Echo rolled his eyes and flicked an ear.
“Aye, Captain,” I said, and I knuckled a salute.
He beamed at me before turning to cast his eye over the crew of the currently unnamed ship.
“Get to work, ye lubberly, lice-livered snot kerchiefs! I’ll sack any swab who slacks on my sloop!”
And he swaggered off across the main, a captain in full command of his ship, his life, his destiny. Which was more than anyone could ask for, really. As for me, I was where I had been when all this started. No ship, no magik, no future. But how I had lived on the journey. Oh, how I had lived.
All because I was plucked out of the sea by the Ship of Spells.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out the pendant with the carved raven. It wasn’t regulation, but then again, neither was I. I slipped it over my head and crossed the plank. Bracebridge was waiting for me.
“Permission to come aboard, sir?” I asked.
“Permission granted, Ensign…Renn, is it? Bluemage?”
“Aye, sir. Ensign Bluemage Honor Renn, sir.”
His eye flicked over my tattered uniform and the ragged sash. He scowled.
“Your coat is not regulation.”
“It was made by an emissary from Braithe, commissioned by Devhanus Bonavanczek, the Crown Prince of Oversea.”
I had been schooled by the best liars on the sea.
“And you will have to remove that earring.”
“There’s only one way it comes out, sir,” I said, quoting Smoke. “And it ain’t pretty.”
He leaned toward me.
“I know what you are,runechaser,” he hissed, his voice low and hostile. “And I will not abide sedition on my ship. If it weren’t for Prince Bonavanczek, you’d be in the brig by now. As a matter of fact, you’d be swinging from the yardarms, and the birds would be feasting on your eyes.”
“Speaking of birds,” I said. “Are those swifts?”
Over by the hatch, a cage swung from the post.
“I knew two men who had swifts,” I said. “One was a captain’s steward. The other wasRhi’Ahr.They’re both dead, by the way. Killed by Gavriel Thanavar.”
He stiffened, lips pursed like he was sucking a limon, and clasped his hands behind his back.
“The prince has offered you a berth in the royal cabin, but I would suggest the galley with the rest of the crew. No point in riling the swabs without reason. Playing favorites is no way to earn your place on a ship.”
Be swift and be strong.
“Thank you, sir, but I’ll take the cabin.”
His three-taloned scar burned bright red.
“Our coxun’s mate, Mr. Theon, will show you the way.”
A faun knuckled a salute.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know you better on the wayhome, Ensign Renn,” Bracebridge said. “You seem like delightful company. I’m sure we will become quite close.”
With that, he spun on his heel and quitted the deck. The coxun’s mate looked at me.
