On the Deep Waters

Chapter Eleven

The mystery man re-emerged from his cave with a staff on his back, a pouch of some kind tied around his neck, and some battered leather armor strapped to his torso. He was also dragging a ladder, which he casually flung across the space between his cave and the boat. "If I know Shika," he said as he climbed down to the boat, "and I think I know her fairly well...she'll want to come through there." Once on the deck, he pointed to a spot on the water. It was fairly close, but just far enough away that Nimah couldn't figure out what made it so special. He shoved the ladder up onto the island again before adding, "Hold onto something."

Nimah did so immediately. The boat started moving through the water—no, was moved by the water, riding a gentle swell. Despite the slight rockiness, and her concern that she might fall, Nimah peered over the railing. The water was clear enough that she could see what made this spot so special: the rocks, lots of them, close together and mostly flat-topped. If it weren't for the boat's size and the water carrying them, they certainly would have been run aground. "How are we going to get Sabinus onto the rocks?" Nimah asked.

"Oh, I don't plan on giving them much of a choice." The man laughed. When Nimah looked his way, she noticed a few symbols on his staff were glowing. The boat looked like it was being moved in the direction he pointed the staff. "Are any of you good at lock-picking?"

Nimah raised her hand; so did one of the former captives, the woman from Estella whose name Nimah had learned was Annaliese. She looked far more sheepish about this fact than Nimah felt. The man produced two sets of various lock-picking tools from his belt pouches and tossed one to each of them. "Once we've crashed the ship and have started a distraction," he said, "you two can sneak on board and try to free the captives. I've got a feeling at least some of them will want to help us fight."

Nimah believed it; she certainly would. "Don't think I caught your name, by the way," she said as she examined the various lock picks. "Or are you the mysterious sort who doesn't like giving out his name?"

The man huffed in amusement. "Orion will do." The boat came to a stop and was carefully lowered back into the water. "You're a bit more pleasant than her usual company. Last blokes she brought along did a lot of glaring and not much else."

"I'm not her usual company, to be fair. None of us are, except for Rini."

Rini made an ehh noise. "I'm not really her usual company either...except when we were sharing the womb. Should I stay here with you?"

"That's probably for the best. Moving one than one ship could give me a headache. It's been a while. Besides, I'd feel better if I kept you nearby. Your sister will likely kill me if anything bad happens to you."

The fact that Rini didn't immediately disagree made Nimah a bit nervous about her own safety. Hopefully, Orion will be able to keep her safe.

Kasib gently tapped Nimah on the shoulder. He was looking a bit green from the movement of the ship, but at least his bruise wasn't quite so vivid as it had been. "We'll find Solomon, right?" he asked. "We'll be sure that he's safe?"

"Of course. I have no intention of walking away from this without him." To be completely fair, that wasn't entirely her decision—she couldn't control everything, Solomon's decisions included—but she was certainly going to do her best. "Do you think you'll be all right here while we're on the rescue mission?"

"You know, believe it or not? Yes." Kasib nodded towards Orion and Rini. It sounded like Rini was asking a lot of questions about Orion's staff. "I think they've got things under control."

Nimah laughed. She was about to agree when she heard Annaliese: "Is that ours or theirs?"

She was pointing to a ship that was approaching their position. There was no flag flying, but when Nimah pulled out her spyglass, she saw a familiar figure with a poof of blond hair in the crow's nest. "That's ours," she said. She kept scanning the ocean; it didn't take her long to see two other ships close behind. Their stolen ship seemed to have a head start, but it wasn't a head start that would hold up forever. "Oh, they have company, though."