Page 21 of The Storm of the Empire (Flyers Of The First Kingdom #3)

TWENTY

LUKA

W e worked with the crew to get the ship out as the tide turned. It was a well-practiced process that felt like second nature. The ship was run in the same way I was used to, which made things so much easier. Hazel even picked things up quickly and fit right in.

As the action slowed, the hardest part was over.

“Luka! I wondered if I’d ever see you again?” Veles called from his place at the helm.

“Beautiful night to be aboard. I hope you don’t mind me hitching a ride with the cargo.”

“Not at all. You are always welcome aboard my ships. You couldn’t have picked a better season to return to the water.” Veles wore an easy smile, and his intelligent eyes were the same as I remembered. He’d been a hard arse as a first mate and ran a tight ship, but I was sure he’d be different with his own ship. A first mate ran the type of ship their captain commanded. He’d always struck me as different than his words.

“I’m glad to be aboard this ship,” I leveled with him. He knew more about me than most, having hired me when I had nothing but a quick wit.

“You’ve taken quite the turn in profession.” His gaze flickered to the men moving around us, speaking in code.

“I go where I’m called to do the work that needs to be done.” I hoped he took my meaning. “I’ve been afforded many opportunities.”

“I don’t blame them for snatching you out from under Captain Havelock.” He considered me another moment. “How long will you be with us?”

“For some time. I have things to see to.” I felt bad lying to him and prayed to the Goddess he’d forgive me if we ever meet again.

“Who’s your friend?”

“A passenger I’m escorting.”

“Can I know her name?”

“Hazel,” she said from where she looked over the rail not far from us.

“Welcome aboard, Hazel. I hope you don’t suffer from sea sickness.”

“Never,” she laughed, and I knew why. If she could fly through storms like she could, her stomach was made of iron. “I hope I’m not jinxing myself here.”

Veles looked her over, and I knew the look. I was sure every male aboard would be trying to impress her. “You have the spirit for sailing.”

A growl filled my chest, but I bit it back. I liked him, and I wasn’t going to cause any trouble, but that wasn’t happening.

“Really?” she asked, her eyes brightening in the moonlight.

“I’m not surprised. Luka must think you do to have thrown you in with us, and I’ve never found Luka to be wrong.” He stepped closer to her.

“He’s right about that.” I slipped my arm around her, and sparks pricked over my skin. Was that her warning me not to get possessive? I tapped a finger on her hip, hoping she took my hint. I knew she wanted to get to the eggs, but she had to play along. There was politics to work through everywhere, even at sea,

Hazel side-glanced me, like she knew what I was up to. “Don’t feed his ego. He doesn’t need it.”

“Believe me, I know. We spent many months together on the open water.”

“You’ll have to tell me stories.” She didn’t quite pull out of my grasp, but she side-stepped, turning back towards the water.

“If you like. I love a good story time.”

“I will not be letting you two exchange fictions!” I turned my voice playful, feeling an angle here. “Shall we take passage with the order’s cargo?”

Veles’ lips twisted into a grin. “At least until we unload some cargo at our first port. I’m sure I can find you an extra hammock.”

“I’d appreciate it.”

“No problem. Faolan will take you down.” Veles waved him over.

“Luka and his guest are going to bunk with the order’s cargo for now. Can you show them the way?”

“Of course.”

Faolan led us to the other side of the hold where the rest of the priests’ cargo must have been stored. It wasn’t a closet, like on my journey here. This was vast. Crates upon crates. They couldn’t all be eggs. Hazel turned towards me, shock coloring her expression.

“Luka…” Hazel said, cautiously.

“What?”

“This had better not be all eggs.”

There was no way it could be, but we had to find out for sure.

I pulled the bar I’d kept hold of from my robe and sighed. “Where do you want to start?”

It was tedious work, and it gave us more questions than answers. There were bulk supplies of grains and other dried foods, plus bedding and other necessities, but for what? we could not guess.

“Could they be going to the big temples? There are huge numbers of priests in the cities at any given time. That number must need a lot to survive.”

“Even in the cities, the priests do much of their own growing. Temples mostly sustain themselves. Plus, with all the donations they receive, why would they have need of such quantities?” Hazel argued. “This looks more like the kind of supplies the army sends to set up an outpost or other kind of base. I just don’t know what the priests are doing with it all.”

My head was swimming. Nothing made sense. Just then, the dinner bell rang, and we were happy to take a break.

Hours after the evening meal, I found myself unable to sleep. Hazel was dozing in her hammock, and I was wide awake in mine. I was used to sleeping wherever I could lay my head, but I had too many thoughts to settle. Quietly, I found my boots and tiptoed from the room, leaving Hazel to sleep while I took in some night air.

The deck was always quieter at night, and I thought I could find a place to sit and think unnoticed. But when I stepped out on deck, there was more activity than I expected.

A couple of deckhands were shifting crates and two figures argued in hushed voices on the port side, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying with the wind howling like it was. Did storms develop overnight here too? On the voyages I’d taken across the Middle Sea, we rarely stayed along the shore like we had.

Faolan mentioned multiple stops before the Ice Kingdom, but we weren’t even heading in the right direction for Ice, so I had to guess we would be seeing a lot of the realm if we saw out the voyage. But it’s not like I could ask. If I stayed true to my cover, I would either know or not know depending on how well-informed I was in my role. Either way, asking would call that into question. So we were left along for the ride, both literally and figuratively.

Usually, ships only kept a skeleton crew on deck at this hour of the night, so the bustle and movement of crates confused me. Why would they be hauling cargo up on deck in the middle of the night?

Was this some sort of ghost drop? There wasn’t an island this close to the coast, but maybe there was a shallow sandbar to leave something on? Those months I worked aboard a ship, we didn’t do them often, but ghost drops did happened, especially if we were smuggling something and didn’t want to draw the port guards attention to our cargo.

