I gulped. The uncoordinated and dragging gait I’d maintained to get here wouldn’t suffice across the gangway.
No turning back now. Don’t think about it.
I stepped onto the wood.
It quivered underneath me, reverberating with each step forward. I swallowed down my rising anxiety. The acrid smell of miasma wafted toward me.
Okay, the floor is lava. The lava wants your attention, but don’t give it any.
Veridiana and someone else beyond her were both crossing ahead of me. She moseyed across the plank without a care in the world.
My bag was an unwieldy boulder on my back. I tightened the straps securing it to my shoulders. Dizziness was harassing me while my vision pulsated with each pound of my headache.
Cautiously, I moved along the makeshift bridge. This was easy compared to fighting Sanguirs. Nothing to it. Just one step at a time until I reached the other side.
I felt like I was part of a circus act, except this acrobat didn’t have a net, or any discernible talent. And the landing strategy was to hope for the best.
Stop thinking about it.
I kept walking forward.
The wind picked up, tugging me hard to the side. The boards beneath me groaned. I tipped sideways, fingers wrapping around the rope railing before an untimely demise.
My heart tried to escape through my rib cage. I sucked in a greedy gulp of air. My head still throbbed, both from fear and the migraine trying to crack my skull open from the inside out.
Too late, I remembered that Veridiana had received the Balance Skinscript. And she wasn’t hungover.
The wind hauled hair into my face. I was almost halfway across.
And I had Skinscript too. It couldn’t hurt to use it. Focusing on Luck, faint warmth spread from my forearm.
I looked down.
Sinister splotches writhed beneath the diaphanous deadly sheen of miasma, small blurry shapes. My stomach forgot it belonged inside me. Bile spewed in a sickening rush into my throat. Swallowing past my sour pulse, I forced it back down.
I spat hair out of my mouth, trying to blink it from my eyes.
There wasn’t much farther to go.
I closed my eyes, breathing until my pounding heartbeat slowed. This would be easy if I didn’t feel like a poorly preserved patchwork of human meat.
Steadying myself, I lifted one foot and planted it firmly on the wood.
I took another step. Then another.
Stumbling the final distance onto the main deck, I collapsed onto my hands and knees. I could have kissed thefloorboards, it was so good to be off that gangplank. The ground was gently swaying beneath me, mirroring the movement of the miasma below.
Crossing that plank every time we came ashore would be a frequent occurrence. And on most of those trips back across, I’d be hauling Starshells too. With punishing weather accompaniment, too.
But hopefully never hungover ever again.
I groaned, rolling onto my back and letting my arms flop out beside me.
There was still an hour left before departure. Time enough to pull myself together, find an available cabin below deck, and familiarize myself with the Shadowtide.
Henrik’s face swung into my view. “Lisia. I wanted to apologize. About the box.”
I groaned again, rolling myself away from him. “Not now, Henrik.”
