My heart sank deeper with each unfamiliar name until tears pooled in my eyes. I sniffled to stifle the sob that threatened to burst from my throat. “I. . .I see.”
Ramaro clapped his paws against the footboard. “Of course you do! They’re seas!” He let out a barking laugh that quickly died with a threatening look from the captain.
I curled my legs against my chest and wrapped my arms around them. My stomach felt like a bottomless pit that swirled with too many storms, making me nauseous. That, or it was the constant rocking of the ship.
Where I was, it wasn’t where I was from. It wasn’t my world, and I had no idea how to get back. The only person who did was that Encina guy, and he hadn’t been in a talkative mood on that subject.
The sob I’d been trying to hold back burst forth, and the rest of the floodgates broke. Tears streamed down my face as I cried into my hands, my body wracked with fear, frustration, and confusion. I’d never see my home again. I’d never hear Tim’s voice or how he would tease me.
Something wet came splashing down on my head. I jerked up and blinked at the two who stared at me. Ramaro had a slightly smug look on his scaly face, while the captain appeared stoic. Too stoic.
I reached up one hand and brushed it over my head. My palm came away wet. “What just happened?”
“You needed someone to knock you on the head,” Ramaro spoke up as he cast a disappointed glance at his companion. “It should have been heavier.”
The captain cleared his throat. “I don’t know where you hail from or how to return you to your land, but you have nothing to worry about while you’re in-”
“Captain!” The shout came from the deck and was followed by frantic footsteps. Someone pounded on the door. “Captain! Trouble ahead!”
Torvus stood and strode to the door, which he swiftly opened. An older sailor nearly tumbled into the cabin. “What’s the matter?”
The man caught himself and pointed in the direction of the bow. “The Specter! She’s out there!”
Torvus half-turned to me and grasped the handle. “Stay here.” He stepped onto the deck and shut the door behind him.
My curiosity was piqued by the eerie name, so I turned to my reptilian companion. “What’s the Specter?”
The tip of Ramaro’s tail flicked to and fro. “You really don’t know these seas, do you?”
I decided not to reply in words, but by throwing the sheets off of me. My bare feet allowed me to quietly pad across the floor to the door, where I knelt in front of the keyhole.
“Not like that,” Ramaro hissed as he scurried across the floor to a spot in the floor a few feet away. His claws gripped the wall boards, and he climbed almost six feet above the floor. He tapped a nail on a knot, and the wood shimmered like the rustle of a pond’s surface. The ripple stopped and revealed the knot as a smooth, reflective surface. “Look through here.”
I slipped over and stood on my tiptoes to be eye to eye with the surface. My eyes widened as I beheld the whole of the deck, even down to the furthest corners to my left and right. The view reached beyond the bow of the deck some hundred yards further afield.
I leaned back and gaped at the lizard. “What kind of glass is this?”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s a peeping glass. It reflects everything outside of it within a certain distance. Now stop your yapping and start watching.”
I leaned one eyeball close to the opening and did as he commanded. Several of the crew members had gathered at the port side. A few pointed and shouted at something in the distance. My peeping glass allowed me to see the horizon quite clearly, or what was visible.
That’s because the skyline was hidden by a huge wall of thick gray mist. The ghoulish air moved with an unnatural speed, tumbling over itself as it headed our way. Lightning added to the eerie effect, crashing and roaring from the depths of the storm. One brilliant strike illuminated the interior, and something else.
A ship.
The moment was brief, but I made out tattered sails and rotten boards. The blood ran cold in my veins, and I slowly turned my face toward my smug companion. “I-is that a ghost ship?”
Ramaro lifted his chin. “I suppose you know something, woman. That’s the Specter, a ship that seeks out people to crew its rotten deck.”
My heart skipped a beat. “Does it take anybody?”
“Anybody.”
“Even women?”
“Anybody.”
“Even lizards?”
