Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

old nemesis could have arrived in the Salt and came to be a Sancul far beneath the Salt. How many others from my town did you take, Lenny? He wondered after the little Selkie who had both kidnapped him and then also came to his rescue after. And where are you now? Garrett squinted as the sunlight broke in brighter rays of yellow and orange to ward off the black of night. Did you ever make it to New Pearlaya with Ellie and Edmund? Garrett grimaced, tempering his hopeful want with all the other experiences he had come to learn beneath the Salt. Or are all of you dead like everyone I else know and ever cared about?

Bryant cued on his silence. “Yeah, them Selkies took us both down into Crayfish Cavern. My new partner, Chidi, back there?” He jerked his head back toward the cabin door. “She used to be part of Dolan’s crew too, before she got away.”

Garrett’s brow furrowed. “I remember seeing her in Crayfish Cavern,” he reflected back on the beautiful girl’s arrival during his dinner with Oscar Collins and his father, August. Moreso, the fascination that both of the Nomad brothers, Quill and Watawa, had held for Chidi the moment she entered the room. Garrett glanced over his shoulder, peering out the cabin door at Chidi and Marisa Bourgeois conversing at the furthest reaches of the boat. “I don’t remember her being in Lenny’s crew though. Not with those who came to take you and me from the jail anyway.”

“No, ‘cause she ran off before then,” said Bryant. “Or during, rather. To hear Chidi tell it, Dolan planned an escape for her and a bunch of others that him and rest of their crew didn’t sign on to kidnap. Chidi and most of them took off while Dolan and the rest of his crew came inside looking for you and Marisa.”

“Me and Marisa?” Garrett’s brow furrowed. “But didn’t the Selkies came for you too . . .”

Bryant chuckled. “Well, apparently I’m the red-headed stepchild in all this mess. Don’t think anybody came looking for me. Not specifically, anyway. Suppose I was just an added bonus.” He shrugged. “Then again, I reckon it’s better than knowing they could’ve just killed me outright and saved themselves the trouble. ‘Course then, I wouldn’t have had to go through all this watery hell to get here with you and share this beautiful sunrise now, would I?”

Garrett’s eyes welled at that, thoughts of all the others he had seen die in his company swarming in his mind. And of all the faces to haunt him there, he pictured both Cristina Weaver and his Nomad father, Cursion White Shadow too.

Bryant shifted his stance and grip upon the wheel, his tone lowering as if he had picked up on Garrett’s disquiet. “Anyway, I’m glad to see you made it through, son. Both to be here with us now and to whatever comes next for us all too.”

“Do you know what comes next?” Garrett asked, if only to distract himself and rid the faces and haunts in his mind.

“Can’t say for certain as I do,” said Bryant. “But, if you believe Bourgeois back there, she seems to have an idea.” He frowned. “Much as I don’t like to think of what that entails for the rest of us.”

“You don’t trust her?”

Bryant scoffed. “Can’t say as I ever did, no. Not that my thoughts on her seem to matter. For every time I think to doubt her, Miss Bourgeois ends up proving me wrong. A man can only take so much of that before he has to admit he’s the common denominator. Just lay over and go with the flow, if you take my meaning.”

“That’s what you’re doing now?”

“Aye,” said Bryant. “That’s what I’m doing now, Weaver. Keep my mouth shut and do as I’m told. Listen to these women awhile. Let them call the shots for a change.” He cocked an eyebrow. “Or let them think that for a bit anyway.”

The insinuation and his easy manner made Garrett smile.

“Yeah,” Bryant drawled on. “I’ll just sit back and listen awhile, Weaver. Least until these lady friends of ours find out that calling the shots and bearing all that comes after ain’t nearly the dream job they might’ve imagined it was. Still . . .” Bryant went on, his grip tightening upon the wheel. “Much as I hate to admit it, if Bourgeois and them dreams of hers prove true by the end, I reckon following her on awhile longer will be worth it. In my case, anyway.”

“Why?” Garrett asked, the mention of dreams making him think back on Watawa and all he claimed to see in his visions too. The same as Cursion and Ishmael had cited before Kellen arrived with the other Sancul to prove a portion of Ishmael’s true. “What did Marisa see in her dreams?”

“Which one?” Bryant snorted. “By my count, she seems to have a lot of them. Most to do with Chidi too.”

“Not you?”

“Oh, I got a part to play,” said Bryant. “Least that what she’s telling me, anyway. That’s the bit that tends to worry me more, if I’m being up front with myself. I agreed to come along because of who she promised me is waiting at the end of the line.”

“Who’s that?”

“Henry Boucher,” said Bryant. “Chidi’s former owner. Same man that killed my wife and baby.”

Garrett’s eyes widened. “She’s taking you to meet him?”

“Taking me to end him, son,” said Bryant. “And that’s just what I mean to do too. Me and Chidi both. Though judging by my dealings with Bourgeois in the past, I’ll warrant there’s far more that Miss Marisa ain’t telling us.”

“Like what?”

“Like just how lucky we were to find you out here all in this mess, for one,” said Bryant. “Can’t say as I see much luck in that. Finding one person out in the middle of the ocean and plucking them up out of the water to whisk them off to