Chapter 3
A noise behind us made me jump. I whipped my head around to find Fidel carrying a rope ladder over to us. His eyes showed his worry as he set the bundle on the railing. “You’re sure I shouldn’t be going with you, Captain?”
“More company makes for more eyes on us,” Marc pointed out as he tied one end of the ladder to the railing and pushed the other over the side. The ladder dropped to within a foot of the water and swung in front of our driver. “And I
He nodded at me. “Should Miss Larkin not remain aboard ship? It would be safer.”
My heart dropped into my stomach, and my eyes flickered to the door to the captain’s quarters. Marc and I had been sharing a room, but not the bed. He’d insisted, and I’d insisted on piling most of the blankets on the floor and sleeping there. The floorboards were as soft as concrete.
A sly smile slipped onto Marc’s lips. “It would, but I think she’d like something more than a pile of blankets to sleep on. Besides, I have plans for her that need her by my side.”
My eyebrows crashed down, and I folded my arms over my chest. “What does that mean?”
He swung over the railing and landed neatly on one of the lower rungs of the ladder. His head peeked over the banister, and his eyes sparkled at me. “It means we’re late for our boat.” He ducked out of sight before I could inquire further.
I leaned over the railing and watched him climb down the rope ladder like a monkey. Ramaro scurried up to me atop the railing and flicked his tongue. “Are you coming or not?”
I sighed. “I’m coming, just give me time to get over this railing.”
“Allow me,” Fidel spoke up.
Before I could object, he had wrapped his arms around my thighs and lifted me off the ground. I yelped and swung like a poorly constructed building in a heavy wind. “What are you doing? Let me down!”
“Very well.”
He set my feet on top of the railing, so now I stood several feet above the deck, facing the water. The steep drop below me made me dizzy, and I swayed to and fro. My arms flailed on either side of me.
Fidel grabbed my hand and one of my pant legs. “I’ll hold you while you climb down.”
I nodded before I lowered myself into a stoop and eased one leg over the exterior side of the railing. My foot found a rung and, with Fidel holding tight to my hand, I set my other foot on the lower rung. That rung was damp from the foggy air, and my inexperience meant my foot slipped.
I screamed and would have tumbled backward into the water if Fidel’s grip hadn’t stopped me.
As it was, I still slammed my stomach against the side of the ship and dangled against the ladder.
Ramaro snapped his jaws on my shoulder sleeve and stilled my flailing body.
Several of the sailors rushed over, and a few slipped their arms through the narrow gaps in the posts and grabbed hold of me.
“Rose!” Marc shouted as he hurried up the ladder. He grabbed my feet and set them back on the rungs. “Get a good grip on the rope and ease yourself down.”
Fidel released me, and I did as he instructed.
My heart pounded in my chest as I inched my way down, one rung at a time.
The boat awaited us, and Marc soon set foot on the vessel.
It rocked a little at his weight, but he remained standing and held the bottom of the rope while I finished my climb.
I was never so happy to be in his arms as he grasped my hips and eased me into the rocking boat.
Marc eased me into the bow seat. Ramaro scurried down the rope ladder before it was pulled up by the crew. Marc looked up at all their faces and gave them a smile and a salute. “Wish us luck at the pool halls, men!”
“Beat the odds, Captain!”
“Don’t forget the broads, sir!”
An uproarious laughter followed us as the boat in which we sat was steered away from the Tempest. So lazily did our driver use his pole that it seemed the vessel moved of its own accord. We glided into the fog, and the Tempest was soon lost to view.
A heavy chill hung in the air around us, but that was nothing compared to the silence. The quiet was so all-encompassing that for a moment I thought the world had frozen. I wrapped my heavy coat closer about myself, as much to keep the silence as bay as the cold.
Marc sat on the center board with Ramaro at his side. The agama had a sour look on his scaly face. “Can’t he turn up the heat a little on this boat? He’s trying to freeze us out.”
