I went past the rock formation to the south.

  I hadn’t been one of the ones getting in the water, since I couldn’t swim and I could use my sword to cut down trees and slean off branches faster than most of the lumberjacks could with an ax. It made more sense for me to be chopping and cleaning.

  Which meant that they weren’t going to need me for a little bit and I would work better dry.

  I thought about using my magic to dry my clothes faster, but I wasn’t confident that I wouldn’t burn them. Instead, I stripped down to my undershorts and wrung out the inner layer that was under my leathers. Then I laid out each piece on the rocks so that they would dry in the afternoon sun.

  I’d finished laying out my gloves when I heard a male chuckle behind me. I had a fireball in my hand as I spun around.

  “Strip off all that outer shell and you look just like us.” Sir Kaeso Richard Mere had his arms folded over his muscular bare chest. He was wearing the same thing that I’d seen him in a few days ago. A pair of shorts and boots, though his black hair was down this time, spilling everywhere.

  I noticed that his sword was still in its sheath and that he was alone. He was at the treeline, so he could have got away without me noticing him, but he wouldn’t have been able to get close enough to attack me before I heard him coming through the sand.

  The one thing that my eyes were searching for were any crossbows. I didn’t want to go through what Fyga had endured the last few days. But as dangerous as they were, it didn’t seem like she had anyone else with him.

  “You’re pretty brave to approach me by yourself.” I kept both of the fireballs rolling in my palms. “Considering last time you tried to kill me.”

  The bearded man shrugged. “You won’t attack me if I don’t show any aggression.” He smirked. “I checked out your story, Byler Branarm of the Island.” He shook his head and chuckled. “A potential that got his partner killed, so he ascended illegally.”

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  “You don’t know anything!” My mind began to race. There was only one person who knew that story and that was Master James. If that information had been relayed to this man, then he could have only gotten it from the Council.

  “You just put it together.” He pushed himself off the tree he’d been leaning against. “I think you should put those out.” The tanned man uncrossed his arms and motioned at my hands.

  I let the flames die. It would take a second, but I could recast them if I needed to. “What do you want?”

  His voice got softer as he looked up. “A soft bed filled with beautiful women and more gold than I could spend in my lifetime.” The captain sighed and looked back at me. “But that will have to wait for another time.”

  “Stop with the fantasizing and tell me why you’re here!”

  “Why to help you of course!” His hand floated through the air. “You need off this dreary island and back to civilization.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  He waved his hand down the beach. “My ship is docked on the southern end. I can bring it up closer, but before I did that, I wanted your word that you wouldn’t attack us.”

  I blinked again. “You think that we’re going to attack a ship on sight?”

  Sir Kaeso nodded. “If you were smart. Your spells are very destructive and who knows how many evil men that ice witch you have would kill this time.”

  He had a point, Fyga did like to kill first.

  “So you beach and we what? All climb on board and you take us to Port Town?” I tried to keep the hope out of my voice as much as I could.

  “I don’t run a charity and as a Touched, that piece of paper you have means nothing to me.” He clicked his tongue. “But having a mage aboard would make some things easier.” He waved his hands. “Tell you what. Why don’t I feed the four of you dinner on the ship tonight and we can talk about the specifics then?” He smiled. “Sounds good? Great, see you then!”

  “Wait!”

  I watched him take off into the forest. I could have caught up to him, but I had no idea what kind of trap I would be running into and worse, the others didn’t know that he was here. I gathered up my clothes and took off back up the beach. I could let my clothes dry back at camp.

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