Page 78 of Return of the Nine

“If you stay unclothed, you can carve me off piece by piece and I will sit here quietly.” His tone was low.

A blush scorched her cheeks. “You just had to mention that, didn’t you?”

She quickly went and slipped into her shirt, tying the sash in place.

“You were really so worried that you tended me before your modesty?” He reached out and touched her cheek.

“Bleeding in this water is rarely a good idea.”

“I can see that. The water under us is teeming with predators. How do you normally manage?”

She shrugged, “I normally hide in the plankton for as long as I can then swim to the surface with as controlled a motion as I can manage.”

“How did you see it before it was there?”

She knew what he meant. “Everything down there has its own colour, even you. The colours tell me if something is friendly or not, toxic or not.”

Em put a wrap on his cut and a light sniff told her that it was almost complete.

He pulled his trousers on, to her relief, and she did the same. She left off her shoes as the boat was covered with plankton and the shoes would get in the way.

Rivvin sat next to her and asked, “What colour am I?”

“Electric blue.”

“What does that mean?”

Em bit her lip. “I don’t know. I have never seen anything that colour before. Will you be taking a boat out tomorrow?”

Rivvin nodded. “Yes, it is being delivered by shuttle tomorrow morning. If you would care to assist, we are looking for shoals of fish suitable for consumption but not rare.”

She thought about it. “Does the size of the fish matter?”

“They should be no more than four metres long. We are looking for larger meat fish with the option to eat them raw.”

Em nodded. “I know a few places where there are likelygatherings of suitable fish. You plan to tag them and then take the whole shoal?”

He nodded. “That is the plan.”

She grinned and took the helm once again. “Well, we have our target vegetation for this evening. Back to the lab with it.”

His skin seemed to slough off the saltwater, but hers was itching. “And a shower.”

He blinked. “You bathe after swimming in the sea?”

“My skin doesn’t do what yours does. It gets dry and flaky if I don’t wash the salt off, but I have a place for that when I don’t want to wake my parents.”

“Is it nearby?”

She chuckled. “Well, since you don’t need it, allow me to have this one little secret.”

He didn’t look happy about that while he slipped his shirt on over the bandage. “You didn’t ask about my spikes.”

“I thought you would mention them as you felt it appropriate. They are normal for your folk?”

He cocked his head. “Not really, they come out when our mate is in danger and at no other time.”

She blinked. “Are you saying . . .”

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