Chapter 35
Thirty-Five
“Ineed a break.” I wiped my brow, shaking off Vero when she clung to me, trying to keep me on the dance floor I’d been on for hours.
“Ivren,” I called when she pretended to chase me. “Help!”
My brother’s friend cast his hair back as he patted my former guard’s arm, leaving him and Ottoh standing by the sail.
“I knew you’d need me one day,” he said drunkenly.
“To keep Vero busy,” I replied as I swatted at the arm he tried to wind around my waist. “I need a drink to catch up with the rest of you.”
Ivren’s eyes swam, like the gazes of most of the people spread out across the decks.
I giggled when Vero squealed as he lifted her up and spun her around. For a second, I hesitated between going to the barrels where Rakkel, Stefen, and Geord were chatting, and walking over to Ottoh to apologize.
After dancing away the cup of wine I’d drunk, my mind was clear—albeit tired—and I believed Ottoh when he said he wasn’t the one who’d told Kilia about the tree and what had happened during the trial.
But Viljan’s face snapped up as soon as I took a step toward them, and I spun again, heading to wet my throat instead.
If I was going to have a conversation with him, I needed more than one drink.
Evening had fallen while we danced, and someone had lit torches that were fastened around the railings of the five ships, their light spilling out onto the dark water and the people on the decks.
The music was also darker now, with a sultry, dangerous edge to the melody that made people move closer and the air fill with unspoken promises.
I rubbed my hand over my neck as I avoided Torden’s ship and the man I was so aware of it felt like my blood lit on fire every time I felt him watch me.
I’d been successful so far, and I counted the swirls in the black wood of the deck to keep me busy while making my way over to Rakkel and Ilse, who stood beside her.
As I took a cup and started filling it up from one of the small barrels, I listened to the conversations around me, and instantly regretted it.
“Golden oak… Can you believe it?”
“What does it even do other than predict the future?”
“Nothing, and only living trees predict the future. Not whatever this ship is.”
“Her parents must be so disappointed.”
“Did you hear her mother slapped her in front of everyone? The king had to stop it.”
“Did you see her try to run over her second? Can you believe how lucky we are that she didn’t choose us?”
I bent my neck, fidgeting with the tap.
“Ignore them.” Rakkel sat on the railing, her feet bouncing against the hull. “They’re jealous.”
“I doubt that,” I mumbled.
“They are.” Ilse placed a hand on my back while she gave me a full cup she already had in her hands, since I’d failed to fill mine with a single drop. “I’m glad you survived.”
I offered her a weak smile. “The trials weren’t fun. I’m sorry you’re going to have to go through them in the fall.”
“Oh, I meant the dancing.” Ilse winked. “Vero has endless energy.”
She’d intended for me to laugh, and it was impossible not to when I turned and Vero and Ivren were engaged in some type of complicated steps that made them slip, falling into a heap atop each other.
But my shoulders hiked up when more whispers floated our way, the jabs in them meant for my ears to pick up.
“Look at that,” Ilse said, a low chuckle following.
I pivoted her way when the whispers snapped, expecting Darcke to be there with his glare and sharp tongue. Instead Kilia stood over the crowd, not a word leaving his lips but his intention clear when he brushed them aside like insects, leaving the stern empty and Envis alone.
“What did you do to him?” Rakkel asked.
“We just… leveled our interests,” I replied.
Kilia shot a look my way, and while I wouldn’t describe his face as friendly, when I nodded, a small part of that murderous glare he’d been walking around with the past weeks softened.
“You earned his respect.” Ilse sipped on her wine. “He’s from Sjomarks, and from what I’ve heard from others from there, that’s difficult to do.”
One side of my mouth lifted. I wasn’t sure if what Ilse said was true, but at least it seemed one of my problems had been resolved. For now.
Rakkel’s thudding feet drew me her way.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
She looked as pale as she’d been after the trials, her cheeks hollowed and undereyes dark. Stefen didn’t look much better, but it was more understandable, as every time he tried to garner Rakkel’s attention, she denied him.
“Fine,” she said, taking another big gulp of wine.
“You don’t look fine,” I said cautiously. “You’ve not looked fine for a while.”
I tried to remember when I’d last seen the cocky, smiling girl from the first days of the trials but came up empty. It might not have been since she’d been tied together with Ilse during one of those first exercises.
“Are you still injured?” Ilse asked. “They beat you pretty bad when we were attacked coming from Svartoarna.”
