“But as captain, that is on my shoulders, not yours.” He turned back, gaze steady on mine. “Everyone in the world will seek to diminish your power,Aro’el, including me. Do not let us.”
Suns, I was angry and exhausted and confused, with no crab shell in sight. So why did I want to taste that wine secondhand?
“But you are dismissed from the position of captain’s steward.”
My shoulders sagged. There was no reasoning with this man.
“We have need of a graymage, now,” he said. “So, graymage or mirrormage. Pick one. I will train you myself.”
These winds were buffeting, and I’d forgotten how to breathe.
“Now, please leave,” he said. “I’m tired and have much to think about. I would sleep, but I have no blanket because you turned it to char.”
The chest of chimeric sat barren and clean.
“I—I’ll fetch a new one.”
I wasn’t sure how. My legs felt like seaweed, my spine like slack rope. My hands trembled as I gathered the basket and stepped toward the cabin door. But I had done it. I’d stood up to this powerful man and not backed down. That was a victory all its own.
“Aro’el?”
Heart in my throat, I turned.
“Thank you,” he said. “For the bell.”
He was a whirlpool, relentless and swift. I barely got a breath before I was pulled down again.
“Echo does say I’m loud,” I said after a moment.
A twitch of the lips. Practically a belly laugh for him.
I turned to the door.
“Good night, Aro’el,” he said.“Dream sweet.”
I wasn’t expecting that from him, tender as it was.
Barely a breath.
“When the moons meet,” I murmured in return.
I slipped out the cabin and slid the door home.
That night, we entered the Sheets.
29. The Storm
“Not good,” moaned Kithriit. “Quite bad.”
I peered down at her as she rocked from side to side in her hammock.
“Go to the masthead, then,” I said. “You’re not resting down here.”
“Seasick,” she said.
“Seasick? You’re a harpy, Kit. You foggin’ fly!”
“Fly,Icontrol,” she said. “But ship? No control. My belly twists.”
