No one could win a battle against an ocean like this.
“You’re hurting my confidence,carella.Spare me some faith.”
One particularly ferocious wave slammed against the rocks, sending buckets of spray into the air.Skies.“You have plenty of confidence. Toning it down a little might be healthy.”
“We’re going to navigate First Territory, which is entirely hostile, and enter the unknown in the Domus.This is the easy part.”
“Is that supposed to make me feel better or worse?”
He flashed a slight grin. “Better.”
We dismounted at the dock, and a group of sailors came to load our horses. Like the first man, they were a weather-beaten bunch, their hair scraggly and skin a blotchy leather. Apparently that was what happened when you spent time on such hostile waters.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I marched onto the rickety dock. The first step was fine. The second wasn’t. My foot slipped to the side, and I tipped.
Harthon caught my shoulders before I could make impact. “It’s slippery,” he warned, setting me back on my feet.
For Domus’ sake.I hadn’t even gotten onto the ship yet, and I was already struggling.
“That warning would have been helpfulbeforeI stepped onto the dock.” I meant to sound frustrated, but I was distracted by the way his hands lingered on my shoulders. He’d hardly touched me since that night in my bedroom.
One of those hands coasted down my back and gently nudged me forward. It stayed there as I walked beside him, like he was afraid I’d slip again. “Every sailor knows to use caution on a dock.”
“One, I’m not a sailor. And two, I’ve never even seen a dock.”
“Well, you’ve just remedied the latter. And after the next three days, you’ll consider yourself the former.”
If I even survive until then.
* * *
My chances of making it to the third day were shrinking with every passing wave. And there were many of those waves—big, undulating hills of water that sent us careening down before lurching back up, only to do it again and again and again.
At first, I took comfort in the ease with which the sailors handled the ship. No one seemed concerned with the conditions as we departed the harbor and entered the wild seas. The captain had even slipped a grin several times as he steered, and Harthon moved with the same unbothered confidence as he aided the crew around deck. He’d told me to stand by one of the ship’s thick poles—a mast, he’d called it—and stare at the horizon as we sailed.
Then we lost sight of land, wind filled our sails, and it became nearly impossible for me to walk without falling flat on my face, which was why I was currently clinging to one of the lines dangling from the mast. Sea spray rained over the sides of the ship, splashing my clothes and soaking them. I was placed in the center of the deck, and Harthon constantly watched me as he worked, so there was no risk of falling overboard. But fear still rode in my veins. Out here, alone, we were fully at the mercy of the sea.
And it wasn’t being very merciful.
Especially to my stomach.
I turned my head as a particularly big wave went airborne, freezing water pelting my head. Surely it had to be better below deck, in the confines of a cabin, which I still hadn’t seen. Sailors had loaded our belongings for us, and when we boarded, thestairs leading below deck were occupied by a stream of crusty-looking men. After catching a whiff, I wasn’t eager to be in a confined space with them, so I’d declined Harthon’s offer to tour the cabin before the ship sailed, figuring I could explore it at my own pace when we were underway.
Granted, now I’d be less exploring and more seeking shelter. But still, being in the cabin had to be better than weathering this carnage. Stefano rested somewhere below deck, as did the horses. It couldn’t be worse down there.
We lurched over another wave, and I stumbled for the ship’s stairs. I ran down them just as the ship went up again, and I crashed to the floor with the grace of a fumbling calf. The passageway was thankfully empty.
And dry.
And small and narrow and…moving.
My belly rolled with the ship. Bracing a hand on the wooden wall, I lurched to my feet. I only needed to find a room to relax in. Preferably the one with my belongings.
Two steps, and the floor pitched beneath my feet. I took a deep breath to fight my rising nausea.
“If the horses can do it, you can, too,” I encouraged myself, gracelessly moving toward where the hallway branched.
A sailor bumbled down the passageway to my right. I schooled my face just as we made eye contact. Then he turned his back and I keeled over, hands on my knees, as a violent wave sent us down and up.
