The captain is a short, plump man, nose and cheeks speckled pink from the harsh breeze of the open ocean. He boasts a barrel of a stomach and a white, neatly trimmed beard contrasted by the deep red of his presseduniform. He ushers me below deck before the crew boards. Every witness to my voyage across the sea is a risk and, despite my profession, I do want to live.
“If you should need anything, my lady,” the captain says, and points to a small rope by the door that undoubtedly rings a service bell.
The man leaves without another word, and I listen to the heavy fall of boots as his crew begins to board the ship above. The room is large enough for a cot and table with a small wardrobe beside it, but little else. I don’t need much, but I can’t help the dread that wells inside me when I consider the many days I will be confined here during the crossing, with no outlet for my demon.
I eye my flesh suspiciously when goosebumps spring up along my arms, and my gaze darts to the wardrobe standing opposite the door. A small smile curves at the edge of my lips and my stomach dips as I take a step toward it, reaching for the handle. Even before I open it, I know what I will find inside.
“Does Leanna think I needed a babysitter?” I ask, arching an eyebrow.
The thin, wooden door swings open, revealing Vakesh leaning against the side lazily. I can’t recall ever seeing him without a simple pair of black leather pants, and a white tunic. Though many of those days had seen the white of his top stained and torn, he never seemed to mind.
A mischievous smile I haven’t seen in far too long breaks across his face. Where it is not bound, the ends of his stark white hair brush against the umber skin of his strong jaw and his brown eyes sparkle, framed by faint, joyful lines. Despite everything, I can’t help but return the smile he offers me.
“Leanna has every confidence in your abilities, but I have business of my own in A’kori, and I couldn’t help but stop in and seethe lady perfectionthat Leanna created for his majesty.”
His eyes rake lazily across my form before he brushes past me and collapses onto my cot. Pushing one arm behind his head to support it, he produces an apple from the pocket of his tunic and tosses it into the air repeatedly, catching it with ease though his eyes never leave me.
“Lady perfection?” My mouth twists around the term distastefully.
“Don’t you like it? I named you myself.” His eyes glint as his smilegrows.
Only Vakesh would think to hide all my flaws in a title claiming perfection.
“If anyone hears the title, it will certainly put them off my trail.” I give him that.
His eyebrows pinch together as he frowns.
“And? Does the master of shadows approve of Leanna’s creation?” I ask, unnecessarily smoothing the thin fabric of my gown.
“She might as well have sent you naked.” His eyes narrow on the fabric as if he is actually disapproving of the choice.
“Perhaps you should suggest that to her,” I say, fluttering my eyelashes and lowering my voice to a breathy whisper, “Though I hear that the males of A’kori do like to unwrap their gifts.”
He nearly fumbles the apple, the smile vanishing from his face. It takes everything I have not to grin wildly at his sudden lack of composure. Before I have time to register the movement, he’s standing before me, lifting my chin with a single calloused finger until my eyes meet the rather unexpected glower he is leveling at me.
“Never let it get that far,” he warns, “You always strike the first moment you have the chance. If you hesitate, you die, or worse.”
In light of my mission, it is theor worsethat truly concerns me. Though the thought of death can be a frightening prospect to ponder, there is something in the finality of it that offers some small semblance of peace. Rumors of the gifted feyn across the sea have always been in abundant supply at the keep, and for years I have listened on bated breath to the tales spun by soldiers who lived through the war, never sure of what was true and what was pure fabrication.
Throughout the years I’d heard it claimed, often enough that I suppose it to be true, that the king of A’kori is the last of the reavers. A rare gift, capable of invading the mind and warping the will of any man.
All my life I have weighed the validity of those stories. Really, there is very little I am sure of, and I will be walking a fine line between my ignorance and what knowledge I can glean along the way. I only wish my life did not hang in the balance of the two.
“Vari,” Vakesh hisses, bringing me back to the present moment. “Promise me, you never hesitate.”
“You almost sound concerned.” My lips pull up at the edges mockingly. “Since when does the master of shadows care if one of his fledglings makes it back to the nest? As long as the mission is accomplished, right?”
His jaw tenses, a subtle twitch indiscernible to anyone but me. “You know better than that,mi’ajna.”
My brow creases at the strange term, and his eyes flick between my own before he drops my chin with a sigh and makes his way toward the door.
“We should make the crossing in four days. Leanna had some things delivered before your arrival.” He points to the wardrobe. “I’ve added a thing or two myself. Settle in and I’ll be back to keep you company for meals. You’re not to leave this room.”
“As you say.” I smirk.
He returns the smile, shakes his head, and leaves, closing the door behind him. He will never admit it out loud, but I have known him long enough to have recognized the pride in his eyes when I received my assignment from the Drakai conclave. And despite everything we have been through, the look nearly brought me to my knees.
Vakesh is as responsible for my creation as Leanna, perhaps more so, and though I always feel that there are still parts of me that completely unnerve the man, there are also parts of me that slip right through all his carefully constructed defenses. It is a heady feeling, disarming the master of shadows. Or it had been, before I’d felt the fearsome sting of Leanna’s unrelenting disapproval.
