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These were perfectly horrible thoughts, so she was glad when the cart finally slowed. The older man poked his head through the back flap before hopping out and tying it open with twine.
“This the place?” he asked Riella.
She peered out at the grim, lonely pine forest, and nodded.
The older man roused Jarin by feeding a few drops of a potion into his mouth. In less than a minute, the pirate was groaning and sitting up. He appeared every bit as confused as Riella had when she regained consciousness.
“These men let us ride with them to the forest,” she explained to him. “Are you alright to walk?”
He rubbed his head, which was now fully healed, as if he’d never been hurt at all. “Aye.”
The other men in the cart eyed Jarin in silence, much like the stablehand at the settlement. They seemed to have shrunk now that he’d awoken. Riella felt a rather absurd stab of annoyance that the men hadn’t feared her as much as they obviously feared him. She was every bit as capable of hurting them.
After he climbed from the cart, Jarin shook the older man’s hand in thanks. The man returned to the cart and it set off again, trundling away in a cloud of dust. Riella and Jarin stood in the middle of the road, regaining their balance and inspecting each other for injuries.
Jarin shocked her by spontaneously cupping her face and kissing her gently on the mouth. “You survived that blast, and without the help of sorcery. You are incredible.”
She exhaled. “I’m sorry for leading us into danger. I should’ve listened when you said we needed to leave the caves.”
He shook his head and drew her into a tight hug. “It was a trap all along. The moment we set foot on that mountain, Polinth had us.”
Riella grunted. “This is probably how I’m going to die. I’ll go running blindly into some trap. I won’t get a say in how it happens.”
“You can’t think like that. Just because last night didn’t go to plan, doesn’t mean it was a mistake. After all, now we can find Polinth. He said he’d be at the royal wedding. And with any luck, he thinks we died in the explosion.”
“I hope that’s true.” Riella looked up at him. “I’m glad you didn’t die last night.”
He smirked, dark circles under his eyes like shadows. “Takes more than that, siren.” He kissed her forehead. “Come, we have to go. The crew have probably returned to the Pandora by now.”
The crew was boarding the ship when Riella and Jarin arrived, ferrying themselves to the Pandora in rowboats. Berolt noticed them as he waited on the bank, lifting his hand in greeting. The strain in his expression worried her.
“How was it?” asked Jarin as he piled into the boat with Berolt and Riella and the last of the crew.
“We got plenty of loot,” replied Berolt in clipped tones. “Plenty of weapons, too.”
“Meet any resistance?”
“Nothing we couldn’t handle.”
Jarin nodded, frowning. Riella wondered what he was thinking, but dared not ask him in front of the crew. Something was definitely wrong.
No one asked Jarin and Riella how their night went.
Aboard the ship, Jarin did laps of the deck to check on the crew and the cargo. Only once they set sail did Riella begin to realize the problem. Looking around, the deck was far emptier than on yesterday’s journey. What happened to the rest of the crew?
She found Berolt and Jarin having a hushed discussion at the helm, steering the Pandora into open waters. Hanging back, not wanting to interrupt, she couldn’t help overhearing.
“—as soon as we parted ways with you yesterday,” Berolt was saying. “They set off toward Klatos once we left the pine forest. Splintered off from us. Made me real nervous, but what could I do?”
Jarin shrugged and stared straight ahead, gripping the wheel. “No point having a crew who aren’t loyal. Good riddance.”
“They said they’d not consort with a siren. I reckon they went to join Artus.”
“Let them. I’ll cut their?—”
As Jarin turned to say these words to Berolt, he saw Riella behind him.
She tried to rearrange her expression, so that her concern and dismay wouldn’t show. Jarin clearly had enough to worry about already—a good chunk of his crew had deserted him. Because of her, too.
