Page 19 of Prima
Under the makeshift canopy, his eyes are brilliant, his gaze just slightly devious. “I doubt Dawan has a terrific reputation abroad. Rare is the itinerant man crossing our territorial waters. Women, practically never. Then there’s you.”
“Too harebrained to live?”
“A distinct possibility,” he says, not without some conviction, which cracks her up. “On the other hand, years ago I overheard an exchange. Apparently those who are considered serious candidates to be the next Sea Witch are required to undertake an unaided trip across the entire region. You’re on this Grand Tour, aren’t you?”
Well, well, now she’s dazzled by more than just his beauty. She beams at him. “Grilled red snapper?”
Since he didn’t answer her question about his parentage, she has no obligation to confide in him about her potential future occupation.
He glances sideways at her and appears to be rather impressed with her despite himself. “Red snapper would be welcome. Thank you.”
She hands him a fillet on a skewer.
He takes a bite. “Not bad. You’re a decent cook.”
She is vastly diverted by this semi-backhanded compliment. “I assume you must be a far superior one, having trained in the kitchen of the Potentate’s Palace.”
“I will be modest and say that my skills are rusty.”
She laughs. “But those rusty skills of yours still outshine mine as the sun outshines all the other stars?”
“You can judge for yourself one of these days.”
“And when is that?”
She can’t believe it, but she’s holding her breath, waiting for his answer. Is he going to cook for her tonight?
He appears to consider her question seriously. Behind him, the turquoise sea unspools into infinity, a backdrop of light and clarity for his graven beauty.
“When you next come through these parts, I suppose,” he replies.
Disappointment kicks her in the solar plexus. He can guess that she’s on her Grand Tour but can’t deduce that she wants him to reciprocate the courtship?
She bites into a skewer of red snapper too. Not bad her ass; it’s delicious. “The world is big. You’re not bound to remain here, being a lowly patrol.”
With that fast hydrofoil boat of his, he might be able to run the gauntlet of the so-called Disputed Waters in a day or so.
His eyes become shadowed. “I have a mother and a sister. If I disappeared, the powers that be would not look kindly upon them.”
Not everybody in the world has as many choices as you do, her mother has always told her. It occurs to her for the first time that he is taking a great risk by doing nothing more than accepting her invitation to lunch.
She pulls her stool a few centimeters closer to the table. “But if your mother and sister leave Dawan first, you’re still the Potentate’s son—and should be able to slip out at some point in the future.”
He does not protest her characterization of him as a prince of the realm, but says only, “It’s not so simple for them to get away. But they might need to soon: Within a year my sister will be old enough to be gifted to some powerful man as an alliance bride.”
It is unthinkable that young women are bartered as goods. Even more unthinkable that a father would view his own child as a bargaining chip. But this has always been the tragic failure of humanity—too many of its members regard others as expendable.
Something else occurs to her. She takes another bite of her red snapper. “So when you started to follow me, you were thinking of perhaps capturing me so that the Potentate could use me for ransom, and then?—”
She shakes her head. “No, he wouldn’t ever allow his own concubine and daughter to go free—even if he wanted to reward you, at best he’d give you an extra concubine. Were you thinkingI’dbe able to help them?”
“You won’t be able to help them,” he says, his negation complete, unhesitating. “I considered capturing you as a prize, so that I’d be allowed to return to the capital. I must be there, for them to have a chance to get away.”
She chews slowly and swallows. This was why she’d wanted to get rid of him at first, before those abs of his stopped her in her tracks. That and when he called her a mermaid. “Why didn’t you, then?”
Certainly when he swam up to her raft last night, he did not hold any intention to rob her of so much as the leftovers from her dinner, let alone her freedom.
He rolls his eyes. “You know why I didn’t. You are far more heavily armed than I am.”
