Page 118 of Take No Prisoners
"Klaus hates sails," Niall said. "They agreed to bunk together?"
"Klaus is aware. Vadim?" Efren shrugged. "Could go either way."
They continued through to the galley, where Efren showed him a trap door that led into the deepest bowels of the ship. This was also lit with new globe enchantments that looked suspiciously like the ones in Efren's house.
"We won't be needing them until we return," Efren said when he asked. "I didn't trust Allora to make new ones with Gulde's minuscule power. Everyone who had the luxury has donated their personal enchantments, including this one we took from Martiz's residence on Horseshoe Island. He graciously gave us permission when he realized he'd be sitting here in the dark if he declined."
"You're here to gloat already?" Martiz sat on a wooden box in the middle of a six-by-six cell of newly cut pine. At first, Niall thought the man was free to leave, but then he noticed the tied-off weave of air blocking the doorway. Martiz could still breathe, and the others could check on him without entering the cell.
Martiz was still in his robes, but they looked far more bedraggled than they had before, and he had a smear of something on his face. "Your cook threw his slop at me. What more did I expect?"
"I'm sure you provoked him," Efren said. "We're only passing through." He led Niall further into the large, empty hold.
Martiz shouted pleads for freedom mixed with curses and insults at their backs. When they were two steps away, the shouts cut off abruptly.
"That air weave allows him to scream all he wants, but no one can hear him. Tovey's idea."
Niall added it to the list of weaves he needed to learn.
"We have all this space for looting. We rarely use it, but it's good to hide timber and other bulky goods."
"How do you get them down here?" Niall was certain a full length of ship's timber wouldn't fit through the trap door.
"Stan can manipulate the decking, and I can control the seas around us so we don't flood in the process."
That knowledge would have helped Niall onEel's Gold. He would ask Stan to teach him when he got the chance.
Thankfully, Niall already had a good grasp on his water magic and could help Efren in a pinch. He wasn't proficient in any element yet, but he hoped to be better equipped to help their little band of pirates once they reached Hearthstone. He still had so much to learn.
On the way to Hearthstone, he would spend the days studying with Frost, Jermain, and Vadim as much as possible, and Hannah, Stan, and Tovey when they were available. The rest of the time he would spend with Efren. He hoped his water weaving lessons would be as erotic as they were educational.
Efren brought him up another trapdoor near the head. Olivia had built herself a pleasant cabin. It was smaller than Efren's, with only a bunk and a low shelf where she kept her journals, but Niall took it for the sign it was. Efren had finally replaced Vadim as his first mate, and as his lover.
Efren kissed him long and hard beneath the trap door that would take them right outside their cabin door.
"What was that for?" Niall asked.
"I need a reason to kiss you?"
"No." Niall kissed him again.
"I didn't think so. Get up that ladder and we'll make good on our promises from earlier. Olivia's got the wheel tonight."
After Efren had his way with him on the bunk, Niall stripped his captain bare and took him over the table. It wasn't the kitchen table at home, but the map table was even more appropriate. Efren had first claimed Niall in his cabin, and now it was time for Niall to claim the cabin, and Efren, as his own.
Epilogue
Vadim
Vadim and Olivia faced into the wind as she steered the boat south. They would cut between the Equis Islands and then veer east toward Hearthstone in the hopes of avoiding the snowy winter squalls that plagued the southern coast of Embertide.
"What do you think of your new cabin?" Her smug grin looked almost ghoulish in the moonlight.
"Cabin?"
"We combined your two crates and put you and Klaus together."
"What the fuck do you mean, you combined them?"
