I don’t know how to do much with a boat, but the pirates arestaring at me and Lochlan expectantly, so we brace our hands on the wood.
Lochlan glances at me with my hands on the rail and keeps his voice very quiet as he says, “No. Go low. It’ll be hard to move it at first.”
I put my hands against the hull, then my shoulder, and we throw our weight into it. The boat barely moves an inch, but it shifts in the sand.
“Maybe this is a bad time to mention this,” I whisper, “but I don’t know how to row.”
“I figured,” he grunts. “Just sit behind me and watch.”
Once the boat moves away from the sand, we’re clearly expected to stay with it, and my boots fill with water immediately. Amazing. Lochlan grabs hold of the rail and hoists himself over, and I hear a little whimper as he does so.
I forgot about his arm.
I say nothing. It won’t do any good for the pirates to know.
It’s harder to get into the boat than I expect, but once we’re in, the others join us, and I take hold of the oars behind Lochlan. Once I figure out the rhythm, it’s nothard, but it’s hot, and I’m not practiced at this. It’s clear that they’ve made us row so we can’t cause trouble. I remember Rian telling us that Oren would hide in coves among the islands, and I wonder if he’s on this waiting ship. I consider the way Ian talked about Redstone’seyesin the city and wonder if Oren is rarely on land at all. Rian once said that Oren had lost favor here in Ostriary, that the people were tired and just wanted to rebuild after years at war. They were counting on Rian to get to Kandala and negotiate for steel.
I guess that’s not happening anytime soon.
I blink in the glare and look past Lochlan’s shoulder at the shipin the distance. I wonder if this is the ship that shot us off the deck of theDawn Chaser.
I’m trying my best to keep up with Lochlan’s smooth strokes through the water, but I’ve never done this before. It’s obvious that my inexperience is evident when Lina puts a hand on my shoulder and says, “Not much of a sailor, are you, Wes?”
I grit my teeth and pull hard on the oars. “I have other skills.”
I didn’t mean for it to sound coy or taunting, but some of the pirates whistle. Lina laughs from behind me, and then her breath is hot on my neck, her body pressed against my spine. “Is that so?” she purrs, her fingers tracing up the outside of my arm. “I can’t wait to hear.”
The oars go still in my hands, and for an instant I consider shoving one right back at her. It would take almost no effort. I could put it right through her throat.
Becausethisis a game I won’t play.
But Lochlan looks over his shoulder. “Fair warning: he’s not talking about those kind of skills.”
I don’t know what she hears in his voice, whether it’s cool practicality or just plain honesty, but the heat of her body disappears from my back.
I say nothing and start rowing again.
It doesn’t take long to reach the ship, and once we’re there, we have to climb a rope ladder. I watch Lochlan favor his arm all the way up, and I worry that the pirates might notice, so I try to go more slowly, so a distance forms between me and him.
Lina is behind me, and she smacks my ankle. “Move,” she snaps. No purring now.
“I have rope burns from before,” I say, which is true, though they’ve mostly healed. “I’m going as fast as I can.”
Eventually, we reach the top. We climb over the rail, and one of the nameless men jabs me with a crossbow and tells me to stand with Lochlan.
I was already doing that, but I scowl and move closer.
But then a mantsks, and a voice says, “Here now, have they not been well behaved?”
There, standing nearly six and a half feet tall, with a jagged scar on his face and another two dozen men surrounding him on the deck, is Oren Crane.
“They’ve been respectable,” Mouse says in his rough-soft voice. “They gave us no trouble.”
“Ugh, quit being so earnest,” says Lina. She moves close to me and bumps me with her hip, but now it’s not coy so much as aggressive. “We could have had a bit of fun.”
“I’m not having fun,” I say.
“Me either,” says Lochlan.
