My breath hitched.
A large bird-like figure circled in the far distance. Then my eyes fell on the beach. Hawks roamed there too.
I rushed back into the cabin.
“Stop! Turn around!”
“What?” Mona said.
“Hawks!”
Mona frowned. Then she let out a dry laugh. “Do you really think I’m that stupid?” The boat continued to speed forward at a terrifying pace.
I grabbed hold of the reins and yanked them out of her hands, forcing the dolphins to a stop. She looked shocked and stood up, a new emotion traced in her night-blue eyes. Fear. I guessed what she was thinking; now I had caught sight of the shore, I no longer needed her.
“Fool!” I hissed. “Go see for yourself!”
She edged out of the cabin, her eyes not leaving me, as though I might pounce on her at any minute. I followed her outside and pointed toward the direction of the hawk in the sky, and also on the shore.
She rummaged around in a storage box and retrieved a large pair of rusty binoculars. On peering through them, she gasped. Dropping the binoculars, she rushed back into the cabin and grabbed the reins. She guided the dolphins into an about-turn and we sped off in the opposite direction.
“I hope they didn’t notice us,” she breathed.
The hawk was still circling in the same spot in the sky. He was showing no signs that he had spotted us.
“What now?”
She ignored me, a deep scowl settling in on her face.
“No. No. No,” she muttered to herself beneath her breath. Her cheeks had turned red.
I was content with not having an answer immediately so long as we continued to speed away from The Cove. She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, rubbing her forehead with her palm furiously.
“I just hope that my crew left in time,” she croaked. “Before the hawks took control of the place.”
“But why? What interest do they have in the merfolk?”
“Your guess is as good as mine,” she said darkly. “Aviary is now a nation at war. The Cove is the nearest major realm to Aviary. Perhaps they believe that securing that place will assist in some way in their battle with the Elders… though I doubt the merfolk allowed themselves to be held hostage. I’m sure the majority of them will have abandoned their homes and moved to deeper waters…”
She stopped, overcome by a deep yawn. I looked over and saw the look of sheer exhaustion in her face.
“You still haven’t told me where we’re headed now,” I said. “But I don’t trust you to navigate us anywhere in this state.”
“No, no, I’m”—she tried to stifle another loud yawn with her hand—“fine.”
“If it’s me you’re worried about, you’re a fool,” I said. “I still need you. I’d have no idea where to even start now.”
She glanced up at me briefly and the hesitation in her eyes revealed that she was considering my words. I stood up and looked at the sky again. All signs of the hawk and the coast had vanished. Evie and Kai travelled with supernatural speed.
“All right. I suppose that we’re a safe distance from The Cove,” she said. “We can stop here for a few hours.”
She still had a look of distrust in her eyes, but she seemed to understand her body would no longer allow her to deprive it of rest. She pulled the dolphins to a stop and tied the reins securely around a post. Rummaging around in a cupboard, she pulled out a small blanket and curled up on the bench, covering her face with the blanket.
I walked to a corner of the boat and sat down on the floor, leaning my back against the wall. Having nothing else to occupy my mind with, I watched her settle into slumber. She twitched now and then, until finally I could hear her soft even breathing.
As I sat there looking at her, I was surprised to find myself wishing that she hadn’t tucked her face beneath the blanket.
Chapter 8: Mona
I didn’t know how I managed to fall asleep with that monster sitting just a few meters away. I supposed my body simply gave me no choice.
When I woke up, I was shocked to see that it was dark again. I’d slept through the whole morning and the entire day. At least I felt refreshed. But the thought of being so vulnerable to the vampire for so long terrified me.
I slowly moved the blanket away from my face, afraid to look up and be met with blood-red eyes glinting at me through the darkness. But the vampire had vanished from the cabin.
My throat felt painfully dry. I stepped out onto the deck and headed over to the barrel of drinking water. It was stale now, having been on the boat for so many weeks, and there were barely a few cups left. I could have drunk the whole lot in one go, but I had to pace myself. We were only a few hours away from our next destination, but I couldn’t run out of drinking water in case something else threw us off course. Drinking seawater wouldn’t make me ill like it would a human, but I hated the taste. Fortunately, my vampire companion didn’t seem to drink water at all.
“Hello?” I called.
I walked over to the edge of the boat and peered into the water. To my horror, both dolphins were out of their harnesses. Kiev was floating nearby.
“What are you doing?”
I dove into the water and rushed toward them.
“They were hungry,” he said coolly. “And since you decided to sleep for so long, I didn’t want this journey to be further delayed by their meal.”
“But you don’t know how to manage them,” I panted. “They don’t answer to you like they do to me! You do realize that if we lost them, we’d be—”
“They seem to be answering to me quite well, don’t they?” He gestured to both of the dolphins, who were happily chewing away on mouthfuls of fish. “You underestimate me, witch. I’m a fast learner.”
I reached Evie and pulled myself onto her back, glaring at Kiev.
“I don’t care what you are. Just… don’t touch them again without my permission.”
I realized that I was also craving food. I withdrew my dagger and eye protection from my belt, and ducked down beneath the waves. I surfaced with two large fish. I glanced over at Kiev who was still eyeing me.
“Want one or not?” I asked.
He shook his head.
I split open a fish and started eating, tossing the other one over to Kai. He grabbed it in his jaws as soon as it hit the water.
“So, answer my question. What are we going to do now?” Kiev said.
I fixed my eyes determinedly on my fish. I knew I couldn’t delay answering him for much longer. Of course, I’d known exactly where we’d have to head the moment I’d realized Kiev had been telling the truth about the hawks at The Cove. The safest and nearest place was The Tavern. It was also the most likely place that my crew would have headed to, assuming they had managed to escape from The Cove before the hawks took over.