Page 61 of Realm of Thieves

I nod, though if he thinks that I’m just going to leave him to get eaten by dragons, he’s got another think coming.

Chapter 18

Andor

“Where’s Brynla?” Feet, my crewman,says to me as he passes me a mug of something. “We’re about to start our card game. Always helps to have an even number of players.”

“I think she’s on deck,” I say, sniffing the drink. I make a face. “Oh, did Toombs make his grog again?”

“It’s rum,” Toombs announces, slapping me on the back, making the drink spill over, the acidic molasses smell filling the air.

“It’s grog,” I correct him. He holds out his mug and I sigh reluctantly, tipping my vessel against his. “Down the hatch, I guess.”

I drink back the awful stuff while everyone else chants, “Down the hatch, down the hatch!”

I manage to swallow it down and suddenly my mug is already refilled and I’m somehow holding two mugs.

“That one is for Brynla,” Toombs says. “The girl has been awfully quiet these last two days. She might want something for the nerves. We’ll be landing in the Banished Land tomorrow.”

“Ask her if she’ll play cards,” Feet adds.

I nod and head up the stairs to the top deck, two mugs filled with grog rum.

It’s quiet up here, the winds steady but the seas calm, and the sky is peppered with bright stars. The first few days at sail after leaving the Midlands we had the same rough waves as we had going into it, but as we get closer to Esland and the Banished Land of the south, the more things have turned. I wonder if it’s an omen, a warning that things might not be so calm ahead.

Kirney is at the helm for the evening, which is just as well when Toombs has broken out the homemade rum. I nod at him at the wheel and then look down the deck to see Brynla at the bow, Lemi lying dutifully by her side. She’s staring right at the moonlit waters, the reflection slightly pink in the faint glow of the cycle’s pink moon, and though her face is turned away from me, I can picture the serious, wistful expression on her face.

Ever since we got off the Midlands with our lives barely intact, she’s become a little distant. Sometimes I wonder if her pain is back and she’s been trying to hide it. Other times I wonder if perhaps I said too much. Maybe I acted too strongly. I thought I was keeping myself in check; I thought I was doing the noble thing, the right thing, by offering to let her go. To free her from the bargain she never wanted to make in the first place.

Perhaps she regretted not taking me up on it.

Perhaps the moment we step foot in the Dark City, a place I’ve never been but one she would know like the back of her hand, she plans to leave me for good.

Or lead me into a trap.

Moon didn’t say anything about her aunt except that she was waiting for us.

So she’ll be waiting for us…

I push the thought out of my head. Brynla saved my life the other day. I have no reason not to trust her. It’s especially fair when I keep asking her to trust me.

Lemi’s head comes up and his tail thumps a couple of timesagainst the deck when he sees me. Honestly, the idea of Brynla not being by my side pains me, but I’d miss the dog almost as much.

Her head turns slightly and she eyes me from the side, but she doesn’t move from where she’s leaning on the bow, the waves slicing below in a rhythmic manner, music to my ears. Her hair is in a loose braid and she’s wearing her leather breeches and a navy shirt she borrowed from me, made more fitted by tying it with rope at the waist. I’ve never seen a woman wearing my clothes before, and I have to admit, it does something for me, like it’s a visual sign that she’smine.

But I’d be a fool to start thinking that way, especially when so much hangs in the balance.

“I have something for you,” I say, holding out the mug. “You’re under no pressure to drink it. It’s Toombs’s rum. Well, grog. Rum grog.”

She takes it and gives it a sniff, her nose wrinkling. “Ah, Toombs’s infamous grog. I was wondering when he would finally break it open.”

Then to my surprise she puts the mug to her lips and gulps it back with ease.

“Whoa,” I say, reaching out to stop her. “Careful now, this is very strong.”

She winces, making a face. “I know.”

Then she drinks the rest of it in a few more gulps until the mug is empty, and she hands it back to me.

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