Lux [h.s]

forty-four

Cora opened her eyes and knew it was morning.

She could hear the squeals of seagulls coming from outside and the low tap of boots above her head. She stretched and sighed, slowly coming back to real life and noticing she was lying on the bed on the side of the room. Oden was nowhere to be found and neither was Iris, she was completely alone. Someone had wrapped the blanket around her tightly while she was asleep, but she lingered in the warmth. It was winter, and it was always too cold on that ship.

Cora put out the lantern that was on the floor next to her feet and stood up, blushing when the memory of what had happened the day before came back to her. She couldn't stop thinking of how good it felt to have Harry's arms wrapped around her, and she hated both herself and Harry for it.

She put on her boots and walked up to the deck, squinting when a cold wind blew through her hair. The sky was white, and even though it was no longer raining, the sun wasn't strong enough to peek through the clouds and bring some warmth down to the ground.

Around her, the Scintilla was like a wounded animal. The foremast was broken, and two fays were holding it hovering in the air with some difficulty as a third tried to magically fix it. Iris was sitting on the ground, sewing the cream-coloured sails back together with thread. There were small pieces of wood and ropes on the deck, still wet from the night before, but Cora didn't know enough about ships to know where they'd come from. But the people around her weren't particularly worried, and it reassured her to know that, though the situation seemed alarming, it was nothing they couldn't fix with the talents they had.

She scanned her surroundings and found Harry next to the helm. He was speaking to Eames and Arnold, the frown on his face enough to catch her attention and make her walk up the few steps that brought to the quarterdeck.

"Is there something wrong?"

Arnold turned to look at her. "We were blown off course by the thunderstorm," he explained, and then glanced back down at the map. "We're only two days away from the eastern harbour, though."

Harry shook his head. "That's the main port. We'd be fools to go there."

"We still don't know what changes happened after the assassination," Eames added. "We might have the royal guard waiting for us there."

Cora frowned. "The king rules over the lands overseas?"

Eames scoffed. "Of course he does, little girl."

"We'll steer clear of all the main harbours, I don't want trouble," Harry said, ignoring their exchange.

"Should we go with the usual plan, then?" Eames asked, and Arnold shook his head.

"It'll take us five more days to get to the port of Enleen. At this point it'd be more convenient to abandon the Scintilla on a random beach."

"Then the royal guards would find it and destroy it," Harry replied. "Enleen is our only option if we want to hide it."

Arnold glanced at him. "Are you really that confident we'll go back to the continent? Maybe we should just stay overseas, where the king has less reach."

"We'll only be safe until we're discovered. You know how things are in the inner lands."

"We'll stay in the Outer Lands, though," Eames specified, pointing at something on the map. "Those are much safer."

"They're crawling with royal guards," Harry replied. "It won't be long until we're discovered, and then we'll have to hide in the inner lands."

"The fay villages don't like newcomers much..." Arnold commented, sending him a worried look.