Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76583 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 383(@200wpm)___ 306(@250wpm)___ 255(@300wpm)
“Can I ask you more questions tomorrow?”
“Go to sleep, Vali.”
Oh, he used my name. That means I’ve pushed beyond his patience. “Good night, then, Ranan.”
I wake up before dawn the next morning with the irritating urge to pee. Using the necessity is one of the things I like least about living upon the turtle’s back. I have to get into the water and relieve myself, or I have to hang my arse over the edge of the turtle’s shell and do my business that way. I can’t help but worry that the turtle’s going to take offense in some way to my doings and fling me off her back.
So because I know it’ll be a whole thing, I lie quietly in Ranan’s arms and listen to him breathing.
It’s…oddly nice. Our sleeping arrangements aren’t the most comfortable, but I’m not sure what can be done on a turtle’s back. I can’t imagine a bed full of down pillows and soft blankets. They’d get ruined quickly. Ranan’s body is warm, though, and his arms don’t feel as strange as they did when I met him. He’s got four arms and a sail-like fin atop his head, yet he is normal in every other way.
Well, almost every other way.
Truly, I’ve slept in worse. After my last owner died and I was enslaved again, I slept in a stable when things were pleasant and on the hearth in the kitchen when the stable grew too crowded. There’s no one here to flick my skirts, there’s no lice, no one’s stepping on me or slapping me to wake me up because the chamberpots need to be emptied. There’s just Ranan to keep happy, and he’s a bit moody, but I can handle moody.
He’s just one person.
Well, I need to keep him and his turtle happy. But this feels doable. For the first time in a very long time, I’m not worried about what my future will be.
Vor of the Seas is looking out for me.
…I’ve really got to get that fish for him. To show him my thanks.
Turning in Ranan’s embrace, I tap him gently on the chest to try and wake him and then get distracted. He’s got hard pectorals, but that’s expected. His entire body is hard and lean. It’s the fact that he’s got a second set of pectoral muscles below the first set, like his upper chest has been stacked twice by whatever god made him. It’s fascinating to get a chance to truly study our differences, and I trace my fingertips over that lower set of muscles.
His hand closes over mine, stopping me.
“Sorry,” I say, breathless. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Yes, you did.” He doesn’t open his eyes, his body relaxed except for the one hand pinning mine.
“Very well, so I did. It’s just habit for me to say things like that. But I do need you awake. I want to get a fish for Vor today. I don’t want him to think I’ve forgotten about him.” I tap my captured hand against his skin. “So if you could please show me where the big fish are, I shall stay out of your way.”
That makes him crack an eye open. He stares at me. “How would you get it?”
“The fish?” I consider for a moment. I haven’t really thought how I would hunt one. “Could I borrow your trident? I think that would work.”
“Because you’ve used a trident before?”
“Well, no.”
“Have you ever fished before? Lured a fish to the surface?”
“I actually don’t know how to do those things, now that you mention it.” I smile brightly at him, determined. “But I’m willing to learn, and I promise you won’t have to tell me twice.”
“You’d fall over the side trying to spear the fish,” he says, closing his eyes again. “And the bigger the fish, the deeper the waters. It’s dangerous for someone like you.”
“Someone like me? A human? A woman?”
“Someone that doesn’t know how to swim.”
Oooh. I smack his chest. “I do so know how to swim.”
He snorts. Ranan opens his eyes and releases me, sitting up. “You’d drown before I even had my back turned to you. That’s the first thing we’re going to do—we’re going to teach you how to swim.”
“But Vor—the god—”
“The god will understand. You’re doing everything you can to get him what you promised. He can be patient for the right offering. And you want to give him the right offering.”
I chew on my lip, because I really do. The god has saved me. I need to give him the best offering I possibly can. “You’re right. You’ll show me how to swim, then?”
Ranan grunts. He scrubs a hand over his face, looking surprisingly boyish with that small move. “Aye. I’ll show you how to swim.”
“Thank you. You won’t regret it! I’m a fast learner.” I beam at him, pleased. Swimming seems important to him, so I’ll let him teach me. “After the morning meal, then?”