Chapter Seven #3
“Apologies,” I said, sitting up, my eyes feasting on him.
Even with my stomach a rotted mess and my head muzzy, I could not look away.
The water kissing his dark flesh made him appear to be oiled.
That brought back memories of our night together.
It seemed as if many seasons had passed when in reality it was two eves ago.
“Why are you not wearing your small clothes?”
He chuckled, sliding under the water and bobbing up a moment later, bits of seaweed sticking to his hair as he padded over and left the water. My gaze lingered on his lean thighs as he walked closer and knelt in the sand.
“Why are you wearing small clothes?” he asked, studying me closely. “Your color seems better.”
“Having something under my feet that does not heave and haw surely helps.” He reached out to touch my cheek, his fingers soft as they traced my jaw.
“Yes, I feared the problem might be sea illness. There is little to do for that other than stay off boats, and we are unable to do that, sadly.”
“I shall be fine,” I stated with a bravado that I did not truly feel.
“That sounds quite familiar.” He placed his palm on my brow. My eyes drifted closed. “You feel less heated, a good sign. Perhaps we will have to rethink our method of arriving at the Blood Fens.”
A large blue parrot arrived, landed above us, and instantly left once it saw us looking at it. The bird’s long tail feathers trailed behind it as it burst through the canopy, giving us a quick shot of hot sun before the fronds closed back up to shade us.
“Unless you have means of flying, there is no other way,” I commented, wishing I had some of the clean water aboard the boat. But that would mean climbing back onto the ship. Thinking of the rocking motion of last night made my abdomen clench.
“That is true, in part.” He lowered his hand from my face to sit beside me.
His ass and balls would be covered with sand.
He seemed unworried about it. “But we can lessen the time spent on a ship. We should put into a port on the main island and then journey overland until we must ferry ourselves through the smaller isles to reach the Blood Fens.”
“That will add time to the trip, will it not?” I was loathe to shoot the idea down. Less time on that blasted rolling ship would truly be a blessing but losing time could be dangerous to the prince and princess. If we failed to show up in time…
“Perhaps a day or two if we dally. I know the islands well. The peoples who live there and the fastest ways to cross the land.” He looked from the bold fronds overhead to me. “There was much truth in your words of last night.”
“I recall little of last night after we left the sea cave other than praying for an immediate death while vomiting my innards into the sea.”
He gave my bare thigh a pat, leaving his hand lying there.
I allowed his hand to linger, for I found comfort in his touch.
When he went to move it, I placed mine over his long fingers.
Nothing was said about it, but we both knew that encouraging more intimacy between us was courting disaster should things on this mission go badly.
“You said many things, most of them prayers to your god, but one utterance was that you were little use as a guardian if you were splayed out on the deck disgorging your entrails.”
“True.” I could not argue that. Actually, I was proud of myself for being so lucid during that episode.
“So, we will put into a smaller port on the western side of the main island, hire a few quadoth, and set out to cross the land until we reach the northern beaches where Porgo will have acquired a smaller vessel to ferry us to the basalt pillar.”
I recalled seeing the beasts called quadoth at the castle several seasons ago. They were massive, humped beasts, with light yellow hair, long necks, flat feet, and thick eyelashes, and grunted in low, raspy tones.
“Are there no horses on your islands?” I asked and then had my attention drawn to the ship as a lewd shanty began to be sung as Porgo relieved himself over the side of the boat, his blue skirt tucked into its waistband to keep it free from the stream of urine.
“Do none on your lands feel the slightest bit of modesty?”
That made Teryn laugh soundly. “My people are not as prudish as yours. We are freer in our manners of speech, our expressions of love, and the comfort of our own bodies. You will see many Sandrayans forgoing clothing or sleeping with multiple partners. The goddess Shamsira encourages her children to live as a community, spreading ourselves to others as needed or wished, joining together to raise the children of the Black Sands as a whole. You will not see so many poor here as you do in the grand cities of the mainland, for we work to feed all, love all, welcome all.”
“Yet you have Sandrayans who are members of the Court of the Gray Ice just as we who live on the mainland do,” I pointed out. I would freely admit that my people were bound too tightly by rigid rules of conduct and religious doctrine, but we were not wholly bad.
