The Deepest Ocean (Eden Series) Read Online Free Page A

he had requested a boat and had set sail without informing anyone of his whereabouts, not that Jash had been concerned. She had known he would return. Mostly because he had nowhere else to go.
    “Where were you?” she said when she stood beside him.
    “Trenchtrawling.”
    Jash had heard there was a chasm somewhere in the Shoreless Ocean, a trench that supposedly descended into hell or the heart of Eden. She had no idea why he would spend time searching such a thing, but then again, he was not just a mainlander but one who had been molded by the nightmarish institution called Seawatch into the bargain. A few mental defects were to be expected.
    “I have news,” she said. “The warship Daystrider left the naval shipyards on the Greater Horseshoe five days ago. It’s bound south.”
    Quenlin straightened up and nodded in acknowledgement, because obviously one ship deserved nothing further.
    Jash smiled. “There’s a rumor a shark sorceress is aboard.”
    He turned.
    The tattoo on his face looked like the tail flukes of a whale, and his eyes narrowed to the point where she could barely see the left one in the blackness of the ink. “Do you know what she’s linked to?”
    “No. But she’ll only have one shark. Can you deal with that?”
    “I intend to.” His mouth tightened to a line and he turned back to look out over the sea. “ Here ,” he said, in so low a whisper that Jash would not have heard him if she had been a little farther away.
    A black wedge slashed through the waves. Another fin rose behind it in a dark reflection. The third, taller but deeply notched, trailed a spray of spume, and the fourth whale leaped clear of the water, so close that Jash saw the eye just forward of the white splash on its head.
    The killer whales spouted, plumes of mist filling the air, then dived again. Quenlin put his back to the rail and leaned against it, so he was facing not the fortress, but the two thousand miles of water separating them from Denalay.
    “Let her come,” he said.

Chapter Two
    There Is a Tide
    Alyster suggested they wager on whether Yerena Fin Caller would be late again, but she knocked at Darok’s door just before the sixth bell rang. She had changed her dress, and he wondered if she owned anything that wasn’t grey.
    Then again, perhaps she had to wear a uniform just as he did. He rose and held a chair out for her. She was about as expressive as a figurehead, and her shoulders didn’t touch the back of the chair when she was seated. He knew she wasn’t at ease there, and she said nothing after he had introduced her to Alyster.
    Alyster was excellent at breaking the ice, but either Yerena was a thicker berg than any he’d encountered or he simply disliked her. So a silence descended on the table until a cabin boy admitted Lady Lisabe. She had dressed in vivid red silk for the occasion, and when she moved her hands, gold bracelets caught the light. The flamboyant draperies suited her, and the smile Alyster gave her had more than mere appreciation behind it. Darok thought of reminding his brother that she was a Voice of the Unity, then decided that if she had seen the Unity face to face, she could cope with a first officer trying to flirt with her.
    The last person to enter was Julean Flaige, the ship’s physician, although Darok hadn’t been certain he would obey what had been, out of necessity, an order to join them for supper. Darok did not tolerate insubordination, but there was little penalty he could levy on someone who cared about nothing but his work. Julean had previously served onother ships until every penny of his pay had been docked, and only the fact that he was the best doctor in the fleet had kept him out of the brig.
    Darok had repaid a long-ago favor—one which had left him with his life and a scar longer than his handspan—by requesting that Julean be transferred to his ship, but there were times he regretted it. Julean hadn’t dressed for dinner, partly because he was