Текст книги "The sea ogres eager bride"

Автор книги: Ruby Dixon

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 15 страниц)

Chapter

Twenty-Four

VALI

I’m such an idiot.

Bribe.

Not bride.

Ranan is always tongue-tied when he feels too much too fast, and of course a dangerous situation like the robbing of ships would mean he’d lose control of his mouth. I know he misspeaks and it shouldn’t hurt as much as it does.

But oh, gods, does it hurt. He’s never wanted me. I gathered that from the very beginning, but then he’d protest and make me feel special, and I’d forget what my instincts were telling me. I feel shattered and numb inside.

I don’t even have anywhere to retreat to, because I’m surrounded by strangers in the middle of the sea. Even if I jumped off the side of the nearest turtle, Lord Vor probably wouldn’t give me a swift death, because I still owe him a sacrifice.

It is a miserable spot to be in.

I straighten my shoulders and swallow my tears, ignoring the curious looks of the people around me. Seeing so many of the seakind together reminds me of just how different they are. Sometimes I forget that Ranan has four arms, or that he has spiny fins along the backs of his elbows and calves. I’ve grown used to the spiny sail atop his smooth head. That’s just how Ranan looks. But when I glance around me at the village, I feel even more alone. They stare at me, most with one set—or both—arms crossed.

I’m not welcome.

But I’ve survived situations like this before. I march to the nearest person and give them a polite smile. “I’m looking for the human man. Can you point me to him?”

They stare at me, and then someone points at a tent, nestled in among a few others. It looks nondescript and made of the same strange material as the wrap I’m wearing. There is a flap over the entrance. I approach it and hesitate outside, unsure how to knock and get someone’s attention. “Hello?”

The curtain draws back and a man steps out. He’s wearing nothing but a loincloth, and is unmistakably human. The first thing I notice about him is that he’s hairy. He’s got dark hair and deeply tanned skin, and the most hair on a chest I think I’ve ever seen on a man. A full beard frames his face, with a small gold ring pinching the thickest part of his beard into a tail. His eyes are bright blue and he beams at me with pure kindness. “You must be the human bride everyone’s talking about!”

“You must be the only other human here,” I joke, feeling a little less alone by the cheery expression on his face.

He laughs, the sound booming and deep. “That’s me! I’m Balo. It’s nice to meet you. My husband is off fishing, or I’d introduce you.” Balo beams at me as he walks forward. “Have you met everyone in the flotilla?”

Gods, that’s the last thing I want to do right now. “Not yet!”

There must be something on my face that clues him in to how I feel about that. He laughs, putting a friendly, hairy arm around my shoulders. “Oh, my friend. I know how unwelcoming they can be to outsiders. I promise you will survive this. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

“I’m not sure if there’s another way to take it.” I let him steer me out and away from the tent, walking together. Just his easy, cheerful mood calms me and makes me feel less despairing.

“My husband told me when I first arrived that seakind do not think the same as other people. Not quite. You are either flotilla, or you are other. Once you are in the flotilla, you are family. People would lay their lives down for you. Anything you need, the flotilla will provide. You will always have a place once you have been accepted. But until then, you are an outsider.” He chuckles, the sound raspy. “Wait until you see the flotilla gatherings. They make it sound like it’s cozy when they all get together, but the reality is that it’s more like peace talks among warring nations.”

That…fits. “So why do it, then? Why get together? Why not just float off and do your own thing?”

Balo keeps his arm on my shoulders as we walk, and I notice the others no longer stare at me with such suspicion. It’s like his approval is slowly greasing the wheels, which is silly. It should be Ranan at my side, making everyone feel good that I’m his wife, and it makes me ache that I’m here with a stranger instead.

“Flotillas meeting up is beneficial for all. People trade and learn crafts from one another. Marriages are made. Information is shared about fishing, or what the humans are up to, or what areas are no longer safe to raid.”

“So everyone raids? Not just Ranan?”

“Oh, everyone,” Balo says with a chuckle. “It is a rite of passage for most of the younger men. When their turtles are in their wilder years, they strike out alone and raid the coastlines and bring the spoils back to their families. With it, they can afford the things that the flotilla doesn’t provide, like steel knives or specific delicacies.” He leans in as if confessing a secret. “My husband has a terrible sweet tooth and loves to trade for syrup.”

I smile at that.

“Do you want me to introduce you to everyone?” he asks, walking through the village and ignoring the eyes upon us. “Or do you want to just find someplace to hide for a while? I know it can feel overwhelming when you first arrive.”

“Can we just keep walking?”

His thick mustache twitches. “Of course we can.”

