who had stood there smiling pleasantly during the entire introduction. “Do you know if the ship will be ready to sail soon?”
Genara swept him a well-practiced curtsy. “The ship will leave at sunset, Your Grace. The rest of the crew will return before then. Did you wish to stay and meet them as well?”
The duke shook his head. “No, I’ve got other matters to attend to.” He turned to Ameyron with a smile. “May the gods guide your voyage. I’ll be interested in hearing your stories when you return.”
Ameyron bowed to the duke, and at a nudge from him, Aristia did the same. “Thank you, my lord.”
When the duke left, Genara turned to Ameyron with another lovely smile. “Don’t let the captain intimidate you. She’s a little rough, but once she gets comfortable with you, she’ll be a valuable asset to your research.” She turned to the gangplank and swept her hand out to include the entire research team. “If you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you all to your cabins.”
Cargo filled the ship: barrels and crates of food, piles of weapons, chests of clothing. But not everything that the dockhands loaded that day was labeled. Secrets came on board that day. And somewhere, hidden among other personal belongings, a dark thing stirred: an egg, containing a monster.
Yuri trailed a finger down his wife’s side from her shoulder to her waist, over her hip, and down her leg. Her skin was soft even after years before the mast, and there was a sheen of sweat from their exertions.
Rei let out a contented sigh and nestled closer to him. “Careful,” she said in a playful voice. “You’ll get me started again.”
He propped himself up with one arm so he could look over her naked body. “Would that be such a bad thing?” he murmured back.
She chuckled, but she grabbed his hand and held it firmly around her waist. “Only if you don’t want to miss the ship. The captain said we sail at sunset.”
“Sunset is sort of a vague window of time.” He leaned closer and planted a kiss on her shoulder, and smiled when he felt her shudder in response. “I mean, does sunset start when the sun is close to the horizon, or when it’s actually touching?” He brushed his fingers against her hip. “Do we leave when it’s halfway down,” he added, trailing kissed down her side, “or all the way?”
Rei laughed again and pushed him away before he could reach between her legs, sitting up. “You know the captain needs us back earlier to get ready to sail. We’d better get going so she doesn’t worry.” She bent over and started to pick their clothes up off the floor.
His smile disappeared as he pushed himself up to a sitting position on the uncomfortable straw mattress. He looked around the tiny, dirty inn room, rented by the hour, and let out a heavy sigh. “I just don’t know when will be the next time that we have privacy like this, now that all of the cabins on the ship are taken up by these new ‘clients.’”
She looked back at him over her shoulder with a wink. “We’ll find the time.” She tossed him a shirt.
Yuri caught the shirt, but didn’t move to put it on. “Why do you care if the captain worries? You don’t have to jump at her every order. We’re all supposed to be equal partners in this business.”
“If we don’t stick to our schedule, we won’t get paid,” Rei said flatly. She stood up and pulled her trousers on in one fluid motion. “Mynta’s proven herself a competent leader. I doubt that you could do a better job.”
He looked up at her. “I think you could.”
She smirked and shook her head. “Then I’d be twice as busy with the extra work, including bowing and scraping to our rich new clients right now instead of enjoying this afternoon of freedom with you. And there’s no extra perks for being captain. Mynta gave up her cabin to the passengers, same as we did.”
Rei held out his trousers. “Do you want me to help you with these?”
“No, I can do it.” Yuri scowled and snatched them away, bracing himself up against the back of the bed as he tugged them on. The right trouser leg was sewn shut at the bottom, so no one would see the scarred stump just below his knee.
Then he stubbornly took his crutch from the side of the bed and hoisted himself up, waving away Rei’s offer of help again. “Let’s go.”
She looked away from him as she opened the door and let him go ahead of her. She knew that he hated to see her look of pity. This time, he pretended not to notice.
Aristia had never been on the deck of a ship before. Actually, she’d never been outside of Kyratia’s city walls. Back when she’d begged on the streets, she knew every back alley and byway by heart, from the fish-smelling docks to the polished Temple Square. But now, her world was opening up in a whole new way, and she had a million questions about everything.
