On the Deep Waters

Chapter Six

Solomon didn't want to sleep below deck. Even if this ship was nothing like the one he'd been held captive on, the overall feeling was too close, too claustrophobic. He wasn't sure he'd be able to sleep anywhere on the ship, but Solomon knew he had to try. He had to keep his strength up.

He did fall asleep; he didn't dream, but the sleep was restless enough that, when he was roused for last watch, he thought that he was back with the Sabinuses, and about to be kicked into wakefulness. But he wasn't; it was just Kit, carefully nudging him awake.

"Your turn," Kit said. Then, "Did you know some fish glow?"

"No, I didn't." He'd heard that some did, but he'd never seen it personally. Or, at least, he didn't recall seeing them. He'd either been below deck at night or so delirious from lack of sleep that he hadn't noticed. It did explain one of his faint memories of the ocean glowing. Solomon had always assumed it was a hallucination.

He wished that knowing he hadn't gone completely mad back then was a comfort. But it wasn't; it was only a fact.

The boat was small enough that he could keep it moving forward on his own. In a way, the isolation was a balm. It kept the ship from feeling like a constantly swarming ant hive, the way he remembered that other ship being. And it meant that he didn't have to constantly worry about the interlopers wondering about him, or about overburdening Nimah and Kit with his problems. Solomon was sure they would both argue that he wouldn't be burdening them, but he disagreed. He'd already forced people to share his struggles. Never again.

If there was one thing that he remembered clearly form his time on the water, it was how to read the sunrises and sunsets. The clouds weren't red that morning—a good sign, though not one he could fully appreciate. Not when the sunrise marked the start of another day on the water.

Solomon was jarred from his growing sense of dread by something moving on the ship behind him. When he turned around, his heart starting to race, he saw that it was just Kit. He was trying to climb the mast. Solomon sighed, his heart slowing. "Trying to get a look?" he asked. Kit glanced down and nodded. "See anything?"

Kit stared over the horizon, his eyes intent and almost stone-like with concentration. That sight was the first thing to make Solomon feel any kind of comfort. That was the gaze of someone who wouldn't miss any potential danger. He could feel safe with Kit watching his back. He felt safer still when Kit looked back down at Solomon and shook his head.

"Good." Solomon smiled slightly. "I'm glad you're here to keep watch."

Kit smiled back.

Nimah and the others woke up not long after. They split their attention between eating breakfast and looking after the ship. "I didn't know there was so much nothing out here," Nimah said as she finished checking the sail. "I can't even see the mainland anymore. How far out is this place?"

"Two more days after this one, though we'll be seeing some more islands soon," Eto Shinka replied as she moved to the other side of the ship. "So don't miss land too much. It's still out there. You just have to know where to look."

Solomon watched Eto Shika as she spoke. Her body language was completely different than what Solomon remembered of Jana Sabinus. Jana moved with aggressive purpose, almost in defiance of the swaying deck. Her gait made it easy to hear her coming. Eto Shika, meanwhile, moved with the deck, confidently and catlike. She looked much more like she belonged out there. The confidence was especially obvious when you compared her to her sister. If Eto Rini had been a bit clumsy and out of her depth while they were journeying through the woods, she was more so now. Solomon started keeping track of the number of times she nearly fell over when the ship's movements became a bit too rough. It was amusing to think that she was the sister of the infamous Ghost of the North.