Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

Author:Natasha Ngan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2019-11-04T16:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

MY HEARTBEAT IS STILL RACING HOURS later. Even once we’ve sailed straight through the day and safely into the wide, moonlit expanse of open sea. The world is tender and quiet, the only sound the hushed break of the water as the prow of the boat slices cleanly through the surf. The others have gone to sleep in the cabin at the back of the boat. The sails are set to scoop the wind; the rudder has been set to keep us on course. And I am left alone on deck as lookout with nothing but the bracing ocean wind and my thoughts as company.

Perhaps that last part is why my heart is still racing.

Dzarja.

I start, pulse jumping as the wind carries the words into the whorl of my ears, two hard syllables as ice-cold and unforgiving as a slab of frozen rock. Breathing hard, I whip my head to the left. Right. Behind me.

Nothing’s there.

Of course nothing’s there, Lei, I scold myself. You’re imagining things.

Only I’m not. I turn back to the foam-topped waves rippling in the ship’s wake and blow out air. I can still picture the face of the servant woman who called me by the same name more than half a year ago. Like the village woman today, her face had been twisted with fury, too. The same disgust soured her voice as she spat the word from her lips. None of that is imagined. It’s all too real.

Propping my elbows on the railing that runs around the deck, I bunch the fur shawl tighter around my neck and huddle deeper into my coat. The ship rocks beneath my feet. My belly shifts with it, but unlike the last time I was on a boat, I’m able to keep a handle on my nausea. Without the help of magic, we don’t seem to be sailing nearly as fast, and the water here is smooth.

“Three weeks to Kitori, if the weather is favorable to us,” Caen said when he finally got tired of yelling at me for my stunt back at the fishing village and we were a safe enough distance from the Shomu coast to relax. His voice was gruff and tired. There was no sense in it of the celebration we should have been having for successfully stealing a boat and escaping the royal soldiers. “Nitta and Bo, check for supplies. If you’re not too tired, Merrin, I’d like you to get high and make sure no boats are following us. Wren, Hiro, you two need to rest. We’ll see what we can find for bedding in the cabin.”

“I can help,” I said. My arm was around Wren’s waist. She was doing her best to seem strong, but a tremble ran through her body that only I could feel, and her skin was gray. After such a frantic escape from the port, the exhaustion of all her magic use during Naja’s blaze had come rushing back, hitting her like a wave. It’s why back in the village, Nitta had been the one to fetch me instead of Wren.

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