34. Mission Accomplished. Sort of.

Iwake slowly, my head aching. With a groan, I open my eyes and find Lukas lying on a bed beside me. A quick scan of the space tells me we're in my cabin.

"You passed out again." He grins, threading his fingers through mine. "Are you going to make a habit of that?"

"That depends," I croak. "Are you going to keep dragging me to places where things want to kill us?"

He chuckles, his mood as bright as I've seen it in days.

I sit up, holding my head with my free hand. "We're not dead."

"We're not dead," he confirms.

"Did we kill Brinhelga?"

He sits up with me. We're both fully dressed, but judging from the cottony feeling in my mouth, I've slept for a very long time. "You successfully slayed Brinhelga, terror of the Brechalan Sea. King Harold will probably honor your service." He grins. "At least I've heard he does that when someone kills some legendary thing."

"Like your mother and the sirens?" I ask incredulously. Surely this isn't at that level?

"Just like that."

"I didn't kill it alone," I protest. "Tiago helped."

My last memory is him being flung with the Sea Rose.

"Gregory is tending him," Lukas answers, reading my distress. "We're currently hiding him in our bunk room. He's a mess of broken bones, and he nearly drowned, but we pulled him from the water in time."

"What about Davyn and Felicity?"

"Both are fine."

I let out a mighty exhale, feeling like I'm breathing out all my anxieties.

"Oh, and I don't suggest you go into the hold," Lukas adds flippantly.

"Why…?"

Lukas grins, looking satisfied with himself. "We have a mole troll stowaway. So far, he's kept quiet, thinking he's hiding. Davyn and I have been sneaking fish down there for him. Davyn's going to return him to the island after we get the journal mess sorted."

"Isn't it dangerous to give it free run of the ship?"

"We're keeping the door locked, just in case he decides to wander in the middle of the night."

"Did you warn the crew?"

"They know. Our companions from the Sea Rose do not."

"How many of their men were you able to rescue?"

His expression turns solemn. "As many as we could."

Glad they all weren't lost to Brinhelga, I nod.

A yawn sneaks up on me, and I stretch my arms over my head. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"Several days."

I gape at him. "Truly?"

"You've woken a few times, but you weren't terribly lucid. You seem better now."

"I have a wicked headache." I narrow my eyes on his face, glad there's only one of him. "But I'm not seeing double, nor am I dizzy."

"Gregory believed you'd make a full recovery," Lukas confirms.

"What happened to the mage's tome?"

"Which one?"

"Which one?" I repeat like it's a ridiculous question. "The real one."

"Felicity kept it safe. Davyn has it now, and he'll hold on to it until we figure out what to do with it."

I pause, something about his question catching my attention. "And…the fake one?"

"We're still looking for it. Shall we go up top and see how the recovery is going?"

"Why would you search for the fake journal?"

Instead of explaining, Lukas leads out of the cabin and up the stairs. We arrive on the main deck just in time to see Davyn climb the rope ladder, shirtless and dripping wet.

"Well?" Lukas asks his brother. "Any luck?"

Grinning, Davyn lifts his arm, revealing a saturated journal.

People cheer, but my addled brain is still bewildered. I don't dare ask about it though, because it's not just the Greybrow's crew aboard the ship. Milindrian officers and crewmen loiter with them, all apparently invested in this great find.

Lukas crosses to his brother, taking the journal from him and flicking off a piece of seaweed. Then, with great satisfaction, he opens the saturated pages.

I step up next to him, inspecting it. There's nothing left of the text but a mess of blurred ink.

"It's ruined," Lukas says with a mournful sigh. "Such a shame."

Carlos, who is unfortunately alive and on our ship, makes a devastated peep and crosses the deck, holding his hands out as if to cradle the recently deceased, fraudulent journal. When Lukas hands it to him, he whimpers. "King Marcelo will be devastated."

Davyn accepts a thin towel from Hudson and begins to dry off. "It's a significant loss, indeed. But at least we recovered it. It's still priceless, even in this sad state."

"Of course." Carlos closes the journal and gently strokes its soggy cover. Water drips onto the deck below him, and the pages droop like they've given up on life. "You're right."

I turn my eyes on Lukas, suddenly understanding. We've successfully swapped the journals, and no one will ever be the wiser.

He smirks at me, awfully proud of himself.

"How did you recover it?" I ask Davyn, peering over the side of the ship into the water below. "Isn't it deep?"

"The sea stays shallow between the archipelago and Shalada, so I didn't have to dive too far."

It looks deep to me. "But still…how?"

Lukas steps up beside me, flinging his arm over my shoulders. "That's what we do, Sunshine. Don't you remember? We've spent the last few years scavenging shipwrecks off the coast of Marlane."

"Oh, right." I offer him a wry smile. "You're pirates."

A thin elven chain with several golden pendants hangs around Davyn's neck. He pulls it off, offering it to me to inspect. "I carry diving charms. Lukas has a set just like them."

There's a water-breathing charm, a light charm, and a few others I don't recognize. I hand them back, the situation finally hitting me.

We have a journal to give King Marcelo. We can free Cassandra Marie and the team.

We're done.

"Are you all right?" Lukas asks.

Feeling lighter than I have in over a month, I nod. "I am."

Laughing, he asks, "Where are you going?"

I head to the door that leads to the lower decks. "I'm going to take a long, hot bath, and then I'm going back to bed. Wake me when we arrive in Shalada."