Page 77 of Virelai's Hoard
That, too, felt like a knife twisted in her gut. All of her trying, useless.
“It’s back in your chest,” Sable said, and her voice was cold then. Defeated. “If anyone wants to get to it, they’ll have to get past my blade first. You would’ve known that, if you’d ever bothered to find out.”
By the silence at her back, she knew that, too, had been useless.
***
When Sable resurfaced back on deck, her eyes fell on a crowd of pirates clustered in a tight-knit group, whispering and murmuring loudly.
Stomach still in knots, she approached. She pushed past them, bumping shoulders and pushing people out of her way until she made it to the core of the unruly crowd.
In between everyone, mostly unconscious, laid Eryx and Riley.
Sable’s heart lurched. She stared dumbly at the two people she’d never thought she’d see again. Kittredge had knelt by Eryx’s side, their head in her lap as she brushed their hair out of their forehead, murmuring something to them as if to coax them out of sleep. The others kept a safe distance away, as if the two were diseased and about to spread their sickness to the rest ofthe ship, but shock kept them rooted in place, fascination made them lean in.
Riley groaned and gathered her scattered limbs into something resembling a sitting position.
Before she realized what she was doing, Sable rushed to her side and hugged her. She drew her to her chest, squeezing tight, her heart now thundering in her ears. Riley was alive. She wasback.
And she wasn’t returning Sable’s hug, arms weak and limp at her sides.
“Sable?” Riley asked in a small, groggy voice. “I-I can’t breathe. Will you–”
“Oh, shit.” Sable let go, clearing her throat as heat rose up her neck. Suddenly she became aware of the others’ eyes on them, and their confused looks. Sable had never been the touchy sort, and the crew knew that. “Sorry.” Getting back up on her feet, she reached a hand out. “Can you stand?”
Riley closed her eyes tightly as she thought about that very hard. Then her face relaxed, and she nodded, eyes opening again as Sable pulled her to her feet. In Kit’s lap, Eryx stirred awake too.
“How are you here?” Ignatius asked, his eye flickering between the two, narrowed as if they were intruders.
“Yeah! What happened?”
“Did you find a way to get us out of here?”
“Where’d you disappear to?”
Sable wanted replies to all of those questions, too, but it took one look at Riley to realize she was in no state to give them any answers. Hunched shoulders and vacant eyes, Riley drew in on herself at the onslaught of questions.
“That’s enough!” Sable snapped and drew Riley behind her. The hand gripped in hers shook, and Sable gave it a reassuringsqueeze. To the others, she directed a thunderous look. “Give them some space tobreathe, for fuck’s sake.”
The crew shuffled on their feet, cowed. Their mouths clamped shut.
“We don’t need to worry about the mist anymore,” Eryx said in a small voice, now sitting up and plastered against Kit’s side.
As soon as they mentioned it, a wisp of sunlight fell on the deck at their feet. The crew gasped, then they all looked around. The mist had retreated from the deck, from the ship. A green haze still surrounded them from the waters, but it was–
“It’s retreating!” someone said, rushing to the railing and gripping it tight as they peered past. “It’s going away, look!”
Soon pirates lined up at both sides of the railing, Eryx and Riley forgotten at their backs as cheers erupted around the ship. Relief flooded through Sable as Nivros’ gentle light fell on her face, and she tilted her head up at the sky, closed her eyes under the warm caress. Just for a moment.
“Holy shit, I thought we were gonna die here.”
It was Kittredge who asked the question that should’ve been first out of Sable’s own mouth. “Are you ok?”
Eryx gave her a weak smile. “Yeah, yeah. It was… uh…”
“Weird,” Riley said with a sigh, withdrawing her hand from Sable’s. “It was weird.” Her gaze was fixed on the rat in Eryx’s lap as she wrapped her arms around herself.
“You both look like you’ve seen a ghost,” Nyxen said from the side, voice gentle.
