Naamah's Kiss - Jacqueline Carey [49]
I couldn't even take solace in bitterness and rail against my fate. Stone and sea, I wanted to! But every time my thoughts wandered in that direction, I remembered the vast sorrow in Her eyes and I knew, sure as the spark within me, that She would not have sent one of Her children across the sea unless it were truly needful.
Why, I couldn't imagine.
So instead I took what meager comfort there was to be found in self-pity. Alone on the open sea on a ship full of strangers from a strange land, I wept myself quietly to sleep.
I woke to early-morning sunlight and a knot of sailors watching me.
They startled when I opened my eyes, jumping backward and whispering amongst themselves. If they hadn't been staring at me, I would have called the twilight, but I was pinned by their gazes. I settled for giving them my mother's best glare.
They jumped back another step, pushing and shoving one another. All but one, a slight, golden-haired lad who couldn't have been more than fourteen. He elbowed his way through the gaggle.
"She's just a girl!" he scoffed. "She won't bite." He squatted a few feet in front of me, his expression less certain than his words. "You won't, will you? You're not going to… change?"
"What?" I wasn't sure I understood him.
"Change," he said. "Into a bear."
"Oh." I rubbed my eyes. "No. I think that would be a very foolish thing to do on a ship, don't you?"
He grinned. "Aye, indeed. It's true, though, isn't it? You're a bear-witch?" .
"I'm of the folk of the Maghuin Dhonn," I said.
" I'm descended from the Chevalier Philippe Dumont," he informed me with considerable self-importance, then looked disappointed when I pled ignorance. "Surely you must know of him! He was the last of Phedre's Boys. He went with her and Joscelin Verreuil into Vralia to fetch Prince Imriel and the bear-witch's head."
"I know the story," I said softly.
"Damien!" Captain Renniel's voice cracked. The lad leapt up and scurried away, and the rest of the sailors dispersed. "My apologies, my lady." The captain offered a bow. "Pay the lad no heed. Every sailor born within a hundred leagues of Montreve claims descent from Philippe Dumont."
I shrugged off my blanket and stretched my stiff limbs. "Was he very famous?"
"Among sailors, yes." The captain eyed me. "Would you care to break your fast?"
I assessed the state of my belly. It didn't seem to be roiling with aught save hunger. I tried standing. The swaying motion of the ship was more tolerable today. Glancing around, I saw that Alba's shoreline was clean out of sight. There was only the distant shore of Terre d'Ange on our left, looking rocky and inhospitable. My heart ached anew.
Captain Renniel followed my gaze. "That's Kusheth province," he said. "You'll find the landscape more friendly in Siovale province, where we're bound."
"Siovale." I remembered that each of Elua's Companions had staked out a territory of their own, save one. "Shemhazai's folk, aye?"
"Quite right." He nodded. "If you'd care to join me, I'd be happy to tell you aught you might wish to know about Terre d'Ange."
I didn't want to. Trying to understand D'Angeline spoken by those to whom it was their native tongue made my head ache, and I'd sooner be left on my own with a bit of plain bread in a quiet patch of sunlight. But I had a bedamned destiny to find, and Old Nemed had said the seeking might be more important than the finding. Skulking around the ship and wallowing in self-pity wasn't going to help.
So I made myself smile at Captain Renniel. "It would be my pleasure."
By the time we made port in Bourdes two days later, I'd learned a great deal more about the history and culture of Terre d'Ange and the worst of my loneliness had abated. I'd also learned a fair amount about the storied life of the Chevalier Philippe Dumont, courtesy of the boy Damien, who seemed most insistent that I appreciate his famous ancestor.
To be honest, I didn't mind, since he was one of the only sailors who didn't eye me askance and mutter under his breath about bear-witches. Sailors, it seemed,