15. The Communal Baths #2
“Think,” he replies.
I stop swimming and risk a glance at him – and see he’s unbuttoning his shirt.
Great.
He’s planning on getting in.
Riss leans over the tub. “How was your day, anyway?”
“Outstanding. Drake corrects me at every opportunity. I’m learning so much.”
She snorts. “I hope you kept your temper.”
He feigns shock. “Me? Always.”
“See, Ara and I spent our day doing actually useful things for Hevalla. And for Integration. Right, Ara?”
We failed, yet again, to crack her code from Mother, and she beat me up on the mat. I wouldn’t call that useful as such...
But I stay quiet.
Cosmer’s gaze suddenly shoots to me.
It’s as if I’ve only just remembered how naked I am. My face burns hotter than the water, and I sink lower, swooping my arms slightly to get more bubbles to surround me.
He opens his mouth, then shuts it. I actually think he might be blushing. I wish I could send a message into his mind.
Riss thinks you like me.
Do you?
Tell me, if you do.
He turns back to Riss, while continuing to undress. Any colour that had been on his face is gone as quickly as it came.
I exhale. Maybe it was just the light.
“Actually, yes. It was a useful day, you know. The other pilots actually seem to like Drake, inexplicably... But that’s what we need, isn’t it? What we all need. No more Chapp incidents.”
“True,” she says, nodding. With a sly smile, she says, “I’m proud of you, Cosmer. You’re maturing in front of my eyes.”
He gives her his middle finger while she cackles.
Then he kicks off his breeches. I avert my eyes.
He drops into the bath with a splash so thorough it makes the other woman, Meg, glare daggers at him from across the bath.
Riss splashes him back. “Please be more careful. There are ladies here.”
“Where?” He smirks.
The heat is making me drowsy.
I drift away from them. Let their voices blur into the background. I close my eyes, and for a second, it’s like I’m alone.
Until a whisper brushes my ear.
“You have blockages.”
I jolt upright. Meg has crept closer, her long hair fanning around her like a fairy-tale mermaid’s.
“Sorry?” I peer down at myself. A blockage does not sound pleasant.
She speaks softly, in excellent Hevallan. “I can detect when blood magic has been used on a person. And it’s all over you. And the other one. Drake.”
“I don’t think—”
“I may be able to remove it. If you want.”
I blink. “I didn’t even know I had it.”
Her already dark eyes darken further. “Then you should definitely remove it.”
I look around. “Right now?”
She leans back.
“Too many people around. I’ll think of a way we can do it safely.” Louder, she says, “That’s all right, isn’t it, Riss? I know you can hear every word I’m saying. Even though you’re pretending you can’t.”
I look up. Riss and Cosmer have stopped talking and are looking at us.
“I don’t know,” Riss says, nose scrunched. “Sounds weird. And how would we know you two weren’t conspiring, or something?”
Meg ignores her. Continues, calmly, “Lingering magic can cause a variety of symptoms. Headaches, dissociation. Loss of time. Have you had anything like that, Ara?”
The buzzing in my head.
“I… Yes. I have.”
“They’ll only get worse.” She directs her next sentence at Riss. “You wouldn’t want your charge to become comatose on your watch, would you, Riss? Might look off. Especially after she’s already had one attempt on her life.”
Cosmer speaks out. “No. I don’t like it.”
“You don’t like it because you don’t like it? Or because you don’t understand it? Because those are two very different things.”
“I don’t like it because I don’t want you anywhere near Ara,” he snaps. “You’ve not been Fully Integrated for long, Meg.”
Meg smiles, faintly. “And yet, Dezeeves has me stationed in The Bridge. Must get quite boring down below, still sparring with the punching bags?” Her lips tweak further. “I was sorry to hear it took you so long just to make it to second.”
Face contorted, Cosmer lunges forwards – but Meg steps forwards too, and grabs his wrist.
She shuts her eyes and inhales the air by his skin, deep.
He stares at her in shock before he snaps out of it, snatching his wrist out of her grip.
“Never touch me again—” he starts.
But Meg, opening her eyes, is talking over him. “Very interesting.”
“What is?” Riss asks hesitantly.
“Cosmer has blood magic on him, too. A different user than the user on Ara.” She adds, licking her top lip. “Milder magic. Used twice. Recently.”
Cosmer jerks, hard. Water sloshes around him.
“I knew it!” he yells. “It was Drake. I told you all he cheated! And on my ship, too. It was like I couldn’t move...”
Sisters.
It’s confirmed, then.
Drake has blood magic. Just as I’d felt somehow, when he grabbed Cosmer.
And now that I really think about it, I’m starting to wonder if he’s also used it on me.
I let my thoughts think themselves through. Run time back in my head, to the first time I met him.
He was panicking. I wanted to get closer to him. Show him I meant no harm.
But then I no longer did. It took me a while to be able to stand up. And he’d seemed surprised, that I’d even been able to.
Then on Cosmer’s ship. I was trying to get him off Cosmer. But it was like a wall had been put up, and I…
I stopped.
Something bothers me.
My voice is edged. “Cosmer. It was like you couldn’t move? Or like you didn’t want to?”
He fidgets in the water. “I don’t know. What does it matter?”
“Just answer the question. This is important.”
Maybe there’s something in my face that convinces him to be straight with me because he says, serious, “Like I didn’t want to.”
“Riss,” I say now, turning to her while my pulse races. “When Drake disarmed Chapp, you said you didn’t see it.”
“Right.”
“What exactly did you see?”
“I heard Chapp coming, so we got the jump on him. He tried to shoot at us. But then he stopped, and Drake had him, and the gun was at my feet. I thought he disarmed him.”
But he didn’t disarm him.
Chapp disarmed himself.
“Where is Drake’s corrective instruction?” I demand.
“The Bridge. Why?”
“Who will be there?”
“Dezeeves. Ephraine. The first officers.”
I’m already climbing out of the bath. Any feeling of self-consciousness has been eliminated.
“Ara—” Cosmer says, alarmed.
I shove my clothes on, not caring my body is wet and that they’re sticking to me, or that my hands are shaking. Or that everyone – including Cosmer – is gaping at me.
“Don’t you all see it?” I press. “Drake doesn’t freeze people. He bends their will. And he’s currently in a room full of the very people who have complete control of this ship.”
It’s like I’ve ignited them.
Riss is out first, grabbing for her clothes, Cosmer and Meg close behind.
We run.