A mischievous smile slipped onto Marc’s lips as he reached into his pocket. “It’s probably because he hasn’t been paid.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Paid?”
“Nobody with any sense works for free,” Ramaro told me.
I leaned toward him and grinned. “You gave me that packet of your scales.”
He wrinkled his snout. “That’s only because I knew you were going to get us into trouble. It was to save myself time in rescuing you with the rest of my body.”
“Speaking of that,” Marc mused as he drew out a small knife from his pocket. “It’s time to give a little more of that for the ferryman.”
Ramaro narrowed his eyes at him and backed up a little along the board. “It better not be five like last time.”
He wagged the blade at his short friend. “The more you give, the less trouble we have.”
I blinked at them. “So the ferryman wants scales as payment?”
Ramaro snorted. “Of course not. He wants a piece of us all.”
My mouth dropped open, and my voice came out squeakier than I intended. “W-what kind of piece?”
The lizard stared unblinking at me as his tongue lolled out and licked his mouth. “The kind that makes women weep.”
Marc stabbed his knife into the board just a hair’s breadth away from Ramaro’s face. The agama’s spooky demeanor dropped faster than an anvil out of an airplane. Ramaro whipped his head up and flicked out his tongue at the captain. “What was that for?”
“So you can pry some of your scales off,” Marc told him as he turned his attention to me. “As for the two of us, the Wraithcourier only demands a lock of our hair.”
My face drooped, and I reached up and clasped some of my hair in one hand. “My hair? Why?”
“To be used as your soul.”
My heart skipped a beat. “My soul?”
He chuckled. “It’s merely for show. The hairs substitute for the soul since they’re a part of you.”
“Or scales,” Ramaro chimed in as he shook himself like a damp dog. “Damned if it’s taking longer to grow those things back, too.”
I cocked my head to one side as I studied the lizard. “Why would they take longer?”
He plopped his butt down on the bench and puffed out his chest. “Because I may look handsomely young, but I’m quite old.”
“How old are you?”
Ramaro shrugged. “I lost count after a century.”
My mouth dropped open. “You’re that old?”
“And older. I saw some of these ports pop up when I was a young agama.”
“Even the capital?”
He looked me over with a scowl. “I’m not that old. This place was created a thousand years ago. Even my kind can’t live that long, barring some dark magic that unnaturally stretches our years.”
My eyebrows shot up, and I looked between the two. “Can that happen? Living forever, I mean.”
Marc looked out over the bow and pursed his lips. “Not without sacrifice. All magic demands a sacrifice.”
Ramaro closed his eyes and stoically nodded. “Even my precious scales have to be sacrificed to make that powder you found so incredibly useful.”
“And this boat ride,” I added.
Marc tapped the top of the hilt of his weapon. “Speaking of that, we need those scales.”
Ramaro grumbled under his breath as he cozied up to the blade.
He rubbed his side against the weapon and managed to pry a few scales loose.
They tumbled to the board, and Marc was quick to snatch them up.
He pried the knife out of the board and cut off a small lock of his hair before he held the weapon out to me.
“Take only as much as I have, and that should work.”
I reluctantly accepted the weapon and wrapped my hand around a small bundle of my hair.
The blade cut through the strands like they were made of air, and the lock drooped in my hand.
Marc held out his hands, and I gave him both my hair and his weapon.
He tucked the knife back into his pocket and held the two strands of hair and the scales in one hand over the edge of the boat.
His fingers opened, and the contents either kerplunked into the water or glided down to float on the waves.
I grasped the side and leaned over. Ramaro’s scales disappeared quickly, but our strands floated atop the surface for a while before sinking into the unfathomable depths.
The boat cut through the water as silently as the oncoming night.
Nothing but darkness could be seen, at least at the outset.
Something shimmered beneath the surface.
I leaned forward and squinted. It looked like a streak of rainbow-colored light flitting on the same path as our boat.
My eyes widened as more bands joined it, creating a bright flock of color that seemed to grow brighter and brighter the more I watched it.
“Rose!”