Jace had quite a lot of experience lugging big, cumbersome things around, and Sheiral was surprisingly light. That’s not to say it was easy for him to get her down below… he tried to back down the narrow, steep steps with her in his arms and ended up falling down when he was halfway to the bottom. Sheiral groaned and stirred a little, but still seemed mostly insensible.
The hold of the little ship was not very large, but it was also not very full. It was lit by more of the glowing crystals, stuffed into glass lanterns. As Loki had said, there were quite a few barrels that were empty or nearly so. For all that the ship carried little cargo, space was used very efficiently: a wide variety of tools and materials were bound together and hanging from the beams above or lashed to pegs in the hull. At the back of the hold there was a door to Katryn’s cabin, which took up most of the aft of the ship except for a small alcove which housed a galley.
Wide planks had been placed across the bottom of the hold to provide a better floor of sorts than the inward sloping sides and the keel provided, though there were gaps between them. Jace set Sheiral down on one of them and looked around for something to make her more comfortable and secure.
He spotted some canvas that had been netted to the inside of the hull and pulled a piece out, thinking he might improvise a sling hammock… and found that the net actually contained several of them ready-made. There were metal eyehooks already in place. He set up a sling for Sheiral and got her settled into it, then started putting up one for himself.
“That’s an interesting knife you’re wearing,” Loki said, suddenly behind him. Jace jumped and turned around. “Where did you get it?”
“It was on Montaldo’s ship,” Jace said, fingering the twisted bronze hilt. He pulled it out to get a better look at it… it was a hunting knife, with a sharp tip and a keen-looking edge.
“Montaldo had a knife like that?”
“It was on his ship,” Jace said. “I don’t know whose it was. It was in the cabin they were holding her in.”
“Hers?”
“I don’t think so,” Jace said. “She didn’t recognize it… but the governor’s man, he said they wanted her ‘effects’, whatever they are.”
“That would go a long way towards explaining why anybody would be so interested in her,” Loki said.
“Some people said she was a princess,” Jace said. At Loki’s look of doubt, he added, “She looked a lot more royal before we fell through the mountain. I think she’s from the skylands.”
“Really?” Loki leaned in and scrutinized her. “She could be a flier, I suppose… it’s hard to say, with the state of her feathers.”
“She said she could fly if they hadn’t been stripped,” Jace said.
“Interesting if true,” Loki said.
“So where do you sleep?” Jace asked. There were no hammocks already in place and no sign of blankets.
“Just recently? In a cave,” Loki said.
The cabin door creaked open and Katryn stuck her head out.
“What are you waiting for, genius?” she asked.
“Nothing more than my lady’s word,” Loki said.
“Word,” Katryn said. “Let’s part some water.”
“Aye, aye,” Loki said.
The ship lurched beneath Jace’s feet. He stumbled and had to throw his arms over his swinging hammock to avoid falling, quite possibly onto the wickedly sharp blade in his hand. He sheathed it again as soon as he’d recovered himself.
Loki seemed to have gone.
“Stay below until I tell you otherwise,” Katryn said. “And stay out of the stores until you’ve got something to add to them. Got that?”
“Aye, aye,” Jace said as the ship swayed noticeably to one side. They were really getting underway now. “Aye, aye.”
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