He continues to steer me along, and I’m surprised to see there are woven mats that act as bridges between one turtle and the next. We cross over one to another turtle, and this one has so much thick mossy growth upon it that there are even trees. An entire orchard of trees. I’m fascinated, because Akara’s back is mostly bare, but this turtle must be a great deal older. I eye one of the trees and see the same large tree nuts that I’d seen on the sand spit. “Do all the turtles grow trees on them?”

“The ancient ones do, aye. As they grow older, they submerge less and less, and are content to drift with the flotilla for what we provide.” He leads me to the side of the bridge and points down at the crevasse between the two turtles. Water laps and splashes in the gap between them and tiny minnows jump into the air. “There are a great many small fish attracted to the flotilla and they keep the undersides of the turtles clean. The turtles pull their food from the water and the particles in it. Don’t ask me how. I’m just here to look pretty.”

“It’s fascinating,” I admit. “But it’s so different from the world I come from.”

“I’m Yshremi,” he agrees, laughing. “A landlocked people. So I know very well what you mean.”

I’m surprised. Yshrem is halfway across the world. “However did you end up here?”

“It’s a long story.” He grins, his tanned face crinkling at the corners of his eyes. “Want to hear it while you watch me scrape some fish leather?”

I hesitate, because my every instinct tells me to go and check on Ranan, to see how his leg is doing. To see if he’s comfortable…or if he misses me. But then I remember his words.

You don’t please me.

Bribe. Not bride.

How do I know Ranan’s not hiding behind his words when he misspeaks so often? I push my hurt—and my thoughts of my husband—aside. “You know what? I would love to learn how you make the fish leather. Is that what this is?” I touch my wrap. When he nods, I continue. “I also need to learn how to swim. I don’t suppose you could teach a fellow human how to keep up with the seakind?”

“I’m sure I can,” Balo says, voice friendly. He squeezes my shoulder. “Learning to swim is half the trick of fitting in here.”

And I desperately need to fit in. “Good, because I need all the tricks I can get.”

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Chapter

Twenty-Five

RANAN

Daidu’s potions taste like the underside of a hamarii turtle, but they’re effective. They also make me sluggish, and I spend most of the day sleeping in the healer’s tent. When I wake up, my leg no longer burns, and the skin is less swollen than before. My stomach growls fiercely, and I sit up in my bed, wondering where the healer is.

Before I can get up, the tent opens and Vali steps in with a large bowl in her hands. Her hair is dry and piled atop her head, and her nose is pink from being out in the open all day. She still wears the wrap given to her earlier, but there is a new belt around it and it fits better. It emphasizes her large breasts and her long legs. She looks good. Fresh. Beautiful.

I sit up, eager to speak with her. To hear her thoughts on the flotilla. To hear if she still hates me. “Where have you been?”

Her brows go up.

My face grows hot. Perhaps that sounded demanding. “I was worried about you.”

“Your job is to lie here and rest up,” she says in a light, cheery voice. She sits next to me and holds out the bowl of food. “Don’t worry about me. I can handle myself.”

“I still worry about you.” I deliberately brush my fingers over hers as I take the bowl. “How are you feeling? Do your lungs ache? I worry you took in too much water.”

“I’m fine. You eat.” She flicks a hand at the bowl.

I hold it back out to her. “Share?”

“I’ve already eaten. Balo’s husband caught a large fish and there was enough for several people.” She clasps her hands in her lap, watching me.

“You found Balo then? What did you think of him?” The dish is one of my mother’s favorites—fermented fish wrapped in dried seaweed. It reminds me of being a young minnow and eating everything put before me so I could grow up strong and tall like my father. It is a very typical dish for my people, and a delicious one. It is also one I suspect Vali would not like, as Balo hated it when he first arrived. It is my mother’s quiet way of enticing me to rejoin the flotilla.

A nice thought, but I like my life on Akara’s back…and I think Vali would prefer it to being with the flotilla. What she wants matters to me.

“Balo is very nice. I like him. It’s impossible not to.” She smiles. “He took me under his wing and was showing me around. He’s going to give me swimming lessons, too.”

Hearing that makes me bristle. I think of Vali, with her wet clothing clinging to her breasts, rubbing up against me when I’d tried to give her lessons. Balo is not interested in women, but it does not mean I am not jealous that he’s going to spend so much time with my wife. “It should be me teaching you.”

She eyes me warily. “It should, but I am pleasing myself.”

Her words wound me. They are my words, and I hate them as much as she does. “I never meant to hurt you.”

“You say that a lot, Ranan, yet you still keep hurting me. At some point I need to learn not to put my hand into the fire, right?” Her smile is bright but unnatural. “I can’t trust that the things that slip out are the truth or not. You say they are not, but it keeps happening. How can I believe you?”

“You judge me on my actions instead.” I hold a hand out to her.

She doesn’t take it. Her own hands remain on her thighs, curled into fists. “I need to think, Ranan.”

