AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded.Someonedefinitely was.
“Maybe the Enforcers have caught up to us. Or maybe my mother sent out a search party. Unless, of course, she’s thrilled I’m gone.”
If she was being blamed for his disappearance, as I’d tried to arrange, she wouldn’t be so thrilled. She’d be trying to prove her innocence by finding Graham—which I couldn’t let happen.
“Whoever it is, that storm must have separated us,” I said. “There’s no sign of them now.”
He nodded, his disheveled hair falling over his forehead. With his unshaven face and tanned skin, he was beginning to lose the resemblance to his former self. Even his blue eyes reflected a new ruggedness.
But why was I looking? I dropped my gaze. We were lost in the middle of the ocean and the color of his eyes meant nothing.
“We’re sitting too low in the water,” I said. “Let’s get this hold cleared.”
“How?” He looked around. “We’ve lost all our tools.”
I sagged against the rim of the boat. Maybe I’d have to come to terms with this whole death thing. But then I remembered something. I crossed the deck and opened the cabin door, emptying my bag of its contents.
I brought it out and held it up. “It’s sharkskin. Watertight.”
He smiled. “Smart.”
I dipped the bag into the water filling the hold and dumped it overboard before going back for another.
Graham and I took turns on water removal duty until we were thoroughly exhausted. By nightfall, we’d finally finished clearing most of it out. The sails were up again, the canvas curving against the wind.
We sat on the prow and waited for the clouds to clear so we could use the stars to regain our bearings and find the nearest island. To get a precise location, I needed a sextant, but it had been washed away with half our supplies.
A cloud thinned, revealing a patch of starry sky. “There,” I said, “the—”
“North Star,” Graham interrupted, then lifted his shoulders in a humble shrug. “I’ve studied astronomy. I may not have understood the practical use of it—those books weren’t the type you’d find in Cambria—but I was fascinated all the same. I can identify most constellations.”
I smiled. “Maybe you should be teaching me instead.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to act like a know-it-all.”
“I meant it. Besides, you’re a noble. You were born a know-it-all.” I held my thumb out to the horizon and measured roughly up to the North Star. We seemed to be at about the same latitude as before the storm. But for the longitude . . .
“The closest island is Gellor, isn’t it?” asked Graham, his arm extended toward the stars, making the calculations along with me.
“Yeah. It looks like the storm pushed us south, but if we continue northwestward with the wind—and if we’re lucky—we’ll make it to Gellor before . . .”
“Before we die,” said Graham.
“Exactly.”
“We’ll get there,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“Because I trust you.”
I frowned. That didn’t give me any comfort.
“And,” he said, “we still have our compass.”
I had to laugh at his optimism. It was better than nothing, but our water supply was the real problem.
“So . . .” He fidgeted with the compass, brushing a finger over the glass face. “If your mother was a Cambrian, how did your parents meet?”
