Retribution

CHAPTER TEN

They finished the meal. However, none stood up to leave. It was as if they all understood there was more happening on the ship and nobody wanted to miss any of it. Marcus was especially on edge, his eyes and ears keeping track of the slightest movement or sound.

Prin couldn’t freely talk about her plans to disappear until he left. Sara’s gentle hints slipped past him like feet on new ice in winter, as Marcus smiled and repeated more rumors. He finished the wine and most of the food. But Marcus was clearly worried and remained jumpy, perhaps fearing for his own safety, or maybe because he sensed the change in the demeanor of his three dining companions.

Sara finally leaned closer to him. “Since we don’t have the extensive social contacts you do, would you be so kind as to ask around and find any new rumors or information? We’re dying to know.”

Marcus was already pushing his chair back, a grin threatening to turn to a chuckle. “I’ll check and let you know.”

When they were alone again, Prin made sure the nearby tables were empty and kept her voice soft, “I’ve thought about it.”

“Tonight?” Sara confirming her thoughts with a nod.

“Because of the mage. If he was not aboard, I’d remain. But, he will discover me sooner or later.”

Brice said, “You might want to sneak some of that hard-bread while you have the chance.”

Their steward burst from the kitchen door and raced the length of the dining room, running at top speed. The motion of the ship abruptly changed, then it leaned far to the port side. Prin called to a crewman who poked his head inside the door, “What’s happening?”

He rushed back outside without answering. Sara was climbing to her feet, holding the table for support as the ship tilted more. Brice wobbled to the door and pulled it open. Through the windows, they saw others were crowding to the rail, passengers, and crew. All were watching something in the distance.

They found a vacant place at the rail. People were pointing. Crewmen shouted orders. Prin’s eyes found a speck floating in the water, a person. Someone else had fallen overboard. The ship was turning, and a small boat was being lowered with four crewmen holding oars.

The ship had slacked its sails, and the double-ended boat dropped into the water before the ship came to a stop. The sailors pulled hard on their oars and the small boat surged towards the figure splashing and waving with the frantic efforts of a non-swimmer, or one who could barely swim.

Not one of the crew. Prin couldn’t tell who it was in the water, but all sailors she knew could swim. Therefore it was a passenger. Another man overboard! It might be funny in other circumstances, a cruise where all the passengers were thrown overboard one by one, before reaching port. However, she watched the faces of the other passengers as well as the rescue.

People were scared. Not just excited, as they might be for a rescue of a passenger on another ship, thankful for the saved life and curious as to how he had fallen. But their expressions told a different story. They were scared and too quiet. Fear was turning to anger.

Prin let that idea digest and realized there had been fewer people eating in the dining room, less of them on the promenade deck, and instead of the excitement and gaiety of an ocean cruise, there was a subdued air on the ship she hadn’t noticed. A quiet. Not exactly a calm, but more like a shroud cast over the entire ship.

“It’s a woman,” someone said in a hushed voice.

Prin dragged her attention back to the rescue. Two crewmen pulled the swimmer into the small boat and the rowers turned and headed back. It was a woman, one of the few on the ship. It was a lady Prin had seen in the dining room a few times. Why would she fall overboard? Had she slipped, or leaned too far over a railing? Or had she been pushed?

Fear touched Prin, like a winter’s breeze on a cold, sunny day after snow. The woman was about the age Prin’s spell projected, somewhere around fifty. Mages knew that water dispersed many enchanted powders sorceresses used, especially salt water. The thought seized her as if a bear had wrapped paws around her chest and squeezed.

The salt water probably wouldn’t completely disperse the entirety of a spell, or spells, but it would weaken them, or wipe out parts, as the powder used to apply the enchantment dissolved, thereby revealing the true existence of the swimmer. Prin took a step away from the railing and looked to the aft of the port side of the ship, her eyes scanning each person until she came to the Young Mage. She had known he would be standing there.

He had positioned himself at the davits for the small boat where it would be lifted back to the ship, the one place where he could examine the woman in close detail as she came aboard. If there were any spells cast upon her, the water, danger, and excitement might have weakened them, giving her away. He was there to inspect her as if she was a prime slab of meat. In some manner, the mage was responsible for the woman falling.

The mage took one step away from the railing and turned slowly, as if he felt her attention on him, which he might have, considering he was a mage. Who knows what powers he held besides making rain and flashing lightning? But he knew she had watched before he turned, she believed. His eyes met hers without looking to any others. Instead of looking away, she waited. A twitch at the corners of his mouth gave way to a smirk.

Oh, no. I just gave my identity away.