A Valkyrie's Apprentice: Book Two

Faraway Dreams

– K Á R A –

I stared out across the sea. The cool salty air moved loose strands of my blonde hair past my cheeks. 

The traders shouted out across the deck behind me. The sails were down and we were making good time on the clear waves. Winter was coming to its end in Uccella after all. I had given them a hefty lump sum curtsy of the dead assassins guild members. But every now and then I would draw on my power from the skies and send it into the sails to throw us faster across the water.

The sailors called it will of the gods. I smirked thinking all the will in the realm to get to Kanton shores was right under their noses. Four more spans and I would touch the soil she was on. I pulled my dark hood lower over my eyes.

The traders kept a respectful distance to me but some were damn right staring.

My gleaming armour under the cloak and wolf-like furs that moved in the breeze made them stare. Then I would catch the wondering eyes with my own burning silver and they would quickly find interest in their work again. But one mortal in particular was becoming ever more obvious in her blatant interest.

The first officer, second to the merchant Captain, would find reasons to stay in my vicinity making a poor show of checking crates on the deck. When she stared at my back openly for the fourth time in a slither I sighed through my nose and turned to face the mortal fully.

"You can stop pretending! It is becoming tiresome." I called over to the woman in the dark, long brimmed hat. She wore the trademark navy overcoat of an officer and a well pressed white shirt.

But at my blunt statement she snapped her eyes over to me and lowered her parchment inventory. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest.

"Well?" I demanded.

She cleared her throat and glanced over her shoulder before taking a few careful steps across the deck to me. She was scarcely a few winters older than Tayah but that's where the comparison ended. 

"Apologies, it's just that–you seem to match the exact..." She swallowed and glanced at her boots before looking up again. "–description of a witch rumoured to be in Vayleron."

I stared at her evenly before a smirk cracked my lips. I leant back against the ship rail and regarded the wary mortal with flat hazel eyes and sharp features I'm sure most regarded as beautiful. But my interest in faces had ended the moment I fell for the recklessly stunning Tayah Ashrive.

"What if I were the one meeting such a description." I drawled with heavy amusement. "Would you have your superiors turn the vessel around?"

Her eyes widened and she gripped the parchment tighter. "No–I–of course not."

"Then what did you hope to achieve by asking me that question?"

She flushed and couldn't meet my eyes. They travelled over the armour on my chest and made me lose patience. I turned back to the sea bored with her frantic panic and heart rate already. The only heart I wanted to race for my presence was too far away–

"Did you truly end the thief guild master and the assassin guild master?" She suddenly murmured in a low tone over the winds. But of course I heard it.

I turned my head half over my shoulder.

"Yes, mortal."

I heard rather than saw her reaction behind me, but she still visibly flinched from the word mortal. I rolled my eyes over the waves below us.