Page 76 of The Sea Witch
“I think...” Alys rubbed her chin. “Who are we, if we refuse? No better than the men keeping them prisoner and treating them like commodities.”
“What—” Ben began, but Alys held up her hand, cutting him off.
“Take a vote,” she said to the quartermaster.
Stasia strode away. Alys continued to tend to the kite, stroking it and murmuring soothingly. A few moments later, the quartermaster returned.
“They all voteaye,” she said.
“Set in a course and speak with Hua,” Alys said to Luna.
“Aye, Cap’n.” The navigator hurried away.
“We’ll do our part,” Alys said to the bird. “All you need to do now is rest.” She turned to her second-in-command. “Tell the company to ready themselves for something new.”
“Tell themwhat?” Ben demanded when Stasia climbed down the companionway and began speaking to the crew.
She glanced at him as if she’d forgotten he was there. “We’re making an alteration to our course.”
Alarm shot up his back. “The fail-safe—”
“Has to wait. This takes precedence.”
“Explain to me whatthisis.”
She stroked the chest feathers of the kite as she set it on the railing. The bird closed its eyes and nestled down. A moment later, it appeared to fall asleep.
“Anwuli is a witch’s familiar,” she explained. “The witch, Olachi, is being held captive by Richard Kinnear.”
“TheJupiterpatrols past his compound. Even from the ship I could see that the walls surrounding the fortress were exceptionally thick. At least four feet, if I were to hazard a guess. Keeping intruders out.”
“Keeping hismerchandisein.” Her lip curled in disgust.
“I... ah.”
He wasn’t innocent. Naivete couldn’t last when this place was your home. Obviously, he knew how much of the Caribbean’s economy worked. Human beings treated as commodities to be bought and sold and worked until they died. And it sickened him. Yet he was only one man. He’d walk quickly past the auctions with his gaze firmly on his boots.
Say Stricklandhadnegotiated with Kinnear to patrol, would the admiral even listen to Ben’s protestations?
There’s nothing I can do to stop it.So Ben used to tell himself.
“Kinnear and his men plan to sell Olachi and almost fifty other women they’ve kidnapped off of ships around the Caribbean.”
Ben gazed at the hot blue arch of sky. But it held no answers. Nothing to give countenance to the fact that the Royal Navy assisted in cruelty. And he... he was tacitly part of that.
“Olachi’s going to liberate herself,” Alys continued. “The other captives, too. She needs a big enough vessel to ferry everyone away. Anwuli was sent to find me and theSea Witch.For a week, that poor bird’s been flying, looking for us.”
She nodded in approval as Hua turned the wheel to a new direction. The crew were also adjusting the sails for their new course, following Polly’s shouted instructions.
“Little George’s fail-safe.” Ben’s entire purpose on theSea Witchwas to find and destroy the fail-safe, but this new direction unbalanced his plans. “What of that?”
“Helping Olachi and her fellow captives comes first now.”
“Your treatment of slave ships, the navy has reports. I’ve read them. But I’ve never heard about anything else, not the kind of mission you’re talking about.”
After a moment, she said, “For us, this is new. But, saying no... refusing to help... it makes us no better than the men who buy and sell people. Standing by when we can dosomething...we can’t do that.”
He studied her through the spyglass of this new information, seeing things he never had before. What else had he missed? What hadn’t he understood? “This isn’t... what I expected.”
