Wendy leaned toward the bottom of the boat as her companion struggled to sit up. “Are you hurt?” she whispered.
The lantern reflected off his dark eyes. A delicious shiver ran down her spine. She wouldn’t want to be the kidnappers when James got free.
“Ah, ah, ah, darling,” Sophus chided softly. “We need to be quiet here. Wouldn’t want to attract the wrong attention, now.”
“Wrong for you or wrong for me?” she snarked back.
“We’re in scary faery territory here,” he replied as the rest of his men boarded the craft. “Garkain. Drop bears. Boongurunguru. The Whowie. Who knows.”
Wendy was pretty sure at least one of those was just a story created to frighten children away from dangerous areas. The way the mercs left on the bank were eyeing their surroundings did nothing to assuage her fears about the others, however. Her sheeries swore up and down that one of them had encountered a drop bear before. She could never pin down who it was, but they were all persuaded that it had really happened.
The rowers mostly ensured that the boat stayed in the middle of the small river as the current did the hard work. With a single lantern at the front to guide them, she had little idea where they were headed until the waterway connected with the sea.
Hours—or twenty minutes—later, they found themselves aboard theDrunken Kraken. Sophus had nearly burst when he shared the name with Wendy, so proud to have come up with it himself. She trailed behind the four men who bundled James up the gangplank. He was deposited in the middle of the deck.
Sophus barked some orders to his crew. “I’m for bed,” he told Wendy. “You two can sleep here.” He left with a salute and a smirk.
She dropped to sit on the practically empty deck by James. “They don’t move much in the way of goods, do they?” she observed.
Her companion snorted.
An unfamiliar sailor hauled a chair toward them. He set it under a lantern and took a seat. Perhaps unaware of standard guard behavior, he crossed his arms and stared at them without blinking. The pair exchanged a glance. Wendy bit her lip to quell a giggle.
With nothing to do but sleep, she curled up on her side and tried to do just that. Dreamland eluded her for ages. As the night deepened, the temperature dropped. After a particularly cold gust of wind, Wendy scooted close to James. When he didn’tobject, she snuggled in as much as she could. The rough ropes scratched her skin, but he was warm and safe.
Wendy woke sometime later to an elbow in her side. Befuddled by the unfamiliar environment as she was, it took her a moment to recognize that James was trying to get her attention. She checked for the guard who had been left on duty. The heavyset man sat in his chair, feet stretched out, arms folded, and head back as he snored. The guttering lantern reflected off the string of drool connecting the corner of his mouth to his shoulder.
She eased upright, then leaned her ear close to the captain’s gagged mouth.
“Ni n ooh,” he got out.
Appropriately quiet, but unintelligible. Wendy narrowed her eyes in concentration as he repeated himself. It didn’t make any more sense the second time around. Until he wiggled his boot. She nodded her head to show that she understood, then slowly worked her way toward his ankle. Her still-bound hands were cold and growing numb, but Sophus hadn’t tied the rope as tightly as he could, or probably should, have. She managed to find and free the slim knife from its leather home.
James helpfully rolled onto his stomach so she could access the ties around his hands more easily. It took longer than she would have liked, and based on the few times her partner grunted, she probably sliced his skin along with the rope. When his wrists were finally free, she moved to the ropes around hismiddle. That was simpler, as they were farther apart and he could hold his arms out from his body a little.
As the last strand broke loose, James took a deep breath. He carefully sat up, then pulled the gag from his mouth. Wendy confirmed that their chaperone was still snoozing away while James made weird faces as he tried to alleviate the dryness in his mouth.
“Knife, please,” he creaked as softly as he could, after shaking out his hand.
She passed it over and was happy to see that she had only nicked his hand in a couple of places. No significant blood loss today.
James made quick work of the rope around his ankles, then left them in place.
Wendy tilted her head in question when he looked her way. He pointed toward the sky with his knife. “Dawn,” he rasped.
She saw the lightening of the sky that meant Sophus and crew would be stirring sooner rather than later.
“Can’t loose you.” James poured a wealth of apology into his expression. “Help me?” he asked after replacing the knife in his boot.
He grimaced, then returned the gag to his mouth and laid down with his hands behind his back. Wendy understood and quickly arranged the cut rope to appear as though James was still incapacitated. She had to lean over him awkwardly to tuckthe end in on the far side. Her hair brushed across his face, and he scrunched his nose.
“Sorry,” Wendy mouthed, shoving her hair over her shoulder as best she could. It was bad enough that the poor man had to relive the gag so soon after experiencing a taste of freedom. Making him sneeze might choke him.
Everything was arranged to her satisfaction, and she had curled up again not long before they could hear the earliest risers starting to move around. As the day brightened around them, a trio of seagulls decided the mast was the best place to have an argument. Their guard audibly disagreed with this assessment, sending curses their way for waking him up. Wendy thought he should be thanking the birds for saving him from the wrath of Sophus.
Think of evil and it will come.Her second-least favorite person strolled onto the deck moments later with a comically long sword strapped to his side.
“Wendy! You’re awake. Marvelous.” His eyes sparkled with unholy glee. He leaned down to pull Wendy to her feet, and she didn’t resist, even when he hooked his arm through hers.
