Chapter Six
Nick didn’t hurt, but his body felt off, nerves not quite aligning with the right parts.
He thought he was lying in a bed, though his internal balance was so off he was equally sure he was levitating mid-air.
He breathed deeply, and his lungs spasmed as the breath stretched his ribs too far and sent fuzzy discomfort through him.
Nick curled his will around the hope of seeing his dad’s worried face upon opening his eyes, and he forced himself towards awareness, resisting what would be an easy fall into a drugged sleep.
Kit occupied the plain wooden chair at Nick’s bedside.
He was staring at his hands again and didn’t notice Nick had woken.
Nick took the chance to look around the room.
There were desks crowded on one side, a dresser, a trunk and a metal stove right next to the bed.
The ceiling was low, and a porthole offered a sliver of daylight.
There were two doors, and Nick vaguely recalled one led to a tiny, economical bathroom.
That triggered a recollection of Kit helping him stumble to the room many times, and the murky memory of finding an old-school shaving knife and trying to shave until Kit took the blade from him with a curse.
Nick reached up, fingering a cut on the underside of his jaw.
A sickly sweet smell radiated from the cup on the bedside table; it triggered Nick’s empty stomach into letting out a protesting rumble.
“Am I allowed to eat, or is starvation going to be part of all this shit?” Nick asked.
Kit’s head snapped up. His hand moved quickly to his pocket, where he stashed something away, so purposefully inconspicuous that it caught Nick’s attention.
“I have oats,” Kit offered. “If you feel well enough?”
“How well do you expect me to be after that?” Nick asked. Kit hadn’t turned Nick’s bones into the mincemeat the woman had demanded, but he’d sure as shit given him a beating.
Kit’s expression went from worried to blank. “I warned you.” He stood abruptly. Nick thought he’d leave the room, but instead he went to the metal stove. He fuelled it from a wooden pile at its side and placed a pot on top to warm.
“How long was I out?” Nick asked. There was a large ceramic pot with water next to the stove, and a wooden pail with more water next to that. Nick supposed it made sense to keep water nearby when you had fires lit inside a wooden ship.
“A day.”
Surprise filled Nick. Adonis should have found him by now, shouldn’t he? And surely his family would get Goldilocks, Bee, and Dew to aid in the search as well?
Kit spooned something white from a jar into the oats.
“What’s that?”
“The doctor said to give it to you when you ate. It’s painkillers.”
Nick’s gaze travelled down, realising that Kit had his tail tucked tightly around his leg. The weapon was inconspicuous like that.
“We took you for a reason,” Kit said, “but no amount of purpose will stop Lady Desre from killing you if you do anything like that again. Our need is great, but her pride is greater.”
Kit said that as a fact, not a threat. Anger welled up, but not as strongly as it should have. It was dampened, and since Nick didn’t have the will or want to even try to sit up, he assumed that was the result of drugs.
“Then she should learn to keep her hands to herself.”
Kit flashed a look at Nick, and something akin to admiration crossed his face. Nick blinked, and the look was gone. “I imagine she has,” Kit said, speaking into the pot of boiling oats. “As far as you’re concerned,” he added lowly.
Nick frowned.
Kit’s tail slid out from around his legs, quivering in the air just behind his body.
He cast another sideways look at Nick. His lips parted the same moment the door swung open, and whatever Kit had been about to say vanished as his head snapped to the doorway.
His body tensed in the few seconds it took to turn and then relaxed when he saw who stood on the threshold.
A woman with the same black hair as Kit, and the same blue eyes, entered the room.
She looked to be around the age of Nick’s dad, while Kit couldn’t be any older than his mid-twenties.
Nick thought back to ‘Lady’ Desre, but he couldn’t decide how old she was.
There had been no noticeable wrinkles or marks of age, but something about her felt old.
“She’s barred herself in her room,” the woman said.
“Anna,” Kit cautioned sharply. His eyes cut to the doorway, and Anna shut it with a roll of her eyes. As she turned, Nick saw that she had a tail too. Leaner than Kit’s and coloured in different shades of blue, it looked like it had seen some wear and tear, marred by scars and discolouration.
“Excuse me,” Anna said. “Lady Desre, wife of General Valor, member of the Aridia High Council, has barred herself in her room.” Sarcasm dripped from every word.
“I reset her nose, but there’s still swelling, and she looks ridiculous.
The only people allowed to see her are me and Evie, the poor girl. ”
Kit’s tail twitched. “How long will it take for the swelling to go down?”
Anna smiled. “Without her cursed well nearby? The duration of our trip, I’m certain.
Your oats are burning, are you—oh, you’re awake.
” She came to Nick’s bedside. “Your colour has improved, though your eyes are still hazy. I treated you to a little extra after that show.” She winked at him.
“I’m the ship doctor, and Kit’s aunt. He told me what happened.
I do wish you could have waited until I was around so I could have watched.
I’ve never heard of anyone managing to harm Lady Desre.
” There was a genuinely wistful note in her voice.
“Anna,” Kit cautioned again.
“Oh, stop it. It’s only us in here.”
“Me. You. The man I abducted.”
Anna sat on the edge of Nick’s bed and crossed her legs. She wore cotton clothes that looked as though they’d seen much wear, and she peeled the neckline away from her skin and fanned herself. “If there’s one person Lady Desre doesn’t want to see, it’s our friend here.”
