Chapter 8
I don’t know how long I was asleep before movement disturbed my slumber.
The motion didn’t quite wake me, but I did roll over.
My nose bumped into something hard and immovable, and my eyes flew open.
Night had settled over the room, but starlight drifted through the windows and allowed me to see what had disturbed my sleep.
It was the naked back of a muscular man.
I shot up and let out a bloodcurdling scream. My bedmate stirred and rolled over onto his left side so he could stare at me with one beautiful blue eye. “What’s the ruckus about?”
I grabbed as many of the sheets as I could manage, which wasn’t much considering he was wrapped in them. “What are you doing in my bed?!”
He propped himself up on one arm and grinned at me. “I’m flattered you think of my bed as your own.”
I could feel the heavy blush rise in my cheeks like the temperature in a thermometer. “You’re not supposed to be in here!”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t know you!”
His eye flashed with mischief as it looked me up and down. “We could change that.” My mouth dropped open before it flopped open and shut. He let out a yawn before he settled back in and rolled over. “Or not. Either way, I’m getting some sleep.”
My blushing bride’s heat changed into stubborn fury. “You are not staying in this bed!”
He didn’t twitch. “Then try and move me.”
I clapped my palms against his back and pushed. His body tilted, but the moment I stopped shoving, he dropped back down where he’d started.
A chuckle came from my companion. “Is that the best you can do?”
I gritted my teeth and tried again. He had rolled nearly halfway when my strength gave out. I leaned back and watched him drop back into place. “Are you hiding another ship in your pants or something?”
He rolled over, and his Cheshire cat grin made me lean back. “I’m not wearing any pants.”
My eyes invariably wandered down to the sheets that covered him from mid chest and below that. “You’re joking.”
He waved a hand at the floor. A pile of clothes lay on the planks. That included pants. “Do you really think so?”
I swallowed hard. “I-I don’t know-”
“I could prove it to you,” he offered as he grasped the edge of the sheets. He began to pull the cloth down, revealing nothing but flesh and muscle. No clothes.
“No!” I shrieked as I snatched the blanket from him and yanked it back up.
He cocked his head to one side and studied me. “Most women would be quite willing to take me as a partner.”
“Well, I guess I’m not most women then!”
He set a hand over mine that grasped the sheets, and his sharp blue eye studied me. “No, I suppose you’re not. Otherwise, Encina wouldn’t have wanted you.”
There was something in his sultry tone that stung me the wrong way. “Maybe he was wrong.”
The captain shook his head. “Encina wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of fetching you from your faraway land unless he knew what he had.”
I wrenched myself out from under his hand and pressed my arm against my chest. “I wish I knew what he had, because I don’t.”
He studied me for a long, quiet moment before he shrugged. “Then we’ll just have to ask around at the next port. Maybe you’ll see someone you recognize.”
I highly doubted that, but his words soothed some of my frayed nerves. “I guess. I don’t really have a choice.”
That wicked smile returned. “In the meantime, why don’t we get some sleep?”
The frayed nerves were re-torn, and my eyebrows crashed down. “You’re still in my bed.”
“It’s still my bed. You’re the guest.”
“Fine!” I snapped as I grabbed the only loose blanket among the folds and jumped out of bed. My bare feet pattered across the floor toward the door. “You can have your bed! I’ll go find my own!”
He sat up and frowned. “I told you not to leave the cabin.”
I stopped at the door with one hand on the knob before I turned my head to him. “I’ll take my chances.”
I wrapped the blanket tightly about my shoulders, swung open the door, and marched out. What I beheld nearly swept my breath away.
Stars. Countless of them. They stretched in all directions with not the faintest hint of a cloud to block the view.
They were so numerous that they lit up the deck like the moon.
The planks were empty but for a few drowsing men nestled amongst the ropes and a few random crates.
One of them was making music with his nose.
I tiptoed through their number and to the bow. The vessel sailed silently through the calm ocean waters. I gripped the railing and leaned over just a little. The starlight allowed me to see the ship flow at a leisurely pace through the waters, with no more choppy waves or bouncing.
That beautiful night sky was also beautifully cold. A cold wind came off the waves and blew over me, sending a chill through me. I wrapped the cloth tighter around myself and regretted not trying to pull more of them off the captain.
I jumped when something soft and heavy was dropped on my shoulders. It was one of those blankets from the bed. I turned to my right as the captain took a place at the railing. The man once more wore his pants and shirt, though the shirt was open and the sides flapped in the wind.
He grasped the wood and stared up at the night sky. “They’re wonderful and terrifying, aren’t they?”
I blinked at him. “What is?”
He nodded at the sky. “The stars. They guide the sailor through the darkness, but are fickle mistresses. They’re chased away by the moon, and they hide their face behind the clouds.”
“Don’t you have a compass or maps to use?”
“Those are always at our disposal, but no map can best the parchment above our heads, nor can a compass show us the vastness of the sea ahead of us.” He draped his arms over the railing and leaned over them. “It’s a majesty that eclipses everything man or beast has made.”
I studied the sky, and my face drooped. “I don’t know any of these stars.”
He turned his face to me. “How many do you know?”
I shrugged. “Only the Big Dipper and some of the planets.”
The captain lifted an eyebrow. “Big Dipper? Planets?”
My heart sank, as did my shoulders. “They’re just, well, familiar things in the sky.”
He studied me with that bright blue eye. “I see.”
I wrapped the cloth tighter around myself. “Thanks for the blanket.”
The captain chuckled. “I couldn’t let my guest freeze.”
“Could you give your guest a bed of her own?” I suggested.
He turned to me and leaned his back against the railing, where he folded his arms over his chest. “What will you give me in return?”
My face drooped, and I stretched out my arms. “I don’t have anything. I don’t even have my clothes right now.”
His eye twinkled. “Are you offering me something other than your clothes?”
I wrapped my arms tight around me and glared at him. A particularly loud snore from one of the men caught my attention. It sounded like a trumpet. That gave me an idea. “I could sing for you.”
His eye lit up. “Does my caged canary sing?”
“I do it for a living.” Kind of. “Anyway, will that do?”
“I’d have to hear the singing first.”
I closed my eyes and cleared my throat. This would be my most important concert. Tim’s new song would do the trick. I took a deep breath and opened my mouth. The beautiful words and tune flowed out, dancing around us in crystal-clear sound.
The captain’s command cut through my song. “Open your eyes.”
I continued singing, but opened my eyes. My singing ceased when my mouth fell completely open. The chilly air had been given form as crystals that danced around us like sparkling jewels. At the silence that followed my shock, the crystals ceased moving and clattered to the deck.
The captain pushed off the railing and knelt on one knee.
He plucked a crystal from the deck and studied the frozen jewel as it melted in his hand.
“I take it you haven’t always been able to conjure such magic?
” I dumbly shook my head. I dropped the remains of the crystal on the deck and stood.
“You have an interesting gift, Miss Larkin.”
I swallowed hard, though my eyes remained on the melting shards. “Did I. . .did I really make those?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” he suggested as he folded his arms over his chest. “Sing again.”
I wetted my dry lips and sang my song, but my voice was shaky. The air vibrated and the crystals formed, but they weren’t the beautiful creations from before. Their forms were more distorted. Cracked. They danced around at the call of my irregular rhythm.
I stopped my horrible warbling and they clattered to the deck, joining the melted pools of the previous crystals. My heart pounded in my chest as I grasped my hands together in front of me. “H-how can I do this? What am I doing?”
“Controlling the natural elements with your song,” he mused as he studied me. “We may have found your use to Encina.”