“Who was she, then?” Sofie demanded. “The sorceress who cursed you.”
“She didn’t cursemedirectly. She cursed the treasure. Do keep up.”
She exhaled huffily, then said, “Did you know it was cursed, when you went after it?”
“I may have.”
She clucked her tongue. “Then you’re a fool.”
“That much is obvious.”
Sofie returned to her clothes folding, I hoped in silence. Too soon, she spoke again. “You didn’t say who she was.”
“That’s not something I’d know. But stories call her the Bride.”
This time, the quiet held a little longer. I heard the sound of her trunk’s lid closing, then the key turning in the lock. Next, she moved to the captain’s desk, searching for paper and ink. As if I were a complete idiot.
“I want to make a deal with you,” she said, her voice so quiet it almost didn’t reach me through the haze that came before sleep.
That had me removing my arm and opening both eyes. By the gods, I even sat up and endured the squelching feeling of wet leather and cloth.
“What kind of deal?”
“I’ll break the curse. It’ll be a challenge, but one I’ll enjoy.”
“And if you can’t?”
The suggestion left her visibly irritated. “Then I suppose I’d have to play by the curse’s rules and help you get your treasure. Not that it will come to that. With curses, there’s always another way.”
“So you say.” I scratched at my beard, fingers snagging on a snarled piece of blue thread. “And in exchange for your expertise, what would you ask of me?”
“That you won’t treat me like a prisoner, you’ll allow me to study you and the crew, and when it’s all done and the curse is broken, you’ll bring me unharmed to my original destination.”
I lifted a brow. “Which is?”
“Aegle.” She said it like it was the sight of some tragedy and not a northerly isle of seafaring warriors—one my ships usually gave a wide berth to.
“Why?” I asked, not really expecting her to answer. “You don’t exactly sound pleased to go there.”
“That’s my business.”
Just as I’d thought.
I inspected her a little more carefully. That red hair was unusually bright, but otherwise, with that fair complexion andhigh cheekbones…I could see her as a northern islander. ButAegle?
She was but a little thing, scrawny by their standards. Aegle was known for a lot of things, but sorcery wasn’t one of them.
“Shall we shake on it?” I asked, offering my hand.
As if proving my point, Sofie’s hand was fine-boned and completely eclipsed by mine. Still, she seized it as well as she could, shaking it firmly. It was hard to believe this delicate little woman had knocked me overboard. I had to chalk it up to the element of surprise.
Or relentless combat training since her youth.
“So,” I said, one side of my mouth curling upward, “what was it like, growing up on Aegle?”
Her face reddened instantly. She yanked her hand away, spinning and returning her attention to the latched drawers of the captain’s built-in desk.
If she was going to be this easy to read—and to fluster—this would be the most entertaining deal I had ever made.
