Stemming the Tide by Rosie Scott

Author:Rosie Scott [Scott, Rosie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-27T22:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

The delicious aroma of oiled mushrooms and onions wafted underneath the door of the captain's quarters like a much-needed distraction. While Koby and Hilly fornicated in his bed across the room from mine, I tried my best to read a book on Amora that I bought during our stop in Silvi thanks to Kali's suggestion. I was literate; I understood the words as I read them, but I retained none of it. I skipped ahead to the section on romantic love, hoping to find something sleazy, but no erotic depictions accompanied the studies of interpersonal relationships so I couldn't focus. When my stomach grumbled in reaction to the smell of well-cooked food, I tossed the book in the drawer of the table between the two beds and left.

While walking down the long hallway to the galley, the ship didn't seem to rock at all. The ocean had been extraordinarily calm for the last few days, almost as if it were saving its energy for an outburst. Because we were a mere fortnight away from Killick, I tried not to think about what that could mean.

The scent grew stronger as the first open archway leading into the galley appeared on my right. The glow emanating from it was soft and barely visible over the hardwood, indicating that whoever cooked within was Alderi since they worked in near darkness.

I turned into the room. The galley stretched down the barque to my left, its only light coming from a magical lamp that hung on the wall separating the room from the hallway. The stars in the night sky through the two windows on either side of the cooking area refused to lend their glow to the ship's interior. A long bar split the galley in two, coming mere feet away from either end. Six stools lined it, fastened to the floor with metal brackets. Across the bar was the food preparation area surrounded by cabinets and secured barrels. A brick firebox was its centerpiece.

Confirming my suspicions, it was Jaecar cooking in the kitchen. All manner of cooking tools and supplies lined the counters. Copper cookware and pewter silverware awaited use while something sizzled in a copper pan in the firebox. A few descaled fish were laid out on a cutting board, not yet cooked. Jaecar kept his hair back in a ponytail as he cooked, and beads of sweat glimmered on his dark gray face when he turned after hearing my arrival.

“Calder,” he greeted with a smile, watching as I took the seat directly across the bar from him. “What are you doing here?”

“Waiting for my meal,” I jested dryly.

Jaecar laughed and turned to stir the pan's contents. “You'll get some. I'm making enough for four. Every time I cook it draws somebody out of the woodwork.”

“I smelled mushrooms and saw how dark it was in here and thought it had to be you.”

“That reminds me; you probably can't see in here.” A cream-colored alteration light grew in Jaecar's hand before he reached up, sticking the magical light directly to the wall to the side of the firebox.

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