Cormac frowned. The old man hadn’t fully conceded to Doraan’s plan. He was willing to do it, but he was still skeptical. “You trust the girl?”
“We don’t really have any other choice, do we? It’s absolutely implausible that possibly one of the only people in existence to know where the Spring is—besides the Brothers themselves—wound up on our ship, but it’s the best lead we’ve ever had. Theonlylead we’ve had and the only chance we’ve ever had to actually make contact with land.”
“The tides of fate are shifting. The sea wants change,” Cormac mused, nodding his agreement..
“If this isn’t the answer we’ve been searching for, then all hope will be forever lost. I know hope has gotten us nowhere these past years, but something about this feels different. It feels real, Cormac. So I think I do trust her to a certain extent. I think she does know where the brothers are, and she’ll keep her word to help us.”
“That’s the only reason you could get me to come this far north. Fate is alive and kicking us in the direction of freedom, that’s for sure.” Cormac looked out over the rocky seas. “This is real.”
“I think the crew knows it, too. They haven’t said one word about our destination. They feel it too.”
“Is that ice?” Cormac suddenly exclaimed, pointing to a large white pointed rock sticking up from the ocean, waves crashing against, blocks of frozen sea falling from its surface. “Seas beyond, this is my nightmare,” he mumbled before turning the wheel, steering the ship as far away from the solid chunk of ice as he could.
Doraan chuckled. “As we get close to the coast of Torheim, stay as far from it as possible. There’s no knowing how many of those warships are this far north. I fear a fleet may be waiting for us.”
“I fear you might be right. Something is definitely brewing in the North, and it doesn’t look good.”
“I’m going to check on Kamira.” Doraan shivered. It would be his turn to helm the ship later, and he wanted to stay as warm as possible for as long as he could before then.
“Last I saw her, she was in the galley looking for something sweet to eat.”
Doraan groaned, “She’s supposed to be resting. One of the crew can bring her what she needs.” He shook his head, smiling softly before making his way down to the kitchen. It had been two days since they had discovered the cabin boy was actually a woman.Kamira—it was such a pretty name, and now that he knew she was a woman, he couldn’t figure out how he had ever thought her to be a boy. He could now clearly see her features were delicate and soft; granted, she had hidden her breasts quite well, but even the curve of her hips had suggested a feminine frame. Funny how it had taken him seeing her fully exposed to finally realize it.
He made it to the galley just in time to see Kamira eat the last biscuit. “Didn’t save any of those for the crew I see.” Doraan smirked.
Kamira spun in her seat, wincing and clutching her side for a split second before swallowing the biscuit fully. “They were half gone already when I got here. Someone got into them long before me.”
Doraan rolled his eyes. “You should be in bed, resting.”
“I can’t just lay around in bed all day. I need to stretch my legs, move around a bit.”
“Out,” he said, pointing toward the doorway. “Back to bed.”
“You don’t have to be so rude about it. Didn’t I tell you if you keep scowling like that your face is going to freeze that way? Well, that still holds true. Life is too short to spend it with a perpetual scowl on your face.” She crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin at him before scurrying out the door.
“How did I ever think you were a fourteen year old boy?” he mumbled, shaking his head as he followed her out into the hallway, but one wrong step had him suddenly lying face down on the floorboards. “Bloody sails!” he growled.
“Are you alright?” Kamira was instantly beside him, gripping his arm, but one pull and she was doubled over on the floor beside him. “I didn’t think that through.”
Doraan couldn’t help but laugh. “Skies, look at us, two invalids.”
“We aren’t invalids. We are just two people learning to deal with our injuries.”
He looked into her blue eyes. They were like the sea on a calm cloudless day, sparkling and wide. “I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Curious, but he honestly hadn’t thought of it like that. Ever since that terrible day he woke up without a leg, he had thought of himself asless, as flawed. Like he was no longer the same person, even though he knew that really wasn’t the case.
Kamira slowly pushed herself back into a standing position before extending a hand, her other hand grasped against her chest where the bullet wound was still so fresh and blood seeped into her linen shirt.
He swatted her hand away. “You’ve torn your stitches.”
She reached her hand out again. “I’m fine. Would you just take my bloody hand, you bumbling idiot?”
He arched one eyebrow before taking her offered hand, and she yanked until he was steady on his foot once again. “You don’t seem like the type of woman who would be mistress of a fine upstanding house like Lord Tarkiin’s.”
She snorted, heading up the steps at the end of the hallway. “I’m not sure whether to take that as an insult or a compliment.”
“What I mean is, I can’t imagine many noble ladies such as yourself who would board a pirate ship, cut off all their hair without a care, get shot in the middle of a battle, and then go scavenging for sweet treats barely even two days after said injury.”
“I wouldn’t say I cut off my hair without a care. There were certainly tears involved.” She looked back at him with an amused smile. “And little good it did me. I was found out in what, three days on this ship?”
