Chapter 21. Trading Good for Bad

riel awakened from her miserable nap to the sound of Pendaran alternately hacking and cursing.  The rise and fall of the boat was much more pronounced and the air was heavy with moisture.  Her ears rang with the groan of timbers as the ship strained precipitously upward then plunged down violently.  Her clothes were clinging and damp.  The ooze of filth rose up to greet her balled fists.  Lemony’s quiet sobs were interspersed with desperately mumbled prayers.

The reek and constant movement nauseated her, but she had nothing left to offer the deck and her last meal had been so long ago all she was really capable of was dry heaves.  She had made the journey from Lion’s Arch to Kaineng before and guessed they had reached the open sea and the ship had turned into a storm to ride it out.  Given the low ceiling and narrow point of their prison, they were somewhere near the prow, further emphasizing each yaw and pitch of the boat.

Struggling to keep her composure between the retching mesmer and the weeping monk, Uriel leaned back against the hard pitchy wood of the ship’s flank and stared into the darkness.  Lacking Lemony’s optimism and Pendaran’s cynicism, she was left to her own devices, which largely consisted of worrying about what awaited them when they reached Cantha.  There was the very real possibility that Kiku would not look kindly upon her tryst with Pendaran regardless of the circumstances.  Was it even worth the trouble of hoping than an assassin had any sense of justice or mercy?

Her mind wandered to Morisedd and her throat clenched as she lost herself to grief.  No need to worry how he fared, he was better off without her.  Would they have fallen into this sad state of affairs if he had been there to ward them?

“Oh please just let me die now,” groaned Pendaran between dry heaves.

To think that she had traded Pendaran for Morisedd’s company.  It was so obvious now that the pretty mesmer had been the final blow in their waning love affair.  She should have just accepted her lot in life and learned to control her tongue.  But how could she have continued with the sadness of Luitha looming over her night after night?  Even though she had not seen the ghost since Pendaran had fallen under the stone’s curse, the very memory of her raw grief caused Uriel to shudder.

“I want to go home,” Lemony whimpered.

She would never stop loving Morisedd.  Nothing could destroy that.  Not the curse, not the Searing, and certainly not Pendaran.   If she lived through this, if she were ever freed from the curse, she would not rest until she had found him and begged for forgiveness.