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Three
Havana
The door leading to the captain’s chambers had an old brass knocker on it. One you’d find on a house. Steadying my breath, I grabbed the metal ring and gently rapped on the door.
“Enter.”
Leon sat at a round table in the center of a lavishly decorated room with a wall of windows facing the open water. Every inch of space had either an odd knickknack, statue, or compass, spy glasses, star charts, a beat up logbook, and cargo manifests . . . lots and lots of maps, all pinned and scattered around the walls, hiding the brocade wallpaper underneath.
But nothing compared to the dark fae grinning at me.
“Sit, eat.” He waved at the chair opposite him.
“Thank you.” My stomach grumbled at the sweet-smelling honey bread and roasted quail. “I didn’t think there would be meat on the ship.”
“We have fresh in the beginning, then switch to salted.” Leon brought a glass of wine to his mouth. “Is this your first time on a ship?”
No, but I can’t exactly tell you I’ve been aboard theNaval Conquest. One of my father’s fastest ships.
“Nothing as grand as this,” I finally said. “TheRavageris beautiful.”
“Aye, that she is, love.”
I took the wineglass in front of me and guzzled the liquid, hoping it would set my racing heart at ease. I wasn’t afraid of the captain, but I was extremely nervous about someone finding out my identity. Especially Leon, who seemed to ask me a thousand questions with his golden gaze. If anyone found out I was the first daughter of King Tarsios, they could ransom me, or worse.
“How long before we reach the Oasis?”
“Depends on the storm.” Leon grabbed one of the honey rolls and bit into it, never breaking eye contact.
“Is it that bad?”
“I’ve sailed worse.”
No matter how much I convinced myself that I needed this little trip, it didn’t settle the fear of being shipwrecked. I loved my home and my family. This was never about abandoning them. “How much worse? What will happen? Is there a lifeboat?”
Leon placed his wine on the table and leaned forward, clasping his hands together in front of him. “Love, there’s no storm out there that I can’t handle. I’ll get you to the Oasis safely, once you tell me why you’re traveling alone.”
“Is it really so odd?”
“You know it is.”
“My father is planning an arranged marriage, and I needed to escape for a bit.” I released the breath I was holding. “I’ve never been away from home before.”
“And where is that home?”
The moment I told him my true heritage, he would turn the ship around, regardless of what obligations he had, yet I had a feeling he wouldn’t give up on discovering more about me. “Nowhere fancy or exciting just a human settlement west of the Nightingale Cliffs.”
His eyebrow arched at the mention of the human king’s land. “I hear the cliffs are unlike any other sight to see in Saol.”
I smiled. “They are beautiful, but deadly. It has become a place people like to take their last breaths.”
“A tragedy.”
“Yes.” I sighed thinking of the waterfalls that plunged over the sides of the cliffs, and how they cast rainbows into the light. No one survived the fall, and no one was ever found if they jumped.
Leon poured wine into my glass. “Enough morbid talk, love. Tell me what you plan on doing at the Oasis.”
My cheeks warmed at his intense gaze. He had one leg crossed over the other and leaned back in the chair drinking with a sort of regality I would expect from a noble man. Since he hadn’t asked anymore questions about why I had come, my fear and doubt faded.
