The Starriest Summer (The Cycle of the Six Moons, #1)

Chapter Ten: The Healer

The underwater slope becomes shallower, and Gediyon warns us that he's going to catapult us out of the water. His warning is so abrupt I don't know what to expect. It feels like someone has dropped a ton anvil on the other end of a seesaw. I hear Launce and Nichols screaming, the ground is a sea of lights, and then I land on something lumpy but firm.

"Oof!"

It's Launce. My head is a bit sore from the impact, but it must be worse for Launce. As soon as I realize it's him, I try scrambling off, but my legs are entangled with his.

"Sorry!" I yell.

"No, no, no!" he groans. "Excuse me!"

Nichols scrambles up on his own and asks Gediyon, "Why couldn't we just walk out to shore?"

"I'm terribly sorry," Gediyon says. "If we had, the contaminated water would have flooded our shield and put us at risk of infection."

"So you flung us out instead? I mean, Michelle here—"

"Mehh, speak for yourself." I push myself to my feet and brush off sand. "We're dry and safe. Gediyon did the right thing." I look around the beach.

The five of us are the only ones on shore. There's no sign that the other soldiers had returned since we'd left.

Now beneath bright star and moonlight, we can clearly see Gediyon carrying the still-dripping prince in his arms.

"I apologize for not—" Gediyon starts.

"Don't," Launce says. "You're already doing more than enough."

I jump to Gediyon. As much as I want to look at the prince I feel like I'm not worthy enough to look at him directly.

I ask Gediyon, "Jason okay?"

"Jaysonn," Nichols corrects me in a quiet voice.

"He's with us now," Gediyon says. "I'm certain he'll be just fine."

Nichols is looking out to sea when he says, "Let's hide quickly in case anyone is keeping a lookout."

Gediyon starts for the jungle, but I gasp, "Not in there, please!" Who knows how long we'll have to stake out? I don't want to spend the night with bugs crawling through my hair!

"Where, then?" Launce asks.

I look at the ship. It's in plain sight, but it looks untouched since we'd left it. I think aloud, "If we can make it invisible..."

Gediyon doesn't doubt my abilities because he heads straight for it. Before I leave the beach, I grab Gediyon's cloak from the sand so it won't give away our position—that is, if I can even manage to make the whole ship vanish.

We use his cloak for the prince to lie on when we climb on deck. Maybe this is a little too out in the open, but we agree that it's much easier to breathe up here than it is below deck. Can't have our healer running any health complications before he even wakes up.

The prince is lying still, breathing steadily. He looks nothing like the little boy I imagined. He's probably about a year or two older than me, and since his shirt is so wet, I can see the definition of his muscles, so he must work out, or at least swing around a sword a lot. Ah, stop staring, Michelle!

Before my eyes, water droplets rise from his body like quickly evaporating steam. I look up to see Gediyon toss the mass overboard to sea. Launce quickly returns from below deck with a strong-smelling bottle of liquor.

"This was behind the others," Launce tells us. "I'm surprised they didn't touch it, since it has the highest proof, but that's better for us, right?"