Page 67 of Take No Prisoners
"I'll see to it when we return, Captain."
With seven wind weavers, they would make it to Luminest by early afternoon. "How long will you stay in port?"
"Beatrice has given me messages to deliver to the tavern and the grocer. While there, I'll ask after news and grab whatever spring produce they have. We'll be on our way before sunset."
"You should make it back by mid-morning," he said. "Have Tovey take the evening shift if you're too tired."
"I can still sail for seventy-two hours straight, Captain." She straightened her shoulders and stuck out her chin, raising her hand in salute again.
"As you were." He waved off her salute with a grin. "If you're not here by noon, I'll start to worry."
"If we're detained, I'll have Tovey send you a message."
Tovey's idea of a message was a piece of paper wrapped around a rock and tied in place with string. He then tossed it into the air and pushed it to its destination. His accuracy defied explanation. As much as he claimed he didn't communicate with birds, Efren often wondered how he could find a target over the edge of the horizon.
He didn't have time to ponder his wind weaver's talents. Both Efren and the rest ofStarlight Specter'screw needed to be off in their separate directions.
"Safe travels," he said, raising his hand to Tovey, Stan, and Hannah before jogging down the gangplank to board the skiff.
Vadim and Klaus were still arguing over whether Klaus should go while Efren unwound the rope from its mooring.
"She doesn't even know me!" Klaus said. "Why do I need to come with you?"
"You left without me yesterday and look how that turned out."
Efren opened his mouth to ask if Vadim wanted him to push them to the other island with his water weaves, but Vadim tossed him a paddle before the words were out of his mouth. The hard way, then. Everything with Vadim was the hard way. Efren knew better than to suggest using his magic once Vadim had committed to doing something himself. It would only irritate him further, and his argument with Klaus was doing that well enough.
"I didn't know I needed to run all my errands by you!"
"You're tied to me with a life link." Vadim's voice was barely more than consonants snapping and hissing in his mouth. "Did you ever think to question how far that link would let you go before you broke it and died on me?"
"That's a possibility?" The last two syllables squeaked octaves higher than Klaus's usual speaking voice.
"You'd have to be as far away as Hearthstone and locked inside a room lined with silver before Vadim couldn't reach you." Efren rolled his eyes. "Stop trying to scare the lad. Maybe if he wasn't so scared of you, he could actually learn to like you."
"You're one to talk." Vadim splashed water with each stroke, and the skiff started to turn from his extra effort. "All you have to do is lay an unconscious man on your bunk and he's yours forever."
"I—"
"Not my business, I know." Vadim glared at him until he left the unspoken question to die on his tongue. "The captain is right, Klaus. Unless you hopped into a container made of silver without me, our link would survive any physical distance." He stopped his choppy rowing to cough into one hand. "It still wouldn't have killed you to ask," he muttered.
"I didn't ask for a life link!" Klaus's shout was so loud and unexpected, it startled Niall backward. He almost toppled from the boat.
"You did," Vadim said. "As with anything I do, you had to consent for me to link to you. Your life force was so strong and—I couldn't let you go."
"You know nothing about healing, or forming a link," Efren said. "What were you thinking?"
"I wasn't," Vadim said. "He called, and I came."
"Can we please get to the island?" Niall's face had lost all color. "Something has changed."
Vadim redoubled his efforts, and it took all of Efren's strength and concentration to keep up. It had been a long time since he'd needed to row with his own power. His chest muscles ached as he wrapped the rope to moor them to the dock. His thighs hurt from bracing against the bottom of the boat, too. Gods, he was getting old. This was nothing like the pleasant ache of sex with Niall. This shit hurt.
"Stay here," Vadim ordered Klaus after they'd entered the tree sanctuary. "If you sense anyone on the island besides us, tell me through our link."
Klaus frowned like he wanted to argue but stayed silent.
"What's changed?" Efren asked once they'd reached Beatrice's bedside in the tree's tower cell. To him, she looked the same as she had the night before.
