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Yes, that was why he was here, wasn’t it? To convince me to join his crew. Something flickered through me, and it felt an awful lot like disappointment.
“Of course,” I returned. “What are you willing to do to convince me?”
He pointed to the bowls and plates before us. “I hoped this was a good start. Is it succeeding?”
“It’s not doing any harm,” I admitted. But I knew that if I stepped aboard his ship, I’d never leave again. Though Demery had told me a lot of unbelievable things, I did trust him when he said he wanted to retire. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t sell me to another ship before he did, but it was something.
The pirate hunter kept speaking. “What else do you want? Your own cabin? You’ll have that. Protection? I’ll give it myself.” He leaned his elbows on the table and ducked his head to my height. There was no boasting to his words now, no pomp or fluff or gravitas. Just a hard undercurrent to a soft voice.
For a moment, words evaded me. Then my wine-softened tongue produced the most honest, and most impossible, answer. “I want to go home.”
I want to find my mother and take her home with me.
He did not reply. Then his eyes dropped to my lips and my heart gave an uncertain, warning twist. I had to tread carefully.
“I think you know that is impossible,” Rosser said. His gaze was back on mine, as if it had never strayed. “To all appearances, Lirr is searching for you. You understand what he is?”
“Of course,” I returned, not liking his tone. Heat crept into my cheeks, from the wine and frustration, but also his attention. “He’s a mage. A Sooth and a Magni.”
“Yes.” Rosser’s tone became flatter and more guarded. “It’s the Sooth part that concerns me. He will have premonition, visions, access to the Other. As a Stormsinger, you have a reflection in the Dark Water. Did he get close to you?”
Despite the heat of the fire, I felt the warmth leach from my cheeks. “Yes.”
“How close?”
My discomfort tripled. “As close as we are now.”
Rosser was silent for a moment, then asked, “Did he touch you?”
I remembered the brush of Lirr’s finger across my skin as he pushed my collar aside. I reached compulsively for my wine and emptied the cup. “Yes.”
“Then he can track you, in the Other.”
I shook my head, fighting down a swell of panic. “Maybe. But someone will catch him eventually,” I insisted. “I’ll lie low until then.”
“He will not be caught.” Rosser paused for two overwrought thumps of my heart. “Not unlessHarthas a Stormsinger.”
This again. “Then find someone else,” I challenged.
“There is no one else,” he said, his voice becoming more emphatic as he went on. “Lirr is looking foryou. Why?”
“I don’t know,” I told him.Except that he claims to know me. Except that my mother might be his prisoner.
Rosser paused for a moment, evidently deciding whether to believe me, then went on. “Whatever the reason, the fact remains. He can, and will, find you. So why hide? Why wait for him to come for you again? Take the fight to him. With us.”
Just then, the option struck me as tempting. If Lirr did have my mother, I could rescue her as readily with Rosser as I could with Demery. But: “And after it’s over, your captain would let me leave?”
Rosser’s arms remained crossed over his chest, unmoving. “It is not impossible.”
“But it’s not guaranteed.”
He frowned. “Nothing in life is guaranteed.”
“Well, aren’t you the sage,” I muttered.
The maid reappeared to clear away our plates, her eyes assessing our body language and stubborn silence without a word. She left again, whispering something to one of the other maids. They both giggled and looked at me with something between jealousy and pity.
“Ms. Firth, Lirr will find you.” Rosser lowered his voice, and a dark kind of certainty threaded through his eyes. His hand moved compulsively, as if to reach into his pocket, but his coat was hung on the rack nearby. He rested it on his thigh instead, forefinger tapping. “If he found you once, he can do it again. Any Sooth can.”
