Page 38 of The Flame and the Forsaken

“Except the midnight women, there for man’s endless pleasure?”

He cleared his throat, embarrassed both because they were discussing midnight women and by Mariel’s bluntness. “Aye, I ken that was what I was trying to say.”

“You don’t speculate? Not at all?”

Erran shook his head. “It’s not the business of a gentleman. Or so says my father.”

Mariel nodded and turned back toward the sea. “Neither is confiscating lands from men by fabricating crimes and charges.”

“Mariel, you can’t say something like that if you’re not willing to tell me why we’re here.”

Her brows raised with a sharp inhalation. She waved her hand toward the mast. “You, uh, handled yourself well today. Thank you.”

“‘Thank you?’” Erran grinned and turned his head toward the sky, in which a distant storm was materializing. “Will you have to kill me now that you’ve paid me such a kindness?”

“Would do it for less,” she replied, but even with her head turned, she couldn’t hide her tight grin.

Erran squinted at the darkening skies, the thick clouds pulling together. “We’re going to have to make a move soon. This storm doesn’t look to be heading toward land, but it is coming our way. If we navigate into smoother waters?—”

“Nay.” She spun on the bench, her expression hard. “Nay, we cannot. We cannot go back.”

“And you’re not going to tell me why...” He enunciated each word.

“Not... I don’t know. Nay. Not now.” Her hands rolled along the edge of the bench, and that was when he noticed some of her fingers were bloodied. “There’s no plan. Ihadone, but... I wasn’t expecting what, eh, happened, aye?”

“Being chased by guards into the sea?”

She lifted her fingertips with a curt nod.

“Whatever it is you’ve done, my father can?—”

“Yourfather?” Her laugh terrified him. “You go on back, Errandil. I never asked you to follow me... to help me. There’s a rowboat attached to the starboard hull, and it’s all yours.”

Mariel wanted him to react, to fight with her so she could justify her own anger, wherever it had come from. “I’m not going back, Mariel.”

She bore into him with a stare that seemed to challenge his words. “Then you’re a bigger fool than I thought you were, because your father won’t forgivethismisstep. I promise you.”

Foreboding crossed her words, the closest he’d get to an understanding of the circumstances that had her fleeing in a paltry vessel for an unforgiving sea. “Maybe I am a fool,” he said, conceding. “But I’m not leaving you to navigate these waters alone.”

“He’ll take the admiralty from you when he finds out you’ve helped me. Is that what you want?”

Was there concern in her eyes? “That’s my risk to take.”

Mariel glanced away with a sigh, shaking her head in defeat and disbelief. “I ken we’ll have a better chance of surviving this mess with your skill.”

“Skill is part of it.” Erran whistled through his teeth. “But... There’s not enough food to last us more than two, maybe three days, and that’s if we ration. You didn’t exactly provision this ship for a long voyage.”

“Where’s the map?”

Erran handed it over.

She stood and spread it on the bench. “There aren’t many islands here. There’s Duncarrow and Belcarrow, the king’s territories. The others are small, rather inconsequential. Useless for much of anything.”

“I know of them.” He gritted to temper the annoyance in his voice, because he truly didn’t have the heart for another row with her. But he’d been born on the sea. Trained on the sea. Had been groomed to helm the largest, most distinguished fleet in the entire realm. And she wanted to educatehim? “They’re not useless if you’re a bird or a boar. Few see fit to travel so far when there’s easier hunting on the mainland.”

“Aye.” She nodded distantly. “But do you really see us making it back to the mainland in this ship anytime soon?”

He wasn’t ready to acknowledge his suspicions, or the inciting words she’d howled at the guards before leading them on a wild chase, but it was enough to believe there could be guards at every port soon, if there weren’t already. And if any of them launched their own ships in pursuit, Erran and Mariel would be boxed in, with nowhere to go.

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