Elise’s eyes were locked on his as though she knew what he was thinking. “Then I’m coming too.”
“Ye are not!”
“Oh? And how are you going to stop me? You are notmychieftain, Jamie. You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Can I not? Last time I looked I was still laird of this isle and while ye are my guest, yer safety if my responsibility.”
“And the last time I lookedIwas a MacFinnan spellweaver who’s been brought here specifically to help you beat these pirates. How can I do that if I don’t face them?” Her eyes flashed dangerously, daring him to challenge her.
They glared at each other. Then Elise’s expression softened. “Look,” she said. “I get it. I would want revenge in your position. But this is more than that. It’s an opportunity to gather information, and knowledge is power, remember?” She reached out and laid a hand on his arm. The touch sent a tingle dancing across his skin. “You don’t need to worry about me. I’m a spellweaver. I can take care of myself.”
Jamie scowled at her. “I could have ye locked in yer room.”
She shrugged. “You could try. But I don’t think you’d like the outcome.”
All the fight went out of him and his shoulders sagged. He let out a long breath and then scrubbed at his face with the heels of his hands. “Ah, hell. Ye aren’t going to take no for an answer are ye?”
Elise grinned. “Ah, now you’re getting it. When do we leave?”
Jamie sighed. “Right about now actually.”
“Then what are we waiting for?”
*
“We’ll keep tothe coast for three leagues until we reach Ender’s Point,” said the man with the French accent who’d been introduced to Elise as the ship’s captain. “Then swing east. That way, we’ll be afforded some cover on our approach.”
Elise did her best to look attentive as Jamie and the captain discussed their route, but in truth, she barely heard a word. All her attention was focused on not throwing up.
They claimed it was a calm day and there was barely a swell out on the water. Utter rubbish. To Elise, it felt as though the deck was heaving and bucking beneath her feet and her stomach was responding in kind. It was all she could do to keep down her breakfast. Great. Sea sicknessanda hangover. Just what she needed.
How much had she drunk last night anyway? She couldn’t remember much about the evening, just a lot of singing, a lot of laughing, and Andrea finally helping her up to bed sometime in the small hours. It had been fun and she’d found herself enjoying herself far more than she would have expected, being so far from home and everything she knew.
There had only been one thing missing.
Her eyes strayed to Jamie. The sea wind was plucking at his clothes and hair, sending his pale-blond hair whipping around his head and putting a glint into his eyes.Hewas the thing that had been missing. To her disappointment, he’d not joined them and had missed the evening meal entirely—something that was unusual according to Andrea.
Had he been avoiding her? What other reason could there be for changing his usual habits?
A sudden surge of nausea swept through her and she ran to the railing and emptied her guts over the side of the ship. Why had she insisted on coming on this trip again?
“Are ye all right, lass?”
She glanced over her shoulder to see Jamie standing behind her. “Fine,” she said quickly, waving away his concern. “Just getting my sea legs.” He looked about to say more so she waved him off. “You go back to your conference. I’ll just stay here and…er…look at the view.”
She sucked in a breath of the salt-laden air and slid down the railing to sit with her back against the ship’s side, pulled her knees up to her chest, and hugged them. Around her, the ship hummed with activity. The crew bustled about doing sailory things and a group of warriors were being put through drills by Albie.
Three more times she had to spring to her feet and throw up over the side. So much for the vaunted spellweaver come to save everyone. She doubted she was inspiring much confidence right now. What would Rose and Jenna think if they could see her? Rose would shake her head and admonish her about her responsibilities while Jenna would wear an amused smile before handing her some pills and a glass of water.
Well, neither of them were here, so it was up to her to hold up the reputation of the spellweavers. So far, she wasn’t doing a brilliant job of it. Not for the first time she wondered if Lir had chosen the right spellweaver.
There was, of course, one way to cure her sea sicknessandher hangover. Her magic. Yet she was loath to use it. It was unpredictable and unruly at the best times and now, in her weakened state, who was to say how it might react? Knowing her luck, she would end up setting fire to the sail or something.
Still, she didn’t have much choice. She’d insisted on coming on this mission, and if they did encounter pirates, she wascurrently in no fit state to do anything useful. So, taking a deep breath, she relaxed her muscles and arranged herself into a cross-legged position with her back straight. She closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. In out, in out, as her mother had taught her.
Slowly, she opened herself up to her power. It was there inside her, a golden ball of light spinning madly in the center of her being. As always when she accessed it, her power tried to grab her, pull her in, take control. But Elise was prepared for this. She let through only a tiny scrap of power, channeled it out into the rest of her body, into her roiling stomach and aching head, and then sighed in relief as both the headache and the sickness evaporated.
She looked around. Miraculously, the sea seemed to have calmed, and the deck was no longer pitching and bucking under her. Gripping the railing in both hands, she clambered to her feet and gazed out to sea, this time welcoming the bracing wind that scoured her cheeks and sent her hair streaming out behind her.
