Page 41 of Broken Hearted
“You’re the captain?” That probably shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I guess I just didn’t expect an Ethereum lord to also captain his own ship. I was impressed.
Adrien laughed lightly at the look on my face. “Yes.Beatriceis my baby. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to captain her.”
I started to argue about the rooming. I didn’t mind staying in one of the smaller cabins, but Adrien put a hand up. He wouldn’t hear of it.
“So who is Beatrice? An old lover?” I questioned, surprised by the note of jealousy in my voice.
Adrien grinned. “I did love her. More than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life,” he declared, and for some reason my heart squeezed painfully at that.
“She was my first dog. The most loyal and loving female I’d ever met,” he finished, and I burst into laughter.
Beatrice was a dog!
A knock sounded at the door and when Adrien said, “Enter,” an elderly fae hobbled into the room. He nodded kindly to me and then peered at Adrien.
“We’re prepared to set sail in the next half hour, Cap’n,” the fae said.
“Wonderful,” Adrien replied. “I’ll be up soon to take the helm.”
The man nodded his head and then left.
“You’re welcome to stay here, or come join the men on deck for the launch,” Adrien told me.
“I’m definitely going back up,” I said without even having to think about it. The room was nice, but I’d only ever been at sea one other time, so I wasn’t about to waste the opportunity to be on deck when we left the harbor.
Adrien gestured for me to go ahead of him and we left the captain’s quarters to head back up. Along the way, Adrien filled me in on some nautical terms and details aboutBeatricespecifically. Apparently the ship had six gunports on each side. It wasn’t the largest ship in Adrien’s fleet, but he said it was his favorite because she was both agile and fast.
Besides us, there were twenty-six crew members who were coming on the journey to the belly of the sea. The man who I’d met in the cabin a few minutes before was Brimsley, the chief officer and Adrien’s first mate. Adrien said Brimsley had been sailing for longer than he had been alive, and that the aged sailor had an uncanny ability to detect when a storm was brewing.
When we reached the main deck, Adrien led me over to the ship’s bow and told me it was the best place to be for the launch. With a grin, he left me there, striding across the vessel to the sternand up the short set of stairs to the quarterdeck, where the helm was. He nodded at one of his sailors who was manning the helm and then took over. I found myself smiling as I watched him shout orders to his crew. I’d never seen anyone so in their element.
Adrien’s gaze drifted back to me, and he caught me staring and winked. I quickly turned, fixing my gaze on the brilliant turquoise waters, telling myself my cheeks were heating because of the sun beating down on me.
When we finally launched, Adrien kept to a slow speed until we exited the harbor. Once we cleared it, he shouted commands to his crew and they unfurled more sails as the ship lurched forward, cutting through the waves easily.
As the briny air blew through my hair, throwing the long strands every which way, I was in awe. The waters near the Winter Court were choppy and filled with peril. I’d only ever been out on it once because they were so dangerous. Only skilled fishermen braved the Ice Sea. Large shards of ice could puncture your hull in a moment and you’d be lost to the frigid waters. Nothing in the Winter Court was kind to life, which was what made us so resilient. No one would ever traverse the Ice Sea for leisure, but I could easily imagine spending time out here in these waves for the sheer pleasure of it. It’s no wonder Adrien liked sailing so much.
I could have stayed on the bow all day, but around late afternoon I felt a presence and turned to see Adrien come up next to me.
“You’re enjoying yourself,” he said.
It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway, taking in a full lungful of air. “Being out here feels …” I didn’t know how exactly to put it into words.
“Like freedom,” Adrien said, finishing my sentence when I trailed off.
I smiled and nodded, then glanced over at Adrien to find him watching me instead of the sea. And I liked that. More than I probably should have, considering it was still my plan to leave Ethereum as soon as I could. Mate or not.
That thought sobered me, and the smile slipped from my face.
“So you have a good idea where the belly of the sea is?” I asked.
Adrien tilted his head as he considered me. He seemed to have picked up on my mood change but didn’t comment on it. He nodded and gestured toward the door that led below deck. “Let’s go to my quarters. Or rather,yours. I have maps there and I’ll show you where I think we should look first.”
“Sounds good,” I said without looking Adrien in the eye. He was right. It was time we got down to business.
Two hours later we had a plan. Adrien said that sailors reported not just strange compass activity, but also strange behavior in this southeast quadrant of the ocean. Sailors swore that at night they saw a bright blue glowing light coming from deep in the ocean in the center of this strange area. That’s how it got dubbed:the belly of the sea. Because the light seemed to be emanating from the bottomless belly of the ocean itself. But when sailors tried to swim down to see what the glowing light was, they disappeared. Forever.
“Great, so that’s confirmed. We are literally risking our lives for this,” I said.
