Chapter Forty
SHE TORE HER EYES AWAY FROM THEfigure on the shore, steeling herself against the sound of his voice. She couldn’t go back. He’d die if she did.
She fumbled with the knots keeping the sail lashed tight around the mast, and it unfurled all at once, a hodgepodge of color in the fractured light of the moon. The wind caught it, filled it. The ship cut through the rising waves.
“Talia!”
She glanced back to shore just in time to see him rip off his jacket and plunge into the sea.
“No!” she screamed. “Wen, go back!”
A wave crashed over his head but he wrestled to the surface again, fighting the current. He swam toward the ship.
The water was rough and choppy away from the shore. The wind was rising.
Wen would drown.
She cursed and grabbed for the sail, wrestling with the patchworkfabric to furl it once more. She adjusted the tiller and grabbed the oar stowed in the bottom of the boat, paddling desperately back in the direction she had come. Wen’s head poked up above the water.
Just a little closer.
A wave crashed into the ship, drenching her through, but she hardly noticed. Wen disappeared from sight. She dug the oar in harder, praying to every god she knew that he wasn’tlost forever.
And then there he was, bursting back to the surface again, close enough to touch.
Talia cried out, leaning over the side to grab his arm. She hauled him up into the boat, which rocked alarmingly at the sudden addition of his weight, more water splashing in.
He coughed and choked and sputtered, and she stared at him, shaking so hard her eyes could barely focus. “What are youdoing?” she demanded, her voice high and tight. “You could have drowned!”
“What areyoudoing?” he shot back.
“Following my fate!”
“Do you mean killing yourself?”
Another wave crashed over the side of the boat, the sea churning beneath them. The wind rose stronger, whipping Talia’s hair loose from its braid. Thunder growled, and the ship lurched. It grew suddenly dark, knotted clouds blocking outthe moonlight.
“We have to get back to shore before the storm hits!”
“I’m not going back!” she told him fiercely.
A sudden gust of wind slammed into her, nearly knocking her into the ocean, but Wen caught her wrist and held her back. They both fell to their knees. The sail unfurled as the wind loosened the knots, and Talia leapt up to wrestle it down again before it was torn apart. Wen helped,steady hands beside her in the dark.
“Talia, wehaveto go back.”
“I’m prepared for storms.”
“A fisherman wouldn’t dare go out in this old tub on a sunny day—what makes you think you can cross the ocean in it?”
“I’m not a fisherman!” she shouted above the wind. “The sea is in my blood and I’m not going to die.”At least not yet,she thought.
“This is madness!”
The rain hit like a wall ofice, and any chance for conversation was lost.
No matter what Wen wanted, they were too far out to sea now to turn around in this squall. And shewasprepared, even if she hadn’t thought she’d face adverse weather so soon.
She tugged a coil of rope out from under the tarp in the stern of the boat and lashed herself and Wen to the mast. Wen helped, understanding her purpose. Her nerves hummedas she huddled close to him, pulling the waterproof cloak over their knees. She wasn’t scared now that he was safe in the boat.
