Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica

Author:A.M. Dellamonica
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan-Tor/Forge

CHAPTER 17

Nightjar’s galley was a utilitarian space, home to a plain wooden table with benches long enough to seat six on either side and two chairs at either end. With Parrish at one end of the table and Verena at the other, Bram and Sophie ended up across from each other.

Bram was avoiding her gaze, which meant he was still mad. Tonio was the odd fellow out, and he emanated a faint air of misery. Sophie figured he was unhappy that his captain was about to find out he’d “let” Sophie go aboard Ascension.

“If Parrish has a proper perspective, he’ll be mad at me for taking you among the rabid homophobes,” she had told him on the way back.

“He’s perfectly capable of being upset with us both.”

“Maybe we can gloss over that part of our outing,” she said, and that got a weak chuckle. “Besides, how much more uptight could Parrish possibly get?”

The ship’s cook had gone for take-out, hitting up the locals for a thick lamb stew and a hearty pull-apart loaf of a bread she would have called challah. Parrish had come back from his visit to Gale’s unnamed friends with a basket of produce: fresh carrots with a hint of gold color in them, crisp spinach leaves and a turnip that had been diced fine and soaked in vinegar as a sort of relish for the rest.

It looked like he’d picked them himself; muddy smudges marked the knees of his breeches. “Verena and I checked with Tallon security but they had nothing useful to share,” he said, as they sat. “Our investigation seems stalled.”

“Tonio and I—” Everyone’s eyes were on her—everyone’s but Bram’s. She found her words had dried up.

Oh, this was ridiculous. She knew what was going on, she did; all she had to do was tell them. What was this, stage fright?

The old sense that her idea would fall apart when she explained it, that they’d poke holes in her theory and tell her she’d been silly, guilty of shallow thinking, of not really examining her hypothesis—

Come on, she thought, even as she felt her face flood with heat. It’s just Bram and Verena, and Tonio already knows. And Parrish.

She could almost hear him: That’s an interesting chain of associations, Kir, but what you’re proposing is impossible, and you scared Tonio badly in the process.

She looked to Bram for help.

“Come on, Ducks, don’t choke now,” he said. “Have you cracked the case or what?”

Don’t call me Ducks. The thread of annoyance helped.

“When I was aboard Estrel,” Sophie made herself say, using Fleetspeak but choosing simple words for Bram’s sake. “There was a Tiladene man named Lais Dariach. Someone was blackmailing his family horse farm with an inscription; he’d paid a ransom.”

“We know this,” Verena said. “You diverted the ship to help him. It’s part of the issue with the inheritance.”

“I’m not bringing it up to rub your nose in it,” Sophie said. “The thing is, so much has happened that I forgot to tell you something.

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