Read Online The DeCadia Code (The DeCadia Series Book 1) by Apryl Baker, Jonathan Yanez - Free Book Online Page A

man could form any type of offense.
    “I yield! I yield!”
     
    ***
     
    Val coughed into the sleeve of her torn shirt. She and Tobias had managed to make it down the nineteen decks into the slave quarters of the ship. Fire from the boiler room explosion had eaten away at the entire hold. Tobias managed to get a nasty burn when he wasn’t fast enough to escape a falling beam. His shoulder was singed badly and Val was worried. He wasn’t complaining, but she could see the effort it cost him to keep moving. Tobias wasn’t a young man anymore and the burn was severe. She needed to get him to a healer and soon. Where the bloody hell was her ship?
    When they finally reached Tobias’s makeshift room in the slave quarters, she could have cried. Fire had swept through the room, burning everything. The maps were gone—scattered ashes across the floor along with everything else. How was she supposed to find Atlantis now? All her plans hinged on those maps and now they were gone, just gone. Val rubbed her eyes and shook her head. She felt dizzy and her vision was a little blurry. She’d cracked her head pretty good and, combined with all the smoke, she too was having issues. They needed to find a way out before the fire caught them. No point in staring at lost opportunities.
    “They’re all gone,” she told Tobias when he hobbled into what was left of the room. “The fire got here before we did.”
    “Not all, girl,” he said. He made his way over the corner of the room and tried to move an old, metal trunk. Val hurried to help him when she saw him struggle with it. Together, they pushed the warped, burnt metal out of the way, careful to avoid the flames still flickering in the room. Tobias pulled out his pocketknife and began prying up boards. Val’s eyes widened when she saw the maps he had hidden there. Although they were in a cloth bag, she could see several sticking out of the top—at least a half dozen or so.
    “Fire’s a nasty beast, ‘specially aboard these old merchant ships,” Tobias told her as he pulled out the bag. “Always put your most prized maps in a safe place.” He handed it to her and stood up, catching the side of the wall to keep from falling. He shook his head once and then motioned for Val to follow him.
    He led her back out into the smoky hallway and down a corridor she hadn’t realized was there. It was small and dark; still they managed to get through without a lantern. She could hear the fire so she knew they were close to the worst of the flames, she only hoped they didn’t run smack into it. Fires were odd. They could change directions without a thought about anyone in their potential path. Fire was the worst enemy a ship could ever have. It spread fast and consumed everything in its way. People sometimes didn’t have time to escape. Val could only hope she and Tobias weren’t heading directly into the heart of the beast, still raging in the bowels of the ship.
    Tobias stopped in front of a door and put his hands on it, palms flat against the surface of the wood. He closed his eyes and just stood there. Curious, Val moved closer and almost staggered back. Tobias was doing something and it gave off a kind of weird energy that slapped at Val: it pulled her closer even as she tried to run. It caused a feeling she didn’t understand or like. She shook her head and blinked. When she glanced at Tobias again, he was standing, hands at his sides, looking at her with concern.
    “You alright, girl?”
    “What did you just do?” she asked, ignoring his question.
    “Do?” he asked, his face bland. “Didn’t do nothin’,” he denied. “We got to hurry, girl, that fires gettin’ closer.” Without waiting for her, he pushed the door open and hurried inside.
    Val frowned, but followed. He had done something. She’d felt it. Why didn’t he want to tell her what it was? It made her even more determined to get the truth out of the old man. She didn’t like secrets, even if she had more