But she gulped the Dramamine pill he gave her.
Down below them, Dane had paused on a rocky point of land. Despite her desire to give him privacy, Lucy found her gaze drawn to him. He looked like he was posing for a photograph—or a pinup calendar picture, all stretched out with his arms raised over his head. She thought she glimpsed scars on his back, but it was only for a moment, because then he jumped off into the crashing waves.
Lucy gave a little cry. "He'll be killed!"
But he wasn't, of course. For a moment she had forgotten what he really was. Dane hit the water with a splash far too loud for a human body to make. An instant later, the long, sleek, black-and-white shape of a killer whale surfaced. It rolled over, dived, and then abruptly jumped out of the water, arcing gracefully through the air to splash back into the sea. Lucy stared. She hadn't realized they were so big. It was longer than the boat.
"Show-off," Eren said fondly. "Come on, let's get on board."
Lucy hopped from shore to deck with her newfound sea legs. Eren cast the boat off and jumped onto the deck after her. While he started the engines, Lucy took Dane's luggage and stowed it in a cabinet belowdecks. As far as she could tell, all Dane had packed was a change of clothes.
There had been a time not long ago when she couldn't have imagined traveling that light.
Now she was doing it herself. She hadn't even had a qualm about heading out on the boat with nothing but a cooler full of sandwiches and some borrowed outdoor clothes. The fact that their trip was now being extended by at least a day or two, if not longer, didn't bother her. She hardly noticed the rolling of the deck underfoot, although to be fair, the Dramamine probably had something to do with that.
I'm turning into a seasoned traveler,she thought proudly as she climbed the steps back up to the pilothouse, holding onto the railing as the boat wallowed on the waves. She used to think she was before. She had been accustomed to traveling halfway around the world at a moment's notice with Mom. But that had been on first-class airlines, staying in luxury hotels, with half a dozen bags following them around, containing all her favorite things.
Now all her old favorite things were back in Uncle Rodric's villa, and she barely missed them. If she ever got to go back there, she could imagine taking a few things, a handful of keepsakes and pictures of her parents.
And if she couldn't? Well ... she would move on. New Lucy didn't let the past weigh her down. There was something very freeing about losing your whole wardrobe and all your stuff, and having to get all-new stuff. It felt like shedding the weight of the past.
For one thing, she no longer had to worry about that incredibly tacky and expensive gold lamé designer gown that she had thought was stunning at age fifteen. She had quickly realized it made her look like a foil-wrapped champagne cork, but had lugged it around with her for years because it felt rude to get rid of a dress she had begged for that had cost more than a small car.
Goodbye, stupid expensive ugly dress.
Goodbye, closet full of shoes I never wear.
Goodbye, fair-weather friends who were only ever interested in me because I used to buy you things.
That last part made her sad, but she had learned how much her friendships really meant when she had been locked up for years, begging for help, and one by one, everyone she knew had turned away from her.
But Eren wasn't like that. Inga and the Westerly sisters weren't like that. Even Dane, who she barely knew, was helping them.
She felt as if every mile that rolled by under the boat's hull was one more mile separating her from people who had never been as kind, or as good, or as deserving as she used to think they were.
Goodbye, old life full of people who didn't deserve me. Good riddance.
I'm in a better place with better people now. You guys are the real losers.
She made her way to the pilot's chair and rested her hand on the back of Eren's neck.
Eren reached up to cover her hand with his. "The marine weather forecast looks pretty good," he said. "It's clearing to the east of us, which is the way Dane wants us to go."
He pointed through the rain-splattered window. Far out across the ruffled gray waves, the whale's black-and-white back appeared, broaching the sea.
"He's going to lead us like that? Can he swim that far?"
"Orcas are made for long-distance swimming. It's what they do." He glanced up at her. "Want to take the controls for a while, or wait 'til it clears a little? It can take a strong hand to wrestle 'er through heavy seas."
"I think I'll just watch."
But she stayed on her feet, hanging on to the back of the pilot's chair, watching the boat's prow cut through the waves as they followed Dane's flashes of black and white, like signal flags guiding them onward.
* * *
After a while the unchanging gray waves started getting to her. Lucy went down to the galley and rummaged around until she started to get the hang of the layout of the place. She made them some hot coffee and brought it up in a thermos for Eren, along with a sandwich.
"If we get tired of sandwiches, there's canned soup and noodles and freeze-dried camp food down there, stuff like that," Eren said.