“I, uh, I don’t know. Thinking about Tyrea makes me think about—” And from somewhere that Kip didn’t even know he had, tears tried to come up at the thought of his mother, dying. He pushed them away, diverted them to someone more worth mourning. “You know, I hope your father’s well, Liv. He was… he was always good to me.” He was the only one.
Yet even with Master Danavis, there had been a wall, a point past which he wouldn’t let Kip in. Was it just because of his own history that he had to keep secret? Or was there something deeper, something wrong with Kip?
“Kip,” Liv said. “It’s going to work out.”
He looked over at her and couldn’t help but smile. Orholam had never made a more beautiful woman. Liv could shame the sunset with her radiance. He fell into her dimples, hopeless. He looked away.
Little brother, he sneered at himself. Fun to joke around with, but not a man. The despair threatened to choke him completely.
“Thanks,” he managed to push past the lump in his throat. “Can I have a snack?” he asked Ironfist.
“Yes, of course,” the big man said.
“Great!”
“When we get back.”
“Hey!”
“Now shut it, the Lord Prism is here.”
All eyes still on him, Gavin stopped in front of Commander Ironfist. He looked at Ironfist’s pack. Neither said anything for a long time.
“You can’t come, I’m not taking a bodyguard,” Gavin said finally.
“I’m not coming with you,” Ironfist said.
“Then get off my scull.”
“I’m coming with Kip. He’s a member of the Prism’s family, and he’s entitled to protection.”
“You’re the commander of the Blackguard, you can’t possibly—”
“I can do what I deem appropriate to discharge the duties of the Blackguard. None may interfere with that. None.”
“You are a wily bastard, aren’t you?” Gavin said.
“It’s why I’m still here,” Ironfist said. “And quite possibly why you are, too.”
Gavin grunted. “You win, but let me remind you of your oaths.”
Ironfist looked offended.
“You’ll understand soon,” Gavin said. “Everyone, load up.”
With a quick, practiced hand, Gavin drafted a set of the special oars he used to propel the scull, but he clearly left room for Ironfist to draft his own, which he did, albeit much more slowly. Meanwhile, Gavin drafted a bench for Kip and Liv to sit on, and straps to hold all the bags in the boat.
Ironfist wrinkled his nose at that, as if wondering why the bags would need to be strapped in, but he didn’t ask. In moments, they were off. Gavin manned his oars, and Ironfist manned his, and they sped out into the bay.
The scull began veering to port almost immediately. It was Gavin’s side. Kip realized Ironfist was rowing faster than Gavin, and the imbalance was driving them to port. Gavin looked over at Ironfist, who grinned back at him, continuing to sweep huge long strokes with his arms and legs. Gavin sped up. So did Ironfist. So did Gavin. Soon they were sculling across the water at a nice pace.
Liv looked over at Kip. “Can you believe this? I’ve never gone this fast!”
Kip laughed.
“What?” she asked.
“You’ll see.”
The men settled into a rhythm. They were going fast, competing, but neither trying to bury the other. “When are we going to meet your ship?” Ironfist asked, raising his voice to be heard over the wind.
“We’re going to cross the sea on this,” Gavin said.
Ironfist laughed. “Right. You’ve got more endurance than I thought!”
Kip grinned. The big Parian clearly didn’t believe Gavin, but was willing to play along.
After twenty minutes, they were out of sight of any other ships. Barely slowing in his rowing, Gavin lifted one hand up and drafted one of the great tubes Kip had seen him use to propel the skimmer earlier. Ironfist looked at it quizzically.
“This is what I meant about your oath,” Gavin said. “Secrecy.”
“A tube attached to another tube. Your secret is safe with me, O Prism,” Ironfist said, grinning. “I hope it gets us out of this port turn, though.”
Gavin dropped the tube into the water. The deck shuddered as the first luxin ball hit the water streaming through the tube, then, as it quickly settled into the whup-whup-whup that was familiar to Kip, the skimmer shot forward. The whole skimmer rose up, and Ironfist almost fell over as his oars came free of the water.
The skimmer sped up slowly and began to skip from one wave peak to the next, then the skips got longer and longer, and soon the platform stopped hitting the waves at all. After a time, the astounded Ironfist joined in and they skimmed even faster.