AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You’re up early,” Riden says from where he lies next to me.
“Couldn’t sleep,” I say.
“Are you worried about something?”
“Actually, it was your snoring that kept me awake.”
He smiles. “I do not snore.”
“My ears beg to differ.”
He rolls onto his back, staring upward with me. “Tell me what’s worrying you.”
“Aside from the fact that I’m being held hostage by enemy pirates?”
“Yes,” he says simply, “aside from that.”
Well, I can’t very well tell him that either Draxen or his father hid a map somewhere and I can’t find it. Instead, I ask him, “What’s the most reckless thing you’ve ever done to try to impress your father?”
He’s quiet.
“Does it pain you to talk about him?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, that’s not it. I try not to think about him because I hated him so much.”
“I understand.” I wait to see if he’ll still answer my question.
He sighs. “It’s difficult to say. I did many reckless things.”
“Tell me one of them.”
“All right,” he says pensively. “Once, when we were sailing far out at sea, we pillaged a ship before burning it down. My father dropped a chest of jewels into the ocean while trying to haul it over to the ship. I dove in after it.”
“I think perhaps we should go over the meaning ofreckless.”
“There were acura eels in the water, finishing off the sailors that survived the initial attack on their ship.”
I turn my head in his direction. “Now thatwasreckless.” Acura eels are more feared than sharks. They’re faster and more sensitive to human blood. In some cases, they’re even bigger and toothier. Most of the time, they stay near the ocean floor, but if they sense a disturbance at the surface, they’ll come to investigate.
“Were you able to get the chest back for him?” I ask.
“No. An eel headed for me. Draxen saw it and lowered me a rope. He hoisted me out of the water just in time.”
“What did your father do?”
“He tried to toss me back over to get the chest, but Draxen was able to talk him out of it.”
“Sounds to me that if you hadn’t killed him, someone else would have eventually. He sounds awful.”
“He was.” Riden turns to look at me. “I’m guessing that question wasn’t random. Are you doing something reckless to impress your own father?”
“I do reckless things for the fun of it.”
“I have no trouble believing that.”
“Do you feel like you knew your father well?”
He shrugs. “Well enough. Why?”
