“I am. Already,” I said. “The Admiral sent it.”
“The Admiral—”
I squared my shoulders and stood up straight. “I can sail this boat like no one else, Dorian. You know that. My father made sure that I could handle the water. If we want the queen back, soon and in one piece, this is the best and fastest way to move toward that goal. Stop thinking you can tell me what I can wear or how I can act, and get your ass over to the mizzen mast and get ready to heave-to to hoist the canvas and get us underway.”
The look on his face was worth it. I wished we had thosecamerasthat Gwynnore had mentioned so I could freeze and remember the utter shock and horror on Dorian’s face the moment I put him to work on the ship I was commanding.
Roran was desperately trying not to laugh at him. I pointed to the front where Belshazzar was still trying to calm down. “Go. Bowsprit. No square rigs, just the fore lateen.”
“What… what language is that?” Roran choked on the words and laughter.
“It’s nautical! Get used to it!” I whipped my sword out and snapped the flat of it across his ass. “Go! We need to catch the tide!” I pointed to Aiko still standing there, dumbfounded. “Get Rilen back on deck, whether or not he’s done with his masturbation session, and get to the main mast.”
“Oh, I like this version of you, Lady Stormbreaker,” Roran said, sauntering by and running a hand down my arm. “I like it a lot.”
“You’ll walk the plank if you don’t get to the bow!”
“Dorian, you need to get over yourself before we’re all below decks dealing with our own hoisted masts.”
At that point, I couldn’t be sure that the king wasn’t going to collapse from lack of air for his laughter.
I shook my head and walked over to the gangway. Staviz was waiting for me halfway down, and he was definitely choking back some laughter of his own. “Are you sure you don’t want Jallina or Jennila to go with you? That’s an awful lot of male you have on board.”
I did laugh that time. “You aren’t kidding at all, General. We’ll be fine. We can’t really spare anyone else, and you’ve all been doing beautifully without us. Let Jallina speak in my place, and let Vitas and Ophelia speak for them.”
“Vitas?” Staviz was right in questioning that.
“He’s better, even if he still seems insane. He’ll make good decisions because he’s not arrogant. Whereas Bebbenel…”
“If I could find a way to send him through the Shroud permanently, I would,” the general said.
“Exactly.”
“May the gods of the temple smile on all of you,” he said, holding out a hand.
“And may the temple be always in their grace,” I answered, shaking his hand. “We’ll be back as fast as we can, General.”
“Fair winds, Lady Stormbreaker.”
I walked back up, and the small contingent of our navy pulled back the gangway as I slid the gate back in place and locked it. “Cast off!” I yelled to the sailors at the bottom of the dock.
The lines were unwound and thrown at the ship. Belshazzar magically caught them and pulled them in, and Roran did the same at the back of the ship, coiling them cleanly and stacking them neatly against the hull.
The tide had turned just a half an hour before and had finally picked up enough speed to pull us away from the dock and out toward the open water.
Aiko and I had sat down and done our best with the old navigation maps that we had on this side of the scar. There weren’t many, and any sand bars we’d seen marked were probably long gone and moved to a new place. We both decided it was better to go out a bit further and catch tradewinds and the current that swung up from the even warmer waters to the south.
Belshazzar found his way to the wheel, and just stood with me, watching the land to our left become smaller and smaller.
“Where did you learn to sail? And fight? You’re full of surprises.”
“My father,” I answered.
“I thought…”
“Savion is mysire. He had no part of raising me. I had my natural mother for just a few years. My parents, the Ravens, the Keepers of the Rest, raised me. My father was a swordmaster and loved the water. I was their only child, and he taught me everything he knew. About the sword, about the ocean. How to sail, how to fish, how to be a good and kind person. They taught me how to keep the Rest and how to keep a house and smiled the day I went to university to be a teacher. They were there the day I took the vows of the acolyte at the Temple.”
I took a deep breath. “I hope I never forget the years I had my parents. No matter how old I get, no matter how long I live. My father’s last act was to save my life as he was pulled down with a boat in the Western Sea.” I looked at the king standing there, watching me. “Seven hundred years he sailed the waters, tamed them, and in the end, they turned on him and took his and my mother’s life in payment.”
