Song of Ashes

27: A Fragile Dawn

The next morning, Sarka woke to the sounds of seafaring industry. A sailor was rummaging through the crates in a corner, and she could hear boots trotting back and forth on the ship's main deck above. Bewildered, she saw morning light streaming in through the portholes.

Sarka sat up. Piece by piece, fragmented memories of the night before came back into her mind. She reached up and gingerly touched her neck as she looked around, expecting to see Tayo watching her from the shadows. But he wasn't there.

Had he really let her go?

"Am I alive?" she asked aloud.

The lone sailor belowdecks looked up from his crate at the sound of her voice, incredulous. "Aye, you are, and a lazy rat. Aren't you supposed to be helping the cook with the meals?" He muttered something under his breath-although Sarka couldn't hear it, it didn't sound kind-and, with a grunt of disgust, he returned to his searching.

Sarka struggled to her feet. She was sore, but for the first time in a long time, she felt well-rested. Every inch of her body was in need of a good stretching; she'd been in a dead sleep for hours. She attended to this necessity, letting her muscles ease themselves into motion.

Above on the deck, sailors were busy at their work, and everything seemed perfectly normal. The first mate stood near the wheel with Captain Etza. The two were deep in a heated discussion about a map the first mate held. Etza seemed to be winning, and the argument concluded with a rude gesture on the captain's part before she seized the map and turned away, taking the stairs down from the captain's deck two at a time.

Etza saw Sarka and stopped. She looked the younger woman up and down in the same way she had the first day they'd met in Horn Harbor, coolly assessing her. Then she pressed her lips together, nodded, and turned away.

Sarka went to the ship's railing and stood for a moment gazing out over the sea. The waters that had seemed so black and unfathomable the night before were now jewel-bright and glistening with the light from the sun. She marveled at the blueness of the sky and the vastness of the seascape, which stretched on toward a horizon that seemed an eternity away.

Sarka went to her work that day with a renewed sense of hope. It was a strange feeling. And that night, she slept. Tayo did not bother her again while she was on board The Crescent, but she felt him sometimes, as if he were there unseen, keeping some kind of vigil.

Perhaps he meant to warn her, to hold her to her promise with his constant presence...or perhaps he was guarding her from those who would be less merciful than he.