Curse Breaker (2)

30

"I don't think it counts as a rescue if you intend to abduct me directly after said rescue," I manage.

Despite the teasing glint in his eye, something that looks like guilt seeps in. "Fair point."

"Besides, you didn't really save me during the storm in Veymaw, nor the cloud incident after that, either. Both of those times you showed up after the fact."

He raises an eyebrow. "You really won't just stroke my ego for a second, will you?"

"You stroke it enough for us both."

He grins. "Come on," he says. "We've been waiting for you to wake. The ocean has calmed enough for the captain to spare us a few minutes."

I nod, quickly snapping into gear. Following him around the deck of the ship, Lei, Juem, and Casimir wait atop the main deck, bent over a table. The captain, a scar-faced man greets me with a grin. He looks the complete picture of the drawing my father sketched in my mind of sailors.

Wrinkles indent his face so permanently it's hard to imagine they weren't always there. His hair has thinned to a small patch on the back of his head, and he walks with a slight hobble, his pant leg dragging across the deck to conceal his shoe. Aged by the harshness of the sea, eyes filled with stories and memories that most of us never get to experience.

Casimir looks up at me as I meet them. His complexion seems less green than last night, but a light sheen of sweat covers his forehead, despite the chill in the air. He ushers me to squat next to him.

The captain stares at the map spread across the wooden plank, pinned down by three dusty glass bottles, and Lei's boot. The lines Lei drew on the page mimic the lines on the map Myers gave us, hidden safely in Killian's bag.

The captain looks at me as I settle down, expression curious. "Cloud Piercer, eh?"

I shift on the wooden crate. "My name is Freya."

"Aye." He grins, revealing a missing front tooth. "Ereon had your drawing plastered around town. Hefty reward offered too, aye."

I stiffen.

"Aren is a friend to Torinnians," Killian says, noting my posture. "He helped many of us flee the country to Ayrith and Llyn when the cloud took over. Even smuggled us into Elel."

His supposed good nature makes my stomach churn.

"The King saw your ship," I say. "He knows you have us."

He'll punish you.

Aren just chuckles. "He'll have to find me to do that, love. Aye, I don't believe any of that Cloud Piercer nonsense." He looks back down at the map. "Where ye wanting to head?"

Lei puts her fingers over the jagged v's in the centre of the land mass. "We're trying to get to the Saulun mountains."

"Aye, the Saulun mountains." Aren frowns. "That's more than a day's journey. The cloud--"

"How close can you get us?" Lei cuts him off, impatient. I don't blame her. Hearing his doubt at the success of our journey helps none of us.

Aren grumbles something beneath his breath but traces his finger across the paper, trailing through what looks like a mouth opening to the land mass.

"I can drop ye here," he says. "Catol fjord. When we reach Torinne, we travel inland about 2 hours. There I leave you here, in jobert bay." He taps his finger against a dip in the mound. It's closer to the Saulun mountains than the beginning of the fjord, but if he took us farther, we could get closer. "I go no farther. No trader who ventured farther has ever made it back. I be back after a week. If you not there, I ain't coming back."