Mage Ameyron had sent her out onto the deck alone, saying that he would unpack his things in their cabin by himself. She wasn’t sure if she should be helping him as part of her apprentice duties, but she was far too curious about Miscreation to refuse the freedom. She roamed up and down the length of the deck, looking into every nook and cranny, and tried to figure out how the ship worked. Why were some of the sails hanging from the two masts, and why were some of them rolled up? Why were there so many ropes everywhere? Where were all of the crew?
Aristia had watched ships in the harbor before, and they always seemed so busy. Some of the tall merchant ships carried hundreds of sailors all swarming around in the rigging. A ship this size would need a crew of at least a dozen, she guessed. So why did she see only a few people working to get the ship ready to sail?
Then she saw one of the men only had one foot. He was pale with bright yellow hair, like the traders who came from the north, and his right leg ended just below the knee. He hoisted himself up in the ropes with his arms. There was a crutch lying on the deck below him, but of course he couldn’t use it to climb.
She ran over and looked up at him. “How do you work on the ship with only one leg?” she called up.
The man looked down at her with a scowl. “The same as everyone else.”
Aristia looked around the ship again. “Where is everyone?”
The sour-faced captain came over and frowned down at her. “Doing their jobs without having to explain it to little ragamuffins. Don’t get in their way.”
Aristia shrank back from the captain. Her eyes darted to the mage’s cabin at the front of the ship, but the door was still closed. Would he think she was in the way there, too?
Then a head with pretty brown curls under a bright red kerchief popped up from the hole in the middle of the deck. When the young woman turned and saw Aristia, she smiled. “Hey there, little one. Do you want to come give me a hand down here with the food?”
Aristia nodded and scrambled down the steps after her. At first, all she saw was darkness. Then she blinked and there were lanterns lighting the inside of the ship, and a glowing fire in an enormous brick and iron stove at the front. She followed the pretty woman into the kitchens.
The woman gave Aristia an apron and a wooden spoon. “Stir this soup,” she said, pointing to a pot on the stove. “Make sure you scrape the sides so nothing sticks and burns.”
Aristia nodded and did as she said. The soup was yellow and creamy, and it smelled like lemons. She looked back up at the pretty woman. “Are you the cook?”
“I make the food, yeah,” she said with another friendly smile. “My name’s Leina. Did you come on with the mage?”
Aristia smiled back. “Leina’s a pretty name.” It fit the woman, with her kind smile and gentle voice. When she used to beg, she’d learned how to read people quickly, to guess who might give her a coin or some food. Leina would’ve been a perfect mark, the type who got more generous when she teared up and talked about her sick baby brother. And if she had all the food on the ship, then this was the person who she wanted to get close to.
“I’m Mage Ameyron’s apprentice,” she said proudly. “I’m supposed to help him keep his notes organized and get him things that he needs for his research. But he’s not looking at anything w
hen we’re on the ship, so I bet he could spare me to help you here in the kitchen, if you need it. I’m Aristia,” she added.
Leina laughed. “I’d love your help when you’re not busy, Aristia.” She waved a hand at the room, crowded with barrels of food, cooking pots, and hanging herbs, then winked. “On a ship, we call this a galley.”
She beamed. “I didn’t know that! I’ve never been on a ship before. Do you have different names for everything?”
The cook nodded. “Oh, we have lots of different terms. Like this front part of the ship is the ‘fore,’ and in back is the ‘aft.’” She worked as she talked, with the skill of long practice, stuffing grape leaves with a rice mixture. “You’ll pick it up soon enough. I bet you must be really smart to be an apprentice for a mage.”
Aristia blushed and looked down at the soup, afraid that she would mess it up if she didn’t pay attention. “Well, I dunno about smart.” She chewed on her lower lip. “I didn’t go to school or learn nothing until a couple years ago, when my ma started working for the duke. My teacher said I was catching up to the other kids, but there’s so many big words in those magic books. The mage said he would help me learn better.”
Leina looked over at her with a sympathetic smile. “He must have had a good reason for picking you, though.”
“Yeah, something.” Aristia shifted from one foot to the other and looked
The Voyage of the Miscreation #1: The Voyage Begins Page 3
