Page 116 of The Sea Witch
“Luca Pasquale. Good fortune to you in finding him. This sea’s too vast, and he’s as manageable as a hurricane.”
Ben swore. “The Redthorn... seemed to recognize me. Said something about me being the first. And that’s two books now that had illustrations of these things on my skin. There’s a riddle written on my flesh.”
“We’ll find the answer.” She said this like a vow, her hand on his chest pressing against him firmly.
We, she had said. Notyou.We.
He covered her hand with his.
“I was going to destroy it. The fail-safe.” When her expression didn’t change, he said, “My plan was to help you find it.”
“And make sure no one could use it.” She didn’t slide her hand out from beneath his.
“No anger? No recrimination?”
“I didn’t keep those manacles on you because I thought they looked pretty.” She glanced down at his chafed wrists and clicked her tongue. “Fatima will have a salve for that. Should heal up within a few days, even if the salve stinks like rotten haddock.”
He stared at her. “At the least, throw me back in the brig.I was going to betray you.”
“Betrayal doesn’t look like your cutlass through a Redthorn’s chest and throat. And it doesn’t sound like you confessing your plan, either. A plan that sounds abandoned.”
“It is,” he said firmly.
“I can’t be angry on account of you trying to carry out your duty. But,” she added, pressing her fingers against him as if shecould learn the truth of his heart through touch, “I don’t know what your duty is now.”
He hauled in a long rough breath. “At the Weeping Princess waterfall, we took that step over the edge, hoping we’d fly to the bottom and not smash against the rocks below. This feels like that.”
“You flew, didn’t you?”
“It was more of a controlled plummet, but yes. And I did it because...” He swallowed. “Because you were with me, and I trusted you.”
There were so many colors in her eyes. Moss and amber and the tiniest flecks of summer sky. The whole of the world contained in her irises, and that world was warm, brimming with life.
“Trust your own judgment,” she answered. “Trust yourself.”
A knock sounded on the door.
“Got the things you wanted, Cap’n,” someone in the passageway said.
Alys stepped back, her hand sliding out from beneath his. To the door, she called, “Bring them in.”
Ben moved to slip on his grimy shirt.
“No need for that,” Alys said to him as Jane and a crew member named Cecily marched into her quarters, their arms laden with garments. To the crew, Alys instructed, “Put them on my berth.”
Only Cecily glanced in his direction, her gaze skimming quickly over his bare but marked torso, before she turned her attention back to laying out each article of clothing. They appeared to be very ornate clothes, with gold braid, shiny buttons, and brocade fabric.
“Here’s everything we could find, Cap’n,” Cecily said with a deferential nod. “Something’s got to work amongst all this.”
“We’ll find what we need,” Alys answered. When she looked toward the door, the crew took this as a clear sign of dismissal, and they filed out, carefully shutting the door behind them.
Ben moved toward her berth to examine the clothes. “These are men’s garments.”
“What we’re searching for is at Lethal Lambert’s table. His estate is... wild.”
“How wild?”
“When he’s throwing one of his parties, orgies have been known to break out. Yet Lambert likes everyone to be clean. The blueblood in him.”
