Page 38 of The Sea Witch
He scowled but said nothing more.
With one eye on the other pirate captain, Alys turned to head back to their beached jolly boat. Her crew pushed the small boat back into the water and they all climbed aboard. As Dayanna and Inés took up the oars to row them back to theSea Witch, Alys kept her attention on the beach while Van der Meer and his crew clambered into their jolly boat. The captain moved stiffly, his posture rigid. He wasn’t happy, taking out his frustration by yelling at his men, who slouched over their oars.
“Will he shadow us?” Stasia also watched the other pirates.
“Jacob’s a cunning man, but not especially courageous. I reckon ourseafaring pack of magical bitchesis enough to keep him cowering and licking his own bollocks.”
“There may be others,” Stasia pointed out. “From what you said, that tavern was full of greedy buccaneers looking for any means of advancing their own causes.”
“Jacob was skilled with his tongue,” Alys said. “He also can’t hold it. Word will get out that we’re not to be trifled with, or consequences will be inflicted. Besides, half the Brethren of the Coast shits themselves in fear when our name is mentioned. I take comfort in that.”
“We may want to reserve our concern for what is happening on our own ship,” Stasia said, looking toward theSea Witchwith a frown. “It appears that our naval guest is trying to escape.”
Ben’s fingers itched for his rosewood and brass backstaff so he might measure the altitude of the sun, but all the tools of his navigational art remained behind on theJupiter. Trapped as he was in Alys Tanner’s quarters, he couldn’t stand upon the deck to gauge the sun’s shadow. The cabin held the heat of the day, yet without the warmth of the sun upon his back, a chill skimmed along his skin.
The sun and the horizon—beautiful eternal entities that only responded to a skilled hand coaxing the mysteries of location in the vast, vast world.
He had no polar stars to find his position.
Instead, his compass had been replaced by the captain. He’d sensed her throughout the day. She’d been solidly confident, but something troubled her. Unbalanced, as if she tried without success to steady herself with the horizon.
His own balance reeled. Without his tools, his work, nothing gave him equilibrium. Not the familiar texture of the brass buttons on his coat, not the tendons flexing in his hands, not the sounds of the gulls crying to each other.
He’d jolted with the realization thathewas what unsettled Alys Tanner. It was mutual, then. Yet he took no comfort from this shared restiveness.
Restlessness made him rabid, desperate for anything to occupy his thoughts. He’d moodily stared out the window that ran the length of the cabin, watching the clouds, the water, the birds that wheeled above the waves, the dolphins cavorting below them—whatever might hold his attention.
Late in the afternoon, a speck of another ship appeared on the horizon.
Alys had left behind a spyglass on her desk, and Ben trained it on the dark fleck that grew larger as it attempted to close the distance between the two ships.
God, let it be a member of the Royal Navy’s Caribbean fleet. Finally—he could end this nightmare of being trapped aboard a ship brimming with pirate witches, and sever whatever it was that wove his consciousness with hers. In every capacity, he pulsed with awareness of her.
His gut sank when, instead of the Union Jack, the ship flew a black flag emblazoned with a skeleton wearing a hat.
“Hell.”
Jacob Van der Meer. A slippery eel of a buccaneer who was as known for his cunning as well as his duplicity. Only last month, Van der Meer had fired a pistol into the back of Enrique Ocampo when the other pirate captain had been foolish enough to partner with him on a series of raids along the Honduran coast.
Van der Meer was one of four other pirate captains spotted in the vicinity of his father’s ship on the day of the murder. The Dutchman or a member of his crew could be the killer.
And if his ship, theEdelsteen, was following theSea Witch, chances were high he possessed malicious intentions.
Ben raced to the door of the cabin. He’d raise an alarm so they might evade whoever was in pursuit. But then his handhovered over the door, pausing before he could pound on the wood.
If Alys’s ship evaded Van der Meer, Ben would lose a crucial, desperately needed opportunity. The closer Van der Meer’s ship got, the more Ben could discover... He wasn’t certainwhat, exactly, he might be able to find, butsomethingwas better than nothing. There could be a hint, a clue,anything.
He went back to the window, watching through the spyglass as theEdelsteengrew closer. His gut clenched and his muscles jumped with the need to move, but there was nothing to do except wait.
At some point, theSea Witchbecame aware they were being followed, because the ship took up a very specific course. A tiny island was close at hand, reachable just before sunset, and it seemed it was their destination. But why would they pick that location, when it had a small inlet and rocky cliffs and not much else of note?
Ben kept his spyglass trained on theEdelsteenas night started to fall. TheSea Witchsailed right into the island’s inlet, effectively cornering themselves.
It made no sense. Alys Tanner had proven herself a skilled captain. Only a novice would entrap herself and her crew.
He imagined her on the deck, gilded in the day’s last light as she gave commands to her crew. What did she feel, as Van der Meer’s ship drew closer, and her own ship cornered itself?
Guarded but determined. Not the emotions of a panic-gripped captain.
