Our Fractured Souls | Kaz Brekker

[15]

15

Kaz

Kaz was on the schooner in minutes.

"Get us out of here!" he shouted as soon as he limped aboard, Viktorya in his arms.

The sails were already trimmed, and they were on their way out of the harbour in moments, though not nearly as fast as he would have liked.

He knew he should have asked Viktorya to squall for him during the journey, but he hadn't been sure she would agree. Now, it was simply impossible.

There was chaos on the deck, people shouting and trying to get the schooner into open sea as quickly as possible.

"Specht!" He yelled at the man he'd chosen to captain the vessel, a sailor with a talent for knifework who had fallen on hard times and ended up stuck in the lower ranks of the Dregs. "Get your crew in shape before I start cracking skulls."

Specht saluted-- then seemed to catch himself. He wasn't in the navy any more and Kaz wasn't his commanding officer.

The pain in Kaz's leg was terrible, the worst it had been since he'd first broken it falling off the roof of a bank near the Geldstraat. It was possible he'd fractured the bone again. Viktorya's weight wasn't helping, but when Jesper stepped into his path to offer his help, Kaz shoved straight past him.

"Where's Nina?" Kaz snarled.

"Seeing to the wounded below. She already took care of me." Dimly, Kaz registered the dried blood on Jesper's thigh.

"Wylan got dinged during the fight. Let me help you-"

"Get out of my way." Kaz said, and plunged past him down the ramp that led below deck.

He found Nina tending to Wylan in a narrow cabin, her hands drifting over his arm, knitting the flesh of a bullet wound together.

It was barely a graze.

"Move." Kaz demanded and Wylan practically leaped off of the table.

"I'm not finished-" Nina began.

Then she caught sight of Viktorya in Kaz's arms.

"Saints." she swore swift and low. "What happened?"

"Knife wound."

The cramped cabin was lit by several bright lanterns and a stash of clean bandages had been laid out on a shelf beside a bottle of camphor.

Gently, Kaz placed Viktorya on the table that had been bolted to the deck.

"That's a lot of blood." Nina said on low breath.

"Help her."

"Kaz, I'm a Heartrender, not a real Healer."

"She'll be dead by the time we find one. Get to work."

"You're in my light."

Kaz stepped back into the passageway, against his better judgement and what he really wanted.

Viktorya lay perfectly still on the table, her luminous pale skin dull in the swaying light.

He was alive today because of her.

Really, they all were. They'd managed to fight their way out of a corner, but only because she'd prevented them from being surrounded. But that's not what he had meant.

She'd saved his life years and years ago. And had continued ever since. As had he. He had no wish to lose her now, nor would he.

But really, all he could do was wait.