I’ll ask Rian.I clench my jaw.
Erik looks at me. “Let’s move the beam onto the dock. We can row for now. I think I see some oars.”
The wood is heavier than I expect, but we manage. I force myself to ignore the bloom of sweat on Erik’s forehead once we’re done. He tosses the nets into the hull, then steps down into the boat himself.
He looks a bit pale, so I don’t follow him. “Youreallyshouldn’t be rowing,” I say.
“I won’t,” he says. “I’ll get us out from the dock, and then you can row.”
“I—” I let out a breath. That isn’t what I meant. But again, I think of him passing out a mile away from shore, leaving me with no way to rescue him. “I don’t really know how to row.”
“I’ll show you.”
I chew at my lip doubtfully, and I glance out at the water.
“You asked me to teach you how to fight, Miss Tessa.” His voice is gentle, but firm. “I can’t teach you how to fight if you can barely pick yourself up off the beach.”
My face threatens to crumple. I asked him that when I was racked with grief, when Corrick had first disappeared into the darkening waves, when I thought nothing could ever cause me more pain, and I wanted to know the best way to lash out against it.
Just now, I want to go back to the beach and curl up in the sand.
I have to put a hand against my face. The tears swell before I can stop them, and I try to sniff them back. I’m barely successful.
Erik puts out a hand. “Come on. Maybe we can catch something good and have a better dinner than salted beef and cheese.”
I swipe at my cheeks. “I’m an apothecary, not a cook. I don’t know how to gut fish.”
“So we’ll learn how to rowandgut fish.”
It should make me smile, but it doesn’t.
Then Erik says, “It’s been over a week now. If I leave you here, Rian might show up to check on us, and you’d have to talk to him on your own.”
Well, that does the trick. I practicallyleapinto the boat. It rocks a bit from the force of my movement, and Erik smiles. He points tothe rope tethering the boat to the dock. “Unwind that from the cleat, and I’ll push us off.”
When I do, he uses an oar to shove us away from the dock, then drops to sit on a bench across from me. The oars settle into two gaps along the rail of the boat, and I see that they have tiny notches cut into the wood to prevent them from slipping into the water. Maybe I didn’t need to worry after all.
I reach for the oars, but Erik shakes his head. “I’ll get us out. Watch.”
He dips the oars in the water and pulls rhythmically, lifting and folding with each stroke as if he’s been rowing boats all his life. He explains each movement as he does it, showing me how to keep my body upright, to use the current. He’s not moving fast, but each pull is strong, and the small boat cuts through the water with ease, and within a minute, we’re far from the dock. A breeze cools my cheeks, drying the tears, and I take a deep breath.
“Do you want me to take over?” I say.
“Not yet.”
I think of what he said before.I need to move.
“Don’t betoostubborn,” I say.
He smiles. “Yes, Miss Tessa.”
“How do you know about boats and fishing?” I say.
“I grew up in Sunkeep,” he says as he rows. “Most of my family are sailors. My brother and his wife sail the trade route between Sunkeep and Steel City, and I often join them whenever I have a long enough leave. That’s partly why—” He breaks off sharply, studying me.
I can’t read his expression. “Why what?” I finally say.
“I’m not sure how much to say.” He sighs, aggrieved, and looks out at the water himself. “Maybe it doesn’t make any difference.”
