Chapter 39

  We collected firewood and created a nestlike camp site in the corner where two walls still formed shelter, before stripping down to the skin and wading bare into the water like children. I had never swum in salt water, with sand sinking underfoot and the waves rolling in at me. Rivyn laughed and saved me as a wave tried to steal me into the deep.

  “For a creature of the sea,” he mocked me setting me to my feet on the sand. “You fall victim to its foibles easily.”

  “I’ve never been to the sea before,” I replied, undaunted. “I guess instinct only serves so well.”