***
“Youcalledyourpowersdown without us even noticing?”Domingo exclaimed, gazing about him at the galley as if surprised that the space was all of a piece and not disturbed.
“Well, I only called down a few clouds and some rain,” I muttered, uncomfortable with all the attention.
“The entire scene was tremendous,” Dinesh said, his eyes full of admiration and pleasure.“Rooster was in control the entire time.And his palms are barely red.Show them.”
I obediently lifted my hands and showed them my palms, which were not red at all now.I brought them close to examine them.“Well, not anymore.”
“Eh, that’s wonderful, Simon,” Mr Guthrie said, giving me a pat on the arm.“Tea, did you say?Coming right up!”
“Aye.”
“You all right?”Domingo asked.
I rubbed at my forehead.“Fine.In body, anyway.”
“Tired?”
“Not overly.Simply…overwhelmed by the thought of what I was able to do.My mind is…going places I’d rather not revisit, that’s all.”
They gazed at me with concern.
“Never mind.I’ll be all right,” I said, with a blitheness I didn’t particularly feel but was determined to fake.
***
Whilstdisrobingforbedlater that evening, I admitted something to the captain.
“I feel like… I feel like I should have tried to control my powers long ago.And then perhaps I would have been able to wield them with more preciseness when…” I trailed off, staring at the wall, remembering.
Dinesh came over and took my hands in his.
“No.Don’t you dare.How could you have?”
I shrugged.“You saw what I was able to do.And the whole procedure…truly wasn’t even that difficult…”
“Simon,” he said.“You’ve no one to train you in this…art…or skill…or whatever I should call your abilities.Perhaps your mother could have, when you’d gotten older.Perhaps she meant to.Only…”
“Aye,” I said, blinking back tears.“She never got the chance.”
“No,” he agreed.
I had told him long ago about my mother.How she had had powers of some kind, but my horrible father had murdered her in their bed, and when I’d woken and discovered his dark deed, the flame had risen in me for the first time, and I’d destroyed everything—my mam’s cold corpse, my father, the house we’d lived in.
I’d been the only one left standing.
“Simon, what’s done is done.Leave the past alone.You can’t change what’s already happened.”
He was right.Still…
Chapter Thirteen
Escalation
Slipperytentacleswrappedmyarms, then my wrists, holding me down.Inky black seal skin brushed my face, chilled me.That strange song in my head, attracting and repelling me at the same time.
I couldn’t move, could only gape at the thing as tentacles slithered up my naked body, the eerie tune touching my very bones, hot breath on my pebbling skin.The creature stretched its mouth…
