Part 5

A knock on the door made Ravi look up from the log he was flipping through. Turning away from the useless contents, he yelled for the man to enter.

“Captain Ravi?” One of the deckhands, Jesson, hesitantly walked through the door.

“What is it?” Ravi gave the man a look that told him to either hurry his speech or leave him alone.

“I thought you might like to know that the priest has been walking around below decks.”

The glare Ravi turned on the crewman made him take a step back. “And why didn’t anyone stop him? Why am I being bothered with this?”

“Umm… well… We did. But he managed to get out again.”

Ravi felt the beginning of a headache forming and the priest had barely been here a full day. “Then put him back in again.”

Jesson scratched the back of his head, freckled face turning aside as he prepared to contradict his captain. “Well, you see, the crew and I, we thought it wouldn’t be so bad if we just let him walk around. Umm… he’s been going around healing everyone.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Ravi knew a losing battle when he saw one. “As long as he doesn’t try to do anything stupid, let him have his way. Is that all?” He was thinking now might be a good time to open one of the bottles of rum he’d taken from their last attack. Then he could get nice and drunk and forget the fact that priests existed.

“Well, that wasn’t exactly why I came here.”

Ravi raised an eyebrow, ignoring for now how his crew had been planning on not telling him about the priest’s escape.

“We can’t get him to stop.”

“Get who to stop?” Ravi felt his patience thinning.

“The priest. He doesn’t look so good anymore but he won’t stop healing people.”

With a groan, Ravi stood. For the second time that day he asked Modigan what he had done to deserve such an annoyance. “Fine. Show me to him.”

They found the priest in one of the large cabins used to house most of the crew, kneeling next to a man who had taken a deep gash across his chest. True to Jesson’s word, the priest did not look good. His already pale skin had gone even paler and he was shaking slightly as he moved his hands over the injury. A few stray tears rolled from eyes pressed tightly shut in concentration and it was obvious that the man was in pain. A small group of crewmembers stood around him, pleading with him to stop.

Ravi pushed his way through them to stand next to the priest, tapping his foot impatiently as he watched the gash thin to a faint pink line and then fade away completely. Almost a full minute later, Teylin opened his eyes, swaying slightly as he sat back. It didn’t appear that the priest noticed his audience as he slowly started to struggle to his feet. Grabbing the man’s arm to help him, Ravi wasn’t prepared for the priest to jump nearly out of his skin. Pale grey eyes stared at him in fear and surprise before finally as spark of recognition showed in them.

“Captain Ravi?” The voice that had been soft to begin with was silenced to barely more than a whisper.

“You’re done.”

Teylin blinked. “Not done. Still more.”

Ravi frowned darkly. “You’re done.” Turning, he pulled the priest with him towards the entrance of the room. He didn’t even make it one step before a solid weight crashed into his back, nearly making him fall. Teylin crumpled to the floor behind him, completely unconscious.

Sighing, Ravi hoisted the priest into his arms and carried him out the room. As he did so he muttered a curse at Raased for accepting a priest so stupid into his fold.