Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [61]
"I suppose it's true that I decided to stay," Jherek said cautiously. He found he couldn't tell her that the fight in Athkatla had been over the coarse words Aysel had said about her. He would have been ashamed, and he'd given up much that she not ever hear about the incident or the caustic things Aysel had said. It would be self-defeating and braggartly to tell her now.
"Why?"
"Why what?" The rapidity with which she changed tacks in a conversation confused him. Partly, though, he had to admit it was her beauty that he found so distracting. During every night the caravan had trekked for Baldur's Gate, his thoughts had been drawn to her. It would have shamed him to admit that too, and probably shame her as well.
Ship's mage she might be, and self-admittedly no highborn lady, but she was far beyond the reach of a man who was no more than a pirate's-get. Especially the son of Bloody Falkane, who'd, killed her brother when Sabyna had been only a girl.
"Why did you stay behind?" Quick-witted and gregarious by nature, Sabyna never seemed to lack the ability to speak her mind.
However, that ability was now creating problems. When he'd first met her aboard Breezerunner he'd given her his name as Malorrie. It had been only the first lie. He'd lied about staying behind at Athkatla, and things seemed to get more convoluted the longer he knew her.
"I ran into a cousin," he answered.
"And you decided to stay and talk to him instead of voyaging on to Baldur's Gate with us?" Sabyna cut around a wagonload of burned planks, walking faster than the tired team could pull.
Jherek stepped up his pace to follow her. "He needed help. My help." He tried not to notice how tightly her blue breeches hugged her slim, womanly hips as her cloak flared. The sight made thinking hard, but he was aware that he made no real effort to draw even with her and lose that view.
"You could have come and told me," she said.
"He was sick." Oh Ilmater, this was turning out worse than he thought it could. Each lie piled more uncertainly on the other, all of them waiting to come tumbling down.
"So sick that you couldn't come tell me?" She glanced over her shoulder and caught his eye.
Luckily he hadn't been watching beneath the cloak's edge. "Aye. He had no one to stay with him."
Sabyna gave a very unladylike curse. "You're lying."
"Lady?" Jherek thought frantically, wondering which lie she'd caught him in.
"I live aboard a ship, Malorrie," she said, coming to a stop. "That makes for a very small world."
Breezerunner sat in the harbor over her shoulder. The sails were trimmed and men scurried about in the rigging with lanterns, repairing damage where they found it. They looked like busy fireflies moving through the upper sections of the ship. Jherek heard Captain Tynnel's voice crack orders.
"How long did you think I would go before I found out the truth?" she demanded.
Jherek wished he knew which truth she was talking about.
"Not long after we'd sailed from Athkatla," she went on, "I was told about the fight you had with Aysel-and why."
A burn of embarrassment spread across Jherek's face and he had to break the eye contact by pretending to check his pouch.
"What frustrates me," Sabyna went on, "is that you were taken from Breezerunner instead of Aysel."
"He's crew," Jherek said. "I wasn't." As ship's mage, she should have known that.
"You would have been crew once we made Baldur's Gate," she said. "You as good as had the job."
The thought pleased and excited Jherek. Traveling overland wasn't something he wished to do again. He shrugged. The fact still remained that Tynnel had made his choice.
"You also could have talked to me," she went on.
"I was told that wouldn't be possible," Jherek said.
"By who?"
Jherek hesitated, realizing that he'd said more than he intended. Evidently whoever had spoken to the ship's mage hadn't told her everything.
"Captain Tynnel told you that,