Wicked Path (The Daath Chronicles Book 2) (25 page)

“Captain Meloy said you two are heading to Jehoia.”

“That’s right,” Lucino said, standing a bit straighter.

“Bad place to be with the war.”

“What war?” I interrupted. “Who’s at war?”

Del glanced back and forth between Lucino and me. He scratched the side of his head. “I guess word hasn’t spread that far. The Nomad King is gathering an army to march against King Corban.”

“What?” No, this couldn’t be. War?

Lucino made no comment. Shouldn’t he be concerned as well?

Panic slammed my chest.
Grandfather is missing, Avikar is in another land, and my family… We’re all split apart
.
If war comes, how we will get back to each other? What if I never see them again?

“Hey.” Del touched my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to upset you. The king will win. I’m sure of it.”

“My sister has had a long day.” Lucino grabbed my waist, pulling me away from Del.

“Tomorrow, I’ll show you the crow’s nest. Best view on the ship.” Del smiled.

“Thank you, and thank you for the ginger.”

“You’re welcome.”

I didn’t want to leave the deck, but Lucino pushed me into the darkness of the hull. When we reached the hold, I broke out of his grip.

“That wasn’t necessary,” I said.

“He was asking too many questions.” Lucino took off his coat and threw it on the floor, then began undoing the buttons on his shirt.

“What are you doing?”

“Undressing.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little inappropriate?” I turned around, crossing my arms. He had no decency!

“After you spent the night in my room, I’d think we were past that.”

Heat rushed to my cheeks. Fine. He may not treat me like a lady, but I would still act like one. Keeping my back to him, I found a spot on the wooden floor and laid down, making sure to keep my eyes forward.

His coat landed on top of me. “It will keep you warm.”

The coat smelled of his winter scent, and I closed my eyes.
How could I have not made the connection?
Was I so desperate for a friend that I blindly ignored the telling signs? I should have known Edward was Lucino.

The sea wasn’t anything like I expected. Waves rocked the ship back and forth, and all I wanted was for the motion to stop. Del had given me more ginger and it helped, but not enough to stop the shakiness in my belly.

“Ugh…” Closing my eyes helped the nausea. I hung my head and arms over the side of the boat trying to breathe in fresh air.

“Still feeling sick?”

I opened my eyes to Del standing beside me.

“Are you afraid of heights?” he asked with a grin.

“No.”

“Follow me.”

Del walked to the main mast. “You climb first. I’ll be right below you.”

The mast rose high, and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make the climb. Being sick had drained me. “Will this really help?”

“It will.”

If climbing into the crow’s nest would take away the seasickness, I’d sleep there.

Gripping the rungs of the rope ladder, I slowly pulled myself up, taking my time. Heights had never been an issue, and when I was a child, I’d climb higher than Avikar in the big trees near our farm. It annoyed him I could go so high, and it drove him mad whenever I dangled from a branch.

Once I reached the crow’s nest and pulled myself inside, I gazed out at the ship and the sea. Sparkling water reached out farther than I ever imagined, and endless blue stretched everywhere. The air had a fresher scent, and the white clouds seemed close enough to touch.

“Great view, isn’t it?”

I nodded, staring at the massive ship and the sailors busying around below us. “Why did you bring me up here?”

Del leaned against the wood. The first few buttons of his white shirt were undone and he wore a red scarf around his neck. Sunlight shined on him, revealing specks of auburn in his hazel eyes.

“When I first came onboard, I couldn’t stomach the sea. Captain sent me up here and put me on watch. See, our eyes and body don’t agree with what we’re seeing and feeling. Some folks never get accustomed to it.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.” My dreams of sailing with Grandfather were over. If I couldn’t handle the motion of a bigger boat, how could I handle his pearl boat?

Del moved beside me, placing his arms on the edge of the nest. “A couple of days in the nest and you’ll be good. You’ll get your sea legs for sure.”

“The captain will let me do that?”

“Captain put you under my charge, remember?”

Our elbows almost touched, and my cheeks warmed at his sweet stare. “Thank you.”

He winked, and I had to put my focus somewhere else before my cheeks turned redder.

I scanned the sailors below, wondering where his majesty was hiding. Lucino stood on the deck, and another sailor shoved a bucket and mop at him.

“Hehee,” I giggled, loving the sight of Lucino being bossed around. I wasn’t close enough to hear his reaction, but I imagined his furious face.

“Your brother not used to working?”

“My brother—” I hated to even call him that, “—is a bit spoiled.”

“Not many people venture out at this time of season, between the changing winds and ravagers—”

“Ravagers?”

“You never heard of ‘em?”

“Only a few stories. I heard they use a poison that instantly paralyzes you, and don’t they hunt the coastlines?”

Del nodded. “They’re nasty, not like pirates who will take your goods and give you a chance to surrender. They kill for killing. Most ships are stripped, and every sailor burned.”

Grandfather had told me a little of ravagers, hunters with a blood lust. He’d been lucky to never cross paths with one.

“But don’t worry, I haven’t seen one yet. The king’s ships have been regulating areas where ravagers have been spotted, trying to eliminate them all. We’ll be safe.”

Safe. Here I was with a boy I just met, and the boy who tried to kill my brother, on a ship full of dangerous men… was I really safe?

ere.” I gave Jeslyn a piece of bread.

Her face was ashen, and she took the bread, holding it as she found a spot on the deck to sit.

I sat beside her. It was our fifth night aboard the boat. The rocking motion of the waves had been rough on her. She spent the first few days vomiting over the side of the ship and sitting in the crow’s nest. Her nausea had passed, but after today’s rough storm, her skin coloring had pasty undertones.

“What happened?” she asked softly.

The question could be for many things, but I sensed she wanted to know about the past, about what took place in Daath. I hadn’t decided if I would tell her. This time at sea had passed quickly and with few arguments.

She broke off a small piece of bread and put it into her mouth.

“The truth won’t change the past,” I said.

“No, but I need to hear it.”

“What do you want to know?”

She picked at the bread, taking another piece. “When you told me why I was kidnapped, were you telling the truth?”

“Yes.”

“And about my brother, when you said he was dead?”

“I was misinformed. I thought he had been killed.”

I waited for her to ask another question, but her mouth opened and shut without words as if she struggled with her thoughts. Her anger had faded over our journey. Between our ridiculous deck duties and her sickness, there was little time to be angry at one another.

“Was any of it real?”

I didn’t understand what she asked. “Which part?”

Her hands squeezed the bread and she lifted her head, turning to face me. “At the wedding, you said you never thought you could feel the way you did when I walked in.”

At her words, I remembered that day in the temple. How she appeared like an ethereal light floating to me, the dress accentuating every feminine curve of her body. Her golden aura absorbed everything around her, including me. When she had walked in, my plans had changed.

“What is the point of this discussion?” I dismissed the foreign warmth her gaze gave me.

Her face paled, and I thought she’d vomit again. She turned away, shaking her head.

No, I wouldn’t allow myself to entertain those thoughts, not after her brother had made a mockery out of me.

She placed the remainder of the bread on the ship’s ledge and left.

I wished she would’ve stayed angry instead of posing these questions. My head ached, an uncommon ailment for me. She and this ship were distracting me from my true goals.

The wind whipped the sails.

Forced to sit on sodden wood, I breathed in and out, thinking. Jeslyn could ask as many questions as she wanted; my plans wouldn’t change, not this time.