Under Fallen Stars - Mel Odom [84]
"Draw a line," Sabyna told him, "and I'll step over it just to make sure we both know."
"Gods, you can be so stubborn at times."
"Only when I'm right, and you know that." Sabyna turned to Jherek. "I'll need help getting back up there."
"As you wish," Jherek said.
A smile dawned on her face as she heard his words, and the sight of it shot pain through Jherek's heart. She was so beautiful and independent, yet she was so far from anything he could ever hope to attain. If she saw the tattoo of Bloody Falkane that he bore, it would be enough to trigger undying hatred on her part.
"As you wish," she repeated softly. "I'll try to get some heal potion down here, or at least some salve you can put on that head of yours."
Jherek nodded. "Thank you, lady, but don't trouble yourself overmuch. I'm holding up fine," he said, though he knew he wasn't. He felt broken inside, and wanted nothing more than a bowl of the soup Madame litaar used to make for him when he was ill back in Velen.
Sabyna said something unladylike, which shocked Jherek. Curse words from the other sailors he was accustomed to, but not from the pretty ship's mage's tender lips.
In the next instant, she blurred. Her size reduced and her form changed until only a rat ran toward Jherek's boots. Unsteady from the fever raging inside him, Jherek leaned carefully down and picked her up. Gently, he grabbed the iron bar overhead and tried to pull himself up, but his strength failed him.
"Here you go, lad." Hullyn came forward and laced his hands together into a makeshift stirrup.
"Thank you." Jherek stepped into the big man's hands and felt himself lifted until he could reach the iron bar. In her rat form, Sabyna quickly scurried away, hesitating at the edge only a moment.
Vertigo seized Jherek as Hullyn lowered him. If not for the big man's hand on his shoulder, he would have fallen.
"There's something I want you to keep in mind," Tynnel told him in a dark voice. His eyes blazed as he regarded Jherek. "If you do anything that makes her choose to step in harm's way, you'll answer to me."
Some of the anger and fierceness that Jherek had come to know in Athkatla and during the caravan trek to Baldur's Gate hit the young sailor. "I wouldn't do anything like that, sir."
Tynnel seemed on the verge of contesting the statement, then he blew out a great breath and turned away. "We'll see."
Unwilling to let the man walk away so calmly, Jherek addressed him. "Captain Tynnel, back in Athkatla you told me you'd tell Sabyna that I wouldn't be coming with the ship. I knew you wouldn't tell her about the fight, but you explained it so that it sounded like I didn't even take time to tell her good-bye."
"And what did you tell her?"
Jherek hesitated. "I carried on with your lie, sir."
"Why?"
"Because I didn't want to tell her the truth."
"Neither did I," Tynnel told him. "I knew if I told you different you might feel you had to see her again."
Jherek knew it was true.
"Also," Tynnel went on, "I think somewhat like Aysel in that you are a bad copper that keeps turning up. If you hadn't been here today, and hadn't gotten wounded trying to save her, I might have been able to convince her to jump ship and save herself."
Jherek didn't agree. He didn't believe Sabyna would have left any crew member aboard Breezerunner. He didn't understand why Tynnel laid so much of the responsibility for Sabyna's actions now on his shoulders.
Weak and shaking, the young sailor walked slowly back to the place he'd been sitting before Sabyna had arrived. His head throbbed and the light lanced his eyes. He closed them and laid his head on his arms, feeling the heat and oily slick-ness that clung to his skin.
Jherek suffered in silence, from the physical discomfort as well as the mental anguish he subjected himself to. He remembered Malorrie's teachings, part of the platform he'd built for himself to get him through the dark years since leaving his father's ship. The phantom had always told him to do what needed doing when it needed doing, not to borrow trouble, and to plan for what could be