A Sea of Blood and Magic

Chapter Twelve

Nik's hands clenched onto the bench, so tightly the skin strained white. "I can't change back," Panic leaked into his—her—voice. "I can't. I can't."

I couldn't think of anything to say except, "It's going to be okay."

"No, you don't understand!" This body didn't have the darker skin sun exposure had given him on the island, and I could see all the blood had drained from her face. "It won't—it's not just my body—Kharis—"

She started hyperventilating. I flung myself to the seat next to her and wrapped my arms around her. She didn't respond, just bent at her waist and buried her face in her hands, long hair falling to hide her countenance from me. I rubbed her back. "Don't be scared. It's going to be all right. Just take some deep breaths." I couldn't connect with the words coming out of my own mouth. The shock of the situation had taken away my sense of reality.

Before she could reply, the boat came to a halt next to the ship. A man looked over the railing, down at us, and called, "Hey there!" with a comfortingly Provincial accent.

I waved. "Hi! How do we get aboard?"

The stranger said, "I'm going to lower the lifting bridle. Grab it by the boathook and snap on the halyard shackle."

Nodding like I knew what that meant, I muttered out of the corner of my mouth to Nik, "Got any clue what I'm supposed to do?"

"Yeah, but I'm probably going to need your help to do it," she managed to say, though her voice was thick and unhappy. When they lowered the bridle, she showed me where to attach it, but her hands weren't strong enough to work the mechanism by herself.

It turned out we rode up with the boat, which made me a little green, due to all the pitching back and forth. Once the dinghy rotated to its spot on the deck, the stranger walked over to us and offered his hand with a smile. "Welcome aboard. I'm First Officer Higgs. Always a pleasure to play host to two lovely ladie—" He broke off when Nik raised her head, staring as if he'd swallowed his tongue. Another crew member, a slender black woman who stood a little taller than Higgs, gave him a long-suffering look and reached past to secure the dinghy.

"Thank you," I said, since both Nik and Higgs seemed incapable of speaking.

Higgs started at my voice, and turned to give me a second, only slightly less impressed look. "Let me show you to your quarters." He waited for us to heft our suitcases and then led the way down a nearby ladder. "You'll be sharing your bunk, but at least it'll only be the two of you."

"That's better than I expected, so thanks." We followed him down the corridor to a metal door not unlike the one aboard the Navy ship, although this one was far less new and rust had crept around the edges of bolts and frames.

Higgs swung the door open and gestured like a game-show hostess without stepping over the threshold. "Welcome to your new home, for the next few weeks. We do have an engine, but since it tends to piss off the sea terata we don't use it all that often, so this journey'll take a while, especially since we'll be stopping in New Holland on the way. Captain Ramirez would like to invite you to the captain's mess tonight at 1800."

I looked around with appreciation, happy with what I saw in spite of stress levels high enough to give a kangaroo an Olympic workout. All of the steel siding and flooring had been covered with wood paneling, and the bunks were wood as well, except for the chains that held them to the wall. This would be comfortable, anyway. "We'll be there; thanks."

With a nod, he took his leave, and I turned to Nik, who instantly collapsed on the bed and covered her face with her arm. "Hey, don't cry."

"I'm not crying," she said in a tone that totally sounded like crying. "Kharis, you don't understand how bad this is."