Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [82]
Sabyna stepped away from him, taking refuge against the wall were she wouldn't be so easily seen from the deck. "You're all right?"
"Aye. Thank you for asking." Jherek noticed Captain Tynnel shift in irritation and felt the man was somehow angry with him.
"I thought they'd killed you," Sabyna said, grabbing his arm and pulling him toward her. Despite his protests, she parted his hair and looked at the wound. "It's infected and needs to be cleaned out." She wheeled on the men around them. "Why hasn't anyone been taking care of him?"
Jherek felt angry and embarrassed all at the same time. "Lady," he said respectfully, "I'm able to take care of myself."
"Right," Sabyna said sarcastically. "That's why you've got a head full of pus and you're burning up with fever."
Jherek sensed she was angry with him already and that knowledge kept him from making any kind of retort. He wasn't exactly clear why she was angry. Her fingers continued to poke around on the tender parts of his head, maybe with a little vengeance included. Still, he made no sound.
"I've been taking care of him," Hullyn objected. "I saw that it was infected. I've been keeping that scalp wound like that on purpose. Like my old da always taught me. You get infection set in like that, you let flies get to it. Then maggots will eat out the rotten meat so it'll heal up proper."
Jherek's stomach lurched. Malorrie's instruction had covered such things, but those methods were to be used only under harsh and difficult circumstances, when no recourse to a healer was available.
"That way would leave a terrible scar," Sabyna said.
"Lady," Jherek said patiently, "I bear scars from past times. There's no-"
"You're not bearing this one on my behalf," she stated with determination.
"I gather that shape-shifting ability you've suddenly developed isn't going to last forever," Tynnel growled. He was angry too, Jherek noted, but the captain's disfavor appeared to be shared between Sabyna and himself.
"No," Sabyna answered, turning to face the captain, "it won't."
"Then I suggest you use this time you've taken to risk your life. How many men are there aboard Breezerunner?"
"Twenty-seven," Sabyna answered.
"I never saw that many," Tynnel said.
"You never saw all of them," the pretty ship's mage replied.
Tynnel pulled a face. "How well versed are they in ship's craft?"
"They know their way around a ship," Sabyna said, "and they're all heavily armed."
"Do you know where they're going?"
"To the end of the Chionthar. After that Vurgrom plans on making his way back to the Sea of Fallen Stars. He came to Baldur's Gate to deliver an item to the man responsible for the attack on Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate."
"You mean the sahuagin responsible-"Tynnel started to say.
"The man," Sabyna repeated. "He's called Iakhovas."
The news slammed into Jherek. It was one thing to think of the sea devils rising up to strike along the Sword Coast in concert, but it was even more stunning to learn that a man had orchestrated those strikes.
"I've never heard the name," Tynnel said.
"I've got the feeling you will. Vurgrom rails on about what Iakhovas is going to do to the Sea of Fallen Stars."
"Vurgrom's making you use that chair he brought aboard, isn't he?" Tynnel asked.
Embarrassment flushed Sabyna's face with color. "I've never seen its like. When I'm sitting there, Breezerunner feels more alive than ever. She moves when and where I tell her."
"Then stop her," Tynnel commanded. "On your next shift in that chair, stop her dead in the water."
Sabyna shook her head. "That would only get us all killed.
They tie me in that chair under guard when it's my shift. As soon as I did that, they'd slit my throat, then come kill the lot of you."
"They won't let us live anyway," Tynnel said. "Not when they're done with us and Breezerunner."
"Then I'm the only chance we all have," Sabyna declared. She swept the crew with her gaze and Jherek saw the care she held for them and the distress she felt for them in that glance. "I would