ARC: The Wizard's Promise by Cassandra Rose Clarke Page A

and it blinked on. The cabin looked as I had left it. My clothes were flung across the floorboard; the trunk was still shoved up again the door.
    The Penelope rocked and creaked, sailing us to whatever fate awaited in the north. My stomach rumbled. Of course. I’d missed dinner.
    I shoved the trunk aside and eased the door open. Kolur usually slept up on deck, next to the helm, but Frida had been sleeping down in the storeroom. I wanted something to eat, but I didn’t want to see her. I supposed that was the trouble with hiding on a fishing boat – there aren’t many places to hide.
    Still, I crept into the storeroom, taking care not to step on the noisier boards. The storeroom was flooded with dark blue light from the lantern, and I could just make out the shape of Frida curled up in a hammock in the corner. Moving quickly, I grabbed a jar of dried caribou and some sea crackers and jam, along with a skin of water, and then hurried back to my room to eat.
    It was a satisfying enough meal, since we hadn’t been at sea long enough for me to be sick of it, but when I finished, I had no desire to fall back asleep. My thoughts kept swirling around, churning and anxious. I imagined Frida sneaking into my cabin and casting some dangerous curse on me, and I rubbed at my bracelet, trying to make the image go away. It didn’t.
    Plus, my chamber pot needed emptying.
    I held out as long as I could, not wanting to risk facing Kolur up on deck. I resented him for keeping secrets from me, for keeping his magic from me. In the gentle rocking of the boat, I had the unnerving thought that maybe Mama’d known about his past, too, and maybe that was why she’d arranged for me to apprentice with him.
    Or maybe not. I took a deep breath, grabbed the chamber pot and left my cabin.
    The Penelope rocked back and forth, and I pressed one hand against the wall to steady myself. The wind was howling outside, a low, keening moan that sent a prickle down my spine. I’d have thought it was Frida’s doing if I hadn’t just seen her sleeping.
    With practiced movements, I climbed up on deck without spilling the chamber pot. The wind gusted around the boat, slamming into the sails and kicking up the ocean in frothy peaks that appeared now and then over the railings, illuminated by the magic-cast lanterns. At the horizon, Jandanvar’s lights cascaded across the night sky, swirls of pink and green. You could see them even in Kjora, and it was a comfort to see them here, in unexpected waters.
    The first thing I did was check for Kolur. He was over by the helm and sleeping, a blanket tucked around his shoulders.
    I made my way to the starboard railing and chucked out the mess in the chamber pot. It all disappeared into the churn of the sea. I set the pot down at my feet and leaned against the railing. The air had that scent again, sweet like berries and flowers. Except nothing about it made me think of spring.
    It was cold.
    Death-cold, Papa would say, but I stayed out in it anyway. There was a crispness to it I found refreshing after being cooped up in my cabin. I wasn’t used to being inside, and I’d always preferred to be out-of-doors. I did understand why Kolur would rather be at sea than back in the village, trapped in his shack on the beach. But that still didn’t explain what we were doing out here, why we were sailing into the north. I’d be home in a few weeks’ time, he’d said, so we couldn’t be going far. Maybe it had something to do with his old life in Skalir. A fisherman’s debt? Payment to a former apprentice master? Perhaps he’d gone too far into unfamiliar waters before I met him, and he had old ties to sever.
    A lot of possibilities, to be sure. None of them made me any less angry with him.
    The lanterns cast long shadows across the water that rippled with the waves, moving like the ghosts in Papa’s warning stories. It was mesmerizing, the inky black of the night sea, the blue glow of the lanterns, the stars glittering