“We do.” He sighed deeply. “It seems that no matter how social a society is, there are those who wish to topple it for their own reasons. I suspect that we elves, no matter the coloration of our skin, deal with many similar problems.”
“That might be what helps us come closer,” I offered. The look that Teryn gave me made my already tender stomach flip over like a raw steak on a hot griddle.
“Sun’s about to set soon, Mahouk. Time to come aboard, eat, and get underway. Nights are short this time of year,” Porgo shouted from the deck of the ship.
I loathed the thought, yet I rose and entered the water, swimming to the Simin Draya with no joy in my heart.
Porgo tossed a rope over the side to scale.
I shimmied up with ease, not as smoothly as I might have had I not spent the previous evening retching up my intestines, but I made it.
The gentle rock of the waves was present, obviously, but my time on land seemed to have helped quell the nausea.
I turned to help Teryn up the rope, but he required no aid, his muscles straining and flexing beautifully as he clambered up the side of the ship.
“Porgo, we have to make a slight adjustment to our trip. Given that Pasil has such an adverse reaction to the sea, we will put ashore in the port of Yaza Kee and then ride overland to reach the smaller northern isles,” Teryn announced as he slipped into his robes.
The captain of the ship threw me a dark glower.
“That will slow us down,” Porgo stated while I slipped out of my wet small clothes, looked back to the two men, and pulled on my one dry set of underlinen before pulling on some light trousers and a billowy top that had been provided for me by the ambassador’s staff.
“Yes, we know, but there is no help for it. We cannot in good faith subject Pasil to such tumultuous nights.”
“Mainlanders. Soft as a baby’s bottom and smell just as foul,” the captain snarled and stormed off mumbling under his breath in Sandrayan. Cursing me, my lineage, and my stench, I had no doubt.
Teryn huffed out a little breath, turned to me in my Sandrayan garb, and nodded in appreciation.
“Our clothing looks good on you. Come, let us eat a light meal before we set off once more.”
Eating a light meal sounded no more appealing than chewing on the barnacle-encrusted bottom of this blighted boat, but an army was only as strong as the food in its gut.
And so I sat on the floor, nibbling at dark desert flatbreads, slices of cactus pears, and sipping the red tea that Teryn so loved.
The light meal eased the final fingerlings of a headache away and eased the acid in my gut.
Even though we were in a timid tidal pool, something deep inside me could feel the boat moving.
Knowing we would set out soon with magical winds filling the sail did not fill me with glee.
Just the opposite. I would happily trade a week in the saddle for one horrible night on the sea.
Pity the dragons had been eradicated. A winged beast that soared over the vast seas would be perfect.
Not that any elf had ever ridden the mighty lizards of old…
Ribald laughter broke into my daydreams. I glanced from the remaining bite of bread in my hand to my companion. Teryn looked at me, his eyes mirthful.
“Ah, sorry, that was rude. We shall speak in mainlander,” he said just as Porgo shifted around on his pillow, sharp green-blue eyes settling on me. “We forget at times. Please, Porgo, continue with your tale.”
“It’ll lose its momentum and humor having to tell it in that flat mainlander speak, but if you insist, Mahouk,” the captain said.
Teryn nodded once. “Well, I had come round and found myself in the middle of a foursome of buxom barmaids with only my left sandal, a salted cod, and the bells of an exotic dancer on my fingers. Unsure of where I had been or who I had done, I gave the girls a wink and began to shake my cock in time to the bells.”
I chuckled at the picture of the beefy elf in the blue skirt rolling his hips as the court dancers of the vahasi are rumored to do.
I’d never seen them perform as their dance was too sensual for our royal courtiers.
Pity. I enjoyed seeing a pretty maid. My sight darted to Teryn.
I also enjoyed viewing a pretty man. The term pretty seemed lacking for a stunning male such as Teryn.
Porgo rubbed his hands on his bare belly, stood, and stretched. “The moon sisters are about to rise. We will set sail momentarily.”
I nodded, swallowing down some tepid tea as the captain strolled to the rear of the boat to a dark wooden revolving cylinder with a long lever.
Porgo took hold of the lever and gave it a mighty push, the rope fastened to the device stretching taut.
He tried again, and then once more, his thick biceps straining before releasing the rope.