Her shoulders tense as she says it, as if she expects me to strike her, and I have to remind myself that she was a slave before she was my wife. She has to learn that she is safe even if she disagrees with me. “Take all the time you need, my Vali. I understand.”

She eases a bit at that, glancing around the tent. “Where is the healer? Do you need him?”

I grunt. “He’s probably preparing another foul potion to shove down my throat.”

Her lips twitch. “But are the foul potions working?”

“Aye, they are.” I sound woeful, even to my own ears. “Which means I’ll have to drink more of them.”

She chuckles and gestures at the dish forgotten in my hands. “Eat. You need your strength. You’ve been weak ever since you were injured.”

I take another large bite.

“A sea dragon, hm?” Vali asks. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Sea dragons sound fearsome but they are not dangerous unless you wander into their territory. I didn’t want you afraid because there was no chance you would stumble across it. You cannot swim deep enough.”

“But you can.”

“Aye.” I sigh. “My grotto will have to be moved. One does not fight a sea dragon for its territory.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It happens. I am glad I made it out alive and whole. Moving some trinkets is nothing. I might just leave them behind.”

She sputters. “No you’re not! There’s so much money there! You can’t abandon it.”

“If you want me to keep it, I will.”

“I do. Absolutely. You robbed a lot of selfish pricks to get all that loot.”

I bite back a chuckle. Why is it so easy for us to sit here and talk, even when things are bad between us? I want to grab her hand and beg her to understand, to swear that I never meant any of it, and yet I suspect she will not listen. She needs to think on it, as she says. And I need to show her my truth with my actions.

Not an easy thing to do when I’m bedridden.

I finish eating and she brings me a drink, and I hate that even now she waits on me. “Thank you, Vali. For everything. I have not said it enough, but you saved my life. And you keep saving it by taking care of me. I know it has not been easy.”

My words make her pause. She studies my face and a small smile creeps onto hers. “I am doing what any wife would do for her husband. Even if they’re mad at each other.” Then her expression falls as she remembers something. “But you didn’t want a wife, did you?”

“I might not have started out wanting one, but now I cannot imagine my life without one.”

Her smile seems a little more forced, a little sadder. “Do you need anything else? Balo has offered to set up a bed in an empty tent for me to sleep in. Are you sleeping in here?”

Again, I want to throttle Balo and his helpfulness. “Aye, the healer wants me where he can keep an eye on me. And one tent is the same as another…but I would like it if you stayed with me. I like waking up with you.”

“I can sleep here,” she agrees easily.

I expected her to argue. Her easy capitulation surprises me. “I am glad.”

Vali moves in close to me, settling on the blankets. I shift my body, mindful of my leg, and make room for her. She squeezes in next to me and then relaxes at my side, and it feels so familiar and so right that I automatically put my arm around her shoulders, tucking her against me.

“Better already,” I say.

“Behold the healing power of sharing blankets,” Vali teases. “You’ll be so tired of me hogging the bed that you’ll miraculously get better faster.”

“More like having a pretty wife at my side makes me realize how much I hate being helpless.” I rub her arm, and it feels so easy to be with her. It makes me happy. Vali makes me happy. I gaze down at her, at her lovely, upturned face. “May I kiss you?”

“If you want to.”

Her answer bothers me. It’s as guarded and neutral—and permissive—as when I first met her. When she was trying to please me. “It’s not about what I want, Vali⁠—”

“But it is. You didn’t want a wife, and I’ve nowhere to go if you get rid of me, so I’ll be whatever you want me to be. If you want to kiss me, kiss me.”

It feels like we’ve gone all the way back to the beginning, thanks to my careless mouth. “Then we don’t kiss if you cannot be honest with me about whether or not you want my kiss.”

“Very well.”

We don’t kiss. But we don’t get up, either. I Just hold Vali against my side and wonder what I can do to fix this. How do I woo and prove myself when I’m in my sickbed?

Can I afford not to?

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Chapter

Twenty-Six

RANAN

Aweek passes, and the easiness between myself and Vali remains gone. She sleeps curled at my side every night and wakes up in my arms every morning…but there is something missing. Gone is the spontaneous affection for each other. Gone are the quick kisses and her laughter. I have not asked her to sit upon my face and she has not reached for my cocks.

We are very friendly strangers, and I hate it.

It is difficult for me to do anything, however, thanks to the fact that I am forced to sit in bed and rest my leg. That, and Daidu keeps pouring potions down my throat that make me sleep for most of the day. When I am awake, I always look for Vali, though. I hunger for the sight of her, for her soft smiles and the sweet fan of her lashes when she looks down. The way her nose wrinkles adorably when she smells what Daidu keeps feeding me.

I’m utterly besotted with my wife, and she has pointed out to me that we are not truly married. My pride has withered into dust.

