Chapter 12
“How do you know so much about the thing that lives on the island?”
I was the questioner, and my target was the agama on my shoulder. Ramaro puffed out his chest and stretched his tail straight out behind him. “I know everything there is to know about the islands of all the four seas.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Everything?”
He lifted his chin and his nostrils flared. “Well, everything worth knowing.”
“So you don’t happen to know a way to escape the thing and the island, do you?”
“Escaping this island is just like escaping any other island. You have just have to step off it.”
“And the vines and ravines?”
“Those make that part a little harder.”
I sighed and swept my eyes over the thick foliage that surrounded us. It felt like we’d been walking for hours. My attire wasn’t helping matters. The sheet was torn and muddied, as was the shirt I wore. More than one patch was a little too revealing for my taste. I tugged at a particularly large hole over my breast to try to cover myself. It didn’t work.
“You humans and your strange fascination with clothes,” Ramaro mused as he studied me.
I covered myself with an arm and glared at him. “Don’t look.”
He wrinkled his snout at me. “Why would I want to? I’m an agama. You’re a human. We have nothing in common.”
“We can both talk.”
“Who would want to talk with a human female for an entire lifetime?” he muttered as he looked around. “Especially one that walks so slowly.”
I tapped the top of his head with one finger. “It’s not easy walking through this forest.”
“It’s because you’re not moving on all fours.”
“Humans don’t walk that way.”
“You should try it. It’s more sensible than your stumbling pair.”
A heavy sigh escaped me. “Listen, I know you’re secretly trying to hide that you like me, but this is going a little too far.”
His mouth dropped open. “Like you? Why in all the seas would I like you?”
I shrugged. “You tell me. You’re the one who keeps saving me. First on Encina’s ship and then trying to help me when I was pulled off Torvus’ ship.”
“The first one was strictly business!”
“And the second?”
“Also strictly business!”
I snorted. “The business of saving human females who walk too slow and talk too much?”
“Exactly!” he insisted as he turned his face away from mine. “You’re absolutely useless on your own. I had to go with you, otherwise that thing would have found you already-”
We stepped into a small clearing and I froze. The grove was covered in a thick layer of grass, and in the center was a large red stain. A few bits of hair and clothes were stuck in the seed heads.
I swallowed hard before I looked to my equally horrified companion. “What happened here?”
He pursed his jaws and lifted his head. “A sacrifice. Not too recent, from the faded stains. It was probably its last meal.”
