Page 20 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

“Cotton?” Astraios asked, scratching his head in confusion. Sailors usually had lice, didn’t they? I shuddered. “Why?”

I gestured to the door irritably. “To block the siren song, obviously,” I said. “I’ve no desire to be ensorcelled again.”

Astraios laughed. His voice wasn’t quite as deep as Caspian’s, and I wondered briefly if sirens’ voices affected their songs.

I crossed my arms in irritation, and Astraios smiled a little apologetically.

“Apologies, Princess, but I’m not sure you have a grasp on how our songs work,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. “And at any rate, the songs we sing on deck are just to help pass the time. Sea shanties and the like.”

I frowned. I had no idea what a sea shanty was, but Astraios made it sound like it wasn’t magic. A large part of me was intensely curious about the music I’d heard. Music was basically nonexistent on the Isles, aside from drums.

Instead, I opted for icy indifference.

“I’ll go ask about you leaving the room, Your Highness,” Astraios said after an awkward silence. “Enjoy your breakfast.” He gave me another little irreverent bow as he backed out of the cabin, strains of music reaching me briefly before the door clicked shut.

I sighed, finally relaxing. It was tiring, acting like I was difficult and imperious. If I were honest with myself, I was intensely curious about the sirens and the ship and the open sea, and I wanted nothing more than to explore all of it and ask a thousand questions.

But it probably wasn’t proper as a kidnapped princess to appear interested in my kidnappers, so icy and imperious it was.

The meal Astraios brought was simple and only partially edible. There was bread and a little fruit, which looked fine, but also something grainy and mushy and absolutely disgusting. I ate the bread and fruit and left the mush, assuming that this was part of my torture as a prisoner.

For several hours, I paced the little room, occasionally lurching with the roll of the ship, or poking at the papers on the desk. Most were boring ships’ logs or navigation charts, as were a lot of the books, and I became bored enough after perusing them all twice to pound on the door repeatedly, shouting for someone to let me out.

“It’s about time,” I snapped as the door finally creaked open. The sky had darkened to a purplish, orange haze, and I was starving again after hours of nothing. I expected to find Astraios there, all indolent grins and false deference, but was surprised to see Zephyr looking at me, a brow raised in amusement.

“I hear you’re bored,” she said, a wicked grin curving her lips. She was a beautiful female, even with the eyepatch, and I was suddenly very aware that my nightgown was dirty and stained, and my hair lank and unkempt. “Feel like some air?”

“Yes,” I said, perhaps a bit too eagerly. “But I can’t go out like this,” I added, frowning down at myself.

To my surprise, the first mate burst out laughing. “You absolutely could. You could parade around the ship stark naked, if you really wanted to. I don’t recommend it,” she added with a wink, “but you could do it.”

“I’d really prefer not to,” I said, fighting the smile that her friendliness was drawing from me against my will. “Is there anything I can change into?”

Zephyr raised a brow, studying me. I got the impression that she was trying to take my measurements.

“Give me a minute,” she said, moving to a big wooden chest at the foot of the bed. She opened it and rummaged around making noises of approval or dismissal, until she produced something made of leather and something else of rough cotton. “This might do! For support.” She nodded meaningfully at my breasts, and I folded my arms self consciously over my chest.

“Why does the captain have female garments in his room?” I asked, voice laced with suspicion as I watched Zephyr lay out a pair of leather trousers similar in cut to hers and a plain looking blouse that was very clearly cut for a woman.

Zephyr grinned a little wickedly at my question. “He sometimes has guests,” she shrugged, a little too nonchalantly to not be suggesting something. “They sometimes leave things.”

“A whole chest worth of guests?” I asked scornfully, looking at the cast off from some dalliance I was now supposed to wear.

“It’s this, or go naked,” Zephyr laughed. “Go bathe. You smell like fish. I’ll be back with more soon.”

I glowered at Zephyr’s departing form, her gold hair bobbing as she laughed. Despite the barb, I admitted I sort of liked the first mate. It was refreshing to be spoken to like an equal for a change. I was so used to being the coddled princess, either scolded or protected, that it was exciting to be treated more like I might have been had I not been born into royalty.

There was a metal tub, which was filled with seawater from a cleverly designed pump controlled by a knob on the side. The water was cold, and it was clearly pumped directly up from the sea, but a bath was a bath.

I consigned myself to using the same soap as the captain, since it was the only soap available, and gave myself a firm talking to. These people were not friends. They were my captors. Clearly, my kidnapping was getting to me if I was starting to like some of them.

Caspian had called me prickly. I wouldbeprickly. Until I was returned safely to my father, I would be unpleasant. Rude. Entitled.

Except returning to my father meant returning to Vitulus, too. And being trapped in a stone prison constantly surrounded by guards, expected to bear heirs with a male I didn’t love.

I thought of Caspian and his golden chest and wicked smirk and amber eyes, then I gave myself a thorough mental shake. How could I feel so attracted to a complete stranger, a male who had kidnapped me and was holding me for ransom, while I felt nothing for a loyal soldier I had known all my life?

I sighed. The seas were clearly testing me.