“We should leave,” Torvus spoke up as he guided me toward the door. “Before we get more gifts from grandfather.”
Chapter 26
We stepped out and found ourselves in the cool air of early evening. The sun would disappear behind the broad, blue horizon in two hours. Marty stepped out after us and waved goodbye. “I’ll send out the deckle tomorrow morning. You should hear something from them within two days.”
“I’ll watch for them,” Torvus promised as we strolled down the meadow path.
I lifted an eyebrow at my companion. “How will the birds find us if we’re out at sea?”
“The deckle have a temporary magical connection with the person who hand-wrote the note,” the captain explained as he flexed his fingers. “They could find them, even if they were halfway around the world.”
A teasing smile slipped onto my lips as I looked over the captain. “Speaking of around the world, how many women have you been around with?”
He grinned back at me. “I try my best to make time to admire nature’s beauty.”
“Marty made it sound like you always have a woman on one arm.”
“Sometimes two. I don’t like the other arm to think it’s being left out.”
I snorted. “I guess all pirates are alike, even in a different world.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Do you know any pirates where you’re from?”
“They’re a rare breed unless they’re stealing movies or music.” He had a blank look on the first stolen item, and I shook my head. “It’s nothing. Either way, I don’t know any pirates like you.”
His eye sparkled as he gestured down at me. “There’s no one else quite like me.”
“Modesty is one of your most admirable traits.”
“I try.”
I held up the bird and studied the plumage. “This guy doesn’t have a lot to be modest about. I’ve seen people fold paper into birds, but this is really complicated.”
“The Carters used to fold their birds by hand, but one of Marty’s great-grandmothers was from a family of tailors. She crafted the scissors you saw him use. The magic in them allows the user’s imagination to create a bird from a mere piece of paper.”
My eyes lit up. “Is that why he had all those books about birds? So they get ideas?”
“Rynek doesn’t have as much variety as the world,” he pointed out.
I smiled at the little bird on my arm. “Where did they dream you up, Pen?”
“Pen is local,” Torvus told me as he nodded at the branches of one of the scrag trees. “Look up there.”
I lifted my eyes to the branches and beheld a dozen small birds. They were shaped like Pen, with plumage of bright green and orange. Pen flapped his wings and paper cawed. The birds answered with their own chorus.
My eyes widened. “They can talk with real birds?”
“I just hope this one doesn’t talk too much,” he mused as he eyed his new passenger. “The crew might get it into their heads that the cold nights need a fire starter.”
Pen ruffled his feathers and screeched at him.
Torvus grinned. “You might not know how to speak human, but you understand us well enough, don’t you?”
“Should I really be taking him?” I wondered as I bit my lower lip. “He is a family heirloom.”
“There’s no problem with Marty.”
Something in the way he phrased that caught my attention. “But someone else might have a problem with it?”