“I said I’m fine!” Rakkel snapped as she moved off the railing. “I’m trying to enjoy myself over here, but I’m clearly in the wrong place.”
Both Ilse and I gaped as she hurried off.
“I— I’m sorry.” Stefen’s brows were drawn tight when he followed her to the other side of the ship.
“What is up with her?” Ilse asked. “She looks sick.”
“I don’t know.” I played with the cup in my hand. “But we should find out.”
“Perhaps you should worry more about yourself,” Geord interjected.
“And why is that?” I asked, tiredness seeping into my voice.
If anyone was to fall ill, why couldn’t it be the redhead with the crimson-rimmed brown eyes staring smugly at us over his goblet?
“The king warned you that you only had one more chance, remember?”
“One more chance for what?” Ilse asked, worry creasing her forehead.
“You don’t know?” Geord shuffled farther back on the barrel, leaning dangerously close to the drop behind him. “Her own mother is worried that her sweet heir and the king’s most lethal warrior are getting a little too close.”
“It’s a long story,” I said when Ilse’s wide eyes snapped to mine. “And not true.”
“I guess we’ll see sooner rather than later,” Geord said.
He didn’t look as drunk as he had before. Apprehension made me retreat until I had a barrel at my back.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.
Geord nodded to the crowd. “Look around you.”
More initiates had moved to the dance floor.
Most were paired up, but there were also groups of three or four, where it was impossible to guess whose hands were on which person’s back or neck or chest. The music swelled across the ship, and as sweat stung the air, a lethal tremor filled the wind, carrying the musky scents of arousal.
Ivren and Vero were dancing closer now, their noses touching.
Ottoh had found a girl whose head he bent backward before pressing his lips against her throat, making her eyes shut as she rested against the hull. Even Viljan was standing closer to the moving crowd, and Fedic whispered something in his ear while his hand pressed against his chest.
Something deep within me twisted, but I only tilted my head when Geord laughed. “Looks like a normal night.”
“It is a normal night,” Geord said as he lifted his glass. “I just added some edge to it.”
“You did what?” Ilse asked.
For the first time, I noticed her bright cheeks and the shine of her eyes.
A warning began blaring within me, the hairs all over my body standing at an end.
“Did you drug us?” I asked Geord. “Again?”
He’d been by the barrels everyone used to refill their cups all night.
“Don’t worry,” he said, his voice fading in and out as my body went warm. “This drug is far more fun. And if you don’t have any feelings for Darcke, you don’t have to worry. But if you do… I guess Oenskan will have a new heir tomorrow.”
My body jerked as he spoke my second’s name. More heat flooded me, and to my horror, all wasn’t my own.
“You fucker,” I hissed.
He only grinned wider. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
I wanted to vomit when his eyes went over my body as he licked his lips. As an urge to turn around to the heated awareness that had tried to lure me over to Torden’s ship all night consumed me, I slammed down my cup and kicked the barrel Geord sat on.
Like I’d counted on, his weight was distributed too far back. When the barrel wobbled, Geord only had time to yelp before he fell backward, his outraged cry cut off as he hit the water with a splash.
As the music built, his shouts were drowned out.
I smiled to myself when the people he’d drugged were now too far gone to realize someone was overboard. Even his second, whom I glimpsed between two girls, didn’t pick up the increasing distress with which Geord cried out.
“I hope you drown,” I called over the side. “Or better yet, a sea monster eats you so the poor ocean doesn’t need to be tainted by your rotting husk.”
A dark, deep laughter draped over me. I coiled my fingers around the rim of the barrel, trying to find a footing that didn’t lead toward Torden’s ship, where Darcke now had all attention focused my way.
Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths, but I had to open them again when heat swelled within me. Waves of fever rolled through my blood, ones I wasn’t sure I could stop if I came too close to the man on the ship behind me.
“Remind me tomorrow not to get on your bad side,” Ilse said.
“Tomorrow?” I said, feeling as if my tongue were too big for my mouth.
“I need to—” She gestured toward an empty part of the ship. “Cool down.”
Her face turned the slightest inch toward Kilia, who still stood alone in the stern, but I couldn’t focus on whatever that meant when something like a low groan shook the bond, a thrill of excitement that should have been nowhere near it drilling through my core.
“Me too,” I rushed out, spinning with my eyes closed and clumsily making my way onto Envis.
I held my breath as I made my way up to the second deck, trying to block the sounds coming from the ship I’d left behind while also ignoring Envis’s rumbles, the question whirring beneath the planks that I had no desire to answer.