When a few more days pass and Daidu proclaims I no longer need potions to speed my healing, the days grow even longer with nothing to do. With the healer’s help, I move outside of the tent and work on mending nets, since that only requires hands.

Today, I am outside the healer’s tent in the sunshine. It rained yesterday, keeping those with projects from doing their work. They are spread out today on the flotilla, the humid air full of the sounds of voices. People have hides spread out, and someone is drying fish. My father’s father is weaving, my father is off fishing for the day’s meals, and I have nets.

So many nets.

I mend nets, knotting and weaving cords, and I watch my mate laugh and talk with Balo and my uncle Dorran nearby. They stand in front of Dorran’s tent, near the center of the flotilla, and the breeze catches Vali’s hair and makes it drift against her face. She carelessly pushes it back, and I watch her graceful movements and her delicate hands.

I think of those hands as they stroked my cocks, and her sultry smile of pride as she did so. And I sigh and watch my woman with the two men and try not to feel resentment.

Try, and fail.

They have become fast friends, those three. My uncle is as good-natured as his husband and has a great affection for humans. He’s old enough to be Vali’s father and he looks upon her like one. Balo is the one she spends the most time with, though, and I grow to hate the sight of his bleached, easy grin. I hate the way he is always at her side, being helpful.

I hate that he is teaching her all the things I should be, and instead I am sitting in the sun and mending nets like my mother’s mother’s father, who is so ancient he cannot even walk straight and spends most of his days seated under a nut tree, napping.

“What did that net ever do to you?” my mother asks, sinking down to sit next to me.

“Eh?” I look over at her in surprise.

She brings a conch full of juice to my side, sinking down next to me and offering it. “I’m not sure if you’re repairing that net or trying to tear it apart with your hands. Does something trouble you?”

I scowl down at the net I’m working on, because my knots might be a little tighter than they should be, and the rope might be stretched, just a little. “I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Oh, you were. Just not to the net.” My mother indicates the shell in her hand. “Drink this. It’s good for you.”

I roll my eyes at her pushiness, but I take the shell and drain it. Vali’s laughter echoes over the flotilla and I lower the drink so I can watch her. She has a sling spear in her hands, and Dorran is trying to show her the proper way to fit the sling around her wrist so she can fire it through the water at great speed. Vali tries again, and instead of launching itself, the spear clatters to the ground. Balo and my uncle burst into laughter, and Vali holds her sides, giggling wildly.

I scowl down at the shell in my hands. Does she laugh so brightly when I talk to her? It seems that Balo makes her giggle all the time.

“I have decided I like her,” my mother declares in a lofty tone, as if sensing my thoughts.

“She is my bride whether you like it or not,” I tell my mother sourly. Well, as long as Vali accepts me in marriage. I have not broached it again.

“I know, but it makes it easier that I like her.” My mother is unruffled. “She works with Balo every day to learn how to swim, and she has made great strides in it. She gathers water without asking, and refills the canisters if she sees them. She helps clean the fish and she never complains or demands to be given easier chores. She is a hard worker. It is a good thing to have in a wife.”

“Mm.” Vali could be lazy and I would still want her in my bed, so my mother’s reassurances annoy me. She does not know that Vali is a people pleaser and thus works herself to the bone in order to ensure that everyone is happy with her. “Don’t give her too much work, Mother. She is still a guest. I don’t want her to think the seakind are testing her.”

“But we are,” my mother says lightly. “Do you know how much fishing your father had to do to win my hand? It wasn’t until he brought back three swordfins in one day that I relented and agreed to be his bride. You have it easier. I think if you snapped your fingers, the human woman would fall at your feet.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“No?” Mother tilts her head, her earrings tinkling as she does. Her expression is one of utter casualness as she holds her hand out, examining a bangle on one wrist. “She watches you when you think she is not looking. And she comes into your tent many times a day to make sure you’re sleeping well and that you haven’t woken up or require anything.”

I am stunned to hear this. “She does?”

“Well, not as much now that you are awake more. But Daidu’s potions worried her, I think. She’d hover over you and one time I caught her with her finger under your nostrils, checking your breathing.”

Interesting. It could mean nothing, but this time when Balo laughs heartily, I no longer want to cram the shell in my hands into his face.

“Have you told her how you feel?” My mother prompts. She reaches out and touches my ear fin, the fussing of a parent. “I have noticed you struggle to talk to her. You have always had such difficulty with words, my son. Just like your father.”

Have I told her? I have tried, but words seem to only make it worse. “I do not think Vali will listen.”

“Then you must make her listen.”

My mother makes it sound so simple. As if nothing more is required than putting a hand on Vali’s shoulder and demanding that she listen to my words.

My words have been the problem all along. I have to show her how I care without them, or else I am doomed. “Thank you, Mother.”

She pats my arm. “I’ll let you get back to strangling your nets.”

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