Page 22 of Nyall

“That just scalded my tonsils, I think. Maybe I’ll stick to the captain’s whiskey tonight, Commander,” she told him as she passed the jug back to him, and blinked until her watery eyes cleared. “Do a lot of the fish people drink that stuff?”

“We’re no’ fish. The clan speak of us as Finfolk, but we call ourselves the Selseus.” Jamaran took a swallow and sighed. “My people eat pearls, for they bestow bliss on the blood-born of my kind. ’Tis why the Selseus covet them, and use them as currency.”

“But it doesn’t make you drunk?” When he shook his head she wondered what else set him apart from the other immortal aquatics, but decided against asking. “Probably best. I bet the nacre gets caught in their teeth a lot. I could never drink mezcal because of the worm in the bottle.”

Nyall looked appalled. “Your people brew spirits from worms?”

“Not from them, far as I know, just added. Hey, don’t look at me like that. He’s drinking homebrew made from seaweed and snails.” She took the whiskey from him. “I met and talked to your laird today while I was gathering stuff for your cook, by the way.”

“Indeed.” The captain eyed her. “On what did you speak?”

“I just set him straight on what I want and don’t want. He’s got a great laugh for someone who looks like he got rode hard and put away wet.” She saw the way Nyall scowled over that and added, “Like a horse, not what you’re thinking.”

“He didnae much laugh, until Lady Valerie came,” Jamaran said.

The captain didn’t look like he was going to volunteer any information, so she asked, “At night you two come here to soak in the spring, drink, and do what else? Anything naughty?”

“I told you, lass, we’re no’ lovers,” the commander chided, and then leaned over and said to the captain, “She asked, I answered.”

“We speak of serious matters concerning our people and the island,” Nyall told her, looking even sterner now.

Caroline grinned. “Sure, you do. While you drink that rotgut and soak in the hot water, which is the perfect time to talk about serious matters. Girls never do that, by the way. We’re usually gossiping about you guys.” She lifted one leg, which seemed pleasantly limp from the heat, and saw both men looking at it. “Am I the first girl you’ve brought here?”

“We’ve encountered some lasses bathing on their own at the spring,” the commander said, a slightly mischievous note in his voice.

“Aye, and left them alone.” The captain gave her a decidedly disgruntled look before he said, “Now, shall you answer a question for me?”

“Since I’m not under subpoena, I might, or I might not.” She took a sip from the jug and swallowed it slowly, enjoying the burn now. “You have to ask to find out.”

“When you first saw Shaw, did your eyes seem much improved than in your time?” At her frown he added, “Could you see more here than you could before you came?”

“No, I still have twenty-twenty vision, just like I did back home. I can see perfectly fine,” she tacked on so he’d understand the term. “Why would you think my eyes were working differently when I saw your guy Shaw go dark and creepy?”

“The ring bestows abilities on those brought through time,” Jamaran said.

Yet another weird thing the ring did, which was starting to seem normal to her. “Abilities like what?”

Nyall told her about Valerie’s ability to read the minds of those she touched, and Lark’s power to lift objects with a thought. “We wondered if you acquired a boon of better sight.”

“I didn’t. He just reminded me of something seriously scary.” Caroline thought of the way time had stopped in the great hall and at the tide pool just after the commander had left her. “I think I might be able to do something else, but I don’t know if I can make it happen, or if you’ll be able to see it.”

“Try,” the commander said.

She cupped a handful of water, and tossed it up in the air before she thought of stopping them. Both men made a startled sound as the droplets hung suspended overhead, glimmering as if they’d turned to glass. She expected to see them go motionless as well, but for some reason neither of them did.

“Look at the torches,” Jamaran murmured.

Nyall saw how the flames had frozen in time as well, and regarded her. “How long may you halt time thus?”

“I’m not controlling that. It just seems to go longer every time I do it.” She started counting the seconds in her head, reaching sixty by the time the water splashed back down into the spring. “That was about a minute, right? The length of time stopping is doubling, so the next time I try, it’ll probably take two minutes.” She wiped some drops from her cheek. “When it happened in the hall, it froze Lady Valerie, the maid and the guards. I think it might have affected the laird when I tried it the second time, but I didn’t see him until after. Why didn’t it freeze you two tonight?”

“Mayhap my sire’s magic.” Nyall gestured at the water. “He enchanted this spring as a trysting pool.”

“Do I want to know what that means?” she asked Jamaran, who smiled a little. “Well, anyway, stopping the clock is my new talent.”

“You mustnae use the boon unless you’re in danger,” Nyall said. “’Tis a gift that shall grow only more dangerous.”

“I just realized that, too.” She looked at the commander, who still seemed mystified. “If the length of the freeze doubles each time I use it, then pretty soon the world will stop for minutes, then hours, then days. If I use it too much I could halt time for months, years, even decades.”