There was very little moonlight, so I stayed mostly hidden while in the shadows as I moved closer to the two. Finally, the tone of the voices reached me. Veles spoke in a harsh tone, but I still couldn’t make out the words. The male whose back was to me didn’t look like Faolan, but maybe the way he had his hair pulled back changed my perception of him? There was nowhere closer to even try to approach, and the rail was absent of cover, so I was forced to hold my position and observe.

Veles threw a rope ladder over the side, letting it unfurl down the side of the ship.

This had to be a ghost drop, but for who? I calculated the distance we could have gone since leaving the port. Even at the speed we were traveling with the storm winds at our backs, we still weren’t past the tail of the Storm Kingdom in a day and a half.

Suddenly, a face appeared over the edge of the rail, nearly making me gasp. I clapped a hand over my mouth while Veles handed the first crate to him. A short time later, another male came up the ladder just far enough to receive a crate. They took only two, both marked with the sun, and then Veles slowly pulled up the ladder.

Not a word was uttered between any of them.

I sank further into the shadows as they walked past, returning to their quarters. I glanced at the helm where the night watch fae steered, but his attention wasn’t anywhere near me. He looked off into the endless blackness where the ocean met the stars, so I took the risk. I darted to the rail, squinting to look over the edge. I could just barely make out a smaller boat bobbing over the waves.

It was impossible to gather any identifying information about them. They were faceless in the cover of the darkness. All I knew was that they took a couple of crates. I went over every detail to commit it to memory but also to make sure I didn’t miss anything important.

The crates had a yellow stamp on them. Were there any yellow stamped crates in the mass of ones in the room Hazel and I were bunking in? I only remembered seeing blue. But there were too many. We hadn’t been through them all. There wasn’t enough time. Not with our crew duties and acting like we were just normal, casual workers and meant to be a part of the crew.

I slipped back into the shadows, staying on deck longer than I should, so no one noticed me leaving so soon after the captain.

A sound behind me made me freeze. Had I been caught sneaking around and seeing something I wasn’t meant to see? I whipped around and found Faolan watching me, his expression unreadable in the dark.

“Goddess, you startled me!” I put my hand to my heart. “I was just…” I search my mind for a reasonable excuse. If he was in on whatever that was, I didn’t want him to think I saw.

Faolan raised a hand to stop my excuses, and my heart sank. I was caught. What would happen to Hazel if they threw me in the brig for this? “You were just witnessing our captain participating in a ghost drop. Same as me, friend.”

I frowned. Was he saying he was not involved?

“It’s none of my business,” I countered. “I was just getting some air.”

Faolan stared off toward the shore where the small vessel was now headed. “Maybe you should make it your business. That was cargo from the order’s manifest, which I’d been told was a gift of wine for the captain. Which is why it was placed in his quarters.”

“So why would he be handing it overboard in the dead of night?”

“That is a good question,” he mused.

His demeanor surprised me. I’d thought of Faolan as easy going in the short time I’d known him, especially about morally gray areas, but this seemed to have rankled him.

“I should take my leave,” I said, daring to take a step around him. But he was transfixed on the now no longer visible boat retreating from our wake.

“Goodnight,” he said absently.

I hurried back beneath, not quite sure what I was just witness to.

When I returned to the room Hazel and I shared, I could tell she was awake.

“Why are you still up?”

“What were you doing?” There was something in her voice I couldn’t quite read.

“I needed some air and?—”

“You’ve been gone ages.”

“And if you’d let me finish, I’d tell you what happened. I witnessed something.”

“What did you see?” Her energy changed. The edge eased, but I didn’t cross the room yet. She was still a dragon after all, and she’d been upset since the egg went missing, understandably so, but I wasn’t taking any chances.

“Veles and another male made a ghost drop.”

“What does that mean?”

“It’s a secret drop over the side of the ship to another waiting vessel.”

She sat up quickly, and the hammock swayed. “What did they drop?”

“I don’t know. It was two crates which were supposed to be wine for the captain, according to Faolan. They were sent to his quarters, and now they are gone.”

“What if they were the eggs?” she gasped.

“They may well have been. They had the stamp of the sun order in yellow.”

“And you couldn’t stop them?” She looked doubtful.

“I couldn’t stop the captain on his own ship, no. And neither could you. All we can do is find out as much as we can.” I scanned the space. “Have you seen any crates marked with yellow in here? I’ve only seen blue.”

“No, and I’ve gone through more of them. But they are all the same, just supplies. I can’t figure out what we’re missing.”

“Did they take any crates out of here?”

She shook her head. “Not while I was here.”

I finally risked working my way through the crates to where she laid in her hammock only in her undergarments. Ships were sweltering in the holds even with our hammocks hung near the vents. Especially with the warm wind coming off the coast. We weren’t far enough out to sea to benefit from the cooling of the water.

She didn’t look away from me. “If those were eggs, do you think there are more?

“There could be, but where?”

“Maybe in the lower hold?”

“We were down there. Unless they have them hidden under the ballast.”

“You know ships better than me, are there secret stores somewhere?”

I made a mental map of all the places we’d been. “Anything is possible. There’s no way to search every inch of this ship quickly without being caught.”

“I think we should do a better search of the lower hold. I feel like we’re missing something.” She tucked her hands behind her head, stretching out.

We’d only been down in the lower hold for a brief time as it was mostly left sealed during sailing. The stores of food resided on the orlop along with the beer stores and bread room, while above us, the crew resided in their cabins. But every inch of unused space went to storage in a ship of this size. It was large, but there was always more to fit.

“How do you propose we make an excuse to be down there.”

“I don’t know. Something will come to you—and that’s if we are caught.”