Page 17 of Take No Prisoners
"He's harmless." Olivia patted his shoulder before shoving him toward the stairs to his cabin. "Now go. Have fun. Be as loud as you want. The crew's eating breakfast, and our guests are in no position to complain."
Olivia loved calling them guests, be they rescued weavers, dignitaries hitching a ride, or captured sailors. They took no prisoners. With Vadim aboard and asking for a trial, he was Efren's first exception. Normally, Efren would have sent Olivia to captain the other ship until they could question the sailors to weed the conscripts from the loyalists. Then, they would deposit the loyalists on the nearest uninhabited island to wait for a passing vessel willing to take them back to Hearthstone while the conscripts returned to their posts until they reached Aquarion.
With only one ship, the conscripts and rescues were their guests. Niall was simply a guest staying in his quarters, and Efren would treat him as such. He crossed the deck to the stairs at the stern again, passing Vadim's crate and the now-empty sails to the galley. Stan, Tovey, and Hannah chatted amicably at the nearest table.
Efren waited for Codger Tim to finish his breakfast before asking for three plates of poached eggs and sourdough. He wasn't as old as the name implied, but he was eccentric for a mundane sailor. He had some grays mixed in with his brown hair, which he kept pulled back beneath a white bandana, and his clear brown eyes had a hint of crow's feet around them, same as most of Efren's crew. Tim had gotten the nickname when he'd retired from the navy at the first mention that weavers would no longer be allowed. Efren had found him on the dock when they were discharged and he was the first member to join his crew, before Efren had even looked for a boat.
Efren was surprised when Tim scooped a spoonful of paradise fruit onto the corner of each tin. He and Stan must have recovered it from the naval ship's stores. They hadn't had fruit on boardStarlight Specterfor days.
Efren left two of the trays on Tim's counter and grabbed the key to unlock Vadim's crate from its nail beside the stairs. Part of him expected to find it empty, but he found his former lover curled in a ball in the far corner, hands pillowing his head, knees tucked to his chest. It was cool below deck at night, and Vadim's death magic made him sensitive to the cold. He wasn't openly shivering, but he didn't look comfortable, either. Efren tried to harden his heart against the pity blooming in his chest, but that's all it was. He pitied this man who had given up his crew for ... what? Wealth? Notoriety? What had Emperor Hugo offered him that Efren couldn't have given instead?
The clatter of the tin plate on the bottom of the crate sent Vadim scrambling to his feet in his corner. Efren half expected him to charge, but the trembling in his arms and legs said he was in no position to flee. The haunted look in his eyes was new, too. Efren had never seen the man look anything but confident of his beauty and prowess upon waking.
"Are you all right?"
"Thank you for the food."
Efren recognized a dismissal when he heard one. "I'll have Stan bring you a blanket." He closed the door and locked the padlock again before he heard footsteps toward the front of the crate and the scrape of tin on wood.
Efren made his way back to the mess to pick up the other two plates. He wasn't expecting a knowing wink from Codger Tim, nor the slap on the back and shove toward the door. "Good luck, Captain."
Did everyone on the ship know the man in Efren's bunk wanted him? Efren had been so wrapped up in seeing Vadim again that he must have missed the signs, except Niall had only been on board for less than a full day, and who developed a crush in such a short time? Someone far too young for Efren, that's who.
Olivia saw him coming with two plates of food and sent little Jasmine to open the cabin door for him, her white curls flying behind her.
"Wouldn't want to give you an excuse to turn around," Olivia hollered.
"Thank you, Jasmine." Efren bowed his head to her and swept into his cabin. He dropped the plates on the edge with the fewest maps and shut the door behind him.
Niall was still asleep. He was stretched out on the bunk, legs splayed. Only a tiny slip of the top sheet covered his left leg and his groin. The rest of him was deliciously naked.
Efren could survive breakfast, and then he would let Niall down easy. There was no reason to let him continue to pine. Efren was married to his ship. He had no time for dalliances.
He hauled his captain's chair from its place against the wall and banged it open with a flourish. Once seated, the table blocked most of the bed from his view, but not Niall's thick-soled feet, sturdy ankles, and toned shins with a dusting of hair on them. Efren bit into his hard tack and tried to look anywhere else.
At the sound, Niall sat up and shifted the sheet to cover his lap. "Good morning."
"How was your night?"
"I tried to wait for you." Niall flushed as he met Efren's gaze. "I must have fallen asleep."
Efren scooped the poached egg onto his sourdough. "Eat up." His egg was already a little too cool for his tastes.
Niall ate everything on his plate like he'd never seen food before. "Thanks," he said after he'd soaked up the paradise fruit juice and picked every crumb off his plate with the corner of his bread and swallowed it down.
After Efren collected Niall's plate, there was nothing to distract him from Niall's handsome face. He had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose and his cheeks, which stood out as brown islands in a sea of red when he blushed.
"Thanks for everything. When Vadim handed me over to Coryn, they were going to force me to help with her secret project on Stony Eel Island. I want no part in that."
"Did he tell you this?"
"No." Niall shook his head. "I could hear his thoughts."
Efren knew life and death mages had the special skill of telepathy. In most cases, they used it to seek consent from people too injured to speak. In rare situations, they could speak to each other, presumably to coordinate attacks from afar. "That's why he thought you were an untested death weaver at first."
Niall shrugged. "I didn't mean to borrow his power and make him mad, but I would do it again if it meant saving Renald."
"The boy and his sister are running now," Efren pointed to the ceiling, where the thumps of small feet chased each other and then thundered down the stairs.
