Page 81 of The Queens and the Kings
“You’re insane!” she shouted.
Pedr laughed.
Heart in her throat, Britt lifted her focus to the wyvern. She no longer required the spyglass to track the erratic, odd movements. It never flew very high, remaining around the white sails.
They cut across the sea, driving toward the ship of the line as it inched west. No other ships approached.
“How did you figurethatout?” she demanded.
“The invisibility?”
“Yes! It’s a bloody flute.”
“There’s a wild story behind it. I’ll tell you later.”
Breathless, she ventured a tentative step forward. When she didn’t topple into the sea, she dared another and another. Despite beinggone, the ship was still present. She held out a hand, waved it, yet saw nothing.
“When wyverns and big ships are involved,” Pedr called over the wind roaring in her ears, “there’s always a reason for haste.”
Dead ahead, the same wyvern rose from the ship, and her heart caught. It launchedfromthe giant ship of the line. Was it the same one she saw in the sky days ago? The same that flew around Kapurnick?
“Why is a wyvern on the ship of the line?” she shouted.
“I don’t know!”
Her reaching fingers touched the bend of his elbow. Grateful to find him, she held tight to his side. The reckless ocean charge felt marginally less horrifying with Pedr close.
“When it comes to those beasts heading west,” he said, “we need to know?—”
His voice choked off. Britt noted it. He couldn’t say much, if anything about wyverns. He’d specifically mentioned thewest, too.
The ship of the line continued to close in. At such a behemoth size, it didn’t move quickly, but they’d collide if Pedr kept this up for too long. As if he read her mind, the ship slowed beneath her feet. They cut at an efficient angle, but not breakneck.
“I’m slowing because I can’t safely maintain this forever.”
“That makes sense.”
“It’s notme,” he added, a bit tetchy. “Nor the arcane. It’s the ocean. I can change currents to bring us anywhere I want, but changing currents has massive effects on marine life and the ocean overall. I have to be careful, very balanced.”
She hadn’t expectedthat.
“Oh,” she managed.
Pedr as Arcanist of the Sea would always be weird.
“We’re going visible,” he declared.
“You can’t just appear out of nowhere!”
“I definitely can and I absolutely do it often.”
“You’re going to terrify that entire ship. The wyvern, too.”
She felt him smile.
“I know. How do you think Burning Beard earns his name? Have a little fun, Britt.”
With one breath on his tiny flute, the ship came into view all at once, sails flaring to life with shimmering rose flames. Stunned by the change of absolutely nothing at her feet to solid planks again, Britt could only stare at Pedr’s very real and present corporeal form. Rosenvatten was so bizarre.
