Page 181 of The Discount Damsel

The apprentice yanked the bedpost, rotating the bed a quarter turn so she could see out the window. In the street below, all the colored lanterns had been lit. Beyond, the moon dappled silver upon the dark sea.

“Oh,” Millie breathed.

“Here’s your broth.”

She accepted it with weak, shaking arms. Her fingers had to work to pry off the lid, but she managed it. She always managed. Using both hands, she tipped the container back to drink. Bradley dropped down on the other side of the bed, Dirk coiling in between them.

When half the broth was gone, she settled the container in her lap. “I’ve had a little time to think.”

Dirk set his paw on her knee, supporting any decision she wanted to make.

From under lowered lashes, she flicked a nervous look at Bradley. “I was wondering, if it’s not too much trouble, if you could spend a little time tomorrow morning, maybe an hour, to teach me how to swim? I think if I wasn’t afraid of drowning because I can’t swim, I wouldn’t be so nervous on boats, and maybe my seasickness would go away. I was people-watching yesterday, on my, um, breaks, and I know there are many different kinds of strokes, but you don’t need to teach me all of them. Just one will be sufficient to build up my confidence and then perhaps⁠—”

“Yes.”

“Wh-what?”

Even Dirk swung his long neck to look at him.

He regarded her with that strange intensity she’d seen yesterday. “Yes, I’ll teach you.”

She blinked, expecting more resistance especially since he’d been so hateful towards her. “Just like that?”

“Are you trying to change my mind?”

“N-no, I just . . .” She cast a confused look at Dirk, but the Mini Red could offer nothing more than a shrug. “Okay, well, thank you. And thank you for the soup. And . . . y-you don’t have to sleep on the floor, if you don’t want to. There’s not a lot of room up here to begin with, but I can try to stay on my side.”

Bradley froze, just for a heartbeat. The bedsprings creaked as he rose and retrieved his knapsack. “The floor’s fine, Tula. Get some sleep.”

CHAPTER 75

THE DANGERS OF BEING DRIVEN AND A PRINCESS GOES MISSING AGAIN

The Dreary Pelican offered no complimentary breakfast—not that they would have risked the guaranteed food poisoning anyways—so they brought their picnic basket to the beach to make a breakfast of what they could. They dug a little pit in the sand and built a fire from deadwood, which Dirk maintained with sweeps of his tail as Bradley taught the princess to swim.

The waves were still gentle from last night’s calm, but the undertow dragged at Bradley’s feet. Millie was in front of him on her stomach learning the breaststroke. It was the most intuitive, for nearly everyone had seen a frog kicking through the water and could easily mimic it.

After only a few strokes, Millie knew she would love swimming. There was something magical about the water buoying her body, reducing the strain of moving herself through the world. Her limbs had been made strong from training in the tower, as had her lungs, so she did not tire quickly. The only limiting factor would be the chill of the water.

“Easy,” Bradley laughed as she swam circles around him. “Slow and steady. Swimming is about endurance.”

“It’s also about fun,” Dirk called from the beach. “And breakfast’s ready!”

“I agree with Dirk.” Millie held her breath and dove, spinning a twist like a sea lion before breaching the surface. It was easy to be confident in the shallows when she could stand or push off the sand at any time. Easier to have fun, which she admitted she hadn’t had a lot of these days.

“Go.” Bradley pointed to the shore. “You can’t continue to train on an empty stomach.”

When breakfast was eaten and the pot scoured clean with sand, the three walked down the beach until it ended at the library estate. The town had woken fully now, those on holiday staking their claim to little plots of beach with colorful umbrellas and the permanent residents bidding for their coin with ice cream and slushies, books, trinkets, skewers of grilled seafood, and aloe-infused sunburn lotion.

Renaldo opened the door before they could even knock, handsome face radiant as the dawn. “Good morning, Master Dirk, my lady.” There was no greeting for Bradley.

In one of the many spare handkerchiefs she’d packed in her suitcase, Millie had wrapped up a few precious teacakes, which she now gave to Renaldo as thanks for the tonics.

The Komodo’s jewel-green eyes sparkled at the gift. He handed her a small sack in return. “Ginger chews. They’re more portable than the tonics.”

She accepted them with another curtsy. “I don’t suppose your doctors have a potion in there that can cure seasickness once and for all, do you?”

“This sorcerer apprentice can’t cure you?”