“Prisoner,” Kit corrected, but his heart clearly wasn’t in it. He poured the contents of the pot into a bowl.
Anna peered down at Nick. “Alright then, prisoner. Let’s get you upright.”
Nick wanted to scowl at her, but he’d faded somewhat during the conversation, only coming back when hands came near and he flinched. Anna paused. “We’re not going to harm you, just get you upright for some food.”
Again, it was strange. Nick curled forward, his body reacting to pain his mind wasn’t letting him feel.
He put a protective hand over his ribs as Anna built up pillows at his back for him to lean against. Kit handed the bowl of oats over to Anna, and before she began spoon-feeding him, Nick relaxed his protective posture and gestured for it.
“What’s the job?” he asked.
Anna tilted her head, tucking an escaped flyaway hair behind her ear. “Job?” she repeated.
Nick watched Kit as he lifted the metal tub of water onto the stove. “You said you took me for a job.” Though Nick felt it safe to guess by now that this entire thing was under Desre’s orders. “What job?”
“You don’t need to know,” Kit said. His default mood seemed to be broody and unhappy, which, given the fact that Nick was the one who had been abducted and beaten, seemed entirely ridiculous.
Nick could have turned to Anna and demanded an answer, but Kit’s hot-and-cold attitude grated on his nerves.
“Right,” Nick said flatly. “Shall I start doing odd jobs around the ship and pray I happen across the one you kidnapped me for?”
“The job isn’t on the ship,” Kit sniped back.
“You took me. To do a job. And you won’t even tell me what that job is?
” Nick laid out in the same tone that seemed to be getting on Kit’s nerves.
Good. Nick needed to do something to get even with him because he doubted that he’d ever physically get the upper hand on Kit.
Even without his tail coming into play, Nick saw that Kit’s physical strength was much more than his own.
“It’s not my job to tell you.”
“No,” Nick said, annoyed. “Clearly you’re just the hired thug.”
Anna had been sitting quietly listening, but at that, her eyes sharpened on Nick.
“Lady Desre wanted you thrown in the brig. Kit was the one who insisted you needed to receive proper medical attention, but I am more than happy to assure the lady that I can give that medical attention just fine no matter where you’re kept. ”
“Stop,” Kit interjected. “Check his ribs and leave us.”
The pair looked at each other, a silent debate taking place through eye contact. Nick’s stomach rumbled, and he moved his attention to the oats in his lap. Even knowing the food was dosed with painkillers that might knock him out, Nick ate.
“I’ll check them later,” Anna finally said.
“You’re awake and aware and able to lift both arms, so I daresay after a few days of bedrest, you’ll be back to normal.
” Anna leaned in, making Nick move his attention from the food to her.
“A kit’s tail can break femur bones. That’s this one.
” She tapped her own thigh. “Do you know how much smaller ribs are? They may as well be twigs. Do you understand what I’m saying? ”
Kit went easy on Nick.
He still hit him.
Still abducted him.
“It had to be real enough to satisfy Lady Desre, but know my nephew took no joy in it.”
Anna stood, tail touching lightly to Kit’s as she left.
The door closed with a thud.
Awkward silence was left in her wake, but as Nick finished the bowl of oats, he found it bothered him little.
The fuzziness of his body made its way quickly into his mind.
Kit replaced the empty bowl with a ceramic cup full of a murky green liquid.
“Tea. An especially bitter brew. Kits love it, and I thought you might…appreciate it.”
Nick drank the tea for no other reason than he wanted something hot to warm his insides. It was bitter. And it was annoyingly pleasant. He refused to say so.
“What’s going to happen now?” Nick asked.
He had no intention of capitulating to anything, but there wasn’t going to be anything he could reasonably do while aboard the ship with Kit to restrain him.
He had to either wait until Adonis found him or wait until they were close enough to land to make his own escape.
That opened a whole can of worms about finding his way back to Vi’s, but so long as he followed the coastline, he’d get there eventually. He’d worry about it when the time came.
Kit poured himself tea and hesitantly sat in the chair next to the bed.
“We will be aboard Captain Hin’s ship for a month.
Once we reach our port, we’ll transfer to horses and ride inland to Aridia, which should take only a score or more days.
We can’t go through the mainland with the rebels raiding any ship that dares to travel the Dia River, so we’re sailing around to the northern border. ”
Aridia. So they were heading to Jasper’s homeland, where there was a civil war of some sort going on, for Nick to do a job that they’d specifically tried to abduct one of Vi’s students for.
“Kit…” Nick’s head swam, the effect of the drugs coming over him in a wave. “I can’t do anything magical.”
“You have seen what will happen if you do not do your part.” Kit’s gaze dropped, as if he couldn’t bring himself to meet Nick’s eyes.
“It will be the same in Aridia. But if you do the job willingly, you will be treated well. I can speak to them. Make them understand that you respond better to coaxing than coercion.”
Nick’s eyelids grew heavier with each blink. “You’re the one doing the coercing.”
“It will be one like me in Aridia too.”
Nick slumped. Kit caught him by the shoulder, stopping him from falling out of the bed. Nick’s head lulled to the side under its own weight. Kit carefully guided him under the blankets.
“May I know your name?” Kit’s voice came to him from far away. Nick didn’t know if he was dreaming or not, and he didn’t know if he answered.