Page 10 of The Sea Witch
“Avast,” Admiral Strickland clipped. His expression remained as icy as it always did, even when disciplining seamen for insubordination.
Ben swallowed around the coral lodged in his throat.
“We’ll have to move with all haste,” he replied. “I know the layout of the town, and Ineedto be part of this mission. With all due respect, sir,” he added when Strickland narrowed his eyes warningly.
“Five years ago, I accepted your request to transfer to theJupiterbecause no one is more dedicated to eradicating pirates than you, Mr. Priestley,” the admiral said. “But that doesn’t mean I tolerate disobedience, no matter how many buccaneers you’ve helped us locate and capture.”
Ben inclined his head. “No, sir.”
“Iwas there on this very ship when we found the smoking ruins of your father’s vessel,” Strickland added. “Isaw the bloody effect of the pirates’ greed when they stole the ship’s cargo, and the lives they took, including Captain Priestley’s.”
Guilt cut through Ben, as it always did, whenever his father’s death was mentioned. Ben should have been there that day... He could’ve helped... Donesomething.
But he hadn’t been on his father’s ship.
“This gathering of pirates at St. Gertrude’s,” Ben said. “The most infamous buccaneers will be there. I’ve narrowed the possible suspects to four men, and surely one amongst them will be in attendance. I can question them—”
“You interrogate maps, not suspects.” Oliver rolled his eyes. “Leave such dangerous matters to me and the trained marines.”
Ben tightened his jaw. “Youmustlet me go, Admiral.”
“Do not lecture me on my duty, Mr. Priestley,” Strickland retorted. “As sailing master, you’re a considerable asset aboardtheJupiter, and I must weigh your value to this ship over your sense of personal justice.”
“Sir.” Ben took a step forward. “I... I appreciate the gravity of what I’m asking. Sailing masters are stationed on the quarterdeck during combat. We do not fight. If I could just... If you would permit me to accompany Lieutenant Oliver, I will stay out of his way. I won’t interfere or be one more responsibility for him to shoulder. Only...” He hauled in a breath. “Please, sir. I need to be there.”
There was a long pause, and then Strickland snapped, “Go ashore with Mr. Oliver. And Mr. Warne.”
Ben’s gaze flicked toward Warne, standing at the admiral’s left side. The mage had a full head of white hair, even though the man himself was only a few years older than Ben, and he flouted regulations by wearing it loose rather than in a queue, as if mages didn’t have to adhere to the code of conduct that kept the navy orderly and just. He did, however, sport the black sash around his waist that all naval mages wore.
“But mind, Mr. Priestley,” the admiral continued, “you are not to engage unless absolutely necessary. I want your sharp eyes, not your sharp sword. I’ll need a full report of everything you see and hear, most particularly whatever relates to Little George Partridge. That pirate was a thorn in the navy’s hide, and there’s no telling what sort of malice he has perpetuated from beyond his waterlogged grave.”
“Aye, sir.” Ben saluted.
The first mate also saluted, but not before glaring at Ben. Warne followed, silent yet ominous in his shadow-colored coat embroidered with twisted vines.
“Dismissed,” said Captain Grey, standing on Strickland’s right side.
Easy to forget that Grey was aboard, when Strickland ran nearly every aspect of theJupiter.
They quit the admiral’s quarters to walk the narrow passageways. Sailors went briskly about their duties. The ship teemed with over seven hundred men crammed together on a first-rate man-o’-war. It reeked of sweat, seawater, and soup.
Ben, Oliver, and Warne took the companionway to the upper deck. A group of red-coated marines armed with muskets snapped to attention, their eyes fixed into the martial middle distance. The landing party waited as their longboat was lowered. Ben’s heart pulsed in his throat as the small vessel reached the surface of the water, and when it came time for him to climb down into the boat, his hands trembled on the rope ladder.
No one spoke as they began rowing toward an inlet close to the island’s town. When the boat was a dozen yards away from theJupiter, water roiled and swirled, glinting off serpentine iridescent scales the size of dinner plates.
Lifting its massive head, the leviathan regarded them with pale green eyes, and Ben’s breath caught, as it always did, to be so near such a gigantic beast. It stayed beneath the water, but he could still make out the shape of its long twisting body and the talons that tipped its grasping claws. Powerful musculature shifted under its scales. The creature could destroy them with a single flick of its tail.
For a moment, its eyes darkened, pupils widening from slits to the size of a man’s hand, as if spotting prey. Ben made his limbs loose and ready, in case he was thrown into the water and had to swim for safety.
On the other side of the longboat, Warne muttered incantations as they rowed past the creature. Vacancy suddenly clouded the leviathan’s gaze, its pupils turning back to slits before it dove back beneath the waves. It kept close to theJupiter. Not close enough to harm the ship or its crew, but near enough that should its might be needed in battle, it could be summoned at once to do the navy’s violent bidding.
He’d seen it happen, the creature unleashed upon whoever was foolish enough to challenge theJupiter. Hulls were crushed beneath its coils, men devoured whole by its gaping, serrated mouth, leaving limbs and smears of blood upon the surface of the water and screams of agony and terror in its wake. He hadn’t slept for a week after the first time he’d witnessed the leviathan attack. The only way to live with the memory was to place it in a strongbox and let it sink to the bottom of the sea, never to be unlocked.
Ben exhaled. “We’ve enough manpower of our own not to press that creature into service with unnatural magic.”
Warne’s smile was thin. “You say that now, but when we’re set upon by an armada of buccaneers, you’ll bless me for leashing it to my will.”
Ben would sooner kiss a pirate.
