Page 84

“No. To Sablo. He’s the one who showed me how. Rian has been busy all afternoon.” I pause. “Maybe you’d know if you weren’t hiding in your quarters all day.”

“Hiding?” Corrick’s eyebrows go up. “Is that what you think I’ve been doing?”

“Well, you went on a ‘tour’ of the ship and never reappeared, so—”

“I’ve been trying to avoid conflict, Tessa.” He lifts another berry, but he doesn’t offer this one to me. He pops it into his own mouth. His voice is still low, but a conspiratorial note has entered his tone. “I’ve been in conversation with Rocco and Kilbourne. The captain has a locked room on the ship that he won’t allow us to access.”

“Why?”

“He says it’s full of weapons he doesn’t want us to have.”

I frown. “I don’t understand.”

“He says he doesn’t want us to have access to weapons that would allow us to overtake the ship.”

“Why would you want to overtake the ship?”

“Exactly,” Corrick says. “It feels like overkill. I don’t like it. I don’ttrustit. Rian has offered to dock at Port Karenin to allow us to disembark.”

I think about this for a minute. “So he’s keeping these weaponslocked up because he doesn’t trustyou, and you’re thinking about abandoning this mission because you don’t trusthim.”

“Doyoutrust him?”

I consider the conversation I just had with Lochlan. “The captain has been nothing but kind—”

“No. Tessa.” Corrick leans close. “I know you hate me right now, but on this, I truly need your judgment. Please.”

That hits me like an arrow. “I don’t hate you.” I swallow and glance over at the deck. More of the crew is emerging from below, their hands full of plates and cups. “I don’t think the captain is trying to trick anyone at all. I’ve heard a bit of what’s happened in Ostriary, and I believe he’s truly worried for his crew.”

His blue eyes hold mine. “Tell me.”

I keep my voice low and tell him about Sablo, how he wouldn’t sell information to King Galen, but he was punished by Oren Crane anyway. “Gwyn said the captain rescued him,” I say. “You remember what Marchon said when we were in the palace, how he would look for survivors and pick them up, regardless of what side they were on.” I hesitate, thinking of Rian’s voice when we were suspended on the rigging, fifty feet above the swirling river currents.

Surely you can understand my confusion about the company you keep, and whether you’re at risk—or whether you’re at his side by your own choosing.

“Rian is very protective,” I say.

“Protective,” Corrick echoes.

I can feel heat climbing my throat, and I stab the needle through the last bit of netting.

He studies me, then says, “Have you met Anya? Gwyn’s daughter?”

I frown. “The little girl?” I say. “I met her in the galley.”

“She has scars up and down her arms.” He nods at some of the crewmen. “Many of them seem battle worn.”

“Well, he did say they were just at war, and Gwyn said he doesn’t approve of rulers mistreating their people. Maybe they’veallrun afoul of this Oren Crane. What did Rocco say?”

“Nothing of consequence. Here.” He lifts another berry.

I turn my face away. “Wait. You spent the afternoon with your guards and they saidnothing of consequence?”

“Well.” He shrugs, then eats the berry himself. “Nothing I’m able to share.”

I scowl, then knot off my last line of repair to the nets. “Of course not, Your Highness.”

He frowns. “You’re angry with me again.”