13. The Green Isles.
The Green Isles.
JAYCE
“ H ow bad is it?” I ask.
Wilbur paces below the hull like a tiger in a cage. “She looks worse for wear, but she can fly,” he says, looking up at the Blunder .
After the Dragons’ Bane crashed on the volcano, we didn’t stay around to look for survivors; they can all die of thirst in the desert for all I care.
We only grabbed our harvest before flying back to the Oasis to warn the nomads of the presence of the invaders—and possible salvage of the wreck—and to assess the destruction on my airship.
Fortunately, the hot-air balloon and the engine didn’t suffer any damage. The hull, on the other hand… the harpoons tore into it like claws into flesh.
“Can she fly to the Green Isles for repairs?” I ask.
Wilbur nods. “I’ll secure some parts, and we should be fine. But she won’t float if we fall into the sea.”
“Then let’s not fall into the sea.”
He offers me one of his rare smiles, and I pat his back. Wilbur might be an inventor, but he’s also a devil from the Cove. He defended the Blunder and the crew with mad swings of his wrench, making me proud.
I climb the rope ladder. The sun is setting on the Scorched Land, finally releasing us from the relentless heat. Freddy and Kuroki are cleaning the blood on the upper decks with sand. We didn’t suffer any casualties beyond scrapes thanks to Alara’s quick thinking with the flares.
Harlow killed his first man—to everyone’s astonishment—with a bullet in the head.
It was an impressive shot—I kept my eyes on him at all times during the attack.
Tonight, we’ll make sure to keep him busy to prevent him from spiraling.
Although he pretends everything is fine, I notice the tension in his shoulders.
He still resents me for our aborted night together, but the events of the day have taken his mind off our little feud.
“Tonight we rest,” I announce to the crew. “Tomorrow, we fly to Mandinka for repairs.”
Kuroki cheers loudly. It’s been a while since the both of us went home.
At night, we don’t take part in the revelries of the Oasis like the previous evening.
The entire crew stays together on the Blunder to share a meal, as if honoring a silent agreement.
We’ve all realized by now how close we came to annihilation.
The Dragons’ Bane was a monster of an airship, manned by a crew almost ten times our number.
Their captain’s arrogance is the only reason we came out victorious.
Underestimating us was his greatest gift.
I relish the idea of Ulric Manner realizing his mistake moments before his airship crashed on the side of an active volcano. I doubt most of his crew survived the impact—him included. The ones who did are now facing the wrath of the desert, like the invaders of old.
Kuroki joked we should be called the Dragons’ Bane ’s bane.
Survival tastes sweet, and yet most of the crew still have a haunted look. Especially Harlow.
I can’t help the worry that has wormed its way into my mind. Our dragoner has become part of our crew, and I would hate to see him leave us at the next port because he can’t process the events of today.
But I have an ace in my pocket, one that I’ve kept for an emergency since I bought it in Alabastra.
I drop the book onto the table in front of Harlow just as we’re finishing dinner in the galley. “I found this last week. Thought you could read it for us tonight before bed.”
His eyes scan the leather-bound cover with gold symbols, then he opens the book and a blush blooms deliciously on his cheeks.
“Gods…” Kuroki says, leaning over the table to read. “That’s freaking awesome!”
It’s the latest romance from the author they’ve been reading late at night. It cost more than all the drinks I had in the tavern that day, but I figured it would be worth it.
“What is it about?” Gia asks with interest.
Kuroki snorts. “It’s definitely a dirty story. The author is famous for such tales.”
“It has adventure too…” Harlow mumbles.
His eyes linger on me, and I know he’s secretly pleased about my gift. He didn’t expect me to pay such close attention to his reading tastes. Especially because he’d been hiding his penchant for the genre like a dirty secret.
I know everything that happens on my ship, including late-night reading sessions in the galley.
Kuroki does a little dance on the bench. “Oh yeah. It goes boom ! And bam ! And then a sword in the gut.” He mimics the action. “And then when they’ve resolved the conflict, they always make out in the moonlight or something and have passionate sex on the beach.” He sighs longingly.
Alara perks up from where she’d been leaning on her husband’s lap. “You’ve got my attention. Read it for us, Harlow, please.”
