“I-I was an orphan, never knew my parents,” she continued, spreading her lie like a tangled spider’s web. It was becoming harder to fabricate these stories. She didn’t normally stutter, but coming up with a new life on the spot had her grasping for words. It was like trying to catch fire in her hands.
“Why did you board this vessel, Zev?” He continued to assess her with his gaze, intensely studying every inch.
Kamira took an instinctive step backward, only to realize she was at the ship's portside railing.
“Who are you?” He gripped her shirt the same way he had when he found her in his quarters.
Kamira threw her hands out and pushed his chest as hard as she could, desperate to stop him from looking at her so closely and from asking more questions.
The Captain twisted awkwardly from her shove and released her shirt as he toppled to the ground. He landed on the floorboards with a grunt as he held his left wrist in his hand.
She knelt before him. “Oh stars! Are you alright? I’m so sorry. I didn’t think I would be able to push you that hard.”
“Why the bloody seas did you push me at all?” he growled, gingerly moving his wrist in circles and wincing in pain.
“Are you truly asking me that question? Here, let me see your wrist.” She reached for it, but he pulled away.
“I think you have done enough, cabin boy. Go back to your quarters and get some rest before tomorrow.” He returned to glaring at her.
“My mother is a healer. I might be able to help if you hurt your wrist badly,” she urged.
He went very still, staring at her in a way that sent a shiver dancing down her spine. “I thought you were an orphan.”
She froze, instantly realizing her mistake.“My adoptive mother.” She was awful at lying. She knew she would slip up eventually. Her web of lies was quickly becoming impossible to navigate.
The Captain just glowered at her. She knew he didn’t believe her. He knew she was hiding something, but her unease melted away when she noticed that his left pant leg had ridden up during his fall, exposing smooth, carved wood.
She gasped, her fingers pushing up the fabric before considering the consequences. “What happened?”
With a sudden smack, he pushed her hand away and roughly tugged the clothing back down to cover his wooden limb. His eyes flashed with anger as he snarled, “How dare you?! That is none of your business.”
She recalled the way he had rubbed his thigh when she had first seen him and the significant limp he sported at all times. “Does it give you a lot of pain?”
“Enough!” he snapped. “Go back to your chamber and go to bed.”
“I can...” she began, but he cut her off instantly.
“That is an order, boy,” he spat.
Beneath the fury on his face was great sorrow. To lose a limb so young had to be a heavy burden to bear, and with the slight shame in the downturn of his eyes, she wondered if it was demoralizing, too.
She almost protested further, but Cormac’s voice traveled from the stairwell. “Go and get some sleep, Zev. I can help the Captain.”
Kamira looked up at the older man and then back to the Captain, whose nostrils were flaring like an angry bull.
She finally conceded, nodding with a solemn, “Goodnight.”
As she headed back for the room full of snoring pirates, she glanced back to see Cormac kneeling before the Captain in a fatherly way, speaking in hushed tones. The Captain’s eyes were closed, but she could have sworn that something wet twinkled in the moonlight as it rolled down his cheek.
9
Doraan
“Doraan.”Cormacheldouta hand. He grasped it, wiping away the irritating tear that had slipped free from embarrassment. Zev’s sympathetic expression upon seeing his leg wasn’t as humiliating as being pitied. He wasn’t a charity case that needed coddling and mending. What he needed was to be left alone. What he needed was to be strong. He wasn’t helpless and he wasn’t about to take any help from a child—a lying child, no less.
Cormac pulled him up and he balanced himself on his foot, steadying himself before letting go, nodding his thanks to his second. “Are you alright?” Cormac inquired.
“Yes,” he huffed. “I’m fine.... The cabin boy, he—he is hiding something.”
