Chapter Fifteen
The Raider
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The Thilene, The Valcier Gap.
Kyra.
Staring up at the black sky was the only thing that kept Kyra’s nausea at bay.
The sickness was passing and her stomach was finally getting used to the ship’s movement, but laying inside in a stuffy cabin made it worse.
So, she retired to the deck, a burlap sack filled with grain for a pillow beneath her head, and a thick fur blanket thrown over her body, given to her by a sailor who couldn’t have been older than eighteen.
Her breath puffed white against the cold, dark air, and it was near-silent save the splashing water as the ship sliced through it like a knife in soft butter, disturbing its pristine surface.
The stars above were impossibly bright. Uncountable in their masses. Her whirling thoughts suddenly stilled as she stared at them, at the vastness of that wide unknown. She felt like a speck of dust in comparison.
She breathed deeply again. It felt good to breathe in the darkness. It was… comforting somehow. Like she wasn’t alone with the night and stars above her.
‘Is my cabin not good enough for you?’ a gravelly, mocking voice sounded. Fractionally lifting her head to locate it, she spied Kawai swaggering over to her, hands in his fur coat pockets.
The winking fool, she’d decided to name him, for up until now he’d done nothing but catch her eye from across the ship and wink. Incessantly. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but she was sure her blatant ignorance of it seemed to encourage him.
‘No, it’s not,’ Kyra said drily as she stared at the night sky once more.
Without invitation, Kawai sat down next to her, heaving a hefty exhale. ‘You know, I’d be wary out here at night. The mer have been known to jump on board and drag unwitting men to the depths.’
‘Good thing I’m not a man,’ she said smugly. Then, curiosity catching her, she added, ‘Is that true?’
Kawai’s face split into a wonky grin. ‘If it was, would you be scared?’
‘Should I be?’
The winking fool laughed. ‘One: we’re too far from Nevatis to see a mer. And two: you’re fae. Mer have no taste for fae flesh. Only human.’
‘Ah,’ Kyra said, looking him up and down. ‘Good.’
His gaze lingered on her face. Determinedly, she kept her own on the sky. ‘So, what brings you to Nythanor? Quite far for an earthling, isn’t it?’
‘I heard it’s a great place to catch a tan this time of year.’
‘You’re mocking me.’
‘I am.’
‘I liked it.’
Irritated, Kyra looked at him. There was nothing but calm innocence in his expression. He pushed his floppy dark hair back with a hand, and it flopped back down into exactly the same position. ‘I think I’ll risk the mer,’ she said blandly. ‘You can have your cabin back tonight, I’ll sleep on deck.’
She meant it as a dismissal, but to her utter dismay he ignored her and laid down beside her with another exhale, placing his hands behind his head as a cushion. When he’d finally wriggled into a comfortable position, he asked, ‘So, how do you know the Air Warden?’
Shit. Well, that was Naal’s cover blown. But then, she was famous. Was it really a surprise that people would recognise her face, even without the great wings at her back?
Kyra shifted a little so there was more space between them and clicked her tongue. ‘What is this, a courtroom?’
‘I’m just making conversation.’
‘Be curious about your own affairs, not mine.’
He laughed. ‘I’m an open book. Ask me anything.’
‘Alright,’ Kyra said, grasping the opportunity. ‘Where are you from?’
‘Loros.’
She’d deduced as much by his light Lorish accent and the even tan that tinged his golden skin. ‘What island?’
‘Blythtrie.’
Kyra’s eyebrows lifted. ‘You’re from the capital?’
‘Unfortunately,’ he said grimly. ‘I haven’t been back there in two years though.’
‘Why?’
‘Family troubles.’
‘I see,’ she said, then added quietly, ‘I know the feeling.’
‘Ah…’ he breathed. ‘Another broken child from another broken family. Welcome to the club.’
Kyra snorted. ‘Fun club.’
‘Oh, it is,’ Kawai said seriously. ‘We drink. And drinking helps.’ A slight pause. ‘I say ‘we’... it’s actually just me.’
Kyra smiled softly at that, glad that he couldn’t see her face. He was sweet, funny and charming… everything she’d wished the men in Avaldale could have been.
Amidst it all was a wariness she couldn’t shake. Earthling men had very scarcely shown her kindness, either looking upon her with pure hatred, or with a sickening sort of lust, as if she were some forbidden fruit.
She’d learnt the hard way not to trust a man who so plainly showed her the latter.
Kawai was perfectly friendly, but he was still a man. She wouldn’t trust him. Not unless he gave her a real reason to.
Though to her surprise, she found herself wanting the conversation to continue. It was a great deal less heavy than talking to Naal. ‘So, where have you been the last two years?’ she prompted. ‘Gallivanting the open seas?’
