Across the Midnight Sea

Chapter 15: On Board

Shadows flickered across the ships interior walls.

One by one the slaves were locked away in cells across the two sides of the lower deck, with a pathway in between them so that handlers could come and go unimpeded.

As always, Imre was alone in his cell, the thick iron of the bars separated him from his fellow Shaynari the same way they kept freedom at bay. His own private cell was both a blessing and a curse, and entirely at Verek's hands.

Luck...good or bad... had Heftar in the cell next to him along with several other Shaynari men. 

"She was beautiful," said Heftar as he settled down on the old worn cot in his cell.

"I think you need you eyes checked," snorted another one of the Shaynari. "Been too long since you seen a woman. I remember what beauty looks like and it ain't her."

Imre bit back the angry remark on the tip of his tongue.

She wasn't beautiful, not overly anyways...not like...his mind drifted to another face.

Yet, her eyes...

Her eyes were entrancing.

When he had seen them from a distance they had caught him with the stormy colour and then he had caught her fall when the post had broken and he had been afforded a glimpse of them close up. He swore he had seen every shade of the sea and sky in those intense irises.

It was her expression that had caught him off guard more than anything else. Not when he had first caught her-the surprise was to be expected, rather when he had found her looking at him as he boarded the ship.

Her eyes had held an apology, which made no sense coming from a Tamerian.

Don't think about it. Don't think about her, he told himself. There was no good that could come of it.

There was only one woman in the world that Imre cared about, and he was going to do everything in his power to get back to her.

To keep his promise.

Nothing and no one would get in his way.

-

A knock on her door woke Adira and she sat up groggily.

She didn't remember ever even falling asleep. She blinked rubbing her eyes. it was as if she had not slept in a week she felt so tired.

"Dinner miss Adira," came Smithers kind voice through the door.

If it was dinner time that meant she had been asleep for hours. It was as if all the adrenaline which had kept her going and moving up until boarding the ship had vanished once Tameria was out of sight, leaving her utterly spent.

She wanted to lay back down and sleep the rest of the journey, just tune out the whole world and wake up some place new where nothing from her old life mattered anymore.

However, spending the entire trip locked away inside her room was liable to call far too much unwanted attention, which meant she had no decision other than to get up and go follow the social protical for the sea-which included, when one was a guest, dining with the captain.

"I'll be just a moment," Adira called out rubbing her neck.

"I'll wait for you," Smithers said gently. Adira had no doubt he would indeed wait for her however long it took her to emerge from the room, which only hastened her movements.

When her feet hit the floorboards and she took her first step and fire burned up through the back of her leg along every mark that had been left there. She let out a cry of agony as she stumbled forward, blinded by the pain.