Page 152 of The Sea Witch
“It is, and it isn’t.” He gazed at her intently. “TheJupiteris currently heading toward Hispaniola, well away from theSea Witch. With good fortune, neither ship should cross the other’s path for a long while. That is what I came to tell you. With theJupiteron its fool’s errand, you are free to move on to the next step in search of the fail-safe.”
“I’ve news as well. I saw a naval ship, not theJupiter. It had a kraken.”
“Hell.”
“I watched it destroy a pirate’s ship,” she went on. “The sight’s branded into my mind.”
“It’s happening, then. What Warne threatened is truly coming to pass.”
“Your mission’s done. No need to stay on theJupiter.”
“There’s no way for me to flee the ship,” he said with regret. “Not without having it give chase, and I’ll never lead them to you. Trust me,” he added, his gaze moving over her face, “I swear that when the opportunity presents itself, I will speed back to your side.”
“It’s good to have two navigators aboard theSea Witch,” she said. “We know twice as much about where we are.”
His brow furrowed. “I must go. Even though I begged exhaustion, Strickland will not look kindly on his sailing master sleeping away daylight hours.”
“Kiss me,” she demanded, “before we wake.”
He lowered his mouth to hers. His kiss was soft and reverent, tender and aching. The obstacles and distance between them fell away. She wove her fingers into his hair and opened her lips to him. He tasted exactly as she remembered, rich and deep, with the added flavor of yearning.
In the way of dreams, the more she held fast to him, the further away he seemed to get. He turned insubstantial, misty.
“Ben,” she cried out. “Ben.”
“I’ll return to you,” he answered, his voice growing distant. “I swear it.”
She called out his name once more, but she was alone on the beach. The water stilled, and nothing moved, the entire world trapped in time, neither going backward nor moving forward.
Her eyes flew open and she was once again in her berth, staring at the planks overhead, the knots in wood she knew so well. She brought her fingers to her lips, yet there was no taste of Ben on her mouth. He was far away from her now.
Something jostled him sharply. Was the ship under attack? Did the sea creatures bound to the mage’s will suddenly revolt and turn against theJupiter?
“Wake up, you bastard,” Oliver barked.
Ben tried to sit up, but strong binding held him down. He opened his eyes. A thick-armed sailor pinned him to his berth, as Strickland, Oliver, Gray, and Warne looked on.
They all wore hard, grim expressions.
“Explain this,” Ben demanded.
“Traitor.” Oliver nodded toward two more seamen standing by. One held a pair of manacles, and the other gripped shackles in his beefy hand. “Aligning yourself with that whore, thatwitch.”
“Denial is impossible, Priestley,” Captain Gray added when Ben was about to contradict the quartermaster. “We know.”
Ben struggled against the man holding him down, but he was too large and brutish to be moved.
“I felt it.” The mage sneered. “Your dreamwalking. Toher. Everything you blathered to us earlier is utterly false.”
Ben remained silent. There was nothing to be said, and he would tell them naught of Alys.
Warne bent down, placing his face close to Ben’s.
“Without your dreamwalking, we’d have never known where to find her. There’s a line, you see, drawn between your heart and hers.” He placed his hand on Ben’s chest, and though Ben struggled to shake him off, the mage dug his fingernails into him. “It has led us straight to her.”
“In the opposite direction of where you pointed us,” Oliver said disgustedly. “Turncoat. Betrayer.”
“And we know that Tanner is after the fail-safe that Little George created,” Warne went on, smiling.