‘Indeed,’ he said, ‘This ship is home now. Damar doesn’t like me very much. Then again, I don’t think he really likes anyone. But he’s put up with me for years and I’m the best raider the Thilene has ever seen.’
‘And so humble too,’ Kyra remarked, almost certain that the comment earned her another grin. ‘What makes you so good?’
Kawai lifted his head, checking to see if anyone else was in earshot.
Then he rolled onto his side to face her, propping his elbow up for his head to rest on his hand.
‘They wouldn’t want me telling you this,’ he said in a slightly quietened voice.
‘But like I said, I’m an open book.’ He winked and Kyra resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
‘I’m a salir. I get in, I get what we need, I get out.
By the time the target realises something is missing, we’re long gone. ’
‘Ah,’ Kyra said. ‘So, you’re a thief.’
Kawai shrugged. ‘If that’s what you want to call it. But we don’t steal for personal gain. We steal from those who have too much. The capital doesn’t know what being poor means. We sell the things we steal on the Black Market in Blythtrie, then give what coin we make to the poorer islands.’
Painfully reminiscent of the conversations she used to have with Rosary, Kyra said, ‘You’re making stealing sound heroic.’
He looked at her very seriously then, all traces of humour gone.
‘It is, but we don’t do it for the title of hero.
We do it because the only island of Loros the king actually gives a fuck about is Blythtrie.
The other six are barely surviving but do you think he cares?
Of course not. Not as long as trade between them and the capital remains strong.
So we let them tear each other apart for the useless, pretty trinkets we steal and as long as they pay well for them, we don’t care. ’
Despite her teasing, Kyra had to admit it was admirable. A defiance of a corrupt system.
‘You won’t really stay out here tonight, will you? The cold is bitter,’ he said with a well-timed shiver as he sat up, then nodded at the furs the young sailor had given her. ‘Even with Jak’s blanket you might freeze to death.’
She sighed, staring up at the comfort of the stars. ‘There are worse ways to die.’
Kawai laughed softly then shook his head. ‘A tad morbid but you could be right. In any case, there are er… parts of me freezing that I don’t want to lose to frostbite. But I won’t take the cabin back. It’s yours when you’re ready.’
Under the twinkling sky above, and the light of the waning moon, she looked at him. At the kindness shining through his eyes that she hoped was pure. Humbled, she said, ‘Thank you.’
‘You’re welcome. Enjoy my bed. See you in the morning,’ he said with a toothy grin before standing, ruffling his hair again and stretching with a wide yawn. Then, with a mischievous glint in his eye, he added, ‘Earth Warden.’
Kyra forced herself to keep his gaze in an attempt to hide her shock.
‘Lucky guess,’ he said with yet another wink, then turned away, leaving her lying there a little dumbfounded.
An hour or so later, Kyra begrudgingly pulled the blanket from her body and stood, stuffing it into a ball in her arms to retire to the cabin. Kawai had been right; it was far too cold to stay out on deck. He’d been right about a lot of things, it seemed.
She hoped her silence may have been enough to sway him from his lucky guess.
Nodding to the sailor at the helm, a shy man in his thirties, she made her way across the ship, ready to succumb to the stifling cabin, when a dark figure sat hunched over in the doorway. ‘Kawai?’ she said instinctively.
He stirred, slowly looking up. It was not Kawai.
It wasn’t even a man.
He was fae.
The flickering torchlight illuminated his angular face, bloodied and bruised and framed by waving onyx shoulder length hair, his pointed ears just poking through.
Even with the purplish colouring of battered skin on his face, he was beautiful.
Besides her own brother, Kyra had never seen another fae male before.
This one, even beaten as he was, had been forged by death.
Power emanated from every inch of his chiselled form.
She dreaded to think how much blood had been spilt by those mighty, ring adorned hands.
He looked right at her with eyes of such unfathomless black, they pierced her soul. Two circular oceans of pure darkness.
Something triggered in her memory, and her gaze subconsciously drifted to his crotch, then snapped back to his face.
She’d seen him once before, but the memory of his naked body made no sense.
‘Earth Warden,’ he said with a slight incline of his head. He gave a dark chuckle. ‘It appears our fates have reversed.’
‘Who are you?’ she demanded, heartbeat quickening. He knew who she was. So much for keeping a low profile. That was twice in one night.
Should she alert someone to the intrusion? Did Damar know he had a fae stowaway on his ship? Or was he the captain’s prisoner?
But the stranger didn’t answer. The smallest of demure smiles pulled on his lips, and then he was gone.
Disappeared into nothing.