I told him. “I owe you a debt of gratitude.”
He finally met my eyes. “I thought you’d be angry at me for not stopping her from getting on the transport.”
I shifted my gaze back to Juliette. “That is entirely her fault, and I am only angry at her for behaving so recklessly.”
“Recklessly?” Her mouth fell open, but she looked at Baru. “Can you tell the Raas that I only did this because he lied to me?”
Baru’s eyes went to me and then back to Juliette.
“I did not lie to you,” I said. “I did not tell you information that might upset you.”
She shot a menacing look at me but still only spoke to the Neebix boy. “Tell the Raas that of course I’d be upset if I knew that he was in contact with my sister’s ship and didn’t let me talk to her or join her.”
Baru opened his mouth and then lowered his voice. “Do you really wish for me to repeat that?”
“You could not have joined her, and I knew that would have caused you distress.”
“Why couldn’t I have joined her?” She narrowed her eyes at me for a moment before looking away. “Does the Raas think that it’s because of the curse I’m supposed to break?”
My apprentice’s face paled and the voices on the beach hushed. The curse—and my accompanying madness—was not something that was discussed by my crew, at least not in front of me.
“You could not have joined her because you made a deal with me, or do you forget your promises so quickly?”
Pink blotches appeared on her cheeks and she leapt up.
