Page 90 of Take No Prisoners
"Petri's on board, and Milton, our newest recruit, has already earned his weight in precious jewels with how quickly we returned from Glamiere."
"Less talking, more rowing," Vadim said. He was already knee deep in water and striding toward the rowboat. With a tremendous splash, he hopped into the boat and almost flipped out the other side. Efren and Olivia helped him get situated, and then he pulled Beatrice, Olivia, and Efren aboard.
Once again, Efren ended up with the oars while Beatrice used her skirt as a makeshift sail to steer them toward the ship. In no time, they had the tiny vessel tucked away on deck and situated Beatrice at a makeshift wind station.
It was strange to be aboard the ship without Niall now that he'd gotten used to the young man's presence. As he stepped to the wheel and followed Vadim's vague coordinates of, "a smidgen starboard," he wished Niall were there instead of Vadim.
Not for the first time that morning, he wondered if Niall could feel his emotions the same way he felt Niall's. He dredged their connection to the foremost of his consciousness and Niall's fear blossomed brightly in his chest like an exploding arrow. He surrounded the little bubble in his core with all the calm he could muster, and a single thought. "We're coming for you. Hold on."
"You feel it, too," Vadim said after a quarter hour of silence. "That's the third time you've course-corrected without any help from me."
"Niall and I shared a piece of our cores with each other when he freed Beatrice from the trap," Efren said.
"You don't need me at all."
Efren cut his eyes at Vadim, expecting him to fake petulance. He smiled instead, a big fake smile showing all his teeth. Then, he sauntered portside and held out his hand to let the giant arcs of spray wet his fingers.
Only then did Efren notice Vadim's gloves were off.
∞∞∞
Niall
Brigham, the seeker who had originally cuffed Niall and tied him to Klaus, left them in a cell in the hold. Its only amenity was a round porthole window. The space was no wider than its door and far more cramped than Niall's prison cell on Vadim's ship. The cot beneath the window wasn't big enough for one man to sleep comfortably, let alone two. Niall supposed that was to be expected. Coryn's ship was smaller and faster thanStarlight Specter, which didn't leave much room for prisoners.
"They won't keep us together like this." Klaus dug in his pocket and grinned as he flashed a hairpin in the beam of light through the port hole. He motioned for Niall to turn with his back to the light. That put him too close to the cell door. Someone was coming.
"Fuck."
The cuffs dug into his skin as Klaus continued to curse. The hairpin made a horrible screeching sound inside the lock.
"I've almost got it," Klaus said. "Then, you need to get us out of here."
The footfalls got louder, and Niall jerked his hands away, shoving Klaus onto the small built-in cot big enough for only one man on his side with his knees pulled to his chest. Klaus's head hit the side of the ship, and he winced.
"Sorry," Niall whispered.
"Good thing you boys are having fun." An earth weaver with striking blue eyes and an overlarge nose had stopped in front of their cell door. His stark features were almost comical, thanks to his severe top knot, which pulled his skin tight to his skull. "No one wants to bunk with a traitor, so you're safe for now, seeker."
"I'm no traitor," Klaus muttered.
"I'd tell you to wait until we get to Stony Eel Island, but we won't have much time for fun there, either. You'll be lucky if you have a chance to warm anyone's bed before Coryn ships you to Hearthstone to hang by order of the emperor. If the wind weavers get bored, they might toss a noose around your neck and tie you to the anchor instead."
Niall didn't like the way the man stared at Klaus like he was a piece of meat. "What about me?" he asked to draw his attention.
The earth weaver looked him over and scoffed. "You'll be lucky to last a week on Stony Eel. Your weaves are too weak to make much of a difference. Coryn thinks highly of you, but you'll burn out like the rest. We'll be tossing you to the sharks within the month."
Niall wanted to see the island, to get a better idea of what had Coryn so bewitched, but he worried the island was its own spectral trap, something that would pull him in and never let him go. It had been strong enough to entrance Vadim, even though his death weaves would do nothing to raise the object from its island base.
The earth weaver gave Klaus another once over. "I wish we had more time. We'll be stuck waiting for the tides until almost midday tomorrow, and then Coryn will have us mining all night. You're lucky sleep is more valuable than a quick fuck."
He finally left them alone. Niall listened to his footfalls get fainter until they changed pitch with each step up the flight of stairs toward the deck.
"They treat seekers as nothing more than cabin boys." Klaus flipped onto his side on the bed, his arms around his knees.
"I don't want them to hurt you, but I wish to the gods I didn't have to share this tiny space with you." Niall glared at his former friend, and all his anger returned. "You could have killed my grandmother and me! No wonder you were so fucking apologetic when she got trapped. You could have kept your mouth shut, and we never would have found it!"
Klaus stared at him, and a tear dripped to the mattress. "Coryn promised to let me go once I helped her spring the trap. I had to try." He sniffled and wiped his nose. "If I wasn't tied to Vadim, I would have stowed away when Olivia went to Glamiere. I need to find a genuine healer, not the farces we have here."
