Page 118 of A Flash of Golden Fire

I tried to find out what had actually happened from the men who’d been on deck.

“I don’t rightly know,” Hillier admitted, shaking his head. “One moment the sky came all dark and exploding with lightning and thunder, worse than anything we’d seen yet, and the next moment it all snuffed out like a candlewick. So quickly, we stood there in a bit of shock for a time. I’ve never seen a storm go down like that.”

“Two of them, you mean,” I said.

“Never saw more than one. Whatever you called down on us took the storm away, White. Don’t quite understand, but I ain’t gonna worry about it.”

Everyone wanted to shake my hand. Nobody was afraid of me. But now I felt an enormous sense of responsibility and wondered if this would be my new job and whether I could actually call up my magic again.

I ended up in my old hammock down in the hold, where I fell asleep for the remainder of the night and woke up feeling worse. I found Domingo in the galley, helping Mr Guthrie tidy up.

The mess table was bolted to the floor, and the counters were built into the ship. But the chairs had been in piles, and the pantry was a mess of spilled food and flour. I helped Domingo restore order, whilst Guthrie tossed random things into a giant pot of boiling water and made a stew. There was no lack of fresh rainwater, collected in strategically placed items on deck and also from unintended sources. There had been such a downpour that rain had gathered where no rain had gathered before, and members of the crew had collected the fresh water in syphons and bottles, then poured it into barrels. We’d replenished our regular water stores whilst on Tortuga, so there was no worry on that end.

Domingo had been quiet, likely due to embarrassment at losing his habitual confidence and take-it-as-it-comes demeanor. So I tried to chit-chat as we mopped and cleaned the galley while the doctor tended to Dinesh.

“You know, I was terrified. I really did almost shit myself when you came into the captain’s rooms.”

He might as well know I was embarrassed about the whole thing too.

Domingo didn’t respond, simply renewed the force of his scrubbing. Which was unusual for a man who didn’t normally enjoy manual labour, or shutting his mouth.

I kept talking.

“I hope the captain’s all right. The wound wasn’t deep, and I know he lost some blood, but his colour was good when I left him.”

Domingo and I scrubbed harder. He still didn’t say anything. So I chose a different tactic.

“I hope he’s not laid up for too long. He was talking about inviting you to his bedchamber to have another go…”

This was a total lie, but I thought my words might get a reaction.

When they didn’t, I threw the mopstick down and stood before him, with my hands on my hips and the angriest expression I could summon.

“Domingo! Why won’t you talk to me?”

I hadn’t expected him to look at me the way he did then. He made the sign of the cross over his chest.

“Oh, what the fuck now? You’re not scared of me. You’re not scared of anything!”

He sat back on his heels and gazed at me. Licked his lips. Frowned.

“I don’t want to be! But your powers are—”

I folded my arms across my chest. “My powers are a gigantic pain in my arse, Domingo. I figured you should know that.”

His frown wavered. “How do you mean?”

“Well, for one thing, every time I use them I feel like I’ve died or travelled to another plane of existence. Nothing looks right, and everything goes very strange. It’s not a fun feeling.”

He considered this.

I crouched down so we were eye level.

“And the crew thinks I need to be handled with kid gloves, or avoided. Or they need to make me happy all the time. It’s…strange.”

A thought occurred to me.

“Oh God, Domingo, what if the captain starts coddling me? I don’t know if I can handle that.” I sat on my arse and put my head in my hands. “He knows just how to deal with me, and I like things rough and wild.” I jerked up and raised a finger, as if I were teaching a lesson. “There shall be no coddling in the captain’s quarters, not when we’re together in our sins.”