Page 24 of Tortured

Yet it still healed me as it had Niawen.

I turn my mind inward, trying to see this light fused to my cells. I have a sense that I can. If the light is everywhere, even in my mind, then surely I can use it. Isn’t my brain looking even now with its enhanced might into my other body cells?

They glow. I can see how the light makes my cells glow. On whatever level they function, the light wraps around each tiny part and boasts its purpose.

So where is the part that controls how I perceive motion? I have to get a handle on things for Niawen’s sake.

Something in my brain tells me I am receiving conflicting impressions about motion and my body’s position on the ship. The imbalance stems from my inner ear, eyes, skin, and muscles.

The whole thing as a unit is very complex.

I must find some sort of equilibrium.

I don’t know if my body will obey my thoughts. But the more I think about it, the more I decide that everything should be in balance. Just because I can’t see the motion doesn’t mean my senses can’t compensate.

I make up my mind here. I pry myself out of bed and stand on shaking feet. I sway for a minute as I will my body to balance. As a solid breath fills my lungs, I take a step forward—on steady legs.

And then another step.

Yes! I emerge from the cabin to the deck. The men are worn and drenched. I have a strange sense that the storm will be over soon, but even so, I plow right in and get to work helping the men with the rigging.

I receive more than one astonished look. A few hours later, when the sun breaks through a gray cloud, the captain claps me on the back. “Job well done, son.”

I don’t look back from here. I work alongside the crew for the entire three-week journey to the land in the East.

The land I learn is called Morvith.

Now where have I heard that name before?

It’s my homeland, Caedryn sneers. Good luck there. I pray you never come across the empress.

After your assassins, I’m not afraid of much else.

Oh, you will be afraid of her.

I hiss and push Caedryn away. I hope that he didn’t catch my visit from Niawen.

As it is, I don’t get another one while I’m onboard.

For that, I am sorely disappointed.

Chapter 13

After a week at sea, sailing southeast, we turn along the coastline and sail east before rounding the continent and turning north again. We stay close to the coast. Land is always in sight, but that first week gives us nothing but a view of the Wilderness.

We stop at no ports, because no settlements have been built along the desert coast. Once we bump around the tip of the continent, the land suddenly becomes green, and stops at ports become frequent.

After another week of commerce, in which I grow used to life at the docks and the chaos in the port taverns every night, the ship sails between a narrow strait. The captain tells me this passage leads to a massive bay. I cannot see the far coast, the expanse of water is so vast.

We dock at a port in the southlands called Cadomedd. I spend the remainder of the day helping the crew unload their goods. I just settle another crate onto the dock when a voice calls out above the bustle of the crowd.

“Dragon!”

If that hadn’t caught my attention, the sudden scramble away from our pile of goods does. The captain grabs my sleeve and pulls me back toward the ship. “Get back!”

I hurry with him up the gangplank just as a shadow crosses above, blocking out the early afternoon sun. I squint up at the massive winged beast as he settles onto the dock in front of the cargo.

The creature is gray and scaled, with spikes sticking out in odd places at its elbows and knees and along its shoulders. He has no saddle, as I was so used to seeing on Seren’s back. Does he not have a rider? Given that this is just another dragon among the small handful that I’ve seen while in Gorlassar, I wonder if not all dragons have riders.

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