Fahr laughed, then groaned, clutching his chest.
“Why theNil’hellyn?” I asked straight-out. “What is so special about this ship that was worth risking theTouchstonefor? Why does she call herSister, and why does she soundRhi’Ahr?”
There was silence for a long moment. I growled and yanked my earring.
“Remember this? It still hurts!”
Fahr sighed, and his chest rattled as he did.
“I’ll tell you some, but I won’t tell you all,” he said. “It’s the captain’s story, and we all respect him too much for that.”
“If you’re going to tell me the story has its start a thousand years ago—”
“But it does, Blue.”
I groaned. I would never have imagined privateers to be so dramatic. I leaned over and snatched the bottle from the sand at Echo’s hooves.
Hooves. He had hooves.
Of course he did. He was a faun. I’d never seen them before, hidden as they always were inside his boots.
“Well, how about this,” I said, and I took a swig of the bottle. “We’re on a beach, and we have rum. Why not tell a story that’sbeen only ten years a-writing?”
“Aaaah,” said Smoke, snatching the rum back. “The Stolen Prince of Oversea.”
“That’sthe story I want to hear.”
“Foggin’ persistent, ain’t she?”
“I’ll need some of that, then,” said Fahr, and he stretched out an arm. “Helps in the healing, right, Doc?”
“Helps with the pain, most definitely,” said the faun.
Rum would not be helpful for a patient who was on the mend.
Fahr took a swig next and tried to pass it back to me. My heart ached as I took it.
“Never mind,” I said. “You don’t have to tell me anything. We can just sit here and drink.”
“No,” he said. “Stories are made for days like this.”
I told myself that the rum eased the tightening of my throat.
“Of course, it all begins with one thing,” Fahr said.
“War,” I said.
“Want,”Fahr corrected. “Yes, there’s always been war between the helms, and Gav has some fascinating elderscripts if you’re keen on learning. But there’s always been only one object of their fighting.”
“Here’s to chimeric,” said Smoke. “The source of all evils.”
Naturally, he drank to that.
“So, the chimeric is on the Cloudgate, orLindurithain, or the Island InBetween,” I said. Suns, it had so many names. It was hard to keep them straight. “And that’s where theRhi’Ahrare mining it.”
“Correct,” said Echo.
“But no one knows where it is, because it travels,” I said.
