I huffed, rubbing my back. “You didn’t have to yank me off the stairs like that.”
“It seemed prudent, before you set fire to something I own.”
He was making me regret telling him about my magic. Unconsciously, I raised a hand to touch my dwarvish-red hair before stopping myself.
“Turn around,” Jax said, amusement lacing his deep voice.
Regretting every movement, I did as he said…and beheld a distant speck of land.
I had completely lost my bearings over the last few weeks.
“Where are we?” I asked, trying to compare the barely visible shape to the jutting coastlines I recalled from maps.
“That,” said Jax, sounding proud, “Is Starfall. The chief isle of the pirates, and part of the archipelago known as Prevaria. Something few outsiders ever get to see.”
When I hurried to the ship’s rail to get a better look, Jax followed. I couldn’t help but notice he didn’t offer me a spyglass, even though I knew he kept a collapsible one on his person. The Lady de Gorm was currently using one about ten feet from me.
I squinted into the sunrise, as if that would help.
“I’m not sure an isle of pirates would welcome a sorceress of Dewspell,” I said, a sense of dread building inside me. Bluebeard was hardly the only pirate Dewspell had business with. Our sorcerers were known to take down the ships of pirates who made pests of themselves.
Dewspell didn’t take kindly to their ships being robbed, or any disruption of trade to Elchion.
“You’ll be out of place,” Jax agreed, missing the point, “as much as the Lady de Gorm would be in your grand libraries.”
My head snapped towards him in surprise.
“What?” he asked. “Ihaveheard of the world’s greatest magical library. Libraries, since it’s really several.“ Jax tisked. “You do so love to underestimate me.”
“The feeling is mutual.” I turned back to the dot of land, scowling at it. It didn’t make its shape any clearer.
“You’re wrong about me,” the Lady de Gorm said belatedly, collapsing her spyglass. “I’d be right at home in those libraries. Especially the deep, dark ones with forbidden books about outlawed magic and cursed things. And the secrets of the world of monsters.” She shuddered. “Delicious.”
“They’re not forbidden,” I said, unimpressed. “Dewspell doesn’t ban any knowledge. They’re just restricted.”
“What’s the difference?” Jax asked, clearly expecting there was none.
The difference was, if you could prove to the librarians and professors that you could follow the rules—and that you wouldn’t take all that dark knowledge and turn into a new incarnation of the dreadlords who once plagued our realm, or a cursed king like Haakon the Harbinger of Gerhelm—someone would write you a pass to go read whatever you liked.
I doubted Jax or the Lady would ever qualify. “I wouldn’t expect pirates to understand,” I answered.
“Oasis would,” Jax said, sounding proud.
“Oasis? Is that one of your crewmembers?”
“My first crewmember.”
I gave up on the approaching isle, and turned from the ship’s rail—only to collide with Jax’s chest.
He continued to not move as I cried out in surprise. It took me another moment to realize his hand was wrapped around my elbow and forearm, steadying me.
He grinned down at me.
“In another pair of hours, you won’t be the only sorceress on board. Oasis may not have your fancy education, but she is better suited to this life than you are.”
“Not shocking,” I said, expecting he meant this to sting. “Why doesn’t she break the curse, then?”
“If it was made of wind magic, I’m sure she would’ve. But dark magic is more your specialty, is it not?” He might’ve winked at me then, but I was trying my best not to look at him.
