Page 56 of The Sea Witch
Susannah clicked her tongue. “No surprise he doesn’t think so. Men stomp around and speak so loudly they drown out everything else but themselves.”
“You’ve been at sea most of your life,” Alys said to him, “and yet you’ve never heard it speak?”
Slowly, he lowered his club. “With fair winds and clear skies, the waves... murmur.”
“And when there’s a storm?”
“It shouts.”
She held up her hand, the answer obvious.
“I didn’t truly know,” he said. “Not until now.”
“To think that a naval man can actually be taught something,” the second-in-command said tartly. “What a miraculous day this has turned out to be.”
“He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know,” Alys answered, wry.
“He’s also standing here and sees no need for you to speak of him in the third person.” Ben pointed with his club. “The voices sound as though they’re coming from that direction.”
Alys took up the lead again. The group continued onward, up a long gradual incline that made the muscles of his legs burn satisfyingly after several days of idleness. Thick vines drooped from tree branches, whose roots were as wide as a man’s torso, as if bodies were only partially buried. Sunlight pierced the canopy here and there, casting verdant light onto the pirate captain’s hair and glittering on her shoulders. She glowed like a ruby in the midst of a sea of emeralds.
Animal cries and songs stilled as they walked and remained quiet. Doubtless everything here was unused to the noises made by humans. Even a quartet of people attempting to move lightlythrough the forest must seem like a jarring cacophony compared to the peace this island had known for a long time.
A low branch caught on Ben’s coat, snagging a button and sending it flying into the dense underbrush. There would be no finding it amongst the thick foliage. Perhaps back on the ship, he’d find a spare button to replace it. He had some skill with a needle, and could ask Fresia if they had one he could borrow.
Perhaps they’d be in a generous mood if the landing party returned to the ship in triumph, having found the fail-safe?
But if he located the fail-safe here, he’d destroy it.
He wouldn’t make it back to theSea Witchalive.
Straightening his shoulders, he pressed forward, following Alys. She chopped away the dense vegetation and they continued on.
She came to a stop, and held out her arm in warning. “Come to where I’m standing, but go slowly.”
Following her instructions, Ben stood beside her, with the quartermaster and Susannah also lining up next to her. The second-in-command let out a low whistle.
They stood at the edge of a deep rugged crevasse. It had been created when an ancient flow of lava had collapsed. It yawned below them, easily a dozen yards across and thirty feet deep, lined with rocks and tenacious ferns. A dank green smell emanated from the chasm. Far at the bottom, jagged stones poked up like teeth. Dense jungle continued on the other side of the ravine with thick vines hanging from the tree branches.
“Jumping the distance is impossible,” Ben said lowly.
“Can’t climb up and then down,” Alys noted. “The rocks don’t offer good handholds, and if we slip, it’s a painful fall and sure death.”
“How do we cross it?” the quartermaster asked, impatient.
“We find another way to the water.” Alys turned on her heel and headed in a different direction.
A shriek sounded, and the leaves exploded as something shot from the foliage.
Ben immediately darted forward, shoving Alys behind him as he raised his makeshift club.
“Hold,” she barked as he lifted it high to strike whatever attacked them. “It’s only Eris.”
The magpie circled before settling on the quartermaster’s shoulder. She stroked the bird’s throat, and Ben fought against feeling like ten varieties of foolishness. Merely a bird, and a tame one at that.
He looked back at Alys.
“No need to serve as my guardian, Sailing Master,” she said sardonically.
