Chapter 14
I awoke to the weak light of the sun streaming through the windows. The plush mattress was a sight better than the pile of blankets I’d been sleeping on in the captain’s cabin.
“About time.”
The voice came from below me. I crawled to the edge of the bed and leaned over the side. Ramaro sat on the floor with his tail curled around him.
I frowned at my short companion before I nodded at the window. “I haven’t been asleep that long. The sun’s still coming up.”
“The sun is setting,” he corrected me as the tip of his tail twitched. “And that means it’s time to get up and get some food before Gisela notices you’re awake.”
I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. “What’ll happen if she notices I’m awake?”
“She’ll try to feed you.”
I paused in my waking ritual and imagined the foods Ramaro had described. My face drooped, and I flung the covers off me. “Get out of my way.”
Ramaro scooted away as I swung my legs over the edge. I scooped up my clothes and began to put them on when I felt a pair of eyes on me. A quick look down confirmed my suspicions. “Could you look away?” I asked the lizard.
He flicked his tongue out, but obliged me. “Humans and their foolish notions about flesh.”
I hurried into my clothes, but my hair was another matter, as were other toiletry issues. “Just give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready.”
Ramaro whipped around as I sped toward the bathroom door. “This better not be some female lie! I want you out of there in ten minutes!”
I slammed the door shut and burst out laughing.
My voice rang in the large bathroom. There was a claw-foot tub and two sinks, with a large shared mirror.
I caught my reflection and winced. My hair was unkept, and my clothes were frumpy.
Dirt splotches covered my face and neck. I looked like a hobo on holiday.
An array of toiletries sat on the counter surrounding the sink.
There were brushes, towels, even toothbrushes and lotions.
I quickly got to work making myself presentable, but the longer I stood at the sink, the more uneasy I felt.
I paused in the middle of scrubbing my neck and looked around.
There was no one else in there, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched.
And then I heard it. A faint shuffle behind the door opposite mine. My eyebrows crashed down. I set the brush on the sink and crept over to the door, where I bent down to peer through the keyhole.
And found myself eye-to-eye with a bright blue eye.
“Marc!” I shouted as I shot up and grabbed the knob.
He was faster, and the door was pushed inward. I stumbled back and would have fallen if his arm hadn’t swooped around my waist and caught me. His grin stretched his face, and his eye twinkled with mischief.
“You called?”
I glared at him. “You were looking at me!”
“I was merely seeing that you were alright.”
“By looking through the keyhole?”
“There wasn’t a window.”
“You could have knocked and asked!”
“But then I wouldn’t have had such a long look.”
I squirmed in his hold. “You have a long hold of me, too!”
“I try to please.”
“Let me go!”
“Very well.”
The tone in his voice made me immediately regret my choice of words. He yanked his arm from around me, and I dropped toward the hard, tiled floor. A tough lesson in verbiage would have been learned if he hadn’t caught my hand and pulled me up against him.
I tilted my head back and found myself staring into his bright eye. Even after such an ordeal as he’d gone through yesterday, he still looked perfectly handsome. A faint blush accented my cheeks.
He leaned down and captured my lips in a gentle kiss. I gripped the front of his shirt as my heart pounded in my chest. His beating heart was as smooth as ice.
A loud pounding from my door broke us out of our reverie, and he reluctantly drew away to glare at the portal. Ramaro’s voice shouted through the wood. “It’s been ten minutes! Are you coming or what?”
“We’re coming,” Marc yelled back.
“What are you doing in there?” Ramaro snapped, and the next moment the doorknob rattled. The door failed to open, and a soft kerplunk came from the floor at the bottom of the door. “Blast these slick things!”
“Come on,” Marc commanded as he kept his grip on my hand and led me to the door.
“But I’m not done,” I protested.
He paused in front of the entrance and looked me over. “You look perfect, and Ramaro’s waiting.”
Marc opened the door, and Ramaro tumbled onto the bathroom floor. He scrambled to his feet and flicked his tongue in our direction. “You told me you’d be out in ten minutes!”
I snorted. “That’s what you wanted me to promise you, and I did try-”
“But she was distracted by a rat peeping at her, or so she told me,” Marc spoke up as he sidled us around the agama. “But we should get going before Gisela offers us dinner, and I know the perfect place to eat on our first night in Cathair.”
Ramaro spun around to follow us. “Aren’t you forgetting something?” He tapped the spot below his left eye. “Somebody’s going to notice that again, and your patch isn’t loose enough to use that wind.”
Marc grabbed my large overcoat and swung it over my shoulders. “Somebody’s going to notice you, which is why you need to get into the pouch.”
The lizard wrinkled his snout. “I wasn’t the one they recognized last night.”
“No sense taking any risks,” Marc insisted as he helped me into the strap.
Ramaro flicked his tongue. “Not until I have to, and what are you doing to hide that huge flag on your face?”
“Like this.” He reached into his pocket and drew out a black handkerchief, which he tied at an angle over his patch. “See?”
Ramaro’s face drooped. “It looks like you’re trying to hide something.”
“Then I’ll think up a good yarn to entertain whoever asks about it,” Marc countered as he picked up Ramaro by the armpits and dumped him into the pouch. “Now let’s get out of here before-”
“Yoohoo! Do I hear voices up there?”
“Ah shit,” Marc muttered as he swept his eyes around the room.
His gaze fell on the window that warned that night would fall within the hour.
He grabbed my upper arms and dragged me, and Ramaro along with me, to the glass, which he swung open.
He leaned out and looked down at the ground some twenty feet below us. “We can get out here.”
Ramaro and my mouths dropped open, and the agama tried to scuttle out of his pouch. “Not me!”
Marc grabbed my hand and yanked me to the sill. Ramaro was shoved back into his hammock, and I was drawn onto the sill. A thick layer of vines covered the rear of the house.
I stared with bulging eyes at the drop before I whipped my head up to Marc. “Her cooking can’t be that bad.”
Marc looked me straight in the eye. “Have you ever seen a salad covered so much salt that it looked like a snowstorm had blown over it?”
My face drooped before I grabbed hold of the sill. “Let me go first.”
He grinned as he helped me up. “I thought I could convince you.”
“You can’t convince me this is a good idea!” Ramaro snapped.
A knock came from the door. “Helllooo? Is anyone in there?”
A little color drained from Ramaro’s scaly face, and he spoke in a hissing whisper. “Hurry it up!”
Marc helped me out the window, where I grabbed onto the thickest vines I could find.
They held, and I eased myself down the wall.
My heart pounded hard against my ribs, and I tried not to look down.
That self-control lasted until one of the vines in my grasp pulled away from the house.
I screamed as I was dropped several feet before the plant became tied up with its buddies.
My feet flailed beneath me as I tried to find a foothold, and I glanced over my shoulder.
The ground was still fifteen feet below me.
The color drained from my face, and I pressed myself against the wall.
Ramaro popped his out of my jacket. “Stop looking and start climbing!”
Something dropped down and caught the vines beside me. I yelped and jerked back, but Marc grabbed my hand to keep me still. “Easy there. One foot at a time. I’ll be right beside you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat and gave him a shaky smile. “I’ll try.”
He tapped my forehead. “Trying is only the start. Doing is the finish, now let’s get down this wall.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Alright. Meet you at the bottom.”
“One way or another. . .” Ramaro mumbled.