Everyone looks at him expectantly. Even Wilbur—who at first appeared confused by the idea of reading a book for fun—stays seated at the table.
“Very well…” Harlow says. “But don’t blame me if it gets awkward.”
Alara, Kuroki, and Gia look eager for it to get awkward, to my delight. I settle onto my chair just as Harlow begins the first chapter.
Two hours later, we open two bottles of wine from my personal reserve and move to the upper deck with blankets.
Gia and Kuroki take turns reading to give Harlow a break.
Kuroki is too intense, and every chapter sounds filthy, even when it’s not.
His eyebrows go up and down subjectively at every exchange between the main characters.
The book is better than I expected, and we’re all enraptured by the story of the cursed captain falling in love with a goddess of the sea. The shadows have retreated on Harlow’s face, and he looks more alive than I have seen him in days.
One by one, the crew members fall asleep under the stars as Harlow’s voice gets quieter and quieter. When finally even Kuroki has fallen asleep, our dragoner closes the book on his lap and lets his eyes droop. I feel the urge to lie by his side and curve my body along his.
Mercifully, sleep finds me too, and I dream of being cursed and in love.
We reach the Burning Coast in a day and take the long way south to avoid active volcanoes; Falcor’s demise is still fresh in our memory. The sea is a welcome sight after spending days in the Scorched Land. No matter how beautiful the desert is, I’m still a man of the sea.
On the second day, a gods-send rainstorm helps get rid of the sand on the Blunder .
We strip to our undergarments to wash away the sweat from the previous days under the heavy summer rain, laughing like children.
The horrors of the attack in the desert seem forgotten, and Harlow’s anger toward me has lessened.
In the evenings, we gather on the upper deck to read the book.
When we reach the juicy bits, Harlow’s voice turns higher from embarrassment, but we refuse to let him back down.
We all want to know what’s in store for the cursed captain and his goddess.
He chokes a few times on the word ‘cock’, to our hilarity, but we’d rather have him read than Kuroki, who makes every scene sound trashier than it is.
Gia tore the book out of my cousin’s hands when he called nipples ‘nips’ one too many times.
By the fourth night, the story comes to an end with a flourish.
We sit on the upper deck, arguing about the best parts of the book.
Harlow’s face is alight, more beautiful than ever.
He fits with my crew better than I even do.
I want to pull him into my arms and drag him to my cabin to worship him like a sea god who has stolen my sanity.
How liberating would it be to be a character in one of these stories, whose only purpose is to love and desire?
We still have a few days of travel on a sea that appears endless, so Harlow brings back another book from his cabin—it’s the one I stole from the Tender Caress—to read it. My crew’s delight is unparalleled. Even Wilbur, who looks confused by romance, hasn’t missed out on a chapter.
The stories take our minds off the fact that we’re flying over the sea on an airship with a damaged hull. If the hot-air balloon fails or we get caught up in a storm, we’ll sink.
But the crossing is smooth and without hurdles, and by the end of the week, the Green Isles appear on the horizon like emeralds on a blue cushion. The archipelago southwest of Mandinka is a sight to behold, with its lush jungles, crystal-clear lagoons, and white beaches.
Harlow looks about to jump overboard to get a closer look and I have to remind him a few times that the fall might very much kill him from this height.
A day later, Mandinka—the capital city of the Green Isles—appears on the horizon, nestled in the dense jungle by the sea.
Its one-of-a-kind architecture of tiered tower designs with multiple roofs curving upwards gave it its name of the City of the Thousand Towers—even though it only has a hundred and twenty such buildings rising above the jungle.
“It’s more impressive than Dragonest from the sky,” Harlow says as we approach.
I chuckle. “Dragonest might be the royal city, but it’s a hovel compared to the beauty of Mandinka.”
Harlow smiles. “It appears so.”
I look at him curiously. “Usually, my comment ruffles some feathers. Especially dragoners and the pride for their great university.”
He nods thoughtfully. “It would if I were from Dragonest. But I’m not. I only lived there since age eleven.”
“And where is home, then?” I can’t help but ask.
He gestures at the horizon. “The world. I’m of the Cheerfolk, a traveling people. At least, I was…”