Corvus (Stars and Sails, Book 1)

Forty-seven

Jade crashed onto the hard metal landing, her head spinning. The memory of cannon blasts and blades vaulting off each other echoed in her head. She dizzied as she grappled at the ladder, trying to pull herself upright. Her head was a mess of bright white flashes. Her forehead was cold for some reason. It made her feel sleepy. She was cooling down and her breath was slowing. As she pushed herself off the landing, she felt the aching resume in every corner of her body. Her feet pounded towards the staircase for only a moment before they lost contact. The room twisted and she tumbled into somebody's arms. She blinked and everything spun.

"Harris." Sabik carried her down the stairs and set her onto a carpeted floor. She pressed her fingers into the plush fibers. He swung his medical kit off of his shoulders.

"The officers—"

"They are gone," he said. He took his canteen off his waist and poured fresh water onto her arm. The blood flushed away onto the varnished floor and soaked into the carpet. Her spinning gaze was steadying. She could see the blood trail she'd left across the living area of the lighthouse. "Is he dead?"

"Dying," she replied. "I'm going to stain the carpet."

"Oh, Harris, you have already torn it up." His jaw tightened and he pressed a towel to her wound. She groaned. He looked at her sympathetically before retreating to his medical kit. Glass clinked together as he pulled a small case out of the bottom of the bag. He threaded a needle and inched closer to her. He handed her his canteen.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Her hand shook and the bottle trembled. He pinched her wound together and began the stitch. She winced.

"Drink," he said. "You are dehydrated."

She was resistant but thirsty. As he continued threading the needle through her pale skin, she pressed the canteen to her lips and drank the water. She set her head back down, panting. She felt that some of her sense had returned. She looked at Sabik. He concentrated on the stitch. She barely felt the pinch of the needle as it pierced her skin.

"I think," She dug her fingernails into the metal canteen. "I think it's all over, Dr. Nejem. I think all the fighting is over."

"Yes?" he looked up at her for a minute before focusing back on his work.

"I just wonder what Fairburn was doing up on the catwalk." Her throat constricted in pain. She took a clipped breath that came out sounding more like a gasp. "There was a lockbox."

"And you think it is important because Fairburn thought so?"

"Yes." She tried to catch her breath, chest rising and falling, shoulders aching against the hard tile.

"You are subscribed to madness."

He was bloody right about that. She sighed. Her eyelids were heavy. They opened a little at the tug of her skin as he finished the knot. She let her eyes close for just a minute longer as she settled onto the cold floor. She heard Sabik fill his medical kit back up. Her arm burned, but it wasn't as painful as before. The coolness in her head was gone. In its place, she felt the dullness of pain. "Thank you, Doctor."

She tried to push herself up on her elbows, her arm stinging from her newly stitched wound. Sabik cleaned off his rag with water. He glanced up at her. "Your lip is torn."

"I'm fine," she said, sitting up and moving away from him. "It happens."

"That is an excellent recipe for infection. Do you really want one on your lip? Oozing and—"

"Fine, wash it and shut up," She tried to scowl, but it hurt too much to frown. He crouched beside her and wet a clean rag with water. He held the side of her face and dabbed her lip gently. She winced and pulled away. He still held onto her.

"Please work with me, Harris," he mumbled. She stopped moving but had trouble looking at him when he was so close to her face. Instead, her eyes caught onto the cutlass secured to his waist.

"You are good at fighting," she said. "For a doctor, it's really quite remarkable."

"Thank you."

"No, no. I beg you, where did you learn how to use a sword?" She asked,

He hovered the wet cloth over her lip. His jaw tensed up. "I was a sailor. I told you that. You must have forgotten."

"You don't seem patriotic," she said. "At least not to the Tranan Union."

"I'm loyal to the Jhataran States. They are part of the Tranan Union," he reminded her. But that wasn't what she meant and they both knew it. When he spoke about home, he spoke about the Jhataran States. If he really was allegiant to the Union, he would have felt at home the moment they got to Aydesreve.

"You weren't part of the Navy."

He dropped the cloth, but he didn't pull away. His hand was still holding onto the corner of her jaw. "No, I was not."

"And a merchant?" She asked quieter. She thought he had gotten closer to her.

"Not a merchant."

"Oh," she said. Didn't take the time to think it over. She was still dizzy from the bleeding, presumably. Without even thinking about it, she put her hand over his on her face.

He pulled away from her. "Pirate," he said. "I know so much about the drug because I worked for Helios."

Jade's head pounded. "That's not true," she said. "You're not—"

"I am not what? A monster? A criminal?" He put away his medical supplies. "I guess I am what you want me to be, Harris. But just remember—your father hired me because of my involvement with the pirate syndicate."

My captain knew your father when I was only a sailor, he had told Jade. It had always been there. As Sabik had once told her, her father knew Helios. It was like her and Sabik's fates were on on the opposite sides of a coin their entire life. Her father had been flipping it mercilessly hoping that one day, the sides might not be so very opposite. And yet, they were. If she had known Sabik back then, then she would have loathed him. Jade could not think of a more despicable concept than piracy. "I—how...impossible of you."

"I apologize. I will pack my bags once we get to Longport."

"Just stop talking. You're confusing me." Jade got up and paced around the room, too dizzy to walk more than a few steps at a time. They didn't talk.