On the Deep Waters

Chapter Thirteen

Kit could be slow to figure things out, especially when they were complicated. He wasn't stupid; he knew he wasn't. His mind was just more slow and careful than most.

At that moment, for example, he could see all the pieces. He knew what was going on. It just took him a moment to realize why it all mattered.

It happened like this.

A figure that looked like Solomon came out of the ship that was closer to them. Maybe-Solomon had been staring at the figure in red before Kit shot them. Another person ran to the ship to attack the pirate Kit had missed, and the person who may have been Solomon followed. Then, maybe-Solomon jumped off the boat after the red cloaked figure.

But why would he do that? What was so important about that person that Solomon (if it was Solomon) would jump after them like that?

Did he know them?

...Was that...?

Oh, no.

Kit didn't feel very strongly one way or another about Solomon killing Jana Sabinus. He never had. That was Solomon's decision to make, and while Nimah had some good points on the matter, Kit had already decided to leave things up to his friend. But Kit was also fairly certain that facing her would be hard for Solomon, and he might need help with it, regardless of whether there was any killing involved. Besides, she was a bad person. Bad people cheated during fights. Cheating could get him killed.

Solomon definitely needed someone. Kit had to be there.

Kit started scrambling down from the crow's nest, so fast that he slipped and slid down a bit. It made his hands hurt, but he ignored it as best he could. Eto Shika yelled something at him as he ran across the deck and jumped off the ship. Kit ignored her. She wasn't in charge of him.

Running across the rocks was hard. They were uneven and slippery and the water was moving very erratically. But Kit pushed on, trying to focus past the wind and the water.

At least the wind made all the noises blur together. It was almost like the sound of the waves—a constant rushing, only sometimes breached by yelling and bows being fired.

Someone tried to attack him on the way to the ships, taking a swipe at him as he ran by. The sword stung as it scraped across his shoulder and cheek, but Kit had felt worse pain before. He pushed the man as hard as he could to get him out of the way and kept running.

I have to get to Solomon.

He felt an arrow strike him next. It made him stumble, but not fall. That probably confused the person who'd shot him, since he'd hit Kit in the back of the head. It probably confused him more when Kit pulled out the arrow and kept running.

Kit wondered if it would be wrong to find that funny. He'd ask someone later.

Kit's hair felt sticky by the time he reached the ships. That was getting hard to ignore, but he would have to for now. When he turned the corner...

Oh, no.

His discomfort was almost completely forgotten, because now wasn't the time for it. Kit didn't think.

He acted.

+++++

Solomon didn't have much in the way of combat training. He had some practice with a former soldier who had worked with his father, but the rest he had worked out on his own while defending the shipyard from would-be thieves.

He wasn't sure how much combat training Jana Sabinus had. But even if she only had informal training, she'd been fighting for longer than Solomon had. She was feared. Lethal.