Page 37 of Vengeance of the Pirate Queen

“I’ve just done morning roll call, Captain. There’s a sailor missing.”

I stand after tying off my warmer pair of boots. “Who?”

“Cyara.”

One of the fortune tellers.

“I want to talk to whoever saw her last,” I say. “And to Unesta and Bayla. They have the closest bunks to hers.”

“I’ll be back,” Dimella says.

“Be discreet.”

“That’s the plan.”

As I shrug on my coat, I tack on, “Also, bring me Kearan.”

She nods as she leaves.

As much as I loathe talking to the man, he’s seen this before. It would be foolish not to include him in the happenings when he might prove knowledgeable about what’s going on.

Kearan arrives first. I imagine he was on duty at the helm, closest to my room. I let him in and shut the door. It’s freezing outside, the little stove in the room the only reason I’m able to sleep comfortably at night. I dread to think what would happen should we run out of wood and coal.

I forget how big he is until he’s filling up most of the room. His eyes land on the tricorne he gifted me. Still on the floor where I left it. There’s no time to give that a second thought.

“A girl’s gone missing,” I explain.

“Who? When?”

“Cyara. We’re going to find out more soon.”

We wait in stark silence until Dimella returns towing three girls with her, the two I asked for and Roslyn.

“You first, little one,” Dimella says.

“Dimella says you want to know about Cyara? I saw her late last night. She was up in the rigging chatting with me. We didn’t talk about anything important. She went to bed before I did. Didn’t see her again before I turned in. Am I in trouble, Captain?”

“No,” I say. I turn to the other two girls. “Did you see her at all last night?”

Unesta shakes her head in the negative. Bayla says, “I think I woke briefly in the night. Saw her get up to use the privy. She has a small bladder. I fell back asleep. Didn’t see her again.”

“No one else saw anything?” I ask.

“I’ve asked around, Captain,” Dimella says. “No one saw anything suspicious.”

“Turn the ship inside out. I want every nook and cranny searched. If she’s on board, find her.”

“Aye-aye. Do you want me to tell the crew anything?”

“Tell them we’ve a sailor missing.”

The girls leave, but Kearan doesn’t move. He says, “It’s just like what happened last time I came this way. Disappeared without a trace.”

“No one just disappears. If there’s a body on board, we’ll find it.”

“You won’t find anything.”

“You think she fell overboard?”

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