The Compass Key (Book 5) by Charles E Yallowitz

Author:Charles E Yallowitz [Yallowitz, Charles E]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2014-08-07T05:00:00+00:00

11

Kira Grasdon stares forlornly at the ocean from the rear balcony of her ship, the Matriarch. The chilly air whips at her ebony hair and cuts through her sun-licked skin. She misses the desert heat and warmth of Bor’daruk and silently curses the chaos elves who took her ship captive. Wrapping her white robe around her body, she slips back into her large room and sighs. Every book has been read and every speck of the room has been cleaned. She considers waking Fizzle up from his nap on the large bed, but the drite was exhausted when he was put in the room. She considers herself lucky that he had the energy to tell her a few stories before falling asleep. Kira sheds her robe to put on a silk shift and fresh underwear, accepting that all she can do is go to bed and dream about her freedom.

The heiress nearly screams when she hears a knock on the balcony door. Instead, she picks up a knife from her immaculate desk and whirls around to face the intruder. The weapon falls from her hand when she sees Luke standing on the other side of the door. She rushes to let him in and stops in the open doorway, her mouth still puckered to give him a kiss. He is soaked to the bone and his chest is covered with blood from a terrible wound. The half-elf looks a little pale in the lantern light as he stumbles forward. Kira catches him, ignoring the blood that stains her shift and skin.

“The ocean pushed me here and I climbed the anchor,” he whispers in a weak voice.

“That’s the least important thing to tell me,” she replies, leading Luke to the bed. She stops when she remembers he is bleeding. “Those guards can come knocking at any time. We have to strip you and tend to your wound first. Stay quiet.”

Kira strips her fiancée down, letting her fingers run along his chest and trembling at the stickiness of the blood. She stares at the skeletal hand mark on his arm as she tears off his damaged shirt. The clothes are thrown under the desk and blocked from view by the chair. She puts his sabers in a nearby footlocker filled with expensive dresses that are now ruined by seawater seeping out of the sword sheathes. Not wanting to wake Fizzle, Kira hurries to get the meager medical supplies that she managed to hide from the chaos elves. Not finding any bandages, she grabs a sheet from the wardrobe and tears several strips off of it.

Luke wavers on his feet and leans against the desk, his eyes drooping with fatigue. He barely notices Kira cleaning his injuries with a damp cloth until she pours a medicinal liquid into the wounds. The pain is severe enough to lock his body, his mouth clenched to prevent a cry of agony that would give him away. When the heiress pours the liquid over the cuts on his chest, he can no longer keep his mouth closed.

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