Page 70 of Suffer No Fools
"He wouldn't dare," Tovey said, but he did his best to push their little vessel to top speed, and Stan tugged on the tow line until the ship started to gain on them.
After what felt like hours but was probably only minutes, they reached the shore. The clouds overhead parted, not becausethe storm had passed, but because Hannah stood beside Efren and Nola on the dock.
"What the fuck happened?" Efren shouted.
"They tried to take Hugo," Tovey shouted back. "Anyone got a shirt?"
Hannah scampered off toward the open side ofStarlight Specterand soon returned with a sail they'd used as a wall in the true hold.
"Thank you," Hugo murmured when they wrapped it around his shoulders.
"Gods, are you all right?" they asked.
"I've never been better." He was still shaking, but Nola's water globe revealed his triumphant smile.
"Let's get you warmed up while we raid their ship and figure out why they tried to take you," Tovey said.
"We'll board the ship," Efren said. "Renald and Trin can help Stan fixStarlight Specter. Thanks to Hannah, we've already drained the water."
"How did you know?" Tovey asked. He hadn't heard anything but the rain and the pounding waves.
"I was asleep on the ship," Hannah said.
"Why?" Tovey asked. "We've got plenty of extra space if you—"
"I have a great room at the boarding house," Hannah said, patting his arm. "I didn't trust those assholes, is all. I ran to Efren's new house as soon as she started listing. I appreciate your help, though. You kept her from sinking."
They motioned for Stan to follow up the beach to where Trin and Renald waited by the gaping hole inStarlight Specter'shull.
Tovey turned back to Hugo, not trusting himself to go aboard with the others. He was still too angry. They'd taken Hugo from his bed, their bed. The Glamierians deserved toburn. The only reason they were still alive was because Hugo had asked for help. Tovey didn't want that stain on Hugo's conscience, not when he was capable of both earth and air power along with his fire and ice. That kind of setback might stunt his progress, and they needed Hugo as strong as he could be when they sailed for Hearthstone in the spring.
Tovey had thought Hannah's ability to call storms was formidable. Now, seeing what Hugo could do, he understood why Hugo's line of fire weavers ruled Embertide. They were unstoppable.
Chapter 11
Hugo
Hugo's body buzzed with too much information. He could feel Stan's weaves as he worked with Trin and Renald to fix the ship's hull. He also felt Tovey's anxiety as he watched the two ship's captains and Hannah climb their water bridge onto the deck of the foreign ship now embedded in the sand.
Hugo stared at the side of the Glamierian ship, uncertain how he'd pulled his wits together long enough to borrow Stan's power to blast the hole through the wood. Then, he'd had the presence of mind to use Tovey's power to hurl himself through it like a projectile. When his fire had engulfed him, it had burned off the thin nightshirt his captors had pulled over his head before ...
He'd been dreaming and awoke to the sound of the dresser drawer opening. Before he opened his eyes, someone clapped an air gag over his mouth so he couldn't scream.
Air. There had been two air weavers. The other had weaved a spell over Stan's and Tovey's ears to keep them from hearing as they scuffled about the room, dressing him in the night shirt and tossing him over a shoulder to carry him down the stairs and outside through the back door. On the sand beside the pool sat a small airship like the one the twin air weavers had operated to carry them from the academy roof toStarlightSpecter'sdeck, only this one was just a platform with ropes on each side instead of a basket.
Hugo couldn't help it. He gripped the air weaver carrying him like his life depended on it. He wrapped both arms around the man's waist and buried his face against the small of the man's back so he wouldn't have to see the blur of dark treetops as they passed over them in the rain.
They landed on the foreign ship's deck in a bustle of commotion. An earth weaver had balled up tree branches into projectiles the size of carriages. The other air weaver who had entered Hugo's house and taken him from his fucking bed walked over to them and hurled the first againstStarlight Specter'sside.Hugo still couldn't cry out, thanks to the air weave holding his tongue still and his vocal cords silent, but he watched each move with certainty. These weavers would be made to pay for the damage they'd caused.
"My guards will find me,"he'd thought."Stan. Tovey. If you can hear me, wake up!"
He'd felt Tovey wake, then. It was strange. When he closed his eyes, he experienced what Tovey saw and felt. When Stan woke up, the sensory information from both was overwhelming, and Hugo's head swam. Or maybe his dizziness was from the gag and the uncomfortable position of being draped over the air weaver's back for so long.
He struggled to free his legs from the man's grip. Instead of letting him down, the man spanked his ass and carried him toward a port hole.
"Behave,"he'd said,"or I'll toss you into the hold. Our healer can fix a broken leg, but she'll make it hurt."
Hugo did not need a broken leg, nor did he want a healer to touch him after Klaus's horror story of becoming a grand seeker. He didn't want a recurrence of the strange illness Vadim found in Hugo's body after he brought him back from the dead.He stayed still and obeyed the man's orders as they descended a ladder into the hold. The ship had two cells with bars made from gold, silver, and iron twisted around wooden dowels.
