Page 151 of The Sea Witch
Exhaustion suddenly dragged on Alys with heavy rusted chains. Blearily, she looked up at Stasia, who was reviewing the chart with their intended course.
After they had fled the naval ship and its kraken, theSea Witchhad put in off the shore of a small cay, seeking a temporary landing place to avoid further encounters with the Royal Navy. Though she still sensed Ben within her, there had been no word from him. Anxiety had kept Alys from finding any comfort in the shelter of sleep.
Now, two days after she had seen him sail away from her, worry and weariness churned in her gut, a mix which seemed to suddenly catch up to her.
“Are you well?” her friend asked with a frown of concern. “You look as though your face is made of melting wax.”
“Can’t...” Alys blinked. Though she was tired, fatigue hit her all at once, with the force of a cudgel to the back of her head. “Eyes won’t stay open. This your doing? You cast a sleepin’ spell on me?”
Stasia gave her an unwavering stare. “I would never be so trite.”
“Someone else in the crew, then. Susannah? Thérèse?”
“No one cast a sleeping spell on you,” Stasia answered, exasperated. “Your weariness is likely due to the fact that you paced on the top deck all night.”
“Did no such thing,” Alys said. Or she tried to say, but her words came out in a jumble.
“The middle watch and morning watch told me,” Stasia countered. “You bounded from stem to stern when nearly everyone else was asleep in their berths. And you didn’t eat your supper.”
“Whoever was in charge of last night’s supper fed us boiled leather,” Alys returned.
“We will find ourselves a new cook when the timing is more ideal. For now...” Stasia walked across Alys’s quarters and took her by the wrist. She tugged Alys toward her berth.
“Sleep now,” Stasia said with an astonishing amount of gentleness.
Alys could object, and force herself to stay awake. But she wasn’t a child. So, she let her friend push her onto her berth and lay quietly as Stasia tugged a blanket over her.
“Wake me in thirty minutes,” Alys insisted.
“An hour,” her friend replied calmly.
Alys would have demanded she get her way, except her eyelids were leaden, and she could keep them open no longer. The last thing she saw before she surrendered was Stasia bending over her, her brow creased with worry.
There was nothing to be concerned about. Or so Alys wanted to say, but she wasn’t able as slumber pulled her down.
She stood on a white beach, sapphire waves lapping at the sand and foaming around her bare ankles. Palm trees gently swayed as a soft warm breeze drifted across the water.
“Alys.”
She turned at the familiar voice. Her heart leapt as Ben made his way toward her. He wore no shirt and loose pantaloons, and his markings danced across his sun-warmed skin. His unbound hair blew around his face and even from a distance his eyes were the same azure shade as the water that ringed the island.
She ran to him. His arms were around her instantly, and she pressed her face against his chest. Inhaling deeply, she caught his scent of seawater, wood, and leather.
“You’re back,” she murmured into the crook of his neck.
“I wish I was with you now.” His hand cradled the back of her head, stroking her hair.
“You are,” she insisted.
He pulled back slightly. “We dream together, Flame. At this moment, I’m asleep in my berth on board theJupiter. See? Tea cakes generally don’t fly in real life.”
He pointed toward the sky, where a collection of small cakes sporting gull wings wheeled in circles, crying out to each other.
“Hell.” She forced down the knot of disappointment stuck in her throat. “You’re sound? Any harm come to you?”
“Sound, and no harm. Some hard questions were put to me, but I had answers for them. Strickland even complimented me on my resourcefulness and courage,” Ben added bitterly. “It was all I could do to keep from running him through with his own cutlass.”
“There’ll come a time for vengeance.” She stroked her hands along his chest and over his face. “Damn dreams. Why isn’t this real?”
