“We did,” Rowan said, and I felt a little flame of ire within him.
I couldn’t blame him. The way the captain stated the obvious made my hackles go up a bit. If I didn’t know better, I’d have sworn he would have liked us to fail.
Captain Kherty watched us for a moment, his expression completely unreadable, before giving a brief nod, and gesturing us toward the stairs. “You will no doubt wish to celebrate your accomplishment at the party later this evening. You will be my guests of honor.”
It was a statement, not a question, and although I wanted to tell him that we might have other plans, I reminded myself that antagonizing a man who could quite probably toss us off his ship wasn’t the best policy.
Besides, I had a couple of questions for him.
“One moment, please,” I said, pausing at the bottom of the stairs. “Have you found out who killed Ipy?”
“No.” His black eyes were as unreadable as his face. “We have not discovered a weapon or motive for the assault. The lady’s spirit has returned to the ship, and she herself does not know who her attacker is.”
“Doesn’t that concern you?” Rowan asked. “Were I in your shoes, I’d be more than a little worried about a murderer running rampant on my ship.”
“But you are not in my shoes,” the captain replied. “And this is Duat. All who travel here—all who are rightfully here—are not among the living. What is another death when you are already in spirit form?”
“Ipy wasn’t dead,” I argued. “Neither are any of the other priestesses, or Mrs. P, or May and Gabriel, and of course Rowan and me. There’s lots of non-dead people here, and as one of them, I’d sure as shooting appreciate it if you could get off your ass and find the mad decapitator, so he can’t go around lopping off anyone else’s head.”
“Get off my ass?” the captain asked, his voice filled with menace. “You dare speak to me thusly? I will not have it!”
Instantly, Rowan kicked into high dragon gear. He moved in front of me, his body language reading irritated aggression. “Do you threaten my mate?”
“I will not be addressed in that manner. I am captain of this ship.”
“Then do your job and keep your passengers safe,” Rowan snapped.
The captain growled and took a step forward.
Rowan’s body tensed, as if he was getting ready to spring.
“Whoa now,” I said, realizing that my ill-advised comments had pushed things too far. I insinuated myself between the two men, using my body to force Rowan back a few steps. “I may have been a little rude with the ‘get off your ass’ comment. If so, I apologize. Tempers are a bit frayed what with the whole escaping near-death in a lake of fire situation, so why don’t we all just agree to move past this, hmm?”
The captain glowered at Rowan, but after a moment in which I thought the two men were going to get into a physical altercation, the captain gave a sharp nod. “Your apology is accepted. The party starts at eight p.m. I will expect you there.”
I tugged Rowan up the stairs, ignoring his rude comments toward the captain. “Sorry to get you riled up. I was just so angry about the way no one sees Ipy’s death as being a big deal.”
He took a deep breath. “We have to remember that these aren’t mortal people, and we are not in the mortal world. Death here has a different meaning.”
“Gotcha.”
Ahead of us, Mrs. P and her team passed by an intersection of the hallway, singing a song in a language I didn’t understand. I was heartened to see Ipy in their group. Gilly spied us and ran down the hall to give Rowan and me big hugs.
“I’m so happy to see you both safe again! I bet the challenge was awful. The captain said you likely wouldn’t make it and someone else would have to go out to do the job.”
Ken and Barbie rounded a corner at the same time that the captain, behind us, emerged from the stairs, and with a smoldering look our way, proceeded up the next flight.
“I’d like to say it wasn’t that bad, but it was hideous,” I told Gilly, suffering her to give me another bear hug. “But honestly, all the credit goes to Rowan. He was downright magnificent in the way he problem-solved.”
Rowan looked modest. “I was inspired to beat the situation.”
Gilly eyed my unconventional garb and burst into laughter. “I can see that you were. I’ll let you go. I’m sure you want to… debrief.”
“Cute,” I said when she snickered. “I see Ipy is back.”
“Yes, her spirit is.” She glanced over her shoulder when Ken yoo-hooed us midway down the hall. “She says she didn’t see who lopped off her head, but she’s sworn vengeance on him or her. Luckily, her Ka is still intact, so she’ll be able to leave Duat, although she’ll always be a spirit.”
“Kinda puts a crimp on your day, I would imagine.”