the butterfly effect | l. garmadon

twenty-seven

  The Bounty gave another shudder, and Zane was once again forced to pick his tea cup up lest it toppled over and made a mess. The engine struggled for a moment before turning over into a smooth rumble. The ship began to ascend into a premature take-off. Zane gave a pleased smile.

  'What fortunate timing.' Zane rose to his feet and quickly scribbled down his next sentence. 'You seek out Ronin. I will need to retrieve the others to begin our Airjitsu training.'

  My shoulders fell. I didn't want to to talk to Ronin. He was crotchy and judgey and thought I was stupid for risking my life for a boy (and if it was anyone else, he'd be right). Besides, he wasn't exactly a pleasant conversationalist, and I found it hard to talk to people in the first place. Our chemistry for conversation was akin to a school's science lab fire.

  But what was my other option? Say no to Zane, the poor guy whose voice box broke? I didn't think my personality and deep craving for acceptance allowed such a thing. I huffed a quiet sigh of reluctance and picked myself up to search out the bounty hunter and ask him about stuff he probably didn't even know.

  Ronin was lounging at the top of the mast, kicking his feet and eating an apple he'd nicked from the kitchen. I climbed the ladder and rested my arms on the barrier.

  "Hey, kid," Ronin said. He spread his arms out wide to the valley of which we'd begun to lift out of. "Come to enjoy the view?"

  "Not really," I confessed, though it was pretty. "Do you have any space?"

  Ronin scooted over. I was briefly surprised, sure that he was going to spread himself over more of the platform and deny me entry. I stepped onto it with a quiet thanks. Below us, the ninja crowded around the Scroll of Airjitsu.

  "How ya feeling?" Ronin asked through a new bite of apple.

  I closed my eyes. Part of me wanted to lie, to say that I was fine, but a bigger part of me stopped caring. Maybe I was beginning to pick up Ronin's nonchalance.

  "My head's killing me," I admitted. I had a headache the size of the Endless Sea. "And my chest keeps aching." Though, I was beginning to grow used to it, but I was not a fan about what that implied.

  "I've got the perfect thing for that," Ronin said, before biting down on the apple and pulling out a silver flask. He raised his brows in offer.

  I lifted my brows right back. "I'm underaged."

  Ronin quickly shoved the flask back inside his pocket. "Forget you saw anything."

  I frowned at the side of Ronin's face as he returned to watching the ninja try to copy the poses from the scroll. He shook his head and rolled his eyes, but there didn't seem to be actual malice behind any of it. I wondered if he was telling the truth about keeping the ninja's identity secret, and why.

  Another bunch of questions to add to my never-ending list of them.

  The Bounty rose out of the valley and into the bright, blue sky. It felt like summer again - the heat was pounding, and even more so up closer to the sun, and the breeze was gentle and smelt of dry grass. I hoped Lloyd could experience this sun, too. I hoped he wasn't doing terribly, or that he wouldn't suffer for much longer.

  "Do you know anything about special swords?" I asked. "Anything you stumbled across at Domu?"

  "Nope." Ronin took another bite of his apple and laughed at Kai's first attempt at Airjitsu. The fire ninja had landed right on his face.