Selena sheathed her sword. “Tell me.”
“What I have done with the sirrak is of no concern. He will remain in my possession so as to ensure my safety, and as a matter of collateral. I will forgive Tergus for this morning’s incident, but only because he is the means to get us off Saliz. And we will leave Saliz after you’ve completed the second portion of your lessons. Three days should be sufficient, beginning this morning. Lastly, when we sail, it will be to Isle Huerta, where you will discard Captain Tergus and his crew and hire a new ship for the voyage to Bacchus. This proviso is not negotiable.”
Selena stared at Accora. Discard Captain Tergus. “There is nothing on Huerta,” she said finally. “It is a jungle, such as this.”
“Wrong. An enterprising young lord and his companion have settled there, bested the land, built an estate, and begun a fine mercantile business trading coffee and tobacco and chocolate to the entirety of the Eastern Edge. Unlike the unfortunate Lord Penderlake, the lord of Huerta has only conquered what he requires and maintains a healthy respect for the rest.”
“How do you know?”
“Huerta is but fifteen leagues to the southeast. Five years is long enough to learn of one’s neighbors, especially if they are merchants. An old woman can’t live on berries and crabmeat alone.” Accora smirked. “You have been too long preoccupied with sailing about the Western Watch, healing every sniffle and scratch in the hopes of closing your wound. The time has come for you to rejoin the world with me as your guide, and you will do it on another ship.”
“I don’t believe it,” Selena said, finding her voice. “Julian wouldn’t send Svoz to kill you.”
“Aye, he seems the sort to do the deed himself,” Accora said dryly. “This cowardice is unlike him.”
Selena shook her head. “You don’t know him. There must be a mistake.”
“A mistake?” Accora gestured around ruins of her greenhouse. “Does this look like a mistake? Or this?” She lifted her arm to show the bite of Svoz’s sword. “Sirrak’ah do nothing that is not strictly commanded by their masters. You know this. But more than that, you must take your leave of Tergus to protect your life as well as mine.”
“My life? Why? Julian has never threatened me. The only reason he commands Svoz is because he swore a blood oath to save me.” Selena crossed her arms. “Did that escape your notice when you pored over my memories the other night?”
“Tell me.”
Selena briefly described the incident on the Crystal Sea, cherishing the small defense of Julian. But as Accora listened, her lips curled into a wry smile.
“He steals your sirrak right out from under you and appears as an angel for doing so. How convenient.”
Selena clenched her fists. “That’s not how it came about. He saved me. Svoz drew me from the water but it was Julian who made me breathe again, who tried to keep me warm.” Niven’s words came back to her. “He was frantic.”
She knew she had made a mistake then, as she had heard the thickness in her own voice.
Accora stared, disbelief pushing up the wrinkled flesh around her eyes. “Oh gods help me, I was right. You love him? Or is it merely carnal lust?” The old woman clucked her tongue. “You are a silly little fool.”
“I don’t…” Selena stammered. She couldn’t feel the heat of her flush but she knew it was there. “I need him. He is an able captain—”
“He is not what he seems,” Accora spat. “He’s dangerous. He’s manipulative. He has plans of his own.”
“Really?” Selena said. “Funny you should say so, as the entire crew believes the same thing about you. They all wonder—as do I—why you’re so intent on helping me. Why you’re willing to die on my sword after Bacchus.”
“I told you,” Accora snapped. “Revenge for the years of torture I suffered at his hands. But does it matter? Is there anything more important than the closure of your wound?”
Selena shook her head. “But Julian…”
“Must be replaced. He is not trustworthy,” Accora glanced around her shattered greenhouse, “to say the least.”
Selena took in the wreckage again. Svoz had done this on Julian’s orders. There was no escaping that. Ilior hated the captain. Niven feared him. And she herself vacillated between thinking he cared for her and believing she could walk off the face of the world and he wouldn’t even notice but for the payment he wouldn’t receive.
What does it matter what he thinks of me? He’s a means to an end, as I am to him.
“Whatever bond you think you have with him because of some transient moment of intimacy will seem as insignificant to you as it is to me once your wound is gone.” Accora said. “You stand at the threshold of a new life. No more shame. No more reminder of that day on Calinda. No more cold. Now then.”
Accora held out her arm for healing. Selena absently reached for her ampulla her heart ached anew at the revelations of yesterday’s lesson. Perhaps it was a fluke. I was tired, scared… She laid her hand on Accora’s arm, and muttered the sacred word without finding the moon. The orange glow knit Accora’s flesh.
“Good,” the old woman said. “Very good.”
“It’s not,” Selena said, snatching her hand back. “None of it. I don’t understand what’s happened.”
“You’re not required to,” Accora replied. “It’s too much for you. Think of it only as means to close your wound. Your wound.”
Selena closed her eyes. A swirling chaos, a maelstrom like that of the merkind, turned around her, sucking her down. What had happened with her healing was too big, threatened to drown her if she dwelled on it too long. But Julian….Her feelings for Julian surfaced at the threat of losing him.
She opened her eyes and found Accora staring at her, shaking her head.
“He wouldn’t care,” she breathed. “I know it. When he warmed me… I thought it mean nothing to me, but I…I was wrong.” She shook her head, tears falling on Accora’s sleeve that gripped her arm. “He wouldn’t care about my wound,” she whispered, pleading. “I know he wouldn’t.”
Accora was merciless. “Of course he wouldn’t. I told you. Your wound,” she said slowly, “is repulsive to everyone who is good and decent.”
Selena inhaled sharply. Then again, and again. She wiped her eyes. She nodded. “On Huerta. I’ll take a new captain.”
“Good. No distractions.”
“No distractions,” Selena whispered.
Accora withdrew something from a pocket in her robes and placed it into Selena’s hands. A vial of darkpool water, thick and yellow.
“Drink. You second lesson begins now. And we shall begin.”
Selena took the vial, turned it over in her hands. “I told you; you’re never to poison me with this again.”