I smacked my lips together, running a fuzzy tongue along my palate. “These men are Kravan?”
A beat of silence. “Yes. I’m trying to listen."
Above, activity took hold over the upper deck, and we both craned our necks toward the sound. Someone dragged something heavy over my head. It lugged ominously, catching every grain in the wood.
“Can you speak Kravan?” I whispered loudly.
He gave a raspy sigh towards the door, eyes narrowed as he listened to the muffled voices above. "Some."
“What doesniecomean?”
Impatient, he shook his head. “Something.”
“Okay, so you don't speak it.”
“It meanssomething.”
“What though?” I slurred.
“The wordsomething.” He glanced at me, then sat up in alarm. A fresh wash of blood trickled down his neck, freed by his movement. “Leihani. Don’t fall asleep.”
“I’m not.” Reclining into the wall at my back, I pulled gently on my chains.
Why were my wrists chained?
“Don’t close your eyes.”
“I won’t,” I promised, but the thought was delicious. I tilted my head against the wall, resting in the nook of one arm, feeling my eyelashes flutter against my own skin.
“Ask me for more words.”
“I don't know any words.” My head solidified, heavy as a brick—but somehow, my body weighed nothing at all.
He prodded my shin with his toe. “Ask me the Kravan word forisland.”
Opening a groggy eye, I squinted at him in the dark. “What’s the Kravan word for island?”
“Ostrov. Ask me another.”
I shook my head. “I can’t think of any.”
“Leihani,” he hissed in anger. “Maren.”
But the scent crawling from him was acrid and sour, a cloud of fear.
The sea bobbed us side to side. Above, someone dropped an accumulation of rope. It thudded the deck, uncoiling in layers.
“Don’t close your eyes.”
“They’re not closed,” I murmured, though I realized they were. I tried to pry them open, but they refused to move.
Across from me, Kye swore under his breath.
The door swung open, hitting the wall and jolting me awake. I sat up straight, then nodded forward again, my head determined to remain unbalanced.
Rough hands unlocked one of my cuffs.
I tried to hit them—whoever they were—but my arm flopped of its own volition into my lap, heavy as a bolt of iron.
