“Thank you, my lady,” he added, through his real fear. But beside it, perhaps a small excitement, perhaps a knowledge that this, after all, would not be his last adventure, his last voyage at sea. “I pray thee, give me a scant hour to settle my ship for my absence and to gather things.” He took a breath and considered. “Am I able to bring a sea trunk?” His life—for as long as it lasted in her presence—would be much improved by the taking of supplies.
She considered. “Perhaps a large sack, something you can carry about your person. We shall have plenty of fish to feed upon, but the sea does get cold at times. Go, and I will talk with my son.”
“Very well, my lady,” Allende said, regret and excitement mixing within his gut.
“How will father feel about this?” the Venetian asked in a stern tone. “Consider it, mother. With both of us gone, who will take care of him? Pray, reconsider.”
“He should take care of himself, or find yet another mistress to do so,” the woman-creature said. “I will have an adventure.”
The two moved up to the helm, and continued to talk in low tones. Allende stopped to speak with Ortiz, his first mate, currently huddled behind the mast, to give him courage and brace him for the responsibilities to come—if they lived.
After, he gripped his fate in his hands and passed belowdecks, passing common sailor upon sailor who cowered away from him, as if he were contaminated. The ship creaked again, more urgently, with the edge of the sound of snapping wood.
He had pledged his life to the survival of the ship and its crew, year after year. If he were to keep the pledge, he must move far faster than the hour.
But if the beauty and the wit of the woman-creature held, he would have one more great adventure, and live on the seas and in the foreign lands some time longer. Or he would die, as he had lived, a part of the sea and all its wonders after all. Now to assemble supplies and to determine where to take her first, and how to navigate with only the stars, a sextant, and the inky black sea.
What Next?
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Check out the rest of the Mindspace Investigations series:
Clean
Payoff (novella)
Sharp
Marked (coming April 1st 2014)
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About the Author
Alex Hughes, the author of the award-winning Mindspace Investigations series from Roc, has lived in the Atlanta area since the age of eight. She is a graduate of the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop, and her short fiction has been published in several markets including EveryDay Fiction, Thunder on the Battlefield and White Cat Magazine. She is an avid cook and foodie, a trivia buff, and a science geek, and loves to talk about neuroscience, the Food Network, and writing craft—but not necessarily all at the same time. You can visit her at Twitter at @ahugheswriter or on the web at www.ahugheswriter.com.
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