“A woman doesn’t want to take a man to bed because he’s adorable.” It just came out.

“This one does.” Just as fast.

And suddenly Kip’s mouth was very dry.

“We’re going to take care of your little problem,” she said.

“My … huh?” It was like she was speaking another language. What’s she mean? His inadequacy? Awkwardness? Embarrassment? Total hopelessness?

“Your virginity.”

“Oh!” Orholam, did she have to say it out loud? What if someone was passing in the hall? Surely the word ‘virgin’ must draw ears more than any expletive. “Yes, yes, of course,” Kip said. “I mean, yes! I would really like that.” He hitched his backpack up on his shoulder. “Believe me, I’m looking forward to nothing more.”

“Now.” She locked the door, glanced at his bed, smiled. And though her words were bold, there was something shy about that smile, and certainly about the flushed cheeks that accompanied it. Pinker than before. Definitely pinker.

But Kip the Lip had absolutely nothing to say.

“After all,” she said, “boat’s not going to leave without me, right? Now get naked.”

The sound that came out of Kip’s mouth was not a squeak. Dammit.

Kip looked at the door again, longingly. Naked? Here? In full light? He wasn’t as fat as he used to be, he knew that … but he’d seen Tisis naked. Amazing how keen the memory can be for such things. She was gorgeous, and he was … he was the fucking turtle-bear.

Maybe ‘fucking’ is an inapt modifier.

And that made him think of a turtle-bear, copulating.

Ah!

I can’t stop thinking. I’m with a beautiful woman who wants to make love, and I’m standing here like a complete non-copulating turtle-bear, thinking.

Maybe if she kissed him again his head would go all gooey and thought would cease in the pink happy cloud of being wrapped up in her, but, ‘Get naked’?

“Wait, wait,” she said. “You’re right. I can tell you’re thinking it through, and you don’t want to reject me, but just in case something goes wrong before we get on the ship tomorrow. We shouldn’t. My sister would kill me, anyway. Not that she’s been chaste—the hypocrite.” She threw the insult out like only someone who’s very close to their sister could. A recognition, but not a condemnation. “But she’s always meant to sell me dear, she says, ‘You don’t hand over the goods until they hand over the gold,’ and I’m sure she’ll ask, even if everything turns out perfectly. And she can always tell when I’m lying. I can wait one more day. You can wait, right? I didn’t mean to tease.”

“Huh? Huh?” Kip said. I’m right?

“Blame me. I’m capricious. Sorry. Tomorrow. Either we’ll rent a room at the Crossroads, or we’ll just have to make do with the captain’s cabin on our ship. In some ways, a big room is a waste, anyway, don’t you think? I know I’m not going to want to leave bed for a long while.”

“I, I,” Kip stuttered. Huh? What? The blood wasn’t going back to all the right places fast enough.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make this up to you, I promise,” she said, and she put her hand on the front of his trousers.

When the great thunderstorms of spring passed over the Jaspers, lightning often struck the top of the seven towers of the Chromeria. This was that. A thousand times that.

“Oh,” she said, “definitely interested.”

The thing that made it ridiculously charming was that she was blushing furiously as she did it, like she was being terribly naughty and couldn’t believe her own brazenness. But she also hadn’t taken her hand off.

“Kip, I know we didn’t get the best start, and that’s my fault, but—”

There was a knock on his door.

Tisis snatched her hand back guiltily, but quickly recovered. She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Now, see what I saved us? That could have been awkward,” she whispered.

Kip was still speechless, still blinking bleary-eyed as if he’d been dunked in a big sudsy tub of I-can’t-believe-this-actually-happening and some soap of I-am-actually-going-to-have-sex was still in his eyes.

But some wiser part of him was detached. We’re children, both of us, playing at being adults, putting on shoes that are too big for us, and being surprised when we stumble.

Tisis whispered again, and this time she was simply herself, earnest and a little scared. “Kip, whoever it is, don’t let them know I’m here.” She moved into the lee of the door.

Kip’s mouth worked silently, but he had nothing to say. He went to the door and opened it a bit, not so little as to cause suspicion, but not inviting anyone to step right in, either.

“Oh, Kip! Thank Orholam you’re here!” Teia said.

Chapter 88

It wasn’t yet dawn of Sun Day when Karris and Commander Ironfist and their squad rowed into sight of Big Jasper. Exhausted from skimming all the way to Rath, and then fighting, they hadn’t been able to get all the way back before they ran out of daylight, even on the eve of the longest day of the year. It was only because of Ben-hadad, young genius, that they’d been able to navigate the rest of the way home with the stars.

He’d drafted a perfectly working mariner’s astrolabe from memory, calculated their latitude, estimated their rowing speed, remembered the latitude of Big Jasper, told them they could make it by dawn if they rowed all night, and kept them on course.

Mostly. Karris had thought that the enormous spires of the Chromeria would be impossible to miss, but late in the night, a low mist kicked up, and though they could still take their bearing by the stars still visible overhead, they found themselves west of Big Jasper, having overshot Little Jasper entirely.

“It’s just as well,” Ironfist said quietly. He and Karris had this last shift on the oars. The others were still asleep. It was almost time to wake them, though. “There will be Lightguards at the Chromeria’s dock. I’m not handing Gavin over to them.”

“He needs chirurgeons before anything. West dock isn’t far from Amalu and Adini’s.” They were the best chirurgeons on the Jaspers, maybe in all the satrapies. They’d made a fortune treating nobles and Colors for two decades, but then had freed their slaves and taken a religious oath to treat the poor of Big Jasper.

“Karris,” Ironfist said after a few more long sweeps, “it’s Sun Day. If we don’t bring Gavin to the Spectrum today … They’re not going to stop naming a new Prism on our word alone.”

“You saw his eyes,” Karris said. Eye. She felt dead inside.

A pause. “Blue.”

“Then you know. Hope is dead. We’ve lost.”

Gavin knew it, too. When night had fallen and they could draft no longer, he had insisted that he help row. It was one thing he was good at, he’d said. But soon he’d passed out, overcome by his wounds and long privation.

Karris looked at him now, still asleep on the deck, his gouged-out eye bandaged as well as they could. She had wanted to see her husband and simply rejoice that he was alive, that he was hers once again. But the first thing she noticed—and it had overwhelmed her love and her relief and her hope—wasn’t the dirt or the bloody grin or the ruined hand or the burnt-out eye or the black hair dye or the long beard or his indomitable spirit; it was his good eye, his blue eye, his icy-bright intelligent natural blue eye.