Page 78 of Wanted: Rogues and Bards

Did the movement of his head back and forth actually help with recollecting something? Lirion was almost tempted to ask.

“Yes, he had a ring on,” Fenric said, exasperation growing. “If you’d spent less time staring at his ass, maybe you would have noticed?”

Malfas shrugged this off and kept going. “And the third time was over in Novento, but to be honest, I don’t remember that one well.”

“That’s because you and he were both so incredibly drunk, you’d somehow cuffed both of you to the bed with the key on the other side of the room, and I found you crying about how you’d have to live now attached to the bedframe and you didn’t even like the color on the walls.”

Lirion almost snorted wine up his nose. Not recommended, by the way, very painful.

Malfas bought a clue. “Oh! Right, I kind of remember that part. But what was the fourth?”

Fenric sighed. It was a sigh from deep within his soul, an audible effort of patience, one already strained to the max. “The fourth one was two months ago.”

“Still not ringing any bells.”

“Hundager?”

“Oh…” Malfas’s ginger brows beetled in fierce concentration. “I do remember being in Hundager.”

Belstrom stopped snickering under his breath long enough to pitch in helpfully, “Do you recall accepting the job of being a birthday surprise?”

“Uh…vaguely…?”

Fenric looked ready to strangle him. “The job we told you not to take because it was sus as hell? The one where you had to strip down to just pants, tie a bow around your wrists, and wait in an inn room? The one I had a bad gut feeling about, so I booked the room next to it, and when I heard you cry about not wanting cuffs on your ankles too, I had to break in and get you?”

Malfas’s expression slowly cleared. “Ohhh. Hand to my god, I thought that was a drunken nightmare.”

“It was my nightmare, certainly.”

Maxie interrupted this trip down memory lane by coming back with a stack of plates and cutlery. People passed plates and such around, but Lirion was still stuck on the implications of this talk. So, apparently, the only one with actual common sense in this group was Fenric. Maybe Hapi. Also, apparently, Malfas had no good judgment where dick was concerned.

Lirion’s first task needed to be teaching both Malfas and Maxie how to discern the right partners for a night of fun because, gods above, he didn’t need another rescue on top of the one they were currently on.

Lessons started tonight.

Fenric liked to think he knew himself well. On a day-to-day basis, he knew how he’d react to things, and he didn’t surprise himself much.

Right now, though? Right now, he found his actions and emotions confusing as hell.

He pondered this as he wandered around the ship, very much the type to pace while he thought. Usually, walking helped untangle his thoughts, but it wasn’t working right now. Maybe because these endless loops were making him dizzy.

Somehow, he fetched up against the railing, near where Rain steered. A fierce wind was pulling them along, the bright red sails full against the pale blue sky with its wispy white threads of clouds. The smell of salt from the sea filled the air. Belstrom lounged on the main deck, a book spread open across his face while he was bare from the waist up, enjoying the warm late-afternoon sunlight. The skelebabies scurried around him, careful not to trip over his impressive bulk amid their duties.

Briefly distracted by the dense green and grey of the coastline, Fenric paused to look it over, instinctively searching for any signs of life, but they were far from any towns or villages here. In the few years he’d spent sailing around with Rain, he’d come across most of the open sea, so he could sort of guess where they were based on landmarks. They were in some very close quarters right now, with the Banshee Cliffs on their right. Fenric guessed they were named for the wailing sound people made if they fell off those cliffs because he was pretty sure there were no banshees in the area. On the other side was the tip of the Kingdom of Cotra, the large landmass covered in thick, foreboding forests.

Ah, he knew vaguely where they were. “How are we looking?”

“We should be out within an hour,” Rain confirmed while sitting on the side of the large wooden tub situated just behind the massive wheel that steered the ship. He was soaking his feet, the tub filled with warm salt water pulled straight from the sea where they sailed. There were also a couple of small stools so others could sit in the water with him. When they weren’t in treacherous waters, Rain could lounge a bit more. All of them had been trained to steer the ship, but only through open waters, allowing Rain to get a longer break from the helm during long voyages.

But for now, Dead Man’s Curve wasn’t just a narrow pass filled with deadly creatures looking to sink them. There were also jagged rocks lurking beneath the water, ready to rip their hull out. Rain had sailed these waters so many times, he had no problem navigating around the rocks.

The pirate adjusted the enormous black tricorn on his head to better shade his face and neck from the beating sun. His loose dark grey shirt with the wide sleeves was open down his chest and billowed like another sail in the wind. “Should be passing Strandby in a few minutes.”

“Think you’ll ever try to settle your business in Strandby? One of the bounties is for your life, right?”

Rain waved away his concern. “I just have to stay away until people forget about the bounties.”

“That’s not how bounties work.”